Harold Gary Movies
- 1981
In this telemovie, Ron Leibman plays Stan Rivkin, who, sure enough, is bounty hunter, though he operates in Manhattan rather than the wild west. Rivkin has a physically handicapped 12 year old son (Glenn Scarpelli), who is frequently left in the care of a kindly retired priest (Harry Morgan). The film follows Rivkin around as he takes on several low-paying and death-defying assignments. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Season Hubley is cast as Sister Maria, a young nun whose sister has been killed in a highly suspicious auto accident. Vowing vengeance against the airline executive whom she holds responsible for her sibling's death, Sister Maria formulates a plan to see that justice is serve--and ulitmately finds herself in the middle of a dangerous war of wills between Lt. Kojak (Telly Savalas) and the Mob. Among the supporting players is Holland Taylor, who later won an Emmy for her portrayal of oversexed judge Roberta Kittleson on TV's The Practice. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This gritty, fast-paced, and innovative police drama earned five Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay (written by Ernest Tidyman), and Best Actor (Gene Hackman). Jimmy "Popeye" Doyle (Hackman) and his partner, Buddy Russo (Roy Scheider), are New York City police detectives on narcotics detail, trying to track down the source of heroin from Europe into the United States. Suave Alain Charnier (Fernando Rey) is the French drug kingpin who provides a large percentage of New York City's dope, and Pierre Nicoli (Marcel Bozzuffi) is a hired killer and Charnier's right-hand man. Acting on a hunch, Popeye and Buddy start tailing Sal Boca (Tony Lo Bianco) and his wife, Angie (Arlene Faber), who live pretty high for a couple whose corner store brings in about 7,000 dollars a year. It turns out Popeye's suspicions are right -- Sal and Angie are the New York agents for Charnier, who will be smuggling 32 million dollars' worth of heroin into the city in a car shipped over from France. The French Connection broke plenty of new ground for screen thrillers; Popeye Doyle was a highly unusual "hero," an often violent, racist, and mean-spirited cop whose dedication to his job fell just short of dangerous obsession. The film's high point, a high-speed car chase with Popeye tailing an elevated train, was one of the most viscerally exciting screen moments of its day and set the stage for dozens of action sequences to follow. And the film's grimy realism (and downbeat ending) was a big change from the buff-and-shine gloss and good-guys-always-win heroics of most police dramas that preceded it. The French Connection was inspired by a true story, and Eddie Egan and Sonny Grosso, Popeye and Buddy's real life counterparts, both have small roles in the film. A sequel followed four years later. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Fernando Rey, (more)
- 1961
A zookeeper (Sammy Petrillo) plays cards with his favorite gorilla Pinky. As they play, the trusty relates his fun-filled summer adventures to a friend. First the zookeeper follows a pair of women to Washington D.C.'s Historical Wax Museum where he engages in lively conversation with the dummies. Next he goes to Florida to visit a snake farm to do some water-skiing and take in some alligator wrestling. Finally, the fellow ends up in a nudist camp where he surreptitiously feasts on the naked beauty cavorting around him until he gets up the nerve to perform a stand-up comedy routine in which he imitates Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis (this is ironic for Petrillo was originally teamed with fellow comic Duke Mitchell and appeared with him in a number of low-budget knock-offs of Martin and Lewis films until Lewis successfully sued Petrillo for stealing his act). Much of this exploitation film was shot on location. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This true crime story was hardly "ripped from today's headlines," since the events took place some 20 to 30 years before the movie was released. Still, Murder, Inc. is not afraid to name names, notably those of syndicate boss Louis "Lepke" Buchalter (David J. Stewart) and killer Abe Reles (Peter Falk), who squeals on the Mob to earn immunity. The activities of Buchalter's murder-for-hire operation are played against a fictional story about a nightclub singer (Stuart Whitman) and a dancer (May Britt). Murder, Inc. has a queasy, unsettling quality, due in part to some offbeat casting: TV comedian Henry Morgan co-stars as a dead-serious federal agent, while "human joke machine" Morey Amsterdam shows up as a cabaret entertainer who is stabbed by the Mob. The film was a major boost for the career of Peter Falk, who very nearly managed to parlay his Murder, Inc. supporting role into an Academy Award. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Whitman, May Britt, (more)
- 1958
Singer Julius LaRosa, whose greatest fame lies in the fact that he was fired on the air by radio-TV personality Arthur Godfrey, heads the cast of the near-plotless musicfest Let's Rock. LaRosa plays a top recording star who suffers a dip in popularity when rock-n-roll becomes the national craze. With the help of girlfriend Phyllis Newman, LaRosa is able to recapture his audience by adjusting to the "new sound." Forget the plot: this the film in which Danny and the Juniors perform their hit single "At the Hop" and the Royal Teens participate in a production-number version of their smash "Short Shorts". And besides, who couldn't love a film which offers not only Paul Anka and Della Reese, but also the legendary Wink Martindale!!! Let's Rock was later reissued as Keep It Cool. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julius LaRosa, Phyllis Newman, (more)
- 1950
Undercover Girl was leading-lady Alexis Smith's least-favorite film, though she is professional enough to give it her all. Per the title, the film casts Smith as rookie policewoman Christine Miller, who volunteers to go undercover to avenge her father's death. Posing as a drug dealer, Christine inveigles her way into a vicious narcotics ring. Inevitably, she is found out, and it's up to police-lieutenant Mike Trent (Scott Brady), who's fallen in love with Christine, to come to her rescue. Few surprises await the viewer in Undercover Girl, though director Joseph Pevney manages to extract a great deal of suspense during the climax. Nineteen-thirties leading-lady Gladys George has a poignant minor role as a homeless woman ruined by drugs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alexis Smith, Scott Brady, (more)
Based in part on a true story, Kiss of Death is given a veneer of reality by being filmed on location in New York, with a bare minimum of studio work. In one of his best performances, Victor Mature plays a cheap crook who is sent up the river for 20 years for robbery. District attorney Brian Donlevy, out of sympathy for Mature's two young daughters, gives him a chance to go free--if Mature will blow the whistle on his accomplices. Stubbornly adhering to the "code" of thieves, Mature refuses to do so, until his wife kills herself and his kids are placed in an orphanage. Once paroled, Mature is prevailed upon to extract additional information from sadistic mob torpedo Richard Widmark (in his chilling screen debut). Living with his children under an assumed name, Mature gradually divests himself of all criminal tendencies, and falls in love with sympathetic Coleen Gray. But Mature feels that it's only a matter of time before Widmark will come gunning for him, so he goes back to Donlevy, offering to turn over evidence that will send Widmark up for life. Thanks to a clever mob attorney, Widmark beats the rap, and Mature knows he is doomed. On his own, he schemes to arrange his impending demise so that the cops will have an air-tight case against Widmark. The last five minutes--one of the most tense 300 seconds on film--is devoted to the cat-and-mouse showdown and ultimate shootout between Mature and Widmark. Though much of Kiss of Death is a "conformist gangster film" (to quote critic Andrew Sarris), the presence of Richard Widmark makes up for any of the script's banalities. This is the film in which Widmark gigglingly pushes a wheelchair-bound old lady down a flight of stairs. Reviewer James Agee said it best: "You feel that murder is the kindest thing he is capable of". The film made Widmark a star--and also convinced him to start lobbying immediately for good-guy roles so that he wouldn't be typecast as maniacal killers for life. Kiss of Death was remade as the 1958 western The Fiend Who Walked the West, then re-remade under its original title in 1994, with David Caruso in the Mature role and Nicolas Cage in the Widmark part. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Mature, Brian Donlevy, (more)
