Harold Gould Movies

Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) mingle with the cream of San Francisco society in search of a murderer. The victim was the blackmailing publisher of a sleazy tell-all magazine--and as a result, the detectives are confronted with a veritable "Who's Who" of suspects. This is the final episode of Streets of San Francisco's second season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Four years after setting box offices ablaze in Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Paul Newman, Robert Redford, and director George Roy Hill re-teamed with similar success for The Sting. Redford plays Depression-era confidence trickster Johnny Hooker, whose friend and mentor Luther Coleman (Robert Earl Jones) is murdered by racketeer/gambler Doyle Lonnegan (Robert Shaw). Hoping to avenge Luther's death, Johnny begins planning a "sting" -- an elaborate scam -- to destroy Lonnegan. He enlists the aid of "the greatest con artist of them all," Henry Gondorff (Paul Newman), who pulls himself out of a drunken stupor and rises to the occasion. Hooker and Gondorff gather together an impressive array of con men, all of whom despise Lonnegan and wish to settle accounts on behalf of Luther. The twists and surprises that follow are too complex to relate in detail -- suffice to say that you can't cheat an honest man, and that you shouldn't accept everything at face value. The Sting became one of the biggest hits of the early '70s; grossing 68.5 million dollars during its first run, the film also picked up seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Adapted Score for Marvin Hamlisch's unforgettable setting of Scott Joplin's ragtime music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ironside (Raymond Burr) investigates the mysterious disappearance of Michael Brandon (Ted Hartley), a brilliant scientist who was working on a top-secret missile project at the Gregory Institute. There are those who are convinced that Brandon has defected to the Soviets or Red Chinese, but his wife Ellie (Hildy Brooks) is adamant in her belief that her husband had met with foul play. Should Ironside trust Mrs. Brandon or the evidence of own eyes--and can there be someone else at Gregory Institute involved in the mystery? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) order round-the-clock surveillance on Paul Hale (Robert Foxworth), the weak-willed son of kidnap victim George Hale (Harold Gould). Though he has only a fraction of the ransom money, Paul is supposed to "bluff it out" and make the drop--but he may never get that far thanks to his ongoing love affair with liquor. Meanwhile, George Hale is helplessly trapped in the flooding hold of a sinking ship--and the water is practically at chin level now! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title characters in this episode are two pretty but avaricious young ladies, a flight attendant and a nurse, who specialize in using their sexual wiles to entrap unwary males and "take" them for all they've got. Evidently the girls have gone one step too far with one of their victims, who has broken into their apartment and murdered them both. Stone (Karl Malden and Keller (Michael Douglas) follow the trail of clues to the home of an outwardly respectable married couple, jewelry salesman Arthur Lavery (Harold Gould) and his wife Edna (Barbara Baxley). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A widow finds her life unbearably dull and so becomes a volunteer CIA agent. She is sent to Mexico City for her first assignment and though her intentions are good, she ends up tossed into a jail. This was one of actress Rosalind Russel's final films and is sadly, considered among her very worst. Using a penname, she also wrote the screenplay. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Peter Falk revived his Lieutenant Columbo characterization, first seen in 1967's Prescription: Murder, for the made-for-TV Ransom for a Dead Man. Lee Grant plays a wily lawyer who murders her husband, then arranges to make it appear that he's been kidnapped. The plan is to allow the body to be found by the cops during the ransom pickup, leaving Grant in the clear. But Columbo has "just one more question," and slowly but surely wears down Grant's alibi. Written and produced by Richard Levinson and William O. Link, Ransom for a Dead Man was the official pilot for the subsequent Columbo TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Believing she would be closer to Tony (Larry Hagman) if their house wasn't so large, Jeannie (Barbara Eden) decides to "downsize" by selling the house and moving into a small apartment. Tony informs Jeannie that he doesn't want to move, but by this time the house has been sold to a military bigwig. In desperation, Jeannie takes the house off the market by rendering it invisible! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Barry Newman stars as Tony Petrocelli, a maverick Midwestern attorney. Petrocelli is hired to defend a wealthy doctor (Robert Colbert), accused of murdering his wife. In the tradition of Sam Sheppard, the truculent doctor insists that the killing was committed by a mystery intruder who knocked him unconscious. Thanks to the doctor's healthy extramarital life, the case receives a surfeit of negative press coverage. Since he's already been tried by the public, it comes as little surprise to the doctor that he's found guilty. But during the appeal process, Petrocelli manages to locate a witness who opens the possibility that the murderer was the husband of the doctor's mistress. Five years after the theatrical release of The Lawyer, Barry Newman would star in a TV-series spin-off, Petrocelli. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Kirk Douglas has an extreme case of mid-life crisis in Elia Kazan's turgid melodrama (adapted from his best-selling novel). Douglas plays successful advertising executive Eddie Anderson, who cracks under the strain of the morning rush hour in Los Angeles and plows his sports car into a truck. Landing in a convalescent home, Eddie remains mute to everyone except his boss Finnegan (Charles Drake). In his recovery room, Eddie dreams about co-worker Gwen (Faye Dunaway), a sexy research assistant at his agency. Meanwhile, the psychiatrist Dr. Liebman (Harold Gould) talks to Eddie's wife, Florence (Deborah Kerr), who reveals that at one time Eddie and Gwen had an affair, but they broke it off. Unfortunately, after that escapade, Eddie's interest in sex vanished completely.

Then after the interview with Dr. Liebman, following a terrible nightmare, Eddie breaks out of his self-imposed silence and declares to Florence that he is tired of his unfulfilling life of "arrangements." Eddie returns to work, but the return is marked by Eddie insulting a major client, alienating his co-workers, and then taking off in a private plane in which he flies madly over the skies of L.A. His lawyer Arthur (Hume Cronyn) keeps Eddie from being thrown in jail and also talks Eddie into giving Florence the power of attorney. Eddie proceeds to travel to New York, where he runs into Gwen, who now has a child. Eddie is in New York to visit his senile father, Sam (Richard Boone), but when his family attempts to put Sam in a nursing home, Eddie takes him away with him to their old family estate on Long Island. Eddie calls up Gwen, and she travels to Long Island to resume their affair. Meanwhile, Eddie's loved ones search for Sam, and they are closing in on Eddie's Long Island sanctuary. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Sr. Bertrille tries to patch up the romance between a Jewish couple. The crux of the breakup is the man's chronic gambling, prompting our heroine to use her wiles-and her flying skills-to recover his lost money. Harold Gould guest-stars as Rabbi Mendez, while Vito Scotti officially becomes a series regular in the role of anal-retentive Captain Fomento. First telecast October 10, 1968, "The Rabbi and the Nun" was written by Michael Morris. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide