Don Haggerty Movies

Huckleberry Finn joins Tom Sawyer and Jim, a runaway slave, as they escape down the Mississippi River on a raft. ~ All Movie Guide

Television newsman Harry Walsh (Leslie Nielsen) holds fast to the maxim "seeing is believing" in this political/medical thriller, with science-fiction overtones. Harry saw a well-known U.S. Senator (Bradford Dillman) have a car accident, and took video coverage on the scene. When he arrives at the hospital to follow up on the story, he is told that no such person is, or ever was there. Since the senator is a presidential hopeful, this is a very important story, and Harry keeps at it. His TV station, which ran a report on the accident, retracts the story with an apology when the senator's office calls with the story that the senator is on a fishing trip. Harry doesn't believe it. In a parallel story, the senator wakes up in a hospital with all sorts of transplanted organs, etc., when he should simply be dead. He discovers that his survival is part of a worldwide medical blackmail scheme involving world political leaders. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Skin Game was historically significant as the 2000th film produced by Warner Bros. studios. The film is a comedy western starring James Garner and Louis Gossett Jr. as a pair of clever Antebellum con men. Garner regularly "sells" the black Gossett into slavery for an exalted price, then "liberates" Gossett so that they can move on to the next sucker. Unfortunately, they outsmart themselves, and before long Gossett seems doomed to a lifetime of forced servitude. They are rescued by pretty pickpocket Susan Clark, who has a few surprises in store for them. Skin Game was supposed to be spun off into a TV series, but the project never got any farther than the 1974 pilot film Sidekicks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this detective drama, a struggling private detective is hired to protect a millionaire's mistress. After repeated attempts on her life, the PI moves her, the tycoon, and his family to the Bahamas. There, another attempt is made to kill the mistress, but this time the detective kills the murderer -- who turns out to be the tycoon's business partner. The detective is incarcerated for his crime, but is then released. Upon his parole he discovers that the family his abandoned him and that he was framed for the death. He eventually confronts the conspirators who end up killing each other during a struggle in their offices. This frees the detective who takes off to look for better assignments. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Outraged at the high tax assessment levied on the Shady Rest Hotel, Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) is determined to outwit the IRS. To this end, Joe goes to great length to "downgrade" the hotel, turning the lobby into a shambles. Alas, Joe's destructive rampage occurs just as Kate (Bea Benaderet) is trying to improve the looks of the Shady Rest in hopes of attracting the convention trade! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

During a family camping trip in a large national park, Grandpa (Al Lewis) hears some faraway wolf calls and begins waxing nostalgic about his youth in Transylvania. Before long, Grandpa has transformed himself into a wolf so that he can briefly recapture his salad days. Unfortunately, he is unable to reverse the spell--and as a result ends up being hunted down by the park's tireless staff! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The satire in Evelyn Waugh's darkly comic novel The Loved One was originally double-edged. The book was not only an attack on the Southern California funeral industry but also a lampoon of Hollywood's "British colony," those clannish, cricket-playing English actors of years gone by who bemoaned the artificiality of Tinseltown while eagerly accepting the demeaning and insignificant movie roles they were offered. The film version of The Loved One, anxious to live up to its ad-campaign promise of containing "something to offend everybody," downplays the British-colony business (save for the presence of the magnificent Robert Morley) and pumps up the "death" gags. Innocent British poet Dennis Barlow (Robert Morse) falls in love with funeral-home cosmetician Aimee Thanatogenos (Anjanette Comer), who in turn is loved by prissy funeral director Mr. Joyboy (Rod Steiger). The latter lives with his obese mother (Ayllene Gibbons), whose eating sequence is far more hilarious (and more tasteless) than many of the film's calculatedly "black" jokes. A huge guest-star cast is headed by Jonathan Winters in a dual role as a funeral home manager and his covetous twin brother, who operates an elaborate pet cemetery. Musician Paul Williams is also on hand as a 13-year-old aeronautics genius who develops a method of sending corpses into "eternal orbit" (a plot device that Waugh neglected to include in his novel). Film historian William K. Everson has commented that The Loved One is one of the best and most underrated comedies of the 1960s. For others, especially those who might feel guilty chuckling at the sight of Anjanette Comer committing suicide with an embalming needle, it's purely a matter of taste...or lack of same. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Under the influence of Martin's "benevolence light", brash, sarcastic Detective Brennan (Alan Hewitt) suddenly becomes warm and lovable. Unfortunately, the "nicer" Brennan proves to be a most ineffectual law enforcement officer. Martin (Ray Walston) scrambles to restore Brennan to his usual nasty self lest the detective allow a desperate bank robber to slip through his fingers. This episode was written by frequent Star Trek contributor Gene L. Coon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this final chapter of a four-episode story arc, legendary Hollywood columnist Hedda Hopper appears as herself. Hedda is up in arms over Drysdale's plan to tear down the Mammoth Studios backlot for a real estate development. Joining Hedda's crusade, the Clampett family decides to film an "epic" silent movie in order to save the studio. But when Hedda takes a good long look at the family's cinematic masterpiece -- a deathless Western saga called "Honest Jed" -- she sings a different tune! This is the episode that features series regular Nancy Kulp as a Theda Bara-like vamp: "The eyes no man can resist!" "Hedda Hopper's Hollywood" first aired October 14, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Beach Party Gang meets a coterie of muscle-men who try to take over their spot on the beach in Muscle Beach Party. Surfing sensations Frankie (Frankie Avalon) and Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) have their security threatened when Flex Martian (Rock Stevens) and a collection of well-oiled weight-lifters invade their turf. While tensions heat up on the beach, wealthy contessa Julie (Luciana Paluzzi) arranges for her business manager S.Z. Matts (Buddy Hackett) to entice Flex into becoming the latest in her long line of boyfriends. Julie's feelings change when she meets Frankie, who, honored by Julie's amorous attentions, returns her affections, causing a rift not only between Dee Dee and himself, but a further collapse in relations between the surfers and the body-builders, which is assuaged only by the music of Dick Dale and the Del Tones and Little Stevie Wonder. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

While paging through their old high school annuals, Andy and Barney hit upon the notion of staging a class reunion. The boys are particularly anxious to be reunited with their school sweethearts Sharon (Peggy McCay) and Ramona (Virginia Eilers). In true "You Can't Go Home Again" fashion, the reunion serves only to reaffirm the reasons that Andy and Sharon drifted apart in the first place. Incidentally, those class pictures of teenaged Andy Griffith and Don Knotts are the genuine article. First telecast on February 4, 1963, "Class Reunion" was written by Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Eleven of the twelve jurors in the murder trial of Jamie Wrenn (Jack Betts) have voted for a guilty verdict. The sole holdout is Hoss Cartwright, who harbors the old familiar "reasonable doubts." When it appears as though Hoss has received a bribe, his brother Adam takes a hand in the matter. Also appearing are James Bell as Olson, Don Haggerty as Murdock, Arthur Space as Judge Crane and Tol Avery as Breese. Written by Robert Vincent Wright, "The Jury" made its first network appearance on December 30, 1962. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Seven Ways from Sundown is a well-wrought western by director Harry Keller, starring Audie Murphy in the title role (his character's "first" name is the same as the title). Young "Seven" is a talented but novice Texas Ranger who is in the process of learning the tricks of the trade from veteran Ranger Sergeant Hennessey (John McIntire). The two are currently hunting down the flamboyant outlaw Jim Flood (Barry Sullivan), crafty enough not only to elude them, but to take a surprise offensive against them as well. In the end, it will take all of "Seven's" abilities to capture the wanted criminal. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide