Pitt Herbert Movies

One of the bigger non-cartoon moneymakers for Disney in the 1970s, The North Avenue Irregulars is predicated on the premise of the "Neighborhood Watch" system. Priest Michael Hill (Edward Herrmann), newly arrived on North Avenue, decides to buck the patriarchal notions of his superiors by delegating church responsibilities to the neighborhood women. Since the ladies include Vickie, Jane, Anne, Claire and Rose (Barbara Harris, Karen Valentine, Susan Clark, Cloris Leachman and Patsy Kelly), we're well primed for a surfeit of feistiness. Father Michael entrusts the church funds to Rose, who loses it all at the race track. In trying to retrieve the cash, he comes up against an influential bookie ring, controlled by several of the above-suspicion town officials. The wily priest responds by organizing the ladies of his congregation into the North Avenue Irregulars, a two-fisted crimefighting unit. There's slapstick aplenty within the film's 99 minutes, including the expected comic car crash. North Avenue Irregulars is based on a (drawn-from-life?) novel by the Reverend Albert Fay Hill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Quincy (Jack Klugman) crosses over into "Columbo" territory as he tries to trip up a fiendishly clever murderer. When the wife of ambitious young executive Richard Yager (John Fink) dies of an apparent heart attack, Quincy wonders why an otherwise healthy woman would succumb in this fashion. Investigating, Quincy discovers that the victim's sister was Yager's previous wife--who also died under similar circumstances. The conclusion: Yager has been marrying for financial convenience and job advancement, then murdering each wife before moving on to the next. All Quincy needs now is the conclusive proof to stop Yager in his tracks...before he kills again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the second of the feature-length Quincy, M.E. episodes produced for the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie anthology, medical examiner Quincy (Jack Klugman) performs an autopsy on Margo Bentley (Joanna Barnes), a novice writer who at the time of her death was working on a scandalous "roman a clef" about the Hollywood elite. Since the woman was suffering from cirrhosis, the police are quick to conclude that she died of alcoholism. But Quincy has a different diagnosis, one involving murder. While pursuing his own personal investigation, the feisty Quincy crosses the path of a fraudulent coroner--and ascertains a link between Margo's death and the murder of a New York literary agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The exciting world of rodeo provides the framework for this western saga that centers around a temperamental bronc rider who tries prove himself worthy of his wife, son, and his best friend's respect. He also wants to keep his freedom. Songs include: "Easy Made for Lovin," "My Special Day," "I'm a Rodeo Cowboy." ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Up The Sandbox is a complex and difficult film, and it is ambiguous on many points, particularly on whether the protagonist Margaret Reynolds (Barbara Streisand) is a women's liberationist, a closet lesbian, or a masochist. Based on the novel by Anne Richardson Rolphe, it follows Margaret's attempts to tell her husband that she is pregnant with yet another child. The everyday events of her life are punctuated by numerous and complex fantasy sequences which reveal her fears and her desires. It is clear that she is afraid that she and her husband Paul (David Selby) are growing apart -- and that he may be having an affair. Despite the increasingly elaborate and frantic nature of her fantasies, her disclosure, when she finally makes it, has happy results. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

While starring on the TV western The High Chapparal, Henry Darrow took time off to play a villain on the Mission: Impossible episode "The Blast." Darrow is cast as revolutionary leader Gregory Tolan, whose group has committed several robberies in hopes of financing a revolution against the United States. It is up to the IMF to trick Tolan into revealing the identity of the mastermind behind the revolutionists, a man known only as Mr. Brice.First telecast on January 30, 1971, "Blast" was written by James L. Henderson and Sam Roeca. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Partridge kids are upset that mom Shirley (Shirley Jones) has apparently fallen in love with her old friend Larry Metcalf (John McMartin). Having concluded that Larry is nothing more than a "giggle-o", the youngsters enlist the aid of Reuben (Dave Madden) to break up the supposed romance. The plot thickens when Larry is seen keeping company with a much younger woman, played by future "Charlie's Angel" Jaclyn Smith. Song: "I Really Want to Know You." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Famous for some rather embarrassing international incidents, Crown Prince Mikhail (Bradford Dillman) arrives in San Francisco on a good-will tour. Assigned to keep the prince out of trouble--and out of danger--are Chief Ironside (Raymond Burr) and his team. When the merry monarch decides to take an unscheduled nocturnal tour of the Bay area, Eve (Barbara Anderson) is forced to tag along as "escort", with Ed (Don Galloway) watching over the couple at a safe distance. As a result, three lives rather than one are placed in dire jeopardy! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Walter Hale (Elvis Presley) is the manager of a chautauqua, a traveling show consisting of performances, lectures and entertainment. Along with manager Johnny (Edward Andrews), he helps some young kids break into show business and contends with the union-organizing Charlene (Marilyn Mason). Vincent Price appears as Mr. Morality. John Carradine, Sheree North and Dabney Coleman also appear in this forgettable film which makes Clambake and Girl Happy classics by comparison. Elvis is limited to three tunes as he plays out the string of poorly scripted vehicles that ended with his next feature, the equally awful Change of Habit. By now, the inane screenplays had done permanent damage to a once-promising film career, souring the King of Rock & Roll on everything in movies except live concert performances. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this psychological thriller, Paul (James Caan) and Jennifer (Katherine Ross) are a pair of wealthy but blasé socialites with a sadistic streak. Lisa (Simone Signoret), an older woman from France, arrives at their door one day selling cosmetics; the couple invite her in, and when the conversation reveals that Lisa is believed to have psychic abilities, Paul and Jennifer ask her to arrange some "games" for their amusement. Lisa proceeds to set up several situations of simulated domestic discord that the couple can react to. The arrival of Norman (Don Stroud), a delivery boy, is Jennifer's cue to seduce him, just in time for Paul to arrive and shoot him in a fit of jealousy. Norman is then coated with plaster and placed in the corner, disguised as a work of art; however, Paul soon leaves on a business trip, and Jennifer discovers that Norman isn't dead after all. She panics and shoots Norman dead, only to discover that the previous murder was merely a "game" staged by Lisa. Jennifer, however, is having a very real nervous breakdown, which seems to be what Paul had in mind all along. But once Jennifer is committed to a mental hospital, Paul discovers that Lisa is not necessarily his ally in this increasingly dangerous game. Games was directed by Curtis Harrington, a one-time experimental filmmaker who previously helmed such horror cult movies as Queen of Blood and Night Tide. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) has long suspected that a Communist spy ring that had operated in Germany during WW2 is still alive and well and "living" in Washington. Now a murder has been committed, and Erskine is certain that he's on the right trail. The problem is that the ringleaders may be safely ensconced within the borders of "diplomatic immunity." The supporting cast includes actor-director Alf Kjellin (then being kept busy on such action series as I Spy) and veteran villain Martin Kosleck, who during the 1940s was Hollywood's foremost impersonator of Nazi chieftan Joseph Goebbels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Passing through a time warp, the Jupiter 2 crash-lands on Earth in the year 1947, exactly fifty years before the vessel was launched. The locals of Hatfield Corners--who seem to have the collective IQ of a junebug-- assume that the Robinsons are Martians, and as a result Will (Billy Mumy) is captured and the rest of his family must avoid a band of vigilantes. Meanwhile,the opportunistic Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris), who wants to remain on earth, does his best (or worst) to blend in with the mob. In one remarkable scene, the Robinsons are confused by the presence of an old-fashioned rotary telephone (well, wouldn't YOU be?) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This episode is set in a remote Oregon community plagued by a drought that has dragged on for over three months. A local religious sect headed by Adam MacDonald (John Anderson) has managed to incur the wrath of some bigoted townsfolk, who go out of their way to torment and persecute McDonald and his flock. But the case doesn't attract the attention of the FBI until a hate-maddened extortionist threatens to burn down the sect's settlement--an act which would also spell disaster for everyone else in the region. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide