Robert Hamner Movies

Randall Sloan (Brian McNamara), a former student of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), returns to Cabot Cove to research his new book. Despite several ominous warnings to drop the project, Randall is determined to complete his volume, a searing expose of a 30-year-old scandal involving two of the town's most prominent families, that Latimers and the Weymouths. You guessed it: Randall is killed, and Jessica is enlisted by Sheriff Mort Metzger (Ron Masak) to help find the killer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Malibu is a two-part, four-hour adaptation of William Murray's best-selling novel. William Atherton and Susan Dey play a green-as-grass married couple from Milwaukee who take a vacation in Malibu. Amidst the elite and their million-dollar beach houses, Atherton starts up an affair with divorcee Valerie Perrine, while Dey fends off the attentions of TV star Steve Forrest before succumbing to the charms of tennis pro Chad Everett. Other Southern California satyrs and nymphs wandering in and out of Malibu include James Coburn, Eva Marie Saint, Ann Jillian, Kim Novak, Richard Mulligan, and (who else?) George Hamilton. The multiple story lines all come to a head during a climactic tennis match. Malibu is trash, true, but it's trash cultivated from the highest-quality refuse heaps. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The expensive face of the title belongs to Sylvia Kristel, who actually levies a price of $2.5 million upon the fictional cosmetics firm of Glamour Inc. Ms. Kristel's story is but one of the many intrigues within the hallowed halls of Glamour. Tony Curtis stars as the company's CEO, beset with infighting, intrigue and infidelity. Lee Grant costars as a rival cosmetics exec, while Gayle Hunnicutt is Curtis' far from loving young wife. Based on Lois Wyse's novel Kiss, Inc., Million Dollar Face was purportedly the pilot film for an unsold TV series, though one wonders if Tony Curtis would have stuck it out after what he had to put up with in this first (and last) episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The made-for-TV Fugitive Family questions the efficacy of the government's witness protection program. After sending syndicate kingpin Anthony Durano (Mel Ferrer) to prison, undercover agent Brian Roberts (Richard Crenna) and his entire family is marked for death by Durano's successor Peter Ritchie (Don Murray). Roberts and his brood are forced to change their names and move to a faraway city, there to start life anew. Vintner Olan Vacio (Eli Wallach) hires Roberts as a field worker, eventually making him his partner. This puts Vacio in the line of fire when Ritchie's hoods come calling. Fugitive Family first aired October 1, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A professional basketball team is taken hostage by a band of Middle Eastern terrorists. The captors refuse to let their captives go until the authorities meet their demands, including a large sum of money, an escape plane, and the release of all political prisoners throughout the world. It is up to the SWAT team to rescue the athletes and prevent a full-scale, Munich-like bloodbath. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Gregory guest stars as Neal Brackett, the father of Rampart's chief surgeon Kelly Brackett, who checks into the hosptial to be treated for phlebitis. It's a tense situation, to be sure--but not quite as tense as the one facing the emergency squad as they try to rescue a man from a power transformer which has crashed into his bedroom, and another man whose fireplace has exploded. And in a lesser crisis, the squad helps an elderly magician (Tony Giorgio) extricate himself from a malfunctioning trunk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For the third time in six years, Ironside (Raymond Burr) matches wits with gentleman thief Peter Justin--a role played in previous episodes by Sorrell Booke and Dan O'Herlihy, and here essayed by Leslie Nielsen. Determined to get even with Ironside for sending him to prison, Julian concocts an elaborate plan to pull off four art heists simultaneously. Though determined to put Julian back behind bars, Ironside finds himself in the curious position of defending his longtime adversary when Julian is framed for murder by his protégé Randy Pearce (Steve Sandor). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ironside (Raymond Burr) investigates when a local college campus is besieged with phony bomb threats. It happens that there is another potentially explosive situation involving the bitterness between college newspaper editor Neal Morgan (Philip Chapin) and a pair of Army bomb-disposal squad members (played by stars-in-the-making Ed Asner and Gerald S. O'Loughlin). Things reach the crisis stage when a "fake" bombing turns real and one of the Army men is killed. This is the final episode of Ironside's second season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arrested on a trumped-up charge, Don (Mark Goddard) and Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) are sentenced to hard labor on a brutal intergalactic prison colony. A fellow convict named Creech (future Hill Street Blues costar Michael Conrad) approaches the pair with a desperate escape plan involving a booby-trapped cake. Smith likes the plan, Don hates it, and the Robot dons a chef's hat to do the baking! Several of the costumes and much of the facial makeup in this episode was "borrowed" from the recently completed Planet of the Apes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fritz Feld ("Pop!") makes a return appearance as Zumdish, formerly the head of the Celestial Department Store, and now in charge of an intergalactic tour agency. Zumdish's arrival on the planet prompts Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) to try to turn over a quick profit by transforming the Jupiter 2 into a vacation resort--"The Happy Acres Motel"--in the Robinsons' absence. Unfortunately for Smith, his first "tourists" turn out to be a vicious band of homicidal bank robbers! That's Edy Williams, pneumatic star of many a Russ Meyer skin flick and latterly a ubiquitous undressed presence on Oscar Night, in the role of sexy gun moll NON. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It had to happen sometime, and now is as good a time as any: The Robinson's robot has fallen in love! The object of his affections is a sweet-talking female robot, presently on the lam from her creators, who accuse her of being a killer. Turns out that those creators are right: The lady robot is the personification of pure evil--but will the moonstruck Robinson robot figure this out in time? Yes, that's Lyle Waggoner as the handsomer of the two androids. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This episode marks the first appearance of the Space Pod, which allows the members of the Jupiter 2 party to travel "light" from time to time. Alas, no sooner has the Space Pod been activated than its mother ship is captured by menacing Androids, acting under orders from a huge, clocklike computer. In the course of ensuing events, the Robot is forced to become the leader of the androids, Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) is transformed into a small boy--and horror of horrors, Professor John Robinson (Guy Williams) is killed! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide