Dean Jagger Movies

Expanding on their Saturday Night Live characters, John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd star as Jake and Elwood Blues, two white boys with black soul. Sporting cool shades and look-alike suits, Jake and Elwood are dispatched on a "mission from God" by their former teacher, Sister Mary Stigmata (Kathleen Freeman). Said mission is to raise $5000 to save an orphanage. In the course of their zany adventures, the Blues Brothers run afoul of neo-Nazi Henry Gibson, perform the theme from Rawhide before the most unruly bar crowd in written history, and lay waste to hundreds of cars on the streets and freeways of Chicago. In case you aren't swept up in the infectuous nuttiness of the brothers Blue, you might have fun spotting film's legion of guest stars, including James Brown, Cab Calloway, Aretha Franklin, Ray Charles, John Candy, Carrie Fisher, Steve Lawrence, Twiggy, Paul Reubens (aka Pee-Wee Herman), Frank Oz, and Steven Spielberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Haywire was adapted for television by Ivan Davis and Frank Pierson from the best-selling autobiography of Brooke Hayward. Played herein by Deborah Raffin, Brooke is the daughter of legendary Broadway producer Leland Hayward (Jason Robards) and the brilliant stage and film actress Margaret Sullavan (Lee Remick). The much-married Leland is overindulgent but aloof and casually cruel; the lovely Margaret is an emotionally unstable perfectionist. The residue of this dysfunctional family relationship includes the suicides of Ms. Sullivan and Brooke's sister Bridget (Dianne Hull), and the confinement to a mental institution of Brooke's brother Bill (Hart Bochner). How Brooke herself survives this "haywire" situation provides the meat of this 2-hour film. Brooke's brother William Hayward was the producer of Haywire, which originally aired May 14, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Steve Forrest, in his last starring role before moving permanently to series television with S.W.A.T., plays James Devlin, a once-notorious gunman who is wrongfully convicted of murder and sentenced to death. Through an accident -- though the priest Father Alvaro (Rafael Campos) insists it was divine intervention -- he survives the hanging, barely, and is set free, a death certificate having been duly and lawfully issued by the doctor (William Bryant) who examined the "body." A near walking corpse, with an odd, dark fire in his eyes and a strangely low body temperature and heartbeat, Devlin doesn't know what to do with the rest of his life, however long that may be -- he's got enemies still walking around who would like to finish the job, and neither the doctor nor the priest can tell him how long he might live. Having already reformed before he was convicted, he goes the rest of the way and decides to spend what time he's been given, and use the skills he still has as a gunman and soldier of fortune, on the side of the angels, helping people who need it. He quickly finds himself up to his neck in a deadly land war between an ambitious mining tycoon (Cameron Mitchell) and a young widow (Sharon Acker) for the property she owns. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Made for television, I Heard the Owl Call My Name is set in an isolated Indian village in British Columbia. Tom Courtenay plays a naive young Anglican priest who is caught unawares by the primitiveness and poverty of his new parishioners. Bishop Dean Jagger, who's seen it all (and looks it!), uses alternating doses of toughness and tenderness to help Courtenay reach his flock. To do this, Courtenay must first reach within himself. Exquisitely adapted from the novel by Margaret Craven, I Heard the Owl Call My Name was first presented December 18, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A group of new prisoners, including a political science professor, Jonathan Paige (Alan Alda), and a student, Allan Campbell (Kristoffer Tabori), arrive at a state prison, along with a new guard, Brian Courtland (Clu Gulager). Paige is a serving a year for manslaughter -- he accidentally killed a driver who had run down and injured his wife -- but his education doesn't prepare him for what he finds in prison. Nor does Courtland understand everything he sees in his new job, where he hopes to do some good. The warden (Dean Jagger) is spoken of as being on "short time," as though he were serving a sentence; the guard captain, Pagonis (G. Wood), is totally cynical about his work and his job; and one veteran guard, Brown (Roy Jenson), seems to be serving some of the prisoners -- and that small group of inmates have more to do with the running of the prison than does the administration. First among them is Hugo Slocum (Vic Morrow), a lifer who controls the flow of drugs and other contraband to the cons, wielding money and power without challenge until Paige gets assigned by the warden to the prison pharmacy, and -- thanks to his own sense of righteousness -- blocks Slocum's pipeline, a move that could get the professor killed. Meanwhile, Paige is trying to understand Lennox (Billy Dee Williams), the lifer he works with in the pharmacy, and discovers in him a true political visionary and leader, who lives the stuff that Paige has only ever lectured about. Lennox is black and proud, and a killer, and also (incidentally) smarter than Paige; he is also respected as a leader by the other blacks in the prison and feared just enough by the whites, including Slocum, to stay alive. Paige should only learn from him, but the professor is too set in his ways and too arrogant in his assumptions to do that. Complicating things further, Slocum has taken a decidedly physical liking to Paige's cellmate, Allan, a college student who is in on a marijuana charge and too naïve to recognize why the tough con is being so good to him until he rejects Slocum's advances. In retaliation, Allan is gang-raped on Slocum's orders, and later kills himself. Nor has Slocum forgotten about Paige or the pharmacy -- when Paige tries to reach out to another inmate, Sinclair (Edward Bell), who shows promise as a writer, Slocum destroys Sinclair's work and targets him, as well. Before he's killed, however, Sinclair reveals to Paige that, as Slocum's sometime bagman and former bookkeeper, he's recorded every transaction for the past eight years -- including every hit ordered by Slocum and how it was paid off, including the bribes to guards to look the other way -- and he passes the book with that record to the professor. It comes down to a do or die situation for Paige and Slocum, as each now has the power and the need to destroy the other to stay alive; the only question is whether Paige will figure out in time that he may have to back up his good intentions with lethal force. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Dean Jagger guest-stars as General Ira Cloninger, a legendary Indian fighter. The General hopes to ride into the Nevada governor's office on the coattails of his long-standing friendship with Ben Cartwright. The fly in the ointment is San Francisco reporter Freed (Laurence Luckinbill), who in investigating charges that Cloninger is a genocidal murderer. Aided by Ben's son Joe, Freed draws ever closer to the awful truth, which largely lies in the eyewitness testimony of Nez Perce Indian chief Sam Greybuck (Ruben Moreno). Originally broadcast on February 21, 1971, "Shadow of a Hero" was written by John Hawkins, B.W. Sandefur and Mel Goldberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Glenn Ford plays a man who joins a mysterious fraternity, "The Brotherhood of the Bell", while in college. Upon attaining wealth and prominence, Ford discovers that the Brotherhood has been keeping tabs on him, and expects certain favors from him in the private sector. It dawns on Ford that the Bell is a sinister, subversive organization bent on world domination. When he tries to bring this to the attention of the public on a TV program hosted by a "gonzo" talkshow star (William Conrad), he is mocked and humiliated. Realizing that the Brotherhood of the Bell is too big and powerful to be defeated by conventional methods, Ford attempts to take on the organization in his own way. The Brotherhood of the Bell was previously presented as a "live" hourlong television drama in the 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this 60-minute episode of the 1970-71 TV series Matt Lincoln, Vincent Edwards stars as Lincoln, a psychiatrist working for a big-city suicide prevention clinic. In this particular episode, Dean Jagger guest stars as Lincoln's father, a small-town general practitioner. Father and son work side by side to save a pregnant, diabetic woman who also suffers from amnesia. The drama is stretched to feature-film length with scenes from other Matt Lincoln episodes which also feature Jagger. Remember was put into syndication as a "made for TV movie" after Matt Lincoln ran its course in January of 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the better Disney features of the late 1960s, Smith relies not upon humanized Volkswagens or singing bears but on the considerable talents of its cast. Glenn Ford stars as Smith, a tenacious modern-day rancher who comes to the aid of a fugitive Native American boy (Frank Ramirez). When a sadistic sheriff (Keenan Wynn), anxious to railroad the boy into jail on a trumped-up murder charge, begins stomping upon the basic civil rights of everyone within his reach, Smith vows to see that justice is done. Acting as the boy's defense counsel, Smith profoundly moves the jury with an impassioned speech about the wrongs done the American Indian in the name of "The Law." As good as Glenn Ford is (and this is one of his finest and subtlest performances), Smith is stolen by its hand-picked supporting cast, including Warren Oates as an Indian turncoat and Jay "Tonto" Silverheels in a minor role. Many of the bit parts are expertly filled by members of the Indian Actors Workshop of Hollywood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Warfield (Glenn Ford) is the dispassionate ex-gunslinger who joins forces with peaceful neighbor Forbes (Arthur Kennedy) to help him track down the Apache Indians who have kidnapped Warfield's wife and children two months prior. In searching for the abductees, the hardened gunslinger eventually keeps a level head while the even-tempered Forbes turns into a cold-blooded killing machine. Warfield and Forbes eventually complete their personality changes that lead to the inevitable western showdown. Initially a television movie made for ABC, the company decided to release the film only in theaters. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) learns that Bishop John Atwood (Dean Jagger), a peace envoy to the US, has been targetted for assassination. Unfortunately, the trigger man, known only to the FBI as "Anton Christopher", has never been photographed or fingerprinted, making it virtually impossible to track him down. Further complicating the situation is the fact that Christopher has been hired by one of Bishop Atwood's most trusted confidantes! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide