Ina Balin Movies

Jessica (Angela Lansbury) heads to wine-growing country to help wealthy vintner Salvatori Gambini (Eli Wallach) celebrate his 75th birthday. Unfortunately, Gambini's fractious family isn't in a celebratory mood, and the festivities come to a grim climax when a corpse is found in the wine cellar. In her efforts to solve the mystery, Jessica is heartbroken over the likelihood that she might have to turn an old and cherished friend over to the authorities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made for television, Hostage Flight fomented a well-publicized controversy when first aired by NBC on November 17, 1985. On a domestic flight headed for Detroit, 65 passengers are held hostage by four international terrorists. The demands of the hijackers are simple: Release their imprisoned leader or the hostages will be executed one by one. Only after innocent blood is shed do the outraged passengers form a united front to rebel against their captors, and, ultimately, to take justice in their own hands. The film's original ending found the passengers, having staged their own "trial" of the hijackers, doling out punishment in a gruesome manner (and a highly unlikely manner, given the limited head-space on a typical jetliner). This denouement proved too horrifying for the NBC executives, who demanded that a modified ending be filmed (though the original climax was shown when the film was released outside the United States). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With great reluctance, Quincy (Jack Klugman) sets out to prove that wealthy Powell Dixon (George Gaynes) was murdered by his wife Jeannina (Ina Balin), who has a history of mental problems. What makes this particular case so difficult is that Jeannina and Quincy had been lovers back in their medical-school days. Things takes a wild and unexpected turn when Jeannina herself is apparently murdered--the first of several baffling events which culminate in a startling climactic twist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frequent Quincy, M.E guest star Ina Balin makes a return appearance, this time in the role of Quincy's fellow medical examiner Dr. Lorraine Linderman. Afer several mistakes both minor and serious are made in Dr. Linderman's lab, Quincy (Jack Klugman) becomes convinced that Lorraine is an alcoholic. Despite a preponderance of symptoms, the woman remains in denial--and unless she faces up to her problem soon, the consequences may be fatal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While Shirley Jones is given top billing in the made-for-TV The Children of An Lac, the film's true star is the late actress Ina Balin--who plays herself in this re-enactment of an episode of conspicuous courage during the Vietnam war. On the eve of the fall of Saigon in 1975, an effort is made to rescue 400 children from the An Lac orphanage. Participating in this near-impossible undertaking are Georgia housewife Betty Tisdale (Shirley Jones), orphanage head Madama Ngai (Beulah Quo), and Balin. Alas, this very worthwhile and uplifting production ran a distant second in the ratings when first telecast October 19, 1980. Its competition: The Castaways of Gilligan's Island. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The treacherous Baltar (John Colicos) joins forces with several captured villains from earlier episodes -- the three Borellian Nomens, the Eastern Alliance Enforcers -- to plot an escape from the Colonials' prison. Holding Adama (Lorne Greene) and the Council of Twelve hostage, Baltar demands that he and his new cronies be immediately released. To rescue their comrades, Apollo (Richard Hatch) and Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) disguise themselves as Cylon robots. "Baltar's Escape" was later combined with the Battlestar Galactica episode "The Man With Nine Lives" and reissued as the two-hour "TV movie" Space Prison. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the best-selling novel by Howard Fast, the two-part, four-hour miniseries The Immigrants is the saga of Dan Lavetta (Stephen Macht). The son of an impoverished Italian immigrant family, Dan manages to emerge from the rubble of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake (cunningly re-created via stock footage from such films as, naturally, San Francisco and Earthquake), to become one of the port city's most powerful shipping magnates. Capping his ascent up the social scale by marrying wealthy Nob Hill debutante Jean Seldon (Sharon Gless), Dan risks losing it all when he falls hopelessly in love with Oriental lass May Ling (played by the Caucasian Aimee Eccles). The story concludes with the 1929 Wall Street crash, suggesting that the producers would have thrown in the kitchen sink had they been able to find it. The Immigrants was syndicated to local stations as part of the "Operation Prime Time" series; most markets ran the two-parter on November 20 and 21, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This pilot film for the TV series Big Hawaii stars Cliff Potts and John Dehner as a wealthy father-and-son team of Hawaiian cattle ranchers. Neither character is a candidate for the "Mister Nice Guy" award, especially the wayward Potts, who's recently been chased out of Vegas for cheating at poker. Even nastier is Potts' beautiful but scheming stepmother (Ina Balin), who plans to bulldoze his ailing dad's estate to make way for those stock 1970s villains, the Evil Land Developers. Despite a total lack of audience sympathy for the people on screen, Big Hawaii premiered as a weekly series in the fall of 1977. There were all of seven episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A post-I Dream of Jeannie, pre-Dallas Larry Hagman guest stars as Terry Vine, the smarmy host of a radio advice show. Enjoying the idolatry of his many female fans, Vine begins dating one of them, who after he proves himself to be a louse threatens him with exposure. Shortly afterward, the woman is found murdered--and Vine is targeted by Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) as the Number One Suspect. Ingredients essential to the story include a second murder--not to mention a delicious comeuppance for the two-timing Terry Vine! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Call to Danger was a title that had already been applied to two unsold pilot films before this TV movie made its first appearance in February of 1973. Like the previous 1968 Call to Danger, the 1973 film stars Peter Graves as a federal agent who enlists "ordinary" people to solve crimes. Headquartered in Washington DC (where most of this film was shot), Graves selects his erstwhile agents by means of a computer. The case at hand is the retrieval of an underworld informer who has been kidnapped. Peter Graves appeared in Call to Danger even while his series Mission: Impossible was in production; there was talk that Mission: Impossible would soon be cancelled, and Graves wanted a pilot film to fall back on. Come September of 1973, there was neither hide nor hair of Mission: Impossible, Call to Danger or Peter Graves on any network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally networkcast on March 20, 1973, Police Story was the 2-hour pilot for the long running anthology weekly which officially debuted seven months later. Created by novelist (and ex-police officer) Joseph Wambaugh, Police Story was set in Los Angeles, and each week detailed a different aspect of law enforcement work. In the pilot, Vic Morrow stars as a hard-nosed cop assigned to a unit devoted to stopping felonies in progress. Morrow's principal reason for being is to bring to justice an elusive veteran criminal named "Slow Boy," portrayed by Chuck Connors. This initial Police Story entry was rerun September 26, 1973, one week before the premiere of the series proper. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, publisher Glenn Howard gets himself in hot water after he challenges an ancient Greek custom and ends up running for his life. He is accompanied by the woman involved. The film was taken from the Name of the Game television series. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A superb throwback to the "films noir" of old, The Lonely Profession puts icing on the cake with a strong dose of 1960s realism--within reasonable TV-movie limits. Harry Guardino plays a businesslike private eye assigned to trail the mistress (Ina Balin) of a Hughes-like reclusive millionaire. When he catches up with her, the two spend an evening in a motel. Guardino wakes up; the woman does not. Now facing a murder rap, Guardino must get to the bottom of the killing and determine why he's been set up as the fall guy. To do this, he opens his own probe of the dead woman's past. Lonely Profession was a special favorite of its director Douglas Heyes, who is best known to TV buffs for his work on Maverick and Twilight Zone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide