Jonathan Goldsmith Movies

Purchasing an antique bureau at a furniture store rummage sale, Jessica finds an old, undelivered letter in one of the drawers. For reasons made clear in the episode, she turns the letter over to a local volunteer fireman (Jonathan Goldsmith)--who later perishes in a blaze that was deliberately set at the very same furniture store. Want to bet that the letter and the murder are somehow linked, and that Jessica will find that link before episode's end? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Already laid up with a sprained ankle, Magnum (Tom Selleck) braces himself for more pain when call girl Leslie Emory (Candy Clark), who'd given him plenty of trouble during a previous assignment, sashays back into his life. Insisting that she's given up her former profession and gone straight, Leslie asks Magnum to locate her missing sister Patty (Cindy Fisher), who is still a "working girl." Before long, Magnum finds out that his injured ankle is the least of his problems! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A trio of rich ex-cops begin to investigate a murder involving baseball and gangsters. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Alfred Hitchcock Presents is the portmanteau pilot film for the subsequent TV revival of Hitchcock's celebrated anthology series of the 1950s and '60s. Four short tales are presented, each of them remakes of earlier Alfred Hitchcock programs. "Incident in a Small Jail," originally presented in 1961 with John Fiedler in the lead, stars Ned Beatty as a traveling salesman who finds himself sharing a jail cell with an accused rapist -- the target of an angry, indiscriminate lynch mob. "Man from the South," based on an oft-adapted Roald Dahl piece, stars John Huston as a cagey gambler who makes a grisly wager with novice Steven Bauer. The original 1959 Hitchcock version of this tale starred Peter Lorre and Steve McQueen; featured in the cast of the remake are former Hitchcock movie leading ladies Kim Novak and Tippi Hedren, as well as Hedren's daughter Melanie Griffith. "Bang, You're Dead" is a taut, tension-filled tale of a child who wanders around town with a loaded gun. The child is a little girl (Bianca Rose), but in the initial 1961 version the protagonist was a boy, played by Billy Mumy (who appears in this remake in a small role). The final playlet, "The Unlocked Window," is an abbreviated version of a story first shown on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour in 1965. Bruce Davidson is featured in a virtual reprise of that beloved old Hitchcock protagonist Norman Bates. Each of the four stories in Alfred Hitchcock Presents had its own director -- in order of appearance, they are Joel Oliansky, Steve De Jarnatt, Randa Haines, and Fred Walton -- and all were narrated by co-star John Huston. The late Alfred Hitchcock opens and closes each playlet via colorized footage from the original series -- a bizarre touch that "The Master" might have approved of. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Martin Lavut filmed 15 songs at a Bruce Cockburn concert using five cameras and this straightforward cinematic record of the concert is the result. Cockburn sings and plays acoustic and the electric guitar -- there is no additional commentary before or after each number. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Go Tell the Spartans is set in Vietnam during that period in which American troops were euphemistically termed "advisors". Reluctantly dispensing much of that advice is veteran American major Asa Barker (Burt Lancaster). Though he knows what works and what doesn't on the battlefield, Barker is obliged to carry out the go-nowhere policies of the American military brass. His current objective is a woebegone, barely crucial outpost, which he must defend with a handful of green soldiers and end-of-tether Vietnamese militiamen. True to his predictions, the outpost is overwhelmed by the Vietcong, who have something to fight about and are ruthless in their tactics. Before the relief troops can arrive, virtually everyone is senselessly killed, including Barker. The only survivor is Corporal Stephen Courcey (Craig Wasson), a willing draftee whose initial idealism dies along with his comrades. Wendell Mayes adapted Go Tell the Spartans from the novel Incident at Muc Wa by Daniel Ford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide