Larry Manetti Movies

After too many years away, brittle big-city doctor Sydney Ludwick (Lisa Hartman Black) returns to her home town of Bloomfield for a high school reunion. She is mildly surprised to find out that her widowed mother Helen (Rue McLanahan), with whom she hasn't communicated since the death of her dad, has transformed the family home into a bed-and-breakfast. Likewise bidding fair to bring change to Sydney's life is the fact that her high school sweetheart Gus (Dale Midkiff) is now a widower. But nothing quite prepares Sydney for the revelation of a dark secret that her mother has been harboring for years, with the tacit assistance of local pastor Ed Jenkins (Don Harvey). The background music is provided by country singer Clint Black, husband of the film's leading lady. Produced for cable's Hallmark channel, Back to You & Me originally aired on July 23, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this prison drama, a woman makes the ultimate sacrifice for her child. Sarah (Catherine Oxenberg) is a nurse whose husband, after losing his job, becomes an abusive alcoholic who batters Sarah and their eight-year-old son Jason (Zach Gray). When Sarah's husband attacks her in a drunken rage, Jason finds his dad's gun and shoots him dead. Hoping to spare her son, Sarah claims to have pulled the trigger herself, and her court-appointed attorney, Patrick Burlington (Jeff Fahey), proves no match for Judge William Engstrom (James Handy), known as Maximum Bill for his severe sentences. Engstrom sends Sarah to a women's prison for eight years, where cold-hearted warden Ms. Reineke (Louise Fletcher) and sleazy guard Duane (Scott Schumacher) inform Sarah that the prison has an unusual "work release" program: the female inmates can reduce their sentences and make money by dancing topless (and turning tricks) for Mr. D. (Bo Hopkins), who runs a strip joint just outside the county line. Those who refuse to play along are subject to violent abuse from both the authorities and the other inmates. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When a top secret nuclear guidance system is stolen by an ex-CIA operative looking to sell the deadly device to the top bidder, it's up to a determined CIA agent and the international terrorist who he has vowed to capture to team up and stop the madman from destabilizing the world in the feature directorial debut of action icon Lorenzo Lamas. CIA Agent Mark Graver (Lamas) was living a quiet life when word came down that a government facility had been breached and a valuable device stolen. Now forced to team with former terrorist Alexa (Kathleen Kinmont) to retrieve the guidance system from international terrorist Franz Kluge (John Savage) -- who also happens to be the father of Alexa's daughter -- the race is on to get the guidance system and stop the bad guys from inciting war. It's not going to be an easy task, though, because when Graver learns that the man behind the scheme is none other than ex-CIA operative Ralph Straker (John Ryan), he is forced to team with bitter rival Kluge to storm Straker's heavily-guarded fortress, get the device, and save Alexa from a man intent on causing global destruction for his own profit. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In Miami, Ray Sharkey plays a recovering alcoholic-ex-cop/ex-con and possibly a soon-to-be-ex-husband. Upon release from the pen, he tries to go straight, but is confronted once again by the very thing that landed him inside: a Cuban drug cartel. This thriller was made for cable. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Filmed in black-and-white, this episode is both an homage to and a spoof of The Maltese Falcon and other "hard-boiled detective" movies of its ilk. In 1941 San Francisco, cynical gumshoe Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck) tries to solve the murder of the much-despite publishing baron William Tyler Maxfield. Along the way, he meets the other Magnum, P.I. regulars, recast as "film noir" stereotypes. The story comes to a climax with obligatory revelation scene, in which Magnum gathers all the suspects together in the same room--and is HE surprised by the outcome! Only at the very end do we discover precisely why and how Magnum has been transplanted to another time and another place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having moved from Thursdays to Saturdays to Tuesdays in previous seasons, Magnum, P.I. settles upon a Wednesday-night CBS slot for its seventh season on the air. While the show itself has been shifting about quite a bit of late, several things remain constant. Private eye Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck) continues to work as security chief of the Oahu estate owned by celebrated (and never-seen) author Robin Masters, with Masters' stuffy manservant Higgins (John Hillerman) persisting in his efforts to get Magnum to behave himself and play by the rules. And as before, Magnum is frequently aided in his investigations by his Vietnam buddies T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) and Rick (Larry Manetti). Of the many season-seven episodes, several are standouts, notably "A.A.P.I.," in which Magnum and fellow gumshoe Luther Gillis (Eugene Roche) attend the 14th Annual Convention of Private Investigators, where they meet TV producer Stephen J. Cannell as security guard Ray Lemon, and Magnum semi-regular Elisha Cook Jr., normally cast as wizened underworld character Ice Pick, reprising his "Wilmer" role from the 1941 classic The Maltese Falcon! "Novel Connection" finds Magnum briefly teaming up with mystery writer Jessica Fletcher of Murder, She Wrote fame, with Angela Lansbury (who else?) guesting as Jessica. "Murder by Night" is the season's obligatory "homage" episode, set in the 1940s and filmed in the style of a black-and-white Bogart epic; "Solo Flight" is a reworking of season four's "Home From the Sea," with Magnum trapped in a perilous situation (his legs are caught under the wreckage of a plane), forcing him to relive past events in his mind, courtesy of excerpts from previous episodes. And in "Little Girl Who," Magnum discovers that he may have had a daughter with his first wife, Michele, a five-year-old girl named Lily Hue. Inasmuch as the producers were certain that Magnum, P.I. would be canceled at the end of its seventh season, a surrealistic two-part finale titled "Limbo" was conceived in which Magnum is shot dead, whereupon his soul ascends to heaven. Imagine their surprise when the series was renewed for an eighth year, requiring an extremely hasty "explanation" as to why the protagonist has suddenly returned to life! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Normally based in Hawaii, Magnum, P.I. launches its sixth season with a jaunt to Merrie Old England, where private detective Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck) and his boss-by-proxy Higgins (John Hillerman) have been assigned to oversee the London estate owned by their mutual employer, the celebrated (and never-seen) author Robin Masters. Upon his return to Oahu, Magnum resumes his usual duties, acting as security at Masters' Hawaiian estate and accepting whatever "outside" P.I. jobs come his way. Season six has many highlights, among them the near-surrealistic episode "The Kona Winds," in which everybody in the cast behaves in a thoroughly unexpected manner -- including Magnum, who enters into an affair with a married woman. Another semi-fantasy installment, "Rapture," involves what appears to be a scuba-diving ghost. In "The Hotel Dick," Magnum leaves Masters' employ for a less glamorous job as house detective at the Hawaiian Gardens Hotel -- and in the course of events rather uncharacteristically admits to needing glasses to read. Gwen Verdon guest stars in "Going Home," in which Magnum returns to his hometown only to get enmeshed in a bitter feud. And in "Mad Dogs and Englishmen," Higgins is accused of theft and fired from the Masters estate -- but what appears to be happening, isn't. The season ends with "Photo Play," guest-starring Cassie Yates in the recurring role of photographer Sally Faraday, whose arrival in Hawaii proves disastrous for everyone within Magnum's circle of friends. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season five of Magnum, P.I. opens with the two-part episode "Echoes of the Mind," in which Hawaii-based private eye Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck), tackles a decade-old missing-persons case; this episode features an early guest appearance by Sharon Stone, and also serves to strengthen the relationship between Magnum's boss-by-proxy Higgins (John Hillerman) and Higgins' longtime lady friend Agatha Chumley (Gillian Dobbs). Subsequent episodes find Magnum dividing his time between his security duties at the lavish Oahu estate of elusive author Robin Masters (for whom Higgins also works as a manservant-of-all-trades) and his usual P.I. gigs in and around the rest of the island. In a surprise development, Magnum's old buddy Mac Reynolds (Bruce MacKay), presumed killed at the beginning of season three, suddenly reappears, apparently none the worse for wear. Before long, however, we learn that this Mac is actually a lookalike impostor, a con artist named Mac Bonnick. Among the season's best episodes is another of Magnum's genre spoofs, "Kiss of the Sabre," in which most of the series' characters show up in different guises in a fantasy sequence; this time it's a mystery novel, wherein Magnum morphs into dashing international investigator "Sebastian Sabre," with Higgins as his loyal servant "Boris," and Magnum's friends T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) and Rick (Larry Manetti) respectively cast as "Winston" and "Swift" (with the same jobs they hold down in real life!). Another top-notch episode, "Compulsion," finds British actor David Hemmings doing double duty as guest star and director. The season's final installment is a prison yarn, "A Pretty Good Dancing Chicken," based on a story by Anthony Pellicano, a genuine private detective and forensic expert. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tom Selleck returns as the title character in Magnum, P.I. as the Hawaii-based detective series enters its fourth season. The opening episode is the now-legendary "Home From the Sea," in which Magnum, stranded on the remnants of a surf ski in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, helplessly witnesses his whole life flashing before him. After surviving this ordeal, Magnum makes his first acquaintance with seedy, middle-aged "hard-boiled" private eye Luther H. Gillis (Eugene Roche), who in his typical take-charge fashion even provides voice-over narration for most of the story! On a more somber note, Magnum's friendship with his former Vietnam comrade in arms T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) takes a nosedive when T.C.'s footloose sister Wendy is murdered while on a date with our hero; this episode also introduces another recurring character, retired mob functionary Ice Pick Hofstetler, played by the great Elisha Cook Jr. Also making her first appearances this season is Kathleen Lloyd as assistant DA Carol Baldwin, a role played by Patricia McCormack during the previous season. Carol's function is similar to that of Higgins (John Hillerman), the snooty overseer of the estate where Thomas has been hired as security, to not-so-gently "persuade" Magnum to provide unofficial assistance in otherwise unsolvable cases. Among the guest stars appearing on Magnum P.I. during season four are Carol Channing, Leslie Uggams, Carol Burnett, Dick Shawn, and Patrick Macnee. The season closer, "I Witness," focuses on the King Kamehameha Club, co-owned by Magnum's never-seen boss, Robin Masters, and his war buddy Rick (Larry Manetti) -- and may be the only live-action TV episode in history to feature a talking pig as one of the villains! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Private eye Thomas Magnum (Tom Selleck) continues to enjoy the hospitality of his wealthy (and never-seen) benefactor, author Robin Masters, on Masters' lavish Oahu estate as Magnum P.I. enters its second season. Our hero must also endure the verbal slings and arrows of Masters' snobbish manservant Higgins (John Hillerman), not to mention a nip or two from Higgins' pet Dobermans, Zeus and Apollo. The season opener, "Billy Joe Bob," finds Magnum trying to locate the sister of a trigger-happy Texan. In later episodes, Magnum and his Vietnam buddies T.C. (Roger E. Mosley) and Rick (Larry Manetti) are neck-deep in intrigue as they attempt to help a Russian Olympic champ defect; Magnum is unexpectedly and disastrously reunited with his wife, Michelle (Marta DuBois), whom he assumed had been killed years earlier; Darren McGavin guest stars as Hemingwayesque novelist Mad Buck Gibson, whose ex-wife hires Magnum to keep her husband alive until she collects her back alimony; an assignment to protect a ballerina reveals a hitherto undisclosed facet of T.C.'s personality (but one that would be mentioned time and time again in future episodes); and in "Texas Lightning," a birthday party and a card game segue into one of the series' most thrilling helicopter chases. Weaving in and out of the proceedings is a new Magnum, P.I. recurring character, Lt. Yoshi Tanaka of the Honolulu police (played by Kwan Hi Lim). Another "new character" in every sense of the word is "Bronco" Elmo Ziller, the estranged half-brother of the persnickety Higgins (both roles are played by John Hillerman in a textbook example of "versatility"). The season finale, "Three Minus Two," is distinguished by the presence of two of Hollywood's most attractive leading ladies: Jill St. John and Beverly Garland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this Christmas episode, Magnum is hired by five wide-eyed schoolgirls to locate their teacher, Linda Booton (Katherine Cannon). Conventional wisdom is that Linda has run off with her boyfriend, but the girls insists that the lady was kidnapped. As Magnum chases down a variety of false leads, it becomes obvious (to the viewer, if not the hero) that he has been duped, and that the real crime at hand involves stealing a valuable Gauguin original from the Robin Masters estate! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's a veritable Old Home Week on The Rockford Files, with return visits from Jim's fellow P.I. Vern St. Cloud (Simon Oakland), nerdish detective-wannabe Freddie Beamer (James Whitmore Jr.), and last but not least, the impossibly handsome and insufferably lucky private detective Lance White (Tom Selleck). It all begins when Freddie crashes a testimonial ceremony for the Detective's Association, only to stumble upon the dead body of keynote speaker Senator Arnold B. Sanota. In their efforts to clear Freddie of murder charges, Jim (James Garner) and Lance (Tom Selleck) literally fall over themselves--though Lance always seems to land on his feet with nary a hair out of place, much to Jim's dismay and disgust. Meanwhile, there's a seemingly separate intrigue afoot involving Vern St. Cloud's son Larry (played by Tom Selleck's future Magnum P.I. costar Larry Manetti). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part story, the Galactica is again attacked by a fleet of Cylon fighters. The crew's only hope of escape is through a space corridor past the ice planet Arcta--which is guarded by a Cylon pulsar cannon. Commander Adama (Lorne Greene) is ultimately forced to place the future of his space vessel in the hards of an army of criminals, led by Adama's son Apollo (Richard Hatch) and Apollo's best friend Starbuck (Richard Hatch). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide