Morgan Jones Movies

A gang of scurrilous sailors go into the smuggling business, bringing some valuable jade into the country by illegal means. When a jewelry-store owner balks at the sailors' monetary demands for the contraband jade, the sailors kill the man and begin stalking the only witness, the victim's daughter Meg Foster). Keller (Michael Douglas) is likewise targeted for extermination when he is assigned to escort one of the criminals to prison. The episode's highlight is a bravura display of villainy from a young, pre-stardom James Woods. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A married couple embroiled in a violent quarrel over football is but one of the many entries in tonight's case log for Officers Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Jim Reed (Kent McCord). The episode's "money sequence" finds the two mobile cops joining forces with a police helicopter squad to chase down a perpetrator at Griffith Park's Traveltown Museum. The supporting cast is an impressive one indeed, including malaprop-spouting standup comic Norm Crosby, country-western singer Morgan Jones, and composer-conductor Frank DeVol. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mike Simms plays a young black soldier serving in Vietnam, who is abruptly summoned back to his old Watts neighborhood. Simms' family is mourning the death of Simms' brother, who was killed by two racist cops. Encouraged by a white friend to investigate his brother's death, Simms finds himself in the unenviable position of being the voice of moderation between the black militants preparing to ravage the neighborhood and the white extremists who are poised to take retaliatory action. Filmed by an African-American crew, The Bus Is Coming endeavors to be evenhanded in showing the evils of racism from both ends of the spectrum. The amateurishness of the actors merely serves to enhance the realism of the project. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This episode focuses on the LAPD's Special Weapons and Tactics unit, which had made a "guest" appearance in the previous Adam-12 installment "Log 43: Hostage". The S.W.A.T. team is called in to help Officers Malloy (Martin Milner) and Reed (Kent McCord) locate and neutralize a sniper, who is holed up on the roof of a theater. The inner workings of the team is detailed with clinical precision--and without giving away the entire ending, it can be noted that their methods are most effective. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Endora casts a spell on Darrin, hoping to make him more "agreeable." As a result, Darrin goes around agreeing with everyone and everything -- ruffling the feathers of his new client, Shotwell (Charles Lane), who hates and despises "yes-men," and concludes that Darrin is either insincere or crazy, or both. You guessed it: Darrin gets fired again and Samantha comes to the rescue. Written by Ed Jurist, "You're So Agreeable" originally aired on December 11, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Originally titled "Nobody Here but Us Martians," this darkly comic Twilight Zone episode was a rewrite of (and vast improvement upon) an unfilmed Rod Serling script from 1958, "The Night of the Big Rain." Having spotted what they think is a UFO, two highway patrolmen converge upon a roadside diner, where an interesting cross-section of humanity has gathered. The patrolmen plant the suggestion that one of the patrons is actually a "spy" from another planet, a suggestion scoffed at by such likely suspects as taciturn Mr. Ross (John Hoyt) and scraggly vagabond Avery (Jack Elam). The check-checkmate ending is one of the series' most memorable, thanks to the skillful underplaying of Barney Phillips as the diner's sarcastic counterman. "Will the Real Martian Please Stand Up?" first aired May 26, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While travelling on a stagecoach, Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) strikes up a conversation with Ann Saunders (Pat Crowley), an Easterner who claims to have come West to meet her cousin. En route, the coach is robbed, and Bart cannot help but notice that Ann seems to be acquainted with one of the masked holdup men. Things get even curiouser when Ann helps the robbers escape from jail, leaving Bart to face the wrath of the authorities. Former cowboy star Don "Red" Barry plays a sheriff in this episode, which was written by western-movie veteran Winston Miller. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of Roger Corman's finest science-fiction endeavors of the 1950s, Not of This Earth is an excellent film by any standards. Paul Birch stars as Johnson, a taciturn gentleman in a dark business suit who hires nurse Nadine (Beverly Garland) to care for him. Curious that Johnson needs constant blood transfusions, Dr. Rochelle (William Roerick), Nadine's boss, discovers to his horror that Johnson has no blood of his own! Before he can make this information public, Rochelle is telepathically enslaved by the emotionless Johnson. It soon develops that Johnson is a space alien, sent from his home planet to see if the blood of earthlings can be used by his dying race -- the first step in their ultimate takeover of the world. The scenes involving hyperkinetic vacuum salesman Piper (Dick Miller) are the film's highlights, simultaneously hilarious and horrifying. Originally released on a double bill with Attack of the Crab Monsters, Not of This Earth was indifferently remade twice, in 1988 and 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted by Robert Anderson from a story by James A. Michener, the Robert Wise-directed soaper Until They Sail is set in World-War-II New Zealand. Paul Newman plays been-there-done-that U.S. marine captain Jack Harding, assigned to investigate servicemen's requests to marry local girls. An unemotional cipher, Harding begins to warm up when he meets war widow Barbara Leslie Forbes (Jean Simmons), a woman with three sisters (played by Joan Fontaine, Piper Laurie, and Sandra Dee -- what a gene pool!). The Newman-Simmons relationship is played against the romance between uptight spinster Anne Leslie (Fontaine) and good-natured officer Richard Bates (Charles Drake), and the dysfunctional marriage between the emotionally desperate (and nymphomaniacal) Delia Leslie (Laurie) and slimy Shiner Friskett (Wally Cassell), who is off in battle. The fourth sister, Evelyn (Dee), watches her sisters' amorous pursuits longingly, her mind occupied by her own true love, who is off to war. Until They Sail was a copacetic reunion between star Newman and director Robert Wise, who'd previously collaborated in Somebody Up There Likes Me. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Scientist Mitch McAfee (Jeff Morrow) cannot convince anyone that an enormous bird, evidently here from outer space, has arrived on Earth and is grabbing planes from the sky, gobbling up the passengers and crew. However, the bird (The Claw) eventually makes its presence more that adequately known, as it begins to attack people more openly. But the giant bird is surrounded by a kind of force field, making all weapons useless on it. Mitch finds its nest and blows holes in its colossal egg, infuriating The Claw, which heads south, destroying the United Nations building on its way. Mitch struggles to find a way to penetrate the anti-matter shield around The Claw. This would have been an ordinarily bad movie of its type, with a good performance by Jeff Morrow, if the special effects had been industry standard for the time. That, however, is not what happened. The Claw is not just badly rendered, it is hilariously rendered, resembling nothing so much as Warner Bros. cartoon-character Beaky Buzzard. Once seen, you will never forget this awesomely silly creation. ~ Bill Warren, All Movie Guide