Charles McGraw Movies
Gravel-voiced, granite-faced stage actor Charles McGraw made his first film The Moon is Down in 1943. At first it seemed as though McGraw would spend his movie career languishing in villainy, but while working at RKO in the late 1940s-early 1950s, the actor developed into an unorthodox but fascinating leading man. His shining hour (actually 72 minutes) was the role of the embittered detective assigned to protect mob witness Marie Windsor in the 1952 noir classic The Narrow Margin. McGraw continued being cast in the raffish-hero mold on television, essaying the lead in the 1954 syndicated series Adventures of Falcon and assuming the Bogartesque role of café owner Rick Blaine in the 1955 weekly TV adaptation of Casablanca (1955) (his last regular TV work was the supporting part of Captain Hughes on the 1971 Henry Fonda starrer The Smith Family). Active until the mid-1970s, Charles McGraw growled and scowled his way through such choice character roles as gladiator trainer Marcellus in Spartacus (1960), Sebastian Sholes in Hitchcock's The Birds (1963), and The Preacher in the cult favorite A Boy and His Dog (1975). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1977
- R
Soured on America by his experiences as a POW in Vietnam, General Lawrence Dell (Burt Lancaster) hopes that his government will someday tell the truth about the Southeast Asian debacle, thereby allowing his country to embark upon a healing process. Regarded as a dangerous embarrassment by the higher-ups, Dell is framed on a manslaughter charge and sent to prison. Escaping with three hardened convicts (Paul Winfield, Burt Young, and William Smith), Dell takes over an SAC base, threatening to launch nine Titan missiles if his demands that top-secret Vietnam files be made public are not met. Thus, the fate of the world rests in the hands of the mentally unbalanced Dell, his former superior General MacKenzie (Richard Widmark), and U.S. president David Stevens (Charles Durning). For this picture, Edward Huebach and Ronald M. Cohen adapted Walter Wager's novel Viper Three. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, (more)
- 1976
- R
Stacy Keach plays Lou Ford, a deputy sheriff whose brutal childhood experiences have left him emotionally warped. Ford is prized by his community for his no-mercy treatment of criminals. But the danger that he will snap and begin killing indiscriminately is ever-present. Based on the novel by Jim Thompson, in this adaptation Ford's psychotic breaks are signalled by lightning flashes. Director Burt Kennedy handles his material in the manner of his earlier Welcome to Hard Times: nothing is quite of this earth, and everything is painted in broad, violent morality-play strokes. Despite Kennedy's predilection for "cutting in the camera" (that is, filming each scene with only one or two different camera angles, so that his directorial vision will survive the editing room), Killer Inside Me gives evidence of having been severely tampered with in the post-production process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stacy Keach, Susan Tyrrell, (more)
Based on the novella by Harlan Ellison, A Boy and His Dog is set in a post-apocalyptic future where canned goods are used as currency and where entertainment often consists of old porn reels. Vic (Don Johnson) is a violent, illiterate scavenger, principally interested in getting laid. He communicates telepathically with his deceptively cute-looking dog Blood (voiced by Tim McIntire); Vic finds food for Blood, while Blood sniffs out girls for Vic. One of these girls is the sexy Quilla June (Susanne Benton), who, unbeknownst to Vic is a spy for an underground society, headed by a Mr. Craddock (Jason Robards Jr.). This subterranean civilization needs a human "sperm bank" to stay alive, and the oversexed Vic fills the bill. Produced by character actor Alvy Moore (Mr. Kimball of TV's Green Acres), A Boy and His Dog was written and directed by another veteran actor, L.Q. Jones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Johnson, Susanne Benton, (more)
- 1973
The flammable money of the title is of the counterfeit variety. Enterprising prison inmate E. G. Marshall devises a scheme to churn out phony moola in his jerry-built printing machine. Conspiring with his wife Mildred Natwick, Marshall intends to smuggle the funny money out of jail, then swap it with the genuine article. The "switch" is to occur in the US Treasury itself! Never taking itself seriously, the made-for-TV Money to Burn proved a pleasant diversion when it debuted October 27, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Originally seen on March 30, 1973, "Imitation" was the final first-run Mission:Impossible episode to be broadcast on CBS, even though it was the seventh of the 22 episodes filmed for the series' climactic 1972-73 season. Singer Barbara McNair guest stars as Jena Cole, the beautiful leader of a band of jewel thieves. With only 72 hours at their disposal, the IMF must recover the Marnsburg Crown Jewels from Jena's clutches. Going undercover as a crook, Barney joins the gang, only to inadvertently endanger the mission when Jena falls in love with him. "Imitation" was written by Edward J. Lasko. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Greg Morris, (more)
- 1973
Also known as Death and the Maiden, Hawkins on Murder introduced Jimmy Stewart to the TV-detective genre as folksy sleuth Billy Jim Hawkins (this TV movie was produced by MGM, the studio which gave Stewart his start in the 1930s). Hawkins travels from his West Virginia hometown to investigate a triple murder in Los Angeles. Along for the ride is Strother Martin as Hawkins' somewhat slow cousin/assistant, who would continue in this role when the Hawkins series premiered on a regular basis in the fall of 1973. The Harold Lloyd estate in Beverly Hills provided some of the more lavish backgrounds for this rambling mystery yarn. On the whole, Hawkins on Murder is better than the series that followed, which fell prey to banality and repetition early on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Season Six of Adam-12 begins with the first of several "remote" assigments for LAPD mobile officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner]). On this occasion, the two cops are assigned to the city's harbor and waterfront, where they run up against a credit-card forger and a besotted sailor. Jayne Meadows guest stars as a literally starry-eyed traffic violator who issues a verbose lecture to Jim and Pete on the subtleties of astrology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
The Longest Night is a harrowing made-for-TV movie based on a real-life kidnapping. Sallie Shockley is abducted from the home of her parents and held for ransom. Her captors entomb her in a box buried several feet underground, with an air hose as her only conduit to the outside world. As the police close in on the kidnappers and search for the girl, she desperately tries to stave off hysteria and to prevent the cutting off of her air supply. She is rescued comparatively early in the storyline, which then switches to the trackdown of the culprits. The Longest Night effectively conveys the claustrophobic atmosphere of the story, even though it runs out of gas before the end. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Seedy newspaper reporter Carl Kolchak (Darren McGavin) is assigned the Las Vegas police beat by his boss Tony Vincenzo (Simon Oakland). A series of murders has been plaguing the Glitter Capital; the victims, all beautiful showgirls, have had the blood drained from their bodies. Kolchak can't understand why the authorities are so uncooperative as he probes the case. Nor can he believe the evidence he's gleaned on his own: There can't possibly be a Dracula-like vampire stalking Las Vegas, or can there? Adapted by Richard Matheson from a novel by Jeff Rice, The Night Stalker debuted January 11, 1972 - -and on that fateful evening, this thriller became the highest-rated TV movie up to its time, as well as an instant cult classic. The film spawned a popular sequel, The Night Strangler (1972), and a 1974 TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Darren McGavin, Carol Lynley, (more)
- 1972
No one in the police department seems to care too much when call girl Wanda Bolen (Tisha Sterling) turns up murdered. All this changes when Chief Ironside meets and befriends the girl's elderly, grief-stricken father (Titos Vandis). Making it his personal crusade to bring Wanda's killer to justice, the Chief must forge a temporary truce with the pimps and hookers who may be able to provide him with the necessary leads. This episode features an orginal song by Marty and David Paich, "Money Girl", sung by Carol Carmichael). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The author of the famous late 1930's antiwar book Johnny Got His Gun wrote and directed this film adaptation. It concerns a nameless young soldier (Timothy Bottoms) in a veteran's hospital in the World War I period. The young man has had his face blown off, he is without the use of any of his senses save touch, and also has no arms or legs. He is in a coma at the beginning of the film, and his doctors doubt that he will regain consciousness. This is also what they hope. A nurse, while changing his dressings, discovers that he is awake and responsive. The unrelieved awfulness of his situation is apparent to many. However, in order to keep the "good order" of the military, the regular Army general commanding the hospital will not allow the boy to be seen or his family notified, nor will he permit anyone to perform a mercy killing. Interspersed with this horror are flashbacks of the youth's life before the war. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
David Janssen stars in this Jack Webb production as James O'Hara, a small-town sheriff recruited by the US Treasury's Bureau of Customs. O'Hara's first assignment: To break up a gang of smugglers trafficking in hashish. First telecast April 2, 1971 on CBS, this film served as the pilot for the weekly TV series O'Hara, United States Treasury. For the purposes of the series, O'Hara expanded his field of operations to the IRS, the Secret Service, and the ATM--at least until his program was cancelled in 1972 after a single season on the air. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Janssen, Lana Wood, (more)
- 1971
The notion of combining the western and horror genres was nothing new when The Devil and Miss Sarah was first telecast in 1971, nor does the film bring anything new to either genre. Gene Barry plays a demonic outlaw named Rankin, who after being captured is escorted to trial by a sheriff (James Drury) and his wife (Janice Rule). Rankin hopes to take over the weak-willed woman's soul in order to effect his escape. But the husband possesses acute extrasensory powers and tumbles to Rankin's power play. Devil and Miss Sarah was filmed on location--not in Hell, but in Southern Utah. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
It's an unhappy birthday for Officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) when he forgets to renew his driver's license. As a result, Malloy's partner is forced to take the wheel of Adam-12 for the first time--and both men are nervous over the prospect. This episode's case log includes a fatalistic bank robber, an infant abandoned in a trash can, a drug dealer who sells his wares from an ice cream truck, a man who is burglarized by his neighbors, a woman who commits murder as an "anniversary present", and an baby abandoned in a trash can. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- PG
After being blacklisted from Hollywood for 21 years, writer/director Abraham Polonsky made a healthy comeback with Tell Them Willie Boy is Here. The title character, played by Robert Blake, is a Paiute Indian living in 1909 California. After several years in the White Man's world, Willie Boy returns to his reservation, hoping to renew his romance with tribeswoman Lola (Katherine Ross). Old Mike (Mike Angel), Lola's father, strongly disapproves of her relationship with Willie Boy and attacks the youth. Acting in self defense, Willie Boy kills Old Mike. Under tribal rules, Willie Boy is now permitted to claim Lola as his woman. But white lawman Christopher Cooper (Robert Redford) is forced to charge Willie Boy with murder. The Indian and his girl escape the reservation, pursued by the essentially decent Cooper and a less-than-decent crowd of white vigilantes. What begins as comparative minor incident, snowballs into a huge political crisis, with the bewildered but defiant Willie Boy as the catalyst. Tell Them Willie Boy is Here is distinguished by the fine performances of leading players Redford, Blake, Ross and Susan Clark, and by the haunting cinematography of Conrad Hall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Katharine Ross, (more)
- 1969
Before she played Joe Cartwright's ill-fated love interest in the 1972 Bonanza episode "Forever," Bonnie Bedelia guest-starred in the series' April 6, 1969 episode "The Unwanted." Bedelia is cast as Lorrie, the daughter of Ben Cartwright's old friend, lawman Luke Mansfield (Charles McGraw). Rebelling against her disciplinarian father, Lorrie openly consorts with young ex-convict Rick Miller (Jan-Michael Vincent), who may or may not be the cousin of a man who once shot Luke. "The Unwanted" was written by Thomas Thompson and Suzanna Clauser. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, (more)
- 1969
- PG
Police Captain Matthews (George Peppard) believes he has successfully pinned a murder and rape conviction on Paul Sanderson (Robert F. Lyons) only to have the sentence overturned by the United States Supreme Court. When his wife Adele (Jean Seberg) is found murdered, Matthews finds himself on the other side of the law. The disillusioned suspect finds that his police cronies and friends have turned their backs on him, particularly when Senator Cole (Paul McGrath) goes on a much-publicized tirade against crime. Woodrow Wilson King (Richard Kiley) is the civil libertarian who has doubts about Sanderson's insanity defense and uncovers information about his sadistic alcoholic mother who lead him to become a murderous misogynist. Matthews feels something is not quite right when his police colleagues are all too eager to pin the crime on him in this engaging murder mystery. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Peppard, Jean Seberg, (more)
- 1968
Based on the novel Death on the Turnpike by William P. McGivern, Robert Altman's Nightmare in Chicago was expanded for theatrical release after it originally aired on NBC in 1964 on an episode of Kraft Suspense Theater. Filmed on-location in Chicago, this suspense thriller follows the story of a serial killer known as "Georgie Porgie." The Chicago turnpike is threatened over a three-day period as the police try to catch him by blocking the whole area. Starring Charles McGraw, Ted Knight, and Robert Ridgely. Original musical score by John Williams. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
Ex-lawman turned rancher Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) is moving a small herd of cattle when a group of nine men on horseback, led by Captain Wilson (Ed Begley Sr.), ride up and accuse him of having stolen the cattle and killed their owner. Refusing to believe his account, they string him up by the neck and leave him for dead, but they don't do the job right. Cooper is dangling there, barely alive, a few minutes later when Deputy U.S. Marshal Bliss (Ben Johnson) spots him and cuts him down. He survives the next few days in Bliss' tumbleweed wagon with the other prisoners, and is later cleared of any wrongdoing and released by Judge Fenton (Pat Hingle), just in time to witness the hanging of the man who really murdered the owner of the cattle and took Cooper's money. Cooper still wants revenge on the nine men who tried to hang him, but Fenton insists that he leave the bringing of them to justice to his deputy marshals. As it happens, Fenton is in desperate need of deputy marshals for the territory that he oversees, and he also knows that Cooper was a good lawman. Cooper, in turn, is now broke and in need of a job, and does want to see justice done. They strike an uneasy bargain, Cooper agreeing to wear a badge and bring in the men he's looking for -- alive -- for trial. The latter proves easier said than done, however, when the first of them that he spots tries to draw on him when he makes the arrest. One of the hanging party, Jenkins (Bob Steele), soon turns himself in and provides the names of the others. Cooper takes Stone (Alan Hale Jr.) alive, but the hapless blacksmith is later shot by the local sheriff (Charles McGraw) while trying to escape. The other men, led by Wilson, have no intention of dying, or even being brought to trial, without a fight. Two of them go on the run out of the territory, while Wilson and two of the others decide to take the law into their own hands once again. Meanwhile, Cooper becomes a hero when he single-handedly brings back a trio of rustlers who are also guilty of murder. This leads to Cooper's first confrontation with Judge Fenton, who, in a gripping scene, explains why it is essential that he be as seemingly quick to hang a man as he is. Unless the people are convinced that the law will do its job -- including hanging men who deserve it -- they will keep taking the law into their own hands and there will be more lynch mobs like the one that tried to kill Cooper. In the course of his quest for justice, Cooper also makes the acquaintance of Rachel (Inger Stevens), a young woman with her own search for justice, haunted by her own ghosts, and the two of them are drawn together, no more so than when Wilson and two of the others try to gun Cooper down in cold blood. The final confrontation between Cooper and Wilson escalates in violence to its savage, irony-laced conclusion. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Inger Stevens, (more)
A nosey housewife (Marguerite Viby) takes on extra responsibilities when her husband (Buster Larsen) hurts his back while reading the Sunday paper. When she finds a dead body in the upstairs office, she calls the police. The detective (Ole Monty) is summoned, and he discovers the woman is his old school dancing partner. When she turns around to renew the old acquaintance, the corpse is gone in this offbeat situation comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sid Caesar, Robert Ryan, (more)
Richard Brooks wrote and directed this stark black-and-white (with brilliantly evocative cinematography by Conrad Hall) study of two drifters who murder a family, based on Truman Capote's non-fiction novel In Cold Blood. The film takes place in Holcomb, Kansas, where four members of the Herbert Clutter family are roused from their sleep and brutally murdered. The killers, Perry Smith (Robert Blake) and Dick Hickock (Scott Wilson), are two ex-cons who plan to rob the Clutters of $10,000 kept in a safe in their home. But Dick and Perry find no safe and no $10,000 and end up leaving the murder scene with only $43. The police, led by Alvin Dewey (John Forsythe) of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, try to track down the killers. Meanwhile, Dick and Perry take off to Mexico, where Perry has fantasies of prospecting for gold. But when his dreams of prospecting come to naught, Dick insists that they return to the United States. Confident that they have left no clues, they cash bad checks, and the police track them down in Las Vegas. During questioning, their alibis are broken when they are separated and tell conflicting stories. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Blake, Scott Wilson, (more)
- 1964
The Seaview is ordered into the regular navy as the flagship of Admiral Tobin (Charles McGraw), who has been assigned to hunt down a UFO that was seen submerging at sea. Tobin plans to greet the invader with force, while Nelson (Richard Basehart) and Crane (David Hedison) prefer a more cautious approach. The ship is suddenly rendered helpless by the UFO, which forces Nelson to attempt direct contact with the aliens. He discovers that there mistrust and error can exist on both sides, and that an escalation that no one wants is easier to start than to stop. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
