Charles McGraw Movies

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In one of the few "procedural" dramas presented on The Alfred Hitchcock Hour, the health officials and police department of Los Angeles race against time to prevent an anthrax epidemic. They must also keep secret the fact that they've found a disease-ridden corpse, lest they throw the city into a panic. Dedicated young health official Dr. Dana (Michael Parks) joins forces with older colleagues Dr. Oliver (Charles McGraw) and Deputy Sheriff Judd (Berkeley Harris) to pinpoint and isolate the source of the anthrax -- strenuously battling bureaucracy and red tape every inch of the way. "Diagnosis: Danger" was intended as the pilot for a weekly series starring Michael Parks, but the project failed to find a sponsor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With this all-star Cinerama epic, producer/director Stanley Kramer vowed to make "the comedy that would end all comedies." The story begins during a massive traffic jam, caused by reckless driver Smiler Grogan (Jimmy Durante), who, before (literally) kicking the bucket, cryptically tells the assembled drivers that he's buried a fortune in stolen loot, "under the Big W." The various motorists setting out on a mad scramble include a dentist (Sid Caesar) and his wife (Edie Adams); a henpecked husband (Milton Berle) accompanied by his mother-in-law (Ethel Merman) and his beatnik brother-in-law (Dick Shawn); a pair of comedy writers (Buddy Hackett and Mickey Rooney); and a variety of assorted nuts including a slow-wit (Jonathan Winters), a wheeler-dealer (Phil Silvers), and a pair of covetous cabdrivers (Peter Falk and Eddie "Rochester" Anderson). Monitoring every move that the fortune hunters make is a scrupulously honest police detective (Spencer Tracy). Virtually every lead, supporting, and bit part in the picture is filled by a well-known comic actor: the laughspinning lineup also includes Carl Reiner, Terry-Thomas, Arnold Stang, Buster Keaton, Jack Benny, Jerry Lewis, and The Three Stooges, who get one of the picture's biggest laughs by standing stock still and uttering not a word. Two prominent comedians are conspicuous by their absence: Groucho Marx refused to appear when Kramer couldn't meet his price, while Stan Laurel declined because he felt he was too old-looking to be funny. Available for years in its 154-minute general release version, the film was restored to its roadshow length of 175 minutes on home video; the search goes on for a missing Buster Keaton routine, reportedly excised on the eve of the picture's premiere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This episode is a showcase for stalwart Untouchables supporting player Paul Picerni, here seen in his tradtional role as Federal agent Lee Hobson. After Hobson kills crooked attorney Wallace Lawton (Allyn Joslyn) in self-defense, Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) surprises him by taking credit for the killing. No, Stack isn't a glory-grabber: He merely wants to protect Hobson from retaliation at the hands of the "nameless, faceless" Syndicate boss who'd been in cahoots with the late Mr. Lawton. Unfortunately, the anonymous "silent partner" manages to have Hobson kidnapped, and for a while it looks like the intrepid agent is slated for that dreaded Last Ride. Key players in this melodrama include stars-to-be Burt Convy as an ill-fated nightclub comedian and Dyan Cannon as the comic's songstress girlfriend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide