Joseph Mell Movies

As is customary, Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) are faced with a baffling mystery which they must unravel in the episode's alotted sixty minutes. The game is afoot the moment that the skeleton of a former convict is found during an excavation on Alcatraz Island. There's only one problem: this particular convict was supposed to have escaped from "The Rock" in the 1950s--and in fact, is still purportedly sending letters to his family! Featured in the cast are two seasoned veterans of radio's Golden Age: Paul Stewart and Virginia Gregg. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the last of Adam-12's Yuletide episodes, Officer Jim Reed (Kent McCord) wants to deliver a Christmas tree to a retirement home. Jim's partner Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) doesn't object to this gesture of generosity--but he does raise a howl at the notion of using Adam-12 for non-police business. Elsewhere, the two cops contend with a misguided Good Samaritan and a liquor-store robbery. Comedian (and future A-list Hollywood agent) Martin Ingels appears as a thief who spends his Holiday time siphoning gasoline from other people's cars. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Lloyd Nolan guest stars as Judge Harper, who during his long career on the bench has made a number of controversial decisions--none more so than when he sentenced a man named Holloway to a ten-year prison term for treason. When Holloway dies just before his parole, his son Joe (Jack Bender) vows to get even by murdering Harper. Taking a special interest in this cast is FBI Special Agent Chris Daniels, who as a young law student had always been skeptical about the motives behind Harper's verdict. A very young Audrey Landers makes her first major TV appearance in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With master cinematographer Vilmos Zsigismond wielding the lenses, it's surprising that Ski Bum looks as amateurish as it does. Zalman King (yes, the same Zalman King who's since become a purveyor of elegant softcore porn) stars as the title character, a Jean-Claude Killy type who leaves the slopes in favor of the business world. He is taken advantage of by a gang of crooks, who plan to use King as their fall guy for a major caper. Charlotte Rampling costars in this "pure 1970s" adaptation of Romain Gary's novel. Ski Bum is fascinating for those film buffs who will recognize the various "auteurs" whose techniques director Bruce Clark swipes throughout the film. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Andrew Duggan guest stars as Frank Connor, a small-town crusading journalist determined to the topple the criminal empire of racketeer Duke Bergan (Scott Marlowe). After an attempt is made on Conner's life, the FBI offers protection to the man while Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) searches for the proof necessary to put the bad guys behind bars. It all boils down to a single solitary clue: A uniquely shaped contact lens. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

After several police drug busts go bad thanks to premature tip-offs, suspicion falls upon Ironside (Raymond Burr) who has been identified as a Syndicate informer by a captured dope pusher. A bad situation gets worse when Sgt. Ed Brown (Don Galloway) ordered to launch an investigation targetting Ironside. Though the rest of the Chief's team--especially Eve (Barbara Anderson)--are upset by this turn of events, Ironside himself remains surprisingly cool, calm and collected...almost as if he knows something that no one else does. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In a rare dereliction of duty, veteran officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) allows a traffic violator to go free so that he and Jim Reed (Kent McCord) can answer an emergency call. This failure to follow proper procedure comes back to haunt Malloy when the freed violator turns out to be a prime suspect in several armed robberies. Further vexing Pete and Jim is a false-alarm murder threat that pulls them away from more important duties. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on Donald E. Westlake's novel The Hunter, John Boorman's gangster film hauntingly merges a generic revenge story with a European art cinema sensibility. In Alcatraz to divvy up the spoils from a robbery, thief Walker (Lee Marvin) is instead shot point blank by his double-crossing friend Mal Reese (John Vernon) and left to die while Reese takes off with Walker's wife Lynne (Sharon Acker) and his $93,000. Resurrected, the stone-faced Walker returns to Los Angeles a couple of years later to seek revenge on Mal with the help of the enigmatic Yost (Keenan Wynn) and Lynne's sister Chris (Angie Dickinson). Wanting little but his cash, Walker implacably penetrates Mal's lair and the hierarchy of the shady "Organization," registering no emotion about the string of murders left in his wake, as his thoughts repeatedly return to the past that brought him there. In his first American feature, Boorman transforms a stripped-down revenge plot into a surreal meditation on the gangster's spiritual demise, using flashbacks and startling shifts in setting to interweave Walker's fractured memories with his extraordinarily photographed odyssey through L.A. Marvin's chillingly stoic presence further hints at the ambiguities in Chris's observation that Walker "died at Alcatraz, all right." Brutal in the violence that it shows and suggests, Point Blank opened in the U.S. in the same period as Bonnie and Clyde, becoming one more testament to the genre-bending and ground-breaking possibilities of the nascent Hollywood New Wave. Although Point Blank was mostly overlooked in 1967, Boorman's visual adventurousness, and Marvin's amoral and apathetic antihero, have since made Point Blank seem one of the key films of the mid-late '60s, a precursor to revisionist experimentations from Martin Scorsese to Quentin Tarantino. It was remade as the 1999 Mel Gibson vehicle Payback. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

In desperate need of money for new furniture, Lucy (Lucille Ball) and Mary Jane (Mary Jane Croft) attempt to take advantage of an advertising campaign created by Col. Andrew Bailey (Ed Begley), aka "The Bean King." Succeeding at getting double her money back on a can of Colonel Bailey's Bean, Lucy and Mary Jane go through the same rigmarole time and time again, until the two ladies have managed to collect $1500. What our heroines don't know is that Lucy's boss Mr. Mooney (Gale Gordon) is Colonel Bailey's biggest investor! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

An intelligent, eccentric high school senior devotes his life to indulging the every whim of the beautiful girl he adores in this quirky, dark-humored comedy. Roddy McDowall plays Alan Musgrave, an odd duck who immediately falls for the school's new student, Barbara Ann Greene (Tuesday Weld). Using his quick wits, he helps her win acceptance amongst the popular girls and a cushy job in the principal's office. Never demanding anything in return, Alan doesn't even complain when she falls for an upper-class college boy, and he does everything he can to bring the two together. However, as time passes, this seemingly well-intentioned dedication spins out of control, with results that become increasingly bizarre and even potentially fatal. The irreverent attitude and erratic tone may be an acquired taste, but the film's audacious humor and idiosyncratic approach have won it a cult following. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

First telecast January 13, 1966, "And Then There Were Three" is the historic Bewitched episode wherein Samantha and Darrin Stephens' daughter, Tabitha, is born. Darrin's joy at becoming a father is dampened by Endora's intention to transform the baby into a 25-year-old, just to see what the child will look like upon reaching adulthood. This is also the episode in which Samantha's mischievous lookalike cousin, Serena, makes her first appearance. As a bonus, Eve Arden appears as a flinty-eyed but golden-hearted admitting nurse. "And Then There Were Three" was written by Bernard Slade. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Versatile composer-conductor-comic actor Frank DeVol (remember him as "Happy Kyne" on Fernwood 2-Night?) is cast in this episode as Stew, an old friend of Prof. Russ Lawrence (Don Porter). Called out of town on business, Russ invites Stew to spend the weekend as his house guest. Unfortunately, Russ' daughter Gidget (Sally Field) is unaware of this--and when she begins hearing strange noises on a dark and stormy night, she's convinced that the Lawrence house is haunted! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) must once again put his social life on hold when he is summoned to his alma mater, Cal State. Though he'd been slated to merely pick up an award, Perry ends up defending student Van Fowler (James Noah) on a murder charge. The victim is Professor Stuart Logan (G.B. Atwarter), who after accusing his entire class of cheating on an exam was himself labelled a cheater by the hapless Fowler, who had helped to write Logan's best-selling book but received neither credit nor compensation for his efforts. A pretty strong motive indeed--but Perry is a bit too swift for both the prosecution and the real murderer. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi