Diana Muldaur Movies
Educated at Sweet Briar College, Diana Muldaur began her New York stage career in 1963, appearing in three Broadway plays--Seidelman and Son, Poor Biros and A Very Rich Woman--back to back. She also played a regular role in the Manhattan-based soap opera The Secret Storm. In 1968, Muldaur appeared in her first film, The Swimmer. Exuding a serenity and maturity beyond her years, she was generally cast in cool, sophisticated roles, often as a deliberate contrast to her less-polished male co-stars: for example, she was a regular on the TV series McCloud (1970-77) cast as rambunctious Marshal Sam McCloud's(Dennis Weaver) low-key lady friend Chris Coughlin. Conversely, she was vitriol personified as barracuda lawyer Rosalind Shays in LA Law (1989-91)--at least she was until her character took a spectacular season--ending plunge down an empty elevator shaft. Other TV programs that have utilized Muldaur on a weekly basis have included The Survivors (1970), Black Beauty (1972), Born Free (1974), The Tony Randall Show (1976), Hizzoner (1979), Fitz and Bones (1981) and A Year in the Life (1987). In addition, she is among the few actors who have shown up in both the original Star Trek (in two guest-star assignments) and Star Trek: The Next Generation (as Dr. Katherine Pulaski). Undoubtedly one of her more enjoyable (and least taxing) assignments was as the voice of Dr. Leslie Thompson on Batman: The Animated Series. Equally busy when not performing before the cameras, Muldaur is a past member of the SAG board of the directors. Diana Muldaur is the widow of actor James Mitchell Vickery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1977
Telly Savalas wrote and directed this drama about an unconventional psychologist who battles for his own mental health while dealing with the stress of his profession. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Telly Savalas, Laura Johnson, (more)
- 1978
The locale of Anna Sewell's 1906 novel Black Beauty was changed from England to Maryland in this five-part TV miniseries. Still, the script adheres to the basic chronology of the Sewell original. In Part One the wife of incapacitated farmer Tom Gray sells the frisky colt Black Beauty. In Part Two, first telecast February 1, 1978, Beauty does the "Lassie" bit by rescuing her new master (Cameron Mitchell) from a storm and locating a doctor for her expectant mistress (Diane Ladd). This episode ends with Beauty facing certain death, first from a fire, then from a fever. The remaining three 60-minute episodes of Black Beauty were broadcast on February 2, 3 and 4, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1968
Taking advantage of the illness of his powerful rancher father Claude Roman (Denver Pyle), mean-spirited Jermey Roman (Jeremy Slate) runs roughshod over everyone. In addition to browbeating his sister Mary (Diane Muldaur) and reneging on a legitimate business deal with the Cartwrights, Jeremy also tries to get his father declared mentally incompetent. But by episode's end, Jeremy forcibly learns that there's more to greatness than merely inheriting a great name. First telecast on October 13, 1968, "The Passing of a King" was written by B.W. Sandefur. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, (more)
- 1973
Call to Danger was a title that had already been applied to two unsold pilot films before this TV movie made its first appearance in February of 1973. Like the previous 1968 Call to Danger, the 1973 film stars Peter Graves as a federal agent who enlists "ordinary" people to solve crimes. Headquartered in Washington DC (where most of this film was shot), Graves selects his erstwhile agents by means of a computer. The case at hand is the retrieval of an underworld informer who has been kidnapped. Peter Graves appeared in Call to Danger even while his series Mission: Impossible was in production; there was talk that Mission: Impossible would soon be cancelled, and Graves wanted a pilot film to fall back on. Come September of 1973, there was neither hide nor hair of Mission: Impossible, Call to Danger or Peter Graves on any network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
This 72-minute pilot film of the Charlie's Angels series stars the three original "Angels": Sabrina (Kate Jackson), Jill (Farrah Fawcett-Majors), and Kelly (Jaclyn Smith). Police rookies stuck in go-nowhere jobs, Sabrina, Jill, and Kelly are hired by the never-seen Charlie (voiced by John Forsythe), who engages their services as private detectives. Their first assignment: finagle the owner of a vineyard (David Ogden Stiers) into confessing to the murder of his partner. David Doyle co-stars as Bosley, the affable liaison between Charlie and his Angels. A ratings powerhouse when it premiered on March 21, 1976, Charlie's Angels resulted in the long-running (and frequently recast) weekly series, which aired from September 22, 1976, through August 19, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- PG
This speculative horror film details the tribulations endured by a specially-selected test group of 11 people who are informed that they will be the only occupants of a nuclear fallout shelter built half a mile below the Earth's surface. Chosen by project coordinator Peter Macomber (Bradford Dillman) as a fair cross-section of humanity, the group includes a politician, a businessman, an athlete and an author. As it turns out, the "survivors" are unwitting participants in one of those contrived psychological experiments featured so often on programs like The Twilight Zone. To make matters worse, someone's left a vent open, releasing thousands of ravenous vampire bats. Produced in Mexico, this tepid psycho-thriller plays out like the aforementioned TV drama, albeit padded out to 100 minutes. Said padding seems comprised of equal parts dull dialogue and interminable battles with the winged foes -- which are admittedly quite realistic and make for some genuine creep-out scenes. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Shot during a jewelry-store holdup, Sgt. Ed Brown (Don Galloway) owes his life to a man (Michael Callan) who rushed to his aid--and then disappeared into the crowd. It soon develops that the good samaritan is actually an AWOL Vietnam veteran who may or may not have killed a comrade in arms. Convinced that the soldier is blameless, Ed puts his life on the line--again--to clear the man's name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
When a woman is falsely convicted for selling drugs, she asks her sister to raise her young children in this true story. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1978
Based on a novel by Tom Willis, the made-for-TV Maneaters Are Loose! also bears a surface resemblance to the 1973 TV film Maneater. On the verge of bankruptcy, suicidal animal trainer David Birk (Steve Forrest) releases his "pets" -- two ferocious Bengal tigers -- into the woods near the small California mountain town of Whitford. It isn't long before several locals have been chewed up by the marauding felines -- and add to this a myriad of local scandals and dirty secrets (including a porno ring masterminded by the town deacon) and a climactic forest fire, and one has all the ingredients for a typical "life's a bowl of rotten cherries" movie of the week. Maneaters are Loose! debuted May 3, 1978, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
A marshal (Dennis Weaver) from a small New Mexico town escorts a subpoenaed witness to New York City. When his witness is kidnapped, the marshall tries to track him down in the unfamiliar city. During his search, he finds himself in the middle of a murder case involving Puerto Rican nationalists, a beautiful novelist, a Wall Street lawyer and a dead beauty-contest winner. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Weaver
Undoubtedly having second thoughts after turning down Dirty Harry, John Wayne showed up in 1974 in his own "maverick cop" adventure, McQ. Wayne, playing McQ, a veteran detective, turns in his badge when he's officially denied the opportunity of clearing the name of his late best friend, who has been posthumously accused of drug pushing. Investigating on his own, McQ becomes romantically involved with his friend's widow (Diana Muldaur), who unbeknownst to him is up to her neck in police corruption. Considering the usual flag-waving content of John Wayne's 1970s films, it is rather startling to discover that the real villains in McQ are a coterie of crooked cops! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Eddie Albert, (more)
- 1986
Agatha Christie's Murder in Three Acts represents Peter Ustinov's fifth appearance as Dame Agatha's brilliant, insufferable Belgian detective Hercule Poirot. The scene is Acapulco, where retired actor Tony Curtis hosts two separate parties--both of them were blighted by the fatal poisoning of a guest. The police think the butler did it (honest!), but Poirot activates his "little grey cells" to pinpoint the killer amongst a group of wealthy and eccentric suspects. Filmed in Mexico, Murder in Three Acts was the latest (and to some reviewers the least) in a long line of Agatha Christie TV-movie specials produced by Stan Marguiles. Ustinov was Poirot in three of these, having first essayed the role in the theatrical feature Death on the Nile (78). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Ustinov
- 1985
Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is among those in attendance at a literary awards convention when murder strikes. The victim is a novelist who had showed up toting a rather volatile unpublished manuscript. Although Jessica is not among the suspects, one of her close friends is under suspicion, obliging her to do her trademarked surreptitious snooping. Unfortunately, this is a particularly difficult case, inasmuch as virtually everyone else at the convention had a motive for murder--and the clues are not only plentiful, but wildly contradictory! Ron Masak, later seen on Murder She Wrote in the semi-regular role of Sheriff Mort Metzger, is here cast as Lieutenant Meyer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- PG
Ron Catlin (Charleton Heston) is a pro-football player who realizes his playing skills have eroded. His actions on the field have slowed to the point where retirement looms. His wife Julie (Jessica Walter) has her own fashion-designing business and his former teammate Richie (Bruce Dern) has parlayed his football heroics into a successful auto-leasing company. As "The Cat" loses his legendary quickness, he finds himself ill-suited to join the real world after his pampered isolation in the NFL. He takes to the bottle and to the lure of an illicit affair with Ann (Diana Muldaur). John Randolph plays a realistic coach who can't rely on this fading player's past heroics to win the next big game. Trumpeter Al Hirt and members of the New Orleans Saints appear as themselves. Bobby Troupe plays a local businessman who offers Catlin a job. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, Jessica Walter, (more)
- 1971
- PG
In this western, a train robber is framed by a fellow gang member and sent to prison. The gang member betrayed him so that he could marry the robber's love. To get his revenge, the robber helps out a gang of Chinese whose father, the other guy kidnapped. A showdown between the two leads ensues. Naturally the hero wins it all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1973
In this dark drama, filmed in the Mojave Desert, a conniving wife and her lover leave her husband, who broke his leg, alone in the desert to die. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur Hill, Diana Muldaur, (more)
- 1991
Raymond Burr once more takes on a murder case and once more reveals the genuine killer at the very last moment in Perry Mason: The Case of the Fatal Fashion. The setting is the world of high fashion, but that doesn't stop the writers from throwing in a few mobsters for good measure. The victim this time is nasty fashion magazine editor Valerie Harper (with a blonde wig!) The accused is rival editor Diana Muldaur. As Perry Mason, Burr matches wits with prosecuting attorney Scott Baio (yes, that Scott Baio) in seeing to it that the truth will out. The Case of the Fatal Fashion was the fourth and final "Perry Mason" TV-movie of 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
In this drama, set in Southern California, a widowed firefighter and his kids build a fire-rescue station. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Planet Earth was the second of three look-alike attempts by Star Trek maven Gene Roddenberry to launch a futuristic TV series for the 1970s (the first was 1973's Genesis II, and the third was 1975's Strange New World). John Saxon stars as Dylan Hunt, who awakens from suspended animation in the year 2133. The "big war" has come and gone; one of the few surviving pockets of 20th-century civilization is the city of PAX. This 2-hour pilot film details Hunt's adventures in this Brave New World when he is captured and enslaved by a society run by women. He is rescued by the scientists of PAX, presumably as a means of getting Roddenberry's series off the ground. But except for this film, first aired April 23, 1974, Planet Earth never got into orbit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
In this crime drama, the NYPD assigns U.S. Marshal McCloud to capture a fugitive killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1980
Quincy (Jack Klugman) frantically searches for a source when three people die of food poisoning. Ulitmately, he connects the three fatalities to a stadium where a championsihp football game is to be played in three days. Racing against the clock and cutting a swath through a tangle of bureaucracy, Quincy must prevent a deadly epidemic from infecting some 90,000 football fans. Diana Muldaur makes her first series appearance as Quincy's new lady friend, Dr. Janet Carlyle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
In the first episode of a two-part story, Quincy (Jack Klugman) and his lady friend Janet (Diana Muldaur) are enjoying a luxury cruise to Tahiti, when tragedy strikes. One man suddenly jumps overboard and drown, while another is murdered--and the murderer subsequently dies himself. It turns out that a mysterious but deadly illness is rapidly spreading throughout the cruiser...and unless Quincy is able to isolate the source of the disease, no one will ever set foot on shore again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
In the conclusion of a two-part story, Quincy (Jack Klugman) races against time to locate and neutralize the mysterious neurological disease that has already claimed three lives on a luxury liner. Though some of the pasengers have managed to escape to shore, the ship is now quarantined and prohibited from docking at any port. Thus Quincy must not only stem the epidemic, but also track down those on dry land who may still be spreading it--and worse yet, his own girlfriend Janet (Diana Muldaur) is now gravely ill. Originally telecast over a two-week period, Slow Boat to Madness has since been syndicated as a single two-hour "TV movie." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1968
In an episode that comes the closest to creator Gene Roddenberry's original concept behind Star Trek (i.e., "Wagon Train to the stars"), the Enterprise is assigned to escort Kollos, the Medusan ambassador, back to his home planet in the company of his human companion, Dr. Miranda Jones (Diana Muldaur), a specially trained psychologist. In an irony-laced situation, Miranda is one of the most hauntingly beautiful women ever seen, while Kollos and the Medusans are a race of brilliant, sublime thinkers whose physical form is so hideous that a glimpse of them results in irreversible insanity for any human -- even Vulcans, with all of their intense mental discipline, can only look upon them with a protective visor -- and she is to spend the rest of her life with them, mind-linked to Kollos. Only Spock (Leonard Nimoy), a native of Vulcan, and Miranda, a born human telepath trained on Vulcan, can have any direct contact with Kollos. Spock discovers that Miranda is jealous (to the point of irrationality) of his Vulcan telepathic ability, his having any contact with Kollos, and knowing that he was the first choice for her assignment (only his devotion to Star Fleet prevented him from taking it). Her jealousy -- motivated in part by a secret she is hiding -- is so intense that even Kollos is repelled by it, jeopardizing the success of the mission. Adding to the tension of the situation is the presence of Lawrence Marvick (David Frankham), one of the Star Fleet engineers who designed the Enterprise and now assigned to build navigational equipment that will allow ships to make use of the Medusans' skills in this area. Once Miranda's mind-meld with Kollos is completed, Marvick falls in love with her and can't abide the notion that she plans to spend the rest of her life among the Medusans. At a social gathering onboard the Enterprise, she warns that someone aboard the ship is thinking of murder. Is her warning genuine or a reflection of her own unsettled feelings? Marvick finally snaps and tries to kill Kollos, with dire consequences for himself, the Enterprise, and Spock. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1968
Investigating an ancient civilization, the crew of the Enterprise discovers the preserved brains of three of the civilization's final survivors. The alien beings propose a temporary exchange, wherein they would inhabit the human bodies long enough to construct robotic shells for their minds. After deliberation, Captain Kirk (William Shatner), Mr. Spock (Leonard Nimoy), and Dr. Ann Mulhall (Diana Muldaur) volunteer for the procedure. The change is successful, but proves to have unexpected side effects -- including an acceleration of bodily processes that means the task must be completed within a brief period of time. Complicating matters further is the fact that the being inhabiting Spock's body no longer wishes to cooperate with the original plan. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
