Ed Nelson Movies

13-year-old Robert Mueller (Mark Gruner) is obsessed with guns and has a morbid fascination with death. He is also deeply resentful over the fact that his widowed mother Elaine (Diane Baker) has married Paul Hamilton (Ed Nelson). Despite all this, Elaine could never believe that her darling boy was in any way responsible for a recent campaign of terror waged against Paul, even when an unsolved homicide enters the picture. But Paul knows full well that he is next on little Robert's hit list--a fact that Robert does not even bother to keep a secret. Adapted from a novel by Fielden Farrington, the made-for-TV A Little Game made its ABC bow on October 30, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This final episode of Adam-12's sixth season is actually the pilot for a proposed spinoff series titled Fraud. After they find a dead man with an oscillator belt tied around his waist, Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) discover that the victim died of diabetic shock--and that he was the patient of a quack doctor. Enter Deputy DA Abe Stayhorn (Ed Nelson) of the " Major Fraud" division, and Strayhorn's elite team of scam-busters, including chief investigator Gino Bardi (Frank Sinatra Jr.) and policewoman Lynn Carmichael (Sharon Gless), who work in concert with Jim and Pete to get the goods on the crooked medico. Advertised as a "special", this episode was seen outside the usual Adam-12 Tuesday-night timeslot, and afforded a rare Thursday-evening telecast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This TV movie stars Suzanne Pleshette as the embittered widow of a research scientist. Seeking justice, she conceals her identity and goes after the professor (Ed Nelson) she holds responsible for her husband's "accidental" death. Pleshette launches an affair with the professor in order to get the goods on him, but she genuinely falls in love and comes to believe in his innocence. But the professor knows all too well that her husband's demise was no accident. Adapted from a novel by Leonard Lee, Along Came a Spider ran 73 minutes when it was first telecast in February of 1970; it was expanded to 92 minutes when released theatrically abroad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A group of scientists arrive on a remote Pacific island to investigate what became of the previous team, which was sent out there as observers of American hydrogen bomb tests and disappeared without a trace. They island is uninhabited and devoid even of most animal life, except for a few land crabs. The group's arrival is marred by the death of one of the navy crewmen accompanying them, who falls into the ocean and comes up with his head taken off. Then the navy plane that carried them there is blown out of the sky before it can get airborne, leaving them stranded and unaccounted for. Led by Dale Drewer (Richard Garland) and Dr. Karl Weigand (Leslie E. Bradley), they find the journal of the previous team, but no explanation of what happened to them, only that they'd noticed evidence of strange creatures and inexplicable physical phenomena on the island. Soon the scientists are hearing the voices of members of the previous scientific party, calling to them in the night. Their own radio is sabotaged and something has been probing the area where they're living; finally, the group is lured into the caverns where the real menace is hiding -- gigantic, bloodthirsty mutated land crabs that communicate telepathically and seem to have all of the knowledge of the previous team's members. One by one, all but three of the members -- Brewer, electrical engineer Hank Chapman (Russell Johnson), and scientist Martha Hunter (Pamela Duncan) -- are killed off and their minds and memories absorbed by the mutant crabs, who also have the power to focus infrared radiation into deadly, destructive beams that they use to gradually pulverize large sections of the island. By the end, a single giant crab has run the trio to ground on a remaining parcel of land just a few dozen yards across. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Banacek was the two-hour pilot film for the 1972-74 detective series starring George Peppard. The cigar-smoking, aphorism-spouting Peppard plays T. Banacek, Polish/American investigator for a major Boston insurance company. Independently wealthy, Banacek will only accept cases that have been deemed "unsolvable" by all previous investigators. In this pilot episode, Banacek tackles the case of a Brink's-truck hijacking in the middle of a Texas roadway. The truck and its costly cargo has seemingly vanished into thin air, and the cops are stymied. But with Banacek on the case, we learn that the whole affair was an elaborately orchestrated inside job. The subsequent Banacek series was a component of The NBC Wednesday Movie. The pilot film has been reissued to TV as Detour to Nowhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Brook Shields plays the comic-strip journalist, Brenda Starr, who travels to a South American jungle on an assignment. It is there that she covers the story about a mad scientist who plans to blow up the planet with his newly developed rocket fuel. Also appearing are Timothy Dalton and Charles Durning, among others, who don Bob Mackie-designed costumes. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, the FBI seeks a novelist, and former gangster, living in Mexico. They need him to testify in front of a Senate committee. He is also hunted by hit men, sent out by gangsters angered by the name-dropping the author does in his books. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

After a terrible hurricane ravages a tropical island, a young doctor discovers an autistic child wandering about. This touching drama follows the doctor's attempts to help her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Doctors' Private Lives was the 2-hour pilot film for the shortlived TV series of the same name. Ed Nelson and John Gavin star as, respectively, chief surgeon Dr. Michael Wise and cardiovascular unit chief Dr. Jeffrey Latimer. The drama arises from the ongoing clash of egos between these two medical giants. Nelson and Gavin were carried over to the series, as was Randolph Powell as Dr. Rick Calder. The guest cast includes Bettye Ackerman, who had ironically costarred in an earlier hospital series, Ben Casey (Ackerman was the wife of Sam "Dr. Zorba" Jaffee). Doctors' Private Lives premiered March 20, 1978; the series itself ran from April 5 to 28, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this outing, Benji finds himself on the loose in Athens. An international spy (Ed Nelson) places a secret oil formula within the folds of Benji's paw, and before the poor dog knows what's happening, he's being pursued through the ancient metropolis by a daunting variety of villains. Fortunately, Benji is smarter than his pursuers, so a happy ending is never in doubt. Writer/director Joe Camp managed to keep the Benji franchise alive into the 1980s, even writing a book about his filmmaking adventures with the clever canine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Journeying through the mountains, Paladin (Richard Boone) is mauled by a cougar. Seeking the aid of two men named Cull (Wright King) and Boggs (Ben Wright), the injured Paladin is instead robbed of everything he owns--and then left for dead. Painfully making his way to a nearby town, Paladin demands answers for why Cull and Boggs are seemingly free to come and go as they like, and to victimize anyone they choose. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The aristocratic Deverall family engages the services of Paladin (Richard Boone) to save the life of wealthy, arrogant young Pierre Deverall (Ed Nelson). Although he has been accused of murder and sentenced to hang, Deverall is smugly certain that his "good name" will prevent his execution. But Paladin doubts this, especially considering Deverall's very close association with a notorious outlaw (or group of outlaws) known as The Black Handkerchief. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide