Charles Aidman Movies

Family Ties matriarch Meredith Baxter (before she added the Birney) plays the titular heroine in an early TV movie appearance. In the film, Baxter's Carol Enders is inhabited by the spirit of a murdered woman who needs a human vessel to tell the world that she was murdered. Carol and the victim team up to solve the mystery. ~ Michael Hastings, All Movie Guide

The made-for-TV Barbary Coast is a tongue-in-cheek western in the Maverick tradition, produced by a former writer-director of that series, Douglas Heyes. Dennis Cole plays Cash Conover, a San Francisco saloonkeeper of the 1870s. William Shatner co-stars as Jeff Cable, an undercover policeman who works hand in glove with Conover to fight crime on the Coast. Conover and Cable team up with the lovely Cleo (Lynda Day George) to tackle a vicious mob, headed by one Diamond Jack Bannister (Michael Ansara). Throwing a bit of Wild Wild West into the stew, Cable pops up from time to time wearing disguises and sporting outrageous accents. First telecast May 4, 1975, Barbary Coast was the pilot for the short-lived TV series of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this acclaimed version of Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, Richard Thomas stars as a young Civil War soldier who runs away during his first big battle. Tortured by his seeming lack of bravery, he eventually learns that courage is just as dependent upon common sense as on bravado. He returns to battle and proves himself a hero in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Egan guest stars as waterfront priest Father Joe Scarne, who hinders a robbery investigation by refusing to reveal the whereabouts of the main suspect to Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas). An essential ingredient to the outcome of the case is a stolen crate of cobra venom which, unbeknownst to the Law, actually contains heroin. Oh, and one more thing: Father Scarne is himself a reformed drug addict. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dirty Little Billy thankfully does not try to glorify its subject. Instead, Billy the Kid (Michael J. Pollard) is depicted as the homicidal mental defective that history has proven him to be. The film recounts Billy's formative years, exploding legends and myths all along the way. The Old West is not prettied up in the least; there seems to be mud everywhere, even in the houses. Dirty Little Billy was the last production to be supervised by legendary mogul Jack L. Warner, who had severed his ties with Warner Bros. in 1972 and was releasing through onetime arch rival Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A father-and-son team battle to protect their Southern farm from military deserters during the Civil War. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Tina Louise guest stars as Candy, a pretty cocktail waitress who hitches a ride from Ironside's aide Mark (Don Mitchell). What Mark doesn't know is that Candy is the accomplice of a wanted criminal, and that she is looking for a fall guy to take the rap for a recent robbery. The trouble really begins, however, when Candy unexpectedly grows fond of her "patsy" Mark--just as her partner-in-crime returns to the scene. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Secret of the Pirate's Inn stars Ed Begley in one of his last roles, playing a retired Irish sea captain. Three kids (Jimmy Bracken, Annie McEveety, Patrick Creamer), try to help the old salt locate the lost treasure of pirate Jean Lafitte. A reporter (Charles Aidman) tags along, ostensibly to get a story. When the treasure is unearthed, the reporter shows his true colors by making off with the booty and kidnapping one of the kids. Secret of the Pirate's Inn originated as a two-part episode of TV's Wonderful World of Disney, initially broadcast November 23 and 30, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Improvisational director Robert Altman hadn't yet found his cinematic "voice" when he helmed the conformist, stick-to-the-script Countdown. James Caan is top-billed as a scientist who is chosen over astronaut Robert Duvall for the upcoming NASA moon shot. In their haste to beat the Russians to the moon, the NASA folks have tried to sidestep several safety measures, but doctor Charles Aidman sees to it that every possible precaution is taken. When Caan makes it to the lunar surface, he stumbles upon gruesome evidence that the Russians had sent up a secret expedition themselves--and had fatally ignored all those extra security precautions which he's been subject to. Ted Knight, who received some of his best pre-Mary Tyler Moore roles in Altman's TV work, co-stars in Countdown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr. swings into action when three convicts, led by William Hollis (Edward Binns), escape by tunneling out of prison--murdering a guard in the process. Now the trio plans to put their tunnelling skills to even more practical use by burrowing into a maximum-security bank. Featured in the guest cast is Joanna Moore, the ex-wife of Ryan O'Neal and mother of child actress Tatum O'Neal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's 1951 in Korea, a time that the United States Army doesn't like to remember. The Communists, led by Chinese forces, are tearing up the battlefield and overrunning American and South Korean positions, and in the midst of it, Sgt. Paul William Ryker (Lee Marvin), decorated World War II hero, with medals that would be the envy of any man in uniform, has been convicted of treason for allegedly deserting, going over to the enemy, and spending weeks behind enemy lines. He's scheduled to be executed, but Capt. David Young (Bradford Dillman), the prosecutor in the case, begins to worry that Ryker wasn't properly represented at trial -- he believes Ryker was guilty, but wants him to be convicted fairly. It hardly endears Young to the men around him when he starts pressing his doubts, and then he meets Ryker's wife, Ann (Vera Miles), who doesn't have the best of marriages but believes her husband is innocent. They start working together and, in the process, become attracted to each other. Ryker claims that a now-deceased counter-intelligence officer, Colonel Chambers, recruited him for a secret mission that would take him behind enemy lines, allegedly as an American turncoat, all to help plug a leak in his own command -- but Chambers was killed just 24 hours after Ryker's mission started, and nothing in his effects verifies Ryker's story. Young is ordered to lay off the case by his commanding officer, the new head of counter-intelligence, and General Bailey (Lloyd Nolan), commanding the sector, but Young risks his career to get Ryker a new trial. Now he's got to defend the man himself, against his own commanding officer as prosecutor, and prepare for his own court martial for conduct unbecoming an officer, for his affair with Ann Ryker. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Schoolteacher Helen Crump invites handsome, worldly and erudite fellow teacher Frank Smith (Charles Aidman) to supper at Andy's house, with the expected jealous reaction from Andy. Things get worse-at least so far as Andy is concerned-when Helen starts breaking dates to work with Frank on an upcoming educational project. It looks like Andy is due for another lesson in human nature, and he certainly learns that lesson by episode's end. First broadcast September 20, 1965, "Andy's Rival" was written by Lawrence Marks. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide