Gerald O'Loughlin Movies

Lovers and Lollipops is a reverse "generation gap" quickie with a dash of charm to help it go down. Ruth Orkin plays an attractive widow with a headstrong daughter (Lori March). Ruth wants to marry a go-getting businessman, played by Gerald S. O'Loughlin. March won't hear of it, and digs in her heels at the prospect of momma taking the vows. Filmed in New York, Lovers and Lollipops is obvious but amiable stuff; its utter lack of star names doomed it to an early TV berth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On a boiling hot night in the middle of a steaming New York summer, Detective Mike Reardon is on his way to work when he is shot down execution style. His fellow officers at the 87th, led by detectives Steve Carelli (Robert Loggia) and Mike Maguire (Gerald S. O'Laughlin), can't come up with a motive. The investigation has barely started when Reardon's young partner Foster is ambushed and gunned down as well. Carelli and Maguire are the lead investigators on the double police homicide, tracing potential suspects and following up clues that all lead to blind alleys. Meanwhile, Miller, a reporter, does some investigating on his own and nearly gets a young detective killed by a street gang led by smart-mouthed punk Joe Sanchez (Jerry Orbach). Amid this chaos, Carelli tries to carry on a romance with a deaf-mute author named Teddy (Ellen Parker) and Maguire attempts not to neglect his wife too badly. Maguire is gunned down by the same shooter that killed the other two detectives, only he makes sure the killer leaves behind a few clues before he dies. Carelli can't make the pieces fit together -- the only thing that the three victims had in common was that they worked in the 87th Precinct and they were all cops. He begins wondering if the fact that they were all police officers was relevant to the killings, but not the motive. Looking for a story, Miller reports Carelli's private suppositions, suddenly putting Teddy in jeopardy. Not knowing that the shooter is a step ahead of him, the detective races to her home. Carelli breaks the case and discovers that only one of the murders had an actual motive, one much closer to home than anyone on the squad would ever have guessed. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

FBI agent Rhodes (Stephen Brooks) goes undercover as a truck driver to locate the site where hijacked shipments of nitroglycerin are being sold to enemy spies. Teamed with trucker Carl Munger (Gerald S. O'Loughlin), who is being stongarmed into cooperating with the hijackers, Rhodes is ordered to drive a particularly volatile shipment of explosives over some extremely rough terrain. Meanwhile, Rhodes' every move is being monitored by his boss, Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.)--who cannot move in and make an arrest without forfeiting the lives of everyone concerned!. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A star-studded cast invigorates this film of a jazz trumpeter (Sammy Davis Jr.) who experiences both the prejudices of the music industry and terrible guilt following the traffic accident that killed his family, a tragedy he feels personally responsible for. Co-stars include several giants of jazz and popular music: Frank Sinatra, Louis Armstrong, Ossie Davis, and Mel Tormé, as well as Peter Lawford and Cicely Tyson. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

A desperate group of convicts stage a minor riot to divert attention in an escape attempt. Red (Gene Hackman) and two others perpetrate the uprising, but word has leaked out and the riot is quickly changed into a symbolic protest against prison conditions and alleged cruelty by sadistic guards. Cully (Jim Brown) is the convict who is caught up in the riot of which he had no prior knowledge. As the prisoners take over the institution, a drunken party is hosted by two homosexuals in drag. The prisoners set up a mock court in which prison informers and guards are tried, convicted and brutally punished. Knives slash, fists fly and blood is spilled leading to the return of the vacationing warden. Red becomes the media spokesman for the group as the siege continues and the prisoners administer their own macabre brand of justice to those found guilty. The film is based on an actual riot that took place in Minnesota, an event that is chronicled in the novel by Frank Elli. An aura of authenticity is provided by real-life warden Frank A. Eyman, who added his personal experience to the realistic prison escape saga. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A top-secret Soviet spy satellite -- using stolen Western technology -- malfunctions and then goes into a descent that lands it near an isolated Arctic research encampment called Ice Station Zebra, belonging to the British, which starts sending out distress signals before falling silent. The atomic submarine Tigerfish, commanded by Cmdr. James Ferraday (Rock Hudson), is dispatched with orders to get to Ice Station Zebra carrying three passengers, a Englishman going by the name of David Jones (Patrick McGoohan), a Soviet turncoat named Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine), and an American Marine officer, Captain Anders (Jim Brown), who is supposed to command the Marine unit assigned to the mission. Jones is problem enough, as he is in command of the mission and he prefers to withhold as much information as it's possible to do from Ferraday, even at the risk of the Tigerfish's safety. Add to that the fact that Anders is suspicious of Vaslov, and Vaslov seems much too inquisitive and is telling even less of what he knows about the mission, and Ferraday has his hands full trying to get these men to the polar ice -- 600 miles of dangerous travel -- in just two days. When an attempt to break through the ice -- coupled with some timely sabotage -- kills one man and nearly destroys the boat, the men surrounding these contending parties start to understand just how high the stakes are for everyone. It turns out that the Soviets want what was aboard that satellite as much as the West does; indeed, both sides are frantic to get it, and, just as much, to keep the other side from getting it -- and they're prepared to take it by brute force. Once Ferraday and his men arrive at Zebra, they find a disaster and still more mystery, with most of the men dead and the object that Mr. Jones is supposed to secure nowhere in evidence, and he and his two fellow men of mystery suddenly showing their killing instincts quite freely. And with the storm clearing from the Soviet side first, their planes and their paratroops are closing in on Ferraday, and his relative handful of men. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Murder One was the pilot film for the Jack Webb-produced TV series The D.A. Howard Duff plays the title role, with Robert Conrad his able-bodied deputy. The indictment they must prepare for the Grand Jury is that of nurse Diane Baker. Several of Baker's husbands and relatives have met untimely deaths, and it appears that the good nurse has been dispatching the victims with overdoses of insulin. While Murder One was first telecast on December 8, 1969, the D.A. series itself wouldn't premiere until nearly two years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Gerald S. O'Loughlin makes a return visit to Mission: Impossible, this time in the role of Syndicate chieftan Frank Delaney. To break the mob's stranglehold on the waterfront, the IMF endeavor to terrify Delaney into providing evidence against himself and his cohorts. Phelps impersonates the skipper of a "haunted" freighter, while Casey poses as the daughter of one of Delaney's murder victims. Written by Ed Adamson and Norman Katkov, "Shape Up" first aired on October 16, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Even while on the lam from the Feds, brash bank robber Larry Kulhane (Gerald O'Loughlin) masterminds another major heist. This time, Kulhane's prospective victim is elderly Ardyth Nolan (Jessica Tandy), who has recently come into possession of $200,000. Planning his caper with meticulous care, Kulhane has installed one of his accomplices as Ms. Nolan's butler, and another as the bofriend of the woman's impressionable granddaughter. The final stage of the plan is to murder the feisty but frail old lady--unless Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) can get to Ms. Nolan first. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This crime action movie is based on Peter Maas' best-selling book The Valachi Papers. That book, in turn, is based on prison conversations and the actual U.S. Senate testimony of Joseph Valachi, a high-ranking figure in the Mafia. The book, which tells precisely who did what to whom, when and why, electrified the nation. This film had to be made in Italy, because attempts to shoot in the U.S. were stymied by mob-arranged "accidents" and protests. The story is told in flashback as Valachi (Charles Bronson) tells a Federal agent about his activities from 1929 to 1961, when he worked for the Capo of Capos, Vito Genovese (Lino Ventura). Though his tale necessarily takes place in a number of episodes, it never fails to have lots of drama and action. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Based on the 1976 autobiography My Luke and I by Eleanor Gehrig and Joseph Durso, Love Affair: The Eleanor & Lou Gehrig Story provides a slightly different slant on the events previously dramatized on film as Pride of the Yankees (1942). The story is told in flashback from the point of view of the wife of baseball's "Iron Man". Sitting in a deserted Yankee stadium, Eleanor (Blythe Danner) relates her tale to her biographer Joseph Durso (Robert Burr). She recalls how she met the painfully shy ballplayer Lou Gehrig (Edward Herrmann) on a blind date in 1933. She remembers her battle of wills with Lou's domineering and possessive mother (played with a nearly impenetrable foreign accent by Patricia Neal), and her 1934 elopement with her "Luke." Other memories include the New York Yankees' goodwill trip to Japan, where relationships became strained between teammates Gehrig and Babe Ruth (Ramon Bieri). Also recalled is the fact that Lou played 2130 consecutive games (a record was only recently broken by Cal Ripken Jr.). Eleanor's story ends inevitably with Lou's slow death from amyotropic lateral sclerosis. In summing up, Eleanor insists that despite the tragic final years, she wouldn't have traded her short time as Mrs. Lou Gehrig for anything. Edward Herrmann took pride in the fact that his portrayal of Lou Gehrig won the unqualified praise of the real Eleanor (though Herrmann learned to bat southpaw for the role, he is seen actually playing baseball only once) Originally scheduled for broadcast on October 9, 1977, the made-for-TV Love Affair was bumped by a World Series playoff game; it was rescheduled for January 15, 1978--smack dab opposite the Super Bowl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Five terrorists hijack a plane with eighteen passengers, forcing the vessel to land on an LAX runway. During the negotiations between the police and the terrorists, medical examiner Quincy (Jack Klugman) is summoned onto the plane to pick up the body of a passenger who died during the flight. Quincy quickly determines that the man succumbed to a contagious disease--and now he must convince the hijackers to cooperate in his efforts to prevent a medical disaster of doomsday dimensions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide