Kathleen O'Malley Movies

Handsome, smooth-talking Al Donnelly (Tim Matheson) has everything going for him. A politician, he is engaged in a heated gubernatorial race with the feisty Governor Tracy (Christine Ebersole), a tough old bird who doesn't hesitate to play hardball with opponents. Unfortunately for her, things are looking good for Donnelly. Fortunately she finds his Achilles' heel with his young brother Mike Donnelly (Saturday Night Live alumnus Chris Farley), a fat slob gym teacher and hopeless imbecile who only wants to win his more successful sibling's respect. Unfortunately all he does is embarrass poor Al to death. In desperation, Al assigns the sardonic and prissy Steve Dodds (David Spade) to keep Mike under constant surveillance. The real trouble begins when Tracy's aids try to frame hapless Mike for arson. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Jinxed is an apt name for this disastrous project which, sadly, turned out to be Don Siegel's final film. The film takes place in Reno, where blackjack dealer Willie Brodax (Ken Wahl) becomes an innocent victim of a broken-down gambler named Harold Benson (Rip Torn). Such is Willie's luck that when he sees Benson sit down at his blackjack table, he realizes that he will soon be out of a job. Benson is also giving his girlfriend Bonita Friml (Bette Midler) a difficult time. When she notices Willie and sees how Bensen is putting him through the wringer, she begins to fall for him and gets him involved in a scheme to kill her boyfriend. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Don Siegel took over the directing chores from Peter Hyams on this taut cold war action film, based on the novel by Walter Wager. With the cold war between the United States and the Soviet Union thawing, old KGB hard-liner Nicolai Dalchimsky (Donald Pleasence) activates a group of Americans who were brainwashed twenty years earlier to blow up United States defenses when a passage from a Robert Frost poem is recited to them. When bombs go off at an abandoned United States defense installation, the Kremlin realizes that they have a rogue KGB agent on their hands who is trying to re-ignite the cold war. To stop him, the Russians send out KGB agent Grigori Borzov (Charles Bronson). Accompanying him is KGB double agent Barbara (Lee Remick). As the two agents try to stop Nicolai from starting World War III, they find time to fall in love with each other. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

While Miss Hunter (Mariclare Costello) is out of town on family business, her classroom is taken over by youthful substitute teacher Megan Pollard (Catherine Burns), a transplanted New Yorker. Though undeniably brilliant, Megan is incapable of "relating" to mountain folk, and before long her rigid, dictatorial teaching methods have alienated students and parents alike. Meanwhile, Grandpa resists the temptation to help Ben build a kite for a contest. This episode represents a reunion between series regular Richard Thomas and guest star Catherine Burns, who had previously costarred in the memorable "coming-of-age" film drama Last Summer (1969). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Don Siegel directed this offbeat crime thriller which stars Walter Matthau as the titular Charley Varrick. Varrick is a small-time stick-up man who, in tandem with his partner Harman Sullivan (Andrew Robinson), makes plans to rob a small bank in New Mexico. Varrick and Sullivan are expecting a modest payday for a simple heist, but to their surprise they walk away with $750,000 in cash. But it turns out this isn't entirely good news; the bank was flush with cash because a number of well-connected Mafia chieftains have been using the bank to launder their ill-gotten gains, and they're determined to get their money back. Before Varrick can figure out a way to return the money, sadistic hired killer Molly (Joe Don Baker) is on his trail, forcing Varrick to outwit both the cops and the robbers if he is to stay alive.

~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Squad 51 paramedics Roy (Kevin Tighe) and John (Randolph Mantooth) don't quite know what to do with a large inheritance they've received from a former patient--until the IRS tells them exactly what do. On a more serious note, the emegency team must deal with a hard-driving stockbroker (Warren Berlinger) who insists he has no time to be treated for a possible heart attack. Elsewhere, a child is trapped in a car surrounded by high-power wires; and a teenager comes to grief during a hamburger-eating contest. Marion Ross makes a brief, pre-Happy Days appearance in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"You've got to ask yourself a question: 'do I feel lucky?' Well, do ya, punk?" Dirty Harry provoked a critical uproar in 1971 for its "fascist" message about the power of one, as it also elevated Clint Eastwood to superstar status through his most enduring screen persona. Harry Callahan (Eastwood, in a role meant for Frank Sinatra) is a sardonic, hard-working San Francisco cop who can't finish his lunch without having to foil a bank robbery with his 44 Magnum, "the most powerful handgun in the world." When hippie-esque psycho Scorpio (Andy Robinson) goes on a killing spree, Harry and new partner Chico (Reni Santoni) are assigned to hunt him down, but not before the Mayor (John Vernon) and Lt. Bressler (Harry Guardino) admonish Callahan about his heavy-handed tactics. Racing against a deadline to save a kidnap victim from suffocating to death and unbothered by the niceties of Miranda rights and search warrants, Callahan brings in Scorpio, only to see him released on technicalities. "The law's crazy," opines Harry in disgust, before taking it upon himself to ensure that Scorpio doesn't kill again. Directed in violent and efficient fashion by Don Siegel, with a propulsive score by Lalo Schifrin, Dirty Harry was the fourth Siegel-Eastwood collaboration after Coogan's Bluff (1968), Two Mules for Sister Sara (1970), and The Beguiled (1970). Critics at the time strongly objected to the heroic image of a cop's violations of a suspect's Miranda rights, forcing Siegel and Eastwood to deny that they were right-wing reactionaries. All the same, Dirty Harry proved to be highly popular and spawned four sequels: Magnum Force (1973), The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983), and The Dead Pool (1988). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Can a straight-laced woman find happiness with a scruffy hippie who has a bad habit of getting beaten up? Minnie Moore (Gena Rowlands) was a prom queen in high school but has become disillusioned with life now that she is a divorcée who has just turned 40. Her marriage ended badly, and her current relationship with her boyfriend Jim (John Cassavetes), who is inconveniently married to another woman, is hardly going any better. Jim treats Minnie with little respect, but she tries to calmly soldier on with her work as a curator at a museum. When Jim's wife threatens to commit suicide if he doesn't break off his affair with Minnie, he agrees to stop seeing her. He goes to museum where Minnie works, bringing along his two children to serve as witnesses, and he tells her that they're through. Emotionally shattered by this experience, Minnie blankly and uncomprehendingly accepts a blind date with a loud-mouthed boor named Zelmo Swift (Val Avery), who proposes marriage only an hour after they've met. Angered by her lack of enthusiasm for this proposal, Zelmo angrily follows Minnie to a nearby parking lot, where the attendant, Seymour Moskowitz (Seymour Cassel), comes to her rescue, though he hardly emerges victorious in battle. Shaggy-haired and steadfastly bohemian Seymour has just arrived in Los Angeles from New York City looking to make some changes, and after a few minutes with Minnie, he's convinced that he's met the love of his life. Minnie isn't buying it, but she eventually agrees to go out on a date with him, and before long, these two polar opposites find that they're attracted to each other after all. A typically low-budget labor of love from writer/director/actor John Cassavetes, Minnie and Moskowitz features John's wife Gena Rowlands as Minnie, his mother Katherine Cassavetes as Seymour's mom, his brother-in-law David Rowlands as a minister, and several of his children in a party sequence; John's friend and frequent collaborator Timothy Carey also appears in a small role. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Jody (Johnnie Whitaker) is being harrassed at school by a bigger, older bully. Making the situation doubly delicate is the fact that Jody's tormentor is a girl named Jeannie (Claire Wilcox), and of course he can't hit her back. Bill (Brian Keith) suggests that Jody try to reason with Jeannie--but this not only fails to work, but also leads to a crisis involving the girl's parents (Sean McClory, Kathleen O'Malley). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Investigating the destruction of a group photo of several bank employees, Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) finds that the bank in question has a $100,000 shortage. The case narrows down to fugitive embezzler Charles Gates, played by guest star Jack Klugman (whose then-wife Brett Somers also appears as Mrs. Gates). Sensitive to the curious parallels between Gates' past life and his own, Erskine devises a scheme to play upon the fugitive's intense devotion to his family and thus bring him out in the open. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In his second Fugitive guest appearance, Jack Klugman is cast as Gus Hendrick, owner of a trucking firm where Kimble (David Janssen)--alias "Bill Douglas"--is currently employed. Though heavily in debt, Gus continues to support his late partner's family, feeling guilty for the man's death. Unable to further provide funds for his partner's lazy, avaricious widow Lucia (Geraldine Brooks), Gus is receptive to a fraud scheme concocted by his false friend Ernie (Michael Constantine)--and as usual, Kimble is caught in the middle of all the intrigue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Board of Education warns that Munsters that little Eddie's grades must improve immediately or he'll be expelled. To this end, Eddie (Butch Patrick) builds a robot for an upcoming science fair. Alas, the robot is accidentally sabotaged just before its unveiling--compelling Herman (Fred Gwynne) to come to the rescue in his inimitable flat-headed, flat-footed fashion! Dick Simmons, the former star of the popular 1950s adventure series Sergeant Preston of the Yukon, appears as Mr. Balding. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Extra! Extra! The unthinkable has happened! PERRY MASON HAS LOST A CASE! The jury brings in a guilty verdict, and Perry's client Janice Barton (Vera Miles) is convicted of murder and sentenced to the gas chamber. Though perennial also-ran Hamilton Burger (William Talman) should be elated, he is sympathetic towards the brooding Mason (Raymond Burr), who blames himself for Janice's plight. But it soon develops that Janice had virtually condemned herself by lying about her whereabouts when the murder was committed. Still convinced of his former client's innocence, Perry works feverishly behind the scenes to expose the real killer--whose identity will come as quite a shock to fans of 1960s sitcoms. This justifiably famous episode, ranked as #51 in the "100 Greatest TV Episodes of All Time" by TV Guide, was originally scheduled to air on October 3, 1963. (Curiously, it was removed from the series' syndicated package in 1966, and not seen again until it was cablecast in 1988). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide