Harrison Page Movies

The murder of a stockbroker tips Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) to Organized Crime's latest racket: obtaining valuable stock certificates which are then used as collateral for large Mob loans. At the center of this scheme is the beautiful but treacherous Meredith Schader (Michele Carey), who targets vulnerable male stockbrokers, pretends to fall in love with them, then blackmails them into doing the Mob's bidding. Meredith's latest victim is wealthy but lonely Val Palmer (Barry Nelson), who is blissfully unaware that he is being set up for the worst fall of his life. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The first season of the lampoonish cop show Sledge Hammer! ended as the title character, a thick-muscled, thick-witted Los Angeles police detective (played by David Rasche), confidently set about to disarm a nuclear device. "I know what I'm doing," said Sledge -- but he didn't, and the season ended with Los Angeles and everyone in it going up in a puff of mushroom-shaped smoke! This bizarre finale had been conceived by series creator Alan Spencer when it seemed as though the series would not be renewed for a second season. However, a renewal came in at the last moment -- and thus it is explained at the outset that season two is a prequel to season one, officially titled Sledge Hammer!: The Early Days. Once we get past this outrageous bit of creative chicanery, it is easy to see that Sledge Hammer is just as arrogant, stubborn, brutal, and stupid as ever, while his partner, Officer Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin), has become quite adept at concealing her superior intellect and allowing Sledge to think that he and he alone has solved all their cases. This season's crop of satirical storylines includes Sledge and Dori's smashing of a college neo-Nazi ring, a close encounter with the ghost of Humphrey Bogart (played by Robert Sacchi), various underground assignments in which Sledge poses as everything from a mob assassin to Australian automobile manufacturer "Crocodile Bruce," and wacky one-shot parodies of Vertigo, Dressed to Kill, and Robocop. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A broad and brassy satire of hard-boiled detective shows, the weekly, half-hour ABC sitcom Sledge Hammer! first burst onto the scene September 23, 1986. Created by Alan Spencer, the series starred David Rasche as Detective Inspector Sledge Hammer, a tough, arrogant cop who played by his own rules and was nobody's patsy, no sir! Breaking 57 varieties of civil liberties every time he went out to collar a criminal, Hammer made no distinctions between the gravity of individual crimes, being just as tough and brutal on litterbugs as he was on bank robbers. You couldn't miss Hammer when he arrived on the scene, waving his beloved pearl-handed .44 Magnum and dressed in garish, mismatched clothes, with his ever-present sunglasses covering his beady little eyes. Although Hammer had an impressive resumé of big arrests, it was usually his smarter, quieter, and better-looking partner, Officer Dori Doreau (Anne-Marie Martin), who did most of the hard work. And in time-honored cop-cliché fashion, Hammer's volatile superior officer, Captain Trunk (Harrison Page), who never spoke when shouting would do, suspended our hero from the force each and every week, only to reinstate him for a job well done (by Dori Doreau, that is!). The series' first season contained perhaps the most bizarre cliffhanger ever conceived, with Hammer, muttering his trademarked "I know what I'm doing," accidentally detonating a nuclear device and destroying Los Angeles and everyone in it! This deliciously "noir" grace note was conceived by the producers when it seemed as if there was no way on earth that Sledge Hammer! would be renewed for a second season. When renewal did occur, the producers blithely explained that season two was a prequel to season one: Sledge Hammer: The Early Days. And in this same insouciant vein, the series went its merry way until it finally was canceled for keeps on June 30, 1988. ~ Rovi

After his brother is badly beaten by a street gang, Jean-Claude Van Damme deserts the foreign legion in order to avenge his honor in this action film also known as A.W.O.L. and Wrong Bet. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Kojak moved from its traditonal Sunday-night timeslot to a new Saturday evening berth for this concluding episode of a two-part story. Though suspended from the force, Kojak is determined to track down a serial murderer known as The Clothesline Killer. It's a personal crusade for the troubled detective: Back in 1969, he allegedly shot the Clothesline Killer to death--and now there is every possibility that he gunned down the wrong man. Diane Baker appears in flashback as the detective's former love Irene. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Someone in San Francisco has been attacking Vietnam veterans with military-issue hand grenades. Two ex-soldiers have already fallen victim to the mystery assailant, and one of them has been killed. Ironside's aide Mark (Don Mitchell), a friend of the dead man, wants some answers--and thus he sets himself up as bait to lure the killer out in the open. This is one of several early-1970s TV programs centering around the tragic residue of the still-raging Vietnam conflict. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This episode marks the final regular ER appearances of Eriq La Salle and Michael Michele. After resorting to desperate measures to retain custody of his son, Reese (Matthew Watkins), Peter Benton (La Salle) realizes that he must make a choice between the boy and his overloaded ER schedule. He opts to take a less demanding job at a clinic in the Chicago suburbs, where his current love, Cleo Finch (Michele), is already working. In other developments, a boy accidentally shot by his mom on Christmas Eve is a cause of great concern amongst the ER staffers; Abby (Maura Tierney) sees Nicole (Julie Delpy) where she didn't expect to see her; the relationship between Weaver (Laura Innes) and Lopez (Lisa Vidal) enters a new phase; and Carter (Noah Wyle) receives startling but not unexpected news about his parents. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Forced by Romano (Paul McCrane) to work a few shifts in the ER, Elizabeth (Alex Kingston) has a run-in with Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) -- and learns for the first time about Greene's (Anthony Edwards) inoperable tumor. Elsewhere, two girls involved in a campus stabbing incident are brought into the ER. Chen (Ming-Na) handles a victim of severe trauma. And when Weaver (Laura Innes) tries to find out if her girlfriend, Sandy Lopez (Lisa Vidal), has been injured in a fire, she is in for a big surprise. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this episode of the long-running detective series, Lt. Columbo delves seven years into the past to look into a lucrative bank robbery. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

After nearly a decade as one of America's most successful independent filmmakers, legendary sexploitation auteur Russ Meyer first reached out for the brass ring of major studio success with this frantic cult favorite, once described by Meyer and screenwriter Roger Ebert as "the first exploitation-horror-camp-musical." Kelly McNamara (Dolly Read), Casey Anderson (Cynthia Myers), and Petronella Danforth (Marcia McBroom) are the three members of an all-girl rock band called "the Kelly Affair" who pull up stakes for Hollywood in search of stardom; they're accompanied by their manager, Harris Allsworth (David Gurian), who also happens to be Kelly's boyfriend. Kelly has an aunt in Hollywood, fashion mogul Susan Lake (Phyllis Davis), who takes Kelly under her wing and informs her she's entitled to a share of a recent family inheritance, much to the chagrin of Susan's lawyer, the shifty Porter Hall (Duncan McLeod). Susan arranges for Kelly and her bandmates to attend a wild party thrown by Ronnie "Z-Man" Barzell (John La Zar), a flamboyant and very successful record producer; Z-Man renames the band "the Carrie Nations," signs them to a record deal, and they're one of the biggest acts in America practically overnight. However, Harris is pushed out of the picture as the band's manager by Z-Man, and as Kelly's boyfriend by actor and gigolo Lance Rocke (Michael Blodgett), sending Harris into a deep depression even after he becomes the new boy-toy of adult film star Ashley St. Ives (Edy Williams). Meanwhile, Petronella finds love with law student Emerson Thorne (Harrison Page) until her head is turned by heavyweight boxing champion Randy Black (Jim Iglehart), and Casey explores her sexual boundaries with Roxanne (Erica Gavin), a beautiful lesbian designer. This nonstop train of decadence, drugs, and betrayal finally comes off the rails during a drug-fueled orgy at Z-Man's mansion, which erupts into violence when the rock mogul's darkest secret is revealed. Featuring one-hit wonders the Strawberry Alarm Clock, supporting performances by Meyer regulars Charles Napier and Haji, and a bit part from future blaxploitation icon Pam Grier, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls proved to be Meyer's biggest box-office success, though after his next film (The Seven Minutes) bombed at the box office, he returned to independent production in 1973. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi