Charles Knox Robinson Movies
Supporting actor, onscreen from 1965. ~ All Movie Guide- 1985
In the second episode, a young man unwittingly falls into the clutches of a slave labor ring, and it is up to the Wildside agents to set him free. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1983
Illiterate factory employee Tim Hurley (Sean Kelly) is killed in a explosion because of his inability to read the warning signs posted on the walls of his workplace. While looking into this tragedy, Quincy (Jack Klugman) is shocked to discover that his colleague, coroner's investigator Arnold Chatham (Gerald S. O'Loughlin), is also illiterate. Though it is something of a stretch to believe that Chatham could have held down an important job for so long without being found out, this plot inconsistency is shunted aside as Quincy goes on a crusade against a public educational system that allows its students to graduate without being able to read or write. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
14-year-old gymnast Nancy Benedict (Patti Cohoon) is injured while practicing for the Olympics. Despite the warnings of her coach and the staffers at Rampart, Nancy insists upon competing in the games in order to please her demanding father (Charles Knox Robinson). Elsewhere, a drunk driver is trapped in his car; several passengers are jeopardized by a fire on a train carrying ammonium nitrate; and an actress is marooned on a high wire while filming a circus picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy is a TV dramatization of the notorious Cold War incident of 1960. The story is told from the point of view of Powers (Lee Majors), an American pilot who was shot down over Russia while taking photographs on behalf of the CIA. The event occurs just before a crucial summit meeting between American President Dwight D. Eisenhower (James Flavin) and Soviet premier Nikita Khrushchev (Thayer David). Eisenhower tries to cover up the incident, allowing Khrushchev to make propagandistic hay of the whole affair. Robert E. Thompson's teleplay tends to depict the Americans as jerks, and the Russians as essentially good guys; even Powers' Soviet interrogator, portrayed by Nehemiah Persoff, comes off comparatively sympathetic. Also in the cast are Noah Beery as Powers' father and Lew Ayres as Allen Dulles. Francis Gary Powers: The True Story of the U-2 Spy was originally telecast September 29, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
With the conspicuous exception of Roy Desoto (Kevin Tighe), The men of Squad 51 form a firehouse barbershop quartet to enter a musical competiton. This week's emergency caseload includes a woman who o.d.'s of sleeping tablets, and a corpulent fellow (Len Weinrib) who causes all sorts of accidents and sustains all manner of injuries while trying to reduce (his close encounter with an electric rowing machine is the "piece de resistance"). This is one of several Emergency! episodes directed by Hollywood veteran Joseph Pevney (Tammy and the Bachelor, Man of a Thousand Faces et. al.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
- G
This sequel to The Doberman Gang finds the same set of dogs again being trained to rob banks and commit other crimes. The difference is that there's another group of crooks who have hatched the plan. A young boy with an emotional attachment to the canines is their only hope for a fresh start. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1973
The F.B.I. inagurates its ninth season (originally telecast in a 7:30PM Sunday timeslot, one half-hour earlier than its traditional 8 PM berth) with an all-points-bulletin manhunt for three clever ex-cons. The crooks have pulled off a $4,000,000 heist at an armored car firm, leaving Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) eating their dust. The only clues Erskine has to work on are eyewitness accounts of a blue pickup truck (a Ford, of course!) and a tiny sample of type-B blood. This episode marks the first appearance of Shelly Novack as Special FBI agent Chris Daniels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
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
- Starring:
- George Peppard, Christine Belford, (more)
- 1972
Olivia De Havilland plays a middle-aged woman who has recently been released from a mental institution after suffering a breakdown. She insists one evening that she can hear the muffled scream of a woman emanating from beneath the ground. Since no one else can hear these screams, De Havilland is dismissed as a crank. But Ms. De Havilland is steadfast in her conviction that the screams are real, and to that end investigates on her own. She discovers--at the peril of her own life--that the screams are those of a woman buried alive at a construction site by her recluse husband. Losing credibility long before the denouement, The Screaming Woman is based on a vastly superior short story by Ray Bradbury, in which the protagonist is not an adult ex-mental patient but a precocious little girl with a reputation for lying. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
- PG
The only noteworthy element of this otherwise undistinguished low-budget suspense flick is the presence of director Reginald LeBorg, who helmed numerous Joe Palooka comedies and several horror projects (including the excellent Vincent Price thriller Diary of a Madman) before taking a career dive into drive-in exploitation fare. As polished as its miniscule budget permits, this lurid psychological thriller involves the plight of a distraught widow (Susan Strasberg), whose fearsome fits of uncontrollable grief land her in the questionable care of her sister (Faith Domergue)... who, fresh out of a sanitarium, is not exactly a pillar of mental stability herself. In no time, the pair skip right through the tearful reunion and go straight to psychological warfare (shades of What Ever Happened to Baby Jane?), escalating, of course, to the point of murder. Other than some silly psychedelic depictions of the psycho siblings' increasing delirium, this film lacks the kind of operatic campiness of the suspense melodramas that inspired it. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy are hunting for a prowler when they are suddenly besieged by a sniper. Things get dicier when it appears that the unseen gunman has a particular grudge against Jim Reed. Former Lost in Space regular Angela Cartwright appears in the role of "Cindy Williams"--long before the actress of the same name achieved stardom on Laverne and Shirley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
