Robert Bice Movies

Sleazy movie producer Tony Fry (Richard Carlson) plans to raise money for his next picture by threatening to reveal the sordid past of Joanne Pennington (Constance Towers), the wife of millionaire J.J. Pennington (Paul Stewart). What Tony doesn't know is that his fiancee Kathy (Mimsy Farmer) is actually the daughter of a man whose career he ruined years earlier, and who hopes to use Tony's extortion scheme to destroy him. But things don't quite work out that way, and by the episode's halfway point Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is defending Kathy on a charge of bludgeoning Tony to death with a film-award trophy (no, it isn't an Oscar; evidently the Motion Picture Academy was not about to allow its sacred statuette to be used as a murder weapon!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In hiding ever since his gang was wiped out in the St. Valentine's Day Massacre, Bugs Moran (George J. Wilke) is surprised when he is visited by a dead man. Actually, Eddie O'Gara (Michael Connors) is very much alive; it's just that everyone assumed he'd been killed by his fellow hoodlums when he dropped out of sight three years ago. Though Moran dismisses O'Gara as a two-bit punk, he is most receptive when Eddie comes up with a plan to put Bugs back on top again. Meanwhile, Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) searches high and low for both Moran and O'Gara, certain that at least one of them will be mad enough at their former enemies to help the Feds smash the Chicago Underworld once and for all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Veteran Hollywood song-and-dance man Dan Dailey essays one of his most unusual roles as Karate expert Dexter Lloyd Bayliss. Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) is suspicious when Bayliss, who is known to be "tight" with the mob, sets up a martial-arts classroom for teenage kids. As it turns out, Bayliss is teaching these impressionable youngsters how to become professional assassins for the Underworld...and he's very, very good at his job. This is the only episode of The Untouchables to be written by a woman $Kitty Buhler). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Janos Willinski (Robert Emhardt), Julie Vernon (Herschel Bernardi) and Frankie Gruder (Don Gordon) have hit upon a brilliant scheme to extract money from the Syndicate. The three crooks begin turning in minor hoodlums to Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) and the Feds in order to take the heat off the Big Boys--whereupon they charge hefty protection fees to the Syndicate higher-ups. Hoping to prove that the trio's phony employment agency, Nationel Personnel Services, is actually a recruiting office for down-and-outers willing to be "fall guys", Ness finally gets his chance in the form of washed-up Mob chieftan Big Joe Hovack (Jay C. Flippen). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Drug kingpin Louie Madikoff (Harold J. Stone) ends up half a million dollars in the red when several of his dope shipments are intercepted by Elliot Ness (Robert Stack). In desperation, Louie warns Ness that if any more of his deliveries are stopped, he'll blow up a school full of children--and brings in professional "torch" Artie Krebs (Warren Oates) in case he has to carry out his threat. Meanwhile, a Romeo-and-Juliet romance between Madikoff's son Danny (Darryl Hickman) and Francey Pavanos (Collin Wilcox), the daughter of Louie's hated rival Mike Pavanos (Booth Colman), may well prove fatal for all concerned. With this episode, Robert Carricart returns to the role of Lucky Luciano. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When her gangster uncle is gunned down in the soup kitchen where "Untouchable" Rossi (Nick Georgiade) is working undercover, mild-mannered Ginnie Littlesmith (Phyllis Love) falls heir to her uncle's record books, which chronicle all illegal activities of a criminal organization known as The Group. Though Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) would dearly love to get his hands on those books, Ginnie intends to keep them in her possession, the better to extract $100,000 from her uncle's former associates. What Ginnie doesn't know is that she is being set up for betrayal by her own boyfriend (Don Gordon). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nick Moses (Harry Guardino) breaks the code of the Mob by bumping off another gangster without permission. Grimly, Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon) informs Moses that the only way he can save himself is to assassinate Federal agent Elliot Ness--and he is given a very limited space of time to pull off the deed. Featured in the cast of this nailbiter are Peter Mamakos and Herman Rudin, playing the same two hoodlums (albeit with different character names) whom we saw Frank Nitti gun down in a barbershop in the series' very first episode "The Empty Chair". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) joins forces with Willard Thornton (Wendell Corey), newly appointed Special Crime Commissioner of Chicago, to ferret out the brains behind a huge criminal combine. What Ness doesn't know (but the audience does) is that Thornton himself is a member of the combine, in cahoots with crooked lawyer Barney Lubin (a pre-All in the Family Carroll O'Connor). Thornton and Lubin ultimately precipitate their own downfall when they try to rub out fellow hoodlum "Country Boy" Parrish (Albert Salmi)--who, after escaping with his life from the traditional "one-way ride", finds himself in even greater danger at the hands of lovelorn hash-house waitress Emmy Sarver (Mary Fickett). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having planned to marry heiress Helen Harvey (played by future Happy Days costar Marion Ross) only for her money, Stacey Chandler (John Bryant) has fallen genuinely in love with her. Thus, Stacey is none too happy when his ex-girlfriend Irene (Jean Willes), a crooked private detective, shows up to demand a cut of Helen's inheritance to keep her mouth shut. Inevitably, Irene is murdered--but it is Helen rather than Stacey her is charged with the crime. Of course, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is convinced that Helen is innocent, and intends to prove it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In a most unusual episode, Perry Mason's client is his friend and business associate, private detective Paul Drake (William Hopper). After confronting Frank Thatcher (Bruce Gordon) for concealing evidence in a hit-and-run case, Paul knocks the man down--and is promptly rendered unconscious himself. When he awakens, Paul finds Thatcher dead and himself charged with murder. DA Burger (William Talman) is reluctant to prosecute, but does so anyway, making Perry's job even more emotionally draining than usual. Key players in the proceedings include singer Donna Kress (Vanessa Brown), with whom the very married Thatcher had been carrying on an affair, and the dead man's extremely wealthy father-in-law Henry Dameron (Basil Ruysdael). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of the best of the medium-budgeted science fiction flicks of the 1950s, It! The Terror from Beyond Space is set in "the future" (1973, to be exact). An rescue ship travels out to Mars to retrieve the only survivor of a space probe that has experienced some sort of cataclysm. That survivor, Col Ed Carruthers (Marshall Thompson) is accused of murdering his fellow crewmen. But Ed claims that the killer was a Martian monster, and hopes to prove his assertions by signing up for a second journey to the Red Planet. Before long, the crew members of this second expedition are being systematically killed off, and it looks as though Ed is up to his old tricks. As it turns out, however, Ed was telling the truth: there is a monster on board, the savage descendant of the once-mighty Martian civilization, who snuck on board when an irresponsible crew member left the door open. The monster stays alive by absorbing the vital body fluids of its victims-and there seems to be no way to stop this parasitic creature! If the plot of It! The Terror from Beyond Space seems vaguely familiar, it is because it was one of the primary inspirations for the 1979 sci-fi classic Alien. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Springdale, NE, bank is held up and robbed by a well organized gang. One of the members is Eddie Campbell (Robert Vaughn), a onetime resident of the town and orphan who was brought up in part by Ben Cutler (Fred MacMurray), an ex-lawman-turned-rancher. While pursuing the robbers, the town marshal, Hiram Cain (Emile G. Meyer), is shot dead by Campbell, who in turn is wounded and captured by Cutler. The town council appoints Cutler as temporary marshal, and the prosecution seems like an open-and-shut case -- he begins to see signs of trouble when his own daughter Laurie (Joan Blackman), who was raised with Campbell and was once his sweetheart, refuses to believe that he's guilty of the crime. Ben's fiancée, Ruth (Maggie Hayes), also feels the boy deserves leniency, but the real trouble starts when Campbell's attorney, William Selby (Edmon Ryan), shows up; he first tries to compromise the jury pool by ingratiating himself with the asking the townspeople what we would now call "push" questions, about Campbell's being an orphan and a hard-luck case all of his life, under the guise of building his case. He's also just clever enough at the trial to shake the testimony of the five other witnesses to the shooting, but Cutler's testimony is enough to put the jury into the guilty column. Then Campbell starts working on the sympathy of Laurie and the townspeople who've been persuaded by his lawyer -- it's also been a long time since there's been a capital case like this in the state, and Cutler discovers that the townspeople and even the law may not be as ready to execute a killer as common sense says they should be. Cutler's and Ruth's romance is jeopardized, and he is pushed to the point of resigning when matters come to an explosive head. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The title character in this episode is James Brunswick (Tom Helmore), who has left London behind to take over the Montana ranch he has inherited. Paladin (Richard Boone) is hired to guide Brunswick and his rambunctious Americanized cousin Felicia (Alix Talton) to their new property, despite the resistance of the local citizenry--and the hostility of the Native Americans in the vicinity. With Paladin's help, the Englishman ultimately wins the respect and support of his new neighbors...but it isn't easy by a long shot! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide