Jodean Russo Movies
- 1977
Four months away from retirement, hard-bitten narcotics cop Eddie Boggs (Ned Beatty) oversteps his bounds, brutalizing a drug-dealing stoolie and planting a weapon on the man. In his efforts to cover up his misdeeds, Boggs succeeds only making things worse. Played out against all this intrigue are the efforts by Stone (Karl Malden) and Robbins (Richard Hatch) to get the goods on a particularly insidious drug ring called the Tucson Connection. Susan Oliver, best remembered to Star Trek fans as the "Green Girl" in the original Star Trek pilot film, appears as Eddie Boggs' long-suffering wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
This episode is something of an amalgam of the Martin-and-Lewis legend and the much-later TV series The Sopranos). Jim (James Garner) is hired to protect over-the-hill comedian Kenny Bell (Chuck McCann) from his mean-spirited former partner Lee Russo (Robert Quarry), only to find himself implicated in Russo's murder. At the same time, Kenny must ransom his "funny box", a catalogue of jokes that has been stolen. These two plot strands are connected by a sex scandal within a Mob family, which certain parties are determined to keep secret at any cost! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Officer Dan Segal (Robert Drivas) makes it his mission in life to avenge the death of his gambler brother (Harry Davis), who was murdered by a professional hit man. In order to expose the "brains" behind the murder, Segal goes undercover, posing as a bookie and infiltrating an unusually nasty gambling ring. Featured in the cast is the late Claudia Jennings, the well-proportioned leading lady of many an R-rated action flick of the 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
At the same time that they are feverishly studying for their recertification exams, John (Randolph Mantooth) and Roy (Kevin Tighe) are repeatedly sidetracked by the widow of a fellow fireman, who persists in calling the station house with a variety of trivial problems--and one that's not so trivial. Back on the job, the emergency team rushes to a movie set, where a mistimed stunt has resulted in a deadly fire. Also, a sports fan collapses from loss of breath while watching a crucial game on TV. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
When Steve Keller (Michael Douglas) is seriously injured in a fight with a mobster, his partner Mike Stone (Karl Malden) is boiling mad. He gets madder still when it seems that the police investigation of the fight has been put on the back burner. Accordingly, Stone takes it upon himself to bring Keller's assailant to justice--and bends so many rules in the process that he loses his detective's badge and ends up pounding a beat! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Future Newhart costar Mary Frann is cast as female FBI Agent Pat Driscoll. Inspector Lewis Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) is on the trail of a serial killer whose victims have all been members of the same college sorority. Inasmuch as Pat Driscoll is a former member of the benighted sorority, she agrees to set herself up as bait to trap the elusive psycho. This episode was directed by series regular Phillip Abbott. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) doesn't get much opportunity to enjoy his new car before another driver smashes into it. This happens just after Pete and his partner Jim Reed (Kent McCord) are forced to abandon the vehicle in order to chase down a purse snatcher. Elsewhere, the two mobile cops find themselves with two crises on their hands as they attempt to simulatenously investigate a holdup at a store and administer emergency first aid to the wounded proprietor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- R
The sequel to The Harrad Experiment focuses on the students of a sexually-progressive college who spend the summer finding a practical application for what they've learned. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
The author of the famous late 1930's antiwar book Johnny Got His Gun wrote and directed this film adaptation. It concerns a nameless young soldier (Timothy Bottoms) in a veteran's hospital in the World War I period. The young man has had his face blown off, he is without the use of any of his senses save touch, and also has no arms or legs. He is in a coma at the beginning of the film, and his doctors doubt that he will regain consciousness. This is also what they hope. A nurse, while changing his dressings, discovers that he is awake and responsive. The unrelieved awfulness of his situation is apparent to many. However, in order to keep the "good order" of the military, the regular Army general commanding the hospital will not allow the boy to be seen or his family notified, nor will he permit anyone to perform a mercy killing. Interspersed with this horror are flashbacks of the youth's life before the war. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Airport had enough plot and enough star power in its cast for three feature films, and it only encompassed about half of the complexity or characters found in Arthur Hailey's best-selling potboiler. Essentially built around 12 harrowing hours at a major Midwestern airport, the film had everything an audience of the period could have wanted -- suspense, romance, drama, and comedy -- all spread across a vast canvas. Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster) is the manager of Lincoln Airport, facing a night beset by the worst blizzard in a decade, a wife (Dana Wynter) who announces she wants a divorce, a primary runway blocked by an airliner stuck in a snowdrift, and a governing board ready to fire him. Bakersfeld's cynical, smooth-talking brother-in-law, Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin), won't let up on his criticism of the management at Lincoln, but he has his own problems as well, mostly in the form of a young stewardess, Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), who is pregnant by him and whom he finds he genuinely loves. Add to that the presence of an old lady stowaway (Helen Hayes) and a mentally disturbed passenger (Van Heflin) carrying a bomb, and there's more than enough plot to keep viewers engrossed for two hours plus. Airport became one of the top-grossing movies of its era, racking up seven-digit box-office numbers and spawning an entire film genre -- the disaster movie. With Jean Seberg, George Kennedy, Lloyd Nolan, Barry Nelson, and Maureen Stapleton filling out the rest of the leading roles, there was something for almost everyone in this film. The movie still has a lot to offer if only as a prime example of Hollywood at its most successfully glitzy, but, if possible, viewers should try and see the letterboxed version of Airport on DVD (released May 2001). ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Dean Martin, (more)
- 1962
This is an entry in the short-lived genre of "nudie" westerns. In this one, a tribe of Indian women (topless, of course) vow to protect their land from a group of white men who want to take it. They decide to use any means necessary to do it. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
