Johnny Seven Movies
Johnny Seven was the quintessential character actor of the television era, with over 600 small-screen appearance to his credit -- on top of several dozen film roles -- in a career lasting over 50 years. He was born John Anthony Fetto II in Bay Ridge, Brooklyn, in 1926. The only son among six children in a working-class family, he didn't aspire to a performing career until after he'd served in the U.S. Army. He was assigned to a combat unit, the 187th Gun Battalion, but happened to appear in some shows while in uniform, and in one army instructional film dating from 1950, and he decided to try acting after returning to civilian life. Based in New York, he did a lot of Off-Broadway theater in the early '50s, and made his movie debut as a longshoreman in Elia Kazan's On the Waterfront (1954). Seven did a lot of live television and also appeared in several episodes of Sgt. Bilko, but he mostly played tough guys in hard-edged crime dramas, such as Cop Hater (1958), starring a young Robert Loggia and featuring a very young Jerry Orbach in a small role; and The Last Mile (1959), with Mickey Rooney.Seven was put under contract with Universal's television division in 1958, and for the next two decades became something of a fixture on their various action shows, right up to and including The Rockford Files in the 1970s. In the early '60s, he turned up in small roles in a few major motion pictures, such as playing Shirley MacLaine's brother in Billy Wilder's The Apartment. But most of his work was in television, on everything from Get Smart to Marcus Welby, M.D. Ironside gave Seven one of his rare chances for a recurring role, as Lt. Carl Reese in over two dozen episodes across the series' run. He also wrote plays, starting with Salvage in 1958, and screenplays, and turned to directing as well as producing in 1964 with the Western Navajo Run, in which he also starred. His other writing and producing credits included the dramatic short Gina & Me (1980). Seven's last screen credit dated from the mid-'90s, and he died of lung cancer in early 2010. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi
- 1985
Celebrated Broadway musical star Vivian Blaine is cast as--what else?--a celebrated Broadway musical star, named Rita Bristol. Headling a new production costarring her daughter Patti (Lorna Luft) and produced by her son Barry (Gregg Henry), Rita is among those expressing concern when an aspiring actress is seriously wounded by an apparent mugger. Likewise on the scene is Jessica (Angela Lansbury), who suspects that the mugging is a set-up job--and who ends up going into her sleuth act when a murder occurs. Also on the call-sheet in this episode are a couple of show-biz newcomers named Milton Berle and Robert Morse. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1977
Hired by Dr. Eric Albach (Larry Linville) to find the doctor's missing wife Tracy (Corinne Michaels), Jim is confused by Albach's seeming lack of concern over whether Tracy is brought back dead or alive--or at all. In fact, the farther Jim gets away from solving the woman's disappearance, the more money Albach lavishes upon him. It turns out that Albach is using Jim as the unwitting guinea pig in an elaborate behavioral experiment...and by the time Jim figures this out, a murder has been committed and an aging movie star (J. Pat O'Malley) has been sucked into the intrigue! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1974
The eighth and final season of Ironside finds wheelchair-bound detective Robert T. Ironside (Raymond Burr) continuing to purge San Francisco of criminals and murderers with the help of his assistants Sgt. Ed Brown (Don Galloway), policewoman Fran Belding (Elizabeth Baur) and aspiring lawyer Mark Sanger (Don Mitchell) who this season not only passes his California bar exam, but also takes a wife named Diana (Joan Pringle). However, Ironside and company don't have much time to pursue justice: the season ends after a mere thirteen episodes. The show gets on the road with the two-part season opener "Raise the Devil" which features what, for Ironside, constitutes an all-star guest cast: Dane Clark, Bill Bixby and Caroline Jones. Other guest performers worth noting this year include Mike Farrell, just before M*A*S*H, in "Cross Doublecross"; former Batman stalwarts Cesar Romero and Alan Napier in The Lost Cotillion; Jim Hutton, on the eve of his stint as TV's Ellery Queen, in "The Far Side of the Fence"; and radio personality Casey Kasem as a lab tech in "Fall of an Angel". Though the final episode telecast on NBC was "The Faded Image", there were still three additional episodes in the Ironside manifest. "A Matter of Life of Death", "The Organizer" and "The Rolling Y" would not be broadcast until the series went into off-network syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1973
Wheelchair-bound detective Robert T. Ironside shows no signs of slowing down his battle against crime, corruption and persecution in Season Seven of Ironside. Likewise not slacking in their duties are the members of Ironside's team: police sergeant Ed Brown (Don Galloway), aspiring lawyer Mark Sanger (Don Mitchell), and feisty policewoman Fran Belding (Elizabeth Baur). The episode that received the most attention this season was the two-parter "Downhill All the Way", an acting tour de force for star Burr as Ironside pretends to quit the force and become a down-and-out drunkare in order to weed out a killer. As for the guest stars, the viewer is treated to the thespic expertise of such performers as Ross Martin, Kim Darby, Judy Carne, and young, pre-Cagney and Lacey Sharon Gless. With the ratings for Ironside diminishing with each successive season, the producers tried to pump new life and viewer interest in the property at the very end of Season Seven by offering a brace of episodes designed as pilots for possible spinoff series. The first of these is "Riddle at 24,000", starring no less than Desi Arnaz as unconventional doctor Juan Domingo, an intriguing project that unfortunately didn't sell. Much more successful was the second proposed spinoff featuring a no-nonsense female police chief named Amy Prentiss, which resulted in a brief but memorable series stint for guest star Jessica Walter. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1972
Season Six of Ironside opens with the two-part "Five Days in the Death of Sgt. Brown, in which the title character (played by Don Galloway) is felled by a sniper's bullet and faces the same fate--permanent confinement in a wheelchair--as his boss, private detective Robert T. Ironside (Raymond Burr). The second half of this episode was originally shown as part of another NBC-Universal series The Bold Ones: The New Doctors, with that show's stars E.G. Marshall, David Hartman and Stephen Young comprising the surgical team which operates on the unfortunate Brown. In other developments, Ironside's bodyguard-aide Mark Sanger (Don Mitchell), who has come a long way from his street-punk origins, graduates from law school; and the Ironside team's newest member, rookie cop Fran Belding (Elizabeth Baur), has overcome a lot of the awkwardness which impeded her effectiveness in the previous season. Guest stars of note this season include Hollywood legend Myrna Loy in a rare TV appearance; onetime Star Trek regular Nichelle Nichols; The Addams Family's former "Lurch", Ted Cassidy; Geraldine Brooks, who ironically had appeared in the Ironside pilot as the culprit who crippled Ironside with a well-aimed bullet; and up-and-comers Loretta Swit, William Devane, Dabney Coleman, and Cheryl Ladd, here billed under her maiden name of Cheryl Jean Stoppelmoor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1971
Season Five of Ironside opens with the two-hour "The Priest Killer", which is actually the pilot for the George Kennedy TV vehicle Sarge, and as such is not included in the current Ironside syndication package. Otherwise, it's business as usual for wheelchair-bound detective Robert T. Ironside (Raymond Burr) and his assistants, police sergeant Ed Brown (Don Galloway) and law student Mark Sander (Don Mitchell). And though Barbara Anderson as policewoman Eve Mitchell had left the series due to a contract dispute, it doesn't take long for the Ironside team to recruit another female member, namely rookie cop Fran Belding (Elizabeth Baur), who in the episode "The Gambling Game" joins the team in order to clear her murdered police-captain father of corruption charges. Of the season's guest stars, the two that received the most press attention were Barbara Hale, who is reunited with her former Perry Mason costar Raymond Burr in "Murder Impromptu" (Hale's actor son William Katt would pop up in a later installment); and former Twilight Zone host Rod Serling, sublimely cast as the sinister owner of an occult store in "Bubble, Bubble, Toil and Murder". Though the series dropped from #6 to #15 in the ratings this season, Ironside remained one of America's favorite detective series, out-rated only by Mannix and Hawaii 5-0. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1970
Season Four of Ironside finds the titular wheelchair-bound detective (Raymond Burr) continuing to hunt down criminals and help those who can't help themselves, assisted by his bodyguard (and now law student) Mark Sanger (Don Mitchell) and police sergeant Ed Brown (Don Galloway). Likewise very much in evidence is debutante-turned-policewoman Eve Whitfield, though this season would be her last on the show, due to a contract dispute involving actress Barbara Anderson and the series' producers (Even so, Ms. Anderson would return for the Ironside "reunion" movie in 1993). As usual, San Francisco is the main beat for the principal characters, with occasional side trips to Canada and Mexico. Guest stars include Martin Sheen, Tyne Daly, Forrest Tucker, Vincent Van Patten and Scott Glenn. Of particular interest is the presence of a pre-All in the Family Sally Struthers in "Love, Peace, Brotherhood and Murder", and of future movie-studio executive Sherry Lansing in "Killing at the Track". Ironside enjoyed its best-ever ratings during its fourth year on the air, posting an impressive Number Four in the top ten shows. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
In this uneven comedy, Abner (Don Knotts) is the editor of a bird-watching magazine who is the victim of a hostile corporate takeover by Osborn Tremaine (Edmond O'Brien). When Abner returns from a bird-watching excursion to Brazil, he finds his publication has been purchased for the fourth-class mailing permit. Osborn turns the publication into a girlie magazine and puts his wife Elanor (Maureen Arthur) on the front cover. Still listed as an editor, Abner becomes The Love God as the public perceives him as a Hugh Hefner-like character, epitomizing the life of a swinging bachelor playboy. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Don Knotts, Anne Francis, (more)
- 1969
Wheelchair-bound detective Robert T. Ironside (Raymond Burr) continues to round up miscreants and champion the underdog in season three of the TV cop series bearing his name. Likewise still in harness are the members of Ironside's support team: his loyal bodyguard-aide Mark Sanger (Don Mitchell), detective sergeant Ed Brown (Don Galloway), and socialite-turned-policewoman Eve Whitfield (Barbara Anderson), not to mention the considerable input of new recurring character Lt. Carl Reese (Johnny Seven). This year's crop of episode cover everything from computer dating to gang wars to royal visits to a stolen Torah, with colorful side trips to France and Fiji for Ironside and company. As for the guest stars, the very busy Vera Miles, a former amnesia victim with whom Ironside fell in love in the earlier episode "Barbara Who", returns in the two-part "Goodbye to Yesterday", which also features the versatile Cloris Leachman. Also, Khigh Dhiegh, the sinister Wo Fat from Hawaii 5-0, essays the comparatively sympathetic role of a cagey Red Chinese diplomat in "Love My Enemy". Recent Star Trek graduates William Shatner and DeForest Kelley are seen respectively in "Little Jerry Jessup" and "Warrior's Return". Other TV-series favorites spotlighted during Season Three include Bill Bixby, Leo G. Carroll, Tina Louise, and a pre-Partridge Family David Cassidy. Ironside ended the season as the 26th most popular TV show in America, a dip from its 16th-place ranking in the previous season but a respectable showing nonetheless. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1968
National Intelligence Agent Dan Street (Richard Egan) is on the trail of some stolen laser rubies. It is assumed the agents will come after the raygun itself for their evil purposes. Count Romano (Michael Ansara) is the swimsuit-import mogul who tries to keep his head from going under while working for the enemy agents. The key to the mystery lies with Dutch (John Ericson), a Korean War veteran who fell into the hands of the brainwashing communists. Patricia Owens is Dan's love interest in this plodding suspense film. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Egan, Patricia Owens, (more)
- 1968
When the skeleton of a shooting victim is unearthed by the Feds, Mafia functionary John Duqesne (a pre-superstardom Burt Reynolds) begins to tremble. He's currently trying to beat one murder rap,and now he's faced with charges for another killing ten years earlier. Further worrying Duquesne is the fact that the Mob has ordered the extermination of the one witness who could seal his doom--his ex-wife Irene (Diana Muldaur). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1967
Never once does Bobby Darin sing "Mack the Knife" or "Splish Splash" in Gunfight in Abilene. Instead, he plays a peaceable western sheriff, determined to stave off an outlaw invasion. The head outlaw is Leslie Nielsen, which makes this film very hard to watch with a straight face these days. The Universal City backlot gets a good workout in the blood-spattered finale of Gunfight in Abilene, which barely made the theatrical rounds before entrenching itself on late night television. The film should not be confused with Gunfighters of Abilene, a 1960 oater starring Buster Crabbe. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bobby Darin, Emily Banks, (more)
- 1966
A half-Navajo man accepts the help of a white rancher after suffering a rattlesnake bite, not knowing that the rancher actually intends to hunt him for sport. This suspenseful western follows the man's attempts to survive in the wilderness and evade the rancher's violent attacks. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Starring:
- Warren Kemmerling, Virginia Vincent, (more)
- 1966
- Add What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? to Queue Add What Did You Do in the War, Daddy? to top of Queue
In this service comedy set during World War II, Capt. Cash (Dick Shawn) and Lt. Christian (James Coburn) are given orders to invade a small but strategically important village in Sicily. To their surprise, none of the natives offer the slightest resistance to the Americans taking over their town, who present only one stipulation -- the main event on the town's annual social calendar, a football match followed by a wine festival, is scheduled to happen in a few days. If the Americans would be kind enough to let them have their party, they'll hand over the town without a fight. Cash and Christian think that this plan sounds reasonable enough, and a few days later they and their men are drunkenly whooping it up with the townspeople when both German and U.S. surveillance planes spot the festivities. Thinking the wild party looks more like some sort of battle, both the Germans and Americans make plans to send in troops. Screenwriter William Peter Blatty would enjoy greater success a few years down the line with The Exorcist, a novel about a different sort of conflict. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Coburn, Dick Shawn, (more)
Filmmaker George Stevens chose Monument Valley, Utah for his exterior sequences in The Greatest Story Ever Told, this ($20 million) adaptation of Fulton Oursler's best-selling book. The "Greatest Story" is, of course, the life of Jesus Christ, played herein by Max Von Sydow. The large supporting cast includes Dorothy McGuire as Mary, Claude Rains as Herod the Great, Jose Ferrer as Herod Antipas, Charlton Heston as John the Baptist, Donald Pleasence as Satan (identified only as "The Dark Hermit"), David McCallum as Judas Iscariot, Sidney Poitier as Simon of Cyrene, Telly Savalas as Pontius Pilate and Martin Landau as Caiaphas. Even Robert Blake as Simon the Zealot, Jamie Farr as Thaddaeus, and motorcyle-flick veteran Richard Bakalyan as Dismas, the repentant thief, are well-suited to their roles. Originally roadshown at 260 minutes, Greatest Story Ever Told was later available in a 195-minute version. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Max von Sydow, Dorothy McGuire, (more)
- 1965
One of the handful of truly classic Bonanza episodes, "The Flapjack Contest" first aired January 3, 1965. Having entered the titular contest, Hoss Cartwright is put on a starvation diet by his brother Joe to ensure victory. Meanwhile, several other plot strands are woven into the proceedings, involving a bank heist, a glib con artist, a phony ruby-and an abundance of hilarious property damage. The supporting cast includes Johnny Seven as Trager, Mel Berger as Big Ed, Joan Huntington as Lily, Howard Wendell as the Banker, and and Olan Soulé as Ira. "The Flapjack Contest" was written by Frank Cleaver. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, (more)
- 1963
John "The Cropper" Cropsey (Don Gordon) is fed up with doing the dirty work for bootlegger Jules Flack (Harold J. Stone), so he cooks up a plan to go into business for himself. Stealing 50,000 gallons of industrial alcohol, Cropsey sells it to Flack for a cool million bucks. What "The Cropper" doesn't know is that every move he makes is being closely monitored by Elliot Ness (Robert Stack). And there's another small detail: Cropsey is now in business with Belle Alpine (Jeanne Cooper), who hasn't forgotten that Cropsey and Flack were the men who orchestrated the murder of her husband. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1962
Once again, Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon) crosses swords with rival gangster Bugs Moran (previously played by Lloyd Nolan, here enacted by Robert J. Wilke). To avoid an all-out gang war, Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) begin confiscating all the machine guns owned by the two mobsters' torpedoes. To keep himself armed, Nitti makes a deal for a dozen Tommy guns with Polish gunsmith Jan Tobek (Kevin Hagen). Trouble is, once Nitti and Moran agree to call off the war, both Tobek and his wife Eva (Salome Jens) will be eminently expendable. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1961
Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) would love to nail mobster Brian O'Malley (David Brian) on tax-evasion and interstate-smuggling charges; unfortunately, O'Malley has an irksome habit of murdering anyone who can testify against him. Worse still, O'Malley obviously has a number of corrupt officials in his pocket, as proven when Federal witness George Davas (Johnny Seven) "accidentally" falls from a heavily guarded hotel room to his death (a tragedy inspired by the similar demise of real-life hoodlum Abe Reles). Understandably, the only surviving witness, Stan Wolinski (Jack Elam) goes into hiding--from both the bad guys and the good guys. Michael Parks (Then Came Bronson) appears unbilled as an elevator operater. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1961
Fully aware that the flower shop owned by Nick Acropolis (Lee Marvin in his first Untouchables appearance) is actually a front for a huge bookmaking operation, Elliot Ness has a tap put on Nick's telephone line. While eavesdropping on Acropolis, Ness' assistant Rossi (Nick Georgiade) overhears the murder of a bookie, a reckless act committed by Nick's deranged brother-in-law Frankie (Johnny Seven). Unable to kill Frankie in retaliation for fear of alienating his wife Stella (Contance Ford), Nick arranges for someone else to make the "hit". . .the first of several tactical blunders resulting in Nick being forced to take on a treacherous new partner, leading to an unpleasantly sticky showdown. This episode was originally titled "The Nick Metropolous Story. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1961
In this children's movie, an adorable newsboy, his dog, and his friend the hobo accidently stumble across a briefcase containing $100,000. It belongs to a desperate thief who definitely wants it back. The honest child, not knowing the loot is stolen, looks for its owner. Fortunately the police save the day. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Wanda Hendrix, Roger Mobley, (more)
- 1960
In this action drama, ranchers and lumberjacks are at loggerheads over the proper usage of the land. When the logging team finds a prime stand, the ranchers beg the loggers not to harvest it because the lack of trees will cause deadly mud slides during the rainy season that will destroy their homes. The battle becomes quite heated as the ranchers and the lumberman begin blowing each other up. In the midst of explosive tempers and fighting, a romance blooms between lovers on each side. Finally the lead forester sees that he is wrong after the head rancher's daughter, the woman he loves, is almost blown to bits. Unfortunately, his partner doesn't and continues to fight until he is shot and killed. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Alan Ladd, Jeanne Crain, (more)
- 1960
The "music box" of the title of this low-budget, routine gangster film is a submachine gun, and its owner Larry Shaw (Ronald Foster) is the focus of attention. Larry has as little concern for morality or human life as an exterminator does for cockroaches, and so he is able to climb up the ladder of organized crime with little difficulty. The setting is New York in the 1920s, when mobsters become both rich and famous and eventually dead because of Prohibition. For inexplicable reasons, Larry is married to a decent woman (Luana Patten) who one day has had enough of her husband's activities and rebels in a most significant way. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ron Foster, Luana Patten, (more)
Rating Systems
Blockbuster
BLOCKBUSTER name, design and related marks are trademarks of Blockbuster L.L.C.
2013 Blockbuster L.L.C. All rights reserved.
Portions of Content Provided by Rovi Corporation. 2013 Rovi Corporation.