Danny Thomas Movies
Born Muzyad Yakhoob, he began his show biz career in 1932 as a singer at a Detroit radio station; he began performing as an MC-comedian in nightclubs in 1938 and gradually gained popularity and national recognition over the next decade. He debuted onscreen in 1947, going on to a brief film career in corny lead roles or comic supporting parts. He was much more successful on TV, starring in the long-running sitcom Make Room for Daddy (later re-named The Danny Thomas Show); he also starred in a number of specials and made guest appearances on variety shows. In the late '50s Thomas began producing for TV, forming a partnership with Sheldon Leonard and later Aaron Spelling; he produced such series as The Andy Griffith Show, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Gomer Pyle, and The Mod Squad. He also starred in several failed TV shows including The Danny Thomas Hour and Make Room for Granddaddy. He founded the St. Jude's Research Hospital, which is dedicated to finding cures for catastrophic chidren's diseases. He was the father of actress Marlo Thomas. He authored an autobiography, Make Room for Danny (1990). ~ All Movie Guide
Three giants of early television--Milton Berle, Sid Caesar and Danny Thomas--combine their talents in the made-for-TV Side by Side. Berle and Caesar play a couple of 65-year-olds who've just been forcibly retired; Thomas portrays a widower, who's been aimless and lethargic since the death of his wife. The trio gains a new lease on life when they team up to manufacture a line of clothing exclusively designed for senior citizens. Their zeal intensifies when Berle's old boss Richard Klein spitefully develops a rival wardrobe line. Marjorie Lord, who'd played Danny Thomas' wife on TV in the late 1950s and early 1960s, is here cast as Sid Caesar's spouse. Side By Side first aired on March 6, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
This television documentary chronicles the career of Spike Jones, a talented musical satirist who had audiences of the '50s rolling in the aisles as he and his City Slickers committed inventive forms of musical murder on some of America's most beloved songs. Archival footage from performances during the early '50s, coupled with interviews of former band members and Jones' family, round out the show. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1980
This entertaining vintage video offers up some very funny classic commercials from TV and movie personalities. Watch for "Kukla, Fran and Ollie" and "You Bet Your Life." ~ All Movie Guide
- 1979
In this crime drama, based on the old TV series, the three terminally hip undercover cops reunite after a seven year absence to find out the identity of the person who is threatening their boss's life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Lee Cantrell (Joe Penny) is a half-Asian, half-Anglo assistant district attorney in San Francisco. By day he helps to prosecute criminals through the justice system, but at night he straps on his samurai sword and does battle with the underworld in his own way. His main enemy is a power-crazed businessman who has built an "earthquake machine" with which he intends to destroy San Francisco. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1978
In this comedy, four couples go on a dating game show and end up winning a fabulous Hawaiian vacation. Unfortunately, they are accompanied by a stern chaperone. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1978
The final episode of Kojak features an impressive non-comic performance by Danny Thomas) as Howard Brocure, a hard-nosed, by-the-book police inspector who commandeers Kojak's investigation of an upsurge in mob violence. As the case progresses, Brocure turns out to be more hindrance than help, but Kojak (Telly Savalas) is duty-bound to give the veteran inspector a wide berth. As it turns out, Brocure is going through a "Captain Queeg"-like breakdown as a result of being passed over for promotion--and his desperate efforts to restore his reputation may prove dangerous for everyone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
The mysterious Bermuda Triangle is the setting for the 1975 TV movie Satan's Triangle. Kim Novak is washed up (not figuratively but literally) off the coast of Florida. She claims to be the sole survivor of a small fishing boat, whose passengers have inexplicably vanished from the face of the Earth. Further investigation only results in more disappearances, until practically no one is left but the cameraman and the key grip. The best element of Satan's Triangle is the almost casual method with which the various cast members evaporate from view. Outside of this, the film says nothing that hasn't been said better elsewhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Shivaree on Delancey Street stars Dennis Weaver in his familiar TV role of detective McCloud. Danny Thomas guest-stars as a Jewish tailor who wins big in "the numbers," only to be descended upon by the mob. Meanwhile, McCloud's colleague Sgt. Broadhurst (Terry Carter), who incurred heavy losses in the same numbers game that enriched Thomas, is framed as being on the take. This 2-hour adventure/mystery was originally presented as the November 3, 1974 episode of McCloud. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
In this drama set in WW II, an uncle living with a New England family shares his memories after the family's four sons head off for combat duty. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Brian Keith plays a wealthy stockbroker who purchases dusty Nevada ghost town. Remembering his own humble roots, Keith sets up the town as a community where life's losers can congregate. Here these unfortunates are afforded a "second chance"-which also happens to be the name of the town. If this made-for-TV feature sounds like a pilot film, that's because it is. Filmed on location in Phoenix, Arizona, Second Chance first aired February 8, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this animated follow-up to the classic fantasy The Wizard Of Oz, Dorothy (voiced by Liza Minnelli, whose mother Judy Garland played the same role in the 1939 film) decides to return to the land of Oz to pay a visit to her good friend The Scarecrow (voice of Mickey Rooney). However, shortly after her arrival Dorothy discovers all is not well in the land of magic; the evil witch Mombi (voice of Ethel Merman) has arrived to pick up where the Wicked Witch of the West left off, and is using her sinister powers to rob Scarecrow of her powers. Dorothy realizes it's up to her to save Oz from Mombi's machinations, and she teams up with Woodenhead (voice of Herschel Bernardi) and Pumpkinhead (voice of Paul Lynde) to see justice done. Produced in 1964 but not released until 1971, Journey Back To Oz also features the voice talents of Milton Berle, Danny Thomas, Paul Ford and Margaret Hamilton. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liza Minnelli, Mickey Rooney, (more)
- 1970
The Over the Hill Gang Rides Again is a TV-movie sequel to 1969's ratings-grabbing The Over the Hill Gang, which told of a group of retired Texas Rangers rallying to save their small town from criminals. In the sequel, the gang --Walter Brennan, Edgar Buchanan, Andy Devine, and Chill Wills (Pat O'Brien, seen in the first film, is absent this time around) -- team up to rehabilitate Fred Astaire, cast against type as The Baltimore Kid, a one-time ranger who has become a town drunk. Astaire is restored to the job of marshal of Waco, while the other old-timers end up as his deputies. Harmless fun for an undiscerning audience, Over the Hill Gang Rides Again lacks the easygoing charm of the original film. Both Over the Hill Gang entries, by the way, were designed as pilots for an unsold weekly series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
In his TV-movie debut, Sammy Davis Jr. plays a wisecracking private eye drawn into a web of murder and duplicity. Davis is suddenly attacked from all sides by crooks and cops alike, who seem to believe he's got something they want. Eventually he figures he's been set up as the fall guy for a mysterious crime, and that somehow this is tied in with a missing diary which contains information that could prove fatal to his ex-girlfriend. The plotline of The Pigeon substitutes confusion for cleverness, resulting in a second-rate "B" melodrama. But Sammy Davis Jr. is always worth watching, especially as he tosses off clever bits of banter which seem to be ad-libbed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
One of the better and more diverting of ABC's first full season of made-for-television movies, The Over-the-Hill Gang was a low-budget Western with a gimmick: Get a bunch of elderly actors, known either for their leading roles in the 1930s, or for playing comic sidekicks (and Walter Brennan was a lot of both categories) through the 1950s, and put them together in a plot. The result was this enjoyable oater about a quartet of retired Texas Rangers (Pat O'Brien, Walter Brennan, Chill Wills, Edgar Buchanan) who take on the corrupt mayor (Edward Andrews) of a small Nevada town where O'Brien's daughter (Kris Nelson) and newspaper editor son-in-law (Rick Nelson) live. Jack Elam represents the bad guys' muscle with his usual threatening aplomb, and Andy Devine gets a lot of mileage out of his role as a corrupt, inept judge. The other surprise in the cast is Gypsy Rose Lee, looking radiant as ever, portraying an admirer of the former rangers, in what was her final screen appearance, and such familiar old faces as Myron Healey, William Benedict, and Elmira Sessions in supporting roles. When O'Brien and company realize that they're no longer fast enough to do the job with guns, they decide to use their wits instead, outsmarting and outflanking the villains. The pacing by director Jean Yarbrough (whose own career went back to the 1920s, and whose last film this was) is a little leisurely, but the script is fairly clever and it's a lot of fun watching the veteran actors chewing up the scenery, with Devine having the most fun of all in an unusual role as a villain. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- 1969
This made-for-TV movie stars Lee Majors as Andy Crocker, a disillusioned Vietnam veteran. His homecoming is hardly a hero's welcome: Andy finds that his girl friend is married, his business is in the toilet, and his friends and neighbors are reluctant to acknowledge his existence. Originally telecast November 18, 1969, this film was one of the first to tackle the issue of disenfranchised Nam soldiers who came trudging home to indifference and hostility. Wisely, it avoids the fistfights and gore that would attend the later unfortunate spate of "crazed Vietnam vet" pictures. Though it would seem to be self-contained, The Ballad of Andy Crocker was intended as the pilot for a weekly TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
With The Mod Squad sweeping the Tuesday night TV ratings in 1968, producers Aaron Spelling and Danny Thomas hoped to get another multiracial adventure series on the air A.S.A.P. Carter's Army was the 72-minute pilot for this project. Set during World War II, the film stars Stephen Boyd as an Army captain who doesn't exactly dislike African Americans-it's just that he holds no special fondness for them. Naturally, Boyd is assigned an all-black company, and is forced to share his command with lieutenant Robert Hooks. Despite seething racial tensions, everyone pulls together to destroy an enemy dam. Originally telecast January 27, 1970, Carter's Army failed to spawn the planned series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
The Monk stars George Maharis as neither simian nor seminarian. Instead, he plays Gustavus "Gus" Monk, a San Francisco private eye/bodyguard created by Blake Edwards. The Monk is hired by an underworld lawyer (William Smithers) to deliver an envelope containing damning information about a powerful gangster. Monk isn't interested until he meets the lawyer's sexy wife (Janet Leigh)--and then he's off on a corpse-laden path of deceit and double-cross, with the man who hired him as Victim Number One. The Monk has a large cast of familiar faces (from Jack Albertson to Joe Besser) in its favor; unfortunately, this wasn't enough to secure a series sale for this one-shot TV pilot film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1968
Most of the 23 episodes in Season Two of the peripatetic western series The Guns of Will Sonnett adhere to the formula established in Season One, with septuagenarian ex-Cavalry scout Will Sonnett (Walter Brennan) travelling throughout the west with his teenaged grandson Jeff (Dack Rambo, in search of Will's son and Jeff's father Jim Sonnett (Jason Evers), a notorious gunman. This season, Jim makes several sizeable guest appearances, beginning with the opening episode "Reunion" and continuing through the two-part "Town of Terror", wherein the Sonnetts are again reunited, smack in the middle of a deadly range war. Working in concert, the three Sonnetts settle the hash of a would-be hero coasting on a false reputation in the penultimate episode "The Man Who Killed James Sonnett". And finally, Will and Jeff convince James to forsake his gunslinging ways and join them as peacekeepers in the small town of Samson in "Three Stand Together". This last-named episode had been intended as the opener for the series' third season, but ABC decided to pull the plug on the show, and thus the episode aired as the series finale. Among the many guest stars during Season Two are future "Grandma Walton" Ellen Corby in the episode "Pariah", recent Oscar winner (for Cool Hand Luke) Strother Martin in "Joby", and Jesse Pearson, the actor who'd played Conrad Birdie in the 1963 movie version of Bye Bye Birdie, in "Join the Army." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Brennan, Dack Rambo, (more)
- 1967
Seen on ABC's Friday-night schedule during its first season, The Guns of Will Sonnett firmly establishes its premise in the opening episode "Ride the Long Trail". Ex-Cavalry scout Will Sonnett (Walter Brennan) and his grandson Jeff (Dack Rambo) have left their home and begun wandering through the west, in search of Will's son and Jeff's dad Jim Sonnett, who since running away 19 years earlier had attained a reputation as a deadly gunslinger. With both the law and his many enemies on Jim's trail, Will and Jeff hope to catch up with the prodigal Sonnett before someone else does, and in this pursuit they visit a number of tiny western outposts and alter the lives of innumerable strangers. Though Jim remains an elusive figure, he does make a handful of fleeting appearances, beginning with the sixth episode, "Message at Noon." Since most of the 26 first-season episodes follow essentially the same storyline, viewers are advised to ignore the plots and revel in the bravura performance of three-time Oscar winner Walter Brennan, to say nothing of the series' fascinating crop of guest stars. In "A Bell for Jeff Sonnett", a young Charles Grodin plays a brash gunslinger who sews a tiny bell on his hat for each man hie kills. Jack Nicholson is a trigger-happy punk in "A Son for a Son", which also features Bing Russell, father of Kurt Russell. Dennis Hopper essays a similar "punk" role in another episode, "Find a Sonnett, Kill a Sonnett". And in "The Warriors", two future 1970s TV stalwarts, The Duke of Hazzard's Denver Pyle and Dallas' Jim Davis, share screen space with an icon of the 1950s, Captain Midnight star Richard Webb. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Brennan, Dack Rambo, (more)
The Cricket on the Hearth is based on one of Charles Dickens' lesser-known Christmas stories. Bertha, the toymaker's daughter, is the central character. She searches for love and understanding from her father Caleb, who just wants his family to be happy. With the appearance of a good luck cricket, fortunes seem to change. This release features the voices of real-life father and daughter Danny and Marlo Thomas and Roddy McDowell as the Cricket. As all ends well, The Cricket on the Hearth closes with a catchy tune, "The First Christmas." The animated seasonal program was a predecessor to better known fare. It now serves as godfather to Christmas tales told since. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Thomas, Marlo Thomas, (more)
- 1966
Unfortunately, the comedy in this film is just about as crummy as its title. On the bright side, it does feature a number of veterans from popular TV sitcoms. It is set in a run-down diner where a bumbling short-order cook and a klutzy waitress work. They are so terrible at their jobs that they soon lose them. Next the two go to help a pal run her recently inherited bookstore. There they found trouble when a Russian spy mistakenly identifies the former cook as a defecting cosmonaut. Meanwhile, two would-be bank robbers are secretly sneaking 'round the bookstore trying to tunnel into the bank vault next door. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Morey Amsterdam, Richard Deacon, (more)
- 1965
Ever in need of extra money, Lucy (Lucille Ball) offers her services to banker Mooney (Gale Gordon) as a part-time employee. Her first assignment is to deliver an envelope to the television studio where Danny Thomas is rehearsing a special. Before Lucy shows up, it is carefully established that big-hearted Danny adheres to an iron-clad rule: under no circumstances will he ever fire anyone who's on their very first job, no matter how clumsy or inept that person may be. On cue, Lucy shows up, and is promptly mistaken for one of the special's chorus girls. Appalled by Lucy's incompetence, Danny angrily approaches her -- whereupon, in all innocence, she explains that it's her very first job.... ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Thomas, Mickey Manners, (more)
- 1964
Popular singer Connie Francis stars in this romantic musical-comedy as Libby Caruso, an aspiring young entertainer who yearns for the attention of handsom Paul Davis (Jim Hutton). Though at first Paul is not interested in her, Libby soon wins him over. Upon catching him, however, Libby changes her mind and decides a young grocer (Joby Baker) is a better prospect. Libby's roomate and pal, Jan (Susan Oliver), doesn't seem to mind leftovers when Paul takes an interest in her. Along with much of the supporting cast from Francis' first screen role, Where the Boys Are (1960), a few celebrities also appear onscreen. Included are cameos from Johnny Carson, Danny Thomas, Paula Prentiss, George Hamilton and Yvette Mimeiux. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Connie Francis, Jim Hutton, (more)
- 1963
The Dick Van Dyke Show invades Twilight Zone territory in this unforgettable episode. Unable to sleep one night, Rob (Dick Van Dyke) turns on the TV and watches a sci-fi movie about "Kolac," evil emissary from the planet Twilo, who uses cosmic walnuts to turn human beings into three-eyed, thumbless aliens. The next morning, Rob is astonished when Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) serves him a breakfast consisting entirely of walnuts -- and even more so when, at the office, Buddy (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally (Rose Marie) are energetically discussing the previous day's speech at the U.N. by "Kolac from Twilo." But nothing prepares Rob for the unexpected arrival of a three-eyed Danny Thomas -- nor the sudden disappearance of his own thumbs! (And by the way: would you believe that this man has 2,000 bees on his face?) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
