Jill Townsend Movies

Nicholas Meyer based his screenplay for the "retro" Sherlock Holmes adventure The Seven Percent Solution on his own best-selling novel. As any Baker Street Irregular will tell you, the title refers to the dosage of cocaine taken by Sherlock Holmes (Nicol Williamson). The Great Detective's friend and chronicler Doctor Watson (Robert Duvall), concerned that Holmes' drug dependency is getting out of hand, suggests a cure under the auspices of Viennese psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (top-billed Alan Arkin). While undergoing treatment, Holmes comes to the realization that his archival Professor Moriarty (Laurence Olivier) is not the Napoleon of Crime, but instead a somewhat pathetic philanderer. Not yet completely cured, Holmes recharges his deductive batteries by undertaking a tricky conspiracy case involving another ex-addict, beautiful actress Lola Devereaux (Vanessa Redgrave). The traditional Holmesian sleuthing and split-second rescues of the film's second half are not as innovative as the Holmes-Freud scenes at the beginning of The Seven Percent Solution, but they provide this largely cerebral effort with a rousing climax. A success with both critics and filmgoers, The Seven Percent Solution opened the floodgates for subsequent TV and movie "reprises" of Conan Doyle's immortal literary figure. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In between gigs writing two of the first films from director John Boorman and the sequel to The French Connection (1971), writer Alexander Jacobs adapted this bloody, violent drama from a pulp crime novel. Oliver Reed stars as Harry Lomart, a dangerous convict who's been planning a breakout with a fellow inmate, Birdy Williams (Ian McShane). Before the two men can abscond, word comes that Harry's wife Pat (Jill St. John) has been having an affair with another man and has become pregnant with the man's child. That brings the total number of scores that Harry's got to settle once he's on the outside up to two. After a spectacular escape, the pair of hardened criminals are supposed to lie low until it's safe for them to leave the country, but a furious Harry won't allow his wife to get away with her betrayal, and he sets out to find and kill her, as well as her lover. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

Ironside (Raymond Burr) tries to help his friend Loi Tala (Patrick Adiarte), a Samoan-born boxer who wants to retire from the ring, marry his sweetheart and return to his homeland. Alas, Samoan tradition demands that he uphold the honor of his family by continuing his boxing career, even though he hates it. Inevitably, things take a disastrous turn when Loi Tala seriously injures one of his sparring partners. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The "Don Quixote" legend was given a 19th century western spin on Bonanza's inaugural eleventh-season entry "Another Windmill to Go." The Cartwrights are dumbstruck when they find Don Q. Hought (Laurence Naismath) rowing a wheeled boat across their grazing land. But Don Q. is not as daffy as he seems: His main purpose in life is to challenge obscure-and very silly-Federal laws. Also seen are Jill Townsend as Abbey, Bart Larue as Walters, Gregg Palmer as Benson and character comedian George Furth (who'd recently co-authored the hit Broadway musical Company) as Horace Keylot. Written by Palmer Thompson, "Another Windmill to Go" first aired on September 14, 1969, and was later selected by NBC for an "encore presentation" in the Summer of 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi