Robert Webber Movies

It goes without saying that the 1973 TV-movie version of Double Indemnity doesn't come within shouting distance of the classic 1944 theatrical-movie version. Still, the basic story is a solid one, and the actors are eager to please. Richard Crenna plays the old Fred MacMurray role of Walter Neff, the slightly larcenous insurance salesman inveigled into an elaborate murder/fraud scheme by sexy Phyllis Dietrichson (Samantha Eggar, replacing the 1944 version's Barbara Stanwyck). The scheme almost goes off without a hitch, but Walter's boss Barton Keyes (Lee J. Cobb; originally Edward G. Robinson) has this "stinking" hunch-and besides, you can't trust Phyllis as far as you can throw her. Originally telecast October 13, 1973, Double Indemnity is based on the Raymond Chandler-Billy Wilder script for the 1944 film, which in turn was adapted from James M. Cain's Three of a Kind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Also known as Death and the Maiden, Hawkins on Murder introduced Jimmy Stewart to the TV-detective genre as folksy sleuth Billy Jim Hawkins (this TV movie was produced by MGM, the studio which gave Stewart his start in the 1930s). Hawkins travels from his West Virginia hometown to investigate a triple murder in Los Angeles. Along for the ride is Strother Martin as Hawkins' somewhat slow cousin/assistant, who would continue in this role when the Hawkins series premiered on a regular basis in the fall of 1973. The Harold Lloyd estate in Beverly Hills provided some of the more lavish backgrounds for this rambling mystery yarn. On the whole, Hawkins on Murder is better than the series that followed, which fell prey to banality and repetition early on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An insurance investigator looks into the mysterious disappearance of a professional football player during a live, televised game. An episode of the "Banacek" TV series. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

NBC was seeking a little ethnic diversity (a la Shaft) in its Mystery Movie lineup when the network commissioned Cutter. Peter DeAnda plays Frank Cutter, an African-American private eye headquartered in Chicago. Cutter's current assignment is to locate a missing pro quarterback. Stepin Fetchit, an echo from an earlier, demeaning era in black entertainment, shows up in the brief role of "Shineman". Cutter received a single 90-minute showing on January 26, 1972; it failed to make the NBC Mystery Movie cut as a regular entry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Thief is a made-for-TV drama starring Richard Crenna as a paroled burglar. Crenna wants to turn over a new leaf and lead an honest life. To do this, however, he has to pull one last major heist which will square all his accrued debts. The focal point of this film is a near-silent cat burglar sequence, which is good enough to make up for the patchy character development and by-rote dialogue. The Thief also includes an early TV appearance by veteran character actor Michael Lerner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although the characters' names were changed, The Great White Hope was a thinly veiled account of the trials and tribulations of boxer Jack Johnson, based on the play by Howard Sackler and directed by Martin Ritt. James Earl Jones stars as boxing great Jack Jefferson, who defeats Frank Bardy Larry Pennell in a Reno, Nevada bout to become the world's first black heavyweight champion. After crossing a state line with his white girlfriend Eleanor (Jane Alexander in her feature debut), however, Jack is arrested and tried under the miscegenation-barring Mann Act. Found guilty and sentenced to three years in prison, Jack escapes and leaves the U.S., but he's dogged by his now bad reputation and can't get honest work as a fighter. Offered his freedom from criminal charges if he'll agree to a fixed fight in Cuba that will restore the title to a white contender, Jack refuses and Eleanor commits suicide, their life on the run overwhelming her. Jack finally accepts the bout in Havana, but he fights his opponent with everything he's got. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

David McCallum stars in Hauser's Memory as scientist Hillel Mondoro. At the behest of the CIA, Mondoro willingly has himself injected with the brain fluid from a dying fellow scientist named Hauser. The purpose of this experiment is to preserve the missile secrets lodged in Hauser's memory banks. The result is a deadly liason between Mondoro and Hauser's pro-Nazi wife Anna (Lilli Palmer). Susan Strasberg costars as Mondoro's nonplussed wife Karen, while German film director Helmut Kautner alsos plays an important featured role. Made for television, Hauser's Memory premiered November 24, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jack Ryan (Ryan O'Neal) is a cucumber picker who is fired after a fight with a Mexican-American (Victor Paul) co-worker. He finds work on a ranch owned by Ray Ritchie (James Daly). Soon his private secretary Nancy (Leigh Taylor-Young) is after Jack. She spends her free time in pursuit of hedonism and reckless pleasure by fornicating on tombstones and breaking hearts as well as windows. Sam Mirakian (Van Heflin) is the motel owner whose lonely resident (Lee Grant) makes a play for Jack. She ends up killing herself and Nancy ends up killing someone else for sheer pleasure. This forgettable and pointless movie -- one critic described it as "a rancid piece of trash" -- is O'Neal's big-screen debut. Some nudity required an "R" rating. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, an assassin is lured out of retirement with an offer to kill a former gangster who is hiding out in Europe. With the help of an assistant, the killer travels to Paris and begins stalking his victim. He is further helped by a lovely drug addict who shows him the mark. He fulfils his mission, but then learns that he has killed the wrong man. Not long afterwards, both the gangster and the drug addict are killed. It is then that the hit man realizes that his assistant is behind the deaths and that he is next on the list. Much of the movie was shot on location in Europe. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Director Robert Aldrich took what he considered a hopelessly old-fashioned script by Lukas Heller and Nunnally Johnson and fashioned The Dirty Dozen into one of MGM's biggest moneymakers of the 1960s--and the sixth highest-grossing film in the studio's history. Lee Marvin plays Major Reisman, assigned to coordinate a suicide mission on a French chateau held by top Nazi officers. Since no "normal" GI can be expected to volunteer for this mission, Reisman is compelled to draw his personnel from a group of military prisoners serving life sentences. This "dirty dozen" includes a sex pervert (Telly Savalas), a psycho (John Cassavetes), a retarded killer (Donald Sutherland), and the equally malevolent Charles Bronson, Trini Lopez, Jim Brown, and Clint Walker. On the dim promise of receiving pardons if they survive, the criminals undergo a brutal training program, then are marched behind enemy lines dressed as Nazi soldiers, the better to overtake the chateau and kill everyone in it--including the innocent wives and mistresses of the German officers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Columbia Pictures tried to create a tongue-in-cheek American James Bond with this, the first of five motion pictures based on the character of Matt Helm, a spy created in a series of novels by Donald Hamilton. Dean Martin stars as Helm, a boozing, womanizing cad of a spy coaxed out of retirement by ex-girlfriend Tina Batori (Daliah Lavi). His mission: stop the evil Big O organization, whose leader, Tung-Tze (Victor Buono), schemes to sabotage an atomic missile and thus spark World War III. Producer Irving Allen had once been partners with Albert R. Broccoli in the British film production company Warwick Films, their alliance ironically disintegrating over the merits of creating a Bond series. When Broccoli's instincts proved correct, Allen attempted to create his own spy franchise with the Helm character. The sequels to The Silencers (1966) were Murderers' Row (1966), The Ambushers (1967), and The Wrecking Crew (1968). Allen unsuccessfully tried to resurrect the character as a TV movie, Matt Helm (1975). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton -- then Hollywood's most bankable couple -- appeared onscreen together for the third time in this romantic drama shot on beautiful locations along the Big Sur region of the California coastline. Laura Edwards (Elizabeth Taylor) is a free-thinking artist and Bohemian who is raising a her teenage son, Danny (Morgan Mason), conceived out of wedlock, on her own. Laura has issues with conventional teaching methods, and prefers to educate Danny about both intellectual and ethical matters on her own. However, Danny has become something of a problem, and child welfare authorities demand that Danny either be sent to school or become a ward of the state. Rather than send Danny to public school, Laura arranges for him to attend a private academy run by Dr. Edward Hewitt (Richard Burton), an Episcopalian minister. Edward is at first shocked by Laura's embrace of free love and rejection of conventional moral codes, but as he gets to know her better, he finds himself increasingly attracted to her, despite the fact he has a wife, Claire (Eva Marie Saint), and two children. Before long, Edward's desire overpowers his scruples and he begins an affair with Laura. Wracked with guilt over his infidelity, Edward confesses his indiscretion to Claire, which proves to have severe and unexpected consequences. While saddled with poor reviews upon its initial release, The Sandpiper did win an Academy Award for Johnny Mandel's theme song, "The Shadow of Your Smile." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide