Efrem Zimbalist, Jr. Movies

This attenuated adaptation of Helen Van Slyke's novel stars Donna Reed (her first TV appearance in 12 years) as a widow with financial and domestic problems. Her adult daughter Stephanie Zimbalist has turned to drugs; her sons Michael Shannon and Tim Hutton have less severe but no less time-consuming personal difficulties; and her mother Mildred Dunnock is aloof and remonstrative. In addition, Reed is torn between two loves: old flame Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and doctor John Phillip Law, who is young enough to be her son. The above-mentioned plot contrivances would seem to be sufficient to fill the four hours (and two parts) of The Best Place to Be several times over; still, there's time enough left over for a tragedy to strike Reed's family before she finally settles down with the elder Zimbalist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Family Upside Down stars Fred Astaire and Helen Hayes as a retired married couple. Always proud of his independence and resilience, Astaire suffers a sudden heart attack. Though he recovers, Hayes is unable to care for Astaire herself, so she and her husband are compelled to move in with son Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and daughter-in-law Pat Crowley. Astaire's heart problems persist, and the family must face the unpleasant alternative of placing him in a nursing home. Though A Family Upside Down threatens to become an uninterrupted wallow in misery, the film takes several unexpected twists and arrives at a reasonably upbeat conclusion. Coproduced by Ross Hunter, A Family Upside Down co-stars Patty Duke Astin as Astaire and Hayes' emotionally overwrought daughter. The made-for-TV film, which won Fred Astaire the last of his many Emmy awards, originally aired April 9, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the wake of the 45-million-dollar gross of the original Airport (1970), Universal was all but required by an act of Congress to produce Airport '75. Charlton Heston heads the all-star cast as Alan Murdock, the former test pilot who must keep a disabled 747 from crashing in flames. The crisis begins when a businessman (Dana Andrews), flying his small private plane, suffers a fatal heart attack and the plane smashes into the cockpit of the 747. Following Murdock's radioed instructions, stewardess Nancy Pryor (Karen Black) takes over the controls. The special-guest passenger lineup includes Helen Reddy as a singing nun (a character wickedly satirized in the 1980 parody Airplane!), Myrna Loy as an alcoholic, and Sid Caesar as a garrulous passenger. While Airport '75 yielded only 25 million dollars at the box office, the franchise continued, spawning Airport '77 a few years later and Airport '79 two years after that. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The longest-running adventure series on the ABC network, The F.B.I continues to go strong in its eighth season on the air. Returning to the fold are Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Inspector Lew Erskine, Philip Abbott as Agent Arthur Ward, and William Reynolds as Agent Tom Colby. The season opener, "The Runner", features a guest-star turn by future Spenser for Hire leading man Robert Urich. Other well-known actors appearing this season are Dina Merrill and Daniel J. Travanti in "The Franklin Papers", Ross Martin in "The Wizard", Mark Miller (the father of Penelope Ann Miller) in "Holiday with Terror", Sondra Locke in "Dark Christmas", Martin Sheen in "The Disinherited", Vic Morrow in "Desperate Journey" and Mariette Hartley in "The Double Play". Despite the public's growing disenchantment with governmental agencies in the wake of Vietnam and Watergate, not to mention the recent death of longtime Federal Bureau of Investigation director J. Edgar Hoover, The F.B.I. continued to post decent ratings in its familiar Sunday-night timeslot, ending its eighth season as America's 29th most watched program. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The sixth season of The F.B.I finds Efrem Zimbalist Jr. still on the job as diligent, no-nonsense Federal Inspector Lew Erskine. Likewise, Philip Abbott and William Reynolds return to the familiar roles as FBI agents Ward and Colby. The first of Season Six's many guest stars are Martin Sheen and Joan Van Ark, appearing in the season opener "The Condemned." Other well-known performers appearing throughout the year are Monte Markham and Billy Dee Williams in "The Architect", Larry Blyden and Lois Nettleton in "The Innocents", Robert Loggia in "The Deadly Past", Mariette Hartley in "The Impersonator", William Shatner in "Antennae of Death", Fabian in "The Unknown Victim", Vic Morrow and Gary Collins in "Center of Peril", Dana Elcar, Sorrell Booke and Barbara Billingsley in "The Fatal Connection", Anne Archer in "Downfall", and Michael Douglas and Donna Mills in "The Hitchhiker". This season yielded The F.B.I.'s best-ever ratings, with the series scoring as America's 10th most popular program. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The fourth season of The F.B.I. is also the first season without any major cast changes. Back for more cops-and-robbers action are Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as FBI Inspector Lew Erskine, Philip Abbott as Agent Arthur Ward, and William Reynolds as Agent Tom Colby. As in previous years, the main selling card of this season's crop of episodes is manifested in the choice of guest stars. Among those appearing are Louis Jourdan in the season opener "Wind It Up and It Betrays You", Susan Strasberg and Suzanne Pleshette in "The Quarry", Ron Howard in "The Runaways", Daniel J. Travantiin "Death of a Fixer", Cicely Tyson in "The Enemies", Bruce Dern in "The Nightmare", Robert Duvall in "The Harvest", Maurice Evans, Monte Markham and Georg Stanford Brown in "The Intermediary", Ralph Bellamy in "The Butcher", Marie Windsor in "The Flaw", Patrick Wayne (son of John) in "The Widow", Billy Dee Williams in "Eye of the Storm", Hal Holbrook in "The Fraud", Harrison Ford in "Caesar's Wife" and Gene Tierney in "Conspiracy of Silence". The season finale "Moment of Truth" features veteran actor Richard Carlson, best known for his role as a Federal undercover agent on the 1950s TV series I Led Three Lives, as a thoroughly corrupt loan shark! Continuing to thrive in a Sunday-night timeslot opposite The Ed Sullivan Show, The F.B.I. ended its fourth season as America's 18th most popular program. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season Three of The F.B.I. finds hard-working Inspector Lew Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr. and his main sidekick, Agent Arthur Ward (Philip Abbott), continuing to hunt down and capture Federal criminals, using the latest in crimefighting technology--and a healthy supply of common sense and intuition. Gone from the series this year is Erskine's young assistant Agent Jim Rhodes; in his place is Agent Tom Colby, played by William Reynolds. The season begins with "The Gold Card", featuring in its supporting cast such familiar faces as western actor L.Q. Jones, movie leading lady Joanna Moore (the mother of Tatum O'Neal), and radio perennial Vic Perrin. As the season progresses, the viewer is treated to guest appearances by the likes of Viveca Lindfors in "The Sleeper Wakes", Martha Scott in "Overload", Victor French and Carol Lynley in "False Witness", Martin Sheen and Edward Asner (cast as brothers!) in "The Dynasty", Burt Reynolds in "Act of Violence", Richard Kiley in "The Homecoming", Anne Baxter in "Region of Peril", and future teen idol Bobby Sherman in "The Mechanized Accomplice." An intriguing bit of casting occurs in the episode "The Legend of John Rim", in which one of the stars of the movie version of M*A*S*H, Tom Skerritt, appears with one of the stars of the M*A*S*H TV series, Wayne Rogers. Still comfortably installed in its familiar Sunday-evening timeslot, The F.B.I. climbed from 29th to 22nd place in the overall ratings during its third season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Despite the formidable competiton of CBS' The Ed Sullivan Show and NBC's Walt Disney anthology, the ABC series The F.B.I. proved popular enough with action fans to warrant a second season in the same Sunday-evening timeslot. But while fans enjoyed the show and were fond of series star Efrem Zimbalist Jr. as Inspector Lew Erskine, they had not responded well to the decision during Season One to provide the hard-working Erskine with a home life, replete with a pretty daughter named Barbara (Lynn Loring). Apparently, the viewers preferred to see Erskine on the job rather than at home, so Barbara was written out of the show--an act which would eventually result in the elimination of Erskine's young assistant Agent Jim Rhodes (Stephen Brooks), whose primary function was to have been as Barbara's love interest. But though Rhodes would exit the series at the end of Season Two, his slightly more mature colleague, Agent Arthur Ward (Philip Abbott), remained with the show until its cancellation in 1974. The Season Two opener "The Price of Death" provides a juicy role for young Robert Blake as a neurotic kidnapper. Other guests stars this season include Dean Jagger, William Windom and Ted Knight in "The Assassin"; Jack Lord in "Collision Course"; Fritz Weaver in "The Camel's Nose"; Suzanne Pleshette in "List for a Firing Squad"; Gene Hackman in "The Courier"; Michael Rennie and Phyllis Thaxter in "The Conspirators"; Jessica Walter, Louis Jourdan and Peter Graves in "Rope of Gold"; Charles Grodin in "Sky on Fire"; James Franciscus in "Force of Nature"; and Robert Duvall, Telly Savalas, Walter Pigeon, Susan Strasberg and Celeste Holm in the two-part "The Executioners". One prescient episode, "Anatomy of a Prison Break", features William Reynolds as Special Agent Kendall Lisbon, one year before he joined the regular F.B.I. cast in the role of Agent Tom Colby. The F.B.I closed out its second season as the 29th most-watched program in America, sharing this honor in a three-way tie with The CBS Thursday Night Movie, I Spy and My Three Sons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Serge Bourguignon coadapted the screenplay for The Reward from a novel by Michael Barrett. Efrem Zimbalist Jr., usually cast on the right side of the law, is here a fugitive from American justice hiding from a murder rap in Mexico. Zimbalist and his girlfriend Yvette Mimieux try to avoid those who'd like to collect the $50,000 dead-or-alive price on his head. Police chief Gilbert Roland captures Zimbalist alive, promising to divvy up the reward with his men. But the police officers greedily turn on each other, leaving the audience to sort out for themselves just who's the real "bad guy" hereabouts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Cukor directed this sanitized version of Irving Wallace's tawdry best-seller concerning a survey of the sexual habits of American women. Psychologist George C. Chapman (Andrew Duggan) arrives in a Los Angeles suburb with his assistant Paul Radford (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) in tow. They are looking for volunteers for their sex survey, and four women raise their hands: Sarah Garnell (Shelley Winters) is a middle-aged woman who is having an affair with young theater director Fred Linden (Ray Danton); Teresa Harnish (Glynis Johns) is a happily married woman who becomes attracted to brawny football player Ed Kraski (Ty Hardin); Naomi Shields (Claire Bloom) is an alcoholic nymphomaniac who takes up with an unsavory jazz musician; and Kathleen Barclay (Jane Fonda) is a young widow who thinks she is frigid -- that is, until Radford makes her his personal project. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

There's always something simmering beneath the quaint and placid surface of small-town New England lives -- and that includes the usual maladies of alcoholism, rape, and suicide. At least this is the case if you go by the tortuous tale told in By Love Possessed, a Peyton Place knock-off, directed with glossy intensity by the usually reliable action director John Sturges (Bad Day at Black Rock and The Magnificent Seven). The tale chronicles the miserable lives of Arthur Winner (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.), Julius Penrose (Jason Robards Jr.), and Noah Tuttle (Thomas Mitchell) -- legal counseling partners in a law firm that could probably use some good counseling themselves. Arthur's wife Clarissa (Barbara Bel Geddes) has nothing but contempt for poor Arthur because she considers their marriage as more a business deal than a love match. Then there's Julius's wife Marjorie (Lana Turner) who has become a full-time alcoholic ever since Julius has been rendered impotent by an automobile accident. Arthur and Marjorie's frustrations both gel into an illicit romantic union. Arthur certainly needs some kind of diversion since his son Warren (George Hamilton) refuses to follow in his father's footsteps by becoming a lawyer. As if that weren't enough, he also refuses to marry Helen Detweiller (Susan Kohner), the girl Arthur wants him to marry because she is rolling in money and is also the ward of Noah. Instead, Warren runs off with the local town whore (Yvonne Craig), who accuses Warren of raping her. Despondent, Helen resorts to desperate measures when she is rejected, and Arthur realizes that he must begin to reconsider his life choices. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In this drama, six daring truckers must transport unstable, highly explosive rocket fuel through a dangerously bumpy, rugged country. The film centers on their individual reasons for making the trip. These are presented via flashback. Though most of them need the money, one of the truck drivers is actually the fuel's inventor. During the fuel's development, a freak accident caused the death of his family. All but one of the drivers safely make it to their destination. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide