Harold Jack Bloom Movies

This British-produced documentary offers an insightful portrait of American filmmaker Howard Hawks, whose remarkable five decade long career encompassed some of Hollywood's best loved movies. Hawks' personal and professional life is recalled by such friends and co-workers as Todd McCarthy (the noted Variety film critic who penned the director's biography), Lauren Bacall, Peter Bogdanovich, Angie Dickinson, William Friedkin and Walter Hill. It is also chronicled via archival interviews and clips from his best known films. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An amiable con man pulls a scam on the corrupt leader of a fund-raising campaign for a major charity in this lively drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Century Turns is the syndication title of the 2-hour pilot for the Hec Ramsey television series. Richard Boone stars as Ramsey, an old-fashioned western lawman coming to grips with the "modern technology" of the 20th century. Ramsey teams up with college-educated criminologist Oliver Stamp (Rick Lenz) to solve a tricky mystery. Before the film's 97 minutes are up, both veteran and newcomer learn a lot from each other-though it's Ramsey who has the least to learn. Produced by Jack Webb, The Century Turns was originally telecast October 8, 1972; the Hec Ramsey series was shown in rotation with Columbo, McCloud and McMillan and Wife until August 25, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clint Walker plays Hardcase, an American soldier of fortune roaming the old west in search of his wife (Stefanie Powers), who has run off with half his life savings. He finds her in Mexico, where she is now the mistress of a rebel leader (Pedro Armendariz Jr.). Hardcase abducts the rebel chief in hopes of getting his money back--thereby winding up in the midst of a deadly political crisis. Alex Karras costars as a myopic associate of Hardcase, who doesn't trust the wife as far as he can throw her. Hardcase was produced by the cartoon firm of Hanna-Barbera, as an effort to break into "live" TV-movie fare. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A student revolt is fomenting on a college campus, prompting police headquarters to dispatch a riot squad. Among those summoned to nip the hostilities in the bud is mobile officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner). The problem: Malloy is currently taking classes at the troubled college--and several of his fellow students regard him as a traitor for taking the side of the "pigs." Watch for pro heavyweight boxer Jerry Quarry in a small supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Murder One was the pilot film for the Jack Webb-produced TV series The D.A. Howard Duff plays the title role, with Robert Conrad his able-bodied deputy. The indictment they must prepare for the Grand Jury is that of nurse Diane Baker. Several of Baker's husbands and relatives have met untimely deaths, and it appears that the good nurse has been dispatching the victims with overdoses of insulin. While Murder One was first telecast on December 8, 1969, the D.A. series itself wouldn't premiere until nearly two years later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Bond heads East to save the world (and to learn how to serve saki properly) in this action-packed espionage adventure. When an American spacecraft disappears during a mission, it's widely believed to have been intercepted by the Soviet Union, and after a Russian space capsule similarly goes missing, most consider it to be an act of American retaliation. Soon the two nations are at the brink of war, but British intelligence discovers that some sort of UFO has crashed into the Sea of Japan. Agent 007, James Bond (Sean Connery) is sent in to investigate. After staging his own death to avoid being followed, Bond, disguised as a Japanese civilian, teams up with agent Tiger Tanaka (Tetsuro Tamba) and his beautiful associate Aki (Akiko Wakabayashi). With their help, Bond learns that both the American and Russian space missions were actually scuttled by supercriminal Ernst Blofeld (Donald Pleasance) in yet another bid by his evil empire SPECTRE to take over the world. As he battles the bad guys, Bond finds time to romance both Kissy Suziki (Mie Hama) and Helga Brandt (Karin Dor). You Only Live Twice was one of Sean Connery's last outings as James Bond. The next Bond film, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, would star George Lazenby as 007, and while Connery would return for Diamonds Are Forever, in 1973, Roger Moore took over the role. (Connery would play Bond one last time, in 1983's Never Say Never Again, which was produced outside the official series.) ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

After fifteen long, hard years on the job, Sheriff John Dobbs (Paul Richards) prepares to retire. Unfortunately, news of Dobbs' imminent retirement has attracted several gunmen, all of whom are intent upon settling old scores with the aging lawman. After receiving a $10 retainer from an anonymous source, Paladin (Richard Boone) rides in to offer assistance to Dobbs--who turns Paladin down flat, stubbornly determined to uphold his fast-draw reputation no matter what tragedy may befall him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Beleagured rancher Aaron Murdock (Philip Coolidge) is accused of providing shelter for his son Lew (Wesley Lau), a sadistic escaped murderer. In his efforts to clear Aaron's name, Paladin finds himself saddled with another responsibility: preventing Aaron's younger son Jamie (Lee Kinsolving) from following in his older brother's bloody footsteps. Featured in the cast is a young, pre-"Riddler" Frank Gorshin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Foreign Intrigue was one of the first major Hollywood films to be based on a popular TV series. Robert Mitchum stars as an American press agent who travels the length and breadth of Europe to learn the past of a recently deceased multimillionaire. After stopovers at the Riviera, Stockholm and Vienna, Mitchum learns that the dead man accumulated his wealth by blackmailing war criminals and Nazi collaborators--all of whom would be happy if Mitchum would disappear, or die, or both. In her first English-language film, Ingrid Thulin (billed as Tulean) plays one of the hero's several amours, as does the toothsome Genevieve Page, likewise making her first American film appearance. After a brief but profitable theatrical release, Foreign Intrigue returned to its roots when producer Sheldon Reynolds sold the picture to TV in 1958. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Nobody knew how a Pharaoh talked!" That's how producer/director Howard Hawks explained some of the sillier dialogue exchanges in the William Faulkner-Harry Kurnitz-Harold Jack Bloom script for Hawks' Land of the Pharaohs. Extravagantly produced with a cast of seeming millions (actually there were some 10,000 extras), the film speculates on the circumstances surrounding the construction of the Great Pyramids of Egypt. Jack Hawkins plays the Pharaoh, who orders enslaved architect James Robertson Justice to build a magnificent, thief-proof tomb for him. At first, the people of Egypt willingly pitch in to construct the huge pyramid. But as the years roll by and the work shows no signs of abating, the Pharaoh begins relying upon forced labor from lands he has conquered. He also plunders the coffers of his neighboring countries. Cyprus can't pony up the necessary gold, so the country sends luscious Joan Collins (complete with a jewel in her navel) as a "present" for the Pharaoh. Fascinated by the spitfire Collins, the Pharaoh makes her his second wife. What he doesn't know is that Collins is just as much a predator as she would be in the TV series Dynasty. Hoping to gain all of the Pharaoh's kingdom and the riches therein, she stage-manages her husband's death. After the funeral procession, the Pharaoh is sealed in his tomb by a series of sand-operated weights, levers and pulleys (this speculation as to how the Pyramids were closed is the most fascinating part of the film). Collins watches in barely controlled glee; she isn't yet privy to the Egyptian custom of entombing the Pharaoh's widow alive, along with her husband's body--but she soon will be. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The powerhouse combination of star James Stewart and director Anthony Mann score another cinematic bullseye in The Naked Spur. Stewart plays a taciturn frontiersman who loses his home while he's off fighting the Civil War. To raise enough money for a new grubstake, Stewart becomes a bounty hunter in Colorado territory. His first quarry is fugitive, killer Robert Ryan. Stewart's efforts to bring in Ryan and collect the reward are compromised by the presence of Ryan's loyal girl friend Janet Leigh and Stewart's two disreputable sidekicks, wily prospector Millard Mitchell and disgraced Union-officer Ralph Meeker. There's plenty of "cat and mouse" byplay between Stewart and Ryan before the brutal climax; the drama is intensified by the fact that both men are on the outer rim of total insanity. The Oscar-nominated screenplay for The Naked Spur was cowritten by Sam Rolfe, who was later one of the creative forces responsible for the similarly no-nonsense TV western series Have Gun, Will Travel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide