Edgar Buchanan Movies

Sam Cade was the first feature-length "movie" put together from episodes of Cade's County, the early '70s series starring Glenn Ford as a modern-day sheriff in Madrid County, CA. In the first half, directed by Marvin Chomsky, Cade finds himself targeted for assassination when he's scheduled to testify in the trial of a mob kingpin -- what he doesn't know is that the assassin is one of his oldest friends (Darren McGavin), who is romancing another old friend (Loretta Swit) with a troubled past and using Cade's determination and his investigative skills to set him up for a hit. In the second half, directed by Richard Donner, Cade gets a tip that the mob has planned an assassination on a retired crime boss (Edward Asner) living in the county, who is so bull-headed and distrustful of the law that he won't accept any help or provide any information on who the killers might be, even though he's putting his own daughter (Shelley Fabares) at risk. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

En route to Sacramento where Shirley (Shirley Jones) is to receive the Mother of the Year award, the Partridges encounter all manner of irksome delays and inconveniences, culminating with Shirley receiving a speeding ticket in a jerkwater town. Determined to fight the ticket in court, Shirley cross wits with corrupt, money-hungry Judge McElwreath (played by former Petticoat Junctionstar Edgar Buchanan). The duplicitous judge is finally foiled when it dawns on him that most of the voters in town are mothers...just like Shirley! Song: "As Long As There's You". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Venerable movie star Glenn Ford (Torpedo Run) made a brief leap into television for this one-season drama on CBS - a hybrid contemporary western-police drama that debuted in late September 1971. The action unfurled in picturesque Madrid County, California, where dependable sheriff Sam Cade (Ford) reigned. Four additional officers supported Sam in the line of duty: the weathered and seasoned deputy J.J. Jackson (Edgar Buchanan), plus three less-experienced deputies - Arlo Pritchard (Taylor Lacher), Rudy Davillo (Victor Campos) and Pete (Peter Ford, Glenn's son). The sheriff's office benefited from the presence of a Native American female police dispatcher. Actress Sandra Ego (as Joannie Little Bird) initially occupied the role, but producers replaced her with Betty Ann Carr (as Betty Ann Sundown) early in the course of the run. Cade and co. spent episodes pursuing criminals and wielding the long arm of the law in Madrid. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, this failed to connect with viewers, and following a single scheduling shift in the late summer of 1972 that did nothing to boost ratings, the program folded in early September of that year, not quite twelve months after it premiered. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

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

Although Petticoat Junction's already sagging ratings had dropped precipitously upon the death of star Bea Benaderet in the fall of 1968, the series still maintained enough of a viewership to warrant a seventh and final season, which commenced in September of 1969. Edgar Buchanan is now top-billed as Uncle Joe Carson, the delightfully shiftless owner of Hooterville's Shady Rest Hotel. June Lockhart, introduced in season six as Dr. Janet Craig, is now afforded second billing in the series' opening credits; alas, talented though Lockhart may be, she was unable to replace the late Bea Benaderet in the hearts of the series' staunchest fans. With Uncle Joe's niece Betty Jo (Linda Kaye Henning)'s recent marriage to crop duster Steve Elliott (Mike Minor) and the birth of little Kathy Jo Elliott (now played by Elna Hubbell), Betty Jo's sisters Billie Jo (Meredith Mac Rae) and Bobbie Jo (Lori Saunders) are seriously contemplating matrimony -- which is not only the logical course of events, but also a blatant bid by the series' producers to generate audience interest by holding out the promise of two more onscreen weddings. Billie Jo's erstwhile beau Jerry is played by Greg Mullavey, who later became the real-life husband of Meredith Mac Rae (just as Linda Kaye Henning and Mike Minor were husband and wife offscreen). As for Bobbie Jo, she is courted by the terminally shy game warden Orrin Pike (Jonathan Daly). And in another domestic development, Petticoat Junction this season serves up the obligatory (in 1970) "women's lib" episode, "Susan B. Anthony, I Love You," which though lightly amusing, seems deliberately calculated to enrage contemporary feminists! Even though the romantic entanglements of the Bradley girls did not significantly improve the ratings of Petticoat Junction, the series might have survived for another season had it not been cut short by CBS as part of the network's ongoing efforts to "de-ruralize" its target audience. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Strange Affair is a fragmentary "'60s" interpretation of a straightforward Bernard Toms novel. Michael York plays a rookie London policeman, appalled at the corruption surrounding him. He does not find comfort in the fact that his own superior (Jeremy Kemp) is just as crooked as the crooks. Susan George is the obligatory "mod" girl with whom York conducts a brief affair. Like many British films of its period, it seems more concerned with inducing pop-art headaches than simply telling its story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Edgar Buchanan appears in his Petticoat Junction role of Uncle Joe Carson, recently appointed fire chief of Hooterville. Eager to attend a convention of his fellow fire chiefs in Miami, all Uncle Joe lacks are the necessary funds. What to do? Simple: appoint Oliver Douglas (Eddie Albert) as assistant fire chief -- and then persuade Oliver to open up his own pocketbook. But Joe had better hurry: there's a move afoot amongst the Hooterville citizenry to toss their current do-nothing chief out on his ear! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Once again, the casts of The Beverly Hillbillies, Petticoat Junction, and Green Acres converge for a "very special" holiday episode. In Hooterville for Christmas, Granny continues to romantically pursue hapless storekeeper Sam Drucker (Frank Cady, while Elly May is courted by Eb Dawson (Tom Lester). And back in Beverly Hills, Jed, Jethro, and Mr. Drysdale babysit Elly's pet bear. Also in the cast are Petticoat Junction co-stars Edgar Buchanan, Linda Kaye (Betty Jo), Meredith MacRae (Billie Jo), Lori Saunders (Bobbie Jo), and Mike Minor (%teve Elliot), who sings "One Day at a Time." "Christmas in Hooterville" was logically telecast on December 25, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dan Blocker made his first non-Bonanza appearance in nine years in the 1968 TV movie Something for a Lonely Man. Blocker plays a blacksmith, John Killibrew, who leads several Easterners to a boomtown in the High Sierras -- only to discover that the town is slated for extinction because the railroad has decided to bypass the community. Now the laughing stock of his comrades, Killibrew determines to save the town by turning it into an industrial center. To do this, he "borrows" a derailed steam engine from the railroad and drags it into town. When things look the darkest for Killibrew, he takes comfort in the works of Ralph Waldo Emerson -- and the affections of pretty Mary Duren (Susan Clark). Widely regarded in 1968 as one of the best TV movies to date, Something for a Lonely Man retains its low-key appeal a quarter of a century later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although Bea Benaderet is still billed as the star of the first few episodes of Petticoat Junction's sixth season, it was purely a gesture of kindness and sentiment on the part of producer Paul Henning. Everyone in the cast knew that Benaderet was mortally ill with cancer, but this tragic information was largely withheld from the public under the actress' death on October 13, 1968. Her last series "appearance" -- which consists of a telephone voice-over -- occurs in the episode "The Valley Has a Baby," in which Benaderet's character Kate Bradley offers best wishes to her daughter Betty Jo (Linda Kaye Henning) and son-in-law Steve Elliott (Mike Minor) when their first child, Kathy Jo Elliott, is born (the infant is played this season by unbilled twin babies Barbara and Heather Whiter).
With Benaderet's departure, Edgar Buchanan is elevated to top billing in the role of lazy Uncle Joe Carson, now forced by circumstances to take over ownership of Hooterville's Shady Rest Hotel. In hopes of replicating the warm rapport between Benaderet and Buchanan, the producers introduce a new, strong-willed female character, Dr. Janet Davis (June Lockhart), in the episode "The Lady Doctor." Not unexpectedly, Janet has a tough time winning over the chauvinist males of Hooterville -- especially Uncle Joe -- but the three Bradley daughters take to Janet as if she were their surrogate mother (which, in a sense, she is!). Although Bea Benaderet's death unavoidably casts a pall over Petticoat Junction's sixth season, there are a number of very worthwhile episodes. Irene Ryan crosses over from The Beverly Hillbillies in her familiar Granny role in two chucklesome outings, "The Valley Has a Baby" and "A Cake From Granny" (which also features another Hillbillies regular, Nancy Kulp as Jane Hathaway). Veteran film favorites Charles "Buddy" Rogers and Richard Arlen appear as themselves in an amusing episode wherein the two actors attend Hooterville's long-overdue premiere of their silent starring feature film Wings. And in "Billie Jo and the Big Big Star," guest star Rich Little delivers dead-on impressions of Petticoat Junction regulars Edgar Buchanan and Byron Foulger (introduced this season in the role of timorous train conductor Wendell Gibbs). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Long before he scored with the epic Ragtime, novelist E.L. Doctorow wrote a minor novel upon which this stark 1967 film is based. It was adapted for the screen by veteran western director Burt Kennedy. In a forlorn town called Hard Times in the Old West, a cowardly mayor, Will Blue (Henry Fonda), does little to protect the citizens from the rampages of a ruthless criminal known as The Man from Bodie (Aldo Ray). The cold-blooded killer gets away with murder -- and then he burns down the town as he leaves. The citizens rebuild, and a newcomer named Zar (Keenan Wynn) injects some life into the desolate place by opening a saloon that attracts a bevy of interesting women, including Molly Riordan (Janice Rule) and Adah (Janice Paige). However, things again look bleak when The Man from Bodie returns to town. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Gunpoint stars Audie Murphy as a Colorado sheriff -- and never mind that the film was shot in Utah. Sheriff Lucas (Murphy) sets out to bring bad guy Drago (Morgan Woodward) to justice. If the sheriff doesn't succeed, that will be fine and dandy with deputy Hold (Denver Pyle), who's out to get Murphy's job. Edgar Buchanan took a break from Petticoat Junction to play the sort of comic relief he'd been doing in westerns for years. Gunpoint's well-photographed but economical highlights include a wild horse stampede and a shootout with disgruntled Apaches. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide