Pepe Callahan Movies

The Apple Dumpling Gang stars Bill Bixby as Russell Donovan, a slick frontier gambler. In Runyon-esque fashion, he is compelled to look after three precocious oprhaned kids. He can't handle the responsibilities alone, so he agrees to an in-name-only marriage to hoydenish stagecoach driver, Magnolia Dusty Clydesdale (Susan Clark). Fortuitously, they discover that a mine belonging to the kids' late father is worth millions. This brings several disreputable characters into the storyline: bumbling "nice" bandits Theodore Ogelvie and Amos (Don Knotts and Tim Conway), and deadly "bad" bandits headed by Frank Stillwell (Slim Pickens). Based on a novel by Jack M. Bickham, The Apple Dumpling Gang was successful enough to spawn a sequel-not to mention several future screen teamings for Don Knotts and Tim Conway. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"It's OK with me...." Applying his deconstructive eye to the "film noir" tradition, Robert Altman updated Raymond Chandler in his 1973 version of Chandler's novel, The Long Goodbye. Smart-aleck, cat-loving private eye Philip Marlowe (Elliott Gould) is certain that his friend Terry Lennox (Jim Bouton) isn't a wife-killer, even after the cops throw Marlowe in jail for not cooperating with their investigation into Lennox's subsequent disappearance. Once he gets out of jail, Marlowe starts to conduct his own search when he discovers that mysterious blonde Eileen Wade (Nina Van Pallandt), who hired him to find her alcoholic novelist husband Roger (Sterling Hayden), lives on the same Malibu street as the absent Lennox and his deceased spouse. As numerous variations on the title song play in unexpected places, Marlowe encounters a shady doctor (Henry Gibson), a bottle-wielding gangster (director Mark Rydell), and a guard aping Barbara Stanwyck (among other stars), before heading to Mexico to stumble onto the truth once and for all. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

In John Sturges' Americanized version of Sergio Leone's Man-With-No-Name films, Clint Eastwood is Joe Kidd, a cryptic stranger who arrives in the New Mexican town of Sinola, where Mexican bandito/revolutionary Luis Chama (John Saxon) has organized a peasant revolt against the local landowners, who are throwing the poor off land that rightfully belongs to them. When a posse -- financed by wealthy landowner Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall) -- is formed to capture Luis, Kidd is invited to join but prefers to remain neutral. Harlan keeps badgering Kidd to join up, and Kidd finally relents when he finds that Luis's band has raided his own ranch and one of his ranch hands has been injured. The bloodthirsty posse rounds up five Mexicans hostages and threaten to kill them unless Luis surrenders to them. One of the hostages is the attractive Stella Garcia (Helen Sanchez), and Kidd falls in love with her. Harlan notices this and throws Kidd in jail to prevent him from helping Stella and the Mexicans. Kidd decides the position himself as the voice of reason in this nest of disorder. He escapes and saves the Mexican hostages, determined to capture Luis himself and see that he gets a fair trial. But when Kidd captures Luis and delivers him to Sheriff Mitchell (Gregory Walcott), Harlan is in town waiting for him. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

As part of his latest IMF assignment, Paris assumes the idenitity of an influential American industrialist. Unfortunately he his kidnapped and held hostage by a band of Latin-American revolutionaries who are convinced he is the man he pretends to be. The kidnappers demand that three political prisoners be released by their government, or else Paris will be immediately killed. It is up to the IMF to rescue Paris while keeping his true identity a secret. First broadcast on December 19, 1970, "The Hostage" was written by Harold Livingston. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The "Commandante" in this Mission:Impossible episode is a man named Acero, played by Lawrence Dane. Joining forces with his longtime political foe Major Martillo (Sig Haig), Acero has imprision Father Paolo Dominguin (Arthur Batanides), the leader of a Latin American revolutionary movement. In order to rescue Father Dominguin, the IMF agents must play upon the bitter rivalry between the two villains--a plan that requires Paris to impersonate a Chinese colonel. Written by Laurence Heath, "Commandante" was originally telecast on November 2, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This combination romantic comedy and political satire finds fashion photographer Ben Morris (James Garner) traveling to Latin American for an assignment with the beautiful model Alison (Eva Renzi). Their arrival in a small village draws suspicions from Colonel Ceyala (Fabrizio Mioni). The Colonel is out of favor with his superiors, and quickly tags the shutterbug as a CIA agent. The couple is stranded when the adventurer guide Ryderbeit (George Kennedy) hijacks their helicopter after shooting the pilot. Alison and Ben unwittingly buy a map to a lost diamond mine, and Ben is suspected of killing the copter pilot. Ryderbeit returns to get his hands on the map and finish off the lost couple, now comically lost in the dense jungle. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Kimble (David Janssen) uses the alias "Bill March" when he signs up as a deckhand on the Mexico-bound yacht skippered by Ralph Schuyler (Charles Bronson). The yacht's only passenger is Felice Greer (Anne Francis), who is heading toward a rendezvous with her embezzler husband Oliver (Charles Drake). What neither Kimble nor Felice realize is that Schuyler is an undercover cop, determined to put them both behind bars. But an engine-room fire radically alters the situation, placing Kimble on the horns of yet another "damned if he does, damned if he doesn't" dilemma. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Macklin (Henry Silva), a criminal on the FBI's 10 Most Wanted list, has managed to elude capture in a spectacular shootout in a hospital parking lot. Worse still, Macklin has taken nurse Carol Grant (Lynda Day) hostage--and he has no intention of ever setting her free. This episode marks a rare TV appearance by Lynn Bari, who achieved fame in the 1940s by playing the perennial "other woman" in a wide variety of 20th Century-Fox films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide