Michael Callan Movies
Michael (aka Mickey) Callan gained fame at the age of 21 when he originated the role of Riff in the Broadway production of West Side Story. For several years, Callan specialized in similar roles on TV and films, while pursuing a second career as a nightclub singer. His gift for light comedy was first exploited in Disney's Bon Voyage (1962), then further refined in his performance as Jane Fonda's amour in Cat Ballou (1965). While Callan was co-starring with Patricia Hardy in the 1967 sitcom Occasional Wife, the two became husband and wife in real life as well as "reel" life. In 1982, Michael Callan both produced and starred in Double Exposure. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
We've all heard of the luck of the Irish, but no one feels very lucky in Las Vegas when the Leprechaun visits Sin City in this, the third feature in the Leprechaun franchise. A Las Vegas pawnbroker buys a statue of a leprechaun from a hobo, but then makes the mistake of taking the gold medal hanging around the statue's neck. Turns out it's no statue after all, and taking away the charmed necklace brings the leprechaun back to life. The mean-spirited little man (played, once again, by Warwick Davis) kills the pawnbroker and sets out to find his pot of gold. However, he forgets that he's left behind a magic coin and when he returns to get it, he discovers it's gone, having been taken by a college student named Scott (John Gatins) who happened upon the shop. While the coin brings a bit of good luck to Scott, things change when he discovers he has a murderous leprechaun on his trail. Leprechaun 3's Las Vegas adventure was followed a year later by the even more unlikely Leprechaun 4: Leprechaun in Space. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warwick Davis
- 1994
Wayne Rogers returns as Chicago PI Charlie Garrett, who journeys to Martinique in search of a missing woman. What follows for Charlie is an unanticipated romance--and a murder charge. Coincidentally, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is also in Martinique, and she offers to help Charlie clear his name and solve the mystery...partly out of friendship, and partly because she feels responsible for the victim's death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
Jessica (Angela Lansbury) serves as narrator for tonight's story, which centers around working-class private eye Frank Albertson (a pre-Politically Incorrect Bill Maher) and his wife Sunny (Faith Ford). After years of sponging off Frank and Sunny, Frank's uncle Charlie (John Finnegan) suddenly inherits a fortune--and just as suddenly disappears. Later on, a mangled corpse is found on a local railroad track, whereupon Frank attempts to claim the body as that of Uncle Charlie.. However, there seems to be several other people interested in claiming the corpse--and the aforementioned inheritance--themselves. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A crazed sniper picks off motorists at random, then taunts the authorities by providing cryptic clues to a radio psychiatrist. Sarah "Sunny" Harper (Darlanne Flugel), the fiancee of one of the victims, tries to piece together the evidence without official help, hopefully to beat the psycho at his own game. Directed by Francis Delia, Freeway was inspired by a series of real-life freeway shootings in the Los Angeles area. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Darlanne Fluegel, James Russo, (more)
- 1988
In the fifth-season opener of Murder She Wrote, mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), who has sent so many murderers to prison in the past, finds herself behind bars with a murder rap hanging over her head. Naturally, Jessica is innocent: she merely witnessed the assassination of a Bulgarian spy. Even so, is locked up as the Number One Suspect--but it's actually a clever ruse concocted by Jessica's nephew Grady (Michael Horton) and redoubtable British secret agent Haggerty (Len Cariou) to keep our heroine out of harm's way so that they can hunt down the actual miscreant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
In the final episode of Murder, She Wrote's third season, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) shows up at a studio to record one of her "Mystery Books for the Blind." Halfway through her recording session, the electricity fails and the studio is plunged into a blackout. When the lights come up again, it is revealed that the studio's co-owner has been murdered. Naturally, the "wrong person" is accused of the crime, obliging Jessica to set things right by exposing the real culprit--and this being a recording studio, rest assured that the most important clue will be aural rather than visual. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
This made-for-TV biopic chronicles the exciting (at times scandalous) life and career of Eroll Flynn, Hollywood's most popular swashbuckling rake. Much of the information comes from Flynn's autobiography. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Duncan Regehr, Barbara Hershey, (more)
- 1984
Perky social worker Laura Mathews (Pam Dawber) takes up the cause of a group of senior citizens, whose dilapidated apartment building has been targetted for demolition. While on a blind date, Laura falls in love with Richard Wylie (James Naughton)--who, alas, turns out to be the very building inspector who condemned the building. But help is on the way in the unlikely shape of Laura's ex-boyfriend, a hotshot attorney. Populated with the sort of "cute" oldsters that generally infest TV movies of this nature (the old ladies swear and play cards, the old men keep unusual pets and pursue eccentric hobbies, etc.), The Last of the Great Survivors premiered January 3, 1984 on CBS. ~TV Guide/Marrill/Internet/Expert ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
- R
The B-grade genres of sexploitation, blaxploitation, and jailhouse flicks mixed with this grotesque sex- and violence-filled melodrama. Linda Blair stars as Carol Henderson, a naïve and inexperienced teenager who is sentenced to 18 months in a women's prison after accidentally killing a man. Once she arrives, Carol meets sadistic, perverted Warden Bacman (John Vernon), who keeps a hot tub in his office. She also encounters the two top-dog prisoners, Ericka (Sybil Danning) and Duchess (Tamara Dobson), who are at war with each other, the leaders of factions in the facility's simmering racial tensions. Then there are the drug-dealing lesbian rapists and the prostitutes, who answer to the warden's snugly-outfitted assistant, Captain Taylor (Stella Stevens). In the meantime, Taylor's lover is secretly carrying on an affair with Ericka. It's a cauldron of fear and rage, but when the prison's corrupt management goes too far, race considerations are set aside as black and white convicts band together. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, John Vernon, (more)
- 1982
- R
Double Exposure is a dull, predictable mystery thriller with a fine cast but hampered by a poor script and bad direction and production. A photographer (Michael Callan) begins to have a series of nightmares concerning bloody, gruesome murders. When those murders become reality, he is the prime suspect and must find the real killer. The cast including Joanna Pettet, James Stacy, Cleavon Little, Sally Kirkland and Seymour Cassel, makes the most of their underwritten and poorly developed characters, but producer/director/writer William Byron Hillman substitutes nudity and lurid, gory special effects for both plot and character. Viewers looking for an interesting thriller based on the same premise might enjoy The Eyes of Laura Mars, and not waste their time with this plodding rip-off. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- 1980
Adapted from the Judith Krantz novel of the same name, the CBS miniseries Scruples zeroes in on a trendy, upscale Beverly Hills boutique. The guiding force behind the Scruples shop is beautiful Billy Ikelhorn (Lindsay Wagner), who, though born into grinding poverty, had risen to the uppermost rungs of L.A. society by virtue of her marriage to millionaire Ellis Ikelhorn (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.). When her husband dies after a long illness, Billy compensates for her grief by becoming a Boadicea of the fashion industry. Her personal and professional life is entangled with those of her closest associates, fashion photographer Spider Elliott (Barry Bostwick) and designer Valentine O'Neill (Marie-France Pisier). Originally telecast in six two-hour episodes on February 25, 26, and 28, 1980, Scruples proved popular enough to warrant a 1981 TV-movie sequel, starring Shelley Smith as Billy, Dirk Benedict as Spider and Olga Karlatos as Valentine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lindsay Wagner, Barry Bostwick, (more)
- 1979
The 8-hour TV miniseries Blind Ambition was originally telecast May 20 through 23, 1979. This 105-minute feature-film version, prepared in 1982, seems a bit rushed at times, but overall does a credible and coherent job of storytelling. Based on John Dean's book Blind Ambition, with elements of Maureen Dean's Mo woven in by screenwriter Stanley R. Greenberg, this is the saga of the Watergate affair, as experienced by Dean (Martin Sheen) and hia wife Maureen (Theresa Russell). As the Nixon administration goes down in flames, the Deans' marriage is sorely tested-as is Dean's success-at-any-price credo. Rip Torn plays Nixon like something out of a Greek Tragedy; some viewers accepted his interpretation, others found it jarringly inaccurate. Others in the cast of "usual suspects" include Michael Callan as Charles Colson, Lonny Chapman as L. Patrick Gray, William Daniels as G. Gordon Liddy, Fred Grandy as Donald Segretti, Christopher Guest as Jeb Magruder, Lawrence Pressman as H. R. Haldeman, William Windom as Richard Kleindienst, James Greene as E. Howard Hunt, Logan Ramsey as J. Edgar Hoover, and Al Checco as judge John Sirica. Also known as The John Dean Story, Blind Ambition earned two Emmy nominations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Sheen, Theresa Russell, (more)
- 1978
This made-for-TV movie relates the true story of the infamous Donner Party, the group of unlucky pioneers who were stranded in the Rockies by a snowstorm and had to eat the bodies of the dead to survive. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Frank Willard's 1927 stage play The Cat and the Canary was filmed several times before this 1978 version saw the light of day. In the story, Annabelle West (Carol Lynley) is one of several potential heirs to a huge fortune. Brought to his foreboding mansion to learn who will benefit from his death, the anxious heirs must sit still for the deceased's taped recitation of his bequests. The dead man, Cyrus West (Wilfred Hyde-White), takes advantage of the occasion to scold his greedy and unpleasant relatives. He leaves behind several posthumous practical jokes which drive his points home. It's a rainy night, the mansion is full of surprises, most of the heirs are an anxious, unpleasant lot, and at least one of them is not above committing murder to have his way. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Honor Blackman, Michael Callan, (more)
- 1978
- PG
This lighthearted, tuneful and youth-oriented comedy is set in a record store and chronicles the zany exploits of its employees. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Much to his dismay, Quincy (Jack Klugman) finds himself at odds with his friend and mentor Dr. Herbert Stone (Barry Sullivan) at a coroner's inquest. At stake is a huge insurance settlement, which will be decided only after the identity of a charred corpse is firmly established. Called in as an expert witness, Dr. Stone insists that the dead man is indeed a wealthy businessman, who has apparently died in a fire. But Quincy is unconvinced that the businessman was the victim, or even that he's actually dead--and worse, he suspects that Stone has "sold out" to the dead man's greedy family. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
The first of Charlie's Angels' Las Vegas episodes finds our three heroines heading to Nevada to find out why the happily married wife of a successful businessman is embezzling funds from her husband's firm and gambling them away. Even more puzzling: The woman seems to want to lose all of her husband's money. To get to the bottom of this mystery, Sabrina (Kate Jackson) poses as a casino auditor, Jill (Farrah Fawcett-Majors) and Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) doll up as aspiring showgirls, and Bosley (David Doyle) impersonates a high-rolling gambler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Farrah Fawcett-Majors, Kate Jackson, (more)
- 1975
- PG
In this thriller, a murderous photographer causes problems for his associates. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1975
- R
Tony Curtis stars as the feared leader of "Murder Incorporated" in this underworld drama based on the life of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Lepke began his criminal career as a petty thief in his teens; a stretch in prison taught him the finer points of life on the wrong side of the law. After getting out of jail, Lepke and his pal Gurrah Shapiro (Warren Berlinger) join a gang who hire themselves out as strikebreakers, and the vicious but clever Lepke soon rises through the ranks. Lepke makes powerful friends with mob kingpins "Lucky" Luciano (Vic Tayback) and Albert Anastasia (Gianni Russo), and when high-ranking but deranged gangster "Dutch" Schultz (John Durren) announces he's going to kill District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey (Richard C. Adams), Lepke is chosen to rub "Dutch" out. Lepke handles the assignment well, and he's able to strike up a deal with the various Mafia families -- he'll form a separate organization to handle executions and assassinations, and he'll hire out his services to any mobsters who need it, provided the mob bosses approve the killings. Between "Murder Incorporated" and a drug ring operated with Luciano, Lepke has become a wealthy and important man in the underworld, but ironically he finds soon himself himself investigated by the man whose life he unwittingly saved -- Dewey. Lepke also features comedian and impressionist Vaughn Meader as the voice of Walter Winchell. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Anjanette Comer, (more)
- 1973
- PG
Frasier the Sensuous Lion would seem to have been conceived as a racy "answer" to Disney's sugary-sweet animal comedies. The talkative title character is befriended by zoologist Marvin Feldman (Michael Callan). When Frasier's loquaciousness becomes public knowledge, Feldman tries to save the lion from being commercially exploited by a sleazy California wildlife preserve. The film's supporting cast includes such TV perennials as Frank De Kova ("Wild Eagle" on F Troop) and Malachi Throne ("Noah Bain" on It Takes a Thief). Frasier's innuendo-laden dialogue is supplied by, of all people, Victor Jory. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
One Life to Life regular Denise Alexander briefly left her day job to star in the late-night videotaped spine tingler A Gift of Terror. Denise plays a woman given to strange, foreboding visions of death. As her friends begin dropping like flies, the girl realizes that the gift of prophecy is no gift at all. This point is driven home (several times, in fact) when Denise begins conjuring up premonitions of her own demise. Gift of Terror was a 1973 entry in the ABC anthology Wide World Mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
A valued member of a powerful crime ring, John Prentiss (Michael Callan) decides to go into business for himself when he falls in love with Ellen Conway (Katherine Justice). Prentiss' former associates aren't keen on this, so they take out a contract on his life. It is up to Inspector Erskine to keep Prentiss alive long enough to be placed behind bars--and what about Ellen? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This is the final sequel to The Magnificent Seven. In this chapter, the lead gunslinger has settled down with a new wife, and has become the marshal of a little town. His peaceful existence is disrupted when a psychotic outlaw rides in, robs the bank, wounds the marshal with his gun, and then rapes and kills his new wife. The marshal is then assigned to save some widowed women from ruthless banditos. To help him, he rallies an eastern journalist and five hardened convicts to ride in and stop them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stefanie Powers, Mariette Hartley, (more)
- 1971
Shot during a jewelry-store holdup, Sgt. Ed Brown (Don Galloway) owes his life to a man (Michael Callan) who rushed to his aid--and then disappeared into the crowd. It soon develops that the good samaritan is actually an AWOL Vietnam veteran who may or may not have killed a comrade in arms. Convinced that the soldier is blameless, Ed puts his life on the line--again--to clear the man's name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
