Michael Callan Movies

Leaning heavily on violence to ostensibly deliver a pacifist message, this standard drama by Philip Leacock looks at the problem of teen gangs from a slightly different angle -- these teens are all wealthy. Everything starts off when aerospace engineer Walt Sherill (Alan Ladd) is accosted and severely beaten by a group of young punks. The victimized man decides to hunt down the thugs on his own, at first just for curiosity and then increasingly for vengeance. His actions spark retaliatory measures, and before the credits roll, the body count is elevated by a few more victims in what amounts to nothing more than a blood feud. In the end, justice of the legal and politically correct sort makes a token appearance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

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

This musical spoof of Westerns featured Lee Marvin in dual roles that won him a Best Actor Oscar. Jane Fonda stars as the title character, a prim schoolmarm returning to her hometown of Wolf City, Wyoming, after receiving an Eastern education. On the train ride, Cat meets up with a pair of friendly, charming crooks, Clay Boone (Michael Callan) and his uncle, Jed (Dwayne Hickman), the former becoming hopelessly smitten with the naive but tough Cat. Upon arriving home, Cat discovers that her eccentric father, Frankie (John Marley), is being threatened with bodily harm by a development company that desperately wants his land. When Frankie is murdered by ruthless, noseless killer Tim Strawn (Marvin), Cat straps on a pair of six-shooters and persuades Clay, Jed, and her father's loyal Native American hand Jackson Two-Bears (Tom Nardini) to sign on as her posse. In her quest for revenge, Cat also recruits Kid Shelleen (also played by Marvin), a one-time fearsome gunslinger who's now a hopeless alcoholic. Cat Ballou (1965) is interspersed throughout the narrative with appearances by Stubby Kaye and Nat King Cole as a pair of balladeers who comment on the action musically in Greek chorus style. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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