Allen Reisner Movies

The emphasis in this episode is not on Jessica (Angela Lansbury) but on her old friend, indefatigable LA homicide detective Jake Ballinger (Barry Newman). Refusing to give up his own personal investigation of a "closed" murder case, Jake is forcibly relocated to a small college town, there to teach a course in criminology. Of course, Ballinger intends to continue pursuing his investigation, this time with help of his students--all two of them (he'd scared the rest of the class away on the first day of the semester!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Angela Lansbury is reunited with her onetime The Picture of Dorian Gray costar Hurd Hatfield in this episode, in which Jessica Fletcher (Lansbury) attends a special performance by a Soviet ballet troupe. Just as two of the dancers decide to defect, the KGB official assigned to the troupe is killed. When one of the defecting dancers also turns up murdered and a terrified ballerina is accused of the crime, Jessica reluctantly joins forces with a gruff government official to solve the crimes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While visiting her cousin Abby (Lynn Redgrave) at lavish Langley Manor in the deep South, Jessica is among those present when patriarch Denton Langley (Dan O'Herlihy) is accidentally killed during a fox hunt. What is puzzling about the situation is that Langley's normally docile horse was startled enough to throw the man to his death. Later on , Langley's daughter is also killed, and all evidence points to a single, and very unusual, suspect: Langley's beloved pet dog (and sole beneficiary) Teddy! Country singer Roger Miller appears as the local sheriff. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Future Cop had been a disastrous 1977 TV series about a human cop and his "biosynthetic android" (or robot) partner. Not content to leave bad enough alone, Paramount Television attempted to revive the Future Cop concept under the title The Cops and Robin. As in the earlier TV series, Ernest Borgnine is the flesh-and-blood policeman, teamed with humanlike robot Michael Shannon. Borgnine and Shannon are assigned to protect Robin (Natasha Ryan), the 6-year-old daughter of the witness to a cop killing. Even if Cops and Robin had made it as a series, it would have run into trouble from authors Harlan Ellison and Ben Bova, who sued the producers on the basis that this TV-movie pilot was swiped from their own short story Brillo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night stars Susan Dey as a young mother with a history of mistreating her 3 year old daughter. Ms. Dey's erratic behavior is rooted in her own unhappy childhood and her failed marriage. Tricia O'Neil plays the doctor who endeavors to help both Dey and her daughter, despite the interference of well-meaning bureaucrats. Joanna Lee's script for this TV movie would have been twice as effective had it not relied so heavily on character stereotypes. The title character of Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night was played by little Natasha Ryan, who portrayed several battered children during her short career. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of four dramatic miniseries carried by NBC under the blanket title Best Sellers, Captains and the Kings was adapted from a novel by Taylor Caldwell. Covering a time span from 1857 to 1912, this was the saga of the Irish-immigrant Armagh clan, with emphasis on the rags-to-riches career of Joseph Armagh (Richard Jordan). Achieving fame and prominence (if not full-fledged social acceptance) through a Byzantine series of investments in the oil industry, the elder Armagh was obsessed with the notion of having one of his sons become the first Irish-Catholic President of the United States (does this story sound vaguely familiar?). Along the way, Joseph and his offspring indulged in innumerable romantic liaisons, extramarital and otherwise. Featured in the all-star cast is Patty Duke Astin, who won an Emmy award for her portrayal of Bernadette Hennessey Armagh. Captains and the Kings was broadcast from September 30 to November 18, 1976 in seven installments, two of which ran 120 minutes, and the other six lasting 60 minutes -- a total of nine hours' air time in all. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Leslie Nielsen guest stars as Michael Hagar, the mastermind of a million-dollar diamond heist. What Hagar doesn't realize is that he is being manipulated into adding murder to his list of crimes. Pulling the strings is Hagar's sexy partner Paula (Ja'net DuBois, a duplicitous loan shark who has planned all along to use the jewel robbery to cover up the killing of her husband. Kojak (Telly Savalas) has a high old time bringing the villains to justice in this episode, which also features an early appearance by Antonio Fargas, aka "Huggy Bear" on Starsky and Hutch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-TV comedy, the writer for a hit TV show learns that the lead actress is about to marry the show's wealthy sponsor, thus putting him (and the rest of the show's cast and crew) out of a job. To get his revenge, he writes her into a kidnaping scheme -- and then turns it into fact. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

Mark (Don Mitchell) comes to the aid of his old boxing coach Bakey Baker (James Gregory), now an impoverished derelict. Unjustly accsued of felonious assault, Baker is unable to afford a decent lawyer, and the authorities are callously prepared to hang the man solely on the basis of circumstantial evidence, refusing even to listen to his side of the story. Mark's frustration with the iniquities of the legal system reaches the crisis stage when he can't even persuade his liberal law-school instructor Maria Wakeman (Janet MacLachlan) to take up Bakey's cause. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Louis Jourdan, Kurt Krueger, Phillippe Fourquet and Stuart Nesbet star in To Die in Paris. Jourdan carries most of the film as a World War 2 resistance leader. His value to his comrades is compromised when he is targetted by an unknown assassin. All evidence indicates that the would-be killer is another member of the resistance, who may or may not be a traitor As indicated by the title, To Die in Paris was largely filmed in France. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the second episode of a three-part story, Presidential emissary Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) has managed to disuade his former West Point comrade General Custer (Robert Lansing) from sparking an Indian war to further his own political ambitions. Shortly thereafter, Chief Crazy Horse (Michael Pate) arrives in Washington to plead for peace and fair treatment of his people from General Sheridan (John Pickard). Alas, Sheridan's philosophy is that the only good Indian is a dead Indian--and this time, Jason may not be able to prevent a bloodbath. Excerpts from "Call to Glory" were later combined with scenes from two other Branded episodes, "Fill No Glass for Me" and "Now Join the Human Race", to form the direct-to-video "feature film" Blade Rider: Revenge of the Indian Nations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Kent Smith guest-stars as James Winthrop, a prominent American diplomat-and shameless womanizer. Agents Kelly and Scottie are assigned to keep Winthrop away from the girls during a delicate series of financial negotiations in Japan. France Nuyen, soon to become Mrs. Robert Culp, is seen as Sada. Written by Robert C. Dennis and Earl Barrett, "Always Say Goodbye" made its network broadcast debut on January 26, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this seriocomic I Spy episode, Kelly and Scott are ordered to assist in the defection of Soviet political theorist Professor Shenko (John Abbott) during a lecture tour in Japan. Inasmuch as Shenko is under constant surveillance by the Reds, Scotty assumes the disguse of a foreign ambassador. Though the mission is successful, the agents aren't out of the woods yet: In retaliation, the Soviets have kidnapped the daughter (Lisa Jager) of Kelly and Scott's boss Sommers (Philip Ober). Also appearing is Joan Blackman as deceptively demure schoolteacher Donna Shepard. First shown on January 12, 1966, "The Barter" was written by Harvey Bullock and P.S. Allen, on leave from The Andy Griffith Show. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide