Chris Robinson Movies

During a non-stop flight to London, a valuable necklace is stolen and the courier hired to guard the necklace is poisoned. One of the passengers is Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), who of course offers her services to Scotland Yard as they try to retrieve the gems and catch the killer. Among the main characters in this melodrama are a famous actress, a taciturn former police officer, and a furtive-looking tourist couple. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Old-time Hollywood director Vincent Sherman brings a glossy studio-bound look to The Dream Merchants, a two-part, four-hour adaptation of Harold Robbins' novel. The story follows the career of a pioneer filmmaker (Mark Harmon), who comes to Hollywood in the early 20th century with a pocketful of dreams and helps build the sleepy California orange-grove community into the world's entertainment capital. Typical of the Harold Robbins ouevre, most of the characters are based on real-life movie personalities: Robert Goulet's vainglorious matinee idol is a combination of John Barrymore and Douglas Fairbanks, while Vincent Gardenia's vitriolic mogul can be taken as a low-budget Louis B. Mayer. The film is rife with historical inaccuracies (Goulet is informed that the closeup has "just been invented by D. W. Griffith" as a means to convince him to sign a long-term contract assuring him plenty of closeups!), while the haircuts and speech patterns are firmly locked into the 1980s. All the same, The Dream Merchants was a profitable entry in the syndicated "Operation Prime Time" series of TV specials. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The convicts in a maximum-security prison have developed a diabolically clever method to smuggle drugs in and out of the institution, using as their "mules" the prisoners' wives who show up on visiting day. When one of the convicts resists getting involved in the drug traffic, his wife on the "outside" is murdered in a laundromat. Hoping to rout the smugglers and prevent further murders, Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) focus their investigation on convict's wife Rita King (Stefanie Powers)--who defiantly refuses to cooperate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This somewhat clunkily titled TV movie was an offshoot of producer Quinn Martin's series The FBI. Robert Foxworth plays Depression-era desperado Alvin Karpis, who for nearly five years eluded capture while committing bank robberies, kidnappings and murders. Karpis finally comes acropper when the FBI's J. Edgar Hoover (Harris Yulin) enters the case. Since this film was made long before Hoover became every filmmaker's favorite historical villain, he is depicted in shining-knight terms, a sharp contrast to the loathsome Karpis. Producer Martin had planned to produce six to nine additional TV-movies based on authentic FBI files, but dropped the project after only three entries. The FBI Vs. Alvin Karpis was first telecast November 8, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Travis Logan, D.A. is a TV pilot film, originally telecast in March of 1971. Vic Morrow heads the cast as Logan, while Hal Holbrook earns "special guest star" billing as a clever murderer. Logan is prepared to go around with Holbrook's defense team when they try to cop an insanity plea. But a little ardent sleuthing reveals a vital trip-up clue in the form of a shotgun pellet. Though Travis Logan, D.A. did not result in a series, its pilot film was far and away superior to most one-shot of its ilk. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hogan plots to kidnap General Burkhalter as part of a hostage swap that will free Underground leader Hans Wagner (Chris Robinson). Unfortunately, things go awry, and it is Klink who ends up kidnapped. Worse still, negotiations for the release of Wagner fall through when Gestapo decides that Klink is eminently expendable. Also appearing are Ann Prentiss (sister of Paula Prentiss) as Ilse and Dick Wilson ("Mr. Whipple" of TV commercial fame) as Captain Gruber. Written by Bill Davenport, "The Missing Klink" first aired on January 4, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this realistic, nonexploitative drama, a high school athlete confesses his life story to a priest. The story is told in flashback. First he is seen as a top football player hoping for a scholarship so he can go to school and get away from his alcoholic father and his hard-working mother. The trouble begins when he is caught swimming in the school pool after hours and put on probation. Though he is love with one girl, he dates another, more wealthy girl. The affair goes well until they are caught in bed by her parents. Later he is falsely accused of participating in a robbery and gets expelled. The lonely youth then takes a 14-year-old slut to a secret hiding place in the church for a quick liaison. But he cannot go through with it because he is disgusted with himself. Instead he goes to confession. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The second season of 12 O'Clock High opened with a shocker of an episode, in terms of killing off a central character. That simply wasn't done on television in those days, even in a series set in wartime. In the pre-credit sequence of the first episode, "The Loneliest Place In The World" -- which was also one of the best-written shows of the entire series -- the plane on which Brigadier General Frank Savage is the pilot and mission commander, returning from a bombing raid, is shot down. We never see the general, who had been played in the first season by Robert Lansing, but are told that he has also been wounded -- and we are told later that only one man, navigator Alex ("Sandy") Kominsky (Chris Robinson), got out alive before it crashed, and that the Germans are burying the general with full military honors. Season two established Paul Burke as the star of the series, in the role of Colonel Joseph A. Gallagher, the new commander of the 918th Heavy Bombardment Group -- Frank Overton returned in the recurring role of Major Harvey Stovall, Barney Philips was back as Doc Kaiser, Andrew Duggan was back as Major General Britt, Gallagher's immediate superior, and Paul Newlan was back as Lieutenant General Pritchard, Britt's commanding officer. The second season generally featured more combat-oriented scripts, and the same level of acting with perhaps more intensity on the part of the performers. There were a few improbabilities in the stories, such as "Big Brother", in which Gallagher ending up landing at a desert base commanded by his infantry officer brother (played by Jack Lord). And the caliber of the guest stars was usually a bit lower than it had been in the first season. Chris Robinson was pushed heavily as a co-star in several scripts that played off of his character's rebel nature. Several episodes also played off of Gallagher's relationship with his father, established early in the season as a lieutenant general who has more or less run out his string, reduced to administrative functions and no chance of further promotion -- one episode ("Grant Me No Favor") dealt the efforts of the elder Gallagher (Barry Sullivan) to get his son a brigadier general's star as compensation for his own career dead-end. As with the first season, the second focused heavily on the psychology of the air officers, but had fewer espionage-related stories, and more that focused more precisely on combat operations. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

When his car runs out of gas on an oceanside road, Manuel Sanchez (Christopher Dark) shows up at the beach house owned by Karen Wilson (Inger Stevens), begging Karen to look after his girlfriend while he goes for gas. Not believing Manuel's story, Karen refuses -- and shortly afterward, Manuel's sweetheart is beaten to death. Suspecting that the killer is one of her neighbors, Karen ends up seeking protection from her friends, a group of handsome surfers. But as it turns out, Karen's fate rests in the hands of Manuel Sanchez -- who may be disinclined to accept such an "honor." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When the Americans capture the village of Beauville, Saunders (Vince Morrow) grants permission to Pvt. Paul Villers (Chris Robinson) to search for his father, whom he hasn't seen since childhood. Catching up with the elder Villers (Will Kuluva), Paul finds that his dad is the town's physician. He also discovers to his chagrin that the "good " doctor is harboring a dark secret. Canadian comic actress Fifi D'Orsay plays it straight as the wife of the local Resistance leader. (Note: in the closing credits, Paul and Emile Villers are incorrectly billed as "Villette"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

In this film based on a true story, Burt Lancaster plays Robert Stroud, a withdrawn prison inmate who cures a sick bird that flies into his cell and eventually becomes a world-renowned ornithologist -- all while serving a life sentence. An overbearing warden (Karl Malden) eventually transfers Stroud to the notoriously brutal prison on Alcatraz, but he is able to continue his research, abort a riot, start a romance, and eventually get his story out through a determined reporter (Edmond O'Brien). Directed with his usual solid craftsmanship by John Frankenheimer, Birdman Of Alcatraz tells a quietly moving tale for which Lancaster, Telly Savalas (as one of Stroud's fellow inmates), and Thelma Ritter (as Stroud's mother) all received Oscar nominations. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide