Boris Sagal Movies

After a string of heavy "message" dramas, Elizabeth Montgomery opts for whimsical comedy in the made-for-TV When the Circus Comes to Town. She plays a repressed spinster in a turn-of-the-century Georgia town, captivated by the arrival of a seedy circus. Having never had a real childhood, Ms. Montgomery vows to fill that void by running off to join the show. Truculent ringmaster/owner Christopher Plummer puts Montgomery to work at the lowest rung of the job ladder: cleaning out the animal cages. As the story develops, Montgomery works her way up to the position of somersaulting acrobat--and incidentally falls in love with Plummer, a circumstance that both parties have strived to avoid. When the Circus Comes to Town is highlighted by its big-top sequences, in which Elizabeth Montgomery performs many of her own stunts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wits and weapons clash in this 1981 epic chronicling a rebellion by Jewish Zealots against Roman rule. After Jerusalem falls to the Romans in 70 A.D., nearly a thousand Jewish rebels led by Eleazar ben Jair (Peter Strauss) withdraw to a mountaintop fortress 30 miles southeast of Jerusalem. There, fed by defiance and an unlimited supply of cistern water, they make their stand against Roman rule, now and then conducting surprise raids against Roman positions down below. Whenever the Romans retaliate, Eleazar goes them one better. He and his men burn grain supplies, poison wells and generally make life miserable for the Roman 10th Legion, encamped in the baking desert surrounding the fortress. Frustrated, the Roman general Cornelius Flavius Silva (Peter O'Toole) brings in a brilliant siege master, Rubrius Gallus (Anthony Quayle), to devise a way to breach the mountaintop stronghold. When Gallus begins construction of an earthen ramp up the mountainside, rebels rain down arrows on the Roman workers. Flavius then uses Jews from nearby villages to build the ramp. Meanwhile, Flavius makes several attempts to persuade the rebel Jews to surrender, promising they will live in peace and prosperity under Roman rule. But the Jews are adamant; they want only one thing: freedom, or, at the very least, limited freedom under a Roman-appointed Jewish governor. But after Roman Emperor Vespasian vetoes peace plans, the ramp continues to rise. When it is finished, the Romans pull a massive battering ram on wheels--another of Gallus's stratagems--up the ramp, and the stage is set for the final battle deciding the fate of the Jews. This film had at least three incarnations: as a 6-hour, 34-minute TV series in 1980, and then in trimmed-down versions in 1981 and 1984. Although the filmed-on-location Masada is based on history, parts of it are fictionalized. ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide

Somehow the sleek and sophisticated Kate Mulgrew isn't whom we pictured as the wife of the eternally unkempt Lt. Columbo, but Universal Television was looking for ratings, not credibility (it got neither). Mrs. Columbo: Word Games is the 2-hour pilot for the Mrs. Columbo TV series, which premiered February 26, 1979. Mother, homemaker and reporter for a neighborhood newsletter, Kate Columbo exhibits her husband's sleuthing prowess when she investigates a violent quarrel between neighboring couple Robert Culp and Edie Adams. Kate is laughed off when she insists that Culp has announced plans to murder Edie; what results is a double murder. When Mrs. Columbo bombed, Universal revamped the project, dropped the "Columbo" tie-in (and the marriage), and released the results as Kate Loves a Mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Duvall stars as Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower in this made-for-TV biography, which focuses on his career in the military during World War II as he helped to guide Allied forces to victory. Along with Eisenhower's military exploits and political aspirations, Ike: The War Years also offers a perspective on his person life, in particular his relationship with Kay Summersby (Lee Remick), the driver who later claimed to have had a long-term romantic relationship with him. First broadcast as a multi-part miniseries, Ike: The War Years also stars Dana Andrews, Darren McGavin, Laurence Luckinbill, and Steve Roberts as Franklin D. Roosevelt. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

More ambitious and expensive than ABC's first "novel for television" miniseries QB VII, the eight-episode, 12-hour Rich Man, Poor Man was the one that truly put the genre on the map, its phenomenal success in the ratings making possible the even more spectacular Roots. Adapted from the mammoth novel by Irwin Shaw, the miniseries covers the years from WWII to the 1960s, detailing the vacillating fortunes of the immigrant Jordache brothers. "Rich Man" Rudy Jordache (Peter Strauss) is determined to use his hard-earned education -- and his inherent ruthlessness -- to carve out a business and political empire not unlike that enjoyed by Joseph P. Kennedy and his progeny. "Poor Man" Tom Jordache (Nick Nolte), a quick-fisted hothead, goes an entirely different route, first as a professional boxer, then as a functionary of the evil gangster chieftain Falconetti (William Smith). Naturally, both brothers become entangled in romance along the way, with Julie Prescott (Susan Blakely) ending up as Rudy's benighted spouse. Originally telecast on February 1, 2, 9, 16, 23, and March 1, 8, and 15 in 1976, Rich Man, Poor Man earned 20 Emmy nominations and led to a weekly sequel, Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book 2, in the fall of 1976 (this version necessitated a title change for the original, which was rebroadcast as Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book 1 in the spring of 1977). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Raymond Burr stars again as a lawyer, this time named Arthur Mallory. No Perry Mason he, Mallory has been on the outs since being falsely accused of perjury. Eventually cleared, Mallory lives hand to mouth as a public defender, with a heightened sense of fair play when it comes to the downtrodden. In this pilot film for the never-sold TV series Mallory, the attorney defends a jailed car thief (Mark Hamill) who has been framed for the killing of another prisoner. The original network title for this two-hour TV movie is Mallory: Circumstantial Evidence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Franciscus stars as a university professor with an eye on bigger things. Using his inherent promotional know-how, he launches a career in the record industry, eventually operating his own top-selling label. To insure that the local stations will run his artists' recordings, Franciscus crosses certain deejays' palms with silver. That's called payola, and that's against the law. His empire shattered, Franciscus is reduced to cabdriving to earn a living--and by the end of the film he's neither earning nor living. Singer Kenny Rogers makes his acting debut as one of Franciscus' clients; also featured is Rogers' former First Edition colleague Mickey Jones. Made for television, The Dream Makers has pretenses of profundity, but ultimately is as pointless as its abrupt climax. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This western chronicles the travails of a pioneer family as they travel west in search of a new life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of Ironside's two-part Season Seven finale (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), new San Francisco police chief Amy Prentiss (Jessica Walter) runs up against a wall of hostility and resistance from the town's all-male establishment. Fortunately, Amy can count former chief Ironside (Raymond Burr) and his team among her supporters. But even Ironside may not be able to help Chief Prentiss as she is assigned a "make-or-break" murder case. This episode served as the pilot for the spinoff series Amy Prentiss, with supporting player Art Metrano retained in the series proper as Amy's aide Tom Pena. Johnny Seven, here seen in his standard Ironside role as Lt. Carl Reese, would join the Amy Prentiss cast as Detective Contreras, while the role of Joan, here played by Joan Pringle, would be taken over by Gwen Mitchell (Pringle would be compensated with a recurring Ironside role as the new wife of Chief Ironside's former bodyguard Mark Sanger [Don Mitchell]). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Of the two rape-oriented TV movies of the 1973-74 season, A Case of Rape, first telecast February 20, 1974, is far and away the finer film (the other was the compelling but contrived Cry Rape). Elizabeth Montgomery stars as a housewife who is sexually assaulted not once but twice by a so-called family friend (Cliff Potts). The rape is only the beginning of a long cycle of humiliation and self-doubt: the investigating police are dismissive of Montgomery's charges, the female defense attorney (Rosemary Murphy) tries to put the victim on trial, and Montgomery's reputation and marriage (to Ronny Cox) are irrevocably damaged. Though things don't go well for her in the courtroom, Montgomery emerges from the experience a stronger and more self-reliant person, unwilling to allow herself to be destroyed by outside influences. Don't miss the final confrontation between raper and rapist after the trial--an underplayed but bone-chilling vignette. Had not Cicely Tyson sewn up the Emmy with The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Elizabeth Montgomery would certainly have copped the prize with A Case of Rape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The made-for-TV family-Western Hitched is a sequel to the 1971 TV movie Lock, Stock and Barrel, with Sally Field stepping into the role originally played by Belinda Montgomery. Newly married couple Roselle and Clare Bridgeman (played by Field and Tim Matheson) head westward to seek their fortune, only to become accidentally separated. In their efforts to stage a reunion, both Roselle and Clare undergo a variety of exhilirating experiences involving outlaws, sharpsters, saloon gals, and a Native American or two. Originally telecast by NBC on March 31, 1973, Hitched was intended as the pilot for a weekly TV series, and as such was shown in tandem with another busted pilot, Savage, starring Martin Landau and Barbara Bain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide