Cliff Carnell Movies

No sooner has Jim (James Garner) arrived in Newark than he is robbed of his watch, wallet, luggage, and return plane ticket. The culprits are a couple of minor-league crooks who hope to break into the Big Time through the auspices of Jim's friend, reformed mobster Beppy Conigliaro (Simon Oakland). Female impersonator Jim Bailey appears as himself in this sequel to the 5th season episode "he Jersey Bounce", with Greg Antonacci and Gene Davis making return appearances as Eugene Conigliaro and Mickey Long. Both this episode and its predecessor were written by David Chase, who later parlayed his fascination with New Jersey mobsters into the groundbreaking cable-TV series The Sopranos. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hired by Dr. Eric Albach (Larry Linville) to find the doctor's missing wife Tracy (Corinne Michaels), Jim is confused by Albach's seeming lack of concern over whether Tracy is brought back dead or alive--or at all. In fact, the farther Jim gets away from solving the woman's disappearance, the more money Albach lavishes upon him. It turns out that Albach is using Jim as the unwitting guinea pig in an elaborate behavioral experiment...and by the time Jim figures this out, a murder has been committed and an aging movie star (J. Pat O'Malley) has been sucked into the intrigue! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Cassavetes' harrowing masterpiece charts the emotional meltdown of a suburban housewife and its effects on her blue-collar Italian family. Gena Rowlands stars as Mabel Longhetti, a mother of three whose husband Nick (Peter Falk) works as a construction worker; a mismatched couple like so many others in Cassavetes films, the Longhettis seem to be complete opposites: she's impetuous, extroverted, and fragile, while he's controlling, distant, and hard-bitten. Their differences underscore a series of domestic dramas, culminating in a nervous breakdown that sends Mabel to a psychiatric hospital for six months, only to return to a home environment on even thinner ice than before. The improvisational style central to Cassavetes' vision is at its most acute throughout A Woman Under the Influence. Like its title heroine, the film threatens to veer out of control at any time, its shape and scope defined not by narrative but by the emotional upheaval at its center. Embracing the full spectrum of the Longhettis' relationship, from seismic bursts of high drama to small, even trivial moments of domestic tedium, its long scenes relentlessly probe every nook and cranny of the family's life, drawing out each moment for maximum emotional impact; the film is by turns beautiful and ugly, illuminating and frustrating, and it features a performance by Rowlands as heartwrenching and unforgettable as any ever committed to celluloid. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

In this touching drama, an abandoned young girl and a world-weary, embittered ex-prizefighter team up and hitchhike to California. There, he hopes to find the drug addicted deadbeat who has absconded with his life savings. As the two make the arduous journey, the boxer cannot help but find his bleak outlook on life lightened by his optimistic young companion who amuses herself by gazing at the world through the gaily colored wrappers of the suckers she always carries. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) goes undercover again, this time motivated not so much by a sense of duty as by loyalty to his old friend Captain Johnson (Robert Bice). The captain's own son has been picked up in a drug raid, and Ness vows to track down the supplier of the illegal narcotics, a particularly slimy character named Peepers (Robert Ellenstein)--who turns out to be only a flunkey for the "big boy", Sal Rudin (Robert Emhardt). And that is how Ness ends up in New Orleans, wearing a bow tie and straw hat and impersonating a jazz musician named Artie Tresh. Unfortunately, Ness' cover may be blown when sexy singer Lorna Shaw (Jacqueline Scott) falls for the incognito Fed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With the 1933 Chicago World's Fair opening in a few days, the three Endicott brothers manage to secure several franchises on the fairgrounds. But not for long: the Endicotts are murdered, and gangsters are put in their place. It's all the handiwork of Mitchell Grandin (Pat Hingle), a wealthy and highly respected member of Chicago's social elite who carries on a secret life as a racketeer. In his efforts to get the goods on Grandin, Elliot Ness (Robert Stack) is tricked into publicly charging the man with the murder of two-bit thug Dolph Cagle (Cliff Carnell), leaving Ness wide open for a costly slander suit. But for all his cleverness, Grandin hadn't counted on the intervention of a certain Frank Nitti (Bruce Gordon)--to say nothing of Dolph Cagle's "widow" Fran (Jeanne Cooper). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Shadows was John Cassavetes' first directorial effort. Like his later critically acclaimed films Faces and Husbands, Cassavetes fills the screen with probing, unflattering closeups. Unlike his other films, however, Shadows zips along at 87 minutes, avoiding the pitfall of putting the director's nonfans to sleep. The film is a straightforward account of a biracial romance (a far less common film subject in 1960 than today). Light-skinned African-American Lelia Goldoni falls in love with a white man Anthony Ray, who spurns her when he meets the rest of her family. Far from subtle, Shadows benefits from the undisciplined energy of its direction and the excellence of its individual performances. Costing a scant $40,000 (less than the average half hour TV episode of the era), Shadows won the Critic's Award at the Cannes Film Festival and led to more expensive studio assignments for John Cassavetes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide