Mike Connors Movies

Hollywood is abuzz with the news that a film completed back in 1960, but shelved after its director died mysteriously, has been rediscovered and restored. This takes place at a studio that has become a target for a wide variety of movie pirates--and not a few dedicated film buffs. When one of those buffs is killed, Jessica suspects that a murder has been committed, and that this killing is tied in with the death that occurred way back in the sixties. Featured in the cast is a young James Caviezel, who a decade later would star in Mel Gibson's controversial The Passion of the Christ. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A pair of police officers keep adventure and crime-fighting in the family in this action drama. Joe Armen (Mike Connors) is a veteran police detective whose new partner, Tom Bullik (Roch Voisine), is a bright young cop who also happens to be Joe's nephew, whom he raised following the death of Tom's parents. Joe and Tom find themselves on the run from mobsters after they testify against a powerful crime kingpin, but that's only the start of their troubles; after rescuing a woman (Maruschka Detmers) from a botched kidnapping, they find themselves involved in a scheme to recover the long-lost fortune of the Knights Templars. When not acting, co-star Roch Voisine is best known as a top-selling pop star in French-speaking Canada. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

This slick and stylish episode is something of a variation of the classic film noir DOA, with overtones of Raymond Chandler. Travelling to Hollywood in the company of elderly writer Walter Murray (Mike Connors), with whom she is slated to collaborate on a movie script, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) makes a brief stop at a seedy motel-diner. Later that evening, Walter is found dead in his motel room, leaving behind a tape recording detailing the events leading up to his demise. In a series of stunningly photographed black-and-white flashbacks, Jessica learns that on the previous evening, Walter had been reunited with a woman (Elizabeth Ashley) whom he hadn't seen in 19 years--not since he killed her abusive husband! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rule of thumb: if David Lowell Rich directed it, it's probably a TV movie. Beg, Borrow or Steal stars Mike Connors, Michael Cole and Kent McCord as three ex-cops, disabled while on duty. Having trouble finding regular work, the three men team up to steal a valuable statue from a museum. Connors has no legs, Cole no hands, and McCord is blind: but when they're working together, they're a lean mean stealing machine. Beg, Borrow or Steal is as tasteless as it sounds, but at least it has the novelty of three popular TV detective-show stars pooling their resources on the opposite side of the law. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Mannix returns for a second season of nonstop action. This critically acclaimed series stars Mike Connors as Joe Mannix, the tough-talking private detective who brawls with the bad guys, shakes it off with a cocktail, then solves the crime every time. By Season 2 (1968-69 on CBS), Mannix has left the confines of a large detective agency and set up shop at 17 Paseo Verde, aided by his loyal secretary, Peggy Fair (Gail Fisher), a young widow and mother whose policeman husband died in the line of duty. With all 25 Season 2 episodes digitally remastered onto six discs, the streetwise detective with a touch of class is back on the case.

This is one of a handful of episodes in which Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) appears only fleetingly, with the bulk of the drama handled by a "special guest attorney." While Perry is in Europe on business, fellow attorney Joe Kelly (Mike Connors) agrees to help Bill Jaris (Robert Harland), the owner of a bowling alley in the town of Tesoro. The town is controlled by Bill's monstrous mother-in-law Bonnie Mae Wilmot, aka "The Duchess", who conspires with Dr. Max Taylor (Milton Selzer) to have the bowling alley closed down for health reasons. When Taylor is murdered and Bill is charged with the crime, Kelly works overtime to defend his client. Reportedly, this episode (which for many years was not included in the series' syndication package and thus considered "lost") was contrived by the producers to test out Mike Connors as a potential replacement for Raymond Burr, who at the time was seriously considering retirement at the end of Perry Mason's eighth season. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Among the passengers in a westbound stagecoach are gunslinger-for-hire Paladin (Richard Boone) and a Philadelphia girl named Christie Smith (Marian Seldes). It turns out that Christie is a mail-order bride, en route to the husband she has never met. Descending from the coach in the middle of nowhere (actually Lone Pine, California), Christie anxiously awaits her husband's arrival--accompanied by Paladin, who has decided to provide escort and protection to the girl whether she likes it or not ("Someone has to take care of small children and stubborn women!") A pre-Mannix Mike Connors figures prominently in the episode's grimly startling climax. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi