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Hawaii Five-O: Practical Jokes Can Kill You (1977)
Another fine ep with beauty actress Lee Purcell
She returns in this ep as Molly. She played the same character in season 8. A guy hoodlum who understandably has the hots for Molly spots the stolen cape being carried by her current boyfriend and adds two and two ( that is how the two crime subplots intermingle as the hoodlum was also one of the guys in the failed army truck holdup).
I will add this though. I agree the plots are not totally interesting as they do take a back seat to simply the viewing of the great Lee Purcell. With her around it is easier to care about looking at her than getting into the plot so much. That is why the seemingly failed feeling of this. It is actually a good ep!
Ali (2001)
Two big flaws with this biography film
One is the obvious to most. Will Smith is only playing ... well Will Smith. He fails completely to convince viewers he is the depicted real life popular subject matter. This hurts the depth of the biography. Because when you think it is only Will Smith you are watching you remember back to his days on the often vapid 'Fresh Prince of Bel Air' series where one big frustration was that he was living in such a TV-like world on the show and one that bore no resemblance to reality at all. By bringing that handicap to this film you again feel he is living in a now movie fictional existence!
The other problem with this film is a problem that the actual Muhammed Ali had. It was his very public denouncing of the US's war in Vietnam. A little know known but true fact about the war Ali was so against is that the US was up against Ho Chi Minh a North Vietnamese dictator who mass-murderer many landlords in his country in the 1950s. Did Ali ever know this or care about this fact when he went in his criticism of the US in this war? A very true and important point to remember when you watch this film. (Even Ken Burns, celebrated documentary filmmaker, showed Ho to be such a mass-murderer!)
Hawaii Five-O: To Die in Paradise (1977)
Excellent ep.
Pamela Franklin to be hold sight of. She carries most of the ep with her beauty and talent.
Two kidnappers abduct a country singer by way of a stolen cab with one of them posing as a cabdriver. The boat there all in gets destroyed and the three are stranded in a wilderness like part of Hawaii. There is only a few people and a general store nearby.
The plot is a little hard to follow once you see the general store and then Danno hikes his way up there with no vehicle. How exactly can all these other folks ( including Danno) walk all around there coming and going so easily and getting to and from civilization but the crooks and the extremely beautiful singer are all stuck having to take a very long way just to get a road? How did the person in the general store get to his place of work so easily ( does he live a room in the back of the store?).
The Veil: Vision of Crime (1958)
Solidly good episode
It starts off with a murder being committed. Like later day Columbo eps we see clearly who the murderer is. Then we cut to a man at sea who while looking in some water sees a reenactment of the murder of the man ( the man at sea's brother actually) minus any sound. He does get a from-the-back only mental look at the apparently female killer and thus does not see that it is his own very, very beautiful fiancee doing the killing. She has her hair up so her unique hair style is not visible either.
Now I am going to instantly stress the image the man got in the water at sea is the only supernatural element in this whole ep. Outside of this there is no type of element fitting that description. It is not a ripoff but the ep is barely supernatural with a plot that starts off while it incidentally seems vaguely like the later film 'Eyes of Laura Mars' (the latter film started beautiful Faye Dunaway) and then has nothing supernatural again. So if you have not seen this yet decide if it is worth viewing for so small a supernatural element.
Also, was this really a true story?
Gunsmoke: A Man a Day (1961)
Well crafted ep.
The idea of a person getting killed a day if Matt does not go to Hayes City and let the gang rob the Dodge City-located bank is a dramatic one indeed. The gang are shown pretty early in the ep then they disappear for about the next 2 acts. Then they show up again. Making the gang a mostly unseen deadly menace worked to the ep's great advantage far more than showing them a lot ( while performing their promised murderous deeds) would have.
I would like to point out that when the Billiard Parlor lady tells Chester she is from the same town the murderous gang is also claiming to hail from he fails to make a connection. But we don't.
One final note. This ep has a plot point that die hard James Bond fans may appreciate. Remember how the gang goes to the bank and finds no money. The writers of the '64 Bond film Goldfinger had a similarly scripted plan for thief Auric Goldfinger to break into Fort Knox and find out it ( Fort Knox)was all a decoy and that the gold was not stored there at all. The joke would have been on Goldfinger! That scene did not make it to the final draft and in the finished product Goldfiñger and gang did find a gold supply. But diehard Bond fans knew what the original script was going to be like and this ep is reminscient of that hit Bond film's earlier script.
The Outer Limits: Behold Eck! (1964)
Decent ep about an electrical monster from -- wherever!
A monster that can only be seen and heard ( both!) by humans wearing specially designed optic glasses comes into our world. It has come through a rip in time of some sort and it has to get back and repair or else the universe will cease to exist. Very heavy handed element about the creature having to get back to save out existence is only in the second half of the ep.
As for the acting. Lead Peter Lind Hayes is indeed an actor you probably have not seen in any other shows so you have to buy him as the eye doctor given the universe saving task. Parley Baer ( from The Andy Griffith) makes a rare appearance in this anthology ( he did not do many like this-- no Rod Sterling's Twilight Zone for him). He is fine in his part -- though he may have a little too much to do. Actor Doug Henderson (playing the cop( has too much to do as well. The lead female, Joan Freeman,is very beautiful and interesting and she is the best element of the ep by far. Thanks only to her its up from 7 to 9!
Naked City: No More Rumbles (1958)
The story and the director
The plot is somewhat West Side Storyesque ( though the lead guest has no current lady love interest though he tries to date girls). Like Tony Wyzek in WSS the lead guest is a gang member who has taken to actually working to find life after (and better than )the gang. He is innocently hanging around a fellow gang member friend of his when the latter gets shot by a rival gang ( like the rivalry between the Jets and Sharks in WSS).
This quickly turns the lead's whole life upside down. He is fired from his job and recruited by his gang to shoot dead his late friend's assassin. Will he do it?
This episode is good but not great. It is the fault of the director it is not the latter. His nickname was William "One-Shot" Beaudine. This nickname we because he did most of his scenes with just one take. And he filmed the ep this way apparently also. As a result he did not do multiply takes once the actors got every word in the script scene correct. Exactly why this is very curiously a greater ep.
The Andy Griffith Show: A Warning from Warren (1965)
Andy is schizo and there was lunacy after Barney
It was often thought of by TAGS viewers that if Barney Fife left the Mayberry Sheriff's Dept. ( and eventually he was scripted to do just that) that Andy Taylor would have a much easier life. But this ep contradicts that notion 100 percent as Deputy Warren Ferguson cooks up a well-intentioned scheme about as loony as Fife ever did.
Now to the schizo part of the title. Andy starts the ep being fun loving. He and Warren and Floyd mutually fool around. Later, after they both told him he could not go on the planned picnic, Andy grows intolerant and disgusted at simply the very sight of Goober and Warren. Andy goes into his office and gets a crank call from Floyd telling him of an impending robbery. Andy pretty much jokes the whole thing off. Then Andy gets all serious again once he goes outside to drive himself and Helen to the picnic. What happened to his fun attitude with Floyd on the phone?
Andy BTW is seen telling another Sheriff on the phone other county to like keep him informed of anything happening. Was Warren not on duty?
The Avengers: School for Traitors (1963)
Fantastic episode -- by far one of the show's best
The most memorable bit is when Venus Smith sings a calypso song to an increasingly large crowd while a college student named Ted is playing guitar.
The plot is deep and involved but the episode bears attention and never gets boring. A gang of some kind is running an extortion ring at and nearby a prestigious university ( where Venus is taken to singing at). Several suicides occur at and near the campus and Steed is convinced they are possibly murders. A beautiful lady artist and female seductress named Claire is involved with several men just before their "suicides". She is a chief blackmailer and watch closely in the scene when Teddy comes to her apt. There is a quick closeup of her nyloned foot showing partially how she gets many men to fall for her. An excellent ep but be prepared for multiple viewings to get all the twists though.
Planet of the Apes (1974)
Good but not great series
The film and camera used to make this series were the kind that both produced dull results. Series star Ron Harper later commented that he himself found his own show to be dull. What were viewers expected to think?
Among the series high points was that the ape makeup was usually successfully utilized by the regulars and guests alike who played simians. Also, the two actors playing astronauts were very rock solid in their parts. A good deal of action permeated each ep as well. So even if one was not too cerebral or of too much cerebral entertainment a mind you could enjoy the whole thing from a rock'em-sock'em perspective.
Another problem it had was that the astronauts never encounter an anti-slavery group in all the time we see them. Odd seeing how half the thinking beings are enslaved. This was rather unbelievable. But hey wasn't the whole show?
Roddy McDowall played Galen here and he was a real misfit of a character. Given McDowall's real life childhood that was probably easy to play.
The Outer Limits: Wolf 359 (1964)
Most complex plot of a TV series
And original. A scientist in the desert of likely Nevada in his lab has a replica of a planet light years from Earth. He has planted human DNA into it. He wants to see the planet develop. See Earth's future. But he gets haunted by a strange creature. From where exactly does the creature come? It is an unintentional and unknown creation of the scientist's very own Id like the monster from Dr. Morbius' id in 'Forbidden Planet'?
This is one OL ep you will have to watch over and over again to fully get. It has competent direction and the monster looks plain eerie. A very finely done ep as the plot is indeed the most complicated in the series. Since the ep is ultimately about Earth being created and concept of beings like God watching over us I refer you to the great scientific accuracy in the Holy Bible about God. Accuracy like round Earth and jet streams and the hydrologic cycle and much. God's word indeed.
The Outer Limits: The Sixth Finger (1963)
Great episode thanks to McCallum, Mulhare and Haworth
The episode is about a filthy coal miner Wilhelm( David McCallum) who is persuaded by his beautiful and very highly appealing girlfriend , Cathy ( Jill Haworth) to leave the coal mines and go to work for a job as an assistant to a brilliant professor of genetics (Edward Mulhare). The Professor soon turns the former coal miner into an evolved large brained creature of the future.
The ep is similar to the second Star Trek pilot ' Where no man has gone before' in the premise of a regular man mutating and becoming super knowledgeable and super intelligent. Neither ep of either series is that particularly realistic in it's treatment of the subject matter as actually the universe and life in it is too complicated to have just been a coincidence. (But neither mutated man in either show may have read books or computer-located screen info showing that but in Star Trek pilot's case that is unlikely!) Also, the Bible has scientific accuracy like round Earth and jet streams and more also showing and much more proving it is the word of God indeed. Did either mutant in either episode read about such Biblical accuracy?
( Both eps were directed by James Goldstone!)
The Andy Griffith Show: Suppose Andy Gets Sick (1967)
Memorable late series entry
Technically this ep is uneven to previous series established facts. Andy had gotten sick as a child -- this was referred to earlier in the show in the black and white eps. In this one he is spoken of as if he has never ever been ill before.
This ep had many fine moments all belonging to the character of Goober. He is brilliant as a substitute lawman while Andy is stuck home bedridden with bad flu. Goober is tough and powerful and totally believable ( plus immensely memorable) as a lawman. The only thing he was great as a big city type-lawman for like Raleigh not a small town like Mayberry ( where does he the law enforcement bit for the second time).
The Outer Limits: Demon with a Glass Hand (1964)
Best ep of the two season classic
This ep is very heavily plotted for an hour ep. It tells the story of futuristic aliens called the Kyban and how they pursue a very strange man back to the 20th century. The man is named Trent. He only remembers existing for ten days. He meets a very beautiful and incredible 20th century lady named Consuelo. She helps him defeat the Kyban. The ep is based on literary work by famed scfi writer Harlan Ellison. Robert Culp is positively fine in the lead and he gets superior support from beautiful Arlene Martel playing Consuelo. The aliens are surly played by Steve Harris, Abraham Sofaer, and Rec Holman among others . A real and true winner of an epp.
Saturday Night Fever (1977)
Dated and sloppily directed but with high points
The film has many careless editing bloopers and they detract. Also, the film is pure disco 70s and that era itself was dated by the 80s so imagine what it is now. Another problem is Travolta had reallife lady love at the time( comely actress Diana Hyland) die on him at the time and he is awful angry in scenes because of that.
Yet, some of it somehow remains timeless. The theme of escaping the world you were born into, Catholic religion in your family and it's hold or loosening hold on you, gathering with your friends, dating ladies if you are a guy and more.
Look. I do not use know how the film would have worked if there had been a violent lady in the film who beat people up. So many viewers are bothered by the depiction of ladies in this movie but they are all basically nice and make calm viewing. Besides, most women in real life are nice and not full of bad attitude. I will give the movie high points.
PS The Catholic faith is of course based on the Bible and the Bible is crammed with scientific accuracy like round Earth and jet streams and the hydrologic cycle and more.
Gunsmoke: Harvest (1966)
Lesley Ann Warren's one and only Gunsmoke episode
Story opens with being about Scotts immigrants. Then it also became about a ranching family. Lesley Ann Warren plays the daughter on the latter family. She plays a tough rancher's daughter. She is very beautiful and sexy in the part. Thankfully they also give her many scenes and plenty to do. She runs the gamut of emotions as well. Stern, playful, tough, gentle, romantic etc.
One more thing to add is while she is a really a feast for the for the eyes she is better to look at in color than black and white.
She also has believable and good chemistry with veteran George Kennedy playing her father. Tune in and see.
The Outer Limits: Corpus Earthling (1963)
Well done ep--shot on videotape?
There is only a very few number of characters in this one. I agree Salome Jens manages to be quite sexy in her part.
The ep starts off in a lab. Switches to the doctor's home then it goes to Tiajuana. A couple of locals in Tijuana are all we see. Though we do hear an American couple in the hall at one moment. The locations ( even if not really authentic) manage to keep the story from becoming too boringly cerebral (well them along with Jens).
I will further add this. This ep is not like most other OL eps as being shot on videotape (?) definitely changes the atmosphere and makes it somber than if it was on film. Also, the aliens take a back seat to the human characters. Somehow this one is probably not an ep you will watch more than once or twice ( except for a few glimpses of Jens-- that men may wish to see over and over).
The Outer Limits: The Galaxy Being (1963)
The alien was incredible looking as well as Jacqueline Scott and about God
Cliff Robertson in the technical lead is A-OK but nothing he should have won an Emmy for ( and he did not). Jacqueline Scott OTOH is very beautiful viewing and wears and elegantly walks in very high heels. Truly incredible. The creature is shown in a visually highly impressive way especially when it starts to hit town. The special effects monster ( somebody played him ) and Miss Scott are what is best about the ep indeed.
On the point about God however. He is not made by us in our image. The Bible has great scientific accuracy ( like round Earth and jet streams and much more!) proving it is His word indeed. God is a sub-theme briefly in this this ep.
Gunsmoke: Old Yellow Boots (1961)
Great director for an episode literally scattered all over the place
Ted Post is like one of the very three top directors to ever work in Hollywood. He directed this Gunsmoke and thanks to him everyone performs their roles well. Post was gem of a director that could turn every actor or actress into their characters ( like he did in hit films 'Magnum Force' and 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' and more ). But this script is highly flawed with too many characters ( like an unnecessary drunk), motives not spelled out clearly when they should have been ( when Stevens and beauty Linville decide to marry?) , tiny subplots that were confusing (did Linville really know the judge Matt was trying to get a court order from ?), unexplained holes ( when did Linville hire Russell and the other guy to murder her brother?) and more examples of these and so on. Outside of Linville's comely appearance the ones who score best in are Arness and Weaver with a couple of good moments as lead regulars. Post made this work better than just about any other director but the script was like I said all over the place and the result is a confusing, frustrating mish-mosh with even anachronisms ( though in black and white eps on this show that was common anyway). In short thanks only to Post's turn-actor-into-character-bent direction time spent this confusing mish-mosh is still time somewhat well spent!
Gunsmoke: Stryker (1969)
Dodge City history and Joan Van Ark lifts this episode way up
In a 20th season ep Doc Adams says Matt Dillon brought law and order to Dodge and there was none before before the latter
came. Does this 15th season ep in any way contradict that statement? No. It was Dillon and his superior, Stryker, who combined first brought law and order to Dodge.
As for Joan Van Ark. With her capability and great beauty she easily makes this ep work better than it would otherwise as Sarah -- Stryker's daughter. She is powerful in many scenes like the first she is introduced and when she goes to see her dad visiting her late mom's grave and more. Beauty Joan should have been back for many eps.
Gunsmoke: Mirage (1971)
Very good ep near brilliant
Festus is tracking an outlaw who is wounded named Maddox. Maddox shoots Festus's canteen before the crook dies of wounds. Festus had no water and has to go in the desert. This is well done it is just an unusual way for Gunsmoke to start. Eventually Festus defensively gets into a shootout with someone at a very small ghost town and kills and buries his opponent. He makes his way back to Dodge. Mathew begins an investigation. The deceased man's family claims the dead man was innocent. What will happen?
A great episode capitalizing on Ken Curtis and his positively brilliant acting. Thank Jesus he became Festus!
The Bible in the Beginning... (1966)
About this film and Biblical scientific accuracy
Was actor John Huston really an atheist. If yes, how? The Bible has incredible scientific accuracy. Like in the Book of Geneisi. The scientific dimensions given for the ark would make a vessel highly sea worthy. Huston himself plays Noah in the film.
The Genesis creation of Earth has been shown to be accurate. This was only shown 10 and Huston does 26 years earlier so we will not count this one. ( Google "Nasa discovery solves creation mystery"!)
The Bible showed the Earth round and hang on nothing. Scientifically accurate. The Bible showed jet streams ( in Ecclesiastes). Scientifically accurate. The Bible showed the hydrologic cycle. Scientifically accurate. And much more. How Huston could Huston know this when making the film and still really be an atheist?
Gunsmoke: The Hanging of Newly O'Brien (1973)
A very good season 19 entry
Newly goes in place of Doc Adam's to help a bunch of country hicks with their medical problems. His reception is lukewarm at best. Then Newly goes to a cabin to save the life of an old man in a coma choking. In a rather graphic depiction Newly performs a tracheotomy. The old man dies though despite Newley's best efforts. The hicks wish to try Newly for murder. He is found guilty by them and sentenced to be hung. The sight of Newly noosed and calling the villagers animals for the execution they are about to inflict is the episode highpoint. Indeed!
PS The ep is slightly uneven as
Newly had a stethoscope when he examined the villagers (?). He lacks it when he is tending to the old coma victim.
The Virginian: Eileen (1969)
Debbie Watson rocks!
She is completely beautiful and highly appealing in her role as Eileen the visiting houseguest. The episode had three different types of stories. One a mutual friendship story between Eileen and Elizabeth. Two. A romance between Eileen and Peter. 3. A crime drama element in the kidnapping of Eileen-' this takes up one fourth of the ep. A neat scene between Eileen and Elizabeth after the latter caught Eileen sneaking out to see Peter and for a while Elizabeth wants nothing to do with Eileen till she finds out that was her sweetheart she was sneaking out with. This is a great late entry to the series thanks to Miss. WATSON!