McCall (Edward Woodward) loses a potential romantic partner after resolving her issues at the beginning of A Community of Civilized Men when she’s murdered and McCall has to help her daughter, Valerie (Jennifer Grey) survive and elude a professional agent, and killer. Written by Daniel Pyne and Scott Shepherd this episode was first broadcast on…
Tag: mafia
Mission: Impossible (1973) – The Question, and The Fountain
The IMF get back to spycraft this week with The Question. Written by Stephen Kandel it first aired on 19 January, 1973. When a foreign assassin, Nicholas Varsi (holy crap, it’s Gary Lockwood!) defects, the IMF is unsure if he’s legit or a mole, so they are tasked with kidnapping him from his safe house,…
Mission: Impossible (1971) – The Merchant, and Blind
Season five of Mission: Impossible came to an end on 17 March, 1971 with The Merchant. Written by Harold Livingston, the episode marked the final appearance of both Dana (Lesley Ann Warren) and Paris (Leonard Nimoy). Phelps (Peter Graves) allows himself to be captured so that he can ingratiate himself with Armand Andressarian (George Sanders)…
The Devil’s Rain (1975) – Robert Fuest
Sometimes bad is bad, and the next film in DK Canada’s hugely enjoyable Monsters in the Movies, is really bad. In fact despite the star power of the film, the only real reason it should be celebrated is for the fact that it led to a series of William Shatner face masks, one of which…
On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963) – Ian Fleming
The eleventh 007 book, and tenth novel, by Ian Fleming is this week’s entry on the Book Shelf, and you could see how the film series would begin to influence the continuing novels as we get a mention of Bond’s parentage, with his father being a Scot, and there is an increasing sense of Connery…
Miami Vice (1987) – Like a Hurricane, and The Rising Sun of Death
Anything has to be a step up after last week’s abysmal Missing Hours, and Like A Hurricane is a little bit more on track, but is a very Crockett (Don Johnson)-centric story. Written by Robert Palm, this episode first aired on 20 November, 1987. Vice detective Sonny Crockett is given babysitting duty. He’s supposed to…
Little Caesar (1931) – Mervyn LeRoy
The next big title from DK Canada’s The Movie Book is the classic crime drama, The Godfather. Having covered that one previously, I moved onto the What Else to Watch list and dived into classic crime films that I had often heard of, but never seen, including the 1931 film, Little Caesar. Before his voice…
John Wick: Chapter 2 (2017) – Chad Stahelski
When Keanu Reeves stepped onto the screen in the 2014 film, John Wick, cinema lovers and critics met the film with joy and accolades, as it boldly, bloodily and brilliantly updated the revenge films of the 1970s for the 21st century The screen was filled with top drawer stars, and the simplest of revenge stories…
Quantum Leap (1989) – How the Tess Was Won and Double Identity
Oh, boy. Deborah Arakellian penned the first episode up for review this week, How the Tess Was Won, and it aired 14 April, 1989. Sam (Scott Bakula) finds himself as a vet named Doc, in a pig pen on 5 August, 1956, and about to be roped into a competition to win a ranch,…
The Italian Job (1969) – Peter Collinson
The recommendations from my viewing of Rififi for the Great Movies – 100 Years of Film keep coming, and this one was highly enjoyable. Michael Caine leads the cast in this comic caper that sees he and a group of thieves organizing a gold heist, worth four million dollars, by causing a traffic jam…
The Mind Reels 