Sagal, Boris

Masada - The Complete Epic Mini-Series

This 1981 television miniseries, based on Ernest K. Gann's historical novel The Antagonists, is a dramatization of a documented revolt by nearly a thousand Jerusalem Jews against Roman oppressors in A.D. 72 to 73. Following a city-wide siege by Rome's soldiers, Jewish Zealots move into a fortress in the mountains of Masada, from which they present a defense strong enough to convince the enemy to negotiate. Peter O'Toole, in all his golden dignity, plays Cornelius Flavius Silva, commander of the Roman legions, and Peter Strauss is Zealot leader Eleazar ben Yair. Both are outstanding as representatives from each side trying, in good faith, to find a way out of the deadlocked situation. Unfortunately, neither realizes that Rome has no intention of yielding, resulting in one of the greatest tragedies in Jewish history. A strong cast of character actors--David Warner, Barbara Carrera, Timothy West, and Anthony Quayle--is rewardingly watchable, the action and sets are persuasive without overwhelming the story's human dimension, and direction by Boris Sagal (The Omega Man) is crisp and enthralling. This was a pleasure to watch when it was first broadcast, and it holds up very well today. --Tom Keogh

"A victory? What have we won?" laments a breathtaking Peter O'Toole as the Roman warrior Flavius Silva. "We've won a rock in the middle of a wasteland, on the shores of a poisoned sea." Thus does Masada, the epic 1981 miniseries about a horrific battle in ancient Palestine, echo the terrible toll of war in general, and of the brutal conflicts in today's Middle East in particular. Masada, from the golden age of miniseries (Roots, Shogun), is a transportive viewing event--shot on location, and apparently no expense spared.

The film retells (with some dramatic license) the true story of an uprising in Palestine of a ragtag band of Jews, in a fortress called Masada, who refuse to surrender to the governing Romans. O'Toole, as Flavius Silva, is the brilliant commander who, over the course of several years of trying, and failing, to breach Masada, comes to regard the leader of his foes, Eleazar ben Yair (the charismatic Peter Strauss), with a certain amount of respect and awe. If left to Flavius, he might have simply leave the holdout fortress and return to the Italy he so longs for; but the Roman emperor demands victory--at any cost.

The performances are uniformly crisp and believable; the direction by Boris Sagal, economical; the screenplay, sharp and incisive. David Warner, who won an Emmy for his performance, plays the brutal Roman henchman Falco with seething determination. The location shooting is nothing short of spectacular. There is sorrow in the story of Masada, but an uplifting message in the ability of true believers to create their own destiny. --A.T. Hurley

In first century A.D., Flavius Silva (Peter O'Toole), commander in Roman Palestine, leads his forces in combat against the remaining Jewish Zealots who have taken refuge in the seemingly impregnable fortress of Masada. There, the engineering and military might of Rome faces the passion and ingenuity of Eleazar Ben Yair (Peter Strauss) and his people. Based on the novel "The Antagonists" by Ernest K. Gann, this epic, 4-part mini-series was shot on location in Israel.

Night Gallery - The Complete First Season

Girl Happy

Elvis plays Rusty Wells the leader of a four-piece rock group consisting of Gary Crosby Joby Baker and Jimmy Hawkins. Hired by Chicago gangster boss Big Frank (Harold J. Stone) to protect the virtue of Frank's cute daughter Valerie (Shelley Fabares) Rusty and his buddies follow Valerie to Fort Lauderdale during Spring Break. The girl falls in love with Rusty then falls out of love when she learns that he's in her dad's employ. Valerie then becomes involved with a slick Italian playboy (Fabrizio Mioni) forcing Rusty to break up the romance lest he end up in a cement overcoat.Running Time: 96 min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: MUSICALS/MUSICALS UPC: 012569797529 Manufacturer No: 79752

Elvis Presley does the clam--a now-forgotten dance--in this 1964 potboiler in which the King stars as a singer who gets a gig in Ft. Lauderdale with his combo but has to baby-sit a mobster's teenage daughter (Shelley Fabares) as part of the deal. Fabares's character, looking for a break, runs wild and makes life difficult for Elvis. The film has the usual "Elvis movie" bounce and wolfish jokes and glossy disposability, but the endearing (and smart) presence of Fabares as the love interest adds a bit more zip than usual. Songs include the title track, plus "Puppet on a String," "Do Not Disturb," and "Let's Party Tonight." Directed by Boris Sagal (The Omega Man). --Tom Keogh

Ironside - The Complete First Season

"He's not a man in a wheelchair. He's Ironside in a wheelchair." Yes, and while TV cop shows come and go, there was only one Ironside, which makes its first appearance on DVD with this eight-disc boxed set, containing 28 episodes from the show's first season (1967-68), along with the pilot that preceded it in '66. The series is like others of its ilk and time, in ways both good (snappy dialogue and very cool, jazz-inflected music, including a theme song by Quincy Jones and scoring by the great composer-arranger Oliver Nelson) and mediocre (slow pacing, and a thoroughly square take on the mid-'60s counterculture). But what sets this one apart is the presence of Raymond Burr in the title role. Just a year removed from Perry Mason, Burr is outstanding as a former San Francisco chief of detectives who returns to the force as a consultant following the shooting that leaves him wheelchair-bound (illuminated in the 90-minute "world premiere"). His Robert Ironside is gruff, acerbic, free of self-pity (told by a doctor that he'll never walk again, he replies, "Is that all?"), and always ready with a sarcastic quip ("Are you brother and sister, or do you just cross-pollinate?" he says to two self-described "flower people"). He's also a policeman who's not shy about bending a rule or two as he relentlessly pursues the bad guys. And while his team (Don Galloway and Barbara Anderson as young cops and Don Mitchell as the African American delinquent who becomes his driver and caretaker) often chafes under his, um, iron hand, he's also a sympathetic mentor skilled in the art of tough love.

Story-wise, Ironside is pretty typical: murder, robbery, car theft, and a smattering of more contemporary issues like drugs and the Cold War. While there are occasional chase scenes and gunfights (most of them less than gripping), the focus is on a facts-first, conclusions-later approach to crime solving; "the chief" relies on the dry, meticulous gathering of evidence and factual minutiae and an almost Sherlock Holmesian attention to logic and detail to win the day. The result: Ironside may be crippled, but he's not lame. The DVD transfers are crisp and clean, but the boxed set contains no bonus material. --Sam Graham

The Omega Man

Science fiction took a grim turn in the 1970s--the heyday of Agent Orange, nuclear peril, and Watergate. Suddenly, most of our possible futures took on a "last man on Earth" flavor, with The Omega Man topping the doom-struck heap.

Charlton Heston plays the government researcher behind the ultimate biological weapon, a deadly plague that has ravaged humanity. There are two groups of survivors: a dwindling band of immune humans and an infected, psychopathic mob of light-hating quasi-vampires. The infected are led by Mathias, a clever, charismatic man set on destroying the last remnants of the civilization that produced the plague. Heston has a vaccine--but he and the few remaining normals are outnumbered and outgunned. By day, he builds a makeshift version of the nuclear family (with Rosalind Cash as his afro-wearing, gun-toting little lady). They plan for the future while roaming freely through an empty urban landscape, taking what few pleasures life has left. By night, they defend themselves against the growing horde of plague victims. Both a bittersweet romance and a gothic cautionary tale, The Omega Man paints a convincing portrait of hope and despair. It ain't pretty, but it's a great movie. --Grant Balfour

Charlton Heston plays humankind's last hope, the last survivor of a hellish, germ-warfare doomsday, fighting off fiendish subhuman mutants that stalk by night. Bonus featurette - The Last Man Alive. Starring: Charlton Heston, Rosalind Cash, Anthony Zerbe Year: 1971 Sound: ENG, FR; Subtitles: ENG, FR Screen Format: Side A: Standard; Side B: Wiedescreen

Peter Gunn, Set 2

Peter Gunn, Set 1

McCloud - Seasons 1 and 2

A viewer's favorite from the get-go, McCloud applied country-to-city humor to the popular police-series formula that exploded on TV networks in the early 1970s. Although it would eventually become part of the three-way line-up on the "NBC Mystery Movie" schedule (where it rotated with McMillan & Wife and Columbo, the series pilot premiered (on September 16, 1970) as part of NBC's "Four-in-One" cycle of TV miniseries (Rod Serling's Night Gallery was also in that foursome), and its popularity quickly earned a regular network timeslot, first on Wednesdays at 9:00 p.m. and later as the "Mystery Movie" threesome settled into a well-rated Sunday-night slot. To be sure, McCloud owed almost all of its success to the perfect casting of Dennis Weaver as Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud, of Taos, New Mexico, a good ol' boy crimefighter who spends the two-hour pilot ("Portrait of a Dead Girl") tracking a key witness who's escaped from his custody. This takes him to New York City, where the show's premise (involving McCloud's temporary assignment with Manhattan's 27th precinct, to "learn the methods of a large metropolitan police force") placed him at constant odds with his immediate superior, Chief Clifford (J.D. Cannon) as he partnered up with Sgt. Joe Broadhurst (Terry Carter, later on the original Battlestar Galactica) and pursued an on-and-off romance with Chris Coughlin (Diana Muldaur), a journalist who finds McCloud endlessly intriguing (not to mention newsworthy).

These characters are now far more appealing than the hoary plots that frequently found McCloud applying Southwest sleuthing to Big Apple crimes. Like McCloud himself, many of these 11 episodes are lanky and loose-jointed, and not quite as involving as nostalgic reverie might suggest. The first-season episodes are also the "condensed" versions, resulting from the subsequent combination (after their original broadcasts) of two original one-hour episodes into one 90-minute segment, hence the credits for two directors and two-layered plotlines in episodes like "Manhattan Manhunt," starring Richard Dawson as a Cockney-accented theater producer threatened by a would-be killer. (The second-season episodes are fully intact as originally shown.) And while the cost-cutting expediency of '70s TV production is painfully evident in cheesy process shots, blunt ADR recording, and oft-repeated stock footage, the tongue-in-cheek charm of McCloud remains fully intact, as Weaver adopts his signature line ("There ya go!") and commands his role with a gentleman's demeanor and a wry, fish-out-of-water perspective on big-city police work in episodes costarring a who's-who of '70s guest stars including Barry Sullivan, Nina Foch, Milton Berle, Stephanie Powers, Susan Strasberg, Bo Svenson, Sebastian Cabot, Susan Saint James (just prior to McMillan & Wife) and many more. The sight of McCloud navigating Manhattan's concrete canyons on a galloping horse was iconic in the playful spirit of the series: It makes no sense whatsoever, but with Weaver in the role, you bought it immediately and happily went along for the ride, which explains why McCloud aired for five enjoyable seasons until 1977. --Jeff Shannon

"There ya' go." Rustle up some action and adventure as police drama McCloud rides on to DVD for the first time ever! Emmy winner Dennis Weaver stars as the brave Deputy Marshal Sam McCloud, the toughest cowboy to ever take on the mean streets of New York, as well as the by-the-book detectives on the NYPD. Despite the demands of his strict supervisor, Chief Peter B. Clifford (J.D. Cannon), McCloud finds himself in an endless showdown with some of the meanest criminals east of the Mississippi. This amazing DVD set from the popular NBC Mystery Movie Series features all 11 thrilling episodes of McCloud Seasons 1 & 2 ' including the series' pilot, as well as a gripping bonus episode of the popular McMillan & Wife. Saddle up with entertaining guest stars including Milton Berle, Pat Morita, Stefanie Powers and more in the series that proved that sometimes all you need to solve a crime is a little good ol' country know-how.20

Ironside - Season 2

The toughest cop on four wheels returns with this seven-disc set containing all 26 episodes from the second season (1968-69) of Ironside. Of course, that also means that Raymond Burr is back in the title role, portraying a former San Francisco chief of detectives who returned to the force as a consultant following the shooting that left him wheelchair-bound (also returning are his core team, including Don Galloway as Detective Sgt. Ed Brown, Barbara Anderson as Officer Eve Whitfield, and Don Mitchell as Mark Sanger, Ironside's bodyguard and driver). As ever, Burr's Robert Ironside is one of the more distinctive characters on the cop show landscape. Gruff, stubborn, impatient, and utterly unwilling to suffer fools, he commands respect with a combination of tough love and unwavering fairness. There's nothing touchy-feely about this guy. Take "Split Second to an Epitaph," a two-parter near the start of the season. When Ironside regains sensation in his feet, a doctor advises him to immediately undergo an operation that could heal him for good. But the chief refuses to go under the knife as long as the team's current case is unsolved. When he finally shows up at the hospital and another paraplegic asks him how to cope with his disability, Ironside replies, "It starts out as pure hell. Then it gets worse." And when the doc asks him what he'll do should he be able to walk again, the answer is classic Ironside: "Probably sit down." The second season's episodes run a fairly wide gamut, dealing with issues ranging from black militancy (in "Robert Phillips vs. the Man," Ironside refuses to submit either to Paul Winfield's hostile taunts or to the white racists eager to jail the black leader for murder) and professional sports (in "The Tormentor," a baseball player is threatened by an extortionist) to abortion ("A Matter of Love and Death" finds Eve posing as a pregnant young single in order to flush out a criminal abortionist--these were the days before Roe v. Wade) and boorish TV talk show demagogues (Milton Berle in a decidedly non-comic role in "I, The People"). There are also a few more personal stories than were found in Season One (Eve falls in love in one episode and hovers near death following a shooting in another, while Mark continues his quest to become a lawyer). That's all good, but like other series of its era, Ironside often seems rather dated; you'll find folks smoking in hospitals (and, in Ironside's case, having a couple of stiff drinks, with his doctor's approval, the night before his operation), star athletes struggling to put together a $100,000 payoff (a hundred grand is about what waterboys make these days), and gigantic American-made cars easily finding street parking spaces in downtown San Francisco. But while such details can be written off as mere anachronisms, the show's cheesy sets, slow-moving action and overall lack of genuine tension are more problematic. In the end, though, Ironside is mostly driven by its star power--not only Burr's, but also guests like Berle, Winfield, Broderick Crawford, Joseph Cotten, Clu Gulager, Diane Ladd, Ricardo Montalban, Anne Baxter, Ed Asner, Burgess Meredith, and Chad Everett. There are no bonus features in the box set. --Sam Graham

In Season 2, Chief Ironside's crack team includes Sgt. Ed Brown, Don Galloway, ex con turned assistant Mark Sanger, Don Mitchell, and beautiful policewoman Eve Whitfield, Barbara Anderson, who won an Emmy for this role. With superb story lines dealing with socially important topics like racism, drugs, abortion, and terror on a college campus, Ironside's second season continued the tradition of attracting special guest stars including Milton Berle, Anne Baxter, Bill Bixby, Ricardo Montalban, Burgess Meredith, Ed Asner and many more.

Mosquito Squadron

World War II aviation buffs may quibble with details in Mosquito Squadron, but they'll love it just the same. It's an average war movie, capably directed by Boris Sagal, who thrived in television before he was tragically killed by a helicopter rotor in 1981. At the peak of his post-Man from U.N.C.L.E. success, David McCallum plays a melancholy RAF ace, leading his squadron of De Havilland "Mosquito" bombers on low-altitude strikes over Nazi strongholds in Germany and France. His ground-based dilemma involves the grieving wife of his best friend, a fellow pilot presumed dead but later discovered alive with other POWs held at a French chalet where the Nazis are developing advanced V-class bombers. The RAF employs bouncing "highballs" capable of penetrating difficult targets, and the rousing climax doubles as a rescue mission and treacherous bombing run. Explosive action compensates for predictable melodrama, and Rocky Horror fans will enjoy seeing Charles ("the Criminologist") Gray as a stuffy RAF Commodore. --Jeff Shannon

David McCallum ("The Man From U.N.C.L.E.") stars in an epic adventure that perfectly captures the explosive action and emotional torment of war. With its astonishing special effects, stark cinematography and brilliantly choreographed aerial combat sequences, Mosquito Squadron catapults the viewer into the searing heat of battle! As Allied forces struggle against the awesome might of the German Luftwaffe, an even greater threat is posed by the destructive V3 rocket nearing completion at a secret testing center. The Royal Air Force's Mosquito Squadron gears up to destroy the site, but its leader, Quint Monroe (McCallum), becomes conflicted when he discovers that the air strikemay kill hundreds of British POWsincluding the squad's former commander!