Directed by Sidney Poitier. Found on Tubi and free on Youtube. Harry Belafonte, Ruby Dee, Cameron Mitchell.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buck_and_the_Preacher
https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/review/75367
https://every70smovie.blogspot.com/2010/11/buck-and-preacher-1972.html
https://www.tcm.com/articles/87680/buck-and-the-preacher
Directed by Mike Nichols. Found on Tubi. Warren Beatty, Stockard Channing, Jack Nicholson. Crime comedy. John A. Alonzo cinematography.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Fortune
https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s4687fort.html
https://every70smovie.blogspot.com/2011/03/fortune-1975.html
https://www.tcm.com/articles/218750/the-fortune
Directed by Don Taylor. Found on Tubi. Lee Marvin, Oliver Reed, Elizabeth Ashley, Robert Culp, Kay Lenz, Strother Martin. Poorly reviewed and I remember it being pretty bad.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Scout_%26_Cathouse_Thursday
https://www.avclub.com/the-great-scout-cathouse-thursday-1976-1798225473
https://www.dvdtalk.com/reviews/49875/great-scout-and-cathouse-thursday/
Directed by George Roy Hill. Robert Redford, Paul Newman. The long con. Coming up next on DVD.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Sting
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-sting-1973
https://every70smovie.blogspot.com/2010/10/sting-1973.html
https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/16580/the-sting#articles-reviews?articleId=288909
Directed by Stephen Frears. Written by Donald Westlake. From the book by Jim Thompson. Anjelica Huston, John Cusack, Annette Bening. DVD coming up next.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Grifters_(film)
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-grifters-1991
https://trailersfromhell.com/the-grifters/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/thegriftersrhinson_a0a9cd.htm
Directed by Brett Ratner. Next on Tubi. Charlie Sheen, Chris Tucker.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_Talks_(1997_film)
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/money-talks-1997
Directed by Irvin Kershner. George C. Scott, Michael Sarrazin, Sue Lyon. Harry the Hat on Cheers was often referred to as a flim-flam. Charles Lang cinematography.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flim-Flam_Man
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/the-flim-flam-man-1967
Directed by Michael Ritchie. Free with ads on Youtube and on Tubi. James Woods, Louis Gossett Jr., Bruce Dern, Heather Graham, Oliver Platt.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diggstown
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/diggstownrhinson_a0a797.htm
1974 ABC. Jodie Foster, Christopher Connelly. 13 episodes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paper_Moon_(American_TV_series)
https://thegoldenhornblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/tenspeed-and-brownshoe.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0719528/
1980 ABC. "Savage Says, What Are Friends For?" Jeff Goldblum and Ben Vereen private detective/con artist show. From Stephen J. Cannell. Good news on this front as there are multiple ways to watch all the episodes now. Youtube has them on the Free With Ads channel and they are also at Tubi. I watched this show as a kid and waited for years for it to show up on Youtube. I would check two or three times a year and one day they were finally there.
How many TV shows feature scenes with a character lying on a couch reading a book? Much less a book titled, "The Deathward-Bound Damsel." A Mark Savage Mystery by Stephen J. Cannell himself. Lionel Whitney (Jeff Goldblum) is an accountant who turned into a private detective and has a real fondness for the detective fiction genre, especially those books featuring his hero, Mark Savage. His partner E.L. Turner (Ben Vereen as Tenspeed) is a gifted con artist. Together they solve mysteries. This week Lionel's accountant friend Marty (James Murtaugh) hires them to find out who is threatening him over shady investments. Also features the lovely Deborah Shelton as Marty's wife, Sylvia, and Martin Kove as the biker gang leader. The biker gang, and their illicit profits, may be behind the investment scheme to launder drug money.
Tenspeed and Brown Shoe still holds up well. Very solid and fun detective show. I watched it and liked it as a kid when it aired, and when I watched it again as an adult I thoroughly enjoyed it. The book jackets and titles on the Mark Savage mysteries are a nice bonus for fans of detective fiction.
https://thegoldenhornblog.blogspot.com/2020/04/bakersfield-pd.html
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0518171/
1993 Fox. "The Impostor." Underrated quirky cop comedy. Ron Eldard, Giancarlo Esposito, Chris Mulkey, Tony Plana, Brian Doyle-Murray, Jack Hallett. Guest stars are Laura Innes, David Wiley, Allan Wasserman. This was another one of those early lucky random sitcom finds. There are several episodes on Youtube. I always respond well to the quirky shows that nobody watched.
A con man has hit Bakersfield and he's a one man con man crime wave. Or is it con people? Laura Innes is the police sketch artist who only sketches celebrities to be true to her art. Also Glen Campbell is in town and this is the week everyone is evaluated by the police psychologist. "Not since my son took his first step have I seen someone so brave. So manly." Now we can heal. After a lineup the perp is narrowed to somewhere between Cruise and young Sinatra.
Bakersfield P.D. is hilarious. A real find. Lots of old 70s cop show references. Unfortunately only six of the seventeen episodes made are available.
The pool table. You've got to keep it covered. Cheers cold open season one, ep. 16.
The Affair of the Diamond Necklace was an incident from 1784 to 1785 at the court of King Louis XVI of France that involved his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette.
The Queen's reputation, already tarnished by gossip, was ruined by the false implication that she had participated in a crime to defraud the Crown's jewellers in acquiring a very expensive diamond necklace she then refused to pay for. In reality, she rejected the idea of buying it only to have her signature forged by Jeanne de Valois-Saint-Rémy. Although Jeanne was later convicted, the event remains historically significant as one of many that led to the French disillusionmen
https://www.history.com/news/marie-antoinette-diamond-necklace-affair-french-revolution
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affair_of_the_Diamond_Necklace
Celtics got it going pretty good, eh? Harry the Hat meets Norm on Cheers - Sam at Eleven.
Don't show fear. He smells fear. Harry the Hat in Cheers - Pick a Con... Any Con.
Directed by Mark Rydell. Elliott Gould. James Caan. Period crime comedy. Michael Caine, Diane Keaton, Charles Durning, Brion James, Jack Gilford, Lesley Ann Warren, Burt Young.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harry_and_Walter_Go_to_New_York
https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/harry-and-walter-go-to-new-york-1976
http://every70smovie.blogspot.com/2011/07/harry-and-walter-go-to-new-york-1976.html
Season four, episode three. Aired Oct. 13, 1983. Cork Hubbert. Magnum is injured and in hospital in this ep. (hang gliding accident.) Is Rick's neighborhood pal a con man, spy, or thief?
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0639722/
http://magnum-mania.com/Episodes/Season4/Smaller_Than_Life.html
Stunningly dark film noir. One of my favorite movies. The rise and fall of a carnival con man and mentalist. Tyrone Power. Mike Mazurki as Bruno. This was one of the first noirs I watched that had a real budget. Not a B picture. And it was stunning. More time and money means more lighting complexity and camera moves. This is a great movie. And one of the darkest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nightmare_Alley_(1947_film)
https://www.dvdtalk.com/dvdsavant/s1644alle.html
https://film.avclub.com/the-narrow-margin-dillinger-club-paradise-nightmare-1798200904
Eddie Muller TCM intro.
https://www.tcm.com/tcmdb/title/85008/nightmare-alley#articles-reviews?articleId=650428
Another Cheers reference. Early Harry the Hat appearance, Coach calls Harry a flim-flam, and Harry accuses Sam of running a clip joint.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clip_joint
https://www.dictionary.com/browse/flimflam
Directed by Ivan Passer. Michael Caine. Young Jay Leno. Martin Balsam. David Warner. Cybill Shepherd. Louis Jourdan. Tommy Smothers. Silver caper. I have this book too. The writer was a heavy finance guy and did time for trying to pull off one of these schemes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Bears
https://www.pilotonline.com/entertainment/article_95c5979c-cb46-5955-9cf0-d0aa3e505e44.html
