The Return of Ironside (1993) (TV)

Director:

Gary Nelson

Writers (WGA):

Collier Young (characters)
Rob Hedden (written by) ...

Release Date:

4 May 1993 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

Chief Ironside has just retired and is looking forward to running his vineyard with his wife. But his...

Plot Keywords:

Sequel | Police Detective | Police | Private Detective | San Francisco California

Cast

Raymond Burr	...	Robert Ironside
Don Galloway	...	Ed Brown
Barbara Anderson	...	Eve Whitfield
Elizabeth Baur	...	Fran Belding
Don Mitchell	...	Mark Sanger
Dana Wynter	...	Katherine Ironside
Perrey Reeves	...	Suzanne Dwyer
Eddie Jones
Jeff Kaake	...	Mike Quinn
Derek Webster
Cliff Gorman	...	Joe McManus
Robin Sachs
Scott Patterson
Ed Lauter	...	Chief Bell
Chuck Booms

Runtime:

120 min (including commercials) | Germany:89 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Germany:12 | UK:PG

Filming Locations:

Denver, Colorado, USA

Company:

MCA Television Entertainment (MTE)

Movie Connections:

Follows Ironside (1967) (TV)

Not Casablanca, but not Clambake either

While growing up, IRONSIDE was one of my all-time favorite TV series'; it remains my all-time favorite TV cop show. Not because it was better or more original or even more true-to-life. At the time it originally aired it was the first TV show in history whose lead character was physically disabled (Longstreet, about a blind detective, was number 2). It remains one of the very, very few. To a man who spent the first ten years of life in a wheelchair and still needs a cane occasionally, that's more important than plots or even originality.

The plot of "The Return of Ironside" serves as a justification for getting all the old characters from the TV series together to solve a mystery again. As police procedural, it's better than competent; as a murder mystery, the solution is translucent, like a window in a bathroom, but it's still a puzzle. But for those few of us who loved the original Ironside character, just seeing him work again is a kick.

Raymond Burr holds the distinction of starring in not one but two of the best written, best produced and best acted mystery dramas TV ever produced; Perry Mason was the first; Ironside was the second. Just as no one will ever play Perry Mason again, no one will ever play Robert T. Ironside again. Burr made a whole slew of Perry Mason movies before he died; Return of Ironside might also have been the first of many had he not died of cancer shortly after filming.

All I can say is I've watched the movie half a dozen times and I still lik e it. It's not one of the greatest movies ever made; it's not even one of the greatest TV movies ever made. But just as the TV series Ironside was better than most other cop shows, the movie is a lot better than most other cop movies made for TV in the last decade or two. If you don't like Burr, you won't like it; if, however, like a lot us born before JFK got shot, you like Raymond Burr, it serves as a great ending for one of TV's best actors.