Cannon (TV Series) The Conspirators (1975) User Reviews

ANOTHER hellish little town....

[planktonrules · 8/10 · 14 April 2017]

There are a lot of cliché in old cop and detective shows. One of the more familiar ones is the hellish small town...peopled with a bunch of nasty pin-heads who are out to do ANYTHING to make the lawman's life miserable!

In this case, Cannon comes to a horrid town where a group of lowlifes have raped and murdered a young lady! Instead of investigating, however, the local police seem more interested in covering everything up AND persecuting an innocent black man. The problem is with everyone seemingly against Cannon and the police totally corrupt, how can he possibly get to the truth and bring justice to this hellish place?

Well done...but also very, very familiar. This is a compelling story and well worth your time.

ROUGH TIMES FOR A GUY NAMED CANNON

[tcchelsey · 10/10 · 19 May 2022]

This is Good. "The Conspirators" was written by Margaret Armen, one of the few female writers in tv at the time. She worked at Warner Brothers on many westerns and more than likely bumped into William Conrad. Armen is also credited for three episodes of STAR TREK.

This is violent, and right from the start, with a girl being attacked and murdered by a wild bunch. It reminds me to a degree of the previous episode that starred Ruth Roman, also set in another unfriendly little town.

Hilly Hicks turns in a super performance as Johnny, who the cops want to pin everything on because he's black. Hicks gained attention for his role on ROOTS, later becoming a pastor at several churches in southern California. Tom Skerritt returns to the series, this time as the sheriff, not to be trusted.

Dabbs Greer is the perfect fit playing one of the old timers who knows the score. Greer played many similar roles in his lengthy career. Character actress Martine Bartlett plays Miss Tweedy, who would gain enormous recognition the following year for her role as Sally Field's unstable mother in SYBIL. Martine worked at Warner Brothers in the early 60s (SPLENDER IN THE GRASS), another colleague of Bill Conrads.

Among the thrills; Cannon gets locked in a giant freezer (a nasty stunt that has been used before) and like Joe Mannix, goes over a cliff in a car.

You could always tell some sort of a trap was ahead IF Cannon was driving a junk car.

Well directed by George McCowan (MOD SQUAD) with some nice scenery, but the ending is fairly grim. Cannon is back to smoking his pipe. January 1, 1975 episode, HAPPY NEW YEAR. SEASON 4 EPISODE 14. Remastered color CBS box set. 2016 release. This is the box set with Cannon frowning on the cover.

"The Conspirators" was a tension-filled ep of "Cannon"

[tonyvmonte-54973 · 10/10 · 6 May 2024]

This ep of "Cannon" begins-"Columbo"-style-with a murder actually being depicted and seeing "whodunnit"! A fine-looking young woman is at a forest at night by herself being watched by several drunk men, one of whom has a rifle in which he spies on her through the lens which he then shares with the other men with him. They confront her and...well, then someone calls Frank Cannon and he then goes to this small town, presumably in the Deep South, to investigate. Lots of thrilling stuff here and it's safe to say that most of this small town is racist considering who the suspect is. The only gust star I recognized was Tom Skerritt who was previously in the movie MASH and years later had a recurring role on "Cheers" as Evan Drake. He plays a sherriff. I highly recommend this ep of "Cannon".