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Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
Raymond Burr | ... | Arthur Mallory | |
Robert Loggia | ... | Angelo Rondello | |
Roger Robinson | ... | Cliff Wilson | |
Mark Hamill | ... | Joe Celi | |
Peter Mark Richman | ... | John Shields | |
A Martinez | ... | Roberto Ruiz | |
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Victor Mohica | ... | Tony Garcia (as Vic Mohica) |
Eugene Roche | ... | Bob Latimer | |
Allan Rich | ... | Judge Paul Pieter | |
Philip Sterling | ... | Richmond | |
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Joyce Easton | ... | Sandra Wiley |
Cliff Emmich | ... | Ron Weimer | |
William Lucking | ... | George (as Bill Lucking) | |
Stanley Kamel | ... | Cole | |
Alex Courtney | ... | Richardson (as Alexander Courtney) |
Busted pilot for a proposed NBC-TV series about Arthur Mallory (Raymond Burr), a once-great criminal attorney brought low after being accused -- and cleared -- of encouraging a witness to lie on the stand. In the pilot film, he unravels a case involving a young prisoner (Mark Hamill) who commits murder following abuse from a homosexual in jail. The lad claims he was unjustly imprisoned in the first place. Written by <stevecap@pond.com>
... but because of the actor he was at the time. Hamil plays Joe Celi, a teenage boy who borrows his uncle's sporty new car without that uncle's permission. The uncle decides to teach Joe a lesson and have him arrested like any common criminal. The problem is he ISN'T a common criminal, but he's put in a county jail full of them. So a tough guy decides to pay a debt by trading Joe's sexual favors for the debt. When Joe won't go on the prearranged "date" he is forced to defend himself ending in the death of the demanding inmate. Now a lesson in consequences has just turned into a homicide charge.
Raymond Burr plays defense attorney Mallory who is employed, ironically, by the uncle who set these tragic circumstances into motion in the first place. Don't think that Burr doesn't point that out to the uncle either. I remember this film because it was one of the first to deal realistically with prison rape and what happens when a middle class young man is housed with hardened predators. And, of course, I remember it for being a part Mark Hamil played just a year before he became Luke Skywalker in Star Wars. Recommended if you can ever find it.