Petrocelli: Night Games

Barry Newman as Petrocelli.

There are few instances of an actor reprising a character from a theatrical film in a television series. Richard Widmark and Richard Roundtree first played Madigan and Shaft in theatrical films and then revived the characters for TV. However, in both cases, the shows were part of an umbrella series and therefore required few episodes. Gary Burghoff famously played Radar O'Reilly in both the 1970 movie version of M*A*S*H and the long-running TV series that started two years later. However, Radar was a supporting character.

That brings us to Barry Newman, who introduced audiences to passionate attorney Anthony "Tony" Petrocelli in the 1970 film The Lawyer. Based on the Sam Shepard murder case, it follows the Harvard-educated Petrocelli, who has relocated from Boston to a small community out West. He soon finds himself defending a physician (Robert Colbert) for murdering his sexy socialite wife. Produced by former actor Brad Dexter (The Magnificent Seven), The Lawyer was a modest box office hit. 

Susan Howard.

Four years later, NBC broadcast Night Games, a pilot movie for a weekly TV series starring Newman as Petrocelli. Susan Howard replaced Diana Muldaur as Tony's wife/legal secretary. Albert Salmi also joined the cast as Tony's "leg man." The location was shifted to the Southwest, but Tony still drove a truck, lived in a camper with his wife Maggie (renamed from Ruth), and outhustled every other lawyer in the region.

The plot finds Petrocelli defending an attractive, wealthy woman (Stefanie Powers) accused of killing her husband. Although the evidence against her is weak, her alibi could be more convincing. She claims to have slept through the night of the murder after taking sleeping pills. With the district attorney (Henry Darrow) pushing for a quick trial, Petrocelli has his work cut out for him. He also receives some unexpected personal news: Maggie is pregnant with their first child.

Barry Newman is well cast as the aggressive lawyer whose expensive three-piece suit (his only one)  and courtroom theatrics clash with his simple lifestyle. While Tony and Maggie try to establish his practice, they live in the camper as he builds their ranch-style home twelve bricks at a time. Both he and Susan Howard would earn Emmy nominations for their performances in the follow-on Petrocelli TV series.

JoAnna Cameron.

The challenge with Night Games is that it tries to pack too much content into its brief 74-minute runnin time. One of the casualties is the strong supporting cast. Actors like Stefanie Powers, Henry Darrow, Ralph Meeker, and Anjanette Comer never get enough time to develop their characters. Even Susan Howard fades into the background as Night Games hurls toward its climax. The lone exception is JoAnna Cameron, best known for her Saturday morning TV series The Secrets of Isis. As a flight attendant who had an affair with the dead man, she projects a calculating coldness behind her innocent girl-next-door demeanor.

Still, Night Games serves as a solid introduction to the Petrocelli TV series, which ran for 44 episodes over two seasons. NBC cancelled it due to low ratings opposite Starsky and Hutch (a top 20 show in the Nielsen ratings in 1975-76). Susan Howard joined Dallas in 1979, where she played Donna Culver Krebbs for eight years. Barry Newman did not return as a regular in a TV series until the short-lived medical drama Nightingales in 1989.

Here's a short scene from Night Games, courtesy of our YouTube channel:

Vanishing Point: A High Speed Road to Destiny

Barry Newman in Vanishing Point.

Rural car chase movies were a staple at drive-in theaters in the 1970s, where you could view Grand Theft Auto, Eat My Dust, and Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry. The most famous of these films is arguably Vanishing Point, which was released in 1971. Unlike the aforementioned "B" pictures, Vanishing Point was made by a major studio, 20th Century-Fox, and boasted a budget of $1.3 million. It was not intended to be a "drive-in flick," but that's where it found its greatest fame.

Barry Newman stars as Kowalski, a car delivery driver tasked with taking a super-charged 1970 Dodge Challenger from Denver to San Francisco. Kowalski bets a friend he can complete the one-way 1250-mile trip in 15.5 hours. By the time he reaches Nevada, his frequent encounters with the highway patrol have gained statewide police interest.

The Dodge Challenger as a high-speed blur on the highway.

Concurrently, his story has attracted media attention thanks to the efforts of Super Soul (Cleavon Little), a blind African American disc jockey. He learns about Kowalski's exploits by monitoring the police band. Super Soul transforms the driver into "the last American hero, the super driver of the Golden West." He also "talks" with Kowalski on live radio, offering encouragement and useful police information.

Newman and Dean Jagger.

As the drama unfolds, the viewer gets glimpses of Kowalski's past though flashbacks, newspaper headlines, and police reports. He was a Medal of Honor winner who served in Vietnam. He worked as a police officer, but fought corruption and was dishonorably discharged. A woman who loved him died in a surfing accident (though it may have been suicide). As he speeds down desert highways, he encounters an old hermit (Dean Jagger), two hippies, and a girl at a gas station. He treats them all with respect and kindness.

Yet, this is literally all we know about the protagonist of Vanishing Point. Even though he's on screen for almost the entire running time, Kowalski remains an enigma. His motive for defying the police (or the Establishment) is never clear. And as he becomes more and more defiant, it becomes obvious to him--and the audience--that his journey cannot end well. In hindsight, Kowalski is the ultimate post-Vietnam 1970s anti-hero. (It's too bad that he takes amphetamines to combat fatigue, since one could argue that the drugs impact his final decision.)

Cleavon Little as Super Soul.

Barry Newman projects the required "cool factor" as Kowalski, but the part doesn't require a lot of acting. In the only other major role, Cleavon Little is electrifying as Super Soul, whose desire to transform Kowalski into an American hero contrasts with his nondescript life in a small, racially-divided Southwestern town.

Of course, the film's most famous "actor" is the white Dodge Challenger, which zips across the highways and desert landscapes at high-octane speeds. On the DVD commentary track, director Richard Sarafian reveals that the crew "burned up about eight of the Challengers" during the shoot. In 2011, a Pennsylvania Dodge dealer worked with the company to produce ten Kowalski Editions of the famous white muscle car.

Some fun facts:

• The Vanishing Point soundtrack has also gained fame over the years. The film includes an appearance by Delaney & Bonnie & Friends (which include Rita Coolidge). Kim Carnes, who would later gain fame as a singer ("Bette Davis Eyes") wrote two songs for the soundtrack.
• A scene with Charlotte Rampling as a hitch-hiker was cut from the U.S. release.
• Viggo Mortensen played Kowalski in a 1997 made-for-TV remake.

Here's a clip from Vanishing Point from our YouTube Channel: