James Stewart's TV Series "Hawkins"

If you need the best criminal lawyer in the U.S., then place a long-distance phone call to West Virginia. That's because Billy Jim Hawkins is your man! Billy Jim may play the "I'm a simple guy from the country" card, but don't be fooled. He's a crafty fellow who's not above playing some sneaky tricks in the courtroom.

This is the premise to Hawkins, a 1973-74 TV series starring James Stewart as the title character. It bears more than a passing resemblance to the later Matlock and some sources claim that Andy Griffith was first approached to play Billy Jim. There are only eight 90-minute episodes of Hawkins, which appeared as part of the umbrella series The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies. The other "shows" under this banner were Shaft (starring Richard Roundtree) and original made-for-TV movies.

Julie Harris in "Die, Darling, Die."

As a huge fan of Anatomy of a Murder (1959), I was hoping that Stewart would play a variation of attorney Paul Biegler. But as soon as he said "Call me Billy Jim," I knew that Hawkins would be closer to Matlock than Otto Preminger's classic courtroom drama. It doesn't help that Hawkins features some pretty pedestrian plots and a lack of viable suspects (always a sign of lazy writing in a mystery series). Amazingly, series creator David Karp received an Emmy nomination for writing the pilot film Hawkins on Murder, which was recycled under the title "Death and the Maiden" as the series' first episode.

The show's third episode highlights its strengths and weaknesses nicely. Billy Jim is hired to defend a woman (Julie Harris) accused of killing her terminally-ill husband by withholding his medication. An ambitious assistant district attorney (Sam Elliott without moustache) refuses to accept any kind of plea bargain. To make matters worse, the defendant won't talk to Billy Jim.

Sam Elliott as an assistant D.A.

Stewart and an above-average guest star cast deliver some solid performances (especially Harris and Elliott). The plot almost justifies its 73-minute running time, whereas other episodes seem downright leisurely. However, once again, if one assumes that the defendant is innocent, there are only two realistic suspects--and they indeed turn out to be the culprits.

This episode features Mayf Nutter (who reminded me a little of Mac Davis) as Billy Jim's journalist nephew. He was a regular in three of the eight episodes. James Hampton (F Troop) assisted Hawkins in one episode and the others featured Strother Martin as Billy Jim's brother R.J., also an attorney. Martin, who was cast at Stewart's insistence, is hilarious in the role--though I surely wouldn't have hired R.J. to represent me in any kind of legal matter!

Strother Martin as R.J. Hawkins.

Hawkins didn't last a second season, primarily because James Stewart wasn't interested. He once said that he never worked so hard as he did on Hawkins. He did win a 1973 Golden Globe as Best Actor in a TV Drama for his efforts. Honestly, I suspect it was an award more for the body of his film and TV work than it was for his performance as Billy Jim. Strother Martin also received a Golden Globe nomination as Best Supporting Actor.

Even if Stewart had wanted to continue, I don't think CBS would have committed to a second season. The ratings just weren't there. While NBC's Sunday Mystery Movie was #14 in the 1973-74 ratings, The New CBS Tuesday Night Movies didn't even crack the Top 30. Now, if Billy Jim's nine siblings and dozens of cousins had all watched, it might have been a different story!

Here's a clip from Hawkins featuring Stewart, Martin, and guest star Sheree North. You can view it full-screen on the Classic Film & TV Cafe's YouTube Channel.

Ray Milland vs. an Army of Frogs

Frogs. They can be irritating if you're trying to fall asleep on a summer night with the windows open. They can be yucky, too, if you have an aversion to wet, slippery creatures. But scary? I'd be hard-pressed to anoint them with that adjective.

So, it's surprising when American International Pictures decided to make a man vs. nature horror film that the filmmakers selected frogs to be the focus. Of course, it could be that someone designed the poster first and that image of a human hand protruding from a frog's mouth was just too good to pass up. When I was a teen, it convinced me to plop down $2 to see Frogs at my local theatre. But, for goodness sakes, what inspired Oscar-winning classic film star Ray Milland to take the lead role? The answer is provided by Mr. Milland, who--when asked why he made so many questionable movies later in his career--responded: "For the money, old chap, for the money."

Ray Milland chats with Sam Elliott.

In Frogs, Milland plays Jason Crockett, the bitter wheelchair-bound patriarch of a swampy Mississippi estate. The Crockett family and friends, an unlikable bunch for the most part, have descended on "Crockett Land" to celebrate Independence Day and a month full of Crockett birthdays. Their activities are interrupted by the arrival of Pickett Smith (Sam Elliott sans famous moustache), a nature photographer almost run over by a Crockett-driven speedboat. Karen Crockett (Joan Van Ark) takes an immediate liking to the hunky Pickett and invites him to stay the evening.

Where's the famous moustache?

While exploring the estate, Pickett finds the corpse of the family's missing handyman, who has apparently been killed by a snake. The handyman disappeared shortly after spraying poison around the swamp in an effort to destroy the large frog population. Pretty soon, the family and its servants are being bumped off by spiders, snakes, birds, lizards, and alligators. Pickett wisely surmises: "I know it sounds strange as hell, but what if nature was trying to get back at us?"

As interest in ecology spiked in the 1970s, the film industry introduced a number of low-budget "eco-horror" films, such as Grizzly ("18 feet of towering fury!"), Day of the Animals, ("The terrifying movie of a world gone mad!"), and--the best of the bunch--John Frankenheimer's Prophecy. Even Godzilla got into the act with Godzilla vs. the Smog Monster. As the first of this subgenre, Frogs leaves a lot to be desired. It never mounts a legitimate scare (unless you suffer from herpetophobia), wastes a decent cast, and muffs its ecology message (if, indeed, there was any intent to state one). At its best, it's silly fun if watched in the right frame of mind.

Still, I learned three things from Frogs:

Elliott, with shirt on, and Joan Van Ark.

(1) According to some sources, Frogs played a key role in Sam Elliott's acting career. His beefcake scenes may have led to his casting in Lifeguard, which featured one of his best performances and confirmed his leading man status.

(2) Lizards are the smartest of reptiles. When it comes time to kill one of the Crockett clan in a greenhouse, the lizards knock selected bottles of chemicals off the shelves and mix them into a toxic gas. Lizards as chemists--who would have imagined?

(3) Frogs aren't scary, but they must be highly intelligent because, in Frogs, they seem to convince the other animals to do all their dirty work while they get the majority of close-ups.

As for one-time Best Actor Ray Milland, Frogs ranks in the middle of his latter career filmography. It compares unfavorably to imaginative low-budget efforts like Panic in Year Zero and X--The Man With X-Ray Eyes. On the other hand, Frogs is a considerable improvement on Terror in the Wax Museum, The Thing With Two Heads, and The Sea Serpent.

And, by the way, an "army of frogs" is the proper biological term for a bunch of frogs. Who said the Cafe wasn't educational?