The Return of Mickey Spillane's Mike Hammer

Mickey Spillane's hard-hitting '50s private eye, Mike Hammer, returns to television in the guise of Kevin Dobson to track down the killer of his best friend who was driving Hammer's car. Joining in the hunt are the detective's Girl Friday, the ever-hopeful Velda, and his cop friend, Pat Chambers.

One evening, Hammer gives a ride to Christina, an attractive hitchhiker on a lonely country road, who has escaped from the nearby lunatic asylum. Thugs waylay them and force his car to crash. When Hammer returns to semi-consciousness, he hears Christina being tortured until she dies. Hammer, both for vengeance and in hopes that "something big" is behind it all, decides to pursue the case.

Detective Mike Hammer's investigation of a murder puts him in the middle between warring jewel thieves.

After his best friend and war buddy is mysteriously gunned down, Mike Hammer will stop at nothing to settle the score for the man who sacrificed a limb to save his own life during combat. Along the way, Hammer rides a fine line between gumshoe and a one-man jury, staying two-steps ahead of the law—and trying not to get bumped off in the process.

Jack Williams was the best friend of Vietnam veteran and detective Mike Hammer. When Jack is murdered, Mike makes it his business to solve the crime. He is helped by his secretary Velda, and partly helped, partly hindered by the Chief of Police, Pat Chambers. On the trail of the killer, Mike discovers government conspiracies, and plots used by the CIA and the Mafia.

Mickey Spillane plays his own creation, street-thug-turned-PI Mike Hammer, in this 1963 adaptation of his novel. The film opens with Hammer on the downside of a years-long bender, scooped out of the gutter by a bitter cop intent on prying information from a dying man. Inspired to clean up his act by the secrets he hears, Hammer hits the streets on a personal crusade to find the love of his life. Future Bond girl Shirley Earton costars as a glamorous society widow who goes slumming with Hammer.--Sean Axmaker

Private eye Mike Hammer probes his long-lost love's death while seeking their daughter.

Private eye Mike Hammer tries to clear his friend, Captain Chambers, who has been framed for cocaine possession.

Mike Hammer is kidnapped and led to believe it is the work of a Las Vegas entertainer, but soon realises somebody else is involved.

Private detective Mike Hammer takes on a case looking for Trinity Sinclair's father who has been missing for 15 years.

Documentary about the life and work of mystery writer Mickey Spillane.

Nick Suster, a secret intelligence agent paralyzed by an assassin's bullet, sets out to track down his assailant and in the process, uncovers a major arms-smuggling operation that threatens international security.

Produced for American Public Television, this documentary on the long-running Doctor Who television series features interviews with actors and actresses who played the traveling companions of the Time Lord hero and with three actors, Jon Pertwee, Peter Davison, and Colin Baker, who portrayed the title character, as well as footage of a U.S. fan convention where Tom Baker, appeared and answered questions. The fan backlash against the 1985-6 hiatus for the series and the finding of some previously lost Jon Pertwee era episodes are addressed, and this documentary closes with some on-the-street interviews with British viewers, who tell who their favorite Doctor is.

A beautiful woman has spent a lifetime obsessing about a hit-and-run she caused years ago. She knows she struck something, but left the scene before determining what it was - and if it was alive. She's allowed this event has taken over her life, and now lives in near-isolation with an equally lonely man. When a stranger enters her life that may hold the key to her past, reality becomes stranger than nightmares, and memories cannot be trusted.

Seriously strapped for cash, three college roommates decide to solve their financial woes by kidnapping the daughter of a wealthy businessman. But the rookie criminals make a huge mistake when they accidentally grab the wrong girl (Tori Spelling). What started out as a simple plan turns into a big mess as the friends struggle to keep up with their hostage's demands. Sean Devine, Danny Strong and Mark Burgess star in this comedy.

Dustin Hoffman stars in this television adaptation of Ivan Turgenev's tale about Dmitri Zoditch, a simple manuscript reader at a publishing house whose grand dreams don't square with his dead-end job and miserable apartment. When he's assigned to read the diary of a nobleman, he finds bitter parallels between his own pathetic existence and the wasted life described in the journal. Michael Tolan and Charlotte Rae co-star.

Charley Tate is an old windbag, often a braggart, but somehow always lovable. Married over fifty years to his ever-patient wife Lucy, the two of them are on their Golden Honeymoon in Florida. Everything goes perfectly... until Lucy meets her former fiancee who's also vacationing with his wife. Suddenly there's a comic competition between Charley and the old boyfriend for Lucy's attention. After fifty years, cantankerous Charley has to win his girl all over again!

From Ernest J. Gaines, author of "The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman," comes a deceptively simple, yet emotionally complex tale of a young boy's discovery of what it's like to be black in Louisiana during the 1940's. James, the boy in question, has a raging toothache that necessitates a trip to the dentist. His mother (played by Emmy-winner Olivia Cole), accompanies James to town on an eye-opening odyssey where the boy gains valuable insights into poverty, racism - and his own sense of pride. With an exciting musical score by Webster Lewis, this multi-award winning film explores a child's discovery that the world is a complicated place... where things are never truly black or white... only shades of gray.

A historical and tragic backdrop: the dragonnades, the persecution of Protestants after the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. And a comic situation: an insubordinate singer who taunts Louis XIV's soldiers from the top of his rock, driving Marshal Boutre half mad.

Grave robbing, cannibalism, conspiracy- these and more make up the world our hero (name unknown) falls into after receiving a mysterious package meant for another address. On his attempt to bring the box to it's rightful owner, he witnesses some bizarre, possibly criminal behavior exhibited by the intended recipient. Fascinated, he begins an absurd journey to find out the truth of the package's origins- bringing him to the brink of sanity and good taste.