The best Darren McGavin’s crime movies
If you love cinema, you will share this ranking of the best Darren McGavin’s movies, although you may have ordered them differently. In any case, we hope you love it and with a little luck discovering a movie that you still don’t know about Darren McGavin.
Raw Deal
5.6/10
Mark Kaminsky is kicked out of the FBI for his rough treatment of a suspect. He winds up as the sheriff of a small town in North Carolina. FBI Chief Harry Shannon, whose son has been killed by a mobster named Patrovina, enlists Kaminsky in a personal vendetta with a promise of reinstatement into the FBI if Patrovina is taken down. To accomplish this, he must go undercover and join Patrovina's gang.
No Deposit, No Return
6.3/10
Two rich children devise a way to escape their grandfather and visit their mother. Unfortunately for two hapless safe crackers, they become part of the plan.
The Night Strangler
7.3/10
After being run out of Las Vegas, Kolchak heads for Seattle and another reporting job with the local paper. It's not long before he is on the trail of another string of bizarre murders. It seems that every 21 years, for the past century, a killer kills a certain number of people, drains them of their blood and then disappears into the night. Kolchak is on his trail, but can he stop him?
Blood and Concrete
5.8/10
A dimwitted thug encounters a strung-out, suicidal young woman and an unlikely relationship develops as they work together to make a break for new horizons.
The Rookies
7.5/10
Three new officers in a large metropolitan police department adjust to their new jobs and way of life. This is another TV-pilot that was first aired as an ABC Movie of the Week before becoming a TV-series.
Law and Order
7.7/10
Story follows three generations of a family in the New York City Police Department.
Sam Cade
6.4/10
Sam Cade was the first feature-length "movie" put together from episodes of Cade's County, the early '70s series starring Glenn Ford as a modern-day sheriff in Madrid County, CA. In the first half, directed by Marvin Chomsky, Cade finds himself targeted for assassination when he's scheduled to testify in the trial of a mob kingpin -- what he doesn't know is that the assassin is one of his oldest friends (Darren McGavin), who is romancing another old friend (Loretta Swit) with a troubled past and using Cade's determination and his investigative skills to set him up for a hit. In the second half, directed by Richard Donner, Cade gets a tip that the mob has planned an assassination on a retired crime boss (Edward Asner) living in the county, who is so bull-headed and distrustful of the law that he won't accept any help or provide any information on who the killers might be, even though he's putting his own daughter (Shelley Fabares) at risk.
Banyon
7.9/10
Miles C. Banyon is a private investigator in 1930s Los Angeles. In this TV movie—which served as the pilot episode for the short-lived TV show—Banyon's new client, a young woman, is found dead in his office...shot with his own gun.
The Outsider
7.4/10
Darren McGavin is David Ross, a private investigator playing a game of follow the money. A simple case of embezzling turns bad quickly when bodies start dropping and the savvy P.I. is the primary suspect in an attractive woman's death. This NBC TV movie served as a pilot for the later series.
Kojak: It's Always Something
6.8/10
After discovering the connection between a corrupt city commissioner and Colombian killers, Kojak is framed for the murder of a call girl and is prosecuted by former police detective Crocker, now an assistant D.A.
The Case Against Brooklyn
6.5/10
A rookie cop takes on criminals who have the local government in their pocket.
Anatomy of a Crime
6.5/10
Private detective David Ross has two apparently unconnected cases to investigate in the same day. In the first he is hired by a millionaire who paid a large ransom for his kidnapped daughter twelve years before, but she was never seen again. Now a woman has come forward who claims the young girl she raised is the millionaire's missing daughter. Later, Ross is contacted by a retired burlesque dancer who's about to publish her memoirs and possibly reveal the secrets of some important people, but someone is determined to stop her.
Brinks: The Great Robbery
6.1/10
In this telling of the infamous 1950 robbery, James McNally is portrayed as the one gang member who maintains his silence in the face of extreme police pressure. When he is sent up to prison and sees the other gang members letting him take all the heat, he still doesn't come clean to the cops. He feels a loyalty to his best friend, who was also in on the crime. But what will his best friend choose to do?
