SUCH DUST AS DREAMS ARE MADE ON (1973, USA, 76m, PG) ***
Crime, Drama
dist. ABC.; pr co. Warner Bros.; d. Jerry Thorpe; w. Howard Rodman; pr. Jerry Thorpe; ph. Jack Woolf (Colour | 1.33:1); m. Richard Hazard; ed. Alex Beaton; ad. Walter Scott Herndon
cast: David Janssen (Harry Orwell), Martin Sheen (Harlan Garrison), Margot Kidder (Helen), Will Geer (Len McNeil), Marianna Hill (Mildred), Sal Mineo (Walter Scheerer), Mel Stewart (Sgt. Arvin Granger), Kathleen Lloyd (Marilyn Bedestrum (as Kathleen Gackle)), Lawrence Cook (Stewart – Bartender), Karen Lamm (Girl Clerk), Les Lannom (Library Assistant), S. John Launer (Pollicheff), Bill McLean (Wino), Cheryl Ladd (Teenage Girl (as Cheryl Jean Stoppelmoor)), Joseph Hoover (Desk Sgt.), Tim Haldeman (Jesse), Jack Kosslyn (Chester), Ethel Hazen (Police Woman), Van Kirksey (Black Man Being Booked), Michael McGreevey (Bobby).
The first pilot for what was to become the TV series Harry O (1974-6). Janssen brings a gruff aloofness to a role he would hone in the second pilot SMILE JENNY, YOU’RE DEAD (1974). Here ex-cop turned private eye Harry Orwell is hired by the man (Sheen) who put a bullet in his back four years earlier during a bank robbery, to find his partner in the robbery (Mineo), who he believes is trying to kill him and has also taken up with Sheen’s junkie girlfriend (Lloyd). Interestingly shot by Thorpe from a solid script by Rodman, with a strong cast. The plot holds no real surprises, however, and the pace occasionally lags – notably during a protracted scene between police lab technician Geer and Janssen, where Geer gives a lesson on how to make heroin. Kidder is also wasted as a woman Harry picks up in a bar, seemingly to allow him to use her car (Harry normally travels by bus). The tagged-on motorcycle chase in the film’s finale is just that. There was enough, however, to ensure the second pilot was filmed, which eventually sold the character. Originally the pilot was cut at 50 mins, the additional footage was shot at the same time for the pilot’s later syndication as this TV movie.
