Mario Alcalde
An ex-soldier is recruited by the FBI to go undercover in L.A. and find other ex-soldiers who are part of a drug-dealing gang.
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.
The working class twin sister of a callous wealthy woman impulsively murders her out of revenge and assumes the identity of the dead woman. But impersonating her dead twin is more complicated and risky than she anticipated.
An innocent Mexican boy is sacrificed to a lynching mob by an ineffectual sheriff. The slaughter leads to a brooding darkness involving the remorseful relatives of the Mexican youngster and the sullen townspeople. Almost by a chain reaction there is established a second set of circumstances inviting a lynching of the Mexican's brother. Only this time the sheriff recaptures a shred of human dignity and saves the brother, if not the town.
Broadway legend Hume Cronyn shines in this long-lost melodrama about Puerto Rican assimilation. Directed by the elusive Fred Pressburger and featuring a roster of first-rate talent recruited from live TV, Crowded Paradise also highlights the sculpted, mobile camerawork of the great Boris Kaufman and a fine performance by the up-and-coming Mario Alcalde. Cronyn's leering, jingoistic superintendent sparkles with sheer meanness, and Spanish Harlem provides an appropriate backdrop for this "Made in New York" low-budget sleeper. [adapted from an overview by Michael Bowen]
