Profession: Procureur

This movie is barely remembered when the topic of great legal/trial films is discussed on IMDb. But I'd suggest this obscure TV movie for anyone who likes good courtoom dramas.

It's a tiny, made-for-TV flick, of course, so the scale can hardly be the same. But pound for pound, it holds up. The cast are all talented veterans and they sync well together. Dialogue is crisp and the plot has enough clever twists to satisfy anyone (especially if you like "committing a perfect crime" stories).

In this case the perpetrator is Hal Holbrook. He has come up with a clever legal loophole which he thinks will allow him to get away with murder. Brenda Vacarro is his reluctant accomplice. Its up to Vic Morrow, the local D.A. to break their plot apart. He detects something fishy about Holbrook's alibi and becomes obsessed with breaking it down.

An absorbing battle-of-wits between Holbrook and Morrow wages back and forth throughout the short film until it climaxes in a truly mesmerizing cross-examination scene. Perfectly controlled unravelling of plot and emotion at the finale.

Make some time for this little gem if you ever come across it. On the surface, it looks about as mundane and trifling as a hundred others just like it; but stick with it till the end and you'll be glad you did.

"Travis Logan, D. A." (1971) was a movie pilot for a Quinn Martin series with Vic Morrow. The "also starring" roles in the resulting series would have been filled by Chris Robinson ("12 O'Clock High") and James Callahan ("Wendy and Me").

Vic Morrow had given one of television's finest series performances as Sergeant Saunders in "Combat!" (1962-67). In "Travis Logan, DA", Morrow wore very expensive tailored three-piece suits and looked great. As Travis Logan, Morrow was quiet, subdued, intelligent and forceful.

The best thing about this movie was the casting of the great Hal Holbrook as an ingenious murderer who Travis Logan tries to convict. Hal Holbrook was giving a brilliant, talked about performance on "The Senator" in 1970-71, the year this movie played. Holbrook was remarkably charismatic and appealing as liberal, idealistic Senator Hays Stowe. Holbrook eventually won the Emmy as best actor in a dramatic series for "The Senator", and the show won as best dramatic series. Holbrook was always concerned about type casting, and the "Travis Logan" villain role let him leave the saintly senator far behind him.

Since I was a big fan of Vic Morrow and Hal Holbrook, this was a movie I looked forward to and enjoyed.

The script by Andy Lewis ("Klute") was clever and the direction by Paul Wendkos ("The Brotherhood of the Bell") was effective. The supporting cast was also first rate with George Grizzard as the defense lawyer, Ed Flanders as a psychiatrist, Scott Marlowe as the victim's son, Edward Andrews as the judge, and Brenda Vacarro as Holbrook's cheating wife.

This was the first of two pilots Quinn Martin made for CBS that year, and CBS shrewdly chose to go with the second: "Cannon" starring William Conrad was a big success.

"Travis Logan" might have been a more viable pilot if Travis had been a defense counsel rather than a prosecutor. And maybe they could have given Travis a lovely law partner to play off Morrow's natural dourness. Barbara Anderson, Elizabeth Ashley, Louise Sorel, Rosemary Forsyth or Diane Baker might have been good candidates.

But CBS bought two drama series for 1971-72 with far weaker pilots than "Travis Logan, DA": "O'Hara, U. S. Treasury" with David Janssen and "Bearcats" with Rod Taylor.

Vic Morrow might have been interesting as the older cop in Quinn Martin's "The Streets of San Francisco" which started in 1972.

But Vic Morrow never had another series lead (although he did have a supporting role in "B. A. D. Cats" in 1980 with Michelle Pffiefer). But Morrow probably could never have equaled his superb work on "Combat". Not many actors have.