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"The Cage" was the original pilot of Star Trek: The Original Series. It completed filming in January 1965 and was offered to NBC for screeing in February 1965. All Star Trek fans know how that went down. Though now, the episode is one of the highest-ranked episodes by sites like Den of Geek and Syfy, back in 1965, the NBC executives rejected it for the pilot of the brand new sci-fi series.

Oscar Katz, who was the head of production at Desilu, which produced the first two seasons of The Original Series, didn't understaned why the network had turned it down, and the explanation didn't really help. Executives responded with "we can't sell this show; it's too atypical." Katz reminded NBC that they'd chosen "The Cage" to review as the pilot out of four potential offerings as Gene Roddenberry had written three additional script pilots.

When they rejected "The Cage," I asked NBC,...

Gene Roddenberry considered potential Tos spinoffs, including a Harry Mudd show, and a hospital drama featuring Dr. M'Benga. "Assignment: Earth" was designed as a pilot for a new Star Trek-adjacent show, starring Robert Lansing as Gary Seven. NBC proposed a Spock series post-tos cancelation, but Roddenberry declined to produce the spinoff show.

In 2024, the Star Trek franchise is built on spinoff shows, but during the heyday of Star Trek: The Original Series, such things remained a pipe dream for creator Gene Roddenberry. The concept of a Star Trek spinoff show wouldn't become a viable concept until the premiere of Star Trek: The Next Generation in 1987, though that was more of a franchise revival than a spinoff. When Star Trek: Deep Space Nine premiered in 1993, the spinoff TV show was born, and the franchise hasn't looked back since.

Over 20 years earlier, Gene Roddenberry, and the network, were considering which Star Trek: Tos...

Stephen Kandel, the prolific screenwriter whose work over four decades in television spanned Sea Hunt to Star Trek, Batman to Barnaby Jones and Mannix to MacGyver, has died. He was 96.

Kandel died Oct. 21 of natural causes in his Boston apartment, his daughter Elizabeth Englander told The Hollywood Reporter.

Kandel also wrote multiple episodes of such shows as The Millionaire, The Rogues, Gidget, I Spy, Ironside, The Wild Wild West, It Takes a Thief, Dan August, The New Mike Hammer, Mission: Impossible, Room 222, The Magician, Medical Center, Cannon, Hawaii Five-o and Hart to Hart.

Plus, he co-created Iron Horse, a 1966-68 drama from ABC and Screen Gems that starred Dale Robertson, as a gambler turned railroad baron, Gary Collins and Ellen Burstyn.

“His résumé reads like a Baby Boomer’s dream list of must-see TV,” Tom Weaver wrote in his 2005 book, Earth vs. the Sci-Fi Filmmakers.

Kandel had a hand...

1953’s House of Wax with Vincent Price cast a long shadow fairly early in the horror world; creepy Grand Guignol (in 3D no less) with a strong thread of vengeance gave us further goodies such as Tourist Trap (1979) and a recently reappraised remake in 2005. It’s not surprising then that TV would take a crack at molding its own vicious visage; what they came up with is a pilot film that executives deemed too shocking for the small screen – Chamber of Horrors (1966), a decidedly ghoulish take on necrophilia and murder mixed with breezy banter and chopped up body parts. I think the brass may have been right to send this one to the big screen.

Before you get too excited, we’re not talking Blood Feast here; it’s incredibly tame by today’s standards. No, it’s the subject matter itself which would send mom and dad into epileptic fits,...

By Fred Blosser

“Cannon for Cordoba,” a 1970 film produced by Vincent M. Fennelly for the Mirisch Corporation, written by Stephen Kandel, directed by Paul Wendkos, and distributed by United Artists, has been released by Kino Lorber Studio Classics in an attractive new Blu-ray edition. In the movie, U.S. Army Captain Rod Douglas (George Peppard) leads a three-man team across the Mexican Border in 1916. Douglas has been assigned to gather intelligence on a predatory rebel general, Cordoba (Raf Vallone), who has confiscated American-owned property in Mexico. Wealthy U.S. ranchers and politicians are demanding that the Army secure the border with troops (an outcry for a $70 billion wall would have to wait another hundred years). After Douglas’ team enters Mexico, one of the trio, Adam, is captured and tortured to death by Cordoba’s troops. Douglas and the third ranger, Jackson (Don Gordon), escape to warn Gen. Pershing (John Russell...

A middling entry in the genre of blow-it-up big action spectacles, Paul Wendkos’ Spain-filmed western gives us all the excitement promised by the poster, but with some cardboard characters and lumpy storytelling. George Peppard is on the job, however, and once again proves he can carry a big picture, flaws and all.

Cannon for Cordoba

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1970 / Color / 2:35 widescreen / 104 min. / Street Date October 31, 2017 / available through Kino Lorber / 29.95

Starring: George Peppard, Raf Vallone, Giovanna Ralli, Don Gordon, Pete Duel, Nico Minardos, John Russell, John Larch, Gabriele Tinti, Francine York, Lionel Murton, Hans Meyer, Aldo Sambrell, Luis Barboo.

Cinematography: Antonio Macasoli

Film Editor: Walter A. Hannemann

Special effects: Emilio Ruiz del Río

Original Music: Elmer Bernstein

Written by Stephen Kandel

Produced by Vincent M. Fennelly

Directed by Paul Wendkos

While providing backing for independent writer-producers like Billy Wilder, Walter Mirisch also shepherded various less ambitious war movies and westerns,...

The Movie Pool goes in with guns blazing to review Cannon for Cordoba on DVD for the first time!

This DVD is offered as part of MGM's "Limited Edition Collection," which is available from select online retailers and manufactured only when the DVD is ordered. The DVD features a simple menu with no menu for chapters or scenes. Manufacture-On-Demand (Mod) DVDs are made to play in DVD playback units only and may not play in DVD recorders or PC drives. This DVD did not play in our laptop DVD drive but did play in our Toshiba DVD recorder.

DVD Specs

Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1  

Running Time: 104 minutes

Rating: PG-13

Audio: Dolby Digital 2.0

Subtitles: None  

Special Features: Theatrical trailer  

The Set-up

During the Mexican Revolution of 1912, a U.S. Army captain (George Peppard) is sent on a mission to destroy stolen American cannons and capture a rebel leader (Raf Vallone).

Written by:...