Glenn Ford faces death twice — from his best friend and a stubborn mob boss who'd rather die than snitch.
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.
Acting
Glenn Ford's weathered sheriff — world-weary without saying much
Direction
Two halves, two directors: Chomsky's tension vs. Donner's punch
Director
Marvin J. Chomsky
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Richard Donner directed this second half between his breakthrough TV work and The Omen, already showing his gift for propulsive action.
This Frankenstein-ed 'movie' is peak 1970s network economics: foreign markets wanted features, so two episodes got slapped together with zero narrative cohesion.
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