1 9 7 6 (USA)
1 x 120 minute episode
3 x 90 minute episodes
Bottle after bottle of Dom Perignon flowed in this six-and-a-half-hour NBC miniseries about lust and power in banking.
Roscoe Heyward (Christopher Plummer of the blue eyes in an Emmy-award-winning role) and Alex Vandervoort (Kirk Douglas of the dimple) were both executive vice presidents of the First Mercantile Bank of America, struggling for the presidency of the bank.
Heyward – who had the intellect of an adding machine and the soul of a ledger – was seduced into a $50 million loan by George Quartermain (Lorne Greene) and into bed by Avril Devereaux (Joan Collins). He did not get on with his frigid wife, Beatrice (Jean Peters), who had trouble keeping up appearances on $75,000 a year.
Alex Vandervoort – the social conscience of the bank – loved radical chic lawyer Margot Bracken (Susan Flannery from Days of Our Lives) and did not get on with his mad wife, Celia (Marisa Pavan), whose redoubtable keeper was played by Helen Hayes.
Teller Miles Eastin (Timothy Bottoms) stole $6,000 from the bank, was sent to jail and brutally gang-raped while another inmate looked on.
He redeemed himself by uncovering a counterfeit charge card operation that was threatening to foreclose on First Mercantile’s assets.
Heyward’s loan disappeared when Quartermain’s company dissolved.
There was a bit of street violence, a run on the bank, and the bank was blown up by a group of blacks and Chicanos whose credit rating wasn’t good enough to finance a community housing project.
It was all good meaty soap opera stuff. Unsurprisingly, given that the source material was an Alex Hailey novel.
Alex Vandervoort
Kirk Douglas Roscoe Heyward
Christopher Plummer Miles Eastin
Timothy Bottoms Margot Bracken
Susan Flannery Edwina Dorsey
Anne Baxter Nolan Wainwright
Percy Rodrigues Jerome Patterton
Ralph Bellamy Avril Devereaux
Joan Collins Tony Bear
Robert Loggia Celia Vandervoort
Marisa Pavan Beatrice Heyward
Jean Peters Lewis Dorsey
Hayden Rorke Wizard Wong
James Shigeta Juanita Nunez
Amy Levitt Harold Austin
Patrick O’Neal George Quartermain
Lorne Greene Dr McCartney
Helen Hayes Fergus Gatwick
Roger Bowen Ben Rosselli
Leonardo Cimino Danny Kerrigan
Douglas Fowley Stanley Inchbeck
Basil Hoffman Deacon Euphrates
Lincoln Kilpatrick George Sperrie
Harry Lewis Mr Tottenhoe
Woodrow Parfrey Lew Endicott
Michael Shannon John Dinkerwell
Stan Shaw Julius LaRocca
Joseph R. Sicari Humphy Lopez
Chick Vennera Miss Callahan
Virginia Grey Estela Nunez
Yxta Murray Matt French
Alex Sheafe Donniger
Vincent Schiavelli Karl
Tony Burton Moonbeam
Nancy Hsueh Cliff Castleman
Lincoln Kibbee Timberwell
Bing Russell Beth Euphrates
Marla Gibbs Vernon Jax
Redmond Gleeson Vic
Tim Everett Rhetta
Jo Jo Malone Cal Coogan
Frank O’Brien
Roscoe Heyward (Christopher Plummer of the blue eyes in an Emmy-award-winning role) and Alex Vandervoort (Kirk Douglas of the dimple) were both executive vice presidents of the First Mercantile Bank of America, struggling for the presidency of the bank.
Teller Miles Eastin (Timothy Bottoms) stole $6,000 from the bank, was sent to jail and brutally gang-raped while another inmate looked on.
