Roy Huggins made a career out of scripting tough-guy TV shows like The Fugitive, 77 Sunset Strip, Maverick, and Baretta, among others, in his almost 50 years as a screen and television writer. But his dark political legal drama A Fever In The Blood was made after a period of bad blood between Huggins and his studio Warner Brothers. (Incensed over how Warners was the only studio not paying residuals on reruns, he filed suit for release from his contract and took a suspension rather than return to a TV assignment). Still, the studio eventually gave the go-ahead for this story about how the murder of a young divorcee kicks off a courtroom grudge match between a district attorney (Jack Kelly), a senator (Don Ameche) and thepresiding judge (Efrem Zimbalist Jr., also of 77 Sunset Strip). Straddling the gap between late noir and neo-noir, this also stars Angie Dickinson and Carroll O'Connor, in the part he counts in his biography as his "real first" screen role.

By Violet LeVoit