Jeannot Szwarc Movies

Michael McKean (real-life husband of Smallville co-star Annette O'Toole) guest stars as journalist Perry White, a visitor from Metropolis. Although he once boasted a promising career, the alcoholic Perry has been reduced to working for a seedy tabloid TV show. Arriving in Smallville to investigate the town's preponderance of paranormal activity, Perry is rescued from a sticky situation by Clark (Tom Welling) -- who reveals his superhuman speed in the process. As he plots and plans to uncover Clark's secret, Perry himself becomes the target of scrutiny on the part of Lex Luthor (Michael Rosenbaum). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Edgar Allan Poe's classic 1841 detective story Murders in the Rue Morgue was adapted for television by David Epstein. Two women--a mother and a daughter--are brutally killed in their tiny Paris apartment. There are no eyewitnesses, and the earwitnesses are wildly contradictory. The evidence points to a man of superhuman strength: perhaps it was the girl's jealous fiance. Enter consulting detective C. Auguste Dupin (George C. Scott), who with a methodical application of logic solves the mystery. The younger of the two unfortunate ladies was played by Rebecca De Mornay, still in her ingenue phase. Murders in the Rue Morgue was originally telecast December 7, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A big-budget spin-off from the series of three successful Superman movies, this film stars Helen Slater as the counterpart to the famous comic-book superhero. Supergirl is Kara, Superman's young cousin. She is sent to Earth is search of a Krypton power source, a lost ring that has been turned into a paperweight. She disguises herself as Linda Lee, a meek high-school student. Peter O'Toole is Zaltar, a mad villain who wants to use the power of the ring to take over the world. Faye Dunaway plays the evil sorceress Selena, who is also plotting to get the gem and uses her incredible powers of black magic in service of her scheme. Linda Lee meets Ethan (Hart Bochner), who is under a spell cast by Selena, which causes him to fall in love with the first person he sees. Selena had intended to use the spell to make Ethan fall in love with her, and she is furious when his affections are directed toward Supergirl. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

Christopher Reeve got away from Superman and related costume roles in this dramatic fantasy film, adapted from Richard Matheson's 1960s vintage novel Bid Time Return. A young playwright, Richard Collier (Reeve), is approached by an elderly woman on the occasion of his first triumph in 1972 -- all she says to him is "Come back to me" and leaves him with a watch that contains a picture of a ravishing young woman. Eight years later, he visits the Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island and comes upon a photograph of the same woman, whom he discovers was an actress who made an appearance at the hotel in 1912. He becomes obsessed with the image and what the woman -- who died the night she approached him in 1972 -- meant by what she said. In a manner somewhat reminiscent of the film Laura, he falls in love with her and her image as he learns more about her life and career. Then he comes upon the suggestion of a professor at his former college that time travel may, in fact, be possible, using an extreme form of self-hypnosis to free the person from the place they occupy in the time-stream. Collier's feelings for the woman are so strong that he succeeds, bringing himself back to the hotel in 1912 on the eve of her triumph. He meets the actress, Elise McKenna (Jane Seymour), and the two fall in love despite the machinations of her obsessive, autocratic manager (Christopher Plummer), who feels threatened by Collier's presence. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

This made-for-TV espionage drama chronicles the adventures of Hawaiian secret agent Diamond Head, who begins impersonating a notorious gambler so he can get close to those who are planning to steal an extremely lethal chemical capable of wiping out all life. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

On behalf of Vietnamese refugee Mai (Irene Yah-Ling Sun), Jim (James Garner) searches for the girl's brother Vinh (Jim Ishida), who myseriously vanished after leaving a relocation center. It turns out that Vinh has been waylaid by a couple of war veterans (from the "Catering Corps") who want the missing Vihn to lead them to the $500,000 they'd stolen just before the fall of Saigon. Complicating matters is the fact that Mai seems utterly incapable of telling Jim the whole truth. Counterpointing this intrigue is a running gag involving Jim's dad Rocky (Noah Beery Jr.) and his buddy L.J. (Al Stevenson). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Stephen Macht is cast as Joseph Arrow, an unemployed Native American ironworker who breaks into the apartment of a powerful and otherwise unapproachable construction boss, hoping to land a job. But when the boss mistakes him for a burglar, Arrow accidentally kills the man. Though sympathetic to Arrow's plight, Kojak (Telly Savalas) must still track down the reluctant murderer and bring him to justice. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This episode is a sobering lesson in civil liberties--or rather, the lack of those liberties when an innocent citizen is brought before a Federal Grand Jury. Much to his dismay, Jim Rockford (James Garner) is repeatedly subpoenaed and harrassed by zealous Federal prosecutor Gary Bevins (William Daniels), who is convinced that the detective knows more than he is willing to admit about the disappearance of union boss Frank Sorvino. When he isn't serving jail time for contempt of court, Jim is kept busy ducking and dodging Sorvino's cronies, as well as someone who is trying to kill him. Though ultimately Jim clears himself, justice has still not been served--and the episode ends with a blistering attack on the iniquities of the legal process as Rockford throws the prosecutor's sanctimonious words right back at him. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi