Richard Kay Movies

Similar to the 1991 Dead Again starring Kenneth Branagh, this story of reincarnation and murder also features two couples who meet again in a new lifetime. Brooke Ashley (Jaclyn Smith) is a ballerina and Michael Richardson (Nigel Terry) is her lover, and they both perish in a fire that destroys their home. Fifty years go by, and Gregory Thomas (Terry), a screenwriter, sees an old film clip of Ashley who could easily pass for his fiancee Maggie Rogers (Smith). Intrigued by this coincidence, he starts to research a screenplay on the ballerina's life, and to help get more material, he visits a medium (Shelley Winters) who used to know her. The medium reveals that Gregory is the reincarnation of the dead Richardson -- which means the former couple is back together again. Before any celebration is in order, some of the increasingly sinister mystery of how and why the couple died in the long-ago fire has to be cleared up. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Russian playwright Anton Chekhov's three upper-class Prozorov sisters -- Masha, Olga, and Irina -- come no closer to their dream of returning to Moscow in director Laurence Olivier's 1970 film version of Three Sisters than they did in Chekhov's original 1900 play. This melancholy classic about shattered dreams, self-delusion, and compromise was directed by Olivier for Britain's National Theatre in 1967. The film, a literal record of Olivier's stage version, was produced in order to raise money for the ever-imperiled National. Olivier, who'd just recovered from a serious illness, plays the mischievous army doctor Chebutikin, while Olivier's wife, Joan Plowright, essays the major role of Masha, the snobbish general's daughter who tries to escape the stultifying banality of her provincial marriage by having an affair. Three Sisters was released in the U.S. in 1974 as part of the American Film Theatre series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Actor Paul Henried's directorial efforts always tended to be on the sensationalistic side, and Girls on the Loose was no exception. Mara Corday stars as Vera Parkinson, the beautiful-but-deadly head of a robbery gang. To throw the cops off the track, Vera runs a legit nightclub as a cover. Assembling a major payroll heist, Vera enlists the aid of "inside woman" Agnes Clark (Abby Dalton), an employee of the targetted company. When Agnes shows signs of remorse, Vera has her killed-setting off a chain reaction of murders. By film's end, only one of the principals is left standing. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this adventure, treasure hunters go in search of voodoo loot. The expedition is lead by a young woman and her avaricious father who must work hard to persuade a boatman to take them into the cursed jungle. En route the father is hexed with a voodoo curse and dies. The boatman and the girl find the treasure, but they are nearly skewered by the angry natives in the process. Naturally, they escape and live a wonderfully romantic life. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

International Burlesque was aimed at those "grind houses" catering to the For-Men-Only audience. Assembled at a cost of $50,000, the film spotlights some of the best-known striptease artists in the business. Special attention is paid to the fabled Betty Rowland, whose enthusiastic undulations are quite impressive. A handful of ancient burlesque comedy routines are thrown in, but these are hard to follow due to substandard sound recording. In most areas, International Burlesque was heavily censored, though the film is kid's stuff compared to the sort of fare one can find on any pay-cable channel in the 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi