Shirley Kelly Movies
- 1988
- R
Director-producer Peter Maris directed this suspense drama based on a script by Frank Kerr. James Macalla (Chris Robinson) is a prominent university researcher whose mysterious death is not investigated to the satisfaction of his distraught wife, Laura (Linda Purl). Laura sets off to find the real killers and discovers that they are linked to a shadowy band of government operators. The group, Viper, is backed by the CIA in its mission of combatting terrorists. But the group has become a rogue operation whose goal involves the killing of university staffers in order to enrich themselves. Laura risks her own life to expose what is happening. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi
- Starring:
- Linda Purl, James Tolkan, (more)
- 1987
- PG
This imported period drama from New Zealand plays like a Down Under version of Paper Moon (1973). During the Great Depression, Kate (Greer Robson) is a 13-year-old girl living on New Zealand's South Island. When her mother dies and her father is offered a job in Wellington on North Island, Kate is sent to live with an aunt. The girl runs away to find her father, hopping onto a boxcar and befriending a fellow fugitive, Patrick (Peter Phelps), an emotionally battle-scarred WWI veteran fleeing the authorities after injuring a repo man. Pretending to be father and daughter, Patrick and Kate use each other for cover as they make their way across New Zealand, sleeping under the stars (hence the film's title) and championing the rights of destitute farmers and homeless squatters whose fortunes have been wiped out by economic hardship. Starlight Hotel (1987) was the second directorial effort of New Zealand native Sam Pillsbury and his follow-up to the offbeat horror film The Scarecrow (1982). ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Phelps, Greer Robson, (more)
Not to be confused with the 1960 film of the same name, this fast-paced karate action flick stars Chuck Norris, still riding high on his karate film successes of the early '80s, and several years away from starting his popular Walker: Texas Ranger TV series. In this story he plays Eddie Cusak, a painfully honest police sergeant who just misses pulling off a drug bust -- it seems another gang got there before him, wiped out the competition, and made off with a fortune in white powder. A bad move -- this means nothing less than all-out war between the two rival gangs, with the police caught in the middle. Cusak has other problems as well, one of his team killed an innocent bystander during the raid and he is duty-bound to squelch any cover-up. With enemies on both sides of the law, he then has to take on the drug cartel with nothing more than cannons, machine guns, shotguns, pistols, a robot car, and other sundry artillery to help him out. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Chuck Norris, Henry Silva, (more)
