Joseph Cotten Movies

Based on a novel by James Hardiman, this routine haunted-house scenario is enhanced a bit by its lush Eastern setting. The story opens in an elaborate Kyoto abode, wherein a cuckolded samurai brutally murders his wife and her lover before committing ritual seppuku. Their restless spirits remain trapped in the house until the present, where the story continues with an American couple (Edward Albert and Susan George), the house's newest owners, whose minds soon begin to fall under the ghosts' powerful psychic influence. After the arrival of a family friend, visiting diplomat Doug McClure, a curious re-enactment of the original tragedy unfolds, and even the intervention of a Buddhist monk (Henry Mitowa) fails to dispel the evil. The filmmakers seem more concerned with the sex than horror, as indicated by frequent nudity (particularly from George) and numerous sweaty clinches, paying short shrift to the great potential offered by the Asian setting -- an aspect only hinted at in the Buddhist exorcism scenes. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

A notorious artistic and financial failure, Michael Cimino's Heaven's Gate was blamed for critically wounding the movie Western and definitively ushering out the 1970s Hollywood New Wave of young, brash, independent filmmakers. Taking a revisionist, post-Vietnam view of American imperialism, Cimino used the historical Johnson County War incident in Wyoming to create an impressionistic tapestry of Western conflict between poor immigrant settlers and rich cattle barons led by Canton (Sam Waterston) and his hired gun Nate Champion (Christopher Walken). Attempting to mediate is idealistic Harvard graduate and county marshal Averill (Kris Kristofferson), who is both Nate's friend and his romantic rival for the affections of Ella Watson (Isabelle Huppert). However, war erupts, at great cost to all involved. Flush from his success with the Oscar-winning The Deer Hunter (1978), Cimino demanded creative control, and his insistence on shooting on location and building historically accurate sets and props multiplied the film's original budget to a then-astronomical $36 million. When United Artists premiered the original 219-minute version (sight unseen), they discovered that Cimino had produced an elliptical epic, compounding the box-office difficulties of making a Western without any major stars. Critics howled about Cimino's incomprehensible self-indulgence, and United Artists pulled the film after several days. Re-released five months later, 70 minutes shorter, Heaven's Gate bombed again, and MGM bought out the financially crippled United Artists. The ailing Western genre virtually vanished during the 1980s, Cimino's career never recovered, and Hollywood studios had had enough of bankrolling financially risky ventures by "auteur" directors. Heaven's Gate's reputation recovered somewhat after its video release, as it garnered praise from some viewers for such visually remarkable sequences as the Harvard dance and the final battle, as well as for David Mansfield's haunting score. Steven Bach's book Final Cut provides a full production history. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Nick (Mike Conners) is the owner of a luxury liner and casino which cruises its way to action and adventure for those on board. Lackluster direction by Don Chaffey is not aided by a cast including Gary Burghoff, Joseph Cotten, Lynda Day George, Bo Hopkins and Robert Loggia, who seem to all be slightly embarrassed to be in the film. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

The Hearse, directed by George Bowers is a clichéd, predictable horror film which, despite its interesting cast, is derivative and uninspired. Jane (Trish Van Devere) inherits a mansion from an aunt, whom she closely resembles. The townspeople believe that her aunt was possessed by Satan, and Jane becomes increasingly frightened when she is haunted by visions of a hearse that keeps showing up in front of her door. Walter Prichard (Joseph Cotton) is a argumentative attorney who does nothing to help Jane, who begins to think she is having a nervous breakdown. All of this is familiar and has been done far better elsewhere. Director Bowers paces the film far too leisurely to create much suspense, and the "surprise" ending is evident to all but the most unsophisticated viewer. The Hearse, routine and slow, will lull most horror fans to sleep. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

This half-baked but entertaining disaster film (not to be confused with America's The Concorde - Airport '79) deals with the attempts of an evil corporation to sabotage the Concorde before it hurts their own airline business. James Franciscus plays a reporter who teams up with Mimsy Farmer (Macchie Solari) to save the plane and its passengers from certain doom. Venantino Venantini co-stars with Edmund Purdom, Van Johnson, and Joseph Cotton, while cultists should look for porn star R. Bolla (appearing as Robert Kerman) in the tower, and some simply pathetic miniature effects. Kerman was also in Deodato's Cannibal Holocaust and Umberto Lenzi's Cannibal Ferox. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

The plot of this of this adaptation of the Daniel Carney's novel, sprinkled throughout a series of extended Sam Peckinpah-inspired action sequences, deals with a collection of mercenary toughguys -- Colonel Allen Faulkner (Richard Burton), Lieutenant Shawn Fynn (Roger Moore), Rafer Janders (Richard Harris), Pieter Coetzee (Hardy Kruger) -- who are hired to parachute into the African bush country and abscond with deposed African president Julius Limbani (Winston Ntshona) and reinstall him as a reigning monarch of an African country, to satisfy British mercantile interests. The action sequences were successful enough to spawn a sequel -- appropriately titled Wild Geese II. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This hokey Italian monster movie -- distributed in the U.S. through Roger Corman's New World Pictures under the title Screamers -- was rescued from certain cinematic obscurity thanks to New World's hilariously misleading one-sheet campaign, which boldly declared "WARNING! You will actually see a man turned inside out!" Caveat Emptor, viewers... there is nothing of the sort on display in the film itself. All that's available is a silly sci-fi story about diabolical mad scientist Joseph Cotten busily turning the inhabitants of a remote island into water-breathing "fishmen" to serve the island's sadistic overlord (Richard Johnson), who is trying to uncover the lost treasures of Atlantis. On hand as the nominal sex interest is Barbara Bach as Cotten's daughter, who possesses some sort of telepathic contact with the fishmen, but mainly just poses as seductively as possible while feeding and tending to the rubber-suit mutants. Corman inserted some new prologue footage with Mel Ferrer for the New World print, as well as a few gory scenes intended to snag some R-rated exploitation appeal, but the end product is still laughable as ever. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

A sequel to the 1977 TV movie Fantasy Island, this film was originally titled Fantasy Island II and slated to air on November, 1977, but was instead re-christened and broadcast as the initial episode of the weekly Fantasy Island series. Once again, six people spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to fulfill their dreams on a lavish island resort overseen by the enigmatic Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) and his dwarf assistant, Tattoo (Herve Villechaize). This time, "de plane" arrives on the island with a passenger roster including Charles Fleming (Horst Buchholz), who allegedly wants to restore the memory of his amnesiac wife, Janet (Karen Valentine); love-struck executive, Benson (George Maharis), and his bitchy boss, Margo Dean (Adrienne Barbeau), whom Benson hopes to woo and win Taming of the Shrew style; and long-married couple Brian and Lucy Faber (Joseph Campanella and Pat Crowley), who yearn to be reunited with the child they gave up for adoption years earlier. Return to Fantasy Island premiered January 20, 1978, on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ostensibly a six-hour miniseries adaptation of Bert Hirschfield's novel Aspen, the program actually used only the title of the Hirschfield work; the plot proper was lifted from another novel by a different author, Bart Spicer's The Adversary. Set in the titular Colorado ski resort in the 1960s, the story line incorporated equal amounts of sex, greed, ambition, and murder, with the trial of accused rapist-killer Lee Bishop (Perry King) at the center of the storm, and the efforts by a gangster to grab up the local land, coupled with the amorous misadventures of a jet-setting glamour girl, taking up the slack whenever the plot threatened to lag. Despite a huge and varied cast, Sam Elliott emerged as the star of the proceedings in the role of straight-arrow attorney Tom Keating. Originally shown by the NBC network from November 5 to 7, 1977, Aspen was rebroadcast under the more lurid title The Innocent and the Damned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

From 16th century Sicily to the streets of contemporary New York, the Mafia has transcended its humble roots to evolve into one of the most formidable crime organizations ever. Centuries ago, the dreaded Gramignanos family took control over Sicily by launching a vicious campaign of violence and corruption. These days, the objectives may have changed, but the tactics remain the same. Lee J. Cobb, Joseph Cotten, and Edward Albert are all featured in a five-part documentary spanning 400 years of death, deception, and secrecy. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

When a couple of ruthless businessmen threaten her logging camp, a defenseless widow is aided by a group of Alaskan lumberjacks. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

In this rare 90-minute episode of The Rockford Files, Jim (James Garner) is hired by wealthy Warren Jameson, who wants to know something of the background of his future son-in-law Mark Chalmers (Geoffrey Land). Before long, Jim has run afoul of police lieutenant Larry Pierson (Eddie Fontaine), who indicates that any digging into Chalmers' past might prove hazardous to one's health. Before he knows what's happening, Jim is beaten, kidnapped (twice!) and subject to harrassment from the Feds--and he still has no idea why. "This Case is Closed" is sometimes split into two separate episodes for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Delicate Balance is the 1973 film adaptation of Edward Albee's Pulitzer Prize-winning play. Katharine Hepburn and Paul Scofield play an old married couple, Agnes and Tobias, who much prefer to be alone. Each time someone visits them, their "delicate balance" is threatened. The first intruder is Agnes' inebriated sister, Claire (Kate Reid). The next is their much-divorced daughter, Julia (Lee Remick). The limit is reached when well-meaning friends Harry (Joseph Cotten) and Edna (Betsy Blair) show up unexpectedly and threaten to stay forever. In keeping with the austerity of the other American Film Theatre presentations, director Tony Richardson eschews his usual cinematographic pyrotechnics here. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide