Kate Reid Movies

The miserable life and long-overdue death of thrill killer Charles Starkweather is the basis of the two-part TV movie Murder in the Heartland. Over a bloody few months in 1958, Starkweather (Tim Roth), a 19-year-old high school dropout, embarked on a killing spree, snuffing out 11 victims. Along for the ride was Charlie's 14-year-old girlfriend Caril Ann Fugate (Fairuza Balk). The debate still goes on as to whether Caril Ann was a willing accomplice or a reluctant prisoner; as played by Ms. Balk, she comes off as dumb as mud. A shorter, fictionalized account of the Starkweather killings was offered in the critically acclaimed 1973 theatrical feature Badlands, starring Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek. Murder in the Heartland originally aired May 3 and 4, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Goldie Hawn delivers a surprisingly understated performance (allowing the audience to shift their laughter from the usually comic Hawn to the unbelievable storyline) in the unsuccessful thriller Deceived. Hawn plays Adrienne Saunders, a successful art restorer who is married to Jack (John Heard), a devoted husband who is also an expert in the antiques business. Married for six years and parents of a charming 5-year-old daughter Mary (Ashley Peldon), the Saunders appear to have everything going for them. But after a series of odd occurrences that even an idiot would notice, Adrienne finally comes the conclusion that her husband is not the man she thought he was when she married him. After Jack tells Mary that he was in Boston but Adrienne's friend tells her she saw him in New York, the mysterious clues begin piling up and are too numerous to ignore: there's a call from a department store concerning some sexy lingerie that Jack purchased; a friend is found murdered after checking on the authenticity of an Egyptian necklace; and there are indications that Jack was involved with a scheme to steal artifacts from a museum. Adrienne is finally convinced that something is fishy about her husband when he mysteriously dies is an auto wreck, and she discovers that Jack has been using the name of a man who had died 16 years earlier. Adrienne proceeds to polish her magnifying glass and conducts some detective work on her own to find out who her husband really was. This is when the danger really begins. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The roiling emotions and rivalries of three teenagers are explored in this Australian drama, which pitches three dissimilar young people together in a high-tension situation. David (Kelly Dingwall) has persuaded his gal-pal Michelle (Rebecca Rigg) to join him as he breaks into a posh home to grab some cash. He claims that he's done this before, and there won't be any problems. Trouble appears in the form of another of David's friends, Billy (John Polson), a boy with a bad attitude from the "wrong side of the tracks." He has been tailing the duo, and joins them at the scene of the crime. He wants to trash the house, since it represents an example of "the good life" to which he will never have access. Over the course of the evening these three very different personalities will come to share their innermost secrets and be drawn together in a way they could never have anticipated. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this well-wrought drama, WW II dramatically changes the lives of the Cooper family when its patriarch is called to battle, captured, and sent to a Japanese POW camp. Back at home the heretofore coddled wife, who doesn't know if her husband is still alive, must somehow figure out how to support her family and carry on in the British tradition of courage and dignity under pressure. Her solution is to join a swing band. As she becomes increasingly confident and independent, she begins wondering whether or not she still loves her missing spouse. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Young Edward (Philip Quast) is an impressionable lad who is used by friends and family in this offbeat drama. While attending a prim and proper boarding school, he loses his best friend when the young Asian hangs himself after repeated racial slurs and taunts from cruel classmates. When he is older, Edward (Marcus Gollings) is set up by his drug-dealing brother in a money-laundering scam. The crooked brother gets off, while Edward suffers the humiliation of being branded a criminal. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Christmas Eve was actually first telecast on December 22, 1986, but nobody cared about the "error" then, so why should we? Making her first television appearance in 23 years, Loretta Young (her ageless beauty undimmed by her silvery hair) plays a wealthy New York matriarch who learns that she is dying. This strengthens her determination to be reunited with her three grandchildren, whom she hasn't seen in 16 years thanks to a bitter argument with her avaricious son Arthur Hill. As Hill wages a court campaign to have Young declared incompetent and thus get his mitts on her millions, private eye Ron Leibman races against time to locate her lost grandkids before Christmas. Do you honestly think you'll get through Christmas Eve without a box of Kleenex handy? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director David Lynch crafted this hallucinogenic mystery-thriller that probes beneath the cheerful surface of suburban America to discover sadomasochistic violence, corruption, drug abuse, crime and perversion. Kyle Maclachlan stars as Jeffrey Beaumont, a square-jawed young man who returns to his picture-perfect small town when his father suffers a stroke. Walking through a field near his home, Jeff discovers a severed human ear, which he immediately brings to the police. Their disinterest sparks Jeff's curiosity, and he is soon drawn into a dangerous drama that's being played out by a lounge singer, Dorothy Vallens (Isabella Rossellini) and the ether-addicted Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). The sociopathic Booth has kidnapped Dorothy's young son and is using the child as a bargaining chip to repeatedly beat, humiliate and rape Dorothy. Though he's drawn to the virginal, wholesome Sandy Williams (Laura Dern), Jeff is also aroused by Dorothy and in trying to aid her, he discovers his dark side. As the film nears its conclusion, our hero learns that many more indivduals are tacitly involved with Frank, including a suave, lip-synching singer, Ben (Dean Stockwell), who is minding the kidnapped boy. Director Lynch explored many similar themes of the "disease" lying just under the surface of the small town, all-American façade in his later television series Twin Peaks (1990-91). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In 1984, actor Dustin Hoffman starred in a critically-acclaimed Broadway revival of playwright Arthur Miller's classic Pulitzer Prize-winning drama Death of a Salesman. A year later, Hoffman and most of his fellow cast members starred in this made-for-TV production, the first English-language film by German director Volker Schlondorff. Hoffman stars as Willy Loman, an aging salesman who has lost his job because of encroaching senility. Now living on handouts provided by his friend Charley (Charles Durning), Willy's lifelong delusions of success and greatness awaiting just around the corner for he and his family have been shattered, and he's considering suicide. As he reflects on his life and the failed promise of his sons Biff (John Malkovich) and Happy (Stephen Lang), Willy finally confronts some unpleasant truths about both sons, particularly Biff, a one-time athlete who has become a kleptomaniac. One of the best of the many filmed versions of Miller's seminal work, Death of a Salesman (1985) won several awards, including a Golden Globe and an Emmy for Hoffman. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Jeff Fahey plays Raymond Graham, who for five years has lived on Death Row, awaiting execution for the murder of a store clerk. Having given up on any further legal delays, Graham wearily awaits the fatal injection. Joining the condemned man in his death watch are Graham's family and attorney, a crowd of anti-capital punishment demonstrators, and the inevitable TV crews. This drama concentrates on the final two hours of Raymond Graham's life, played out in "real time". Originally telecast November 17, 1985, The Execution of Raymond Graham was the ABC TV network's first live dramatic presentation in nearly 25 years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Tom Smothers and Carol Kane co-star with Paul Reubens and Judge Reinhold in this uneven comedy spoof of slasher films. Sergeant Cooper (Smothers) is a Canadian Mountie who investigates the death of cheerleaders attending a summer camp at Indiana's It Had To Be University. Cameo appearances by Eve Arden, Kaye Ballard, Eileen Brennan, Tab Hunter, and Donald O'Connor fail to add anything to the thin, sophomoric plot. This film should not be confused with the similarly titled 1988 Australian feature directed by Hadyn Keenan. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

An exceedingly complex plot with a few gaps in logic characterizes this uneven thriller by George Bloomfield. Photographer Michael (Michael Sarrazin) is now in a mental institution because after he got back from a dangerous assignment in the Middle East he found his wife raped and murdered. His mistress Paula West (Susan Clark) manages to get him released and then asks a private detective to keep an eye on him in case he flips out again. Trouble brews when the dead wife's lover (Anthony Perkins), who knows the truth about how she died, wants some remuneration for his silence. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

After a passenger liner is rammed and sunk by a derelict German freighter from World War II, the handful of survivors (which include George Kennedy and Richard Crenna) manage to board the unmanned hulk but soon discover that their perils have just begun. Apparently the freighter served as a kind of floating Nazi torture dungeon, and its corridors and bulkheads have somehow become imbued with the very forces of evil that once tormented its captive cargo. When the rather lethargic resident ghosts finally work up the energy to harass their new visitors, viewers are treated to a gallery of decomposing corpses, a supernaturally-triggered case of acne, and the somewhat bland demonic possession of Kennedy, who suddenly declares himself Nazi commandant for a day. This rusty, waterlogged variant on the standard haunted-house theme begins with the interesting premise of ship-as-predator, but provides nothing new in the way of shocks, effects or atmosphere -- and the sleepwalking leads don't help matters either. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Mixing a tongue-in-cheek approach with thriller action, this routine caper story features Christopher Plummer as James Hatcher -- a businessman who has just double-crossed both the CIA and the Mafia and has to hide out -- and Richard Harris as Louis Kinney, an unemployed accountant who takes on the job of bodyguard to Hatcher's sister and mother. Eventually, both the CIA and the Mafia catch on to the fact that they have been mutually bilked out of $10 million by Hatcher, but they are further befuddled when Hatcher manages to portray Kinney as a murderer. This, of course, sets Kinney off on a manhunt for Hatcher, who is now most-wanted by just about everybody. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide