Albert Salmi Movies

In this comedy (which claims a strong pedigree -- it was written by John Sayles and directed by Bill Forsyth), Burt Reynolds plays Ernie, an aging career burglar who knows just about everything there is to know about breaking and entering. One night, Ernie has stealthily slipped into a home only to discover someone else is already there -- Mike (Casey Siemaszko), a guy in his early 20's who likes to sneak into other people's houses so he can raid their refrigerators and watch their televisions. Ernie is taken aback by Mike's recklessness, but is impressed by his skills; he's convinced the kids has the makings of a first-class thief, and offers to make him his protege. Mike agrees, and soon the two are working together, with Ernie trying to explain the importance of playing it as safe as possible while Casey follows every youthful impulse to make some fast money and throw it away just as quickly. Breaking In marked a change-of-pace role for Burt Reynolds, in which he acknowledged his age and played a character role instead of an action hero; the results garnered him some of the best notices of his career. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Gore Vidal's 1955 TV play and 1958 film The Left-Handed Gun discreetly explored the hitherto untapped homosexual subtext in the saga of gunslinger Billy the Kid. Vidal's 1989 reworking of the same material, the made-for-cable Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid, is just as discreet, but no less top-heavy with 20th-century psychoanalysis. In relating the tale of New Mexico Territory outlaw William H. Bonney, Vidal once again postulates that Billy (described as a "homicidal moron" by one less sentimentally inclined historian) was a misunderstood kid who fell in with bad company. Val Kilmer, on the verge of bigger things, stars as Billy, while Duncan Regehr portrays sheriff Pat Garrett, the Kid's onetime crony and ultimate executioner. Gore Vidal himself shows up in a bit as a minister. "Pursued by his enemies, betrayed by his friends, ruled by his passions" read the ad copy when Gore Vidal's Billy the Kid premiered over the TNT Cable Channel on May 10, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In an anti-Russian film that is a hangover from Cold War polemics, three young Americans knowingly cross the Finno-Russian border while on a hunting trip and land in a grim Soviet prison. While U.S. diplomats work on the Americans' release, prisoners are dying in a macabre game of chess in which they are pawns. Anxious to get out of prison as of yesterday, the red-white-and-blue trio plan their escape with the involvement of a mysterious black American prisoner. As action sequences and prison scenes unfold, violence erupts on a regular basis. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In one of the series' best episodes, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) and Sheriff Tupper (Tom Bosley) are taking a bus trip from Cabot Cove to Portland, Maine, when the vehicle makes a stopover at a roadside inn. Before long, one of the other passengers--a bank robber recently released from prison--turns up murdered. As it happens, practically everyone on the bus except Jessica and Tupper had a powerful motivation...and this may well be one of those rare instances in which the Most Likely Suspect turns out to be the guilty party after all! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Convicted murderer Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald had hoped that, by telling his side of the story to investigative journalist Joe McGinniss, the authorities would be persuaded of MacDonald's innocence. Instead, McGinniss ended up unswerving in his belief of MacDonald's guilt, and the result was the devastating best-seller Fatal Vision. In this two-part TV adaptation of McGinniss' book, Gary Cole plays MacDonald, a former Green Beret officer, while Frank Dent essays the role of McGinniss. MacDonald's wife and two children are brutally murdered in their Fort Bragg, North Carolina home on February 17, 1970. The prime suspect, MacDonald insists that the killings were committed by a gang of stoned-out hippies, a story that at first is accepted in toto by the doctor's father-in-law Freddy Kassab (Karl Malden). But after MacDonald is officially exonerated, Kassab notices several holes in his son-in-law's story, and becomes convinced that MacDonald was in fact the murderer. Through Kassab's persistence, as well as the uncovering of new forensic evidence, MacDonald is ultimately convicted for all three murders in 1979. Since the TV premiere of Fatal Vision on November 18 and 19, 1984, there has been a growing movement by MacDonald's sympathizers to discredit McGinniss' book and to retry the case--a movement that has been hampered time and again by MacDonald's own erratic behavior. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Patty Duke Astin plays the wife of police officer Frederic Forrest, who wants to join a special investigative unit. Forrest is denied this position on the basis of information concerning his wife. The information, which reveals a dicey extramarital affair, was culled from a department surveillance file that was supposed to have been destroyed by court order. Astin battles through legal channels to expose the police force's illegal actions, even as she and her husband suffer the innuendoes and cold shoulders from his fellow officers. The made-for-TV Best Kept Secrets premiered on March 26, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this period adventure, Cameron Mitchell and Peter Graves star as a pair of Americans seeking their fortune overseas at the dawn of the 20th century. When they discover valuable oil reserves in Persia, they attempt to claim them for themselves, but their plan is not received enthusiastically by the locals, and they soon find themselves battling foes on all borders. Guns and the Fury also stars Michael Ansara and Albert Salmi. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based upon the true story of a woman's battle to raise her baby in prison after having become pregnant by a prison guard while serving a twenty-year stretch for robbery, Amy Madigan, in her debut film, delivers an impressive intensity and range as Terry Jean Moore, a wild young woman with a chip on her shoulder. The story begins as Terry is hitchhiking with her equally wild cousin Jesse (Lewis Smith). They are picked up by a passing motorist and Jesse tries to rob the motorist of five dollars. When they are caught, Jesse takes the rap for her cousin and winds up in jail. Her temperament does not endear her to the prison authorities, although she is befriended by a young lesbian, J.J. (Mackenzie Phillips), and a sympathetic guard, Jack Hensen (Beau Bridges). Jack and Terry fall in love and have an affair in prison. Terry becomes pregnant and fights to raise her child in prison. At the same time, being pregnant forces Terry to reconsider her life and adopt a more responsible attitude. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A special-effects laden medieval fantasy adventure, Dragonslayer centers on the attempts of a young sorcerer's apprentice to defeat a vicious dragon and save a lovely young maiden. Peter MacNicol stars as the young Galen, an aspiring magician under the tutelage of the aging Ulrich (Ralph Richardson). A nearby village turns to the pair for help when their leader begins proffering sacrifices of young virgins to satisfy a vicious dragon. The two immediately set out for battle, becoming even more determined when a courageous princess offers to sacrifice herself to the creature. Unfortunately, Ulrich's failing abilities force Galen into the center of the conflict, where the uncertain young boy must prove himself under fire. The suitably mythic if somewhat predictable story is told straightforwardly, culminating in a spectacular battle against the beast, featuring Academy Award-nominated visual effects. Despite its visual flair and relatively positive reviews, the film received mediocre response at the box office, as some criticized the film's violence as too intense for its intended younger audiences. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Ernest Pintoff--jazz trumpeter, painter, animated cartoonist, film theorist--directed his first dramatic feature, Harvey Middleman, Fireman, in 1965. Since that time, Pintoff has refused to be stylistically pigeonholed, turning out everything from comedy concerts (Dynamite Chicken) to spoofish T&A exploitation (Lunch Wagon Girls). St. Helens takes Pintoff into the realm of docudrama, using film clips of the May 18, 1980 eruption of the eponymous volcano to lend credibility to his dramatic re-enactments. Art Carney plays Harry Truman--not the President, but a real-life stubborn old codger who refused to leave his St. Helen's vacation cabin despite the oncoming natural disaster. Carney brings so much vitality to the proceedings that it seems a shame Pintoff couldn't alter the facts and provide Truman with a happy ending. Appearing fleetingly in St. Helen's are Ron "Superfly" O'Neal, Albert Salmi and Nehemiah Persoff. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger was written by Blanche Hanalis, a specialist in turning out quality teleplays with a feminist slant. Bonnie Franklin stars as pioneering birth-control advocate Margaret Sanger, who in the early part of the 20th century conducted a 25-year battle to have her views legitimized by the puritanical, male-dominated medical establishment. The film covers the years 1912 through 1917, starting with Sanger's work as a New York City public health nurse. Appalled by the deaths brought about by self-induced abortions, Sanger campaigns to enlighten uneducated "lower-class" women in the proper methods of birth control, eventually opening her own clinic. Her efforts are rewarded with public scorn, attacks from various censorship advocates (her informational pamphlets are deemed "pornographic") and frequent jail terms. In order to spice up an already fascinating story, the film places undue emphasis on the brief romance between Ms. Sanger and British sexual-liberation guru Havelock Ellis (Richard Johnson). Portrait of A Rebel might make a piquant double feature with the 1995 cable-TV Margaret Sanger biopic, which starred Dana Delany. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This action drama based around a construction site was a star vehicle for television actor Lee Majors between his two series gigs on The Six Million Dollar Man (1974-78) and The Fall Guy (1981-86). Majors stars as Mike Catton, a former well-regarded construction site foreman who became afraid of heights following a serious accident. When his friend Big Lew (George Kennedy) is killed while trying to rush the completion of an office skyscraper in an effort to beat a greedy bank's threatened foreclosure, Mike goes to work for Big Lew's daughter Cass (Jennifer O'Neill), recruiting a team of top workers to finish the job. Steel (1980) became an infamous picture due to the death of stunt man A.J. Bakunis, who died during the film's production trying to regain his former world's record for the longest stunt fall. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide