Catherine Schell Movies

A group of young adults tries to escape from Czechoslovakia in 1952 in this historical drama. The communist regime sets up what appears to be a western zone in order to trap the escapees and trick them into speaking out against the oppressive regime. Only when it is too late do the people discover that they have been tricked and that the lucky ones will head to prison. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This sci-fi adventure was the pilot for a television series Space: 1999. It is set in the next century just after an enormous blast from an alien ship destroys half the moon and sends the rest hurtling through space. Unfortunately, upon the chunk of speeding rock is the research station Alpha which contains 311 people helmed by cool-headed Commander Koenig. Now the Alpha castaways must not only continue to survive, they must also keep up on their research to discover what happened and why. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In the second episode of the four-part story "City of Death," the Doctor (Tom Baker) and Romana (Lalla Ward) team with private eye Duggan (Tom Chadbon) to find out why Count Scarlioni (Julian Glover), who has everything a man could want in life, is so determined to steal DaVinci's Mona Lisa from the Louvre. Besides, the Count already possesses six other Mona Lisas -- all of them originals. Catherine Schell co-stars as Countess Scarlioni. First telecast October 6, 1979, "City of Death, Episode 2" was written by Douglas Adams and Graham Williams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of the four-part story "City of Death," Count Scarlioni (Julian Glover) -- aka the notorious art thief Scaroth -- has vanished into the past, with the Doctor (Tom Baker), Romana (Lalla Ward), and detective Duggan (Tom Chadbon) in hot pursuit. Unless the Doctor can stop Scaroth, the entire Time Continuum will be cataclysmically disrupted. Catherine Schell appears as Countess Scarlioni, while comic actors John Cleese and Eleanor Bron make uncredited cameo appearances as a pair of looney art dealers. First telecast October 20, 1979, "City of Death, Episode 4" was written by Douglas Adams and Graham Williams. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first appearance of Bette Davis in a made-for-television film has an evil mastermind (Davis) plotting against a CIA agent (Robert Wagner) for control of a deadly submarine. Aired in 1971, Madame Sin was the most expensive TV movie of the time. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

It wasn't as well received at the box office as the pictures that preceded it or followed it, but Peter Hunt's On Her Majesty's Secret Service was the finest of the James Bond movies and also arguably the last truly great movie in the series. James Bond, portrayed here by George Lazenby (in his only performance in the role) has spent nearly two years trying to track down Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas), the head of SPECTRE. He has been taken off the case by his chief (Bernard Lee), an action the pushes him to the point of considering resigning from Her Majesty's Secret Service, just as he opens a possible new avenue of attack on his quarry. Whilst in the field, Bond has chanced to cross paths with the Contessa Teresa Di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), a beautiful but desperately unhappy woman, whom he rescues from one apparent suicide attempt and an embarrassing moment at a casino gaming table -- the Contessa, who prefers to be called Tracy ("Teresa was a saint"), is the daughter of Marc Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), an industrial and construction magnate and also a crime boss, who is impressed with Bond personally as well as professionally, and would like to see him marry his daughter. Bond is, at first, unwilling to involve himself with a woman -- any woman -- on that level, but Draco's underworld contacts give Bond a vital clue to Blofeld's whereabouts that get him back on the case and hot on the man's trail. Journeying incognito to Blofeld's mountaintop retreat in the Swiss Alps, Bond finds the criminal mastermind posing as a would-be nobleman and also as a philanthropist, running a clinic devoted to the treatment and eradication of allergies. It's all a front for a surprisingly sinister (and scientifically valid) plot for international blackmail that would make any previous Bond villain quake in fear. And in the process of staying alive long enough to have a chance of stopping Blofeld, Bond discovers the Tracy is truly like no woman he's ever known before -- one special enough that he finds himself willing to give up his life as a free-living, free-loving bachelor. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a tough old schoolteacher is shocked when he is visited by the illegitimate son he had never acknowledged. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Space: 1999 was one of the more visible sci-fi disasters of early-'70s television, although it started out with some promising credentials. It was produced by Gerry Anderson and Sylvia Anderson, who had been responsible for several fondly remembered series such as Supercar, Fireball XL-5, Stingray, Captain Scarlet & the Mysterons, and Thunderbirds, all built around marionettes and utilizing superb special effects and model work. The Andersons had also produced one intermittently engaging live-action series, UFO, and a fine feature film, Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. The series starred Martin Landau and Barbara Bain, who were the closest thing to a power-couple among television actors in those days (from their work together on Mission: Impossible) and Barry Morse, an excellent Canadian actor. Moreover, the producers started with what, in those days, was an admirable and challenging goal -- to create a television series that tried to follow in the footsteps of 2001: A Space Odyssey (then less than a decade old), mixing lunar settings, interstellar adventure, and a profound sense of cosmic wonder. The story of Moonbase Alpha and its crew, blasted into deep space when the nuclear waste deposited on the moon propelled the satellite out of orbit, was a silly, but intriguing, one once the audience got past the notion of the moon moving fast enough to reach interstellar space. The series never found a balance between its cosmic consciousness and the need for a steady dose of action each week, and once it underwent a major retooling of its cast for the second season, the smell of broadcast death hung over Space: 1999 for the remainder of its run. The presence of the first episode, alas, shows the shortcomings of even the superior first season that followed: After a good thriller plot for the opener, comprised of straightforward action and presenting well-delineated characters, the show came to rely heavily on plots involving lots of pseudo-science, symbolic illusions, and alien machinations, and never properly interwove its action with its philosophical ponderings. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Michael Caine stars as an espionage agent whose young son is kidnapped. Complicating matters is the fact that the kidnappers (John Vernon and Delphine Seyrig) are Caine's own colleagues. They want to secure Caine's aid in rounding up a diamond smuggling ring, and they don't care who they have to hurt to do so. He agrees to go along, all the while searching for his missing son. Janet Suzman co-stars as Caine's estranged wife, who is compelled to join him in his search. Helmed by veteran filmmaker Don Siegel, The Black Windmill is based on Seven Days to a Killing, a novel by Clive Egleton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Look Back in Darkness is a 90-minute taped-for-TV thriller. Bradford Dillman plays a jazz pianist who was blinded by his wife's murderer. One day, while performing, Dillman hears the voice of his assailant. The rest of the story concerns Dillman's efforts to bring the criminal to heel before he himself is eliminated. Catherine Schell and Terence Sewards costar in this terror piece. Look Back in Darkness was originally telecast on ABC's Wide World Mystery under the title The Next Voice You See. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After several years at loggerheads with one another, director Blake Edwards and star Peter Sellers reteamed for the slapstick fiesta The Return of the Pink Panther. It looks as though wizard cat-burglar Sir Charles Litton, played by David Niven in the original 1964 Pink Panther but here essayed by Christopher Plummer, is back in business. Dispatched to the Swiss resort town of Gstaad by his long-suffering superior Inspector Dreyfuss (Herbert Lom), Clouseau adopts a series of easily penetrable (and hilarious) disguises to get the goods on Sir Charles and his wife Claudine (Catherine Schell). If you remember A Shot in the Dark, you'll recall that Clouseau's ineptitude turned Inspector Dreyfuss into a twitching homicidal maniac. The same thing happens here, paving the way for the sequel, The Pink Panther Strikes Again. And, as with all the "Panther" movies, we are treated to the insinuating theme music by Henry Mancini, and the animated opening and closing titles. Return of the Pink Panther earned $17 million on its initial release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This two-part British miniseries chronicled the misfortunes of meek solicitor Henry Farr (Robert Lindsay), trapped in dead-end suburban domesticity and saddled with a feminist virago of a wife named Elinor (Alison Steadman). Finally able to stand no more, Henry plotted to do away with Elinor by means of poison. Alas, his scheme had a few glitches, and before long virtually everyone in the town of Wimbledon had dropped dead except for Elinor. Meanwhile, the local constabulary, led by Detective John Rush (Philip Jackson), tried to figure out what was causing the unusually high mortality rate. Played as much for laughs as for thrills, The Wimbledon Poisoner originally aired in 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide