Walter Gotell Movies

The Enterprise visits Velara III, where terraformers work night and day to make the uninviting planet inhabitable. One of the terraformers (Mario Raccuzzo) is killed in a freak accident, prompting Picard and his crew to investigate. It turns out that the planet is the host of a heretofore unknown -- and malevolently intelligent -- inorganic life form. First broadcast February 27, 1988, "Home Soil" was scripted by Robert Sabaroff, who also cowrote the original story with Karl Guers and Ralph Sanchez. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While playing the monster in the low-budget horror flick "Gatorella", Hannibal (George Peppard) scouts around for appropriate South American locations on behalf of his producer friend Jerry Isaacson (Michael Lerner). With the help of fellow A-Teamer Face (Dirk Benedict)--who is promised a leading role in the film for his efforts--the ideal location is found near the Argentinian estate of Ramon De Jarro (Walter Gotell). Unfortunately, the minute the A-Team arrives on the scene, De Jarro betrays them to Col. Decker (Lance LeGault). But De Jarro isn't the villain of the piece: he has taken this action to save the women and children of a local village from the wrath of a fugitive gangster (who, of course, soon becomes the A-Team's prime target!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is a visually opulent story -- geared to a young adult level -- of King Charles the XII of Sweden and how he once tried for five years (1709-1714) to convince the Turks to help him conquer Czar Peter the Great of Russia -- and failed. According to this filmed version of history, seen through the eyes of a Swedish lieutenant, the Turks were equally willing to join with the Russians, or just send Charles back to Sweden. The line between tragedy and farce blurs as the king and his lieutenant try to find a way out of their predicament. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This disappointing, pretentious farce by writer and director Peter Ustinov, who also stars as the incompetent but powerful Abki Aga, is based on a novel by Yashar Kemal about Memed (Simon Dutton) a man who escapes into the Turkish hills with the woman he loves (Leonie Mellinger), a woman already betrothed to the nephew of the region's governor (Aga). Even though Memed joins a band of brigands he is not successful when he first tries to kill Aga, who lords it over five different villages and has a sizeable army, and so he tries again. Unfortunately, Turkey is not only the setting, but an apt descriptive term for this 105-minute film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Filmed in Ireland, Cry of the Innocent stars Rod Taylor as an American insurance executive on a grim mission. A private plane has exploded, killing Taylor's wife and children. Also on board was a scientist who was the target of the criminals who engineered the tragedy. The "maguffin" is a secret formula worth untold millions, and aiding Taylor in bringing the murderers to justice is journalist Joanna Pettet, who bears a close resemblance to Taylor's ex-wife (and no wonder, since Pettet plays both roles). Based on a novel by Frederick Forsyth, this made-for-TV espionager premiered on June 19, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Christopher Plummer stars in The Assignment as a police captain. The setting is an un-named Latin American country, where a high-ranking official is murdered. The incident threatens to tear apart not only the country but its neighboring republics. A calm, selfless diplomat (Thomas Heilberg) is called in from Sweden to mediate between the local police, politicians, and revolutionaries. Also in the cast of The Assignment, which is based on a novel by Per Wahloo, are Carolyn Seymour, Fernando Rey and Per Oscarsson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Pere Goriot, Honore de Balzac's tragic novel about an old man who sacrificed all for the sake of a place in society, was adapted as a multipart British miniseries in early 1971. Michael Goodliffe played the title character, who squandered his money, his property, and ultimately his life in order to "buy a reputation" for his two daughters. The fly in the ointment was the sinister Vautrin (Andrew Keir), who coerced a gormless young law student (David Dundas) to commit a murder in order to win the hand of Goriot's eldest daughter. Pere Goriot was seen in the U.S. as part of PBS' Masterpiece Theatre anthology beginning June 13, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by John Le Carre, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold stars Richard Burton as a dispirited, end-of-tether British secret agent. He comes in from "the cold" (meaning he is pulled out of field operations) to act as a undercover man behind the Iron Curtain. To make his staged defection seem genuine, Burton goes on an alcoholic toot and is imprisoned and publicly humiliated. Once he has been accepted into East German espionage circles, Burton discovers that what he thought was his mission was a mere subterfuge--and that he's been set up as a pawn for an entirely different operation. Though Ireland and England "stand in" for East Berlin, Spy Who Came In From the Cold has the air of authenticity throughout, thanks in great part to the bleak black and white photography by Oswald Morris. The film was condemned as incomprehensible by those filmgoers accustomed to the simplistic melodramatics of James Bond; seen today, the double-crosses and double-double crosses seem all too clear and credible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Samuel Bronston produced this extravagant blockbuster, shot in Super Technirama 70. Nominally directed by Nicholas Ray (who makes a brief appearance as the U.S. ambassador), Ray was taken off the film and replaced by the more pliable directorial touches of Andrew Marton. Charlton Heston stars as Maj. Matt Lewis, the leader of an army of multinational soldiers who head to Peking during the infamous Boxer Rebellion of 1900. As the film unfolds, the foreign embassies in Peking are being held in a grip of terror as the Boxers set about massacring Christians in an anti-Christian nationalistic fever. Inside the besieged compound, the finicky British ambassador (David Niven) gathers the beleaguered ambassadors into a defensive formation. Included in the group of high-level dignitaries is a sultry Russian Baroness (Ava Gardner) who takes a shine to Lewis upon his arrival at the embassy compound with his group of soldiers. As Lewis and the group conserve food and water and try to save some hungry children, they await the arrival of expected reinforcements, but the tricky Chinese Empress Tzu Hsi (Flora Robson) is, in the meantime, plotting with the Boxers to break the siege at the compound with the aid of Chinese recruits. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Joseph Losey directed this unusual science fiction effort, which has won a small but fervent cult following. Simon Wells (MacDonald Carey) is an American visiting England, where he meets a woman named Joan (Shirley Ann Field). Simon is immediately attracted to Joan, but there's a considerable obstacle in their budding romance: Joan's brother King (Oliver Reed), the leader of a violent pack of motorcycle rockers. King has a barely concealed incestuous attachment to his sister, and he sometimes uses her to lure victims into his gang's clutches. King and his cronies attack Simon, take his money, and leave him stranded, where he's eventually found by a pair of military security men. Simon is brought to the home of Bernard (Alexander Knox), a scientist working on a secret project for the government, and his girlfriend Freya (Viveca Lindfors), a sculptor. Joan eventually tracks Simon down in hopes of winning his forgiveness, but another run-in with King causes Simon and Joan to discover a cave that holds a terrible secret: a group of strange, cold-blooded children who were the products of one of Bernard's experiments gone wrong. The children were genetically engineered to survive a nuclear war, and, as a result, they are radioactive enough to kill anyone who comes in close contact with them. Controversial in its day, The Damned was produced in England in 1961 but was not released until 1963, when Hammer Films booked it as the second-half of a double bill with Maniac. It did not reach American screens until 1965, when it was shown under the title These Are the Damned. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This was the last trip in the "road" comedies that Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, and a bevy of female stars that featured Dorothy Lamour once made famous. In this road to Hong Kong and parts far beyond, Chester and Harry (Hope and Crosby) are a couple of failed vaudeville stars looking for a way to riches in the confidence game. Chester's memory goes kaputz, and the two end up involved with Diane (Joan Collins), a spy looking for a secret formula, and a bunch of hoodlums who plan on sending up a rocket to the moon with special equipment allowing them to rule the planet earth. The pair of heroes gets caught in the rocket instead of the originally intended monkeys, and the monkey business continues in outer space -- where it seems to be all along. In this mixed collage of events, several stars pop up in cameo roles: Peter Sellers, Dean Martin, David Niven, Frank Sinatra among them. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide