Michael Tuchner Movies
British director Michael Tuchner's first two films, Villain (1971) and Fear is the Key (1972), dealt (none too successfully) with the evil side of life; he changed direction (and quality of production) with Mr. Quilp (1975), a musical version of The Old Curiosity Shop (Dickens' most sentimental novel) and the TV movie Summer of My German Soldier (1979), about a Jewish girl in love with a Nazi P.O.W. in the American South, complete with a sympathetic black housekeeper. Among Tuchner's other credits include the film of Brooke Hayward's memoir of her family (Haywire [1980]), and a respectable version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1981), featuring Anthony Hopkins as Quasimodo. ~ Rovi
Michael Tuchner's A Place Called Home stars Ann-Margret as Tula Jeeters, a woman who is going blind. Her conniving nephew and niece are attempting to take possession of her estate so they can sell it for a small fortune. She fights for her own independence with the help of a father and daughter who she has taken in, and a social worker who discovers that she is attracted to the father. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ann-Margret
Although Frances Hodgson Burnett did not feel the need to write a sequel to her classic fantasy novel The Secret Garden, this did not prevent producer Norman Rosemont from commissioning just such a sequel. Set in 1946, Back to the Secret Garden finds Mary Lennox, the youthful heroine of the original novel, all grown up and far removed from her beloved enchanted garden in Yorkshire's Mistlewaith Manor. Now living in New York, Mary comes in contact with Lizzie (Camilla Belle), a feisty Brooklyn-born orphan. It is Lizzie who tries to save the day by heading off to England and endeavoring to save Mary's secret garden, which has been literally dying in its caregiver's absence. Joan Plowright, George Baker, Cherie Lunghi, and Leigh Lawson co-star in this German-British co-production, which was originally intended for theatrical release. The American premiere of Back to the Secret Garden appeared on the Showtime Cable Network on September 2, 2001 -- nearly two years after the film's completion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Camilla Belle, Joan Plowright, (more)
- 1998
In this drama, an adolescent grows up in a hurry after he is wrongfully convicted of his stepfather's murder and sent to an adult correctional facility. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Robert Hays
- 1995
- PG
Recently awakened from a coma, a traumatized adolescent girl (Tory Spelling) fights to remember the circumstances surrounding her mother's brutal death. But as the details slowly come into focus, a killer watches and waits. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tori Spelling, Michael Gross, (more)
- 1994
Virtue battles treachery in this made-for-TV peroid drama. Prince Wenceslas (Jonathan Brandis) is the seventeen-year-old heir to the Czech crown, who has been pledged to marry the lovely Johanna (Charlotte Chatton), whose father, Duke Phillip (Leo McKern), is a man of no small power and wealth. However, Wenceslas's humorless stepmother, The Queen (Stefanie Powers), is determined to see her son Boleslav (Oliver Milburn) usurp Wenceslas as the nation's future leader. While the Prince's grandmother, Queen Ludmilla (Joan Fontaine) rallies the support of the church and the people behind Wenceslas, The Queen and her partner Lord Tunna (Perry King) will use any means necessary to achieve their dishonest ends. Good King Wenceslas first aired on the Family Channel cable television network on November 26, 1994. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1993
It is Veronica Hamel's show all the way in the fact-based CBS TV movie The Conviction of Kitty Dodds. Driven to desperation by her abusive policeman husband Charlie (Mark Rolston), Kitty Dodds (Hamel) ends up killing him and is sent to prison for life. Managing to escape from behind bars, Kitty starts life anew in a faraway town, where she marries gentle, warmhearted Chuck Hayes (Kevin Dobson), who knows nothing of her previous life. Ultimately, Kitty's past catches up with her and she is arrested again. Though shocked at the revelation of his wife's history, Chuck labors tirelessly with Kitty and her attorneys to get her sentence reduced on the basis of the terrible treatment afforded her by her deceased first husband. Covering a timespan of 12 years (though the characters don't seem to age very much!), The Conviction of Kitty Dodds originally aired on November 2, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1993
"Rainbow Warrior" was the name of a real-life Greenpeace vessel, which embarked upon a worldwide pro-ecological mission in the early 1980s. While docked in New Zealand in 1985, the Rainbow Warior was destroyed by a bomb, and a crew member was killed. In this dramatization, Sam Neill and Jon Voight play two polar opposites-a hardbitten cop and a eco-activist, respectively--who team up to track down the bomber. Wisely, the script avoids making "save the whales"-type speeches, concentrating on the matters at hand in a no-frills fashion. Rainbow Warrior was released directly to video. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jon Voight, Sam Neill, (more)
- 1993
In 1991, Oakland, California was ravaged by brush fires. This made-for-television feature tells some of the harrowing and heroic stories of those that fought and survived the blaze. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- LeVar Burton, Jill Clayburgh, (more)
- 1992
In this fact-based drama, a real estate agent is horrified to learn that a home buyer is the one who killed her policeman husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1991
Matthew Lawrence plays an 11-year-old boy whose life is torn asunder by the divorce of his parents. John Ritter plays Lawrence's doctor father, who finds himself with only one day to make amends to his estranged son. Complicating matters are the divergent emotions of Lawrence's mother's new husband, and his father's new wife. Though the title would suggest that Ritter is forced to mature, it is in fact Lawrence who comes of age before the final fadeout. The Summer My Father Grew Up was first telecast March 3, 1991, where it lost the ratings war hands-down to a rerun of RoboCop. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Ritter, Margaret Whitton, (more)
- 1991
The quiet family life of an Oregon couple and their infant is shattered when two criminals whacked-out on drugs burst into their home and hold them hostage. The film is based on a true story. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Barry Bostwick, Joanna Kerns, (more)
- 1990
In this comedy drama, three women meet each other in a divorce attorney's waiting room and soon become fast friends as they try to help each other through the pain of their crumbling marriages. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Friends in Georgia are broken up when an enticing teenager comes between them as told in this true story. ~ Rovi
- 1989
- R
Produced for London Weekend Television, Wilt is based on the novel of the same name by Tom Sharpe. Griff Rhys Jones and Mel Smith, stars of the internationally popular TV series Not Necessarily the News, head the cast as Henry Wilt and Inspector Flint. Though master of his own destiny on the lecture circuit, Wilt is a natural-born doormat in his day-to-day life. He also has a bad habit of inadvertently gumming up the various investigations conducted by Inspector Flint. Things come to a head when the hapless Wilt is implicated in a murder, allowing the zealous Flint to persecute -- er, prosecute -- the poor man to the full limit of the law. With its parade of eccentric character and Gilbert & Sullivan-style plot complications, Wilt can't help but raise chuckles. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Griff Rhys Jones, Mel Smith, (more)
- 1988
Internal Affairs is the second TV-movie based on the works of detective novelist William Bayer. Richard Crenna, who first played NYPD detective Richard Janek in 1985's Doubletake, is back, now as a functionary of Internal Affairs. He has been assigned to solve the murder of a woman who may have been the victim of a kinky serial killer who'd flourished in Saigon 12 years earlier. Meanwhile, Janek's ex-boss (Lee Richardson), now a jailbird, gives the Janek the tip that several cops may be illegally selling guns. Internal Affairs was originally telecast in two parts in November of 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1987
There were two rival TV dramatizations of the sensational murder case involving "monster Mom" Frances Schreuder. Stephanie Powers was the star of the two-part 1987 TV movie At Mother's Request. Part One details the events leading to the murder of Frances' multimillionaire father Franklin Bradshaw (E.G. Marshall). Though Frances' complicity was well known at the time of Part One's first telecast on January 4, 1987 (in fact, she was already serving a life sentence in the Utah State Prison), the case is treated like a whodunit.
Part Two demonstrates how Frances' teen-age son Marc (Doug McKeon) was coerced into committing the deed by his manipulative Mom. Though lacking depth, At Mother's Request is still a powerful re-enactment of what was once considered "The Crime of the Century" (O.J. hadn't happened yet). The second half of this two-part TV-movie debuted on January 6, 1987. For the record, Lee Remick starred in a like-vintage TV adaptation of the same story, Nutcracker. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Part Two demonstrates how Frances' teen-age son Marc (Doug McKeon) was coerced into committing the deed by his manipulative Mom. Though lacking depth, At Mother's Request is still a powerful re-enactment of what was once considered "The Crime of the Century" (O.J. hadn't happened yet). The second half of this two-part TV-movie debuted on January 6, 1987. For the record, Lee Remick starred in a like-vintage TV adaptation of the same story, Nutcracker. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1987
A kept woman learns to live independently in this made-for-TV melodrama. Her troubles begin after her successful and much loved "sugar daddy" suddenly dies, leaving her with nothing but her own strong will and very few real job skills to survive. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Victoria Principal, Don Murray, (more)
A young boy retreats into a world of silence in this made-for-television drama. Kiefer Sutherland stars as Kevin Richter, an adolescent boy who has suffered from years of physical abuse. In an attempt to deal emotionally with the effects of the abuse, Kevin refuses to speak and instead lives in a world of silence. When child psychologist Jennifer Hubbell (Marsha Mason) becomes aware of his situation, she refuses to write him off as a hopeless case and works tirelessly to help him emerge from his protective shell. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
- 1985
Stars Kirk Douglas and Elizabeth Montgomery manage to rise above the melodramatic trappings of Amos. Douglas plays the title character, a fiercely independent senior-citizen baseball coach, forced to live in a retirement home after an auto accident. During his stay, Amos conducts a battle of wills with overbearing head nurse Daisy Dawes (Montgomery). This Cuckoo's Nest-derived setup has an added wrinkle: Amos suspects, quite rightly as it turns out, that Dawes has been systematically murdering her more troublesome charges. Made for TV by Douglas' own Bryna Productions, Amos first aired September 29, 1985 ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1985
Set on the last day of 1999, Generation takes place during a family reunion. Richard Beymer plays an inventor who has created high-tech prosthetic devices in order to help his younger brother Drake Hogestyn. Once a star athlete in the brutal (and sometimes fatal) game of combat hockey, Hogestyn wants to maintain his status as a public hero, and to that end has no qualms about turning bionic. On a less fantastic note, the boys' social activist sister Cristina Raines rejects the reconciliation efforts extended by her macho-man father Bert Remsen. The pilot for a never-produced TV series, Generation was originally telecast May 24, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1985
The endurance of an upper-middle-class family is put to the test in this well-made television drama about drug abuse. Based on the book of the same name by Beth Polson, Viveka Davis (Shoot The Moon) stars as Susan Bowers, the teenage daughter of a successful surgeon (George Segal) and homemaker (Stockard Channing). When innocent-looking Susan's secret life as a druggie comes to light, her parents try anything and everything to get her clean. Unable to make any headway, they turn to a strict drug-treatment center, where streetwise counselors deal with tough kids on their own terms. The Bowers soon learn that their daughter's rehabilitation will not only be a long haul but also an exercise in family dynamic exploration. Young Davis is compelling as the rebellious daughter, and Channing and Segal are wholly believable as the bewildered parents. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi
Adam is the heartbreakingly true story of the disappearance of 6-year-old Adam Walsh (John Boston) at a South Florida shopping mall. Adam's anguished parents John and Reve Walsh (Daniel J. Travanti and JoBeth Williams) turn to the FBI for help in finding their son, only to discover that the federal organization does not involve itself in such cases. As hope for Adam's return fades, the Walshes begin an organization to aid and comfort other families of missing children. The story does not end happily for Adam or his parents, but as a result of this tragedy, Congress passes the Federal Missing Children Act in 1983. This made-for-TV drama, originally telecast October 10, 1983, was followed by a sequel three years later. The real-life John Walsh later hosted the popular "reality-based" TV series America's Most Wanted. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Daniel J. Travanti, JoBeth Williams, (more)
- 1983
- PG
In this pseudo-farce, the heroine Mickey (Margot Kidder) takes two weeks off work to go to Malta and write a mystery novel and finds herself caught up in a series of real-life murders that she weaves into her progressing story. Caught between a parody, a children's film, and a who-dunnit, the overplayed Disney charm of Trenchcoat wears thin very quickly. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Margot Kidder, Robert Hays, (more)
While most people are familiar only with the Lon Chaney Sr. and Charles Laughton versions of Victor Hugo's The Hunchback of Notre Dame, this 1982 TV adaptation was the fourteenth filmization of the Hugo novel. Anthony Hopkins, barely recognizable under mounds of disfiguring body makeup, plays Quasimodo, the deformed 15th-century bellringer of Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. Leslie-Anne Down plays Esmerelda, the gypsy girl who wins Quasimodo's unswerving loyalty when she offers him water after he is publicly flogged. And Derek Jacobi plays Dom Claude Frollo, the hypocritically pious archdeacon of Notre Dame, who'll do anything to claim Esmerelda for himself. Produced by Norman Rosemont, The Hunchback of Notre Dame originally aired February 4, 1982, as a Hallmark Hall of Fame presentation. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Anthony Hopkins, Derek Jacobi, (more)
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