Bill Holliday Movies

Swamps are popular settings for monster features, and in this low-budget, bland version of the genre, a swamp in Louisiana, the Copasaw, becomes home to a new breed of creature -- "nutria-man." Part nutria (an otter-like water-loving animal) and part hairy, murderous, male homosapiens, the mutant is created when some scientists' experiments to create an oversize nutria run "amuck." As nutriaman is out diminishing the local population, some very determined hunters are out to track him down and kill him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In The Toy, director Richard Donner and screenwriter Carol Sobieski update the 1976 Pierre Richard farce Le Jouet as a vehicle for comedian Richard Pryor. Pryor stars as out-of-work journalist Jack Brown, who's hit with the sudden realization that his idle book writing won't pay a 10,000-dollar sum necessary to keep his house from going to auction. Desperate, he is improbably hired as a cleaning lady in the offices of rich businessman and newspaper magnate U.S. Bates (Jackie Gleason). Running afoul of Bates' quick temper, Jack gets the axe, but is later spotted goofing around in a Bates-owned toy store by Bates' bratty son, Eric (Scott Schwartz), who's spending his annual week together with his estranged father. Taking his father's offer that he may have "anything in the store" quite literally, the spoiled kid asks for Jack as his personal toy for the week. Initially unwilling to be treated as a possession, Jack soon agrees after Bates offers to pay him enough to climb out of debt. When Eric's idea of fun includes dumping buckets of booby-trapped oatmeal on Jack's head and riding down the stairs of his father's mansion with Jack riding shotgun in a miniature car, it tests both Jack's patience and his resolve. But Jack discovers that Bates is ignoring Eric, which strengthens the bond between them and prompts them to seek revenge on the big jerk. ~ Derek Armstrong, Rovi

Muhammad Ali made his TV-movie dramatic debut in this adaptation of Howard Fast's novel Freedom Road. Though some of the names are changed, the story concerns the true-life efforts of senators Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens to bring political order and racial equality to the post-Civil War South. Ali is cast as Gideon Jackson, an ex-slave who is elected to the U.S. senate during the Reconstruction Era. Interestingly enough, the character upon whom Jackson is based was depicted as the villain of D.W. Griffith's 1915 Civil War epic Birth of a Nation. Just as Griffth offered his own biased slant on the facts, so too did Fast rewrite history to promote his own political ideology. As for Muhammad Ali, his performance is no threat to Olivier, but he acts with sincerity and a commendable lack of bravado. Made for TV, Freedom Road represented the final film effort of Czechoslovakian director Jan Kadar. It was first telecast in two parts on October 29 and 30, 1979, an event that warranted a cover story in TV Guide. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ron Catlin (Charleton Heston) is a pro-football player who realizes his playing skills have eroded. His actions on the field have slowed to the point where retirement looms. His wife Julie (Jessica Walter) has her own fashion-designing business and his former teammate Richie (Bruce Dern) has parlayed his football heroics into a successful auto-leasing company. As "The Cat" loses his legendary quickness, he finds himself ill-suited to join the real world after his pampered isolation in the NFL. He takes to the bottle and to the lure of an illicit affair with Ann (Diana Muldaur). John Randolph plays a realistic coach who can't rely on this fading player's past heroics to win the next big game. Trumpeter Al Hirt and members of the New Orleans Saints appear as themselves. Bobby Troupe plays a local businessman who offers Catlin a job. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi