Alma Beltran Movies

The true story of a mother's search for her daughter's killer is the subject of this intense made-for-TV movie. Markie Post stars as Laurie Philips, a waitress living in a trailer park whose daughter is murdered. The movie follows her as she tirelessly tries on her own to track down the killer and get justice for the crime. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

The press, the police and a neighborhood watch group are swept up in a tsunami of controversy thanks to the actions of an unknown vigilante. Twice in the past week, someone has taken the law into his (or her) own hands--and in the second instance, an innocent black teenager was savagely beaten. Hunter (Fred Dryer) is determined to find the truth of the matter and avert a citywide riot (and incidentally, this episode takes place long before the Rodney King debacle!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker was a made-for-TV factual drama about the elusive killer who terrorized Southern California in the summer of 1985. Richard Jordan and A. Martinez star as the two LA detectives heading up the investigation. So much time is taken up with police procedure that the Night Stalker himself is virtually a bit player in his own movie. The suspect, one Richard Ramirez (watch the film to find out who plays him), makes up for his long absences with a bravura closing scene. The film utilizes the clever (and tasteful) approach of showing the victims going about their everyday activities just before the murderer strikes, without resorting to re-enacting the murders themselves. By accident or design, Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker was telecast November 12, 1989--the very day that Richard Ramirez was sentenced to the gas chamber. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sharp drama is about the trials and tribulations of a young woman defeated by her past, yet tempted to overcome it through a meaningful relationship. Cassie (Rosanna Arquette) works as a waitress in a southwestern town. Not that long ago, she stabbed her lover (and the father of her baby) in public, and even though he recovered, she did not. The most immediate result of her action is that she gave away her baby, and the next, more severe result is that she lost all of her self-respect. Now she takes care of her mother and younger, offensive brother and also dallies on and off with her ex-lover -- who is married. Then Riley (Eric Roberts) comes into town for awhile with a theatrical troupe and he falls for Cassie. He is only in town for a short period of time and that may or may not be enough to convince Cassie to leave with him when he goes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Based on a series of Rolling Stone articles by Aaron Latham, this romance was set in the world of L.A.'s hip fitness scene. Rolling Stone reporter Adam Lawrence (John Travolta) comes to L.A. to write a story about a prominent businessman who's been arrested for drug dealing (shades of the John DeLorean scandal). He's also decided to research a piece on the exercise fad and how health clubs have become the "singles bars of the '80s." His boss (real-life Rolling Stone editor Jann Wenner as himself) OK's the project. At a club called The Sports Connection, an incognito Adam meets the regulars, including promiscuous Linda (Laraine Newman), airhead Sally (Marilu Henner) and aerobics instructor Jessie (Jamie Lee Curtis), a former Olympic swimmer. Adam and Jessie begin a romance, but it ends when she discovers that he's there to trash her and the club in print. Conflicted, Adam wrestles with publishing the story, but the final decision isn't his. A director of sincere, sober dramas, James Bridges was an odd choice to helm the romantic Perfect (1985), widely considered one of the decade's notorious cinematic misfires. Bridges had enjoyed much greater success with his previous collaboration with Travolta, Urban Cowboy (1980). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Two college girls hire the A-Team to find their missing professor Bruce Warfel (Terry McGovern), who had gone to Las Vegas with a surefire "system" to beat the gaming tables, only to completely disappear. This operation requires Amy (Melinda Culea) and Face (Dirk Benedict) to pose as newlyweds, and Hannibal (George Peppard) to impersonate a CIA hit man assigned to kill Warfel's kidnapper, casino owner Gianni Christian (Charles Cioffi). Unfortunately, Christian is killed for real by a rival gangster, and the A-Team is accused of the murder, forcing them to dodge bullets not only from the Mob but also from the Feds--not to mention a passel of bounty hunters! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the fourth installment of the "Herbie" series of Volkswagen Bug fantasies, the magical car has lost a lot of its sheen as it is retreaded into a journey through Central America. D.J. (Charles Martin Smith) and Pete (Stephan W. Burns) want to enter their supernatural car in a special, high-stakes race in Brazil. And so they set off driving with that goal in mind. Along the way the car ends up in a bullring playing the role of matador, the best of several incongruous adventures. Most audiences will still favor The Love Bug, the 1969 hit that spawned this third sequel. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A huge corporation intends to buy all the buildings on a certain city block, throwing people out of their apartments in order to construct huge luxury condos. One of the buildings is a dry-cleaning store owned by George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley), who becomes a darling of the media when he refuses to sell out. But George is hardly altruistic -- he is merely holding out in hopes of getting more money for his property. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Recently widowed Dr. Nichols (Walter Matthau) finds himself ill at ease in re-entering the singles scene. Then he meets Ann Atkinson (Glenda Jackson), a patient recuperating from a jaw operation. Freshly divorced from a philandering spouse, Jackson is as reluctant to inaugurate a lasting commitment as Walter--but inaugurate they do, in a hilarious scene wherein Jackson and Walter try to emulate those romantic couples in 1930s movies who were forced by the censors to keep one foot on the floor while lying in bed. It is Jackson who encourages Matthau to stand up for his ideals during a lawsuit involving senile head physician Dr. Willoughby (Art Carney, who is unbearably funny at times). Richard Benjamin rounds off the cast of polished farceurs who add so much sparkle to House Calls. The film was later adapted into a TV sitcom starring Wayne Rogers in the Matthau role, Lynn Redgrave (and later Sharon Gless) in the Jackson counterpart, and David Wayne as a less aphasiatic version of the Carney character. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Doc Levy (Roy Scheider) is an American secret agent who has been running interference between the U.S. government and escaped Nazi war criminal Szell (Laurence Olivier). Believing that Doc has stolen a valuable cache of gems, Szell emerges from his South American hiding place and heads for New York. He has Doc killed, then kidnaps Doc's in-the-dark brother, Babe (Dustin Hoffman). Repeating the phrase "Is it safe?" over and over, Szell, a onetime concentration camp dentist, tries to extract information from Babe by performing sadistic "oral surgery" upon him. Babe, who still doesn't know about the gems, escapes, breaking his own self-imposed rule of nonviolence to defend himself against his pursuers and gearing up for sadistic revenge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While the Watergate scandal filled the headlines, Alan J. Pakula's 1974 thriller took its inspiration from the conspiracy theories surrounding the Kennedy assassination. Journalist Joe Frady (Warren Beatty) misses witnessing the assassination of a senator at Seattle's Space Needle, but his newswoman former girlfriend Lee Carter (Paula Prentiss) was there. Even after a government commission concludes that it was a freak lone assassin, Lee tells Joe that she fears for her life since other witnesses keep dying. After she too turns up dead, Joe investigates, travelling to the small town where another witness has mysteriously expired. Stumbling on a corporate identity for the killers, Joe decides to dig deeper by infiltrating the Parallax Corporation as one of their hired assassins. As Joe becomes increasingly isolated in his assumed identity, he discovers what Parallax is all about -- but Parallax knows all about Joe too. Made between Klute (1971) and All the President's Men (1976), The Parallax View was the second film in Pakula's "paranoia" trilogy; it proved too dark even for a 1974 audience that embraced such other challenging films of that year as The Godfather, Part II and Chinatown, making The Parallax View the sole flop of Pakula's trilogy. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

When a call girl wearing a stolen diamond ring turns up murdered, Kojak (Telly Savalas) begins following the fragmentary clues, the path eventually leading to a gang of upstate bank burglars. At the same time, the gang is preparing a spectacular robbery in Kojak's former jurisdiction--and have set up plenty of diversions to keep the cops from nipping at their heels. This episode features a rare TV appearance by former film star Karen Morley, whose career was all but destroyed by the Hollywood Blacklist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide