Hettie Lynne Hurtes Movies

The "exchange murders" plot gambit, played with utter solemnity in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, is used as the launching pad for raucous laughter in Throw Momma From the Train. Director/star Danny DeVito plays Owen Lift, a middle-aged bachelor, totally dominated by his gorgon mother, played with hilarious ferocity by Anne Ramsey. Billy Crystal co-stars as Larry Donner, a creative-writing professor, saddled with a vituperative, thoroughly despicable ex-wife, Margaret (Kate Mulgrew). Signing up for Larry's writing course, Owen has trouble at first with character development and construction in his stories. Larry recommends that Owen watch a screening of Strangers on a Train, which he considered a model of tight, concise storytelling. Owen is so entranced by the film that he decides to emulate Strangers star Robert Walker. That is, Owen wants Larry to bump off his mother, in exchange for Owen's murder of Margaret. Without being asked, Owen does away with Margaret (or so it seems), then hounds Larry to the point of killing "Momma." This being a comedy, the actual consequences of the swap-murder plot aren't nearly as calamitous as in the Hitchcock film. Cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld would apply the "black humor" lessons learned in Throw Momma From the Train for his own directorial debut, The Addams Family (1991). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Face (Dirk Benedict) unexpectedly receives a pardon after "evidence" surfaces proving him innocent of the Vietnam bank robbery which landed the A-Team in prison. Hannibal (George Peppard) is convinced that there is something fishy about the pardon--especially since he knows darn well that Face was at that bank along with the rest of the Team! Meanwhile, Face basks in the glow of being a celebrity, hiring a public relations firm to handle his fan base. Alas, it turns out the the PR guys are actually CIA agents, who hope to smoke out a fugitive Viet Cong general by setting Face up as a sitting duck. This episode introduces Jack Ging in the role of General Bull Fullbright. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Endlessly imitated, The Terminator made the reputation of cowriter/director James Cameron -- who would go on to make 1997's titanic Titanic -- and solidified the stardom of Arnold Schwarzenegger. The movie begins in a post-apocalyptic 2029, when Los Angeles has been largely reduced to rubble and is under the thumb of all-powerful ruling machines. Kyle Reese (Michael Biehn), a member of the human resistance movement, is teleported back to 1984. His purpose: to rescue Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), the mother of the man who will lead the 21st-century rebels against the tyrannical machines, from being assassinated before she can give birth. Likewise thrust back to 1984 is The Terminator (Schwarzenegger), a grim, well-armed, virtually indestructable cyborg who has been programmed to eliminate Sarah Connor. After killing two "Sarah Connors" who turn out to be the wrong women, he finally aims his gunsights at the genuine article. This is the film in which Schwarzenegger declared "I'll be baaaack" -- and back he was, in "kinder and gentler" form, in the even more successful Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Peforming an autopsy at the request of a grieving family, Quincy concludes that a 17-year-old girl died in a botched abortion. Further evidence indicates that Ronald Shafer (John Dehner), the doctor who performed the surgery, was drunk at the time. But in his efforts to learn all the fact, Quincy is stymied by Shafer's colleagues and friends, who form a protective wall of silence around the veteran surgeon. The supporting cast includes two TV-series favorites from the 1960s, Anne Francis (Honey West) and June Lockhart (Lassie, Lost in Space). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Elizabeth Montgomery stars in this made-for-television movie about a liberal reporter whose views are challenged after she becomes the victim of random crime. Montgomery stars as Katherine McSweeney, a divorced, single-mother news reporter assigned to cover crime in her lower-middle-class neighborhood. After being mugged in her hallway, Katherine finds little sympathy from her colleagues or the police who feel her left-wing tendencies left her wide open for crime. The film shows how she transforms from a tolerant woman into a frightened and judgmental citizen, who is angry at her loss of innocence, but determined not to give in to her fear. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi