Franklin Johnson Movies

Hands of a Stranger was adapted by playwright Arthur Kopit from the best-selling novel by Robert Daley. Armand Assante plays a New York City narcotics officer who aids DA Blair Brown in her investigation of a rape case in which drugs were involved. In the subsequent days, Assante becomes something of an expert in rape evidence. Thus, when his wife Beverly D'Angelo is sexually assaulted while en route to a rendezvous with her lover, Assante suspects something even though D'Angelo remains mum about the incident. Conducting his own investigation, Assante determines the rapist's identity while wiretapping a phoned-in attempt to blackmail his wife. Will Assante forget everything he's learned about police procedure and attempt to take the law into his own hands? Co-starring in Hands of a Stranger is Arliss Howard as the scummy rapist. Preceded by a warning that the film contained scenes of a violent and graphic nature, Hands of a Stranger was originally broadcast in two parts, on May 10 and 11, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A juvenile delinquent falls in love with a beautiful Catholic girl's school student in this fact-based adolescent melodrama set in an Oregon forest. The two meet by accident when the troubled young man is out on a nature hike and sees the lovely girl floating in a small lake as she works on a photography assignment. The two are immediately drawn to each other, but neither of their schools encourages contact with the opposite sex and when their relationship is discovered there is trouble all around, forcing the young lovers to flee. The question then remains: will they be able to evade the law and other authorities long enough to find happiness? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide