Anjanette Comer Movies
Anjanette Comer, as a teenager, was one of those hyperkinetic types involved in every extracurricular activity available, including basketball, cheerleading and beauty contests. After attending Baylor University for a short period, 18-year-old Anjanette came to California. She planned to enroll in either UCLA or the Pasadena Playhouse; the Playhouse won. Toting up lots of TV credits on shows like Gunsmoke, Arrest and Trial, Anjanette made her first film appearance in 1965's Quick Before it Melts (1965), where she was exotically cast as a Maori girl. She then landed one of the most bizarre assignments of the 1965-66 season: in the jet-black comedy The Loved One, she played Aimee Thanatogenos, who commits suicide by embalming herself! Anjanette's movie activity dropped off in 1970 after she played Ruth in the film version of John Updike's Rabbit Run (1970); she later claimed she let her love life interfere with her work. Anjanette Comer's most recent films include Fire Sale (1977) and the made-for-TV The Long Summer of George Adams (1983). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideKirk Davis' debut feature Screen Door Jesus charts the uproar that breaks out when the image of Christ appears on a screen door in a small Texas town called Bethlehem. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
Millstone is the all-too-appropriate name of the Texas hometown of sophisticated career woman Martha (Loni Anderson). No sooner has Martha returned home after a 15-year absence than she witnesses a murder. Relating this information to her sisters, Martha is confused by their reaction. Only when it is nearly too late does the truth come out: The killer is Martha's own brother-in-law Eddie (Greg Evigan). This shock from the present only serves to dredge up long-buried secrets from the heroine's past--hence the title of this made-for-TV melodrama. First telecast by NBC on December 14, 1995, Deadly Family Secrets was based on Franklin Coen's novel Vinegar Hill--and also bears eerie echoes of the 1951 Ginger Rogers theatrical-movie vehicle Storm Warning. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A remake of the classic Robert Siodmak film noir Criss Cross, Steven Soderbergh's The Underneath follows much the same plot and narrative arc of the original, but expands the possibilities of its thriller structure to also explore the complexities and insecurities at the heart of modern relationships. Peter Gallagher stars as Michael, a compulsive gambler who returns to his Texas home for the wedding of his mother (Anjanette Comer). In his absence, his ex-wife Rachel (Alison Elliott) has married Tommy (William Fichtner), a ruthless local hood. Michael and Rachel soon resume their relationship, incurring Tommy's wrath. Out of their deceptions grows a plot to heist an armored car, a crime which requires the unwitting aid of Michael's stepfather (Paul Dooley) as well as a banker (Elisabeth Shue) with whom Michael shared a brief fling. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Gallagher, Alison Elliott, (more)
Television fans fed up with the state of TV talk shows might get a kick from the 1992 Perry Mason TV movie The Case of the Reckless Romeo. The title character, a video personality who's just written a tell-all autobiography, is played by none other than Geraldo Rivera. When the future O.J. Simpson-obsessed talk host is murdered, actress Amy Steel is accused of murder. Mason (Raymond Burr) sets about to prove her innocence. When first telecast on May 6, 1992, The Case of the Reckless Romeo was advertised with the tag line "Geraldo gets killed!" Reports of dancing in the streets remain unconfirmed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
One of the early direct-to-video horror films from Charles Band's Full Moon Entertainment, this good-looking entry stars 21 Jump Street's Michael Benedetti as Corey Thornton, who inherits a mansion in the Louisiana bayou from his late father. Corey wonders why his father, who abandoned him, would leave him such an expansive estate, and also wonders exactly what the brothel across the way has to do with any of it. The fact that Edgar Winter is part of the brothel's house band should have given him a clue, and when stone hands start embedding themselves in people's heads it is obvious to everyone but Corey that the brothel is a front for a coven of witches. It turns out that Corey's father was heavily involved in black magic and wants to rise from the grave to possess his son's body, and must consign Corey's soul to the netherworld (hence the title) to do so. Denise Gentile plays a tempting hooker, Holly Floria is the love interest, and Anjanette Comer from The Loved One and The Baby is her mother, the mansion's housekeeper. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael C. Bendetti, Denise Gentile, (more)
James Garner's longtime Rockford Files colleague directed this Saroyanesque 1982 TV movie. George Adams (Garner) is a railroad steam-engine handyman in Cushing, Oklahoma, circa 1952. Increasing reliance upon the diesel engine has rendered George's job obsolete; the only employment he can find is as a night watchman, which subjects him to ridicule from the community. George struggles to hold his home and family together, despite such roadblocks as a tattered relationship with his wife (Joan Hackett), a brief affair with the town temptress (Anjanette Comer), a fistic bout with the local business bigwig, and a nocturnal tussle with a gang of bank robbers. The Long Summer of George Adams was based on a novel by Weldon Hill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Garner, Joan Hackett, (more)
Directed and produced by genre icon Dan Curtis (Dark Shadows, Trilogy of Terror), this trio of terrifying stories from I Am Legend author Richard Matheson features performances by Patrick Macnee, Ed Begley, Jr., and Horst Buchholz. The horror gets underway in "Second Chance," a story about a man (Begley, Jr.) who restores a vintage automobile only to find that this his prized vehicle has the power to transport him back in time. The chills keep on coming when the vampire-fearing mistress of an old mansion (Anjanette Comer) falls prey to a sinister scheme involving her husband (Macnee) and a benevolent family friend (Bucholtz) with a dark secret, and a grieving mother (Joan Hackett) is both terrified and overjoyed to be reunited with her presumed-dead son (Lee. H. Montgomery) in "Bobby." ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Alan Arkin directed and starred in this anarchic comedy. Benny Fikus (Vincent Gardenia) is the owner of a department store that's on its last legs, with his nebbishy son Russell (Rob Reiner) serving as his second-in-command. Benny's bother Ezra (Arkin) used to work with him at the store, but he quit to coach basketball in the midst of a long losing streak. Ezra's wife Marion (Anjanette Comer) desperately wants a child, and Ezra needs a new star player, so he thinks he's helping both of them when he adopts a black teenager (Byron Stewart) who shoots mean hoop. Benny, looking for a way out of the store's irrevocable financial slump, wants to burn the place down for the insurance money, but rather than hire an arsonist, he tries to convince his brother-in-law, Zabbar (Sid Caesar), that the store is actually a Nazi stronghold so Zabbar that will do the deed on his own. The supporting cast also includes Sally K. Marr, whose son was controversial comedian Lenny Bruce. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Arkin, Rob Reiner, (more)
Most of this episode is related in flashbacks, as undercover cop Tony Baretta (Robert Blake) reads a suicide note left behind by a close friend. The bulk of the story concerns policewoman Pat Harley (Anjanette Comer), who had teamed up with Baretta to investigate the death of her husband, likewise a police officer. The investigation dredges up frustrating memories of Pat's private turmoils, culminating in a shattering climax. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Blake, Edward Grover, (more)
Detective movies and film-noir are parodied in this comedy that tells the story of a rookie detective who is hired via mail-order to find out who killed the milkman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gabriel Dell, Will Geer, (more)
Tony Curtis stars as the feared leader of "Murder Incorporated" in this underworld drama based on the life of Louis "Lepke" Buchalter. Lepke began his criminal career as a petty thief in his teens; a stretch in prison taught him the finer points of life on the wrong side of the law. After getting out of jail, Lepke and his pal Gurrah Shapiro (Warren Berlinger) join a gang who hire themselves out as strikebreakers, and the vicious but clever Lepke soon rises through the ranks. Lepke makes powerful friends with mob kingpins "Lucky" Luciano (Vic Tayback) and Albert Anastasia (Gianni Russo), and when high-ranking but deranged gangster "Dutch" Schultz (John Durren) announces he's going to kill District Attorney Thomas E. Dewey (Richard C. Adams), Lepke is chosen to rub "Dutch" out. Lepke handles the assignment well, and he's able to strike up a deal with the various Mafia families -- he'll form a separate organization to handle executions and assassinations, and he'll hire out his services to any mobsters who need it, provided the mob bosses approve the killings. Between "Murder Incorporated" and a drug ring operated with Luciano, Lepke has become a wealthy and important man in the underworld, but ironically he finds soon himself himself investigated by the man whose life he unwittingly saved -- Dewey. Lepke also features comedian and impressionist Vaughn Meader as the voice of Walter Winchell. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Anjanette Comer, (more)
In this made-for-television disaster film, seven officer workers find themselves trapped in a towering inferno after a drunken janitor accidently torches the high-rise in which they work. Believing that they will surely die, the seven begin sharing their deepest secrets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Forsythe, Anjanette Comer, (more)
A former schizophrenic finds herself stalked by a mysterious foe in this thriller. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anjanette Comer, Claude Akins, (more)
This suspense film is about a lawyer who defends a high-society woman charged with killing her husband. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide
In this made-for-TV thriller, a vacation for two men turns deadly when their wives are kidnapped by several escaped convicts. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
TV-movie perennial Ted Post served as director for the low-budget theatrical feature The Baby. Ruth Roman plays a boozy nutcase who, out of hatred for the husband who ran out on her years earlier, forces her teenaged son (David Manzy) to dress and behave like an infant. Social worker Ann Gentry (Anjanette Comer), understandably put off by the sight of a fully grown boy chewing on his toes in a playpen, sets about to rescue him. When sinister forces try to claim the "baby" from Ann, she resorts to murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In the Mexican horror film The Night of the Thousand Cats, the villain of the story is a handsome, wealthy playboy (Hugo Stiglitz) who likes to make love to vast numbers of lovely women. For some reason, once he has had his way with them, he decapitates them, preserves their heads in alcohol, and feeds their bodies to his many cats. He travels out of his mansion in fabulous motorcars, motorcycles and helicopters in pursuit of feminine fulfillment. Eventually the cats choose their own victim. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
Banyon is an A-number-one detective yarn set (very accurately) in the 1930s. Robert Forster, emulating John Garfield in virtually every scene, plays private eye Miles C. Banyon. Right now he's in dutch because a beautiful young woman has been found murdered--and Banyon's gun was the murder weapon. This state of affairs plunges the detective into a maelstrom of deceit and double-cross involving (among many elements) a Winchell-style radio commentator (Jose Ferrer), a paroled big-time gangster, a scar-faced assassin, and a Nazi Bund camp. Once he solves the main mystery, Banyon is faced with the unhappy Maltese Falcon task of exposing a close friend as a murderer. First telecast March 15, 1971, Banyon spawned a brief TV series one year later, with Robert Forster still in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Forster, Darren McGavin, (more)
Five Desperate Women debuted as an ABC Movie of the Week on September 28, 1971. Anjanette Comer, Joan Hackett, Denise Nicholas and Stefanie Powers are four of five graduates of an exclusive girl's college, meeting together for a reunion on a remote island. The fifth girl (whose name we'll withhold for suspense purposes) is the one that's murdered first. It appears that an unknown assailant plans to pick off the girls one by one. The survivors must figure out who's doing them in and why before fade-out time. Aaron Spelling was the producer of this middling clichefest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Jim Hutton and Anjanette Comer have the misfortune to be honeymooning while a forest fire ranges all around them. But that's only the beginning, folks. The lovebirds are also being stalked by crazed hunters Tony Franciosa and Peter Lawford. Deadly Hunt is based on Autumn of a Hunter, a novel by Pat Stadley, but it also owes quite a lot to Richard Connell's The Most Dangerous Game. Made for television, the film debuted October 1, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A young married couple struggle with their personal problems and their union and the forthcoming birth oftheir unwanted child in this grim domestic drama. Much of the story centers on the husband, a former high school basketball star who is unable to leave the glory days behind and fashion a future for himself and his wife. Though pregnant, the wife is constantly drunk and the two constantly bicker. One night, they have row and the husband takes off to stay with his now-impoverished former coach thereby setting the stage for further turmoil and tragedy. The plot for Rabbit, Run is based on a John Updike novel. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Caan, Anjanette Comer, (more)
The Firechasers, a British film, was given what was assumed to be an added boxoffice boost by having an American star, Chad Everett, in the lead. Everett is a journalist who is on the trail of the Persons Unknown who set fire to a warehouse. The newspapermen and insurance investigators who work together to find the arsonist are the "firechasers" of the title, rather than the firefighters. Barely released in the US, The Firechasers was given a network TV slot in the Spring of 1972 thanks to the popularity of Chad Everett's Medical Center series. The film was easily bested in the ratings by a repeat showing of Spartacus on a rival network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this French/Italian co-production set in Mexico in 1746, Alastray (Anthony Quinn), a gunman on the run from the law, happens upon a Franciscan priest, Father Joseph (Sam Jaffe), while in flight. Father Joseph shows mercy on the fugitive and allows Alastray to stay with him, but when the locals find out that Joseph is harboring criminals, he's run out of town; Alastray travels with him, disguised as a monk. While approaching what appears to be a deserted village, Father Joseph is killed by a sniper, and Alastray heads into town. He is met by Teclo (Charles Bronson), a half-breed who calls the village home. It seems that a band of savage Yaqui Indians have been terrorizing the town and have a special hatred for men of faith; they intend to continue laying waste to the village until the residents beg for mercy and renounce Christianity. The Village leaders want to make Alastray their new spiritual leader, and despite his great reluctance, he agrees, mostly as a means of maintaining his cover. But when Alastray tries to organize the building of a much needed dam, as well as obtaining a stash of weapons so that the citizens may defend themselves, the Yaquis return in force, leading to a decisive confrontation. Guns for San Sebastian also features Anjanette Comer and Silvia Pinal. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Anjanette Comer, (more)
Occasionally listed as In Enemy Hands (evidently a working title), In Enemy Country is a war film with "A" ambitions and a TV-movie budget. Wartime secret agents Col. Charles Waslow-Carton (Tony Franciosa) and Lt. Col. Philip Braden (Guy Stockwell) infiltrate enemy lines, posing as POWs. Their mission is to destroy a deadly new type of torpedo, hidden in a Nazi stronghold in France. Their contact is Denise Marchois (Anjanette Comer), whom Waslow-Carton had coerced into marrying a German baron (Paul Hubschmid) before the outbreak of war, thus allowing her to continue her spying activities unimpeded. Upon the completion of their mission, Marchois chooses to remain behind with her husband, whom she has grown to love. Too many peripheral characters, way too many plot twists, and a "French" village obviously constructed on the Universal back lot: for these and other reasons, In Enemy Country is a must to avoid. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Franciosa, Anjanette Comer, (more)



















