Carolyn Conwell Movies
This is the final sequel to The Magnificent Seven. In this chapter, the lead gunslinger has settled down with a new wife, and has become the marshal of a little town. His peaceful existence is disrupted when a psychotic outlaw rides in, robs the bank, wounds the marshal with his gun, and then rapes and kills his new wife. The marshal is then assigned to save some widowed women from ruthless banditos. To help him, he rallies an eastern journalist and five hardened convicts to ride in and stop them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stefanie Powers, Mariette Hartley, (more)
Looking like a high-school junior, Michael Douglas plays a college professor in Adam at 6 AM. Tired of academia, Douglas opts for the supposed tranquility of rural Missouri. After working as farm hand for a few weeks, he realizes that his "normal" neighbors are as screwed up as any of his more sophisticated friends. To punch up the film's leisurely screenplay, a great deal of sex talk is injected, which may have sounded daring in 1970 but which plays like an episode of Married: With Children nowadays. Adam at 6 AM is blessed with a superb supporting cast: among the secondary actors is 1940s leading lady Anne Gwynne, making a one-time-only film comeback. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Douglas, Lee Purcell, (more)
The Boston Strangler adopts the split-screen technique then in vogue (see also The Thomas Crown Affair) to relate the true story of self-confessed mass murderer Albert DeSalvo. Adapted by Edward Anhalt from the book by Gerold Frank, the film covers the years 1962 to 1964, during which time a dozen women were raped and murdered in the Boston area. State-appointed officer John Bottomly (Henry Fonda) arrests as many known sex offenders as he can get his hands on in hopes of finding a clue as to the Boston Strangler's identity. As these things often happen, the police come across the necessary evidence through pure luck. Well-played by Tony Curtis (whose makeup is startling), DeSalvo himself does not appear until an hour into the film. When caught, the schizophrenic DeSalvo insists that he knows nothing of the murders. Under interrogation and hypnosis, his homicidal impulses are exposed. Meticulously cast, The Boston Strangler offers excellent vignettes by Sally Kellerman as the Strangler's only surviving victim and by Hurd Hatfield as an erudite sex pervert. When Boston Strangler was first shown on TV in 1974, a voice-over coda was added, noting that Albert DeSalvo was stabbed to death in prison on November 26, 1973, and that many experts were convinced that he was not the killer but that his confessions were the product of a delusional mind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, (more)
A double agent has to contend with enemies on both sides of the political fence as well as the woman he loves in this thriller directed by Alfred Hitchcock. Prof. Michael Armstrong (Paul Newman) is an gifted American physicist who, at the height of the Cold War, decides to defect to East Germany. To his surprise, his fiancée, fellow scientist Sarah Sherman (Julie Andrews) follows him, and she soon discovers Armstrong is no traitor, but acting as a secret undercover agent. As Armstrong attempts to ingratiate himself with political and scientific factions in East Germany, Gromek (Wolfgang Kieling) becomes his guide, though Armstrong is aware he's a government agent assigned to trail him, and as he tries to shake Gromek, Armstrong realizes his new "friend" knows what his real agenda happens to be. Torn Curtain was one of the rare Hitchcock films from his "classic" era which did not feature a score by Bernard Herrman; due to objections from his studio, Hitchcock removed Herrman from the project, though excerpts from the score he had begun were included as a bonus on the film's DVD release in 2002. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Julie Andrews, (more)
