Stanley Kallis Movies
- 1985
Adapted from the phenomenally popular best-seller by Jeffrey Archer, the three-part, seven-hour CBS miniseries Kane & Abel is the tale of two tycoons -- one a self-made man, one born into wealth -- who both came into the world on the very same day. The illegitimate son of a Polish baron, Abel Rosnovski (Peter Strauss) is forced to fend for himself from childhood. Escaping from Siberia during WWI, Abel emigrates to America, where he builds up a multimillion-dollar hotel business. Meanwhile, Boston brahmin William Lowell Kane (Sam Neill) is carefully groomed to take his place in both society and the financial world, succeeding on both counts in the banking business. Though Abel and Kane might have become friends in any other circumstances, an accidental slight on Kane's part earns him the undying enmity of a vengeful Abel -- and thus is set in motion a tense, feud-driven power struggle that will consume both their lives for the next 25 years. Filmed on-location in Canada, England, and France, Kane & Abel originally aired from November 17 to 19, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Strauss, Sam Neill, (more)
- 1984
Produced for HBO, The Glitter Dome is based on the crime novel by Joseph Wambaugh. Manhattan detectives Al Mackey (James Garner) is forced to wade his way through the glamorous cesspool known as Hollywood. Mackey's quarry is the unknown person who brutally murdered studio mogul Malcolm Sinclair (Alistair MacDuff). Providing a brief diversion for the diligent Mackey is Margot Kidder as eccentric young actress Willie. Also on hand is James Garner's Rockford Files cohort Stuart Margolin, who, in addition to directing the film, plays the murder victim's smarmy nephew. When first telecast on November 11, 1984, The Glitter Dome was criticized for a brief bondage sequence involving Margot Kidder: in retrospect, however, the scene serves to affirm the integrity and decency of the character played by Garner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Amber Waves is the tale of two radically different personalities, united by crisis. Dennis Weaver plays a midwestern wheat harvester, coarsened by his lifelong struggle with poverty and the elements. Kurt Russell plays an obnoxious Manhattan-based male model, who has coasted through life on his charm and has never gotten his hands dirty. When Russell finds himself facially disfigured and penniless, he takes a job on Weaver's farm. Though the two men dislike each other at first, they reach a common ground when Weaver suffers a serious personal dilemma. Beautifully lensed in Alberta, Canada, Amber Waves was one of the high points of the 1979-80 TV movie season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Though Two of a Kind was hardly George Burns' television debut, it was his first dramatic TV appearance. Burns is cast as Ross "Boppy" Minor, who is shunted away to a nursing home by his unfeeling son-in-law Cliff Robertson. Robby Benson co-stars as Nolie Minor, Boppy's mentally retarded grandson. Both outcasts from "normal" society, Nolie and Boppy form a strong bond in this touching domestic drama. An Emmy Award went to songwriters James Di Pasquale and Dory Previn for their theme song "We'll Win the World." Two of a Kind first aired October 9, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Burns, Robby Benson, (more)
- 1982
Based on Jane Adams' book of the same name, the made-for-TV Sex and the Single Parent stars Susan Saint James as Sally and Mike Farrell as George. Newly divorced from their respective spouses, both Sally and George intend to celebrate their independence by throwing sexual caution to the wind. But the couple's romance is complicated by their sense of obligation to their children. Accompanied by a raunchy ad campaign that promised much more than the film delivered, Sex and the Single Parent was first seen over CBS on September 19, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
The Manions of America was a three-part miniseries originally telecast September 30, and October 1 and 2, 1981. Set in Ireland and Philadelphia in the late 1840's, Rory O'Manion (Pierce Brosnan in his American TV-movie debut) escapes from the Great Irish Potato Famine to head to America, where he goes into business, opens old wounds with old enemies, and is reunited with his lover from the old country, British blueblood Rachel Clements (Kate Mulgrew). This expensive project was scripted by onetime Upstairs Downstairs staff writer Rosemary Anne Sisson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
Dream House is an opposites-attract TV movie which strives mightily for social relevance. John Schneider plays a Georgia-cracker contractor who journeys to New York for a major building project. Out of love for Manhattanite urban planner Marilu Henner, he scraps his big-bucks assignment. Instead, he endeavors to build a "dream" house in the middle of one of New York City's most rundown ghettos. Dream House coasts merrily along on its star power alone; the storyline is acceptable, but nothing to break a date over. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
This made-for-TV historical drama chronicles the personal and professional lives of Colonel Tibbets and the airmen who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The story is based on a book by Gordon Thomas and Max Gordon Witts and also looks at the ways in which the aftermath of the bombing affected their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Intended as the pilot for the proposed weekly series "Peter Benchley's Mystery of the Deep," the made-for-TV Hunters of the Reef bears traces of such best-selling Peter Benchley novels as Jaws and The Deep. Much of the action is devoted to a race between two salvage-boat captains -- one poor, one rich -- to recover the valuables in a ship wrecked off the Florida coast. Needless to say, the waters surrounding the wreck are infested with sharks; it is perhaps also unnecessary to observe that among the "scavengers" is a gorgeous marine biologist (Mary Louise Weller) who happens to be a knockout in a diving suit. Filmed on-location in Key West, FL, Hunters of the Reef originally surfaced as part of NBC's prime-time schedule on May 20, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In the Glitter Palace was the first made-for-TV movie in which lesbianism was a crucial plot factor. Chad Everett stars as a defense lawyer and erstwhile detective, whose gay client is Barbara Hershey. She is on trial for murdering her slimy blackmailer (played by that master of sliminess, Anthony Zerbe). Among Hershey's lesbian friends are Salome Jens and Diana Scarwid, who may know more than what they're telling Everett. Just because In the Glitter Palace was a groundbreaker in regards to its subject matter doesn't make it a better movie; strip away the "relevance," and you've got just another by-rote whodunit. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chad Everett, Barbara Hershey, (more)
Originally titled D.A.'s Investigator, Kiss Me Kill Me stars Stella Stevens as Stella Stafford, "leg woman" for the LA district attorney's office. The case at hand is the murder of a young, highly respected schoolteacher. Stella is certain that she has the killer dead to rights--but this is before she learns the down-and-dirty about the murder victim's secret life. Supporting Ms. Stevens is an impressive guest cast, including Dabney Coleman, Pat O'Brien, Bruce Boxleitner and Robert Vaughn. First telecast May 8, 1976, Kiss Me Kill Me was the pilot for an intended TV series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
Lloyd Bridges stars as plainclothes policeman Joe Forrester. When a gang of robber-rapists besiege his old beat, Forrester voluntarily returns to uniform duty. He hopes that his presence will encourage the frightened residents to help bring the gang to justice, but the most immediate results of Joe's return are several attempts on his life. Eddie Egan, the real-life model for The French Connection's Popeye Doyle, appears in a small role. First telecast as a 90-minute installment of Police Story on May 6, 1975, Return of Joe Forrester led to a weekly Joe Forrester series, which ran from September 1975 to August 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Rule of thumb: if David Lowell Rich directed it, it's probably a TV movie. Beg, Borrow or Steal stars Mike Connors, Michael Cole and Kent McCord as three ex-cops, disabled while on duty. Having trouble finding regular work, the three men team up to steal a valuable statue from a museum. Connors has no legs, Cole no hands, and McCord is blind: but when they're working together, they're a lean mean stealing machine. Beg, Borrow or Steal is as tasteless as it sounds, but at least it has the novelty of three popular TV detective-show stars pooling their resources on the opposite side of the law. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mike Connors, Kent McCord, (more)
- 1972
Created for the "dime novels" in 1886, scientific detective Nick Carter has been transferred to film and radio several times in the past six decades, though most of these projects have tended to update his adventures. 1972's made-for-TV Adventures of Nick Carter restores the "turn of the century" surroundings of the original stories. Robert Conrad (somewhat older than his literary counterpart) portrays Nick Carter, a New York private investigator hired to locate the missing wife of a wealthy "robber baron" playboy. He also devotes some time to locating the murderer of a close friend. Though hampered by a tight budget, the film does a nice job recreating a 19th century world of crooked cops, graft-greedy politicians, all-powerful plutocrats, raggedy paper boys and Lower East Side lowlifes. Adventures of Nick Carter was one of three pilots for a projected "rotating" series of TV detective shows based on famed literary sleuths; the other two series in this aborted project were to have spotlighted the adventures of Sherlock Holmes and Hildegarde Withers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Conrad, Shelley Winters, (more)
Fans of Mission: Impossible greeted the start of the series' fourth season with fear and trepidation. To be sure, the series was still second to none in serving up exciting action sequences and labyrinthine counterespionage plotlines. And, yes, most of the familiar cast members were still in attendance, including Peter Graves as IMF leader Jim Phelps, Greg Morris as electronics expert Barney Collier, and Peter Lupus as "house athlete" Willie Armitage. But how, asked the fans, would the series be able to survive the defection of its two most popular regulars, Barbara Bain and Martin Landau? In the case of Landau, the series' producers wasted no time in finding a suitable substitute. Replacing Landau's character of Rollin Hand, a professional actor who skill with disguises and dialects made him indispensable during the IMF's many "infiltration" assignments, the producers came up with professional magician "The Great Paris," who shared Rollin's expertise at makeup and vocal dexterity and could fulfill the same function on the IMF team. Better still, Paris was played by Leonard Nimoy, an actor whose popularity was at its peak by virtue of his recent three-year stint as Mr. Spock on Star Trek. Although Paris could easily have been a Rollin Hand clone with a lesser performer, the brilliant Nimoy came up with a characterization -- and a variety of false identities -- uniquely his own, and would continue doing so until he himself left the series at the end of season five. Unfortunately, the producers were never able to come up with an entirely successful replacement for Barbara Bain; indeed, no fewer than four actresses would be tried out as the "new" Cinnamon (albeit under different character names) for the remainder of the series' run. Although not officially a regular during season four, the talented Lee Meriwether would show up from time to time as "Tracey," a lovely if nondescript Cinnamon substitute. Despite the cast shakeups, Mission: Impossible continued to turn out first-rate episodes during its fourth year on the air, notably the two-part "The Controllers," and the series' only three-parter, "The Falcon," arguably the best-ever showcase for series newcomers Nimoy and Meriwether. Unfortunately, the loss of Landau and Bain proved highly detrimental to the show's ratings: after an all-time-high during season three, the show didn't even crack the Top 30 during season four. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Leonard Nimoy, (more)
After two years of playing to respectable but not spectacular ratings, Mission: Impossible finally attained the gold ring in season three, when it was ranked as America's 11th most popular series by the A.C. Nielsen Company. At this point in time, the series' formula had been committed to memory by its faithful fans. In virtually every episode, Jim Phelps (Peter Graves), head of the Impossible Missions Force, would be assigned by an anonymous governmental higher-up to undertake a covert mission in the interests of world peace, international security, the thwarting of big-time crime, or a combination thereof. After the self-destruction of the tape recorder from which these instructions emanated, Phelps would choose the IMF operatives best suited to the task at hand. Almost invariably throughout season three, these worthies would include sexy "mystery woman" Cinnamon Carter (Barbara Bain), master dialectician and makeup artist Rollin Hand (Martin Landau), electronics wizard Barney Collier (Greg Morris), and general-purpose muscleman Willie Armitage (Peter Lupus). Journeying to an exotic locale (usually in a fictional country run by despots or controlled by crooks), the IMFers utilized an astonishing array of disguises, props, and meticulously preplanned schemes (but seldom weaponry) to foil the villain of the week -- generally through the simple process of getting the villain to trip himself up with his own ego or greed.
Among the season's most memorable episodes are the two-part "The Contenders," in which Barney poses as a boxer making a comeback to destroy a bout-fixing syndicate (also seen in this episode is real life boxing champ Sugar Ray Robinson); another two-parter, "The Bunker," wherein the IMF must rescue the wife of a scientist who is being blackmailed into conspiring with the enemy; "The Elixir," featuring Ruth Roman as an Evita-style Latin American dictator who is duped into turning her country over to a democratic government; "The Freeze," in which the team convinces a mobster that he has been cryogenically frozen for 14 years to trick him into revealing the whereabouts of some stolen loot; "The Mind of Stefan Miklos," guest-starring Ed Asner as an enemy agent who is hoodwinked into trusting his worst enemy; "The Exchange," a tour de force for series regular Barbara Bain, in which Cinnamon is kidnapped and subjected to her worst fear -- being confined in a tiny place -- as a means to get her to betray the IMF; "Illusion," another showcase for Bain as she impersonates a dead nightclub singer; "The Execution," with Vincent Gardenia as a paid assassin who rats on his boss after the IMF stages a realistic gas-chamber execution before his very eyes; and "Live Bait," featuring a young, bespectacled Martin Sheen as a cloddish enemy operative who is literally seduced into helping the IMFers rescue a double agent from a diabolical torture device. Although the series' lofty ratings, coupled with a third Emmy award win for regular Barbara Bain, should have been occasion for celebration, all was not champagne and roses backstage at Mission: Impossible. Both Bain and her husband, Martin Landau, were publicly clashing with series producer Bruce Geller over their working conditions and the quality of the scripts, and by the end of season three, the series' two most popular actors had ankled the project, never to return. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Among the season's most memorable episodes are the two-part "The Contenders," in which Barney poses as a boxer making a comeback to destroy a bout-fixing syndicate (also seen in this episode is real life boxing champ Sugar Ray Robinson); another two-parter, "The Bunker," wherein the IMF must rescue the wife of a scientist who is being blackmailed into conspiring with the enemy; "The Elixir," featuring Ruth Roman as an Evita-style Latin American dictator who is duped into turning her country over to a democratic government; "The Freeze," in which the team convinces a mobster that he has been cryogenically frozen for 14 years to trick him into revealing the whereabouts of some stolen loot; "The Mind of Stefan Miklos," guest-starring Ed Asner as an enemy agent who is hoodwinked into trusting his worst enemy; "The Exchange," a tour de force for series regular Barbara Bain, in which Cinnamon is kidnapped and subjected to her worst fear -- being confined in a tiny place -- as a means to get her to betray the IMF; "Illusion," another showcase for Bain as she impersonates a dead nightclub singer; "The Execution," with Vincent Gardenia as a paid assassin who rats on his boss after the IMF stages a realistic gas-chamber execution before his very eyes; and "Live Bait," featuring a young, bespectacled Martin Sheen as a cloddish enemy operative who is literally seduced into helping the IMFers rescue a double agent from a diabolical torture device. Although the series' lofty ratings, coupled with a third Emmy award win for regular Barbara Bain, should have been occasion for celebration, all was not champagne and roses backstage at Mission: Impossible. Both Bain and her husband, Martin Landau, were publicly clashing with series producer Bruce Geller over their working conditions and the quality of the scripts, and by the end of season three, the series' two most popular actors had ankled the project, never to return. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Barbara Bain, (more)
- 1959
Billed to follow Tank Commandos in a double feature, this light-weight wartime saga relies heavily on showing enough skin, specifically that of USO entertainer Lorry Evering (Eve Meyer), to keep the drive-in folks awake. The premise is that a USO troupe has been caught behind enemy lines during the Korean War and suffers through their captivity along with the soldiers and the sergeant (Chuck Henderson) who has to keep them all together. The group is forced to march through difficult terrain under trying circumstances, as the sergeant and his men face each new situation as it comes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eve Meyer, Chuck Henderson, (more)
- 1959
Made for the car-race fanatics out there (there are plenty), Road Racers is about a driver who is booted out of the U.S. racing circuit when he's involved in a racing death that was caused by his own carelessness. He goes to Europe and dominates the race scene. When he's permitted to return to the State, he gets in a racing show-down with his biggest rival as they duel in the United States Grand Prix. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1958
In this drama, a Korean war vet becomes a pilot who must take care of his late war buddy's little sister and brother. The sister is upset when her brother begins hanging around with a bad biker gang. The vet manages to turn the kid around by convincing him that he would have more fun flying an observation plane for a uranium prospector. Meanwhile the vet and the little sister fall in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jackie Loughery, Ed Kemmer, (more)
