Al Ramrus Movies
- 1986
This TV-movie was based on a true story of criminal culpability in the ecological crisis. Alan Arkin stars as an ex-convict hired in 1972 by smooth-talking Armand Assante, who runs a successful garbage disposal business. Even when Arkin finds out that Assante is a functionary of the mob, he chooses to look the other way and count his money. But within six years, it is obvious that the toxic waste dumped by Assante's firm is destroying the atmosphere. Arkin becomes an FBI informant--only to discover how deeply ingrained and how high up the social and political scale the corruption really is. Deadly Business manages the neat trick of being politically correct and entertaining all at once. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Darker Side of Terror is a TV movie that wants to have its cake and eat it too: it is a science fiction drama and a romantic triangle all in one. Researcher Robert Forster submits to an experiment in cloning conducted by his former professor (Ray Milland) The operation is a success--except in terms of Forster's personal life. It seems that the researcher's wife (Adrienne Barbeau) finds the clone to be more desirable than the original. To make matters dicier, the clone is a homicidal maniac! Darker Side of Terror is derivative from start to finish; the producers should have simply put their cards on the table and titled the film The Adventure of Frankenstein's Sexier Brother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
As is customary, Sally Struthers cries buckets in My Husband is Missing (one gets the feeling that she cries buckets at card tricks). Struthers plays the wife of an MIA who is permitted to visit North Vietnam in search of her husband. She meets Canadian journalist Tony Musante, who's anxious to get her story. Struthers and Musante team up to thrash through the jungle wilds of California--er, Southeast Asia--eventually falling in love. Purportedly a "relevant" TV movie, My Husband is Missing shamelessly exploits Vietnam as a mere melodramatic backdrop. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Sentenced to hang in a backwater western town, horse thief Henry Moon (Jack Nicholson) is saved when frontierswoman Julia Tate (Mary Steenburgen) agrees to marry him. Taking advantage of the town law that prohibits the execution of married men, Moon follows Tate back to her ranch, planning all the while to escape at the first possible opportunity. But Tate insists that he honor his end of the bargain at work on the ranch. She has no intention of consummating the union, a fact that drives the hot-to-trot Moon up a wall. She puts him to work on the gold mine that she has on her property, while his old gang prepares to relieve the couple of their gold once it's on the surface. Jack Nicholson personally selected movie newcomer Mary Steenburgen for Goin' South. The film also features John Belushi in the role of a dyspeptic deputy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Mary Steenburgen, (more)
In The Island of Dr. Moreau, which is based on a novella by H.G. Wells, Braddock (Michael York) is a decent young Englishman who has unaccountably been saved from being thrown overboard from a ship sailing in a remote area of the Pacific by the mysterious Dr. Montgomery (Nigel Davenport). Dr. Montgomery is accompanying a cargo of animals destined for a tropical island. At first an "honored guest" (prisoner) on that island, he is finds his contacts with the natives increasingly disturbing, for they are not like any men he has ever seen. Eventually it transpires that these "men" are experimental reconstructions from wild animals made by a particularly sinister scientist, Dr. Moreau (Burt Lancaster). He feels that he is in danger from the animal/men and from Dr. Moreau himself and does not know where to turn. This story was also filmed in 1933 as The Island of Lost Souls, starring Charles Laughton as the monomaniacal Dr. Moreau and was remade yet again in 1996 with Marlon Brando in the title role. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Michael York, (more)
- 1975
Originally made to be a television pilot, this sci-fi thriller is set in the future and chronicles the exploits of a trio of space travellers who thaw out after having spent nearly two centuries in suspended animation, return to earth and find it inhabited by clones. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- PG
White students are bussed into an all black school in this powerful drama. Quincy Davis (Calvin Lockhart) is the dedicated black English teacher who leaves an all white school to teach in the inner city. Lloyd Wilkerson (John McLiam) is the disciplinary principal who manages the institution like a prison. He tells Quincy point blank that his main job is to keep the peace in a potentially explosive situation. Sherry (Patricia Stich) is stripped in the locker room while Douglas (Jeff Bridges) is repeatedly beaten up but refuses to give up or give in to the mob. The white minorities are constantly harassed by the mob lead by the militant J.T. Watson (James A. Watson Jr.). Lerone (Dewayne Jesse) is helped with his reading by Lloyd, and improves his skills by reading Lady Chatterly's Lover. The after-school reading program soon becomes popular to the students, who find new appreciation for literary pursuits. Watch for an early appearance from Rob Reiner, later to achieve sitcom stardom as Meathead on All in the Family and become one of Hollywood's best directors. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Calvin Lockhart, Janet MacLachlan, (more)
- 1969
Filmed in 1969, Don't Push, I'll Charge When I'm Ready remained on the shelf until December 18, 1977. On that evening, it was discreetly offered as an NBC Sunday Night Movie presentation. If the film resembles an old Bob Hope comedy, it may be because it was put together by Hope's son-in-law, Nathaniel Lande. Italian actor Enzo Cerusio plays a POW who finds himself in an American uniform during World War 2. Cerusio's pacifistic sympathies are rather at odds with the gung-ho attitudes of his fellow GIs, notably sergeant Dwayne Hickman. The romantic element is handled by Sue Lyon, who obviously had a lot of trouble landing good parts after her spectacular screen debut in Lolita (1962). Saving the film from total boredom are such seasoned laughgetters as Jerry Colonna, Soupy Sales, Edward Andrews, Parley Baer and Avery Schreiber. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
