Robert Carrington Movies
A big black mamba snake that has gotten loose in a townhouse slithers through a kidnapping plot in this film. Based on a novel by Alan Scholefield, Venom features a big name British cast that seems to be slumming in a B-movie project. Dr. Marion Stowe (Sarah Miles) is a toxicologist who has brought the snake to London to study the properties of its deadly venom. It escapes and terrorizes the inhabitants of the townhouse, where an attempted kidnapping is in progress. Dave (Oliver Reed), Jacmel (Klaus Kinski) and Louise (Susan George) are the villains trying to hold the son of a wealthy family for ransom. Original director Tobe Hooper was replaced by Piers Haggard. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Klaus Kinski, Oliver Reed, (more)
- 1980
Suspense novelist Alistair MacLean wrote Hostage Tower directly for television. A master criminal takes over the Eiffel Tower, holding the mother of the President of the United States hostage. The criminal demands a $30 million ransom or the tower will be blasted into oblivion. The cast is quite stellar for a TV-movie, including Peter Fonda, Douglas Fairbanks Jr. (then in virtual retirement), Celia Johnson and Maude Adams (as one of the villains). Curiously, the director of Hostage Tower is sitcom veteran Claudio Guzman, best known for his long association with I Dream of Jeannie! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
This bush-league Eyes of Laura Mars stars Deborah Raffin as a model with a "sixth sense." First she senses that an airline is to be bombed--a premonition which comes true. Then she senses that the bomber knows who she is and plans to kill her. Unfortunately, Raffin has the usual TV-movie precognitive skills which allow her to see what's going to happen, but which prevent her from determining who's going to do it. Mind over Murder was directed by Ivan Nagy, better known for his highly publicized involvement in the Heidi Fleiss scandal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
In this unsold TV-series pilot film, six former circus performers pool their individual talents for a daring daylight jewel heist. Ostensibly nothing more than common thieves, the six protagonists are actually acting from the noblest motives. If they are able to swipe a rare Latin American artifact known as "The Mask of the Sun" from a Washington D.C. embassy, they will (hopefully) be able to ransom a group of American medical missionaries who have been sentenced to a firing squad. Victor Buono stars as Sebastian, the leader of the co-ed criminal team. High Risk originally aired over ABC on May 15, 1976, in tandem with another "busted pilot," Panache. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
In this mystery, twin gumshoes team up to expose a band of bogus spiritualists involved in murder . ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1973
In this thriller based on a novel by Alistair MacLean, Barry Newman plays John Talbot, an underwater salvage expert who witnesses the murder of his wife and child. After working with the police, Talbot hatches his own scheme to bring the killers to justice; posing as a criminal, he stages the phony murder of a police officer and kidnaps Sarah Ruthven (Suzy Kendall), the heiress to a petroleum fortune. Talbot's false daring attracts the attention of a criminal mastermind who wants to recover the valuables aboard a plane that recently crash-landed in the water; however, Talbot knows that the same man was responsible for his family's death, and he intends to see that he never returns from their exploratory search of the wrecked plane. Watch for Ben Kingsley in a small role, it was his first film, prior to Gandhi in 1982. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Newman, Suzy Kendall, (more)
Wait Until Dark is an innovative, highly entertaining and suspenseful thriller about a blind housewife, Susy Hendrix (Audrey Hepburn). Independent and resourceful, Susy is learning to cope with her blindness, which resulted from a recent accident. She is aided by her difficult, slightly unreliable young neighbor Gloria (Julie Herrod) with whom she has an exasperated but lovingly maternal relationship. Susy's life is changed as she is terrorized by a group of criminals who believe she has hidden a baby doll used by them to smuggle heroin into the country. Unknown to Susy, her photographer husband Sam (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) took the doll as a favor for a woman he met on an international plane flight and unwittingly brought the doll to the couple's New York apartment when the woman became afraid of the customs officials. Alone in her apartment and cut-off from the outside world, Susy must fight for her life against a gang of ruthless criminals, led by the violent, psychotic Roat (Alan Arkin). The tension builds as Roat, aided by his gang, impersonates police officers and friends of her husband in order to win Susy's confidence, gaining access to her apartment to look for the doll. The climax of the film, a violent physical confrontation between Susie and Roat in her dark kitchen, is one of the most memorable and frightening scenes in screen history. All performances are outstanding, particularly those of Audrey Hepburn who plays a vulnerable, but self-reliant woman, and Alan Arkin, in perhaps his best role, as the ruthless, manipulative Roat. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, (more)
- 1966
A cardsharp comes up with the ultimate system for beating the casinos at their own game in this high-style caper comedy. Barney Lincoln (Warren Beatty) is a footloose playboy with a taste for gambling and an ingenious scheme for winning at the leading casinos in Europe. Barney discovers that nearly all of the major gambling houses use playing cards manufactured by the same company; by breaking into their plant and subtly altering the printing plates, he's able to mark the cards with a code only he can read, and he is soon pulling in record winnings across the continent. However, Barney's secret is discovered by his girlfriend Angel McGinnis (Suzannah York), a successful fashion designer, which might not be a problem if her father, "Manny" McGinnis (Clive Revill) weren't a top inspector at Scotland Yard. Manny approaches Barney and makes him a deal -- he won't reveal his secret about the cards if Barney will help him catch Harry Dominion (Eric Porter), a high-level international drug trafficker. Unfortunately, Barney's sleuthing goes awry after a certain amount of initial success, and when Harry gets wind of what he's been doing, he retaliates by kidnapping Angel and demanding repayment of his loss of sales. Jane Birkin makes her screen debut in this film, appropriately enough as a character named "Exquisite Thing." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Beatty, Susannah York, (more)
