Harry S. Franklin Movies

Mississippi Burning is an all-names-changed dramatization of the Ku Klux Klan's murders of three civil rights workers in 1964. Investigating the mysterious disappearances of the three activists are FBI agents Gene Hackman (older, wiser) and Willem Dafoe (younger, idealistic). A Southerner himself, Hackman charms and cajoles his way through the tight-lipped residents of a dusty Mississippi town while Dafoe acts upon the evidence gleaned by his partner. Hackman solves the case by exerting his influence upon beauty-parlor worker Frances McDormand, who wishes to exact revenge for the beatings inflicted upon her by her Klan-connected husband Brad Dourif. Many critics took the film to task for its implication that the Civil Rights movement might never have gained momentum without its white participants; nor were the critics happy that the FBI was shown to utilize tactics as brutal as the Klan's. The title Mississippi Burning is certainly appropriate: nearly half the film is taken up with scenes of smoke and flame. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Mark Stevens doubles as star and director of the compact western Gun Fever. Lucas (Stevens) and his partner Simon (John Lupton) set about to capture the renegade white man who caused the deaths of Lucas' parents in an Indian raid. The villain turns out to be Simon's own father Trench (Aaron Saxon), setting the stage for reams of quasi-Freudian dialogue. Larry Storch does a nice semicomic turn as a laconic Mexican, while Jana Davi supplies the love interest. The European prints of Gun Fever were augmented with several steamy sex scenes, with Jana Davi displaying far more than her acting skills. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Red Snow utilizes several reels of documentary footage around which to construct a fictional Cold War plotline. Guy Madison stars as a US pilot, sent to the Bering Straits to investigate suspicious activities. Madison teams with Eskimo soldier Ray Mala to discover that the rascally Russians--only 35 miles away from Alaska--are up to no good. It's up to the Good Guys to stop the Reds from developing a top-secret weapon. Much of Red Snow is taken up by pedestrian footage of real Eskimos going about their usual daily activities, while the narrative contrives to impose a hidden meaning on the most innocent of gestures and reactions. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi