Robert Harris Movies

In this faithful remake of the Stanley Kramer classic buddy film, two members of a chain gang, one black and the other white, escape. They are chained together. At first they hate each other, but as time passes they begin to develop a grudging friendship. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Made for television, Love Among the Ruins was a precious one-time-only collaboration between stars Katharine Hepburn and Laurence Oliver, and director George Cukor. The scene is Victorian London, where wealthy widow Hepburn is being sued for breach of promise by her much-younger ex-fiance. Olivier is the highly respected barrister engaged to defend Hepburn in court. The usually reserved Olivier relishes the opportunity to see Hepburn, who 40 years earlier had been his lover. He is driven to hilarious distraction by Hepburn's adamant insistence that she has never seen him before in her life! Written by Emmy-winning TV veteran James Costigan, Love Among the Ruins was first telecast March 6, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Isaac Hayes puts his gun where his groove is in his role as hard-case bounty hunter Mack "Truck" Turner, three years after composing the legendary score for Shaft (1971). Ex-football star turned skip-tracer, Turner specializes in bringing in the criminals police are too scared to chase, and when he's hired to capture sociopathic pimp Gator (Paul Harris), he finds himself confronted by the most vicious killers in the underground scene. Little does Turner know that Gator's woman, Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols), has a deep-running cold streak of vengeance, and has hired ruthless hit man Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto), as well as a legion of other like-minded and equally determined assassins, to snuff out Truck's supercharged motor once and for all. It's now up to Truck to keep his cool long enough to get to the source of the seemingly endless stream of bullets that come at increasingly unsettling intervals. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this violent prison drama, an imprisoned criminal finds himself flooded with offers to spring him if only he will reveal the secret location of the $1.5 million he stole from the mob before he went to jail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this melodrama a mother tries to compensate for her feelings of inadequacy and failure as a parent to her own children by taking in a troubled foster child. As she struggles to make up for her past mistakes, her jealous daughters mistreat the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a young woman must cope with the stresses of single-parenthood and of dealing with a terminally ill mother. Adding to her stress are a young priest and a rock star, both of whom want her. In the end she dumps the both and lives her life independently. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Someone is leaking confidential information from a top-secret missile department. The culprit would seem to be a beautiful woman (Veronica Strong) who has systematically seduced several department members -- all of whom subsequently turned up dead, after displaying some rather bizarre behavior. Upon investigating, Steed and Tara must follow a flimsy trail of evidence, consisting merely of an intoxicating perfume fragrance. Written by actor Jeremy Burnham, "Love All" was first telecast in America on February 3, 1969, then shown in England 16 days later. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this feather-weight version of Evelyn Waugh's novel Decline and Fall, Paul Pennyfeather (Robin Phillips) is an Oxford divinity student who finds himself expelled after a gang of drunken freshmen remove his pants and he is accused of exposing himself to a girl. Looking for work, he retains the services of an unsavory employment agency that secures a position for him at a sleazy Welsh boarding school for boys, presided over by the colorful Dr. Fagan (Donald Wolfit). On staff at the school are an assortment of distasteful screwballs; Mr. Prendergast (Robert Harris) is a withdrawn former clergyman; Captain Grimes (Leo McKern) is a one-legged two-timer with his eye on Fagan's daughter Flossie (Patience Collier); and Soloman Philbrick (Colin Blakely) is an undercover criminal posing as Fagan's butler. All hell breaks loose during the school's annual Sports Day, but Paul manages to meet a wealthy patron of the school, Margot Beste-Chetwynde (Geneviève Page), who hires him to tutor her son. At her estate, Margot seduces Paul, and Paul proposes marriage. But before the wedding, Margot asks Paul, as a favor, to travel to Tangiers on a business trip. He agrees but is soon arrested for trafficking in prostitution. Sent to jail, he runs into Philbrick and Captain Grimes, and now Margot has to scheme to get Paul out of jail. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

When a beautiful model is found shot in her apartment, a famous television star is felt to be the murderer in a failed extortion plot. Although the investigation turns up a surprise ending, by the time most viewers get there they could not care less who did it. Singularly uninspired murder drama. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

Released about five weeks before the Adolf Eichmann trial began in Jerusalem on April 11, 1961, this docudrama by director R.G. Springsteen was quickly dashed together to take advantage of the trial, and it shows. Overplaying Eichmann's venality and lacking any depth in characterization, the story unfolds in several large segments. Eichmann (played by Werner Klemperer), as head of Dept. IV, B4 or "Jewish affairs/evacuation affairs, personally ordered, or watched, or supervised the extermination of Jews in Germany and the nations under its occupying forces. These years are shown in the first part of the film; the second half deals with Eichmann's escape from an American POW camp, his four years under cover in Germany, aided by an association of Nazi SS members (ODESSA), his escape in 1950 to Argentina through Italy, and his capture on May 11, 1960. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Robert Morley is ideally cast as the legendary playwright, poet, and wit Oscar Wilde in this biographical look at the author's tumultuous life. While he was married to a woman named Constance (Phyllis Calvert), Wilde was primarily attracted to men, and at the height of his fame, he became involved with Lord Alfred Douglas (John Neville), the estranged son of the Marquis of Queensberry (Edward Chapman). The Marquis, who disliked Wilde, publicly referred to him as a "sodomite," and Wilde sued for libel. However, in the midst of the resultant trial, Sir Edward Carson (Ralph Richardson) badgered Wilde into admitting his homosexuality under oath; Wilde lost his libel suit, and was then successfully prosecuted for indecency, for which he served two years at hard labor. Wilde died a poor and emotionally shattered man in Paris a few years later. Oscar Wilde was produced at roughly the same time as The Trials of Oscar Wilde, in which Peter Finch played the title role. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Though Richard Eyer and Philip Abbott get top billing, the real star of The Invisible Boy is Robby the Robot of Forbidden Planet fame. Based on a short story by Edmund Cooper (which, incidentally, contained no robots!), the film finds electronics genius Dr. Merrinoe (Abbott) developing a huge talking computer. While Merrinoe is the master of his laboratory, he has trouble controlling his rambunctious son Timmie (Eyer). When the doctor takes Timmie to the lab with him, hoping to impress his son with the importance of his work, Timmie is interested only in reassembling a robot left behind by Merrinoe's predecessor. Though the robot has been programmed not to bring harm to human beings, the poor clunking creature falls under the spell of Merrinoe's "super computer," which has developed a demonic mind of its own. The computer arranges to launch a rocket, with the robot at the controls, that will enable it to control the earth's orbit. But Timmie, who has stowed away on board the rocket, is able to bring the robot to its "senses" and save the day. Impressive on a technical level, The Invisible Boy is relentlessly silly storywise, which of course adds to the enjoyment. Best line: "Timmie, if you don't bring that rocketship back this instant, you'll get the spanking of your life!" ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adaptation of "Call Northside 777" features a reporter who locates new evidence to an 11-year-old murder case. ~ All Movie Guide