James Douglas Movies

In this western, an idealistic and naive rookie cavalry officer is assigned to work with a cruel captain. He immediately gets on the crabby captain's bad side by trying to restart an affair with his ex-sweetheart. The woman is engaged to another who ends up getting killed by the Indians. This rookie, blaming himself for distracting the slain officer with his overtures to the officer's fiance, volunteers to act as a decoy to lure the renegade Apaches into a trap. It works, but many soldiers die. After the skirmish, the rookie has become a seasoned officer prepared to take his duties seriously. Back at the fort, he bids farewell to the woman as she begins her long journey back east. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Accidentally peering through a window while on his nightly jog, stockbroker Kenneth Gilman can't take his eyes off beautiful Barbara Law. He returns to the same neighborhood night after night, for the express purpose of sneaking a peek at Law and her lover in various states of sexual passion. When the woman is murdered, Gilman is fingered as the culprit--and it doesn't help matters that he's been discussing his chronic voyeurism with psychiatrist Dayle Haddon. Now it's up to our obsessive hero to find out who's trying to frame him. More successful as a semi-comedy than as a thriller, Bedroom Eyes drew enough of an audience to warrant a sequel, ingeniously titled Bedroom Eyes 2. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In 1988, Marlene Moore, the first woman to be designated a "dangerous offender" by Canada's legal system -- even though she had never committed a serious crime -- killed herself in a Kingston, Ontario federal woman's prison. The Canadian TV movie seeks to explain the circumstances that brought the unfortunate Moore to this tragic turn of events. As played by Brooke Johnson, Marlene is shown to be an awkward, withdrawn young girl, cruelly maligned and sexually abused by family and peers alike, and never afforded the moral support or mental-health treatment she deserved. Under these circumstances, Marlene's subsequent self-destructive, sociopathic behavior seems almost predestined, and her many years behind bars for various minor crimes a logical extension of her miserable upbringing. The climactic efforts by her dedicated lawyer to prevent Marlene from being entombed in prison for an indefinite term are heartrending, and Moore manages to evoke audience sympathy almost in spite of herself by the final fade-out. The film earned two Gemini Awards (the Canadian equivalent of the Emmies) for both Brooke Johnsonand supporting actress Jayne Eastwood (as Marlene's mother). Originally telecast by the CBC, Dangerous Offender was first seen in America via the Lifetime network on November 7, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After the seizing of the American Embassy in Tehran on November 4, 1979, six Americans manage to escape. They contact Canadian ambassador Ken Taylor (Gordon Pinsent), who keeps them hidden from the Iranian anti-US activists. For three grueling months, Taylor and his "guests" plan a daring escape. A Montreal journalist (Robert Lalonde) finds out, posing a threat to the plan by intimating that he won't keep Taylor's secret. The dramatic reenactments in Escape From Iran: The Canadian Caper are cleverly integrated with news footage of the actual events. Filmed in Toronto, with several stalwart Canadian actors in cast, including Chris Wiggins, Robert Joy, Les Carlson, Escape From Iran premiered on American television on May 17, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this routine action film, Danny Fairchild (Wayne Rogers) and Vincent Reblack (Patrick Macnee) are partners in an art-scam operation in which Danny forges valuable paintings and Vincent authenticates them; both pretend to run a company that legitimately authenticates art for sale at auction. Their illicit operation has been undetected for years until one day someone catches on and Severo (Lloyd Bochner) shows up, threatening to turn them in, or worse, if Danny does not forge a series of paintings that disappeared in World War II. Although the two partners have to agree, they begin to develop a scam that will get Severo and his unknown boss right where it hurts the most. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

One of the most sensational crime stories of the 1950s was the murder trial of Cleveland doctor Sam Sheppard, who was convicted and sentenced to death for the murder of his wife. Though he protested his innocence and insisted that he'd seen a "curly-haired man" leaving his house on the night of the crime, Sheppard was condemned in the court of public opinion long before the judge handed out his sentence. (This true story served as the basis for the long-running TV series The Fugitive.) Years later, Sheppard was released from prison after it was determined that he hadn't had a fair trial, but his name was never officially cleared. Forty years after the death of his mother, Sheppard's son Sam Reese made it his mission in life to prove beyond all reasonable doubt that his father was innocent. In this TV movie adaptation of the younger Sheppard's autobiographical book, Peter Strauss is seen as Dr. Sam Sheppard, and Henry Czerny as Sam Reese. My Father's Shadow: The Sam Sheppard Story made its CBS network bow on November 17, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Virtually every "alien at large" movie ever filmed is referenced in the made-for-TV shocker Survivor, which nonetheless manages to sustain audience attention with a few adroit cliché reversals. It seems that, billions of years ago, a race of extraterrestrials bred pre-evolutionary human beings for organ-harvesting purposes. Unfortunately, the alien ship bearing these primitive humans crashed on contact with the earth, and has remained frozen in the Arctic wastes ever since. Flash-forward to the present: Oil driller Adam King (Greg Evigan) and his team, cut off from civilization, inadvertently revive the sole survivor of the long-ago crash. Turns out that this creature is very, very hungry after his long sleep--and he has a distinct preference for the taste of human flesh! Originally aired as part of UPN's "Nightworld" movie series, Survivor made its American TV bow on May 13, 1999. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Peter Medak's The Changeling is among a handful of films, including The Haunting (1963), Ghost Story (1981), and Lady in White (1988), that have successfully recreated the intimate, drawing-room atmosphere of supernatural horror fiction. After his wife and daughter are killed in a snowbound car accident, classical composer John Russell (George C. Scott) relocates from New York to Seattle to teach at his alma mater. Looking for a quiet place to rest and continue writing music, he is referred Claire Norman (Trish Van Devere) at the Seattle Historical Preservation Society. Claire shows John a large, sparsely furnished estate in the outlying countryside. He takes the house, appreciating its remoteness and the solitude it might afford, and diverts himself by renovating and settling in. He even starts to compose, putting aside his older work in favor of a new, sentimental piece for the piano. It is not long, however, before he begins having nightmares about the accident that killed his wife and daughter. Possibly because of this trauma, he is open to communications from the house's ghostly occupants. Pursuing a loud, repetitive pounding noise in an upper room, he stumbles on the apparition of a young boy drowning in a tub. Working together with Claire, John discovers frightening parallels between this vision and buried events from the house's past. Horror writer M.R. James once said that his goal as a writer was to make the reader feel "pleasantly uncomfortable." Those looking for a similar experience in movies will appreciate The Changeling as a gem in the horror genre. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide

During the 1970s, the Gong Show was a game/talent show phenomenon. With equal measures of parody, camp and pure lowest-common denominator exploitation, it presented a bizarre assortment of talented and untalented contestants (for example, the musician who played his trumpet with his bellybutton) making their bid for stardom, and a ridiculous prize of $516.32 while three rambunctious minor celebrity judges looked on offering scores for acts they liked, or instantly stopping showing disapproval by pounding furiously on a large Chinese gong. The co-creator, producer and acid-witted but smarmy daytime host of this tawdry kitsch pastiche was Chuck Barris (AKA "Chuckie Baby"). This attempt at a serious drama chronicles a day in his hectic life as he tries to prepare a new episode of his crazy show. As he deals with a seemingly unending string of increasingly freaky acts, the pressure begins to get to the sensitive, caring (as portrayed in the film) Barris and by the day's end he becomes a true lunatic. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Per its title, Lady of the Lake was inspired by the Sir Walter Scott poem. The titular lady, played by Benita Hume (later Mrs. Ronald Colman), is exiled from her homeland by royal decree. Though she has every right to be bitter, Hume saves King James V (Percy Marmont) from being killed by bandits. Given the shoddy production values of most British silent films, Lady of the Lake was a work of art by comparison. In 1931, the film was reissued with a new music and sound-effects track. It is this 55-minute version, minus the tacked-on soundtrack, that is most readily available today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Donald Sutherland plays a brilliant surgeon who becomes a media celebrity after performing an artificial-heart transplant. Jeff Goldblum, inventor of the ersatz heart, likewise basks in the glow of sudden fame. The only person to have reservations about the procedure is heart recipient Mare Winningham, who becomes depressed over the knowledge that she's not altogether human. Several ethical questions are raised and left unresolved; the film assumes that the audience is intelligent and perceptive enough to draw its own conclusions. Released in Canada in 1981, Threshold was not offered an American distribution until after the Barney Clark heart transplant of 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide