Lisa Eilbacher Movies

Based on a popular novel by Judith Krantz, this sudsy romantic drama features a prominent photographer who heads to Gay Paree, unaware that greedy family members are plotting to bilk her father out of his valuable ranch land. Love blossoms in the City of Light when she encounters a fellow picture taker. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Pierce Brosnan stars as Danny O'Neill, an FBI explosives expert on the trail of a mad bomber in this made-for-cable thriller. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

Based on a true story, the made-for-television Hunt for the Night Stalker is about a pair of Los Angeles police detectives who hunted down the satanic Californian serial killer Richard Ramirez during the mid-'80s. The film was originally aired under the title Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker and was shown on the day Ramirez's death sentence was announced. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

A hard-drinking Vietnam veteran pilot (Lance Henriksen) is hired by a rich Japanese businessman, whose ancestors were samurai warriors, to fly him and his group to Africa. There they are captured by a cultured, Western-educated tribal leader who discusses philosophy with them while his rebel armies rob and massacre the local populace. The pilot manages to escape to the desert and starts to formulate a plan to rescue his employers. ~ Brian Gusse, Rovi

Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker was a made-for-TV factual drama about the elusive killer who terrorized Southern California in the summer of 1985. Richard Jordan and A. Martinez star as the two LA detectives heading up the investigation. So much time is taken up with police procedure that the Night Stalker himself is virtually a bit player in his own movie. The suspect, one Richard Ramirez (watch the film to find out who plays him), makes up for his long absences with a bravura closing scene. The film utilizes the clever (and tasteful) approach of showing the victims going about their everyday activities just before the murderer strikes, without resorting to re-enacting the murders themselves. By accident or design, Manhunt: Search for the Night Stalker was telecast November 12, 1989--the very day that Richard Ramirez was sentenced to the gas chamber. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this exciting New Zealand-set actioner, a pair of average people find themselves fighting for their lives when they are inadvertently entangled in a plot involving international espionage. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A made-for-TV miniseries set during World War II, Monte Carlo features a Russian singer (Joan Collins) who works in the French city. She moonlights, however, as an Allied spy to retaliate against the Nazis who murdered her husband. ~ John Bush, Rovi

In the final episode of the seven-part, eighteen-hour miniseries The Winds of War, Ambassador-at-large "Pug" Henry (Robert Mitchum) represents the US in a series of conferences with the intansigent Russian premier Josef Stalin (Anatoly Chauginian). Dallying briefly with his erstwhile British sweetheart Pamela Tudsbury (Victoria Tennant), Pug stays in Moscow long enough to witness the attempted Nazi invasion. Meanwhile, Pug's daughter-in-law Natalie (Ali McGraw) and her Uncle Aaron (John Houseman) are among the Jewish refugees being smuggled into Palestine. And back in the Western Hemisphere, Pug's sons Byron (Jan-Michael Vincent) and Warren (David Dukes) are swept up in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Winds of War was adapted by Herman Wouk from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This World War II epic drama, based on the book by Herman Wouk, follows the life and trials of a career naval officer (Robert Mitchum) sent to Germany during Hitler's rise to power, who witnesses the gradual escalation of the war. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

Charles Bronson at 63 or so, continues his vigilante persona in this run-of-the-mill crime drama about a Richard Speck-style killer who knifes young nurses to death. There is no doubt that the film exploits both the heinous, 1966 Speck murder of eight nurses in Chicago and an audience's willingness to go along with the Bronson character, Leo Kessler, when he uses illegal means to entrap criminals. The captured killer, Warren Stacey (Gene Davis) manages to go free because of red tape and the need to wait for the outcome of his insanity plea. When he returns to his murderous predilection, Kessler takes action to permanently stop him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Richard Gere plays Zack Mayo, an aloof, taciturn man who aspires to be a navy pilot. Once he's arrived at training camp for his 13-week officer's course, Mayo runs afoul of abrasive, no-nonsense drill sergeant Emil Foley (Louis Gossett Jr.). Mayo --or "Mayonnaise," as he is dubbed by the irascible Foley -- is an excellent cadet, but a little cold around the heart. Foley rides Mayo mercilessly, sensing that the young man would be prime officer material if he weren't so self-involved. Zack's affair with working girl Paula Pokrifi (Debra Winger) is likewise compromised by his unwillingness to give of himself. Only after Mayo's best friend Sid Worsley (David Keith) commits suicide over an unhappy romance does Zack come out of his shell and mature into a real human being. Take away the R-rated dialogue and the sex scenes, and Officer and a Gentleman could have been a 1937 MGM flick, maybe with Robert Taylor as Zack, Wallace Beery as Foley, and Jimmy Stewart as Sid. An Officer and a Gentleman was nominated for 7 Oscars, with wins to Gossett and to the hit song "Up Where We Belong." The closing scene has surely become a classic of movie romance. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This made-for-TV Amityville Horror knock-off ranks among the more interesting titles from a spate of early-1980s haunted-house efforts. The title abode is the sumptuous new residence of recuperating neurotic rock star Gary Stralhorn (Parker Stevenson), who resides there with his young amnesiac nurse Sheila (Lisa Eilbacher). After a conversation with a mysterious woman (Joan Bennett), Sheila becomes increasingly convinced that she's lived in the house before. Soon, people around her begin falling victim to the malevolent spirit in the house, which seems to be protecting Sheila while guarding its own dark secret. The flamboyant death scenes -- quite graphic for television -- involve breathing mirrors that fire dagger-like shards, willful electrical cables, and a boiling hot swimming pool. Things are nicely wrapped up for the enthusiastically creepy climax, but fans of The Haunting won't be too surprised at the outcome. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

The old 1930s song was "Love For Sale;" now it's the 1970s, and, just like cars and condominiums, it's Love for Rent. Lisa Eilbacher is the innocent midwestern girl who comes to wicked old New York looking for her sister Annette O'Toole. O'Toole is now gainfully employed by an "escort bureau" (note those quote marks), and Eilbacher is likewise drawn into this questionable lifestyle. The ad copy for this TV movie notes that the sisters are "forced to face reality", which is more than the scriptwriters did. Not surprisingly, Love for Rent was based on a Playboy magazine story (by Don Pierce). Its initial audience on November 11, 1979, was most likely close to zero, since a rival network was offering the TV premiere of Dog Day Afternoon. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi