Robert Arden Movies

Roger Young's made-for-TV adaptation of the Robert Ludlum novel, The Bourne Identity stars Richard Chamberlain as Jason Bourne, who washes up on the beach and is cared for by a doctor. Bourne has no memories, but is intrigued enough to investigate why he has the number of a Swiss bank account on his thigh. As Jason travels to various European cities following clues about his past, he begins to discover that his actions match those of the feared international terrorist Carlos. The book was filmed a second time in 2002 by Doug Liman with Matt Damon in the title role. ~ Perry Seibert, Rovi

Barret Oliver stars as robot boy Daryl (Data Analyzing Robot Youth Lifeform). The film begins with an intense chase through hairpin mountain roads as a helicopter chases after a racing automobile and the driver of the car shoves a young boy out of the door. The child is rescued and is adopted by Joyce (Mary Beth Hurt) and Andy (Michael McKean) Richardson, a well-meaning, childless couple. It is only after the Richardsons have adopted Daryl and find that the child can't stop hitting home runs that they realize their adopted son is, in fact, a robot. The Richardsons decide to take Daryl back home -- home being a top security research facility where scientists Dr. Jeffrey Stewart (Josef Sommer) and Ellen Lamb (Kathryn Walker) have "given birth" to the boy robot. Once at the research facility, the Richardsons realize that government forces are determined to destroy Daryl and anyone who knows about him. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Another of the many Sidney Sheldon novels given the TV-miniseries treatment in the 1970s and '80s, Master of the Game yielded a three-part, nine-hour extravaganza, with enough corporate and romantic intrigue to fill an entire television season. Covering nearly 100 years, the story (which remained astonishingly faithful to the book) begins in the late 19th century, when ruthless young Scottish entrepreneur Jamie McGregor (Ian Charleson) emigrates to South Africa, in hopes of accumulating enough wealth and power to get even with his longtime enemy, Dutch merchant Van der Merwe (Donald Pleasence). Thanks to an extremely prolific diamond mine, the money comes quickly -- as does vengeance, when McGregor deflowers Van der Merwe's convent-educated daughter, Margaret (Cherie Lunghi). The result of this indiscretion is a daughter named Kate (Dyan Cannon), who turns out to be the "Master" of the title. Upon attaining adulthood, Kate assumes control of her father's vast financial empire, ruling her inherited international conglomerate, and her husband, David Blackwell (David Birney), with an iron fist. The story continues into the next several generations, with Kate's lily-livered son, Tony (Harry Hamlin), giving birth to twin daughters, Eve and Alexandra (both played by Liane Langland). One is good, the other evil; the evil twin threatens threaten to destroy everything that Kate has so painstakingly built up. Eventually, they both become the victims of a sneering, malevolent gigolo (Fernando Allende) with a penchant for beating young women senseless. Told in flashback, the narrative comes to a head during Kate's 90th birthday celebration, an event tainted by the efforts of a mysterious killer to wipe the domineering matriarch and her family from the face of the earth. Largely filmed on location, Master of the Game was telecast by CBS from February 19 to 22, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The creator of a comic-book series (Michael Crawford) is recruited by a friend in the CIA (James Hampton) to rescue a beautiful Soviet defector (Barbara Carrera). He agrees, as long as he is permitted to don the persona of his most famous character, Condorman. ~ John Bush, Rovi

Death Drums Along the River was the come-on American title for this 1963 remake of 1935's Sanders of the River. Both films were loosely based on a very popular Edgar Wallace novel. Richard Todd assumes the leading role of Harry Sanders (originally R. G. Sanders), a British police investigator working in Africa. While counting the clues in a hospital murder case, Sanders is led to hidden diamond mine. The patronizing racial attitudes prevalent in the first Sanders of the River have been muted and altered out of respect for the ever-changing Africa of the 1960s. Sanders did well enough to inspire a 1964 sequel, Coast of Skeletons. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Set in Canada, this nasty little fable is about a respectable village elder (Patrick Allen) who is also a sexual deviate. Using candy as bait, he persuades two little girls to dance naked for him. When the girls complain to their parents, the old man is taken to court, but his prestige in town assures an acquittal. Inevitably, the man's perversities lead to the death of a child. The British title for this repellant film was Never Take Sweets From a Stranger; it was based on John Hunter's play The Pony Cart. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

King Shadov (Charles Chaplin), the newly deposed monarch of a small European country, arrives in New York to face a life in exile. No sooner does he get here, however, than he discovers that his prime minister has stolen the entire royal treasury and departed for parts unknown. Stranded in New York in a luxury hotel without any money, the king tries to adjust to life in America and elicit interest in his plan for the peaceful use of nuclear power. He finds America in 1957 to be too noisy for his taste, however -- a run-in with some rock & roll dancers leads to some slapstick antics, and he doesn't take much to modern movies or the blaring entertainment that goes with them. He meets a pretty young lady (Dawn Addams) in a slightly risqué slapstick encounter in which he is trying to "rescue" her, and she maneuvers him into helping to plug a deodorant on television. The king proves so beguiling on the small screen that he is deluged by offers from advertising agencies, which he rejects at first. But the king soon finds that advertising may be the only thing he can do to earn enough money to keep him living like a king in exile, and he tries to work the system to his advantage, his earnings from television enabling him to remain in the country and push his peaceful nuclear plan. He soon finds the true dark side of life in the United States, however, when he crosses paths with an unhappy little boy (Michael Chaplin, the star/director's own son) whose parents are about to be jailed as part of the anti-Communist hysteria of the period. In the end, the king provides a shelter to the boy but compromises himself in the process, and while he does make the Congressional committee investigating him look foolish, he sees that he has done all of the good that he can do for now in the United States and leaves. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

Filmed in England, The Counterfeit Plan was distributed in the US by Warner Bros. Zachary Scott is right in his element as Max, a sociopathic killer who sets up a counterfeiting ring in the home of country squire Louie (Mervyn Johns). Max forces Louie to participate in his racket by threatening to expose the latter's previous life as a forger. When Louie's daughter Carol (Peggie Castle) arrives for a visit, it's the beginning of the end for the coldly conniving Max. Halfway down the cast list of Counterfeit Plan is Lee Patterson, later a regular on the TV soaper One Life to Live. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ex-Hollywoodite A. Edward Sutherland co-directed the British programmer Bermuda Affair with Robert J. Shaw. Gary Merrill and Ron Randell play a pair of army chums who run a postwar air transport service. Reversing the cliché, it is Merrill, the homelier of the two men, who turns out to be a rat with women. Merrill messes around with Randell's wife Zena Marshall, but makes up for all past misdeeds when he gives up his own life to save his friend from certain doom. Filmed on location, Bermuda Affair was released worldwide by Hollywood's Columbia Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

It took nerve to transpose Shakespeare's Macbeth into a 1930s gangster story using "tough guy" jargon, but Joe Macbeth very nearly pulls the trick off successfully. Paul Douglas plays Joe MacBeth, a successful mobster whose wife (Ruth Roman) has ambitions to be even more successful. Mrs. MacBeth talks her husband into killing his boss while the two of them are swimming, and when Joe timorously leaves the knife behind, his wife dives in after the weapon. Now near the top of the heap, Joe begins to believe that everyone is out to get him. He kills his best pal Banky, whose ghost shows up a banquet later that night (Joe dispenses with Shakespeare's iambic pentameter by shouting "What is this? A gag?") As Joe deteriorates, his wife goes crazy, screaming "Joe! There's blood on my hands!" in her sleep. Both Joe and his wife are killed in a shootout with rival gangsters. Straining to create suitable counterparts for the Shakespearian characters in 20th century Chicago -- the three witches are sidewalk peddlers, while Hecate is a sandwich-board man -- Joe Macbeth veers towards the laughable at times; but the basic story has been a good one for nearly 500 years now, so Joe Macbeth succeeds as often as it falters. Incidentally, despite the American characters and Chicagoland setting, Joe Macbeth was filmed in England, with principally British supporting actors. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Released in Britain in 1944, Man from Morocco made it to American shores the following year. Anton Walbrook plays the title character, the head of an intrepid band of WW2 freedom fighters. The film's heavy is a Nazi-sympathizing French officer of unbounded cruelty. Margaretta Scott portrays Manuela, a patriotic Frenchwoman who poses as a Red Cross nurse to insinuate herself into the villain's lair. In true "Judith of Bethulia" fashion, Manuela romances the fiend, thereby affording her the opportunity to murder him and thus save the lives of 2000 French hostages. It's a good thing that Man From Morocco was a British film; otherwise, the Hollywood production code would have obliged Manuela to be punished for her murder, justified or no. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi