Hanna Hertelendy Movies
In this fact-based made-for-cable docudrama, Leonard Nimoy stars as Mel Mermelstein, a Nazi death camp survivor who wages a court battle against the revisionist Institute for Historical Review over their claims that the Holocaust never occurred. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonard Nimoy, Dabney Coleman, (more)
Micki (Ann Reinking) is the wife of Rob (Dudley Moore), an airheaded TV talk show host. Maude (Amy Irving) is an attractive musician who is unaware of Micki's existence, and with whom Rob falls in love. Rob is a guy who can't say no, thus when Maude announces that she's pregnant, Rob obligingly marries her. Trouble is, he's still married to Micki who is also pregnant. To make matters worse, Rob's wives are due to give birth on the same day, forcing the double dealer to work doubly hard to keep both demanding women happy. Matters reach their comical climax when the Big Day arrives and Rob is expected to attend both births at the same time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dudley Moore, Amy Irving, (more)
Also known as Mystique, Brainwash and The Naked Weekend, Circle of Power is not recommended viewing for any aspiring executive about to undergo leadership classes. Yvette Mimieux plays the head of an organization called Executive Development Training, or EDT for short. Her grueling technique requires that both the male trainees and their wives participate. Few of the participants seem psychologally suited for the EST-like excesses of EDT: one man is a closeted homosexual, another an alcoholic, a third a transvestite. Nor is Yvette about to cater to the more sensitive of her charges: at one point, an obese trainee is forced to eat garbage. It's hard to tell if we're supposed to take all this seriously or not. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvette Mimieux, Christopher Allport, (more)
Death of a Centerfold: The Dorothy Stratten Story is a surfacy TV-movie rehash of the same real-life events which inspired the 1980 theatrical feature Star 80. Jamie Lee Curtis stars as Dorothy Stratten, here depicted as an ingenuous, highly vulnerable Canadian girl who aspires to show business stardom. Decked out with a generous toupee, Bruce Weitz co-stars as Paul Snyder, the "fringie" who married Dorothy and managed her career. The girl is discovered by Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner, who features Dorothy in a nude foldout spread. As Dorothy's fame grows, Snyder becomes more obsessive and difficult to control. Dorothy tries to make a clean break from Snyder, which culminates in tragedy. Death of a Centerfold initially aired on November 1, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Magnum's curiosity is aroused when his friends Sol and Lena Greenberg (Robert Ellenstein, Hanna Herteledy) permanently close down their haberdashery after announcing that they were merely planning a short vacation. Investigating, Magnum (Tom Selleck) is on hand when Sol apparently suffers a heart attack and is whisked off in an ambulance. It soon becomes obvious that the old man had been kidnapped--and if what Lena says can be believed, his captors are a pair of neo-Nazis determined to wreak vengeance against a top-secret Israeli "special ops" organization. Among the more suspicious characters in this episode is Dr. Bernard Kessler, played by Glenn Cannon before he became established on the series in the semi-regular role of Doc Ibold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Having lived his life as the gardener on a millionaire's estate, Chance (Peter Sellers) knows of the real world only what he has seen on TV. When his benefactor dies, Chance walks aimlessly into the streets of Washington D.C., where he is struck by a car owned by wealthy Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine). Identifying himself, the confused man mutters "Chance...gardener," which Eve takes to be "Chauncey Gardiner." Eve takes him to her home to convalesce, and because Chance is so well-dressed and well-groomed, and because he speaks in such a cultured tone, everyone in her orbit assumes that "Chauncey Gardiner" must be a man of profound intelligence. No matter what he says, it is interpreted as a pearl of wisdom and insight. He rises to the top of Washington society, where his simplistic responses to the most difficult questions (responses usually related to his gardening experience) are highly prized by the town's movers and shakers. In fact, there is serious consideration given to running Chance as a presidential candidate. Both a modern fable and a political satire, Being There was based on the novel by Jerzy Kosinski and costars Melvyn Douglas, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Eve's aging power-broker husband. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, (more)
Six recently divorced males gather 'round a restaurant table and talk about their past lives and their recently failed marriages while trying to piece their lives back together. This drama is somewhat interesting for presenting the topic of life after a divorce from a man's point of view. (And yes, Neil Sedaka sings the smash title song over the final credits - so don't change that dial!) Originally made for television, and broadcast on ABC in two parts - one on Wed., Sep. 5, 1979, and one on Friday, Sep. 7, 1979 -- this film was reissued on video about ten years later to capitalize on Billy Crystal's growing fame. When it arrived on home video, the picture received its first MPAA rating (R) and was edited down from its original running time of 150 minutes to 96 minutes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Originally made for television as a sequel to the classic Lilies of the Field, this film concerns an ex-soldier turned handyman (Billy Dee Williams) who returns to the Arizona chapel he built earlier. Encouraged by five nuns, he builds both an orphanage and a small school. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Dee Williams, Maria Schell, (more)
Raid on Entebbe constitutes one of two all-star made-for-TV reenactments of the Entebbe rescue of July 4, 1976. On June 27, 1976, a jet carrying an international mix of passengers is hijacked by pro-Palestinian revolutionaries. The plane lands in Entebbe, Uganda, where President-for-life Idi Amin (Yaphet Kotto) struts about feigning concern, though his sympathy toward the hijackers is obvious. Many of the passengers are released, but 103 Israelis are kept in custody, and it becomes apparent that the revolutionaries plan to use these unfortunates as a bargaining chip for the release of imprisoned terrorists throughout the world. With virtually no other option, the Israeli government gives the go-ahead for Operation Thunderbolt, a commando raid on the Entebbe airport. The cast includes Charles Bronson as General Shomron, Jack Warden as Mordecai Gur, Sylvia Sidney as ill-fated passenger Dora Bloch, and, as Prime Minister Rabin, Peter Finch, whose performance (his last) won him an Emmy nomination. Raid on Entebbe first aired on January 9, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Finch, Charles Bronson, (more)
Larry Peerce directed this tired disaster movie about a mad sniper loose in a football stadium. At the beginning, the sniper picks off a cyclist for practice and then takes roost in the top tower of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Sent in to stop the terror is Captain Peter Holly (Charlton Heston), who wants to get his hands on the sniper without endangering the lives of the people in the stadium. Unfortunately, there is a second group of law enforcement officers, a tactical commando group, who want to go into the stadium and rush the sniper -- regardless of the danger such an action would cause to the crowd watching the game. The sniper plans to start blasting at the two-minute warning signal of the football game. Holly has to find the sniper before the two-minute warning is given -- not merely to prevent the killings threatened by the sniper but to head off the tactical force before any other unnecessary deaths are incurred by the force's bulldog techniques. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, John Cassavetes, (more)
In this Disney film, Hank Cooper (Ed Asner) the owner of a losing professional football team, recruits Gus, a Yugoslavian soccer player, to his team. Even though Gus is a mule, he figures the animal can be taught to make field-goal kicks. Despite the outrage of his team, and sabotage efforts by Crankcase, Spinner and Gwymm (Tim Conway, Tom Bosley and Harold Gould), Gus the Mule kicks his team all the way to a championship. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Asner, Don Knotts, (more)
The Night That Panicked America is centered around Orson Welles' notorious "War of the Worlds" broadcast of October 30, 1938. Welles (Paul Shenar) arrives at CBS studios just in time to assume his directing post for the radio adaptation of the H.G. Wells classic, which has been updated and rewritten in the form of news bulletins. Unfortunately, millions of listeners tune in late and assume that the Earth is actually being invaded by Martians. This TV movie periodically cuts away from the broadcast in progress to concentrate on the panicky reactions of several listeners -- including a terrified mother (Eileen Brennan) who nearly kills her own children rather than allow them to fall into the tentacles of the Men From Mars. Advised of the panic, Welles is convinced that his career is over, but the ensuing publicity makes him nationally famous. As he absorbs the events of the evening, the hoodwinked radio fans crawl back sheepishly to the safety of their homes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A graceful Russian ballerina falls in love with an American news correspondent in this comedy-drama. The KGB is most displeased and does everything it can to break them up and eventually, tragically, they succeed. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Pursued by police and rival gangs, a motorcycle gang, headed by Waco (Robert Porter) takes refuge in a convent located in a remote region of the Arizona desert. They smuggle heroin in their motorcycles. They capture one policeman (Billy "Green" Bush) who was following them, taunt him and let him go. This treatment inspires a brutal relentlessness on the cop's part, which serves them poorly. When they are forced to leave the convent, they take a novice nun (Elizbeth "Tippy" Walker) with them as a hostage. By the end of the film, she has fallen in love with Waco, and chooses secular life over monastic life. This film features numerous picturesque sequences of desert motorcycle riding. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide


















