Geoffrey Horne Movies

Evan Bonner (Peter Fonda) is a former solider who deserted the Army due to his growing opposition to the U.S. role in Vietnam. Having spent the intervening years drifting aimlessly, he has ended up in Marrakesh – where he has made the decision to return to the U.S. and turn himself in. Also in Marrakesh are a famous fashion model, Deirdre McCluskey (Lindsay Wagner), her live-in lover (and photographer) Ron, and her editor Barbara. This trip is experiencing considerable tension at the moment. They have finished their photo shoot and are ready to return to New York, but Ron has decided he wants to stay on in Marrakesh for the time being. Deirdre and Barbara board a train to Casablanca the next day, and Deirdre soon finds herself admitting that her relationship with Ron has petered out. She also admits that she would really like a few puffs of the local strain of marijuana; spotting Evan and recognizing him from the café, she decides to see if he has any but changes her mind when she sees that he is emotionally overwrought. Eventually, however, Evan strikes up a conversation with Deirdre, and they begin a halting relationship that grows in intimacy as they journey back to the United States. Deirdre tries to persuade Evan to give up his plans, and even says she will move her young son to Europe so that the three of them can live together. Evan and Deirdre's son hit it off when they meet in New York, but even that is not enough to dissuade Evan from his plans. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

A rich rancher vows to avenge the death of his wife whom he discovered upon his return from a trip. ~ Rovi

Lisa Brisson (Patricia Barry) is determined to get three-fourths of her husband Joe's (J.D. Cannon) fortune when she sues him for divorce. To this end, Lisa hires a private eye to collect evidence of Joe's crooked real-estate dealings. At the same time, Joe persuades Lisa's heavily-in-debt former boyfriend, Bobby (Geoffrey Horne), to murder Lisa in exchange for a huge sum of money. Somehow or other, these various cross-purposes entangle in an ironic finale. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Released just in time for Easter on April 27, 1962, this Rod Serling-scripted Twilight Zone episode is widely regarded as the series' low point. A ham-handed Christ parable, the story is set in a backward Mexican village, where the arrival of a mysterious stranger named Williams (Geoffrey Horne) brings out the superstitious worst in the local citizenry. Only little Pedro (Edmund Vargas) and the town's doctor (Nico Minardos) refuse to regard Williams as a threat, but they are shouted down by a hostile mob, leading to a painfully obvious climax that wouldn't have gotten past "Creative Writing 101." The sole redeeming virtue of "The Gift" was its classical guitar score by the great Laurindo Almeida. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Irving Rapper's film is a dramatization of the Old Testament tale of Joseph, who ascends from slavery to the position of minister in the court of the pharaoh. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

The Bridge on the River Kwai opens in a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp in Burma in 1943, where a battle of wills rages between camp commander Colonel Saito (Sessue Hayakawa) and newly arrived British colonel Nicholson (Alec Guinness). Saito insists that Nicholson order his men to build a bridge over the river Kwai, which will be used to transport Japanese munitions. Nicholson refuses, despite all the various "persuasive" devices at Saito's disposal. Finally, Nicholson agrees, not so much to cooperate with his captor as to provide a morale-boosting project for the military engineers under his command. The colonel will prove that, by building a better bridge than Saito's men could build, the British soldier is a superior being even when under the thumb of the enemy. As the bridge goes up, Nicholson becomes obsessed with completing it to perfection, eventually losing sight of the fact that it will benefit the Japanese. Meanwhile, American POW Shears (William Holden), having escaped from the camp, agrees to save himself from a court martial by leading a group of British soldiers back to the camp to destroy Nicholson's bridge. Upon his return, Shears realizes that Nicholson's mania to complete his project has driven him mad. Filmed in Ceylon, Bridge on the River Kwai won seven Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director for the legendary British filmmaker David Lean, and Best Actor for Guinness. It also won Best Screenplay for Pierre Boulle, the author of the novel on which the film was based, even though the actual writers were blacklisted writers Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, who were given their Oscars under the table. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In his film debut, Ben Gazzara repeats his stage portrayal of Jocko De Paris, a manipulative psychotic who holds a Southern military school in thrall. With the help of his flunkies, cadets Harold Knoble (Pat Hingle) and Roger Gatt (James Olson), Jocko sadistically terrorizes the underclassmen, forcing them to do his bidding. Efforts made by Major Avery (Larry Gates) to expose Jocko are constantly thwarted by the students' conspiracy of silence and by Jocko's own efforts to destroy Avery. Finally, cadet Robert Marquales (George Peppard, likewise making his first film appearance) can stand no more: turning the tables on Jocko, Marquales reveals the monster for the snivveling coward he really is. This filmization of Calder Willingham's play and novel End as a Man almost didn't make it to the screen due to its pronounced homosexual subtext. The filmmakers managed to circumvent the censors by removing three minutes of allegedly offensive footage, and by making the film's most overtly gay character a slimy, repulsive creep (another implicitly homosexual character, played by Arthur Storch, is depicted as merely wimpish and withdrawn). As a box-office come-on, Calder Willingham added the superfluous character of good-time gal Rosebud (Julie Wilson). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi