Frank Baker Movies

When a flood threatens to engulf Shrewbury Abbey, the monks quickly remove all the sacred objects, including the precious relics of St. Winifred. After the deluge, it is discovered that those relics have been stolen. While trying to solve the crime, Brother Cadfael (Derek Jacobi) must protect the truth about the relics (which he uncovered in the previous Cadfael episode "A Morbid Taste for Bones"). He must also discern the link between the robbery, the kidnapping of a slave girl (Louise Delamere), the horrible confessions of a penitent monk (Julian Firth), and a thread of fabric found upon a corpse. Adapted by Ben Rostul from the novel by Ellis Peters, the 90-minute Cadfael drama "The Holy Thief" originally aired in England on June 23, 1998, and shortly thereafter was seen in America as part of PBS' Mystery anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bille August directed this film version of the Isabel Allende novel, featuring a cast that includes Jeremy Irons, Meryl Streep, and Glenn Close. The story is a sweeping and brooding melodrama, spanning generations and filled with violence, revenge, and telekinesis. The tale begins in South America in 1926, when a young man, Esteban (Jeremy Irons), falls in love with the daughter of a rich man, Rosa Del Valle (Teri Polo). He vows to become rich enough to make her his wife and spends months of toil in the gold fields to earn enough money to do just that. Before the two marry, however, Rosa is killed by poison meant for her father. After the tragedy, Esteban moves to Trés Marias, an abandoned ranch, and spends 20 years of his life turning the ranch into a thriving estate, exploiting the labor of the poor who live off the land. When he returns to the city, he comes across Rosa's younger sister Clara (Meryl Streep), now a woman with telekinetic abilities. Clara took a vow of silence years before, but upon the arrival of Esteban, she speaks for the first time in years -- "You have come to propose marriage to me," she says. Esteban and Clara marry, and Esteban takes her back to the ranch, where they have a daughter, Blanca (Winona Ryder). Their daughter falls in love with the son of one of Esteban's foremen, a hot-headed revolutionary named Pedro (Antonio Banderas). Now, the country is in the throes of revolution. Esteban banishes his sister Ferula (Glenn Close) from the ranch, beats his wife, and rapes a peasant woman. The product of Esteban's rape (Joaquin Martinez) grows into an angry young man who convinces Esteban to send him away to military school. When there is a military coup, the illegitimate son returns to Trés Marias with revenge and torture on his mind. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Chimera was originally produced for Britain's BBC television network. The title creature is a half man, half ape (Douglas Mann), the product of a hush-hush government project. Journalist John Lynch gets wind of the experiment when his girlfriend dies in a fertility clinic explosion. At the center of things is a mad-as-a-hatter scientist, whom the government continues to protect until it's almost Too Late. Christine Kavanaugh costars in this new twist on the old Frankenstein story. Chimera premiered in the US over the A&E Cable service on November 1, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Christopher Morahan directed this nail-biting suspense melodrama that takes a cynical look at the medical profession. Matthew Harris (Paul McGann) is an unhappy intern at a London hospital who envies the staff doctors and their calling. When a physician who resembles Matthew is killed in an auto accident, Matthew decides to assume his identity so that he can attend an interview the dead man had scheduled for a post at a Bristol hospital. Matthew gets the job and is now Dr. Simon Hennessey, working in the hospital emergency room. He is assisted by friendly nurse Christine Taylor (Amanda Donohue), who ends up falling in love with him. But Matthew makes a fatal mistake and a patient dies. At the ensuing inquest, Christine takes the blame for the accident. Matthew, emboldened by the results of the inquest, decides to apply for a better job at a hospital in Salisbury. But an acquaintance from his past appears and Matthew has to kill him in order to continue with his deception. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Jason Robards plays an older Jewish man who returns to Stuttgart, Germany which he left in 1933 during the onslaught of the Third Reich. He reunites with a German man who, as a boy, was his childhood friend. ~ All Movie Guide

The feature-film debut of multi-talented filmmaker Clive Barker, this grim and surreal project is based on the writer/director's own novella The Hell-Bound Heart. The film opens with a chilling prologue in which globe-trotting pervert Frank (Sean Chapman) -- a connoisseur of sexual depravity seeking the ultimate sensual experience -- purchases a small, intricate puzzle box from an unseen dealer in an unspecified country. Upon solving the puzzle, Frank opens the door to a hellish alternate universe and is promptly torn to ribbons by a network of hooks and chains; his strewn body parts are subsequently collected by the Cenobites -- grotesque, S & M-clad denizens of hell.

The story continues several years later, when Frank's brother, Larry (Andrew Robinson), moves into Frank's abandoned house with his daughter, Kirsty (Ashley Laurence), and his new wife, Julia (Clare Higgins). An accident causes some of Larry's blood to spill on the attic floor, which somehow triggers Frank's hideous resurrection. His body only half-composed, Frank seeks the tacit assistance of Julia -- with whom he had once had a torrid sexual liaison -- in restoring him to human form. Still secretly in love with Frank, Julia assists him by seducing men from the town and bringing them back to the house so her undead lover can drain their bodies of blood. Her increasingly furtive behavior arouses the suspicions of Kirsty, who had already moved to an apartment to get away from her despised stepmother. After following Julia and her next potential victim home, Kirsty comes face to face with the still-incomplete Frank, narrowly escaping with her life...and with the puzzle box.

After losing consciousness, Kirsty awakens in the hospital, where she manages to solve the box's intricate mechanism and summon a trio of Cenobites -- including their apparent leader (played by Doug Bradley and dubbed "Pinhead" on subsequent sequels) -- who are prepared to claim her. In desperation, Kirsty offers them a bargain in which they agree to spare her soul if she leads them to Frank. Kirsty soon returns home to find Julia with her father...whose behavior has become disturbingly unnatural. Realizing that her father has become Frank's latest victim -- and that her uncle is now walking around in his brother's skin -- Kirsty hands Frank over to the Cenobites, who have particularly evil plans for their old friend. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Comparatively unknown, the British And Nothing But the Truth is a blistering indictment of government-sanctioned corruption, as well as the "facts of life" of the television industry. Filmmaker Glenda Jackson and reporter Jon Finch head to South Wales, where a farm family has taken on the local village government. Accusations have been raised that a powerful corporation has (within legal limits) bribed the village to permit encroachment upon local farm land. In pursuit of the truth, Jackson and Finch are subjected to character assassination and overt threats. Only gradually do they discover that their own bosses are also on the take. And Nothing But the Truth was originally titled Giro City. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide