Roz Witt Movies

A real-life series of killings that held Los Angeles, CA, in the grip of fear during the late '70s provides the inspiration for this tense crime drama. Kenneth Bianchi (C. Thomas Howell) is a nebbishy security guard who lives with his mother in Rochester, NY, and dreams of becoming a police officer. After Bianchi's application to join the Rochester police is turned town, he takes his mother's advice and moves out to Glendale, CA, where she arranges for him to stay with his cousin, Angelo Buono (Nicholas Turturro), who works in auto repair. When he's unable to get a position with the Glendale Police Department, Bianchi steps outside the law and, claiming to have a degree in psychology and a license to practice, sets up shop as a counselor. While Bianchi never had much luck with women in Rochester, Buono gives him some advice and sets him up on a few dates; soon Bianchi has a string of girlfriends, though things become complicated when one of his steady girls, Claire Shelton (Allison Lange), becomes pregnant and moves in with him. As Bianchi becomes increasingly obsessed with sex, he and his cousin join forces to set up a prostitution ring, which quickly earns them the enmity of a group of career criminals. When Bianchi and Buono discover that they have been double crossed by one of the hookers in their stable, the two men rape and murder the woman in the back of a car; Bianchi discovers he enjoys the thrill of killing, and soon he and Buono begin committing a string of sexually tinged murders throughout the Los Angeles area, with the press soon dubbing the culprit "The Hillside Strangler." The Hillside Strangler was one of two identically titled films based on the same true story that were released in 2004; the other was directed by Chris Fisher and starred Clifton Collins Jr. and Tomas Arana as Bianchi and Buono. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Season Two of Monk begins as television's favorite obsessive-compulsive detective (Tony Shalhoub) hires on as a substitute teacher at Ashton High School. This enables him to investigate the death of English teacher Beth Landow (Erica Yoder), who fell from the school's clock tower while most of the students were taking a Saturday-morning SAT exam. Principal Arlene Cassidy (Rosalind Chao) doesn't buy the official theory that Beth committed suicide--and neither does Monk, once he's perused certain bits of evidence overlooked by the police (including a suicide note filled with grammatical errors). In a further complication, the Most Likely Suspect has an airtight alibi: He was proctoring the SATs in full view of a roomful of students at the time Beth fell! With this episode, Kane Ritchotte returns to the role of Benjy Fleming, the son of Monk's loyal nurse-assistant Sharona Fleming (Bitty Schram). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Abby (Paige Turco) has been shot, and her lover, Cathy, is dead. Much to his dismay, Medavoy (Gordon Clapp), the surrogate father of Abby's child, must handle her interrogation. Elsewhere, Simone (Jimmy Smits) and Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) investigate when the charred body of a murdered woman is found in an abandoned car; the suspect at first slips through their fingers, then offers an outrageous "excuse" for his gruesome act. And having finally announced her pregnancy, Gina (Lourdes Benedicto) must take time off when complications arise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Everybody at "FYI" is saddened when stage manager John (John Hostetter) announces that longtime crew member Jack Saunders has passed away--everyone, that is, except Murphy (Candice Bergen). It isn't that she disliked Jack or anything like that; it's simply that she can't remember the guy. With this in mind, one can imagine Murphy's dismay when she is asked to deliver the eulogy at Jack's funeral. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide