James Karen Movies

The fighting between the Sandinista government in Nicaragua and the Contra rebels backed by U.S. money and expertise is the focus of this pro-Sandinista film by Haskell Wexler. The appropriately named Eddie Guerrero (translation Eddie "Warrior") is a Vietnam War veteran sent to help out the U.S. Special Forces as they train and abet the Contras in their forays across the border from Honduras into Nicaragua. Eddie becomes romantically involved with Marlena (Annette Cardona), and at first they see eye-to-eye on politics and the need to overthrow the Sandinistas. Then the excesses of the Contras in their raids across the border are brought home to Eddie, while Marlena sees that the new Nicaraguan society is not what Contra propaganda claims. For some viewers, the couple's eventual conversion to supporting the Nicaraguan government may seem like one more cog in an anti-Contra diatribe, which is regrettable since Wexler could have given this film enough nuances to present the subtleties of the conflict and still prove his point. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Cheated out of her fortune by a crooked business manager, former fashion model Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) has but one asset to her name: the Blue Moon Detective Agency, an incredible unprofitable concern run by cocky P.I. David Addison (Bruce Willis). Maddie is all for liquidating the agency as quickly as possible, but David manages to flummox her into keeping it up and running. Though it is hate at first sight for the mismatched couple, Maddie and David almost immediately begin collaborating on a crimesolving career, beginning with the case of a dying client and a broken watch. Originally telecast as a single 97-minute "TV movie", this pilot episode of Moonlighting has since been divided into two hour-long segments for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

First telecast in early 1985, the 2-hour pilot film for the lighthearted TV detective series Moonlighting opens with fashion model Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepard) discovering that her business manager has skipped with her fortune. The only asset she has left is the ramshackle Blue Moon Detective Agency, manned by acerbic David Addison (Bruce Willis). Maddie takes an immediate dislike to David, while he considers her a sexual conquest-to-be. The twosome continues to bicker their way through their first case, pausing for amenities only when it appears that both of them are about to be bumped off. Once safely back in the office, their verbal guerilla warfare resumes, leading the viewer to expect marvelous things from the subsequent Moonlighting TV series. Little of the series' fabled self-consciousness (talking directly to the audience, making references to the quality of the scriptwriting, etc.) surfaces in the Moonlighting pilot, but the film works well despite this "drawback." The series itself ran (or, as it turned out, limped) until May of 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Little House: The Last Farewell was the third and last TV movie based on the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder (which also inspired the long-running TV series), though it was telecast out of sequence, shown before the second film, Little House: Look Back to Yesterday. This valedictory adventure of the Ingalls family finds their hometown of Walnut Grove being purchased by an evil miner (the ancestor, no doubt, of the evil land developers seen in all those Spielberg-produced films). Rather than allow themselves to be thrown off their land, Pa and Ma Ingels (Michael Landon and Karen Grassle), in concert with the rest of the townsfolk, take arms against a sea of troubles. But when ordered to evacuate the premises by the Law, the Walnut Grove residents exact a more spectacular method of getting even with the miner. The "surprise" ending of The Last Farewell, in which Walnut Grove is dynamited into oblivion, was the worst-kept secret of the 1983-1984 season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In an episode clearly based on a well-documented event in the life of comedian Richard Pryor, Roger Miller guest stars as JJ Chandler, a country-western entertainer whose act is rife with "humorous" drug references. But no one is laughing when, while freebasing cocaine between shows, Chandler sets himself afire and is nearly killed. In his efforts to get past the wall of silence erected around Chandler by his friends and handlers, Quincy (Jack Klugman) tackles the greater challenge of curbing wholesale drug use in the entertainment industry--and somewhere along the line, manages to find time to propose to his sweetheart Emily (Anita Gillette). Featured in the pivotal role of Ginger Reeves is a young actress named Kelly Palzis, better known in later years as Kelly Preston. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this horror outing, a California archaeologist has obtained the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamen and has taken it to his lab to be x-rayed. Unfortunately, the radiation levels he uses are too high and something begins to happen inside the coffin. Suddenly the mummy within storms out. Inside all the wrappings is an alien creature, the one who killed the king. He begins searching for the crystals he needs to return to his home planet. Frustrated, he begins a killing spree. Unlike movie mummies of old, this fellow is quite agile and can easily capture his human prey. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

As played by Jessica Lange, Frances Farmer is a rebel from the word go, winning a high school essay award by writing a piece in defense of Communism. Determining to become an actress, Frances is equally determined not to play the Hollywood game: she refuses to acquiesce to idiotic publicity stunts, and insists upon appearing on screen sans makeup. Her defiance attracts the attention of Broadway playwright Clifford Odets, who convinces Frances that her future rests with the Group Theatre. But once she leaves Hollywood for New York, Frances learns to her chagrin that the Group intends to exploit her movie fame in order to draw in customers. Her desperate attempts to restart her movie career, combined with her increasing dependence on alcohol and the pressures brought to bear by her monster mother (Kim Stanley), result in a complete mental breakdown. Even while institutionalized, Frances is abused by the powers-that-be; she is forced to undergo an injurious brain operation, is treated like a mad animal, and periodically raped by the inmates. Frances is released in the custody of her mother, who persists in browbeating her tortured daughter until Frances discovers the legal means to break away. The real-life Frances spent her last years as host of a local Indianapolis TV program, dying in 1970 at age 57; the film comes to a climax when Frances is feted on the smarmy network program This is Your Life. Other actual personages depicted herein include Clifford Odets (played by Jeffrey DeMunn), Harold Clurman (Jordan Charney) and Ralph Edwards (Donald Craig). Frances' first husband Leif Erickson is fictionalized as "Jeffrey York", and played by Lange's real-life inamorata Sam Shepard. And if you listen closely, you'll hear the voice of Kevin Costner, whose minor role was whittled down to one line when he, like Frances Farmer, had the temerity to argue with the director. The unhappy life of actress Frances Farmer was also covered in Farmer's autobiography, Will There Ever Be a Morning? While the film rights for that book were sold to a TV-movie concern, the producers of the theatrical feature Frances were able to ship their production out to the public first. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Violation of Sarah McDavid is a surprisingly explicit TV movie concerning the undercurrent of violence in a purportedly "good" high school. Patty Duke Astin is a new teacher at Benjamin Harrison High, where the GPA is high but where sadism and brutality amongst the students is the order of the day. Ms. Astin is able to maintain an even keel until, at the end of one school day, she is raped. Assuming she will be backed up in her accusations by the school administration, the teacher discovers that the principal (Ned Beatty), more concerned with image than with justice, wants to sweep the rape incident under the rug. As Astin struggles to make her complaint public, the film touches upon such hot-potato subjects as executive incompetence and the culpability of a "don't ask don't tell" public. The rape scene in Violation of Sarah McDavid is graphic enough to make the viewer feel nearly as degraded as the victim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inspired by Johnny Paycheck's song of the same name, Take This Job and Shove It is a comedy/drama of big business vs. little guys. His corporate employers put Frank Maclin in charge of a project to shape up a newly acquired brewery. It just so happens that this places him back in his Iowa hometown after ten years of being away. He soon is faced with a dilemma and he must consider both his position with the company and the interests of the blue-collar employees. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

In this family drama, a man whose wife has just left him is faced with caring for his children by himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Pop singer Neil Diamond stars in this ill-begotten second remake of Al Jolson's seminal 1927 musical The Jazz Singer. The moth-eaten story concerns a cantor's son who desires success as a pop singer, despite the wishes of his imperious father. The film takes place in the present day with Yussel Rabinowitz (Neil Diamond) playing a young (though middle-aged looking) cantor performing at the synagogue of his father (Laurence Olivier). Yussel is married and has settled down to a life of religious devotion to the teaching of his fath. But on the side, he writes songs for a black singing group, and when a member of the quartet takes ill, Yussel covers for him at one of their gigs by wearing blackface! The nightclub engagement is such a success that Yussel abandons his family -- and his father's synagogue -- and leaves his New York home for Los Angeles, hoping to break into the music business. Almost immediately he is spotted by spunky agent Molly Bell (Lucie Arnaz), who books him as an opening act for a touring comic. Yussel hits it big, but his father resents Yussel's forsaking their traditional Jewish ways. His father disowns him, rending his garments and bellowing, "I hef no son!" ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This gripping 1979 drama about the dangers of nuclear power carried an extra jolt when a real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania occurred just weeks after the film opened. Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder news. Wells and cameraman Richard Adams (Michael Douglas, who also produced) are doing a story on energy when they happen to witness a near-meltdown at a local nuclear plant, averted only by quick-thinking engineer Jack Godell (Jack Lemmon). While Wells and Adams fruitlessly attempt to get the story on their station, Godell begins his own investigation and discovers that corporate greed and cost-trimming have led to potentially deadly faults in the plant's construction. He provides evidence of the faulty equipment, which could lead to another meltdown (the "China syndrome" of the title), to the station's soundman to deliver to Wells and Adams at a hearing on nuclear power. However, on the way to the hearing, the soundman is run off the road by evil henchmen, leading Godell to realize that his own life is threatened, possibly by his bosses at the plant. Driven to the edge of a breakdown, Godell takes over the plant's control room at gunpoint and demands to reveal his findings on TV. The plant's management, however, has other plans, and the facility itself is becoming dangerously unstable. Whether or not you agree with the film's clear anti-nuclear bias, its sobering message and riveting, realistic story and performances are still difficult to ignore. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Quincy (Jack Klugman) is outraged to discover that an accident victim had died when he was refused admittance to the hospital run by Dr. Chet Rawlins (James Karen). Investigating, Quincy finds out that Rawlins' hospital regularly turns away emergency cases if they are unable to pay for treatment--and that this isn't the first time that someone has died unnecessarily because of this discriminatory policy. It now falls to Quincy to prevent Rawlins from purchasing another hospital and causing future tragedies with his greed and callousness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide