Lynne Marta Movies

Don Cheadle makes his first series appearance as Paul Nathan, an overaged med student who chose to enter school only after being diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. During his first shift, Nathan plunges in to help the other staffers treat the victims of a Halloween party fire -- whereupon his colleagues notice that he doesn't react all that well to intense pressure. In other developments, Corday (Alex Kingston) and Romano (Paul McCrane) battle over a patient who may be facing an amputation; despite her recent erratic behavior, Weaver (Laura Innes) tries to save a baby who was all but killed in a home birth gone awry; and the romance between Chuny (Laura Ceron) and Kovac (Goran Visnjic) is sabotaged by his insatiable addiction to sex. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Another of several made-for-TV movies based on the best-selling novels of Danielle Steel, this one stars Jenny Robertson as Paxton Andrews, a sheltered Southern belle who falls for law student Peter Wilson (Steven Eckholdt) on the campus of Berkeley in the late '60s. After Peter is drafted and dies in Vietnam, the grief-stricken Paxton becomes the Saigon-based correspondent for a San Francisco newspaper, determined to use her column "Message from 'Nam" to bring comfort and solace to others whose loved ones are mired in the Southeast Asian quagmire. Before the inevitable slam-bang climax during the fall of Saigon, Paxton has not only grown emotionally and spiritually, but she has also enjoyed tender romantic interludes with a hard-bitten Army captain (Nick Mancuso) and a likeable sergeant (Ted Marcoux). Also featuring such formidable personalities as Rue McClanahan, Billy Dee Williams, and Esther Rolle, Danielle Steel's 'Message From Nam' originally aired October 17, 1993, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, a talented, ambitious young lawyer takes the case when one of his colleagues, jealous of the other attorney's flawless court record, is found murdered. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This lackluster attempt at blending equal parts action movie and supernatural thriller ends up sacrificing the merits of both genres. The plot finds baby-faced homicide detective Logan (Lou Diamond Phillips) on the trail of "Pentagram Killer" Patrick Channing (Jeff Kober), negligibly assisted by lots of occult mumbo-jumbo espoused by various doomsaying members of the Catholic Church. Channing is eventually captured and executed, but this turns out to be a big mistake: one of the Satanic powers Channing managed to acquire through ritual sacrifice is the power to transfer his soul into other living bodies, allowing him to roam about incognito and continue his killing spree. There is little overt horror on display, as we usually see only the aftermath of Channing's evil deeds; there is scarcely enough mystery to propel the police-procedural elements either. Worse, the producers apparently decided to toss in a romantic subplot involving Phillips and psychic Tracy Griffith to keep things interesting, but fail to sustain credibility even in this department. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

In this lively adolescent-oriented musical, a city kid attempts to adapt to life in an ultra-conservative backwater Midwestern town. Once there, he ends up leading the repressed teenagers into a rebellion against the town fathers, who have outlawed rock & roll and dancing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In the opening episode of The Rockford Files' fifth season, Jim Rockford (James Garner) wants to know why his dad Rocky (Noah Beery Jr.), temporarily employed as a delivery driver, was forced off the road and his cargo--consisting of breakfast sausages--was hijacked. The main culprit would seem to be the sausage company's front man, country-western singer Charlie Strayhorn (Taylor Lachman). But Charlie turns out to be a mere pawn in a widespread smuggling scheme masterminded by the real villain of the piece. The title song for this episode was written (but not performed) by Willie Nelson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The latest patient of ambitious psychiatrist Norman Jessup (William Smithers) is lifelong lawbreaker Charlie Blake (Dean Stockwell). In his efforts to advance himself, Dr. Jessup has no qualms about exploiting Blake's criminal past. These efforts prove to have their dangerous side when Jessup impedes a rape-murder investigation conducted by detectives Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On three occasions between 1973 and 1975, Star Trek producer Gene Roddenberry attempted to launch a new science-fiction series. All three pilot films were predicated on the premise of a modern-day scientist awakening after nearly two centuries in suspended animation. The first of these feature-length pilots was Genesis 2, which debuted March 23, 1973. Alex Cord stars as Dylan Hunt, who opens his eyes to discover that he now resides in a post-apocalyptic world. He is reluctantly recruited into a resistance movement, aimed at toppling the present despotic regime. The film's "money scene" involved leading lady Lyra-a (Mariette Hartley), who at a crucial plot juncture lifts her blouse to reveal that she has two navels. When Genesis 2 failed to click as a series, Roddenberry and company tried again with Planet Earth (1974); when that didn't sell, the property was reworked as Strange New World (1975). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In John Sturges' Americanized version of Sergio Leone's Man-With-No-Name films, Clint Eastwood is Joe Kidd, a cryptic stranger who arrives in the New Mexican town of Sinola, where Mexican bandito/revolutionary Luis Chama (John Saxon) has organized a peasant revolt against the local landowners, who are throwing the poor off land that rightfully belongs to them. When a posse -- financed by wealthy landowner Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall) -- is formed to capture Luis, Kidd is invited to join but prefers to remain neutral. Harlan keeps badgering Kidd to join up, and Kidd finally relents when he finds that Luis's band has raided his own ranch and one of his ranch hands has been injured. The bloodthirsty posse rounds up five Mexicans hostages and threaten to kill them unless Luis surrenders to them. One of the hostages is the attractive Stella Garcia (Helen Sanchez), and Kidd falls in love with her. Harlan notices this and throws Kidd in jail to prevent him from helping Stella and the Mexicans. Kidd decides the position himself as the voice of reason in this nest of disorder. He escapes and saves the Mexican hostages, determined to capture Luis himself and see that he gets a fair trial. But when Kidd captures Luis and delivers him to Sheriff Mitchell (Gregory Walcott), Harlan is in town waiting for him. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Frequent F.B.I "guest villain" Louis Jourdan returns, this time in the role of enemy spy Henry Dulac. Determined to smash Dulac's espionage ring, Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) goes undercover as another Red agent. Erskine subsquently finds himself caught in the crossfire when two warring spy factions clash over some top-secret tapes. Also in the cast is David Birney, who'd achieve TV stardom one year later in the sitcom Bridget Loves Bernie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In a desperate effort to escape from his Mafia bosses, Walter Hazlett (Tim O'Connor) hijacks a plane and demands to be flown to Cuba. Hoping to save the life of a wounded man on board the plane, Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) tries to persuade Hazlett to give himself up. Meanwhile, Hazlett's daughter Ginny (Charlotte Stewart), who can't bring herself to believe that her father is a criminal, is targetted by Mob kidnappers who plan to use her to bring her father out in the open. Dabney Coleman is seen as the plane's beleagured pilot, while future M*A*S*H regular Larry Linville also plays a key role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide