Robert Beatty Movies

Richard Harris dodges bullets from stem to stern in this middling thriller, based on a novel by Alistair MacLean. The plot concerns high-sea hijinks aboard the Caribbean Star, a combination cargo ship and floating casino. In the midst of the high rollers and spinning roulette wheels appears Luis Carreras (John Vernon), an amoral mercenary who hijacks the ship. Taking his marching orders from a mysterious mastermind, he installs an atomic device mid-ship, holding both the passengers and the bomb hostage, hoping to exchange them for the gold bullion of an U.S. Treasury ship. All seems to be going according to Luis's plan until First Officer John Carter (Richard Harris), the attractive Susan Beresford (Ann Turkel), and Dr. Marston (Gordon Jackson) arrive to put a crimp in Luis's escapade. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A mind-bending sci-fi symphony, Stanley Kubrick's landmark 1968 epic pushed the limits of narrative and special effects toward a meditation on technology and humanity. Based on Arthur C. Clarke's story The Sentinel, Kubrick and Clarke's screenplay is structured in four movements. At the "Dawn of Man," a group of hominids encounters a mysterious black monolith alien to their surroundings. To the strains of Strauss's 1896 Also sprach Zarathustra, a hominid invents the first weapon, using a bone to kill prey. As the hominid tosses the bone in the air, Kubrick cuts to a 21st century spacecraft hovering over the Earth, skipping ahead millions of years in technological development. U.S. scientist Dr. Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) travels to the moon to check out the discovery of a strange object on the moon's surface: a black monolith. As the sun's rays strike the stone, however, it emits a piercing, deafening sound that fills the investigators' headphones and stops them in their path.

Cutting ahead 18 months, impassive astronauts David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) head toward Jupiter on the spaceship Discovery, their only company three hibernating astronauts and the vocal, man-made HAL 9000 computer running the entire ship. When the all-too-human HAL malfunctions, however, he tries to murder the astronauts to cover his error, forcing Bowman to defend himself the only way he can. Free of HAL, and finally informed of the voyage's purpose by a recording from Floyd, Bowman journeys to "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite," through the psychedelic slit-scan star-gate to an 18th century room, and the completion of the monolith's evolutionary mission.

With assistance from special-effects expert Douglas Trumbull, Kubrick spent over two years meticulously creating the most "realistic" depictions of outer space ever seen, greatly advancing cinematic technology for a story expressing grave doubts about technology itself. Despite some initial critical reservations that it was too long and too dull, 2001 became one of the most popular films of 1968, underlining the generation gap between young moviegoers who wanted to see something new and challenging and oldsters who "didn't get it." Provocatively billed as "the ultimate trip," 2001 quickly caught on with a counterculture youth audience open to a contemplative (i.e. chemically enhanced) viewing experience of a film suggesting that the way to enlightenment was to free one's mind of the U.S. military-industrial-technological complex. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

In the second episode of the four-part story "The Tenth Planet," the Doctor (William Hartnell) and his companions come face to face with the Cybermen from the Earth's twin planet Mondas. In his effort to prevent the aliens from taking over the world, the Doctor begins to undergo a very profound change. Written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet, Episode 2 first aired on October 15, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of the four-part story "The Tenth Planet," Ben (Michael Craze) at last figures out the Cybermen's weakness. For the moment, it appears as though the earth is saved from the alien villains. But the story isn't quite over yet, as proven when Ben and Polly (Annika Wills) come face to face with the "new" Doctor Who. Written by Kit Pedler and Gerry Davis, Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet, Episode 4 first aired on October 29, 1966. Alas, except for a few fragments of the crucial sequence in which William Hartnell relinquishes the role of the Doctor, this episode no longer exists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mission to Paradise is a British equivalent to those frolicsome female skinfests often seen on the USA network's Up All Night. British military officers Kieron Moore and John Baer are shipwrecked while on a reconnaissance mission. They soon discover to their delight that the island is populated by beautiful young damsels, dressed in very little indeed. These girls had themselves been shipwrecked as schoolchildren, together with their very proper headmistress (Kay Walsh). The time has now come for the lovely young things to procreate, and Moore and Baer are elected for the task. There is one catch, however; once they're finished replenishing the stock, the men will be killed. Janette Scott, who has too much grace and class to be stuck in this piece of tripe, is the most intelligent of the girls. Also in the cast is Alexander Knox, who in happier days once played Woodrow Wilson. Mission to Paradise was reissued in the US as Bikini Paradise; oh, we're so excited! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on Anthony Kimmins' stage success The Amorous Prawn, this British light comedy stars Joan Greenwood as the wife of an Army general (Cecil Parker). Having fallen upon hard times, the wife hits upon a scheme to raise some quick cash. She opens her husband's highland headquarters to visiting salmon fishermen, a circumstance that displeases the general when several of those anglers turn out to be handsome young men. On the assumption that American audiences would think The Amorous Prawn was a film about shrimp instead of salmon, the US distributor added the "Mr." to the original. When filmgoers failed to respond, the picture was re-retitled The Playgirl and the War Minister, a shameless attempt to exploit the then-current Profumo political scandal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is a routine tale about the vice squad versus pornographer and blackmailer Augie Cortona (Terence Morgan). After the petty criminal gets out of prison, he discovers his old partners in crime are not interested in him anymore, and the prostitution ring he once bossed is controlled by someone else. His solution is to set up a fake photographer's and model's studio during the day that becomes a place where porno photo men can do their work at night, as call girls engage in their trade with unsuspecting customers. The photographs bring in extra lucre through a blackmail scheme -- Cortona makes the hookers' clients pay to keep their activities quiet. As he is building up this racket, a gangland boss is out to get him -- and so is the vice squad. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Tarzan and the Lost Safari is the first MGM-released Tarzan picture since 1942, and the first of the series to be lensed in color. Gordon Scott plays the Lord of the Jungle, herein guiding a group of high-society types through the jungle after their plane has crashed. Since there's no Jane in the film, old Tarz is permitted to extend every courtesy to heroines Gamage Dean (Yolande Donlan) and Diana Penrod (Betta St. John). The villain of the piece is white hunter Tusker Hawkins (Robert Beatty), who intends to turn over two of the safari members to tribal chief Ogonooro (Orlando Martins) in exchange for a fortune in ivory. Unlike earlier Tarzan epics, Tarzan and the Lost Safari was lensed in its entirety in Africa. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Escape from a German POW camp is the goal of the rescourceful Allied prisoners in this war film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Beautiful Hedy Lamarr finds herself faced with a difficult decision when she must choose an appropriate costume for an important masquerade ball in this metaphorical fantasy that unfolds in three parts. To help her decide, she asks a trio of male friends. Their disparate suggestions that she go as either Helen of Troy, the Empress Josephine or Genieve de Brabant, and the reasons behind their choices provide the bulk of the film. Originally, the film was three hours long and purported to present the essence of being a woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide