Robert Thompson Movies
Hollywood's Stacy Keach stars in Australia's Road Games. Keach is a truck driver who takes the law in his own hands to capture a serial killer. When the police fail to nab the murderer of hitchhikers, Keach takes to the road, conducting his own search. En route, he picks up hitcher Jamie Lee Curtis--and it is her presence that brings the killer out of hiding and into the bloody finale. Director Richard Franklin's fondness for Hitchcock, which would come to full fruition in Psycho II (1982), is very much in evidence throughout Road Games. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stacy Keach, Jamie Lee Curtis, (more)
When Angela (Sigrid Thornton) becomes successful, the former hairdresser's assistant has to deal with the reactions of her old friends to her new situation. She also must deal with romantic advances from an older woman. Nonetheless, she is plucky and confident enough to manage. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chantal Contouri, Sigrid Thornton, (more)
This cold-blooded, thinly wrought horror film has a warm-blooded theme -- the regular imbibing of said substance by a certifiably crazy cult. Kate Davis (Chantal Contouri) is slowly drawn into this cult against her (and everyone else's) better judgment. Once involved, she discovers that they have sanitized, hospital-like centers where red-blooded individuals are kept zoned out by tranquilizers. Otherwise they might have some objection or another to being essentially imprisoned and immobilized in order to supply blood on demand. In cases where the supply source is particularly popular with one of the cult members, then complete exsanguination is ordered. Even the slightest hint at humor, levity of any kind coming from any direction, might have balanced the weak plot and one-dimensional characters by covertly acknowledging their limitations. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chantal Contouri, David Hemmings, (more)
In Australian director Richard Franklin's Patrick, the subject of psychokinesis is used, not for the creation of De Palma-like bloodbath special effects as in Carrie and The Fury, but as an expression of a deeply disturbed persona. Patrick is first seen in the intensive care section of a hospital in a state of extreme catatonia -- after murdering his mother and her lover. Dr. Roget (Robert Helpmann) is the doctor in charge of the clinic who first tends to Patrick, but when new nurse Kathy Jacquard (Susan Penhaligon) arrives, she is assigned Patrick's case. As she cares for the comatose man, Patrick falls in love with her, telekinetically writing love notes to her on her typewriter. Kathy begins to suspect something is amiss when the doctors and nurses at the hospital who want to speed along the comatose man to his death start to die in mysterious ways. As Patrick's condition continues to deteriorate and he realizes that he is on the verge of death, he then wants Kathy to kill herself to join him when he dies. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Penhaligon, Robert Helpmann, (more)
- 1975
In the first of two Streets of San Francisco guest appearances, Pat Hingle plays Bert Morris, the sole witness to a jewel robbery. Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) take Morris into protective custody in hopes of capturing the thieves. There's only one problem: Morris is a pathological liar, and his false information ends up making a bad situation even worse--especially for his long-suffering spouse Jeannie (Nancy Olson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
