Bob Roitblat Movies

Ellen Carlyle is exhausted and looks forward to her upcoming vacation alone in the woods, but somehow things don't turn out as planned for the hard-working television news anchor, and instead of resting she ends up fighting for her life. The ordeal begins at work the night before her vacation when a madman bursts into her studio and holds her at gunpoint while her cameraman tries to talk him down. Later her pal Joey offers to take her to her cabin. As she settles in, a homicidal maniac escapes from prison, and unknown to Carlyle, whose investigations helped convict him, she is at the top of his revenge list. Though Joey shows up the next day to warn her and beg her to help him with his new report, she refuses because she has a hot date with the town deputy. Eventually the fugitive killer is captured and Carlyle believes she is finally safe. Unfortunately, that is not the end of the her problems. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A welcome exception to the slasher-stalker-kidnapper films usually seen on the USA cable network, After the Shock is a tribute to the courage and heroism of Bay Area residents following the San Francisco earthquake of October 17, 1989. Director Gary A. Sherman opts for a "cinema verite" approach, utilizing a hand-held camera to recreate the style of the original on-the-spot TV reporting. The cast includes Scott Valentine, Rue McClanahan, Yaphet Kotto, Jack Scalia and Richard Anthony Crenna as various firefighters, paramedics, law officials and private citizens. One of the best performances is offered by Nick Zaninovich, a real-life quake survivor who spent seven hours trapped in his car, which was buried under a collapsed stretch of the Nimitz freeway. After the Shock debuted September 12, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

83 Hours 'Til Dawn utilizes a plot device originally seen on another fact-based TV movie, The Longest Night (1972). Robert Urich stars as a wealthy business executive whose 20-year-old daughter is abducted by sociopathic Peter Strauss. The kidnapper seals his victim in a small box and buries it deep underground, with an air-tube as her only conduit to the outside world. Strauss threatens to never reveal the girl's whereabouts unless Urich ponies up half a million dollars. The original telecast of 83 Hours 'Til Dawn ran a distant second to a competing network showing of the theatrical feature Three Men and A Baby (87). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on the factual book by Ann Rule, Small Sacrifices was original telecast in two parts. Farrah Fawcett continues to successfully obliterate the Charlie's Angels onus in the role of real-life US postal worker Diane Downs. Part One of the film was set in Willamete Valley, Oregon, in 1983. Mrs. Downs drives her three children to the local hospital's emergency entrance: one child is already dead, and the other two have been seriously wounded. Diane claims that the killer was a man who'd tried to steal her car. But in Part Two, prosecutor John Shea rips apart Diane's story in court. What comes to surface is a tawdry tale of a neurotic, narcissistic woman who is pushed over the edge when spurned by her lover (played by Ms. Fawcett's offscreen companion Ryan O'Neal). As difficult as Small Sacrifices was to watch during its initial telecast in November 1989, it has since been rendered doubly disturbing by the more recent tragic events surrounding South Carolina housewife Susan Smith. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This time, the spotlight is on a friend of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury--namely, Bill Boyle (Ken Howard), a former football star turned detective. When Bill agrees to temporarily take care of a pal's valuable poodle, he ends up permanently saddled with the pooch when the owner is murdered, clutching three empty IV bags in his cold, dead fingers. It soon becomes clear that the murderers have now targeted both Bill and the poodle, plunging man and dog alike into a hotbed of international intrigue. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi