Victoria Tennant

Made for British television, Act of Will focuses on three generations of women in a proud, indomitable family. Australian-born director Don Sharp brings to his soap-opera material the same energy and vitality that he'd previously lavished on such theatrical features as Kiss of the Vampire (1963) and Hennessy (1985). Since a portion of the production money was ponied up by Hollywood, American actor Peter Coyote is given a crucial role in the World War II sequences. Among the distaff cast members are the always welcome Jean Marsh (Upstairs, Downstairs), Victoria Tennant (the former Mrs. Steve Martin) and Elizabeth Hurley (who, as of this writing at least, is the girlfriend of Hugh Grant). Act of Will received its widest American exposure on public and cable television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Brian Dennehy plays a Wambaugh-type cop who has flourished as a novelist. At the moment, however, Dennehy is suffering from a profound case of writer's block. Coming to the rescue, as it were, is professional hit man James Woods. Recently dumped by his boss, above-suspicion business executive Paul Shenar, Woods is anxious to tell his life story to Dennehy, in hopes of striking it rich with a tell-all bestseller. Shenar, however, takes a dim view of Woods' indiscretions, and for a while it looks as though it's curtains for both Dennehy and his teenaged daughter Allison Balson. Screenwriter Larry Cohen has claimed that Best Seller was based on Strangers on a Train. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dempsey is the TV biopic of boxer William Harrison "Jack" Dempsey, a.k.a. Manassa Mauler. The film opens in Utah in 1911, where the teenage Dempsey works out in hopes of cracking the big time. Eight years later, Dempsey enters into his famous bout with reigning champ Jess Willard. From 1919 through 1926, Dempsey is heavyweight champion; he also carries on a wild and profligate private life, including an expensive marriage to--and even more expensive divorce from--silent film star Estelle Taylor (Victoria Tennant). Sally Kellerman co-stars as the first of Dempsey's five wives. Dempsey star Treat Williams was trained by Al Silvani, who worked with Stallone on the earliest Rocky epics. Scripted by Edward di Lorenzo, Dempsey premiered on September 28, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the popular novel by V. C. Andrews, Flowers in the Attic centers on such chancy topics as incest and misguided religiosity. When their father is killed, teenagers Cathy (Kristy Swanson) and Chris (Jeb Stuart Adams), together with their preteen siblings Cory (Ben Ganger) and Carrie (Lindsay Parker), are put in the care of their religious-zealot grandmother (Louise Fletcher). Grandma has never approved of the wanton lifestyle of the kids' mother Corinne (Victoria Tennant), and she has no intention of extending her love to the children. Even worse, Corinne is anxious to win back the love of her estranged father, who, knowing that Corinne and her late husband were cousins and thus incestuously linked, would never approve of any children from this union. Thus, the four children are locked in their grandmother's attic, far from the view of their unforgiving grandfather. How the kids cope with their imprisonment is the heart of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This unsettling British Alien clone (released in the U.K. under the sleazy title Inseminoid) is set in the labyrinthine underground caverns of a remote planet, where a team of scientific explorers find themselves in the bizarre predicament of defending themselves from a rampaging, pregnant crew member (Judy Geeson). It seems the poor woman has been impregnated by a slime-covered insectoid alien (as depicted in a surreal and truly disgusting flashback), and the resulting hormonal imbalance has transformed her into an inhumanly strong, psychopathic killer. She promptly sets about dismembering and eating everyone in sight (no doubt because of the baby's nutritional requirements) before finally giving birth to a pair of snarling little mutants bearing a more-than-passing resemblance to the terror tykes from the It's Alive series. Aside from the admittedly "unique" premise, this is a fairly standard rip-off -- complete with characters resembling their Alien counterparts -- and the lovely Geeson's rabid, eye-popping performance is more than a bit uncomfortable to watch. The American video release is missing a great deal of the original's graphic violence. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Steve Martin wrote and stars in this look at the promise and dreamtime of Los Angeles culture. Martin stars as Harris K. Telemacher, a light-hearted television weatherman who does wacky comedy in lieu of reports since, being in L.A., he has very little weather to report. He spends his time roller-skating through museums and spending time with California's beautiful people. But Telemacher is fired and discovers that his girlfriend Trudi (Marilu Henner) is having an affair. He walks away from the relationship and re-evaluates his life, getting advice from a friendly electronic highway road sign. The sign suggests that he call SanDeE (Sarah Jessica Parker), a sprightly and attractive Valley Girl he met in a clothing store. With SanDeE he experiences a liberating and carefree spirit. But Telemacher comes to realize that he has actually fallen in love with Sara (Victoria Tennant), a tuba-playing British journalist who is in California to do a feature on Los Angeles lifestyles. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Alec Guinness stars as an elderly Brit who takes in his poor New Yorker grandson (Ricky Schroeder) in this made-for-TV modern-day retelling of Frances Hodgson Burnett's novel. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Diane Keaton stars in this adaptation of Christopher Durang's popular one-act play Sister Mary Ignatius Explains It All for You as Sister Mary, a nun who teaches at a parochial school and has very firmly held ideas about sin, forgiveness, and the importance of church doctrine. As Sister Mary delivers a lecture on sin and its consequences, she's interrupted by several of her former students, who have little positive to say about how a Catholic education has impacted their lives. Sister Mary Explains It All also stars Brian Benben, Jennifer Tilly, and Wallace Langham; it was produced for the Showtime premium cable network, where it first aired in May 2001. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Strangers Kiss stars Peter Coyote as an obsessive independent filmmaker who will allow nothing to interfere with the completion of his B-flick "masterpiece." Gangster Richard Romanus agrees to bankroll the film, provided that his girlfriend Victoria Tennant is cast in the leading role. Aware that there is no rapport whatsoever between Tennant and leading man Blaine Novak, Coyote stage-manages a real-life romance between the two--even though this will mean disaster for Novak should Romanus find out. Best described as a whimsical roller-coaster, Strangers Kiss doggedly avoids predictability throughout. The film might make an intriguing double feature with Woody Allen's similarly-themed Bullets Over Broadway (1994). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this dystopian fable, a librarian wife and mother becomes the childbearing pawn of a Christian theocracy. In the near future, as war rages across the fictional North American Republic of Gilead and pollution has rendered 99 percent of the female population sterile, Kate (Natasha Richardson) sees her husband killed and her daughter kidnapped while trying to escape across the border. Kate herself is transformed into a handmaid -- a surrogate mother for one of the privileged but barren couples who run the country's fundamentalist regime. Although she resists being indoctrinated into the bizarre cult of the handmaids, which mixes Old Testament orthodoxy and misogynist cant with 12-step gospel and ritualized violence, Kate soon finds herself ensconced at the home of the Commander (Robert Duvall) and his frosty wife, Serena Joy (Faye Dunaway). Forced to lie between Serena Joy's legs and be penetrated impersonally each month by the Commander, Kate longs for her vanished earlier life; she soon learns that since many of the nation's powerful men are as sterile as their wives, she may have to risk the punishment for fornication -- death by hanging -- in order to sleep with another man who can provide her with the pregnancy that has become her sole raison d’être. When that other man turns out to be Nick (Aidan Quinn), the Commander's handsome, sympathetic driver, Kate grows attached to him -- and eventually pregnant with his child. Only the mysterious rebel affiliations of her fellow handmaid, Ofglen (Blanche Baker), seem to offer any chance of giving her unborn child a life of freedom -- or finding the daughter she already lost. Loosely adapted by Harold Pinter from the novel by Margaret Atwood, The Handmaid's Tale also features Elizabeth McGovern in a small but pivotal role as Moira, a "gender traitor" who befriends Kate at the handmaids' reprogramming center. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

The debut film of director Harold Becker was this low-budget romance that won acclaim for its script by Alan Sillitoe. Simon Rouse stars as Tony Bradmore, a skilled thief who falls for Doris Randall (Victoria Tennant), the stunningly beautiful daughter of a wealthy rag dealer (Leslie Sands). Given Tony's choice of profession, their relationship does get an enthusiastic endorsement from all concerned. Although The Ragman's Daughter (1972) was given a cursory North American release two years after its completion, Becker's subsequent efforts such as The Onion Field (1979) and Taps (1981) would fare considerably better at the box office. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Under Siege was first telecast in February 1986, a time when the notion of foreign terrorists in America was still speculative fiction. A militant group sets off explosives at US Army bases, then branches out to such civilian targets as crowded shopping centers. FBI director Peter Strauss discovers that these outrages are possibly being orchestrated by Iranian extremists. Despite pressure to take retaliatory action, US President Hal Holbrook continues to preach moderation, until he can be certain of the true source of the attacks. Under Siege was cowritten by Bob Woodward, of All the President's Men fame. Little Rock, Arkansas substitutes for Washington DC in several scenes, including one startling sequence set in the Capitol Building. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide