Richard Venture Movies

In this horror film, set in San Francisco during the Victorian age, a criminologist is often out-guessed by his little valet and a sensitive mandrake plant. He finds himself involved in a hellish situation when a disfigured wizard conjures up a demon to help him transfer his soul in to the perfect body of his popular twin brother. The criminologist stops the wizard in the nick of time. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Man on a Swing, purportedly based on a true case, is a puzzling crime thriller concerning a clairvoyant who helps find a murderer. After a murder is committed, supposed clairvoyant Franklin Wills goes to police Chief Lee Tucker (Cliff Robertson) and gives him details of the crime that he has seen in visions. The details are startlingly correct and could only have been known to the killer. Tucker, not convinced that Wills is indeed clairvoyant, begins to suspect him of the murder. Man on a Swing, directed by Frank Perry, over-complicates its central theme, distracting the viewer from the film's strong central theme, the ambiguity of Wills. Joel Grey gives an outstanding, scene-stealing performance in that role, giving Wills both menace and a surprising vulnerability. Cliff Robertson is far-less successful in his portrayal of the no-nonsense police chief. The film's ambiguous ending should increase the suspense of the film but instead further confuses the viewer. However, because of the superb performance of Grey, Man on a Swing is worth a view. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

In this detective move, a black sleuth in Manhattan breaks up a drug ring and catches a psycho jewel thief. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

While Beth (Gretchen Corbett) is stuck in jail on a contempt-of-court charge, Jim agrees to do some leg work on behalf of Beth's client Arnold Bailey (Joseph Campanella), who has been accused of income-tax evasion. Unfortunately for both Jim and Beth, Bailey is connected with the Mob. . .and has been systematically stealing funds from the "organization". Tied in with all this chicanery is corrupt union official Fred Metcalf (Richard Venture), whose murder may well be a prologue for Jim's own demise. In a neat bit of casting, the head mobster in this episode is played by Frank Campanella, the brother of guest star Joseph Campanella. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nightclub singer Francesca Milano (Andrea Marcovicci) is reunited with her father K.C. (William Windom), paroled after serving 14 years for a murder he didn't commit. Worried that her dad will wreak a terrible vengeance against the men who set him up, Francesca goes to Kojak (Telly Savalas), imploring him to help clear her father's name and prevent the old man from ruining what is left of his life. Guest star Andrea Marcovicci sings "You Don't Know Me" and "For All We Know". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This TV movie stars Jon Rubinstein as a Nassau County assistant D.A. named Dan Corey. Yes, he's idealistic, and yes, he butts his head against (drum roll) THE SYSTEM. His current case involves a battered woman who claims to have killed her doctor husband in self defense. Corey, flying in the face of the Politically Correct Brigade, doesn't believe her (he says he has "bad vibes", which should give you an idea when this film was made). Corey: For the People was the pilot for a series that didn't make it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This pilot film for the TV series Big Hawaii stars Cliff Potts and John Dehner as a wealthy father-and-son team of Hawaiian cattle ranchers. Neither character is a candidate for the "Mister Nice Guy" award, especially the wayward Potts, who's recently been chased out of Vegas for cheating at poker. Even nastier is Potts' beautiful but scheming stepmother (Ina Balin), who plans to bulldoze his ailing dad's estate to make way for those stock 1970s villains, the Evil Land Developers. Despite a total lack of audience sympathy for the people on screen, Big Hawaii premiered as a weekly series in the fall of 1977. There were all of seven episodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Stretching the Airport concept as far as it will go, this third film in the series sticks a jet full of old actors 50 feet underwater in the Bermuda Triangle. Oxygen (and credibility) grows short, and Jimmy Stewart plays an art collector targeted for a heist. Jack Lemmon is the unfortunate pilot, and Christopher Lee shows up along with Brenda Vaccaro, Joseph Cotten, and Olivia de Havilland. Jerry Jameson, auteur of The Bat People, was selected to helm this entry featuring that film's star, Michael Pataki. George Kennedy, the only man to appear in all four Airport films, is along for the ride as well. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Another of the many Arthur Hailey literary properties which were transformed into TV miniseries in the 1970s, the five-part, ten-hour Wheels took place in Detroit sometime in the late 1960s. Rock Hudson starred as Adam Trenton, executive in charge of project development at the fictional auto-manufacturing firm of National Motors. Ambitious and ruthless, Adam let nothing stand in the way of his development and production of a new, youth-marketed car known as the Hawk. Meanwhile, Adam's bored and neglected wife Erica (Lee Remick, who earned an Emmy nomination for her performance) drifted into an extramarital affair and a brief "career" as a shoplifter. Eventually, Adam himself acquired a mistress, who in turn fell in love with Adam's son Kirk (James Carrol Jordan). As if things couldn't get any seamier, Kirk's brother Greg (Howard McGillin) was plagued by a blackmailer, while crooked car dealer Smokey Stevenson (played by miniseries stalwart Anthony Franciosa) cooked up a sinister deal that threatened to destroy National Motors. Originally telecast from May 7 to 15, 1978 on NBC, Arthur Hailey's Wheels posted such disappointing ratings that, when it was later rebroadcast, the property was whittled down from ten hours to four -- with episodes three and four summarily dropped from the proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV movie stars Clu Gulager as Cuda Weber, a seafaring loner who has settled down to the life of a beachcomber on the Hawaiian island of Oahu. Weber's carefree, rootless existence is considerably altered when he finds himself in charge of five feisty orphan kids from the MacKenzie clan. Actually, Cuda's guardianship is entirely involuntary; it could be said that the MacKenzie children adopted him, rather than the other way around. Originally telecast April 14, 1978, Stickin' Together was the pilot film for what ultimately emerged as the short-lived TV series The MacKenzies of Paradise Cove, which also starred Clu Gulager and featured most of the movie's supporting cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Joseph Wambaugh's The Onion Field is based on an actual 1963 case. L.A. plainclothesmen Karl Hattinger (John Savage) and Ian Campbell (Ted Danson) routinely investigate a pair of suspicious types, Greg Powell (James Woods) and Jimmy Smith (Franklin Seales). Unexpectedly, Powell pulls a gun on the cops, then forces them into a deserted onion field, where he kills Campbell in cold blood. Hattinger manages to escape, and through his eyewitness account, Powell and Smith are arrested. But that is not that. Thanks to their knowledge and manipulation of the quicksilver legal system, Powell and Smith manage to evade prosecution for years. Meanwhile, Hattinger goes through hell on earth, tortured with guilt over the fact that he lived while Campbell died so ignominiously. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Altman protégé Joan Tewkesbury called the directorial shots on the made-for-TV The Tenth Month. After a whirlwind affair with famed concert pianist Keith Michell, middle-aged, unmarried Carol Burnett becomes pregnant. Rather than seek out the father, she decides to raise the baby by herself. Though she'd previously played comparatively "straight" roles in such films as The Front Page (1974), The Tenth Month represented Carol Burnett's TV dramatic debut, as well as her first post-Carol Burnett Show project (the producer was her husband Joe Hamilton). Adapted by Ms. Tewkesbury from a novel by Laura Z. Hobson, The Tenth Month premiered on September 16, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The landmark 1978 courtroom prosecution which determined that a married man can by law be brought up on charges of raping his wife, was meticulously--and tastefully--detailed in this made-for-TV movie. Linda Hamilton stars as Oregon housewife Greta Rideout, who after years of abuse at the hands her husband John (Mickey Rourke) (it is the sort of marriage described by one observer as "usually [winding] up as suicide or homicide") finally takes him to court, accusing him of forcing her to have sex against her will. Among those involved in the case are feminist activists Helen (Conchata Ferrell) and Jean (Gail Strickland) and opposing attorneys Gary Gortmaker (Eugene Roche) and Charles Burt (Rip Torn). Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case originally aired October 30, 1980 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide