Gabor Vernon Movies
- 1977
Season two of The New Avengers begins with another revenge-motivated episode. Ten years ago, John Steed (Patrick MacNee) was forced to shoot down his old friend and fellow agent Mark (Clive Revill), who had defected to the East. Since that time, Mark has been slowly dying from his wound, as the bullet works its way towards his heart. But before he cashes it in, Mark intends to wreak vengeance by destroying everyone and everything that Steed holds near and dear--and, of course, Purdey (Joanna Lumley) falls into this category. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Patrick Macnee, Gareth Hunt, (more)
- 1978
Christopher Plummer stars in The Assignment as a police captain. The setting is an un-named Latin American country, where a high-ranking official is murdered. The incident threatens to tear apart not only the country but its neighboring republics. A calm, selfless diplomat (Thomas Heilberg) is called in from Sweden to mediate between the local police, politicians, and revolutionaries. Also in the cast of The Assignment, which is based on a novel by Per Wahloo, are Carolyn Seymour, Fernando Rey and Per Oscarsson. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Thomas Hellberg, Christopher Plummer, (more)
In the late '70s, Frank Langella starred in the hit Broadway play Dracula, written by Hamilton Deane and John L. Balderston. Langella's charisma and the surreal, black-and-white sets designed by cartoonist Edward Gorey were the chief outstanding features of the play, which was otherwise undistinguished. While this film production of the play boasts performances by stage veterans Lord Laurence Olivier and Donald Pleasance, as well as Frank Langella as the suavest of counts, it was neither a critical nor a box-office success, doubtlessly because expectations ran too high. One highlight of this production is its skillful use of special effects. The standard story of Bram Stoker's original novel is re-created here: the undead count arranges to move from his home in Transylvania to Whitby, and once there, a reign of terror begins. He is opposed by the canny Doctor Van Helsing (Laurence Olivier), who eventually triumphs. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi
- Starring:
- Frank Langella, Laurence Olivier, (more)
- 1980
After cutting his teeth on 14 years' worth of short subjects, director Peter Greenaway made his feature-film debut with the pseudo-documentary The Falls. The added length does nothing to dilute Greenaway's singular sense of the absurd. The story, if one can truly call it that, deals with a phenomenon involving birds and anacronymically known as V.U.E. The letters stand for Violent Unknown Event, and in the course of the film's hallucinatory 190 minutes we are introduced to 92 of the syndrome's victims whose names all begin with the letters "F-A-L-L." This film is pure avant-garde and obviously not for all tastes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1980
We first see Annette Michelson during one of her intensive sessions with her psychiatrist. For the next 125 minutes, we have a ringside seat to Michelson's stream-of-consciousness ramblings, augmented by fragmentary surrealistic shots culled from modern Berlin and revolutionary Russia. At one point, Leon Trotsky makes a "guest appearance" as an obscene phone caller! Filmmaker Yvonne Rainer invites the audience not only to observe but also to vicariously participate in Michelson's mental side trips, choreographing her imagery as deftly as she'd previously staged her numbers at San Francisco's Judson Dance Theater. Journeys From Berlin--1971 was the fourth of Rainer's feature length endeavors. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Annette Michelson, Gabor Vernon, (more)
This (13th) time around, 007 (once again played by Roger Moore) receives the usual call to come and visit M when another agent drops off a fake Faberge jeweled egg at the British embassy in East Berlin and is later killed at a traveling circus. Suspicions mount when the assistant manager of the circus Kamal (Louis Jourdan), outbids Bond for the real Faberge piece at Sotheby's. Bond follows Kamal to India where the superspy thwarts many an ingenious attack and encounters the antiheroine of the title (Maud Adams), an international smuggler who runs the circus as a cover for her illegal operations. It does not take long to figure out that Orlov (Steven Berkoff), a decidedly rank Russian general is planning to raise enough money with the fake Faberges to detonate a nuclear bomb in Europe and then defeat NATO forces once and for all in conventional warfare. John Glen returns again to handle directing duties, the second of five Bond films he lensed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Roger Moore, Maud Adams, (more)
Lady Jane Grey, the 16-year-old girl who for nine days in the 16th century was Queen of England, is here portrayed by Helena Bonham Carter. Lady Jane Grey's sickly cousin, who becomes Edward VI upon the death of Henry VIII, is on the threshold of death himself. The Protestant powers-that-be, fearing that England will fall under Catholic rule, contrive to marry off Edward VI's most likely successor Lady Jane to the wastrelly Guilford Dudley (Cary Elwes), the future Duke of Suffolk. The dying Edward is coerced into naming Jane as his successor. Jane is forced to assume the throne, attempting to impose reforms on the corrupt Protestant government during her brief reign. A coup led by Jane's cousin Princess Mary (Jane Lapotaire) results in the ouster, and eventual execution, of Queen Jane and her consort. The story is told through anti-establishment themes; teen-agers Lady Jane and Guilford Dudley are seen as the only hope for a brighter future, making their deaths all the more tragic. An earlier version of the same story, Tudor Rose, was filmed in 1936. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Helena Bonham Carter, Cary Elwes, (more)
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