Rutanya Alda Movies
Rutanya Alda, born Rutanya Skrastins in Riga, Latvia, has been steadily appearing in American films since the late '60s. Alda, who was known as Ruth Alda in her earlier films, has also performed on stage and television in the U.S. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Delving into the horrific history of the infamous Long Island haunted house, this prequel to 1979's popular chiller The Amityville Horror is loosely based on the DeFeo murders but is at heart a straightforward horror-exploitation film with an Exorcist twist. When the violently dysfunctional Montelli family moves into the rustic abode (claimed to have been built on an Indian burial ground), the standard haunted-house clichés (bleeding walls, swarms of flies, bubbling black goop) give way to a more direct demonic attack on the eldest son -- who develops an unhealthy interest in his nubile younger sister, followed by a much more lethal attraction to dad's shotgun. In a desperate attempt to purge the evil, the local priest tries to perform an exorcism...with unexpected results. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Young, Rutanya Alda, (more)
- 1988
We're told that Apprentice to Murder is a true story. If so, we'll steer clear of the film's Pennsylvania Dutch locale in the future. A series of murders occur in a sleepy community, and suspicion immediately falls on the local "character": a self-styled faithhealer and mystic. Donald Sutherland plays this worthy, while Chad Lowe is cast as his nonplussed assistant. Though set in Pennsylvania, Apprentice to Murder was actually shot in Norway. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Chad Lowe, (more)
The title Article 99 refers to a fictional legal loophole which states that American veterans cannot be treated in VA hospitals unless their illnesses are related to their military service. The pinchpenny administrator of a Kansas City hospital intends to follow this proviso to the letter, while his irreverent staff does everything it can to circumvent rules and red tape. When freewheeling surgeon Ray Liotta is fired for exhibiting traces of humanity, the patients stage a revolt. Playing a new medico, Kiefer Sutherland also stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Liotta, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
Black Widow bears no relation to the 1954 film of the same name--beyond its characterization of the female as the deadlier of the species, that is. Debra Winger stars as a federal agent who has sworn to bring Theresa Russell to justice. Ms. Russell has married several millionaires who have all died mysterious deaths, for which she has remained undetected because she has assumed a number of different identities. Ms. Winger is the only person in her department who suspects that all of the deceased millionaires' widows are the same person. Finally tracking down Russell, Winger finds herself inexorably becoming friends with the charming murderess. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Debra Winger, Theresa Russell, (more)
- 1974
This 1974 TV movie was based upon recent news stories about brainwashing techniques practiced by certain religious communes. Ellen (Kathy Cannon) is a confused teenager who falls in with a group of fanatics, who promise that they'll purge the "Devil" from her soul. Her anguished parents (Leslie Nielsen, Louise Fletcher) hire John Saxon to kidnap Ellen from the commune, and to exorcise the fanatics' influence from her psyche. This film was outdated within a year, but would come back in fashion during the height of the "Moonie" activity in the late 1970s. The original title of Can Ellen Be Saved?, understandably rejected by the network, was Children of God. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Greg Davis (Michael Reilly Burke) was 12 years old when his childhood sweetheart Karen Carlson disappeared while en route to his home. 17 years later, Greg, now a schoolteacher, is astonished by the sudden appearance of an enigmatic young woman (Melissa Gilbert) who claims to be the long-missing Karen. The woman's vivid recollections of abduction, and the fact that she knows many of Karen's innermost secrets, convince Greg that she's the genuine article. But Karen's father Warren (Ronny Cox) and detective James Walker (Leon Russom) are not so easily persuaded--and when Karen begins to behave in a bizarre, erratic fashion, the possibility arises that she may not be whom she claims to be...and that her past is far more sinister than anyone could imagine. Alternating between a full-color "present" and black-and-white vignettes of "the past", the made-for-TV Childhood Sweetheart? debuted March 18, 1997, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Don Murray plays Lacy, a blatantly bigoted New York cop who finds that his rabid hatred forces him into a bloody rampage in order to save himself and his job in the derivative cop melodrama Deadly Hero. At one point in the film, Lacy rehearses a speech to be given to a cadre of right-wingers by intoning, "These are troubled times." This is certainly the case for Lacy, since this 18-year veteran of the NYPD has been demoted from detective to patrol car because of his liberal use of deadly force on nasty perpetrators. When Lacy, a lit fuse of seething anger and racial epithets, encounters nasty black mugger Rabbit (James Earl Jones), who is terrorizing young schoolteacher Sally (Diahn Williams) at knifepoint in her apartment, it doesn't take much for the cop to decide to put the thug on terror alert by shooting him. Is Sally grateful for blowing away the object of her torture? To Lacy's surprise, she instead testifies against him, accusing him of being a cold-blooded killer. Now Lacy has to figure out a way out of this high-shootin' mess. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Murray, Diahn Williams, (more)
- 1988
- PG
Two teens just out of high school are the computer experts who run across a Soviet plot to steal the plans of a high-tech helicopter in this routine spy thriller. The Russians monitor the NASA launching pad from an offshore trawler. They recruit one of the local students to infiltrate the computers and monitor the top secret plans. Stock footage of rocket launches and military planes are included in this feature directed by Monte Markham, who also plays Colonel Mark Denton. Mostly the feature shows people at the computer and lacks the excitement of other films of the genre. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Oliver, Susan Ursitti, (more)
- 1996
This fact-based TV movie melodrama stars Joe Penny as John Dubroski, a veteran cop with a history of erratic behavior and casual philandering. Dubroski's passive wife, Cindy (Teri Garr), is aware of her husband's peccadilloes, but she has always forgiven him and steadfastly remained at his side. Enter Julia Neuland (Brittany Murphy), a 16-year-old waitress and self-styled "cop groupie" who despite her innate naïveté quickly ensnares Dubroski and maneuvers him into bed. When Julia finds out that she's pregnant, she is certain that John will leave his family for her sake. But he flatly denies the affair and insists the child is not his, leading the girl to file a paternity suit. Ultimately, Julia turns up murdered, and of course John is the number-one suspect. The question: will Cindy offer loyal support as before or is this one indignity too many? Originally titled Double Jeopardy when it first aired over CBS on January 30, 1996, the film has since been retitled Victim of the Night for cable-TV play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This dull, routine slasher film focuses on a nighttime scavenger hunt sponsored by a sorority that takes a tragic turn when a figure in a bear costume with knives strapped to one "paw" begins slashing the women to death. Years ago, a student was killed by her mentally unbalanced boyfriend when she broke off their relationship. After his capture and trial, the young killer was sent to the local Weston Hill Sanitorium for the mentally insane -- and now he has escaped. Even though the sorority is rapidly losing members, the police are no closer to finding the killer than before they heard of the crimes, so Mac (Hal Holbrook), the original victim's father and head of campus security, goes after the serial murderer himself. Even a surprise ending cannot pull the rest of this film out of the horror doldrums. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julia Montgomery, James Carroll, (more)
Gross Anatomy is to medical school what Paper Chase was to law school, with perhaps a little less sobriety. Mathew Modine plays a blue-collar kid attending a posh school of medicine, where everyone--teacher and student alike--seems to be well above Modine's social strata. Perhaps as a reaction to the snobbery all around him, Modine behaves as irreverently as possible. Neither teacher Christine Lahti nor lab partner Daphne Zuniga finds Modine's what-the-hell act appealing, but both are fully aware that he is a talented young man with a brilliant future. The climax of the film lays it on pretty thick in defining Modine as an all-around good fellow despite his cheekiness (he even delivers a baby just before taking his finals!), but Gross Anatomy strives successfully to be a "feel good" movie--albeit brought ever so slightly down to earth by the death of one of the principal characters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Modine, Daphne Zuniga, (more)
- 1986
- PG
Jimmy (Jim Youngs) is from a wealthy family and longs to be a professional soccer player in this plodding sports drama. His mother Georgia (Rutanya Alda) and father Nick (Peter Henry Schroeder) are opposed, believing Jimmy should focus on other endeavors. After he fails in his tryout with the New York Rockers, Jimmy travels to Brazil to learn from the soccer superstar Santos (Pele). Jimmy wins a spot on the team with a chance to play in the proverbial "big game." ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Youngs, Pelé, (more)
- 1987
Harry Hamlin stars in this made-for-cable thriller as a private eye who returns to his boyhood home only to find himself on the trail of a serial killer. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- R
Hubert Selby's controversial 1964 cult novel Last Exit To Brooklyn is adapted to the big screen by director Ulrich Edel in this drama. The story is set in the early 1950s in Red Hook, Brooklyn, a blighted waterfront town of boarded-up storefronts and striking factory workers. Harry Black (Stephen Lang), a machinist put in charge of the local union strike office, suddenly finds himself one of the most important men in town. But for all his sudden power, there's something disturbing Harry. He rejects his wife's caresses and discovers himself infatuated with a frail young man who calls himself Georgette (Alexis Arquette), who has a crush on well-muscled hood Vinnie (Peter Dobson). But Harry doesn't confront his problem head-on until he falls head-over-heels in love with Regina (Zette), a local transvestite. As the strike becomes more intense, Harry sinks deeper into an obsessive affair with Regina, using the strike fund to shower him/her with personal gifts. As Harry sinks into obsession, other characters float through the decaying streets. There's the attractive prostitute Tralala (Jennifer Jason Leigh) who falls in love with a sailor about to be shipped overseas. There is also an agreeable young man named Tommy (John Costelloe) who is beaten by his soon-to-be father-in-law Big Joe (Burt Young) for making his daughter Donna (Ricki Lake) pregnant. Everything comes to a tragic conclusion as the workers' strike escalates into a violent confrontation. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Lang, Jennifer Jason Leigh, (more)
- 1992
The discovery of a nude woman's body in a Manhattan elevator, six months after a similar discovery in another state, indicates that a serial killer is at large. The police manage to collar the killer, whereupon assistant D.A. Stone (Michael Moriarty) endeavors to have the accused stand trial in New York. But his efforts may be thwarted by the parents of the killer's previous victim, who intend to have the man tried in their own state -- where the death penalty is all but mandatory in such cases. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
- R
Meg Tilly and Christine Lahti star in this female buddy story that recalls the earlier Thelma and Louise. Marianne (Meg Tilly) is a quiet waif who has just walked out on her abusive husband. Darly (Christine Lahti) is a brassy waitress who was a ballsy stripper using the stage name Pillow Talk. Darly is on her way to Alaska to claim a home being built for her and return to the family she abandoned eighteen years earlier. The two women run into each other and Darly allows Marianne to tag along as they journey to Alaska. On the way, they met a collection of colorful characters, including a strange-talking waitress named 66 (Patrika Darbo), and Walt (James Gammon), a road guy who recognizes Darly as the former Pillow Talk and wants to pay her big money for sex. The women finally make it to Alaska, where Darly finds that the house she was expecting to find has never been built. The two set up in a house trailer and, with the Alaskian wilderness as a backdrop, they begin to reevaluate their lives. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christine Lahti, Meg Tilly, (more)
In the family-entertainment tradition of his multi-talented father Michael Landon, writer/director Michael Landon Jr. offered this made-for-cable frontier drama, adapted from a novel by Janet Oke. En route to her new home in the West, Marty Claridge (Katherine Heigl) suddenly finds herself a widow, with no roof over her head or means to support herself. At the gentle prodding of her settler friends Ben and Sarah Graham (Corbin Bernsen, Theresa Russell), Marty accepts the marriage proposal of taciturn widower Clark Davis (Dale Midkiff). It is strictly a business arrangement, with no romance or cohabitation involved; Marty will act as housekeeper to Davis and as teacher and surrogate mother for Clark's sullen nine-year-old daughter Missy (Skye McCole Bartusiak), and in return she will receive food and lodging. Pragmatists both, Marty and Clark assume that they will dissolve their marriage of convenience when the spring thaw comes...but that isn't how things turn out. Love Comes Softly first aired April 13, 2003, on the Hallmark Channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
When her adoptive mother Joan Crawford died in 1977, erstwhile actress/author Christina Crawford and her brother Christopher were left out of Joan Crawford's will, "for reasons which are well known to them." Industryites have suggested that it may have been this posthumous act of rejection rather than an alleged lifetime of parental abuse that inspired Christina Crawford to pen her scathing autobiography Mommie Dearest. The 1981 film version of this tome was evidently meant to be taken seriously, but the operatic direction by Frank Perry and the over-the-top portrayal of Joan Crawford by Faye Dunaway (whose makeup is remarkable) has always seemed to inspire loud laughter whenever and where-ever the film is shown. According to the film (and the book that preceded it), Joan Crawford was a licentious, child-beating behemoth, who stalked and postured through life as though it was one of her own pictures-more Strait-jacket than Mildred Pierce. This is the film with the notorious "wire coat hanger" scene, just in case you need a reminder. Surprisingly, one emerges from Mommie Dearest with more sympathy for the monstrous but intensely vulnerable Crawford than for her whining daughter (played as an adult by Diana Scarwid, and as a child by Mara Hobel). Our favorite scene: Joan Crawford dazedly replacing her ailing daughter in the cast of a daytime TV soap opera. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, (more)
A former nun moves into the suburban home of her deceased aunt only to make a shocking discovery concerning a gruesome crime committed thirty years ago in director Kevin Conner's twisting tale of murder, matricide, and injustice. Together, prodigious savants James and Edward Talley's remarkable brilliance was nearly incalculable, but a sudden act of cold-blooded murder would find them forever confined to separate mental health institutions by strict court order. Ordered to spend the rest of his days at the Greenwillow care center for developmentally disabled adults, James Talley is housed in the same facility as ex-nun Christine Bennett (Megan Ward)'s cousin Gene (Matt Lutz). Upon moving into her aunt's former home in a bid to be closer to Gene, Christine becomes transfixed on the details of the Talley case and soon learns that, despite their current status as a danger to society, neither James nor Edward had ever been officially charged with the crime they were committed for. With the future of the Greenwillow care facility on the line, Christine vows to find out what really happened on that tragic night three decades ago, and ensure that her brother Gene and the other innocent souls housed at Greenwillow will always have a place to call home. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Megan Ward, Morgan Weisser, (more)
An aspiring actor leaves his home in Brooklyn for adulthood in Manhattan in Paul Mazursky's loosely autobiographical comedy-drama. In 1953, would-be thesp Larry Lapinsky (Lenny Baker) flees his hysterically clinging mother (Shelley Winters) for a $25-a-month (!!) apartment in bohemian Greenwich Village. Between Method-like acting classes, a movie audition (where he meets a posturing actor played by Jeff Goldblum), and work at a juice bar, Larry hangs out with a circle of archetypal Village eccentrics, including suicidal Anita (Lois Smith), womanizing poet Robert (Christopher Walken), and flamboyantly un-closeted homosexual Bernstein (Antonio Fargas), as he negotiates the pitfalls of love and sex with liberated girlfriend Sarah (Ellen Greene). The fallout over the group's ill-fated love affairs, and the Lapinskys' inopportune surprise visits, finally lead Larry to make peace with his past as he contemplates his future in Hollywood. Mazursky looks back to the 1950s as in such other 1970s films as American Graffiti, Grease, and TV's Happy Days, but his Greenwich Village life is less a time of lost pre-'60s innocence than a precursor of things to come. Sex, Larry jokes, may be serious, but it is also an omnipresent fact of life rather than something to be feared or repressed; love is the real problem. Even as Larry's friends strike various poses, they are all out to do their own thing as best they can. Critical response to Mazursky's nostalgia trip was mixed when the film was released, but the performances, particularly Winters, were admired. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lenny Baker, Shelley Winters, (more)
A former friend betrays a legendary outlaw in Sam Peckinpah's final Western. Holed up in Fort Sumner with his gang between cattle rustlings, Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) ignores the advice of comrade-turned-lawman Pat Garrett (James Coburn) to escape to Mexico, and he winds up in jail in Lincoln, New Mexico. After Billy theatrically escapes, inspiring enigmatic Lincoln resident Alias (Bob Dylan) to join him, the governor (Jason Robards Jr.) and cattle baron Chisum (Barry Sullivan) requisition Garrett to form a posse and hunt him down. Rather than flee to Mexico when he can, Billy heads back to Fort Sumner, meeting his final destiny at the hands of his friend Pat, who, two decades later, is forced to face the consequences of his own Faustian pact with progress. With a script by Rudolph Wurlitzer, Peckinpah uses the historical basis of Billy's death to eulogize the West dreamily yet violently as it is desecrated by corrupt capitalists. Both Pat and Billy know that their time is passing, as surely as Garrett's posse knows that they are participating in a legend. Using familiar Western players like Slim Pickens and Katy Jurado, Peckinpah underscores the West's existence as a media myth, and he even appears himself as a coffin maker. Just as the bloodletting of Peckinpah's earlier The Wild Bunch (1969) invoked the Vietnam War, the casting of Kristofferson and Dylan alluded to the chaotic late '60s/early '70s present; the counterculture has little place in a corporate future. Also like The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett was truncated by its studio; the cuts did nothing to help its box office. Key scenes, particularly the framing story of Garrett's fate, have since been restored to the home-video version. In this director's cut, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid stands as one of Peckinpah's most beautiful and complex films, killing the Western myth even as he salutes it. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, (more)
If you know the Clement Clark Moore poem, you'll know that Prancer is one of Santa Claus' "eight tiny reindeer." When 9-year-old Rebecca Harrell, who still believes in Santa despite the remonstrations of her parents and the taunts of her peers, stumbles across the selfsame Prancer in a remote part of the forest, no one will believe the girl. Later on, Harrell's no-nonsense father Sam Elliot comes across a wounded reindeer, he feels it his duty to put the suffering animal out of his misery. The deer, of course, is Prancer, and it magically vanishes before Elliot's startled eyes. Harrell nurses the deer back to health in secret, with the help of kindly doctor Abe Vigoda and her troublesome older brother John Joseph Duda. Harrell is determined to contact Santa and let him know where Prancer is, but her efforts only result in public humiliation for her father. But this is a Christmas film, and the spirit of goodwill is contagious by fadeout time, even transforming town-recluse Cloris Leachman into a warm-hearted social animal. Filmed in Indiana, Prancer isn't quite a classic, but it's perfect midwinter videocassette entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Elliott, Rebecca Harrell, (more)
Sean Penn graduated to full stardom with the 1984 drama Racing with the Moon, even though the film itself hardly set new box office records. Set in the early years of World War II, the film stars Penn as a small-town teen-aged hotshot, six weeks away from being shipped out to fight overseas. In the meantime, Penn begins to date Elizabeth McGovern, whom he assumes is from a wealthy family. Penn's pal Nicolas Cage, who's gotten his girlfriend Suzanne Adkinson pregnant, imposes upon Penn to hit up McGovern for the abortion money. That's when Penn discovers that the girl barely has a penny to her name. Convinced that Penn cared for her only when he thought she was rich, McGovern walks out on him, but later teams up with Penn to help the unfortunate Adkinson. The plot is pure James Dean, a fact not lost on fans who regarded Sean Penn as the second coming of Dean. A very slight piece, Racing With the Moon is buoyed by the engaging performances of the stars, and by director Richard Benjamin's meticulous attention to period detail-especially in those peerless bowling-alley and skating-rink sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Penn, Elizabeth McGovern, (more)
- 1990
In this made-for-cable adaptation of Roderick Thorp's crime thriller, Peter Weller stars as a Hollywood cop whose murder investigation runs into a wall of police corruption. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Weller, Sela Ward, (more)
In Rappin', Mario Van Peebles is John Hood, a con who when released from jail goes back to his neighborhood to find his girl shacked up with a nasty gang-leader named Duane (Charles Flohe). Duane is on the take with a corrupt contractor who plans to tear down Hood's neighborhood and he and his gang serve as ruffian rowdies who help evict the tenants. John Hood will not put up with this nonsense; he throws a community rap session and gets everybody aligned against the bad guys. His rappin' is so ratin' that he impresses a record company and wins his gal back. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edye Byrde, Rony Clanton, (more)
