Jerry Adler Movies
- 1992
TV journalist (and recovering alcoholic) Marcy Singer (Suzanne Somers) is promised an Exclusive by anonymous phone an caller. Singer is advised to show up at a well-known bar at an appointed time. Once she's arrived, she finds six corpses awaiting her. Investigating, Singer follows the trail of evidence to an unexpected-and all-too-close-source. Joe Cortese and Michael Nouri co-star in this made-for-TV melodrama. Exclusive originally aired October 4, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Suzanne Somers, Michael Nouri, (more)
- 1992
- R
Howard Franklin wrote and directed this film noir character study based on the famed New York Daily News photographer Weegee. Joe Pesci plays a character named Bernstein, a freelance photographer for the New York City tabloids of the 1940s. His life is dedicated to his work; with a police radio under the dashboard of his car and a darkroom in his trunk, he quickly and efficiently races to the scene of crimes, accidents and murders to snap photographs of gangsters, politicians, cops, and prostitutes, which he promptly delivers to the newspapers. His knack for arriving at a crime scene before the police earns him the nickname the Great Bernzini. The trouble begins for Bernstein when he agrees to look up a gangster for Kay (Barbara Hershey), the sexy owner of a fancy Manhattan nightclub. After making inquiries, Bernstein traces the man Kay is looking for, but he turns up dead. When he informs the police, he becomes a suspect in the murder; it also turns out that the FBI is interested the case. Bernstein then uncovers an elaborate conspiracy concerning gas rationing, the mob, and the government. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Pesci, Barbara Hershey, (more)
- 1986
Once upon a time, National Lampoon was on the cutting edge of satire and scatology. By 1986, the magazine was on its last legs, a doddering shadow of what it once had been. The performers in the 86-minute review National Lampoon's Class of '86 give it the old college try, but they're hampered by scads of hit-and-miss material. This video was labelled "adults only", though it's hard to imagine anyone over the age of 15 who will be amused. The title Class of '86 is only half right: it has no class, but it certainly deserves to be eighty-sixed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
The miracle of plastic surgery is the unifying factor for this made-for-TV movie. Three women, all "of a certain age," are having problems with the men in their life. Rich widow Millie Gorman (Janet Leigh) is convinced that her sex appeal has waned along with her looks and youth; bored housewife Sandy McLaren (Loretta Swit) is none too pleased that her husband regards her more as a pal than a lover; and former model Vanessa Wagner (Lee Meriwether) fears that her much-younger sweetheart will begin seeking out a partner his own age. As the story progresses, Sandy gets a breast implant which has precisely the opposite of the desired effect on her husband; Vanessa gets an eye-lift, only to find out that her lover isn't worth the trouble; and Millie suffers the consequences of one too many face-lifts. Mirror, Mirror first aired October 10, 1979, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Jack Albertson stars as an old-time Borscht Belt comic who owns his own nightclub. Albertson's public has been dwindling for years, and his club is in danger of folding. He decides to renovate his business by changing his establishment into a Comedy Store-like operation, opening his doors to aspiring young comedians, then inviting show-biz biggies (including George Burns, playing himself) to watch the parade of new talent. Coincidentally, this film was originally telecast opposite another TV movie titled Telethon, in which a washed-up comic (Red Buttons) desperately tries to sign celebrities for an all-night fundraiser. Despite its title, this is pure drama in its staging, characterizations and resolution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
US Air Force colonel Glenn Ford has a dilemma on his hands. He knows for a fact that two jets under his command were last seen chasing a UFO. But the military higher-ups have no intention of filling Ford in on further developments. Despite these stonewalling tactics, Ford steps up his own investigation--and uncovers an insidious right-wing plot to overthrow the government. Bradford Dillman, who has probably made more TV movies than Karen Valentine even, costars in The Disappearance of Flight 412. The film was telecast two months after Watergate, a time in which "conspiracy" movies were breeding like rabbits. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenn Ford, Bradford Dillman, (more)
- 1970
- PG
Flap is marginally significant as the only western ever directed by Britain's Sir Carol Reed. Anthony Quinn is top-billed as Flapping Eagle, a modern-day Native American stuck on a squalid reservation. Though liquored up most of the time, Flapping Eagle undergoes an eleventh-hour social awakening. Making certain that the media is notified, he hijacks a train and heads for Phoenix, demanding full restoration of rights for his people. Played uneasily for laughs, Flap tries to make up for its shortcomings with a 1970s-style tragic ending, but by that time most of the audience has given up. The working title for Flap was Nobody Loves Flapping Eagle, which was closer to the name of source material, Clair Huffaker's novel Nobody Loves a Drunken Indian. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anthony Quinn, Claude Akins, (more)
- 1959
The drama in this fact-based tale about the killing of a young Japanese man is undermined by trite characters and a transparent storyline. There is no doubt that American GI Sgt. Douglas (Richard Long) killed the youth with his own gun. The dispute lies in whether the gun discharged accidentally, as he claims, and in whether he should be tried by Japanese civil law instead of an American military court. Sgt. Douglas is portrayed as a good guy, in love with a Japanese woman and appreciative of Japanese life and culture. His dilemma is made all the worse by some ill-advised plans he concocts to determine how he should be tried. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michi Kobi, Richard Long, (more)
