Richard Blackburn Movies

Some observers have described the made-for-cable The Riverman as a real-life Silence of the Lambs. Based on the book cowritten by Robert Keppel, formerly chief criminal investigator for the attorney general of Washington state, the film recounts Keppel's efforts to track down serial killer Gary Ridgeway, aka the Green River Killer. With 10 unsolved murders weighing on his mind, Keppel (played by Bruce Greenwood) agrees to a plan whereby an imprisoned mass murderer with a similar M.O. will be brought into the investigation in hopes of second-guessing the killer at large. Thus, Keppel travels to Florida, there to inaugurate a series of chilling interviews with the infamous Ted Bundy (Cary Elwes). Inasmuch as Bundy hopes that by helping track down the Green River Killer he himself will be able to escape the death penalty, Keppel finds himself between the proverbial rock and hard place: How can he secure Bundy's cooperation without making promises he cannot possibly keep? The Riverman was first telecast by the A&E network on September 6, 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bored with her dead-end existence in a small Iowa town, neurotic Janet Flanders (Jordan Ladd) retreats into the rarefied world of romance novels. Her dreams of being swept off her feet by a handsome young prince seem to come true when Chicago businessman Brett Becker (Vincent Spano) enters her life. Alas, Brett already has a bride -- but this won't stop the unhinged Janet from dreaming, or from taking violent action to fulfill those dreams. What starts out as something fine and beautiful degenerates into a sordid murder trial, with attorney Evelyn MacInnis (Holland Taylor of The Practice fame) taking a pivotal hand in the matter. Made for cable, The Deadly Look of Love originally aired July 10, 2000 on the Lifetime network. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This romantic historical drama is based on the diaries of Agnes Von Kurowsky, who while serving as a nurse during World War I had a love affair with a young man who would later become one of the great literary figures of the 20th century, Ernest Hemingway. In 1918, 18-year-old Hemingway has volunteered to fight in the great war; while he goes into battle imagining it to be a lark, he soon discovers that the realities of warfare are far more grim, and during a shelling attack in Italy, his leg is severely wounded. Hemingway has taken a great deal of shrapnel, and the doctors at the field hospital decide that amputation would be the quickest and most effective way to deal with the injury. However, the idea of losing a leg horrifies Hemingway, and he pleads with Agnes (Sandra Bullock), the Austrian nurse looking after him, not to let the doctors cut off his limb. Moved by Hemingway's concern, Agnes convinces the doctors to pursue other treatments, and she looks after him during his long and difficult convalescence. Love and passion bloom between the young and naive soldier and the 26-year-old nurse, but while he's eager for her to return home with him as he follows his muse as a writer, she regards him not as the love of her life but as a passing fling and thinks that he's too young to marry. Agnes eventually sends Hemingway a "Dear John" letter; later Hemingway would use her as the basis for several characters in his novels and short stories, not always flatteringly. In Love and War was directed by Richard Attenborough, previously an Academy Award winner for Gandhi. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Actor Henry Adler (Tom McCamus) has a tenuous hold on his identity in Canadian director David Wellington's I Love a Man in Uniform. On his way to audition for a violent TV police show, he sees an officer shot in the line of duty. Using what he witnessed in his tryout, he impresses the casting director and gets the role of a tough street cop. But it's more than just a part for him: he takes his uniform home, goes out on the street, and gets mistaken for a real cop. Like Anthony John in A Double Life, he has become his character, and like Travis Bickle in Taxi Driver, he wants to clean the world of its filth. This film is not merely an exploration of one man's descent into madness; it is also an indictment of society's confusion of televised fiction with real life. ~ Steve Press, Rovi

First shown on Canadian television in 1991, the two-part A Conspiracy of Silence premiered in America in the Summer of 1992. In 1971, a Cree woman is murdered in a small Manitoba community. Protecting their "own", the white townsfolk choose to close ranks around the four killers and protect them with a cloak of silence. Only after 16 years have passed and the case is reopened by young constable Stephen Ouimette are the witnesses to the murder emboldened enough to speak out. The cast of Conspirary of Silence is dotted with some of Canada's finest character actors, including leading man Ouimette, Jonathan Potts, Neil Munro, Dawn Greenhaigh and Maury Chaykin. Part one was telecast over the CBS network on July 26, 1992; Part two followed on July 28. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This screwball urban comedy is about two dippy roommates, struggling musicians Lolly (Melanie Mayron) and Hattie (Helen Slater), who are asked by an equally spacey, drug-dealing friend-of-a-friend Diane (Loretta Devine) to baby-sit a bag containing nearly a million dollars while she scoots out of town in order to avoid trouble. Once the money is in their possession, however, temptation proves too much for Lolly and Hattie, who use the ill-gotten cash to pay the rent, buy new instruments, and embark on a shopping spree for earrings, clothes, and shoes. While the girls dig themselves deeper into trouble with every dollar spent, they also encounter a variety of eccentric characters, including a fellow musician (Danitra Vance), their ailing landlady (Eileen Brennan), Lolly's boyfriend (Christopher Guest), and a parking lot attendant (Stephen McHattie). The latter, however, is actually a cop who's keeping surveillance on them from across the street. Mayron co-wrote the script for Sticky Fingers (1988) with actress and first-time director Catlin Adams. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi

This is a tepid film aimed at youngsters and focusing on the warped Martin Steckert (Richard Harris), an escaped convict, and little Martin (Justin Henry), the boy he takes hostage. Steckert uses a ruse to escape from prison when his parole is denied, and once safely on the outside, he kidnaps Martin and heads for an isolated spot along a lake that he himself visited as a little boy. Aside from the developing relationship between the two Martins, not expressed in any great depth, there is the inexplicably fired-up pursuit of Martin by Lt. Lardner (James Coburn) and the psychobabble of Dr. Mennen (Lindsay Wagner), in pursuit of Martin's motivating demons. Martin's encounter with ex-lover Karen (Karen Black) does not reveal very much, and in the end, viewers may be left wondering about everyone's motivation. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Set in the years before World War I, this film is about Robert, a young man growing up in a wealthy family in Toronto who is burdened by a distant, cool mother and a father dedicated to duty, both highly conservative people. When Robert loses his beloved invalid sister in a car accident he is further tormented by the family's decision to kill her pet rabbits - and quarrels with them so intensely that he enlists in the army and goes off to war. Once "over there," he discovers brothels and romance, and in a climactic scene, decides to free a barn full of horses from certain death - in spite of contrary orders from his superiors. The juxtaposition of Robert's internal conflict and the external horrors of combat may have been intended to illustrate the nature of "war," although that is difficult to surmise since the evidence in the film is not that strong. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Alan Arkin plays a hapless architect named Jeffrey Martley, separated from his sprightly writer wife Diana (Mariette Hartley) and his wise-beyond-her-years five-year-old daughter Nancy (Sarah Stevens). When Nancy is injured in Jeffrey's camper, she is taken to the hospital where a misunderstanding leads doctors to believe she is the victim of child abuse. An imperious social worker, Gloria Washburn (Monica Parker), compiles a computer dossier on Jeffrey, and Nancy is taken away from him and put in an orphanage. When Diana finds out the situation, she gets back together with Jeffrey in order to try to get their daughter out of the orphanage. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Lila Lee (B-movie starlet Cheryl Smith, later also known as Rainbeaux Smith) is the teenage daughter of a vicious gangster, Alvin Lee (William Whitton). Her backwoods life is disrupted when her father murders her mother. Reverend Mueller (played by writer-director Richard Blackburn) looks after the girl, whom he defends to his congregation as "the most innocent creature on God's earth." But soon after the murder, Lila gets a letter from a mysterious woman named Lemora (Lesley Gilb). The letter instructs Lila to quietly leave town and come to a remote community, Asteroth, where her ailing father is waiting for her, so she can forgive him for his sins. Lila follows the instructions, sneaking off during the night, but leaves a goodbye note for the reverend. Lila eventually finds her way to a rickety old bus driven by a wild-eyed madman (Hy Pyke, who would go on to play Taffey Lewis in Blade Runner). He takes her to the swamps outside Asteroth, where the bus is attacked by snarling, humanoid creatures. Lila manages to escape, and finds herself in the home of Lemora and her acolytes. Naïve Lila doesn't realize that Lemora is a vampire who appears to have a sexual interest in the teen, at one point bathing Lila and praising her "exciting figure." Eventually, Lila catches on, and as she fights to escape, the reverend rushes to rescue her. Lila's reunion with her father is worse than disappointing, as he's turned into a bloodthirsty fiend, like those that attacked the bus. Since its unsuccessful initial release, Lemora: A Child's Tale of the Supernatural has become a minor cult item, bolstered by tales of disappearing prints and a ban by the Catholic Church. ~ Josh Ralske, Rovi