Stanley Chase Movies

This film adaptation of Kurt Weill and Bertolt Brecht's musical play The Threepenny Opera portrays the engagement of a gangster (Raul Julia) to an innocent girl (Rachel Robertson) in Victorian-era London. The girl's family attempts to thwart the marriage by catching the thief in the act. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Grace Kelly, the high-society beauty who became an Oscar-winning actress and then a European princess, is the subject of this TV biopic. Cheryl Ladd has the looks and poise of the original Grace, though she isn't quite as charismatic. The early portion of the film retraces the stormy relationship between Grace and her gruff Philadelphia millionaire dad, Jack Kelly. The script suggests that Grace went through life looking for a strong father figure, finally finding one in Prince Rainier of Monaco (Ian McShane), whom she weds. Several "celebrity look-alikes" parade through the film, pretending to be the film personalities with whom Ms. Kelly worked during her brief Hollywood career. Grace Kelly tones down the darker aspects of its subject, and the film is infinitely more tasteful than most other TV biographies of the same period, even when dealing with Princess Grace's untimely death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made up to look like a septuagenarian, Henry Winkler plays Benedict Slade, a Scrooge-like miser living in a tiny New England town during the Depression. Slade goes Scrooge one further by repossessing items from a poor farm couple and an orphanage on Christmas eve. While reading a copy of Dickens' The Christmas Carol in his home, Slade is visited by his own set of Spirits Past, Present and Future, including his Hell-dwelling late business partner (Kenneth Pogue). Lensed in Canada, this made-for-TV film premiered the week before Christmas of 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

William Devane stars as John Henry Faulk, a popular radio and TV entertainer of the 1950s. In 1956, Faulk is blacklisted on the basis of an attack from the self-appointed anticommunist group AWARE. Fired by CBS, Faulk decides to sue AWARE for libel. His attorney Louis Nizer (George C. Scott) warns him that such a case will take several years to get to court, thus Faulk reluctantly takes a series of low-paying jobs to sustain himself during his "down period". In 1962, the case is finally brought before a judge, with several witnesses pointing out the idiotic iniquities of the Blacklist mentality (one child actor was prohibited from working because he had a name that sounded like that of an adult blacklistee). Appearing as themselves during the courtroom scenes are actress Kim Hunter, herself a blacklist victim, and producers David Susskind and Mark Goodson. Faulk wins his case, though his original award of $3.5 million in damages is later reduced to $550,000, and he is never able to completely return to his pre-blacklist prominence. Like several other filmic recreations of the "witch-hunt" era, Fear on Trial was first presented in the mid-1970s (October 2, 1975, to be exact), long after the most zealous of the 1950s anti-Red groups had fallen by the wayside. The film earned an Emmy award for screenwriter David Rintels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two former World War II pilots take to running an air-freight company in South Africa after the war. They get mixed up with Lee Harris (Harry Guardino), the dangerous black-market crime boss who flaunts his beautiful mistress Elana (Claudia Cardinale). Brynie (Rod Taylor) and Mike (Peter Deuel) are the former ace flyboys who get on the wrong side of Harris and his henchmen. The action starts at Al Poland's (William Marshall), a favorite watering hole where everyone has one ear on the live music as the other listens to the next sordid smuggling plan hatched by shadowy underworld types. Harris and his gun-wielding thugs mean to bring down the high-flying operation. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide