Robert E. Collins Movies

In this crime drama set during the 1940s an honest detective and his task force take on the mob in old Chicago. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this crime drama, based on the true story of Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer, from 1985, terrorists attempt to hijack a luxury cruise ship in the Mediterranean. The attempt resulted in the death of a handicapped passenger. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Based on the book My 30 Years in Hoover's FBI by William G. Sullivan and William S. Brown, this made-for-cable biopic stars Treat Williams as the infamous Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

This romantic made-for-TV movie chronicles episodes from the varied lives of visitors to the popular Mexican seaside resort. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Money on the Side is a feminist's worst nightmare. This TV movie proposes that the only recourse a housewife has to the nation's "faltering economy" (to quote the film's press release) is to turn to prostitution. The three suburban housewife hookers in this opus are Jamie Lee Curtis, Linda Purl, and....Karen VALENTINE?!?!?!? Say it ain't so, Joe. Forget this one: even the title of Money on the Side sounds like a dirty joke. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the tradition of his earlier work in Grapes of Wrath and Twelve Angry Men, Henry Fonda played another social-protest role in the Hallmark Hall of Fame TV presentation Gideon's Trumpet. Clarence Earl Gideon (Fonda) is a poor, ill-tempered Florida handyman who is arrested for petty larceny in 1961. Unable to afford a lawyer, Gideon is sentenced to five years in prison. His treatment by the Florida judicial system, a clear violation of the Fourteenth Amendment, is brought to the attention of the Supreme Court. As a result, a landmark decision is reached, assuring free legal representation for anyone accused of a crime in the United States. Also appearing are Jose Ferrer as Gideon's attorney Abe Fortas, John Houseman (who also produced) as the Chief Justice, and Fay Wray as the owner of the lodging establishment where Gideon lived. Gideon's Trumpet premiered on April 30, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ed Asner dominated the proceedings of the 1977 TV movie The Gathering; inasmuch as Asner's character died at the end of that film, he is absent from the 1979 sequel The Gathering, Part 2. Said sequel could certainly have benefitted from Asner's presence, no matter how illogical that presence might have been. In Part 2, widowed Maureen Stapleton gathers her family together for the first Christmas after the death of her husband. She is being wooed by handsome industrialist Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and the family (Rebecca Balding, Gail Strickland, Bruce Davison et.al.) isn't all that keen on this contingency. Even more so than the first film, The Gathering, Part 2 has the smell of a pilot. It was originally networkcast on December 17, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Elizabeth Montgomery stars in this made-for-television movie about a liberal reporter whose views are challenged after she becomes the victim of random crime. Montgomery stars as Katherine McSweeney, a divorced, single-mother news reporter assigned to cover crime in her lower-middle-class neighborhood. After being mugged in her hallway, Katherine finds little sympathy from her colleagues or the police who feel her left-wing tendencies left her wide open for crime. The film shows how she transforms from a tolerant woman into a frightened and judgmental citizen, who is angry at her loss of innocence, but determined not to give in to her fear. ~ Bernadette McCallion, Rovi

This police drama is the pilot episode of the Serpico television series and follows the straight arrow New York undercover cop Frank Serpico as he investigates racketeers and drug smugglers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

The life and times of demagogic Louisiana governor Huey Long has been fictionalized by two Hollywood films, All The King's Men (1949) and A Lion is in the Streets (1953). Made for television, The Life and Assassination of the Kingfish endeavors to tell the true story, with few names changed. Played by Edward Asner, Long rises to the top of state politics on such placebo-like programs as "Every Man a King" and "Share the Wealth." He remains an enigma to friends and enemies both: He cheats and lies his way to power even while providing such important benefits to Louisiana as a strong school system and network of highways; he plays the buffoon in public while behaving like a fascist dictator on the floor of the legislature; and so on. In 1935, Long, on the verge of running for president, is shot down by an old enemy. Director Robert Collins begins his script at this point, with Long's career related in flashback as he hovers between life and death in a hospital bed. Life and Assassination of the Kingfish was first aired March 21, 1977; eighteen years later, another Huey Long biopic, Kingfish, was presented on the TNT cable service, with John Goodman as Long. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi