Hampton Fancher

Notable as the directorial debut of Blade Runner co-scripter Hampton Fancher, this darkly comic thriller stars affable Owen Wilson as Vann Siegert, a different brand of serial killer: one who actually believes he's doing his deeply depressed victims a service of mercy. Wandering up the West Coast, Vann chooses victims from a parade of colorful social misfits -- including a haggard junkie (singer Sheryl Crow) whose pain he ends with a nip from his flask of poison amaretto -- and expounds on his motives with a pocket tape recorder (a drawling monologue that serves as the film's narrative voice-over). A brief layover in Owensville eventually finds Vann in the company of quarreling middle-aged couple Doug and Jane (Brian Cox and Mercedes Ruehl), who grow fond of the young drifter's amiable demeanor and take him on as a boarder. After landing a job at the local post office, Vann catches the eye of co-worker Ferrin (Janeane Garofalo), and a tentative romance blossoms -- but even love can't distract Vann from his crusade to terminate people's unhappiness: "They come to me like moths, because I shine," he explains. Though not the complex psychological game it purports to be, The Minus Man is an intriguing character study -- imagine a kindler, gentler version of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer -- with some clever twists and fine performances, including a touching portrayal from the usually acerbic Garofalo. Geared more to the art-movie crowd than to fans of Hitchcockian thrills, this film opened to raves at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

A blend of science fiction and noir detective fiction, Blade Runner (1982) was a box office and critical bust upon its initial exhibition, but its unique postmodern production design became hugely influential within the sci-fi genre, and the film gained a significant cult following that increased its stature. Harrison Ford stars as Rick Deckard, a retired cop in Los Angeles circa 2019. L.A. has become a pan-cultural dystopia of corporate advertising, pollution and flying automobiles, as well as replicants, human-like androids with short life spans built by the Tyrell Corporation for use in dangerous off-world colonization. Deckard's former job in the police department was as a talented blade runner, a euphemism for detectives that hunt down and assassinate rogue replicants. Called before his one-time superior (M. Emmett Walsh), Deckard is forced back into active duty. A quartet of replicants led by Roy Batty (Rutger Hauer) has escaped and headed to Earth, killing several humans in the process. After meeting with the eccentric Eldon Tyrell (Joe Turkel), creator of the replicants, Deckard finds and eliminates Zhora (Joanna Cassidy), one of his targets. Attacked by another replicant, Leon (Brion James), Deckard is about to be killed when he's saved by Rachael (Sean Young), Tyrell's assistant and a replicant who's unaware of her true nature. In the meantime, Batty and his replicant pleasure model lover, Pris (Darryl Hannah) use a dying inventor, J.F. Sebastian (William Sanderson) to get close to Tyrell and murder him. Deckard tracks the pair to Sebastian's, where a bloody and violent final confrontation between Deckard and Batty takes place on a skyscraper rooftop high above the city. In 1992, Ridley Scott released a popular director's cut that removed Deckard's narration, added a dream sequence, and excised a happy ending imposed by the results of test screenings; these legendary behind-the-scenes battles were chronicled in a 1996 tome, Future Noir: The Making of Blade Runner by Paul M. Sammon. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

A woman struggles to rebuild her life after a devastating accident in this drama based on the true story of Jill Kinmont. Kinmont (played by Marilyn Hassett) was a top ranked amateur downhill skier who seemed assured of a place on the 1956 Olympic team. But while racing in Utah's Snow Cup competition, Kinmont suffered a serious fall from a mountain that left her paralyzed from the shoulders down. Kinmont became severely depressed; her career as an athlete was over, and her fiancée, who couldn't deal with the emotional toll of her accident, left her. But when she met pilot Dick Buek (Beau Bridges), she found both love and a new inspiration to make a career for herself as a teacher. But Kinmont discovered she still had more mountains to climb when Buek died in the crash of a small plane. Marilyn Hassett won a Golden Globe award for her performance as Jill Kinmont, and she reprised the role in a sequel two years later. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Responding to a call from a concerned neighbor, Officers Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) and Jim Reed (Martin Milner) come upon a particularly heinous example of child neglect. A six-year-old girl has been left alone in her home for several days--and her baby brother is dead, drowned in a bathtub. The question: Where is the mother...and what could she possibly have been thinking when she abandoned her children? Future Emergency! regular Ron Pinkard appears as a police photographer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bonanza closed out its seventh season on May 15, 1966 with the comic episode "A Dollar's Worth of Trouble." Gypsy palm reader Mme. Adella (Mabel Albertson predicts that Hoss Cartwright's life will soon accommodate a blue-eyed blonde, a moonshiner, and a murderous gunslinger. As these prognostications come true in the form of blue-eyed Kathleen Walker (Sally Kellerman) and booze-brewing John Walker (Elisha Cook Jr.), Hoss nervously gears himself for his inevitable confrontation with gun-wielding Craig Bonner (Hampton Fancher III). This episode was written by Robert L. Goodwin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

En route to Denver, Bart (Jack Kelly) finds himself sharing a stagecoach with a curious assortment of passengers, including a woman (Suzanne Lloyd) searching for her fiancee, a taciturn gunman (Hampton Fancher) and an overly friendly undertaker (Maurice Manson). Stopping at a way station, the passengers unwittingly fall into the clutches of homicidal outlaw Nero Lyme (Buddy Ebsen) and his equally murderous family. Realizing that everyone is in danger, Bart tries to tip off one of the passengers that the Lymes intend to kill them all; unfortunately, that passenger promptly betrays Bart to Nero Lyme. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paladin (Richard Boone) returns to his hotel room to find the dead body of his friend Charlie Blackburn. Strapping the murder victim to his horse, Paladin returns Charlie to his home town in the middle of timber country. It soons becomes obvious that no one in town is willing to claim the body--and it is increasingly apparent that the solution to Charlie's murder rests with ruthless timber baron Win Loring (Douglas Kennedy) and his psychopathic son Keith (Hampton Fancher). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide