Bernard Gribble Movies

Originally titled Mercury Project, this made-for-cable thriller focuses on 17-year-old Todd Baker (Ryan Merriman) and his ex-astronaut grandfather, Gus Baker (Robert Wagner). Hoping to honor the memory of his late father, likewise a space explorer, Todd collaborates with Gus in restoring a Mercury Redstone Rocket (purchased from a junk heap for a mere $80,000) as a high school science project. When Todd grafts the Rocket to a Mercury 10 capsule found in a space museum, he brings down the wrath of the Feds, who inform him that he's committed an infinite number of security breaches. Denied permission to complete his project, our hero is nonetheless redeemed when a space shuttle crew is trapped hundreds of miles above earth...and only Todd's rebuilt rocket and capsule is capable of going to the rescue! About as credible as anything else on the ABC Family Channel ever since, Rocket's Red Glare debuted on August 27, 2000. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Shot in the high-definition IMAX format, Wildfire: Feel the Heat takes an inside look at the hot, dangerous, but exciting work of men who battle fires for a living. Examining blazes that threaten buildings and property as well as forest fires that can destroy woodlands, this film gives viewers insight into the sort of men who choose firefighting as a career, as well as the variety of technology at their disposal. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Chappy Sinclair enlists the aid of a team of wild air show pilots after he discovers that a Peruvian drug lord has set up shop in a small village. The fly boys make off with a fleet of World War II vintage aircraft in an effort to drive the drug dealers out of business, but they come up against a former Air Force comrade of Sinclair's, who is part of the illegal operation. ~ All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV western stars Rick Schroder as a hotheaded cowboy who guns down the man responsible for the death of his parents. On the run from his victim's powerful father, Schroder is sheltered by old codger Wilford Brimley. Brimley seems to be operating out of friendship, but his reason for keeping Schroder alive is deliberately obscured until close to the end. Blood River was written by John Carpenter, a name usually associated with science fiction and horror. Though set in the Wild West, the film was lensed in Alberta and British Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inspired suave aristocrat Col. Claus von Stauffenberg's ingenious plot to assassinate Adolf Hitler during the waning days of World War II, director Lawrence Schiller's historical war drama traces the remarkable events that unfolded as the Third Reich's Operation Valkyrie emergency plan was implemented on July 20, 1944. Could World War II have been stopped before the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki? A group of senior army officials have decided to turn on their führer, but is their plan doomed from the very moment of conception? A strategy meeting is set to take place at Hitler's Wolfsschanze (Wolf's Lair). There, the tyrannical German leader will be completely vulnerable to attack by the very people he trusts most - his own officers. In order to succeed, von Stauffenberg and his men will need to make some serious sacrifices. Later, as the plot gets underway, fighting continues raging all across Europe, and the men wait patiently for the perfect moment to strike. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

This comedy returns to the exclusive but crazy country club golf course seen in the original Caddyshack. This time its the blue-bloods against the blue collars as a loud, vulgar self-made millionaire tries to join the stuffy upper-crust club after his daughter falls in love with the son of one of the members. Naturally, the boisterous millionaire is rejected by the genteel jerks. He retaliates by buying the golf course and turning it into an ultra-tacky amusement park. Merry mayhem ensues, but in the end, the snobs learn a valuable lesson, the millionaire gets to join, and his daughter and her lover are finally united. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The second of Zucker-Abraham-Zucker's theatrical-feature spoofs (Airplane was the first, discounting the patchwork Kentucky Fried Movie), Top Secret! lampoons practically every film genre. Specifically, however, this is a hybrid of an "Elvis" movie and a World War II "underground resistance" thriller. In his film debut, Val Kilmer plays Nick Rivers, a Presley-like American rock idol sent behind the Iron Curtain on a goodwill tour. Before long, he is involved in a complex espionage scheme thanks to beautiful Lucy Gutteridge, the daughter of a scientist (Michael Gough) held captive by the Communists. Also essential to the action is flamboyant resistance leader Christopher Villiers, who behaves like Victor Mature in Betrayed (1954) and talks like James Mason. Adhering to Z-A-Z's cheerful disregard for people, places and events, the East Germans are depicted as Nazis, while the Underground is comprised of Frenchmen. The plot is mainly an excuse for the Z-A-Z team's fondness for joke-a-minute lampoonery, skewering cinematic targets ranging from The Blue Lagoon (1980) to The Wizard of Oz (1939). As in Z-A-Z's other efforts, Top Secret! scores its biggest yocks when invoking cliches that we never realized were cliches-and falls on its face whenever attempting a too-obvious gag (the biggest clinker: that pigeon statue in the park). Everyone has his or her favorite bits in this film: our faves include the resistance fighter named Deja Vu ("Haven't we met somewhere before?"), Kilmer's horrible nightmare while being tortured (he arrives too late to take final exams), the army-booted cow, the sensitive Pinto, and the East German National Anthem, sung to the tune of the Shorewood (Wisconsin) High School marching song. But let's say no more: comedy of this nature is designed to be seen, not written or read about. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the final episode of the seven-part, eighteen-hour miniseries The Winds of War, Ambassador-at-large "Pug" Henry (Robert Mitchum) represents the US in a series of conferences with the intansigent Russian premier Josef Stalin (Anatoly Chauginian). Dallying briefly with his erstwhile British sweetheart Pamela Tudsbury (Victoria Tennant), Pug stays in Moscow long enough to witness the attempted Nazi invasion. Meanwhile, Pug's daughter-in-law Natalie (Ali McGraw) and her Uncle Aaron (John Houseman) are among the Jewish refugees being smuggled into Palestine. And back in the Western Hemisphere, Pug's sons Byron (Jan-Michael Vincent) and Warren (David Dukes) are swept up in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. The Winds of War was adapted by Herman Wouk from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in 1940, the fourth episode of the seven-part, eighteen-hour miniseries The Winds of War finds American troubleshooter Cmdr. "Pug" Henry (Robert Mitchum) heading to England on a secret mission for President Roosevelt. Here he is reunited with his secret love, Pamela Tudsbury (Victoria Tennant) and later has a tense showdown with Winston Churchill (Howard Lang) over policy matters. Barely escaping the Nazi bombs during the first London blitz (a spectacular sequence), Henry survives to fly in a retaliatory raid over Germany--while both the women in his life (the other being his long-suffering wife Rhoda [Polly Bergen]) wait and worry. The Winds of War was adapted by Herman Wouk from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The sixth episode of the seven-part, eighteen-hour miniseries The Winds of War takes place in early 1941. Government attache "Pug" Henry (Robert Mitchum) commands a fleet of destroyers escorted a US convoy that is unoffically heading to England, there to aid in the war effort against Germany. En route, Hardy crosses the path of a Nazi U-boat, forcing him to choose between violating America's neutrality or fighting for his life. Meanwhile, Henry's pregnant daughter-in-law Natalie (Ali Graw) and her Uncle Aaron (John Houseman) encounter more anti-semitism as they try to book passage from Europe to the US. The Winds of War was adapted by Herman Wouk from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A little-seen film, suppressed by Paramount studio executives and never released theatrically in the U.S., this drama is a powerful saga about racism. Julie Sawyer (Kristy McNichol) hits a handsome white dog with her car one night and then nurses it back to health. One day, the theretofore mild-mannered dog saves her life by viciously attacking and killing a rapist who breaks into her home. Lucy discovers that the dog has been trained to attack black skin. She consults an animal trainer, Carruthers (Burl Ives), who urges her to have the dog exterminated. But a maverick black trainer, Keys (Paul Winfield), who has tried before to break the training of such dogs but never succeeded, steps in. Director Sam Fuller had made other controversial films, but this one frightened studio executives, who deep-sixed it. It was hailed by critics when it was released in Europe. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-TV sequel to When Every Day Was the Fourth of July, a Jewish family fights prejudice in their New England community in the years before World War II. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide