Piers Haggard Movies
- 1998
Piers Haggard directed this whimsical Canadian-British comedy-drama set in tiny Conquest, Saskatchewan (pop. 124), where local banker Pincer Bedier (Lothar Bluteau) encourages new businesses. After the Alfa Romeo of Daisy MacDonald (Tara Fitzgerald) stalls in Conquest, Pincer recruits her to run the local hardware store in a trade for repairs to her vehicle. Shown at the 1998 Montreal World Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lothaire Bluteau, Tara Fitzgerald, (more)
- 1996
Empty-nest syndrome confronts some harried parents in this BBC made-for-television movie. When two sets of parents go off to Cambridge for college enrollment interviews for their children, the realization that the kids are grown up and moving on finally hits home. The film has some touching moments with its somewhat familiar theme. It was followed by a sequel the following year, Cold Enough For Snow. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1994
Donald Sutherland stars as a mad scientist in this made-for-television sci-fi thriller. CIA agent Jessica Saunders (Mimi Kuzyk) has been assigned to work in the lab of scientist Dr. Maclean (Sutherland) to gather information. Maclean is doing experiments that seem fascinating and harmless, but Saunders soon finds out that his goals are far more frightening. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Made for cable television, this frothy western spoof chronicles the exploits of a citified optometrist who exchanges his well-ordered Big Apple life for a wild and woollier version in Tombstone, Arizona. Once there, he is thrilled to meet his hero Wyatt Earp. Unfortunately, the heroic Earp he admired in the many dime-store novels he read is totally different from the real McCoy who turns out to be myopic and continually skunk drunk. Still with the optometrist's help, the sheriff is able to clean up the town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1990
Produced for the Disney Cable TV service, Back Home stars one of the great names of Disney's golden years, Hayley Mills. Mills plays the mother of a British teenager (Hayley Carr), evacuated to the US during World War II. When hostilities cease, everyone looks forward to a tender reunion with the young girl. But the road back is not a smooth one, and there's many a tearful moment before a happy ending can even be considered. Filmed on location in England, Back Home is an unabashed three-handkerchief production. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hayley Mills, Hayley Carr, (more)
- 1990
I'll Take Romance has nothing to do with the old Grace Moore musical film of the same name. Rather, this 1990 TV movie is about a publicity contest. Dressed in Joan Crawford Chic, Linda Evans plays a Seattle TV meteorologist, assigned to host a contest to find the most romantic man in Puget Sound. Evans' boyfriend Tom Skerritt stews on the sidelines as she wends her way through the studdish contestants. Since Skerritt plays a judge, is there a remote possibility that I'll Take Romance will have a crucial courtroom scene somewhere along the line? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Evans, Tom Skerritt, (more)
- 1989
Based on a novel by LaVyrle Spenser, this made-for-TV drama was originally titled The Fulfillment of Mary Gray. Cheryl Ladd stars as Mary, a farm woman living in 1910 Minnesota. Mary's husband (Ted Levine) is not only neglectful, but impotent. Anxious to have an heir, he suggests that she allow his brother (Lewis Smith) to impregnate her! Needless to say, love blossoms between Mary and her fertile brother-in-law. Filmed in Texas (which looks like Minnesota if you squint a lot), The Fulfillment of Mary Gray was first telecast February 19, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
- PG13
Megan (Imogen Stubbs) is a pretty country girl who falls in love with urban attorney Ashton (James Wilby) in this romantic social drama. Ashton remains in Devon when he injures his ankle and elects to stay longer because of his crush on Megan. Promising to return for her, Ashton leaves Megan and visits an old school friend in Torquay. The procrastinating barrister falls for his friend's sister Stella (Sophie Ward) and forgets about his promise to Megan. When she travels to Torquay to locate the man she loves, the spineless Ashton cowers behind closed shutters instead of facing the brokenhearted Megan. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Imogen Stubbs, James Wilby, (more)
- 1985
Here's another spin-off adventure from the classic Treasure Island story. Volume 4 contains two episodes: "Fugitives" and "In Chains," where the hero Jim Hawkins finds himself in jail with none other than his old pal, Long John Silver. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1985
Here's another spin-off adventure from the classic Treasure Island story. Volume 3 contains two episodes: "Manhunt" and "The Crow's Nest." ~ All Movie Guide
- 1985
This spin-off of the classic Treasure Island story contains two episodes. In "The Island of the Damned" and "Jamaica." Together Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver encounter adventures galore as they go back to the famed island. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1985
Set a decade after the events of the Robert Louis Stevenson novel, this series, produced by the Disney Channel, details the exploits of a reunited Jim Hawkins (Christopher Guard) and Long John Silver (Brian Blessed). Volume One contains the episodes "The Map" and "The Mutiny." ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In this last volume from the Treasure Island series, the young Mr. Hawkins and his cohort Long John Silver flee their prison captivity to return to Treasure Island, again searching for the long-lost pirate treasure. ~ All Movie Guide
A big black mamba snake that has gotten loose in a townhouse slithers through a kidnapping plot in this film. Based on a novel by Alan Scholefield, Venom features a big name British cast that seems to be slumming in a B-movie project. Dr. Marion Stowe (Sarah Miles) is a toxicologist who has brought the snake to London to study the properties of its deadly venom. It escapes and terrorizes the inhabitants of the townhouse, where an attempted kidnapping is in progress. Dave (Oliver Reed), Jacmel (Klaus Kinski) and Louise (Susan George) are the villains trying to hold the son of a wealthy family for ransom. Original director Tobe Hooper was replaced by Piers Haggard. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Klaus Kinski, Oliver Reed, (more)
- 1980
- PG
Peter Sellers gets to play both hero and bad guy at the same time in this comedy variation on Sax Rohmer's infamous stories of Asian super-villian Fu Manchu. The 168-year-old Fu Manchu (Sellers) is starting to run out of the youth-preserving formula that has kept him alive and kicking for the past eight or so decades, and he decides it's high time he made up some more. However, the list of ingredients includes a few items you can't usually get at your corner drug store, and Fu and his minions become a crime wave of their own as they attempt to steal an ancient Egyptian mummy and the Crown Jewels of England. (In the meantime, Fu keeps his heart beating by administering himself the occasional electric shock.) When word gets out that the evil Fu Manchu is back, his long-time nemesis, Scotland Yard's Nayland Smith (also played by Sellers), is put on the case, but like Fu, Smith isn't quite the man he used to be after all these years. Peter Sellers also contributed to the screenplay of The Fiendish Plot of Dr. Fu Manchu without credit, and is said to have briefly taken over as director, though the results lack the snap of his best work; sadly, it would prove to be the great comic's last film. Sid Caesar, Hellen Mirren, and David Tomlinson also appear in the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Sellers, Helen Mirren, (more)
Adapted from the novel by H.E. Bates, the British miniseries Love for Lydia featured Mel Martin in the title role. A young and giddy heiress, Lydia spent the better part of the 1930s holding several eligible bachelors in her thrall. Meanwhile, long-suffering Edward Richardson (Christopher Blake), convinced that he'd be the heroine's one true love if only given the chance, stood quietly on the sidelines as the impulsive Lydia toyed with the emotions of his rivals. The 13 hour-long episodes of Love for Lydia were originally aired over London Weekend Television in 1977, then telecast in America as part of PBS' Masterpiece Theatre anthology beginning September 23, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mel Martin, Jeremy Irons, (more)
The Quatermass Conclusion is comprised of highlights from the 1979 British TV serial of the same name. Like the earlier Quatermass projects of the 1950s and 1960s, the guiding force behind Conclusion was prolific screenwriter Nigel Kneale, though the series (and the film) hardly represent his best work. This time John Mills is Prof. Bernard Quatermass, once more trying to convince the authorities that malevolent extraterrestrials do indeed exist. Quatermass' quandary is the sudden disappearance of several London youths. He deduces that the missing persons are the victims of a "death ray," wielded by hostile space aliens. Though movie special effects had made great strides by 1979, Quatermass Conclusion looks cheaper and less convincing than the classic Quatermass films (The Creeping Unknown, Enemy From Space, Five Million Miles To Earth) which preceded it in the 1950s and 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Mills, Simon MacCorkindale, (more)
Not to be confused with Herbert Ross' 1981 remake starring Steve Martin and Bernadette Peters, the highly acclaimed British television miniseries Pennies from Heaven was the breakthrough work of acclaimed screenwriter Dennis Potter, a rich drama set in 1930s London that uses popular songs as both subject and technique. The story, which centers on the dreams and romances of a sheet-music salesman named Arthur Parker (Bob Hoskins), is punctuated by musical numbers where the characters lip-sync to the original recording, providing the audience with a glimpse of the characters' inner worlds. A dreamer who believes in the perfect world depicted in the pop songs, Arthur is frustrated by financial worries and a strained, sexless marriage. Seeking an escape, on a business trip he falls in love with a small-town teacher; pretending to be a wealthy songwriter, he courts her, and finds a kindred spirit. However, despite the promises of the love songs, they soon finds themselves headed towards further challenges and a potentially tragic end. Potter and director Piers Haggard create a unique sort of musical by using pre-existing songs and setting them in distinctly realistic contexts, contrasting the idealistic, carefree songs with the harsher economic, social, and interpersonal realities of the surrounding world. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hoskins
- 1975
The "Love School" was the popular designation bestowed upon the Pre-Raphaelite art movement in England and Europe during the mid-19th century. This six-part British miniseries dramatized selected events in the lives of such Love School disciples as John Ruskin, John Everett Millais, Elizabeth Siddall, and Dante Gabriel Rosetti, all of them equally talented within the realms of painting, poetry, and criticism. The BBC series opened on January 22, 1975 with the episode titled "The Brotherhood." Subsequent 75-minute installments of Love School included "An Impeccable Elopement" (January 29), "Seeking the Bubbles" (February 5), "Remember Me" (February 12), "Beata Beatrix" (February 19), and "The Artisan" (February 26), all in 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Police procedure collided head-on with stargazing in this 6-part British drama series. Anton Rodgers headed the cast as Scotland Yard detective David Gradley. While tracking down an elusive culprit, Gradley detected a pattern in the miscreant's crimes, one related to the signs of the zodiac. Thus, our hero enlisted the services of astrologer Esther Jones (Anouska Hempel) to solve the case. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anouska Hempel, Anton Rodgers, (more)
- 1970
After a plowboy accidentally unearths the skeletal remains of a demonic creature, a cult of teenage devil-worshippers emerges in a 17th-century Cornwall farming community, led by the gorgeous temptress Angel (Linda Hayden, who positively smolders). Together, the children begin performing blood sacrifices in order to bring the skeletal demon back to life. The film eventually steers into witch-hunt territory -- in the vein of Michael Reeves' Witchfinder General -- as the superstitious locals use inquisition-style practices to put a stop to Hayden's cult. This lush, moody horror piece is superbly written, though the plot becomes a bit dense at times; the film was originally intended as a three-part series, but was eventually edited down to one feature. Still, Piers Haggard's assured direction keeps the threads together and provides just enough shock value to keep viewers on their toes. Watch for Peter Ustinov's daughter Tamara as one of the children. The Blood on Satan's Claw was also released as Satan's Claw and Satan's Skin. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
