Harvey Hart Movies
Canadian director Harvey Hart launched his career in 1952, as part of a CBC Television Network talent pool that included such future "A"-list directors as Norman Jewison and Arthur Hiller. He began directing American TV programs in 1963, making his theatrical-feature debut with Bus Riley's Back in Town. While his subsequent big-screen features were mostly journeyman efforts, Hart continued to exhibit above-average skills in his TV work, which included such series as Columbo and the miniseries Passion and Paradise and East of Eden (he won a Golden Globe for this last effort). Harvey Hart's final theatrical film was 1983's Utilities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1994
In this suspenseful crime drama, the trouble begins with the murder of one of the world's richest men. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The four-hour TV movie Passion and Paradise traces the rise and fall of real-life British playboy Alfred de Marigny (Armand Assante). Little better than a gigolo, de Marigny finds himself in the Bahamas during World War II, where he romances the daughter (Catherine Mary Stewart) of fabulously wealthy Sir Harry Oakes (Rod Steiger). None of the "right people" can stomach de Marigny, but they're stuck with him once he marries Oakes' daughter. During the next few years, de Marigny manages to antagonize the Duke of Windsor (Andrew Ray), who is governor of the Bahamas; he also alienates local businessmen and infuriates a group of mobsters who want to set up a gambling casino in Nassau. As Part One of Passion and Paradise draws to a close, Sir Harry Oakes is murdered--and Alfred de Marigny is the most convenient (though not most likely) suspect. Part Two opens with the murder of Oakes in 1943. The higher-ups of the Bahama Islands sincerely hope that de Marigny is the killer, if only to get rid of the dreadful man. So anxious are certain parties to hang de Marigny that an official conspiracy to cover up vital evidence takes shape. De Marigny's only hope for salvation is an American private eye (Wayne Rogers). Filmed in Jamaica, Passion and Paradise painted so damning a portrait of Bahaman high society that several scenes (including most of those featuring the Duke of Windsor) had to be rewritten and reshot before the film's British television release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Armand Assante, Catherine Stewart, (more)
- 1989
In Part One of the 4-hour TV movie Passion and Paradise, the audience was made privy to the social rise of the redoubtable Alfred de Marigny (Armand Assante), a British wastrel living in the Bahamas who'd managed to marry the daughter (Catherine Mary Stewart) of England's richest man, Sir Harry Oakes (Rod Steiger). Part Two opens with the murder of Oakes in 1943. The higher-ups of the Bahama Islands sincerely hope that de Marigny is the killer, if only to get rid of the dreadful man. So anxious are certain parties to hang de Marigny that an official conspiracy to cover up vital evidence takes shape. De Marigny's only hope for salvation is an American private eye (Wayne Rogers)--one of the few fictional characters in this fact-based yarn. Filmed in Jamaica, Passion and Paradise painted so damning a portrait of Bahaman high society that several scenes (including most of those featuring the Duke of Windsor) had to be rewritten and reshot before the film's British TV release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Blood Sport premiered as a 2-hour installment of the syndicated TV anthology "Mystery Wheel of Adventure." It was one of three Irish/Canadian productions based on the works of mystery writer Dick Francis. As in the other Francis mysteries, Ian McShane stars as British Jockey Club investigator David Cleveland. His assignment: to locate a missing race horse, upon which the fortunes of several people (nice and otherwise) are pinned. Kenneth Welsh costars in this made-for-TV puzzler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ian McShane, Kenneth Welsh, (more)
- 1987
While private detective Benny Cooperman works on a surveillance of a millionaire evangelist who is hiding for tax reasons, he comes across a string of murders. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1987
The made-for-TV The Stone Fox is set in 1905 Wyoming. Young Joey Cramer is determined to enter his dog--played by a canine named O.J., previously the star of the "Disney Family Movie" Skeezer--in an adult-dominated sledding race. It's all for the sake of Cramer's ailing, destitute grandpa Buddy Ebsen. The boy's competition for the $150 prize is more than formidable: the winner for the past several years has been taciturn Shoshone Indian Stone Fox (Gordon Tootoosis) and his intimidating team of Samoyeds. Filmed in Canada, The Stone Fox was originally telecast March 30, 1987--smack-dab opposite the annual Academy Awards ceremony (no wonder you've never heard of the film). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Faye Dunaway stars as a successful madam who is faced with difficulties from her "girls" in this made-for-TV movie. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
Another of the many Sidney Sheldon novels given the TV-miniseries treatment in the 1970s and '80s, Master of the Game yielded a three-part, nine-hour extravaganza, with enough corporate and romantic intrigue to fill an entire television season. Covering nearly 100 years, the story (which remained astonishingly faithful to the book) begins in the late 19th century, when ruthless young Scottish entrepreneur Jamie McGregor (Ian Charleson) emigrates to South Africa, in hopes of accumulating enough wealth and power to get even with his longtime enemy, Dutch merchant Van der Merwe (Donald Pleasence). Thanks to an extremely prolific diamond mine, the money comes quickly -- as does vengeance, when McGregor deflowers Van der Merwe's convent-educated daughter, Margaret (Cherie Lunghi). The result of this indiscretion is a daughter named Kate (Dyan Cannon), who turns out to be the "Master" of the title. Upon attaining adulthood, Kate assumes control of her father's vast financial empire, ruling her inherited international conglomerate, and her husband, David Blackwell (David Birney), with an iron fist. The story continues into the next several generations, with Kate's lily-livered son, Tony (Harry Hamlin), giving birth to twin daughters, Eve and Alexandra (both played by Liane Langland). One is good, the other evil; the evil twin threatens threaten to destroy everything that Kate has so painstakingly built up. Eventually, they both become the victims of a sneering, malevolent gigolo (Fernando Allende) with a penchant for beating young women senseless. Told in flashback, the narrative comes to a head during Kate's 90th birthday celebration, an event tainted by the efforts of a mysterious killer to wipe the domineering matriarch and her family from the face of the earth. Largely filmed on location, Master of the Game was telecast by CBS from February 19 to 22, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dyan Cannon, Harry Hamlin, (more)
- 1984
Made for cable, Reckless Disregard was clearly inspired by the 1983 court trial involving Dan Rather of 60 Minutes and Dr. Carl Galloway, who felt he was wrongly linked to a pill-dispensing clinic. Leslie Nielsen stars as arrogant TV reporter Bob Franklin, who as part of a lengthy investigative piece for the weekly newsmagazine Hourglass, accuses a Queens, NY doctor, Edward Lucas (Frank Adamson) of illegally trafficking prescription drugs. His reputation in tatters, the doctor wants to sue for slander, but hasn't the money or the position to adequately confront his powerful tormentors. Thus it is up to storefront legal-services attorney Meredith Craig (Tess Harper) to take on Franklin and his bosses in court -- a task made all the more difficult by smug, sophisticated defense counsel Jack Coburn (Henry Ramer). Filmed in Canada, Reckless Disregard debuted March 17, 1985, on Showtime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tess Harper, Leslie Nielsen, (more)
College student Pondo Sinatra (Matthew Causey is anything but a party animal in this sexually explicit, low, low-budget film about his main goal in life: luring coeds into his boudoir, or wherever. Pondo is more successful at attracting flies than women, and so he begs the Devil himself to help him out a little -- and lo and behold, the winsome Miranda (Suzanne Ashley) shows up as if on cue. Some foggy dream sequences are probably meant to explain her presence, but exactly who she is seems to be irrelevant to connecting one sexual sequence with another -- which apparently need no real reason for continuity anyway. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Causey, Timothy Carhart, (more)
- 1983
In this weakly limned comedy, romance, and social drama, Bob Hunt (Robert Hays) is a dedicated social worker out to save an elderly woman from having her heat shut off in the dead of winter. But his noble intentions are thwarted by Marion Edwards (Brooke Adams) a plainclothes policewoman, a barrage of municipal red tape, and an unscrupulous tycoon in the electrical power industry who will stop at nothing to make a tidy profit. When the elderly woman loses her bid for heat on a technicality and dies as a result, Bob starts a computer vendetta against the utility companies that sparks a counterattack by the industrial magnate out to enhance his own power. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hays, Brooke Adams, (more)
- 1982
Born Beautiful proposes that model Erin Grey is over the hill when she turns 27. We don't believe it, but the plot hinges upon Grey's rivalry with the younger, more aggressive Lori Singer. Some of the characters are straight out of Valley of the Dolls, especially the neurotic pill-popper played by Barbara Blackburn. Polly Bergen comes off best in the stock role of a no-nonsense model agency head. Made for television, Born Beautiful was originally telecast on November 1, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Massarati (Daniel Pilon) is a fabulously wealthy adventurer-for-hire who uses a wide array of electronic gadgets to carry out his various missions. "The Brain," aka Christopher (Peter Billingsley), is Massarati's 12-year-old nephew, and the creator of most of Unk's gadgetry. Together with such confederates as sexy spy leader Julie Ramsdell (Markie Post) and ever-resourceful butler, Anatole (Christopher Hewitt), Massarati and Christopher endeavor to steal back a fabulous art collection from a larcenous neo-Nazi named Victor Leopold (Christopher Lee). The pilot for an unsold tongue-in-cheek espionage series from the Aaron Spelling plant, Massarati and the Brain debuted August 26, 1982, on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel Pilon, Peter Billingsley, (more)
- 1982
In this drama, the life of a TV reporter is jeopardized during her investigation of a series of murdered nurses. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The 1955 film version of John Steinbeck's East of Eden will always be popular because of the presence in the cast of James Dean. Even so, the film covered only a small portion of the original novel. For those Steinbeck completists who prefer a more thorough treatment, we submit for your approval the TV miniseries adaptation of East of Eden, which first aired February 8, 9 and 11, 1981. This eight-hour dramatization begins in the years following the Civil War. Braggadocio union officer Cyrus Trask (Warren Oates) is the father of gentle, loyal Adam (Timothy Bottoms) and hellraiser Charles (Bruce Boxleitner). Enter the bewitching, mean-spirited Cathy Ames (Jane Seymour), who leads both brothers on and causes an irreparable rift between them. Eventually, Adam marries Cathy, taking her and their twin sons to a 900-acre farm in California's Salinas Valley. Cathy rebels against this cloistered existence and runs off to work in a house of ill repute. In Part Three, we finally meet the "James Dean" character: Cal Trask (played by Timothy Bottoms' brother Sam), who can never hope to come up to the standards of his "good" twin brother Aron (Hart Bochner) in the eyes of his father. Cal's "bad" reputation obscures his good intentions, but by film's end he is compelled to reveal to brother Aron that their mother had not died as father Adam has claimed, but in fact has become a hard-bitten bordello "madam". Adapted for television by Richard Shapiro, East of Eden was part of ABC's informal "Novels for Television" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Bottoms, Jane Seymour, (more)
- 1981
- PG
A fugitive (Timothy Bottoms) and a handicapped woman (Linda Purl) on the run in the wilds of the Canadian Rockies fall in love in this adventure film from Harvey Hart. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Bottoms, Linda Purl, (more)
- 1980
The science-fiction and detective-story genres are combined in the made-for-TV The Aliens are Coming. Tom Mason plays an astrophysicist who is convinced that malevolent extraterrestrials are in our midst. It is Mason's contention that the invaders have assumed human form, in preparation for world conquest (sound familiar?) Originally telecast March 2, 1980, The Aliens are Coming later showed up in an expanded version as a two-parter, shown on NBC over two consecutive weekends. The project began as a TV pilot film titled Alien Force. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Aliens are planning to invade the Earth, from within the bodies of humans. An astrophysicist and his assistant realize this plan, and discover that they are targeted as part of the plan. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1979
Based on a true story, the made-for-TV Like Normal People IS the story of a romance between two mentally challenged adults. In his first dramatic acting appearance, Shaun Cassidy plays Roger Meyers, a mildly retarded man who, while living in a home for the handicapped, falls in love with another resident, Virginia Rae Hensler (Linda Purl). Despite the fierce opposition of their parents--not to mention one of the administrators, who regards such a union as "a social obscenity"--Roger and Virginia are determined not only to marry, but to raise a family. Virtually their only ally is teacher Bill Stein (Zalman King), who formulates a stringent training program to show the couple the obstacles that they will face, and must overcome, in their future lives. Like Normal People made its ABC debut on April 13, 1979, a scant three weeks after the broadcast of the similarly themed No Other Love. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shaun Cassidy, Linda Purl, (more)
- 1978
Made for television, Standing Tall guest-stars Chuck Connors as one Major Roland Hartline. A proud, ruthless Depression-era cattle baron, Major Hartline carries on a range war with half-breed rancher Luke Shasta (Robert Forster). This isn't The Rifleman, so Chuck Connors is the bad guy. On Luke Shasta's side is full-blooded Native American Lonnie Moon (One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest's Will Sampson) and Luke's ex-schoolmarm wife (Linda Evans). Standing Tall first stood on its own two feet on January 21, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Captains Courageous is Rudyard Kipling's story of a wealthy, spoiled teenager who matures into responsible manhood during an enforced voyage on a fishing schooner. The 1937 MGM version of the Kipling tale lowered the age of the protagonist to accommodate juvenile star Freddie Bartholomew, and re-shaped the plot so that the Portuguese fisherman Manuel, played by Spencer Tracy, would be the leading role. This 1977 TV-movie version wisely restores the full age of Harvey Cheyne (Jonathan Kahn), reiterating Kipling's point that it's never too late to steer a young man on the right path. The 1977 version also relegates Manuel (Ricardo Montalban) to the secondary position he held in the novel, strengthening the growing friendship and mutual respect between young Harvey and wise old captain Danko (Karl Malden). Filmed on location off the Maine coast, The TV version of Captains Courageous originally aired December 4, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
The Prince of Central Park is 11-year-old Jay Jay (T. J. Hargrave). An orphan from Hell's Kitchen who has been shunted from one foster home to another, Jay Jay is conditioned to despise, or at the very least distrust, all adults and authority figures. Running off to Central Park, Jay Jay and his kid sister Laurie (Lisa Richard) set up housekeeping in an abandoned treehouse. There they remain, cut off from the adult world, until a third "outcast" joins them: Mrs. Miller (Ruth Gordon), a lonely widow with a boundless capacity for loving, giving, and caring. First telecast June 17, 1977, the made-for-TV Prince of Central Park was adapted by Jeb Rosebrook from a novel by Evan H. Rhodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
The superb made-for-TV drama Goldenrod invokes vivid memories of television's Golden Age of the 1950s. Tony LoBianco heads the cast as Jess Gifford, a former rodeo champion permanently sidelined by a crippling accident. Things get worse when Jess' wife Shirley (Gloria Carlin) walks out on him, leaving him to raise his two sons alone. Jess undergoes a great deal of soul-searching until, with the help of eldest son Ethan (Will MacMillan), he finally discerns a light at the end of the tunnel. Produced by David Susskind and filmed in Canada, Goldenrod debuted June 1, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
- R
Derivative of the John Boorman action thriller Deliverance (1972), this grim, ostensibly socially-conscious parable is at its best moments disturbing, and at its worst, absurd. Cliff Robertson stars as Rex, a gun enthusiast and military veteran who, with his buddies Lou (Ernest Borgnine) and Zeke (Henry Silva), stalks wild game in the forest. It's a weekend ritual that Rex in particular eagerly anticipates, as he is bored and disillusioned with his marriage and career. After a frustrating day that's left them empty-handed, however, the party comes to a river. Another band of hunters appears on the other side, menacingly staring them down. Suddenly a gun goes off, and Zeke retaliates by shooting and killing one of the men on the other riverbank. After an exchange of gunfire, Rex and his friends win the skirmish, driving their attackers off. Deciding to keep the incident a secret from the police, they round up a posse of friends and pursue the other hunters through the woods in a bloody mini-war that only the reasonable Lou seems to question. Shoot also bears some passing similarity to a later and far superior film, Southern Comfort (1981). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cliff Robertson, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
