Laurence Heath Movies
- 1996
This episode takes place in Osaka, Japan, where a wealthy motor-company executive has promised his daughter in marriage to the son of a business associate. An American race-car driver (Rick Walsh) dares to defy tradition by romancing the girl himself--and when the girl's husand-to-be is killed, the driver not only faces murder charges, but also the likelihood of his own murder. Having arrived in Osaka to deliver a computer disk to the luckless driver, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) ends up playing detective for the 252nd time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Appointed honorary commodore of the World's Cup Regatta, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) bears witness to the intense rivalry between yachtsmen Kyle Kimball (John Getz) and Ned Larkin (Steve Forrest). Sustaining a pre-race injury, Larkin turns the command of his vessel "Free Spirit" over to his daughter Anne (Andrea Parker). Then, two days before the race, Kyle is murdered--and Anne finds herself the number one suspect. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Seth Hazlitt (William Windom arranges for Cabot Cove to stage a rock concert benefit to save a local patch of woods. The star of the concert is Tommy Vaughn (eith Coulouris), a popular singer who is anything but popular to the people who work for him. Inevitably, a murder occurs, with an electric guitar as the weapon. Jessica (Angela Lansbury) plays a few detection riffs herself to find out which of the dead man's many enemies is the guilty party. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Jessica (Angela Lansbury) and Seth (William Windom) are invited to the South Carolina plantation owned by Seth's cousin, a wealthy botanist. The visit becomes somewhat less than pleasant when the cousin turns up murdered. Evidently there are several people who would have benefited from this death, but the clues aren't quite so plentiful--but as always, Jessica needs only one or two clues to tighten the noose around the guilty party's neck. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based on a popular novel by Judith Krantz, this sudsy romantic drama features a prominent photographer who heads to Gay Paree, unaware that greedy family members are plotting to bilk her father out of his valuable ranch land. Love blossoms in the City of Light when she encounters a fellow picture taker. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lisa Hartman, Cliff Robertson, (more)
- 1995
Murder and treachery invade the rarefied world of high fashion in Paris. It is Jessica (Angela Lansbury) who exposes the misery behind all the glamour when she learns of the grimy sweatshops that turn out the much of the expensive clothing worn by Parisian society. Complicating matters is a complex Jewel smuggling ring--and the inevitable corpse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
In Hawaii, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is the guest of Matt Kinkaid (Ken Howard), patriarch of a powerful and influential island family. At present, Kinkaid is supervising the political campaign of his son Jeff (Ted W. Henning) in an upcoming senatorial election. The younger Kinkaid's opponent obviously revels in "playing dirty"--and he's harboring a secret that threatens to tear the Kinkaid clan apart. Needless to say, murder is the logical extension of politics in this case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
This time the murder victim is a nasty and abusive loan shark (Robert Beltran). The main suspect is the shark's stepson, a young graffiti artist (William Gallo). A picture taken with infrared film would seem to prove the young man's guilt beyond all doubt. Ah, but the police have reckoned without Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury--who just so happens to be the suspect's writing teacher, and as such is inclined to believe him innocent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
The tenth season of Murder, She Wrote begins as Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) travels to Hong Kong, where she attends a banquet honoring a high-profile American businessman. With Jessica in attendance, a murder is a foregone conclusion--and sure enough, the businessman is poisoned to death. Coul this be tied in with the dead man's efforts to merge with the head of a controversial Chinese manufacturing firm? The answer may be within a hundred-year-old egg that Jessica holds in her well-manicured hand. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
A much-hated slumlord who has long been victimizing the denizens of his racially mixed neighborhood heads to the local church to seek absolution from the priest--who happens to also be the slumlord's son. The sinner subsequent dies, and it is determined that a poison spray was the murder weapon. As luck would have it, Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is teaching a course on mystery writing in the selfsame church...and she has just finished discussing the various and sundry uses of poison! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Season Nine of Murder, She Wrote gets under way with an episode set at a Milan Film Festival, where Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) is attending the premiere of a movie based on one of her novels. The film's producer Catherine Wayne (Susan Blakely) is as well known for her string of box-office successes as she is for her shabby treatment of underlings; in fact, as the story begins, she is seen refusing to release an up-and-coming young director from his ultra-restrictive contract. Inevitably, Catherine is murdered, and Jessica is obliged to investigate the case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Triumph of the Spirit is the true story of Salamo Arouch, a Greek-Jewish boxer imprisoned in Auschwitz during World War II. Arrested while attempting to help his family and friends escape the Nazi juggernaut, Arouch (Dafoe) is slated for extermination. He manages to survive--and to serve as an inspiration for his fellow inmates--by literally boxing for his life. He does this at the orders of his SS captors, who gamble on the outcome of Arouch's bouts. With each victory, Arouch is rewarded with extra bread rations, which he passes on to his family. Counterpointing the main story is the seemingly foredoomed romantic relationship between Arouch and female inmate Allegra (Wendy Gazelle). An uplifting coda rounds out this grim factual account. Triumph of the Spirit was filmed on location at Auschwitz--the first film of its kind to be lensed in that infamous locale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Willem Dafoe, Edward James Olmos, (more)
- 1985
Leading man Gabriel Byrne adds a "Harlequin Romance" dash to the two-part, six-hour TV movie Christopher Columbus. Seeking out a swifter route to the lucrative Indies, Genoa-born Columbus begs King John of Portugal (Max Von Sydow) to finance a westbound expedition. Failing this, he turns to Spain's Queen Isabella (Faye Dunaway), who is entranced by Columbus' near-religious fervor. After the famous 1492 expedition, Columbus is bankrolled for future forays into the New World, which win him both adulation and vilification. Originally telecast May 19 and 20, 1985, Christopher Columbus was filmed on location in Spain, Malta and the Dominican Republic, making full use of a $15 million budget. It isn't an earth-shattering cinematic experience, but is lots more worthwhile (and less ponderous) than the brace of Columbus biopics inflicted upon movie audiences in 1992. Those concerned with political correctness should be satisfied with the film's second half, which explores the more sinister elements of chauvinistic colonization. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this drama, a woman struggles to rise to the top of the fashion industry, but as she does, her past business sins come back to haunt her. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joan Collins, Timothy Dalton, (more)
- 1980
Donald A. Stanwood's original novel The Memory of Eva Ryker used the Titanic tragedy as its launching pad. This made-for-TV adaptation of Stanwood's book moved the action up some 27 years, motivating its plotline with the torpedoing of an Athenia-type luxury liner in 1939. The film flashes forward to 1961: millionaire Ralph Bellamy, who lost his wife when the ship went down, hires writer Robert Foxworth (a discredited ex-cop) to investigate the sinking. Bellamy's grown daughter Natalie Wood, who'd survived the ordeal, seems to hold the secret, but she's been in a near-lunatic state for over twenty years. When several other survivors of the sinking are murdered, it becomes all the more crucial to unlock Wood's pent-up memories. In the tradition of Brian De Palma's Obsession (75), Natalie Wood not only plays the title role of Eva Ryker, but also Eva's ill-fated mother. The Memory of Eva Ryker was produced by "master of disaster" Irwin Allen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Who better than former stuntman Hal Needham to direct the made-for-TV Stunts Unlimited? Glenn Corbett stars as former CIA agent Dirk Macauley, who enlists three movie stunt experts as an elite counter-espionage team. Macauley's "angels"-two male, one female-are Bo Carlson (Sam Jones), Matt Lewis (Chip Mayer) and C.C. Brandt (Susan Dalton-and do you want to bet that Macauley originally thought that "C.C." was a guy?) Their first assignment: retrieve a deadly laser weapon, stolen by special guest villain Alejandro Ray. While this 2-hour TV pilot didn't sell, the similarly themed The Fall Guy did. Stunts Unlimited debuted January 4, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
The most surprising aspect of the made-for-TV Ski Lift to Death is that it wasn't produced by Irwin Allen. Two ski-lift gondolas derail, hanging perilously close to destruction. Among the passengers are a former gangster and the hit man assigned to kill him. Also on board are a pair of champion skiiers who've been linked in a publicity-generated romance. Real-life ski champ Suzy Chaffee plays Maureen; the rest of the cast includes such TV stalwarts as Deborah Raffin, Howard Duff, Don Galloway, Don Johnson, Veronica Hamel and Clu Gulager. Ski Lift to Death was originally telecast March 3, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
The cartoon firm of Hanna-Barbera produced the live-action TV movie The Beasts are On the Streets. No, the beasts aren't Yogi Bear, Snagglepuss and Scooby-Doo, but instead a contingent of dangerous jungle animals. A tanker truck has smashed through the fence at a Texas game preserve, releasing the beasts upon a screaming and scrambling populace. Zoologist Carol Lynley tries to predict where the animals are most likely to strike-and strike they do, 'cause they're smarter than the av-er-age beasts. Filmed on location in Grand Prairie, Texas, The Beasts are On The Streets was first telecast May 18, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Seventh Avenue followed Captains and the Kings and Once an Eagle as the third attraction on NBC's Best Sellers series of 1976-77. This adaptation of Norman Borger's novel stars Steven Keats as Jay Blackman, who rises from the New York tenements of the 1930s to become a powerful figure in the garment industry of the 1940s and 1950s. Along the way, Blackman has his fair share of amorous and life-threatening situations. At times he seems to do nothing but hold off women with one hand, and stave off the Mob with the other. Presented in three 2-hour installments from February 10 through February 24, 1977, Seventh Avenue was followed by the fourth and final Best Sellers installment, The Rheinman Exchange. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
In this made-for-TV film later adapted into a TV series, a special detective (Robert Stack) and his unit investigate a series of attacks involving the rape and murder of nuns. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Call to Danger was a title that had already been applied to two unsold pilot films before this TV movie made its first appearance in February of 1973. Like the previous 1968 Call to Danger, the 1973 film stars Peter Graves as a federal agent who enlists "ordinary" people to solve crimes. Headquartered in Washington DC (where most of this film was shot), Graves selects his erstwhile agents by means of a computer. The case at hand is the retrieval of an underworld informer who has been kidnapped. Peter Graves appeared in Call to Danger even while his series Mission: Impossible was in production; there was talk that Mission: Impossible would soon be cancelled, and Graves wanted a pilot film to fall back on. Come September of 1973, there was neither hide nor hair of Mission: Impossible, Call to Danger or Peter Graves on any network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
This TV movie stars Bill Bixby as a professional magician who is wrongly accused of a crime and sent to prison. Upon his release, Bixby swears to fight criminals and wrongdoers and to champion the underdog, using his prestidigitory skills to accomplish this. The film proudly states in its prologue that all the illusions seen during the story are actual magic tricks, minus special camera effects--though it strains credibility to assume that Bixby carries a prop for every occasion to confound the crooks at a moment's notice. The Magician was transformed into a weekly 60-minute series in the fall of 1973. The series lasted only one season, the victim of executive indecision over whether to play the series straight or with tongue in cheek. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Syndicate loan sharks Ollie Shanks (Paul Koslo) and Rudy Blake (Lou Antonio) must be intercepted before they can transfer $10 million from Hawaii to California. Assigned to put Shanks and Blake out of business, IMF agent Willy ends up being captured himself. As the villains inject Willy with near-fatal doses of truth serum, his fellow agents race against time to complete his mission before their cover is blown. Scripted by Jackson Gillis and Laurence Heath from a story by Gillis, "Double Dead" originally aired on February 12, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Greg Morris, (more)
- 1972
"Committed" was first telecast on January 22, 1972, the same day that the latest cast of Mission:Impossible appeared on the cover of TV Guide. Bert Freed guest stars as Syndicate chieftan Leon Chandler, whose trial for murder may end in acquittal thanks to the actions of a corrupt lieutenant governor. The key witness against Chandler, Nora Dawson (Susan Howard), is slowly being driven insane in a mob-controlled mental hospital. The IMF's mission: To infiltrate the hospital, rescue Nora, and expose Chandler's political stooge. Series regular Lynda Day George steals the show with her impersonation of a deranged woman. "Committed" was scripted by Arthur Weiss, from a story by Laurence Heath. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Greg Morris, (more)
