Sandy Howard Movies

In this convoluted drama, a CIA agent is finally released after spending the past thirteen years imprisoned in the Soviet Union. The joy of his homecoming is shattered when he discovers his wife married to another and that his daughter has grown up. When he learns that his wife's new husband is busy battling the corrupt family who controls the town, and that this has endangered his former family, he takes action to protect them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This attempt at parodying a world of hookers, child pornographers, and drug cartels never quite gets off the ground. Though these topics are not inherently amusing, director Penelope Spheeris takes the plot of Hardcore as a springboard and develops a few parallel stories that are meant to be funny. Pauline Stanton (Trish Van DeVere) is desperately hoping to rescue her daughter Lori (Robin Wright) who is working for the evil Walsh (Frank Gorshin) as a call-girl. As some policemen work on trying to get the goods on Walsh and send him up for white slave trading, another policewoman is involved in trying to bring down a child pornographer in her neighborhood. Yet another cop, detective Romero (H.B. Haggerty) is after a New York mob boss. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Secrets of the Phantom Caverns is a goofy fantasy filmed on the cheap by the ever-canny Don Sharp. The story involves a team of anthropologists and military men who busy themselves exploring a serpentine system of subterranean caves. They discover of lost race of Albinos, which wreaks havoc upon the surface dwelling humans. The British actor Robert Powell and Timothy Bottoms star. According to some sources, Sharp and co. approached the production with extreme carelessness; thanks to an unfortunate accident, a large percentage of the cast and crew were almost fatally poisoned by carbon monoxide in the caves where the movie was filmed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The "boys next door" are Roy Alston (Maxwell Caulfield) and Bo Richards (Charlie Sheen), typical California teens freshly graduated from high school. Daunted by the prospect of the real world, the boys decide to go on one last fling in L.A. But it's not all clean, wholesome fun; in fact, Caulfield and Sheen launch their weekend bash by beating up a gas-station attendant, throwing a glass bottle at an old woman, and murdering gay-bar patron Chris (Paul C. Dancer). Somewhere along the line, Bo becomes repelled by their violence spree, but Roy seems to be sexually aroused by all the misery he's causing. And so it goes, without real rhyme or reason, until the bloody denouement. Director Penelope Spheeris later helmed Wayne's World, The Little Rascals, and The Beverly Hillbillies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It is doubtful that while acting in D. W. Griffith's Birth of a Nation back in 1914, Lillian Gish ever dreamed that seven decades later she'd be co-starring with a cute dog in something called Hambone and Hillie. It all begins at a busy airport, where octogenarian Hillie (Gish) is accidentally separated from her beloved bow-wow Hambone. In a twinkling, Hambone and Hillie find themselves on opposite coasts of the USA. The rest of the film charts the efforts of both mistress and mutt to find each other again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After being kicked off the force, Stoney Cooper (Wings Hauser) turns private detective for special cases; one involves tracking down a serial killer noted for carving X's into the forehead of each woman he kills. While Cooper is on the case, he's harassed by an old job partner (Lincoln Kilpatrick) and his ex-wife (Joyce Ingalls). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

A drought in the savannas of Kenya provides the basis for this dramatic African adventure that centers on a family living on a desiccated plantation. Their lives are further endangered by a pride of starving lions. Just before the people are devoured, they are saved by a courageous guide. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Riding the coattails of the resurgent boom in horror films after the success of Halloween, Terror Train features teeth-chattering direction by Roger Spottiswoode and pristine cinematography from John Alcott. The story is the basic slasher film premise, remounted on a moving train. A college fraternity decides to hold a New Year's Eve party on a train. But an uninvited guest, a disturbed ex-fraternity member, decides to take revenge on the partying students by killing them off one by one in increasingly grisly fashion. On board the terror train is horror film perennial Jamie Lee Curtis, along with David Copperfield, and Ben Johnson as Carne the conductor, who tries to calm the women students by saying things like, "Now you young ladies stay up here --it's too dangerous down in that other car." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The Soviets and Americans combine forces to save the world from a meteor in this science fiction disaster adventure. Bradley (Sean Connery) is an American scientist who teams up with Dubov (Brian Keith), and his translator-assistant Tatiana (Natalie Wood) later falls in love with Bradley. Hong Kong and New York are hit hard by tidal waves as the scientists race against time to prevent global disaster. Although a fine cast is assembled, nobody stands out, and the real star of the film is the special effects. This 18-million-dollar feature faced real economic disaster at the box office, although four engineers received an Oscar nomination for "Best Sound" for this forgettable film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This symbol-laden drama explores the inner mythology of martial arts practice and is based on a Bruce Lee story idea. The original screenplay was written by Bruce Lee, with help from actor James Coburn and screenwriter Stirling Silliphant. Lee was to take on the four-in-one role of guide in his film, leaving the hero's role to someone else. Following Bruce Lee's tragic death, the film was rewritten. David Carradine stepped in to play the mysterious guides to aspiring martial arts master Cord (Jeff Cooper). Cord lives in a desert-like world where nearly everyone he meets practices or has practised a martial art. He seeks to find the place where the true inner spirit of the martial arts is being taught. In a story which is imbued with Zen maxims and Asian philosophy, when Cord finally arrives, he finds less (and more) than he hoped for. While there are many combat and fight scenes, the general tone of the film is meditative. Cameo appearances by Roddy McDowall, Eli Wallach, and Christopher Lee supply many of the film's highlights. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In The Island of Dr. Moreau, which is based on a novella by H.G. Wells, Braddock (Michael York) is a decent young Englishman who has unaccountably been saved from being thrown overboard from a ship sailing in a remote area of the Pacific by the mysterious Dr. Montgomery (Nigel Davenport). Dr. Montgomery is accompanying a cargo of animals destined for a tropical island. At first an "honored guest" (prisoner) on that island, he is finds his contacts with the natives increasingly disturbing, for they are not like any men he has ever seen. Eventually it transpires that these "men" are experimental reconstructions from wild animals made by a particularly sinister scientist, Dr. Moreau (Burt Lancaster). He feels that he is in danger from the animal/men and from Dr. Moreau himself and does not know where to turn. This story was also filmed in 1933 as The Island of Lost Souls, starring Charles Laughton as the monomaniacal Dr. Moreau and was remade yet again in 1996 with Marlon Brando in the title role. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this sequel to A Man Called Horse, Richard Harris is back as a blue-blooded Englishman who returns to America to help the Indians who had once adopted him. Seeing their lands being taken over by greedy whites, he joins forces with the Sioux tribe to help them defend their birthborn rights. ~ All Movie Guide

In Sky Riders, the off-camera tale behind the film cast a more interesting story than the film itself: when a Greek electrician died during an explosion, the film's producer, Terry Morse Jr., was arrested by the Greek government, and executive producer Sandy Howard was detained in Greece for several weeks. Finally, an out-of-court settlement was reached with the Greek government to release the film producer. The plot of the actual film has nothing to do with international incidents, although it does deal, on a comic-book level, with terrorism. The wife, Ellen (Susannah York), of an international industrialist (Robert Culp) and her two children are kidnapped from their Athens home by a terrorist group and taken to an abandoned monastery on an imposing, needle-shaped crag. The police immediately snap into action. Inspector Nikolidis (Charles Aznavour) attempts to free them, but the police force fails. Coming into the picture is Ellen's ex-husband, Jim McCabe (James Coburn). Pondering the situation, he notices a couple of crows in flight and gets a brainstorm. McCabe tracks down a flying circus of hang-gliding riders and requisitions them for the rescue. The hang gliders teach McCabe to fly, and McCabe teaches them to fight. Then, on the night of a full moon, the group glides off to the monastery to save Ellen. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide