David E. Jackson Movies
- 1984
- PG
Harold Gould and Justin Dana are the Dream Chasers in this low-key family film. Gould is a curmudgeonly septuagenarian facing bankruptcy. Dana is an 11-year-old boy battling cancer. Together, these two lost souls try to forge a new life in the darkest days of the Depression. Though by and large suitable for all ages, Dream Chasers is rated PG due to language and tense situations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Slow-paced and with mediocre acting, this family-oriented mystery story focuses on the search for a missing treasure and for answers to the disappearance of a young girl nearly a century earlier. Susan (Randi Brown) and her brother Johnny (David Wagner) are on vacation at their aunt's and uncle's house (Jane Ferguson and Greg Wynne) when they come across an old map that may be a clue in finding a cache of gold. Susan has been having bad dreams about Rachel, a young girl who disappeared in 1889 in a nearby mansion (now run-down and crumbling) when her parents were killed by bank robbers. After Susan and Johnny make friends with Billy (Lindsay Bishop) their neighbor, all three children join together to look for the treasure, and to find out what happened to Rachel. In one interlude, two escaped convicts menace the youngsters for awhile, but some clever action by their friend and neighbor Sam (Dallas McKennon) saves the day. Now all they have to do is find the answers to their two big questions -- where is the gold, and what happened to Rachel? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dal McKennon, Greg Wynne, (more)
- 1983
- PG
One of the precious few westerns produced in the 1980s, Sacred Ground aspires to be a social statement. Tim McIntire plays a white settler who weds Indian woman Serene Hedlin. The couple is ostracized by the white and Indian community alike, and are forced to pull up stakes. En route to their new home, the pregnant Serene suddenly gives birth. Unfortunately, the couple's child is born on sacred burial ground, making their already precarious place in society all the more shaky. Sacred Ground represents the last film appearance of onetime Wagon Train regular Tim McIntire, the son of actors John McIntire and Jeanette Nolan. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
He sees you when you're sleeping, he knows when you're awake, and it's best not to get on his bad side in this quirky thriller that's gained a loyal cult following. Harry Straddling (Brandon Maggart) was traumatized as a child, when late at night on Christmas Eve, he walked into the family living room and saw his father, dressed as Santa Claus, having sex with his mother. Now grown to adulthood, Harry is malignly obsessed with the holiday season, particularly the myths of Santa Claus; he works for a toy company, he sleeps in a Santa suit, his apartment is stuffed with Christmas memorabilia, and he spies on the neighborhood children, keeping track of who has been good and bad. Harry's insistence that the toy company maintain high manufacturing standards does little to endear him to his co-workers, and his brother Phillip (Jeffrey DeMunn) thinks Harry has started to go off the deep end. One day, Harry snaps, and after dressing up as Santa, he steals a truckload of toys and delivers them to a mental hospital as presents for the young patients -- all well and good. But when Harry is then confronted by a group of people who don't believe he's Father Christmas, Harry reacts with violence, setting off a murder spree. Terror in Toyland (which was first released as You Better Watch Out and is now available on video as Christmas Evil) also features Patricia Richardson, who makes her film debut in a small role more than a decade before she gained fame on the TV series Home Improvement. Danny Federici of Bruce Springsteen's E-Street Band also has a cameo, as an accordion player at a community center dance. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brandon Maggart, Diane Hull, (more)
- 1976
There is danger hidden in the Navajo cave which intrigues a couple of young explorers. Before they know it, they're involved in a challenging mystery. ~ All Movie Guide
Directed by James T. Flocker, The Legend of Cougar Canyon follows two young boys throughout their travels within the mysterious Cougar Canyon, a sacred Navajo terrain. Though their intentions are good -- they are only there to rescue a lost goat -- the legends and inherent dangers of the canyon are not entirely sympathetic. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- 1973
- PG
The West Coast is taken hostage when terrorists position a 40-megaton nuclear explosive on the Golden Gate Bridge. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Based on Robb White's novel 3DOur Virgin Island3D (the film's original title), this harmless location-filmed comedy boasts an unusually impressive cast. With their combined life savings of $85, fiercely independent archeologist Evan (John Cassavetes) and his wife Tina (Virginia Maskell) purchase an island in the tropics. They create an idyllic home-away-from-home with the help of resourceful islander Marcus (Sidney Poitier). All is serene until Tina becomes pregnant--but the fun 3Dreally3D begins when she goes into labor while stranded with her husband in a rickety boat in the middle of the ocean. The "Philip Rush" credited as screenwriter is actually a joint pseudonym for blacklisted Hollywood scriveners Ring Lardner Jr. and Ian McClellan Hunter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cassavetes, Virginia Maskell, (more)
- 1951
White Corridors was based on Yeoman Hospital, a novel by Helen Ashton. Told episodically, the story concentrates on the day-to-day activities in a busy hospital, where research pathologist Neil Marriner (James Donald) conducts experiments in the hopes of curing diseases impervious to penicillin. Marriner is aided in this endeavor by lady surgeon Dr. Sophie Dean (Googie Withers), who happens to be in love with him. After a tragedy occurs for which Marriner holds himself responsible, the film builds steadily to an exciting climax involving a untested -- and potentially dangerous -- serum. The top-rank British supporting cast includes Barry Jones, Moira Lister, Petula Clark, Basil Radford, Dagmar (later Dana) Wynter, Bernard Lee, and, in a minor role, future "Dr. Who" Patrick Troughton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Googie Withers, Gerard Heinz, (more)
- 1931
In this comedy, a jilted fiance takes a job as the maid of the woman that seduced her lover away from her in hopes that she will be able to break them up. She soon finds herself falling in love with another man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
