George Kaczender Movies

Based on the best-selling books by Catherine Marshall, the original TV series Christy focused on 19-year-old Christy Huddleston, an idealistic schoolteacher who left a life of wealth and comfort behind to accept a job in the backward mountain community of Cutter, NC, in 1912. First telecast as a two-part, four-hour PAX Network miniseries on May 13 and May 14, 2001, Christy: Return to Cutter Gap picks up where the weekly series left off. Lauren Lee Smith replaces Kellie Martin as Christy, while Stewart Finlay-McLennan repeats his series role as the community's agnostic, Scottish-born doctor Neil McNeill. In part one of Return to Cutter Gap, titled "A Change of Seasons," the year is 1913, and Cutter Gap is in the throes of a deadly typhoid epidemic. The superstitious mountaineers believe that the illness has been brought on by such "outsiders" as Christy Huddleston and the community's new minister, Rev. David Grantland (James Waterston). Dr. McNeill realizes that the real cause of the epidemic is Cutter Gap's brackish water and squalid living conditions, but he is unable to convince the locals of his findings. Meanwhile, Christy suffers a crisis of faith when one of her closest friends dies of the fever, and on another front, she finds herself romantically torn between McNeill and Grantland. Part two, "A New Beginning," takes place three months later. This time, the community is literally torn apart by a raging storm. As the rest of the citizens head to the highest point in Cutter Gap, Christy and Dr. McNeill are stranded in a tiny hunter's shack. Shocked when McNeill declares his love for her, Christy rushes into the deluge, contracting a deadly fever. Also complicating matters is the presence of attractive aviatrix Harriet Quimby (Claudette Mink), who has apparently set her cap for McNeill. The story concludes with a wedding -- but which man does Christy choose for her life partner? Filmed in British Columbia, Christy: Return to Cutter Gap was originally telecast under the title Christy: Choices of the Heart). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this dark made-for-television drama, a distraught would-be mother cannot reconcile herself to the fact that the emergency hysterectomy performed upon her was necessary and so goes off to get revenge upon the medical professionals responsible for her condition. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When Tori Spelling starred in the Dickens-inspired 2003 TV movie A Carol Christmas, more than a few viewers with long memories could not help but point out the similarities between Spelling's film and the 1995 made-for-cable Susan Lucci vehicle Ebbie--beginning with the fact that both films were distaff versions of the venerable "A Christmas Carol." It's Christmas Eve, and ruthless department store owner Elizabeth "Ebbie" Scrooge (Lucci) is cruelly running her employees ragged, dangling their meager bonus checks over their heads to get them to work all the harder. Just before closing time, Ebbie manages to fire a longtime security guard, humiliate her niece, and force her aide Roberta "Robbie" Cratchet (Wendy Crewson) to work on Christmas day rather than spend precious time with her family. Thus the stage is set for the inevitable nocturnal visitation from Ebbie's long-dead partner Jake Marley (Jeffrey DeMunn) and the usual Three Spirits, bound and determined to transform the vituperative Ms. Scrooge into the salt of the earth. And yes, Tiny Tim shows up too, in the person of dewey-eyed kid actor (Taran Noah Smith). To her credit, Susan Lucci plays this nonsense as if it were Shakespeare, bringing depth and conviction to an impossibly contrived teleplay (for which Charles Dickensreceives no screen credit!) Ebbie was first telecast by the Lifetime cable channel on December 4, 1995. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sudsy drama, a small boy's disappearances leads his mother to suspect her ex-husband of kidnapping. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In 1962, a Georgian woman serves a light sentence for a petty crime. Upon her release, she discovers that her children have been sold by a dubious adoption agency, causing the woman to spend the next 20 years searching for her lost babies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

"Saying 'no' to Melanie could lead to murder--and more." Thus did the CBS Network publicity department lure the viewer into watching the made-for-TV Seduction in Travis County. Based liberally on fact, the film stars Lesley Ann Warren as an accused murderer. Peter Coyote is the dynamic, married young attorney whom Warren twists around her little finger. He wins her acquittal, and also her eternal deadly vigilance. Coyote says "no" to Warren--and we all know where it will lead. With traces of the 1950 Barbara Stanwyck film The File on Thelma Jordon, Seduction in Travis County delivers a few chills but very little believable motivation for the characters' actions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this grim exploitation outing, a luckless detective begins working for a worried madam who wants him to find one of her hookers, a woman suffering from a dual personality, one of whom is a cold-blooded killer. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Sexual obsession provides the basis of this taut thriller, an adaptation of a Romain Gary novel. The story centers upon a prominent financier who must fight to save his crumbling business empire and his rapidly fading manhood. The obsession begins when the impotent magnate begins dreaming that a handsome gypsy is making love to his much younger girlfriend. He cannot get the dream out of his head and so goes to a Parisian madam to see if he can make the fantasy real. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In Hungary, 12-year-old Andras Vadya supported himself during World War II by serving as a pimp for prostitutes. Once the war is over, he tries his hand at a number of different jobs, but has a sexual fixation on "older" women. Andras (Tom Berenger) tells the story of seven of his affairs. One affair, when he was still a quite young man, was with Bobbie (Susan Strasberg), a woman whose anti-communist views put her in danger in postwar Hungary. In Praise of Older Women features many sexual scenes and situations. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Robert (Arthur Hill) is a successful family man who attends an insurance convention in the U.S. Leaving behind his wife Barbara (Sharon Acker) and two sons ages 19 and 13, he has an affair with an American girl. His wife suspects something is wrong when he returns. The youngest son skips school and the oldest son gets involved with a female rock singer and participates in campus demonstrations. Robert slowly grows more distant from his family and is plagued by having never taken a stand on anything political or controversial. After seeing some disturbing pictures of Vietnam, student riots, and the Warsaw Ghetto, Robert begins to lose his mind in this drama of the good life that goes from bad to worse to insanity. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide