Howard W. Koch Movies

Veering off in several thematic directions at once, A Night in Heaven starts with a torrid student-teacher romance which becomes somewhat derailed by adding on a failing marriage, political allusions related to NASA, a frustrated sister of the teacher, and several additional characters, many of whom are stuffing bills into male dancer's jock straps. Faye (Lesley Ann Warren) has just flunked a student in her speech class when she goes out that night to the "Heaven" nightclub and lo-and-definitely behold, there is Rick (Christopher Atkins), the failed student in his incarnation as a successful male stripper. This was a view of the student that Faye had never expected, and before anyone can flip a $20, the two are making mad, passionate love. While this may satisfy a few fantasies, events lead to an ultimate confrontation between the teacher's husband (who worked for NASA) and Rick that is even less believable than the student-teacher sexual liaison. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Originally produced for PBS, the American Cinema series examines at length what is probably the leading American art form: film. Chock-full of clips from important films and interviews with the men and women who made them, each episode is an in-depth look at an important facet of the history of American film. This particular episode examines the studio system in the golden age of Hollywood movies. For a long period of time, Hollywood was run by three or four major film studios. Having squeezed out the independent producers, these studios were free to impose their idea of what a movie should be on the viewing public. Paramount Pictures is used as a case study. ~ Rob Ferrier, All Movie Guide

Set during the Civil War, Bad Company stars Barry Brown as a Northern boy, Drew Dixon, who heads West to avoid getting drafted. He falls under the spell of Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges), an easygoing young con artist. Drew joins Jake's gang of boy bandits, who live by their wits and try to avoid confrontation with adult criminals like Big Joe (David Huddleston). It is Drew who must eventually save Jake from hanging, even though he realizes that his intervention could lead to his own execution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Set in the Philippines during WWII, this suspenseful and realistic war drama chronicles the courage of a unit of US Marines as they try to save a plantation owner/Allied spy and his beautiful daughter from the Japanese who have taken over a densely jungled island. The spy has crucial information to relay so the Marines must hurry. Unfortunately, during the rescue, the platoon is ambushed and all but one sailor, the spy and his daughter are killed. Now the three must somehow survive the jungle and make it to safety before it is too late. The story was shot on location in Hawaii. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Also known as Bop Girl, this diverting musical time capsule features several of the best Calypso performers of the late 1950s. Real-life jazz musician Bobby Troup stars as a college music student, writing a graduate thesis on rock 'n' roll. For research purposes, Troup persuades nightclub singer Judy Tyler to perform one of her numbers to a calypso beat. Before you can say "Harry Belafonte", a brand-new musical craze is born. The veteran supporting cast includes Lucien Littlefield as Bobby Troup's professor mentor, former 20th Century-Fox starlet Margo Woode as a eugenics expert, and George "Joe McDoakes" O'Hanlon as comedy relief. Among the musical acts are the Mary Kaye Trio, The Goofers, the Lord Flea Calypsonians, Nino Tempo, The Titans and The Cubanos. Bop Girl Goes Calypso was the final film appearance of up-and-coming actress Judy Tyler, who was killed in a particularly nasty car accident shortly after filming wrapped. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"You may think you know what you're dealing with, but believe me, you don't," warns water baron Noah Cross (John Huston), when smooth cop-turned-private eye J.J. "Jake" Gittes (Jack Nicholson) starts nosing around Cross's water diversion scheme. That proves to be the ominous lesson of Chinatown, Roman Polanski's critically lauded 1974 revision of 1940s film noir detective movies. In 1930s Los Angeles, "matrimonial work" specialist Gittes is hired by Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway) to tail her husband, Water Department engineer Hollis Mulwray (Darrell Zwerling). Gittes photographs him in the company of a young blonde and figures the case is closed, only to discover that the real Mrs. Mulwray had nothing to do with hiring Gittes in the first place. When Hollis turns up dead, Gittes decides to investigate further, encountering a shady old-age home, corrupt bureaucrats, angry orange farmers, and a nostril-slicing thug (Polanski) along the way. By the time he confronts Cross, Evelyn's father and Mulwray's former business partner, Jake thinks he knows everything, but an even more sordid truth awaits him. When circumstances force Jake to return to his old beat in Chinatown, he realizes just how impotent he is against the wealthy, depraved Cross. "Forget it, Jake," his old partner tells him. "It's Chinatown." Reworking the somber underpinnings of detective noir along more pessimistic lines, Polanski and screenwriter Robert Towne convey a '70s-inflected critique of capitalist and bureaucratic malevolence in a carefully detailed period piece harkening back to the genre's roots in the 1930s and '40s. Gittes always has a smart comeback like Humphrey Bogart's Sam Spade and Philip Marlowe, but the corruption Gittes finds is too deep for one man to stop. Other noir revisions, such as Robert Altman's The Long Goodbye (1973) and Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975), also centered on the detective's inefficacy in an uncertain '70s world, but Chinatown's period sheen renders this dilemma at once contemporary and timeless, pointing to larger implications about the effects of corporate rapaciousness on individuals. Polanski and Towne clashed over Chinatown's ending; Polanski won the fight, but Towne won the Oscar for Best Screenplay. Chinatown was nominated for ten other Oscars, including Picture, Director, Actor, Actress, Cinematography, Art Direction, Costumes, and Score. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

This filmization of Neil Simon's first Broadway hit was adapted for the screen by Norman Lear. Once we get past the illogical casting of middle-aged Frank Sinatra and twentysomething Tony Bill as brothers, we're home free. Sinatra, a swinger supreme, uses his New York apartment as a harem of sorts for his legion of lady friends. Bill, wishing to break loose from his protective parents (Lee J. Cobb and Molly Picon), moves in with older brother Sinatra, hoping to emulate his sibling in the sex department. Sinatra teaches Bill the tricks of the trade--to his everlasting regret, since Bill soon wins such prizes as Jill St. John and Barbara Rush away from Sinatra. The third act finds Sinatra behaving more like a parent than his parents, steering Bill on the straight and narrow and finally settling down with Rush. Also appearing in Come Blow Your Horn is singer Phyllis McGuire (an offscreen Sinatra vis-a-vis), Dan Blocker, and, in the uncredited role of a wino, Dean Martin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A six-hour adaptation of Danielle Steel's best-selling novel, the ABC miniseries Crossings began on board a transatlantic ocean liner in 1938. In the course of a truly eventful sea voyage, a torrid romance developed between powerful American steel magnate Nick Burnham (Lee Horsley) and Liane DeVilliers (Cheryl Ladd), the wife of French ambassador Armand DeVilliers (Christopher Plummer). This indiscretion would ultimately embroil both characters in the political intrigues leading up to WWII, with a rousing denouement in Nazi-occupied France just after America's entry into the war. To give the project a semblance of verisimilitude, several prominent historical figures flitted in and out of the action, notably Mr. and Mrs. Franklin Delano Roosevelt and France's Marshal Petain. Even so, most of the audience's interest was focused on the antics of Nick Burnham's hot-to-trot wife Hilary, played by Jane Seymour. Billed near the bottom of the huge cast was future Cheers and Frasier star Kelsey Grammer as "Craig Lawson." Partially filmed on the old British liner Queen Mary (then dry-docked as a tourist attraction), Crossings originally aired from February 23 to 25, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A special-effects laden medieval fantasy adventure, Dragonslayer centers on the attempts of a young sorcerer's apprentice to defeat a vicious dragon and save a lovely young maiden. Peter MacNicol stars as the young Galen, an aspiring magician under the tutelage of the aging Ulrich (Ralph Richardson). A nearby village turns to the pair for help when their leader begins proffering sacrifices of young virgins to satisfy a vicious dragon. The two immediately set out for battle, becoming even more determined when a courageous princess offers to sacrifice herself to the creature. Unfortunately, Ulrich's failing abilities force Galen into the center of the conflict, where the uncertain young boy must prove himself under fire. The suitably mythic if somewhat predictable story is told straightforwardly, culminating in a spectacular battle against the beast, featuring Academy Award-nominated visual effects. Despite its visual flair and relatively positive reviews, the film received mediocre response at the box office, as some criticized the film's violence as too intense for its intended younger audiences. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

This 62-minute quickie takes place during a single 12-hour shift at Los Angeles' Emergency Hospital. In anticipation of such contemporary TV dramas as Chicago Hope and ER, several subplots are developed at once. Dr. Janet Carey (Margaret Lindsay) is romanced by wealthy Ben Caldwell (Byron Palmer), who may or may not be a dangerously reckless motorist. Visiting detective Arnold (Walter Reed) must come to grips with the fact that his teenaged son (Jim Stapleton) is a budding delinquent. And other major and minor crises are experienced by nurse Norma Mullen (Rita Johnson) and staff doctor Ellis (John Archer). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

There's a measure of sympathy for the Apaches at the beginning of Fort Bowie. Under the tyrannical rule of ambitious Major Wharton (P. Ian Douglas), a cavalry detachment slaughters a band of Apache who've arrived with the intention of surrendering. A counterattack is inevitable, but before this happens the story is sidetracked by the jealous behavior of Colonel Garrett (Kent Taylor). When stalwart young Captain Thompson (Ben Johnson) resists the romantic overtures of Garrett's wife Allison (Jan Harrison), she screams "Rape!" and Thompson finds himself facing court-martial and execution. This plot strand and several others are resolved after the Cavalry is forced to attack its own fort following an Apache takeover. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is one of the more off-beat entries into the Frankenstein sub-genre, in that it features the original Creature, Boris Karloff (who really hams it up) playing the disfigured grandson of the famed mad baron in a style that combines gothic horror with the awe and fear created by the newly dawned atomic age. The story begins in the title year and finds Victor the III living in the ancestral castle and strapped for the cash he needs to resurrect his grandfather's experiments. He needs a fortune because this time he wants to use atomic power to bring the monster to life. To scare up the needed cash, he lets a television crew come to his famous digs to shoot a show. He ends up getting a lot more than money from the cast and crew and eventually he succeeds in creating a brand-new Creature. Unfortunately, the monster proves to be as volatile as his predecessors, and tragedy for both master and creature ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

"Movies like Getting Straight are ceasing to be tolerable" complained one conservative movie magazine of 1970. Today, the once-relevant but now merely entertaining Getting Straight is not only tolerable, but downright user-friendly. Elliot Gould plays a Vietnam vet who decides to attend college after his tour of duty. Though much too old and worldly to truly fit in with the naive flower-power generation, Gould becomes swept up in the various activist movements on campus. The leading character's crisis of conscience concerns his field of study: he wants to be a teacher for idealistic reasons, while his Establishment professors try to convince him that it's just another job, and hardly the best one at that. He finally chooses which side he's on while attempting to act as a mediator between students and faculty during a campus riot. Candice Bergen plays Gould's girlfriend, while Robert F. Lyons steals every scene he's in as a draft dodger who'll go to any lengths to avoid military service. Getting Straight represents the final screen appearance of Cecil Kellaway, here cast as a hidebound tenured professor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide