George McCowan Movies

This is a remake of a 1936 sci-fi, future dystopia tale by H.G. Wells, but the drama, as interpreted by director George McCowan and scripter Martin Lager is not altered to accommodate today's more demanding audiences. As a result, the story, characters, and dialogue are a little weak. After a nuclear holocaust has forced people on earth to set up house on the moon (covered by an insulating, glass-like bubble), their continuing existence depends on some medication to fight off the effects of radiation (!). The trouble is that this medicine is now controlled by the villainous Omus (Jack Palance) who lives on the planet where the miracle drug is made. He is in the process of blackmailing the earth people into accepting him as a dictator when a group of them sneak out in a rocket to defeat him and save the day, whatever the day is on the moon. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A sequel to the 1977 TV movie Fantasy Island, this film was originally titled Fantasy Island II and slated to air on November, 1977, but was instead re-christened and broadcast as the initial episode of the weekly Fantasy Island series. Once again, six people spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to fulfill their dreams on a lavish island resort overseen by the enigmatic Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) and his dwarf assistant, Tattoo (Herve Villechaize). This time, "de plane" arrives on the island with a passenger roster including Charles Fleming (Horst Buchholz), who allegedly wants to restore the memory of his amnesiac wife, Janet (Karen Valentine); love-struck executive, Benson (George Maharis), and his bitchy boss, Margo Dean (Adrienne Barbeau), whom Benson hopes to woo and win Taming of the Shrew style; and long-married couple Brian and Lucy Faber (Joseph Campanella and Pat Crowley), who yearn to be reunited with the child they gave up for adoption years earlier. Return to Fantasy Island premiered January 20, 1978, on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of Charlie's Angels' Las Vegas episodes finds our three heroines heading to Nevada to find out why the happily married wife of a successful businessman is embezzling funds from her husband's firm and gambling them away. Even more puzzling: The woman seems to want to lose all of her husband's money. To get to the bottom of this mystery, Sabrina (Kate Jackson) poses as a casino auditor, Jill (Farrah Fawcett-Majors) and Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) doll up as aspiring showgirls, and Bosley (David Doyle) impersonates a high-rolling gambler. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this actioner, the Westernized grandson of a shaman decides to return to the wilderness to learn more about his Native American heritage. He ends up meeting some very powerful evil spirits and to escape them he must enlist the aid of his lover and a local chief to stop the spirits from taking over. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Someone has been killing the centerfold models of Feline magazine, the girlie publication run by Hefner-like Tony Mann (Hugh O'Brian). In order to flush out the killer, who is apparently determined to sabotage the magazine's operation, the Angels go undercover -- with Jill (Farrah Fawcett-Majors), naturally, posing as this month's centerfold. The identity of the mystery villain really throws the girls for a loop in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cameron Mitchell guest stars as police officer Bo Pritchard, a Vietnam War buddy of SWAT team leader Hondo Harrison (Steve Forrest). When team member Deacon Kay is sidelined by an injury, Bo begs Hondo to let him join the unit. Hondo agrees, even though he hasn't forgotten that Bo was a reckless hotshot back in Nam, whose insistence upon being a lone warrior frequently imperiled the lives of his fellow soldiers. What Hondo doesn't know, until it is almost too late, is that the troubled Bo is an emotional ticking bomb. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sal Mineo guest stars as Joey Hopper, the Manson-like head of a Satanist cult known as the Butcher Brigade. Escaping from a prison hospital ward with the help of his "family," Hopper swears vengeance against all the jury members that found him guilty of murder. The SWAT team's efforts to track down Hopper are stymied by obstreperous underground-newspaper publisher Ross Collins (William Windom), who might not be so sympathetic toward Hopper if he knew that his own daughter Judy (Belinda Balaski) aided in the cult leader's bloody escape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While bound for London from New York, the occupants of a 747 are terrorized by a mad bomber. The jet's pilot (Robert Stack) and several brave passengers must thwart the plot. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Stuart Whitman guest stars as retired hit man Nick Carl, returning to San Francisco after a long sojourn in France. What Nick is unaware of is the fact that he has himself been targeted for a "hit" by his ex-boss Johnny Harmon (Jason Evers)--and that he is being surreptitiously set up for slaughter by his best friend Tim Murphy (Jack Albertson. Singer Claudine Longet makes a brief but compelling appearance as Nick's wife Michelle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The slimy denizens of the Everglades organize a particularly nasty rebellion in this enjoyable entry from the "nature-run-amok" horror subgenre which favored drive-in venues of the mid-'70s. The story takes place amid the festivities honoring the birthday of crotchety, wheelchair-bound Southern patriarch Jason Crockett (Ray Milland), a chemical-industry magnate whose pesticides are responsible for much of the toxic pollution found in the swamplands. The revelry ends quickly, however, when thousands of local fauna decide to crash the party. Under the apparent telepathic guidance of the less-than-menacing swamp bullfrogs, armies of snakes, insects, and snapping turtles tear their way through the cast. Competent direction, great use of swampland ambience, and spooky sound effects help provide a suitably large dose of the creepy-crawlies. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

This is the final sequel to The Magnificent Seven. In this chapter, the lead gunslinger has settled down with a new wife, and has become the marshal of a little town. His peaceful existence is disrupted when a psychotic outlaw rides in, robs the bank, wounds the marshal with his gun, and then rapes and kills his new wife. The marshal is then assigned to save some widowed women from ruthless banditos. To help him, he rallies an eastern journalist and five hardened convicts to ride in and stop them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The ABC network chose to recognize the thirtieth anniversary of Pearl Harbor with the "revisionist" TV movie If Tomorrow Comes. Patty Duke Astin is a California girl who in 1941 falls in love with Japanese-American Frank Liu. Upon the occasion of the "Day of Infamy," Liu is rounded up along with other Californians of Japanese descent and interred in a relocation camp. At this point the film becomes a mufti Romeo and Juliet, with Astin and Liu entering into a suicide pact. While the film rightly condemns the wartime imprisonment of Japanese Americans, it also misguidedly suggests that virtually all Caucasians in 1941 were pigheaded bigots with no rational reason whatsoever to mistrust the Japanese. If Tomorrow Comes was filmed on location in Pasadena. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide