Reginald Rose

Mariette Hartley stars in this groundbreaking TV movie as Gail Springer, a widowed mother on the horns of an outwardly familiar romantic dilemma. Equally in love with two different people, Gail has the devil's own time choosing between them. What made this film unique (at least when it initially aired over the ABC network on April 7, 1986) is that one of Gail's amours is her late husband's business partner Ben Taylor (Barry Newman)--while the other is Gail's female best friend, Marjorie Lloyd (Lynn Redgrave). Impeccably tasteful in its treatment of a potential volatile subject, and refreshingly honest and uncompromising at its conclusion, My Two Loves was filmed on location in San Antonio, Texas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Released in the U.S. under the title The Final Option, this action thriller was produced and set in Great Britain. The British Special Air Services, an anti-terrorist group, is pitted against an organization of international terrorists who plan to take over the U.S. Embassy in London and hold everyone hostage. Captain Skellen (Louis Collins), a member of the Special Air Services, assumes a false identity in order to infiltrate the terrorists, who are rogue members of the anti-nuclear-weapons movement -- and uncover their plans. Judy Davis appears as Frankie, a key member of the anti-nuclear group. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Set in India during World War II, this fair action drama relies heavily on the good acting talent gathered to convey its slight, uninvolved story. Gregory Peck is Col. Lewis Pugh, backed up by Roger Moore as Capt. Gavin Stewart, David Niven as Col. Bill Grice, Patrick MacNee as Major Crossley, and several others -- all retired and past the age for active duty. At issue are three German freighters that are parked in the waters off Goa, the Portuguese coastal colony on the subcontinent of India. Since Portugal is neutral, the regular army cannot destroy the freighters, and it is up to the retired army officers and a large corps of over-the-hill volunteers to take on the mission of eliminating the German ships. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this comic mystery, a department store clerk dreams of becoming a famous writer of children's books. He is also having an affair with a lovely patron of the store. The trouble begins when the lovers find that her husband, a pair of neighbors and a bogus detective have been murdered. The lovers decide to solve the case themselves. Mayhem ensues and the story's climax occurs at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When actor Lionel Jeffries turned to directing in the 1970s, he exhibited a preference for whimsy, as witness The Railway Children. Jeffries' Baxter is a notable exception to this rule, though, as with his other directorial efforts, he shows a keen sensitivity for the travails of troubled youngsters. Scott Jacoby plays Baxter, a boy with a marked speech impediment. His affliction worsens as his parents' marriage disintegrates. Patricia Neal plays a dedicated speech therapist who realizes that Baxter's problems go deeper than his inability to speak normally. Baxter was scripted by "Golden Age" TV veteran Reginald Rose. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This undistinguished murder muddle by director Michael Curtis involves an artist and his alcoholic psychologically disturbed wife -- who disappears one day. John Hamilton (Alan Ladd) has retreated to the New England countryside to pursue a potential career as an artist, but his wife Linda (Carolyn Jones) wants to go back to New York. She is observed as being both drunk and a little strange, while John is clearly the anchor in the relationship. When Linda disappears, John is immediately suspected of doing away with his troublesome wife, and so a net of suspicion and circumstantial evidence closes in ever-tightening circles around him. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A Puerto Rican youth is on trial for murder, accused of knifing his father to death. The twelve jurors retire to the jury room, having been admonished that the defendant is innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. Eleven of the jurors vote for conviction, each for reasons of his own. The sole holdout is Juror #8, played by Henry Fonda. As Fonda persuades the weary jurors to re-examine the evidence, we learn the backstory of each man. Juror #3 (Lee J. Cobb), a bullying self-made man, has estranged himself from his own son. Juror #7 (Jack Warden) has an ingrained mistrust of foreigners; so, to a lesser extent, does Juror #6 (Edward Binns). Jurors #10 (Ed Begley) and #11 (George Voskovec), so certain of the infallibility of the Law, assume that if the boy was arrested, he must be guilty. Juror #4 (E.G. Marshall) is an advocate of dispassionate deductive reasoning. Juror #5 (Jack Klugman), like the defendant a product of "the streets," hopes that his guilty vote will distance himself from his past. Juror #12 (Robert Webber), an advertising man, doesn't understand anything that he can't package and market. And Jurors #1 (Martin Balsam), #2 (John Fiedler) and #9 (Joseph Sweeney), anxious not to make waves, "go with the flow." The excruciatingly hot day drags into an even hotter night; still, Fonda chips away at the guilty verdict, insisting that his fellow jurors bear in mind those words "reasonable doubt." A pet project of Henry Fonda's, Twelve Angry Men was his only foray into film production; the actor's partner in this venture was Reginald Rose, who wrote the 1954 television play on which the film was based. Carried over from the TV version was director Sidney Lumet, here making his feature-film debut. A flop when it first came out (surprisingly, since it cost almost nothing to make), Twelve Angry Men holds up beautifully when seen today. It was remade for television in 1997 by director William Friedkin with Jack Lemmon and George C. Scott. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frankie Dane (John Cassavetes) is the leader of the hornets, a local street gang that has had its share of rumbles and other trouble with the police. When one of his members is fingered to the police by a neighbor (Malcolm Atterbury) for having a gun, Frankie vows revenge, and when the same man humiliates him in public, he decides it's got to be murder. But only two members of the Hornets, mentally unstable Lou Macklin (Mark Rydell) and would-be full-fledged member "Baby" (Sal Mineo), are willing to go along, and even one of them is shaky -- the rest of the gang draws a line at killing. Social worker Ben Wagner (James Whitmore), who runs the local youth center, has been trying to reach out to the members of the Hornets and sees that something is splitting Frankie and a couple of the others off from the main gang, and is concerned enough to find out what it might be -- especially when Frankie's younger brother, a really nice kid named Richie (Peter J. Votrian), tells him that he thinks Frankie's planning to kill someone. He tries getting help from Frankie's mother (Virginia Gregg), who's too tired from her job to do much more than keep Richie from becoming like his brother, and Mr. Gioia (Will Kuluva), "Baby"'s father, who doesn't understand what went wrong between him and his son. A three-way battle of wills ensues as Frankie tries to hold his plan together and resist Wagner's efforts to intercede -- in the end, several lives are at risk, as Frankie ends up with his knife at the throat of his own brother, fully ready to use it. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide