William Sackheim Movies

Action film director John Badham bites the hand that feeds him in this action movie spoof that features ribbing of pretty-boy Hollywood action stars by Michael J. Fox and a parody of colorful, hair-trigger James Woods types by the man himself. Woods plays New York homicide detective John Moss, who is within an inch of closing in on a serial killer who calls himself The Party Crasher (Stephen Lang) because his specialty is shooting his victims in the middle of discos. Chasing The Party Crasher after his latest victim has been dispatched, Moss finds himself hanging onto the door of a speeding truck with The Party Crasher at the wheel. When Moss is thrown off the truck and nearly killed, The Party Crasher escapes, and Moss is taken off the case. Moss is given a new assignment --to tag around with Hollywood action film star Nick Lang (Michael J. Fox), the popular hero of the "Smoking Gun" movies. Lang spotted Moss on a television news show and thinks he would be the ideal cop to study for adding authenticity to an up-coming police action picture. Posing as Moss's rookie partner, Lang follows Moss everywhere, proceeding to spoil his pursuit of The Party Crasher and interfering with Moss's burgeoning affair with his girlfriend Susan (Anabella Sciorra). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Based on Doug Magee's novel Slow Coming Dark, the made-for-cable Somebody Has to Shoot the Picture is about a photojournalist (Roy Scheider) who is hired by a man (Arliss Howard) convicted of killing a policeman to photograph his execution. As the execution grows nearer, the photographer uncovers evidence that suggests the convicted man is actually innocent, and he tries to save him before it's too late. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Director Michael Ritchie spoofs survivalists in this rambling black comedy. Donald Quinelle (Robin Williams) is a successful young executive who is called to his boss' office one morning and is fired by a parrot sitting in the CEO's chair -- a method the company uses to axe high-powered execs. Donald meets Sonny Paluso (Walter Matthau), a former gas station owner who is out of work because his business was blown up. At a diner, the two newfound friends witness a robbery and catch sight of the perpetrator, Jerry Reed (Jack Locke). Reed is a mob hit man who swears to kill the two men who saw him commit the crime. Donald, formerly afraid of weapons, becomes obsessed with guns as a way to protect himself from the mob. He enrolls in a survivalist training school in the mountains of Vermont. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Can two prodigies fall in love and stay in love, even when they are competing against one another in an international piano competition? Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving attempt to answer that question in The Competition. Richard Dreyfuss plays Paul Dietrich, a shabby prodigy slouching past the thirty year mark. Embittered at never having won an international competition and being pushed and prodded by his parents, Paul decides to enter one last time and, if he fails, he will devote himself to teaching. Since this is his last chance, he throws himself into the competition with an energy and determination comparable to Duddy Kravitz. During preparations for the competition he meets Heidi (Amy Irving), a natural talent who is does not have Paul's drive to succeed. Heidi takes one look at Paul and immediately falls in love with him. Paul feels an attraction for her but holds his feelings in check, trying to center himself on winning the competition. Looking at the burgeoning love affair with dread is Heidi's possessive music teacher Greta Vandemann (Lee Remick), who sees Heidi's relationship with Paul as compromising her talent and jeopardizing her standing in the competition. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Raymond Burr stars again as a lawyer, this time named Arthur Mallory. No Perry Mason he, Mallory has been on the outs since being falsely accused of perjury. Eventually cleared, Mallory lives hand to mouth as a public defender, with a heightened sense of fair play when it comes to the downtrodden. In this pilot film for the never-sold TV series Mallory, the attorney defends a jailed car thief (Mark Hamill) who has been framed for the killing of another prisoner. The original network title for this two-hour TV movie is Mallory: Circumstantial Evidence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This acclaimed muckraking drama by future Hollywood A-lister John Badham (Saturday Night Fever, WarGames) peels the lid off of the Los Angeles criminal justice system for a sobering glimpse of its many facets -- exploring every angle, from defense attorneys to solicitors to prosecutors. The central narrative follows an L.A. public defender named Murray Stone (Judd Hirsch) assigned to defend a dimwitted farmboy (Gary Busey) unjustly accused of torturing and killing a football star. During the sensational case, Stone finds himself surrounded by corruption and manipulation -- and discovers that although the football player sported a squeaky-clean image as a father and husband (and something of a religious man), he was actually a person of dubious morals and values, with a proclivity for bisexual orgies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The made-for-TV Neon Ceiling top-bills Gig Young as a disenfranchised gentlemen who operates a remote desert gas station/diner. Enter Lee Grant, who has driven into the desert with daughter Denise Nickerson in hopes of escaping a bad marriage. Young resents their presence and is as rude as possible--leading Lee to conclude that Young is the first honest man she's ever met. Ultimately (and inevitably), the two lost souls begin a new life together. Critically praised upon its first telecast, Neon Ceiling plays like the rough draft of a forgotten William Inge play when seen today. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The made-for-TV Deadlock stars Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Sam Danforth (since this is long before the Police Squad era, Nielsen plays it straight). The white Danforth finds himself at ideological loggerheads with black district attorney Leslie Washburn (Hari Rhodes). Racial tensions are escalated when a black ghetto kid is killed by a cop, and a white reporter covering the case also turns up dead. Future stars Fred Williamson and James McEachin show up in supporting roles. First telecast February 22, 1969, Deadlock served as the pilot episode for The Professionals, a single-season component of NBC's rotating series The Bold Ones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Vincent Edwards, four years removed from Ben Casey, enters another branch of the healing profession in the made-for-TV Dial Hot Line. Edwards plays Matt Lincoln, a community psychiatrist who is patched into a "hot line" telephone for those troubled souls unable to afford therapy. This TV movie involves three of Lincoln's call-in patients, including one potential suicide. Also featured was future Laugh-In regular Chelsea Brown as Tag, a member of Lincoln's staff. Dial Hot Line later matriculated into the brief Matt Lincoln TV series, with both Vincent Edwards and Chelsea Brown retained from the pilot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season two of The Flying Nun finds spunky Sister Bertrille (Sally Field), who takes flight whenever the winds are strong, struggling to remain earthbound while going about her duties at Convent San Tanco in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Carried over from the previous season are such supporting characters as local discotheque owner Carlos Ramirez (Alejandro Rey), who despite his hedonistic lifestyle in the convent's most devoted patron; Reverend Mother Plaseato (Marge Redmond), who fears that calamity will befall the convent should word of Sr. Bertrille's aerial skills be made public; Sister Jacqueline (Madeleine Sherwood) the good-humored liaison between the Reverend Mother and the younger nuns; and Sister Sixto (Shelley Morrison), still fracturing the English language with innocent abandon. Adding a bit a curry to the proceedings this season is Vito Scotti in the role of Police Captain Gasper Fomento. Inexplicably, Fomento is convinced that the nuns of San Tanco are involved in criminal activities, and he goes to great and ridiculous lengths to "expose" them -- only to be hilariously humiliated time after time, usually by the resourceful Sr. Bertrille. Don Diamond makes sporadic appearances as Fomento's long-suffering second in command, Chief Galindo. The best of the second-season episodes include "Song of Bertrille," highlighted by the musical talents of former Donna Reed Show regular Paul Petersen and the Sundowners; "The Return of Father Lundigan," with Paul Lynde taking over from John Astin in the role of a psychiatrist-priest whose nervous encounters with the Flying Nun are always good for a few laughs; "Slightly Hot Parking Meters," the apotheosis of Captain Fomento's tireless efforts to throw the nuns in the hoosegow; the two-part "Great Casino Robbery," featuring Gilligan's Island escapee Alan Hale Jr. as Sr. Bertrille's ne'er-do-well uncle; "The Boyfriend," with Dwayne Hickman of Dobie Gillis fame as the boy who courted Sr. Bertrille back when she was still Elsie Ethrington; and "The Kleptomonkeyac," the series' obligatory "funny chimp" episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two bohemians come up with a get-rich-quick scheme that goes awray in this comedy scripted by Carl Reiner. Paul (Dick Van Dyke and Casey (James Garner) are two American expatriates living in Paris; Paul is an artist and Casey a writer. Both have been trying to make a career, but with little success; Paul's girlfriend Nikki (Angie Dickinson), who is still in America, believes in his work and pays his rent. But Paul has reached the end of his tether and wants to go back home; Casey is horrified at the prospect of losing a rent-free home, so he comes up with an idea to help Paul's career and make some money. Since works by dead artists tend to fetch higher price tags and command more interest than work by living painters, Paul will fake his death with Casey's help and they'll both clean up. The plan works at first, until Casey finds he's been accused of murdering Paul. Ethel Merman has a supporting role as a madam with a habit of bursting into song. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In the tradition of Dragnet and The Lineup, this is devoted to a typically busy day at a police precinct station house. Despite the presence of such recognizable actors as Gary Merrill and Regis Toomey, the film successfully adopts a documentary approach. The plot concerns a new police chief (Gary Merrill) who is determined to clean up a crime-ridden slum district. The ads for The Human Jungle offered teasing full-body shots of costar Jan Sterling in a skimpy negligee; hopefully the fans lured in by this come-on weren't disappointed once they found how little they actually saw of Ms. Sterling (figuratively and literally) in the film itself. The Human Jungle was an "in between" production for Allied Artists, which in 1954 was trying to divest itself of the "poverty row" onus placed upon its predecessor, Monogram Pictures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide