Martin Speer
- 1989
This light comedy is a contemporary--and wacky--version of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. In this version, a malformed young man hangs out in the bell tower of a California college campus and has to face a number of prejudices when he is brought out into the light. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Allan Katz, Corey Parker, (more)
- 1987
Actress-activistTheresa Saldana, who after surviving a brutal knife attack by a deranged fan founded the organization Victims for Victims, plays a semi-autobiographical role in this episode. Seven years after being jailed for attempting to murder famed pianist Jenny Hartman (Saldana), demented "number one fan" Ralph Flager (Andy Wood) is paroled--and once he's back on the street, he makes no secret of his intention to finish the job on Jenny. Since there is no real proof against Flager, the police can do nothing officially: unofficially, however, Hunter (Fred Dryer) vows to shield Jenny from harm during his off-hours--prompting Flager to add Hunter's partner McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) to his list of potential victims! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Previously filmed in 1950, John Patrick's play The Hasty Heart was restaged 33 years later as a cable-TV special. Set in a British military hospital in 1944 Burma, Patrick's story concentrates on three people: dedicated Red Cross nurse Sister Margaret, insouciant American officer "Yank," and a bitter, standoffish Scottish soldier. Deliberately inflicting his "porcupine disposition" on his fellow patients, the Scot can't understand why everyone is suddenly being so nice to him. The audience, however, knows what Sister Margaret and the other patients know: the Scot has only a few months to live. Gregory Harrison and Perry King deliver well-rounded performances as The Scot and The Yank, but both are outshone by Cheryl Ladd, who is excellent in the difficult role of Sister Margaret. The Hasty Heart was originally offered in a 150-minute time slot over the Showtime Cable service on September 12, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This atrocious sequel to the 1977 horror classic is padded with so much of that film's footage that it seems more like a rerun than a new story. The entire cast seems to have lengthy flashbacks of the previous movie's events, including -- in what must be a cinematic first -- the German shepherd dog. The remaining screen time is spent on an uninvolving battle between some bland motocross bikers and the cannibal hillfolk. To be fair, director Wes Craven has stated that the film was extensively tampered with prior to release. That may get Craven off the hook, but doesn't make this muddled mess any easier to watch. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Berryman, Tamara Stafford, (more)
- 1982
Sitcom stalwart Valerie Harper trades jokes for the judiciary in Farrell: For the People. Valerie stars as New York attorney Elizabeth Farrell ("All she wants to be is a DA", declared the TV Guide ad copy, "but her toughest case is being a woman!"), whose case load runs the gamut from rapists to killers. This TV movie borrows a page from current events by fictionalizing the notorious Norman Mailer/Jack Henry Abbott contretemps. Farrell takes on an ex-convict who has become a best-selling author thanks to the intervention of the Manhattan intellectual elite--and whose latest creative achievement is murder. Farrell: for the People was the pilot for a projected TV series, but the central character was too bland and confining for Valerie Harper's talents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Based loosely on the crimes of notorious serial killer Ted Bundy, Killer's Delight tells the tale of a sadistic madman who travels the countryside violating and murdering every beautiful woman in his path. Once finished with his vile acts, the killer dumps his victim's bodies from busy overpasses as a means of taunting the police. Though he succeeds in eluding the authorities long enough to rack up a substantial body count, the killer finally begins to feel the heat when a small-town cop recruits a brilliant psychologist and a big-city detective in stopping the slaughter and making the streets safe again. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
A feisty, feminist intern uncovers a medical conspiracy in this icy thriller about mysterious goings-on at Boston Memorial Hospital. When her best friend and aerobics partner, Nancy Greenly (Lois Chiles), emerges in a vegetative state from a routine abortion, Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) does some digging and discovers an overabundance of anesthesia-induced comas among otherwise healthy young patients. The male authority figures who challenge Susan's technically illegal tampering with medical records include her boss, Dr. Harris (Richard Widmark); the chief anesthesiologist, Dr. George (Rip Torn); and even her boyfriend, Dr. Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas), who doesn't want Susan's shenanigans to get in the way of his shot at chief resident. As Susan continues her crusade, the paper trail leads to the Jefferson Institute, a mysterious, experimental facility in which vegetative patients are stored en masse, suspended from the ceiling by wires threaded through their long bones, in order to reduce the cost of long-term care. A shadowy assailant begins to stalk Susan just as she uncovers the link between the Jefferson Institute and the comas at Boston Memorial, setting the stage for climactic suspense scenes involving morgues, malpractice and endless institutional corridors. Writer/director Michael Crichton adapted his second feature film from Robin Cook's bestseller of the same name. Tom Selleck, who would star in Crichton's Runaway several years later, appears briefly in Coma as another victim of lethal anesthesia. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, (more)
Raid on Entebbe constitutes one of two all-star made-for-TV reenactments of the Entebbe rescue of July 4, 1976. On June 27, 1976, a jet carrying an international mix of passengers is hijacked by pro-Palestinian revolutionaries. The plane lands in Entebbe, Uganda, where President-for-life Idi Amin (Yaphet Kotto) struts about feigning concern, though his sympathy toward the hijackers is obvious. Many of the passengers are released, but 103 Israelis are kept in custody, and it becomes apparent that the revolutionaries plan to use these unfortunates as a bargaining chip for the release of imprisoned terrorists throughout the world. With virtually no other option, the Israeli government gives the go-ahead for Operation Thunderbolt, a commando raid on the Entebbe airport. The cast includes Charles Bronson as General Shomron, Jack Warden as Mordecai Gur, Sylvia Sidney as ill-fated passenger Dora Bloch, and, as Prime Minister Rabin, Peter Finch, whose performance (his last) won him an Emmy nomination. Raid on Entebbe first aired on January 9, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Finch, Charles Bronson, (more)
Horror auteur Wes Craven followed his threadbare but horrifically compelling cult classic Last House on the Left with this wonderfully demented morality fable about a bloody war of attrition between two extremely different families. The story opens on the journey of the Carters, a mildly dysfunctional extended family led by patriarch "Big Bob" Carter (Russ Grieve), as they travel across the California desert in search of an inherited silver mine. When a broken axle leaves them stranded in the middle of a former nuclear testing site, their attempts to find help lead them unwittingly into the territory of a savage family of cave-dwelling cannibals, the apparent progeny of the bearlike Jupiter (James Whitworth) and an abducted prostitute. Jupiter's eldest son Pluto (professional movie weirdo Michael Berryman) leads the first brutal attack on the defenseless Carters who, through necessity, are driven to equally extreme measures in order to survive. Though the film is not overtly bloody, the scenes depicting this confrontation are rendered with an unflinching directness, and the violations visited on the Carters are so brutal as to make the survivors' regression into savagery all the more convincing. No one is spared from the nightmare: Jupiter's boys have even kidnapped the youngest member of the Carter family -- a mere infant -- to serve as fodder for their next barbecue, and the baby becomes the main point of contention between the rival clans. Craven nevertheless refuses to take the easy way out by depicting his "monsters" as soullessly evil; parallels between either family's "values" are clearly drawn as the differences between the two clans begin to blur. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Lanier, Robert Houston, (more)
- 1977
Exo-Man is a made-for-TV attempt to prolong the Six Million Dollar Man concept into yet another series. David Ackroyd stars as physics professor Nick Conrad, who is shot and crippled while trying to prevent a holdup. Returning to his lab, Conrad invents a superpowered suit that will enable him to reactivate his withered limbs. Six Million Dollar Man creator Martin Caiden was also the brains behind Exo-Man. According to Caiden, undue network interference killed the project's chances of becoming a weekly series. The 2-hour Exo-Man pilot first aired on June 18, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Eccentric mystery writer Michelangelo Rezo (Richard Stahl) agrees to donate $25,000 to charity on one condition: That the Partridge Family can successfully hide from Rezo for a period of 24 hours. This challenge proves most difficult for the Partridges thanks to the diligence of Rezo's agent Lazaar Hannibal (Martin Speer)--not to mention a cute but imperceptible little "bug." Song: "Storybook Love". This is the final episode of The Partridge Family's third season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
The latest publicity stunt dreamed up by Reuben (Dave Madden) is a "Win a Week with the Partridge Family" contest. The winner turns out to be Gloria Neugast (Kay Medford), a 60-year-old Jewish mama who not only moves in with the Partridges but completely takes over the family! Mrs. Neugast's well-intentioned medlling all but wrecks the clan's showbiz career, forcing Reuben to rechannel the old lady's energy in an entirely different direction. Song: "Echo Valley 2-6809". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Danny (Danny Bonaduce has once again embraced a scheme that he is certain will make him a millionaire: This time, he has gone into the hamster-raising business. Trouble is, the little creatures breed like. . .well, like hamsters, so now Danny has to get rid of the dozens of extra "samples" yielded by the original two hamsters. This results in a series of strategies the range from the sublime to the really ridiculous...and along the way, The Partridge Family makes TV sitcom history with actual footage of a hamster's birth. Songs: "Twenty-Four Hours In a Day" and "I Woke Up in Love This Morning." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
The Partridges join the "Save the Whales" movement thanks to Laurie (Susan Dey), who has talked them into recording her own composition "Song of the Humpback Whale". In search of authentic whale sounds, the family heads to Marineland of the Pacific, where they're given a crash course in ecology--and in human avarice! Howard Cosell makes a cameo appearance (NOT as himself, amazingly!), while future Partridge Family semi-regular Bert Convy shows up as Dr. Whelander. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
