James KarenFilmography

Trail of the Screaming Forehead

Actors: Brian Howe, Dan Conroy, Andrew Parks, Jennifer Blaire, Larry Blamire

Synopsis: Aesthetically and thematically, director Larry Blamire's outrageous camp-fest Trail of the Screaming Forehead resuscitates and satirizes bottom-of-the-barrel 1950s sci-fi movies such as X the Unknown and The Creeping Terror. Blamire's tale revolves around the scientific discovery that foreheads Read More

The Pursuit of Happyness

Actors: Will Smith, Jaden Smith, Thandie Newton, Brian Howe, James Karen

Synopsis: The rousing, true-life story of a single dad who went from living on the streets to owning his own brokerage firm is brought to the big screen by superstar Will Smith, appearing for the first time opposite his real-life son Jaden Smith. Set in early-'80s San Francisco, the film charts the hard Read More

Superman Returns

Actors: Brandon Routh, Kate Bosworth, James Marsden, Frank Langella, Eva Marie Saint

Synopsis: The Man of Steel returns to the big screen with this continuation of the icon's film legacy that picks up after the events of the first two Christopher Reeve films. Some time has passed since the events of Superman II and the world has gotten used to life without Superman (Brandon Routh) ever Read More

So Funny It Hurt: Buster Keaton at MGM

Actors: James Karen, Buster Keaton

First Monday [TV Series]

Synopsis: Hoping to utilize the Supreme Court in the same dramatic manner that West Wing utilized the White House, the weekly, 60-minute CBS series First Monday focused on the nine Justices who laid down the law for the United States. Joe Mantegna headed the cast as Joseph Novelli, the newest member of the Read More

Mulholland Dr.

Actors: Justin Theroux, Naomi Watts, Laura Elena Harring, Ann Miller, Dan Hedaya

Synopsis: David Lynch wrote and directed this look at two women who find themselves walking a fine line between truth and deception in the beautiful but dangerous netherworld of Hollywood. A beautiful woman (Laura Elena Harring) riding in a limousine along Los Angeles' Mulholland Drive is targeted by a Read More

A House on a Hill

Actors: Philip Baker Hall, Laura San Giacomo, Shirley Knight, Rebecca Staab, Henry Rollins

Synopsis: A retired architect returns to work at the behest of unlikely patrons in this low-key drama. Richard and Kate Banks (Jack Conley and Rebecca Staab) are a well-to-do couple who want to buy a home in Southern California. While house-hunting, Kate discovers the charred remains of a house that was Read More

Thirteen Days

Actors: Kevin Costner, Bruce Greenwood, Steven Culp, Dylan Baker, Michael Fairman

Synopsis: Director Roger Donaldson teams up with star Kevin Costner for another political thriller (after their 1987 pairing, No Way Out), only this time with a film based on the actual events surrounding the Cuban missile crisis of 1962, taking place during the titular thirteen days wherein the U.S. and Read More

Any Given Sunday

Actors: Al Pacino, Cameron Diaz, Dennis Quaid, James Woods, Jamie Foxx

Synopsis: Oliver Stone takes on professional football, a sport whose grace and delicacy are a good match for his filmmaking style. Tony D'Amato (Al Pacino), the head coach of the Miami Sharks, won back-to-back championships four years ago. But new team owner Christina Pagniacci (Cameron Diaz) has little Read More

Fly Boy

Actors: Miko Hughes, James Karen, Kathleen Lloyd

Synopsis: A young boy named Ray (Miko Hughes) and his grandfather (James Karen) have one important thing in common -- they both love airplanes, and Gramps often joins Ray as he flies his model planes in the park. But Ray's parents think that Gramps has grown too old to care for himself -- and that it's time Read More

Universal Horror

Actors: Kenneth Branagh, Forrest J. Ackerman, Turhan Bey, Ray Bradbury, Jim Curtis

Synopsis: Assembled by film historian Kevin Brownlow and narrated by actor Kenneth Branagh, this 90-minute special celebrates the classic horror films that emanated from Hollywood's Universal Studios. Beginning with such silent classics as The Phantom of the Opera and The Cat and the Canary, Universal went Read More

Seinfeld: The Puerto Rican Day

Synopsis: An mishap involving Kramer (Michael Richards) during the annual Puerto Rican Day parade is the reason that this particular Seinfeld episode was withdrawn from NBC's rerun package (it did, however, make a return appearance in syndication four years later). Elsewhere, Elaine (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) Read More

My Last Love

Synopsis: Diagnosed with terminal cancer, Chicago attorney Susan Morton (Nancy Travis) returns to her home town of California to wait out her final months. She also brings along her 11-year-old daughter Carson (Jamie Renee Smith), in hopes of finding a good home for the girl when the time comes. Read More

Girl

Actors: Dominique Swain, Sean Patrick Flanery, Summer Phoenix, Tara Reid, Selma Blair, Portia de Rossi

Synopsis: Dominique Swain stars as spoiled, small-town high-school senior, 18-year-old Andrea Marr, who lives with her parents in an upscale suburb of Porter City, Washington -- where Andrea and her gal pals make the scene at various concerts and clubs. Before the summer ends and an Ivy League school takes Read More

A Little Romance

Actors: Joshua Beckett, Marcia Cross, Phillip Brock, Polly Draper, Liz Sheridan

Synopsis: Writer-director Joshua Beckett also stars in this romantic comedy, winner at the 1997 Hollywood Film Festival. Self-confident wedding photographer Nick Evans (Beckett) has a domineering Jewish mother, Muriel (Liz Sheridan) and a pregnant sister, Donna (Polly Draper). But womanizing maneuvers are Read More

Joyride

Actors: Tobey Maguire, Wilson Cruz, Benicio Del Toro, Adam West, Amy Hathaway

Synopsis: A bored motel clerk and his buddies go for a little joy ride in a woman's car. They don't realize until it is too late that she is a paid assassin and that her latest victim is in the trunk. Thus begins the clerk's descent into a shadowy world of lies and murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Touched By an Angel: Something Blue

Synopsis: Monica (Roma Downey), Tess (Della Reese) and Andrew (John Dye) are hired as coordinators for the wedding of Alison Miller (Brigid Walsh) and Kevin Abernathy (Ed Kerr). The sudden and unwelcome appearance of Alison's much-despised father Stan (Richard Gilliland) prompts her to question the whole Read More

Up Close & Personal

Actors: Daniel Zacapa, Robert Redford, Michelle Pfeiffer, Stockard Channing, Joe Mantegna, Kate Nelligan

Synopsis: A story about a career television journalist who eclipses her mentor, this drama's plot resembles that of A Star Is Born, and it shares the same screenwriters as those who penned the 1976 version of that film, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion. It's based loosely on the real-life story of Read More

Congo

Actors: Dylan Walsh, Laura Linney, Ernie Hudson, Tim Curry, Grant Heslov

Synopsis: Good gorillas meet bad gorillas while human beings search for treasure in this jungle advnture saga. R.B. Travis (Joe Don Baker) is the ruthless head of Travi-Com, a telecommunications firm on the cusp of a major breakthrough in laser communications technology. However, Travis needs diamonds to Read More

Nixon

Actors: Anthony Hopkins, Joan Allen, Powers Boothe, Ed Harris, Bob Hoskins

Synopsis: Oliver Stone, the most outspokenly political American filmmaker of the 1980s and '90s, directs this epic-length biography of Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the U.S., who was re-elected by a landslide in 1972, only to resign in disgrace two years later. Taking a non-linear approach, Nixon Read More

Tough and Deadly

Actors: Billy Blanks, Roddy Piper, James Karen, Sal Landi, Phil Morris

Synopsis: In this actioner, a smart alecky bounty hunter teams up with a G-man to take on a drug-smuggling ring. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Revenge of the Nerds 4: Nerds in Love

Actors: Curtis Armstrong

Synopsis: The silly spirit of Revenge of the Nerds lives on in this made-for-television sequel. Curtis Armstrong returns as Booger, and this time around the nerds are gathering for his wedding to a wealthy upper-class girl. As the nerds plan a wild bachelor party, the girl's father is busy hiring an Read More

A Kiss Goodnight

Actors: Al Corley, Paula Trickey, Mark Moses, Lawrence Tierney, Sydney Walsh

Synopsis: In the tradition of Fatal Attraction, this thriller follows an obsessive man as he stalks a the woman with whom he had a brief, passionate affair. Matilda, a young advertising executive, had a lot of fun and hot sex with Kurt whom she met in a bar while her boyfriend, Michael, was away working as Read More

The Companion

Synopsis: A computer with a mind of its own is the subject of this made-for-television thriller. Set sometime in the future, the film tells the story of a female writer who goes to a secluded cabin to work. She decides to take a programmable male android with her for company. She changes his programming to Read More

The Larry Sanders Show: Larry's Agent

Synopsis: Unsatisfied with the negotiating tactics of his current, more laid-back agent, Larry (Garry Shandling) decides to go for the gusto in his upcoming contract negotiations by hiring a new, more aggressive agent who isn't afraid to deal with the network on his own terms. Guest stars include Barry Levinson Read More

Future Shock

Actors: Bill Paxton, Vivian Schilling, Martin Kove, Scott Thompson

Synopsis: Footage from three separate horror projects was assembled for this semi-anthology, framed by the premise of a mad scientist (Martin Kove) who uses virtual-reality technology to delve into the phobias of three different subjects. The first tale, "Jenny Porter," describes a paranoid woman (Vivian Schilling Read More

The Larry Sanders Show: Hank's Contract

Synopsis: Television contract negotiations are the stuff of legends in the entertainment industry, and viewers get a healthy dose of the outlandish demands of television stars in this episode of The Larry Sanders Show. It's contract negotiation time for Larry's (Garry Shandling) sidekick, Hank (Jeffrey Tambor Read More

The Larry Sanders Show: The Garden Weasel

Synopsis: The premiere episode of Garry Shandling's searing television satire The Larry Sanders Show finds talk show host Larry Sanders (Garry Shandling) struggling against an intrusive suggestion of on-air advertising. Faced with the prospect of promoting "The Garden Weasel" on his popular late-night talk Read More

Lies Before Kisses

Actors: Ben Gazzara

Synopsis: This made-for-TV thriller stars Ben Gazzara as a publishing magnate framed for murdering the call girl with whom he was having an affair. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide Read More

The Unborn

Actors: Brooke Adams, Jeffrey Hayenga, James Karen, K Callan, Jane Cameron

Synopsis: A married woman who has not been able to successfully conceive a child turns to a specialist who succeeds in inseminating her artificially. Before too long, she hears rumors of the doctor's past and present genetic experiments and when she finally aborts the fetus, finds that it is a monster as Read More

Absolute Strangers

Actors: Audra Lindley, Henry Winkler, Richard Kiley, Karl Malden

Synopsis: In 1988, Nancy Klein, the pregnant wife of Long Island accountant Marty Klein, was involved in a car accident that left her comatose. Convinced that Nancy would never recover if she went to full term with the baby, Marty asked the doctors to perform an abortion. Almost immediately, Nancy Klein Read More

The Willies

Synopsis: In this horror film, a number of scary and creepy stories are related as three young boys swap gruesome stories during a backyard camp out. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Vital Signs

Actors: Adrian Pasdar, Diane Lane, Jimmy Smits, Norma Aleandro, Jack Gwaltney

Synopsis: Marisa Silver helmed this tightly directed hospital drama reminiscent of David Swift's 1962 The Interns. Jimmy Smits plays Dr. David Redding, who guides seven student doctors through their third year of residency at Los Angeles Central's medical school. The cast includes Laura San Giacomo as Read More

Shattered Dreams

Actors: Lindsay Wagner, Michael Nouri, Georgann Johnson, James Karen, Ken Jenkins

Synopsis: Shattered Dreams is a "based on a true story" TV movie starring Lindsay Wagner and Michael Nouri. Wagner is a Washington DC attorney; Nouri is her husband, also an attorney, but one with a profound violent streak. Suffering constant beatings, Wagner tries to keep up appearances, but after Read More

Rich Men, Single Women

Actors: Deborah Adair, Heather Locklear, Suzanne Somers

Synopsis: "A good man is hard to find. A rich man is worth the effort." This advertising tagline could just as easily have been applied to Gold Diggers of 1933 or How To Marry a Millionaire as to the made-for-TV Rich Men, Single Women. Three attractive women of a certain age decide to pool their resources Read More

The Closer

Actors: Danny Aiello, Michael Paré, Joe Cortese, Justine Bateman, Tim Quill

Synopsis: Businessman Chester Grant (Danny Aiello) will do anything it takes to get the sale, but finds himself getting older and must choose a successor. Instead of the logical man for the position (James Karen), Grant decides that he will invite two rival salesmen to dinner and then make a decision. Read More

Spirit of the Eagle

Synopsis: In this wilderness adventure a cartographer and his son head into the wilds to make some maps. They are accompanied by the father's pet eagle. The trouble begins when his son is kidnapped by the villainous One-Eye Hatchett who sells the lad to an Indian village. With the help of his eagle, the Read More

Cult People

Synopsis: This documentary presents interviews and clips with some of cinema's best loved cult figures. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Murphy Brown: The Summer of '77

Synopsis: During the 70th anniversary of Phil's bar, Murphy (Candice Bergen) flashes back to 1977, when she az first auditioned for a job with "FYI"--and her chief competition consisted of her current coworker Frank Fontana (Joe Regalbuto) and NBC commentator Linda Ellerbee (as herself in both the new Read More

Thanksgiving Day

Synopsis: In this black comedy, a wealthy but flaky family tries to deal with their lives after their bizarre father suffers a fatal heart-attack on Thanksgiving and falls face first into the turkey. Now the family must somehow get their act together enough to pay bills and make funeral arrangements. Read More

Girlfriend from Hell

Actors: Liane Alexandra Curtis, Dana Ashbrook, Lezlie Deane, James Daughton, Anthony Barrile

Synopsis: With its catchy title and over-the-top premise, this fairly amusing horror comedy plays like a kinder, gentler variation on the type of fare offered by the bad-taste moguls at Troma Studios. The story begins in the thick of a metaphysical battle between a decidedly female Satan (Lezlie Deane) and Read More

Return of the Living Dead Part II

Actors: James Karen, Thom Matthews, Michael Kenworthy, Marsha Dietlein, Dana Ashbrook

Synopsis: A virtual remake of its predecessor, Return of the Living Dead (1985), which itself was a tongue-in-cheek rip-off of director George Romero's Night of the Living Dead (1968), this follow-up adheres strictly to a gore and gags formula. Jesse Wilson (Michael Kenworthy), is a young boy being bullied Read More

Wall Street

Actors: Michael Douglas, Charlie Sheen, Daryl Hannah, Martin Sheen, Terence Stamp

Synopsis: "Greed is Good." This is the credo of the aptly named Gordon Gekko (Michael Douglas), the antihero of Oliver Stone's Wall Street. Gekko, a high-rolling corporate raider, is idolized by young-and-hungry broker Bud Fox (Charlie Sheen). Inveigling himself into Gekko's inner circle, Fox quickly learns Read More

Billionaire Boys Club

Actors: Judd Nelson, Ron Silver

Synopsis: Billionaire Boys Club is the two-part TV adaptation of a book by Sue Horton (unpublished at the time of the film's first telecast). In flashback form, the story recounts the murder of Beverly Hills con artist Ron Levin (Ron Silver). The culprit is yuppie Joe Hunt (Judd Nelson), a sharp young Read More

Jake and the Fatman

Actors: Bruce Greenwood, Joe Penny, William Conrad

Eight is Enough: A Family Reunion

Actors: Mary Frann, Grant Goodeve, Lani O'Grady, Adam Rich, Dick Van Patten, Laurie Walters, Susan Richardson, Connie Needham

Synopsis: Most of the original cast members of TV's Eight is Enough are on hand for the "retro" feature Eight is Enough: A Family Reunion. The single most conspicuous defector is Betty Buckley, who is here replaced by Mary Frann in the role of Abby Bradford. The premise: On the eve of his 50th birthday, Tom Read More

Magnum, P.I.: Tigers Fan

Synopsis: Magnum (Tom Selleck) is devastated when police lieutenant Tanaka (Kwan Li Him in his final series performance) is killed during an undercover assignment. Though the death is officially reported as accidental, Magnum is convinced that there's a police coverup afoot--and in the course of his own Read More

Invaders from Mars

Actors: Karen Black, Hunter Carson, Timothy Bottoms, Laraine Newman, James Karen

Synopsis: Invaders from Mars, horror-film director Tobe Hooper's remake of the classic 1950's science fiction film, directed by William Cameron Menzies, centers on a young boy named David (Hunter Carson) who tries to stop an invasion of his town as aliens take over the minds of his parents George (Timothy Bottoms Read More

Jagged Edge

Actors: Jeff Bridges, Glenn Close, Peter Coyote, Robert Loggia, Leigh Taylor-Young

Synopsis: In this hit thriller, a prosecuting attorney-turned-defense lawyer falls in love with a rich, charming client who's been accused of murdering his wife and her maid with a hunting knife. When an unknown assailant gruesomely slays San Francisco newspaper heiress Paige Forrester (Maria Mayenzet), her Read More

Latino

Actors: Robert Beltran, Annette Cardona, Tony Plana, Rico Lopez, Luis Torrentes

Synopsis: The fighting between the Sandinista government in Nicaragua and the Contra rebels backed by U.S. money and expertise is the focus of this pro-Sandinista film by Haskell Wexler. The appropriately named Eddie Guerrero (translation Eddie "Warrior") is a Vietnam War veteran sent to help out the U.S. Read More

Cheers: Whodunit?

Synopsis: Much to the mounting horror of psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer), Carla (Rhea Perlman) begins dating Frasier's erudite mentor, Dr. Bennet Ludlow (James Karen). Even more shocking is the revelation that Carla is pregnant. But all this pales into insignificance (at least so far as the Read More

Moonlighting

Actors: Cybill Shepherd, Bruce Willis, Allyce Beasley, Robert Ellenstein, Jim McKrell

Synopsis: First telecast in early 1985, the 2-hour pilot film for the lighthearted TV detective series Moonlighting opens with fashion model Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepard) discovering that her business manager has skipped with her fortune. The only asset she has left is the ramshackle Blue Moon Detective Read More

The Return of the Living Dead

Actors: Clu Gulager, James Karen, Don Calfa, Beverly Randolph

Synopsis: Middle-aged family man Frank (Jim Karen) trains teenaged Freddy (Thom Matthews) for his new job at a medical supply warehouse. In an effort to impress and frighten his young charge, practical joker Frank reveals that the warehouse basement contains a cannister full of a mysterious chemical capable Read More

Moonlighting: Pilot, Part 1

Synopsis: Cheated out of her fortune by a crooked business manager, former fashion model Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepherd) has but one asset to her name: the Blue Moon Detective Agency, an incredible unprofitable concern run by cocky P.I. David Addison (Bruce Willis). Maddie is all for liquidating the agency Read More

Sam's Son

Actors: Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Timothy Patrick Murphy, Hallie Todd, Alan Hayes

Synopsis: This largely autobiographical story written and directed by Michael Landon stars Timothy Patrick Murphy as Gene Orowitz (Landon's real name was Eugene Orowitz), a frail teenager with a talent for throwing the javelin and a close relationship to his father Sam (Eli Wallach), the manager of a movie Read More

Little House on the Prairie: The Last Farewell

Actors: Karen Grassle, Michael Landon

Synopsis: Little House: The Last Farewell was the third and last TV movie based on the books of Laura Ingalls Wilder (which also inspired the long-running TV series), though it was telecast out of sequence, shown before the second film, Little House: Look Back to Yesterday. This valedictory adventure of the Read More

Quincy, M.E.: On Dying High

Synopsis: In an episode clearly based on a well-documented event in the life of comedian Richard Pryor, Roger Miller guest stars as JJ Chandler, a country-western entertainer whose act is rife with "humorous" drug references. But no one is laughing when, while freebasing cocaine between shows, Chandler sets Read More

M*A*S*H: Say No More

Synopsis: Stern military strategist General Collins (John Anderson) has no qualms about "playing" with the lives of the men under him. Even when Collins' own son turns up as a patient at the 4077th, Collins is unrepentant. Elsewhere, Margaret (Loretta Swit) anxiously awaits a visit from her idol, Dr. Steven Read More

The Day the Bubble Burst

Synopsis: An all-star (or rather, "all-TV star") cast distinguishes this three-hour filmed re-creation of the great stock market crash on October 29, 1929. Though inspired by a fact-based book on "Black Tuesday," the film is chock full of fabricated soap-opera complications involving dozens of fictional Read More

Time Walker

Actors: Ben Murphy, Nina Axelrod, Kevin Brophy, James Karen, Robert Random

Synopsis: In this horror outing, a California archaeologist has obtained the sarcophagus of King Tutankhamen and has taken it to his lab to be x-rayed. Unfortunately, the radiation levels he uses are too high and something begins to happen inside the coffin. Suddenly the mummy within storms out. Inside all Read More

Quincy, M.E.: The Flight of the Nightingale

Synopsis: The wife of Quincy's boss Dr. Astin (John S. Ragin) enters the same hospital where veteran nurse Lynn Buchanan (Georgann Johnson) is employed. Having resumed medication on a patient without a doctor's approval (which she was unable to secure due to lack of time and back-up staff), Lynn has been Read More

Poltergeist

Actors: Craig T. Nelson, JoBeth Williams, Beatrice Straight, Dominique Dunne, Oliver Robins

Synopsis: With Poltergeist, directed by Tobe Hopper, Steven Spielberg had his first great success as a producer. Released around the same time as Spielberg's E.T., the film presents the dark side of Spielberg's California suburban track homes. The film centers on the Freeling family, a typical middle class Read More

Frances

Actors: Robert Harris, Jessica Lange, Kim Stanley, Sam Shepard, Bart Burns, Jeffrey DeMunn

Synopsis: As played by Jessica Lange, Frances Farmer is a rebel from the word go, winning a high school essay award by writing a piece in defense of Communism. Determining to become an actress, Frances is equally determined not to play the Hollywood game: she refuses to acquiesce to idiotic publicity Read More

The Violation of Sarah McDavid

Synopsis: Violation of Sarah McDavid is a surprisingly explicit TV movie concerning the undercurrent of violence in a purportedly "good" high school. Patty Duke Astin is a new teacher at Benjamin Harrison High, where the GPA is high but where sadism and brutality amongst the students is the order of the Read More

Take This Job and Shove It

Actors: Robert Hays, Art Carney, Barbara Hershey, David Keith, Tim Thomerson

Synopsis: Inspired by Johnny Paycheck's song of the same name, Take This Job and Shove It is a comedy/drama of big business vs. little guys. His corporate employers put Frank Maclin in charge of a project to shape up a newly acquired brewery. It just so happens that this places him back in his Iowa hometown Read More

The Jeffersons: Sorry, Wrong Meeting

Actors: Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, Roxie Roker, Franklin Cover, Mike Evans

Synopsis: George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley), upset over the number of robberies in his apartment building, attends what he thinks is a tenants' meeting. Imagine his surprise and outrage when George discovers that the meeting is being sponsored by a local chapter of the KKK. There's no "happy sitcom ending" Read More

The Jazz Singer

Actors: Neil Diamond, Laurence Olivier, Lucie Arnaz, Catlin Adams, Franklyn Ajaye, Paul Nicholas

Synopsis: Pop singer Neil Diamond stars in this ill-begotten second remake of Al Jolson's seminal 1927 musical The Jazz Singer. The moth-eaten story concerns a cantor's son who desires success as a pop singer, despite the wishes of his imperious father. The film takes place in the present day with Yussel Read More

Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger

Synopsis: Portrait of a Rebel: The Remarkable Mrs. Sanger was written by Blanche Hanalis, a specialist in turning out quality teleplays with a feminist slant. Bonnie Franklin stars as pioneering birth-control advocate Margaret Sanger, who in the early part of the 20th century conducted a 25-year battle to Read More

Once Upon a Family

Synopsis: In this family drama, a man whose wife has just left him is faced with caring for his children by himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

F.D.R. The Last Year

Actors: Eileen Heckart, Kim Hunter

Synopsis: Jason Robards stars as the ailing, 62-year-old President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in F.D.R.: The Last Year. Though visibly frail and weary, Roosevelt runs for a precedent-setting fourth term. He also oversees plans for the D-Day Invasion and engages in tempestuous summit meetings with his wartime Read More

Topper

Synopsis: In this television remake of the classic 1937 film, two ghosts come back to haunt Cosmo Topper. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

The Rockford Files: The Deuce

Synopsis: Jim (James Garner) reluctantly serves on the jury in the trial of George Bassett (Mills Watson), who has been charged with manslaughter while driving drunk. When a mistrial is declaring thanks to a hung jury, Bassett hires Jim to prove his innocence. The key to the solution would seem to be in the Read More

Blind Ambition

Actors: Martin Sheen, Theresa Russell, Michael Callan, Lonny Chapman, William Daniels

Synopsis: The 8-hour TV miniseries Blind Ambition was originally telecast May 20 through 23, 1979. This 105-minute feature-film version, prepared in 1982, seems a bit rushed at times, but overall does a credible and coherent job of storytelling. Based on John Dean's book Blind Ambition, with elements of Read More

The Ordeal of Patty Hearst

Synopsis: Made quickly on videotape to capitalize on celebrated kidnap victim Patty Hearst's recent rescue, Ordeal of Patty Hearst stars Lisa Eilbacher as the beleagured newspaper heiress. Hearst's secure existence is shattered when she is seized by a tiny terrorist group calling itself the Symbionese Read More

Quincy, M.E.: For the Benefit of My Patients

Synopsis: Quincy (Jack Klugman) is outraged to discover that an accident victim had died when he was refused admittance to the hospital run by Dr. Chet Rawlins (James Karen). Investigating, Quincy finds out that Rawlins' hospital regularly turns away emergency cases if they are unable to pay for Read More

The China Syndrome

Actors: Jane Fonda, Jack Lemmon, Michael Douglas, Scott Brady, James Hampton, Wilford Brimley

Synopsis: This gripping 1979 drama about the dangers of nuclear power carried an extra jolt when a real-life accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear plant in Pennsylvania occurred just weeks after the film opened. Kimberly Wells (Jane Fonda) is a TV reporter trying to advance from fluff pieces to harder Read More

Institute for Revenge

Actors: John Hillerman

Synopsis: Big-time movie director Kenneth Annakin called the shots in this TV pilot film. "Institute for Revenge" is the nickname for a computer known as IFR 7000 (voice by John Hillerman). The computer is employed by a large foundation dedicated to righting wrongs, albeit nonviolently. Sam Groom, Lauren Hutton Read More

Capricorn One

Actors: Elliott Gould, James Brolin, Brenda Vaccaro, Sam Waterston, O.J. Simpson

Synopsis: Astronauts Charles Brubaker, John Walker, and Peter Willis (James Brolin, O.J. Simpson, and Sam Waterston, respectively) are hailed as heroes when they become the first men to be rocketed to Mars. Actually the space travelers are as phony as their mission controller, Dr. James Kelloway (Hal Holbrook Read More

F.I.S.T.

Actors: Sylvester Stallone, Rod Steiger, Peter Boyle, Melinda Dillon, David Huffman

Synopsis: F.I.S.T. is author Norman Jewison's chronicle of an innocent and idealistic young man corrupted by power and success as seen through the rise of the United States labor movement. Sylvester Stallone plays a Jimmy Hoffa-inspired figure who rises through the union ranks during turbulent labor times. Read More

Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night

Actors: Natasha Ryan

Synopsis: Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night stars Susan Dey as a young mother with a history of mistreating her 3 year old daughter. Ms. Dey's erratic behavior is rooted in her own unhappy childhood and her failed marriage. Tricia O'Neil plays the doctor who endeavors to help both Dey and her daughter Read More

The Rockford Files: Sticks and Stones May Break Your Bones, But Waterbury Will Bury You

Synopsis: When three of his fellow private eyes lose their licenses, Jim (James Garner) risks his own to help them. It turns out that the P.I.'s have been victimized by a "mystery woman" (Katherine Charles) working for a huge detective agency which is determined to eliminate all competition--even if means Read More

Something for Joey

Synopsis: Based on a true story, Something for Joey is about Heisman Trophy-winner Jon Cappelletti and his close relationship with his younger brother Joey, who is suffering from leukemia. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Opening Night

Actors: Gena Rowlands, Ben Gazzara, John Cassavetes, Joan Blondell, Paul Stewart

Synopsis: John Cassavetes' Opening Night stars Gena Rowlands (Mrs. Cassavetes) as end-of-tether Broadway actress Myrtle Gordon. She is about to open in a play written by her old friend Sarah Goode (Joan Blondell), but a series of pre-show setbacks and disasters threaten to destroy not only the production Read More

The Gathering

Actors: Rebecca Balding, Gregory Harrison, Maureen Stapleton, Gail Strickland

Synopsis: The Gathering stars Ed Asner as an ill-tempered executive who long ago walked out on his family. Just before Christmas, Asner is told that he has only a few weeks to live. He confides this information to his estranged wife Maureen Stapleton, who suggests that he call his four adult children (Gail Strickland Read More

All the President's Men

Actors: Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook, Jason Robards, Jr.

Synopsis: Conspiracy film specialist Alan J. Pakula turned journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's best-selling account of their Watergate investigation into one of the hit films of Bicentennial year 1976. While researching a story about a botched 1972 burglary of Democratic Party headquarters at the Read More

The Streets of San Francisco: Police Buff

Synopsis: Bill Bixby earned an Emmy nomination for his chilling yet pathetic performance as Eric Doyle, a mild-mannered loser who is fascinated by police procedure. Rejected when he tries to join the San Francisco police force, Doyle vows to prove his worth by turning vigilante. Donning an authentic-looking Read More

Amazing Grace

Actors: Stepin Fetchit, Moses Gunn, Butterfly McQueen, Slappy White

Synopsis: Veteran black comedienne Jackie "Mobs" Mabley is featured in her first (and last) starring vehicle, Amazing Grace. Essentially playing herself, Mabley portrays a feisty ghetto dweller who champions the cause of ex-convict Moses Gunn. With the old lady's help, Gunn is elected mayor, then proceeds Read More

Rivals

Synopsis: In this family drama, a newly remarried woman finds herself between a jealous 10-year-old son, and her equally jealous new husband. Things get really rough when her son decides to kill his perceived usurper. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Hercules in New York

Actors: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Arnold Stang, Deborah Loomis, James Karen, Mark Tendler

Synopsis: Every movie star has to start somewhere, and Arnold Schwarzenegger, then little-known outside of body building circles, made his screen debut in this comic variation on the "sword and sandal" epics popular in the 1950's and '60's. Hercules (Schwarzenegger) has grown tired of his life on Mount Read More

I Never Sang for My Father

Actors: Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, Dorothy Stickney, Estelle Parsons, Elizabeth Hubbard

Synopsis: Based on the play by Robert Anderson, I Never Sang for My Father is devoted to the prickly relationship between aged Tom Garrison (Melvyn Douglas) and his grown son Gene (Gene Hackman). A college professor who feels that he has never been fully accepted by his self-made dad, Gene announces that he Read More

Film

Actors: Buster Keaton

Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster

Actors: James Karen, Nancy Marshall, Robert Reilly, Marilyn Hanold, Lou Cutell

Synopsis: Despite the title, this outrageously bad Rock 'n' Roll monster movie from Puerto Rico features neither the titular monster-maker nor his lumbering creation. Instead, we're presented with an "astro-robot" named Frank, who comes to save the day when Martian forces led by Princess Markuzan (Marilyn Hanold Read More