Fatherland (1994)

It is the 1960s, but in this timeline Hitler has won, but is the Third Reich quite as secure as it seems?

Having won the Second World War, Nazi Germany is now looking to improve relations with the USA. US reporter Charlie (Miranda Richardson) is over to cover the impending visit of the US President to Berlin, Hitler hoping this will help the Nazis in their endless war of attrition with the Soviets. Charlie is given a lead on a massive secret the Nazis are trying to hide. 

Meanwhile, SS officer March (Rutger Hauer) is investigating the death of a senior Nazi official but his investigation is suspiciously cut off by the Gestapo. Is his investigation linked to the secret Charlie is uncovering? The darkest secret of all, the secret of what happened to the Jews...

An enjoyable TV movie, although an alternate history setting this is more about the investigation of crimes and cover-ups and works very well as a suspensful thriller. It would be nice to see the alternate world explored more though that would have probably needed a full TV series.

Disaster at Silo 7 (1988)

An accident at a nuclear missile silo poses a real risk of the missile exploding, with a rather large nuclear warhead on top.

The accident occurs during refuelling of a Titan II missile causing a fuel spill. Team leader Sergeant Fitzgerald (Michael O'Keefe) is called in and immediately realises the risk of the fuel igniting and blowing the while thing up. He tells his wife (Patricia Charbonneau) to get out of town fast with his family, then heads back into the silo...

This is an enjoyable TV movie, it does fall back on TV movie tropes a bit but the action is solid, if stretches the budget a bit thinly at times. The film is based on a real incident that occurred in 1980, and it pretty accurate too so don't read up on the Damascus Titan explosion before you have seen this movie unless you don't mind spoilers!

Death Cruise (1974)

Although the plot is fairly well worn, this is an entertaining whodunnit set aboard a cruise ship with some good twists.

Three couple begin their cruise of the Caribbean, all of them winning their holiday in a competition, though they can't remember entering it. Unfortunately, it isn't long before the first dies, Jerry (Richard Long) apparently falling overboard. It could be an accident though ship's doctor Dr Burke (Michael Constantine) isn't so sure. When the next deaths occur, including the shooting of Jerry's wife Sylvia (Polly Bergen), then Burke is convinced the deaths are all part of a dastardly plan, but who and why?

There have been quite a few films showing a group of being being bumped off one by one by a mystery killer, in great TV movie fashion pretty much everyone in this film has some kind of dark past and secret (except Burke). It is an enjoyable murder mystery film all the same, very competently done, and the final twists are excellent.

High Desert Kill (1989)

Something mysterious is lurking in the woods, luckily for the low budget it is invisible.

Three friends, Brad (Marc Singer), Jim (Anthony Geary) and Ray (Micah Grant) head into the woods for their annual hunting trip. 

However, they find the woods are bereft of any game. Two female campers they encounter mysteriously vanish, and then they start to behave strangely. Its almost as if some weird alien intelligence was conducting psychological experiments on them!

Not a good film though frequently unintentionally hilarious. The acting is rather basic and the story strange at times, though ultimately pretty interesting. You could not call this TV movie "good", it is still worth watching.

SST: Death Flight (1977)

Yet another 1970s aviation disaster movie, this one taking place on the first American supersonic airliner.

Cutlass Aircraft's first supersonic airliner is about to make it's maiden trip across the Atlantic with fare-paying passengers. However, a disgruntled engineer has sabotaged the plane (which seems to be held together by string). Meanwhile, a deadly virus is being carried aboard, but surely this will not escape to endanger the passengers. Will it?

The passengers and a crew are a whos-who of disaster movie stereotypes (grizzled old pros, old flames, heroes under a cloud et cetera) and 1970s actors including Doug McClure, Peter Graves, Lorne Greene and Billy Crystal. 

The movie is great fun, though the special effects are pretty cheap, the exterior shots of the airliner itself frequently laughable. It also crams in every cliche of the disaster movie genre imaginable, but you'll probably love it. I did.

The Dirty Dozen: The Fatal Mission (1988)

The last of a series of Dirty Dozen sequels, by now everything was wearing a bit too thin.

It is 1943 and secretly the Nazis believe the war can't be won, thus twelve young Nazi hot shots are going to be sent to the Middle East to lay the foundations for the Fourth Reich. Major Wright (Telly Savalas) recruits another bunch of condemned and hopeless convicts for another suicide mission to go deep into Nazi held eastern Europe and kill the Nazis before they can reach Istanbul.

To make things more complicated, one of the Major's Dirty Dozen is a Nazi spy and is intent on sabotaging the mission. The Major thus changes his plan on the fly though this could mean his men become targets of the RAF!

A rather by-the-numbers TV movie, it has the usual tired tropes of crack SS stormtroopers not being able to shoot straight plus the premise doesn't really make a lot of sense. It is fine enough to watch if you just want some wartime action and not worry too much about quite why!

Ellery Queen: Don't Look Behind You (1971)

A TV pilot which aimed to relaunch Ellery Queen on television in the 1970s, unfortunately it didn't work. For now anyway.

A serial killer called the Hydra is killing people seemingly at random across New York, each murder accompanied by a rather creepy animation of a multi-headed snake. Inspector Queen (Harry Morgan) is making no headway with the case so calls upon his nephew Ellery (Peter Lawford) to help out. Ellery discovers a link in the murders, with the help of one of the victim's sister Celeste (Stefanie Powers).

Ellery discovers a prime suspect, though as the film is only half-way you know there will be some complications...

Not a bad film, though the casting of Ellery Queen is a bit odd. Although the plot is fine, it is stretched out rather thinly which ends up making the film a bit of a drag in the end though it does have a cool filming style throughout. 

Luckily for Ellery Queen fans another attempt to launch a TV series starring the character was successful later in the decade.

Meteorites! (1998)

A somewhat tedious TV movie about meteorites which decide to bombard the same small American town.

Tom (Tom Wopat) is a retired bomb disposal officer (and as this is a TV movie of course he has demons in his past) who is called upon to investigate a series of unexplained house explosions. 

The mayor (Marshall Napier) is not interested in this though as the town is holding a UFO festival, it's big money spinner and the mayor needs the cash after some dodgy business loans. Tom discovers that the explosions are not due to gas leaks but from something from above. In fact a meteorite storm is targeting the town...

So, the science makes no sense whatsoever, and the film wastes too much time on side plots and irrelevance. Overall, this is a fairly insipid watch.

The House That Would Not Die (1970)

A rather engaging little horror TV movie. 

Ruth (Barbara Stanwyck) and her niece Sara (Kitty Winn) move into an old house. After a rather fraught seance and a painting which falls on a fire, they discover that the house is possessed by two ghosts who appear to be of two people who died in the American Revolutionary War. 

As the hauntings and disturbing antics continue, Ruth and Sara begin to unravel the dark secrets and mysterious circumstances deep in the house's past...

This is a great little ghost story full of atmosphere and growing menace. It might have only had a small budget but it made the most of it and has some good performances especially from Stanwyck.

Time of the Apes (1985)

A rather confusing rip-off of Planet of the Apes.

Catherine (Reiko Tokungaga), Caroline (Hiroko Sato) and Johnny (Masaaki Kaji) are having a look around an advanced cryogenic facility when an earthquake occurs and they get accidentally frozen and put into suspended animation (as you do!) When they awaken they find thousands of years have passed and now the world is run by ape men controlled by UFOs and a super computer!

The ape men are rather inept and the three humans manage to escape their execution. They flee to the hills where they discover Godo (Tetsuya Ushio) who is one of the last humans left alive...

This isn't a very good film, little of it makes any sense especially the ending and how our humans manage to return to their time. The science nonsense makes Star Trek Voyager technobabble seem scientifically coherent. The film has some campy fun, especially the ridiculous ape men but is all a bit too weird to really enjoy. Two of the humans are small children and their annoyance factor does not help matters.

Master Ninja I (1984)

The Master was a ninja themed TV series from 1984, two episodes were used to create this feature length film, two more episodes were used to create the imaginatively named Master Ninja II.

The Master McAllister (Lee Van Cleef) is an American veteran who now possesses the mysterious skills of the Ninja. Along with his young friend Max (Timothy Van Platten) they aim to help out those in need. In the first episode... half of the film they help out the owner of a small airfield and his daughter (Demi Moore) against a scheming land developer and the local police who are in his pocket...

As this film is based on the first episodes of the series we do get some back story for McAllister and Max and also see Max begin his ninja training. The action is quite generic for 1980s US TV series, with the usual budget to match so doesn't amount to much. Lee Van Cleef was a little too old and creaking to play a convincing ninja but the film isn't without it's good bits. It is a fairly passable film though but you can see why the TV series did not last that long.

The Stranger (1973)

An astronaut accidentally ends up on an alien world, luckily for the budget this world looks exactly like our own...

When astronaut Neil Stryker (Glenn Corbett) crashes on the way back to Earth, he wakes up in a strange hospital where he knows no one and won't be allowed to see anyone. Neil begins to suspect he might be in the Soviet Union and manages to escape the head of security Benedict (Cameron Mitchell). However, outside of the hospital he appears to be in the USA. But no one has heard of Florida... and there happens to be three moons!

Neil discovers that he is on another world, one under the control of an authoritarian regime called the Perfect Order. Knowledge of the past is forbidden and obedience is total. Neil gets the help of Dr Cooke (Sharon Acker) to try and keep ahead of Benedict and his goons...

This isn't a bad film all in all, though the tiny budget does hinder it a bit. The story is pretty decent (if rather heavily Orwell inspired) and the performances work well. Some good tension and drama, perfectly good TV movie.

The Bunker (1981)

The last days of Hitler holed up in his bunker, an interesting way of portraying the events now incredibly well known due to the excellent 2004 movie Downfall.

The war is going badly, Hitler's (Anthony Hopkins) health is also not doing so well. With the Allied armies closing in on Berlin, the Nazi leadership retreats underground into the grim Fuhrerbunker. There, Hitler and his staff including Speer (Richard Jordan) and Goebbels (Cliff Gorman) await the inevitable as the explosions above gradually change from being caused by aerial bombers to artillery and tanks.

This is an excellent film, atmospheric and dark and based on the memoirs of the staff who survived. The most interesting stories are from some of the lesser known staff members in the bunker including the radio officer Misch (Michael Kitchen) and the engineer Hentschel (Martin Jarvis) who interestingly were both still alive when this film was made. 

The film might not have generated a million memes like Downfall (the Steiner rant is quite different here) but it very worth a watch.

Code Name: Diamond Head (1977)

A pilot for a series that never came to fruition, which is a shame as it could have been a catastrophe that could have entertained generations of cult fans. As it is we have a fairly average if a bit odd spy film.

Johnny Paul (Roy Thinnes) is a US government agent based in Hawaii (code named Diamond Head of course). He has to prevent the theft and sale of a new nerve gas being developed at a local government laboratory. The enemy are headed by Donovan (Ian McShane) - a master of disguise or just lucky that the people he has to take the identity of look like him already. Diamond Head is assisted by Zulu and France Nuyen providing the muscle and the sex appeal in varying amounts.

It is all a bit inept. The plot is poor and the action lacking on the most part. As might be expected, Ian McShane is head and shoulders the best thing about this film. It is watchable but not great but i wonder how a full series would have turned out.

In Tandem (1974)

The feature length pilot of the TV series Movin' On about two truck drivers. Expect big rigs and lots of country music!

Will (Frank Converse) is a young-ish truck driver, of a more intellectual bent, who has grown tired of driving death traps and quits. He meets up with veteran independent trucker Sonny (Claude Akins) and agrees to drive for him, though he doesn't expect that the life of a "gypsy" trucker like Sonny can often be a bit fraught with danger! Things come to a head when the two truckers get involved with a group of citrus farmers who are being menaced by the local hard men...

This is a standard 1970s trucking film, a simple enough plot overlaid with footage of lots of trucks driving through the countryside all with a country soundtrack (by Merle Haggard as well which is cool). The film is a bit rough around the edges but pretty entertaining.

Willa (1979)

She had a dream, and that dream was to drive a truck!

Willa (Deborah Raffin) has a mundane job as a waitress, is raising two kids without the father being around and has an alcoholic mother (Diane Ladd). For some reason she wants a little more in life! She dreams of driving a truck and works hard, loading cargo at night after her day job to earn the right to take driving lessons. I'm not sure what she uses to get all the energy to do all this but i certainly would like some.

Things do not go smoothly for Willa though as the authorities threaten to take her kids away. However, she gets help from another female trucker (Cloris Leachman) and even has time to flirt with Joe (Clu Gulager)...

Well it is a fine enough melodrama. Although a trucking movie, it doesn't have the usual cliches such as high speed chases and bad men stealing loads that you usually get with this genre. The story is a bit basic though, determined to hammer home it's message any way it can.

The Longest Drive (1976)

Although lacking originality this is an enjoyable Western.

Hatcher (Dan O'Herlihy) is in trouble, he needs to get his cattle to market but lacks a crew to do the drive. The Beaudine brothers (Kurt Russell and Tim Matheson), who are old friends, decide to help him and assemble a crew of misfits including an alcoholic cook, a retired gunslinger and a dude who who went to Yale (not that any of the cowboys know what that is!) 

The epic drive begins, although rustling is a bit of a problem the main issue is a lack of water along the trail and soon that pushes them all to the edge...

This is a great film really, although everything you probably have seen before in one form or the other. However, this fits together really well and the crew of misfits makes a good ensemble. The TV movie budget probably helps in this case as it means the emphasis is placed on the human characters not large scenic set-pieces.

The movie was later edited into two episodes of The Quest TV series.

Amanda and the Alien (1995)

A science fiction comedy with a real difference, and that difference is a fair amount of cringe.

An alien that can take over human bodies escapes from a US government facility. Although the alien looks human it struggles with acting like one. Cool coffee shop nerd Amanda (Nicole Eggert) sees the alien struggling with her latte and naturally decides to help. Amanda's help includes helping the alien feed by killing and assuming the form of Amanda's annoying boyfriend! Naturally Amanda starts to fall in love with the alien...

Although a bit weird at times, the film somehow succeeds. Is it so bad it's good? Well at times, though at other times the cringe factor can make it so bad it's bad! The quirky weirdness will drag you through though. Michael Dorn as a US military officer adds a good sci-fi touch. It is a real film of it's time with it's mid-90s style and feel. 

Hijack! (1973)

A good old trucking movie across the endless desert of the southern USA.

Jake (David Janssen) and Donny (Keenan Wynn) are two grizzled old truck drivers who are reaching the end of the literal road. They are employed by an oily businessman to transport some top secret equipment to Texas. 

Unfortunately, a gang of thugs are after the equipment and will stop at nothing including murder! Luckily the gang are fairly inept and Jake and Donny manage to foil them over and over again, however there is one final showdown in store as truck battles helicopter full of gunmen!

This is a great little TV movie even if much of it makes little sense... until the final twist. The action is very solid and the leads (despite looking pretty unrealistic for such an action related film to be honest) do a pretty good job.

The California Kid (1974)

A cool slice of 1950s hotrod nostalgia.

The sheriff (Vic Morrow) of a small town has a good money making scheme in catching drivers in a fake speed trap, though when the drivers decide to run for it the sheriff is not averse to knocking them off the road with often fatal results. McCord (Martin Sheen) turns up in town in a cool souped up hotrod, however he is not here to race but to find out why his brother died in one of the many accidents that occur near the town.

He is soon pitted against the sheriff as he gathers evidence on the sheriff's dark secret. Of course their showdown will take place on the road at over 100 miles per hour!

A good film that has some layers to it, the sheriff is given a back story explaining his actions to an extent. The real star of the film is the hotrod though, this is the California Kid!