The Taking of Flight 847: The Uli Derickson Story (1988)

A tense TV movie about a real-life hijacking that took place just a couple of years before.

Chief flight attendant Uli (Lindsay Wagner) thinks her next flight will be a run-of-the-mill run from Athens. However, soon into the flight two Hezbollah terrorists hijack the flight. Castro (Eli Danker) threatens to blow up the plane unless the crew do as they say. 

The plane is soon travelling backwards and forwards between Beirut and Algiers, Uli and the rest of the crew are trying to keep their passengers safe, especially their Jewish ones and US servicemen, while the terrorists demand the release of prisoners...

An excellent film, the low budget helping to keep everything low-key and very believable. The terrorists are brutal, violent but also humanised to build out the characters and not making them 2-D cardboard cut-outs as so often happens with characters like this on screen.

Time Travelers (1976)

An enjoyable TV movie, if you can overcome the rather ridiculous premise.

A new disease is in danger of getting out of control. The only way to fight the disease is apparently to... travel back in time to Chicago 1871 where the disease once rose before but was successfully treated by a now long dead doctor. Earnshaw (Sam Groom) and Adams (Tom Hallick) are sent back in time. Unfortunately, there is a slight miscalculation and they are sent just days before the great Chicago fire which will destroy everything...

OK, you obviously will consider that if the US government possesses time travel technology you may wonder why a mere virus is now a problem. However, if you suspend enough disbelief than this is a fine little film.

The Doomsday Flight (1966)

One of the best TV movies ever made, an excellent tale of high drama at high altitude.

A flight takes off bound for New York, the usual collection of stereotypes is aboard including the arrogant celebrity Ducette (John Saxon). 

However, the flight captained by Anderson (Van Johnson) soon runs into trouble as a mysterious man (Edmond O'Brien) rings the airline to tell them there is a bomb aboard! The bomb is air pressure sensitive, so will explode if the plane drops below a certain altitude. With time running out, FBI Agent Thomson (Jack Lord) battles to try and catch the bomber, though the bomber is getting drunk and throwing everything into chaos...

This is a truly excellent film with a lot of tension and plot twists and turns. Great performances and a well paced and staged plot make this film very highly recommended.

Follow That Car (1980)

A failed TV pilot but still an enjoyable romp.

Loretta (Tanya Tucker) and Sue Lynn (Terri Nunn) are two pretty car mechanics who spend a lot of their time fixing the car of moonshine runner Dusty (Dirk Benedict), who indulges in high speed chases with the police, sometimes involving driving through fire (won't do the paintwork much good). Caught out by the FBI, they are forced to become under cover agents to defeat the crime boss lady Stark (Sally Kirkland)... 

This was one of a number of films in the late 1970s in a sub-genre sometimes called hicksploitation. They were set in the deep south of the USA, usually involving beautiful girls, fast and loud cars and a county music soundtrack! The film is light, packed full of action though no one really gets that badly hurt amid all the car crashes ands mayhem.

It is fine for what it is but the story is a bit too generic and light. Its not hard to see why it never made it beyond a pilot, but perfectly watchable.

A Tattered Web (1971)

A superb TV movie about a good cop's downfall.

Detective Ed Stagg (Lloyd Bridges) dotes on his daughter Tina (Sallie Shockley), and is perturbed when he catches his son-in-law Steve (Frank Converse) messing about with a floozy.

Stagg goes to warn the woman Louise (Anne Helm) off but a fight ensues and he accidentally kills her. Stagg is now desperate to cover things up and not just to protect himself but also Tina as he knows Steve, whom Tina loves deeply, is a prime suspect. How far is he prepared to go?

Quite far indeed, and this is a very enjoyable film with some great performances especially by Bridges. Stagg's downfall from trusted veteran cop is swift and continuous as he tries to make things right, but continually makes it worse. One thing which more could have been made of was the dark past which had given Stagg his demons, it seems a bit bolted on too far into the story to have much impact.

One of My Wives is Missing (1976)

A highly enjoyable TV movie with a delicious twist.

Newly wed Daniel Corban's (James Franciscus) wife has gone missing, the local cop Inspector Levine (Jack Klugman) isn't that interested at what he thinks is just a lover's tiff. 

Then Corban's wife turns up... but Corban says it isn't her! This Elizabeth (Elizabeth Ashley) seems genuine though, she knows the answers to all the questions but Corban is insistent it isn't her. There is something darker going on but maybe not quite what you may expect...

This is a terrific film with a very surprising twist. When you think back at earlier events in the film, the twist just about remains plausible. A well-paced drama, with a great cast, that has layer upon layer. 

Cruise Into Terror (1978)

A surprisingly good slice of horror cheese on the high seas.

A small cargo ship prepares to make a trip to Mexico, though Captain Andrews (Hugh O'Brian) and first mate Simon (Dirk Benedict) have real concerns about the engine holding up. The passengers are a motley collection of stereotypes (well this is a TV movie after all) including a troubled vicar (John Forsythe) and a driven archaeologist (Ray Milland) who is convinced the Ancient Egyptians made it to Mexico!

After a series of strange incidents including mysterious technical failures, the ship makes it to the location of an Egyptian burial site. A sarcophagus is raised from the sea bed. However, the priest warns that they may have raised the son of Satan from the depths...

This is a great film, good old actors putting in decent performances with a plot that maybe isn't too original but has enough meat on it to work. There are a few genuinely creepy moments too.

Get Christie Love! (1974)

A sassy cop drama with a blaxploitation feel which led to a TV series.

Christie Love (Teresa Graves) is a copy sent undercover to find the evidence to break up a drug gang led by Paul Stevens. According to intelligence, the crime boss' squeeze Helena (Louise Sorel) knows where the ledger is to provide the needed evidence. Christie discovers though that Helena with her photographic memory is the ledger. She finds a way to get Helena to play ball by tracking down her long-lost son...

This is an enjoyable film with some good early 1970s soul and cool. Being a TV movie it is pretty restrained compared to the usual blaxploitation film but this helps with some intelligence in the plot which means Christie does some good detective work in the film instead of just beating people up with her dubious martial arts skills (though there is still some of that!) 

A good watch.

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.