SCIENCE FICTION STARS AND HORROR HEROES

SCIENCE FICTION STARS AND HORROR HEROES: Interviews with Actors, Directors, Producers, and Writers of the 1940s through 1960s. Tom Weaver. McFarland; 1991. 

This is another great collection of interviews conducted by Tom Weaver [Attack of the Monster Movie Makers], some of which appeared previously in various magazines. In this collection we look at everyone from Acquanetta of Captive Wild Woman fame to Robb White, who wrote House on Haunted Hill and Homicidal for William Castle. We learn that Noel Neill was rude to Phyllis Coates because Coates was hired first as Lois Lane for the TV Superman after Neill had been in two Superman serials. Yvette Vickers talks about working on Attack of the 50 Foot Woman and Attack of the Giant Leeches. Herk Harvey discusses making his low-budget classic Carnival of Souls, with its spooky amusement park scenes filmed at an abandoned pier called Saltair near Salt Lake. Nancy Kovack of Jason and the Argonauts frankly discusses her disappointment in her career. Interestingly enough, the person who comes off the worst is Richard Matheson, who seems boastful and even implies that he's better or more important than either Poe or Lovecraft! Kim Hunter, Anna Lee, Janet Leigh, composer Albert Glasser, and many others are interviewed in the book, which offers many fascinating behind-the-scenes details of the picture business, especially low-budget filmmaking. 

Verdict: Very worthwhile series of interviews. ***1/2. 

STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY

William Shatner as Captain Kirk

STAR TREK VI: THE UNDISCOVERED COUNTRY (1991). Director: Nicholas Meyer. 

Captain James Kirk (William Shatner of Dead Man's Island), who blames the untrustworthy Klingons for the death of his son, is outraged when he learns there is to be a peace treaty with the barbarian-like aliens. Worse, he is to invite the Klingon delegation aboard the enterprise. Dinner is awkward, but things take a turn for the worse when the Enterprise apparently fires on the Klingon ship, and Chancellor Gorkon (David Warner) is killed. Trying to help matters and figure out what happened, instead Kirk and McCoy (DeForest Kelley) find themselves put on trial for assassination! 

Kim Cattrall on the bridge of the Enterprise

The Undiscovered Country -- "the undiscovered country, the future" is from Hamlet -- was the last of the theatrical Trek movies to feature the original cast all by themselves, although Shatner and others appeared with Patrick Stewart in Star Trek: Generations. The film is fast-moving and entertaining, although there are times when the script allows Kirk/Shatner to be a little too "cutesy." Otherwise the performances are good enough -- Leonard Nimoy [Zombies of the Stratosphere] and Janes Doohan are aboard -- and the actors playing Klingons, including Warner, are especially notable: Christopher Plummer as Chang and Rosanna DeSoto as Gorkon's daughter, Azetbur, among others. Sulu (George Takei) is now captain of his own ship, with Grace Lee Whitney as his communications officer. (Christian Slater also has a small part as a crew member of Sulu's ship). Iman makes an impression as a shapeshifter who helps Kirk and McCoy get out of the prison mines on an icy planet where they are incarcerated. Kim Cattrall is also memorable as a new Vulcan crew member on the Enterprise. Nichelle Nichols has a little more to do as Uhura. 

During their dinner together, Chang remarks that "you have not experienced Shakespeare until you have read him in the original Klingon." Of course, one might wonder if the Klingons would even be familiar with Shakespeare or have any interest in reading him, but this is undoubtedly an in-joke among several. The FX work in the film is excellent, and Cliff Eidelman's score, especially the dynamic theme music, is also memorable. 

Verdict: Semi swan song for the original Star Trek crew. ***.
 

CHILD'S PLAY 3

 CHILD'S PLAY 3 (1991). Director: Jack Bender. 

In this sequel to Child's Play and Child' Play 2, Andy, now played by Justin Whalen, is 16 and living in a military academy. Somehow the spirit of serial killer Charles Lee Ray (Brad Dourif) winds up back in a new "Good Guy" doll, fresh off the assembly line, named Chucky. After killing off the head of the toy company (Peter Haskell), Chucky manages to mail himself to Andy at the academy, and of course havoc ensues. Chucky kills off creepy people as well as the innocent and bonds with the likable black kid Tyler (Jeremy Sylvers) because he wants to transfer his mind into Tyler's body. 

Child's Play 3 is an acceptable if minor-league horror film, but at least it doesn't descend completely into idiotic camp as a couple of the later films did (Beware any Chucky vehicle that has Jennifer Tilly in it!) Travis Fine makes an impression as the despicable Shelton, who orders everyone about as if they were in boot camp, and Perrey Reeves is effective enough as a feisty female cadet. The climax to this, set in a funhouse, is both dragged out and exciting, as Tyler, Andy or Chucky face extinction at the blades of a huge revolving fan. 

Verdict: This should have wrapped up the series, but there was more to come! **1/2. 

FALSE ARREST

Robert Wagner and Donna Mills

FALSE ARREST (2 part telefilm/1991). Director: Bill Norton. 

In Scottsdale, Joyce Lukezic (Donna Mills) is married to her husband Ron (Robert Wagner), who is stepfather to her two children. One night Ron's business partner is murdered, along with his mother-in-law; his wife is severely injured. At first it seems like a simple home invasion, but the authorities, led by Detective Dan Ryan (Steven Bauer), begin to focus in on Joyce, feeling she had the most to gain from the murders and may have hired the killers. Arrested, she faces nasty fellow inmates, and is even raped. Meanwhile Ron hands her pills in her hospital bed, suggesting that suicide might be the best way out for her! If possible, things get even worse for Joyce after she's convicted and sent to prison, with not a soul helping her but moral support from Nadine (Mimi Kuzyk), a sympathetic lesbian who falls for her. 

Mimi Kuzyk and Mills

False Arrest is a riveting true-crime telefilm with a good, if non-revelatory, lead performance from Mills. Robert Wagner gives one of the best performances of his career as the very slimy Ron, who basically runs off and leaves his step kids on their own. There is also very good work from Kuzyk, Bauer, George Hearn as a lawyer,  Dennis Christopher as a coke-addicted co-worker, and Lewis Van Bergen as Joyce's brother, Arnie, among others. Although Joyce was eventually acquitted in a second trial, she was never fully exonerated. This is based on her book about her trials and tribulations. 

Verdict: Absorbing true crime story with some on-target performances. ***.  

HELL HATH NO FURY

Loretta Swit

HELL HATH NO FURY (1991 telefilm). Director: Thomas J. Wright. 

Terri Ferguson (Barbara Eden of Dead Man's Island) has a happy marriage to furniture store owner Stanley (David Ackroyd). One afternoon Stanley is murdered by an old girlfriend, Connie (Loretta Swit), who has been obsessed with him since college. Not only does Terri have to deal with the loss of a man she loved, but she discovers they were practically broke, their daughter (Amanda Peterson) far preferred her father over her mother, and now the police are zeroing in on her as the primary suspect. Meanwhile Connie changes her appearance and befriends Terri, who has no idea that this is the woman who ruined her life ...

Barbara Eden

Hell Hath No Fury is an absorbing telefilm, although it never becomes the nail-biter it could have been. Loretta Swit offers the best performance as Connie, who improbably manages to hide her demented state a bit too well. Barbara Eden has been offered a terrific role in this -- better than psycho-Swit's, in fact --  but while she's competent, she simply hasn't the acting chops to really make the most of this opportunity. Amanda Peterson is adequate as Michelle, but Conor O'Farrell offers a flavorful if obvious performance as a young detective who is smugly convinced of Terri's guilt. Richard Kline and Kim Zimmer are fine as close friends of Terri's who try to help her through her ordeal and wind up paying a terrible price. William Lucking plays an older cop, and Natalie Core has a strong moment or two as Connie's very distraught mother. 

Verdict: Entertaining "psycho-bitch" movie with some exciting moments. **3/4. 

THE UNBORN (1991)

Jeff Hayenga, Brooke Adams, Kathy Griffin

THE UNBORN (1991). Director: Rodman Flender. 

Virginia Marshall's (Brooke Adams) last hope to conceive a child lies with fertility specialist Dr. Meyerling (James Karen). Although Virginia, along with her husband Brad (Jeff Hayenga), is delighted when she gets pregnant, she comes to think that there's something unnatural growing inside of her. And that Meyerling, a geneticist by trade, has something to do with it. She has a breakdown on a national television show and is convinced her baby is a monster. Is she as nutty as a fruitcake, or is Meyerling implanting super-babies in women's wombs? 

It's Alive! 

The Unborn is utter schlock that is an embarrassment for all concerned. The movie becomes more ludicrous with every moment, eventually turning into a complete burlesque, and good performances from Adams and Hayenga are completely wasted. The derivative plot combines everything from It's Alive to Children of the Damned with a dose of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (the remake of which starred Adams) thrown in for good measure. 

Jeff Hayenga

If that's not bad enough we're introduced to a lesbian couple (one of whom is played by comic Kathy Griffin) at the fertility clinic, and while at first they are treated sympathetically, it later develops that they are a little crazy. They even have negative feelings about males (the incredibly old and tired "lesbians hate men" stereotype), wanting to exclude husbands from birthing classes because they are "outsiders" -- huh? When Kathy Griffin is hammered to death by her girlfriend (don't ask) she keeps screaming at Adams over the phone to call the police and Adams just keeps asking "what's wrong" instead of simply hanging up and calling the police! This is only one of several dumb sequences in the movie, which is, in a word, awful. People who insist there's something profound going on in  this flick need to crack a book sometime.

Verdict: You could call this, say, an examination of baby hatred but the movie has absolutely nothing on its mind. *.