Roddy McDowall

[7] Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry produced and wrote the adapted screenplay for this supremely odd but beguiling movie directed by Roger Vadim (Barbarella). Rock Hudson headlines as a high school football coach and guidance counselor who gets intimate with the students and faculty behind closed doors. One of his students, played by newcomer John David Carson (Creature from Black Lake), comes to him with …

[3] In this TV movie from producer Irwin Allen (The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno), several inhabitants of a small fishing town debate whether or not their dam is about to break after several weeks of rain. The mayor refuses to believe the town is in danger until the flood waters are upon them. In typical Irwin Allen fashion, we get an all-star (B-level, since …

[7] Doris Day stars as a recently married woman who gets lost in the London fog one afternoon. A mysterious voice threatens her life in that mist, and later makes a series of nasty phone calls to her. The caller threatens in a high voice that she’ll be dead inside a month, but as the calls keep coming, everyone begins to think she’s making the …

[3] Elizabeth Taylor plays the powerful and sexy Egyptian queen who fends off Roman conquest while falling in love with its leaders — first Rex Harrison’s Caesar, and then Richard Burton’s Antony. First I’ll be nice to Cleopatra. The sets are sprawling, opulent, and sometime jaw-dropping. Richard Burton gives a powerful, remorseful monologue near the end, and Roddy McDowall gives one of the best performances …

[7] Dogs and cats have been wiped out in a plague and apes have replaced them as pets. More like slaves, actually. Conquest is the least feasible scenario in the original Apes saga, but if you can swallow the setup, the movie turns out to be another solid sci-fi flick. Roddy McDowall returns, not as Cornelius (who died in the last movie), but as his …

[5] The last film in the original Apes franchise is also the most disappointing. Roddy McDowall returns as Caesar, trying to lead apes and humans in peaceful coexistence. It’s interesting to see how the movie ties into all the previous installments, but it doesn’t bring anything new to the table. It also looks and feels cheap. Budget cuts make the final battle look like a …

[8] It may be tempting to dismiss Planet of the Apes as high camp, but there’s provocative science-fiction under those monkey masks. Charlton Heston plays an American astronaut who’s on his way back to Earth when he crashlands on a strange, desolate planet where apes rule and humans are primitive beasts of burden. Heston is captured, tortured, and humiliated by the apes. He finds sympathy …

[7] A gaggle of Oscar-winners go topsy-turvy and fight to survive when a luxury liner capsizes at sea in the trend-setting disaster flick, The Poseidon Adventure. The film delivers on producer Irwin Allen’s desire to blow shit up (think of him as the proto-Michael Bay), but also manages to give its venerable cast plenty to chew on. The characters are engaging and no one is …

[6] A nasty heiress (Goldie Hawn) falls off her yacht and gets amnesia, only to be discovered by a handyman (Kurt Russell) she once screwed over. To get revenge, he convinces her that she’s his wife and the mother of his three unruly sons. Overboard‘s screenplay mines the tried-and-true ‘fish out of water’ scenario to great effect, but make no mistake about it — this …