Hunnicutt, Gayle

The Martian Chronicles

With each passing year, this 1980 miniseries becomes more for those who have read Ray Bradbury's landmark novel. The three-part, nearly five-hour series keeps its brainy science fiction roots; this story (and the 1940s novel) is not about laser battles and exciting action pieces. Bradbury's novel is galvanized by the cold war nightmare: at the end of the 20th century, an earth teetering on world war begins to colonize Mars without much knowledge of the new world. Hard science is left for other stories, and director Michael Anderson (Logan's Run) keeps this retrofitting: for example, astronauts arrive on a breathable Mars in leisure suits. The space travel effects are clunky, but the action on Mars--with Assheton Gorton's geometric sets and simple props--are far more effective. There are Martians there, as the unprepared first Earthlings learn. Later, as the planet is quickly colonized, the remaining Martians are near specters--bringing awe and fear to those they encounter. Master sci-fi writer Richard Matheson (I Am Legend) smartly streamlines Bradbury's episodic stories, giving a central role to Col. John Wilder (played by Rock Huston, leading a plethora of solid, yet B-list actors). For those in love with cerebral science fiction, they can enjoy this dated but curious sci-fi miniseries; for those of think sci-fi began with Star Wars, beware. --Doug Thomas

From the mind of science-fiction giant Ray Bradbury springs what is perhaps his most epic vision. Capturing mankind s first venture into the colonization of another planet and its tragic first contact with another species The Martian Chronicles is a stunning achievement that will take you from the edge of your seat to the stars.Earth is on the verge of extinction. To survive mankind must find another place to live. But when three expeditions to Mars headed by Col. John Wilder (Oscar®-nominee* Rock Hudson) find suitable conditions for relocation humans pour in by the shipload bringing the old evils of Earth with them! As Wilder begins to heed the lessons of the dying Martian civilization can he save humanity from repeating its doom?System Requirements: Running Time 293 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: SCI-FI/FANTASY Rating: NR UPC: 027616911278 Manufacturer No: 1006989

Fall of Eagles

In the latter half of the 19th century three ruling houses dominated europe: the hapsburgs of austria-hungary the romanovs of russia and the hohenzollerns of germany. This 13-part bbc historical drama highlights the fall of these three dynasties. Studio: Koch International Release Date: 05/02/2006 Starring: Patrick Stewart John Rhys-davies Run time: 710 minutes

The First Olympics: Athens 1896

This television miniseries tells the story of the founding of the modern Olympics by focusing on individuals in several countries and their preparations and eventual competition in Athens in 1896. David Ogden Stiers (a familiar face to viewers of M*A*S*H reruns) portrays a Princeton classics professor whose knowledge of the ancient Olympics means he's given the task of recruiting an American team for the 1896 games. The stories of how some athletes have to be convinced to join the team may seem contrived, but they do reinforce the idea of how fragile the concept of reviving the Olympics was at the time. A young David Caruso (years before he'd swagger through the stationhouse of N.Y.P.D. Blue) portrays a cocky Boston Irishman who walks away from a Harvard scholarship to participate in track events. And if Caruso does veer perilously close to doing an extended James Cagney impression, he serves as a sturdy focal point to the American team. Once in Athens, the focus is very much on the American athletes and their surprising success, and there are some interesting and humorous touches in the plot. For instance, the fledgling American team had enlisted a local blacksmith to render an iron discus, thereby giving them an unexpected advantage when presented with the much lighter "official" discus in Athens. Even if the various plots and subplots about the athletes don't always hold up very well, the scenes of competition in Athens do provide an entertaining re-creation of the first modern Olympics. --Robert J. McNamara

A team of us athletes helps revive the traditions of ancient greece after a nearly 1500 year hiatus by overcoming insurmountable odds and competing in athens first modern day olympic games. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 08/05/2008 Starring: Honor Blackman Run time: 248 minutes

The Legend of Hell House

Four people enter the Belasco Mansion, the so-called "Everest of haunted houses," hired by a dying millionaire to investigate the possibility of life after death. Physicist Clive Revill leads the quartet, which includes his wife Gayle Hunnicut and two mediums. Pamela Franklin, young and impulsive, immediately makes contact with what she perceives as a tortured spirit, while Roddy McDowall, the only survivor from the previous investigation 20 years ago, closes himself off completely, deathly afraid of the malevolent forces that crushed his former comrades in body and spirit. Science fiction and horror legend Richard Matheson, responsible for penning such horror classics as The Devil Rides Out and Roger Corman's The Pit and the Pendulum, brings a literate sensibility and a refreshing seriousness to the haunted-house genre with this adaptation of his novel Hell House. Director John Hough follows Matheson's lead with a moody but sober approach, balancing the physical threats of objects lethally leaping to life with the slow, subtle possession of the characters by a truly evil spirit. Parts of the script feel like so much scientific mumbo jumbo, with characters discussing the finer points of supernatural manifestation and ectoplasmic activity, but Hough's deliberate direction gives it the necessary solemnity to take it all seriously. --Sean Axmaker

In sits there, shrouded in mist and mystery, a nesting place for living evil and terror from the dead. It's Hell House. Roddy McDowall heads the cast of this exciting chiller about four psychic investigators and the dark, brooding mansion they themselves call "the Mt. Everest of haunted houses." It's already destroyed one team of researchers. Now this brave quartet ventures in for another try at unraveling its secret. But before they succeed, they must suffer through madness, murder and everything else the spirits that dwell here have in store for them. Yet learning the truth just might drive them all insane. An ingeniously-devised ghost story, THE LEGEND OF HELL HOUSE will thrill and delight veteran horror fans from the first creaking door to the very last slithering shadow.

Barbara Taylor Bradford's A Woman of Substance

Determined to ruin the upper-class Fairley family who wronged her, Emma Harte (Jenny Seagrove) aims to become one of the richest women in the world. Although anachronistic for a woman born around 1890, it is exhilarating to watch her think and act like a contemporary woman with the benefits of late-20th-century feminism. In just over five hours, this Emmy-nominated version of Barbara Taylor Bradford's bestselling novel A Woman of Substance traces Emma's life from overworked Yorkshire maid to the triumphant 79-year-old matriarch (Deborah Kerr) of a vast business empire.

Married twice, but only truly loving a man she could never marry, Emma devotes herself to building her business empire. Surrounded by a loyal few, including Irishman Blackie O'Neill (Liam Neeson), Emma lives her life as a strong, uncompromising protagonist similar to Gone with the Wind's Scarlett O'Hara in a social environment reminiscent of Upstairs, Downstairs. Her life is a sort of feminist retrospective on the social issues of 1890s-to-1930s England--poverty, illegitimate children, illness, anti-Semitism, World War I, whether to marry for security or passion, the role of women in the workplace, and such--making A Woman of Substance a historical and inspiring film to watch. --Tara Chace

The Wild Angels

Embittered by his experience working with 20th Century Fox on The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), and weary of the Poe films for American International Pictures, Roger Corman was in dire need of inspiration for his next production. He found it in Life magazine, which featured a photo of the funeral of Mother Miles, head of the Sacramento, California, Hell's Angels. From this picture came both The Wild Angels and the biker-movie genre itself. Peter Fonda, who replaced George Chakiris, stars as brooding Angels chieftain Heavenly Blues. When his pal Loser (Bruce Dern) is shot by police, Blues attempts to bury him in a small town, but the locals resist, and a brawl ensues. Audiences and critics were alternately appalled and thrilled by the extensive drug use and violence, but beneath Angels' leathery hide beats the heart of a Western, especially in its ruminations on personal freedom. Charles Griffith's script (cowritten by Peter Bogdanovich, who also cameos in the film) helped make Angels the sole U.S. entry for the 1966 Venice Film Festival, which irked the State Department enough to try and revoke the honor. Corman's direction, freed from AIP's period pieces, is lean and exuberantly active, aided by Monte Hellman's editing. The film helped give Fonda the counterculture clout to later make Easy Rider, and boosted the careers of Dern and then-wife Diane Ladd; Nancy Sinatra, however, renounced the picture, fearful of its effect on her image. Mike Curb's score features Davie Allan and the Arrows' fuzz-tone-soaked hit "Blues' Theme." --Paul Gaita

Target

Matt dillon thinks his father is just an ordinary dad. When mom is kidnapped in europe. However he learns that his father is a government agent. Studio: Paramount Home Video Release Date: 06/14/2005 Starring: Gene Hackman Matt Dillon Run time: 117 minutes Rating: R Director: Arthur Penn

Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon play a typical (if unlikely) father and son, at odds over the usual generational stuff. Then Gayle Hunnicutt, as the wife and mother, disappears--and suddenly Sonny Boy discovers something he never knew about stuffy old Dad: that he's actually a retired government agent who's pretty handy with a gun and more than willing to waste whoever gets in his way as he tries to get his wife back alive. They bounce around Europe in pursuit, with the kid getting in Dad's way, in a plot that winds up chasing its own tail. Hackman and director Arthur Penn were much more effective a decade earlier when they made Night Moves. --Marshall Fine

Scorpio

The prime minister of Eritrea is assassinated by political opponents, setting off a chain of events with global repercussions in the intelligence community. Burt Lancaster plays Cross, a CIA operative who dates back to the agency's earliest days as the OSS. Scorpio (Alain Delon) is a protégé of Cross, and one of Cross's best friends in a netherworld where everyone's allegiances, personal and political, are in question. Higher-ups within the intelligence agency decide that Cross knows too much and is better off eliminated; at first, Scorpio refuses the job until the CIA frames him on a phony narcotics bust and coerces him into the assignment. The two men play a game of global cat-and-mouse as Cross consorts with his Russian counterparts--fellow aging dinosaurs in a young man's game. Cross's links with the Russians go back to the days of the Spanish Civil War and the time when Cross was given the ironic label of "premature anti-Fascist" by the House Unamerican Activities Committee. The incredibly convoluted plot is rife with double-crosses and reverse double-crosses, in an environment in which nothing is quite as it seems and no one is to be trusted. Director Michael Winner infuses enough energy and excitement into the film's many action segments to make Scorpio worthy of comparison to John Frankenheimer's best political thrillers. Winner also throws in several curveballs, such as the zither music during a meeting in a Vienna café (shades of The Third Man) and the preposterous device of disguising Lancaster as an African American priest. Though not quite a classic, Scorpio is still an underrated espionage thriller that was well attuned to the political cynicism of the time. Best line: "I want Cross, and I want him burned!" --Jerry Renshaw

Burt Lancaster (Field of Dreams), Alain Delon (Once a Thief) and Paul Scofield (King Lear) star in this masterful spy thriller filmed on location in Washington, Paris and Vienna.With its intense action, breathtaking suspense and fabulous supporting cast that includes John Colicos (The Postman Always Rings Twice) and Gayle Hunnicutt (Running Scared), Scorpio is a bold and powerful modern classic. Lancaster is Agent Cross, a C.I.A. operative with a shocking secret; Delon is Scorpio, a French assassin with a hard-earned reputation for always getting his man. Both are experts in their fieldbrave, intelligent, and lethal. And when they're thrust together by personal ambitions and political forces beyond their control, each man finds himself fighting for his life amidst the brutal realities of the Cold War.

The Legend of Hell House

Studio: Tcfhe Release Date: 09/09/2008 Run time: 95 minutes Rating: Pg

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