Tabori, Kristoffer

The Sherlock Holmes Feature Film Collection

In addition to numerous one-hour episodes, Granada Television produced five feature-length Sherlock Holmes films starring Jeremy Brett, easily the best of all screen actors to play the sleuth, and Edward Hardwicke, a warm and capable Dr. Watson. The 1987 feature version of The Sign of Four, the second Holmes novel written by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, is faithful to the original story except in one important detail: Dr. Watson does not get the girl. Otherwise, the familiar tale of the death of Bartholomew Sholto and the theft of the Agra treasure is all here, as is a snappy performance by Brett as Holmes doing some of the finest investigative work of his career.

A thrilling blend of detective yarn and Gothic horror, The Hound of the Baskervilles (1988) concerns the apparent return of an old curse upon the Baskerville family in the terrifying form of a gigantic killer hound. Fans of Hardwicke get an opportunity to see his Watson on a solo mission for part of this story, though Brett is never far from the narrative. The supporting cast is very good, and the beast itself, revealed in a famously terrifying finale, is indeed a spooky revelation.

In The Master Blackmailer (1991), Holmes takes on the reputed king of all blackmailers. Charles Augustus Milverton (Robert Hardy) has made a fortune extorting money from the famous and the blue-blooded, and he routinely ruins others' lives when not pleased. Unable to talk Milverton into turning over letters belonging to Lady Eva Brackenwell, Holmes decides to steal them, going undercover as a plumber and even romancing Milverton's housemaid, Agatha (Sophie Thompson), to gain better access in the house. The story builds to a surprisingly violent finale, but the real hook is Brett's performance as the disguised detective and the startling suggestion that Holmes's close contact with Agatha truly moved the bachelor sleuth.

A little overextended as a two-hour movie, The Eligible Bachelor (1992) was made late in the enterprise. It finds Holmes (the ailing Brett, playing an increasingly darker and more neurotic detective) and Watson called upon to help in a case involving the disappearance of Henrietta Doran (Paris Jefferson). Fiancée of the noble Lord Robert St. Simon (Simon Williams), Doran was last seen with a former lover of St. Simon's, Flora Millar (Joanna McCallum). The unimaginative Scotland Yard instantly arrests Millar on suspicion of foul play, but it is Holmes who has to find the missing woman.

The Last Vampyre (1992) was perhaps the most ill-advised of the series. Entirely contrary to the tone and spirit of Doyle's short story "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire"--which finds Holmes victoriously pitting his well-grounded deductive powers against irrational fears of a rise in bloodsucking--it's something of an embarrassment to the largely wonderful legacy of Granada's earlier efforts. (For the record, most of the creative executives who had worked on the beloved series in the 1980s had been replaced by the time this film was made.) In this version, Holmes does battle with a Dracula-like fellow who may or may not be the real McCoy. There is a great deal of padding to fill out the story, and it is mostly silly, but the ailing Brett gives an ever-fascinating performance, which deviates from Doyle's vision of the detective toward something darker and more personal. --Tom Keogh

QB VII

This five-hour miniseries, which was hailed as both a critical triumph and a milestone "television event" when it originally aired in 1974, is based on the Leon Uris novel, which itself was based on a libel trial that arose after Uris published his novel Exodus. The fictionalized drama is essentially the story of two men, Dr. Adam Kelno, a Polish doctor who was imprisoned by the Nazis in a concentration camp, and Abe Cady, a successful Hollywood writer who publishes a serious book on the Holocaust that exposes Kelno's past. Playing Dr. Kelno, Anthony Hopkins steals the show, and the nuances he brings to the character keep the audience guessing whether he is in fact a dedicated healer or a diabolical villain intent on papering over a fiendish past. Ben Gazzara is credible as the tough-talking Cady, but when Hopkins leaves the action for a time the film sags and begins to resemble an ordinary TV movie. Eventually the two men's lives come into conflict when Kelno sues for libel. The trial, which takes place in a London courtroom (the "Queen's Bench VII" of the title), seeks to sort out the truth about the past of Dr. Kelno. His precise activities during the war, and how the world deals with his past, receive intelligent and dramatic treatment. --Robert J. McNamara

Sherlock Holmes - The Hound of the Baskervilles

This nearly two-hour Granada Television production of the most popular Sherlock Holmes tale--adapted from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's 1902 novel--stars series regular Jeremy Brett as the Baker Street detective and Edward Hardwicke as his close ally, Dr. John Watson. A thrilling blend of detective yarn and Gothic horror, The Hound concerns the apparent return of an old curse upon the Baskerville family in the terrifying form of a gigantic killer hound. Fans of Hardwicke get an opportunity to see his Watson on a solo mission for part of this story, though Brett--easily the best of all screen actors to play the sleuth--is never far from the narrative. The supporting cast is very good, and the beast itself, revealed in a famously terrifying finale, is indeed a spooky revelation. --Tom Keogh

The Glass House

John & Mary

A perceptive analysis of a one night stand, John and Mary arrived with the tagline, "It's not your mother's love story." And so it isn't. With hindsight, though, this New York-set, European-style romance seems more quaint than revolutionary. John (Dustin Hoffman) meets Mary (Mia Farrow) at a bar where they bond over Jean-Luc Godard. Turns out she isn't a fan, but the ice has been broken, and a connection is made. The timeline proceeds to shift from the night they met, the day after their tryst, and their previous relationships (his with a flighty model, hers with a married politician). Aside from quotable lines, like "Cinema verité is just an excuse to follow a little girl into the ladies room," John Mortimer's script uses voiceover to convey the couple's inner thoughts. With his preppy outfits, Hoffman looks much like his post-collegiate character in The Graduate, while Farrow, with her baby-doll dresses, looks much like her hip housewife in Rosemary's Baby, though their performances here are quite different. Featuring a spare soundtrack by Quincy Jones and direction by the versatile, if inconsistent Peter Yates (Bullitt), John and Mary is an underrated look at love among young singles torn between convention and desire. The sexual politics may seem dated, but the chemistry between Hoffman's fastidious John and Farrow's flippant Mary is as appealing as it is unlikely (TIME magazine dubbed them "The Moonchild and the Fifth Beatle"). With Olympia Dukakis as John's mother and Tyne Daly as Mary's roommate. --Kathleen C. Fennessy

Screen legends Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow light up the screen in this engaging and subtle film directed by Peter Yates.

Based on the novel by Mervyn Jones, John And Mary stars Hoffman as a furniture designer and Farrow as an art gallery assistant who meet in an upscale New York singles bar and go home together. The next day, they individually wander around the city, wondering what their night together might have meant Â- if anything. Even though both carry over-the-limit baggage from unsuccessful earlier affairs, and both are stocked with enough hang-ups to fill volumes of psychological textbooks, thereÂ's still a chance that theyÂ'll wind up together at least one more time Â- and if nothing else, learn each other's names for the first time!

A Memory of Two Mondays (Broadway Theatre Archive)

Dramatizing a compacted group of memories passing over several years, Arthur Miller's vivid comedy-drama portrays the nature of life during America's Great Depression. The emphasis is on mood and characterization as Miller draws on his own personal experience to evoke what the 1930s were like for workers to whom a job--any job--was everything. "...a beautiful play superbly performed." --The New York Daily News. With Jack Warden, Harvey Keitel, Dick Van Patten, Estelle Parsons, and Jerry Stiller.

Rappaccini's Daughter

Seen on PBS

Written By: Teleplay writer Herbert Hartig, based on Nathaniel Hawthorne's classic

Starring:Kathleen Beller, Kristoffer Tabori

Directed By:Dezso Magyar

Description:Set in 18th Century Italy, RAPPACCINI'S DAUGHTER is the tale of a young scholar named Giovanni (Kristoffer Tabori) who falls in love with a beautiful, yet forbidden, girl who tends her father's poison garden.

However, the strange and unearthly beauty of Beatrice (Kathleen Beller) masks a terrifying curse which Giovanni must tragically discover. Her father, the mysterious Dr. Rappaccini, has made her the subject of a diabolical experiment. In Giovanni's attempt to free Beatrice from the control of her father and to escape the poisonous effect she begins to have on him, he unwittingly destroys her.

From the short story of master American novelist Nathaniel Hawthorne, two quintessential Hawthorne themes are explored: the sins of interfering with another's soul and the futility of trying to tamper with nature.

DVD Features:Author Bio, Actor Bios, Printable Study Guide, About the American Short Story Collection, Audio Interview - Robert Geller, Henry Fonda Intro, Trailer

Last Summer in the Hamptons

Three generations of a large theatrical family come together for one last weekend at their East Hampton family estate. Oona Hart, an electrifying Hollywood movie star, manages to charm her way into this eclectic and extraordinary family full or writers, actors and directors. Her presence further complicates and confuses all the theatrical egos, sexual energies and raw emotions in what is already perhaps the world's most dysfunctional family. As the weekend plays out, the family's well kept cachet of secrets is pried open and all the hidden stories begin to reveal themselves.

Glass House

Return of Sherlock Holmes, The {The Hound of the Baskervilles (#2.5)} [Region 2]