Tom seleck. Sgt hulka. The professor. Need more of this. Loved it. Woman looks like Suzanne plushette.
4 Reviews
Wish They'd Show This Sometime
RNMorton19 November 2000
Warren Oates is superb as an arsonist with a purpose in this B-movie gem (in TV-movie form). So obscure it has no Maltin summary and is unavailable on VHS or DVD. Used to be shown more regularly on the tube, haven't seen it listed for years. Watch for Tom Selleck in a very early role for him; Arthur Kennedy is solid as one half of the police team trying to nab Oates.
Introducing Tom Selleck as Mike Beaudine
dinky-431 August 2002
There's an intriguing mystery at work in this TV-movie. An arsonist is burning down film studios and movie theaters, not to destroy buildings but to get rid of prints of a particular movie stored in these buildings. What is contained in this movie which would prompt someone to go to so much trouble to get rid of it?
Alas, the unraveling of this mystery is not handled especially well and the final revelation is neither satisfying nor plausible. The occasional use of a split-screen technique, (fashionable in 1970), is more irritating than illuminating, and the attempts to conjure up the hippie world of an Andy Warhol type are downright laughable.
However, the movie benefits from good casting. Even small, throwaway parts are filled by old pros such as Jeff Corey, Elisha Cook jr, Robert Webber, Henry Jones, Frank Campanella, etc. And, of course, this marks the debut of Tom Selleck who looks incredibly young in this movie. How young does he look? He looks so young that he probably hasn't grown any hair on his chest yet! Not that we find out because Tom doesn't once remove his shirt. What were the film-makers thinking? That we'd be drawn to Tom Selleck because of his mind?
Alas, the unraveling of this mystery is not handled especially well and the final revelation is neither satisfying nor plausible. The occasional use of a split-screen technique, (fashionable in 1970), is more irritating than illuminating, and the attempts to conjure up the hippie world of an Andy Warhol type are downright laughable.
However, the movie benefits from good casting. Even small, throwaway parts are filled by old pros such as Jeff Corey, Elisha Cook jr, Robert Webber, Henry Jones, Frank Campanella, etc. And, of course, this marks the debut of Tom Selleck who looks incredibly young in this movie. How young does he look? He looks so young that he probably hasn't grown any hair on his chest yet! Not that we find out because Tom doesn't once remove his shirt. What were the film-makers thinking? That we'd be drawn to Tom Selleck because of his mind?
Who is burning all the great movies of Hollywood?
mark.waltz8 April 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Actually, it's just one film, but it takes a while for them to really make that clear. This is a very strange TV movie that stars Arthur Kennedy as an arson specialist who links the burning of an arthouse movie to a series of other crimes. He gets to go Hollywood and goes inside a movie studio where only a limited number of prints of the film are now available and they are desperately trying to rent the last one from being destroyed. An all-star cast features Warren Oates, Nita Talbot, Henry Jones, Jeff Corey, Russell Johnson and in his film debut, Tom Selleck. There's a separate storyline involving Hotel proprietor Norma Crane who when not at the desk sits in her room and watches old movie.
As this is the early 1970's, and her TV appears to be black and white, the prints of these movies do not look very good at all. Of course, this was before video cassette and restoration, so the grainy TV showing is very realistic to this time. I'm surprised she didn't have to fix the vertical or horizontal that used to be on the old analog TV's. Indeed, Ms. Crane does look a lot like Suzanne Pleshette with the combination of Polly Bergen and Elizabeth Ashley. Film audiences will recognize her as Golde in the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof released just a year after this. A guest at the hotel befriends her, upsetting her partner Johnson who threatens him. There's a lot going on in an hour and a half of a very convoluted film that also has a touch of the late 60's/early 70's counterculture at a few points in the film. Kennedy, one of the best unsung actors of the golden age of Hollywood, is very good but the script is never sure of which direction it wants to be going in. That makes it very dated with a couple of interesting elements, but for the most part, a lot of it bored me.
As this is the early 1970's, and her TV appears to be black and white, the prints of these movies do not look very good at all. Of course, this was before video cassette and restoration, so the grainy TV showing is very realistic to this time. I'm surprised she didn't have to fix the vertical or horizontal that used to be on the old analog TV's. Indeed, Ms. Crane does look a lot like Suzanne Pleshette with the combination of Polly Bergen and Elizabeth Ashley. Film audiences will recognize her as Golde in the movie version of Fiddler on the Roof released just a year after this. A guest at the hotel befriends her, upsetting her partner Johnson who threatens him. There's a lot going on in an hour and a half of a very convoluted film that also has a touch of the late 60's/early 70's counterculture at a few points in the film. Kennedy, one of the best unsung actors of the golden age of Hollywood, is very good but the script is never sure of which direction it wants to be going in. That makes it very dated with a couple of interesting elements, but for the most part, a lot of it bored me.
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