Norm de Plume

I have to disagree about that book. It's terribly written, or at least the reviews are sloppily assembled. Often, the author will be in the midst of appraising a movie's quality when he will suddenly go off on an interminable tangent about some participant's career and life.
"The ABC Movie-of-the-Week Companion" by Michael Karol is perhaps slightly better, but not much. Some other books that include reviews of TV movies, though hardly comprehensively, are "The Creature Features Movie Guide Strikes Again" (1994) by John Stanley, Steven Scheuer's defunct annual movie guides (his book had them all, but the reviews were often sketchy), Elliot's movie guides, the Radio Times movie guides, the Blockbuster annuals, and the two Psychotronic guides. Unfortunately, there isn't a really good, exhaustive book of reviews of TV movies.

As to online resources, other than IMDb and a few other review databases, I don't know of any where these movies are discussed, but if you're looking to get your hands on telefilms, virtually all of them can be found at IOffer. I have bought and sold many there myself.

JackBurton

Thanks for the info, Norm de Plume! I just got the book as a Christmas gift and have not got far into the reviews yet. I'll take a look at the books you listed. I've only had one experience purchasing from IOffer, but it was positive.

NoirFan

And the first, I believe.

dhmac

The Night Stalker (1972) and The Night Strangler (1973)

Two TV-movies that later had the spinoff TV series "Kolchak: The Night Stalker" and all together were major inspirations for "The X-Files"

.

Rex Power Colt-Robot Man

Edit: I cant read paost above me

Double_Oh_7

The Deliberate Stranger- Mark Harmon as serial killer Ted Bundy. The real-life story of his crimes and how he got caught.

It was on VHS, but I've been waiting for a DVD release forever.

B5Erik

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hasslein

Trapped Beneath the Sea (1974) ... Lee J Cobb, Martin Balsam, and Starsky himself Paul Michael Glaser...

mariner101

I'm certain this is not on DVD, but does anyone remember a made for TV movie called Power Man in the late 1970s or early 1980s? This Power Man was not the Marvel Comics character, but a man who somehow gained the ability to shoot electricity from his body. I think this was shown as a kind of double-feature with another masked hero, a kind of Zorro-like figure whose name escapes me. I know I saw this movie once but I can find no reference to it anywhere. And yes, I realize it is probably god-awful, but let me know if you can help me identify it.

hasslein

Do you mean The Power Within (1979)? I keep old Maltin books for TVM references, he deletes titles every year. It's in the 1990 edition...

mariner101

I believe that is it. Thanks for the help.

mariner101

Do you remember the other movie-the one with the Zorro-like character?

riley_dude

Silence of the Heart with Chad Lowe. Great movie.

JackBurton

Although it is from 1990, I recently saw Frank Darabont's made-for-tv film Buried Alive and I thought it was quite good.

Ash Ketchum

THE KILLERS (1964), directed by Don Siegel, was supposed to be the very first made-for-TV movie, but NBC found it too violent, so Universal released it to theaters instead. I saw it in a theater years later on a double bill with another Lee Marvin crime classic, POINT BLANK (1967).

I remember liking THE NIGHT STALKER and a sci-fi thing called CITY BENEATH THE SEA (1971) with Stuart Whitman. Plus something from Gene Roddenberry called PLANET EARTH with John Saxon and Diana Muldaur. And there were a few westerns, including one called DESPERATE MISSION, where Ricardo Montalban played Joaquin Murieta, the famous Mexican outlaw. I used to see tons of these things, but I didn't like too many of them.

My problem with TV movies is that the ones that weren't westerns or science fiction all tended to look alike. They were all shot in the same style. When you went to the movies in those years, the movies didn't all look alike. A tough cop picture (THE FRENCH CONNECTION) didn't look like a counterculture car chase movie (VANISHING POINT), which didn't look like a Bob Fosse musical (CABARET), which didn't look like a Japanese monster movie (GODZILLA VS. THE SMOG MONSTER), which didn't look like a kung fu film (FIVE FINGERS OF DEATH), which didn't look like a Lee Van Cleef Italian western (SABATA), which didn't look like a blaxploitation film (SUPERFLY), which didn't look like a Mario Bava horror film (BARON BLOOD), etc. You get the idea. Everytime you went to the movies you got something different. But on TV everything looked alike.

gglass4269

The remake of All Quiet on the Western Front ranks right up there with the original.

calhoun07

I don't believe anybody has mentioned Hero at Large. I haven't seen this movie since the day it first aired on TV, and pretty much all I remember was thinking that John Ritter's career was over (HA!). But looking at reviews of it, it seems to be well received and some say it still holds up well!

I see it's on DVD now so it might be time for a "repeat!"

JackBurton

I noticed that Amazon now offers The Wave on DVD through their burn on demand dvd-r service. As with WB Archieves and the Frederick Wiseman stuff, Amazon seems to really be overpricing these. The reviews sound like its just a VHS transfer. Still, I'd be interested in knowing if there is a master list of burn on demand titles. If they brought the price down significantly, I'd be willing to pick up some where there was no other legal option.

hasslein

Hero at Large was not a made for television movie.

calhoun07

Guess I was too young to remember it ever coming to the theater!

RagingBull80

Elvis

The Deadly Tower

Brian T

One of the better (and well-regarded) made-for-TV super hero movies was DR. STRANGE (1978).

Also, the Ted Danson starrer ONCE UPON A SPY (1980) was a lot of fun, as was extremely well-acted THE RETURN OF SHERLOCK HOLMES (1987), which used a sci-fi angle to bring Holmes into modern times.

Dr Mabuse

12:01 PM was an Oscar nominated short film in 1990, and it was excellent. I still remember that short. When Kurtwood Smith yells out "I'm God!" at the end with the pistol in his hand and shoots himself, then wakes up again at 12:01 and sighs. Man that was really good stuff, it should have won the Oscar. I still remember that scene.



Groundhog Day was based on that short film, of course turned into it's own story.

The 12:01 TV full length film was a remake done in 1993 to coincide with, or maybe capitalize on, the Groundhog Day release.

EDIT: I'll be damned, I found the entire short film with Kurtwood.

It's well worth a watch. I haven't seen it in years.



Or just search "12:01 PM google video" at google video and it's the first link, for a smaller and better definition viewing window.

amy257

I loved "The Dark Secret of Harvest Home" with Bette Davis, "The Awakening Land" with Elizabeth Montgomery, and I know it's cheesy, but "Midnight Offerings" with Melissa Sue Anderson. There was also a big screen movie from the seventies called "Race With The Devil" which scared me to death when I was little. "Summer of Fear" with Linda Blair was a tv movie directed by Wes Craven, it's available on dvd.

JackBurton

Thanks, Amy! I'll check this one out. And welcome to the forum