The comedy group Firesign Theatre satirizes the old Saturday afternoon cliffhangers by taking clips from many Republic Pictures serials and substituting their own comedy dialogue.
Tag: USA
Straker a Vietnam vet with a chip on his shoulder since his wife and daughter were killed in a home invasion. He is then recruited to go back to Vietnam to rescue some POW/MIA’s, including one Commander, Harrison. Figuring he has nothing to lose, he accepts the mission.
The Gift was a Christmas 1979 TV-movie offering based on the semi-autobiographical book written in 1973 by Pete Hammill. Gary Frank plays the Hammill counterpart, a Brooklyn-born sailor about to be shipped off to the Korean War. Frank decides to use his 3-day pass to discover if his girl friend really loves him, if he can communicate at last with his troublesome parents, and if he can get his own life together before being sent into battle. Julie Harris plays Frank’s mother, while Glenn Ford portrays Frank’s pugnacious, one-legged Irish dad.
A submarine commander is determined to use guided missiles on his sub in this war drama. To do so, he defies the edict of the navel bureaucracy and begins testing the prototypes. This results in personal injury and the death of a crewman. So guilty does the commander feel, that he begins to suffer a mental breakdown and becomes hysterically paralyzed.
Pregnant mother Wanda LeFauve ekes out a government-assisted living with her jobless husband, Al, and their four children, in a rundown trailer park. In a desperate bid for money, Wanda answers a classified ad from a wealthy Hollywood woman, Rachel Luckman, and her husband, Richard, who are seeking a newborn to adopt. They make an agreement and tensely await the baby’s birth, but each faces a profound struggle with the decision.
Arthur Miller himself adapted his Pultizer Prize-winning modern tragedy for this 1966 television production, with Lee J. Cobb and Mildred Dunnock reprising their original Broadway roles as the Lomans. This classic production toys with time in its shattering telling of a middle-aged man at the end of his emotional rope.
A group of Irish college students are about to leave for the United States, where they’ve landed summer jobs on Long Island, New York. Working hard in the day and playing even harder at night, they relish the opportunity to enjoy adult life far from the eyes of their families. This will be a summer to remember for the rest of their lives.