Back in the 80's I watched a film on video and I can't remember the title. Set in Italy (I think), its about an bearded inventor who builds a yellow Volkswagen which can do many things like fly, clean up messes, drive sideways, etc., and naturally it can talk. At the end he enters a race pitting him against many people including a pair of nuns. For some reason the Volkswagen continuously betrays him, dropping him from a high distance, leaving him in the middle of nowhere and eventually deciding to let the nuns win. Any help would be much appreciated.
Answered general questions about movies, TV and more
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I'm looking for an episode of a show, maybe "Tales from the Crypt" or "The Hitchhiker" but I'm not sure. It's about a teenage girl who ends up at the house of a kindly elderly couple. They offer her lodging and I remember at the end of the episode she's in the hot tub and they drug her so she drowns and it ends up that she's really being cooked in the hot tub like soup. Can anyone tell me what show this was?
Answer: It's from Tales from the Darkside. The episode is titled Anniversary Dinner. Starring Alice Ghostly (Bewitched, Designing Women) as the woman who cooks the girl, for her husband.
I remember watching a movie where a man comes to a village and saves it from an oncoming army by teaching the villagers and setting traps. There are two scenes I remember from the movie: 1) The woman offers the man a gift, but he never accepts gifts because it is against his teaching. However, he accepts her gift because he loves her. I think it was shoes. 2) The woman who gave the gift is in a cell underground and the man is trying to find her to save her. She ends up drowning just as he arrives. If this sounds familiar, please answer!
Answer: It sounds like the Last Valley. 1970. A group of mercenaries fight in the religious wars of the 1600's, come across a village of people uninfected by the wars. When that peace is threatened they decided to protect it.
I would like to know the title of a movie, probably from the 70s or early 80s, in which a car crashes into a tanker truck and becomes covered in a molten cheese-like substance. There may also have been a scene with a room full of balloons. Thanks for the help.
Answer: It's called Murder Can Hurt You. A TV movie spoof of TV detectives. All star cast of TV actors from the 70's.
There was a movie starring James Earl Jones. The movie takes place sometime in the '50s and he plays a man who shows another black man about racism by taking him to a corner market and when they both look inside, they watch a black woman buying something and the white store owner placing her change on the counter rather then giving it to her.
I saw a film not long ago but can't remember the title. It features a bumbling spy, and in one scene when he is trying to break into a place, he pulls out a credit card, types some numbers on the side and it emits a laser beam. When he is finished, he can't turn the laser off properly and it burns a hole in his pants. Does anyone know this film?
Chosen answer: I haven't seen the film in a few years, but I believe it's from the movie Johnny English. Starring Rowan Atkinson.
Not sure why the name of this movie is so elusive. It was a 90s family film about a kid who is able to test out different moms to find one better than the one he has. I remember that they each go by a different name: "Mother," "Mom," etc., and that one is too outdoors-y for him. Of course, at the end he picks his real mother. Anyone remember this one? Thanks.
Answer: I think the movie is Trading Mom. (1994) A trio of kids are tried of their no nonsense, workaholic mom (Sissy Spacek). So they go to the Mom Market. All the other Moms have different personalities. All played by Spacek.
I remember watching a film in which a girl, another girl, and the father of one of them get into a car accident. One girl survives and she has to have her face reconstructed. The doctors end up making her look like the other girl that was in the car. I've searched Google and IMDB with no luck.
Chosen answer: A movie called Scalpel (aka False Face) 1977. Robert Lansing plays a surgeon, who finds a topless dancer beaten, her face damaged, on the street. He operates her, giving her the face of his long lost daughter. He hopes to use her to get at an inheritance, but the real daughter returns.
In the beginning of this movie Jack Lemmon auditions for a job as a sax/flute player in a jazz combo. He does well, and then they flip a rigged coin to see who goes for coffee. When he returns all his instruments have been stolen. He's now destitute with no way to make a living. He then meets a woman, but I don't remember the rest. I have Googled Jack Lemmon movies but don't see anything that seems right for this one.
Answer: I'm not exactly sure, but it could be The Rat Race. Starring Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds. They are a saxophonist and dancer trying to make it in the big city.
I kind of remember watching this episode of what I believe was The Twilight Zone, and the episode was about a woman who started to find stuff in her home moved after she was gone, or not the way she left it. Then at the end she finds out someone was living in her house during the hours she was working or something, sharing the same house and did not know until then... It may be something else.
Chosen answer: Actually, that is from a short lived TV series called Night Visions. A Twilight Zone type show that came out in 2001. The episode was titled, The Occupant. Bridget Fonda played the woman who believed someone was in her home. It turned out she was the intruder.
I am looking for the title of a movie I watched back in the late 70's/ early 80's. It centered around an old man who told his life story (in a flashback) to a young kid. In the end, the man showed a white feather from a box on his mantle. There had been two white feathers and they were used in a race. The one who survived the race with the white feather was the winner. But, the boy was very surprised that the old man had the feather. It seemed to have a western flair. (Very Disney-esque like "Hot Lead, Cold Feet") Any ideas?
Answer: It was The Incredible Rocky Mountain Race. Made for TV (1977). An old Mark Twain tells a young boy the story about he and the town braggart raced across the Rocky Mountains, collecting items along the way. One of which is an eagle feather.
A question about a movie: there are twin brothers, a car accident, and the wife does not know which brother is her husband. I would like to know the name of the movie. Thank you.
Answer: There are five TV movies with an evil twin. Brotherly Love (1985) with Judd Hirsch. Natural Selection (1994) with C. Thomas Howell. Mr. Murder with Stephen Baldwin. Actually the last two are about clones. Echo (1997) with Jack Wagner and Alone with a Stranger with William R. Moses.
I can't remember the name of this western I saw on TV. A woman was raped and her children and husband killed. She got this gunman to train her to shoot. I think the last name of the actress was Sears but not sure. It is a fairly new film.
Chosen answer: "6 Guns" (2010) starring Sage Mears, Barry Van Dyke and Greg Evigan.
I saw a movie, probably in the 80s, that I thought starred Christopher Reeve and Sissy Spacek. He returned from the civil war as her husband, but it was questionable whether it really was - his shoe size was different, etc. In the end he was hanged. Can't find a movie with both Reeve and Spacek so maybe it was somebody else, esp. In the female role. Any ideas what movie this might be?
Answer: The film is "Sommersby". It starred Richard Gere and Jodie Foster. It was a remake of "The Return of Martin Guerre" which starred Gerard Depardieu.
Don't know if this movie had Steve Martin in it, but, it was about a man who traveled to a city who I think was going to con its citizens out of their money. Eventually, he changes his mind and decides to collect money for a good cause. While doing this, the people of the community he's in find out what he really does and has him put in jail. The end of the movie shows that the money he collected he used to create a Little League baseball field for the kids to play at.
Answer: My Blue Heaven stars Steve Martin. Martin plays a mob informant living in a suburban town under witness protection. There he commits petty crimes as well as a scam to raise money for a new ballpark. When his scam is found out, he acts quickly to actually have a ballpark built. In the end, he decides to go straight.
I remember a movie where this girl ran away from her mother. Before she ran away, her best friend was in the car with her and her mom. They were parked in the woods and then they ran away together. Then I remember them in an 18-wheeler smoking weed. The girl meets the leader of a cult and wants her. She runs away and her mom comes to save her. In the end they're at a gas station and the girl sees the cult symbol hanging in the car.
Answer: The movie is Octane (2003). Madeleine Stowe plays the mother and Mischa Barton, the daughter.
I'm looking for a movie I saw on TV around the late 1990s. I am not sure if it was a made for TV movie. I remember a scene where a town was surrounded by a forcefield and the townspeople could not leave. The setting was kind of old timey. There was a little girl playing on a swing set in the forcefield and she convinced another little girl to come into the forcefield and play with her. When she did, the first girl attacked and killed or ate her. I can't remember exactly. Does anyone know the name of this movie? Thank you.
Answer: There was a TV episode ("A View Through the Window") similar to what you described in the series Night Visions. The army calls upon Bill Pullman to explain an open portal, which shows a Pioneer family. They can not enter, only observe. As time goes on, he begins to appreciate their simple lifestyle, but when the army wants to invade, he figures a way to enter the portal, to warn them. Once inside they attack and eat him.
I'm trying to find this movie from the 70's. Might even be a made for TV movie. From what I remember it was about a happily married couple that lived in their car or they were poor with little money. The car was this tiny sports car. Maybe in NY city. One scene I remember they were parked on a main street in front of a big building sleeping. It was the morning and lots of people were standing around laughing at them. They get into a car accident and the husband dies, but he is able to communicate with his boss or older uncle or friend. Any help would be great - thanks.
Answer: I believe what you're describing is a TV remake of the movie Topper. Andrew Stevens and Kate Jackson play a rich couple, who party all night and wake up in their car the next morning. On the way home, their car crashes and both are killed. To get into heaven, they must convince his lawyer boss to embrace life and not hide from it.
What is the movie when there is a white woman and a black man who own a very superpower hotel and have a child. They get a babysitter - the wife traps her in the hotel and has her set up to be killed, then they kill her friend instead, so the lady tries to kill her. In the end the babysitter ends up with the man.
Answer: Murder on the 13th Floor. Starring Jordan Ladd as the babysitter. It airs on the LMN, at least twice a month.
Need help knowing the name of a book. According to the plot summary on the back, there is a kid from the very distant future with the last name of Pineapplefour. In his timeline, time travel is possible and his classmates can use a time machine to travel into the past. However, they remain invisible when in the past and must obey one simple rule. While in the past, they are not permitted to touch anything out of fear that it could seriously alter the future. Instead of being sent to some historical era like Ancient Rome, he ends up in a girls bathroom of a high school in the eighties and can even be seen. Now his people from the future have to find a way to return him home or risk possible destruction of the future.
Answer: Jumpman, by James Valentine. The character's name is Theodore Pine Four, and the book's tag line is, "Rule #1: Don't Touch Anything."
Chosen answer: What you're referring to is SuperBug. A five to seven film series that came out in the 70's. Two or three made it to U.S. theaters. They were made in Germany.