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I first saw this movie in 1973, when it first hit theaters; I recently watched it again on DVD. The amazing thing about it is that, after thirty plus years, it still evoked the same joy that I felt when seeing it the first time. I don't know if that is a comment on it or me, but it was a nice feeling.

The movie centers around Frank, an uptight, lonely and often emotionally constipated real estate salesman played by William Holden, and Edith Ann Breezerman (the 'Breezy' of the title), played by Kay Lenz in one of her earliest roles. It chronicles the progress of the love affair between them, with a great deal of charm and occasional depths unexpected in this kind of film. Why unexpected? For one thing, it takes Frank more than half the length of the film to consummate the affair; the first half devotes itself to Breezy's breaking down of Frank's self-imposed barriers with the charm of youth.

The inevitable break between them occurs after the late Roger C. Carmel, in one of his finest dramatic moments, enviously defines Frank's relationship as nothing more than 'the old zing'. The very moment Breezy shows herself the most domestic becomes, ironically, the very moment Frank chooses to destroy the affair with the comment that they were simply the punch line of a very dirty joke. In an unpredictable twist of fate, Frank learns that, with love, one must Carpe the Diem and they get back together.

William Holden turns in a marvelously understated performance, foreshadowing his Oscar nominated turn four years later in 'Network'. Kay Lenz captures the essence of the earth-mother hippie chick without becoming either caricature or slapstick; her performance here may well be one of her all-time best. And the aforementioned Roger C. Carmel, as well as Marj Dusay and Joan Hotchkiss, turn in excellent, thought-provoking performances of their own.

This film was one of Clint Eastwood's earliest directing efforts. Yet already his greatest directorial trademark is in full view: a literate, well-conceived script filmed with a light touch by a director who knows how to set the stage and then stay out of the actors' way and let them shine, an Eastwood trademark still visible in his most recent works, such as 'Space Cowboys'. The script, by the late Jo Heims, captures the "two different worlds" cliché in a fresh and unpredictable manner. We see the good parts of Breezy's world in her own attitude, yet we meet the bad, almost tragic, aspects of the same world in Breezy's friend Marci, who appears stoned throughout most of the movie and says her boyfriend gets 'pissed' if she's not where she's supposed to be. That he beats her, though never admitted, becomes painfully obvious when Frank visits her and finds her terrified to leave her own house.

Frank in many respects is both the good and the bad in the world he represents. But the ultimate evil in that world, surprisingly, isn't the middle-aged would-be rapist we meet in the first sequence, but the Roger C. Carmel character, who gives a monologue on the obvious aspects of the male mid-life crisis that makes it clear the true evil of growing old is found when you no longer care whether you live or die. Carmel looks for the 'zing' but knows he'll never find it and also knows he no longer really cares if he does.

Despite this, the movie has a happy ending, in that the lovers reconnect. But even the ending is cautionary: Frank still questions its permanence, showing us, as he tries to seize the day, that he may still not entirely know how to do it. We hope Breezy shows him, but we're not sure either.

I find it interesting that I am now the age Frank is in the movie; I find it quite instructive, personally, to contrast my reaction to it now with my reaction to it when I first saw it. I understand Frank and his friends better and I find Breezy's ultra-open honesty of emotion sadder than I did in 1973. But the movie, though it might bring a tear to these old eyes, still warms the heart. Maybe there's hope for me yet.

I first saw the film Abigail Leslie is Back in Town in the 1970's – shortly after it had been made. I believe I saw it on cable in some early cable attempt at late night programming. As a then enthusiastic consumer of 'lesbian porn', I remember enjoying it a lot at that time.

Recently some inspired promoter re-issued the film on DVD; as I was highly curious about whether or not it had stood the test of time, I bought a copy and watched it.

The movie was originally issued as a 'soft core' art film. Therefore, it must be judged on two criterion: does it work as a porn film: and does it work as an art film.

The problem is that, as a porn film, it moves way too slowly to succeed. Even the erotic moments are extended beyond the attention span of the average porn viewer. And the connective 'soap opera', which centers around the title character's return from exile after sleeping with the husband of the most uptight woman in town, leaves something to be desired. She returns for revenge and, like Puzo's literary Don Corleone, knows well the Sicilian proverb that 'revenge is a dish best served cold. Unfortunately these connective scenes drag on and on, with long shots of gorgeous New England winter filling them it. It's a very beautiful porn film, but it simply doesn't work on that level.

Does it work as an art film? That depends on the viewer. To me it's still remarkably long winded, with all these beautiful shots of a cold and bitter New England winter. But some art film critics love that. And, of course, do I have the credentials to make a judgment about an 'art film'? All I can say is that, though it's still long and awkward in places, I found it enjoyable and interesting. I would, in the overused words of Roger Ebert, give it a mild "thumbs up".

One performance needs to be singled out. Rebecca Brooke, who plays the 'most uptight woman in town', has a "deer in the headlights' quality to her performance which more than matches her material, which allows her to be shocked and hurt any number of times. Easily the best performance in the film, she might have had a career as a successful mainstream supporting actress had she tried hard enough.

All in all, an enjoyable film but not one that lives up to memory well.

"Woman of Substance" began as a hugely successful novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford and"successful" does not simply refer to its popularity. Bradford writes knowingly and convincingly about England's most difficult historical period: the 20th Century. Beginning in the then present of 1974,Bradford tells the story of Emma Harte, who begins life as a maid in the household of a local Yorkshire Squire in Edwardian times and end her life the mistress of a commercial empire worthy of Rockefeller. Not only do we see her triumphs, we see her errors and her failures etched in fine detail. Emma Harte is both noble and vengeful, bitter and loving; she is, in fact, one of the most complex characters of modern popular literature. One can dismiss Bradford's novel as "romance fiction" but it is not: Bradford presents a woman as complex as the Yorkshire she comes from.

The miniseries based on the novel captures it perfectly. Not only is Jenny Seagrove an outstanding Young Emma Harte, we see Deborah Kerr as the older Emma and a young Liam Neeson in a brilliant comic and dramatic performance as Emma's friend, Blackie. The movie shows us glimpses of such disparate history as the lives of British Jews and the development of the ready to wear industry, with outstanding performances by the supporting cast, including Diane Baker and John Mills. For any fan of sagas such as The Thornbirds or Rich Man, Poor Man, A Woman of Substance is a must see.

While growing up, IRONSIDE was one of my all-time favorite TV series'; it remains my all-time favorite TV cop show. Not because it was better or more original or even more true-to-life. At the time it originally aired it was the first TV show in history whose lead character was physically disabled (Longstreet, about a blind detective, was number 2). It remains one of the very, very few. To a man who spent the first ten years of life in a wheelchair and still needs a cane occasionally, that's more important than plots or even originality.

The plot of "The Return of Ironside" serves as a justification for getting all the old characters from the TV series together to solve a mystery again. As police procedural, it's better than competent; as a murder mystery, the solution is translucent, like a window in a bathroom, but it's still a puzzle. But for those few of us who loved the original Ironside character, just seeing him work again is a kick.

Raymond Burr holds the distinction of starring in not one but two of the best written, best produced and best acted mystery dramas TV ever produced; Perry Mason was the first; Ironside was the second. Just as no one will ever play Perry Mason again, no one will ever play Robert T. Ironside again. Burr made a whole slew of Perry Mason movies before he died; Return of Ironside might also have been the first of many had he not died of cancer shortly after filming.

All I can say is I've watched the movie half a dozen times and I still lik e it. It's not one of the greatest movies ever made; it's not even one of the greatest TV movies ever made. But just as the TV series Ironside was better than most other cop shows, the movie is a lot better than most other cop movies made for TV in the last decade or two. If you don't like Burr, you won't like it; if, however, like a lot us born before JFK got shot, you like Raymond Burr, it serves as a great ending for one of TV's best actors.

This is probably the best filmed analysis ever of the events of October, 1962; as both a dramatic story and filmed history, it rises far above the recent Kenvin Costner movie "Thirteen Days", which was about the same cataclysmic event.

Significant in this version of the Cuban Missile Crisis is the portrayal of Nikita Khrushchev and his advisors, showing us some (though obviously not all) of the high level discussions on the Soviet side of the fence. The late Howard Da Silva is remarkably expressive as Khrushchev and Nehemiah Persoff excellent as Andrei Gromyko, his foreign minister.

Other cast standouts include the late John Dehner as Dean Acheson; Martin Sheen as Robert F. Kennedy; Andrew Duggan as JCS Chairman Maxwell Taylor; Ralph Bellamy as Adlai Stevenson; and, in a performance unmatched elsewhere by anyone, William Devane as John F. Kennedy.

Although anyone viewing this movie should be warned that this is docudrama and that the real history of the Cuban Missile Crisis is far more complex than even this movie shows us, it is one of, if not the, best historical recreation TV has ever given us. A definite must-see for anyone truly interested in cold-war politics.