Man, if I love one thing, it’s movies where Dennis Weaver fights with his son over college and life choices. Somehow, I watched two in the same week, but Cocaine: One Man’s Seduction is the kind of movie that transcends just one reason why I watch made for TV movies and moves into the magical world of drug warning films.

I mean, this is a movie where McCloud goes crazy for the nose candy and flips out repeatedly. If that doesn’t make you want to watch it, why are you even on our page?

Eddie Gant (Weaver) used to be the number one real estate agent for ten years in a row, but now, he’s struggling to sell and not even considered to be a partner. He’s forced into a dead market and wonders how he’ll survive. Meanwhile, he feels distant from his wife Barbara (Karen Grassle, Little House on the Prarie) and his son Buddy (James Spader!) is letting him down by not going to college.

That’s when his work pals Robin Barstowe (Pamela Bellwood, who was in everything from Dynasty and Cellar Dwellar to Airport ’77) and Bruce Neumann (David Ackroyd, who shows up in all manner of great TV movies like Exo-Man and The Dark Secret of Harvest Home) get him set up with them big flakes and that 70’s mustache of Weaver starts twitching. He’s selling luxury homes, aardvarking with his wife like he hasn’t in decades and even ignoring his pal Mort (Jeffrey Tambor, who never really looks young), even blowing past the guy when he plans on killing himself so he can get another envelope of yeyo.

Look for a really young Tasha Yar — I mean, Denise Crosby — as a bank teller as Eddie goes bonkers and starts pulling money out of his kid’s college fund so he can get one more score.

You know, people don’t talk about Paul Wendkos enough. Between this movie and his other films like The Mephisto Waltz, The Death of Richie, The Legend of Lizzie Borden, Haunts of the Very Rich, Good Against Evil and so many more, I’ve always enjoyed his work. He also did several Gidget movies in the 60’s, if you like seeing Sally Field on the beach.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Detective Jeanne Joyce (Teri Polo) watched her mother get murdered by a serial killer thirty years ago. Now, she’s still obsessed by the BPS (Bound, Photographed, Strangled )Killer*, a case that drove her father insane and was the whole reason why she became a cop. Yet when the murders start again, she’s not convinced it’s the same killer, even when he or she claims that Jeanna — who pushes away anyone and everyone around her — will be the last to die.

This is the kind of movie that is begging to be either a legit Hollywood film or a giallo, yet is constrained by being a Lifetime movie, so it can’t wallow in the sleaze like it should. However, you can also read that as an indictment of myself, a person who needs fashion, black gloves and a jazzy soundtrack to accompany my murder stories.

You can watch this on Amazon Prime.

*In no way is this killer related to the BTK (Bind, Tie, Kill) Killer, right?

The November 5, 1971 NBC World Premiere Movie, this movie reunited Larry Hagman and Barbara Eden after their sitcom I Dream of Jeannie, which went off the air on May 26, 1970. It’s based on Velda Johnson’s novel of the same name.

I’ve often said, when it comes to horror movies, that no one should ever go home again. This movie would be another example of that, as Liza Crocker (Eden) runs from her rumpled husband Eddie (Hagman) back to her Nevada hometown, where she soon learns that her father is missing and that she also has a new stepbrother (John Rubinstein, who was also in another great TV movie, Killjoy). Meanwhile, everyone in town is acting deranged, children are randomly being drowned and she can hear a howling in the woods at night.

Vera Miles, who starred in both Psycho and Psycho 2, plays her stepmother. There’s also a strong role for Tyne Daly, who always elevates any material. But if you’re hoping for an extended reunion of Hagman and Eden, their shared screen time is minimal.

Daniel Petrie, who directed this, is a solid hand. He also made the TV movies Moon of the Wolf and Sybil, so he certainly knew how to take advantage of the budgets and limitations of television. He also made the Harold Robbins adaption The Betsy for the silver screen, as well as A Raisin in the Sun.

You can watch this on YouTube.

You may have also seen this movie under the name Who Murdered Joy Morgan? Either way, it’s a very early role for Kim Basinger, who plays Laury Medford, a woman caught between two men, pursued by a driven older detective (Robert Culp) and way more than she appears.

Dr. Max Heller (Stephen Macht, The Monster Squad) and Dr. Paul Trenton (John Rubinstein, The Boys from Brazil) are the two men after Laury, who may or may not be the murdered Joy Morgan, who may or may not exist. What is real is the fact that Dr. Paul is totally dominated by his mother (Nancy Marchand, who would go on to an even more famous matron role in The Sopranos as Tony’s mother Livia).

What moves the story forward is when a bartender hands Laury and Paul an envelope meant for Max — who has become Laury’s fiancee, mind you — with keys and a love letter for that mystery woman Joy Morgan. Inside an apartment, they find Max’s new coat and a framed photo of him, which seems like a set-up, because whoever marries Laury is going to move on up, seeing as how her father is a big boss at the hospital where they should all really be working.

The real mystery is Joy, who may have been the woman we see killed in a POV shot in the beginning or a fake actress set up to act as her or even a woman who didn’t exist in the first place. Or maybe she’s been Laury all along. The film really piles on the tension until its morgue-set close.

This is the kind of whodunit that made for TV movies were made for. And who better than John Llewellyn Moxey to be at the helm? This was written by Sam Rolfe, who also created The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Have Gun will Travel.

You can watch this on YouTube and tear up at that U.S.A. Home Video logo at the beginning like I did.

Based on a true story? You know it. Alex Cutler (Brian Bloom, who would goon to write Call of Duty: Modern Warfare) and Cliff Petrie (Christian Slater, who would go on to skateboard, be a pirate DJ and blow up a high school) have been friends since, well, forever, but darn it if cheerleader Lily Becker (Tammy Lauren, Wishmaster) doesn’t get between them. Sadly for all these kids, Alex and Lily’s fathers have always hated one another, which leads to a breakup and a new relationship between Cliff and Lily that’s doomed to fail.

Ah man, sometimes I’m glad my teenage years are so many decades away.

This movie could be so much better, but it is afraid to wallow in trash. Look, Desperate for Love, you’re a made for TV movie about teenagers having sex and killing each other. Own it.

You can watch this on YouTube.

Gary Nelson, who made this, also directed The Black Hole and Freaky Friday, which is an interesting set of films to have on your IMDB. He also made this TV noir, which is all about a man trying to find a woman who has faded away.

The cast makes this, including Don Muray (Bus Stop), Van Johnson, Bery Convy (before his game show days, Convy would show up in movies like Jennifer), Joe Santos from The Rockford Files, Yvonna De Carlo, John Ireland, Walter Pidgeon, Cameron Mitchell (!) and Candice Rialson (!!)

The closer the investigation gets to the answers, the more people die. Much like a lot of mae for TV movies, this was a backdoor pilot for a series, which I really wish had happened. This combines so many noir movies into one film, like Laura for one, with a fair bit of Sunset Boulevard.

Gloria Grahame plays the woman who everyone is looking for, who we also see in the film in two clips of her most famous noir appearances, Human Desire and In a Lonely Place. I wonder where else future installments of this series would go.

This was hard to find for a while, but thanks to the internet, we can find it on YouTube.