Mia Sara in 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

Mia Sara is one of my favorite actresses but finding projects in which she participated in that are worth watching is quite a task. After beginning her career with some big-budget movies and a starring role in a miniseries, the gorgeous actress began to trail off into the nether regions of crap, occasionally surfacing for some highly visible work.

This 1997 adaptation of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea was never really on my radar but a combination of wanting to see Mia Sara and my strong liking of Michael Caine and Bryan Brown made me finally sit down to watch it. It is a quite enjoyable two-part TV movie with a good cast and decent special effects considering the budgetary constraints of television projects.

Mia Sara doesn't really show up until the second section of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and when she finally does the viewer discovers that the beautiful actress has decided to use an accent. Ostensibly, it is a British accent (since the famous British actor Michael Caine is playing her father) but as time goes on, the accent is all over the place. She looks great, however, and in the end her accent doesn't detract too much from the movie.

Glynis Barber on Diagnosis Murder

Glynis Barber has been a staple of UK television since her first appearance in 1979, but the actress has only had scant roles on American TV. One particular US television appearance was in 1994 on the mystery series Diagnosis Murder.

In a second season episode of Diagnosis Murder titled "Georgia on My Mind," Glynis Barber lends her lovely presence to a few scenes. And who did she get to act opposite? The legendary Scott Baio! Now, I like Charles in Charge perhaps even more than the next guy, but he's such a sleaze I just couldn't believe he got to do a fake medical exam of the gorgeous Glynis Barber.

One thing a viewer may note during Glynis Barber's performance on Diagnosis Murder is her use of an American accent. I haven't seen everything she's done so this was the first time I'd seen her utilize a non-British voice. She does well with it, but it is unnecessary for an actress of her considerable beauty and charm.

Kay Lenz in The Passage

I'm often asked about Kay Lenz and in which role did she look her best. While the answer to that question is not clear (and would probably not be the same for everyone), a great candidate would be The Passage.

The 1979 film was not well received upon it's release and was subsequently relegated to the realm of obscurity. Somewhat recently, however, The Passage has been re-released and is available for any and all armchair critics to review and pass judgement over. The good news is that the movie is excellent! Of course, Malcolm McDowell is the real star here and he gives one of his best, most over the top performances as an obsessed Nazi chasing after a Basque shepherd and the family of an anti-Nazi man. And while there are a bunch of other famous people in the movie (Anthony Quinn, James Mason, Patricia Neal, Michael Lonsdale, etc), Kay Lenz holds her own amongst the parade of stars.

Kay Lenz really doesn't speak that much in The Passage but her presence is powerful. Her hair is long and flowing and her expressions are beautiful and full of meaning. One of the reasons that the film is famous is for her prolonged degradation scene with Malcolm McDowell and it is quite true that a lesser actress could not have pulled it off as well as she manages to.

Karen Allen goes on a Voyage

Karen Allen was very busy around 1993 and the lovely actress had no less than 5 projects released that year. One of those projects was a TV movie called Voyage. In the same realm as the popular feature film Dead Calm, Voyage tells the story of a married couple who decide to go sailing in the Mediterranean only to be hounded by another married couple who display increasingly bizarre behavior.

Karen Allen has great chemistry with actor Rutger Hauer in Voyage as the pair defend themselves against the psychotic Eric Roberts and his equally crazy wife, Connie Nielsen. Gorgeous as ever, and with years of screen experience, Karen Allen perfectly portrays the loving wife in a troubled marriage who has to deal with dire circumstances.

Voyage is a decent piece of trash entertainment, basically a throwaway 90s cable movie, but it has good performances and is fairly well made overall. It's not the best work of Karen Allen (or anybody in the cast), but it is well worth the time of any fan.

Prunella Gee in The Wilby Conspiracy

Prunella Gee is an actress whose work I'm largely unfamiliar with, but she managed to make a great impact on me with her role in the 1975 film The Wilby Conspiracy. Playing the female counterpart to two acting giants, Sidney Poitier and Michael Caine, is no small task but Prunella Gee seemed to be quite up for the challenge...especially impressive considering this was her first feature film.

Besides getting to share the screen with the two aforementioned huge screen personalities, Prunella Gee also gets to do scenes with the legendary Nicol Williamson (fabulously evil here) and a pre-global fame Rutger Hauer. She has a lovely hairstyle in the movie which adds to her lovely appearance and she also gets to do a rather lengthy bathtub scene with Michael Caine!

Daphne Ashbrook & Fortune Dane

Daphne Ashbrook is an actress whose work I'm largely unfamiliar with, but she managed to make an impression on me with her role in the second episode of the short-lived TV cop show Fortune Dane. Of course, Fortune Dane is a fantastic showcase Carl Weathers, but lovely women are typically needed to offset his macho masculinity. That's where Daphne Ashbrook comes in...and she wears spandex pants for most of her scenes!