Christophe
Excellent characters with emotional depth. My wife, daughter and granddaughter all enjoyed it...and me, too! Very good movie! You won't be disappointed.
barbaracounts
I was dedicated fan of this TV series and was greatly disappointed when it was canceled. I could hardly wait for the next show to come on again and looked forward to it every week. My favorite cliffhanger was Dracula but I had gotten caught up in the other two before it was taken off the air. I don't remember a lot about Stop Susan Williams or the Empire, but if given the chance I'd like to see them again just to see what I think of them today.Whenever I see Michael Nouri in a movie or TV show I think back to Cliffhangers. He did a great job as the Dracula character and he is great in whatever role he chooses to play. I wish I could get copies of this show on DVD.
cman-13
I am writing this as I am working a security shift and as I was checking the boiler room at a specific building (at a local college) I had a flashback to a TV show I remember my mother watched in the late 70's where the main character was walking around in a basement boiler room and was being stalked by a green monster. I tried to recollect the name of this series when it finally hit me that the series was called 'Cliffhangers'. I am amazed how many people remember this short lived series from the 70's. Is it out on DVD? As a kid I was always in tune with good sci-fi and horror and if I remember this series had much of that genre. It would be amazing if the Sci-Fi channel could show this series as I remember my mothers disappointment as they did not show the ending.
grendelkhan
Cliffhangers was an interesting experiment; an attempt to revive the thrills and drama of the old movie serials. It enjoyed a cult following, but never had the ratings to continue the experiment. It was lacking in budget and the short segments inhibited the development of the story. It was split into three segments: Stop Susan Williams, The Secret Empire, and the Curse of Dracula.Stop Susan Williams features the beautiful (and tall) Susan Anton as the title character, a photojournalist searching for clues to the death of her brother. As the series opens, she finds a small notebook with mysterious notations. Her discovery is interrupted by a dark figure in a trench coat. She finds herself pushed out a window and off a ledge, miraculously escaping harm when she lands in an awning.Susan embarks on a journey around the world to unravel the clues to a conspiracy, something that will result in a spectacular event on May 15. She has three weeks to solve the mystery.Susan meets up with mercenary Jack Schoengard and slowly unravels the mystery, while finding herself pursued by assassins dispatched by the conspirators. She faces deathtrap after deathtrap.There is a germ of an idea here, but it is never fully developed. Susan seems to just stumble into further clues, but never really seems to learn much. The deathtraps are rather mundane and never seem particularly threatening. The conspiracy is eventually explained, but comes across as laughable, as you never quite believe they have the resources to pull it off.The biggest problem here is the acting. Susan Anton was still a neophyte, and she is not particularly good. She has a very limited range and seems to have been hired more for her looks. Her costumes look ridiculous, given the environments she enters. The rest of the cast, with the exception of Ray Walston, are just as forgettable. Only Walston makes an attempt at bringing the weak story alive.The writing was rather shallow, with poor dialogue and gaps in logic. The episodes followed a pattern of resolving the previous cliffhanger, move to a new location and a brief piece of exposition, and the set up for the next cliffhanger. The story never really gets rolling, it just seems to be picked up and moved to the next setting. It is devoid of the great stuntwork that made the old serials thrilling, and the mystery that made them compelling.Stop Susan Willams has a core of an idea that needed greater development. The script should have been developed more and greater care was needed in casting. The story really needed a larger budget, or at least more creative use of the limitations. Given the trend of remaking old TV series, this is a case where a remake could actually be better than the original.The final episode was never broadcast in the US, but here's what happens: Spoilers: Susan, Jack and a scientist are trapped in a cave, while attempting to disarm a nuclear device set to explode. The cave is located near Camp David, where a major summit is occurring. The scientist has been injured and can't continue. Using her flash, Susan is able to find flashlights and radios, which allow her and Jack to remain in contact with the scientist. They locate the bomb and begin disarming it. They succeed in removing the detonator and throw it away before it can trigger the bomb. The resulting detonator explosion opens a shaft, leading to the outside. Everyone is able to get to the outside, before the shaft collapses. Jack has left behind a half million in cash, but they laugh it off. Meanwhile, the leader of the conspiracy escapes, to plot a new attack.
bluesnaggletooth316
I remember this series fondly, under its actual title "Cliffhangers!". Even though I had a crush on Susan Anton (Hey, I was 8. Tall blondes were my thing then :D!), my favorite segment had to be "The Secret Empire" (This was the "Cowboy finds Atlantis" segment). I remember laughing hysterically when the the hero (the cowboy) was being pummelled senseless by a little green pointy-eared chimpanzee that was actually his Atlantean girlfriend's pet! I remember being bummed that it ended with him falling off a cliff and them showing him laying unconscious (maybe dead, even {?}). I wish this would somehow show up on TVLand or somewhere else. This show would be great to see again!
