Howard George

8 Heads in a Duffel Bag -- A mob bagman finds that his luggage, containing the proof of his latest hit, has been switched.

Cross What's Up Doc with Bring Me the Head of Alfredo Garcia and you get this dark screwball comedy of murder and lost luggage. Mafia hitman Tommy Spinelli (Joe Pesci) is flying to San Diego with a bag that holds eight severed heads, which he's bringing to his superiors to prove that some troublesome rival mobsters are permanently out of the picture. Medical student Charlie Pritchett (Andy Comeau) is headed to Mexico with his fiancée Laurie Bennett (Kristy Swanson) to meet her parents. Charlie's suitcase is identical to Tommy's, and it's not until Tommy arrives in San Diego that he discovers that there are no heads in his bag, while Charlie realizes his duffel most certainly does not contain his vacation wardrobe. Tommy finds Charlie's address in the bag and heads to the fraternity house he calls home, where he drafts Charlie's friends Ernie (David Spade) and Steve (Todd Louiso) into finding him some replacement heads post-haste. Meanwhile, Laurie's parents (Dyan Cannon and George Hamilton) are a bit miffed to discover that their future son-in-law is travelling with a bag full of rotting heads, while Laurie is ready to give Charlie his walking papers. Eight Heads In a Duffel Bag was the directorial debut of screenwriter Tom Schulman, who won an Academy Award for his script for the movie Dead Poets Society.

Inside the antiseptic walls of a little Los Angeles hospital, Our Lady of Pain and Suffering, a surgeon, Dr. Daniel Jekyll (Mark Blankfield), noses around and discovers the secret to man's alter ego in the formula of a white powder. Nodding off one day, Dr. Jekyll accidentally snorts a sampling of the snuff which quickly transforms this shy, sensitive man into a wild, wide-eyed disco deviant with New Wave tendencies. To the shock of his boss Dr. Carew (Michael McGuire) and Jekyll's fiancee, Mary (Bess Armstrong), spoiled daughter of the head doctor, Hyde takes over by taking to nymph chasing and disco blazing. But the richest and sickest patient in the world is admitted and needs Jekyll to survive. Will Jekyll show up? Or will he go on to discover more perverse pleasure hidden in his Hyde?

It's 1954 - the era of live television. A hapless production assistant is given the formidable assignment to keep his movie star idol, the alcoholic womanizing Alan Swann, out of trouble long enough so Swann can appear on the popular network show, "King Kaiser's Comedy Hour." Oscar-winner Peter O'Toole ("Lawrence of Arabia," "Goodbye, Mr. Chips," "The Stuntman") received his seventh Oscar-nomination for his hilarious portrayal of the Errol Flynn-like Swann. Mark Linn-Baker (TV's "Perfect Strangers") plays the production assistant while Joseph Bologna ("Citizen Cohn," "The Woman in Red") gives an outstanding performance as the Syd Caesar-like King Kaiser. With Jessica Harper ("Pennies from Heaven") and Laine Kazan ("Beaches"). Directed by Richard Benjamin ("Mrs. Winterbourne," "Racing with the Moon").