Mazes and Monsters

Every great actor has at least one clunker in their past they would just as soon have never had happen and even though Tom Hank;s has had a few I`m pretty sure this damn one is on the top of his list. This made for TV movie deals with the DUNGEONS & DRAGONS fad and scare of the late Seventies/early Eighties. You know the one, "this game is turning our children into monsters" hysteria similar to the dope fiend issues of the Fifties. Directed by the "made for television" movie master Steven Hilliard Stern, who I'm pretty sure is the only known director to have hailed from Timmins, Ontario, the movie itself is standard fare and casting Hanks in the lead as a rolll playing geek is not a stretch. This flick does have a fine cast mind you, providing work for the likes of Peter Donat, Wendy Crewson and Susan Strasberg. The real question is how in hell`s name did Vera Miles and Anne Francis. Much like the KING KONG remake (the 1976 one!) there is an interesting aspect involving the former Twin Towers in New York which in our post 9/11 world will hold some fascination. I suppose Hanks has nothing too bad to be ashamed about with this one....but what about THE MAN WITH ONE RED SHOE?