Michael Laughlin
Writing
Biography
Michael Laughlin was born in 1938 in the USA. He was a producer and writer, known for Strange Invaders (1983), Strange Behavior (1981) and Mesmerized (1985). He was married to Leslie Caron. He died on 20 October 2021 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA. In 2012, Two-Lane Blacktop was chosen as one of only 20 films to be housed in the National Film Registry at the Library of Congress. Hailed as a minimalist classic, it was chosen as an example of the short-lived period of youth-oriented films following Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate and Easy Rider in the late 1960s. Producers such as Laughlin financed a spate of low-budget, innovative films by young "New Hollywood" filmmakers, with influences ranging from playwright Samuel Beckett to European filmmakers Robert Bresson, Jacques Rivette and Michelangelo Antonioni.[citation needed] In 1984, Strange Invaders was nominated for Saturn Award for Best Screenplay and for Best Film at the Avoriaz Fantasy Film Festival.
Known For
Alien beings, who settle in a small midwestern town, are disturbed by a young professor determined to rescue his daughter from their clutches.
Strange Invaders
Porter Stoddard is a well-known New York architect who is at a crossroads... a nexus where twists and turns lead to myriad missteps, some with his wife Ellie, others with longtime friends Mona and her husband Griffin. Deciding which direction to take often leads to unexpected encounters with hilarious consequences.
Town & Country
Billy Fong, a Chinese boy working the Shanghai docks, becomes friends with Dawson Cole, the spoiled son of an American shipping tycoon. As adults, the friends become business partners. Dawson wants to run a legitimate trade, but Billy craves the power that comes with leadership among the cities gangster underground.
Shanghai 1920
A driver and mechanic drag racing for money cross paths with a female hitchhiker and a drifter who challenges them to a cross-country race.
Two-Lane Blacktop
An orphan weds an older man in circa-1900 New Zealand, then finds out he's a miser who spies on her.
Mesmerized
A private eye is hired to follow a mobster's former mistress.
Chandler
When the teenagers in a small Illinois town start getting murdered, the police chief makes a connection to the mysterious scientific experiments being done at the local university and must stop them before his own son is dragged into the deadly scheme.
Strange Behavior
When 17 year old Joanna comes to Swinging London, she meets a host of colourful characters, discovers the pleasures of casual sex and falls in love. That's when things get complicated.
Joanna
Margaret Ross is an impoverished old woman who lives alone in a seedy apartment and enjoys a rich fantasy life as an heiress. One day she discovers stolen money hidden by her son and believes her fantasy has come true.
The Whisperers
Nicole is a beautiful, rich and neurotic woman who lives in a mansion alone with her maids and chauffeur. But without someone to really account to, Nicole begins to spin out of control. Her decadent and lustful life leads to murder, despair and, ultimately, mournful regret in this cautionary tale for the idle rich who have too much money and time.
Nicole
A tennis champ falls in with the Hollywood crowd, finds himself being corrupted by the life in the fast lane.
The Christian Licorice Store
An interview with the producers of Monte Hellman's 1971 film TWO-LANE BLACKTOP.
Sure Did Talk to You: A Conversation with Walter Coblenz, Jared Hellman and Michael Laughlin
A "straight" couple dabbles in drugs and become heroin addicts.