Return To Fantasy Island (1978)

On a luxurious island resort, a mysterious man (Ricardo Montalban) has the ability to make fantasies come true but those fantasies don't always turn out the way their participants had hoped for: an assistant (George Maharis) longs to be stranded on an island with his career woman boss (Adrienne Barbeau), an infertile couple (Pat Crowley, Joseph Campanella) long to see the child they gave up for adoption 12 years ago, a woman (Karen Valentine) who lost her memory on her honeymoon wants to recreate the traumatic event that lead to her memory loss. It wasn't unusual in the 60s and 70s to do TV movies to test their potential as a TV series. ABC had aired a FANTASY ISLAND telefilm in 1977 and this sequel came the year after and 9 months later, the TV series began its 6 year run. In this feature length telefilm, Montalban's character isn't as benevolent as he would later become. He's rather sinister and arrogant, not something you'd want to see on a weekly basis. The stories are all hackneyed but the veteran actors all do their best. With Joseph Cotten, Horst Buchholz, France Nuyen, Laraine Day, Cameron Mitchell, George Chakiris and Herve Villechaize.