The Groundstar Conspiracy

Plot synopsis:
Employee John David Welles attempts to steal rocket booster plans from the Groundstar facility. His attempt goes awry and he is badly disfigured in an explosion and barely escapes. He stumbles to the home of Nicole Devon, and collapses. She calls an ambulance, the authorities are alerted, and soon Welles is operated on, given plastic surgery and interrogated by a gung-ho government official named Tuxan. But Welles claims to have no memory of his crime. In fact, he claims no memory of his life at all, save for brief glimpses of a woman and small boy frolicking on a beach.
Despite Tuxan's brutal interrogation techniques (electro-shock and water submersion), Welles still maintains his story of total amnesia. Tuxan allows Welles to escape, hoping he will lead them to the people behind the attempted theft. Welles goes to Nicole's home and begs her to help him remember. But she knows nothing.
Eventually the inside conspirators behind the attempted theft are found, and Tuxan reveals the truth to Welles, who still cannot remember any details of the crime. John David Welles actually died en route to the hospital on the night of the explosion. The man we have come to know as Welles is really Peter Bellamy, a government employee who recently lost his wife and son in an accident. Bellamy, feeling that life was no longer worth living and remembering, volunteered to have his memory wiped and to play Welles in order to draw the conspirators into the open.

Tags: romantic

Review:
A super secret government space program laboratory known as Groundstar gets blown up while a woman, (Christine Belford) whose parents have recently died and is also recently divorced tries to find some solace for her shattered life in the summer house she was left in the will which just happens to be in the direct vicinity of the above mentioned lab.
The lone "survivor" of the explosion stumbles to her house with a disfigured face followed by government security guru George Peppard and his crew who take him away to a high security hospital.
The next time we see him, he turns out to be Michael Sarrazin.
And what follows is a moderately intriguing story that delves into some of then, today's, and for all times big issues, such as unchecked government surveillance, brutal interrogation techniques, and brainwashing.
The deft intermingling of personal elements with the government security apparatus and some political and public relations angles makes for a fairly sophisticated and complex movie..
There are not too many spy films which can conjure up a team of excellent actors for a movie.
"The Groundstar Conspiracy" is a dramatic thriller of sorts, except that in this movie, the private company is the target not the country.
An explosion in a top secret installation causes a great deal of damage and sets off an investigation to find out who was behind the espionage.
Enormous amount of destruction to be sure, but what the chief investigator (George Peppard) Tuxan wants to know is who is behind the sabotage.
His only clue is in the form of a single survivor named John Welles (Michael Sarrazin) AKA Peter Bellamy, a man who has no memory of what happened.
This is an excellent vehicle for the Cat and Mouse game which follows.
The survivor is having tremendous difficulty trying to remember who he is or was and Tuxan is allowing him to struggle while he watches out for any of his friends to come and help him recover.
It's an excellent film and one which gives the audience just enough information to follow the hero to the surprising ending.
A good film and one which is enhanced by Nicole Devon as Christine Belford and Cliff Potts who plays Carl Mosely.
This is the best Peppard performance.
Probably not, but he's fairly mesmerizing as an incredibly ruthless investigator whose superiors "only talk to God." Think "Banacek" without one shred of charm and you'll be about halfway there.
The film shows its cheapjack TV movie origins in many ways, but the script is tight and the supporting cast (especially Belford doing a nice Rita Hayworth impression) is way above average.
It's always been fashionable to hate Sarrazin, but today he'd be Keanu Reeves.
Lamont Johnson worked a lot in television but he also directed some interesting films that should be better known; A Covenant with Death, The McKenzie Break, The Last American Hero, You'll Like My Mother and Lipstick.
(Even Spacehunter: Adventures in the Forbidden Zone has its felicities!) The Groundstar Conspiracy is a low budget but fast moving thriller with a few twists and turns until the tense ending.
All the elements of music, photography and dialogue are pulled together neatly to serve the narrative's momentum.The plot may strain a little at the edges but the film is helped along by some good acting.
Michael Sarrazin as the accused man is convincing.
Sarrazin's face helps, it looks beat about and haunted.
George Peppard as the government man gives one of his best performances.
A real hard case, driven almost by paranoia, single minded and ready to do anything to keep the state secure.
Christine Belford and Cliff Potts are good too.
It's a good little film..
It's a good little film..
Not That Bad. Just re-saw The Groundstar Conspiracy after some 20 something years.
Always been a big fan of both George Peppard and Micheal Sarrazin, so I was looking forward to this flick.
There are twists and turns.
Action, suspense, drama, and even a little romance thrown in.
Humor, at least a few lines, would of helped a lot here.
There is a nice surprise sort of ending.
Clearly this is not a masterpiece of a cold war thriller like The Spy Who Can In From The Cold or The Ipcress File, but The Goundstar Conspiracy is a nice little entertaining film.
George Peppard looked great here and Micheal Sarrazin was in his prime.
It's not their best roles, but if you're a fan.
it's a good way to spend a rainy night..
Clever, sharply made, well acted Thriller.
Rewatchability: Very High DVD: Pretty sharp for a DVD (Anchor Bay, now OOP, but I have it : ).
This is truly one of my all time favourites.
I hadn't written a review of it until now because I had been concentrating on newer films, but I just got through watching it again with my Dad. I had almost forgotten how awesome it was.
I was VERY fortunate to score the Anchor Bay DVD just before it went OOP.
Hard to believe that now it is going for over $70 used, if you can find it.Anyway, George Peppard has always been one of the coolest guys, at least in his Pre-A Team days, and especially early on (check out some of the Banacek episodes if you have a chance.
The Pilot is particularly good.
I do have both the Pilot and 2 seasons : )Michael Sarrazin has always been pretty slick too, and he is good here.
But, it is primarily the great story that REALLY makes this film special.
Also, I think the director did a particularly good job in keeping the pace and action very tight and the mood suspenseful and involving.
I personally feel that it was one of THE very best Thrillers made around that time.
A GREAT unknown movie..
I saw this in its original run in a college theatre.
Peppard is terrific.
Great spy film.
This is a great movie to watch especially if you love a good, hard twist in the end.
Just when you think you know what the truth is and who the evil bad guys are, the last five minutes takes you in another direction you did not see coming.
George Pappard's character's is fantastic as the government troubleshooter willing to go to any lengths to ferret out traitors and moles among top secret government operations.
There are a lot of great lines in the film too that helps the viewer to appreciate just how much power the troubleshooter has to protect the country, and scary when you realize he actually needs that much authority to do the job.
There is no way they could remake a better movie now unless they filled it with a lot of thrilling action scene or sex scenes.
Even if they did, it would not match the psychological thrill of this original..
No-Star Mediocrity, The. When George Peppard is the major name' of a movie  especially one made in the 70's  you may suspect you're on dodgy ground from the off.
When his co-stars are Michael Sarrazin  a one-trick pony whose career spiralled downwards sometime around 1975 when the trick had been seen too many times  and Christine Belford  a brief escapee from TV movie hell  you know it for a fact.THE GROUNDSTAR CONSPIRACY is a far-fetched thriller with sci-fi undertones that moves far too slowly, telegraphs most of it's twists' far too early (apart from the big twist at the end, which, believe me, sends this sad effort way off the credibility meter) and suffers from some horribly clunky dialogue.
Perhaps a director at the very top of his game may have been able to salvage something,  but, unfortunately Lamont Johnson  another journeyman whose labours have mostly been in television  was never that good a director.
Peppard, as a tough, no-nonsense agent, seems to be rehearsing his Hannibal role in THE A-TEAM without the humour, while Sarrazin flashes puppy-dog eyes and tries to look puzzled.
Lucky Christine Belford, then: her role calls for her to look bewildered much of the time, and, when she does, she looks completely natural.
Approach THE GROUNDSTAR CONSPIRACY as a mediocre B-movie, ignore its obvious  and woefully unrealised  ambitions, and you may just wring some drops of entertainment from this old flannel..
This film originally had the more evocative title "The Alien".
David Janssen was to play the title role with Robert Stack in the George Peppard role.Talented Douglas Heyes ("Kitten With a Whip", "Captains and Kings", "Aspen"), who wrote the screenplay, was set to direct.
David Levinson (the Emmy winning Hal Holbrook series "The Senator") was going to produce.Genevieve Bujold was originally set to play the Christine Belford role.
This delayed the start of filming, and Janssen had to leave since the film was already scheduled to finish just days before he would start his Jack Webb series "O'Hara, United States Treasury".Apparently they couldn't find an actress hungry or brave enough to come in immediately and replace Bujold.
I might have tried to get Sharon Acker, Diana Muldaur, Gena Rowlands, Salome Jens or Rosemary Forsyth to just jump in and do their best.I think David Janssen could have given the story a more mysterious, magnetic core than Michael Sarrazin did, and Janssen would have had interesting chemistry with any of those five women.I also think Peter Falk (who was starting "Columbo" the next season) could have been even better than Stack or Peppard as the tough-as-nails investigator.Steven Spielberg and John Badham were hot Universal TV directors at the time.
This might have been an interesting first film for either of those young Turks..
A man without memory and identity as sole survivor of the destruction of a super classified research plant and the sole bearer of its secrets.
A super secret space research plant is blown up with all its six responsible members of the team, but one manages to get out of the inferno alive, although there is not much left of him, least of all a face.
The story of John Welles, played by Michael Sarrazin, is intriguing indeed, as he finds himself without identity and memory as he is returned to life by extreme surgical efforts supervised by George Peppard as the man in charge of the investigation of the disastrous sabotage.
As Michael is the sole survivor and the only one left who could have known about the secrets of the plant and why it was blown up (for the purpose of selling its secrets abroad), George Peppard has every reason to be extremely concerned about his case and bringing not only the survivor back to life but also and above all his memory.
This proves more or less impossible.This is the beginning of the plot, which leads into an abyss of mysteries and thickening intrigue unto the very last moment, when everything clears.
It's an ingenious story, and although the environment of the film is dreadful, bunker prisons of mammoth overwhelmingness, it is nevertheless highly recommendable, and there is Christine Belford to add some necessary softer touch to the dreadfulness and inhumanity, which unfortunately is the dominating element of the film; and when Michael finally gets even with George Peppard, even that infallible dictator must admit that he deserved it..
...with stunning views of 70's Vancouver beaches,mountains and architecture, this drama has great actors with a suspenseful plot,yet kind of slow.
Silly plot, great retro-seventies decor.
This movie isn't really interesting in itself: the plot is far-fetched, the characters are wooden and the action scenes probably would have been considered dull even when the movie was made.
"I would plant a bug in every bedroom in the country".
The Groundstar Conspiracy is your average spy thriller with George Peppard as the ruthless investigator from an unnamed government agency and Michael Sarrazin as a scientist who is the only survivor of a lab explosion at a top secret US space program called Groundstar.
Peppard knows that Sarrazin is not who he says he is.
But how did he get clearance in the place, what may or may not have been taken from the lab that the explosion covered up are the questions Peppard has answers for.
Because Sarrazin's memory has been wiped clean.The key character in The Groundstar Conspiracy is Peppard as a ruthless government investigator, a man who could be J.
That title phrase comes from Peppard's mouth who would like to bug every bedroom in the country for security's sake, better to ferret out would be subversives.Of course Peppard plugs up his security leak, but Sarrazin, freedom, and Sarrazin's freedom pay a price.The Groundstar Conspiracy has some interesting notions to put forth, but the productions values are pretty skimpy.
Christine Belford as a woman that Peppard's using to keep tabs on Sarrazin has her role very poorly defined.
The players do their best, but the film's general mediocrity weighs heavily on their work..
Good Thanksgiving Fare (it's a real turkey).
A top-secret government lab blows up, 1 saboteur (Michael Sarrazin)survives and a super-abrasive, super-tough government super-agent reins Sarrazin in then reels him out like a super-fisherman playing with his catch.
All the "suspense" in this movie comes from the fact that Sarrazin can't remember the secret data that's supposedly locked up in his brain and can't even recall who he is working for, while super-agent George Peppard spends nearly the entire film trying to get Sarrazin to cough up said data.
Other than the weak and unconvincing interplay between the two principals and Sarrazin's dallying with a lonely widow, there is simply nothing happening in this film.
The "action scenes" are about as exciting as watching someone mow a lawn and the big "twist" ending makes little or no sense.
The author of all this nonsense must think that having a secret lab blow up, having the blower-up be an amnesiac and having the blow-ees become crispy critters is very exciting, but alas it's not.
He doesn't seem to understand that characters need to be more than one-dimensional and stories - even sci-fi thrillers - need to be interesting as well as plausible..
Very good!.
This is the kind of movie that Hollywood doesn't usually produce.
In Hollywood, there has to be a clear distinction between "good" and "evil" to win audiences and revenue.
Unfortunately, this destroys a lot of significant films from being made.
Groundstar Conspiracy was atypical in that there was a definite blur between "good" and "evil".
None more so than in the character of Tuxan, played by the late George Peppard.
Peppard plays a government operative who is maniacally obsessed with protecting national security.
You like the guy at the beginning, but when he starts interrogating "The Alien" - played by Michael Sarrazin (in the same year played in "Never Given In An Inch", and has a striking resemblance to the singer BJ Thomas), you like Tuxan much less.
"The Alien" allegedly committed terrible espionage crimes, but cannot recall due to amnesia.
You immediately empathize with "The Alien" as a guy who has to act tough, but you can tell is a regular guy.
The whole point of the movie is that Tuxan is dead-set on capturing "The Alien" at all costs.
The ending has a strong moral message, and you have to decide whether you agree with what Tuxan does for a living or not.
That is the strength of the movie - you have to decide upon morality for yourself (a powerful dilemma in America during the early 70s)..
This is a movie as easy to watch as to forget but it's quite entertaining.The story is very far-fetched,but in this kind of spy thriller including amnesia ,mysterious conspiracies and who-the-Hell am I?
subject,it's the rule of the game.George Peppard tries hard to be evil but he does not always succeed;Michael Sarrazin is the perfect victim/culprit (God only knows) .The love story may seem derivative and it is,but there are enough unexpected twists to sustain interest throughout.The working title ("the plastic man" ) was perhaps a better choice than "The Groundstar Conspiracy "but it might have been a spoiler..
good spy thriller from the 1970's.
A lonely young woman looking for peace and quiet decides to spend some time in her old weekend home.
This is an unfortunate miscalculation, since the house is located near a top secret government installation which blows up in a giant explosion.
Out of the rubble crawls and stumbles a badly wounded man.
Bleeding profusely, he collapses in front of the terrified woman...Aaah, the 1970's - a golden age for dystopian and/or paranoid tales about secrets, conspiracies, abuse of power and malfeasance.
"The Groundstar Conspiracy" is certainly one of the better entries : it is a nicely compact and efficient spy thriller with an intelligent, twisty plot, good performances and well-chosen locations.
At times the movie veers into a science fiction direction, but in a good way.
(I didn't like the musical score, but one can't have everything.)"Groundstar" contains interesting reflections on the conflict between state security and individual rights, such as the right to privacy.
(Watch George Peppard as an investigator so relentless that he taps everything and anything tappable, including his own phone.) There is also food for thought on the themes of memory and identity.
What is it that defines us humans as individuals - our faces, our names, our pasts ?
Suppose, for instance, that you had a terrible accident and that doctors had to provide you with a more or less workable face - not a beautiful face nor an ugly one, just an average face different from your own.
Would your life veer into an entirely new direction ?
Or suppose that you've suffered a bad accident, but that doctors succeed in duplicating your old face, down to the tiniest wrinkle.
Is it possible that you would not recognize the face - or yourself ?
Do watch "Groundstar", it's well worth your time.