William Converse-Roberts Movies

Adapted by Horton Foote from his own play, 1918 focuses on a small Texas town beset by a major flue epidemic during World War I. In this slow-paced, melancholy story of internecine family strife, Horace Robedaux (William Converse-Roberts) comes from the poor side of the town's citizenry, but he married into the landed gentry when he wed Elizabeth (Hallie Foote), a change that bothers him constantly. His father-in-law is a rigid though well-intentioned patriarch, and his mother-in-law is often at odds with Elizabeth -- the seeds of that friction undoubtedly lie in the family's opposition to Elizabeth marrying Horace. Besides, these wealthy parents treat Elizabeth and Horace as though they were still children -- and they are now the proud parents of a baby boy. Changes occur when Horace makes a sudden decision to go off to war, after assurances from his father-in-law that he will care for Elizabeth in the meantime -- and the flu epidemic strikes much closer to the family than anyone would have imagined. The film was later telecast as part of a Horton Foote trilogy on PBS' American Playhouse. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

The Fig Tree was the opening installment of the 1987-88 season of PBS' Wonderworks series. Set in 1903 Texas, the story concerns Miranda (Karron Graves), an 8-year-old whose mother died when she was very young. Like the most of the rest of her family, Miranda has never come to terms with her mother's death. Only great-aunt Eliza (Doris Roberts), an erstwhile naturalist, seems willing or able to help Miranda on the road to emotional maturity. Based on a short story by Katherine Anne Porter, The Fig Tree premiered October 10, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Fed up with his social-climbing wife's ambitious ways, Daniel, a painter, has left her and has taken rooms in a New England island inn during the off season. There, amid the bleak dunes and vast sky, he attempts to come to grips with himself. The inn's owner is an old fellow whose constant companion is his independent-minded granddaughter, who occasionally reads to him from a book of old fables. At the time of the movie, the story she's reading concerns a mermaid. When the granddaughter isn't careening around in her plain-spoken, almost boyish way, she's busy sizing up this new man on the scene as a possible conquest. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Millstone is the all-too-appropriate name of the Texas hometown of sophisticated career woman Martha (Loni Anderson). No sooner has Martha returned home after a 15-year absence than she witnesses a murder. Relating this information to her sisters, Martha is confused by their reaction. Only when it is nearly too late does the truth come out: The killer is Martha's own brother-in-law Eddie (Greg Evigan). This shock from the present only serves to dredge up long-buried secrets from the heroine's past--hence the title of this made-for-TV melodrama. First telecast by NBC on December 14, 1995, Deadly Family Secrets was based on Franklin Coen's novel Vinegar Hill--and also bears eerie echoes of the 1951 Ginger Rogers theatrical-movie vehicle Storm Warning. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Based on the novel, How I Created My Perfect Prom Date, by Todd Strasser, Drive Me Crazy stars Melissa Joan Hart as Nicole, a trend-conscious teenager living next door to Chase (Adrian Grenier), a self-conscious, downbeat type who reads poetry and spouts political platitudes. Needless to say, Nicole and Chase have nothing in common and little to say to each other. But when the boy of Nicole's dreams asks someone else to the prom, she decides to remake Chase into worthy date material as a way to make her old flame jealous. Before long, Nicole and Chase aren't just pretending that they like each other. Drive Me Crazy presented Sabrina, the Teenage Witch star Melissa Joan Hart in her first leading role in a feature film; it was produced under the title Girl Gives Birth to Prom Date and test-screened as Next to You before the producers settled on Drive Me Crazy. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Director Barry Levinson follows up the low-budget An Everlasting Piece (2000) with another comedy, this one of the homegrown variety from former Twin Peaks (1990) TV series writer Harley Peyton. Bruce Willis stars as suave bank robber Joe, who has escaped from prison with his hypochondriac buddy Terry (Billy Bob Thornton). Together, the two men have devised a clever scheme to take a bank officer hostage the night before a heist, then simply escort the executive to work early the next morning when they clean out the vault. Their ingenious methods have led to the men becoming media darlings dubbed "the Sleepover Bandits," but all Joe and Terry want is to make a nice pile of money before crossing the Mexican border to a life of freedom and legitimacy. Their quest gets more complicated when Terry is struck by a car driven by Kate Wheeler (Cate Blanchett), a bored housewife who's then forced to join their crime spree. Soon both Joe and Terry are in love with Kate and she with them, realizing that the two friends put together pretty much equal the perfect man. Bandits co-stars Troy Garity, son of actress Jane Fonda. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi