Tom Dreeson Movies
On a baseball team not often cited for its great players, Ron Santo was a hero and a legend. As a third baseman for the Chicago Cubs, Santo played 14 seasons (1960 through 1974), made the All-Star team nine times, earned five Gold Gloves, and in 1965 became the team's youngest ever captain. While Santo was establishing himself as one of the Cub's greatest players, he was also hiding a secret -- in 1958, the same year Ron signed with the Cubs organization, he was diagnosed with diabetes, but refused to tell his fellow players or the team's physicians for fear of being bumped from the team. In 1971, as the Cubs celebrated Ron Santo Day at Wrigley Field, the baseball great finally went public with his condition, becoming a leading Midwest spokesman and fundraiser for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation. In 1990, Santo renewed his association with the Chicago Cubs as a commentator for the team's home games on radio station WGN, and in 2003, he became one of only three Cubs players to have their number officially retired. This Old Cub is a documentary about Ron Santo's remarkable life and career, not only examining his years as a player and broadcaster, but his longtime struggle with the disease that has cost him a leg but has failed to break his spirit, and the crusade by fans and admirers to see Santo inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame. Noted Cubs enthusiasts Bill Murray, Dennis Franz, and Gary Sinese, and baseball legends Ernie Banks, Johnny Bench, Willie Mays, and Tommy Lasorda are interviewed onscreen; actor Joe Mantegna narrates. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- 1998
Monica (Roma Downey) and Andrew (John Dye) are assigned to the old-time comedy team of Salt and Pepper, who are about to be inducted into the Comedy Hall of Fame. Unfortunately, Maury Salt (Jerry Stiller) and Ed Pepper (Tom Poston) have hated each other ever since the argument that broke them up thirty years ago. Reluctantly reunited for the induction ceremony, the two showbiz veterans start quarrelling all over again, and it takes the intervention of Monica, posing as Salt's woefully inept new comedy partner, to restore a semblance of peace and quiet. As it turns out, if a reconciliation is to take place, it had better be soon; one of the partners hasn't much longer to live. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
A space bum helps rescue a princess from an evil overlord with the help of a benevolent elder in this Star Wars send-up written and directed by Mel Brooks. Lone Starr (Bill Pullman) and his half-man, half-dog co-pilot, Barf the Mawg (John Candy), are content to scour the galaxy living the easy life. But they reluctantly come to the rescue when Druish Princess Vespa (Daphne Zuniga) is threatened by the evil Lord Dark Helmet (Rick Moranis), who wants to steal all of the air from her planet, Druidia. Trapped on a harsh desert world with Vespa and her robot chaperone, Dot Matrix (voice of Joan Rivers), Lone Starr and Barf are helpless to prevent Helmet from kidnapping the girl. But assistance arrives in the form of Yogurt (Brooks), a wizard who turns Lone Starr on to a mysterious power known as The Schwartz. Catching up with Helmet just as he's transforming his spaceship into a giant vacuum cleaner in orbit around Druidia, the reluctant heroes stage a dramatic showdown. Although it borrows most of its plot from the Star Wars series, Spaceballs also pokes fun at Star Trek, Snow White, and Planet of the Apes -- as well as the entire videocassette and movie marketing industries. The large supporting cast includes Dick Van Patten, Jim J. Bullock, and the voice of Dom DeLuise. John Hurt makes a cameo in a parody of the exploding chest scene he played in Alien. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mel Brooks, John Candy, (more)
- 1987
This classic episode adroitly utilizes footage from the 1949 theatrical film Strange Bargain--with three of that film's stars, Jeffrey Lynn, Martha Scott and Harry Morgan, reprising their roles in the "new" scenes. Released from prison after serving 30 years for the murder of his boss, Sam Wilson (Lynn) returns to his wife Georgia (Scott) and his son Rod (Art Hindle), who is now a police officer. Georgia and Rod prevail upon Jessica (Angela Lansbury) to help clear Sam's name, and to prove that someone else committed the murder. With the assistance of the original investigating detective, a man named Webb (Morgan), Jessica reconstructs the events leading up to Sam's arrest, with black-and-white "flashbacks" lifted from Strange Bargain illustrating how, three decades earlier, Sam had been offered $10,000 to make his boss' suicide look like murder for insurance purposes. One of the supporting roles is played by Debbie Zipp, who would later become a Murder, She Wrote semi-regular as Donna Mayberry, the fiancee of Jessica's nephew Grady Fletcher. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1985
Jessica (Angela Lansbury) pays a visit her niece Tracey (Linda Grovenor), an up-and-coming jockey. After winning a race, Tracey has a confrontation with the horse's owner, indicating that she was supposed to have thrown the race. Not long after, the owner turns up murdered--and Tracey is the prime suspect. Naturally, Jessica isn't about to let her niece take the rap for a crime she didn't commit...and besides, she has a pretty good idea "whodunit" (especially since the revelation of the actual culprit follows the most reliable of the Murder She Wrote guidelines!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
