Antonio Fargas Movies

Advertised as a "return" to the spirit of the old Spencer Tracy/Katharine Hepburn films (not all of which were that spirited--try watching Keeper of the Flame sometime), the made-for-TV Good Sport is essentially a reworking of 1941's Woman of the Year. Ralph Waite plays a gritty sports columnist who enters reluctantly into the world of "haute courte" fashions to do a story on an ex-athlete turned clothes designer. He meets Lee Remick, an elegant fashion designer, and it's oil-and-water time for the next twenty minutes or so. Waite and Remick become friends, vowing to keep things strictly platonic. It doesn't take a PhD to ascertain what will happen next. For another slant on the premise of A Good Sport, catch the superior 1957 Gregory Peck/Lauren Bacall vehicle Designing Woman. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Shown on the Fox network, this made-for-TV biopic stars David Ramsey as legendary boxer Muhammad Ali, whose story is told largely in flashbacks. Beginning with Ali's childhood, when he was known as Cassius Clay, Ali: An American Hero traces the boxer's career, love life, and eventual devotion to Islam. Joe Morton appears as Malcolm X, and the cast also features the talents of Vondie Curtis Hall and Clarence Williams III, the latter as Ali's father Marcellus Clay. ~ Rebecca Flint Marx, Rovi

Peter Hyams made his feature-film directing debut with this clumsily paced crime film concerning two Los Angeles vice-squad detectives. Michael Keneely (Eliott Gould) is the swaggering non-conformist and Patrick Farrel (Robert Blake) is the cocky follower. The two cops live for their work and spend most of their time busting call girls, massage parlor employees, and homosexuals. Keneely and Farrel eventually come to the conclusion that every criminal act in Los Angeles is due to the efforts of crime lord Carl Rizzo (Allen Garfield). The boys begin to harass Rizzo to the point of distraction, but their singular attempts to arrest Rizzo cause them to become the targets of, not only the criminal population, but the police force as well. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

This crime-drama follows the exploits of a rock star who is finally freed from prison after being convicted of drug dealing. Though he wants to go straight, he is blackmailed by a crooked cop who forces him to sell marijuana. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Jon Voight stars in this story, based on fact, about a teacher determined to make a difference in the lives of his students. In the late 1960s, Pat Conroy (Jon Voight) is given a teaching position on a small island off the coast of South Carolina. Conroy discovers that the school is little more than a shack and his students are functionally illiterate, can't count, and don't even know what country they're in. (They also mispronounce his name as "Conrack," a name that sticks.) The school's principal, Mrs. Scott (Madge Sinclair), has taught the students to believe that they're lazy and stupid, and the result is a group of kids who've been ignored and have no useful skills. Conroy responds by throwing out the rule book and teaching lessons that will be useful in their daily lives. The students respond eagerly as Conroy plays classical music, shows them movies, teaches them to swim, and explains the importance of brushing their teeth. However, many local leaders are unhappy with Conroy and his methods, while Conroy is not afraid to say that institutional racism is largely to blame for the neglect heaped on the students. The real Pat Conroy, whose book The Water is Wide was the basis for this picture, later became a respected novelist; his fiction includes The Prince of Tides and The Great Santini, both later made into films. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The made-for-TV Escape was inspired by the true story of Dwight Worker, an American imprisoned in Mexico for smuggling hashish. Given the country's stringent anti-drug laws, Worker's chances of release are slim to none (a situation similar to the protagonist's plight in Midnight Express). Against all odds, Worker plans a daring getaway from the notoriously impenetrable Lecumberri Prison (for obvious reasons, the film was not shot on location). Timothy Bottoms stars as Worker, with Kay Lenz as Barbara Chilcoate, the woman who became his wife; Colleen Dewhurst co-stars as the sympathetic "Mother Jones" type who helped engineer the escape. Adapted from Dwight and Barbara Worker's autobiography, Escape debuted February 20, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Though set in Cuba, the made-for-cable Florida Straits was lensed in South Carolina. The film is set twenty years after the Bay of Pigs invasion. Raul Julia, Fred Ward and Daniel Jenkins sneak back into Castroland to search for a fortune in gold that had been buried during the abortive 1961 military action. Their mission is complicated by a woman from Julia's past. Scripted by Roderick Taylor, Florida Straits was first telecast on October 26, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

It's still the same old story...but what a story. This umpteenth filmization of the classic Mark Twain novel stars Ron Howard as Huck and Donny Most as Tom Sawyer. After faking his own murder to escape his brutish Pap (played by Howard's real-life father Rance), Huck and fugitive slave Jim (Antonio Fargas) fashion a raft and head off down the Mississippi. The darker elements and sociological commentary of the Twain original are carefully excised from this version, the better to allow more time for the antics of those "royal" rapscallions, the King (Jack Elam) and the Duke (Merle Haggard). Mark Twain himself makes a guest appearance, in the person of Royal Dano. Filmed along the Sacramento River in California (a frequent movie "stand-in" for the Mississippi), Huckleberry Finn was first broadcast March 25, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the first half of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Chief Ironside is assigned to protect little Jerry Abbott, an autistic 10-year-old who has witnessed a murder. Not long afterward, the newspapers are reporting that Jerry himself has been killed--and that Ironside, tortured by guilt, has quit the force, crawled into a booze bottle, and ended up a derelict on Skid Row. But is this grim situation everything it appears to be? ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Leslie Nielsen guest stars as Michael Hagar, the mastermind of a million-dollar diamond heist. What Hagar doesn't realize is that he is being manipulated into adding murder to his list of crimes. Pulling the strings is Hagar's sexy partner Paula (Ja'net DuBois, a duplicitous loan shark who has planned all along to use the jewel robbery to cover up the killing of her husband. Kojak (Telly Savalas) has a high old time bringing the villains to justice in this episode, which also features an early appearance by Antonio Fargas, aka "Huggy Bear" on Starsky and Hutch. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Nell Carter stars a a popular singer and Dinah Manoff costars as her maid du jour in the made-for-TV Maid For Each Other. A spoiled-rotten widow whose wealthy husband left her penniless, Dinah hasn't quite latched onto the concept of being at someone else's beck and call. As for Nell, she doesn't suffers fools very easily. This situation is fitfully amusing in itself, but the fun really begins when Nell and Dinah uncover an insidious plot involving corporate espionage and murder. Maid for Each Other debuted January 13, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Some extremely stupid French people plot to steal the Venus de Milo from the Louvre in this comedy. ~ Rovi