Clare Wren Movies

When a prostitute is murdered, detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) question deli owner McCracken (Brian Smiar), who has a history of harassing hookers. Another likely suspect is plastic surgeon Dr. Mark Danforth (Jonathan Walker), who may have been a client of the dead woman. At the end of the day, it is Assistant D.A. Kincaid (Jill Hennessy), rather than her more experienced associate McCoy (Sam Waterston), who must decide whether the right person has been accused of the crime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Leathery old stationmaster Teaspoon Hunter moves his Pony Express way-station from Sweetwater, Wyoming to the larger, more urbanized community of Rock Creek, Nebraska, as The Young Riders begins its third and final season. Now a US marshal, Teaspoon has left the care and maintenance of his station in the hands of his loyal young riders, including The Kid (Ty Miller), Billy Cody (Stephen Baldwin), Jimmy Hickok (Josh Brolin), Ike McSwain (Travis Fine), Buck Cross (Gregg Rainwater), Noah Dixon (Don Franklin) and "token female" Lou McCloud (Yvonne Suhor). Also making the big move to Rock Creek are the station's secretive cook Rachel (Claire Wren) and enterprising storekeeper Tompkins (Don Collier). And in the second episode of the season, a brash 14-year-old Missouri refugee named Jesse James (Christopher Pettiet) signs on with the Pony Express. The most startling event of the season is the sudden death of the taciturn Ike McSwain, who dies while protecting the only woman he has ever loved. Less startling but definitely out of the ordinary is one of the few episodes built around the half-Kiowan Buck Cross, in which he is reunited with the woman of his tribe who'd been promised to him in marriage years earlier--and who now is apparently possessed by an evil-spirit. In the not uneventful series finale, Cody signs up as an Army scout (he's getting closer and closer to those Buffalo!), life turns sour for Noah when he is denied entry in an all-white military regiments, Lou and the Kid finally get married, and hotheaded Jesse James is inveigled into joining his brother Frank in a new and less reputable line of work. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season Two of The Young Riders finds a few changes of personnel around and about the Pony Express station run by crusty old Teaspoon Hunter (Anthony Zerbe in pre-Civil War Sweetwater, Wyoming. Youthful riders The Kid (Ty Miller, Billy Cody (Stephen Baldwin, Jimmy Hickok (Josh Brolin, Ike McSawain (Travis Fine), and Buck Cross (Gregg Rainwater) are still delivering the mail despite obstacles far more daunting that sleet, snow and hail; likewise, the service's sole female member Lou McCloud (Yvonne Suhor) is still disguising herself as a boy for the sake of convenience, though by this time The Kid has tumbled to her secret and has fallen in love with her. New to the service is a freeborn black teenager named Noah Dixon (Don Franklin); also joining the cast is the station's enigmatic new cook Rachel Dunn (Claire Wren), replacing the previous season's Emma Shannon, who has run off with amorous Marshal Sam Cain. Highlight this season include revelations about Teaspoon's unsavory past; the Riders' efforts to fight a cholera epidemic, and to save an innocent man from lynching in the process; Jimmy Hickok's brief tenure as sheriff in a wide-open town, where he half-hopes to be killed for accidentally causing the death of a young woman; and the end of the trail for local storekeeper William Tompkins' (Don Collier) search for his wife and child, kidnapped years earlier by the Sioux. In an intriguing bit of casting, onetime Bonanza regular Pernell Roberts appears as the burned-out idol of the impressionable Billy Cody; and later on, Richard Roundtree of Shaft fame shows up as the mentor of Noah Dixon, determined to save his former pupil from being sold into slavery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a young man reunites with his estranged father, he becomes suspicious that pop's torturing his (the dad's) new young wife. As he becomes more involved, the son himself becomes entangled in a murder plot and is soon confused as to whether it's the dad or the young wife who is the real perpetrator. ~ All Movie Guide

Who Is Julia? was based on author Barbara H. Harris' "speculative fiction" page-turner. Mary Frances (Mare Winningham) is a dull, drab housewife suffering from brain disease. Julia (Judy Ledford) is a drop-dead-gorgeous model who is killed in a car accident. Out of desperation, the surgeons decide to transplant Julia's brain into Mary Beth's body. The balance of the film involves Julia's distressed reaction to being trapped with the plain features and blue-collar lifestyle of Mary Beth. Sidelines sufferers include Jameson Parker as Julia's husband and Jonathan Banks as Mary Frances' spouse. Who Is Julia? is a farfetched but irresistible made-for-TV effort. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide