Patrick Williams Movies
In this romantic fantasy adventure, a lady scientist's experiment whisks her back to King Arthur's court. While there, the plucky lass proves that modern women are as tough as medieval men, and she soon becomes the mythical king's most favored knight. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Whoopi Goldberg, Michael York, (more)
- 1969
- PG
This romantic comedy finds Candida (Barbara Ferris) going to live with her elderly spinster aunts after the death of her father. Finding things very unexciting there, she quickly leaves for Paris and enrolls in a university to study. She becomes pregnant after meeting a young student at a museum. When the baby is born, she manages to convince the nosey relatives she is just caring for the baby of a friend. A trip to Italy finds her in the arms of an American man and Candida is soon pregnant again. A woman gives her baby to Candida as she prepares to leave for home at the train station. She suddenly has two young babies and another on the way, getting far more education than she had bargained for. Her main confidant is Savage (Harry Andrews), her late father's caretaker, to whom she reveals the truth about her experiences. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Ferris, Harry Andrews, (more)
One of the most unabashedly profane (albeit honest) TV movies ever produced for "basic" cable, A Season on the Brink is based on John Feinstein's book about the 1985-1986 Indiana Hoosiers' basketball season. Brian Dennehy heads the cast as the controversial, combative, chair-tossing Hoosiers coach Bobby Knight, whose motto is "The only two words you need to know to play basketball at Indiana: Yes, Sir!" Driving his players mercilessly, and making verbal mincemeat of fans and reporters alike, Knight isn't interested in winning any popularity contests -- he is only interested in winning games, which he does with intimidating frequency. Along the way, Knight's abrasive style has profound effects on two of his best players, Daryl Thomas (Michael James Johnson) and Steve Alford (James Lafferty) -- not to mention Bobby's assistant coaches and family members. Videotaped footage of actual games is incorporated into the dramatized re-enactments, with mixed but generally effective results. A Season on the Brink was simulcast over ESPN and ESPN2 on March 10, 2002, with the original TVMAL-rated version airing on the former service, and a "laundered" TV14LV-rated version running on the latter channel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Dennehy, Duane Murray, (more)
- 1972
A Short Walk to Daylight was one of the first TV movies to exploit the popularity of the theatrical feature The Poseidon Adventure (72). Eight people are trapped in a New York subway when an Earthquake rocks the surface. In darkness, the all-TV cast struggles to make its way to the upperworld. The tie-in with Poseidon was solidified by the print ads for this film, which showed the cast members sloshing about in a flooded subway tunnel. A Short Walk to Daylight was partially filmed on location in the Big Apple. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
The sixth TV-movie spinoff of the popular family series The Waltons, A Walton Easter manages to reunite all of the surviving cast members--and in so doing, unintentionally reveals why several of those performers hadn't been doing much acting recently. Throwing the orginal series' chronology to the four winds, executvie producer Earl Hamner Jr. would have us believe that the 40th wedding anniversary of John and Olivia Walton (Ralph Waite, Michael Learned) is taking place in the year 1969, which doesn't quite explain how the couple managed to have all those teenaged offspring back in the late 1930s. Once we're past this inconsistency, the story boils down to the Easter reunion of the family at Walton Mountain in West Virginia--and more specifically, the return to the fold of John-Boy Walton (Richard Thomas), now a successful TV news anchorman in New York. John-Boy has not only brought along his pregnant wife Janet (Kate McNeil), but also Aurora Jameson (Sydney Walsh), a Time magazine photojournalist who is covering the reunion. Gradually, the various intrigues of the other Waltons are shunted to the background as the film's Big Question raises its head: Will John-Boy return to New York with his city-bred wife Janet, or will he sentimentally choose to remain at Walton Mountain...with someone else by his side? A Walton Easter debuted March 30, 1997 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Thomas, Ralph Waite, (more)
- 1996
Rita Rudner was both co-writer and co-star of this multi-plotted romantic comedy, set in a bed and breakfast in the middle of Southern California's wine country. In the course of the film's 90 minutes, a number of curiously matched couples will find true romance -- and sometimes even true happiness. Standout performances amongst the star-studded cast include Rita Rudner's turn as a pregnant food critic, Jack Lemmon as a desperate concert promoter, and Dudley Moore as a lonely vintner. Made for cable television, A Weekend in the Country debuted June 12, 1996, on the USA network; a mildly R-rated version was later prepared for home video release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Faith Ford, Christine Lahti, (more)
- 1993
Produced for the USA cable service, Accidental Meeting stars Linda Purl as Maryanne and Linda Gray as Jennifer. Meeting by chance, the two women begin discussing the men in their life. Maryanne expresses a wish to see her boss dead, while Jennifer would sooner see an odious male of her acquaintance drop dead. When Maryanne's hateful employer is killed, Jennifer re-enters her life, admitting to the murder and demanding equal reciprocation. While Accidental Meeting's 1951 role model Strangers on a Train is virtually suitable for the whole family, the later film is laden with "parental guidance suggested" violence and sex. Accidental Meeting premiered March 17, 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Purl, Linda Gray, (more)
On her deathbed, mean-spirited millionairess Lily Tomlin has her will amended so that her soul will pass into the body of young, healthy Victoria Tennant. Thanks to a mix-up in transmutation, Tomlin winds up instead trapped in the body of upright (and uptight) attorney Steve Martin. The plot involves the fragility of male-female relationships, the importance of making commitments, and the antics of goofy guru Richard Libertini. As ridiculous as it sounds, All of Me is completely credible, thanks to Steve Martin's remarkable "body language" when conveying the notion that he's two different people with two different sets of emotions and gestures. Though the circumstances of the plot won't allow Martin to connect with the lovely Tennant, in real life things were different: the two costars were married shortly after filming wrapped. Phil Alden Robinson and Henry Olek adapted the script from Ed Davis' novel Me Too. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Lily Tomlin, (more)
Machines fight for control of a world destroyed by man in this ultra-low-budget sci-fi saga from filmmaker James Felix McKenney. A global war has left the surface of the Earth uninhabitable, and the few humans who have lived through the conflict have been driven underground in order to survive. The Girl (Christine Spencer) lives in a subterranean bunker that she shares with several rattletrap robots of her own design. The Girl occupies herself by watching old videotapes of a scientist who was her friend and mentor before the apocalypse, but lately she has other things on her mind. Another survivor (Brenda Cooney) has established a robot army, and is using the machines to lay claim to the remains of the Earth. As the Girl constructs her own mechanical security force, she discovers the Enemy Leader has a dangerous surprise in his arsenal -- the ability to turn the Girl's robot friends against her. The ranting scientist in Automatons is played by Angus Scrimm, best known to horror film buffs as "the Tall Man" from the Phantasm franchise. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laree Love, Don Wood, (more)
- 1992
Hard-boiled San Francisco police detective Captain Mike Stone returns to his old beat in order to find the crook who killed his partner (played during the 1972- 1977 series by Michael Douglas, whose scenes are taken from clips of the original series) in this crime drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karl Malden
- 1994
The sensitive topic of the working mother is the subject of this made-for-television movie. Anne Archer stars as Abby, the working, single mother of a 6-year-old. Abby shares her son with her husband by alternating custodial weekends with him. At first, she enjoys the freedom it affords her to advance her career. When her re-married ex-husband Ted (John Heard) gets pangs for more custodial rights, he decides to take her to court for full-time parental custody, and he has a fighting chance because of Abby's demanding career. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
Dudley Moore and Eddie Murphy try but fail to bring this flat comedy to life, while the story itself is hampered by intercutting between the years of 1982 in Los Angeles (Moore) and 1984 in Kuwait (Murphy), with no explanation of how these two disparate people and locations are related. Wylie (Moore) is an inept engineer trying to perfect a gyro system for his employers who contract projects with the U.S. defense department. Wylie accidentally gets some blueprints for another type of gyro -- and his company successfully manufactures the part, much to almost everyone's benefit. Unfortunately, these plans are coveted by a certain ruthless industrial spy (David Rasch), and the FBI itself is suspicious about the origins of the blueprints in Wylie's hands. Meanwhile (and in constant interspersed segments), Landry (Murphy) is trying to get his tank to stay on course, but no matter what he does the machine swerves and lunges at random -- could there be a gyro at fault here? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dudley Moore, Eddie Murphy, (more)
- 1992
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Joan Micklin Silver tries her mighty best to wring something substantial out of Frank Mugavero's banal sit-com screenplay concerning the effect of divorce on the divorced parents' off-spring. Hillary Wolf stars as Laura Chartoff, a lonely thirteen-year-old girl who is the victim of multiple parental divorces and remarriages. She lives with her current stepfather Keith Powers (David Strathairn), a cool businessman, and her flighty, self-absorbed mother Melinda (Margaret Whitton). Her biological father David (Griffin Dunne) is a struggling artist separated from his second wife Barb (Patricia Kalember) and is now living with a younger woman Stephanie (Adrienne Shelley), who is pregnant with twins. After a fight with her mother and stepfather, Laura runs away to a rustic cabin in the woods being built by her older stepbrother Josh (Dan Futterman). When she spots Keith and Melinda walking up the road to the cabin, Laura dashes off into the forest. Reported missing, all of the members of Laura's extended family converge at the cabin to try to find her. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hillary Wolf, David Strathairn, (more)
- 1993
A tough congresswoman tries to keep her family together after her son-in-law dies in a car crash. This Emmy-nominated made-for-television drama follows her efforts and her reaction when she learns that drugs were involved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The remarkable life and tragic death of Marilyn Monroe has fascinated film fans for decades, but this two-part TV miniseries, based on a novel by Joyce Carol Oates, takes an unusual approach, using dramatic license (the film announces itself as a work of fiction using the names of real people) to look inside the minds of Monroe and those around her to ponder the circumstances of her rise and fall. Young Norma Jeane Baker (Skye McCole Bartusiak) is raised by single mother Gladys (Patricia Richardson), who is unstable, uncaring, and poorly equipped to deal with the responsibilities of parenthood. As Norma Jeane grows up without a father and with little affection from her mother, she suffers from a poor self-image and craves attention; when she grows into a beautiful young woman who is unusually attractive to men, she falls into a number of romances and a short-lived marriage in search of the approval she needs so desperately. When Norma Jeane (now played by Poppy Montgomery) turns 20, she meets a photographer, Otto (Eric Bogosian), who sees star potential in her beauty. Otto's cheesecake pictures catch the eye of I.E. Shinn (Wallace Shawn), an agent who in turned introduces her to Mr. R (Richard Roxburgh), the head of a movie studio, who offers to make Norma Jeane a star -- if she would be willing to have sex with him. Norma Jeane unenthusiastically agrees, and Mr. R proves good to his word; renamed Marilyn, she becomes an major film star and an international sex symbol. But the adulation proves to be a poor substitute for the love she craves, and as she falls into relationships with any man who treats her with a modicum of respect -- including a famous baseball player (Titus Welliver) and an acclaimed author (Griffin Dunne) -- her life begins to spiral out of control. Blonde also stars Ann-Margret, Kirstie Alley, and Patrick Dempsey; the series first aired May 13 and May 16, 2001, on the CBS television network. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Poppy Montgomery, Patricia Richardson, (more)
Dennis Christopher stars as a recent high school graduate in Bloomington, Indiana, who is caught with his friends -- Dennis Quaid, Daniel Stern, Jackie Earle Haley -- coasting between high school and deciding what to do with the rest of their lives. The four friends are snobbishly looked down upon by the college students of the town as "cutters," since they were born in Bloomington and their parents worked in the local limestone quarries that built the university. Dennis Christopher's character Dave wants to be a champion bicycle racer and he idolizes the Italian racing team -- so much so that he speaks, thinks, and acts Italian, all to his father's (Paul Dooley) forlorn exasperation. Dave falls for a college girl (Robyn Douglass), but is ashamed to admit he is a cutter and poses as an Italian exchange student to impress her. Dave is particularly excited when his heroes -- the Italian racers -- come to town for a race. But they are even more snobbish than the college students and rely on dirty tricks to keep Dave from winning a race against them. After that ordeal, Dave throws away his false identity and convinces his friends to enter the university's "Little 500" bicycle race against the college students. This light-hearted and heartwarming tale was a surprising word-of-mouth success at the box-office and won several awards, including an Academy Award for "Best Screenplay." ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Christopher, Dennis Quaid, (more)
- 1979
- R
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This "prequel" to the Newman/Redford vehicle Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid was written by TV sitcom veteran Allan Burns and stars Tom Berenger as Butch and William Katt as Sundance. The film, per its title, traces the formative days of Butch and Sundance's careers as soft-hearted western outlaws, and their creation of the Hole-in-the-Wall Gang. There's no Etta Place this time around; the fictional heroine, named Mary, is played by Jill Eikenberry. Only Jeff Corey, as Sheriff Ray Bledsoe, repeats his role from the original film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Katt, Tom Berenger, (more)
Cajun quarter-horse trainer Lloyd Bourdelle (Walter Matthau) struggles to eke out a decent living for himself and his three sons Buddy, Randy and Casey (Andrew A. Rubin, Stephen Burns and Michael Hershewe). Their prize horse is thoroughbred foal Casey's Shadow, named after the youngest son (Hershewe). The question is whether or not Lloyd, a life-long loser, can take advantage of the opportunity for bettering his lot afforded by Casey's Shadow. Alexis Smith co-stars as Sarah Blue, a wealthy woman who becomes Matthau's strongest ally when she offers to buy the horse rather than allow the vindictive Mike Marsh (Robert Webber) to destroy it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Matthau, Alexis Smith, (more)
- 1980
- R
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Peter Ustinov plays the talented detective in San Francisco who attempts, with help/hindrance from his clumsy grandson (Richard Hatch), to solve a murder case in this mystery/comedy. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Ustinov, Lee Grant, (more)
- 1997
Greg Davis (Michael Reilly Burke) was 12 years old when his childhood sweetheart Karen Carlson disappeared while en route to his home. 17 years later, Greg, now a schoolteacher, is astonished by the sudden appearance of an enigmatic young woman (Melissa Gilbert) who claims to be the long-missing Karen. The woman's vivid recollections of abduction, and the fact that she knows many of Karen's innermost secrets, convince Greg that she's the genuine article. But Karen's father Warren (Ronny Cox) and detective James Walker (Leon Russom) are not so easily persuaded--and when Karen begins to behave in a bizarre, erratic fashion, the possibility arises that she may not be whom she claims to be...and that her past is far more sinister than anyone could imagine. Alternating between a full-color "present" and black-and-white vignettes of "the past", the made-for-TV Childhood Sweetheart? debuted March 18, 1997, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Columbo: Murder, A Self Portrait stars Patrick Bauchau as an artist hounded by a contentious ex-wife (Fionulla Flanagan). He murders his former spouse on the beach at Malibu, but arranges things to make it seem he was far away in his art studio at the time of the killing. Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) has heard this song before, and he meticulously chips away at the artist's alibi. Also in the cast is Shera Danese, a.k.a. Mrs. Peter Falk. Murder, A Self Portrait was one of the handful of Columbo 2-hour episodes shown during the 1989-1990 season on The ABC Saturday Mystery Movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Let's see: who is the character played by Fisher Stevens supposed to be? Stevens plays an egomaniacal Hollywood director, whose negligence causes an on-set death. Cleared of all responsibility, Stevens is confronted with cold, hard evidence of his complicity by the victim's brother. The director then utilizes his knowledge of special effects to murder his accuser and make the whole thing look like an accident. Lieutenant Columbo (Peter Falk), however, suspects foul play. With such clues as traveller's check and a pair of ice cream sodas at his disposal, Columbo slowly tightens the noose around Stevens' neck. The two-hour Columbo: Murder, Smoke and Shadows was originally telecast February 27, 1989, as part of the ABC Monday Mystery Movie package. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
This is one of the many made for TV movies revolving around the popular disheveled character created by Peter Falk - Lieutenant Columbo, of Homicide. In this one, the Lieutenant is called upon to use his expertise to help out the family when his nephew's new bride is kidnapped on their wedding night. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Falk, Joanna Going, (more)
- 1975
Crossfire stars James Franciscus as police officer Rossi, who is thrown off the force for possession of narcotics. Disgraced in the eyes of everyone, including his own partner, Rossi descends into a life of crime. But--and this will come as a shock to anyone who's never seen a Humphrey Bogart picture--the drug bust was fabricated to allow Rossi to function as an undercover operative. His job: Locate and arrest the syndicate Big Boy. Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Rossi's late brother was a mob functionary. Crossfire was yet another TV pilot film for yet another unsold James Franciscus weekly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
John Waters does a quirky spin on '50s nostalgia in Cry-Baby, his musical homage to Rebel Without a Cause and Romeo and Juliet. Set in Baltimore in 1954 at the birth of rock & roll, the film features Johnny Depp as Wade "Cry-Baby" Walker. Depp is pure charisma as a juvenile delinquent with a permanent tear slithering down his cheek, a reminder of his state-executed parents. In the depths of his despair appears goody-goody girl Allison (Amy Locane), who has a sexual crush on Cry-Baby. But Allison's Pat Boone-like boyfriend, Baldwin (Stephen E. Miller), the leader of the squares, is dead set against Cry-Baby and the rest of the juvenile delinquents and leads a revolt against them. In the resultant riot, the juvenile delinquents are blamed for the chaos, and Cry-Baby finds himself dispatched to reform school. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Johnny Depp, Amy Locane, (more)
