John Braden Movies

One of Woody Allen's earlier, more slapstick-oriented efforts, Bananas tells the story of Fielding Mellish (Allen), a neurotic New Yorker who follows the object of his affections, Nancy (Louise Lasser), to the fictional Central American country of San Marcos, where she is involved in a revolution. Nancy wants nothing to do with Fielding, but he soon becomes a guest of the country's dictator (Carlos Montalban), before accidentally becoming the leader of San Marcos himself. Fielding is eventually shipped back to the US and tried as a subversive, but being that this is a comedy, and an especially light one at that, everything works out in the end. A far cry from Allen's later, more somber films, Bananas still works as an often hilarious amalgam of sight gags, one-liners, and bizarre asides. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery was the first in an intended series of TV-movies inspired by the Ten Commandments (the series came a premature end with 1981's Thou Shalt Not Kill). Louise Fletcher plays the wife of paralytic Robert Reed. Though she tries to remain loyal, Reed's incapacitation puts a crimp in her connubial urges. Thus, with her husband's permission, she launches an affair with Wayne Rogers. The screenplay by Calder Willingham and Del Reisman expertly sidesteps sensationalism. Thou Shalt Not Commit Adultery first aired November 1, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After winning the heavyweight boxing championship and single-handedly winning the war in Vietnam for America, Sylvester Stallone moves on to a real challenge -- arm wrestling -- in this action drama with a family undercurrent. Lincoln Hawk (Stallone) is a long-haul truck driver who years ago abandoned his wife Christina (Susan Blakely) and their son Michael (David Mendenhall). Hawk comes to see the error of his ways and wants to reconcile with his loved ones, only to discover that Christina is in the hospital suffering through the last stages of a terminal illness. Her wealthy and powerful father, Jason Cutler (Robert Loggia), has come to hate Hawk for the way he left his daughter to fend for herself, and he wants full custody of the boy upon her death. But Hawk is desperate to mend his relationship with Michael. He kidnaps the boy, and as Jason's hired goons give chase, Hawk points his truck toward the one place where he can win the money and recognition that will earn his son's respect -- a wrist-wrestling championship in Las Vegas. Actor Sylvester Stallone also co-wrote the screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Originally assembled by actress Joanne Woodward at Connecticut's Westport County Playhouse (where she served as artistic director), this highly praised 2002 revival of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 play Our Town enjoyed a brief Broadway stay that same year, and it was during its New York run that the production was videotaped for the Showtime cable network. The revival's principal attraction was Woodward's husband, Paul Newman, in the role of the avuncular Stage Manager, who narrates the action and occasionally converses with the characters on-stage and with members of the audience. Covering a period from 1901 to approximately 1917, the play is set in the New England community of Grover's Corners (conveyed with a bare minimum of sets and props, as dictated by Wilder's original staging notes). The focus is on the romance between Emily Webb (Maggie Lacey), daughter of the town's newspaper editor, and George Gibbs (Ben Fox). The play's three acts run the full gamut of Emily and George's relationship, from courtship, to marriage, to early death. In addition to Newman, the cast of Our Town is full of familiar TV and movie faces, among them Jeffrey DeMunn, Jane Curtin, Mia Dillon, Travis Walters, Stephen Mendillo, and Jake Robards, grandson of Jason Robards Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide