James McLarty Movies
Jay Underwood plays an autistic boy who provides a source of fascination to a new family in town. Never uttering a sound, Underwood spends hours in his backyard, attempting to fly like the birds. Lucy Deakins, the daughter of the new family, befriends Underwood; she is encouraged by teacher Colleen Dewhurst to try to draw the boy out of his shell, and to keep a journal on the subject. Rendered unconscious in a fall, Deakins dreams that Underwood can fly. The boy is suddenly whisked away to an institution, and Deakins despairs that she'll never see him again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lucy Deakins, Jay Underwood, (more)
- 1982
- PG
Francis Ford Coppola protégé Phillip Borsos directs this elegiac, low-key tale about real-life bandit Bill Miner that has become a classic of Canadian cinema. Having been released from jail in 1901 following a 33-year prison sentence for robbing stagecoaches, Bill Miner (Richard Farnsworth) finds himself living in a society that has completely changed from the one of his youth. He tries to put his life of crime behind him and settle down in Washington state with his sister, but the quiet life does not suit him. He feels restless but uncertain as to how to proceed next. The answer comes to him when he sees Edward S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery. Soon, Miner has slipped over the border into Canada and, along with his new partner, Shorty (Wayne Robson), robs the Canadian Pacific Railway Transcontinental Express. Later, while laying low after the crime in a remote corner of British Columbia, he meets the beautiful, strong-willed photographer Kate Flynn (Jackie Burroughs). In writing this script, Borsos reportedly made heavy use of contemporary court documents and testimonies. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival in honor of its 20th anniversary. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Farnsworth, Jackie Burroughs, (more)
Set at a low-end summer camp and aimed squarely at a teen audience, Meatballs is a light screwball comedy that turned its low-budget Canadian roots into a very profitable box-office run. The biggest reason for the film's success is Bill Murray who stars as Tripper, the head counselor who runs things at Camp Northstar with the help of his love interest Roxanne (Kate Lynch) and the camp's director Morty (Harvey Atkins), who is affectionately known as Mickey. Camp opens with Tripper and Morty preparing the misfit counselors-in-training -- Spaz, Fink, Crockett, A.L., Candace, Wendy, and Wheels among them -- for the arrival of their hyperactive little charges. After settling in, kids and counselors begin their activities with a soccer game in which depressed 11-year-old Rudy (Chris Makepeace) accidentally loses the game. Cast out by the other children, Rudy runs away only to come across Tripper, who befriends the boy and makes him his running partner. Romance, sexy fun, and comic hijinx -- usually with the heavy-sleeping Morty as their target -- lead up to an annual Olympiad in which Camp Northstar battles the wealthier and athletically superior residents of Camp Mohawk. The challenging events include cup stacking, potato-sack racing, and a nauseating hot dog-eating contest in which the portly Fink devours his way to victory. With the two-day event tied up, it comes down to the cross-country run, in which Tripper enters Rudy. Meatballs was the first major directorial effort by multi-talented filmmaker Ivan Reitman, whose name has since become synonymous with the comedy genre. ~ Patrick Legare, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Murray, Harvey Atkin, (more)
- 1969
Babysitter is an ultra-cheap exploitation feature aimed at the drive-in circuit. Patricia Wymer, who is cast in this film for two important reasons, plays a seductive baby-sitter who takes a job at the home of a powerful district attorney. She goes to work on the D.A., then holds him up for blackmail money. This is the sort of film where the principal source of entertainment lies in the number of times the actors flub their lines, and the frequency with which one can spot the microphone boom. Of negligible entertainment value, The Babysitter made a great deal of money, thanks to an aggressive TV ad campaign. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patricia Wymer, George E. Carey, (more)
Frank Sinatra took over the directors' chair for the first (and only) time in this unusual WWII drama. Lt. Kuroki (Tatsuya Mihashi) is the leader of a Japanese platoon stranded on a remote Pacific island, where with an iron hand he oversees the construction of a rescue ship. An American plane crash-lands on the island, leading to a skirmish between the two rag-tag legions; eventually, both sides call a truce, and medical officer Maloney (Sinatra) treats a Japanese soldier who was seriously wounded in the fighting. American commander Capt. Bourke (Clint Walker) and Lt. Kuroki come to an agreement -- they will work together to bring needed help to the island, but once either side's forces reach them, the fighting will pick up where it left off. None But the Brave was an international co-production of Artanis Productions (Sinatra's production company -- "Artanis" is Sinatra backwards), Warner Brothers, Tokyo Eiga, and Toho. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frank Sinatra, Clint Walker, (more)
