Paul Menzel Movies

Actor Bob Balaban directed this black comedy for Disney concerning a young zombie's love for a pretty high school girl. Johnny Dingle (Andrew Lowery) is a sweet-natured soul who has been in love with Missy McCloud (Traci Lind) ever since first grade, but he's always been reluctant to ask her out, fearing rejection. Now that the high school prom is coming, he devises a plan to make Missy say yes when he musters up the courage to ask her to the dance. Johnny and his pal Eddie (Danny Zorn) concoct a plan that will make it look as if Johnny saves her life. Unfortunately, Johnny's plan goes amiss and he's actually killed. But even death doesn't dissuade Johnny and he rises from his grave to take her to the prom. Curiously enough, Missy is more attracted to Johnny now that he is dead than when he was alive (despite his falling body parts). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

"Saying 'no' to Melanie could lead to murder--and more." Thus did the CBS Network publicity department lure the viewer into watching the made-for-TV Seduction in Travis County. Based liberally on fact, the film stars Lesley Ann Warren as an accused murderer. Peter Coyote is the dynamic, married young attorney whom Warren twists around her little finger. He wins her acquittal, and also her eternal deadly vigilance. Coyote says "no" to Warren--and we all know where it will lead. With traces of the 1950 Barbara Stanwyck film The File on Thelma Jordon, Seduction in Travis County delivers a few chills but very little believable motivation for the characters' actions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a novel by LaVyrle Spenser, this made-for-TV drama was originally titled The Fulfillment of Mary Gray. Cheryl Ladd stars as Mary, a farm woman living in 1910 Minnesota. Mary's husband (Ted Levine) is not only neglectful, but impotent. Anxious to have an heir, he suggests that she allow his brother (Lewis Smith) to impregnate her! Needless to say, love blossoms between Mary and her fertile brother-in-law. Filmed in Texas (which looks like Minnesota if you squint a lot), The Fulfillment of Mary Gray was first telecast February 19, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adam: His Song Continues is a sequel to the highly regarded fact-based 1983 TV movie Adam. The first film was the heartrending story of Floridians John and Reve Walsh (Daniel J. Travanti, JoBeth Williams) whose six-year-old son Adam was kidnapped and murdered in 1981, whereupon the Walshes lobbied for creation of the Federal Missing Child Act, which allowed public access to FBI files of other lost youngsters. The sequel, also starring Travanti and Williams, doesn't have the emotional drive of the original, but is still absorbing in its chronicling of John Walsh's efforts to create a advocacy service for missing kids--and the pressures brought to bear on Reve, who is expecting another baby. Both Adam films end with a roll call of missing children, with His Song Continues listing those children who'd been found since the first movie. The real-life John Walsh later became the host of a Fox "reality" series America's Most Wanted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Terms of Endearment covers three decades in the lives of widow Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter Emma (Debra Winger). Fiercely protected by Aurora throughout childhood, Emma runs into resistance from her mother when she marries wishy-washy college teacher Flap (Jeff Daniels). Aurora is even more put out at the prospect of being a grandmother, though she grows a lot fonder of her three grandkids than she does of her son-in-law. Flap proves that Aurora's instincts were on target when he enters into an affair with a student (Kate Charleson). Meanwhile, Emma finds romantic consolation with an unhappily married banker (played by John Lithgow, who registers well in a rare "nice guy" performance). As for Aurora, she is ardently pursued by her next-door neighbor, boisterous astronaut Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson). After 75 minutes or so of pursuing an episodic, semi-comic plotline, the film abruptly shifts moods when Emma discovers that she has terminal cancer. Terms of Endearment won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay for TV veteran James L. Brooks making his first feature film, Best Actress for MacLaine, and Best Supporting Actor for Nicholson. It was followed by a sequel, The Evening Star (1996), which again featured MacLaine as Aurora. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide