Frank Converse Movies
Tall (6'2"), sandy-haired American leading man Frank Converse studied at Carnegie Tech before launching his acting career with stage, commercial and soap-opera assignments. Converse became a star by way of a TV series that literally died before it was born. Thirteen episodes of Coronet Blue, in which Converse played an amnesiac pursued by mysterious assassins, were filmed in 1965, then shelved when no room could be cleared on CBS' fall schedule. Most of these episodes were telecast as a 1967 summer replacement series, sparking an intensely loyal fan following for Converse; by that time, however, he was committed to the weekly cop series NYPD and could not continue with Coronet Blue, thus his fans never did find out who his character really was or why he was being chased all over the country. Active in all aspects of entertainment, Frank Converse has been most visible on television: he starred on the prime time series Movin' On (1974-75), The Family Tree (1983), Dolphin Cove (1989), and for several years was a regular on the ABC daytime drama One Life to Live. ~ Hal Erickson, 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
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Maggie Lacey, (more)
- 1999
Detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) learn that a murdered coed was in a relationship with college professor Miguel Clemente (Miguel Sandoval). Of equal interest to the D.A.'s office are two other suspects, a pair of male students with seemingly airtight alibis. The original print ads for this episode were right on the money when they promised "Shocking evidence will uncover the truth." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) find themselves traveling in illustrious company when they investigate the mysterious death of a valuable show horse. The animal was killed during an apparently unforeseen delay in Manhattan, leading Briscoe to quip that "New York is really a tough town for tourists." But it is no laughing matter when the ensuing investigation unearths a sting operation, an insurance fraud, and the disappearance of a wealthy horse owner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Jessica's enterprising nephew Grady (Michael Horton) has become the partner of a pair of high-pressure land developers (John D'Aquino, Mary Gordon Murray) who have swept into Cabot Cove with grandiose plans of building an elaborate resort/marina complex. As local investors eagerly line up to get in on the project, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) cannot help but suspect that the whole enterprise seems to good to be true. It looks like her instincts are right on target when the wife (Katherine Cannnon) of one of the biggest investors dies in a suspicious car accident. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
This drama was a "Wonderworks Family Movie," and tells the tale of a self-centered, rebellious African- American youth who gets a new outlook on life after he is hit by a car and finds himself awakening in South Carolina during the early 19th century. Soon he is captured and auctioned off to the owner of a cotton plantation. While working under brutal conditions, he sees other slaves working together and quietly conspiring to revolt, and when he finally awakens in the 20th century, he realizes that he must think of others and begin working to help his ghetto-bound neighbors. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phill Lewis, Carl Lumbly, (more)
- 1991
A frozen corpse, dressed in a tuxedo, is found in a dumpster. It soon develops that the dead man was killed five years earlier, and that he was a prominent Broadway producer. The detectives and the DA's office move quickly to prosecute the most likely suspect, the victim's hated show-biz rival. Frank Converse, star of the 1967 "cult" TV series Coronet Blue, appears as Gary Wallace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
This video is made up of four mini-thrillers from a popular television anthology series. The first is "People Don't Do Such Things," about a soured marriage; "Youth from Vienna," centering on a fountain of youth that gives unexpected results; "Skeleton in the Cupboard," about a man with a terrible secret; and "Bird of Prey," the mystery of a dead parrot's giant egg. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1990
Like 1976's Sybil, Voices Within: The Lives of Truddi Chase was a two-part TV movie based on the true story of a woman plagued with multiple personalities. Shelly Long stars as a woman whose abused childhood has resulted in the fragmentation of her psyche into 22 separate personalities. Before her therapy is finished, Long reveals that 70 more personalities are struggling within her to break free. The film was based on Truddi Chase's autobiography When the Rabbit Howls. That Voices Within was not the ratings grabber that Sybil turned out to be can be chalked up to its network competition during its initial 1990 telecast: The final episode of Newhart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this moving drama set near the turn-of-the-century, a New York orphan is placed aboard the notorious orphan train (part of a government program in which parentless inner city kids were shipped to midwestern farms to be adopted out or used for cheap labor in hopes of bettering their lives) and sent to a Nebraska farm. The family who adopts him still grieves over the loss of their first son and at first tries to use the new boy as a replacement for him. But the young man wants to be loved and appreciated for being himself and a struggle ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Directed by onetime Rookies co-star Georg Stanford Brown, Alone in the Neon Jungle has all the earmarks of a TV pilot film-albeit a better-than-usual example of the genre. Suzanne Pleshette plays a no-nonsense police captain, assigned to the town's most corrupt police district. In attempting to clean things up, She is handicapped by the fact that she can't tell her friends from her enemies. Director Brown costars as a police sergeant who turns out to be a valuable ally to the new captain. Filmed in Pittsburgh, Alone in the Neon Jungle was first telecast January 17, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
- Add Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel to QueueAdd Anne of Green Gables: The Sequel to top of Queue
An Emmy-winning adaptation of Lucy Maud Montgomery's novel by the same name, this is a Canadian TV production which follows the life of a feisty young girl who is adopted by a bachelor farmer and his sister who have decided to adopt a boy and have several surprises due them when Anne arrives. Part of a series that goes through her winning a place in their hearts and home, it continues on through her youth and the blossoming of young love. This particular episodes deals with her first tentative encroachments into social functions and dealing with the loss of a loved one. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Megan Follows
- 1987
For years, the name "Uncle Tom" and the title Uncle Tom's Cabin have been synonymous with the most egregious form of racial condescension. John Gay's script for the 1987 film version of Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin hoped to "set the record straight" and restored the reputation of the 1852 abolitionist novel--mostly by returning to the source. Eliminating such theatrical "improvements" as Eliza's crossing the ice, this adaptation of Cabin depicts Uncle Tom (Avery Brooks) as an intelligent, non-submissive slave (there is only the slightest hint of "revisionism"); likewise, Jenny Lewis is a fully three-dimensional Little Eva. Simon Legree is as hateful as ever, but as played by Edward Woodward, Legree is shown to be more a product of his times than a cardboard hissable villain. Gay is very careful in his depiction of precocious preteen slave girl Topsy (Endyia Kinney), who still is so sexually misinformed that she believes she "just growed," but is not quite the mental midget described in Mrs. Stowe's novel. Produced for the Showtime Cable service, Uncle Tom's Cabin premiered on June 13, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Magnum (Tom Selleck) rescues a woman named Lauren Henderson (Cynthia Sikes) from drowning herself. Lauren claims that she has witnessed a murder committed by her husband Sam (Frank Converse), a powerful industrialist. As Magnum finds himself falling in love with the unfortunate woman, he is slowly but surely drawn into a sinister conspiracy. What's really going on here--and how does Sam's secretary Cindy (Kit McDonough) have to do with all the intrigue? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
Helen Hunt is outstanding as the real-life Kathy Miller, a 13-year-old Arizona athlete and honor student whose world came screeching to halt in 1977. Struck by a car on a lonely highway, Kathy spends the next ten weeks in a coma. Upon awakening, she is unable to walk, talk, read or write: she has sustained massive brain damage and her leg has been mutilated. The experts say "No hope", but neither Kathy nor her parents (Sharon Gless, Frank Converse) will settle for that diagnosis. After eight torturous months of physical and mental therapy, Kathy Miller is entered in a 6-mile race -- the first of many stepping stones to her ultimate status as a world champion. Made for television, The Miracle of Kathy Miller was written with an emphasis on optimism and a minimum of sentimental gush by Mel and Ethel Brez. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Helen Hunt, Sharon Gless, (more)
- 1981
A pair of youngsters investigate the mysterious disappearance of a local fisherman on the title island in this drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1980
The title of this made-for-TV biopic is faintly risible: is there anything about Marilyn Monroe that we don't know by now? Pleasingly enough, the story is told in a straightforward, nonexploitive manner (the affair with JFK warrants no more than a throwaway line). Emmy-nominated Catherine Hicks plays Marilyn, nee Norma Jean Baker. We follow her progress from orphanages and foster homes to her first 20th Century-Fox contract at age 20. Considered "washed up" before her career has gotten off the ground, Marilyn is rescued both professionally and emotionally by her agent/lover Johnny Hyde (Richard Basehart). She rises to full stardom and is the center of attention of two "ideal" marriages, first to baseball player Joe DiMaggio, then to Arthur Miller (neither of whom are depicted on screen). But Marilyn remains a lonely, tragic figure, a victim as much of her own demons as of Hollywood's exploitation mill. Based loosely on Norman Mailer's highly suspect biography of the actress, Marilyn: The Untold Story premiered on September 28, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
A very young Trini Alvarado stars in this touching and sometimes amusing ABC Afterschool Special. The new kid in her high school, Dena McKain (Alvarado) is initially shunned by her classmates. Suddenly, however, she becomes the most popular kid in school and is showered with attention. Any other girl would be thrilled by this metamorphosis, but a wary Dena has been through all this before: It seems that the kids have just discovered that Dena's dad is the famous movie star Hal McKain (Frank Converse). This time around, will our heroine find out who her true friends are, or is she in for another crushing disappointment? ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Trini Alvarado, Frank Converse, (more)
- 1978
This delightfully bad made-for-TV movie throws together an assortment of television stalwarts and movie has-beens for what is essentially a horror version of The Love Boat. The plot involves a vacation cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, during which some of the passengers find an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus in an underwater cavern. Instead of "wasting time" explaining what Egyptian ruins are doing so far from Northern Africa, the writers decide to make things easy by making the coffin's occupant none other than the Devil himself. This stirs things up a bit for the hapless vacationers -- particularly for the fire-and-brimstone preacher (John Forsythe) who happens to be aboard. Cheap, campy, and topped off with a ridiculous ending, the film, at least, is not as boring as most TV movies of the sort. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1978
This made-for-TV movie begins in 1975, when Technical Sergeant Leonard Matlovich (Brad Dourif), a highly decorated Vietnam veteran, faces a court-martial and possible discharge. Matlovich's "offense:" He is an admitted homosexual. Knowing full well that the military has a long-standing ban on gays, Matlovich deliberately makes public his sexual preferences in order to test the ban in court. John McGreevey's teleplay is based on actual court transcripts, with no deviations from the facts at hand. Sergeant Matlovich vs. the U.S. Air Force was originally telecast August 21, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
In this made-for-TV thriller, a group of tourists aboard a cruise ship must be quarantined after they become afflicted with a lethal virus. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1977
After a four-episode tryout as a component of the NBC Sunday Mystery Movie anthology, Quincy, M.E. launched its regular weekly run with this episode, originally telecast as a two-hour special but since re-edited for syndication as two one-hour installments. In Part One, we find LA County medical examiner Quincy (Jack Klugman) attending a pathologists' convention at Lake Tahoe in the company of his girlfriend Lee (Lynette Mettey) and his pal Danny (Val Bisoglio). No sooner has Quincy arrived than a mysterious illness begins spreading through a Lake Tahoe casino, claiming several lives. Asked to investigate this apparent epidemic, Quincy runs up against resistance from the anxious casino manager (Van Johnson), who is worried that news of the medical disaster will destroy his business. (Incidentally, this episode appeared not long after a medical crisis caused panic at an American Legion convention, thereby earning the designation "Legionnaire's Disease".) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
In the conclusion of Quincy, M.E.'s two-part Season Two opener (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Quincy (Jack Klugman) continues to look for the source of a mysterious epidemic that has caused several deaths at a pathologist's convention in a Lake Tahoe casino. The casino's customers and employees have now been quarantined, and panic has started to spread. This places Quincy in the unenviable position of preventing a riot--to say nothing of halting the epidemic before it expands into the rest of Nevada. Also, there's a strong possibility that the rampaging illness was far from "natural", and that there's a criminal conspiracy afoot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
In Tandem was the pilot film for the TV series Movin' On, and has since borne that title in syndication. Created by Barry Weitz and Philip D'Antoni, the concept was an update of the obscure U.S./Canadian TV weekly Cannonball, with a bit of Route 66 and The Streets of San Francisco thrown in. Claude Akins stars as hard-bitten, self-made gypsy driver Sonny Pruett, who enters into a business partnership with a much-younger trucker, law school graduate Will Chandler (Frank Converse). Despite their ideological differences, Sonny and Will work together as one to ship a consignment of oranges past a group of hostile citrus growers. In Tandem first aired May 8, 1974, on NBC; the Movin' On series proper was seen over the same network from September 12, 1974, through September 14, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
D.H. Lawrence's autobiographical drama about his parents, The Widowing of Mrs. Holroyd, is performed in this 1974 production released by the Broadway Theatre Archive. The play involves a difficult marriage between a rough coal miner and his elegant wife in England right before WWI. Starring Geraldine Fitzgerald, Joyce Ebert, and Rex Robbins. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Rosalind is played by Pamela Payton-Wright in this "ghost in the mansion" hair-raiser. The members of an old-money family find themselves targeted by an unfriendly spirit. Not content with mere chain-rattling, this wrathful wraith contrives to have selected members of the family pop up seriously dead. Is it a genuine "haunt," or a plot to gain the family's sizeable legacy? When Haunting of Rosalind was first telecast on ABC's Wide World Mystery in 1973, little attention was paid to the videotaped drama's third-billed supporting actress: Susan Sarandon. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
