Dan Conway Movies

Rookie of the Year is a light-hearted comedy about a 12-year-old baseball fan who, despite his love for the sport, can't play the game at all. During one Little League contest, he breaks his arm. After it heals, it miraculously becomes a super-human arm that can out-pitch any player in the major leagues. The boy joins the Chicago Cubs and helps lead them to the World Series. Though the plot is silly and contrived, it's a pleasant film that is ideal for young sports fans. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi

Perhaps it was his collaborator Shel Silverstein who said to screenwriter David Mamet "Lighten up. Do a comedy." Whatever the case, Things Change was a welcome change of pace for Mamet, both as scenarist and director. Don Ameche also goes against his usual grain by playing a downtrodden Chicago shoeshine boy (if one can call an 80-year-old a "boy") who is arrested for a crime he didn't commit. Not having much of a future anyway, Ameche has agreed--for a hefty sum--to take the rap for a gangland rubout. Mob henchman Joe Mantegna is assigned to keep an eye on Ameche over the weekend to make sure he doesn't try to weasel out of his agreement. Mantegna has been ordered to remain in Ameche's Lake Tahoe hotel, but the young guy takes a liking to the old loser. Like Jack Nicholson in The Last Detail, Mantegna takes Ameche on one last fling around Nevada. The location photography is terrific, and Ameche even more so. One would like Things Change to be equally as good, and while it never comes up to its potential, it remains a pleasant means to while away 100 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Robert Conrad fills the role of G. Gordon Liddy like the proverbial glove in this macho-driven biopic. Convicted in the Watergate conspiracy, Liddy serves 54 months in prison. At first laughed off by the other cons as merely a white-collar criminal, Liddy proves through various he-man methods that he's the match for any man behind bars. Every highlight of Liddy's autobiography is lovingly detailed, including the blood oath "I will kill for you, Mr.President" and the legendary hand held over the burning flame. Without descending to political partisanship, we note here that Conrad's G. Gordon Liddy is lot more exciting and charismatic than the genuine article. Will: G. Gordon Liddy was first telecast January 10, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Boojie Baker (Dan Conway) is an unscrupulous rock band manager who loses the group he's handling when they confront him about his larcenous business dealings. Undeterred, the arrogant Baker picks out a new band: an unsuccessful group of guys on the verge of breaking up. He promises them wine and women as long as they provide the song, along with a 50 percent cut of the take. Renamed "The Big Blast" and outfitted in snazzy outfits, Baker guides them to success with the help of his stable of sexy young go-go girls, who seduce promoters and record executives, and stage elaborate Beatlemania-style scenes. Though The Big Blast hit the charts, they're frustrated by their lack of dough and attempt to go out on their own, which prompts Baker to arrange a phony pot bust to draw them back into his camp. But the band has imploded, fighting each other and unwilling to practice, so when Baker sets up an important network television appearance, disaster is imminent and the sinister manager gets his just desserts. Fried chicken entrepreneur Harland Sanders makes a brief cameo as himself in this sleazy look at rock & roll's seamy underbelly. ~ Fred Beldin, Rovi