E.L. Doctorow Movies
- 2007
Author E.L. Doctorow's acclaimed short story Jolene: A Life gets the big screen treatment in Mrs. Palfrey at the Clairemont's director Dan Ireland's independent drama about life on the road. Jolene (Jessica Chastain) is a red-haired wanderer who isn't content to call one place home for any expended stretch of time. Setting off to explore the outside world at age fifteen, the free-spirited teen embarks on a decade-long cross-country of adventure which finds her crossing the paths of everyone from a firebrand Texan (Dermont Mulroney) who steals her heart and destroys her marriage to his wealthy fundamentalist nephew (Michael Vartan), to an ex-mobster (Donald Sutherland) attempting to make good in Las Vegas. Denise Richards, Rupert Friend, and Theresa Russell co-star in a film adapted from the story by screenwriter Dennis Yares. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessica Chastain, Dermot Mulroney, (more)
- 1999
It was the fire that sparked reform; after 146 people -- mostly women and girls -- died in the ferocious 1911 blaze that gutted the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, it was discovered that the exits had been locked by the management to prevent theft by the workers. At the time, there were no fire laws in the city, and few laws protecting workers. As this fourth episode in the PBS documentary series about New York reveals, citizen anger at the tragedy led to public hearings and a state commission recommending safety reforms such as automatic sprinklers in buildings over seven stories high, more frequent fire inspections, and a shorter, 54-hour week for women. Also covered in this episode is the fledgling motion picture industry led by companies such as Biograph, for which D.W. Griffith shot hundreds of short films; the continued problem of overcrowded slums, a blight exacerbated by the arrival of 10 million new immigrants in just a couple of decades; and the building of modern urban emblems: the subway system and skyscrapers. Highlights include archival motion picture footage, period photographs, archival paintings, and engravings, as well as commentary by numerous guests including Academy award-winning director Martin Scorcese; Ruth J. Abram, founder of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum; novelist Caleb Carr (The Alienist); architect Robert A. M. Stern; writer Jean Strouse; and historian John Kuo Wei Tchen. Other features include dramatic readings by guests including Robert Sean Leonard, Frances Sternhagen, Eli Wallach, and George Plimpton. Directed by Ric Burns and narrated by David Ogden Stiers. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Ogden Stiers
- 1999
Harry Houdini was performing in a circus with his wife when he began dreaming about an even bigger career. This film recalls the highlights of his career, including his 1912 stunt that established him as the world's greatest escape artist. In that instance, Houdini had himself lowered into New York's East River in a crate that was wrapped in chains. In less than a minute, he escaped and came to the surface as both an admired and famous man. Archival footage and dramatic re-creations performed by professional escape artist Bob Fellows allow viewers to revisit some of Houdini's major stunts. On-camera interviews with such people as illusionist David Copperfield, psychic claims investigator James Randi, and many others shed light on Houdini's performing techniques. Actor Mandy Patinkin narrates this probing looking into this performer's life. ~ Elizabeth Smith, All Movie Guide
- 1999
With the Civil War settled, New York could focus solely on the business of business and getting rich. Central Park finally became a true park instead of a shantytown, and "Boss Tweed" ran the city like his own private fiefdom, ultimately leading to the rise of righteous reformers such as Theodore Roosevelt. This is the third episode of the epic PBS documentary series about the "Big Apple." Topics covered include the building of the Brooklyn Bridge. The program takes the story of New York to the last years of the 19th century, a time when the city expanded well beyond the confines of Manhattan Island. Highlights include period photographs, archival paintings, and engravings, as well as commentary by numerous guests including Ruth J. Abram, founder of the Lower East Side Tenement Museum; novelist Caleb Carr (The Alienist), architect Robert A. M. Stern; writer Jean Strouse; and historian John Kuo Wei Tchen. Other features include dramatic readings by guests including Frances Sternhagen, Eli Wallach, and George Plimpton. Directed by Ric Burns and narrated by David Ogden Stiers. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
- 1999
New York of the 19th century was already a haven of celebrities; showman P.T. Barnum's museum drew crowds on Broadway, and up the street the great photographer Mathew Brady stayed busy taking "likenesses" of the rich and famous. However, when British author Charles Dickens visited New York in 1842, the poverty and squalor he witnessed in New York appalled him; he noted that it was worse than any of London's. Indeed, as revealed in the second episode of this epic PBS documentary series, New York's rapid growth didn't come without a human cost. Gangs as bad or worse than any in the 20th century roamed the harsh tenement slums. Disparity between rich and poor, American-born and immigrant, culminated in the draft riots during the sweltering summer of July 1863. Angry over the unfairness of the newly instituted Civil War draft (rich men could buy their way out of the military), mobs of men, women, and children rampaged through the streets causing millions of dollars in damage. Several blacks got lynched during the riots, and federal troops had to be called back from the still-smoking battlefields of Gettysburg to restore the peace. Highlights include archival daguerreotypes, paintings, and engravings, as well as commentary by numerous guests including historian Thomas Bender, poet Allen Ginsberg, architect Robert A. M. Stern, and historian Gretchen Sullivan Sorin. Other features include dramatic readings by various people including Frances Sternhagen, Keith David, Spalding Gray, Philip Bosco, Eli Wallach, and George Plimpton. Directed by Ric Burns and narrated by David Ogden Stiers. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Ogden Stiers
- 1999
The "Big Apple" has a colorful, influential, and, at times, tragic history that spans nearly four hundred years. This is the first episode in the epic PBS documentary series about the most populous city in the United States. Originally christened "New Amsterdam" by its Dutch founders, the city is shown in this program to have been a center of commerce from its inception. When the British took over, they gave it the name by which the world knows the city to this day. The first installment of American Experience: New York takes the story as far as the early years of the bustling 19th century, by which time New York belonged to the fledgling United States. Highlights include archival paintings and engravings, as well as commentary by numerous guests including historian Thomas Bender, novelist Caleb Carr (The Alienist), New York mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan, and award-winning novelist E.L. Doctorow. Other features include dramatic readings by some of the guests. Directed by Ric Burns and narrated by David Ogden Stiers. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Ogden Stiers
- 1999
Calling Prohibition a "noble experiment," New York congressman Fiorello La Guardia then declared the law unenforceable. Throughout most of New York City, this was the correct assessment. This is the fifth episode of the epic PBS documentary series about the "Big Apple." Also covered in this program is the deportation of pacifist and anarchist Emma Goldman during the "Red Scare" of 1919; the horse-drawn wagon bombing of the Morgan Bank in 1920, which killed 30 people; the change of Harlem from a German-Jewish neighborhood to a mostly black one; the "Harlem Renaissance"; the "Jazz Age"; the rise of radio as entertainment; the invention of the Broadway musical; and the construction of the Empire State Building. Highlights include archival newsreel footage and photographs, as well as commentary from a variety of guests including historian David Levering Lewis, construction consultant Joel Silverman, architect Robert A.M. Stern, historian Ann Douglas, and historian Joshua Freeman. Directed by Ric Burns and narrated by David Ogden Stiers. ~ Steve Blackburn, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Ogden Stiers
In this film version of E. L. Doctorow's Billy Bathgate, Loren Dean plays the title character, a street-smart kid who inveigles his way into the confidence of 1930s gangster Dutch Schultz (Dustin Hoffman). Billy is ordered to look after Schultz' new moll, Drew Preston (Nicole Kidman), while Dutch fends off tax evasion charges and such up-and-coming rivals as Lucky Luciano (Stanley Tucci). Even though they know they're playing with dynamite, Billy and Drew fall in love. In attempting to escape Schultz' wrath, Billy succeeds only in putting himself in the thick of a gun battle between his boss and Luciano. When "Charley Lucky" emerges triumphant, Billy is forced once again to rely on his wits to escape being sent to the bottom of the briny in a cement overcoat. Bruce Willis shows up in an extended cameo as Dutch Schultz' former business associate. Billy Bathgate was adapted for the screen by British playwright Tom Stoppard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dustin Hoffman, Nicole Kidman, (more)
Sidney Lumet directed this film version of E.L. Doctorow's novel The Book of Daniel (scripted by Doctorow) that deals in a thinly veiled (although dispassionate way) with the Rosenberg spy case of the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of their children. The Rosenbergs are the Isaacsons here, and the first image of the film is a close-up of their son Daniel's (Timothy Hutton) eyes as he recites a dictionary definition of the word "electrocution." Daniel becomes a detective as he seeks out friends and relations of his parents -- Paul (Mandy Patinkin) and Rochelle (Lindsay Crouse) -- to discover some meaning from his parents' conviction as Russian spies and their execution in the electric chair during the communist paranoia of the 1950s. Daniel is prompted to investigate the past by the near-suicide of his hysterical sister Susan (Amanda Plummer). The film weaves back and forth in time, recalling the period from the 1930s to the 1950s. In a strangely uninvolving way, Lumet's film takes no point of view, the only emotion derived from the almost continuous sounds of Paul Robeson's singing on the soundtrack. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, (more)
E. L. Doctorow's novel Ragtime was a sprawling fictional account of American manners and mores in the years between 1900 and 1913. Among the mosaic of colorful factual and fictional characters in the novel were escape artist Harry Houdini and radical Emma Goldman. Both characters are all but eliminated in the film version, which only concentrates on three of Doctorow's many plot threads: The story of an immigrant artist (Mandy Patinkin) who becomes a movie director; the saga of "Gibson Girl" Evelyn Nesbit Shaw (Elizabeth McGovern), for whose sake playboy Harry K. Thaw (Robert Joy); kills architect Stanford White (Norman Mailer) and a lone black man's (Howard Rollins Jr.) quest for justice when his car is destroyed by a racist fire chief (Kenneth McMillan). This last subplot consumes most of the film's running time, to the overall detriment of the pacing. There are also several scenes involving an unnamed upper-middle-class family (headed by James Olson and Mary Steenburgen) who are evidently meant to be the audience's eyes and ears, but are frankly not terribly interesting. Back in 1981, Ragtime was given plenty of press coverage as the "comeback" picture for James Cagney, after twenty years in retirement. The problem is that Cagney's character (a police commissioner) isn't in the book, and his inclusion not only throws the story off balance, but necessitates the removal of several potentially interesting characters and events. Another detriment is the gratuitous (and illogical) nudity in the Evelyn Nesbit scenes, which earned the film its "R" rating. An ornate misfire, Ragtime is of interest today only for its remarkable cast of veterans and stars-to-be, including Pat O'Brien and Eloise O'Brien, Donald O'Connor, Debbie Allen, Moses Gunn, Jeff Daniels and Fran Drescher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Brad Dourif, (more)
- 1967
Long before he scored with the epic Ragtime, novelist E.L. Doctorow wrote a minor novel upon which this stark 1967 film is based. It was adapted for the screen by veteran western director Burt Kennedy. In a forlorn town called Hard Times in the Old West, a cowardly mayor, Will Blue (Henry Fonda), does little to protect the citizens from the rampages of a ruthless criminal known as The Man from Bodie (Aldo Ray). The cold-blooded killer gets away with murder -- and then he burns down the town as he leaves. The citizens rebuild, and a newcomer named Zar (Keenan Wynn) injects some life into the desolate place by opening a saloon that attracts a bevy of interesting women, including Molly Riordan (Janice Rule) and Adah (Janice Paige). However, things again look bleak when The Man from Bodie returns to town. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Fonda, Janice Rule, (more)
