Roderick Paul Movies
- 1982
Real-life brother and sister Jimmy and Kristy McNichol star in this made-for-television drama about a claustrophobic cult. Jimmy McNichol stars as David, oldest son of the seemingly well-adjusted Bowers. When David disappears from his family to live with the Light of Salvation cult, sister Janet (Kristy McNichol) refuses to automatically side with her parents and dismiss the group. Young Janet tries to give her brother's judgement the benefit of the doubt, looking for her own answers, as her desperate parents consult a mind de-programming expert. Taut and edgy at times, the film shows how vulnerable young people get targeted by cults and their charismatic leaders -- only to turn into mindless drones. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kristy McNichol, Anne Jackson, (more)
- 1976
Lanigan's Rabbi is the pilot for the subsequent TV series based on Harry Kemelman's novels about crimesolving Rabbi David Small. Stuart Margolin plays the Rabbi, while Art Carney is top-billed as the police detective who frequently relies on Small's intuition. This initial episode, adapted from Kemelman's Friday the Rabbi Slept Late concerns the murder of a woman whose body is discovered on the steps of the Rabbi's California synagogue. The mystery is given equal time with Small's concern over his pregnant wife, who is about to give birth at any minute. When Lanigan's Rabbi became as series, Stuart Margolin was committed to Rockford Files, so Bruce Solomon became the new Rabbi Small. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This filmization of John Jay Osborn Jr.'s novel Paper Chase ended up one of the surprise hits of the 1973-74 movie season. Timothy Bottoms stars as the Minnesotan Hart, a brilliant but naive first-year student at the Harvard Law School. Like most of his fellow aspiring attorneys, Hart is in fearful awe of his demanding, ego-deflating instructor, Professor Kingsfield (John Houseman). He is not so much intimidated by Kingsfield, however, as to resist falling in love with the professor's pretty daughter (Lindsay Wagner). An eminent theatrical and film producer, John Houseman won an Oscar for his first important film role (no, it wasn't his first film role ever; he'd played an unbilled cameo in 1964's Seven Days in May), launching Houseman on a latter-day acting career wherein he spent most of his time playing variations of Kingsfield. Houseman also recreated the role for a Paper Chase TV series, which first ran on CBS, then on public television, then on the Showtime pay cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Bottoms, Lindsay Wagner, (more)
