Dorothy Davis Movies
Jon Avnet's The War is set in the rural south and brimming with lessons on social consciousness, much like his previous effort, Fried Green Tomatoes (1991). During the summer of 1970 in backwoods Mississippi, Stephen Simmons (Kevin Costner) is struggling to be a breadwinner for his family while still suffering post-traumatic stress disorder from his service in the Vietnam War. His wife Lois (Mare Winningham) provides most of the family income. Stephen gets a job in a mine and saves a friend who has been injured, helping him erase his guilt over abandoning another friend during a firefight in Vietnam. Meanwhile, the Simmons children, Stu (Elijah Wood) and Lidia (Lexi Randall) are feuding with an even poorer family of neighbors, the Lipnickis, over access to a tree fort that Stu and Lidia built. Mr. Lipnicki (Raynor Scheine) is drunken and abusive and helps escalate the disagreement into a major battle for the fort. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elijah Wood, Kevin Costner, (more)
Roseanne Arnold, her then-husband Tom Arnold and Shelley Duvall teamed up to produce the made-for-TV Backfield in Motion. Roseanne plays a widowed real-estate agent who lives with her teenaged son Johnny Galecki. Mother and son have moved to an upstate California town where high school football-and male chauvinism--reigns supreme. When Galecki joins the junior-varsity team, Roseanne, appalled by the subservient behavior of the town wives, organizes a "mothers vs. sons" football game. Tom Arnold costars as the school's vice-principal, who puts his standing in town on the line when he falls in love with Roseanne. Backfield in Motion was originally telecast November 13, 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
- PG
- Add The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane to QueueAdd The Little Girl Who Lives Down the Lane to top of Queue
In this Canadian thriller, Jodie Foster plays the title character, a reclusive, fiercely self-reliant teenager who lives alone in her father's house. When visitors call, Foster explains that her father is away on business. He's away, all right...far, far, away. And Foster, determined not to lose her independence, will go to any lengths to protect her secret, a fact that nosy neighbor Alexis Smith learns to her regret. A new danger to Foster's well-being looms in the form of pedophile Martin Sheen, who schemes to place the girl in a compromising position. Offering a helping hand to Foster is misfit teenager Mario (Scott Jacoby). Laird Koenig adapted his own novel to the screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jodie Foster, Martin Sheen, (more)
- 1975
- R
A gripping exercise in body horror and social paranoia, prolific Canadian director David Cronenberg's debut feature offers a startling look at modern isolationist society with a parasitic twist. When a scientist experimenting with a new form of organ transplants kills a young female resident of a fortress-like apartment complex before subsequently committing suicide, the investigation into her death leads to a frightening discovery. Originally conceived by the misguided scientist in a bid to aid organ transplant, an overzealous parasite quickly escapes into the complex in search of a host. One by one, the unsuspecting residents fall prey to the parasite, and the result is an aggressive horde of sex maniacs who will stop at nothing to satisfy their primal lust and pass the infection on through sexual contact. When the resident doctor learns the sinister truth behind the malevolent creation, only one man stands between an apartment complex overflowing with id-driven zombies and the outside world. Will he be able to stop the rapidly spreading parasite before it escapes into society, or is it only a matter of time until he, too, falls prey to its rapturous effects and gives in to the temptations of the flesh? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Hampton, Joe Silver, (more)
This obscure horror movie is a remake of an even more obscure horror movie, 1964's The Demon From Devil's Lake. The sheriff of a small Texas town investigates when a serial killer starts bumping off female students at a local college. He discovers that the murderer is not a serial killer at all, but a hideous monster, the result of a botched NASA experiment. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Agar, Ralph Baker, Jr., (more)
- 1930
The legend of renegade French poet Francois Villon was dramatized in the 1901 Justin McCarthy play If I Were King. This theatrical piece inspired several films, as well as the Rudolph Friml/Brian Hooker musical play The Vagabond King (1927). Dennis King recreated his original London and Broadway stage role as Villon when Vagabond King was transferred to celluloid in 1930. The story is the familiar one of politically savvy Louis XVI (O.P. Heggie), hoping to enlist the French peasants in his upcoming battle against the Burgundians, appointing Francois Villon king of France for one day. Jeanette MacDonald is the high-born girl whom Villon pines for, while Lillian Roth is the street urchin who gives up her life to save her beloved poet. This early-talkie Vagabond King has scarcely been seen since the 1956 MGM remake, which starred the never-to-be-remembered opera luminary Oreste. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis King, Jeanette MacDonald, (more)
