Bob Dishy Movies

Six people become three couples in the wake of the emotional chaos of 9/11 in this three-part drama adapted from the off-Broadway play by Susan Charlotte. Hilary (Judith Light) is a fiftysomething movie buff who teaches film studies. On the afternoon of September 11, she discovers there's a hole in her shoe, and she turns to a cobbler (Danny Aiello) with a passion for opera for an emergency repair; while they don't get along at first, they bond over a shared love of the classic Italian film The Garden of the Finzi-Continis. Elsewhere, Nan (Margaret Colin) is a would-be actress who supports herself working at a travel agency who is trying to make sense of her on-again, off-again relationship with filmmaker Bob (John Shea). And a real-estate woman with a bad case of nerves (Laila Robins) has her expectations up-ended by a chatty taxi driver (Bob Dishy). A Broken Sole was the first feature film from director Antony Marsellis. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A college coed who has been moonlighting as a stripper is found murdered. The detectives collar a pair of punkish drug dealers, who insist that the owner of the club where the dead girl worked ordered the killing. All of this somehow links up with a former porn star, a high-profile business executive, and an illegal insider-trading scheme. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Judy Berlin allows the audience to take a glimpse of a day at once strange and ordinary with the residents of Babylon, Long Island. Judy (Edie Falco) is an aspiring actress who is quitting her job as a "pilgrim" in a local historical museum's display to take her chances in Los Angeles. Her mother is a gifted but bitter schoolteacher (Barbara Barrie) who has long loved principal Arthur Gold (Bob Dishy) from afar. However, Arthur has a wife, Alice (Madeline Kahn), who's more than a bit eccentric and has driven him to distraction. Arthur and Alice have a son, David (Aaron Harnick), who like Judy has showbiz aspirations (he wants to be a filmmaker), though unlike Judy he has no idea of what to do about it; when Judy and David meet, could romance be lurking around the corner? First-time director Eric Mendelsohn has equipped this offbeat comic drama an outstanding cast, which also includes Julie Kavner, Anne Meara, and Novella Nelson. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A young girl from a wealthy family is killed in a suspicious fire. Confronted with an incriminating answering-machine message, the teenaged stepbrother of the victim confesses. Things take an even more sinister turn when D.A. Schiff (Steven Hill) tangles with the wealthy and well-connected grandfather of the accused. Robert Vaughn makes his first Law & Order appearance as powerful, paranoiac millionaire Carl Anderton. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a prostitute is murdered, detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) question deli owner McCracken (Brian Smiar), who has a history of harassing hookers. Another likely suspect is plastic surgeon Dr. Mark Danforth (Jonathan Walker), who may have been a client of the dead woman. At the end of the day, it is Assistant D.A. Kincaid (Jill Hennessy), rather than her more experienced associate McCoy (Sam Waterston), who must decide whether the right person has been accused of the crime. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Big Bus is set aboard a nonstop, nuclear-powered luxury bus commandeered by Joseph Bologna. Naturally, Bologna is a tortured hero with a deep dark secret (he keeps insisting he didn't eat all those passengers on his last disastrous drive). Stockard Channing and Harold Gould play the designers of the big bus, and of course they have a few skeletons in their closet. In fact, there isn't a passenger on the all-star manifest that isn't hiding something. The supporting cast features contributions by René Auberjonois (parodying his M*A*S*H role), Ned Beatty, José Ferrer, Ruth Gordon (doing a devastating send-up of Airport's Helen Hayes), Sally Kellerman, Richard Mulligan, and many others; Murphy Dunne contributes a memorable bit as a smarmy cocktail pianist. Unfortunately, The Big Bus was dumped onto the summer 1976 release schedule without fanfare by Paramount, and it sank without a trace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having scored a hit with her earlier All in the Family appearance as Edith's ultraliberal cousin, Maude, Bea Arthur returned to the role in this episode, which originally aired on March 11, 1972. Archie and Edith are invited to Long Island to attend the wedding of Maude's daughter, Carol. Thugh Maude is able to match wits with Archie (mainly because she has twice the ammunition), she may not succeed in pulling off the wedding, which threatens to unravel at the seams long before Carol marches down the aisle with her Jewish fiance, David (Bob Dishy). Written by Rod Parker, "Maude" served as the pilot for the series of the same name; William Macy co-stars as Maude's latest husband, Walter Findlay, while Marcia Rodd is seen as Carol, a role ultimately played in the series proper by Adrienne Barbeau. "Maude" was also the final episode of All in the Family's second season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Expanded from a two-character play by Murray Schisgal, this comedy stars Eli Wallach as Ben Harris, a disgruntled New York City mail carrier. Harris is fed up with being cheated by his landlords, the Kellys (Roland Wood and Ruth White), so he terrorizes them and the city's housing authority until they agree to give him a new apartment. Not satisfied, Harris "goes postal" by kidnapping a bored suburban housewife, Gloria Fiske (Anne Jackson) and taking her back to his apartment. To his surprise, he finds that Gloria also hates the world, and they become fast friends. He eventually lets her go but follows her home. When he tries to climb into her window, her husband Jerry (Bob Dishe) chases him away. Harris returns to his apartment building, where the Kellys invite him in to watch TV, and somehow this soothes his wrath. Dustin Hoffman has a small role as a hippie named Hap. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

When a small-time businessman (Richard Pryor) needs a loan, he goes to a loan shark and ends up in jail on false pretenses. After feigning madness to get out, he is tossed into the mental ward of a hospital. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Natalie Wood and George Segal star in this labored and old-fashioned sex farce, directed by Gilbert Cates. Wood and Segal play Mari and Jeff Thompson, a happily married couple who are thunderstruck when they see all their friends and acquaintances are headed for divorce court. Eventually their own marriage is put in jeopardy by their obsession with staying together. Seeing all the marital discord around them, Mari and Jeff begin to question the stability of their own relationship. Furthering their uneasiness is the arrival of Barbara (Valerie Harper), to whom Jeff is attracted. Barbara and Jeff have an affair and Mari decides to go out and have an affair of her own. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A psychiatrist treats a most unusual patient, only to find that the doctor is the one who gains the most from their sessions in this philosophical romantic comedy. A young man in a mask and cape (played by Johnny Depp) is standing atop a billboard, threatening to jump. When the potential suicide is finally talked down, he's brought to a psychiatric facility where after one doctor washes his hands of the case, he's placed under the supervision of Dr. Jack Mickler (Marlon Brando), an aging psychiatrist soon to retire. The patient informs Mickler that he is actually the great lover Don Juan, who has seduced over 1,500 women, but has fallen into a deep depression after being unable to win the hand of the woman of his dreams. Mickler has ten days to work with "Don Juan," after which he will either be released on medication or committed to a long-term stay in a mental hospital. As Mickler talks with the young man, who speaks rapturously of the art of love, the doctor finds that his philosophies are helping to kick start his failing relationship with his wife (Faye Dunaway), and he slowly becomes convinced that his patient might really be Don Juan after all. Don Juan DeMarco's theme song, "Have You Ever Really Loved a Woman," became a major hit for singer and songwriter Bryan Adams; after working with Marlon Brando on this film, Johnny Depp cast the legendary actor in a key supporting role in his directorial debut, The Brave. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Todd Graff wrote the screenplay for this eccentric romantic comedy in the spirit of Moonstruck that exchanges pasta for matzo balls. The film takes place in Queens in 1969, where Pearl Berman (Shirley MacLaine) has just arrived back from the funeral of her husband. As her dysfunctional family kvetches in the living room, the dapper Joe Meledandri (Marcello Mastroianni) arrives. It seems that Joe has admired Pearl from afar for a number of years, ever since he met her husband in a bar and persuaded him to return to his wife. He invites Pearl for coffee, provoking the wisecrack from her mother (Jessica Tandy): "She got picked up at her own husband's funeral." As Pearl is wooed by Joe, she has to deal with her lonely, overweight daughter Bibby (Kathy Bates) and her prettier daughter Norma (Marcia Gay Harden), who suffers from such a lack of self esteem that she assumes the personalities of Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and Bonnie Parker. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide