Glenn Dixon Movies

John Candy plays Jack Gable, a soap-opera writer who finds himself trapped inside his own television program with a magic typewriter in this toothless comedy. Jack finds himself embroiled in protecting his beloved Laura (Emma Samms), an actress who plays Rachel Hedison in Jack's show -- "Beyond Our Dreams" -- from having her character being killed off by the program's producers, the Sherwoods (Jerry Orbach, Renee Taylor). Laura has recently broken off with her co-star and lover Dennis (David Rasche) and is heading off for a weekend with Jack. As Jack unloads Laura's luggage, he conks himself on the head and knocks himself out. He awakens in a town bearing a name similar to the town in his soap opera. Dennis is on hand, but as his character in the show -- Dr. Paul Kirkland. Jack realizes that he has found himself in an alternative world made up of his soap opera world -- particularly apparent when he is recognized as Jack Gates, "the Wolf of Wall Street." Jack then meets Laura, who, in this soap opera world, is actually Janet Dubois, the daughter of a late biochemist who invented a pill that allows anyone to eat whatever they want and not gain any weight. The unscrupulous Hedison family (Raymond Burr, Charles Rocket, Dylan Baker) want to steal the formula for the pill and make a fortune for their pharmaceutical company. Jack then discovers that he can exit and re-enter the show at will and can alter the narrative of the show however he wants by typing up new plot points on his typewriter. In order to save Laura's character from the Sherwoods, Jack re-writes the show to save Janet by having his own character come to her rescue at the last minute. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

My Brother's Wife was adapted from A. R. Gurney's off-Broadway play The Middle Ages, but if you dig back a little you'll find a kernel of the plotline in Phillip Barry's 1928 play Holiday. John Ritter plays the flamboyantly nonconformist member of a staid Boston family. When he sees his future sister-in-law (Mel Harris), it's love at first sight. But neither act upon their impulses--not throughout the 1960s, the 1970s or the 1980s. The film finally catches up with Ritter and Harris at a family funeral, 27 years after their first meeting. Made for television, My Brother's Wife betrays its theatrical roots by confining most of its action to a single sitting room. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

At last the secret has been revealed! Prime-time network programming is determined by a chimpanzee! That's the premise of Disney's The Barefoot Executive, a highly amusing spoof of the TV bizz. Kurt Russell plays a page boy at a bottom-rated TV network. Stuck with his girl friend's (Heather North) pet chimp, Russell discovers that his hairy friend has a genuine gift for picking hit TV series. Appointed head of programming, Russell keeps the fact that the chimp is doing all the work hidden from the public. But when his former boss Joe Flynn and his rival John Ritter find out, all heck breaks loose (we'd say "all hell", but this is a Disney flick). A strong supporting cast of comic "regulars"-Wally Cox, Harry Morgan, Alan Hewitt, Hayden Rorke et al.--keeps The Barefoot Executive moving at a fast clip ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Boris Karloff amiably walks through his undemanding starring role in Voodoo Island. Lensed in Hawaii, the film casts Karloff as Phillip Knight, a professional skeptic who enjoys skewering those who believe in the supernatural. Accompanied by his secretary, Sara (Beverly Adams), Knight arrives on a tiny Pacific island to disprove claims that a voodoo curse has invested itself in the community. After several horrible murders, however, it looks as though there really is voodoo activity in the region. Characters essential to the action are Elisha Cook Jr. as a zombie-fied petty thief, and a rather surly carnivorous plant! Some prints of Voodoo Island have eliminated a subplot involving lesbian interior decorator Claire Winter (Jean Engstrom). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jungle Heat is set in pre-WWII Hawaii. A group of pro-Japanese fifth columnists infiltrate the islands, intended to demoralize the populace long before the Pearl Harbor attacks. Specializing in sabotage, the spies target the pineapple and sugar plantations, not to mention the big-city industries. American doctor Jim Ransom catches on to what's happening (though it seems to take him forever), and, together with National Guard officer Richard Grey, foils the villains. It is worth noting that the principal villain in Jungle Heat is not Japanese, but an occidental traitor played (or overplayed) by James Westerfield. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi