Paul Dooley Movies
Paul Dooley is fondly remembered by fans of '80s cinema as the forgetful but well-intending father of a disgruntled Molly Ringwald in the John Hughes teen classic Sixteen Candles (1984). The longtime character actor's droopy, distinctive features and endearing onscreen warmth have kept him a familiar figure in both film and television. A Parkersurg, WV, native who originally aspired to become a cartoonist, Dooley drew comic strips for a local newspaper before entering the navy. Upon discharge, the future actor entered college, where he discovered his passion for the stage. A move to New York found the aspiring actor landing frequent stage work, and after discovering a previously untapped ability for comedy, Dooley tried his hand at standup for about five years. Always looking to expand his skills, he made his film debut in the 1970 comedy The Out-of-Towners. From 1971 to 1972, Dooley was also head writer for the popular children's television series The Electric Company.After showing promise in such late-'70s efforts as Slap Shot (1977) and A Wedding (1978), Dooley made a big impression with his supporting role as the lead character's worrisome father in Breaking Away (1979). Though he was overlooked at Oscar time, he was nominated for a New York Film Critics Circle award and won the National Board of Review award for Best Supporting Actor. He kicked off the most successful decade of his film career with a performance as Wimpy in the much-maligned Robert Altman musical comedy Popeye (1980). Besides his memorable turn in Sixteen Candles, Dooley also delivered hilarious performances in the 1980s films Strange Brew (1983) and John Cassavetes' Big Trouble (1985). Fans of the extraterrestrial comedy series ALF will also remember him as the curiously named Whizzer Deaver.
Though his feature roles through the 1990s largely consisted of such B-grade fare as My Boyfriend's Back (1993) and Error in Judgment (1998), Dooley managed to stay on top thanks to parts in such popular television series as Mad About You, Dream On, Grace Under Fire, and The Practice. He also took on occasional roles in more notable films, including Waiting for Guffman (1996), Clockwatchers (1997), Happy, Texas (1999), and Runaway Bride (also 1999), which served to remind movie buffs just how funny the talented comic actor could be when given the opportunity. Dooley's performances in such later efforts as Insomnia (2002) hinted at a darker side rarely explored by the usually jovial actor. In 2003, after re-teaming with Waiting for Guffman cohort Christopher Guest to blow A Mighty Wind, he took a supporting role in former MTV beauty queen Jenny McCarthy's comedy Dirty Love. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Benton (Eriq La Salle) is removed from a round of surgery because no one on that shift wants to work with him. In other developments, Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) and her sister, Chloe (Kathleen Wilhoite), lock horns over custody of little Suzy; Ross (George Clooney) treats eight-year-old Jeremy (Kevin Duran), who has been traumatized by witnessing his mother's murder; and Carter (Noah Wyle) spitefully prevents Dale Edson (Matthew Glave), the college friend and ex-lover of Harper Tracy (Christine Elise), from performing an appendectomy. On a happier note, Greene (Anthony Edwards) successfully re-enters the dating pool. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
An unhinged city dweller becomes a vigilante as he tries to protect a troubled teenager. The fellow is Ernest, who came to LA in search of his fortune and who ends up addicted to coke and managing a pornographic video store. When he makes an awkward play for the boss's daughter, he loses his job. Unable to deal with it, he becomes really unstable. He murders his drug dealer and then becomes friends with the teen Christiane who is trying to cope with a stepfather who molests her and a mother who doesn't care. Ernest takes Christiane away from home and then helps her try to find her long-lost sister. Along the way he makes sure that anyone who ever harmed her is made to pay. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Unable to cope with the pressures of surrogate motherhood, Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) considers giving up her sister Chloe's baby, Suzy, for adoption. Back at the ER, Ross (George Clooney) and Greene (Anthony Edwards) quarrel over subjecting four-year-old AIDS victim Chia-Chia (Joshua Hoon Cho) to a very painful medical procedure. And Benton (Eriq La Salle) takes a personal interest in his patient Vicky Mazovick (Jennifer Tighe), a victim of abuse at the hands of her police-officer husband (Thom Mathews). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Though Ross (George Clooney) has been redeemed in the eyes of his superiors thanks to his heroic rescue of a 12-year-old trapped in a flooded culvert, he still gets into a violent argument with Greene (Anthony Edwards), who, it is learned, is suffering from problems above and beyond professional pressures. Elsewhere, Carol Hathaway (Julianna Marguiles), who the previous year had attempted suicide, forms a close bond with a 17-year-girl (Miriam Reichmeister) who has likewise tried to end her life -- and in the process, a serious wedge is driven between Carol and Shep (Ron Eldard). Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) discovers that the woman (Angela Paton) she is considering as Suzy's babysitter is suffering from a terminal blood disease. And Benton (Eriq La Salle) finds out that Jeanie (Gloria Reuben) has not quite divorced her husband, Al. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Kirk Cameron stars in this made-for-television remake of the 1970 movie. Cameron stars as Dexter Riley, an under-average college student whose brain gets filled with the information from a super computer. He uses his newly found wisdom to sweep some college quiz tournaments, much to the chagrin of his suspicious competitors. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kirk Cameron, Larry Miller, (more)
- 1995
- PG13
A photographer becomes famous overnight for a photo he didn't take himself in this satiric comedy. Delbert Mosely (Bill Campbell) is an award-winning photojournalist whose career has gone into a nosedive, forcing him to take a job with a sleazy tabloid. After getting fired by his editor, Cobb (Bobcat Goldthwait) for not giving him the kind of exploitive material he wanted, Delbert buys an old camera at a garage sale, which still has some old film left in it. Delbert develops the roll, and finds to his surprise it includes pictures of an alien abduction. Delbert's photos suddenly make him a very popular man with reporters, Air Force investigators, UFO theorists, and Cobb, who runs a story about the photos which question his credibility. Delbert gets in a fight with Cobb that lands him in jail, but he's soon bailed out by Paige (Wendy Schaal), who has her own reasons for wanting to talk to Delbert -- she thinks her father is the one being abducted in the photos. Out There also stars Rod Steiger, Jill St. John, Paul Dooley, and .J. Soles; Billy Bob Thornton, a year before Sling Blade would make him a star, has a bit part as a UFO enthusiast Delbert meets in jail. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
A teenager wins an interactive robot that plays shooting games. Soon it starts loading with real ammo and hunting down other kids. This film is a stupid thriller but still manages to be occasionally fun. ~ Sean D. MacLaggan, All Movie Guide
- 1995
An "accidental" explosion turns out to have been an attempt on the life of Cardassian Garak (Andrew Robinson). Launching an investigation of the incident, Odo uncovers a conspiracy of epic proportions. What he does about it will not be fully revealed until the following week's episode, "The Die Is Cast." Originally telecast April 24, 1995, "Improbable Cause" was scripted by Rene Echevarria from a story by Robert Lederman and David R. Long. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Originally telecast May 1, 1995, this episode was the conclusion of a two-part adventure which began the previous week under the title "Improbable Cause." Investigating an attempt on the life of Cardassian Garak (Andrew Robinson), Odo uncovers a sinister and far-reaching Cardassian/Romulan conspiracy. As for Garak, he finds his loyalties severely tested when he is ordered to extract vital information from Odo, even if he must resort to torture. "The Die Is Cast" was written by Ronald D. Moore from an (uncredited) story by Robert Lederman and David R. Long. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A remake of the classic Robert Siodmak film noir Criss Cross, Steven Soderbergh's The Underneath follows much the same plot and narrative arc of the original, but expands the possibilities of its thriller structure to also explore the complexities and insecurities at the heart of modern relationships. Peter Gallagher stars as Michael, a compulsive gambler who returns to his Texas home for the wedding of his mother (Anjanette Comer). In his absence, his ex-wife Rachel (Alison Elliott) has married Tommy (William Fichtner), a ruthless local hood. Michael and Rachel soon resume their relationship, incurring Tommy's wrath. Out of their deceptions grows a plot to heist an armored car, a crime which requires the unwitting aid of Michael's stepfather (Paul Dooley) as well as a banker (Elisabeth Shue) with whom Michael shared a brief fling. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Gallagher, Alison Elliott, (more)
- 1994
Bashir's Cardassian friend Garak (Andrew Robinson) is slowly and painfully dying from an apparent brain tumor. It is soon revealed that the source of Garak's agony is actually a brain implant, the handiwork of the Cardassian intelligence agency Enabran Tran. Bashir's efforts to save his friend are stymied by Garak himself, who has become addicted to the implant and becomes violent whenever anyone approaches him. Written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe, "The Wire" originally aired May 7, 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Set in a busy inner-city emergency room, this made-for-cable television drama follows the struggles of a world-weary surgeon who takes on the hospital administrators whose budget-cutting is affecting his ability to adequately care for his patients. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Mantegna, Lynn Whitfield, (more)
Actor Bob Balaban directed this black comedy for Disney concerning a young zombie's love for a pretty high school girl. Johnny Dingle (Andrew Lowery) is a sweet-natured soul who has been in love with Missy McCloud (Traci Lind) ever since first grade, but he's always been reluctant to ask her out, fearing rejection. Now that the high school prom is coming, he devises a plan to make Missy say yes when he musters up the courage to ask her to the dance. Johnny and his pal Eddie (Danny Zorn) concoct a plan that will make it look as if Johnny saves her life. Unfortunately, Johnny's plan goes amiss and he's actually killed. But even death doesn't dissuade Johnny and he rises from his grave to take her to the prom. Curiously enough, Missy is more attracted to Johnny now that he is dead than when he was alive (despite his falling body parts). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andrew Lowery, Traci Lind, (more)
- 1993
This gentle baseball fantasy centers on a former ball player who has spent thirty years bitterly brooding over the fact that he has been overlooked by the Baseball Hall of Fame. He finally decides to take action when his long-lost best friend returns from the dead to talk to him. Just before he died, the friend was inducted into the famous museum. The rest of the story is comprised of touching and sometimes funny vignettes. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1993
- R
Debra Winger's performance as a slow, mentally disturbed woman in A Dangerous Woman, raises the film far above its conventional, violence-ridden plot. Winger plays Martha, a quiet, lonely woman who has adjusted to a life without a man as she toils away at her small job at a dry cleaners in a small town. She lives in the guest cottage of the home of relative Frances (Barbara Hershey). Frances is a single woman who takes up with a variety of men as a cover for her loneliness and insecurity. When Anita (Laurie Metcalf) barrels her car into Frances' porch (thinking, correctly, that her husband is inside Frances' house), alcoholic handyman Mackey (Gabriel Byrne) appears on the scene and offers to fix Frances' porch. As Mackey works on the porch, Mackey becomes involved with both Frances and Martha. Into this melodramatic brew is added Getso (David Strathairn), a petty crook who works with Martha at the dry cleaners. When the four principles interact with each other, the disturbing results include an unwanted pregnancy, a murder, and some unsparing violence. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Debra Winger, Barbara Hershey, (more)
This black comedy chronicles the fall of one of the world's most unlovable clowns as he plies his trade and tries to survive in Palukaville a town where everyone is more or less a Bozo. Shakes loves women and more than that, he loves his booze. Like many of his painted peers, ol' Shakes likes to hang out at The Twisted Balloon, the favorite local pub where he hoists a few, beats up on mimes (the lowest caste in Palukaville) and causes trouble with his girl friend Judy, a woman who cannot say the letter "L." Because the slovenly Shakes can't seem to make it to birthday parties sober and on time, he is fired from his booking agency, causing him to go on a big drinking binge. Later, Shakes awakens and learns that Binky, a lousy TV-clown, is framing him for beating up Shake's former boss with a juggling pin. Now poor Shakes must clear his name. He must also rescue "Juwee" who has been kidnapped by the nefarious Binky, and he must come to grips with his alcohol problem (perhaps the film could be therefore titled "Clown and Sober?"). Keep an eye peeled for cameos by Robin Williams, as a mime instructor, and Florence Henderson as one of Shake's illicit sexual conquests. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bobcat Goldthwait, Julie Brown, (more)
- 1992
Paul Dooley and Nancy Dussault guest star as Jamie's parents, Gus and Theresa Stemple. When a short visit by Mom and Dad threatens to extend into the next millennium, Jamie freaks out. The solution? Bribing Lisa (Anne Ramsey) to take Jamie's parents off her hands and out of the Buchman abode. All this, and the diatribe on "Canada's Best" in the bargain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Robert Altman takes a scalpel to Hollywood ethics in the 1990s (or the lack thereof) in his acidic satire The Player, adapted from Michael Tolkin's novel. (Tolkin also wrote the screenplay.) The film concerns a sleek and smooth Hollywood studio executive who starts receiving death threats from a disgruntled writer because he has committed the ultimate Hollywood sin -- he promised the writer he would call him back and he never did. This is particularly ironic because the studio executive, Griffin Mill (Tim Robbins), is considered "writer-friendly," spending his days listening to pitches from such noted screenwriters as Buck Henry, who is pushing "The Graduate, Part II" and Alan Rudolph, who is hawking a Bruce Willis action film described as "Ghost meets The Manchurian Candidate." But The Player finds Griffin's comfortable life style in danger of collapse. He is trying to find a way to unload his girlfriend (Cynthia Stevenson) whose independence and intelligence make her a poor candidate for a trophy wife. More importantly, it seems that Larry Levy (Peter Gallagher), a slippery executive from Twentieth Century Fox, is angling for his job. And then there are those nasty postcards and faxes from a screenwriter threatening to kill him. Altman cast over 65 stars in cameo roles as texture for his scabrous tale. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Robbins, Greta Scacchi, (more)
- 1992
The first "Perry Mason" TV movie of the 1992-93 season, The Case of the Heartbroken Bride was the 23rd such production. The wedding of pop star Heather McAdam is disrupted by a drunken interloper. When the party crasher is murdered, Heather is nabbed for the killing. Among the special guest suspects are Ronny Cox, Linda Blair and Diane Baker. Stephen Stills, of Crosby Stills, Nash and Young, has a cameo. As always, Perry Mason is played by Raymond Burr. The Case of the Heartbroken Bride first aired October 30, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
- Add White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd to QueueAdd White Hot: The Mysterious Murder of Thelma Todd to top of Queue
Based on the book Hot Toddy, by Andy Edmunds, this made-for-TV movie revolves around the mysterious death of '30s film star Thelma Todd (Loni Anderson). ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Loni Anderson, Robert Davi, (more)
- 1990
At last count, there were approximately eight million made-for-TV Christmas movies. Well, maybe not, but they sure are hard to tell apart. Guess Who's Coming for Christmas adds a soupcon of ET to the plum pudding by having Beau Bridges wander into a small, impoverished town and claim that he's an extraterrestrial. Bridges befriends town "character" Richard Mulligan, who enjoys his company even if he doesn't completely believe that Man From Mars talk. This being a whimsical concoction, there's all sorts of evidence that Bridges is telling the truth--which of course renews the Christmas spirit in everyone concerned. Incidentally, Beau Bridges is a mall operator on his home planet; hope he's brought along lots of gift coupons. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Mulligan, Beau Bridges, (more)
A yuppie and a hippie are the offbeat pairing of this character comedy in the tradition of earlier mismatched buddy films such as Midnight Run (1988). Kiefer Sutherland is uptight, 26-year-old FBI agent John Buckner, who's been assigned to escort an aging counterculture radical named Huey Walker (Dennis Hopper) to Oregon for trial on a charge that's decades old. Buckner finds Huey's lifestyle and beliefs irresponsible. Once the two are bound for their Pacific Northwest destination, Huey begins to play psychological mind games with the straight-arrow Buckner, convincing him that he's tripping on hallucinogenic drugs, getting him drunk, and setting him up with a hooker named Sparkle (Kathleen York). Huey trades places with his captor and soon a game of cat-and-mouse is afoot as the agent pursues the one-time radical, with surprising revelations abounding regarding Buckner's childhood and Huey's motivations for allowing himself to be captured. Flashback also stars Carol Kane, Cliff De Young, Richard Masur, Michael McKean, and Paul Dooley. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Hopper, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
- 1990
Made for the TNT cable network, The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson concentrates on the wartime service of major league baseball's first black player. Robinson (Andre Braugher), a star athlete at UCLA, is drafted during World War II. He hopes that his academic record will assure him entry into Officers Candidate School, but the racism inherent in the military at the time puts several roadblocks in his way. After finally making OCS, Robinson's belief in himself is strengthened tenfold--to the point that he refuses to bow to the "Jim Crow" laws regarding the seating arrangements on an Army bus, and is subsequently threatened with a court martial. Stan Shaw costars as boxing great Joe Louis, likewise a victim of prejudice during the war years (the script intimates that Louis was more willing to roll with the punches than Robinson). Ruby Dee, who played the ballplayer's wife in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story, is here seen as Robinson's mother. The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson premiered on October 15, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Made for television, When He's Not a Stranger stars Annabeth Gish as a college freshman who is sexually assaulted by football jock John Terlesky. Ashamed by the incident-especially since she regarded Terlesky as a friend-Annabeth at first tells no one. But after a session with the school's counselor, the girls feel emboldened enough to file a complaint against her attacker, which leads to an avalanche of hostility from her peers. With nowhere else to turn, Annabeth takes her complaint to court. This stark dramatization of the "acquaintance rape" dilemma was first broadcast October 17, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
The made-for-TV Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North was heralded by the following ad copy: "Patriot. Zealot. Husband. Soldier. Honored. Accused." Add to that "Pedantic" and "Plodding" and you've summed up the film. Presented in two parts, the film traces the career of Oliver North (David Keith) from his years at the US Naval Academy, on to his tour of duty in Vietnam, and ending up with a post on the National Securities Council. Part Two of Guts and Glory covers the Iran-Contra affair, but is forced to leave the denouement open-ended, since North's guilt or innocence was still being deliberated when the film premiered on April 30 and May 2, 1989. The audience is permitted to draw its own conclusions, though Ollie North is no more warm and fuzzy on film than he was in real life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Keith, Barnard Hughes, (more)
