Thomas DeWolfe Movies
The heartwarming direct-to-video family drama A Horse for Danny stars a very young Leelee Sobieski (Joan of Arc, My First Mister) as the precocious 11-year-old title character, and Robert Urich (Spenser: For Hire) as Eddie, her horse-trainer uncle. Danny may be young, but she is also a race-track veteran -- who knows how scam-artists fix the races, and how to determine when a scam is being pulled. When Uncle Eddie espouses his dreams of riding into glory on the back of a stallion, Danny finds the perfect mare for him -- Tom Thumb. Raising her cash by careful betting, and pooling her money with a friend, Gerald, Danny purchases the horse for Eddie and it turns him into a champion racer. But a number of quick-draw racetrack con artists, including Noel Ferguson, see dollar signs and threaten to steal Eddie's thunder -- first with a botched attempt to purchase the horse, then through more shady means. Directed by Dick Lowry (Smokey and the Bandit 3), the film also stars country singer Ed Bruce. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Urich, Leelee Sobieski, (more)
- 1991
Murder in High Places is a made-for-TV whodunit set at a Colorado ski resort ("High Places." Get It?). Adam Baldwin, an ex-football pro turned cop, is the investigating officer in a homicide case. He is aided and abetted by Ted Levine, an alcoholic ex-newsman (what price Hunter Thompson?) who is the new mayor of the Colorado resort town where the murder occurred. The preponderance of colorful supporting characters is a sure tip-off that Murder in High Places was meant to the pilot for a series. Whether or not the series could have afforded Adam Baldwin is a moot point, since no one, least of all the audience, was interested in the project. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
Richard Crenna returns as New York police detective Frank Janek in Murder Times Seven. This time Janek tackles the case of a mass murder. One of the victims was his ex-partner (an occupational hazard for Janek, who in an earlier film had to turn in his own boss on a murder rap). One of the detective's former lovers (Carolyn Kava) unexpectedly provides a vital clue to the killer's identity. Originally titled Murder X 7, this made-for-TV drama first aired October 14, 1991-though there was a warning in the TV Guide listings that the film risked being bumped by the World Series playoffs (coincidentally, it would have been Game Number Seven!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
Richard Crenna returns as Lt. Frank Janek of the NYPD in the TV movie Murder in Black and White. As in his previous appearances in Doubletake (85) and Internal Affairs (89), Janek is called upon to solve a bizarre and baffling murder. This time the victim is Janek's own boss, the new commissioner of police. The lieutenant deduces that this murder is tied in with the killing of a physician, which occurred only a few hours earlier. Diahann Carroll plays the commissioner's widow, who may or may not be privy to a departmental cover-up. Murder in Black and White was the first made-for-TV movie to be telecast in 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Internal Affairs is the second TV-movie based on the works of detective novelist William Bayer. Richard Crenna, who first played NYPD detective Richard Janek in 1985's Doubletake, is back, now as a functionary of Internal Affairs. He has been assigned to solve the murder of a woman who may have been the victim of a kinky serial killer who'd flourished in Saigon 12 years earlier. Meanwhile, Janek's ex-boss (Lee Richardson), now a jailbird, gives the Janek the tip that several cops may be illegally selling guns. Internal Affairs was originally telecast in two parts in November of 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Made for television, Johnny Bull is set in a Pennsylvania mining town, circa 1959. Peter MacNicol, the son of a Hungarian immigrant family, brings home pregnant Suzanna Hamilton, the cockney girl he'd married while a GI in England. Hamilton's movie-generated visions of a glamorous America are dashed by the poverty of MacNicol's parents (Jason Robards, Colleen Dewhurst), and by the fact that her husband is incapable of getting a job once out of uniform. Kathy Bates steals the film as MacNicol's retarded sister, who despises the new bride. Johnny Bull was filmed on location in coal country--not in Pennsylvania, but in Tennessee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Based on William Bayer's novel Switch, the made-for-TV Doubletake introduced Richard Crenna to his oft-played role of detective Frank Janek. As always, Janek is assigned to a particularly gruesome and profoundly puzzling murder case. A prim lady schoolteacher and a hooker are both killed on the same evening; their bodies are decapitated, and their heads are switched! The first installment of this two-part movie details the early stages of the investigation, as well as the growing relationship between Janek and photographer Caroline Wallace (Beverly D'Angelo), the daughter of a cop who'd died in a mob hit. Part two reveals the "dark side" of the case, exposing corruption in the highest police circles and implicating someone very close to Janek in the double murder. Doubletake was originally telecast on November 24 and 26, 1985, and has since been reissued as a single three-hour film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
In a rare television appearance, Dorothy McGuire plays a farm widow who has been impoverished by the siphoning of her water supply. A nearby big-city aqueduct has priority over water rights, leaving the rural outskirts virtually dry. Attempting to bring her cause to the forefront, McGuire dynamites the reservoir, half-hoping that she'll be "martyred" in the process. When she fails to arouse public support, she targets the local power plant for her next blast (Don't look for this film to be rebroadcast in the light of more recent bombing tragedies). Assistant DA Victoria Racimo, who as an orphaned Indian girl had been virtually raised by McGuire, decides to challenge the water-department bureaucracy on McGuire's behalf. Filmed on location in Utah, Ghost Dancing was a winner of the ABC Theatre Award. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Originally telecast as an ABC Theatre of the Month special, My Body, My Child nobly attempts to tackle the abortion issue--but does so with a painfully contrived, mazelike Perils of Pauline script. Irish-American schoolteacher Vanessa Redgrave, married to Italian fireman Joe Campanella and already the mother of three daughters, believes that she's pregnant. Her doctor pooh-poohs the notion and prescribes several forms of drugs to counter her "faux" morning sickness. The effect of the narcotics, coupled with the fact that Redgrave's invalid father (Jack Albertson, in his final role) has been charged with the mercy killing of her mother, lead the poor schoolmarm to attempt suicide. This time the doctor on the scene announces that Redgrave is pregnant, and that her previous drug intake will result in a deformed, retarded child. Now arrive at the abortion issue: With all the cards stacked against her, what will Redgrave do in regards to her body and her child? Unfortunately, after raising so many diverse social issues, My Body, My Child drops many of those issues in order to rush towards its climax. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Skokie is the true story of a critical test of Constitutional rights in Illinois. In 1977, a small band of American neo-fascists calling itself the National Socialist Party of America plans to stage a swastika-dominated demonstration and rally. Their intended site is the Chicago suburb of Skokie, a town populated predominantly by Jews--many of them survivors of the Nazi holocaust. Jewish ACLU lawyer John Rubinstein is compelled to lobby for the National Socialists' freedom to express their views, despite his own inner turmoil over defending the very people who'd destroy him. The most vocal opponent to the planned rally is Skokie senior citizen Max Liebman (Danny Kaye), who spent five years in Hitler's death camps. Ernest Kinoy's teleplay for Skokie is fair-minded to a fault, presenting all points of view with equanimity, proving that there are no simple solutions when the fundamental right of Free Speech is involved. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The made-for-television movie The Henderson Monster is about a genetic scientist who experiments with the creation of new life in a small university town. After he is discovered by the community, the town is gripped by an ethical debate. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Hollow Image is an occasionally overwritten but generally impressive screenwriting debut for Lee Hunkins. Saundra Sharp plays an African-American career woman who has become a success in Manhattan's high-fashion world. She has risen from the grinding poverty of Harlem, but her roots are deeper than she's willing to admit. Dick Anthony Williams plays the new man in Ms. Sharp's new world. His friend (Morgan Freeman) is not supportive concerning the new relationship. Hollow Image was originally telecast as an ABC Theatre special on June 24, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Intrigued by the counterculture tale of Arlo Guthrie's epic 1968 talking-blues record The Alice's Restaurant Massacree, director Arthur Penn, co-scripting with playwright Venable Herndon, adapted the song into the 1969 feature Alice's Restaurant. Hippie outsider Arlo (Guthrie, playing himself) encounters suspicion from the straight world; visits his dying father, renowned leftist activist/singer Woody Guthrie (Joseph Boley), in the hospital along with friend Pete Seeger; and hangs out in the title converted church/commune created by his friends Alice (Pat Quinn) and her husband Ray (James Broderick). After Alice's "Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat," Arlo is arrested for littering by rule-following Officer "Obie" Obanhein (William Obanhein, playing himself). That littering arrest helps Arlo avoid the Vietnam draft, but the commune is threatened after more personal, old-fashioned conflicts over sex and partnerships permeate Alice and Ray's alternative world. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arlo Guthrie, Pat Quinn, (more)
