Hans Proppe Movies
A thirtysomething Hollywood socialite (Sarah Chalke) fears becoming an old maid and concocts a plan to snag a famous filmmaker (Philip Winchester) with help from her family and friends. ~ Rhoda Charles, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sarah Chalke, Philip Winchester, (more)
- 2006
This five-hour ABC miniseries depicts the events leading up to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, through the scope of a handful of intelligence and counter-terrorism officials in the U.S. government. Harvey Keitel plays John O'Neill, the counter-terrorism chief of the FBI whose belief that Osama bin Laden was planning assaults on U.S. soil fell on deaf ears and failed to gain the traction necessary to stop the events. In a tragic twist, O'Neill later went to work at the World Trade Center and was killed on that fateful day. Also starring Donnie Wahlberg and Stephen Root, The Path to 9/11 garnered controversy for its questionable depiction of the Clinton administration's failings related to the threat. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- Harvey Keitel, Michael Benyaer, (more)
Narratively, the Disney-produced 2004 miniseries Little House on the Prairie retraces the footsteps of the acclaimed prime-time, nine-year TV series of the same title - albeit in a more abbreviated version. Like the 1970s series, this four-hour Disney adaptation takes as its source the beloved books by Laura Ingalls Wilder, roman-a-clefs about growing up on the rugged American frontier during the nineteenth century. It opens with the arrival of the Ingalls family in Minnesota during the 1870s - father Charles Ingalls(Cameron Bancroft), mother Caroline Ingalls (Erin Cottrell), and daughters Laura Ingalls (Kyle Chavarria) and Mary Ingalls (Danielle Ryan Churchran) - and moves ahead in time as the young girls come of age. Little House on the Prairie originally aired on ABC as episodes of The Wonderful World of Disney. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi
- Starring:
- Cameron Bancroft, Erin Cottrell, (more)
- 2002
Previously portrayed in films and on TV by the likes of Bonita Granville, Janet Julian, Pamela Sue Martin, and Tracy Ryan, author Carolyn Keene's intrepid, teenaged sleuth Nancy Drew is again brought to life in the person of Maggie Lawson. Now enrolled at River Heights University with her longtime friends and fellow "detectives" Bess (Jill Ritchie) and George (Lauren Birkell), the level-headed, no-nonsense Nancy hopes to achieve academic nirvana by being accepted to the prestigious Tri Pi fraternity. Things take a sinister turn when Tri Pi's reigning "queen" Allison Price (Sabine Singh) is accused of causing the drug overdose that has put her football-hero boyfriend in a coma. As usual, Nancy suspects that the case isn't quite as cut-and-dried as it seems, and with the assistance of her aforementioned girl friends -- not to mention her erstwhile beau Ned Nickerson (Nick Stabile) -- our heroine snoops around long enough to uncover a sinister campus-wide conspiracy. Adult authority is represented in the form of Nancy's long-suffering attorney dad Carson Drew (Brett Cullen) and her overbearing, condescending journalism teacher Professor Shifflin (James Avery). First broadcast as an episode of the ABC anthology The Wonderful World of Disney on December 15, 2002, Nancy Drew was rather blatantly designed as the pilot for a potential weekly series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
Anne Frank was an ordinary girl forced by circumstances to bear witness to the most extraordinary tragedy of the 20th century, and the diary she left behind became one of the best known and most affecting documents of those who struggled to survive the Holocaust under Nazi occupation during World War II. Anne Frank is a four-hour television miniseries that retells the well-known story of the Frank family as they hid from Nazi occupation forces in an attic in Amsterdam between 1942 and 1944, but it also takes a look at the life Anne and her family led before the pogrom swept through Germany and Holland, as well as the harrowing details of the grim fate that awaited the Franks in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Hannah Taylor Gordon stars as Anne Frank, with Ben Kingsley as her father Otto, Jessica Manley as her sister Margot, Brenda Blethyn as Auguste Van Pels, and Lily Taylor as Miep Gies; the real-life Miep Gies, one of the Frank family's benefactors, served as a consultant to the producers of this project. Anne Frank (also advertised as Anne Frank: The Whole Story) was first aired by the ABC television network on May 20 and May 21, 2001. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ben Kingsley, Hannah Taylor-Gordon, (more)
- 1997
- NR
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Based on Jon Krakhauer's harrowing account of folly and tragedy on the slopes of the world's highest mountain, this made-for-TV movie re-enacts that fateful excursion. Christopher McDonald and Peter Horton star. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi
- 1996
Accomplished television director Richard A. Colla directed this made-for-TV drama for the Lifetime cable network. Starring Kellie Martin of Life Goes On and E.R., Hidden in Silence chronicles two years in Poland during World War II, as a Catholic woman (Martin) hides 13 Jews in her home to protect them from the Nazis. Originally airing in 1996, the film also stars Marc Warren, Tom Radcliffe, and Marion Ross of Happy Days. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- Kellie Martin
Set in Utah (but filmed in Texas), the made-for-TV Shadows of Desire will probably seem fresh and original to anyone who hasn't seen the old Katharine Hepburn-Robert Taylor-Robert Mitchum theatrical feature Undercurrent--or, for that matter, to anyone unfamiliar with the Biblical story of Cain and Abel. Central to the plotline is Rowena Ecklund (Nicollette Sheridan), a woman torn between her sincere love for the kindly, sensitive Jude Snow (Adrian Pasder) and her insatiable lust for Jude's arrogant, dangerous older brother Sonny (Joe Lando) (guess which brother has the longest hair and the sweatiest shirt?) The passions engendered by this triangle are matched only by the all-stops-out histrionics of Piper Laurie as Jude and Sonny's domineering mother Ellis. Originally telecast September 20, 1994, on CBS, Shadows of Desire has since been rerun on cable television and on Canadian TV under the title The Devil's Bed. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
When an American socialite's husband dies, she is faced with running the business the two have successfully created -- a vast jewelry empire -- together with staving off the petty jealousies and rivalries she has with her siblings. Based on a Danielle Steel novel. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi
The made-for-television film Storm and Sorrow is based on the true story of Molly Higgins (Lori Singer), a mountain climber who joins a team about to climb a 24,000-foot peak in Russia's Pamir Mountains. On the lengthy climb up the mountain, the team confronts a number of dangers--not only natural disasters, but also conflicts between the members, as well. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, Rovi
In this drama, a mayor's political career is threatened by the avaricious land speculators who are trying to force her to give into their demands. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
Victoria Principal plays the sightless but extremely independent wife of Stephen Macht, who is murdered by intruders in her presence (a harrowing sequence, even within TV standards). Though she could see nothing, Principal is counting on her sensory and olfactory reminiscences, as well as her own instincts, to help the police track down the murderer. Naturally, this results in the killer stalking the "helpless" Principal, who proves to be nothing of the sort. Victoria Principal not only starred in Blind Witness (working like a demon to make her blindness utterly convincing), but also functioned as the film's co-executive producer. This made-for-TV movie debuted on November 26, 1989, heralded by the requisite TV Guide cover story. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1989
From the Dead of Night has an acceptable two-hour premise; unfortunately, the producers saw fit to drag things out to four hours. Lindsay Wagner stars as an LA fashion designer who, when she nearly drowns, has an out-of-body experience. Haunted by this, Wagner seeks out a spiritualist (Rita Zohar). This weird but worthy seer suggests that Wagner saw what no living person can be permitted to see, and prophesies that six entities from "the other side" will try to drag Wagner back. The conclusion finds the plucky Ms. Wagner doing battle with resurrected corpses. From the Dead of Night was stretched out over two consecutive days, February 27 and 28, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1988
- R
Made for television, A Father's Revenge stars Brian Dennehy as a high school basketball coach. When terrorists pull off a political kidnapping in West Germany, Dennehy's stewardess wife Joanna Cassidy is among the hostages. Fed up with the apparent foot-dragging of the authorities, Dennehy takes personal action in effecting Joanna's rescue. He hires Ron Silver's band of mercenaries, then heads to Germany to bring back his wife himself. Credibility is stretched to the limit at times, but the three stars are at their peak. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1986
In a early starring assignment, Keanu Reeves plays the head of a teenaged vigilante society. Reeves and his overachieving buddies intend to rid their school and neighborhood of drug users and vandals. But as their power increases, the vigilantes become more abusive and dangerous. Produced by the powerhouse Hollywood team of Jon Peters and Peter Guber, Brotherhood of Justice was designed as the pilot for a weekly series. The made-for-TV melodrama premiered May 18, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1984
Ralph Maccio plays teenaged Billy Grier, the victim of a rare degenerative disease that speeds up the ageing process. With only a few months left on earth-if that-Billy wants to realize three goals. He wants to be reunited with his long-gone father; he wants to play sax in a jazz band; and he wants to know a woman, in the Biblical sense. The story isn't as touching as the producers hoped it would be, but Macchio's character makeup (courtesy of Emmy-winner Michael Westmore) is astonishing. Made for television, The Three Wishes of Billy Grier was originally telecast November 1, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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