David Jones Movies

This portrait of the man who brought nude male flesh into the American mainstream combines present-day interviews, archival footage, and semi-fictionalized dramatization into a cinematic hybrid. Photographer and filmmaker Bob Mizer (Daniel MacIvor) founded the Athletic Model Guild, or AMG, in Los Angeles in 1945, hoping to turn his fascination with the male physique into a successful business that used nude and semi-nude photographs to sell the services of models to painters and the like. When the photos themselves proved more lucrative than the non-existent modeling contracts, Mizer launched Physique Pictorial. The magazine ostensibly offered bodybuilding tips and moral guidance to young men the world over, but in reality its clientèle included legions of gay men eager for eye candy. With the help of his mother and business partner, Delilah (Carroll Godsman), Mizer parlayed his magazine, short films, and other work into a palatial residence/studio where young men fresh off the bus from Nowheresville could frolic, crash, and earn a little cash in front of the camera (or on the casting couch). Occasional run-ins with the law and stints in prison couldn't deter Mizer from continuing his photography until his death in the early '90s. His models, contemporaries, and associates included bodybuilding proponent Jack LaLane and future Warhol superstar Joe Dallesandro, who are among the many men interviewed by filmmaker Thom Fitzgerald. The writer/director/producer intersperses his dramatic and documentary sequences with plenty of actual AMG and Physique Pictorial images. The film's narrative arc, however, focuses on the fictionalized character of novice model Neil E. O'Hara (Joshua Peace), who serves as a stand-in for the audience as he acclimates himself to Mizer's campy, flesh-filled compound and witnesses the photographer's betrayal by another model, Red (Jack Griffin Mazeika). Beefcake was inspired by F. Valentine Hooven III's book Beefcake: The Muscle Magazines of America, 1950-1970. The scenes of Mizer's trial for pandering were based on transcripts of the real-life Red's courtroom testimony. The character name Neil E. O'Hara, of course, is a joking reference to Neely O'Hara, the ingénue character from Valley of the Dolls. ~ Brian J. Dillard, Rovi

In an echo of a racist incident in Connecticut in 1995, an anti-Semitic "code message" in a high school yearbook may be the key to the murder of an art teacher. Comparatively speaking, tracking down the likely killers is the easy part. The problems for the D.A.'s office begin when McCoy (Sam Waterston) goes head to head with bigoted attorney Roy Paine (Chris Cooper), infamous in legal circles as "the Klan Lawyer." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A midtown auto accident leaves two people dead. The subsequent investigation reveals that one of the "victims," a woman, was placed in the driver's seat after the accident -- and that she was raped before she died. Ultimately, city councilman Spencer Talbot (Anthony Heald) is charged with the crime. He manages to beat the rap, but tireless Assistant D.A. Jack McCoy (Sam Waterston) has another ace -- and another charge -- up his sleeve. This episode represents a reunion between former I'll Fly Away co-stars Sam Waterston and Regina Taylor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The then-contemporary "Preppie Murder" case was the obvious inspiration for this 1990 episode of Law & Order. A wealthy and well-connected young man is charged with the murder of his girlfriend. The efforts of Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Robinette (Richard Brooks) to prosecute the case are stymied by a huge publicity blitz, and by the Defense's strategy of putting the dead woman's character on trial. "Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die" was originally telecast October 11, 1990, as a last-minute replacement for the scheduled episode "Poison Ivy" (which was moved up to November 20). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this slice-n-dicer, a cabbie becomes obsessed with a lovely movie scream queen and decides to follow her to the Cannes Film Festival. Though she is a cult favorite, few take the horror-movie actress seriously. The taxi driver does and is sure that with a little of his expert direction she could become an excellent dramatic actress. Unfortunately, before he can help her, he must first get her attention. He first approaches her while she is taking a shower in her suite. Naturally she attempts to throw him out. A scuffle ensues and he ends up threatening to slit her throat. She escapes and dressed only in a towel runs through a crowd. The taxi driver is right behind her and the other festival-goers, thinking it all a clever promotional gimmick, applaud. He stops to take a bow and she makes it to safety. This bad start does not stop the cabbie from trying to reach her and before the story ends, many people die horrible deaths, leading to the film's surprising ending. Much of the story was shot on location at the 1981 Cannes Film Festival and features shots of several famous actors and filmmakers. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

One of director Ken Russell's earliest films, Dante's Inferno is a made-for-TV biopic about the British poet and painter Dante Gabriel Rossetti (Oliver Reed), who was a founder of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood during the late 1800s. The style was influenced by romanticism and Renaissance painters. Other founding members of the movement were William Morris (Andrew Faulds), Edward Coley Burne-Jones (Norman Dewhurst), and John Everett Millais (Derek Boshier). Iza Teller plays Dante's sister, the poet Christina Rossetti. Judith Paris plays his wife, Elizabeth, who was driven to suicide. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi