William Flatley Movies
- 1991
Babe Ruth is a made-for-TV biopic about the titular baseball legend, here played by Stephen Lang. The film covers the events of Babe's life from his orphanage childhood to his retirement from baseball in 1935. Recounted are Babe's two marriages, the first to the benighted Helen Woodford (Yvonne Suhor) and the second to down-to-earth showgirl Claire Hodgson (Lisa Zane); Babe's frequent tiltings with Col. Ruppert (Donald Moffat), autocratic owner of the New York Yankees; Babe's periodic slumps and suspensions; his "wine, women, and more women" lifestyle; his unrealized dream of becoming a team manager; his record-breaking 60th home run in 1927; and his last-stand "three-homer" game for the Boston Braves in his valedictory 1935 season. Too rushed and surfacy to be totally successful, Babe Ruth is nonetheless closer to truth than the sentimentalized John Goodman feature film The Babe (1992), and infinitely superior to William Bendix's atrocious The Babe Ruth Story (1948). As a bonus, real-life baseball great Pete Rose shows up in a one-minute cameo as Ty Cobb. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Bruce Weitz, Lisa Zane, (more)
- 1980
Attica is a probing, no-nonsense TV-movie re-creation of the tragic events which followed the Attica (New York) Correctional Facility rebellion of September 9, 1971. Inmates demanding better food and living conditions used jerry-built weapons to take 38 guards as hostage. Negotiations begin immediately, only to continually break down thanks to uncompromising stubbornness on both sides. Four days into the crisis, the rebellion ends in a bloodbath, with state troopers firing on the prisoners-- killing several of the guards in the process. Based on the eyewitness reporting of the New York Times' Tom Wicker (here played by George Grizzard), who was one of the civilian negotiators during the stalemate, Attica was first telecast on March 3, 1980. (Perhaps significantly, Governor Nelson Rockefeller, whom many hold responsible for the climactic carnage at the prison, is never seen in either factual or fictional form during the film). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1979
This first Lassie film in nearly three decades (discounting the various feature-length compilations of Lassie TV episodes) is worth watching for its veteran cast. Lassie is legally wrested from freckled-faced Michael Sharrett by evil Pernell Roberts, who hopes that the kid's grandpa Jimmy Stewart will sell his valuable vineyards to "ransom" the dog. Roberts' scheme falls through, and Lassie makes her getaway, embarking upon a grueling trek to be reunited with her young master. Alice Faye, looking very well preserved, shows up to sing a song or two. Also contributing vocally are Pat Boone and Debby Boone and The Mike Curb Congregation; even Stewart gets to sing (he hasn't improved much since his last singing role in Broadway Melody of 1936, but you gotta love him). About the only cast member in The Magic of Lassie who doesn't sing is Mike Mazurki. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Stewart, Mickey Rooney, (more)
- 1977
M*A*S*H inaugurates its sixth season minus the irascible Maj. Frank Burns, who, it is explained, is taking R&R in Seoul to get over the marriage between his longtime sweetie Margaret Houlihan (Loretta Swit). Although Frank is never seen in this episode (actor Larry Linville had left the series for good), the 4077th continually receives reports of his erratic behavior, culminating in a desertion and arrest. Meanwhile, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and B.J. (Mike Farrell) are having their own troubles adjusting to Frank's temporary replacement: Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester II (David Ogden Stiers), a brilliant and erudite surgeon--and an insufferable Back Bay Bostonian snob. Originally telecast as a 60-minute "special," "Fade Out, Fade In has since been reedited as two half-hour episodes for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1977
In the conclusion of M*A*S*H's sixth-season opener, Margaret Houlihan (Loretta Swit) is already having problems with her marriage to Donald Penobscot, Major Frank Burns has gone AWOL, and Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and B.J. (Mike Farrell) have had a bellyful of Frank's brilliant but insufferably arrogant replacement, the aristocratic Maj. Charles Emerson Winchester II (David Ogden Stiers). Likewise discomfited is Winchester, especially when his temporary assignment to the 4077th threatens to become permanent. Originally telecast as a 60-minute "special", "Fade Out, Fade In has since been reedited as two half-hour episodes for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
