Frederic Forrest Movies

The seemingly heartbroken parents of a murdered child make a sheriff suspicious, in this made-for-television drama. Park Overall and Robby Benson star as The Sims, a couple whose infant daughter is kidnapped and later found dead. By all accounts the Sims appear to be the victims, but when another child in the Sims family is found dead several years later, the local sheriff (Frederick Forrest) becomes suspicious. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide

Based on Stuart Kaminsky's novel Exercise in Terror, Hidden Fears is about a widow (Meg Foster) who is haunted by memories of her husband's murder. Several years after his death, she approaches the police with new evidence about her husband's death. Unfortunately the perpetrators discover that the case is re-opened, and they set out to kill the eyewitnesses and the widow herself. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

A dreary and depressing tale despite the excellent assemblage of talent, this is the story of a Depression-era family where sibling rivalry and tragedy seem to be the watch words of their home life. A period piece set in 1930s Texas. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

The Two Jakes is the much-delayed and rather convoluted sequel to the 1975 classic Chinatown. Released in 1990 after an abortive stab at shooting that began in the mid-'80s, the film was the subject of a creative feud between its principals, star Jack Nicholson, producer Robert Evans, and screenwriter Robert Towne. Private eye Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is a middle-aged war hero, paunchy, snobbish about his golf game, and about to marry a lovely and much younger woman. Then a fleeting reference to a woman he once loved that he heard on a wire recording plunges him into a past he has tried to escape. It comes while he was spying on a philandering wife (Meg Tilly) and her paramour in her motel room for her husband, Jake Berman (Harvey Keitel). Then Berman shocks Gittes when he shoots his wife's lover. Gittes is doubly stunned when he learns that Berman was partners with the dead man in a subdivision that may contain huge oil deposits. So now Gittes wonders, was it justifiable homicide or murder? The answer lies in the wife (Madeleine Stowe) of the dead man, her shady oil baron friend (Richard Farnsworth), and in the past he has tried to avoid. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide

This six-hour miniseries, based on a Pulitzer Prize-winning novel by Larry McMurtry, revitalized both the miniseries and Western genres, both of which had been considered dead for several years. Robert Duvall and Tommy Lee Jones star as fun-loving Gus MacRae and taciturn Woodrow Call, respectively, a pair of longtime friends and former Texas Rangers who crave one last adventure before they bow to their advancing years. Convinced that animals will thrive on the lush grasslands of Montana, Woodrow persuades Gus to undertake the arduous, 3,000-mile cattle drive there. Rounding up over a thousand head from Mexican rustlers south of the border, the men recruit a diverse crew of hands to help them. Among the party are Woodrow's illegitimate son Newt Dobbs (Rick Schroeder), local prostitute Lorena Wood (Diane Lane), and old compatriots Joshua Deets (Danny Glover), Jake Spoon (Robert Urich), and Pea Eye Parker (Tim Scott). Storms, hostile natives, poisonous snakes, and rustlers take their toll on the company before Montana is reached in an adventure that is equal parts Greek tragedy and classic, John Ford-style oater. Originally developed in the 1970s as a script by McMurtry for director Peter Bogdanovich and stars Henry Fonda, John Wayne, and James Stewart, Lonesome Dove earned 18 Emmy nominations and inspired a pair of miniseries sequel as well as two attempts at an ongoing television series. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Jessica Lange plays an attorney whose affable Hungarian-immigrant father Armin Mueller-Stahl is arrested. He is threatened with deportation for lying about his activities during World War II; part of the charge is that Mueller-Stahl was a Nazi collaborationist, guilty of wartime atrocities. Absolutely convinced that her father is being railroaded by a revenge-seeking Hungarian communist government, Lange handles Mueller-Stahl's defense, expertly blowing huge holes in prosecuting attorney Frederic Forrest's case. But in doing her own research, Lange discovers that her father has spent a lifetime paying off a blackmailer. Why? In contrast to the fervency of his earlier Z, Costa-Gavras refuses to make things easy by proselytizing in The Music Box (nor does screenwriter Joe Esterhas indulge in his usual right-between-the-eyes fervency). Everything in the film is offered on the same calm, collected level, making the ultimate horror of the story all the more effective. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Beryl Markham: Shadow on the Sun was a two-part TV movie originally telecast in May of 1988. Stefanie Powers is right in her element as the real-life Beryl Markham, an Englishwoman living in Kenya with her family. Bucking the male-dominated Kenyan social structure, Beryl becomes the first woman in Africa to train horses on a professional level. And in 1936, she thrills the world by being the first aviatrix to fly from England to the US across the Atlantic. With four hours to fill, the film is obligated to trace Beryl's love life, which (according to the script) was not always as rewarding as her public accomplishments. Inasmuch as Beryl was a contemporary (and friendly rival) of author Karen Blixen--better known as Isaak Dinesen--Beryl Markham: Shadow on the Sun contrives to include several characters introduced in Out of Africa. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

History tells us that would-be automobile mogul Preston Tucker was a silver-tongued con man, who misappropriated his investors' money and played fast and loose with ethics and legalities in the pursuit of his dream. Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola isn't buying this: to hear Coppola tell it, Tucker was "Mr. Smith Goes to Detroit," a sincere visionary who tried and failed to buck the Big Three auto manufacturers. Moreover, he was a staunch defender of family values, as witness his inseparable relationship with his loyal wife (Joan Allen) and adoring children. It was for his family's sake, rather than any dreams of financial gain, that Tucker created the oddball three-headlight vehicle which he envisioned as the "car of the future". Naturally, the corporate fat cats of 1947 can't abide competition from a rugged individualist; thus, with several politicos in their pockets, they crush the Tucker and the man who built it. We'd have been more inclined to believe the story had Coppola adopted a straightforward Capraesque approach and not utilized all sorts of complicated camera trickery. Somehow, by presenting Tucker in so showoffy a directorial manner, the character comes off more as a sleight-of-hand artist than a bastion of sincerity. Even so, Jeff Bridges does a nice job as Tucker, as does Martin Landau as Tucker's incongruous business partner. Jeff's dad, Lloyd Bridges, appears in an uncredited role as a "bought" senator. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Premiering April 12, 1987, 21 Jump Street was the Fox Network's first attempt at an action-adventure series. Essentially an updated Mod Squad, the series concerned the exploits of a group of young-looking cops, working undercover as high school students. In the 2-hour opening episode, officer Tom Hanson expresses discomfort at having to be a teenager again; evidently his earlier life was none too pleasant. Jeff Yagher played Hanson in the premiere; he was replaced in all subsequent episodes by star-in-the-making Johnny Depp. Other regulars include Holly Robinson as Judy Hoff, Dustin Nguyen as Ioki, and Peter DeLuise (Dom's son) as Penhall. Frederic Forrest is also on hand as the obligatory authority figure-himself an unreconstructed flower child. 21 Jump Street remained a Fox network fixture until September 17, 1990; an addition season's worth of episodes were filmed in Vancouver for first-run syndication. Trivia note: the series' original title was Jump Street Chapel, but this was changed lest viewers mistaken the program for a religious weekly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first action-adventure series from the Fox network, 21 Jump Street inaugurates its first season with the series' two-hour pilot episode, in which young police officer Tom Hanson (Jeff Yagher) joins a special undercover unit of the LAPD. Named for its headquarters, an abandoned chapel, the Jump Street unit is comprised of youthful cops who can pose as teenagers, making it easier for them to bust criminals and drug dealers who prey upon high-school kids. After the initial pilot, Jeff Yagher was replaced, and the role of Tom Hanson went to Johnny Depp, an assignment that would make him a star. Hanson's fellow officers during season one include Doug Penhall (Peter DeLuise), who in the earlier episodes projects a more roly-poly, comic image than he would in future years; Vietnamese refugee Harry Truman Ioki (Dustin Nguyen); and African-American Judy Hoffs (Holly Robinson). For the first six episodes, the team takes its orders from Captain Richard Jenko (Frederic Forrest), an ex-hippie who is more or less simpatico with their youthful zeal and tendency to bend the rules. But when Jenko is killed by a drunk driver, he is replaced by a more traditional, by-the-book leader, Captain Adam Fuller (Steven Williams). The series' first batch of 13 hour-long episode features a number of soon-to-be stars in guest roles, among them Josh Brolin, David Paymer, and Jason Priestley. 21 Jump Street managed to hold its own against the formidable competition of CBS' 60 Minutes during the series' maiden season, rapidly establishing Fox as the favorite network of teens and young adults. ~ All Movie Guide

In this part ghost story, part thriller, Diana Stoving (Karlene Crockett) has a strong feeling that her mother has kept a secret from her about their past in Massachusetts, and she sets out to discover what that might be. Diana accidentally runs into a woman who works with age regression under hypnosis and who by coincidence is investigating the possession of a young man. It turns out that this possession is by Diana's grandfather, who has been trying to contact someone all this time -- it seems his death was anything but natural. The theme veers from possession to suspense thriller, slowing up in the process, as Diana looks further into the past. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

1985's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is the only filmed version of the Mark Twain classic to cover every episode in the original novel and not merely such familiar vignettes as the "King and the Duke" business. Presented in four parts, Finn opens in 1844, with young Huck (Patrick Day) being kidnapped from the home of the Widow Douglas (Sada Thompson) by his brutal, drink-sodden Pap (Frederic Forest). Huck escapes by faking his own death and rafting down the river in the company of escaped slave Jim (Samm-Art Williams). Part two offers the seldom-dramatized scene in the novel wherein an abolitionist is lynched; part three recounts the Shepardson/Grangerford feud; and part four culminates with the chicanery of the King (Barnard Hughes) and the Duke (Jim Dale) and the capture of Jim. Featured in the huge cast are Lillian Gish, Geraldine Page, Butterfly McQueen, Richard Kiley, and Eugene Oakes as Tom Sawyer. Originally clocking in at 240 minutes, Adventures of Huckleberry Finn was first telecast in February and March of 1986 on PBS' American Playhouse; it is currently available in a 105-minute videocassette version. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide