Mary Pat Gleason Movies

Ideally tailored to the talents of Rodney Dangerfield, Easy Money casts Rapid Rodney as Monty Capoletti, the black sheep of a prominent family. Nothing can curb Monty's drinking, gluttony, gambling, smoking, or general carousing. Nothing, that is, except the possibility of inheriting millions from mother-in-law Mrs. Monahan (Geraldine Fitzgerald). For one whole year, Monty must toe the line and clean up his act. Can he do it? And will viewers laugh uproariously? The answer to the second question: Yes, they will! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy, a grocery store employee endeavors to attract the attention of a wealthy playboy by pretending to be a high society girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Peter Gunn was a one-shot TV movie revival of the classic detective series (1958-61) created by Blake Edwards. Edwards wrote and directed this pilot for a potential Gunn revival, with Peter Strauss stepping into Craig Stevens' gumshoes as private eye Peter Gunn. Peter Jurasik assumes Herschel Bernardi's old role as Lt. Jacobi, while Barbara Williams takes over for Lola Albright as saloon singer Edie ("Mother's", the night spot where Edie vocalizes, is operated by "special guest star" Pearl Bailey). The film is not updated to the present time, but is set in 1964. Gunn finds himself between gangsters and rogue cops when he agrees to get to the bottom of a mob hit. A lot more verbose than the old, visually dynamic TV series, Peter Gunn (1989) has the saving grace of Henry Mancini's original progressive-jazz theme song and musical score. Blake Edwards' daughter Jennifer is featured as Gunn's ditsy secretary, a character (thankfully) missing from the earlier series. This actually represented Edwards's second attempt to revive the Peter Gunn character in a movie format; he first did so with the 1967 big-screen feature Gunn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Murphy (Candice Bergen meets her match--literally--when "FYI" agrees to a joint telecast with its counterpart on Russian television. Almost immediately, Murphy clashes with Soviet investigative reporter Vladia (Robin Strasser), who turns out to be Murphy's equal in every way...right down to the oversized ego and mercurial temperament. As air time for the international telecast approaches, it looks as though the Cold War is going to start heating up all over again! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marisa Silver helmed this tightly directed hospital drama reminiscent of David Swift's 1962 The Interns. Jimmy Smits plays Dr. David Redding, who guides seven student doctors through their third year of residency at Los Angeles Central's medical school. The cast includes Laura San Giacomo as Lauren Rose, a hard-working waitress putting her uncaring husband Kenny (Jack Gwaltney) through medical school; Kenny eventually breaks down the resistance of cool fellow student Gena Wyler (Diane Lane). Kenny is also competing with doctor's son Michael Chatham (Adrian Pasdar), who wants to become the best surgeon at L.A. Central; Michael, however, has to reconsider his goals when he realizes that he also needs Gena's love. Bobby Hayes (Tim Ransom) and Suzanne Maloney (Jane Adams) are also struggling with medical school, but they are a support team who study, work, and even sleep together. Through all the competitions and love affairs it eventually takes the wisdom of a dying cancer patient (Norma Aleandro) to make the medical students realize the important things in life. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In the comedic farce Soapdish, the behind-the-scenes lives of several soap opera actors are just as melodramatic as those of their television counterparts. Sally Field stars as Celeste Talbert, the star of a declining TV show. To make matters worse, Talbert's career is thrown into turmoil when her rival, Montana Moorehead (Cathy Moriarty), tries to persuade producer David Barnes (Robert Downey Jr.) to write Talbert off the show. Smitten by Moorehead, Barnes comes up with a scheme to get Talbert off the show by hiring her niece Lori (Elisabeth Shue) and then Jeffrey (Kevin Kline), an old flame and cast member who was written out of the show 20 years prior. Soon, mayhem rules on the set as the cast and crew tangle, culminating in a special episode, broadcast live. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Wings Hauser appears as Wallace Evans, a policeman turned professor who use to teach the Manhattan College criminology course now helmed by Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury). In the spirit of friendly rivalry, Evans challenges Jessica to find the person responsible for a series of recent campus muggings before he himself fingers the culprit. The stakes in this "race" are raised considerably when murder enters the picture. This time out, the suspect list ranges from a suspicious-looking busboy to Professor Evans himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This highly rated independent production was written years before Bull Durham, and though it covers much of the same territory, it is considered worth seeing in its own right. In the story, Roy Dean Bream (William Russ) is too old to be part of his minor-league baseball team's cultural mainstream. In short, he's often ignored, derided, or treated to the worst or last of everything, like any other outcast. Tyrone (Glenn Plummer) is so young that it gives the same teammates who shun Roy the willies and reminds them that they too are getting older -- so he's an outcaste, too. What could be more natural than for these two men to seek one another out. It doesn't matter that the older man is white, the younger is black. They both love the game, and Roy has been around the block a few times and has plenty to teach Tyrone. When the time comes for Roy to be sent to retirement, everyone holds their breaths to see how he will react. It's a pity they didn't get to know him better, or they would know that this kind, generous man wishes them all well. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This cold, stylish erotic-thriller grossed over $100 million at the box-office despite vigorous protests at its depiction of gays and women. The shocking opening sequence features a graphic sexual encounter involving a rock-star bound with a white Hermes scarf by an unidentified blond woman. Despite the fact that the scene ends with a bloody icepick murder (horrifyingly realized by makeup artist Rob Bottin), Hermes scarves quickly sold out at stores nationwide. This seeming paradox is at the heart of the film's appeal, as it mixes perverse sexuality and erotic bloodshed in a manner common to European thrillers (director Paul Verhoeven had done it himself in 1979's marvelous De Vierde Man) but mostly taboo in America. The plot concerns Catherine Tramell (Sharon Stone), a successful bisexual mystery writer who may also be a ruthless murderer. Everyone close to Catherine dies, and troubled policeman Nick Curran (Michael Douglas) must find out why. In the process, Nick becomes sexually involved with both Catherine and police psychiatrist Beth Gardner (Jeanne Tripplehorn), while the bodies begin piling up and Catherine turns the cat-and-mouse game around on Nick. Verhoeven and screenwriter Joe Eszterhas -- who was paid $3 million for the script -- keep the tension ratcheted up throughout, even during the frequent sex scenes, which carry a violent edge reminiscent of the Italian thrillers of Dario Argento. The film's most notorious scene, a police interrogation in which Catherine makes drooling idiots out of her captors by revealing that she is not wearing underwear, became a cultural touchstone and was widely imitated and parodied. Sharon Stone, meanwhile, was embarrassed to the point that she claimed Verhoeven had aimed lights on strategic locations without her knowledge. George Dzundza and Dorothy Malone co-star. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story, the made-for-TV Child Lost Forever was advertised as a "docudrama." A unwed teenage mother is forced to give up her baby for adoption. 16 years later, the girl (played as an adult by Beverly D'Angelo), now married and the mother of two, decides to look for the son she lost. She finds that the boy died at age three under mysterious circumstances. The more she investigates, the more she realizes that she's stumbled upon a long-hushed-up case of child abuse. Child Lost Forever debuted November 16, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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

As if losing both her husband and her money isn't enough, a woman in her mid-20s also finds herself married to a 12-year-old boy (who doesn't even like her) in the comedy Holy Matrimony. Havana (Patricia Arquette) is an aspiring showgirl who is working at a sleazy carnival while she dreams of her big break. Short on cash, Havana's boyfriend Peter (Tate Donovan) comes up with a plan; while Havana flirts with her boss, Peter will swipe his keys and lift the day's take from the carnival's safe. After grabbing the cash, Havana and Peter hightail it to Canada, where Peter figures that they can hole up with his family. However, Peter didn't always lead a life of crime; he was raised in a Hutterite community, and while Peter's Uncle Wilhelm (Armin Mueller-Stahl) and younger brother Ezechiel (Joseph Gordon Levitt) are glad to see him, they don't think much of Havana, whose brassy personality convinces them that she was the one who led Peter down the wrong path. To make peace with his family, Peter marries Havana, but not long after, he dies in a car wreck. Hutterite custom demands that when a man dies, his widow is to marry his brother; the catch in this case is that Ezechiel is only 12 years old and understandably not interested in matrimony. However, Havana agrees to the marriage, largely because Ezechiel knows where Peter stashed the earnings from the robbery and Havana does not. Havana's ignorance of Hutterite traditions and lack of enthusiasm for their austere lifestyle is a matter of no small annoyance to her, but Ezechiel shrewdly uses his knowledge about Peter's hidden bankroll to persuade Havana to lead a more righteous life. Holy Matrimony was directed by Leonard Nimoy in one of his periodic breaks from acting. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this atmospheric romantic drama, Keanu Reeves plays Paul Sutton, who has just returned home from a stretch in the Army during World War II. Still reeling from the horrors of war, Paul wants to settle down and start a farm, but his wife Betty (Debra Messing), whom he met and impulsively married shortly before shipping out, has arranged for him to take a job as a salesman peddling chocolates. While taking a sales trip to another town, he befriends a beautiful but distraught young woman, Victoria Aragon (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon). While away at college, Victoria met and fell in love with a young man and soon became pregnant; however, when her boyfriend discovered she was expecting, he abandoned her. She returns home full of shame and fearful of her father's reaction. But Paul gets an idea -- he'll pose as her husband and leave after a day or two, so when she's left alone with the child, the disgrace will be on him, not her. Victoria agrees, and Paul joins Victoria as she arrives at her family's estate in the California wine country. Most of the Aragon family take to Paul readily enough, especially Grandfather Don Pedro (Anthony Quinn), but Victoria's father, Alberto (Giancarlo Giannini), senses something amiss between the young couple. A Walk In The Clouds was the first American film from director Alfonso Arau, who previously made the international hit Like Water For Chocolate. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide