John Glover Movies
A longtime character actor with a reputation for taking on villainous roles with gleeful abandon and a subtle touch of humor, John Glover was once dubbed "the supreme rotter of the '80s" by the late film critic Pauline Kael, thanks to unforgettable performances in such films as 52 Pick-Up, Masquerade, and Scrooged. Always injecting his baddies with an element of quirk and personality, Glover later gravitated away from a life of cinematic crime to success with more sympathetic roles in Love! Valour! Compassion! and Mid-Century. A Salisbury, MD, native who pursued his higher education at Towson State Teacher's College, Glover began an off-Broadway career in the late '60s, which led to small parts in the mid-'70s in such films as Shamus (1973) and Annie Hall (1977). With occasional small-screen roles balancing out his features, Glover began carving out a villainous niche for himself during the '80s in such movies as The Evil That Men Do and 52 Pick-Up. Though Glover's big-screen work served as his bread and butter, more sympathetic television appearances -- as a valiant AIDS patient in An Early Frost (1985) and a dedicated doctor in L.A. Law -- earned the actor a pair of Emmy nominations.As his career progressed, Glover became an increasingly prominent figure on TV thanks to parts in Miami Vice, Murder, She Wrote, and Frasier, and his "villains" became ever more quirky in such high-profile features as Gremlins 2: The New Batch and Robocop 2. Glover's roles were also becoming increasingly diverse. Offering a side of himself rarely seen by audiences, he played artist Leonardo DaVinci in the 1991 made-for-TV feature A Season of Giants, and then portrayed another villain, this time the biggest of them all -- the Devil himself -- in the 1998 series Brimstone. Beginning in 1992, Glover did voice work for the popular superhero cartoon Batman: The Animated Series and, later, Batman: Gotham Nights; he also had onscreen roles in the live-action feature Batman & Robin and the WB series Smallville. Glover often returns to his alma matter (now called Towson University) to work with the drama students at the school's Fine Arts College. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
American-born French film director Bob Swaim directed this sordid tale of greed, deception, machinations and murder. The darkly beautiful Meg Tilly stars as Olivia Lawrence, member of the Hamptons social elite and heiress to a vast fortune, who becomes attracted to dangerous newcomer Tim Whalen (Rob Lowe). She unwittingly falls into his web of deceit, as he and her stepfather (John Glover) plot her murder in order to gain the $3,000,000 in her trust fund. Inspired in plot by the film noir classics of the '40s, Masquerade lacks the style and originality of the originals. The film noticeably lacks suspense; there is no sustained tension, and many of the characters seem included simply for the sake of bizarreness. However, Tilly manages to carry the film all on her own with her considerable talent and natural screen presence. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
Made for television, Moving Target bears a few faint echoes of the 1986 theatrical feature Out of Bounds. Jason Bateman plays a teenaged musician returning home from summer camp. He is hardly greeted with open arms; as a matter of fact, his family has moved out in his absence. Compounding this traumatic turn of events, Jason becomes the quarry of a syndicate hit man (Jack Wagner)--and of the US Justice Department. It dawns on the boy that he'd better locate his family before anyone else does. Jason Bateman's leading lady in Moving Target is Chynna Phillips, daughter of musicians John and Michelle Phillips, and later the star of the TV biopic Roxanne: The Prize Pulitzer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
Paroled after 20 years, a convicted murderer (John Glover) returns to his home town of Cabot Cove to find the man whom he thinks actually committed the crime for which he was imprisoned. The trail leads to a local high-school coach (Kenneth MacMillan) on the verge of retirement, and to another man (Dack Rambo) who apparently commits suicide. When this death is ruled a murder, the hapless ex-con is framed a second time, and it is up to Jessica (Angela Lansbury) to figure out who's really responsible for all the carnage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Jessica (Angela Lansbury) heads to Washington to attend a special concert performed by an Eastern Bloc orchestra. Before long, Jessica is kidnapped and swept into a maelstrom of intrigue involving a pair of defecting musicians and a murdered British intelligence agent. The man behind Jessica's abduction is none other than the redoubtable M16 agent Michael Haggerty, whom Jessica had previously encountered in the Season Two episode "Widow Weep for Me"--and who is played by Angela Lansbury's onetime costar in the Broadway musical "Sweeney Todd", Len Cariou. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Wealthy metallurgist Harry Mitchell (Roy Scheider) lives to regret his extramarital affair with pretty young Cini (Kelly Preston). A trio of vicious blackmailers (John Glover, Robert Trebor, Clarence Williams III) show Mitchell a videotape of his most recent roll in the sack with Cini. They demand a huge amount of hush money, but Mitchell calls their bluff, going so far as to tell his politicially ambitious wife Barbara (Ann-Margret) about the affair. But the extortionists haven't even gotten started yet. Tying Mitchell to a chair, they force him to watch a tape of Cini being horribly murdered-with the evidence arranged so that Mitchell will be accused of the crime. But Mitchell remains firm in his refusal to pay up, whereupon he mounts a "fight fire with fire" plan all his own. 52 Pick Up was based on a novel by Elmore Leonard, which was previously filmed in 1984 as The Ambassador. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Scheider, Ann-Margret, (more)
- 1986
Apology stars Lesley Anne Warren (with a Stefanie Powers hairdo) as a Manhattan-based sculptor/performance artist. To enhance her latest project, Warren invites the participation of anonymous phone callers, whose voices she records. One of her unseen "collaborators" calls her up to confess to a murder--several murders, in fact. Warren strongly suspects that the mystery caller may be intending a little "performance" involving her own demise. Peter Weller co-stars as a sympathetic detective who ends up Warren's lover--but can he be trusted? Made for HBO, Apology was originally telecast July 27, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lesley Ann Warren, Peter Weller, (more)
- 1986
- PG13
Pamela Segall gives a winning performance in this gender-bending comedy about a girl who wants to be a boy and gets her wish. 14-year-old Milly Niceman's "deepest, darkest heart's desire" is to be a boy, as she feels that boys' lives are simpler and more interesting than girls' lives. After her best friend's brother sells her an "eclipse powder," she wakes up in the middle of the night to discover that she has grown a penis. When she becomes a boy, calling herself Willy, she finds that her girlfriend has now developed an amorous interest in him/her. Willy also makes friends with a handicapped boy named Alfie (Eric Gurry), who also confesses his "unnatural desires" for Willy. Finding that being a boy is as confusing as being a girl, Willy wishes upon a star to be changed back to a girl. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pamela Segall, Eric Gurry, (more)
The fancy footwork and star appeal of Gregory Hines as Raymond, an exiled American, and the powerful grace of Mikhail Baryshnikov as Nikolai, a defector, combine with a great production design to carry this otherwise thinly-stretched tale of intrigue. With a stellar supporting cast (Isabella Rossellini as Raymond's wife, Helen Mirren as Nikolai's lover, and Jerzy Skolimowski, the Polish director, as a wily KGB agent), the film has a few excellent moments. Nikolai has defected from the former USSR some time in the past. While on a trip, his plane spectacularly crashes on a runway in Siberia. Trapped in the country he had escaped, he is brought to stay with Raymond, an American who defected during the Vietnam war. Nikolai desperately wants to get out of the country, but the Russians have other plans. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mikhail Baryshnikov, Gregory Hines, (more)
- 1985
The sensitive topic of child molestation is compellingly (and tastefully) handled on this ABC Afterschool Special. While babysitting for six-year-old Molly Stewart (Niki Scalera), teenager Karen Anderson (Kelly Wolf) cannot help but notice the inordinate amount of attention showered upon the child by the much older "family friend" Mike (Lenny Von Dohlen). Still harboring painful memories of being molested as a child, Karen does not trust Mike, and for good reason. Will Karen be able to alert Molly's parents that their child is in imminent danger of being sexually assaulted -- and, of more importance, will they believe her before it is too late? ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kelly Wolf, Niki Scalera, (more)
When reviled labor boss Pink Gresham (Bill Smitrovich) is found murdered, his wife Maggie (Kathy Baker) is visited by Baston Morris (Peter Weller). Morris claims to have killed Pink before leaving his lifeless corpse symbolically in an outhouse. Instead of leaving, Morris moves in on the backwoods widow, and the two begin a psychological game of nerves. As in the works of William Faulkner and Tennessee Williams, both Maggie and Morris are plagued by their past experiences and hold closely guarded personal secrets. This is David Saperstein's directorial debut. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Weller, Kathy Baker, (more)
Originally telecast November 11, 1985, An Early Frost was the first TV movie to deal with the subject of AIDS. Aidan Quinn plays a personable young gay lawyer who is stricken with the HIV virus. As his health deteriorates, Quinn finds that his physical agony is secondary to his mental anguish. Ben Gazzara and Gena Rowlands play Quinn's parents, who must not only come to grips with their son's impending death, but with their own long-standing fears and prejudices concerning homosexuality. No easy answers are offered in this realistic drama, which also stars Sylvia Sidney as Quinn's grandmother and John Glover as a fellow AIDS victim. Ron Cowen and Daniel Lipman won Emmys for their pioneering teleplay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aidan Quinn, Gena Rowlands, (more)
- 1984
Physically, the gangling, long-necked Jeff Goldblum is all wrong for the role of fabled TV comedian Ernie Kovacs (1919-1962) but you tend to forget this as Goldblum expertly reenacts some of Kovacs' most famous comic bits. No Kovacs bio would be complete without such scenes as the mustachioed, cigar-chomping Ernie delivering a radio broadcast while lying on a railroad track with a train rapidly approaching, or Kovacs "celebrating" the cancellation of his TV series by smashing up the set in full view of the home audience. As the title indicates, much of the film takes place between the laughs, as Kovacs desperately struggles to reclaim his children, who have been kidnapped by his emotionally disturbed ex-wife (Madolyn Smith) in the midst of an acrimonious custody battle. Melody Anderson plays Kovacs' second wife, singer Edie Adams, while the real Edie appears in a cameo as Mae West. Cloris Leachman tears a passion to tatters in the role of Ernie's outrageous Hungarian mother. Our favorite bit: Jeff Goldblum and Melody Anderson recreating Ernie's lisping, perpetually soused poet Percy Dovetonsils. Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter was first telecast May 14, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In yet another slick, formulaic Charles Bronson vengeance film (they would continue until the actor was in his mid-70s, still playing the morally insulted friend/husband/lover), Bronson is Holland, an assassin for hire who has just come out of retirement to finish off a Guatemalan thug by the name of Moloch (Joseph Maher). Moloch tortures and terrorizes the good guys and is protected by a misguided American government agency -- though nothing can stop Holland once he starts killing his way to the chief villain. No one except the wife of one of Moloch's victims -- and perhaps a few viewers now and again -- raises any questions about Holland's trail of corpses. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Theresa Saldana, (more)
- 1984
A John D. MacDonald novel was the source material for A Flash of Green. Ed Harris plays a reporter for a Florida resort-town newspaper. His best friend is shady county-commissioner Richard Jordan. When Harris shows signs of sympathizing with a local ecology group that is dead set against a new land-fill development, Jordan tries to keep the editor quiet with a bribe. At first, Harris acquiesces, but rapidly develops a conscience when Jordan enlists a local right-wing terrorist group to keep the ecologists in line. A secondary plot involves Harris' romance with Blair Brown, an affair tainted by the fact that Harris' wife lies comatose in the hospital. Thanks to its pro-eco stance, A Flash of Green was financed by and telecast as an edition of PBS' American Playhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ed Harris, Blair Brown, (more)
- 1983
Another two-part TV movie from the pen of novelist Sidney Sheldon, Rage of Angels stars Jaclyn Smith as attractive lawyer Jennifer Parker. While working as assistant D.A., Parker is targeted for persecution by organized crime, but she perseveres and emerges as one of the most successful defense attorneys in America. She is, however, not quite so lucky in matters of the heart, becoming simultaneously entangled with charismatic mob lawyer Michael Moretti (Armand Assante) and married U.S. Senate aspirant Adam Warner (Ken Howard). Serving up everything but the kitchen sink in plot complications and sinister conspiracies, Rage of Angels was telecast on February 20 and 21, 1983, garnering excellent ratings and an Emmy award for musical composer Billy Goldenberg. The film spawned a two-part sequel in 1986, Rage of Angels: The Story Continues, again with Jaclyn Smith in the lead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
Filmed in quasi-documentary fashion, the made-for-TV The Face of Rage is set in a rehabilitation facility. Here a group of rapists are required to confront their victims face-to-face. The film concentrates on the bitter verbal sparring session between assaulter Richard (Graham Bechel) and assaultee Rebecca (Dianne Weist). Director Donald Wrye co-wrote the screenplay for Face of Rage with Hal Sitowicz, drawing much of the dialogue from real-life transcripts. The film was first aired as an "ABC Theatre" presentation on March 20, 1983, preceded with an all too appropriate "parental guidance" proviso. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this feature comedy, a womanizer (Tim Matheson) marries his live-in girlfriend (Kate Capshaw) only to quickly resume his wicked ways. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Matheson, Kate Capshaw, (more)
- 1981
- PG
The Incredible Shrinking Woman, directed by Joel Schumacher, is an attempted social satire focusing on the position of women in our society and our social values. After being exposed to a bizarre mixture of household chemicals, Pat Kramer (Lily Tomlin) begins to shrink. While this baffles scientists and makes parenting difficult, Pat captures the hearts of the American people. An evil political group who plots world domination kidnaps Pat and performs experiments on her to learn the secret of how to shrink everyone. The screenplay was written by Jane Wagner, Tomlin's frequent collaborator; Charles Grodin plays Pat's husband. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lily Tomlin, Charles Grodin, (more)
In this subpar western, gratuitous profanity and violence are at odds with the theme of rescuing a Native American from a marriage she does not want. A bearded Charleton Heston (whose son wrote the screenplay) is the fur trader Bill Tyler, out in the remote mountain ranges looking for a legendary valley where furry animals are plentiful. Brian Keith is his clownish, foul-mouthed sidekick. On their way to finding the best area to set their traps they encounter Running Moon (Victoria Racimo) who is in fact, running away from her husband Heavy Eagle (Stephen Macht. Several battles between Native Americans (portrayed by Caucasian actors) and the fur trappers keep the action moving. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, Brian Keith, (more)
Jonathan Demme's breakthrough movie featured the shaggy energy and affection for marginal American eccentrics that marked his earlier Citizens Band (1977) and such later films as Something Wild (1986) and Married to the Mob (1988). Melvin Dummar (Paul LeMat) is a barely-getting-by Nevada milkman. One day in the early 1970s, while driving down a lonely highway, Melvin picks up a shaggy, bearded bum (Jason Robards Jr.) and offers him a ride into town. Melvin gives the bum a quarter at the end of the ride, and that, so far as Melvin is concerned, is that. The story goes off on a new tangent, involving the on-and-off marriage between Dummar and his contest-happy wife Lynda (Mary Steenburgen). During one of the multitude of financial crises endured by the Dummars, Melvin discovers that the tramp he picked up was none other than billionaire Howard Hughes -- and when Hughes dies, Melvin inherits $150 million. The movie's wide acclaim included Oscars for Steenburgen and Goldman's script and New York Film Critics Awards in almost all major categories, including Best Picture and awards for Demme, Goldman, Steenburgen, and Robards. Demme would gain even greater attention in the 1990s as the director of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Philadelphia (1993). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Le Mat, Jason Robards, Jr., (more)
Fact-based drama starring Robert Redford as Henry Brubaker, the new inmate at a run-down Southern prison that's become notorious for corruption and violence. After he witnesses several instances of gross misconduct and defuses a tense confrontation with a crazed inmate (Morgan Freeman), Brubaker reveals to the guards and administrators that he's not a criminal at all, but the new warden, assigned by the governor to infiltrate the facility undercover. His identity confirmed, Brubaker takes office and sets about shaping up policies and procedures, despite resistance from, incredibly, even some of the more entitled convicts. With the help of the prison's chief trustee (Yaphet Kotto) and a compassionate ally (Jane Alexander), the warden effects some positive change, but powerful business interests line up against him when his ideas threaten their financial bottom line. A reform-minded, socially conscious, and politically liberal picture of the type usually associated with director Norman Jewison, this fact-based prison drama was the result of a troubled production that saw original director Bob Rafelson replaced with Cool Hand Luke (1967) and The Amityville Horror (1979) helmsman Stuart Rosenberg. Despite the backstage turmoil, Brubaker was an acclaimed release and an Oscar-nominated, career-finale triumph for co-screenwriter Arthur A. Ross, creator of Creature From the Black Lagoon (1954) and father of successful writer/director Gary Ross. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Yaphet Kotto, (more)
- 1979
- PG
In mid-1978, the cult fantasy guru and comic book illustrator Bill Richert -- after months directing Jeff Bridges and Belinda Bauer in the scattergun carnival of a political satire, Winter Kills -- faced a real head-scratcher. With Winter yet to be completed, Richert's backer, Avco-Embassy, lopped off all funding and suspended production indefinitely. Projectless, Richert spun around, picked up an unproduced feature script by drive-in director Larry Cohen (Q, It's Alive!), and somehow found the cash to churn out a second piece of eccentricity with Bridges and Bauer in the leads, this one for Columbia Pictures -- hoping he could use the latter's earnings to polish off Winter. Thus began a very shaky history over the next 30 years for a little film originally called The American Success Company. This ghost of a picture bombed at the box office in 1979, was later reedited twice by Richert under distinct titles (first as American Success in 1981 and then as Success in 1983), and received limited theatrical distribution. It has since fallen through the cracks of movie history, never receiving official distribution on home video but popping up in bootleg versions under the titles Good as Gold and The Ringer. The movie tells the story of Harry Flowers (Bridges), a Milquetoast employee of a Munich-based credit card company, AmSucCo (did AmEx raise any eyebrows at that?), married to the daughter (Bauer) of his slightly tyrannical boss (Ned Beatty). Flowers allows himself to be shoved around and coddled by everyone, until he suddenly decides to slip into an assumed identity -- that of a gruff, bull-by-the-horns modern-day prince, determined to "rescue himself" from wimpdom by learning sexual aggression from a prostitute (Bianca Jagger) and ultimately wresting millions from the hand that feeds him. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Belinda Bauer, (more)
- 1979
- R
In 1979, Jonathan Demme was still a cutting-edge director and The Last Embrace was his first effort at a completely commercial assignment. Very much in the Hitchcock vein, The Last Embrace is an intense suspense film concerning Harry Hannan (Roy Scheider), a government agent recovering from a catatonic collapse after the murder of his wife. After Harry's recovery, he is back on the job, but he can't figure out whether he is suffering from self-induced paranoia or if his former employers want to kill him. These conflicting feelings are exacerbated when he forms a connection with a nervous graduate student, Ellie Fabian (Janet Margolin), whom he discovers is living in his apartment. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Scheider, Janet Margolin, (more)
- 1978
- PG
In this comic mystery, a department store clerk dreams of becoming a famous writer of children's books. He is also having an affair with a lovely patron of the store. The trouble begins when the lovers find that her husband, a pair of neighbors and a bogus detective have been murdered. The lovers decide to solve the case themselves. Mayhem ensues and the story's climax occurs at the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, John Wood, (more)
The film traces the lifelong relationship between playwright Lillian Hellman and Julia, a wealthy girl who turns her back on her upbringing to follow her ideals. In the 1930s, while the adult Hellman (Jane Fonda) struggles to establish herself as a playwright with the help of her lover, Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards), Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) battles the exigencies of the Nazi regime. Visiting Julia in Germany, Lillian realizes how much her friend's idealism has cost her, both physically and financially. Lillian is asked by Julia's friend Johann (Maximilian Schell) to smuggle a large sum of money from Paris to Germany, the better to combat the Nazis from within. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and four acting awards, Julia won for Alvin Sargent's screenplay and Robards' and Redgrave's performances, leading to Redgrave's infamous "Zionist hoodlums" acceptance speech. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, (more)
