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
Woody Allen's romantic comedy of the Me Decade follows the up and down relationship of two mismatched New York neurotics. Jewish comedy writer Alvy Singer (Allen) ponders the modern quest for love and his past romance with tightly-wound WASP singer Annie Hall (Diane Keaton, née Diane Hall). The twice-divorced Alvy knows that it's not easy to find a mate when the options include pretentious New York intellectuals and lifestyle-obsessed Rolling Stone writers, but la-di-dah-ing Annie seems different. Along the rocky road of their coupling, Allen/Alvy weigh in on such topics as endless therapy, movies vs. TV, the absurdity of dating rituals, anti-Semitism, drugs, and, in one of the best set pieces, repressed Midwestern WASP insanity vs. crazy Brooklyn Jewish boisterousness. Annie wants to move to Los Angeles to find that fame that finally does in the relationship -- but not before Alvy gets in a few digs at vacuous, mantra-fixated California. Originally entitled Anhedonia (the inability to enjoy oneself), Annie Hall blended the slapstick and fantasy from such earlier Allen films as Sleeper (1973) and Bananas (1971) with the more autobiographical musings of his stand-up and written comedy, using an array of such movie techniques as talking heads, splitscreens, and subtitles. Within these gleeful formal experiments and sight gags, Allen and co-writer Marshall Brickman skewered 1970s solipsism, reversing the happy marriage of opposites found in classic screwball comedies. Hailed as Allen's most mature and personal film, Annie Hall beat out Star Wars for Best Picture and also won Oscars for Allen as director and writer and for Keaton as Best Actress; audiences enthusiastically responded to Allen's take on contemporary love and turned Keaton's rumpled menswear into a fashion trend. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, (more)
- 1975
Azure Dee (Denyce Liston), a former prostitute who has struck it rich, is found hanging from the chandelier in the living room of her lavish home. Curiously affected by this death, Kojak begins to investigate Azure's friends, family members and customers, hoping to determine if the woman committed suicide or was murdered--and in either case, why it happened. Series star Telly Savalas is heard singing the episode's theme song in the final scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This detective-themed action-adventure film spoofs The Big Sleep, which was based on the novel by Raymond Chandler. Burt Reynolds plays McCoy, a hard-nosed private detective. The story has more tangles than a bowl of spaghetti, but it begins when McCoy is called to the house of Hume (Ron Weyand), an eccentric diamond dealer, and is given the task of recovering some stolen gems. McCoy is beaten by a gang of thugs to warn him off the job, and this lets him know that he's onto something really big. By the end of the film, McCoy will have hooked up with a gorgeous blonde (Dyan Cannon), driven a tank through a warehouse wall, and delivered numerous crooks to the police. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Dyan Cannon, (more)
