Dorian Harewood Movies

Based on Robert Anderson's novel, the made-for-television Getting Up and Going Home is a drama about a divorced attorney (Tom Skerritt) who copes with a mid-life crisis by having affairs with no less than three women: his ex-wife, a single mother, and a married suburbanite. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

A group of scientists are sent to the sun in 2050 to stop a giant solar flare from destroying the Earth. As the team nears the sun, some members of the team begin to suspect that someone is trying to sabotage their mission. Solar Crisis has very strong special effects and fine acting, making it an excellent sci-fi thriller. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

There were those in 1989 who bellyached that Disney Television's Polly was a far from faithful adaptation of Eleanor Porter's classic novel Pollyanna. What they meant was that Polly did not resemble the 1960 Hayley Mills movie version of Pollyanna, which itself played fast and loose with the source material. In Polly, The Cosby Show's Keshia Knight Pulliam portrays the "Glad Girl" who brings along a satchelful of happiness and optimism when she visits her wealthy aunt one summer. Tranposing Porter's all-white story to a middle-class black community in the Alabama of the 1950s (Celeste Holm is the only white costar) isn't nearly as self-conscious or gimmicky as it seems on paper. Nor is any damage done to the original by adding musical numbers, especially when taking into consideration that the film was directed by renowned choreographer Debbie Allen (the sister of Phylicia Rashad, who plays Polly's aunt--and who in 1989 was costarring with Keshia Knight Pulliam on a weekly basis on The Cosby Show). Polly scored a boffo ratings hit, prompting Disney TV to assemble a 1990 sequel, Polly: Comin' Home! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dorian Harewood stars as real-life Texas engineer Lenell Geter, who in 1982 was accused of armed robbery. Beyond the fact that both he and the suspect are African-American, Geter looks nothing at all like the actual robber; still, he is identified as the culprit in a police lineup. Despite the testimony of six character witnesses, all of whom were with Geter at the time of the robbery, he is sentenced to life imprisonment. He very likely would have remained in prison had not the CBS investigative series 60 Minutes told Geter's story to millions of viewers. The authorities refuse to acknowledge the possibility that they have erred, and attempt to block a re-opening of the case. Even Geter's court-appointed attorney (Dabney Coleman) is unsympathetic to his client's plight. But Geter's somewhat ingenuous faith in the American justice system is eventually rewarded, and he is finally set free. Guilty of Innocence was originally telecast February 3, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Somewhere in the Deep South, young singer Matt Burns (Brian L. Green) has been arrested for the murder of local bully Ed Bonner (Jeffrey Osterhage), son of the town's most influential citizen (Stuart Whitman). Innocent bystanders to this developing drama are Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) and her friend and fellow writer Ames Caulfield (Craig Stevens), one of whose former students happened to be Matt's mother. At the request of Matt's girl friend (and the dead man's sister) Linda (Cindy Fisher), Jessica does her best to prove Matt's innocence--while an angry lynch mob begins to swarm around the town jail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Schlesinger directed this fact-based drama - adapted from Robert Lindsay's bestseller of the same title -- about two Californians, friends since boyhood, who are caught selling government secrets to the Soviet Union. Christopher Boyce (Timothy Hutton) is an all-American boy, studying for the priesthood in a seminary. But Boyce decides to drop out of school, and with the help of his father (Pat Hingle), a FBI agent, he gets a job working for the CIA in a message-routing center. While reading the messages, Boyce is shocked to learn that the CIA is involved in fixing Australian elections. Watching the Watergate hearings on television, he feels an ever-mounting sense of outrage at the arrogance of the U.S. government and decides to do something about it. Deciding to supply the CIA messages to the Russians, he enlists his childhood friend Daulton Lee (Sean Penn) to help him. Lee is to deliver the CIA secrets to a Russian operative (David Suchet) at the Soviet Embassy in Mexico City. But Lee is an unreliable drug dealer, and his sloppy spy trail leads the two old friends into more trouble than they bargained for. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A remake of Jacques Tourneur's noir classic Out of the Past (1947), in this version a labyrinthine web of corruption touches on the world of pro football. When an injury-riddled body causes pro football player Terry Brogan (Jeff Bridges) to be cut by his team, Jake Wise (James Woods), a shady gambler friend, hires him to locate his spoiled, erratic girlfriend Jessie (Rachel Ward). Terry's attempt to glean Jessie's whereabouts from the girl's coldly aristocratic mother (Jane Greer) leads to a lucrative counteroffer to keep Jessie away from Jake if he finds her. After refusing, Terry heads for scenic Cozumel, where he eventually runs down the stunning young woman. A mutual attraction quickly develops and the pair are less than eager to return to California. Painfully, Terry tells Jessie about his involvement in a betting scandal which has put him under Jake's control. Meanwhile Jake, who is angered by the delay, senses that something is going on, and sends Terry's conditioning coach, Sully (Alex Karras), to find the couple. When he finally locates them, sweatily making love in a Mayan temple, tragedy ensues, spinning the ill-fated Terry into a world of boundless deceit and corruption. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV movie was initially shown under the title I, Desire. Coroner's aide David Naughton can't understand why one of the corpses under his care has been drained of blood. Doing a little detective work on his own, Naughton follows the trail of clues to sexy streetwalker Marilyn Jones. Could it be that this far-from-happy hooker is a vampire? Dorian Harewood costars as the detective on the case. I Desire originally aired November 15, 1982, two weeks too late for Halloween. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this grim made-for-television thriller, a routine embezzlement trial turns deadly when some of the jurors literally lose their heads. This prompts the police to send out its special strike force to solve the case before more people die. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

High Ice is a made-for-television adventure thriller about an Army helicopter rescue team who has to race against time and the elements to save three mountain climbers who are stranded on a small, icy mountain ledge in Washington. Along the way, a lieutenant colonel and a forest ranger engage in a battle of wills, which only makes the rescue more difficult. High Ice has also been shown with the title Challenge of the High Ice. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide

The phenomenal success of the 1977 ABC miniseries Roots all but demanded a sequel to writer Alex Haley's epic story of his African and African-American forebears. Debuting February 18, 1979, Roots: The Next Generations picked up where its predecessor left off, with Haley's slave ancestors winning their freedom in the aftermath of the Civil War. Even so, life for black Americans was wrought with hardship and oppression thanks to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the staunch refusal of the white power structure to pass anti-lynching laws, and the formation of the dreaded Jim Crow laws which legalized racial segregation in the South (and much of the North). Covering the period from 1882 to the mid-1970s, the miniseries first focuses on blacksmith Tom Harvey (Georg Stanford Brown), great-grandson of Kunta Kinte (the protagonist of the original Roots), and his family. Meanwhile, reacting to the marriage of his son to a black woman, anal-retentive Southern colonel Warner (Henry Fonda) begins setting the legal wheels in motion to deny blacks like Tom the right to vote and to hold "white" jobs. A few decades later, Tom's son-in-law encourages his fellow blacks to stand firm against the KKK's reign of terror. His labors on behalf of his race are rewarded when his daughter Bertha (Irene Cara) becomes the first descendant of Kunta Kinte to receive a college education. It is Bertha Palmer who weds the equally ambitious Simon Haley (Dorian Harewood), who goes on to serve in WWI and to organize farmers and sharecroppers during the Depression. Simon's son Alex (played at various ages by Kristoff St. John, Damon Evans, and finally James Earl Jones) is just as determined to succeed in a white man's world as his father, and to that end becomes a professional writer after his own service stint in the Coast Guard during WWII. At the height of his professional success (largely due to his having ghost-written the autobiography of Muslim activist Malcolm X), Alex Haley pays a visit to his boyhood hometown -- where, almost by accident, he receives the first clue to his heritage, a clue that will lead him on an odyssey of self-discovery, arriving full circle at Kunta Kinte's birthplace in Africa. Although the miniseries' "money scene" was Haley's nervous interview with American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell (Marlon Brando in a superb cameo turn), the climactic episode, in which Haley tearfully embraces the living African descendants of Kunta Kinte, is one of the most unforgettable moments in the history of network television. Running 12 episodes and 14 hours, Roots: The Next Generations concluded on February 25, 1979, playing to huge ratings all along the way and ultimately garnering several Emmy nominations (and one win). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Siege is set in a big-city housing development. Retiree Martin Balsam, along with the rest of the building's residents, live in terror of a street gang commandeered by self-styled "king" hoodlum Dorian Harewood. Police lieutenant James Sutorius tries to rally the older citizens to stand up against the younger punks, all to no avail. But when Balsam's lady friend Sylvia Sidney falls victim to the hoods, Balsam takes the law into his own hands--leading to an ironic climax. While it is satisfying to see Martin Balsam giving the arrogant gang leader his due, the made-for-TV Siege clearly sets forth the dangers of vigilantism. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide