Doreen Hepburn Movies
Gillies MacKinnon directed this charming Irish romance, taking place in a small Irish village in 1957, just before the first television set makes an appearance in this conservative hamlet. There is a scandal in the village concerning the beautiful and independent Tara Maguire (Robin Wright) -- Tara is pregnant and refuses to identify the father. She goes into labor during Sunday Mass, which raises the ire of the parish priest (Alan Devlin), who thinks God will bring bad times down on the village for Tara's effrontery. The priest feels Tara should marry the local town constable, Sgt. Hagerty (Albert Finney), a dyspeptic reformed alcoholic who is in love with Tara. But she doesn't love Hagerty. This becomes particularly clear when a traveling band of actors known as the Playboys come into town. One of the players in the troupe, Tom Casey (Aidan Quinn), is caught by Tara stealing one of her chickens. But it is love at first sight, although it takes a while for their attraction to take root beyond some electric glances. Hagerty sees where the relationship is going and he is determined to undermine the burgeoning affair. Tara is wary and doesn't want to be dependent upon any man, even to the point of smuggling supplies to the Irish Republican Army. When Hagerty hears someone in the village is colluding with the IRA, he suspects Tom and throws him in jail. But Hagerty is a walking time bomb and finally his rage erupts with violent force. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Albert Finney, Aidan Quinn, (more)
- 1990
Angela Lansbury stars as an unmarried teacher at a Minnesota Catholic grade school. An ongoing battle with new bishop Robert Prosky, coupled with her friendship with an unwed mother, awakens hera to the possibility that she hasn't lived her life to the fullest. When her grateful school staff bankrolls her vacation to Ireland, Lansbury uses the opportunity to meet the man (Denholm Elliot) with whom she has secretly corresponded for years--and with whom she has fallen in love, sight unseen. Arriving on the Emerald Isle, Lansbury eagerly arranges a meeting with her dream lover. Will she be surprised. Made for television, Love She Sought was filmed under the working titles A Green Journey and Last Chance for Romance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angela Lansbury, Robert Prosky, (more)
- 1988
- PG
Irish author Hugh Leonard's play Home Before Night was the basis of Da. Martin Sheen plays an Irish/ American playright living in New York. No matter how much he's assimilated himself, Sheen cannot escape the influence of his deceased adoptive father (Barnard Hughes). The writer has several heated confrontations with the "ghosts" of his father and mother (Doreen Hepburn), as well as with his own adolescent self (Karl Hayden). Sheen comes to realize that his own success was in part sparked by the failures of his "Da", a gardener who spent his life speaking in empty aphorisms and wishing he were someone else. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barnard Hughes, Martin Sheen, (more)
