Brian Trueman Movies

As actor, director, and executive producer, Sydney Pollack has been involved with some of Hollywood's most acclaimed works including Tootsie, Out of Africa, and Three Days of the Condor. This video profile highlights his life and career. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

Part of the Directors series, which profiles the careers of some of the world's most powerful movie directors, Directors: Joel Schumacher looks at the work of Hollywood director Joel Schumacher. With a variety of funny and dramatic films to his credit, including Car Wash (1976), The Incredible Shrinking Woman (1978), Falling Down (1993), and Batman Forever (1995), Schumacher has a reputation for box-office success. Kevin Bacon, Uma Thurman, Chris O'Donnell, Nicole Kidman, Arnold Schwarzenegger, and others are interviewed. ~ Betsy Boyd, All Movie Guide

Having churned out an awesome 24 episodes for its sixth season, the satirical British animated series Danger Mouse cut back to a more manageable (and economical) six episodes for season seven. The opener is "Danger Mouse on the Orient Express," which, if you listen very closely, contains an unintentional reference to the yet-to-be-produced Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends." In "The Ultra Secret Secret," intrepid secret agent Danger Mouse reluctantly teams with his arch enemy Baron Greenback to save the world from alien invasion. Another Cosgrove-Hall cartoon creation is spotlighted in "Duckula Meets Frankenstoat," but Danger Mouse is in there somewhere. "Where There's a Well There's Away" features one of the hero's many set-tos with Merlin the Magician. In "All Fall Down," Danger Mouse must make the world shatterproof; and in "Turn of the Tide," a gravitational catastrophe forces Danger Mouse's assistant Penfold to invoke the names of Copernicus and Mr. Lar Busom (or as he puts it, "Copper Nickers and Large Bosom"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The animated secret agent satire Danger Mouse enters its fourth season with nine new episodes, originally seen on British television in 1983. First up is "The Wild Wild Goose Chase," which allows the daring-and-resourceful Danger Mouse to utilize his new Computerized Hideout Locator. In "The Return of Count Duckula," Danger Mouse and his sidekick Penfold square off against another Cosgrove-Hall cartoon creation, while Parliament is hit with a bad case of showbiz fever. "Demons Aren't Dull" elucidates its title with a foray into the fourth dimension. "150 Million Years Lost" is the result of another misbegotten invention of dotty Professor Squakenduck. "The Planet of the Cats" is a takeoff of guess what. (Hint: "you blew it up, darn you to heck!") In "Four Heads Are Better Than Two," a robot Penfold causes trouble for Danger Mouse while a robot Danger Mouse causes trouble for Penfold. (Didn't The Flintstones do this one?) "Tower of Terror" takes place in a Manhattan skyscraper."The Great Bone Idol" chronicles the chaotic results of when Count Duckula joins forces with the evil Baron Silas Greenback. And Penfold unexpectedly saves the day in "Public Enemy No. 1." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dauntless, dashing secret agent Danger Mouse and his mild-mannered mole sidekick Penfold make the world safe for bad British music hall puns in six new episodes, telecast during the series' second season. Future A Touch of Frost star David Jason provides not only the voice of Danger Mouse but also the dreaded Custard Might of Glut in the season two opener. Next, "Close Encounters of the Absurd Kind" whisks D.M. and Penfold to the Bermuda Triangle. "The Duel" is between Danger Mouse and his worthy adversary Baron Silas Greenback, winner take all. In "The Day of the Suds," London is besieged by killer washing machines. The title tells all -- practically -- in "The Bad Luck Eye of the Little Yellow God." Finally we have "The Four Tasks of Danger Mouse," in which our hero crosses paths with another Cosgrove-Hall Productions cartoon character, Count Duckula. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sometimes described as "The British Bullwinkle," the bitingly satirical cartoon series Danger Mouse was the first major success for the animation firm of Cosgrove-Hall (named for producer/writer/voice actors Brian Cosgrove and Mark Hall). Created by Brian Trueman, Danger Mouse was a half-hour James Bond spoof featuring a muscular, resourceful white mouse who sported a dashing eye patch. Secret agent Danger Mouse (his voice provided by future A Touch of Frost star David Jason) took his orders from Colonel K and was frequently accompanied in his adventures by his nervous assistant, a mole named Penfold, who rather resembled perennial British comedy foil Roy Kinnear. Danger Mouse's principal foe was a megalomaniac, fabulously wealthy frog named Baron Silas Greenback, who, rumor has it, was based on English entertainment mogul Sir Lew Grade. While the series' storylines were top heavy with Bondlike gimmickry and fiendish world-domination plots, they were just as thick with regional-dialect music hall humor, zany verbal and visual non sequiturs, inside references (hero and villain alike would gripe about the series' low-budget animation and their own meager paychecks), and a seemingly inexhaustible supply of pop-culture throwaway gags. And in fine Bullwinkle tradition, the show was outfitted with a pompous offscreen narrator, who frequently chided the onscreen characters for their behavior (in turn, those characters would argue with the narrator or simply tell him to shut his fat gob). On occasion, we'd be honored with a "crossover" episode, in which Danger Mouse came face to face with another classic Cosgrove-Hall cartoon concoction, the vampiric Count Duckula. After two abortive pilot episodes filmed in 1979, Danger Mouse made its British television bow over the ITV network on September 28, 1981, and remained in production until 1992. In America, the series was first syndicated in early 1984, then unveiled on cable's Nickelodeon network on June 4 of that same year. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide