Francesca Jarvis Movies

CBS's scheduled resolution of a Murphy Brown cliffhanger (is she pregnant or not?) cut a vital portion of the audience for Living A Lie upon its initial September 1991 telecast. Those who did tune into this TV movie were in for a well-intentioned if preachy anti-prejudice piece. The scene is a rural Southwestern community, where Jill Eikenberry has been happily married to Peter Coyote for years. An Hispanic family moves into the area, and is promptly subjected to violence. The principal suspect is Coyote--who is, as Eikenberry discovers for the first time, a fire-breathing bigot. As the body of evidence increases, she finds it difficult to stand by her husband, as the community expects her to. Ultimately her conscience wins out over misguided matrimonial loyalty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paul Newman plays the title role in John Huston's surreal, revisionist western as the infamous Texas hanging judge. Upon arriving in the tiny West Texas town of Vinegaroon, Roy Bean draws a moustache on a wanted poster of himself, marches into a saloon, and declares his presence. He is immediately robbed, beaten within an inch of his life, tied to a horse and dragged out into the prairie, then left to die. Rescued by a young Mexican girl, Maria Elena (Victoria Principal), Roy Bean heads back into town and murders everyone in the local saloon, declaring that he'll kill anyone of the same sort who turns up. He also sets himself up as the sole arbiter of law and order and renames the town Langtry, in honor of the legendary actress Lily Langtry (Ava Gardner). The community prospers as Judge Bean dispenses his own brand of frontier justice upon strangers passing by, robbing or killing anyone who tries to make their way through the town. But when Maria dies, Bean's old associates begin to turn on him, one at a time (in response to his constant harping on their wives, many of whom were former prostitutes) and Bean is forced to leave. Years later, Bean rides back into town, called back to the place to save his daughter from trouble - and finds that the community has been taken over by a shady character called Frank Gass (Roddy McDowall) - a circumstance that requires Bean to dispense his own unique brand of justice once again. Stacy Keach lends a neat comic turn to the film as Bad Bob, an albino gunslinger whose dining habits consist of chowing down on raw onion, drinking hot coffee from a pot, and demanding that an entire horse be cooked for his supper. John Milius (Red Dawn) scripted.
~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Sidney Poitier plays Homer Smith, an aimless ex-GI who takes a temporary handyman job at a Southwestern farm maintained by five German nuns. It is the cherished dream of the Mother Superior (Lilia Skala) to build a chapel (or, as she says, a "shapel"). She is convinced that the personable Homer has been sent from Above to help her realize her dream. He protests loudly and rudely, but she will not be dissuaded. How Homer accomplishes her goal, endears himself to the surrounding townsfolk, and avoids an arrest for a previous crime, comprises the heart of Lilies of the Field. The film, adapted by James Poe from a novel by William E. Barrett, was later remade for television, and it won Poitier an Academy Award for Best Actor, the first time that award was given to an African-American. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide