Jonathan Banks Movies

In this drama, five beauty aspiring beauty queens are abducted in a hijacked airplane. Also upon the plane is a strain of deadly virus. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Girl in the Empty Grave was the third of four TV pilot films for a proposed Andy Griffith detective series. Griffith stars as Abel Marsh, a small-town police chief whose casual demeanors hides a sharp analytical mind and gift for deduction. The plot gets under way when a young girl shows up in town. It happens that the girl is supposed to be dead: in fact, virtually everyone in the community attended her funeral. Who is the girl in the grave--and, more importantly, who was responsible for the murder of the "dead" girl's parents? First telecast September 20, 1977, Girl in the Empty Grave was followed two months later by The Deadly Game; neither film would yield a weekly series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Spoofing the entire 1940s detective genre, and his own performances as a bumbling private detective, Peter Falk plays Lou Pekinpaugh, a San Francisco private detective accused of murdering his partner at the instigation of his mistress, the partner's wife, Georgia Merkle (Marsha Mason). Police Lieutenant DiMaggio (Vic Tayback) has his eye on Lou and blunders around in a way which complicates Lou's efforts to clear his name. Lou gets a new client when Mrs. Montenegro (Madeline Kahn) and her cronies (John Housman, Paul Williams and Dom DeLuise) hire him to search out a dozen diamond eggs. Marlene DuChard (Louise Fletcher) also comes to him for help of a complicated nature. In this madcap comedy written by Neil Simon, obstacles and complications appear every few minutes, and a great many famous actors show up in hilarious cameos. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

J.D. Pickett (Lewis Arquette) and his male employees laugh out loud when Mary Ellen (Judy Norton-Taylor) and Erin (Mary McDonough) enter a "ride and run" horse race staged by Pickett to raise money for the war effort. Defiantly, Erin bets J.D. a week's wages that she will win the race -- a very long shot indeed! And back at the Walton home, Jeffrey (Keith Mitchell) loses faith in humanity when he finds out that his favorite movie star didn't really sign the autographed photo on his wall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made quickly on videotape to capitalize on celebrated kidnap victim Patty Hearst's recent rescue, Ordeal of Patty Hearst stars Lisa Eilbacher as the beleagured newspaper heiress. Hearst's secure existence is shattered when she is seized by a tiny terrorist group calling itself the Symbionese Liberation Army. As the abductors deliver their ransom demands to Hearst's publisher father, they brainwash her into obedience to their cause. Unlike the much-later theatrical feature Patty Hearst, the made-for-TV Ordeal is told from the point of view of the FBI agent (Dennis Weaver) assigned to the case; in fact, more time is spent on the private life of the agent (who is on the eve of his retirement) than on Ms. Hearst herself. Ordeal of Patty Hearst works within its limited parameters, though it can hardly be considered the last word on the subject. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After the excellent audience response to their teaming in Silver Streak, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor reunited for this zany comedy. Wilder and Pryor play a couple of out-of-work numbskulls who take a promotional job that requires them to dress up like gigantic woodpeckers. Unfortunately, a pair of thieves, likewise decked out in woodpecker suits, pull off a bank job not long after Wilder and Pryor make their first public appearance. The boys are arrested and sentenced to 120 years each (at this point, we know we're not dealing with real life). After a concerted (and hilarious) effort to make the best of things "in stir," Wilder and Pryor break out of jail, hoping to track down the genuine thieves. The mess never really works itself out, suggesting that perhaps the stars had a Stir Crazy II lurking in the recesses of their minds. Written by Bruce Jay Friedman and directed by Sidney Poitier, it never did spawn a sequel, though a TV series spin-off, starring Larry Riley and Joseph Guzaldo, briefly surfaced in 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On a stormy night, Laura (Melissa Gilbert) and Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson) are held captive at the blind school by three escaped convicts. Since one of the men is wounded, Laura is permitted to go to town to get a doctor -- with the warning that Mary will suffer should she alert the authorities. Even so, Laura returns to the school with her father, Charles (Michael Landon) -- not a doctor, but just what the doctor ordered to resolve this terrifying situation. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This action film follows the childhood alliances of "Lucky" Luciano, Meyer Lansky, and "Bugsy" Siegel and their reign as the kings of the 1920s crime scene. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

As played by Jessica Lange, Frances Farmer is a rebel from the word go, winning a high school essay award by writing a piece in defense of Communism. Determining to become an actress, Frances is equally determined not to play the Hollywood game: she refuses to acquiesce to idiotic publicity stunts, and insists upon appearing on screen sans makeup. Her defiance attracts the attention of Broadway playwright Clifford Odets, who convinces Frances that her future rests with the Group Theatre. But once she leaves Hollywood for New York, Frances learns to her chagrin that the Group intends to exploit her movie fame in order to draw in customers. Her desperate attempts to restart her movie career, combined with her increasing dependence on alcohol and the pressures brought to bear by her monster mother (Kim Stanley), result in a complete mental breakdown. Even while institutionalized, Frances is abused by the powers-that-be; she is forced to undergo an injurious brain operation, is treated like a mad animal, and periodically raped by the inmates. Frances is released in the custody of her mother, who persists in browbeating her tortured daughter until Frances discovers the legal means to break away. The real-life Frances spent her last years as host of a local Indianapolis TV program, dying in 1970 at age 57; the film comes to a climax when Frances is feted on the smarmy network program This is Your Life. Other actual personages depicted herein include Clifford Odets (played by Jeffrey DeMunn), Harold Clurman (Jordan Charney) and Ralph Edwards (Donald Craig). Frances' first husband Leif Erickson is fictionalized as "Jeffrey York", and played by Lange's real-life inamorata Sam Shepard. And if you listen closely, you'll hear the voice of Kevin Costner, whose minor role was whittled down to one line when he, like Frances Farmer, had the temerity to argue with the director. The unhappy life of actress Frances Farmer was also covered in Farmer's autobiography, Will There Ever Be a Morning? While the film rights for that book were sold to a TV-movie concern, the producers of the theatrical feature Frances were able to ship their production out to the public first. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sci-fi film, a journalist uses her new powers to find the guilty parties behind a million-dollar art theft. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

"Don't expose him to bright light. Don't ever get him wet. And don't ever, ever feed him after midnight." This sage advice is ignored midway through Gremlins, with devastating results. This comic Joe Dante effort is set in a Norman Rockwell-esque small town at Christmastime. Seeking a unique gift for his son an erstwhile inventor (Hoyt Axton) purchases a cute, fuzzy little "Mogwai" from a Chinatown shopkeeper's (Keye Luke) grandson (John Louie), who dispenses the above-mentioned warning before closing the deal. Meanwhile, young bank clerk Billy Peltzer (Zach Galligan) must suffer such antagonists as rich-bitch Mrs. Deagle (Polly Holliday) and priggish Gerald (Judge Reinhold) while pursuing his romance with Kate (Phoebe Cates). These and a variety of other plot strands are tied together when the lovable mogwai (named Gizmo) is exposed to bright light and gotten wet. In short order, the town is invaded by nasty, predatory Gremlins, who lay waste to everything in sight as Billy and Kate try to contain the destruction. Like most of Joe Dante's works, Gremlins is chock-full of significant cameo appearances: in this instance, such pop-culture icons as Dick Miller, Jackie Joseph, Chuck Jones, Scott Brady, Harry Carey Jr., Steven Spielberg (the film's executive producer) and even Robby the Robot all show up briefly on screen. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-television biopic tells the story of phenomenal Rumanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, a little girl who blew away the judges at the 1976 Summer Olympics by getting an unprecedented series of six perfect scores. Unfortunately, though the games were a dream come true, her subsequent life was a nightmare that culminated in a suicide attempt. Fortunately that was Nadia's lowest point and she was able to make a comeback in time to have a happy ending. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Hunter (Fred Dryer) and McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) are assigned to handle 12 hours of a 24-hour effort to provide police protection for a government witness. The other 12 hours are the responsibility of a boozy, unreliable beat cop and a decidedly shady police detective. Even so, when the witness takes a fatal header off a high-rise building, it is Hunter who is charged with murder--and as it turns out, our hero is merely a small player in a much larger conspiracy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide