Susan Nanus Movies
- 2005
Worn to a frazzle by her job at trendy "Glow" magazine, straitlaced J.J. Jenner (Carly Pope) is gratified when her boss offers her the job of writing an important food column--but only if she can finish a decent article within a two-week deadline, which will fall upon Christmas Eve. Impeding J.J.'s potential success is the breakup of her current romance, and especially the unannounced arrival of her freewheeling mother Lee (Christine Baranski), former hippie and lifelong chorus girl. To get her well-meaning but annoying mom out of her hair, and to assure that the food-column job will definitely be hers, J.J. enters into an arrangement with publicity-hungry restaurant owner Alex (Bobby Cannavale), wherein he will date Lee in exchange for a glowing review of his eating establishment. Suffice to say that things don't quite turn out as either J.J. or Alex originally planned. Produced for the Lifetime cable channel,Recipe for a Perfect Christmas debuted December 5, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2003
Set in the mid-'80s and early '90s, this made-for-cable drama is the true story of Joan Carey Lowell, a 32-year-old teacher at a Tucson school for the blind. In a stroke of tragic irony, Joan loses her own sight in a short three weeks due to accelerated muscular degeneration. The tragedy is compounded five years later when Joan's husband Joe dies of cancer, leaving her to raise their eight-year-old daughter Joy alone. Armed with an inexhaustible supply of resilience and an extremely well-developed sense of humor, Joan carves out a whole new, successful career for herself as a best-selling author and motivational speaker, aided and abetted by her former high school sweetheart (and, ultimately, second husband) Jim Brock (Dylan Walsh). Filmed in Winnipeg, Manitoba, More Than Meets the Eye: The Joan Brock Story first aired June 16, 2003, on the Lifetime network, marking actress Carey Lowell's return to television after a voluntary six-year absence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carey Lowell, Dylan Walsh, (more)
- 1997
This fact-based TV movie stars John Ritter as Ed Chandler, whose life is torn asunder when his daughter Missy (Anna Chlumsky) is diagnosed with cancer. The nature of Missy's illness obliges Ed to spend many hours away from his job as a car salesman to commiserate with her daughter's doctors at the hospital. Then one day, Ed shows up at work to be coldly informed that he has been fired--and there is no one to whom he can go to plead his case. The plight of the Chandler family ultimately leads to the creation of the Federal Family and Medical Leave Act, which allows persons up to six weeks' leave from their jobs when their family members are suffering from serious illnesses. Telecast by CBS on January 21, 1997, Child's Wish (cable title: Fighting for Justice made headlines when it first aired because of the appearance of President Bill Clinton in the final scene--the first time that a sitting President ever starred as "himself" in a dramatic film (as well as the first such scene to be lensed on location in the Oval Office!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1997
- PG13
Based on Rescuers: Portraits of Moral Courage in the Holocaust, a book by Gay Block and Malka Drucker, this made-for-cable drama was intended as the first of a trilogy inspired by the same literary source. The film is divided into two segments, both set in Europe during WWII. Scripted by Ernest Kinoy, "Mamusha" stars Elizabeth Perkins as a Polish-Catholic nanny who saves her orphaned Jewish charge by literally hiding the child in plain sight, posing as the child's mother. And "The Woman on the Bicycle," adapted by Susan Nanus, features Sela Ward and Fritz Weaver in the story of a fearless French resistance fighter who smuggles secret papers for the Allies while going about her daily cheese deliveries (this same character was fictionalized in the 1963 theatrical epic The Longest Day). Executive-produced by Barbra Streisand and directed by Peter Bogdanovich, Rescuers: Stories of Courage -- Two Women made its Showtime cable debut on October 5, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Perkins, Sela Ward, (more)
- 1996
- PG
At first glance, the made-for-TV Harvest of Fire would seem to be a gender-switch variation on the theatrical feature Witness (1985), but it is much more than that. Assigned to investigate the possibility of a hate crime when three barns are burned in an Amish community in Iowa, FBI agent Sally Russwell (Lolita Davidovich) is given a far-from-warm welcome by the locals when she arrives at the scene of the crime. Shunned as one of "the English" -- that is, an outsider -- Sally is able to gain the confidence only of entrepreneurial Amish widow Annie Beiler (Patty Duke), who is as curious and inquisitive about the outside world as Sally is of Annie's world. The shaky but solid bond formed between the two women enables Sally to proceed with her investigation -- and, in the process, to expose several unpleasant secrets concerning the tightly-knit community. An Emmy Award winner for Best Sound Mixing, Harvest of Fire was first telecast as a CBS "Hallmark Hall of Fame" special on April 21, 1996. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lolita Davidovich, Patty Duke, (more)
In this made for TV movie based on Danielle Steele's novel, Cheryl Ladd portrays a successful New York television anchorwoman. When she marries a successful surgeon in Los Angeles, romance becomes difficult with their careers on opposite ends of the country. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cheryl Ladd, Michael Nouri, (more)
