Brian Kerwin Movies

When the state of Ohio refuses to help a poor single mother get her child's father to pay support, she launches a statewide campaign to enact newer, better child-support laws. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Jonathan Kaplan directs this drama which grafts a nostalgic mood piece with a race-to-the-finish road movie. Lurene Hallett (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an insulated middle-class wife living in Texas in the early 1960s who adores the Kennedys, particularly Jackie, whom she feels is a kindred soul. When she finds out the President and First Lady will be in Dallas on November 22, 1963, she races to the airport to greet the couple. Just missing them, she drives through the Dallas streets and notices a quiet chaos developing. When she finds out John Kennedy has been assassinated, Lureen is determined to get to Washington to be with Jackie for the funeral. When her redneck husband Ray (Brian Kerwin) refuses to give her the car, she gets on a bus, where she meets a black man named Johnson (Dennis Haysbert), with his five-year-old daughter Jonell (Stephanie McFadden). Lureen speaks continually about Kennedy and the rest of the black occupants of the bus roll their eyes. But after an accident with the bus, Lureen uncovers the fact that Mr. Johnson's real name is Cater, and he has kidnapped his daughter from an orphanage and is heading to Philadelphia. With the cops on their tail, the trio steals a car and race northward with the police in pursuit, Lureen hoping to make to Washington in time for Kennedy's funeral. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

William Petersen's High Horse Films produced this romantic comedy that endeavors to recall the glory days of Cary Grant and Irene Dunne. Petersen stars as Joey Coalter, a roving adventurer who has been married to his wife Chris (Sissy Spacek) for almost thirteen years but has rarely been home. During that time Chris has become fed up with Joey's cavalier ways. But it comes as a complete shock to Joey when, while talking to a group of cowpokes about Tahitian women somewhere on the prairie, he receives a wedding invitation sent by his daughter Beth (Olivia Burnette) that announces the wedding of Chris to dull business man Walter Humphrey (Brian Kerwin). Beth hopes the surprise wedding invitation will prod Joey to try to get back together with Chris. Chris hopes so too, as Joey drops what he is doing and takes off to stop Chris's pending nuptials. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The two-part, four-hour TV movie Switched at Birth is based on an actual event which began unfolding in Wauchula, Florida in 1978. Brian Kerwin and Judith Hoag play the new parents of a baby girl; a few days later, another couple, played by John M. Jackson and Bonnie Bedelia, have a baby at the same hospital. Kerwin and Hoag's baby is healthy; Jackson and Bedelia's baby has a heart defect. Switched at Birth traces the lives of the two girls over a period of eight years--up to the point of a tragedy which opens the possibility that the girls may not have been given over to the correct parents at the hospital. The four parents involved find themselves in court, battling over custody of the surviving child. This intensely personal problem is bloated into a cause celebre by the press and by parents' rights pressure groups. Edward Asner and Caroline McWilliams appear as the opposing attorneys. Those who'd been following the two-part Switched at Birth during its first telecast in April of 1991 may have found themselves in family conflicts of their own, inasmuch as Part Two was shown opposite the network TV premiere of Die Hard. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"To Tell the Truth" is part two of a two-part episode. Roseanne interferes a little too much with Jackie and Gary's (Brian Kerwin) relationship, ending up in a giant fight between Roseanne and Jackie. They decide not to speak to each other until Jackie breaks the news that she's getting engaged. After Roseanne starts to help out with the wedding plans, Jackie and Gary have second thoughts. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

When Roseanne finally sets out to talk to Becky about sex, she is surprised by Darlene's reaction. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Bluegrass was a two-part TV movie that resurrected virtually every "racetrack" cliche known to man. Widowed Cheryl Ladd heads to Kentucky to start up a horse farm. Her wicked neighbor is Wayne Rogers who seeks Ladd's downfall. Faithful farm manager Brian Kerwin won't let Rogers stand in the way of Ladd's dream. Anthony Andrews hangs around as a Harlequin romance-style Irish rake with a Dark Secret. And what would a horse-farm movie be without Mickey Rooney? Part One of Bluegrass raised a stir upon its February 28, 1988 debut, with a brief shot of horses mating. But it was the foaling sequence in Part Two that really made the headlines. All tangled plotlines knot together in the second half of Bluegrass. Part Two, first telecast on Leap Year day in 1988, Ladd literally bets the ranch on the Kentucky Derby, while mysterious Irish stranger Anthony Andrews reveals his (gasp!) terrible secret. One of the film's highlights was the genuine birth of a foal. The poor animal looked so shaky that the network issued an official statement insisting that the newborn horse survived. When the truth came out (the foal didn't make it), the producers were heartily condemned by animal activist groups--which may be why all current films bear the closing disclaimer about no animals being injured during shooting. Bluegrass was directed by Simon Wincer, who later helmed the epic miniseries Lonesome Dove. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Harvey Fierstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning Broadway hit was adapted for the screen by Fierstein himself. The playwright also repeats his stage role of female impersonator Arnold Beckoff, aka nightclub entertainer "Virginia Hamm." The three-part plotline, whittled down to accommodate the film's 117-minute running time, concerns Arnold's seriocomic efforts to find a lasting relationship. We first meet Arnold in 1971, when his heart is broken by his bisexual lover (Brian Kerwin). Next we find Arnold in 1973, enjoying short-lived happiness with his true love (Matthew Broderick). The final act takes place in 1980: Arnold, still grieving over Broderick's sudden death and struggling to raise the young boy that the couple had adopted, has a long-anticipated showdown with his uncompromising mother, superbly played by Anne Bancroft. A witty film that is by turns touching and outrageous, Torch Song Trilogy works well despite its somewhat soft-pedaled approach to the material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Newly divorced Emma Moriarty (Sally Field) moves herself and her young son to a small Arizona town, hoping to establish a horse farm. Town pharmacist Murphy Jones (James Garner), the town's most eligible bachelor, develops a platonic friendship with Emma, but he decides to keep his distance when her ex-husband Bobby Jack (Brian Kerwin), who claims he's changed his irresponsible ways, moves back in with her. At a party at Emma's ranch, Murphy and Bobby Jack get into a verbal row, but nothing is settled until Wanda (Anna Levine) shows up with two babies in tow, claiming that Bobby Jack is the father. Once rid of her ex, Emma commisserates with her friend Murphy at his drug store--and is quite surprised to discover that she's fallen in love with the older man, and he with her. Murphy's Romance is a very gentle romantic comedy; even Murphy's cast-away lady friend (Georgann Johnson) behaves like a civilized human being instead of a woman scorned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jose Ferrer guest stars in this episode--but not for long!--as a famed hypnotist known as The Amazing Cagliostro. As a publicity stunt, Cagliostro shepherds a group of six journalists behind locked doors, then hypnotizes them en masse. The act comes to an abrupt conclusion when Cagliostro is stabbed to death in full view of the journalists--who, being hypnotized, can remember nothing about the crime! Jessica (Angela Lansbury) of course figures that at least one person in the room was sufficiently conscious to commit the murder, and she's determined to find out which one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In their latest earthly guises, angels Jonathan (Michael Landon) and Mark (Victor French) are employed as bellhops in a luxurious hotel. Their current "client" is Barry Rudd (Brian Kerwin), the listless, unmotivated son of millionaire Clinton Rudd (Jacques Aubuchon) . Employing methods both subtle and radical, Jonathan and Mark endeavor to arouse Barry out of his self-imposed torpor and to make decisions that will help him find true meaning in his life. And as a side benefit, a number of underserving characters get just what's coming to them! ~ All Movie Guide

Set during the '30s, this made-for-television sudser tells the melodramatic tale of a beautiful Hollywood starlet who throws away her promising career for the love of a married man. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Perhaps inspired by the success of PBS' Shakespeare Plays series, Bard Productions Ltd. Came out with this diverting if not very cinematic adaptation of the Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra. Timothy Dalton plays Marc Antony, while Lynn Redgrave is uncharacteristically alluring as Queen Cleopatra. The all-TV cast includes Nichelle Nichols, Anthony Geary, Walter Koenig, and Brian Kerwin. Also making a cameo appearance is John Carradine, giving his all to the brief part of the Soothsayer. At three hours, Antony and Cleopatra has some trouble getting bookings outside the "art" houses. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide