David Lansbury Movies
Jay Craven directed this post-WWII period drama adapted from a fact-based novel by Howard Frank Mosher. During the '50s, the service record of former Army chaplain Walter Andrews (Ernie Hudson) makes such an impression that he's hired over the telephone to serve as minister at a small town in rural Vermont. Only when Andrews arrives to begin work do the townspeople realize he's black. Despite some hostility from certain locals, he's accepted into the community. However, when young Claire LaRivierre (Jordan Bayne), is found murdered in the forest nearby, Andrews becomes the leading suspect because he gave her shelter. Contrasting accounts of Claire's final hours are revealed in the courtroom. Shown at the 1998 Hollywood Film Festival. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Lansbury, Ernie Hudson, (more)
- 1987
Not to be confused with the 1960s British TV series of the same title, the BBC one-off drama Airbase nonetheless shares the same WWII trappings. The scene is an underground hangar in England, where a USAF bomber crew is billeted for the duration. Their movements severely limited by the exigencies of war, the American crew is suffering from acute boredom, with things reaching the boiling point early on. Airbase was first broadcast in 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anton Lesser, Clive Mantle, (more)
This adaptation of Christina Bartolomeo's novel Cupid and Diana was produced for the award-winning anthology series Hallmark Hall of Fame. Cate DeAngelo (Mary Louise Parker) is the misfit youngest daughter in a dysfunctional Irish/Italian family; her mother recently died, and her father Dominic (Philip Bosco) has never had much use for her. Cate gets along only a bit better with her sisters, fussbudget Francesca (Bebe Neuwirth) and straight-laced Cynthia (Joanna Going). Cate runs a vintage clothing boutique that isn't doing much business, and her relationship with her boyfriend Philip (David Lansbury) is pleasant but passionless. When she meets Harry (Peter Gallagher), a rumpled but charming lawyer from New York, Cate thinks she may have finally found the man she's been looking for all her life -- except he seems like a less attractive package than Philip, and her family is sure she's making a mistake. Cupid & Cate first aired on May 7, 2000. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary-Louise Parker, Bebe Neuwirth, (more)
- 1993
This made-for-television thriller tells the story of an unstable woman who goes to bizarre lengths to keep her drifting lover. Kate Jackson stars as Rita Donohue, a nurse who believes that she can re-ignite her disinterested lover's passion by having a child. Unable to have a child of her own, Rita plots to snatch an infant from her hospital's maternity ward to later pass off as her own. She feigns a pregnancy, switches records on a stillborn and healthy child, and then steals a baby from new mother Jane Morgan (Lori Loughlin) in order to support her charade. The plan goes sour though, when Jane refuses to accept the hospital's claim that her child died, and she investigates the unsettling clues on her own. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kate Jackson, Lori Loughlin, (more)
Roger Moore took a brief vacation from playing James Bond in this witty adventure drama. Rufus Excalibur ffolkes (Moore), who for some reason prefers not to capitalize his last name, is a scuba-diving adventurer for hire with a sharp mind, a quick wit, a fondness for cats, and a certain distrust of women. When terrorist Lou Kramer (Anthony Perkins) takes over an oil drilling platform in the North Sea and threatens to blow it sky high if his demands are not met, ffolkes is called in by Admiral Brinsden (James Mason) to foil Kramer's scheme before it's too late. ffolkes, also released as North Sea Hijack and Assault Force, was based on the novel Esther, Ruth, and Jennifer by Jack Davies, who also penned the screenplay ("Esther, Ruth, and Jennifer," incidentally, are the code names for the ship, drilling rig, and platform seized by Kramer in the film). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Moore, James Mason, (more)
A despondent Brooklyn housewife whose life has become a boring and predictable routine finds her entire perception of the universe changed upon experiencing a close-encounter in her very own kitchen. Joanne Schwartzbaum (Cara Buono) has been sleepwalking her way through life for as far back as she can remember, but when an alien force reveals itself to her she is instantly snapped out of her complacent existence. Upon seeing a flier for a UFO support group during her weekly outing to the grocery store, Joanne determines to attend the meeting in hopes that it will provide her with a better understanding of her strange experience. When Joanne strikes up a friendly conversation with African immigrant Abraham Kanga (Isaach De Bankole) and realizes that they have both been branded by their extraterrestrial abductors, she enlists the aid of the amiable cab driver and market worker in solving the perplexing mystery. In the days that follow Joanne's frantic sleuthing activities become increasingly troubling to her incredulous husband Brain (David Lansbury), who soon begins to suspect that his wife is having an affair. Later, when Joanne sees a television news broadcast announcing the discovery of an unusual papyrus Egyptian scroll, she enlists the aid of her UFO support group to break into the Brooklyn Art Museum, snatch the curious artifact, and save the human race. Director Barry Strugatz helms a sci-fi spoof that gleefully pays homage to the B-movie hits of yesteryear while offering an absorbing tale of one woman's quest to stave off an impending alien invasion. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cara Buono, Isaach de Bankolé, (more)
Gorillas in the Mist is based on the autobiographical 1983 book by naturalist Dian Fossey. Before the book could be brought before the cameras, Fossey had been mysteriously killed; her death provides a logical, if somewhat ghoulish climax to the film. A Kentucky girl, Fossey (Sigourney Weaver) is inspired by famed anthropologist Louis Leakey (Ian Cuthbertson) to devote her life to the study of primates. Travelling into deepest Africa, Fossey becomes fascinated with the lives and habits of the rare mountain gorillas of the Ugandan wilderness. Studying them at close quarters, Fossey develops a means of communicating with the gorillas, and in so doing becomes obsessed with the beasts' well-being. She is so devoted to "her" mountain that she loses the opportunity for a romance with a National Geographic photographer (Bryan Brown). Appalled by the poaching of the gorillas for their skins, Fossey complains to the Ugandan government, which dismisses her by explaining that poaching is the only means by which some of the Ugandan natives can themselves survive. She refuses to accept this, and becomes a militant animal-rights activist, burning down the poachers' villages and even staging a mock execution of one of the offenders. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sigourney Weaver, Bryan Brown, (more)
- 2005
A medical examination reveals that 9-year-old traffic accident victim Holly Purcell (Jennifer Purcell) has been molested. Feeling pressured to provide the SVU team with quick answers, Holly blurts out that her attacker was her soccer coach Mark Dobbins (Daniel Hugh Kelly)--and before long, several other young girls come forth to accuse Dobbins of similarly assaulting them. But as it turns out, the authorties may have the wrong man in custody. . .and the actual molester may still be at large, fully prepared to kill Holly to prevent her from revealing the truth. Meanwhile, Detective Stabler (Christopher Meloni) is forced to deal with an intensely personal problem. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
A double homicide yields two likely suspects: Melanie Cullen (Shirley Knight), widow of the male victim, and Douglas Phillips (David Lansbury), the obsessive ex-boyfriend of the female victim. The key to the case ultimately rests in the hands of Melanie's son, James (Geoffrey Nauffts). Jerry Orbach, who would later join the series' regular cast as detective Lennie Briscoe, is here seen in the adversarial role of the Cullens' defense attorney, Frank Lehrman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1999
A group of young actors rehearsing a production of Macbeth find their roles are at once reflecting and shaping their personalities in Macbeth in Manhattan. Claudia (Gloria Reuben) and Max (David Lansbury) are a couple living together who both audition for an upcoming New York production of Macbeth. They win the leading roles, but the director (John Glover) decides to recast the title character when a better-known actor, William (Nick Gregory), becomes available, and Max is instead given a smaller role as Macduff. Soon the tensions and interpersonal dramas offstage begin to parallel the events of Shakespeare's Scottish tragedy. Female lead Gloria Reuben will be a familiar face to fans of the TV series E.R., while two other cast members come from notable theatrical families; David Lansbury is the nephew of actress Angela Lansbury, while Nick Gregory's father is noted actor and director André Gregory. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria Reuben, David Lansbury, (more)
Michael Clayton (George Clooney) handles all of the dirty work for a major New York law firm, arranging top-flight legal services and skirting through loopholes for ethically questionable clients. But when a fellow "fixer" decides to turn on the very firm they were hired to clean up for, Clayton finds himself at the center of a conspiratorial maelstrom. Once an ambitious D.A., Clayton is now a shell of his former dynamic self, thanks to a divorce, an unfortunate business venture, and astronomical debt. Though he longs to leave the cutthroat, ethically dubious world of corporate law behind, Clayton's poor financial situation and devotion to firm head Marty Bach (Sydney Pollack) leave him little choice but to remain on the job and tough it out. Meanwhile, litigator Karen Crowder (Tilda Swinton) finds her entire company's future hinging on the outcome of a multi-billion-dollar settlement overseen by Clayton's friend, star lawyer Arthur Edens (Tom Wilkinson). When Edens snaps and decides to blow the whistle on the questionable case, sabotaging the defense, Clayton must decide between his loyalty and his conscience. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Clooney, Tom Wilkinson, (more)
- 1991
The focus in this episode is on Mort Metzger (Ron Masak), sheriff of Cabot Cove, Maine, and a close personal friend of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury). When Metzger jails a young man named Bradley (David Lansbury) on a drunk driving charge, he refuses to drop the matter despite the power and influence wielded by Bradley's ambassador father Chandler Hellman (Jack Colvin). Subsequently, Bradley turns up dead, whereupon the vengeful Hellman pulls just the right strings to bring Metzger up on a murder charge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
The final episode of Murder, She Wrote's eighth season finds Jessica (Angela Lansbury) at the headquarters of a profitable toy company, there to supervise the design of a new board game based on her own mystery novels. Within what seems like minutes, the company's ruthless vice-president Meredith Delaney (Barbara Babcock) is murdered. Now Jessica finds herself in a real-life variation of her board game as she sifts through the suspects, which include the dead woman's husband, her much-younger lover, and an embittered designer. This episode is something of a family affair for star Angela Lansbury: it was written by her brother Bruce Lansbury, and features her nephew David Lansbury in a supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Jessica (Angela Lansbury) cannot help but take interest in the plight of her reclusive neighbor Alice Morgan (Cynthia Nixon), who has suffered from extreme agoraphobia ever since she witnessed her mother's murder. More recently, Alice has been experiencing disturbing visions of her own demise at the hands of a mysterious assailant. More disturbing still, that assailant has apparently come to life--or at least, Alice claims to have seen him in the flesh! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1994
Directed by Linda Yellen, this made-for-cable movie originally aired on the Showtime network and featured a star-studded cast including Dudley Moore, Liza Minelli, and James Belushi. The plot centers around several fraternity and sorority graduates who have decided to regroup at their alma mater. Nick (Belushi), a determined but gloomy reporter, attends on the sole hope of finding some good gossip. His highest hope lies within the career ties of his ex-lover Winnie (JoBeth Williams), who now serves as publicist to rising politician Rebecca Ferguson Stone (Patricia Wetig). Fellow alumni Charlie (Ben Gazzara) is returning for equally dishonest reasons--he's hoping to convince his ex Francie (Gena Rowlands) to pay off his gambling debts. Francie, however, has found herself more interested in bonding with a single mom/housekeeper (Ally Sheedy). All of their lives take a turn for the unexpected when the big man on campus mysteriously dies. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
Driven by an extravagant, tour-de-force performance by Al Pacino, Scent of a Woman is the story of Frank Slade (Pacino), a blind, retired army colonel who hires Charlie Simms (Chris O'Donnell), a poor college student on the verge of expulsion, to take care of him over Thanksgiving weekend. At the beginning of the weekend, Frank takes Charlie to New York, where he reveals to the student that he intends to visit his family, have a few terrific meals, sleep with a beautiful woman and, finally, commit suicide. The film follows the mis-matched pair over the course of the weekend, as they learn about life through their series of adventures. Though the story is a little contrived and predictable, it pulls all the right strings, thanks to O'Donnell's sympathetic supporting role and Pacino's powerful lead performance, for which he won his first Academy Award. Scent of a Woman is based on the 1975 Italian film Profumo Di Donna. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Pacino, Chris O'Donnell, (more)
