Louise Latham Movies

This provocative made-for-television drama centers on a community's reaction when an aging widow becomes emotionally attached to a slightly retarded young man. ~ 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

The Haunted is a Fox Network TV-movie purportedly based on eyewitness testimony. The story goes that in the mid-1980s, the Smurl family of Pittston, Pennsylvania began noticing something askew in their four-bedroom Victorian home. Apparently there are agents of Satan at work, bedeviling the family and smashing the crockery. None of the Smurls believes in ghosts--"until," as the ad copy for this film proclaims, "they have no choice." Since this film was shown on Fox, the "standards and practices" people were a wee more lax than they would have been on another network; hence the "Parental Discretion Advised" tag on the film's original telecast. The Haunted is some distance removed from believability, but stars Sally Kirkland and Jeffrey DeMunn seem to be having a high old time playing scared. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mary Agnes Donohue adapted her French success Le Grand Chemin for this American version, reworked as a vehicle for Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. Paradise is a coming-of-age story about a 10-year-old boy named Willard (Elijah Wood), who is sent by his mother to stay with her best friend Lily (Melanie Griffith), who lives in the Delta shrimp-fishing country in a town called Paradise. Lily and her husband Ben (Don Johnson) have been living in an unmentioned emotional vacuum since the death of their own three year old boy. Willard makes friends with the local 9-year-old tomboy, Billie (Thora Birch), who teaches Willard to be comfortable with himself. When Willard gains a handle on his own emotions, he can now help Ben and Lily to connect, overcome grief and rediscover themselves. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

A kiln explosion nearly wipes out an art class attended by Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer). Though at first it looks like an accident, McCall receives a tape suggesting that the explosion was deliberately triggered. The subsequent murder of an EPA inspector who had been investigating reports of toxic waste dumping leads McCall and Hunter (Fred Dryer) to conclude that the intended victim of the explosion was elderly art student Emily Hill (Louise Latham)--who happens to be romantically linked with a powerful business mogul. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A made for TV movie which serves as much a condemnation of the military establishment as a murder mystery, this film revolves around an upper classman who is falsely accused of responsibility for the death of a student when he begins to investigate the mysterious demise of the young gay cadet. Part of a two-part series, the crux for the upper classman is whether he is willing to jeopardize the future of his own military career to investigate the death of the freshman cadet at this prestigious military academy. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV drama was inspired by the real-life Toughlove program, set up to help parents of kids with severe alcohol, drug and behavior problems. Lee Remick and Bruce Dern star as a middle-aged couple who have completely lost control of their teen-aged son Jason Patric. When all else fails, the couple joins Toughlove, adhering to the organization's policy of being cruel (but not abusive) in order to be kind. Their story alternates with the travails of Toughlove member Piper Laurie and her suicidal daughter DeDee Pfeiffer (sister of Michelle). Toughlove was originally telecast October 13, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jack Lemmon stars in Mass Appeal as a popular Los Angeles parish priest, who has retained the good will of his parishioners by cracking jokes and never taking a stand on crucial matters. Enter young seminarian Zeljko Ivanek, whose rebellious reputation threatens to earn him an expulsion. Lemmon is expected to bring Ivanek around to the Church's "party line," but the younger man resists the older man's advice--quite loudly at times. The audience is fully aware that, by film's end, Ivanek will have converted Lemmon instead of the other way around, but the sheer joy of watching two superb actors at work transcends the story's predictability. Mass Appeal was based on a play by Bill C. Davis, and produced by none other than the widow of McDonalds mogul Ray Kroc. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The made-for-television Pray TV was the subject for hot debate long before its February 1, 1982 debut. This even-handed exploration of the televangelism business stars Ned Beatty as the Reverend Freddy Stone, whose religious empire nets $3 million annually. John Ritter co-stars as Rev. Tom McPherson, a newly ordained clergyman who joins the Stone operation. As Ritter begins to question the religious ethics behind Stone's lucrative ministry, a subplot develops involving Reverend Gus Keffer (Richard Kiley), who in contrast to Stone must operate on a shoestring, minus the glittery trappings of TV, radio, and SRO revival meetings. Lane Slate's teleplay takes great pains to offend no one; whether this is good or bad is up to you. Pray TV bears no relation to the earlier theatrical-feature comedy of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This drama examines the illicit love affair between a high-school teacher and one of her students. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When girls are first allowed to attend a military academy, the dead founders rise up to protest. ~ All Movie Guide

Based on the best-selling memoirs of Lillian Rogers Parks, the NBC miniseries Backstairs at the White House traces over five decades of American political history as witnessed from the vantage point of the servants' quarters. Played by Tania Johnson as a teenager and by Leslie Uggams as an adult, Lillian Rogers Parks served for 52 years as a maidservant at the White House. Though crippled early on with polio, Lillian diligently and loyally stuck to her duties -- and her own rock-solid set of principles and ideals -- through eight highly different Presidential administrations, often (and occasionally reluctantly) acting as friend and confidante to the First Lady of the moment. The large and stellar cast included a number of top-rank film and TV actors, obviously having the time of their lives impersonating such presidents as William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, Warren G. Harding, Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, Franklin Roosevelt, Harry S. Truman, and Dwight D. Eisenhower, and their respective wives. Also in the cast were several African-American veterans from the landmark TV miniseries Roots. Earning 11 Emmy Award nominations, the nine-hour Backstairs at the White House was seen in five installments from January 29 to February 19, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide