Patty McCormack Movies

Hollywood heavyweight Ron Howard adapts playwright Peter Morgan's West End hit for the silver screen with this feature focusing on the 1977 television interviews between journalist David Frost (Michael Sheen) and former president Richard Nixon (Frank Langella). At the time Nixon sat down with Frost to discuss the sordid details that ultimately derailed his presidency, it had been three years since the former commander in chief had been forced out of office. The Watergate scandal was still fresh in everyone's minds, and Nixon had remained notoriously tight-lipped until he agreed to sit down with Frost. Nixon was certain that he could hold his own opposite the up-and-coming British broadcaster, and even Frost's own people weren't quite sure their boss was ready for such a high-profile interview. When the interview ultimately got under way and each man eschewed the typical posturing in favor of the simple truth, fans and critics on both sides were stunned by what they witnessed. Instead of Nixon stonewalling the interviewer as expected, or Frost lobbing softballs as the truth-seekers feared, what emerged was an unguardedly honest exchange between a man who had lost everything and another with everything to gain. In this film, viewers are treated to not only a recreation of that landmark interview, but a behind-the-scenes look at the power struggles that led up to it as well. Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner, and Brian Grazer team to produce a film adapted for the screen by original play author Morgan (The Queen and The Last King of Scotland). ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Heart of the Beholder tells the harrowing true-life tale of an entrepreneurial young couple who owned an operated St. Louis' first videocassette rental store, and the challenges faced by their growing family when religious zealots from Rev. Donald Wildmon's National Federation for Decency (later renamed the American Family Association) launched a frightening campaign designed to intimidate them into removing movies deemed by the group to be ". . .obscene or a detriment to the community and its children." When Martin Scorsese's The Last Temptation of Christ was originally released on home video, the majority of St. Louis video stores buckled to pressures by religious groups not to offer the film for rental. Ken and Carol Tipton - owners of a videocassette rental store known as the Video Library - refused to give in to the demands of the group they saw as modern day book burners, and as a result their store was picketed, and the life of their young daughter threatened. When the Tiptons refused to give in to the demands of the NFD, the case went to court. Unfortunately for the Tiptons, the NFD used scandalous information about the Prosecuting Attorney's secret sex life to blackmail the prosecutor. Later, due to the misuse of RICO racketeering laws, multiple movies from the Tiptons' store were confiscated before the jury found even a single video obscene. After the prosecutor made vague and damning references indicating that the Tiptons had ties to organized crime, the family was shunned by the community. Yet while the Tiptons subsequently emerged victorious in two court cases, the damage had already been done: Negative publicity had caused the family to become fragmented, and mounting court fees forced their business to go bankrupt. Later divorced from his wife and stuck in a suicidal depression, Ken ultimately made an accidental discovery that would not only turn his life around, but also expose the corruption and hypocrisy that nearly destroyed him. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

William A. Graham directs the medical thriller Acceptable Risk, a made-for-cable adaptation of a story from Coma writer Robin Cook. A scientist (Chad Lowe) discovers a mold in the spooky old house he lives in with his wife (Kelly Rutherford). In order to test his theory that the discovery could help fight many different brain disorders, the scientist injects himself with the mold. The man undergoes some strange changes, which may or may not have something to do with the house's previous owner, a woman who was hung under suspicion of being a witch. Sean Patrick Flanery, Patty McCormack, and Danielle von Zerneck round out the cast of this film that premiered October 21, 2001, on WTBS. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

In this sequel to 1995's Mommy, "Mommy" (Patty McCormack), who had been convicted of murder and sentenced to death, escapes execution when she is wounded in a prison breakout attempt. While she is recovering, a physician convinces the courts that she would be able to live in a halfway house if she takes a violence-suppressing drug that he designed. Although her parole forbids contact with her daughter (who is now living with her sister and brother-in-law), she violates her parole by secretly visiting her one night. When people who are trying to keep her from seeing her daughter start turning up murdered, a local cop starts investigating her. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide

Over the course of his lifetime, the legendary director Orson Welles (1915-1985) was forced to leave many of his grander movie-making projects unfinished, generally for want of sustained financial backing. Each successive unfinished effort generated buzz throughout the worshipful film community that only served to brighten the luster of his legend. Thus it was only a matter of time before one of his many admirers bought the rights to the fairly extensive footage he shot for his film Don Quixote (begun in 1955) and attempted to edit it into some semblance of a finished film, based on research into Welles' stated intentions and notes. A fuzzy, out-of-focus print of the resulting film was shown at the 1992 Cannes Film Festival, and it was immediately deemed as a hashed-up job, a travesty bordering on the sacrilegious, by the assembled deeply interested and knowledgeable viewers. Their criticism focused mainly on issues that ordinary viewers would deem excessively technical, but the gist of it was that this was a very un-Wellesian use of Welles' footage. However, the film does offer viewers a unique opportunity to see some of the master's mature story ideas onscreen. In addition to footage from the film, the movie is also a kind of semi-documentary homage to Welles, showing footage of the famed director at work. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

While researching her latest novel, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) almost becomes a casualty in the bombing of a jewelry store. It later turns out that the store's owner has been murdered and the priceless Queen of Tara tiara has been stolen. Forming an uneasy alliance with a pair of wisecracking "Cagney and Lacey"-style female cops (played by Lucie Arnaz and Patty McCormack), Jessica follows the trail of clues to the home of a famously reclusive actress named Siobhan O'Dea (played with Garboesque hauteur by Jean Peters). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This minor made-for-TV effort from horror auteur Wes Craven is one of the oddest attempts at seriously blending supernatural horror and science fiction elements, which amounts to a muddled but amusing failure. The convoluted plot involves scientist Robert Urich's experiments with a new spacesuit designed to detect non-human lifeforms for a proposed expedition to Venus. When a sultry succubus (Susan Lucci, who was born for such a role) begins exerting her demonic influence on the members of a country club -- including Urich's wife and children -- he dons the completed suit for a literal journey into hell itself to rescue them. Craven's skill manages to elevate this loopy premise slightly above the level of pure nonsense, but low production values and the constraints of TV censorship prevent it from being adequately explored. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Throughout his life, Higgins (John Hillerman) has been taunted, bested and humiliated by his old boarding-school nemesis William Troubshaw (Paxton Whitehead). Now it seems that he has a chance to settle the score by squaring off against Troubshaw in a fencing match. But through a freak accident, Troubshaw is killed and Higgins is accused of his murder--and even more disturbingly, he seems unwilling to defend himself against the accusation. Former child star Patty McCormick (The Bad Seed) appears as Deputy Prosecuting Attorney Carol Baldwin, a role played in subsequent episodes by Kathleen Lloyd). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gage and DeSoto work their medical magic at a convention with an exasperated sniper and a choking conventioneer in this 2-part feature-length episode of Emergency! ~ All Movie Guide

The last gasp of gimmick-horror auteur William Castle (who produced and co-wrote), Bug is an entertaining throwback to the mutant-monsters-amok theme of the 1950s (themselves throwbacks of another kind) that he found so profitable. The film stars Bradford Dillman as a kinder, gentler mad scientist who discovers the presence of a bizarre strain of mutant cockroach emerging from the earth after a severe earthquake. Although larger than the average beetle, the most disturbing aspect of the critters is their innate ability to ignite fires with their bodies -- a talent dramatically revealed after a few of the bugs crawl up a vehicle's tailpipe. When Dillman discovers that the creatures possess a group intelligence, he attempts to train and breed them -- which proves to be less than a good idea. In Castle's heyday, this would have proven an ideal theme for one of his patented gimmicks (perhaps having little rubber bugs drop from the ceiling onto unsuspecting patrons at appropriate moments), but director Jeannot Szwarc (who later helmed Jaws 2 and the hankie-fest Somewhere in Time) plays the story straight, with remarkably chilling results. This is also remarkably violent for a mainstream PG film (particularly in the scene where Bad Seed Patty McCormack's hair is ignited by the six-legged arsonists) with a downbeat ending typical of many horror movies of the '70s. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

This exploitation film about the evils of marijuana finds art teacher Phil Blake (Fabian) discovering some of his students are smoking pot. Although he admits to the students he tried it himself in college, he is dumber than a bag of hammers about student drug use. Phil has eyes for fellow teacher Ellie (Diane McBain) until he discovers she is the main dealer, along with the star of the football team. Included in the cast is actress (Patty McCormick), all grown up since her appearance in Bad Seed, and Terri Garr, who makes a brief appearance as a student. This unintentionally laughable film, a feeble attempt to cash in on the sensationalism of marijuana use, was co-written by Richard Gautier and Peter Marshall of "Hollywood Squares" television fame. This film, along with similarly overblown 1930s anti-marijuana diatribes, cost the "straight" world a great deal of credibility at the time, and it became an instant "camp" classic. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Diane McBain, who'd been a sort of star at Warner Bros. in the early 1960s, is the leading lady of The Mini-Skirt Mob. She's in charge of a fearsome (and toothsome) gang of biker chicks, even though she herself looks as though she'd go into conniptions over a broken nail. McBain's mob gets its kicks terrorizing a sweet young married couple. The film is a veritable roll-call of fading TV icons, including Jeremy Slate and Sherry Jackson; only cycle-flick veterans Ross Hagen and Harry Dean Stanton seem truly comfortable in these low-octane surroundings. The Mini-Skirt Mob is the sort of picture that used to be described as "ideal drive-in fare" back in Days of Old when there were drive-ins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this socially conscious drama, based on a true-story, a high school teacher gets in trouble for having his students write compositions describing their feelings about sex. He is suspended; his students unite to defend him. A confrontation with the prudish school board ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide