John Mahoney Movies

The first of Frasier's eleven seasons began just where the series' predecessor, Cheers, left off -- with psychiatrist Frasier Crane (Kelsey Grammer) bidding farewell to Boston and heading to his new home in Seattle, WA, where he has accepted a job as host of a radio advice show on station KACL. Though it was clear that there would be no love lost between Frasier and his producer and call-screener, the abrasive Roz Doyle (Peri Gilpin), our stylishly neurotic hero could take heart in the fact that he now lived in one of the fanciest apartments in all Seattle. But he didn't live there alone: At the behest of his married brother and fellow psychiatrist Niles Crane (David Hyde Pierce), Frasier reluctantly invites his father, retired policeman Martin Crane (John Mahoney), to move in with him. Semi-invalided since sustaining a gun wound, Martin relies upon the round-the-clock ministrations of his attractive, outspoken, and seemingly psychic cockney caregiver, Daphne Moon (Jane Leeves), who likewise moves into Frasier's apartment -- along with Martin's tiny, phlegmatic dog, Eddie (played by Moose the dog), who seems contemptuous of Frasier's very existence.

Although the relationship between Daphne and her two male "roommates" is strictly platonic, she becomes the object of obsessive adoration on the part of Niles -- who, of course, would never, ever admit to yearning for Daphne (who seemed oblivious to his ardor), lest he damage his already fragile relationship with his fabulously wealthy -- and never seen -- wife, Maris. Season one of Frasier introduced one supporting character who would soon become a series regular: The insufferably macho Bob "Bulldog" Briscoe (Dan Butler), KACL's resident sports-show host. Others making their first appearances were such recurring characters as Frasier's carnivorous agent Bebe Glazer (Harriet Sansom Harris), Roz's moony eyed admirer and full-time Star Trek freak Noel Shempsky (Patrick Kerr), and KACL's snobbish restaurant critic Gil Chesterton (Edward Hibbert). Also established during this inaugural season was the series' habit of using celebrities to provide the voices of Frasier's mixed-up listeners: Among those heard in the first 24 episodes were Mel Brooks, Christopher Reeve, Joe Mantegna, Eddie Van Halen, Mary Tyler Moore, and even LSD guru Timothy Leary. Arguably the most memorable of the first-season episodes was the self-explanatory "The Show Where Lilith Comes Back," in which Kelsey Grammer's former Cheers co-star Bebe Neuwirth made a memorable return appearance as Frasier's insufferable ex-wife Lilith. Conspicuous by his absence was Frasier and Lilith's son, Frederick, though his existence was alluded to from time to time. Frasier wound up its maiden season with four Emmy awards including Outstanding Comedy Series, Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series (Kelsey Grammer), Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series (single episode) (James Burrows), and Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series (single episode) (David Angell, Peter Casey, David Lee). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title Article 99 refers to a fictional legal loophole which states that American veterans cannot be treated in VA hospitals unless their illnesses are related to their military service. The pinchpenny administrator of a Kansas City hospital intends to follow this proviso to the letter, while his irreverent staff does everything it can to circumvent rules and red tape. When freewheeling surgeon Ray Liotta is fired for exhibiting traces of humanity, the patients stage a revolt. Playing a new medico, Kiefer Sutherland also stars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A Depression-era inventor finds a way of revolutionizing manufacturing technology and then discovers that this invention has its dark side as well. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

The title character, played by John Turturro, is a Broadway playwright, based on Clifford Odets, lured to Hollywood with the promise of untold riches by a boorish studio chieftain (played by Michael Lerner as a combination of Louis B. Mayer and Harry Cohn). Despising the film capital and everything it stands for, Barton Fink comes down with an acute case of writer's block. He is looked after by a secretary (Judy Davis) who has been acting as a ghost writer for an alcoholic screenwriter (John Mahoney, playing a character based on William Faulkner). Also keeping tabs on Fink is a garrulous traveling salesman (John Goodman), the most likeable, stable character in the picture. And then comes the plot twist to end all plot twists, plunging Barton Fink into a surreal nightmare that would make Hieronymus Bosch look like a house painter. Once more, Ethan and Joel Coen serve up a smorgasbord of quirkiness and kinkiness, where nothing is what it seems and nothing turns out as planned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Seven mobsters make a nighttime heist on New York City's Kennedy Airport, in this retelling of the true story of the shocking Lufthansa robbery. This cash robbery--the largest in American history--unfolds in 1978, the scheme plotted by gangster Jimmy "The Gent" Burke. The film follows them as the characters move deeper and deeper into the violence of their crime, ~ All Movie Guide

"Barley" Scott Blair (Sean Connery) is an alcoholic book editor from a bargain-basement publishing house in Great Britain who'd rather be drinking in Lisbon than attending a book dealers' show in Russia. So he's surprised when a CIA agent (Mac McDonald) pulls him from his boozy holiday. It seems that the CIA has through a book show intermediary received a package from a Russian book editor named Katya (Michelle Pfeiffer) containing amazingly detailed notebooks written by a cynical Russian physicist named "Dante" (Klaus-Maria Brandauer). The notebooks show that Russia's nuclear threat is a joke: Russian rockets "suck instead of blow...and can't hit Nevada on a clear day," in the acerbic words of CIA Agent Russell Sheridan (Roy Scheider). But why is Dante sending the notebooks to Blair? How shall the Western world respond to what could be the end of the nuclear arms race? Blair gets drafted by a British Secret Service agent (James Fox) to go to the new Russia to meet Katya. He must see whether the new Russia is still immersed in the old Cold War and whether the notebooks are genuine or another deadly chapter in the war of the spies. ~ Nick Sambides, Jr., All Movie Guide

Albert Finney stars as a TV-news anchorman who wrongly implicates a good friend in a savings-and-loan scandal; when the friend commits suicide, Finney must question his ethics and obsession with high Nielsen ratings. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Writer/director John Sayles' dramatization of the most infamous episode in professional sports -- the fix of the 1919 World Series -- is considered by many to be among his best films and arguably the best baseball movie ever made. This adaptation of Eliot Asinof's definitive study of the scandal shows how athletes of another era were a different breed from the well-paid stars of later years. The Chicago White Sox owner, Charlie Comiskey (Clifton James), is portrayed as a skinflint with little inclination to reward his team for their spectacular season. When a gambling syndicate led by Arnold Rothstein (Michael Lerner) gets wind of the players' discontent, it offers a select group of stars -- including pitcher Eddie Cicotte (Sayles regular David Strathairn), infielder Buck Weaver (John Cusack), and outfielder "Shoeless" Joe Jackson (D. B. Sweeney) -- more money to play badly than they would have earned to try to win the Series against the Cincinnati Reds. Sayles cast the story with actors who look and perform like real jocks, and added a colorful supporting cast that includes Studs Terkel as reporter Hugh Fullerton and Sayles himself as Ring Lardner. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Following the disastrous Pirates (1986), director Roman Polanski got back on creative track with this finely-wrought thriller that, while failing to impress at the box office, was nevertheless his most critically well-received film of the decade. Harrison Ford stars as Richard Walker, an American doctor who has come to Paris, where he's scheduled to deliver a paper to a medical conference. Richard has brought along his wife Sondra (Betty Buckley), because Paris was the site of their honeymoon 20 years earlier. Sondra picks up the wrong suitcase at the airport, which leads to her kidnapping and an ever-more complicated quest that takes Richard into the seedy and dangerous underworld of European drug smuggling and terrorist arms sales. Along the way, he is rebuffed by skeptical officials at the American Embassy and meets Michelle (Emmanuelle Seigner), a sexy courier who agrees to help him in exchange for the money she's owed for trafficking in narcotics. Playing cleverly on American fears about Europe's Byzantine politics and "decadent" society, Frantic received, from many observers, perhaps the greatest compliment possible for a thriller, comparison to the work of Alfred Hitchcock. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

The second of director Barry Levinson's Baltimore Trilogy (the first was Diner, the third Avalon), Tin Men seems at first glance to be much ado about nothing. Set in 1963, the story begins when two aluminum siding salesmen, played by Richard Dreyfuss and Danny DeVito, are involved in a traffic accident. Fueled by their own individual frustrations--Dreyfuss dislikes the phonier aspects of his profession, while DeVito is unhappily married to Barbara Hershey--the two men begin an all-out war of harassment against one another. DeVito goes on a destructive rampage against Dreyfuss' material possessions, while Dreyfuss contrives to steal away DeVito's wife. An ironic twist of fate ironically, brings the two men to common ground at the finale. As with the earlier Diner, Levinson spends a great deal of screen time showing small minds obsessed with small things: counterpointing the snow-balling hostilities between Dreyfuss and DeVito is Jackie Gayle as DeVito's partner, who can talk of nothing but the TV series Bonanza. Michael Tucker, who like Barry Levinson was Baltimore born and bred, repeats his Diner role as "Bagel." Listen for director Levinson's voice as a baseball stadium announcer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When there's a full moon over Brooklyn, anything can happen, and everything happens in the neighborhood where widowed bookkeeper Loretta Castorini (Cher) lives. First, Loretta agrees to marry a man she does not love, Johnny Cammareri (Danny Aiello), simply because he knows how to propose properly. Before the wedding can take place, Cammareri must visit his dying mother in Sicily. In his absence, Loretta is supposed to try to patch up the differences between Johnny and his brother, bakery operator Ronny Cammareri (Nicolas Cage). Having never forgiven Johnny for indirectly causing the accident that crippled him, Ronny flies into a rage whenever his brother's name is mentioned. He does, however, fall for Loretta like a ton of bricks. After a torrid affair, Loretta tries to avoid Ronny out of respect to Johnny, but he's just too fascinating to resist. Meanwhile, Loretta's father (Vincent Gardenia) is fooling around with his mistress Mona (Anita Gillette), while Loretta's mother (Olympia Dukakis) is wooed by a college professor (John Mahoney). These brief flings are forgiven and forgotten, but there's still the delicate situation of Loretta being in love with her future brother-in-law. A now-classic romantic comedy, Moonstruck won Oscars for Cher, Olympia Dukakis, and screenwriter John Patrick Shanley. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Klaus Maria Brandauer stars in this drama as Alek Neuman, a one-time boxing champion in the Soviet Union. While he was one of the top-ranked Russian fighters of his day, he was never allowed to box in the Olympics, because the Soviets would not permit Jews to compete on their national teams. Many years later, an elderly Alek is able to emigrate to the United States; he settles in the Brighton Beach section of Brooklyn, New York, where he makes ends meet as a dishwasher. Alek is depressed and starts sinking into alcoholism until he meets Timmy Boyle (Adrian Pasdar) and Roland Jenkins (Wesley Snipes), two up-and-coming amateur boxers. Alek thinks that the two young fighters have potential, and he offers to coach them. While Timmy and Roland aren't sure at first if they trust Alek (or each other), in time they grow to respect each other, and it looks as if they may make the United States Olympic team -- where they may fight against the Russian team that wouldn't accept Alek years before. Brandauer won critical acclaim for his performance in Streets of Gold, which also featured Wesley Snipes several years before his breakthrough role in Spike Lee's Mo' Better Blues. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide