Richard Masur Movies
A graduate of NYU, American actor Richard Masur has been seen in supporting TV and movie roles since the early 1970s. His pliable facial features, boyish demeanor and indeterminate age have enabled Masur to play a rich variety of roles: a mentally retarded stockboy on All in the Family, a hotshot program manager on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, and even a "friendly stranger" child molester in the 1981 TV movie Fallen Angel. Masur's film credits include Semi-Tough (1977); Who'll Stop the Rain (1978); My Girl (1991), as Jamie Lee Curtis' prickly ex-husband; and the deservedly maligned Heaven's Gate (1980). Masur has also been a regular on several TV series: From 1975 through 1976, for example, he was divorcee Bonnie Franklin's much-younger boyfriend (and almost her second husband) on One Day at a Time. In 1987, Masur made his film directorial bow with the Oscar-nominated short subject Love Struck, but he continues to work primarily as an actor in both TV and film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Noted baseball fan Billy Crystal directed this made-for-cable drama set in the summer of 1961, as two of the strongest hitters in the major leagues, Mickey Mantle (Thomas Jane) and Roger Maris (Barry Pepper), find themselves neck and neck in a battle to break Babe Ruth's long-standing record for most home runs in a season. Both men were playing for the New York Yankees at the time, and as the two men came within grasping distance of Ruth's record, their loyalty as friends and teammates was put to the ultimate test. 61 also features Richard Masur, Bruce McGill, Anthony Michael Hall, and Renee Taylor; the scenes set in Yankee Stadium were filmed at Michigan's Tiger Stadium, shortly after the Detroit Tigers shuttered the venerable playing field and relocated to a newer facility. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barry Pepper, Thomas Jane, (more)
- 1983
Adam is the heartbreakingly true story of the disappearance of 6-year-old Adam Walsh (John Boston) at a South Florida shopping mall. Adam's anguished parents John and Reve Walsh (Daniel J. Travanti and JoBeth Williams) turn to the FBI for help in finding their son, only to discover that the federal organization does not involve itself in such cases. As hope for Adam's return fades, the Walshes begin an organization to aid and comfort other families of missing children. The story does not end happily for Adam or his parents, but as a result of this tragedy, Congress passes the Federal Missing Children Act in 1983. This made-for-TV drama, originally telecast October 10, 1983, was followed by a sequel three years later. The real-life John Walsh later hosted the popular "reality-based" TV series America's Most Wanted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Daniel J. Travanti, JoBeth Williams, (more)
- 1986
Adam: His Song Continues is a sequel to the highly regarded fact-based 1983 TV movie Adam. The first film was the heartrending story of Floridians John and Reve Walsh (Daniel J. Travanti, JoBeth Williams) whose six-year-old son Adam was kidnapped and murdered in 1981, whereupon the Walshes lobbied for creation of the Federal Missing Child Act, which allowed public access to FBI files of other lost youngsters. The sequel, also starring Travanti and Williams, doesn't have the emotional drive of the original, but is still absorbing in its chronicling of John Walsh's efforts to create a advocacy service for missing kids--and the pressures brought to bear on Reve, who is expecting another baby. Both Adam films end with a roll call of missing children, with His Song Continues listing those children who'd been found since the first movie. The real-life John Walsh later became the host of a Fox "reality" series America's Most Wanted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Richard Masur is cast as George Bushmill, a retarded grocery stockboy whom Gloria befriends. Intimidated by George's mental handicap, Archie unintentionally gets the boy fired from his job. Before Archie learns his inevitable lesson, he is neatly put in his place by George's dad (Joseph Mascolo); explaining that George's brain suffered a loss of oxygen at birth, Mr. Bushmill turns to Archie and asks "What's your excuse?" Written by Don Nicholl, "Gloria's Boyfriend" first aired on February 2, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carroll O'Connor, Jean Stapleton, (more)
- 1990
On his 16th birthday, Stephen Dorff discovers that he is adopted. This in itself is not so traumatic, but the worst is still to come: His adoptive parents had bought him from a baby broker, who kidnapped the infant from his natural mother. Dorff rejects the protestations of love from his "mother" and "father", and sets out on a long journey to locate his real family. Patty Duke costars as the woman from whom Dorff was stolen some 14 years earlier. Timed for telecast during the Christmas season, Always Remember That I Love You premiered December 23, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
Based on Joan Taylor's novel Asking for It, the made-for-TV An Invasion of Privacy stars Valerie Harper as recently divorced book illustrator Kate Bianchi. Moving into a remote, cloistered island community in Maine, Kate has barely arrived when she is raped by a local handyman. The hostile, inbred locals immediately turn against Kate when she presses charges, leaving only the town's college-educated police chief (Cliff De Young) to champion her cause. Jerry Orbach and Tammy Grimes took time off from their roles in the Broadway musical 42nd Street to show up in cameo roles. Filmed on Long Island Sound, An Invasion of Privacy first aired January 12, 1983, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The late journalist Randy Shilts' best-selling book on the burgeoning AIDS crisis was adapted for cable TV by Arnold Schulman. In 1981, researchers begin discerning a mysterious new disease that apparently affects only homosexual males (or so they thought at that time). Working independently, and with marked hostility toward one another, an American and a French research team manage to identify and name the dreaded HIV virus. The long-range effects of AIDS is experienced through the first- and secondhand experiences of several unfortunates, including a choreographer (Richard Gere) whose character is said to be based on Michael Bennett. The all-star cast (most of whom eschewed their usual high salaries) includes Lily Tomlin as San Francisco health official Selma Dritz, Matthew Modine as Centers for Disease Control researcher Don Francis, Alan Alda as NIH official Robert Gallo (who emerges as the villain of the piece), Ian McKellan as gay activist Bill Kraus, and Glenne Headley, Steve Martin and Anjelica Huston in cameo roles. And the Band Played On debuted September 11, 1993, on HBO. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
The second TV-movie to bear the title Betrayal stars Lesley Ann Warren and Rip Torn. Warren plays Julie Roy, a sensitive young woman seeking solace through therapy. Torn co-stars as Julie's psychiatrist Dr. Hartogs. It turns out that the far-from-ethical Hartogs has a hidden agenda: while pretending to minister to Julie's needs, he inveigles her into a sexual relationship. First telecast November 13, 1978, Betrayal was based on an actual case and adapted from a book co-written by the real-life Julie Roy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Michael and Patricia meet in an unusual way – while he is on a date and is trying to retrieve his date’s car keys from a fountain. When Michael’s date abandons him, he hangs out with Patricia and these two nice young people soon find themselves falling in love. They decide to wed and hold the ceremony in Canada, where Michael’s family lives. Patricia’s parents, who have been on a lengthy cruise and have never met Michael, cannot attend, but they meet their new daughter-in-law soon afterward. While reviewing pictures from the wedding, Michael’s mother is shocked to discover that she knows Patricia’s father. Even more shocking is the revelation that Patricia’s father is also Michael’s father, the result of a one-night stand many years before, and that the happily married couple are therefore half-siblings. To make matters worse, it turns out that Patricia is pregnant. The rest of Bittersweet Love is taken up with Michael and Patricia deciding what they should do about this situation, as well as with reactions and advice from their family members. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lana Turner, Robert Lansing, (more)
Taylor Hackford directed this urgent melodrama about the realities of street crime, gangs, and prison life among the Chicanos of East Los Angeles. Miklo (Damian Chapa), Paco (Benjamin Bratt) and Cruz (Jesse Borrego) are three friends who are living in the East Los Angeles of 1972 as it is torn apart by violence. When the gang violence hits the three friends, they are affected by their participation in the bitter violence in different ways. Cruz, an artist, becomes crippled, and he sinks deeply into drug addiction. Paco, an accessory to murder, joins the military to avoid jail time, leading to a spot on the LAPD. Miklo, the kid with the gun, is sent to jail, where he slowly rises up in the ranks of La Onda, the San Quentin Latino gang. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Damian Chapa, Jesse Borrego, (more)
- 1987
A 300-year-old ghost looks for a bride in this Disney comedy. While searching, he mischievously disrupts the festivities of the New England town in which he lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Returning from a Catholic retreat, public school teacher Jill Eikenberry picks up a hitchhiker--who repays her hospitality by brutally raping her. Plunged into shame and self-hatred by the incident, she does not report the attack to the police. Only when she becomes pregnant does she tell the authorities, and her employers, what happened. The school board, assuming that Eikenberry's silence was borne of guilt, refuses to believe that she was raped and fires her. This leads to the moment that Eikenberry has always feared--reliving her violation in the courtroom. Inspired by a true story, Cast the First Stone was originally networkcast on November 13, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jill Eikenberry, Joe Spano, (more)
The 1955 film version of John Steinbeck's East of Eden will always be popular because of the presence in the cast of James Dean. Even so, the film covered only a small portion of the original novel. For those Steinbeck completists who prefer a more thorough treatment, we submit for your approval the TV miniseries adaptation of East of Eden, which first aired February 8, 9 and 11, 1981. This eight-hour dramatization begins in the years following the Civil War. Braggadocio union officer Cyrus Trask (Warren Oates) is the father of gentle, loyal Adam (Timothy Bottoms) and hellraiser Charles (Bruce Boxleitner). Enter the bewitching, mean-spirited Cathy Ames (Jane Seymour), who leads both brothers on and causes an irreparable rift between them. Eventually, Adam marries Cathy, taking her and their twin sons to a 900-acre farm in California's Salinas Valley. Cathy rebels against this cloistered existence and runs off to work in a house of ill repute. In Part Three, we finally meet the "James Dean" character: Cal Trask (played by Timothy Bottoms' brother Sam), who can never hope to come up to the standards of his "good" twin brother Aron (Hart Bochner) in the eyes of his father. Cal's "bad" reputation obscures his good intentions, but by film's end he is compelled to reveal to brother Aron that their mother had not died as father Adam has claimed, but in fact has become a hard-bitten bordello "madam". Adapted for television by Richard Shapiro, East of Eden was part of ABC's informal "Novels for Television" series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Bottoms, Jane Seymour, (more)
- 1985
Nick Mancuso stars in the made-for-TV Embassy. Cast as an American ambassador stationed in Rome, Mancuso's life is thrown into turmoil by a crucial computer chip. When not trying to keep U.S. defense secrets from falling into the wrong hands, he must juggle the affections of his press-attache-girlfriend, (Mimi Rogers), and his girlfriend's chief rival (Blanche Baker). Embassy was intended as the 2-hour pilot for a weekly series; it didn't sell, but Nick Mancuso's next venture in the TV-pilot field, Stingray, proved successful. Embassy was initially telecast on April 21, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A clueless caveman meets his intellectual match in the form of Pauly Shore in this teen-oriented comedy. Dave Morgan (Sean Astin) is a high school student in Encino, California, where he spends most of his time with his dazed-and-confused buddy Stoney Brown (Shore) and tries to figure out why his girlfriend Robyn (Megan Ward) left him for thick-headed jock Matt (Michael DeLuise). Hoping to boost his low status in the High School pecking order, Dave wants to put in a swimming pool at his family's home for a massive post-prom party. While Dave and Stoney are digging the pit, an earthquake strikes that unearths a frozen caveman (Brendan Fraser). To Dave and Stoney's surprise, the frozen Neanderthal soon comes to life, and after a bath, a shave, and a new set of clothes, the boys are passing off their dim-witted-but-friendly companion "Link" as an exchange student from Estonia. Link soon becomes the most popular guy at school, and Dave is determined to use Link's social success as a way to win back Robyn and foil Matt. Encino Man marked the directorial debut of Les Mayfield, who previously produced the critically acclaimed documentary Hearts of Darkness: A Filmmaker's Apocalypse. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Astin, Pauly Shore, (more)
- 1981
Once seen, the made-for-TV Fallen Angel can never be forgotten. Dana Hill is nothing short of brilliant as Jennifer, a 13-year-old runaway girl who is slowly but inexorably seduced into the world of child pornography. Adding depth to Lew Hunter's screenplay is the fact that the older man responsible for Jennifer's downfall, played by Richard Masur, is not a slavering villain. Instead, partly because of his own abused childhood, he is as pathetically misguided as his victim, truly believing that his filthy activities are expressions of affection. First telecast February 24, 1981, Fallen Angel was one of the highest-rated TV movies of its time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Hill, Richard Masur, (more)
Former child star and one-time scandal magnet Drew Barrymore had her first teenage role in this offbeat thriller with comic overtones. Charlie Cross (Matt Frewer) is vacationing with his 15-year-old daughter Joleen (Barrymore). Charlie and Joleen are stranded in an Arizona trailer park when they run out of gas, and they quickly get to know their temporary neighbors, including ill-tempered landlady Agnes Reed (Susan Tyrrell), her son Jimmy (Andras Jones), friendly but scrambled Viet Nam vet Duckett (Richard Masur), fellow travelers Amy (Jennifer Tilly) and Louise (Karen Austin), and geeky Pinky Sears (Anthony Rapp). However, it turns out that a psychotic murderer is in their midst, and Sheriff Bill Childers (Dick Miller) joins with the mobile home dwellers in trying to catch the killer before he can strike again. Far From Home marked the directorial debut of Meiert Avis, while screenwriter Tommy Lee Wallace previously worked with co-star Frewer as a director for the TV series Max Headroom. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Frewer, Drew Barrymore, (more)
Martial arts star Steven Seagal stars in this action drama as Jack Taggart, an undercover agent working for the Environmental Protection Agency. When an EPA representative is murdered in a small Appalachian community, Taggart is sent in -- posing as a handyman working with a Christian relief agency -- to find out what happened. Taggart discovers that Orin Hanner (Kris Kristofferson), a powerful local businessman, has been illegally dumping toxic waste which has been leading to serious health problems among children in the area; it seems that the murdered agent knew too much and was killed to keep him quiet, a scenario the unscrupulous Hanner would be all too willing to repeat. Taggart becomes involved with Sarah Kellogg (Marg Helgenberger), a woman whose father also died under circumstances that trace back to Hanner. Harry Dean Stanton co-stars as Cotton, former member of The Band Levon Helm plays a preacher, and country music stars Travis Tritt and Randy Travis appear as themselves. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steven Seagal, Marg Helgenberger, (more)
A yuppie and a hippie are the offbeat pairing of this character comedy in the tradition of earlier mismatched buddy films such as Midnight Run (1988). Kiefer Sutherland is uptight, 26-year-old FBI agent John Buckner, who's been assigned to escort an aging counterculture radical named Huey Walker (Dennis Hopper) to Oregon for trial on a charge that's decades old. Buckner finds Huey's lifestyle and beliefs irresponsible. Once the two are bound for their Pacific Northwest destination, Huey begins to play psychological mind games with the straight-arrow Buckner, convincing him that he's tripping on hallucinogenic drugs, getting him drunk, and setting him up with a hooker named Sparkle (Kathleen York). Huey trades places with his captor and soon a game of cat-and-mouse is afoot as the agent pursues the one-time radical, with surprising revelations abounding regarding Buckner's childhood and Huey's motivations for allowing himself to be captured. Flashback also stars Carol Kane, Cliff De Young, Richard Masur, Michael McKean, and Paul Dooley. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Hopper, Kiefer Sutherland, (more)
- 1984
On a bitterly cold January day in 1982, Air Florida flight #90 crashed into the Potomac River while approaching Washington DC. Though many passengers were killed, many more were rescued. Flight 90: Disaster on the Potomac is the story of the survivors, the rescuers, and the anxious friends and relatives of both the living and the dead. The crash itself is never shown, while the icy Potomac is represented by a heated Hollywood pool and chunks of Styrofoam (the actors do their best, however, to appear to be chilled to the bone). Thankfully, the cast is comprised of character actors rather than stars or "celebrities," adding an air of authenticity to the proceedings. Made for TV, Flight No. 90: Disaster on the Potomac was first telecast April 1, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Actor Billy Crystal co-wrote, directed, and starred in this romantic comedy. Forty-something couple Andy (Joe Mantegna) and Liz (Cynthia Stevenson) are about to be married, and as they gather with their friends for dinner not long before the wedding, they are told the story of their mutual friends Mickey (Billy Crystal) and Ellen (Debra Winger) as a cautionary tale of where a relationship can go wrong. Mickey is a top referee with the NBA who has traveled to Paris to bury his father, who wanted to be laid to rest with his Army buddies from World War II. The body is somehow lost in transit, and Mickey has an argument with Ellen, who works for an American airline in France. However, she likes his sense of humor, he is taken with her, and after a few days together in Paris, they decide to marry. However, once they return to Mickey's home in the United States, things get complicated; she's not so sure that she cares for his bachelor apartment ("a shrine to watching ESPN"), or juggling her career against his, while both have problems with their respective families. Several major basketball stars and sports figures appear in Forget Paris as themselves, including Charles Barkley, Bill Walton, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and Marv Albert. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Crystal, Debra Winger, (more)
- 1991
- PG
In this Navy spoof, a mismatched bunch of sailors are sent to sea as the incompetent crew of the U. S. S. Substandard, a faulty, unfinished submarine. Little does the crew of the Substandard know that the government doesn't intend for them to make it back to shore, as they encounter all kinds of crazy problems. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
In this WWII romance, Harrison Ford (face-to-face with superstardom from his involvement in Star Wars) is cast as David Halloran, an American bomber pilot stationed in London. During an air raid, Halloran meets and falls in love with beautiful Briton Margaret Sellinger (Lesley-Anne Down). Naturally, Margaret is married, and just as naturally David hopes that this won't make too much difference in their relationship. But this is not to be: Halloran is assigned behind enemy lines on a dangerous assignment, and his partner in this endeavor is Margaret's husband, Paul (Christopher Plummer). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Lesley-Anne Down, (more)
- 1976
Originally titled Giving Birth, Having Babies was the first of three pilot films for a TV series that eventually appeared under the title Julie Farr MD. In omnibus fashion, the film focuses in on four couples and their reactions to impending parenthood. Essentially, this is a feature-length "commercial" for the Lamaze method of natural childbirth. Adrienne Barbeau plays Lamaze-class supervisor Allie Duggin, while the mommies-to-be are portrayed by Karen Valentine (as tennis pro Beth Paterno), Jessica Walter (as middle-aged Sally McNamara), Linda Purl (as teenager Laura Gorman) and Vicki Lawrence (as unwed mother Grace Fontrell). Having Babies was originally telecast October 17, 1976. It was followed by Having Babies II in 1977, Having Babies III in 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
