Molly McClure Movies
- 1998
- NR
Stuck in Brooklyn-Bridge traffic, bored Rhonda Portelli (Wendy Makkena) attempts to keep Travis Furlong (John Benjamin Hickey) from jumping off the bridge. At her bank job, co-workers celebrate her 30th birthday, but then she's fired. Travis turns up, and she decides to help him overcome his emotional setbacks, traveling with him to a small Texas town. Sexual tensions arise along the way, since Wendy doesn't know Travis is gay. Shown at 1998 fests (SXSW, Palm Springs). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wendy Makkena, John Benjamin Hickey, (more)
- 1994
- PG13
- Add City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold to QueueAdd City Slickers II: The Legend of Curly's Gold to top of Queue
Mitch Robbins (Billy Crystal) returns in this sequel to the original City Slickers that attempts to recapture the first film's warmth and character comedy. Despite feeling re-invigorated when we last left him, Mitch again faces a few personal dilemmas: his radio station job is going nowhere and his schlep of a brother (Jon Lovitz, replacing Bruno Kirby as the third of Mitch's cowboy threesome) has come to stay for a while. Things get really strange when Mitch is haunted by the ghost of cowboy Curly (Jack Palance), who died while leading Mitch and friends on their first cattle-herding adventure. Mitch unexpectedly finds a treasure map in the band of Curly's hat and, together with his brother and his friend Phil (Daniel Stern), heads back to the West to find Curly's lost gold mine. Along the way, they hitch up with Curly's twin brother, again played by Palance. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, (more)
- 1994
This Southern Gothic drama of a deeply troubled family was written by leading man David Steen, who adapted the screenplay from his own play. Ma Samuals (Sharon Farrell) lives in a poor section of rural North Carolina during the 1970s. Her slightly retarded son Charlie (Steen) was the product of an incestuous relationship with her uncle, a preacher who seduced her when she was only 12; despite this experience, Ma remains a devout Fundamentalist Christian. Ma also lives with her adopted daughter, Messy (Gigi Rice), though it's obvious that Charlie is the favored child, and Messy is often the target for Ma's abuse. When Cousin Anna (Sarah Trigger) is orphaned, she comes to stay with the Samuals family, which upsets the household's already shaky emotional balance. Ma disapproves of Messy's new friendship with Anna, believing she's a poor influence on her daughter, and when Anna begins spending time with Charlie, her obsessive love for her son (which has already spilled over into incest) threatens to push her over the brink. A Gift from Heaven marked the feature debut for both screenwriter Steen and director Jack Lucarelli. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sharon Farrell, Gigi Rice, (more)
Robin Williams learns that keeping in touch with his children can be a drag in this hit comedy. Daniel Hillard (Williams) is an eccentric actor who specializes in dubbing voices for cartoon characters. Daniel is a kind man and a loving father, but he's a poor disciplinarian and a shaky role model. After throwing an elaborate and disastrous birthday party for his son, Daniel's wife Miranda (Sally Field) reaches the end of her patience and files for divorce. Daniel is heartbroken when Miranda is given custody of the children, and he's only allowed to visit them once a week. Determined to stay in contact with his kids, Daniel learns that Miranda is looking for a housekeeper, and with help from his brother Frank (Harvey Fierstein), a makeup artist, Daniel gets the job disguised as Mrs. Iphegenia Doubtfire, a stern but caring Scottish nanny. Daniel pulls off the ruse so well that neither his ex-wife nor his children recognize him, and in the process, he learns how to be the good parent he should have been all along. However, Daniel also has to deal with the little matter of Miranda's new boyfriend, Stu (Pierce Brosnan). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Sally Field, (more)
- 1993
The seemingly heartbroken parents of a murdered child make a sheriff suspicious, in this made-for-television drama. Park Overall and Robby Benson star as The Sims, a couple whose infant daughter is kidnapped and later found dead. By all accounts the Sims appear to be the victims, but when another child in the Sims family is found dead several years later, the local sheriff (Frederick Forrest) becomes suspicious. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
When a single mother comes in to help take care of a man's ill wife, he becomes interested in her for more than the care she is rendering. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1992
This episode was originally telecast one day before the election of President Bill Clinton--and, accordingly, focuses on the Election Day coverage by the "FYI" staff. As the ballots are tallied and the predictions noted, each staff member recalls the first time that he or she ever cast a vote. Not surprisingly, Murphy (Candice Bergen) serves up the most fascinating flashback, reaching way back to the turbulent seventies. Patrick Warburton of Seinfeld fame appears as Bo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
- Add Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story to QueueAdd Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story to top of Queue
Donny B. Lord and Victor Love share the title role in Final Shot: The Hank Gathers Story. The film traces the true story of young Gathers, played by Lord as a child and Love as an adult. Rising from his inner-city origins to become a basketball star at Loyola Marymount, Gathers' career is suddenly, and tragically, cut short. Co-starring are Nell Carter as Hank's supportive mother and George Kennedy as the inspirational neighborhood priest. Made for television, Final Shot was first seen in syndication during the week of March 29-April 4, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victor Love, Donny B. Lord, (more)
The big-screen debut of country singer George Strait is a familiar tale of a star returning to his roots, a route traveled the same year by John Mellencamp in Falling From Grace (1992). Strait plays Dusty Chandler, one of the hottest performers in country music. Dusty feels that his elaborate stage show is overwhelming his music, a suspicion confirmed one night when he forgets several bars of a chart-topping hit and his fans don't even notice. Disillusioned, Dusty tells his manager Lula (Lesley Ann Warren) and best buddy Earl (John Doe) that he's taking a break. After shaving his beard and cutting off his ponytail, Dusty heads for the small farm town where he grew up, visiting his wise old grandmother (Molly McClure) and ending up at the ranch of the Tucker family, where nobody recognizes him. He becomes a hired hand, earning the respect of owner Ernest (Rory Calhoun) and falling in love with Ernest's daughter Harley (Isabel Glasser), a woman determined to save the struggling spread with victory in a Las Vegas rodeo. When Dusty learns that Lula has secretly replaced him onstage with her boyfriend (Kyle Chandler), he stages a showdown that wins Harley's affections. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Strait, Lesley Ann Warren, (more)
City Slickers blends sight gags, one-liners, and sincerity, with both humor and drama arising from the characters and their situations. Mitch (Billy Crystal) is a radio station sales executive who finds himself in the throes of a mid-life crisis; accompanied by two friends, Phil (Daniel Stern) and Ed (Bruno Kirby) in the grip of similar problems, he heads to New Mexico for his birthday to participate in a two-week "vacation" cattle drive to Colorado. The three friends and the rest of their group, including an attractive, newly single young woman and two African-American dentists, are all urbanites lost when it comes to herding cattle and surviving on the prairie; it's up to authentic, almost mythic cowboy Curly (Jack Palance, who won an Oscar for the role), to whip them into shape. As various adventures occur along the way, including run-ins with outlaw cattlehands, treacherous natural mishaps, and Mitch's delivery of a newborn calf, the three "city slickers" open up to each other, learn to appreciate Curly's Old West values, and begin to resolve their midlife dilemmas. When Curly dies, it's left to Mitch, Phil, and Ed to bring in the herd. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Billy Crystal, Daniel Stern, (more)
- 1990
Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) finds herself facing a lawsuit--and a possible prison term--as Murder She Wrote launches its seventh season. The litigant is the daughter of a man whom Jessica sent to prison, and who subsequently died in a botched escape attempt. As out heroine fends off charges of perjury and bribery, the plot thickens with the murder of an eyewitness to the original crime. The suspects are certainly a motley crew this time, ranging from a sleazy lawyer to the wife of a temperamental chef! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- PG13
- Add Daddy's Dyin'... Who's Got the Will? to QueueAdd Daddy's Dyin'... Who's Got the Will? to top of Queue
This screen version of Del Shores' play follows a dysfunctional Southern family as they squabble among themselves over the family fortune. As the title would suggest, Daddy (Bert Remsen), the patriarch of a large family in the deep South, is reaching the end of life's journey as his health and energy slip away and he watches midget wrestling on a television that isn't even turned on. Daddy's children have all returned to the family home, ostensibly to show their support in their father's final hours, but mainly because they're eager to know how Daddy's estate will be divided. Sara Lee (Tess Harper) has arrived with her new fiancé, Clarence (Keith Carradine). Evalita (Beverly D'Angelo), the high-spirited "black sheep" of the family, also has her new beau in tow, a pot-addled musician and health-food salesman named Harmony (Judge Reinhold). Orville (Beau Bridges) has brought along his wife, the patient and long-suffering Marlene (Patrika Darbo). And Lurlene (Amy Wright) is a born-again Christian who isn't shy about expressing her views on sin and salvation. As the siblings and their companions bicker, Daddy announces that he can't remember where he put his will, leading to a frantic search. The film was directed by Jack Fisk, who made his name in film as an art director and production designer (he's also the husband of actress Sissy Spacek). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beau Bridges, Beverly D'Angelo, (more)
- 1989
Those who think that you can't make a suspense movie out of a true-life story wherein everybody knows the outcome are referred to the made-for-TV Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure. Jessica, of course, was the 18-month-old Texas girl who fell down an abandoned well in October of 1987. As the world looks on in anguish, the local fire chief (Pat Hingle) and police chief (Beau Bridges) supervise the efforts to rescue Jessica from her 22-foot-deep prison. The film effectively squeezes the 58 hours of the original incident into two, allotting plenty of time for a surface-level subplot involving the efforts of a Victim's Assistance Program volunteer (Patty Duke) to reassure Jessica's parents. In keeping with Hollywood child-labor requirements, little Jessica McClure is played by twin girls, Laura and Jennifer Loesch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
- R
A transit engineer and his family must face the gargantuan task of moving from New Jersey to Boise, Idaho in this lively comedy starring Richard Pryor. It all begins after he gets a really great job out West. Unfortunately, his family is less than thrilled with the prospect. The furniture movers, who prove to be crooks, and their crazy neighbors conspire to make matters all the worse. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Pryor, Beverly Todd, (more)
In this sequel to the 1981 hit comedy Arthur, the story picks up where it left off with the bibulous millionaire hero (Dudley Moore) marrying poverty-stricken Linda Marolla (Liza Minnelli) instead of going through with a prearranged wealthy marriage. The vengeful father (Stephen Elliott) of the justifiably jilted bride begins pulling a few crooked strings, and before long, Arthur is broke. Worse still, Linda is pregnant. Will Arthur crawl back into a bottle, or will he save the day? John Gielgud makes a cameo appearance as the ghost of the family-retainer character he played in the first Arthur, while Dudley Moore's real-life wife Brogan Lane shows up in a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dudley Moore, Liza Minnelli, (more)
- 1988
Made for television, Winnie is adapted from the fact-based book Winnie: My Life in the Institution by Jamie Paster Bolnick. Meredith Baxter-Birney plays Winnie Sprockett, who at age 6 is adjudged moderately retarded and confined to an Iowa mental institution. After being locked away for 30 years, Winnie campaigns for her release, attempting to write a book of her experiences. At one point she escapes with a fellow patient (David Morse). Through the intervention of a compassionate administrator (Barbara Barrie), Winnie is at last allowed to re-enter the outside world. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
A kept woman learns to live independently in this made-for-TV melodrama. Her troubles begin after her successful and much loved "sugar daddy" suddenly dies, leaving her with nothing but her own strong will and very few real job skills to survive. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Victoria Principal, Don Murray, (more)
