Reathel Bean Movies
Originally assembled by actress Joanne Woodward at Connecticut's Westport County Playhouse (where she served as artistic director), this highly praised 2002 revival of Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning 1938 play Our Town enjoyed a brief Broadway stay that same year, and it was during its New York run that the production was videotaped for the Showtime cable network. The revival's principal attraction was Woodward's husband, Paul Newman, in the role of the avuncular Stage Manager, who narrates the action and occasionally converses with the characters on-stage and with members of the audience. Covering a period from 1901 to approximately 1917, the play is set in the New England community of Grover's Corners (conveyed with a bare minimum of sets and props, as dictated by Wilder's original staging notes). The focus is on the romance between Emily Webb (Maggie Lacey), daughter of the town's newspaper editor, and George Gibbs (Ben Fox). The play's three acts run the full gamut of Emily and George's relationship, from courtship, to marriage, to early death. In addition to Newman, the cast of Our Town is full of familiar TV and movie faces, among them Jeffrey DeMunn, Jane Curtin, Mia Dillon, Travis Walters, Stephen Mendillo, and Jake Robards, grandson of Jason Robards Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Maggie Lacey, (more)
- 2002
A tourist's video recorder captures the image of three men loading a stolen plasma TV into an SUV. The light-fingered trio find themselves murder suspects when a dead woman turns up in the apartment that they apparently robbed. As the trial progresses, ADA Serena Southerlyn (Elisabeth Rohm) cannot shake the feeling that the circumstantial evidence is not sufficient to send three dumbfounded people to their deaths. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1999
A teenager is found dead in a hospital ER. The subsequent investigation leads to a bizarre religious ritual, "dictated by a saint." Once the D.A.'s office takes over the case, they must deal with a self-styled prophet with a powerful gift for mass persuasion -- which may prove problematic once the fanatical defendant faces a jury of peers. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1992
- PG13
- Add The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag to Queue Add The Gun in Betty Lou's Handbag to top of Queue
Penelope Ann Miller's delightful performance as the shy, part-time librarian Betty Lou Perkins is the saving grace of this comedy from Touchstone Pictures. Betty Lou is the neglected wife of small-town police detective Alex Perkins (Eric Thal). She soon feels even more neglected when Alex can't make their anniversary dinner because he has to investigate a brutal motel room slaying. Taking her dog for a walk, Betty Lou finds a gun by the river's edge that just happens to be the missing murder weapon in Alex's murder investigation. In order to get some attention, she announces that she was the one who committed the murder. Hauled behind bars, Betty Lou gets some quick assertiveness training from her cell-mate, hard-boiled prostitute Reba Bush (Cathy Moriarty). She also becomes an instant media celebrity, with crowds clamoring around her and television news reporters elevating her to legendary status. But Alex doesn't believe she committed the murder (she tells him the dead man was her lover) and continues investigating the crime. Her husband is not the only one who's suspicious -- the FBI wants to use her to lure crime lord Beaudeen (William Forsythe), who they suspect actually committed the murder, out into the open. It turns out the FBI is right; Beaudeen killed the motel room victim because he planned to blackmail him with an incriminating cassette. Beaudeen is convinced that Betty Lou has the tape and musters his forces to get it from her one way or another. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Penelope Ann Miller, Eric Thal, (more)
- 1989
- PG
Brook Shields plays the comic-strip journalist, Brenda Starr, who travels to a South American jungle on an assignment. It is there that she covers the story about a mad scientist who plans to blow up the planet with his newly developed rocket fuel. Also appearing are Timothy Dalton and Charles Durning, among others, who don Bob Mackie-designed costumes. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi
- Starring:
- Brooke Shields, Timothy Dalton, (more)
Tom Cruise juggles Martini shakers and ice cubes as the materialistic Brian Flanagan, a bartender who drops out of school to search for the perfect "rich chick" who will bankroll him into luxury. Brian meets up with bar veteran Doug Couglin (Bryan Brown) and they put together a dance-duo bar-tending act, taking five minutes to a mix a drink as they dance and toss gin bottles behind the bar to cutting-edge rock music circa 1988. The patrons, instead of demanding the booze, are dazzled by their antics and cheer them on. As a result, the bartenders become wildly popular -- in particular, Brian, who finds the bar babes falling all over each other to hop into the sack with him. As a result of their bar-tending success, they get hired to tend bar at a swanky disco, but there Brian and Doug have a falling out, and Brian takes off for Jamaica. There he meets vacationing New York City waitress Jordan Mooney (Elisabeth Shue) and the two fall in love. But then Brian meets rich New York fashion executive Bonnie (Lisa Banes) who wants to take Brian back to Manhattan with her to become her drink-mixing stud. When Jordan sees this, the love affair is put on hold. But not for long, as pangs of consciousness begin to filter through Brian's drunken haze. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Tom Cruise, Bryan Brown, (more)
- 1985
- R
Keith Gordon plays a oddball loner who builds a very special kind of TV set. He claims he can tune in to images of Heaven, and all evidence points to the veracity of his claim. Gordon's eccentric religiosity attracts the attention of wacko evangelist Bob Gunton, who'd like to snatch the TV for his own purposes. Director Mark Romanek went on to hone his unique style with a number of high-profile music videos. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Keith Gordon, Amanda Plummer, (more)
- 1985
- R
Director Louis Malle scrutinizes modern-day racism in Alamo Bay. The scene is the Texas coast, where local fishermen resent the "intrusion" of Vietnam refugees. Fair-minded shrimp supplier Wally (Donald Moffat) hires several Vietnamese workers, which serves to further infuriate the locals. The most vociferous of Moffat's opponents is a fisherman, Shang (Ed Harris), who faces bankruptcy due to loss of business. A town meeting designed to settle the issue erupts into violence when Vietnamese emigre Dinh (Ho Nguyen) accuses some of the locals of bending the law for their own purposes. A desperate Shang asks his former lover Glory (Amy Madigan) for financial aid, a delicate situation in that she is Wally's daughter. When the Ku Klux Klan arrives on the scene to drive the Vietnamese out, Glory sides with the refugees, resulting in strong friendship between herself and Dinh. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Amy Madigan, Ed Harris, (more)
Joe (George Burns), Al (Art Carney), and Willie (Lee Strasberg) are three senior citizens who share a small apartment in New York City. They live off social security checks and spend their days sitting on a park bench, reading newspapers, feeding pigeons, and fending off obnoxious children. It's a dull life, and finally Joe is driven to suggest something radical to break the monotony; why not go on a stick up? None of them have a criminal history (though Joe claims he "did some stealing during the war"), but just planning the bank robbery puts a new spring in their step. Al surreptitiously borrows some pistols from the collection of his nephew, Pete (Charles Hallahan), and the trio, disguised with novelty Groucho Marx-style glasses, pulls off their heist to the tune of 35,000 dollars. Unfortunately, the excitement is too much for Willie, who suffers a fatal heart attack the same day. At his funeral, Joe and Al decide to give the bulk of the dough to Pete and his family, and attempt to blow the rest of it on a whirlwind excursion to Las Vegas. Meanwhile, the eccentric robbery has become a colorful news story for the media and the police are closing in on the amateur criminals. ~ Fred Beldin, Rovi
- Starring:
- George Burns, Art Carney, (more)
- 1968
Inasmuch as Windflowers was also released as The Story of a Draft Dodger, it isn't difficult to figure out when it was filmed. This 1960s time capsule stars John Kramer as Paul Ramsey, who assumes an alias and goes on the run when Uncle Sam sends him "greetings." The film covers six years in Ramsey's life, charting his disenchantment with the Establishment and his gradual radicalization. Surprisingly, the word "Vietnam" is not mentioned once. Written, directed and edited by Adolfas Mekas, Windflowers sometimes resembles an experimental project cooked up by a college drama department. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Pola Chapelle, Ronnie Gilbert, (more)
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