Mark Miller Movies
The bulk of American leading man Mark Miller's work has been seen on television. Miller co-starred with Joanne Dru in the one-season sitcom Guestward Ho (1960), and five years later enjoyed a two-season run as the husband of Patricia Crowley on Please Don't Eat the Daisies (1965). He was a regular on two soap operas, General Hospital (as Randy Washburn) and Bright Promise, and a semi-regular on the nighttimer Name of the Game (1969-71), as reporter Ross Craig. In films, Miller served as producer/writer/star of the 1982 family picture Savannah Smiles, based on his novel of the same name. More recently, he co-wrote the screenplay for director Alfonso Arau's A Walk in the Clouds (1995). Mark Miller is the father of actress Penelope Ann Miller. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
A smooth-talking sports agent gets stranded in a small town while trying to recruit a high school basketball star, and finds the faith of the locals having an unexpected affect on his cynical outlook of the world in this uplifting religious drama. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
In this atmospheric romantic drama, Keanu Reeves plays Paul Sutton, who has just returned home from a stretch in the Army during World War II. Still reeling from the horrors of war, Paul wants to settle down and start a farm, but his wife Betty (Debra Messing), whom he met and impulsively married shortly before shipping out, has arranged for him to take a job as a salesman peddling chocolates. While taking a sales trip to another town, he befriends a beautiful but distraught young woman, Victoria Aragon (Aitana Sanchez-Gijon). While away at college, Victoria met and fell in love with a young man and soon became pregnant; however, when her boyfriend discovered she was expecting, he abandoned her. She returns home full of shame and fearful of her father's reaction. But Paul gets an idea -- he'll pose as her husband and leave after a day or two, so when she's left alone with the child, the disgrace will be on him, not her. Victoria agrees, and Paul joins Victoria as she arrives at her family's estate in the California wine country. Most of the Aragon family take to Paul readily enough, especially Grandfather Don Pedro (Anthony Quinn), but Victoria's father, Alberto (Giancarlo Giannini), senses something amiss between the young couple. A Walk In The Clouds was the first American film from director Alfonso Arau, who previously made the international hit Like Water For Chocolate. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Keanu Reeves, Aitana Sanchez-Gijon, (more)
Jonathan Kaplan directs this drama which grafts a nostalgic mood piece with a race-to-the-finish road movie. Lurene Hallett (Michelle Pfeiffer) is an insulated middle-class wife living in Texas in the early 1960s who adores the Kennedys, particularly Jackie, whom she feels is a kindred soul. When she finds out the President and First Lady will be in Dallas on November 22, 1963, she races to the airport to greet the couple. Just missing them, she drives through the Dallas streets and notices a quiet chaos developing. When she finds out John Kennedy has been assassinated, Lureen is determined to get to Washington to be with Jackie for the funeral. When her redneck husband Ray (Brian Kerwin) refuses to give her the car, she gets on a bus, where she meets a black man named Johnson (Dennis Haysbert), with his five-year-old daughter Jonell (Stephanie McFadden). Lureen speaks continually about Kennedy and the rest of the black occupants of the bus roll their eyes. But after an accident with the bus, Lureen uncovers the fact that Mr. Johnson's real name is Cater, and he has kidnapped his daughter from an orphanage and is heading to Philadelphia. With the cops on their tail, the trio steals a car and race northward with the police in pursuit, Lureen hoping to make to Washington in time for Kennedy's funeral. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michelle Pfeiffer, Dennis Haysbert, (more)
- 1991
Nightmare in Columbia County was inspired by a true-life crime which occurred in South Carolina in the 1980s. An elusive psychopath is stalking a beauty contest winner. He kidnaps the girl's sister, then murders several people to cover his tracks. The police are at a loss to find the maniac, who remains in contact with the beauty queen via short, untraceable phone calls. William Devane plays the obsessed police detective who burns the midnight oil to put the clues together. Nightmare in Columbia County refuses to insult the intelligence of its audience with a sugarcoating of the events or with any tacked-on happy endings. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- William Devane, Jeri Ryan, (more)
- 1989
In this police drama, a rookie cop finds his idealism nearly destroyed when he discovers that most of the officers in his new precinct are corrupt. This is based on a true story. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1989
- R
When two rival groups of surfers face off on a Southern California beach prior to a big surfing contest, things get a little tense. However, when surfer Nick Rainwood (Richard Joseph Paul) meets up with a pretty girl, Allie (Danielle Von Zerneck), the two start off a romance, in spite of the fact that they belong to opposing sides of the surfing feud. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi
- Starring:
- Keith Coogan, Danielle von Zerneck, (more)
Savannah Smiles is a sweet little film that proved a surprising hit on the Saturday matinee circuit. Mark Miller and Donovan Scott play a pair of good-natured escaped convicts who cross the path of precocious runaway Bridgette Andersen. When Andersen explains that she's hit the road because her wealthy parents neglect her, Miller and Scott decide to hold the kid for a huge ransom. You and I both know that the crooks will turn soft before the end, and return Andersen to her folks without a dollar changing hands, but even predicting the film's outcome cannot diminish its charm. Star Mark Miller, who also scripted Savannah Smiles, is the father of actress Penelope Ann Miller. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Mark Miller, Donovan Scott, (more)
- 1982
In this first episode of a two-part story, dry-cleaning entrepreneur George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley) is locked in a down-and-dirty price war with the rival Big Sky Cleaners. George's strenuous efforts to surpass his competitors' sales gimmicks come acropper when his wife, Louise (Isabel Sanford), accidentally becomes Big Sky's one millionth customer. Intended as the finale of The Jeffersons' eighth season, "Laundry is a Tough Town" was instead used as the opener for season nine. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, (more)
- 1981
This heartwarming Christmas tale contains a western twist as it tells the tale of a heavenly cowpoke who rides down to Earth to ride herd on a few people in need of some miracles. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1980
In this holiday western an aging saddletramp discovers the spirit of Christmas when he must spend it with a widow and her family during the great blizzard of 1888. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1977
In this made-for-TV pilot film, Donna Mills stars as the title character, an undercover cop on the run after the mob frames her for murder. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi
Two sisters (Jane Johnstone, Kathy McHaley) seek vengeance when they are evicted from their farmhouse and a gunslinging sheriff shoots down their moonshining father. ~ John Bush, Rovi
- 1975
Diane Baker guest stars as Irene Martin, an attractive--and unattached--homicide inspector. Irene makes quite an impression upon widowed detective Mike Stone (Karl Malden), who eventually falls in love with her. Unfortunately, the wedding plans drawn up by Mike and Irene are compromised when they argue bitterly over their differing perspectives of an ongong homicide case. Featured in the cast is Mark Miller, the father of film star Penelope Ann Miller. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1974
A meek and mild mailman decides that the only way to escape the constant nagging of his battle-ax of a wife is to turn himself into the title tree in this off-beat fantasy. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jason Robards, Jr., Sandy Dennis, (more)
- 1974
The Walton youngsters are impressed by the big-city sophistication of their new neighbors, the Hanovers. Having left his job as a New York stockbroker, Ted Hanover (Mark Miller) has moved to Walton's Mountain in order to impress upon his children the pleasures of living the simple life. Alas, the spoiled-rotten Hanover kids don't see things Ted's way at all, and before long they have persuaded the Walton kids that they're wasting their time living in "the sticks." The situation reaches the crisis stage when Ted's callow son Charles (David Gruner) tries to take advantage of innocent Erin Walton (Mary Elizabeth McDonough). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1973
- PG
Veteran art director Gordon Wiles occasionally wielded the directorial megaphone in both films and television with mixed results. Ginger in the Morning is an aggressively "small" picture, its success or failure totally reliant on the rapport between its stars. A young Sissy Spacek plays the title character, a gangly teenaged hitchhiker who thumbs a ride from travelling salesman Joe (Monte Markham). He is drawn to her free-spirited outlook on life. She, in turn, is attracted by his conservative, old-fashioned values. Nothing much happens, but the scenery is lovely and the leading players seem to be having a good time. Also appearing in the all-TV supporting cast are Susan Oliver, Mark Miller and Slim Pickens. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1973
John (Randolph Mantooth) comes face to face with corporate bureaucracy when he falls victim to a credit-card computer error. On the job, the paramedics try to rescue a car-accident victim who may be pregnant, a woman who has fallen down a well, and a junkyard owner exposed to phosphorous materials. Comedian Larry Storch puts in an appearance as an amateur magician who gets trapped in a safe during an abortive escape act, while future Happy Days costar Donny Most shows up as an anguished father-to-be. Also, watch for an appearance by Mark Miller, the father of film star Penelope Ann Miller. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1973
Gary Merrill heads the cast of Murder and the Computer as a brilliant electronics scientist. Merrill is in the vicinity when a computer technician is murdered. He finds himself one of six suspects, all computer wizards. The six hackers team up to solve the murder themselves, meaning that only five of them is truly interested in unearthing the mystery. Shot on videotape, Murder and the Computer was a 1973 entry in ABC's late night anthology Wide World Mystery. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1973
Several inconvent truths about "equal consideration under the law" come to surface as Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) investigate two separate murders. One of the victims was a wealthy and well-connected white foreign businessman; the other was an impoverished black police informant. Judyann Elder delivers a stunning performance as the black victim's embittered wife, who challenges the cops to pay as much attention to her husband's death as to the executive's murder. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1972
Naive teenager Karen Collins (Patricia Mattick) has been kidnapped--but she doesn't know it. Thanks to the duplicity of her two new "friends", Karen is convinced that she is merely on a weekend vacation. Meanwhile, Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) conducts an exhaustive search for the missing girl, who will undoubtedly be eliminated the moment she tumbles to the truth. Featured as Karen's father is Mark Miller, the real-life dad of film star Penelope Ann Miller. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1972
Mark Miller plays a paranoid ex-convict named Tom and Leslie Parrish appears as a waitress named Sharon in a sad story of a star-crossed romance. Sharon fond of Tom, but he is more preoccupied with the fear that he is being stalked and pursued . When Sharon attempts suicide, Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) try to find out the reason by tracing a letter she had sent to Tom--with unexpected results. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1971
The harpy of the title is Elizabeth Ashley, the greedy, demanding ex-wife of architect Hugh O'Brian. As a means of escaping his former spouse's tirades, O'Brian quietly trains his pet eagle to be a hunter. A confrontation between eagle and "ex" is inevitable, but masterfully handled. Tom Nardini, playing a loyal Native-American friend of O'Brian's, is the principal instigator of the film's screeching denouement. Made for television, Harpy was first shown March 12, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1969
After winning a supermarket contest, Jeannie (Barbara Eden) is afforded the privilege of reigning as queen of the Cocoa Beach Rodeo. The event's star cowboy Wild Bill Barrows (played by Mark Miller, the father of contemporary film star Penelope Ann Miller) develops a hankerin' for Jeannie, hoping to rope her into matrimony. Jealously, Tony (Larry Hagman) enters the rodeo himself to reclaim Jeannie--and earns not a few lumps in the process! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1964
Youngblood Hawke (James Franciscus) is a Kentucky truck driver who comes to New York City to make it as a writer. He meets editor Jeanne Green (Suzanne Pleshette), who sees talent in Hawke's work. Jeanne falls for the handsome Kentuckian and helps him put together a book deal. His first book is only moderately successful, but his confidence is lifted when veteran actress Irene Perry (Mary Astor) wants to make his story into a Broadway play. Hawke soon discovers he is desired by many women, and the heartbroken Jeanne takes a job at another publishing company. His second book makes Hawke the toast of the town and the New York social elite. When Hawke has an affair with the married socialite Frieda Winter (Genevieve Page), her husband Paul (Kent Smith) discovers his wife's infidelity and sets out to ruin Hawke's career. His third book bombs, Frieda's son kills himself over his mother's affair, and Hawke's financial fortune takes a severe nosedive. He returns to Kentucky to work on his next book, but he contracts pneumonia before realizing that Jeanne is the woman he really loves. Good supporting performances from Werner Klemperer, Don Porter, Eva Gabor, and Edward Andrews along with the principle characters make this sentimental melodrama a success. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- James Franciscus, Suzanne Pleshette, (more)
- 1963
Written by John Furia, Jr., this hilarious 60-minute Twilight Zone entry stars Howard Morris as nebbishy George P. Hanley, who, while seeking out a birthday present for his secretary Ann (Patricia Barry), purchases a battered old oil lamp. Sure enough, the lamp contains a Genie (played with withering sarcasm by Jack Albertson), who grants George the standard three wishes. Unable to decide what to wish for, George mulls over several possibilities, including one scenario that finds him serving as President of the U.S. His indecision results in a variety of comic complications, capped by an outrageous denoument. A scattershot satire of early 1960s pop culture and politics, "I Dream of Genie" was originally telecast March 21, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Howard Morris, Patricia Barry, (more)
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