Barry Newman Movies

Part narrative, part documentary, and part animation, What the #$*! Do We Know?! was filmed with the intent of expressing the neurological processes and so called "quantum uncertainty" of life. With the help of a directorial triumvirate consisting of Betsy Chasse, William Arntz, and Mark Vicente, Marlee Matlin stars as Amanda, whose uninspired daily routine is abruptly altered into a chaotic, Alice in Wonderland-style reality, complete with quirky characters and wildly different perspectives on life. As Amanda falls deeper into the experience, she's forced to drastically reconsider her perceptions of interpersonal relationships, men, and the fundamental principles of life. What the #$*! Do We Know?! is supplemented by a host of mystics and scientists, who are interviewed intermittently throughout the film for their wisdom and knowledge concerning religion, science, the thin line between them, and the consequences of blurring that line. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Season six of NYPD Blue begins with a story arc designed to prepare viewers for the inevitable departure of series regular Jimmy Smits (Detective Bobby Simone). It all begins as Bobby's dentist asks the detective to check up on the dentist's daughter, whose boyfriend is a slimy drug dealer. When the boyfriend is stabbed, disreputable private eye Mike Roberts (Michael Harney), currently the bodyguard of the victim's father, asks the cops to give the case "special" handling -- much to the disgust of Bobby's partner, Andy Sipowicz (Dennis Franz), who despises Roberts. Elsewhere, a false-alarm rape investigated by Bobby's wife and co-worker, Diane Russell (Kim Delaney), turns out to be the real things; John Irvin (Bill Brochtrup), returning to the precinct after his business folds, strikes up a friendship with new PAA Dolores Mayo (Lola Glaudini); and, on a more ominous note, Bobby begins to exhibit signs of a potentially serious illness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sipowicz (Dennis Franz) looks for the person who mugged a disabled (but as it turns out, far from helpless) Vietnam veteran. Along the way, he has another run-in with Assistant DA Sylvia Costas (Sharon Lawrence). While moonlighting, Kelly (David Caruso) finds out that his wealthy friend's sweetheart is playing around -- which leads to deeper complications. Suffering from stress, Medavoy (Gordon Clapp) nonetheless continues juggling the affection of his wife and his girlfriend, Donna (Gail O'Grady). There's also a surprise wedding in the offing. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is among the guests enjoying a skiing vacation at a mountain lodge. At least, she and the other guests were enjoying the vacation until they were all trapped in the lodge by a sudden blizzard. Among the others are a jealous husband, an outraged wife, a long-suffering agent and an abrasive champion skier. Before long, one of these characters is going to be murdered, and Jessica will try to figure out the killer's identity before he (or she) can strike again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Convicted murderer Dr. Jeffrey MacDonald had hoped that, by telling his side of the story to investigative journalist Joe McGinniss, the authorities would be persuaded of MacDonald's innocence. Instead, McGinniss ended up unswerving in his belief of MacDonald's guilt, and the result was the devastating best-seller Fatal Vision. In this two-part TV adaptation of McGinniss' book, Gary Cole plays MacDonald, a former Green Beret officer, while Frank Dent essays the role of McGinniss. MacDonald's wife and two children are brutally murdered in their Fort Bragg, North Carolina home on February 17, 1970. The prime suspect, MacDonald insists that the killings were committed by a gang of stoned-out hippies, a story that at first is accepted in toto by the doctor's father-in-law Freddy Kassab (Karl Malden). But after MacDonald is officially exonerated, Kassab notices several holes in his son-in-law's story, and becomes convinced that MacDonald was in fact the murderer. Through Kassab's persistence, as well as the uncovering of new forensic evidence, MacDonald is ultimately convicted for all three murders in 1979. Since the TV premiere of Fatal Vision on November 18 and 19, 1984, there has been a growing movement by MacDonald's sympathizers to discredit McGinniss' book and to retry the case--a movement that has been hampered time and again by MacDonald's own erratic behavior. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This final episode of Quincy, M.E was planned as the pilot for a spinoff series titled The Cutting Edge, starring Barry Newman as Dr. Gabriel McCracken, the head of a humanitarian medical service called Project Hope. McCracken and his fellow doctors are dedicated to using state-of-the-art technology to heal the suffering and provide a new lease on life to people who might otherwise have given up the ghost. In the case at hand, McCracken and company re-attach the amputed arm of dockworker Kenny Kelso (Allen Fawcett), then try to help him cope with the possibility that his "good" arm is going bad. Though nominal leading man Quincy (Jack Klugman) has limited footage in this episode, his wife Emily (Anita Gillette) is prominently featured (reportedly, Gillette was to have been a regular on The Cutting Edge--which, unfortunately, remained unsold). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV suspenser stars Suzanne Pleshette as famous soap opera writer Carla Webber. Carla turns detective when the cast members of her program begin dying under mysterious circumstances. Barry Newman plays the investigating detective, while Robert Vaughn and Patrick O'Neal are special guest suspects. The film's principal attraction (and a hardly unexpected one) is the presence in the supporting cast of then-current soap opera stars: All My Children's Peter Bergman, General Hospital's Stuart Damon and Robin Mattson, Ryan's Hope's John Gabriel, and One Life to Live's Robert S. Woods. Fantasies was first networkcast January 18, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Poorly acted, unintentionally funny in parts, and with transparent literary pretensions, this horror film is about a well-established screenwriter who loses the ability to distinguish between his fantasy world and the real world -- with disastrous consequences. As he ruminates on his place in any world and loses his grip, he also loses his wife (not misplaced, she leaves him) and his children's respect, and critics tear him apart. The final undoing of this screenwriter is a deadline that must be met at all costs -- and the costs turn out to be too great. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Sex and the Married Woman stars Joanna Pettet as a housewife and Barry Newman as her liberal-minded husband. Encouraging his wife to find her "inner self," Newman has no notion that Pettet will translate this invitation into writing a book based on the sex habits of her friends and neighbors. The book becomes a best-seller, Pettet becomes a celebrity, and Newman seethes with envy. When first telecast in 1977, Sex and the Married Woman was advertised on the basis of its large cast of celebrity cameos (Jayne Meadows, Keenan Wynn, etc.) Virtually ignored was the fourth-billed F. Murray Abraham, seven years away from his Oscar win as Salieri in 1984's Amadeus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this thriller based on a novel by Alistair MacLean, Barry Newman plays John Talbot, an underwater salvage expert who witnesses the murder of his wife and child. After working with the police, Talbot hatches his own scheme to bring the killers to justice; posing as a criminal, he stages the phony murder of a police officer and kidnaps Sarah Ruthven (Suzy Kendall), the heiress to a petroleum fortune. Talbot's false daring attracts the attention of a criminal mastermind who wants to recover the valuables aboard a plane that recently crash-landed in the water; however, Talbot knows that the same man was responsible for his family's death, and he intends to see that he never returns from their exploratory search of the wrecked plane. Watch for Ben Kingsley in a small role, it was his first film, prior to Gandhi in 1982. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The short but bloody career of one of the most infamous outlaws of the 1930s is chronicled in this drama. Charles Arthur Floyd (John Ericson) finds work on an oil rig after serving time for armed robbery, but when he becomes involved with a married woman, her husband swears revenge. Floyd's boss doesn't know that his new employee was a jailbird, and when the cuckolded husband breaks the news, Floyd is out of a job. With nowhere to go, Floyd heads back to his father's home in Oklahoma, but when he learns that a neighboring farmer killed his father, Floyd goes berserk and murders the farmer. Floyd recruits three fellow criminals, Al (Barry Newman), Baker (Philip Kenneally), and Curly (Carl York), and together they cut a swath through the nation, robbing banks and leaving bodies in their wake. A young Peter Falk appears in a minor role, as does Al Lewis, who later gained fame as Grandpa on the TV series The Munsters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

When Jill (Janeane Garofalo), the sister of reformed womanizer and former high-profile fashion photographer Jack (Nestor Carbonell), leaves her 17-year-old son with his uncle in an unstable bid to find herself, her brother and sister face an increasingly uncertain future in this dark drama from director Bobby Roth. Bored of working an endless string of weddings and bar mitzvahs and longing to return to the success he experienced before his luck took a nosedive, Jack attempts to connect with both his teenage son and nephew while pulling his life into focus. To make matters even more complicated, Jill's jobless ex-husband, Eli (John Ritter), has also decided to move in with Jack. Will the hapless photographer be able to keep his sanity as his dysfunctional family forces itself into virtually every aspect of his increasingly chaotic life? ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this comedy, Ryan Turner (Charlie Sheen) is a successful young stockbroker whose life falls apart seemingly overnight when Donald Simpson (Barry Newman), the owner of a powerful media conglomerate, gives him some particularly bad advice about a certain stock; this might have something to do with the fact Ryan has been having an affair with Veronica (Lisa Rinna), Simpson's wife. Ryan loses his job, he finds himself banned from stock trading, and he's about to be evicted from his apartment when his live-in girlfriend Cindy (Denise Richards) decides to leave him to fly off to Rio with a new man. As Ryan tries to come up with a way to pay his rent, he gets a call from Cindy's boss; she writes a newspaper advice column, and it seems her copy is long overdue. Needing Cindy's paycheck to keep a roof over his head, Ryan begins writing her column for her, leading to a wealth of complications and misunderstandings. Good Advice also stars Jon Lovitz, Rosanna Arquette, and Estelle Harris. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide