Paul Benjamin Movies

Across 110th Street is a violent urban thriller about a corrupt, older white cop (Anthony Quinn) and an honest, young African-American cop (Yaphet Kotto) chasing three robbers-cum-murderers who ran away with $300,000 that belonged to the Italian mob. The police must find them before the sadistic Mafia henchman Nick D'Salvio (Anthony Franciosa) reaches them first. The film has reached a cult status; the title song, performed by Bobby Womack, was later used in Jackie Brown, Quentin Tarantino's extended homage to the crime flicks of the 1970s. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide

Hard-boiled San Francisco police detective Captain Mike Stone returns to his old beat in order to find the crook who killed his partner (played during the 1972- 1977 series by Michael Douglas, whose scenes are taken from clips of the original series) in this crime drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

After being kicked off the force, Stoney Cooper (Wings Hauser) turns private detective for special cases; one involves tracking down a serial killer noted for carving X's into the forehead of each woman he kills. While Cooper is on the case, he's harassed by an old job partner (Lincoln Kilpatrick) and his ex-wife (Joyce Ingalls). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Director Spike Lee dives head-first into a maelstrom of racial and social ills, using as his springboard the hottest day of the year on one block in Brooklyn, NY. Three businesses dominate the block: a storefront radio station, where a smooth-talkin' deejay (Samuel L. Jackson) spins the platters that matter; a convenience store owned by a Korean couple; and Sal's Famous Pizzeria, the only white-operated business in the neighborhood. Sal (Danny Aiello) serves up slices with his two sons, genial Vito (Richard Edson) and angry, racist Pino (John Turturro). Sal has one black employee, Mookie (Spike Lee), who wants to "get paid" but lacks ambition. His sister Jade (Joie Lee, Spike's sister), who has a greater sense of purpose and a "real" job, wants Mookie to start dealing with his responsibilities, most notably his son with girlfriend Tina (Rosie Perez). Two of Mookie's best friends are Radio Raheem (Bill Nunn), a monolith of a man who rarely speaks, preferring to blast Public Enemy's rap song Fight The Power on his massive boom box; and Buggin' Out (Giancarlo Esposito), nicknamed for his coke-bottle glasses and habit of losing his cool. When Buggin' Out notes that Sal's "Wall of Fame," a photo gallery of famous Italian-Americans, includes no people of color, he eventually demands a neighborhood boycott, on a day when tensions are already running high, that incurs tragic consequences. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Originally telecast as a two-hour special, the first episode of ER has since been divided into a two-parter for syndication. In part one, young and inexperienced third-year med student John Carter (Noah Wyle) reports for work at the emergency room of Chicago's County General Hospital. During a hectic 24-hour shift, Carter is brusquely introduced to his future co-workers: his arrogant trainer, Dr. Peter Benton (Eriq La Salle); workaholic chief resident Dr. Mark Greene (Anthony Edwards); the equally hardworking Dr. Susan Lewis (Sherry Stringfield); the womanizing Dr. Douglas Ross (George Clooney); and troubled head nurse Carol Hathaway (Julianna Margulies). All in all, it is a typical shift at the ER, with cases ranging from gunshot wounds, ruptured aneurysms, burns, and even hangnails -- but a few surprises are in store for both the staff and the viewers at home. In part two, inexperienced three-year med student John Carter continues to cope as best he can with his hectic first day in the emergency room of Chicago's County General Hospital. Meanwhile, chief resident Greene weighs the possibility of entering private practice; Carter's supervisor, Benton, oversteps his authority by operating on a patient with an aortic aneurysm; and troubled head nurse, Carol Hathaway, becomes a patient herself after attempting suicide (originally intended as a one-shot character, Hathaway proved so popular with the viewers that she was immediately pencilled in as a regular). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No one can escape from Alcatraz, right? Try telling that to lifer Frank Morris (Clint Eastwood). This Donald Siegel-directed nailbiter is a reenactment of Frank Morris' 1962 attempt to bust himself and two other cons out of The Rock. Eastwood, as Morris, tilts with nasty warden Patrick McGoohan for a while, befriends several fellow prisoners, and picks the guys with whom he'll make his escape. Among his break-out buddies are the Anglin Brothers (Fred Ward and Jack Thibeau), with whom he'd served in other lockups, and several others who've got their own special reasons to despise the sadistic McGoohan. Filmed on location at the newly renovated Alcatraz, Escape From Alcatraz was another box-office winner for the Eastwood/Siegel combo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Except for Me and Thee is the syndicated title of Friendly Persuasion, the pilot film for an unsold TV series based on the novel by Jessamyn West. Richard Kiley and Shirley Knight star as Quaker farmers Jess and Eliza Birdwell, whose pacificism is put to the test when the Civil War breaks out. In keeping with the humanitarian edicts of their religion, the Birdwells aid several slaves in their escape from the South. Brothers Michael and Kevin O'Keefe play the Birdwells' eldest sons (Michael continued acting into the 1990s).Friendly Persuasion was previously adapted into a popular film in 1956, starring Gary Cooper and Dorothy McGuire; Dmitri Tiomkin's theme music from that film was redeployed for Except for Me and Thee. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The white-run Mafia and the black-run numbers game meet head on with explosive impact in this period crime thriller. Ellsworth "Bumpy" Johnson (Laurence Fishburne) is an African-American ex-con who, after a stay in prison, returns to Harlem at the height of its renaissance before World War II. Looking for work, Bumpy becomes a lieutenant for Stephanie St. Clair (Cicely Tyson), the queen of Harlem's numbers racket. Bumpy's old friend Illinois Gordon (Chi McBride) gently expresses his concern about Bumpy's life of crime, and social worker Francine Hughes (Vanessa L. Williams), who is attracted to Bumpy (and vice versa), suggests he should be doing something more positive with his life. But Bumpy contends that the numbers game is the only business in the community that blacks are able to control themselves. The numbers game is very profitable -- enough so that mob boss "Lucky" Luciano (Andy Garcia) wants in on the action. He assigns one of his key men, "Dutch" Schultz (Tim Roth), to try to strike a deal with Stephanie, but negotiation isn't Dutch's strong suit -- he finds that murder is a far more effective tactic in taking control of a business, and Dutch is not the sort of person who's bothered by violence. Hoodlum was director Bill Duke's second film set in the milieu of the Gangster days of the 1920s and 1930s, after his breakthrough picture A Rage in Harlem. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Kojak moved from its familiar Sunday-night stamping grounds to a Tuesday slot with this episode, in which a young Dorian Harewood) is cast as Jake Riley, a prizefighter falsely accused of his wife's murder. Escaping custody, Riley takes several hostages in a local church and demands that the authorities provide him with $200,000 in ransom money and an escape route. Racing against time, Kojak (Telly Savalas must simultaneously talk sense to the desperate fugitive and locate the actual murderer. Featured in the supporting cast is Ken Foree, best known to contemporary horror fans as the protagonist in George Romero's Dawn of the Dead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a James Leo Herlihy novel, British director John Schlesinger's first American film dramatized the small hopes, dashed dreams, and unlikely friendship of two late '60s lost souls. Dreaming of an easy life as a fantasy cowboy stud, cheerful Texas rube Joe Buck (Jon Voight) heads to New York City to be a gigolo, but he quickly discovers that hustling isn't what he thought it would be after he winds up paying his first trick (Sylvia Miles). He gets swindled by gimpy tubercular grifter Rico "Ratso" Rizzo (Dustin Hoffman) but, when Joe falls in the direst of straits, Ratso takes Joe into his condemned apartment so that they can help each other survive. Things start to look up when Joe finally lands his first legit female customer (Brenda Vaccaro) at a Warhol-esque party; Ratso's health, however, fails. Joe turns a final trick to get the money for one selfless goal: taking Ratso out of New York to his dream life in Miami. One of the first major studio films given the newly minted X rating for its then-frank portrayal of New York decadence, Midnight Cowboy was critically praised for Schlesinger's insight into American lives, with the intercut mosaic of Joe's memories and Ratso's dreams lending their characters and actions greater psychological complexity. While they may have been drawn by the seamy content (tame by current standards), the young late '60s audience responded to Joe's and Ratso's confusion amidst turbulent times and to the connection they make with each other despite their alienation from the surrounding culture. Midnight Cowboy became one of the major financial and artistic hits of 1969, winning Oscars for Best Picture (the first for an X-rated film), Best Director, and former blacklistee Waldo Salt's screenplay. Though the one-two punch of Midnight Cowboy and The Graduate (1967) proved Hoffman's range and Voight's Joe Buck made him a star, both lost Best Actor to classical cowboy John Wayne for True Grit. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

High-priced hooker Barbra Streisand has been arrested for the murder of one of her clients. The attorney engaged by Streisand's parents hope to cop an insanity plea so that she can avoid a trial and manslaughter conviction. But she refuses this, citing a proviso in New York law that may result in her spending the rest of her life in an institution. Against all odds, struggling lawyer Richard Dreyfuss tries to prove that Streisand is not crazy and capable of standing trial. Dreyfuss certainly has his work cut out for him: from what we've seen in the film thus far, the violently impulsive Streisand is not only "nuts," but certifiably so. Though she has plenty of opportunity in Nuts to give out with her usual bravura Streisandisms, Streisand (who also produced the film and wrote the songs) is surprisingly restrained through most of the proceedings. And then there's that extended-monologue climax. Nuts was adapted by Tom Topor, Darryl Ponicsan and Alvin Sargent from Topor's stage play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For his third film as a director and his third film directing Clint Eastwood, stunt-man Buddy Van Horn helmed this action comedy involving a skip tracer, some neo-nazis, and the titular vehicle. Eastwood stars as Tommy Nowak, a bounty hunter with a knack for catching bail-skippers with an array of costumes and characters. After he captures a young woman (Bernadette Peters), he suddenly finds himself between the woman's good-for-nothing husband and his white supremacist cohorts and the wads of cash hidden in the pink Cadillac she's driving. With the skin-heads hot on their tail, a romance sparks between the skip-tracer and his captive. Written by John Eskow, Pink Cadillac costars Timothy Carhart and Michael Des Barres. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide