Joe Bennett Movies
The directorial debut of producer Irwin Winkler, Guilty by Suspicion is a sobering account of one movie executive's woes in dealing with the political fallout from the McCarthy Era Hollywood blacklist. Robert De Niro stars as David Merrill, a film director in the 1950s whose obsession with his burgeoning career has estranged him from his wife Ruth (Annette Bening) and their son. When he returns from a trip to Paris, Merrill is surprised when told by his boss, Darryl F. Zanuck (Ben Piazza) that he's been summoned to appear before the House Un-American Activities Committee, which is investigating Communist ties to Hollywood. Although Merrill once attended a meeting years before, he's not a Communist, and he refuses to help the committee wreck the career of his friend Bunny Baxter (George Wendt). Merrill becomes blacklisted, unable to find work even in menial positions or under assumed names as the editor of a B-movie or the director of a low-budget Western. Reconciled with his family, Merrill caves in and agrees to testify, but as he prepares to "name names," his conscience plagues him. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Annette Bening, (more)
This made-for-television biopic tells the story of phenomenal Rumanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci, a little girl who blew away the judges at the 1976 Summer Olympics by getting an unprecedented series of six perfect scores. Unfortunately, though the games were a dream come true, her subsequent life was a nightmare that culminated in a suicide attempt. Fortunately that was Nadia's lowest point and she was able to make a comeback in time to have a happy ending. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leslie Weiner, Johann Carlo, (more)
Chuck Norris plays John T. Booker, a Vietnam vet who finds out that several of his army buddies lost their lives in a mission that was intended to fail. Seeking answers, Booker quits his school-teaching job and tracks down the surviving members of his unit. One by one, his old friends are being knocked off by sinister forces, orchestrated by a crooked, and legally untouchable, politician. Amidst a plethora of martial arts, gunfire and explosions, the film briefly pauses for a comic-relief scene involving over-aged bellboy Jim Backus. Good Guys Wear Black did so well at the box-office that it warranted a sequel, A Force of One (1979). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chuck Norris, Anne Archer, (more)
- 1978
This 1978 TV movie was the first of two pilots for a cop series titled--yes--Two-Five The title refers to a woebegone Big City precinct where all the malcontents and misfits on the force are transferred. The latest arrivals at Two-Five are undercover cops Don Johnson ("introduced" in the ad copy as a "bright new comedy star") and Joe Bennett, who have recently capped their many mistakes by arresting the mayor's mother during a gambling raid. The boys try to toe the line, but those pesky criminals just won't go away, most notably a drug kingpin whom Johnson and Bennett have been trying to nail for years. The Two-Five was followed in 1979 by another 90-minute pilot with the same title and the same cast, but with a different director (Jules Irving). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Battling Hoofer is the reissue title of the 1936 James Cagney vehicle Something to Sing About. Cagney plays Terry Rooney, a New York bandleader who heads to Hollywood when he is offered a movie contract. The down-to-Earth Rooney resists the "star treatment," an attitude misinterpreted by movie executive Bennett O. Regan (Gene Lockhart) as arrogance. When Terry's first film is a hit, Regan orders everyone involved to keep its success a secret from Terry, lest he develop a swelled head! (We don't believe it either.) The best sequence has Rooney chewing out his Asian houseboy, Ito (Philip Ahn), whereupon he drops his "So solly" pidgin English and begins talking like a Harvard professor! Terry gets to romance newcomer Evelyn Daw, as well as veteran vamp Mona Barrie; he also gets to participate in several lively dance numbers. Something to Sing About was the second of Jimmy Cagney's films for Poverty Row studio Grand National: the production values and snappy script work that he might have enjoyed at Warner Bros. are noticeably lacking, but Cagney is always fun to watch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Cagney, Evelyn Daw, (more)
- 1928
Fans of stunt pilot Al Wilson had no reason for complaint when their favorite flyboy brought forth his 1928 vehicle Won in the Clouds. There's a plot of sorts, as Wilson tries to save the heroine -- and his father's diamond mine -- from the clutches of the villains. Other than that, the film is virtually all action, with most of that action taking place thousands of feet above the clouds. The highlight is a brutal fistfight on the wing of Wilson's plane, with nary a stunt double or process screen to be found anywhere. Won in the Clouds was one of the few Al Wilson films to enjoy a "second life" on the 8-millimeter home-movie market of the 1960s and 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Al Wilson, Helen Foster, (more)
- 1927
Cowboy Bob Bishop (Ken Maynard) searches for rancher Leadley's (Carl Stockdale) son Bart (Joe Bennett), who has joined a gang of outlaws lead by the vicious Ramon Bistula (Richard Neill). Along the way he befriends lovely Mary Burton (Kathleen Collins) and her father Mexicali Burton (Charles Hill Mailes). With a straightforward script by genre specialist Marion Jackson, capable direction from Al Rogell and a cast of old faithfuls, Somewhere in Sonora was almost the perfect silent and a credit to rising star Ken Maynard. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ken Maynard, Kathleen Collins, (more)
- 1924
In his second starring Western, lower-echelon cowboy Bob Custer portrayed a ranger who mistakenly believes pretty Marguerite Clayton to be in cahoots with a nasty gang of bank robbers. Miss Clayton is innocent of the charge, of course, but she does have an identical twin. A veteran Western heroine, Marguerite Clayton had starred opposite almost every Hollywood cowboy imaginable, including the very first, "Bronco" Billy Anderson. Clayton finally hung up her spurs in 1927. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Custer, Marguerite Clayton, (more)
- 1921
Based on the cerebral Wild Geese by Max Brand, this oater proved to be a rather uneasy vehicle for the era's most popular Western star, the genial Tom Mix. The day before he is to marry the lovely Kate Cumberland (May Hopkins), Whistling Dan (Mix) is led astray by a flock of wild geese. The trail leads the young man to a saloon where he is forced to fight the hulking Jerry Strann (Captain C.E. Anderson). Strann is wounded, but instead of fleeing, Dan stays to take care of the man, knowing full well that Jerry's brother Mac (Bert Sprotte) is out for revenge. Mac, however, attacks instead the Cumberland spread, killing Dan's faithful dog. Dan tracks down Mac but is dissuaded from killing him by Kate. An unusually low-key film for the gregarious Mix, The Night Horsemen co-starred May Hopkins, a Norwegian-born Broadway comedienne best known to movie audiences for impersonating Will Rogers' niece in Boys Will Be Boys (1921). Despite glowing reviews, The Night Horseman proved to be Hopkins' final film. ~ Hans J. Wollstein, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Mix, May Hopkins, (more)
