Norman Bennett Movies
When actor Norman Bennett got started in acting, he dove in full force, appearing in no less than six films in 1984 alone. He'd already gotten his feet wet with a supporting role in 1983's Terms of Endearment, and as the 1980s continued, Bennett remained extremely active, appearing in projects like 1985's Celebrity and 1988's Pancho Barnes. The actor subsequently slowed down, but didn't stop working, appearing notably in 1992's Ruby and 1998's Hope Floats. ~ Cammila Albertson, All Movie Guide
Actor/director Forest Whitaker (Waiting to Exhale) helmed this romantic drama about a one-time high-school beauty queen who returns to her hometown of Smithville, TX. The Steven Rogers screenplay begins in Chicago, where blonde Connie (Rosanna Arquette, uncredited) appears on a trashy daytime talk show and tells a nationwide TV audience about her affair with the husband of her best friend, Birdie Pruitt (Sandra Bullock). Walking into the ambush, Birdie is paraded forth for a public humiliation as Connie's claim is confirmed by husband Bill (Michael Paré). Birdie and her young daughter, Bernice (Mae Whitman), then move back to Texas to live with Birdie's eccentric mother, Ramona (Gena Rowlands), a taxidermist who has filled the house with stuffed animals. Since most of Smithville saw the TV show, embarrassment keeps Birdie sitting around the house in her pajamas; however, her moment of glory as the homecoming "Queen of Corn" has not been forgotten by handyman Justin Matisse (Harry Connick Jr.), the first guy who kissed her back in high school, so a romance soon begins. "Just give hope a chance to float up and it will," says Birdie. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandra Bullock, Harry Connick, Jr., (more)
Made for television, The Unspoken Truth is the factual story of Brianne Hawkins (Lea Thompson), who after enduring a lifetime of abuse at the hands of her family marries the even more abusive Clay Hawkins (James Marshall). Given to beating his wife at the slightest provocation, Clay finally goes completely over the edge when he shoots and kills a man who had the temerity to speak to Brianne without Clay's permission. Thinking quickly for a change, Clay persuades Brianne to take the rap for the killing, whereupon she complicity (if not willingly) concocts an elaborate story as to how she shot the man accidentally. Not only do the authorities refuse to swallow this fabrication, but they end up sending both Clay and Brianne to prison for life! Only when the future of her daughter, Lily (Karis Paige Bryant), is jeopardized does the long-suffering Brianne finally work up the courage to fight for her freedom and her long-denied fundamental rights as a human being. A shocking mid-film revelation elevates this story from the usual battered-wife TV-movie syndrome. Filmed on location in Austin, TX, The Unspoken Truth originally aired September 24, 1995, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lea Thompson, Patricia Kalember, (more)
- 1993
Based on a true story, the made-for-TV Fugitive Among Us stars Peter Strauss and Eric Roberts. Strauss plays Max Cole, a police detective obsessed with tracking down a rapist. Cal Harper (Roberts), who is as outgoing and uninhibited as Cole is buttoned-up and repressed, is the number-one suspect. After a two-year pursuit across the Southwest, Cole is close to cornering his quarry--at great personal and emotional expense. Suddenly he is seized with the notion that Harper may not be the man he's looking for, sparking yet another deluge of angst. Full of surprising plot twists and offbeat characterizations, Fugitive Among Us debuted February 4, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Here's a fictionalized account of Jack Ruby's perspective of the events leading up to his assassination of Lee Harvey Oswald. Danny Aiello appears convincingly as the nightclub-owner Ruby who (according to this telling) points the finger at an FBI conspiracy as the force behind the Kennedy assassination. The film includes some actual footage from Ruby's Oswald shooting. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny Aiello, Sherilyn Fenn, (more)
- 1992
This version of the popular saga features two real teenagers playing the notorious killers Bonnie and Clyde who were also teens during the 1930's when they went on their mass killing spree. It was filmed on location at the actual crime scenes in East Texas. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Ashbrook, Tracey Needham, (more)
To escape from the boredom of her small-town life, Sunday School teacher Candy Morrison (Barbara Hershey) engages in an affair with a fellow churchgoer. When his wife Peggy learns about the relationship, she attacks Candy with an axe; after a struggle, Candy kills Peggy, hitting her 41 times with the axe. In the resulting trial, her plea of self-defense is examined. This TV-movie is based on a true story. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1988
A made for TV movie in which Valerie Bertinelli portrays Florence Pancho Barnes, a bored socialite who decides to learn to fly. After receiving her pilot's license, even though her ambitions get in the way of her love life, she becomes a stunt pilot, barnstormer, and even forced Howard Hughes to change his mind about unions. Her career spanned such varied activities as racing against Amelia Earhart and training army pilots. Fine portrayal of one of the more interesting of the independent women from the 1920s. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
A woman trying to keep a momentary indiscretion quiet finds herself in more trouble than she ever imagined in this comedy written and directed by Robert Benton. Nadine Hightower (Kim Basinger), who is significantly more beautiful than intelligent, is fast-talked into posing for some cheesecake pictures by sleazy photographer Raymond Escobar (Jerry Stiller). When Nadine learns that Escobar plans to use the pictures for a set of racy playing cards, Nadine decides to steal the photos back, and she enlists the help of her soon-to-be-former husband Vernon (Jeff Bridges), who is already engaged to the winner of a local beauty pageant. In the midst of the robbery, intruders shoot and kill Escobar in the next room; Nadine and Vernon grab an envelope marked "Nadine" and make tracks. But the envelope doesn't contain any photos; instead, there are plans for a road to be built in town that reveal dirty dealings by local politicians, and now Nadine and Vernon are on the run from both Escobar's killers and land baron Buford Pope (Rip Torn). Popular country and western group Sweethearts of the Rodeo perform several tunes for the film's soundtrack. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Kim Basinger, (more)
- 1987
Based on an illustration by Norman Rockwell and set in a tiny Texas town during the 1950s, this touching made-for-television domestic drama tells the tale of a hard-working father who dreams of sending his boy to college. The lad, anxious to spread his wings, is happy to go. Unfortunately his mother's illness may keep him stranded on the farm. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Melissa Gilbert acquits herself well in this old-fashioned family drama about a gritty Texas orphan named Charlie (Gilbert), a substitute parent for her brothers, determined to succeed in life by converting an unmanageable rodeo horse into an equestrian champion. The transformation from equine dross to championship dressage is not an easy road, and helping Charlie is the often tipsy but tough Foster (Richard Farnsworth), as well as Matt, the man who captures her heart (Michael Schoeffling). After they succeed in training the actually talented horse, they head for the blue grass and bluer blood of Kentucky, where the equestrian and racing elite hold court over all, including newcomers from Texas. Now they have to coax the horse to make it through the formal dressage, cross-country, and jumping competitions -- and to do that in top form. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Farnsworth, Melissa Gilbert, (more)
Adapted by Horton Foote from his own television play, A Trip to Bountiful is set in 1947 Houston. Forced by circumstances to live her loathsome son (John Heard) and daughter-in-law (Carlin Glynn), elderly Geraldine Page wants nothing more out of life than to return to her home town of Bountiful. Escaping from her family's clutches, Page boards a bus to Bountiful, where she makes the acquaintance of young Rebecca DeMornay. The two women immediately hit it off, and their trip is a most pleasant one. Eventually, sheriff Richard Bradford, ordered to find Page and bring her back to her family, catches up with the old woman just 12 miles from Bountiful. Feeling sorry for Page, Bradford permits her to complete her sentimental journey, even though he knows full well that Bountiful is now a ghost town of empty ruins and dilapidated shacks. It doesn't matter, though: Page sees Bountiful just as it was when she left it, and for the first time in years she is truly happy and at peace with herself. After several near-misses, Geraldine Page finally won an Academy Award for A Trip to Bountiful (incidentally, the original TV production, which still exists in kinescope form, starred Lillian Gish and Eva Marie Saint). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geraldine Page, John Heard, (more)
- 1984
Christopher Collet stars as real-life teenager Richard Jahnke Jr. in the made-for-TV Right to Kill. After suffering years of torment and abuse from his father (Frederic Forrest), Jahnke can stand no more. Hiding in the closet of his Wyoming home, Jahnke hears the familiar sounds of his father beating his mother. "I just wanted to make him stop," Jahnke later explained to the authorities--after he killed his father with a rifle. Written for television by Joyce Eliason, it initially aired on May 22, 1985 ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Frederic Forrest, Christopher Collet, (more)
- 1984
Based on a true story (it says here), He's Not Your Son is another variation on the old "switched at birth" plot device. Donna Mills and Ken Howard play Kathy and Michael Saunders, who are forced to face the possibility that their new baby may not be their new baby. It's a possibility that the hospital made a mistake, and that the Saunders infant was switched with the newborn son of Holly and Ted Barnes (Ann Dusenberry, John James). The ramifications of this error result in emotional disaster for both couples. Twin babies Drew and Preston James play the child in question. Filmed on location in Dallas, the made-for-TV He's Not Your Son debuted October 3, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Released in the mid-1980s, this farm drama stars Jessica Lange and Sam Shepard as Jewell and Gil Ivy, who run a small farm in Iowa that has been in Jewell's family for several generations; her father Otis (Wilford Brimley) lives with them, along with their three children. While the work is hard and the earnings are slim, the Ivys have been able to get by, like most of their neighbors, until a one-two punch threatens to devastate the Iowa farming community. First, a tornado devastates the area, then the Farmers Home Administration calls in the loans on most of the farmers in the area, which they are in no position to repay. With thirty days to "voluntarily liquidate" their property, the Ivys, like most of their friends and neighbors, are desperate to find a way to hold on to their property, and when the stress causes Gil to buckle, Jewell must step in to keep the clan going. In addition to starring as Gil, Sam Shepard also contributed (without credit) to William D. Wittliff's screenplay; Wittliff was also slated to direct, but shortly after shooting began he was replaced by Richard Pearce. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jessica Lange, Sam Shepard, (more)
- 1984
Filmed in Dallas, the made-for-TV With Intent to Kill gets under way as high school football hero Bo Reinecker (Alex McArthur) tries to piece together the events leading up to murder of his girl friend Lisa Nolen (Catherine Mary Stewart). Claiming to have experienced a total blackout, Bo is ultimately found not guilty of the murder by reason of insanity and placed in an institution for four years. Meanwhile, the dead girl's father, Tom Nolen (Karl Malden), and her sister Wynn (Holly Hunter), bitterly prepare a campaign to put Nolen away in prison for life. Things come to a boil when Bo is released--and Tom and Wynn take "due process" into their own hands. With Intent to Kill made its CBS debuted on October 24, 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Juvenile actor Henry Thomas, late of E.T., is the star of Cloak and Dagger. Given to telling whoppers, Thomas finds himself in a boy-who-cried-wolf dilemma when he overhears two spies plotting to smuggle valuable info out of the US. When he can't get his own father Dabney Coleman to believe him, Thomas turns disconsolately to a computer game called "Cloak and Dagger" and begins to fantasize, imagining that he is in cahoots with secret agent Jack Flack, also played by Coleman. Finally coming to grips with the fact that the mythical Jack Flack cannot help him this time, Thomas takes on the spies with the help of his schoolmates, who are also "Cloak and Dagger" addicts. Cloak and Dagger is a heavily disguised remake of 1949's The Window; both are based on the Cornell Woolrich story The Boy Cried Murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Thomas, Dabney Coleman, (more)
- 1984
- PG
Tommy Lee Jones plays the title character in The River Rat. Released from prison after 13 years, Jones heads south to meet his hoydenish daughter Martha Plimpton for the first time. The father-daughter relationship flounders until Jones takes the girl on a long, bonding raft trip on the river. Both Jones and Plimpton become fugitives from justice when they run afoul of crooked parole-officer Brian Dennehy. Before the film's allotted 93 minutes have passed, Plimpton has proven time and again to be truly her father's daughter. It's a toss-up as to which is more enjoyable in River Rat, the film itself or the wall-to-wall musical score by Mike Post. Screenwriter Thomas Rickman was underwritten for his directorial debut by Robert Redford's Sundance Institute. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Martha Plimpton, (more)
Mac Sledge (Robert Duvall), a once-famous country western singer, wakes up broke, alone and hung over in a tiny Texas motel run by widowed Rosa Lee (Tess Harper). Having nowhere else to go, Sledge takes a job at the motel, and through the kindness and faith of Rosa he changes his self-destructive ways. He marries Rosa (after he's baptized at her urging) and becomes a father/pal to her son (Allan Hubbard). Given an opportunity to make a comeback, Sledge considers leaving his new family behind, but after a reunion with his own unhappy daughter (Ellen Barkin), he vows never again to ruin anyone else's life. A simple story simply told, Tender Mercies is a warm, persuasive tale of redemption, with Robert Duvall giving one of his finest performances. Also appearing is Betty Buckley as Duvall's ex-wife, a Dolly Parton-type country star, and Wilford Brimley as Duvall's former manager. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Duvall, Tess Harper, (more)
Terms of Endearment covers three decades in the lives of widow Aurora Greenway (Shirley MacLaine) and her daughter Emma (Debra Winger). Fiercely protected by Aurora throughout childhood, Emma runs into resistance from her mother when she marries wishy-washy college teacher Flap (Jeff Daniels). Aurora is even more put out at the prospect of being a grandmother, though she grows a lot fonder of her three grandkids than she does of her son-in-law. Flap proves that Aurora's instincts were on target when he enters into an affair with a student (Kate Charleson). Meanwhile, Emma finds romantic consolation with an unhappily married banker (played by John Lithgow, who registers well in a rare "nice guy" performance). As for Aurora, she is ardently pursued by her next-door neighbor, boisterous astronaut Garrett Breedlove (Jack Nicholson). After 75 minutes or so of pursuing an episodic, semi-comic plotline, the film abruptly shifts moods when Emma discovers that she has terminal cancer. Terms of Endearment won Academy Awards for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Screenplay for TV veteran James L. Brooks making his first feature film, Best Actress for MacLaine, and Best Supporting Actor for Nicholson. It was followed by a sequel, The Evening Star (1996), which again featured MacLaine as Aurora. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Debra Winger, Shirley MacLaine, (more)
- 1982
This TV-movie features a Texas beauty-queen contestant (Diane Lane) who is trying to earn money for college. A pianist, she learns a bit of self-respect during the competition. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1952
- NR
This Korean War drama is essentially a vehicle for RKO's top male star Robert Mitchum. He plays war-weary "Colonel Steve," obliged to contend with the North Korean forces while keeping troublesome UN official Linda Day (Ann Blyth) at arm's length. Some authentic Korean combat footage is well-integrated into the story. For all its talk about jet planes, Reds and atomic energy, the film is at base a redressed WW II drama. Good supporting performances are provided Charles McGraw as a tough sergeant and William Talman as a jet pilot. Reportedly budgeted at over two million dollars, One Minute to Zero had trouble making back its cost, despite the box-office pull of Robert Mitchum. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Ann Blyth, (more)
