Norman Parker Movies
A man faces death and finds love at the same time and place in this emotional comedy-drama. Taylor Darcy (Jonathan Silverman) is a bright but cynical television writer who is emotionally thrown for a loop when his doctor diagnoses him with colon cancer. While Taylor prefers to ignore the bad news at first, in time, he takes the advice of his oncologist and checks himself into the hospital for treatment. Taylor suddenly becomes the recipient of an outpouring of sympathy and good wishes from his friends, which goes against the grain of his dark-humored nature, and he doesn't deal well with the physically and emotionally taxing routine of surgery and radiation therapy. While in the hospital, Taylor meets Lynn Piegi (Natasha Gregson Wagner), a woman who is living with leukemia; Lynn's sarcastic sense of humor in the face of grim news meshes well with Taylor's personality, and he finds himself falling in love with her. But as Taylor advances toward recovery, he has to deal with the fact that Lynn's condition is far more serious than his own, and that she is not likely to survive. The Medicine Show was written and directed by Wendell Morris, who was inspired to make the film after his own bout with cancer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jonathan Silverman, Natasha Gregson Wagner, (more)
A story about a career television journalist who eclipses her mentor, this drama's plot resembles that of A Star Is Born, and it shares the same screenwriters as those who penned the 1976 version of that film, John Gregory Dunne and Joan Didion. It's based loosely on the real-life story of newscaster Jessica Savitch. Sally Atwater (Michelle Pfieffer) gets a job at a Miami TV station based on a demo tape from her hometown of Reno, Nevada. The station's news director is Warren Justice (Robert Redford), a former high-profile Washington newsman whose career has suffered from his insistence on integrity. He makes Sally his gofer and criticizes her clothes and appearance while she begs him for a chance to go on-air. She becomes the station's weathercaster and Warren gives her the stage name of Tally. With Warren's constant advice, she breaks into news reporting and her star rises quickly as the two become romantically involved. She takes a better job in Philadelphia, with Warren's blessing, and there she soon eclipses the anchorwoman Marcia McGrath (Stockard Channing). From there, Tally's career continues to flourish, while her relationship with Warren takes some strange twists and turns. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Michelle Pfeiffer, (more)
- 1996
Having been ignominiously booted from the PhD program, Kirsten (Paula Devicq) takes a job as hostess at Salinger's--and quickly allows her depression to get the better of her, despite the herculean efforts by Charlie (Matthew Fox) to cheer her up. Elsewhere, when his sister Julia (Neve Campbell) begins to date his roommate Cooper (Harold Voight), Bailey (Scott Wolf) discreetly moves into a new place and picks up a new roomie in the form of the extremely high-spirited Callie Martel (Alexondra Lee in her first series appearance). And in her efforts to repair the plumbing in the family home, Claudia (Lacey Chabert) succeeds primarily in depleting the Salinger bank account. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Although young Tom Prescott (Anthony Michael Hall) has been acquitted of murdering a female college student, the victim's vengeful father Leonard Page (Norman Parker) succeeds in driving both Tom and his mother Kate (Valerie Harper) out of town. As Tess (Della Reese) attends to her assignment of helping Page find forgiveness in his heart, Monica (Roma Downey) befriends the beleagured Kate, who continues to protest her son's innocence. Things take a sinister turn when Kate stumbles upon evidence which seems to prove that Tom was guilty after all! Popular TV talkshow host Sally Jessy Raphael guest stars as a friendly bus driver. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Brian De Palma's Hollywood sanitization of Tom Wolfe's scabrous satire stars Tom Hanks as Sherman McCoy, the "master of the universe," a shallow Wall Street investor who makes millions while enjoying the good life and the sexual favors of Maria Ruskin (Melanie Griffith), a Southern belle golddigger. Sherman and Maria are driving back to Maria's apartment from the airport when Maria takes a wrong turn on the expressway and the two find themselves in the South Bronx. She sees a black youth approaching Sherman's car and Maria, frightened, guns the engine, running over the teenager and killing him. The two drive away and decide not to report the accident to the police. Meanwhile, indigent alcoholic journalist Peter Fallow (Bruce Willis), anxious for a story to make good with his editor, comes upon the hit-and-run tale through local black community activist, Reverend Bacon (John Hancock). Bacon plans to use the hit-and-run case as a rallying point for the black community, while Fallow recognizes the press coverage inherent in prosecuting the callow Sherman. As Sherman is brought to his knees, the New York community fragments into different factions who use the case to suit their own cynical political purposes. Finally, Sherman is left without any allies to support him except for the sympathetic Judge White (Morgan Freeman) and the remorseful Fallow. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Hanks, Bruce Willis, (more)
- 1988
A young woman learns that she has a lethal, rare kind of cancer. This fact-based, heart-wrenching made-for-TV drama chronicles her struggle to cope with her own personal feelings and those of her family. She then begins looking for alternative ways to treat her disease while her husband deals with his denial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Archer, Sam Neill, (more)
- 1988
Artist Jill Clayburgh is divorced by her doctor husband James Farentino. Despite the obvious fact that Farentino is a louse, the loyalties of the couple's friends are divided. Left with precious little money, Clayburgh tries to make a go of it as a single mother, but finds that many of her so-called "close friends" don't want to have much to do with her anymore. Despite its melancholy tone and moments of dead seriousness, the made-for-TV Who Gets the Friends is a comedy, and at times a very funny one. Its bittersweet tone is, however, compromised by an out-of-the-blue happy ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Murder: By Reason of Insanity was inspired by a disastrous series of events occurring in New York State in 1979. Candice Bergen portrays a Polish immigrant housewife whose husband Jurgen Prochnow has subjected her to years of physical abuse. At first, she tells herself that he is acting out of frustration over his business failures, but the attacks become increasingly life-threatening. Adjudged mentally unbalanced, Prochnow cannot be sent to prison, but instead is checked into a hospital. Thanks to bureaucratic oversights and sheer laxity, Prochnow walks out of the hospital, fully intending to carry out his death threat against his wife. Despite her frenzied phone calls to the authorities, and the many empty restraining orders issued by the courts, Ms. Bergen's ultimate fate is inexorable. Made for television, Murder: By Reason of Insanity has been released to videocassette under the irresponsibly antiseptic title My Sweet Victim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Timothy Hutton stars in this rabble-rousing movie in the tradition of Rocky, directed by Bob Clark. Hutton plays Jimmy Lynch, the younger brother of New York City firefighter Terry (Robert Urich). Terry is off-duty and has been drinking but rescues a young girl for a dangerous fire. When he injures himself in the fire and is hospitalized, New York City refuses to pay for his medical expenses because he was intoxicated during the rescue. Incensed that Mayor Tyler (Robert Culp) refuses to look after his brother, Jimmy decides to take them all on and mounts a series of public stunts designed to embarrass the mayor. Along the way, Jimmy becomes a folk hero, since he hides his identity behind the signature "Turk 182!" Jimmy is now a celebrity and consents to sit down for a television interview to reveal his true identity. But when the television station fails to broadcast the interview due to political pressure, Jimmy takes it upon himself to stage one final elaborate stunt to make the public aware of Terry's plight. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Hutton, Robert Urich, (more)
Sidney Lumet directed this film version of E.L. Doctorow's novel The Book of Daniel (scripted by Doctorow) that deals in a thinly veiled (although dispassionate way) with the Rosenberg spy case of the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of their children. The Rosenbergs are the Isaacsons here, and the first image of the film is a close-up of their son Daniel's (Timothy Hutton) eyes as he recites a dictionary definition of the word "electrocution." Daniel becomes a detective as he seeks out friends and relations of his parents -- Paul (Mandy Patinkin) and Rochelle (Lindsay Crouse) -- to discover some meaning from his parents' conviction as Russian spies and their execution in the electric chair during the communist paranoia of the 1950s. Daniel is prompted to investigate the past by the near-suicide of his hysterical sister Susan (Amanda Plummer). The film weaves back and forth in time, recalling the period from the 1930s to the 1950s. In a strangely uninvolving way, Lumet's film takes no point of view, the only emotion derived from the almost continuous sounds of Paul Robeson's singing on the soundtrack. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Timothy Hutton, Mandy Patinkin, (more)
Young art student Virna Nightbourne (Elizabeth Kemp) has the unconscious ability to draw the future victims of a serial murderer, in this standard thriller that also involves Paul "Mac" McCormack (Perry King) a sleazy talk-show host and the local police. McCormack is out to promote number one as best he can, and when he catches on to the notoriety that Virna could lend him if he capitalizes on her psychic powers, he has no problem in exploiting her. At first one of the local cops, a part-time stand-up comedian of dubious talent, is out to help Mack. But Mack's sensationalism turns off the police in the end, though they also have no problem in exploiting Virna's unique visions of the murder victims. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Perry King, Elizabeth Kemp, (more)
Inspired by a true story, Prince of the City stars Treat Williams as a Manhattan detective who agrees to help the US Department of Justice weed out corruption in the NYPD. Williams agrees on the assurance that he'll never have to turn in a close friend. Wired for sound, Williams almost immediately stumbles upon a police conspiracy to smuggle narcotics to street informants in order to insure cooperation. While this might be condonable in a stretch, the fact is that the many cops are using the drugs on their own, and are also highly susceptible to bribes. Williams gets the goods on the miscreants, but in so doing he breaks the "code" and becomes a pariah to his fellow officers. As we learn in the unsettling final scene, Williams will always be considered a "fink," even by honest cops. Prince of the City is too long for its own good, but its opening expository sequences and its final twenty minutes more than compensate for the duller stretches. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Treat Williams, Jerry Orbach, (more)
- 1980
This TV movie might just as well have been titled Frankenstein Takes Manhattan. Robert Vaughn stars as Doctor Franken, a dedicated Manhattan medico who becomes obsessed with the theory of artificial life. This is understandable, since the doctor is a descendant of a certain foreign gentleman named Frankenstein. He takes an arm here and an organ there from his hospital's storage bank and tries to repair the cadaver of an unclaimed accident victim. The result is a complex creature named John Doe (Robert Perrault), a reasonably friendly chap who has inherited the character traits and emotions of all those people whose body parts he has "borrowed". To their credit, everyone involved in Doctor Franken takes the script seriously--perhaps too seriously for any network or sponsor to care enough to purchase this pilot film for a weekly series berth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Maria Schell guest stars as a East European nun who arrives in New York accompanied by a countryman named Toza (Herb Edelman). In truth, the "nun" is a Yugoslavian princess named Viva Dushan, and Toza is her faithful general factotum. The two emigres are determined to recover a fortune in jewels stolen from the Princess during WW2, and they are convinced that the gems are in the possession of big-time mobster Vitto Colletti (Harry Goz). Inevitably, Kojak (Telly Savalas) must see to it that justice is done through the proper channels--and that the Princess survives the intrigue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Samantha (Virginia Vestoff) decides to remain with her second husband Gerard (James Storm) -- but not before informing her first husband Quentin (David Selby) that Tad is not his son. The vengeful Gabriel (Christopher Pennock) exults over the fact that his brother Quentin is miserable. And Hortense (Jenny Egan), the Collins' governess, falls victim to the headless body of Judah Zachary (Norman Parker). This episode first aired on October 21, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Returning to Collinwood (and, evidently, from the dead!), Angelique (Lara Parker) and her servant Laszlo (Michael Stroka) make a beeline to Barnabas' coffin -- only to find the coffin open and Barnabas (Jonathan Frid) missing. Possessed by the head of Judah Zachary, Leticia (Nancy Barrett) returns Judah's body to its underground hiding place. This episode was initially telecast on October 23, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Identifying herself as Barnabas' wife Valerie Collins, Angelique (Lara Parker) wipes out Daniel's (Louis Edmonds) memories of his terrifying earlier encounters with her. Unfortunately, Angelique has no foreknowledge of what lies ahead for her, and thus tries to rekindle her romance with Barnabas (Jonathan Frid). And Julia (Grayson Hall) learns that Judah Zachary has placed a curse on Collinwood. This episode originally aired on October 26, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
