Corbin Bernsen Movies

Charles B. Griffith, author of Little Shop of Horrors, was the writer/director of the low-budget Eat My Dust!. Ron Howard heads the cast as Hoover Niebold, the hell-raising son of rural sheriff Harry Niebold (Warren Kemmerling). The sheriff is forced to chase after his own son when Hoover and his girlfriend Darlene (Christopher Norris) steal a racing car and zoom off to parts unknown. Joining the pursuit is the car's owner, professional racer Big Bubba Jones (Dave Madden). Watch for Ron Howard's dad Rance and brother Clint in supporting parts, and also for Paul Bartel in a bit role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Arriving on Walton's Mountain to deliver a posthumous medal of valor to the family of Curtis Willard, Mexican-American paratrooper Eddie Ramirez (Enrique Castillo) almost immediately encounters hostility from the local bigots. Despite the all-pervading racial tension, Curtis' widow Mary Ellen (Judy Norton-Taylor) finds herself falling in love with Eddie. Elsewhere on the romantic scene, Ike Godsey's wife Corabeth (Ronnie Claire Edwards) seems to be succumbing to "that old feeling" when her former beau Roger Westerby (Jordan Charney) pays a visit. Watch for a young Corbin Bernsen in a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on William Bayer's novel Switch, the made-for-TV Doubletake introduced Richard Crenna to his oft-played role of detective Frank Janek. As always, Janek is assigned to a particularly gruesome and profoundly puzzling murder case. A prim lady schoolteacher and a hooker are both killed on the same evening; their bodies are decapitated, and their heads are switched! The first installment of this two-part movie details the early stages of the investigation, as well as the growing relationship between Janek and photographer Caroline Wallace (Beverly D'Angelo), the daughter of a cop who'd died in a mob hit. Part two reveals the "dark side" of the case, exposing corruption in the highest police circles and implicating someone very close to Janek in the double murder. Doubletake was originally telecast on November 24 and 26, 1985, and has since been reissued as a single three-hour film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Malcolm "Mace" Douglas (Ed Marinaro) is a vice squad detective who investigates the drug-related murders of strippers in this uneven, low-budget crime drama. The former homicide lieutenant was demoted when he earned his nickname for spraying mace down the throat of a suspect. He and Mark Cain (Darrell Larson) later become entangled in implausible international intrigue with Bulgarian diplomats, KBG agents, lowlife club owners, and blackmail. Mace loses his badge when he falls for the stripper Amber (Cassandra Gava). Isaac Hayes, Lynn Whitfield, Corbin Bernsen, and John Hancock co-star. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A New York cop takes on drug-smuggling Soviet agents in this action-espionage thriller. The trouble starts when the rebellious agents disobey orders and begin glutting the Big Apple black market with illegal drugs. The cops become alerted to the problem after four topless dancers die of heroin overdoses. Renegade detective Mace Douglas, who has just been demoted for his tendency to kill suspects and now finds himself teemed up with a smarmy college-educated, irritatingly straight arrow, sets about solving the case. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Tony award-winning British musical comedy star Robert Lindsay makes his first important American film appearance in Bert Rigby, You're a Fool. Lindsay, of course, plays the title character, a coal miner who dreams of becoming a big showbiz star. Only problem is, there's very little demand for Bert Rigby's impersonations of Buster Keaton and Gene Kelly. Undaunted, Bert heads to Hollywood, where, while working as a butler in the household of movie mogul Jim Shirley (Corbin Bernsen), he must fend off the advances of Shirley's hot-to-trot wife, Meredith (Anne Bancroft). Befitting the old-fashioned nature of Bert Rigby's behavior and tastes in entertainment, director Carl Reiner adopts a "retro" approach to his material; at times, the film looks as though it was made in 1939 rather than 1989, despite its R-rated sex, profanity, and body-function jokes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Inheriting the Cleveland Indians baseball team from her late husband, covetous ex-showgirl Margaret Whitton wants to move the franchise to Miami, primarily to take advantage of the many personal perks she's been promised by that city. But Cleveland won't yield its lease on the Indians unless the year's attendance falls below 800,000. Figuring that chances for this are already good given Cleveland's inability to win a pennant, Whitton tries to make doubly certain that the fans won't turn out by ordering the club manager to put together the worst team possible. The new players include hasbeen Tom Berenger, blind-as-a-bat pitcher Charlie Sheen, self-protective free agent Corbin Bernsen, and Wesley Snipes, who is constitutionally incapable of hitting straight. Surprisingly, this band of misfits begins winning games, so Whitton decides to break their spirit by forcing them to fly from game to game in a World War II prop plane, assigning them a rickety old bus for road games, and divesting them of their precious whirlpool. Still, the team's talent and esprit de corps grows, especially after "Wild Thing" Sheen dons a pair of glasses and is able to see where he's lobbing his 100-mile-an-hour pitches. Once the players are told that Whitton plans to dump them all whether they win the pennant or not, the team defiantly adopts an "us against the you-know-what" attitude. In a nailbiting 20 minute climax, the Indians face down their hated Yankee rivals in the pennant playoff game. The film's conclusion ties up several loose plot ends, notably the off-and-on romance between the irresponsible Berenger and his "ex" Rene Russo. Though set in Cleveland, Major League was filmed virtually in its entirety in Milwaukee, with the Brewers' play-by-play announcer Bob Uecker giving a terrific performance as the Indians' drink-besotted color commentator. The film represented not only the fictional comeback of the Cleveland Indians, but the actual comeback of producer/director David S. Ward, who'd been in a professional slump for several years. Though containing few surprises, Major League was a box-office smash, inspiring a 1992 sequel, inventively titled Major League II. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This 1990 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Corbin Bernsen and features musical guest the Smithereens. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide

Plot twists abound in this suspenseful made-for-television thriller as a beautiful actress tries to save her cousin from the schemes of a conniving murderer who just may be her lover. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Corbin Bernsen, fresh out of LA Law, plays a real-life attorney in Line of Fire: The Morris Dees Story. As Dees, Bernsen goes head to head with the Ku Klux Klan in the Alabama of the 1980s. Despite having his name included on the "hit list" of every wacko white supremacist in the Nation, Dees manages to break the back of the KKK is his own particular corner of the world. Line of Fire is elaborately produced and hits all the right emotional buttons, but falls short of perfection thanks to stereotypical villains and excessive melodrama. The film was first telecast on Martin Luther King Day in 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A rising young executive is ecstatic to learn that he is to be acting president at the small-town bank his company just purchased until he gets there and realizes that it is a sperm bank. This base little comedy centers on his attempts to make the place profitable and also chronicles the growing love between himself and the uptight but pretty biologist who works there. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Married for 12 years to dentist Corbin Bernsen, Markie Post comes to the sudden and startling conclusion that her husband is a murderer-many times over. While she is able to get a divorce, she is unable to pin any of the killings on Bernsen. Scott free, Post's ex threatens dire consequences for herself and her child. Federal agent Kelsey Grammer attempts to trap Bernsen into a confession; to do this, he must rely on Post to win back her former husband's confidence. Though it starts rather too pokily, the fact-based Beyond Suspicion builds steadily and craftily to its heart-pounding conclusion. Made for television, the film first aired November 22, 1993. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide