Henry Sanders Movies

Tim Matheson stars in this made-for-TV movie based on a true story. Roger Paulson (Matheson) is a divorcee who wants to start dating again. Roger thinks he's found the perfect woman, but he learns she's been keeping a few secrets from him -- some of which have deadly consequences. Dying to Love You also stars Tracy Pollan and Christine Ebersole.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story, this is the saga of the survivor of an automobile crash who is left wheelchair bound and bitter. Ignoring friends and family, it becomes his sole quest to end his life with dignity. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-cable adaptation of Roderick Thorp's crime thriller, Peter Weller stars as a Hollywood cop whose murder investigation runs into a wall of police corruption. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

In this entry in the long-running mystery series, Perry Mason and his assistant help a stage manager who is the prime suspect in the murder of the director who recently fired him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A cocky, irresponsible professional golfer discovers that he will have to clean up his act if he wants to compete in the PGA tour. Based on a novel by Dan Jenkins, this drama originally aired on cable television. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Pregnant with David's baby, Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) has decided to return from Chicago to LA via train--but she's still not sure whether or not she and David should resume their relationship. En route, Maddie meets a dweebish fellow passenger named Walter Bishop (Dennis Dugan), to whom she pours out her heart--and a generous supply of story exposition. Meanwhile, Agnes (Allyce Beasley) and Bert (Curtis Armstrong) anxiously await Maddie's return so that they can fill her in as to what occurred in the episodes she has missed--little suspecting that Maddie has a bit of startling news of her own! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sci-fi film, actually a television pilot inspired by Nicolas Roeg's provocative 1976 film, chronicles the exploits of an alien marooned on Earth. All he wants is to go back to his dying planet. He is hindered by military forces determined to find him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Benjy Taylor (D.B. Sweeney) is a rookie cop who goes undercover to nab a gang of car thieves in this routine crime drama. Taylor salivates over the lifestyle and money enjoyed by Ted Varrick (Charlie Sheen), the smooth operator who leads the Porsche pilferers, and he reports back to Lieutenant Vincent Bracey (Randy Quaid), who is convinced Ted is a cop killer but needs more proof. Taylor joins the gang and begins to justify car theft and the money it brings as gathering evidence. Soon his reasoning is clouded and the rookie cop gets in deeper when he actually begins to like Ted and the suspect's sultry sister Ann (Lara Harris). ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Bill Duke directed this fact-based tale of a poor Southern black woman who rose from poverty to become an FBI agent. Retitled Johnnie Gibson F.B.I. for home video. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

The Atlanta Child Murders is a five-hour, two-part dramatization of one of the most tragic and controversial homicide cases of the past twenty years. From 1979 through 1982, some 28 African-American children and young adults disappeared from Atlanta--some without a trace, but others to later turn up as murder victims. Part One (which debuted February 10, 1985) details the beginning of the manhunt conducted by the Atlanta Chief of Police (James Earl Jones). Screenwriter Abby Mann uses the actual events as a springboard for his thesis that the case and its outcome revealed many uncomfortable truths about the still-fragile state of race relations in the New South. Both parts of The Atlanta Child Murders were later combined into one 245-minute "feature film."

The second part of the five-hour TV docudrama The Atlanta Child Murders originally aired February 12, 1985. After 28 African-American children and young adults have either disappeared or been murdered, the Atlanta police finally have a suspect in custody: Small-time show business entrepreneur Wayne Williams (Calvin Levels). Scriptwriter Abby Mann utilizes actual court transcripts of Williams' trial, which results in a conviction on one count of murder. This decision in essence leaves the cases of the other 27 victims unresolved--and in so doing, Mann opens the door to speculations that Williams, a black man, was a "convenient" suspect, who might possibly have been railroaded in the authorities' haste to find a solution to the sordid case. Whatever Mr. Mann may have felt concerning Williams' guilt or innocence, the fact remains that the murders and disappearances stopped cold once Williams was in custody (as of this writing, Williams persists in his efforts to reopen the case, claiming that he was framed by the white power structure). Morgan Freeman served as narrator for both installments of The Atlanta Child Murders. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

First telecast in early 1985, the 2-hour pilot film for the lighthearted TV detective series Moonlighting opens with fashion model Maddie Hayes (Cybill Shepard) discovering that her business manager has skipped with her fortune. The only asset she has left is the ramshackle Blue Moon Detective Agency, manned by acerbic David Addison (Bruce Willis). Maddie takes an immediate dislike to David, while he considers her a sexual conquest-to-be. The twosome continues to bicker their way through their first case, pausing for amenities only when it appears that both of them are about to be bumped off. Once safely back in the office, their verbal guerilla warfare resumes, leading the viewer to expect marvelous things from the subsequent Moonlighting TV series. Little of the series' fabled self-consciousness (talking directly to the audience, making references to the quality of the scriptwriting, etc.) surfaces in the Moonlighting pilot, but the film works well despite this "drawback." The series itself ran (or, as it turned out, limped) until May of 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The duplicitous owner (James Coco) of a popular theme park engages Jessica (Angela Lansbury) to design a "house of horror". Shortly, thereafter, the owner is murdered in his underground office--an "impossible" crime, inasmuch as the office was securely locked from the inside. Inasmuch as the wife of investigating detective Lt. Donovan (James Stephens) is Jessica's niece Carol , it is perhaps a "given" that our heroine will take a hand in solving the murder. Incidentally, the two Donovan children are played by a very young Joaquin Phoenix (here billed as "Leaf") and his sister Summer Phoenix. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Los Angeles is the playing field for producer/ writer/ director Bobby Roth's Heartbreakers. Peter Coyote and Nick Mancusco play a couple of thirty-something holdovers from the 1960s. Coyote is an artist specializing in S&M poses, while Mancusco is heir apparent to a large garment-manufacturing firm. Curiously, it is the hedonistic Coyote who desires a lasting relationship with a woman, while the "conservative" Mancusco is dedicated to the proposition of one-night stands. Carol Laure and Carol Wayne are the ladies who strain Coyote and Mancuso's friendship--and in so doing, force both arrested adolescents to do some growing up. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide