Jay O. Sanders Movies

In this suspense drama, a lawyer finds out more than she wanted to know about her friends and lovers. T.K. Katwuller (Barbara Hershey) is a lawyer with a firm command of her career but an unstable hold on her private life; she's more single than she'd like to be, and she's become romantically involved with one of her clients, Steven Seldes (J.T. Walsh), a real estate agent. When T.K. bumps into her college roommate Ellie (Mary Beth Hurt), she discovers that Ellie is Steven's wife, which T.K. hardly regards as welcome news. T.K. then learns that Steven has been accused of financing porn movies dominated by underage actors; after an angry confrontation, she bitterly breaks off the affair. The next day, Steven turns up murdered, and T.K. discovers that Ellie is the prime suspect. She agrees to handle Ellie's case, and Ellie is acquitted. However, T.K.'s conversations with police detective George Beutel (Sam Shepard) begin to plant a seed of doubt in her mind about Ellie's innocence. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this romantic drama set on the Hawaiian Islands, a police detective pursues both some ruthless criminal and a comely prosecuting attorney. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Roseanne and Dan relive their old biker days when their friend Ziggy (Jay O. Sanders) arrives in Lanford on his motorcycle. Dan gets inspired to start working again on his old motorcycle. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Glory is a celebration of a little-known act of mass courage during the Civil War. Simply put, the heroes involved have been ignored by history due to racism. Those heroes were the all-black members of the 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, headed by Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick), the son of an influential abolitionist (played by an uncredited Jane Alexander). Despite the fact that the Civil War is ostensibly being fought on their behalf, the black soldiers are denied virtually every privilege and amenity that is matter of course for their white counterparts; as in armies past and future, they are given the most menial and demeaning of tasks. Still, none of the soldiers quit the regiment when given the chance. The unofficial leaders of the group are gravedigger John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman) and fugitive slave Trip (Denzel Washington), respectively representing the brains and heart of the organization. The 54th acquit themselves valiantly at Fort Wagner, SC, charging a fortification manned by some 1,000 Confederates. Glory was based on Lincoln Kirstein's Lay This Laurel and Peter Burchard's One Gallant Rush; the latter book was founded on the letters of Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the real-life character played by Matthew Broderick. The film won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for co-star Denzel Washington, and additional statuettes for Best Cinematography (Freddie Francis) and Sound Recording. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

History tells us that would-be automobile mogul Preston Tucker was a silver-tongued con man, who misappropriated his investors' money and played fast and loose with ethics and legalities in the pursuit of his dream. Filmmaker Francis Ford Coppola isn't buying this: to hear Coppola tell it, Tucker was "Mr. Smith Goes to Detroit," a sincere visionary who tried and failed to buck the Big Three auto manufacturers. Moreover, he was a staunch defender of family values, as witness his inseparable relationship with his loyal wife (Joan Allen) and adoring children. It was for his family's sake, rather than any dreams of financial gain, that Tucker created the oddball three-headlight vehicle which he envisioned as the "car of the future". Naturally, the corporate fat cats of 1947 can't abide competition from a rugged individualist; thus, with several politicos in their pockets, they crush the Tucker and the man who built it. We'd have been more inclined to believe the story had Coppola adopted a straightforward Capraesque approach and not utilized all sorts of complicated camera trickery. Somehow, by presenting Tucker in so showoffy a directorial manner, the character comes off more as a sleight-of-hand artist than a bastion of sincerity. Even so, Jeff Bridges does a nice job as Tucker, as does Martin Landau as Tucker's incongruous business partner. Jeff's dad, Lloyd Bridges, appears in an uncredited role as a "bought" senator. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With a title like Assault Of The Killer Bimbos, the viewer gets pretty much what he or she would expect: a dumb-but-hip instant cult favorite that knows - and revels in - its limitations. Christina Whitaker and Elizabeth Kaitan are the two lead, er, bimbos, who are working as go-go dancers in a dead-end nightclub when their boss is murdered. When the two girls are accused of the crime, they hit the road for Mexico, picking up yet another bimbo along the way, along with three beach bums, and engaging in various adventures as they attempt to expose the real killers. First-time director Anita Rosenberg delivers a certain amount of wit, getting the most out of her low-rent cast, and the film's self-awareness goes a long way toward making it more palatable than one might expect. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Season one of the serialized cop drama Crime Story begins in the Chicago of 1963, with Lt. Mike Torello (Dennis Farina) of the city's MCU (Major Crime Unit) deeply committed to bringing his longtime nemesis, youthful gangster Ray Luca (Anthony John Denison) to justice. The effort exacts a heavy toll on Torello's private life, destroying his marriage to his wife, Julie (Darlanne Fluegel), and not doing much good for his subsequent fling with Inga Thorson (Patricia Charbonneau). Meanwhile, the ruthlessly ambitious Luca seems to thrive on being pursued, gleefully eluding arrest at every turn and merrily mowing down anyone who threatens to impede his rise to the top of the mob. Along the way, Luca comes in contact with an impressive array of "celebrity" gangsters and lesser hoodlums. Midway through season one, Luca and his loyal but dim-bulbed henchman Paulie Taglia (John Santucci) leave Chicago to pursue new vistas in Las Vegas. To keep the hunt alive, Torello and his assistants all become Federal agents, a la "The Untouchables." Throughout the season, a number of future stars appear in guest roles, among them David Caruso, Michael Madsen, Ray Sharkey, Lorraine Bracco, and Julia Roberts. Season one concludes on an explosive cliffhanger, as Ray and Paulie try to escape across the Yucca Flats in Nevada -- just as an atom bomb test is about to begin! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Crime Story was a valiant attempt by Miami Vice producer Michael Mann to present a compelling police drama series in a serialized fashion. Introduced as a two-hour TV movie on September 18, 1986, the weekly, hour-long series was initially set in Chicago in 1963. Dennis Farina, a former cop in real life, starred as Lt. Mike Torello, head of the windy city's Major Crime Unit (MCU), who carried on a blood feud with young, ambitious gangster Ray Luca (Anthony John Denison). Assisting Torello in his efforts was prosecuting attorney David Abrams (Stephen Lang), a mobster's son who had "seen the light" and switched sides. Others on Torello's team included Sgt. Danny Krychek (Bill Smitrovich), and detectives Nate Grossman (Steve Ryan), Joey Indelli (Bill Campbell), and Walter Clemmons (Paul Butler), while Luca was backed up by his faithful but dangerously stupid henchman Paulie Taglia (played by John Santucci, who, in a perverse spin of the Dennis Farina situation, had been a genuine criminal before turning to acting).

Halfway through season one, Luca and Paulie moved to Las Vegas, only to be closely followed by Torello and his men, who had become federal agents. The season ended with literal bang, as Luca and Paulie took refuge in a small house in the Nevada desert that turned out to be smack-dab in the middle of a nuclear testing site. Miraculously, the two gangsters managed to survive an atomic explosion with nary a scratch, and spent the series' second and final season playing a game of hide and seek with the Torello forces. Ultimately, the "good guys" bearded their prey in Mexico. In the course of events, Torello's marriage to his wife, Julie (Darlanne Fluegel, broke up, whereupon he entered into a relationship with Inga Thorson (Patricia Charbonneau). Also, both the cops and the robbers had brief encounters with the mob's "big boys," portrayed by such diverse actors as Joseph Wiseman and Andrew Dice Clay. Although the ratings for Crime Story were mediocre, NBC had faith in the series and kept it alive for two years. Like many other Michael Mann productions, the series was rich with authentic period detail, and came equipped with wall-to-wall vintage music, including the theme tune "Runaway", re-recorded (and recreated) by its original artist, Del Shannon. But for all of NBC's promotional skills and Michael Mann's production expertise, the series never caught on (more's the pity), and last aired on May 10, 1988. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A TV pilot film, Doctor's Story explores the rights--or rather, the lack of them--of geriatric patients. Howard E. Rollins Jr. plays a young doctor who resents the throwaway attitude conveyed towards the elderly. Among Rollins' patients are a near-senile old man (Art Carney), a woman (Vivece Lindfors) with a mysterious abdominal ailment, and a suicidal widow (Uta Hagen). Stymied by hospital bureaucracy and indifference, Rollins fights to give his older charges the same care and attention afforded younger patients--and in so doing, his own marriage on the critical list. Whether or not this premise could have sustained a weekly series is problematic (the pilot didn't sell), but as a self-contained drama, Doctor's Story was certainly worth two hours of anyone's attention, young or old. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Martin Ritt's bucolic rural environments of Norma Rae, Conrack, and Sounder, are re-visited once again in Cross Creek, based on author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings' memoirs of her times on a remote Florida bayou. Mary Steenburgen plays Rawlings, author of The Yearling, who, in 1928, makes the abrupt decision to leave her husband and move to an isolated orange grove to concentrate on her writing. Rawlings buys a run-down house covered with cobwebs that she restores with quick dispatch. In these desolate surroundings, Rawlings pauses in her housecleaning to listen reflectively to the otherworldly noises of the swamp. But suddenly out of this loneliness, people emerge. There is Geechee (Alfre Woodard), Rawlings' devoted servant; Marsh Turner (Rip Torn), a liquor-guzzling swamp rat; Floyd Turner (Cary Guffey), a cute harmonica-playing boy; and Ellie Turner (Dana Hill), a little girl whose fawn becomes the basis of Rawlings' Yearling book. Rawlings becomes involved with Norton Baskin (Peter Coyote), the owner of the local hotel, and, as she settles into life on the bayou and her friendship with Norton and Geechee, she is inspired to begin writing. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Gene Wilder stars as Michael Jordon, an architect on the run from false murder charges, who hooks up with Kate Hellman (Gilda Radner), the sister of a recent suicide victim. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Jim Bishop's minute-by-minute account of the events leading up to the Crucifixion was the basis for the three-hour TV movie The Day Christ Died. Chris Sarandon plays the Hebrew "blasphemer" known as Jesus, who is brought before the beleaguered governor Pontius Pilate (Keith Mitchell). To avoid an insurrection, Pilate washes his hands of the matter by offering the Hebrews a pardon either to Jesus or the thief Barabbas during Passover. "Give us Barabbas!" is the answer, sealing Jesus' fate. The screenplay by James Lee Barrett and Edward Anhalt is for the most part objective and dispassionate, though there are some unsubtle parallels between Pilate and such future political "heavies" as Nixon. Also appearing in the cast are Colin Blakely as Caiaphas, Barrie Houghton as Judas, Jonathan Pryce as Herod, Eleanor Bron as Mary, and Hope Lange as Claudia. The Day Christ Died premiered -- not without protest from certain circles -- on March 26, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide