Raphael Sbarge Movies

In this somewhat autobiographical film, director and writer Arthur Bressan brings the issue of child abuse into focus by means of a young film student (Richard Ryder) making a documentary on Thomas Carroll (Raphael Sbarge), lying in a hospital bed because he was beaten and burned by his parents. At first the student cannot break through the teenager's wall of silence, but then Thomas finds out that the student filmmaker is gay just as he is, and the wall crumbles. Statistics promote an awareness of the issue of abuse (200,000 reported beatings and 65,000 reported sexual assaults in 1982), but Bressan lightens up his serious subject by inserting discreet humor at several points throughout. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Ann Margret looks too healthy to portray Blanche DuBois, the physically and mentally fragile Southern-belle protagonist of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, but we forget this discrepancy five minutes into her marvelous performance. This TV-movie version of Streetcar costars Treat Williams as faded aristocrat Blanche's rude 'n' crude brother-in-law Stanley Kowalski; Williams is persuasive, though he tries so hard not to be Marlon Brando that he comes off as a bit mechanical. The 1984 Streetcar is more realistically staged than the near-impressionistic 1951 Vivien Leigh/Marlon Brando filmization. The storyline, concerning the battle of wills between the earthy, pragmatic Stanley and the delusional Blanche, remains the same in both films, as does the script's tendency to avoid the homosexual elements that were so important to Williams' original play. The newer film's photography is bathed in an ambler tint throughout, conveying both nostalgia for the era in which it is set (the late 1940s) and a visual literalization of Blanche's "yellowed with antiquity" former lifestyle. The 1984 Streetcar Named Desire is less a remake of the 1951 version than a companion piece--a praiseworthy alternate version of the same sturdy material. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this sci-fi comedy, a high school hood, Michael Harlan, procrastinates on his science project until the day before it is due. Hastily seeking to rectify his predicament, the youth begins scouring an abandoned military dump and runs across a strange looking machine with a large crystal orb. He has no idea that it belonged to a shot down alien space craft and that it contains not only the power to generate time warps, it can also destroy the world. If he did, he might not have turned it on. Unfortunately, he does activate it and sends his entire class back in time. The special effects are especially notable, as the kids roam Earth from the dawn of time, to the future. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This heartrending TV movie stars John Lithgow and Mary Beth Hurt as the parents of a severely handicapped premature infant. Weighing a scant 20 ounces at birth, the baby girl has no esophagus and very few signs of being able to stay alive without artificial assistance. The desperate couple sign away the responsibility of their daughter to the doctors, who feel that they can pull the girl through with extensive experimental medical work. Within a week of this agreement, the cost to the couple is $71,000, an amount that will triple before the situation can be legally resolved. Though not based on any factual case, Baby Girl Scott maintains an uncomfortable reality throughout. The film first aired on May 24, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Billionaire Boys Club is the two-part TV adaptation of a book by Sue Horton (unpublished at the time of the film's first telecast). In flashback form, the story recounts the murder of Beverly Hills con artist Ron Levin (Ron Silver). The culprit is yuppie Joe Hunt (Judd Nelson), a sharp young commodities trader who has organized an investment firm with several of his prep school buddies, known as the Billionaire Boys Club. Part one, originally telecast November 8, 1987, traces Hunt's meteoric rise to wealth and power, and the means by which Levin worms his way into Hunt's confidence. In part two, shown the next evening, Hunt has already murdered Levin and carefully disposed of the body. The next step of the scheme is take over where Levin left off by conning an Iranian millionaire out of a huge sum of money. Meanwhile, other members of the Club begin to have qualms over Hunt's finagling. Their whistle-blowing leads to Hunt's arrest and convinction for murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dear America: Letters Home From Vietnam was first telecast April 3, 1988, over the HBO cable service. Based on the book of the same name, the program is devoted to poignant recitations of letters to and from American participants of the Vietnam war. The letters are heard over images culled from news footage, home movies and still photography, with contemporary music added to put things in the proper historical context. The 2-hour film, featuring readings from various well-known actors (see cast list), was a co-production involving Bill Couturie, a previous Emmy winner for Vietnam Requiem, and the Vietnam Veterans Ensemble Theatre Company. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Miracle Mile starts conventionally enough, with bashful musician Anthony Edwards going ga-ga over waitress Mare Winningham. After a pleasant if somewhat quirky day together, Edwards and Winningham plan a tete-a-tete at the all-night restaurant where the girl works. While preparing to call her on a pay phone, Edwards intercepts a frantic call from a soldier stationed at a Midwestern missile silo. The message: nuclear warheads have been launched, and it's only 70 minutes to Armageddon! This unsettling news casts severe doubts over the future of Edwards' and Winningham's relationship. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When his scientist father is kidnapped by Middle-Eastern terrorists, Matt Harman (Raphael Sbarge), a championship motocross contestant, is designated by his dad's captors as the ideal courier. Western governments agree that the boy can serve as a go-between, and he is all prepared to deliver a special computer chip to the terrorists. He is accompanied in his travels by a lovely female secret agent and a local Middle Eastern spy who has the rare distinction of also being royalty. Together, they work to save his father and disappoint the terrorists. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Jessica (Angela Lansbury) agrees to finish a book that was inaugurated by recently deceased Pulitzer-winning journalist Daniel Hannigan (Van Johnson). The book was intended to reopen a 16-year-old murder case, and to prove that the man convicted of murdering one Lydia Thurlow was really innocent. Following the trail of clues left behind by Hannigan, Jessica comes across a full complement of suspects, among them Lydia's brother and sister-in-law (Raphael Sbrage, Cynthia Harris), and the police commissioner (Bradford Dillman) originally assigned to the case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After English professor Charles Lattimore (Pierce Brosnan) assigns his class to plot the perfect murder, he finds himself the prime suspect in a police investigation after a student and another faculty member wind up dead. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Free-spirited artist Lindsay Wagner learns that she's dying from cancer. She can handle that, but she worries about the future of her 6-year-old daughter Molly Orr. Enter high-powered executive Shelley Long, Lindsay's oldest friend. Despite the fact that they obviously move in different circles, Shelley commits herself to the task of properly raising young Molly. This lachrymose TV movie suffers from surprisingly noncommital performances by its stars. Message From Holly premiered December 13, 1992. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made for television, Prison for Children is set in a brutal boys' reformatory. New superintendent John Ritter tries to improve conditions, but finds himself up against a wall of indifference and red tape. The film shows how a supposedly "beneficial" system of incarceration and detention can actually breed more crime than it prevents (nothing new here). Emphasis is given the case of young Rafael Sbarge, who descends deeper into the morass of crime and cruelty the longer he is exposed to reformatory life. Betty Thomas also appears as a compassionate teacher who tries to get through to Sbarge. Filmed at an actual reform school in Colorado, Prison for Children was first telecast March 14, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part story, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is in Ireland, staying at a bed-and-breakfast at Ballynook Castle. Rumor has it that the castle is haunted by the ghost of a murdered woman, and the locals are convinced that the spirt is responsible for the death of a kitchen worker. Suspecting that the victim was murdered by "live" culprits who are searching for a hidden treasure, Jessica follows a trail of clues that may well lead her into a death trap! Rod Taylor and Fionnula Flanagan, both of whom had appeared in previous episodes filmed in Ireland, show up here in different roles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide