Richard Venture Movies
Supporting actor, onscreen from the '70s. ~ All Movie Guide- 2000
Once again, Law & Order relies upon the headlines for story material. On this occasion, the detectives investigate the brutal murder of a school-hockey coach. Once the most likely suspect has been apprehended, the man tries to beat the rap by claiming to be suffering from an exotic mental condition known as "sports rage." Originally slated to air on December 13, 2000, this episode was bumped forward to December 20. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
The detectives investigate when Richard Spiegel, chief financial officer for an upscale family owned department store, is found murdered. As usual, the case is top-heavy with likely suspects. Eventually the field narrows to two women, the dead man's widow (Anne Twomey) and his possible mistress (Jean de Baer) -- both of whom are daughters of the store's owner Seymour Bergreen (Joseph Wiseman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
The sixth-season opener of Law & Order finds detective Lennie Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) teamed with a new partner, Rey Curtis (Benjamin Bratt). For their first assignment together, Briscoe and Curtis try to piece together the last hours in the life of a murdered girl, using an ATM machine film to determine what happened to the victim between her classroom and her music lesson. The results of the investigation lead to a revenge killing -- which many observers regard as "justice." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Detectives Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Logan (Chris Noth) dedicate themselves to identifying a young woman who was apparently killed while making a snuff film. They are both shocked and relieved to discover that the so-called victim, teenager Corey Russell (Monica Keena), is still very much alive. But things take another grim turn when it is revealed that Corey is somehow involved in a high school "sex-for-points" club. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Randall Sloan (Brian McNamara), a former student of Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury), returns to Cabot Cove to research his new book. Despite several ominous warnings to drop the project, Randall is determined to complete his volume, a searing expose of a 30-year-old scandal involving two of the town's most prominent families, that Latimers and the Weymouths. You guessed it: Randall is killed, and Jessica is enlisted by Sheriff Mort Metzger (Ron Masak) to help find the killer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
The renovation of a Manhattan brownstone yields the skeletal remains of a young boy. Further investigation indicates that the unfortunate youngster disappeared without a trace in 1960. The case causes the boy's childhood friend Julie Atkinson (Mary Joan Negro) to suffer the anguish of reliving some horrible, long-repressed memories. This episode marked a reunion between series co-star Michael Moriarty and director Ed Sherin, who'd previously collaborated on Moriarty's debut film, My Old Man's Place (1972). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
When a self-involved real estate agent is given fifty hours of community service to do by a judge, he becomes the coach for a basketball team of developmentally challenged adults. In trying to teach them, he learns. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Larroquette, Kathy Baker, (more)
- 1989
This drama chronicles the career of pediatric immunologist James Oleske who was one of the first doctors to recognize the AIDS virus in children. ~ 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
- Starring:
- Judd Nelson, Ron Silver, (more)
- 1987
Family Sins stars James Farentino as the old-fashioned, disciplinarian patriarch of a large family. Jill Eikenberry co-stars as Farentino's wife, who believes in standing by silently during her husband's tirades. The story's catalyst is Thomas Wilson Brown, the 11-year-old youngest son who is daddy's favorite. Sibling jealousy, coupled with the parents' inability to thoroughly understand what makes their children tick, leads to tragedy. Star Trek's Brent Spiner plays a supporting role in this made-for-TV film, which was first telecast October 25, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
As Summers Die was produced as an "HBO Premiere" attraction. Set in the segregationist South of the 1950s, the film pits the wealthy but decadent members of a landed-gentry white family against a feisty old black woman, on whose property oil has been discovered. Idealistic attorney Scott Glenn bucks the family--and the inbred prejudices of the community--to protect the woman's interests. He finds himself with two unsuspected allies in the forms of young Jamie Lee Curtis and ancient Bette Davis, two "renegade" members of the very family that wants to grab the oil-rich land. As Summers Die had its cable-TV debut on May 17, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Second Serve is that rare TV movie which refuses to sensationalize its so-called "sensational" material. This is the true story of Richard Raskind (here named Richard Radley): Yale grad, Naval officer, brilliant surgeon and tennis champ. What Richard has successfully hidden from practically everyone is the fact that he feels like a woman trapped in a man's body. In 1975, he goes so far as to endure a sex-change operation, emerging as Renee Richards. The film is not so much about this "alteration" as its ramifications, particularly the fierce opposition from the US Tennis Association when Renee wants to qualify as a female pro player. Rather than cast two actors to play the "before and after" protagonist, Vanessa Redgrave plays both Richard and Renee. While it's no great shock to see Ms. Redgrave with short hair, her performance as a man in Second Serve is the sort of work for which the phrase "tour de force" was coined. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
This sci-fi police drama is an episode from the short-lived television series and follows the exploits of a black-clad G-man who rides a specially designed gadget filled motorcycle to help him rid the country of crime. This time he and his Street Hawk take on a powerful drug lord. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1983
This made-for-TV message drama presents the dangers of cocaine addiction as it follows one man's descent from successful real estate salesman and father, to red-eyed, runny nosed, coke head. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Tommy Lee Jones won an Emmy for his searing performance as wanton killer Gary Gilmore in The Executioner's Song. The film covers the last nine months of Gilmore's life, beginning with his release from prison in 1976. Linking up with teen-age divorcee Nicole Baker (Rosanna Arquette), Gilmore makes a half-hearted effort to go straight, but ends up embarking on a robbery spree that culminates in two cold-blooded murders. Arrested and sentenced to be executed, Gilmore insists upon being put to death (Utah law required a firing squad for this); he spends his final days as a poster boy for anti-death penalty activists and as a "client" for an entrepreneur (Steven Keats) who wants to make a film of Gilmore's life. Adapted by Norman Mailer from his own book, The Executioner's Song originally aired in two parts on November 28 and 29, 1982. It has since been boiled down to a 97-minute theatrical film for European consumption, with additional scenes of violence and nudity. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tommy Lee Jones, Rosanna Arquette, (more)
- 1981
Violation of Sarah McDavid is a surprisingly explicit TV movie concerning the undercurrent of violence in a purportedly "good" high school. Patty Duke Astin is a new teacher at Benjamin Harrison High, where the GPA is high but where sadism and brutality amongst the students is the order of the day. Ms. Astin is able to maintain an even keel until, at the end of one school day, she is raped. Assuming she will be backed up in her accusations by the school administration, the teacher discovers that the principal (Ned Beatty), more concerned with image than with justice, wants to sweep the rape incident under the rug. As Astin struggles to make her complaint public, the film touches upon such hot-potato subjects as executive incompetence and the culpability of a "don't ask don't tell" public. The rape scene in Violation of Sarah McDavid is graphic enough to make the viewer feel nearly as degraded as the victim. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
The Chicago Story was the two-hour pilot film for the subsequent TV series. The wounding of a 10-year-old girl by a sniper is seen through the eyes of three sets of Chicago professionals. Vincent Baggetta and Craig T. Nelson are the defense and prosecuting attorneys respectively (they'd been roommates while in law school). Kristoffer Tabori and Kene Holliday are the doctors ministering to the victim. And Jack Kehoe and Dennis Franz are the cops who must track down the unknown assailant. When Chicago Story became a series proper, most of the TV movie's leading actors, with the exception of Jack Kehoe, were retained as regulars. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
A young girl's dangerous dance with dieting leads to near disaster in this exceptional made-for-television drama. In one of the earliest treatments of the subject, Jennifer Jason Leigh stars as Casey Powell, the quiet daughter of an overbearing mother and milquetoast father. Feeling pressure to be the good girl of the family after her troublesome older sister gets pregnant, Casey retreats into her secretive world of self-starvation. When arguing fails to produce results, her parents (Charles Durning and Eva Marie Saint) send her to a hospital where she meets a spunky fellow patient (Melanie Mayron) and a caring therapist (Jason Miller). Casey's road to recovery is not as simple as merely eating though, and she and her family realize that together they must confront the deeply-rooted familial issues that lay at the heart of Casey's affliction. Jennifer Jason Leigh is utterly compelling in the lead role. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1980
The landmark 1978 courtroom prosecution which determined that a married man can by law be brought up on charges of raping his wife, was meticulously--and tastefully--detailed in this made-for-TV movie. Linda Hamilton stars as Oregon housewife Greta Rideout, who after years of abuse at the hands her husband John (Mickey Rourke) (it is the sort of marriage described by one observer as "usually [winding] up as suicide or homicide") finally takes him to court, accusing him of forcing her to have sex against her will. Among those involved in the case are feminist activists Helen (Conchata Ferrell) and Jean (Gail Strickland) and opposing attorneys Gary Gortmaker (Eugene Roche) and Charles Burt (Rip Torn). Rape and Marriage: The Rideout Case originally aired October 30, 1980 on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Hamilton, Mickey Rourke, (more)
- 1980
This made-for-TV historical drama chronicles the personal and professional lives of Colonel Tibbets and the airmen who dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima. The story is based on a book by Gordon Thomas and Max Gordon Witts and also looks at the ways in which the aftermath of the bombing affected their lives. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Steve McQueen's last film concerns a modern day bounty hunter who searches for bail jumpers. Based on real life bounty hunter Ralph "Papa" Thorson, the film details his exciting life, traveling from one city to another, trying to track down fugitives and continually risking his life in the process. Buzz Kulik directed the confusing mish-mash that, nevertheless, features stunt work that anticipates the Lethal Weapon series. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve McQueen, Eli Wallach, (more)
- 1980
Actor Sam Wanamaker directed this made-for-television drama about an abduction with a twist. When a disabled news vendor kidnaps a wealthy girl in an effort to get ransom money, he unexpectedly finds the emotionally disturbed young woman falling in love with him. The film was adapted from Oscar Saul's novel The Dark Side of Love. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Robert Altman protégé Joan Tewkesbury called the directorial shots on the made-for-TV The Tenth Month. After a whirlwind affair with famed concert pianist Keith Michell, middle-aged, unmarried Carol Burnett becomes pregnant. Rather than seek out the father, she decides to raise the baby by herself. Though she'd previously played comparatively "straight" roles in such films as The Front Page (1974), The Tenth Month represented Carol Burnett's TV dramatic debut, as well as her first post-Carol Burnett Show project (the producer was her husband Joe Hamilton). Adapted by Ms. Tewkesbury from a novel by Laura Z. Hobson, The Tenth Month premiered on September 16, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
With John-Boy still missing in action somewhere in Belgium, his publishers ask the Walton family permission to publish his most recent manuscript. While the rest of the family is willing, Olivia (Michael Learned) flatly refuses, convinced that if she gives her consent, it would be the same as admitting that her son is dead. Elsewhere, cousin Jeffrey (Keith Mitchell) holds Ben (Eric Scott) responsible for the death of his beloved dog Restless. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Another of the many Arthur Hailey literary properties which were transformed into TV miniseries in the 1970s, the five-part, ten-hour Wheels took place in Detroit sometime in the late 1960s. Rock Hudson starred as Adam Trenton, executive in charge of project development at the fictional auto-manufacturing firm of National Motors. Ambitious and ruthless, Adam let nothing stand in the way of his development and production of a new, youth-marketed car known as the Hawk. Meanwhile, Adam's bored and neglected wife Erica (Lee Remick, who earned an Emmy nomination for her performance) drifted into an extramarital affair and a brief "career" as a shoplifter. Eventually, Adam himself acquired a mistress, who in turn fell in love with Adam's son Kirk (James Carrol Jordan). As if things couldn't get any seamier, Kirk's brother Greg (Howard McGillin) was plagued by a blackmailer, while crooked car dealer Smokey Stevenson (played by miniseries stalwart Anthony Franciosa) cooked up a sinister deal that threatened to destroy National Motors. Originally telecast from May 7 to 15, 1978 on NBC, Arthur Hailey's Wheels posted such disappointing ratings that, when it was later rebroadcast, the property was whittled down from ten hours to four -- with episodes three and four summarily dropped from the proceedings. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Lee Remick, (more)
