Hank Woessner Movies
- 1990
Good thing they told us this Jury Duty: The Comedy; we might have thought it was Jury Duty: The Term Paper. This comedy salad features a whole slew of TV luminaries--Alan Thicke, Bill Kirchenbauer, Lynn Redgrave, Heather Locklear, Tracy Scoggin, Reginald VelJohnson etc.--playing judge, jury, defenders and prosecutors in an embezzlement case. The clue as to the film's sobriety level is the fact that Bronson Pinchot plays four roles: Sanford, Arthur Lloyd, Jorge Jimenez, and Magda. Highlights include a mid-trial pizza delivery, a faulty oxygen tank, and a kid holding up a "Hi Mom" sign for the benefit of the courtroom cameras. This dumb-but-lovable TV movie first aired January 15, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Another "based on fact" TV movie, Too Young to Die? stars Juliette Lewis as a benighted teenaged girl. She is married at 14, is deserted, and begins walking the streets at 15. Abused by virtually every man with whom she comes in contact (including her own father), Lewis commits murder--and finds herself on Death Row before reaching her 16th birthday. Michael Tucker is the attorney who pleads that his client not be tried as an adult. Despite all the horrendous wrongs piled upon Juliette Lewis in Too Young to Die?, her character fails to elicit audience sympathy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Canadian Mountie Louis Burke (Jean-Claude Van Damme) is assigned to a bizarre case where prison inmates are being murdered. Sent to the jail to investigate while undercover as a prisoner, Burke is hot on the trail until one of his former busts, the Sandman (Patrick Kilpatrick), is transferred to the same prison. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jean-Claude Van Damme, Robert Guillaume, (more)
- 1990
First telecast October 21, 1990 on the Disney Channel cable service, Back to Hannibal: The Return of Huckleberry Finn is set 20 years after the Mark Twain novel. Tom Sawyer (Mitchell Anderson) is now a budding lawyer, while Huck Finn (Raphael Sbarge) is a reporter. They descend upon their old home town of Hannibal when their friend, ex-slave Jim Watson (Paul Winfield), is accused of murdering the husband of Tom's childhood sweetheart Becky Thatcher (Megan Follows). Roy Johansen's script even manages to haul in the King and the Duke (Joe Bova, Ned Beatty) from Huckleberry Finn. It's rather pointless, but it goes down easily enough. But, say: doesn't Back to Hannibal smell like a TV series pilot to you? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
Made for the TNT cable network, The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson concentrates on the wartime service of major league baseball's first black player. Robinson (Andre Braugher), a star athlete at UCLA, is drafted during World War II. He hopes that his academic record will assure him entry into Officers Candidate School, but the racism inherent in the military at the time puts several roadblocks in his way. After finally making OCS, Robinson's belief in himself is strengthened tenfold--to the point that he refuses to bow to the "Jim Crow" laws regarding the seating arrangements on an Army bus, and is subsequently threatened with a court martial. Stan Shaw costars as boxing great Joe Louis, likewise a victim of prejudice during the war years (the script intimates that Louis was more willing to roll with the punches than Robinson). Ruby Dee, who played the ballplayer's wife in the 1950 film The Jackie Robinson Story, is here seen as Robinson's mother. The Court Martial of Jackie Robinson premiered on October 15, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Tracey Thurman was a real-life Connecticut housewife who, throughout her marriage, suffered horrendous abuse at the hands of her husband. The beatings culminate in a single bloody night when Buck Thurman stabs his estranged wife 13 times. She survives--barely--and Buck is arrested. Having failed to get proper protection from the local police force, Tracey successfully sued the officers in 1989. The long-range result was the Thurman Law, which called for mandatory arrests in wife-beating cases in Connecticut and several other states. Nancy McKeon, who plays Tracey Thurman in A Cry for Help, starred in the film in the hope that it would prevent Buck Thurman's early release from prison. A Cry For Help: The Tracy Thurman Story first aired on October 2, 1989; Thurman was scheduled for release in 1991. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nancy McKeon, Bruce Weitz, (more)
- 1989
Those who think that you can't make a suspense movie out of a true-life story wherein everybody knows the outcome are referred to the made-for-TV Everybody's Baby: The Rescue of Jessica McClure. Jessica, of course, was the 18-month-old Texas girl who fell down an abandoned well in October of 1987. As the world looks on in anguish, the local fire chief (Pat Hingle) and police chief (Beau Bridges) supervise the efforts to rescue Jessica from her 22-foot-deep prison. The film effectively squeezes the 58 hours of the original incident into two, allotting plenty of time for a surface-level subplot involving the efforts of a Victim's Assistance Program volunteer (Patty Duke) to reassure Jessica's parents. In keeping with Hollywood child-labor requirements, little Jessica McClure is played by twin girls, Laura and Jennifer Loesch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
In the conclusion of a three-part story, McCall (Stepfanie Kramer]) is strangely recluctant to report her near-rape at the hands of the predatory Lloyd Fredericks (Frederick Coffin). Elsewhere, while rounding up a band of Satan worshippers, Hunter (Fred Dryer) is forced into another "shoot first and ask questions later" confrontation. And justice is meted out in a most unexpected fashion to the eminently corrupt jurist Warren Unger (Robert Reed). This episode was adapted from a novel by former police detective Dallas L. Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Brian Dennehy plays a Wambaugh-type cop who has flourished as a novelist. At the moment, however, Dennehy is suffering from a profound case of writer's block. Coming to the rescue, as it were, is professional hit man James Woods. Recently dumped by his boss, above-suspicion business executive Paul Shenar, Woods is anxious to tell his life story to Dennehy, in hopes of striking it rich with a tell-all bestseller. Shenar, however, takes a dim view of Woods' indiscretions, and for a while it looks as though it's curtains for both Dennehy and his teenaged daughter Allison Balson. Screenwriter Larry Cohen has claimed that Best Seller was based on Strangers on a Train. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Woods, Brian Dennehy, (more)
- 1987
In the first episode of a three-part story, Hunter (Fred Dryer) finds himself up against a crooked judge, a coven of Satanists, and a serial killer known only as Big Foot. The intrigues commence when McCall is pressured to drop charges against Judge Warren Unger (Robert Reed), who was caught in a police sting with a teenage prostitute. Later on, the hooker tells Hunter that she thinks her best friend has been kidnapped by the Satanists--one of whom may well be the elusive Big Foot. Shelley Taylor Morgan returns in the role of flamboyant undercover cop Kitty O'Hearn in this adaptation of a novel by former police detective Dallas L. Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
In the second episode of a three-part story, the teenage hooker who'd busted a corrupt judge (Robert Reed) is abducted by a band of Satanists. Meanwhile, Rick Hunter (Fred Dryer) is stymied in his efforts to trap a serial rapist by lack of evidence; Dee Dee McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) and undercover cop Kitty O'Hearn are served papers by the lawyer representing the ex-wife of police sergeant Navarro (Erik Estrada); and politically ambitious Commander Cain (Arthur Rosenberg) learns to his chagrin that his friends may do more harm to his career than his enemies. This episode is adapted from a novel by former police detective Dallas L. Barnes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
When prodigal son Billy Turner (Judd Nelson) returns to his Florida home town, he's caught in a brawl and thrown in jail. He tells the guards to call his father, the mayor, who will have him released; however, he soon discovers his father has been killed. After Turner finally gets out of jail, he starts to hunt down his father's murderer, with the eventual help of Annie Rayford (Ally Sheedy) and her brother Joey (David Caruso). Their nemesis is the nasty crime boss Perry Kerch (Scott Wilson) and his henchmen, though the slow-witted police chief (Paul Winfield) is not much help, either. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judd Nelson, Ally Sheedy, (more)
