Barry Brown Movies
The brother of actress Marilyn Brown, Barry Brown was 17 when he made his screen bow in Andy Warhol's Flesh. Brown's breakthrough role was Civil War draft dodger Drew Dixon in the 1972 sleeper Bad Company. His co-star was Jeff Bridges, a close friend whom Brown lionized in an essay written for Danny Peary's 1978 compendium Close-Ups; it was but one of many published works for Brown, who in addition to his acting accomplishments was also a noted film historian. After co-starring as Fred Winterbourne in Peter Bogdanovich's uneven 1974 cinemadaptation of Daisy Miller, Brown slowly drifted away from show business. Barry Brown was 27 when he died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The sophomore effort for director Joe Dante, a future protégé of Steven Spielberg, this low-budget, high-camp horror spoof of Jaws (1977) features several chiller stars of yesteryear. Insurance investigator Maggie McKeown (Heather Menzies) is dispatched to find two missing teenage hikers near Lost River Lake. She hires surly backwoods drunkard Paul Grogan (Bradford Dillman) to serve as her guide. Searching the area, they find an abandoned military facility. The only resident is Dr. Robert Hoak (Kevin McCarthy), former head of a top-secret project to breed piranha for use in the Vietnam War. The project was closed down years ago, but Hoak has continued raising a deadly strain of the flesh-eating fish. When Hoak is knocked unconscious, Maggie and Paul accidentally release the piranha into a local river, which leads to the lake where a children's summer camp and a newly opened tourist resort will provide plenty of fish food for the hungry predators. Maggie and Paul race to warn the locals, but their pleas fall on skeptical ears, such as those of resort owner Buck Gardner (Dick Miller) -- until the piranha reach the swimmers. Piranha (1978) was co-written by John Sayles, making his motion picture debut. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bradford Dillman, Heather Menzies, (more)
- 1977
The inaugural presentation of the syndicated "Operation Prime Time" anthology, the three-part, six-hour miniseries Testimony of Two Men was based on the 1968 best-seller by Taylor Caldwell; it originally aired in three separate two-hour installments. Sprawled over the course of several generations following the Civil War, this epic begins in 1865. It covers the saga of idealistic, straight-arrow Pennsylvania surgeon Jonathan Ferrier (David Birney) and his irresponsible, hot-headed and slightly effeminate younger brother Harald (David Huffman). The Ferrier boys battle over professional ethics (Jonathan campaigns for medical reforms, Harald is interested only a quick financial turnover) and personal peccadilloes. The drama heats up when the philandering wife of one of the Ferriers is charged with murder, precipating a scandal that threatens to rock the medical profession to its foundations. In the climax, a group of envious physicians try to destroy Jonathan when he lobbies for antiseptic operating conditions--and the truth comes out about Harald's dalliance with Jonathan's late wife. Made available for syndication in May of 1977, Testimony of Two Men was seen in most markets on May 9, 16 and 23. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
In 1926, flamboyant evangelist Aimee Semple McPherson disappeared for six weeks. At first feared drowned (she'd been vacationing on a California beach at the time she vanished), Aimee finally showed up, wandering barefoot in the Mexican desert. For the benefit of the press, Aimee related a fantastic story of being kidnapped and held for ransom, a story given "credence" by a ransom note which popped up at her Four Square Gospel headquarters. Aimee's tale was full of holes; as more facts became known, it was apparent (to everyone but "true believers") that Aimee had spent those six weeks on a romantic idyll with Kenneth Ormiston, a married radio technician. This made-for-TV movie takes no sides in the controversy, offering generous space to both theories; still, Aimee does not come off as being particularly saint-like. Faye Dunaway stars as Aimee, Bette Davis co-stars as her domineering mother, and William Jordan is man-in-the-middle Ormiston. Written by John McGreevey, The Disappearance of Aimee was the November 17, 1976, presentation of NBC's Hallmark Hall of Fame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- PG
When a cheating wife goes to Colorado, her business-executive husband follows her there and stalks her extra-marital interests, threatening murder. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
Continuing his 1970s recreations of classical Hollywood genres and styles, Peter Bogdanovich turned to the literary costume drama with an adaptation of the Henry James novella Daisy Miller. At a Swiss spa, upper-class expatriate American Frederick Winterbourne (Barry Brown) meets pretty, nouveau riche flirt Daisy Miller (Cybill Shepherd); her bratty, xenophobic little brother Randolph (James McMurtry); and her tremulous, nattering mother (Cloris Leachman). Despite warnings from his dowager aunt (Mildred Natwick) about Daisy's recklessness with men, Winterbourne finds himself drawn to her. When he encounters her again in Rome, he tries to convince her that her liberated behavior with an Italian admirer (Duilio Del Prete) may sully her reputation in aristocratic circles. But Winterbourne cannot reconcile his own feelings for Daisy with the manners that he is used to following, nor can he fathom how she may feel about him beneath her veneer of willful coquetry. After society matron Mrs. Walker (Eileen Brennan) ostracizes her, Daisy's final rash action reveals to Winterbourne how his old-fashioned mores may have sealed her fate. With a screenplay by Frederic Raphael and location shooting in Rome and Switzerland, Bogdanovich carefully recreated the rich surroundings and stultifying social strictures of James' story. Despite this well-executed atmosphere, Daisy Miller suffered critically, as Bogdanovich was especially taken to task for casting the amateurish Shepherd in the complex and pivotal role of Daisy. After three consecutive hits with The Last Picture Show (1971), What's Up, Doc? (1972), and Paper Moon (1973), Daisy Miller flopped, beginning Bogdanovich's mid-'70s slide into box-office and critical ignominy. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cybill Shepherd, Barry Brown, (more)
Set during the Civil War, Bad Company stars Barry Brown as a Northern boy, Drew Dixon, who heads West to avoid getting drafted. He falls under the spell of Jake Rumsey (Jeff Bridges), an easygoing young con artist. Drew joins Jake's gang of boy bandits, who live by their wits and try to avoid confrontation with adult criminals like Big Joe (David Huddleston). It is Drew who must eventually save Jake from hanging, even though he realizes that his intervention could lead to his own execution. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
- PG
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The oft-told story of the rise and fall of the James Younger gang is given the Dragnet treatment in The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid. With meticulous attention to detail, the film recreates the outlaw gang's most infamous escapade: the September 7, 1876, robbery of "the biggest bank west of the Mississippi" in Northfield, MN. Cliff Robertson plays Cole Younger, and Robert Duvall appears as Jesse James, herein depicted as a pair of vengeance-driven sociopaths, but no worse than the greedy railroad magnates who've driven them into a life of crime. Younger is also quite the manipulator, convincing the immigrant farmers of Northfield that the bank is completely impervious to robbery, thereby increasing the deposits that he intends to steal. Duvall's Jesse James is a cold-blooded murderer, but, like Younger, not without his own personal charm. The climactic raid is filmed cinéma vérité style, looking more like a haphazard CNN news event than a well-oiled machine (this film is not, thankfully, the standard "slick" Hollywood product). Though it drags in spots, The Great Northfield, Minnesota Raid is a superb, iconoclastic reproduction of an era long past. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cliff Robertson, Robert Duvall, (more)
- 1971
Some prisoners pin their hopes for freedom on a homemade aircraft in this made-for-television thriller. Based on a true World War Two story, Doug McClure stars as Harry Cook, an Allied soldier who tries to escape a Nazi prison camp with a scientist in tow, using a glider built by their fellow inmates. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Season Four of Ironside begins as the titular wheelchair-bound detective (played by Raymond Burr) begins receiving anonymous phone calls warning him that a "justice" murder will occur. The only clues seem to point in the direction of a disgruntled ex-cop who was thrown off the force in 1955. Whoever the caller is, Ironside must try to remain one step ahead of him to avoid a disastrous denoument. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- PG
White students are bussed into an all black school in this powerful drama. Quincy Davis (Calvin Lockhart) is the dedicated black English teacher who leaves an all white school to teach in the inner city. Lloyd Wilkerson (John McLiam) is the disciplinary principal who manages the institution like a prison. He tells Quincy point blank that his main job is to keep the peace in a potentially explosive situation. Sherry (Patricia Stich) is stripped in the locker room while Douglas (Jeff Bridges) is repeatedly beaten up but refuses to give up or give in to the mob. The white minorities are constantly harassed by the mob lead by the militant J.T. Watson (James A. Watson Jr.). Lerone (Dewayne Jesse) is helped with his reading by Lloyd, and improves his skills by reading Lady Chatterly's Lover. The after-school reading program soon becomes popular to the students, who find new appreciation for literary pursuits. Watch for an early appearance from Rob Reiner, later to achieve sitcom stardom as Meathead on All in the Family and become one of Hollywood's best directors. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Calvin Lockhart, Janet MacLachlan, (more)
Flesh was filmmaker Paul Morrissey's first production for Andy Warhol. The story concerns a bisexual hustler (Joe Dallesandro) who does tricks so that he can pay for his wife's lover's abortion. The film made headlines when it was confiscated by the police during one of its earliest showings in 1970. Though this event is unlikely to repeat itself, Flesh is still explicit enough to elicit gasps from even the most jaded of underground-film enthusiasts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Dallesandro, Geraldine Smith, (more)
