Richard Bright Movies

Shelly Winters and John Randolph star in Death of Innocence as distraught small-town parents who learn that their estranged daughter is on trial for murder. They journey to New York City and attend the girl's trial, where the mother learns several details of her daughter's recent life that she'd rather not know. Filmed at the height of the "generation gap" era, Death of Innocence was based on a novel by Zelda Popkin. One of the better TV movies of 1971, the film was first telecast opposite a George Plimpton "wish fulfillment" special, thereby losing out on the large audience it deserved. Casting note: Kim Stanley was to have played the principal juror, but fell ill before shooting. She was replaced by Ann Sothern--the mother of Tisha Sterling, who plays the defendant in the case! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Craig Richardson directed this drama that begins with computer graphics recalling Nazi Germany. Taxidermist Kate (Rica Martens) is quizzed by documentary filmmaker Bill (Bray Poor), who then heads to upstate NY for an interview with taxidermy experts Sam (George Bartenieff) and Iris (Jacqueline Bertrand). Poking about, Bill begins to suspect Sam and Iris of past Nazi associations. How else to explain the couple's puppet theater in which their stuffed creatures re-create the era of the Third Reich? ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Carroll O'Connor stars as NYPD chief of detectives Frank Nolan in Brass. The script, pseudonymously cowritten by O'Connor and Alvin Boretz, dramatizes two real-life incidents: a sniper attack on Penn Station and a murder in the CBS network parking lot. Though consigned to a desk job, Nolan insists upon hitting the streets to solve the crimes at hand. Vincent Gardenia, who'd previously costarred with Carroll O'Connor on All in the Family as Archie Bunker's next-door neighbor, appears as Chief Mike Maldonato. The director was former actor Corey Allen, best remembered as James Dean's "chicken run" opponent in Rebel Without a Cause. Intended as the pilot for a weekly series, Brass debuted September 11, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

CB radios provide a human connection between the lives of a collection of varied characters in Jonathan Demme's energizing film that exploits the CB radio craze of the mid-'70s. Chrome Angel (Charles Napier) is a truck driver who has an accident and is laid up recuperating at the home of Hot Coffee (Alix Elias). A road-roaring philanderer, Chrome Angel is a bigamist with a wife, Dallas (Ann Wedgeworth), in Dallas and another wife, Portland (Marcia Rodd), in Portland. The two women converge in a small town where Spider (Paul Le Mat) and his embittered brother Blood (Bruce McGill) are both trying to date Electra (Candy Clark). The characters' CB monikers weave the characters into the same CB waveband, exemplifying the interconnectedness of an American subculture. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

In a slapstick spoof of hitmen and crime stories, the head of a security systems company (Hamid Dana) is bumped off by two gonzo exterminators (Brion James and Paul L. Smith) who have gone from stomping out pesky varmints to stomping out human targets, and one of them does so with gusto. Now the exterminators go after the partner who hired them and his blatantly obnoxious wife (Louise Lasser) and in the meantime frame a poor security guard (Reed Birney) for the murder of the company boss. The tale is told in flashbacks, as the security guard has been tried and convicted and is shown at the beginning, about to be executed. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Five people cross paths in New York City over the course of a day marked by violence in this independent drama from writer and director Jay Anania. Judy (Judy Kuhn) is a singer who is busy in a recording studio working on an album of British folk songs with jazz keyboardist John Medeski. Shira (Alyssa Sutherland) is a successful fashion model doing a photo shoot. Najia (Carmen Chaplin) is a journalist from Palestine who is in the United States working on a piece on treating victims of wartime violence, and she's arranged an interview with a well-respected doctor, Dr. Mary Wade (Olympia Dukakis). And Walter (Martin Donovan) is a quiet man who enjoys spending time in the park observing others. When a Palestinian suicide bomber sets off an explosive charge on a busy Manhattan street corner, all five characters are forced to deal with the physical and emotional wreckage of its aftermath. Day on Fire was screened as part of the "Visions" series, devoted to challenging works from new filmmakers, at the 2006 Toronto Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Milos Forman's adaptation of the tribal rock musical Hair stars John Savage as Claude, a quiet young man from the Midwest who becomes friendly with a group of New York hippies on his way to begin basic training in the military. The repressed Claude is quite taken with Berger (Treat Williams) and the group of freedom seekers who reside in Central Park. The group encourages Claude to go after a debutante named Sheila (Beverly D'Angelo). Legendary choreographer Twyla Tharp masterminded the dances, which attempt to flow from the natural settings of the film. The film includes most of the more famous songs from the original play, including "Donna," "Aquarius," "Easy to Be Hard," "Let the Sunshine In," "Good Morning Starshine," "Frank Mills," and the title number. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

Calista Flockhart, best known for her work on the TV series Ally McBeal, plays a decidedly different role in this drama about Jane Doe, a troubled, drug-addicted prostitute who becomes involved with a streetwise writer. However much they care for each other, Jane's instability makes their relationship difficult, eventually leading to a life-or-death crisis. Also known as Pictures Of Baby Jane Doe, this film was named Best Picture at the New York International Film and Video Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The frozen body of a baby is found, whereupon the child's mother falls under suspicion for causing the infant's death. The woman insists that the real villain is slumlord Iris Colman (Karen Lynn Gorney), who cites the "rent laws" as her excuse to deny proper heating to her tenants. But another resident of the same apartment building offers up an entirely different story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Briscoe (Jerry Orbach) and Curtis (Benjamin Bratt) are visibly shaken by their latest investigation, centering around the murder of a retired cop. When it turns out that the victim trafficked in illicit sex and murder, the trail leads to a pair of interior decorators who "moonlight" as prostitutes. Once the ball is in the D.A.'s court, McCoy (Sam Waterston) and Ross (Carey Lowell) must again deal with feminist lawyer Lanie Stieglitz (Elaine Stritch). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from Judith Rossner's best-selling novelization of a true story, Richard Brooks's melodrama turns one woman's search for a liberated life into a cautionary tale about promiscuity. After an affair with her college professor, no-longer-good Catholic girl Theresa Dunn (Diane Keaton) follows the lead of her hedonistic sister (Tuesday Weld) and moves out of her oppressive family home to forge a life of her own. A compassionate teacher of deaf children by day, Theresa metamorphoses into a sexually free cruiser of singles bars by night. She prefers the satisfying attentions of unpredictable, danger-tinged stud Tony Lopanto (Richard Gere) to the more noble intentions of social worker James (William Atherton), but she ditches anyone who prevents her from being her "own girl." As Theresa's life threatens to spin out of control, she makes a vow to clean up her existence once and for all. But before she makes the break, she goes to one more bar and brings home one more man (Tom Berenger). ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Harry Belafonte was both producer and star of this hard-edged film noir crime drama. Dave Burke (Ed Begley, Sr.) is an ex-cop who has been kicked off the force for refusing to inform on his colleagues to the State Crime Committee. Short on money, the former policeman jumps to the other side of the law and plans to knock over a bank in upstate New York. He'll need help, so Burke brings in two other men to assist him -- Johnny Ingram (Belafonte), a jazz musician with an addiction to gambling that's put him deep in debt to gangster Bacco (Will Kuluva), and Earl Slater (Robert Ryan), a disturbed war veteran who hasn't been able to find work after serving time for manslaughter. While their common greed and desperation has brought these men together, their differences threaten to tear them apart, especially when Slater's fear and hatred of black men rises to the surface. Blacklisted screenwriter Abraham Polonsky co-wrote the screenplay for Odds Against Tomorrow, using his friend John O. Killens as a "front." John Lewis of the Modern Jazz Quartet contributed a memorable musical score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Though some viewers might be put off by its length, graphic violence, and absence of likable characters, Sergio Leone's final film is also a cinematic masterpiece. Spanning four decades, the film tells the story of David "Noodles" Aaronson (Robert De Niro) and his Jewish pals, chronicling their childhoods on New York's Lower East Side in the 1920s, through their gangster careers in the 1930s, and culminating in Noodles' 1968 return to New York from self-imposed exile, at which time he learns the truth about the fate of his friends and again confronts the nightmare of his past. The acting, the re-creation of the time period, the cinematography, and the music are all superb. However, even more important is Leone's ability to make the film work on so many different levels: it's both a criticism of gangster-film mythology and a continuation of the director's exploration of the issues of time and history. Strange as it may seem, the violence and gore in the first half of the film turn into a sad elegy about wasted lives and lost love. The film's strengths emerge only in its full 229-minute version -- the 139-minute and other edited versions don't make nearly the same impact. ~ Yuri German, All Movie Guide