Fionnula Flanagan Movies

Adapted from a true story, dockworker Joey Coyle (John Cusack) finds over $1 million, which fell from an armored car. Instead of returning the money, he embarks on a spending spree unchecked by the wishes of his friend (Michael Rapaport) and hires a crime ring to launder the money. The detective assigned to the case (Michael Madsen) follows his increasingly distinct tracks. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In this spooky made-for-television movie, a mother, endlessly bereaved after her daughter mysteriously drowned years before, becomes convinced that her late child is trying to contact her from the Great Beyond. Naturally nobody believes her until it is almost too late. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A crucial chapter in the life of famed defense attorney Earl Rogers is re-created in the made-for-TV Final Verdict. Treat Williams stars as Rogers, who matriculates from small-claims court to the judicial Big Time in 1919. Defending a client whom he knows to be guilty, Rogers foments a crisis in his own family--and within himself. Glenn Ford co-stars as Rogers' minister father. Final Verdict debuted September 9, 1991, over the TNT cable service. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Columbo: Murder, A Self Portrait stars Patrick Bauchau as an artist hounded by a contentious ex-wife (Fionulla Flanagan). He murders his former spouse on the beach at Malibu, but arranges things to make it seem he was far away in his art studio at the time of the killing. Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) has heard this song before, and he meticulously chips away at the artist's alibi. Also in the cast is Shera Danese, a.k.a. Mrs. Peter Falk. Murder, A Self Portrait was one of the handful of Columbo 2-hour episodes shown during the 1989-1990 season on The ABC Saturday Mystery Movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paul Le Mat and Molly Ringwald star in this limp-wristed drama about an arm-wrestling contest. P.K. (Ringwald) runs away from home after her mother's boyfriend Lester (Alex Rocco) continues his unwanted advances. She hitches a ride with The Kid (Paul Le Mat), who is on his way to an annual arm-wrestling championship in California. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Rob Lowe stars as the title character, a young hockey prodigy with a gift for scoring, but no such penchant for pugilism -- when the gloves drop, so does he. Despite his fragility, Coach Chadwick (Ed Lauter) takes him on the roster for his stick-handling ability alone. However, he ends up being sent home after being singled out by a particularly nasty goon, Racki (George Finn), who pummels the "pretty boy" in brutal fashion. Disheartened, Youngblood heads back to the rural Canadian farm he calls home, where his father (Eric Nesterenko, a former player for the Chicago Blackhawks) and older brother (Jim Youngs) teach him the invaluable lesson that hockey is "no place for a nervous person" (to quote a famous NHL announcer). Overseen by his elders, he immediately begins a combat-training regimen to prepare for his return and imminent showdown with the evil Racki; meanwhile, he strikes up a relationship with the coach's daughter (Cynthia Gibb). ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

Made for television, A Winner Never Quits is the true story of one-armed baseball player Pete Gray. Having lost his arm in a childhood accident, Pete (played by Steve Rees as a child, Keith Carradine as an adult) still insists upon pursuing an athletic career in emulation of his older brother Whitey (Ed O'Neill). When Whitey suffers permanent brain damage in a boxing match, Pete takes up the cudgel and enters the world of professional sports. Hired in 1943 as a "freak attraction" and wartime morale-booster by the Memphis Chicks, Class-A minor league ball club, Gray attains a batting average of .333 and a stolen-base record of 63; as a result, he is appointed his league's MVP. Though a success, Pete maintains a tough, defensive veneer, which is softened only by the love of his wife Annie (Mare Winningham) and the adulation of baseball fan Nelson Gary Jr. (Huckleberry Fox), who has also lost an arm (and who would, in real life, become a top minor-league ballplayer himself). With the war depleting big-league baseball's manpower in 1945, Pete Gray finally achieves his goal of entering the Majors when he is hired by the St. Louis Browns. Dennis Weaver and Fionnulla Flanagan costar as Pete's immigrant parents. Burt Prelutsky's screenplay wisely avoids pathos and sentiment throughout; though humanized by his relationships with friends and family, Pete Gray is accurately portrayed as a brusque, temperamental soul, who neither asks for nor tolerates sympathy from anyone. A Winner Never Quits first aired in April of 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At this late date, it should hardly be necessary to inform viewers that The Ewok Adventure was inspired by those fuzzy little space muppets seen in the 1983 Star Wars sequel Return of the Jedi. This costly made-for-TV film was executive-produced by George Lucas, with special effects provided by Industrial Light and Magic. It was first telecast with great fanfare November 25, 1984; its soundtrack was simulcast on regional FM radio stations to provide a "full stereo" effect. The plot (frankly the least fascinating element of this project) concerns two young kids searching through space for their missing parents. The kids wind up on the forest moon of Endor, where dwell the courageous little Ewoks, commandeered by Wicket (Warwick Davis). The winner of an Emmy Award for Outstanding Children's Program (though not necessarily aimed exclusively at kids), Ewok Adventure was released theatrically as Caravan of Courage. It was followed in 1986 by a TV-movie sequel, Ewoks: The Battle for Endor, and by a Saturday-morning cartoon series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this crime drama, an antique dealer falls and marries a seemingly successful businessman who ends up conning her out of every penny and leaving her. Unlike the many others he has conned, this plucky lady decides to stop him once and for all. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Mr. Patman is well liked and has charm to spare. He works as an orderly in a mental hospital and does a good job except that he is beginning to believe that he is being shadowed by the irate husband of his landlady. When not bunking with her, Mr. Patman attempts to launch an affair with a co-worker until he mistakenly begins believing she has died in an auto accident. As the film progresses, it doesn't take long for the audience to realize that the normal-seeming Patman is just as ill as the patients he tends to and by the story's end is no longer to conceal it and must be admitted into the hospital himself. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

More ambitious and expensive than ABC's first "novel for television" miniseries QB VII, the eight-episode, 12-hour Rich Man, Poor Man was the one that truly put the genre on the map, its phenomenal success in the ratings making possible the even more spectacular Roots. Adapted from the mammoth novel by Irwin Shaw, the miniseries covers the years from WWII to the 1960s, detailing the vacillating fortunes of the immigrant Jordache brothers. "Rich Man" Rudy Jordache (Peter Strauss) is determined to use his hard-earned education -- and his inherent ruthlessness -- to carve out a business and political empire not unlike that enjoyed by Joseph P. Kennedy and his progeny. "Poor Man" Tom Jordache (Nick Nolte), a quick-fisted hothead, goes an entirely different route, first as a professional boxer, then as a functionary of the evil gangster chieftain Falconetti (William Smith). Naturally, both brothers become entangled in romance along the way, with Julie Prescott (Susan Blakely) ending up as Rudy's benighted spouse. Originally telecast on February 1, 2, 9, 16, 23, and March 1, 8, and 15 in 1976, Rich Man, Poor Man earned 20 Emmy nominations and led to a weekly sequel, Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book 2, in the fall of 1976 (this version necessitated a title change for the original, which was rebroadcast as Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book 1 in the spring of 1977). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Basehart heads an impressive guest cast as Bishop Tim Farrow, who has fallen victim to a would-be murderer. When Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) question the Bishop, he steadfastly refuses to identify his assailant. Is the guilty party a fanatical atheist who has threatened Bishop Farrow in the past--or is the victim protecting someone close to him? Much of this episode was filmed on location at Mission Dolores, previously seen in the Alfred Hitchcock classic Vertigo. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide