Michael Lindsay-Hogg Movies
Though director Michael Lindsay-Hogg has continually denied being the son of Orson Welles (despite the uncanny resemblance between the two), he is, without doubt, the son of actress Geraldine Fitzgerald. Lindsay-Hogg established his career directing the '60s British television rock video series Ready, Steady, Go! and would ultimately be credited as a sort of pre-MTV music video pioneer. Lindsay-Hogg created the visuals for the Beatles' "Paperback Writer" and "Hey Jude," and eventually made his feature debut with the acclaimed Beatles documentary Let It Be (1970). Lindsay-Hogg is also an esteemed stage director and has won no small amount of critical praise for his handling of New York City productions of Agnes of God and the AIDS drama The Normal Heart (he would direct another AIDS drama, As Is, for American television in 1985). After filming the Watergate-inspired satire Nasty Habits in 1976, Lindsay-Hogg directed the first six installments to the BBC's 11-part Brideshead Revisited (1981) miniseries, which chronicles the saga of an aristocratic Catholic family. It gained a tremendous amount of popularity with American audiences when it made its PBS debut. In 1984, Lindsay-Hogg directed the widely praised television drama Master Harold and the Boys, which was adapted from the semiautobiographical play by South African author Athol Fugard, featuring a very young Matthew Broderick. Though the director did helm Object of Beauty, a 1991 comedy of manners with Andie MacDowell and John Malkovich, but much of his best work has been on the small-screen. Some of his most memorable titles include Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story (1986), The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1989), and Frankie Starlight (1995), a unique story detailing the obstacles faced by a dwarf and his mother in postwar Ireland. Lindsay-Hogg is also responsible for directing the music documentary The Rolling Stones: Rock and Roll Circus (1997), as well as Two of Us (2000), which was based on the bittersweet reunion of Paul McCartney and John Lennon in 1976. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
Everyone who grew up watching the original Saturday Night Live remembers the fateful night in 1976 when Lorne Michaels, with mock gravity, announced that NBC would pay the munificent sum of 3,000 dollars if the Beatles would agree to come on the show and perform three Beatles songs. But everyone may not know that ex-Beatles John Lennon and Paul McCartney happened to be in New York, watching that particular episode of SNL -- and for a few moments, they were tempted to play along with the gag and accept the offer. How did this come about? Well, it seems that McCartney, riding high with his hit single "Silly Love Songs," was in Manhattan to promote an upcoming concert. For old time's sake, and (probably) to heal a few long-standing wounds, McCartney called upon Lennon at the latter's apartment in the Dakota. First telecast February 1, 2000, Two of Us dramatizes this bittersweet reunion, of which "L'Affair SNL" was but one of many extra added ingredients. Directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, who'd also helmed the Beatles' swan song movie, Let It Be, Two of Us was seen over the VH1 cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A lonely man receives some not entirely welcome attention from his children in this drama written by Horton Foote. John Webb (Hume Cronyn) is an aging farmer from Texas who recently lost his wife and is coming to terms with spending the rest of his days on his own. An oil company believes that there may be oil on John's property and is willing to pay him handsomely for drilling rights. However, John isn't certain he likes the idea, and he soon comes into conflict with his family, who thinks that John could be letting a fortune slip through his fingers. Produced for the Showtime premium cable network, Alone boasts a superb supporting cast, including James Earl Jones, Shelley Duvall, Chris Cooper, and Frederic Forrest. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hume Cronyn
This made-for-television drama is based on a novel by Ivana Trump and centers on a Czechoslovakian immigrant's rise to the highest levels of the American aristocracy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Collins, Sanna Vraa, (more)
- 1996
- R
Simply switch on the nightly news and you will see that the media has become increasingly intrusive into the lives of people involved in extraordinary circumstances. What is the true impact of the omnipresent camera upon those circumstances? How does it change the existence of those living beneath a publicly broadcast microscope? This provocative drama takes the notion of the intruding camera a step further to follow the machinations of a determined documentary filmmaker who chooses an ordinary man on the street for the subject of her latest probing film. In following her attempts to chronicle even the most intimate details of his mundane existence the film offers a double character portrait, not only of the victim himself, but also of the disaffected (and but for her hands, unseen) filmmaker who is unable to relate to life without the barrier of a hand-held camera to protect her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vincent D'Onofrio, Hope Davis, (more)
- 1995
- R
A small man with a big story examines the facts of his life in this drama. As Frank Bois enjoys the success of his first novel, he finds himself looking back on his highly unusual life. Frank's mother Bernadette (Anne Parillaud) was a French woman who, after the death of her parents and several close friends in World War II, smuggled herself aboard an Allied troop ship sailing to Ireland, exchanging sexual favors for silence among the soldiers who discovered her on board. A kind-hearted customs agent, Jack Kelly (Gabriel Byrne), allowed Bernadette to enter Ireland, and they soon became lovers, even though she was already carrying the child of one of the soldiers from the ship. Bernadette soon gave birth to young Frankie (Alan Pentony), who suffered from dwarfism. As he grew older, Frankie fell for Jack's daughter Emma (Georgina Cates), who clearly didn't care for him, while Jack generously shared his knowledge of astronomy with Frankie. Eventually, Bernadette encountered Terry Klout (Matt Dillon), an American soldier from the troop ship, who offered to marry her. Bernadette and Frankie accompanied Terry to his home in Texas, but both mother and son felt like fish out of water in the American West, and they returned to the Irish home they came to love. A sadder but wiser Bernadette eventually committed suicide, and Frank began to draw upon his life experiences as he put pen to paper for his first book. Based on the novel The Dork of Cork by Chet Raymo, Frankie Starlight was directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Parillaud, Matt Dillon, (more)
- 1992
A dreary and depressing tale despite the excellent assemblage of talent, this is the story of a Depression-era family where sibling rivalry and tragedy seem to be the watch words of their home life. A period piece set in 1930s Texas. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
The made-for-cable satirical comedy Running Mates is about a bachelor U.S. Senator named Hugh (Ed Harris), who falls in love with Aggie (Diane Keaton), a widowed children's author, while he is running for president. Though she hates politics, she finds something charming in the slick Hugh and agrees to marry him. Unfortunately, the press finds something suspicious within Aggie's past, and it could sink his campaign. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1991
In this futuristic sci-fi political drama, the minerals of the moon are being exploited by both Russian and American mining companies. When a terrorist threatens an American mining company, a KGB agent teams up with a NASA investigator to stop them. The two agents are attracted to each other and this nearly derails their assignment. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Michael Lindsay-Hogg wrote and directed this cool and sleek comedy about a seemingly perfect combination -- an American couple staying at a chic London hotel whose pride doesn't permit them to recognize that they are broke, and a hotel staff so brimming with proper British reserve that they can't inform the American freeloaders they need to be paid. Jake (John Malkovich) and Tina (Andie MacDowell) are the American couple trapped in splendor at a London hotel after Jake's cocoa deal in a Third World County is stalled by revolutionary upheaval. Their plight is so dire they walk up the stairs to their luxurious suite rather than take the elevator and risk encountering the hotel manager. Hitting rock bottom, they take stock of their assets and find one -- a $50,000 Henry Moore bust. They decide to fabricate a robbery and collect the insurance money, but a deaf maid (Rudi Davies) has fallen in love with the bust and stolen it herself. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Malkovich, Andie MacDowell, (more)
- 1989
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This 60-minute TV adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's 1886 doppelganger yarn stars Anthony Andrews as kindly London medico Henry Jekyll. Fascinated by the concept that within every man lurks two separate personalities--one good, one evil--Dr. Jekyll concocts a potion that releases his own nightmarish alter ego, Mr. Hyde. Contemporary critics noted that Andrews' Jekyll was so cloddish that his bestial Hyde came as something of a relief. Laura Dern co-stars as Jekyll/Hyde's long-suffering fiancee Rebecca. The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde premiered as an HBO Nightmare Classic on October 29, 1989. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
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In 1986, Paul Simon released his album Graceland, a ground-breaking collaboration with some of South Africa's finest musicians that brought the sensuous and expressive sounds of "Township Jive" to an international mass audience for the first time. Simon then mounted an international concert tour with several of the musicians that appeared on the album, and this home video release captures the final date of the tour in 1987, in which Simon, singer Miriam Makeba, trumpeter Hugh Masekela, and vocal group Ladysmith Black Mambazo brought the music back to Africa for a massive outdoor concert in Zimbabwe. Selections include "The Boy in the Bubble," "Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes," "You Can Call Me Al," "Homeless," "I Know What I Know," "Graceland," "Gumboots," and 11 more. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1987
Keshia Knight-Pulliam stars as the title character, an orphaned waif of the 1920s who helps instill the Christmas spirit into a contentious New England family. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Even allowing for her in-and-out Austrian accent, Farrah Fawcett delivers one of her best ever TV-movie performances in Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story. This fact-based film begins in 1960, when Beate's last name is still Kunzel. A sheltered young miss, Beate has no concept of what went on in the wartime concentration camps--until she meets and falls in love with Holocaust survivor Serge Karsfeld (Tom Conti). Given a crash course in sociopolitical awareness by her husband, Beate herself becomes a tireless hunter of fugitive Nazis. At great personal risk to herself, she travels from Europe to South America to bring to justice Klaus Barbie (Claude Vernier), the "Butcher of Lyon." Filmed in Paris and Nice, Nazi Hunter: The Beate Klarsfeld Story was first telecast in November of 1986, at which time the real Beate Karsfeld was endeavoring to expose UN secretary general Kurt Waldheim as a war criminal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
This made-for-TV biography appeared as part of the Shelley Duvall series, Tall Tales and Legends, and stars Jamie Lee Curtis as Annie Oakley and Brian Dennehy as Buffalo Bill Cody, who Ms. Oakley accompanied on a hugely successful Wild West show. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1985
Manhattan-based writer David Carradine falls victim to AIDS in As Is. Virtually abandoned by friends and family, Carradine is looked after by his gay lover, photographer Jonathan Hadary. Based on a play by William M. Hoffman, As Is wisely avoids editorial comment on the principals' lifestyle, nor does it wallow in the tragedy of the situation. As directed by Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the film never quite overcomes the staginess of its source material; its principal strength lies in the byplay between its stars. The film was produced for cable television in 1985, and telecast early in 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
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This episode of Shelley Duvall's American Tall Tales tells the rip-roaring story of Annie Oakley, one of the Old West's greatest sharpshooters and popular star of Buffalo Bill's traveling Wild West Show. The program includes some legendary episodes -- part fact, part fiction -- and shows some actual footage of Annie Oakley in action (filmed in 1903 by Thomas Edison). Jamie Lee Curtis plays the title role. ~ Alice Duncan, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Adapted from the semiautobiographical play by South African author Athol Fugard, Master Harold...and the Boys is set in Port Elizabeth in 1950. "Master Harold" is what the black employees are ordered to call young Hally (Matthew Broderick), the son of a well-to-do white couple who own a fashionable tea room. Hally wanders into the establishment one day and sees two black male workers (Zakes Mokae and John Kani) practicing for an upcoming ballroom competition by dancing together. The two employees and Hally exchange kidding rebukes, not meant to offend anyone. But after Hally receives some bad news about his father, he takes out his anger upon the workers. Efforts to smooth out the situation erupt into an all-out racial conflict. Though running a scant 75 minutes, Master Harold...and the Boys seems twice as long, making one wonder what it was about the original 1982 Broadway production that so overwhelmed the critics. Still, it is easy to see why Zakes Mokae won a Tony award for his performance. This TV version of the Fugard play first aired in the U.S. on November 12, 1984, over the Showtime Cable Network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Following the lead of the CBS soap opera Capitol, NBC's daytime drama Loving was introduced by a two-hour, prime-time TV movie. Created by Agnes Nixon, Loving is largely set on the campus of the fictional Alden University. The serial's "backstory" is cleverly related by having TV anchorwoman Merrill Vocheck (Patricia Kalember) unearth a hotbed of intrigue while doing a report on Alden. The main plot is spiced up by a murder mystery, and Merrill's meeting with a man who (according to the original prints ads) "will change her life forever." Future Loving regulars Patricia Kalember, John Shearin and Wesley Addy (among many others) share screen space with special guest stars Lloyd Bridges and Geraldine Page. The Loving pilot aired June 26, 1983; the series proper began the following day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
Dr. Fischer (James Mason) is a cynical tycoon whose favorite past time is exposing human greed. Determined to prove that even the most righteous person can be bought, Fischer (Bates) plans a party with a strange and diabolical twist. The party favors contain one of two things--one million dollars cash, or a bomb designed to blow the "gift" recipient into tiny pieces. His guests go through a strange, emotional journey, ultimately deciding if they are willing to trade their dignity and risk their lives for the possibility of wealth. Directed by Michael Lindsey-Hogg, Dr. Fischer of Geneva also features Alan Bates and Greta Scacchi. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Bates, James Mason, (more)
- 1983
This lively, funny Faerie Tale Theatre production of the classic Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale is about a thumb-sized girl (Carrie Fisher) who has to find her way back home after being kidnapped by a toad and a mole. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
This 1982 concert video captures the last show of Young's European tour. The Berlin show features the Trans Band, comprising Ralph Molina, Ben Keith, Joe Lala, Bruce Palmer, and Nils Lofgren, and consists of ten songs, including the classics "Old Man" and "The Needle and the Damage Done." Other songs performed include "Cinnamon Girl," "Hey, Hey, My, My," "Computer Age," "Little Thing Called Love," "After the Gold Rush," "Transformer Man," "Sample and Hold," and "Hurricane Berlin." ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 1981
Evelyn Waugh's 1945 novel Brideshead Revisited was offered to television viewers in this 11-part adaptation that originally aired on the U.K.'s ITV network. The miniseries, like the book, lays bare the eccentricities of the young British aristocracy, concentrating upon several Oxford students. The story is told from the point-of-view of Charles Ryder (Jeremy Irons), who is sucked into decadence by the "magically beautiful" Sebastian Flyte (Anthony Andrews). Flyte is the son of Lord Marchmain (Laurence Olivier), master of Brideshead Castle, where most of the story (covering the years 1924 through 1944) takes place. Brideshead Revisited was brought to America on PBS' Great Performances series, beginning its run on January 18, 1982. The miniseries created a stir in the U.S. because of its mild nudity and profanity; the presentation had to be re-edited when it was shown for a second time on PBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
An all-star female cast (Glenda Jackson, Melina Mecouri, Geraldine Page, Sandy Dennis, Anne Jackson, Anne Meara, and Dame Edith Evans) enliven this satirical treatment of the Nixon Watergate scandal, Nasty Habits -- based on Muriel Sparks's novella The Abbess of Crewe. When a dying abbess (Dame Edith Evans) of a Pennsylvania convent is ready to name Sister Alexandra (Glenda Jackson) as her successor, Sister Alexandra and her two flunkies (Sandy Dennis and Anne Jackson) try to get the abbess to sign a document of intent. But their plans are dashed when liberal Sister Felicity (Susan Penhaligon) arrives and wants to change the institution. Her arrival delays the signing of the document of intent, and before the abbess can sign the paper she dies.Now the job of running the convent is up for grabs, with Sister Alexandra employing Nixon-like techniques of surveillance and dirty tricks to get the goods on Sister Felicity. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenda Jackson, Melina Mercouri, (more)
