Daniel Mann Movies

This made-for-cable outing is a loose remake of the Paul Muni film I Am a Fugitive from a Chain Gang. Val Kilmer inhabits the Muni role of World War I vet Robert Elliot Burns, whose exploits following his escape from a Southern work camp are detailed in episodic fashion. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

The made-for-television Playing for Time debuted on September 30, 1980. Vanessa Redgrave stars as Fania Fenelon, a Jewish cabaret singer working in Paris at the time of the Nazi invasion. Shipped to the Auschwitz death camp in 1944, Fenelon is certain that she is as doomed as all the other prisoners. But SS camp matron Shirley Knight has other plans: she orders Fenelon and several other female inmates with musical ability to form themselves into a prisoner's orchestra. They are to perform for the benefit of those who are herded into the gas chambers--a "humane" means of easing the condemned into the next world. As much as she despises her work, Fenelon and her fellow musicians continue to play, lest they too be exterminated. The film raises several questions about courage, guilt and survival at any price, but the most controversial aspect was the casting of anti-Zionist Vanessa Redgrave as Fania Fenelon. Like many others, the real-life Fenelon (who died in 1988) was vehemently opposed to Redgrave's appearance in the film. Playing for Time won Emmy Awards for Redgrave, scriptwriter Arthur Miller, supporting actress Jane Alexander, and as Outstanding Dramatic Special. Redgrave's husband Tony Richardson was the original director, but he bowed out and was replaced by Joseph Sargent., who himself was replaced by Daniel Mann (the only one credited) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lost in the Stars was an American Film Theatre adaptation of the musical play by Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill--which in turn was based on the Alain Paton novel Cry the Beloved Country. Brock Peters portrays a South African minister who goes to the Big City to locate his son Raymond St. Jacques, who is now a criminal in the eyes of the white rulers. The minister forges a curious, foredoomed friendship with a white farmer (Paul Rogers). Lost in the Stars has sometimes been accused of blunting the edge of Paton's angry study of the cruelties of Apartheid; fans of musical theatre will be more politely inclined to this loving filmization of the Broadway play. On its own, Cry the Beloved Country was previously filmed in 1951, with Canada Lee, Sidney Poitier and Charles Carson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sports drama is based on the true story of professional basketball players Maurice Stokes and Jack Twyman. When Stokes (Bernie Casey), who is black, is rendered comatose and paraplegic by a head injury, his white teammate Twyman (Bo Svenson) exerts himself mightily to raise money for Stokes' physical therapy and medical treatment in the hopes that he will one day walk again. Before the injury, Twyman was just a friendly teammate. Afterwards, he became more or less a member of Stokes' family. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Despite the fact that most of the westerns made at this time (early '70s) were "deconstructionist" westerns, which either spoofed or subverted the themes of this genre, occasionally a traditional western got filmed. The Revengers is a traditional western. John Benedict (William Holden) returns to his ranch, only to find all his cattle stolen and his family murdered. He vows to exact revenge on Tarp (Warren Vanders), the varmint who did this to him. He recruits a treacherous gang of convicts, bribing the warden for their release, and makes his move. When the attack fails, the convicts aren't interested in making another try. Instead, they shoot him and, leaving him for dead, head off to follow their own concerns. On her way to a new landholding, Elizabeth (Susan Hayward) stumbles upon the injured man, and nurses him back to some semblance of health. She begs him to drop his revenge plan, but he resumes his quest, receiving unexpected help along the way from Hoop (Ernest Borgnine), one of the renegade ex-convicts. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Anthony Quinn plays Matsoukas, a Greek/American ne'er do well, living in Chicago with his long-suffering wife Caliope (Irene Papas). When Matsoukas discovers that his son (Radames Pera) is dying, he decides that the boy needs to get out of the Windy City and recuperate in the more agreeable climate of Greece. All he needs is the money for the plane fare. One by one, Matsoukas' sources of income dry up until he is forced to fix a dice game in order to raise the cash. It is his wife who finally puts up the money by stealing from her own mother. Matsoukas makes the trip but realizes it would be better if he remain in Greece so as not to further humiliate the loyal Caliope. Inger Stevens co-stars as Quinn's mistress, while Sam Levene plays an old pal whose offer to put up the needed money evaporates when he suddenly drops dead. A Dream of Kings was adapted by Harry Mark Petrakis from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Coburn stars as super-spy Derek Flint in this action comedy which takes the tongue-in-cheek wit of the James Bond series and shifts it into high gear. Flint is an ultra-sophisticated operative of international intelligence agency Z.O.W.I.E. He's a master of martial arts, electronic gadgetry (his cigarette lighter can perform 83 special functions), languages both human and animal (he can communicate with dolphins in a pinch), and even gives ballet lessons to the dancers of the Bolshoi. So when his fellow agents begin dropping like flies, Z.O.W.I.E. assigns Flint the task of finding out who the killers happen to be. Eventually, Flint discovers that the killings are all part of the wicked machinations of G.A.L.A.X.Y., a cadre of world-wide villainy that plans to take over the world through weather control. Our Man Flint also stars Lee J. Cobb, Gila Golan, and Edward Mulhare. A sequel, In Like Flint, followed two years later, and in 1976, the character was revived for a TV movie, Our Man Flint: Dead on Target, with Ray Danton taking over the role of Derek Flint. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This romantic adult comedy finds psychiatrist Jason Steel (Dean Martin) the leader of a women's group therapy session. Jill St. John, Elizabeth Frazier, Macha Meril, Yoko Tani and Diane Foster all seek the advice of the handsome doctor, while husbands Louis Nye, Jack Soo, Richard Conte, and Martin Balsam ignore them in their usual poker game every Wednesday night. Jason plays doctor with pretty fiance Melissa (Elizabeth Montgomery) and Carol Burnette is his scatter brained secretary who does a hilarious striptease when she and Melissa can't pay for their dinner at a local nightclub after being stuck with the bill. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A distinguished cast highlights this film adaptation of a stage drama by Peter Shaffer. Stanley Harrington (Jack Hawkins) is a self-made businessman incapable of expressing his emotions or compromising with others; his wife Louise (Rosalind Russell) imagines herself an intellectual, though her intelligence is more of an affectation than a reality. Stanley and Louise hire Walter (Maximilian Schell), a teacher from Germany, as a tutor for their two teenage children, effeminate Philip (Richard Beymer) and high-strung Pamela (Annette Gorman). Walter tries to ingratiate himself with the family, with little success; when he tries to get to know Louise better, she imagines that he's fallen in love with her, and she's deeply hurt when he confesses that he instead sees her as a motherly figure. Walter is eventually driven to the brink of suicide, which forces the family to reconsider their attitudes toward Walter and each other. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A woman who has long been short on feelings falls in love with a married man in this emotional drama. Gloria Wondrous (Elizabeth Taylor) is a model and party girl who lives for pleasure and is willing to take men for what she can get from them. Gloria bounces from man to man, but feels that she can only truly confide in Steve Carpenter (Eddie Fisher), a longtime friend with whom she shares a close but strictly platonic relationship, though his fiancée (Susan Oliver) suspects otherwise. Gloria becomes involved with Weston Liggett (Laurence Harvey), a wealthy but emotionally cold man who is married to Emily (Dina Merrill). Weston shows Gloria precious little respect or kindness at first, but as they share a few bouts with the bottle, they discover that both are desperately lacking in self-confidence and have little happiness in their lives. As Gloria and Weston reveal more about themselves to one another, they fall in love, but Gloria isn't sure if she can commit to one man, while Weston has to decide if he can leave Emily behind. Based on the novel by John O'Hara, Butterfield 8 earned Elizabeth Taylor her first Academy Award (for Best Actress) after four unsuccessful nominations. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In danger of losing his job, TV-producer David Wayne hopes to cook up a real ratings winner by building a network special around the life and work of elderly doctor Paul Muni. For the past 45 years, the iconoclastic Muni has run a free clinic in the slums of Brooklyn. Muni has no time for television, however, so Wayne tries to get Muni's lifelong friend Luther Adler to talk the doctor into appearing before the cameras. Adler agrees, on the proviso that Wayne's network promises to build a nice home in the suburbs for the physician and his wife (Nancy R. Pollock). Going to work on Muni, Adler convinces the old man that a coast-to-coast special will permit him to vent his spleen on the subject of the mercenary medical profession. On the night of the broadcast, Muni discovers that one of his slum patients, Billy Dee Williams, has been arrested for car theft. Leaving Wayne high and dry, Muni rushes down to the police station, where he is pressed into service to save a life. While doing so, he suffers a fatal heart attack, with the weeping Adler at his side. Wayne finally realizes that Muni's selfless idealism was of greater value than any commercially-motivated television program, and says as much when he hands in his resignation. The Last Angry Man turned out to be the cinematic swan song for veteran-actor Paul Muni; he died eight years later. Based on a novel by Gerald Green, The Last Angry Man would be remade for television with Pat Hingle in the Muni role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marlon Brando went out on yet another creative limb when he insisted upon playing sly, philosophical Okinawan interpreter Sakima in the 1956 filmization of John Patrick's Broadway play Teahouse of the August Moon. While he occasionally lapses into "flied lice" stereotyping, for the most part Brando is quite effective and amusing, especially when facing up to the difficult task of speaking directly to the audience. The story is set in Okinawa in the months following V-J Day. Paul Ford (repeating his Broadway role - and replacing Louis Calhern, who died at the start of production) plays an American colonel in charge of the occupation troops. Determined to bring Western civilization to the Okinawans, the colonel assigns captain Glenn Ford to do his bidding. A habitual screw-up, Captain Ford hopes to make good by organizing the Okinawan women into a social club and by building a schoolhouse. But the villagers would rather erect a teahouse, serviced by pretty geisha girls. The ever-resourceful Sakima (Brando) does his manipulative best to curry favor with the Americans while still mollifying his own people. Co-starring in Teahouse of the August Moon is Machiko Kyo, leading lady of such Japanese film classics as Rashomon and Gate of Hell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Scripted by famed playwright Tennessee Williams, The Rose Tattoo stars Anna Magnani as Serafina Delle Rose, a Sicilian woman who now lives in the American South. As the film opens, she is still mourning the death of her beloved husband, constantly telling herself stories of their time together. Her fragile emotional existence is shattered when she discovers that her husband had been carrying on with another woman. Luckily, Serafina also meets truck driver Alvaro Mangiacavallo (Burt Lancaster) around this time, and their tentative romance may help her through this troubling time. Williams wrote the script for Magnani, who was awarded an Oscar for her work in the film. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide