Lionel Newman Movies
While still a teenager, Connecticut-born musician Lionel Newman secured a conductor's job with the Los Angeles-based Earl Carroll's Vanities. For several years thereafter, he was the accompanist for Mae West. Hired as rehearsal pianist at 20th Century Fox in 1943, Newman spent the next four decades at that studio, working in such capacities as conductor, composer, arranger, and musical supervisor. The recipient of 11 Oscar nominations, Newman was finally honored with the gold statuette for his scoring of 1969's Hello Dolly! His last screen assignment was 1984's Unfaithfully Yours, a remake of one of the few Fox films of the 1940s that he didn't work on. Lionel Newman was the brother of composer Alfred Newman and the uncle of musician Randy Newman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1988
- R
Tim Daly stars in director Janet Greek's fair horror-thriller as Los Angeles attorney Jeff Mills, who rescues beautiful Miranda Reed (Kelly Preston) from being raped. As he and Miranda become lovers, Jeff learns that his new girlfriend is a witch trying to escape from an evil cult led by Aldys (Anthony Crivello), who wants to use her as a human sacrifice. Borrowing ideas from thrillers like Fatal Attraction (1987) and Tutti i Colori del Buio (1972), this borderline occult chiller co-stars genre veterans Rick Rossovich, Cary-Hiroyuki Tagawa, Stefan Gierasch, and Audra Lindley. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Daly, Kelly Preston, (more)
- 1985
In this drama, set twenty years after the original saga, a woman comes to the tumultuous New England village to investigate the mysterious disappearance of her mother and discovers that the town's most respected citizens have been keeping a series of dark, disturbing secrets. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In this horror film an influential family, whose wealth comes from Nazi gold, in San Francisco must preserve an ancient evil rite that enables them to keep a supernatural power under their control. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1985
In Like Flynn is Remington Steele cross-pollinated with Romancing the Stone. The title "character," Jason Flynn, is a fictional James Bond-like adventurer created by reclusive author Daryl E. Raymond. Raymond's bestselling books are seemingly the sole source of income for the publishing firm where Jenny Seagrove works as editor and researcher. What nobody knows is that Daryl E. Raymond doesn't really exist--in fact, "he" is none other than the plucky Ms. Seagrove. In this busted pilot film, "Raymond" (that is, Seagrove) is dispatched halfway across the world on a delicate rescue assignment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
This television miniseries derives its plot from The Sun Also Rises, the 1926 novel by Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961). Set in France and Spain, the miniseries follows the lives of several expatriate Americans and their acquaintances in the decade after World War I. These expatriates -- part of the so-called lost generation of Americans bitter about the war and disillusioned by prevailing U.S. values -- drink, roam, ruminate, and chase women. The central character, journalist Jake Barnes (Hart Bochner), pals up with fellow countrymen Bill Gorton (Zeljko Ivanek), an amiable war veteran, and Robert Cohn (Robert Carradine), a novelist and college-trained boxer, to enjoy Paris night life. Barnes runs into beautiful and sophisticated Lady Brett Ashley (Jane Seymour), whom he romanced in England while she was a volunteer nurse and he was recuperating from a war wound that left him impotent. She is soon to divorce her husband to marry Mike Campbell (Ian Charleson), a hard-drinking Scot. Still smitten by her, Barnes follows her everywhere. So do Gorton and Cohn. Cohn falls hard for her. But Lady Brett says she wants to live happily ever after with many men, not just one, in spite of her betrothal to Campbell, a liaison with Cohn, and her affection for Barnes. Such is the scope of her appetite for men. For a new diversion, bullfighting, all of the principals -- including Campbell -- go to Pamplona, Spain. There, matador Pedro Romero (Andrea Occhipinti) whets Lady Brett's appetite all over again with his derring-do in the bullring. After Cohn discovers her in bed with Romero, he beats the bullfighter livid. It is all for naught. To Lady Brett, Cohn is an interesting toy, nothing more. The story reaches its conclusion when Romero -- purple with Cohn's bruises -- enters the arena to challenge a bull. Will Romero survive? Will Lady Brett choose him over Barnes? Will she marry Campbell? ~ Mike Cummings, All Movie Guide
- 1984
See if you can predict the ending of this one. John Ritter and Cassie Yates are the next-door neighbors of Penny Marshall and Bert Convy. Ritter and Marshall can't stand each other. But presto! Ritters' wife Yates runs off with Marshall's husband Convy. The two spurned spouses meet to bemoan their individual fates. Love Thy Neighbor is a TV-movie comedy with a TV-movie cast and a TV-movie denouement. The only surprise is the absence of a laugh track. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This remake of the 1948 Preston Sturges classic stars Dudley Moore as the symphony conductor who imagines ways to get back at the wife he believes is unfaithful to him. Moore plays Claude Eastman, the conductor of a prestigious sympathy, who suspects that his actress wife Daniella (Nastassja Kinski) is fooling around behind his back with the orchestra's handsome soloist, Maxmillian Stein (Armand Assante). The tip comes courtesy of Norman Robbins (Albert Brooks), Daniella's brother. As Claude is conducting a symphony, an elaborate plot plays out in his head -- he will murder his unfaithful wife to get revenge on her. The plot is simpler and more straightforward than the original version, in which the conductor harbored three separate elaborate fantasies. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dudley Moore, Nastassja Kinski, (more)
- 1983
Blood Feud was a two-part TV drama, originally presented as an "Operation Prime Time" special. Robert Blake is disturbingly convincing as labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, engaged in a decade-long war of words with attorney (and later attorney general) Robert F. Kennedy. Cotter Smith makes his TV debut as Kennedy, a role he'd repeat on future occasions. Thoroughly compelling when sticking to the facts, the drama falls apart whenever indulging in flight of fanciful speculation (Sample: two of Hoffa's lieutenants watch the live telecast of Lee Harvey Oswald's murder, then celebrate the fact that Oswald will never be able to reveal their complicity in the JFK assassination!) Blood Feud was syndicated to local TV stations beginning April 24, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Blake, Cotter Smith, (more)
- 1982
In this domestic drama, a the marriage of a suburban couple crumbles on the eve of their 15th anniversary. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1982
Less than a week after the premiere telecast of the "surrogate mother" drama The Gift of Life, the similarly-themed Tomorrow's Child made its TV debut. Stephanie Zimbalist and her geneticist husband William Atherton agree to participate in a secret lab experiment. Under the aegis of doctors Ed Flanders and Salome Jens, the couple "has" a test-tube baby, a fetus brought to full term in a laboratory. Arthur Hill co-stars as Flanders' medical mentor, who casts grave doubts on the morality of the procedure. Since it first telecast on March 22, 1982, the speculative fiction of Tomorrow's Child has matriculated into fact--but the ethical debate goes on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The second sequel to the 1976 horror hit The Omen finds Damien Thorn assuming the full mantle of the Antichrist and preparing for a final, all-out battle with "the Nazarene." Now in his thirties, Damien (Sam Neill) has elevated the family business, Thorn Industries, into the world's biggest multinational corporation. A little bit of black magic paves the way for Damien to become ambassador to England and the head of an international youth council. He soon uses this platform to amass an army of followers to do his bidding. But when Damien notices the confluence of three stars in the sky on March 24, he gets worried about the second coming of Christ. So he orders his minions to kill all the babies born on that day, warning them: "Fail, and you will be condemned to a numbing eternity in the flaccid bosom of Christ." Damien even orders his faithful private secretary, Harvey Dean (Don Gordon), to commit infanticide on his own kid, just because the guy's wife gave birth on the wrong day; a nasty incident involving laundry-room implements soon follows. Meanwhile, Damien romances Kate Reynolds (Lisa Harrow), a beautiful television anchorwoman who feels like a moth drawn to Damien's charismatic flame -- even after he brutally sodomizes her to show her how the world looks through his eyes. Things come to a head when Brother DeCarlo (Rossano Brazzi), one of a secret cabal of monks who have assembled the seven Daggers of Meggido in hopes of assassinating Damien, reveals to Kate that the Antichrist has taken her son (Barnaby Holm) under his wing. Although The Final Conflict was the final theatrical installment of the Omen series, the made-for-TV Omen IV: The Awakening appeared a decade later. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sam Neill, Rossano Brazzi, (more)
- 1980
Jim Bishop's minute-by-minute account of the events leading up to the Crucifixion was the basis for the three-hour TV movie The Day Christ Died. Chris Sarandon plays the Hebrew "blasphemer" known as Jesus, who is brought before the beleaguered governor Pontius Pilate (Keith Mitchell). To avoid an insurrection, Pilate washes his hands of the matter by offering the Hebrews a pardon either to Jesus or the thief Barabbas during Passover. "Give us Barabbas!" is the answer, sealing Jesus' fate. The screenplay by James Lee Barrett and Edward Anhalt is for the most part objective and dispassionate, though there are some unsubtle parallels between Pilate and such future political "heavies" as Nixon. Also appearing in the cast are Colin Blakely as Caiaphas, Barrie Houghton as Judas, Jonathan Pryce as Herod, Eleanor Bron as Mary, and Hope Lange as Claudia. The Day Christ Died premiered -- not without protest from certain circles -- on March 26, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Sarandon
"In space, no one can hear you scream." A close encounter of the third kind becomes a Jaws-style nightmare when an alien invades a spacecraft in Ridley Scott's sci-fi horror classic. On the way home from a mission for the Company, the Nostromo's crew is woken up from hibernation by the ship's Mother computer to answer a distress signal from a nearby planet. Capt. Dallas' (Tom Skerritt) rescue team discovers a bizarre pod field, but things get even stranger when a face-hugging creature bursts out of a pod and attaches itself to Kane (John Hurt). Over the objections of Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), science officer Ash (Ian Holm) lets Kane back on the ship. The acid-blooded incubus detaches itself from an apparently recovered Kane, but an alien erupts from Kane's stomach and escapes. The alien starts stalking the humans, pitting Dallas and his crew (and cat) against a malevolent killing machine that also has a protector in the nefarious Company. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Skerritt, Sigourney Weaver, (more)
- 1978
Ring of Passion is a self-described "docudrama" of the professional rivalry between African-American boxing great Joe Louis and German fistic champ Max Schmeling. On June 19, 1936, Schmeling (Stephen Macht) beats Louis (Bernie Casey) for the European championship. Germany's Nazi government uses this bout to trumpet the superiority of the Aryans over the "inferior" races. But in the return match of 1938, described by such sports scriveners as Damon Runyon (Allen Garfield) and Paul Gallico (Joe Campanella) as the "Fight of the Century," Joe Louis defeats Max Schmeling in one round. This TV movie takes great pains to convince us that, while Schmeling was in effect fighting for political reasons, he himself was not a Nazi (we are told that the public slurs against Louis attributed to Schmeling are the handiwork of Joseph Goebbels' propaganda machine). Given the subject matter at hand, Ring of Passion is surprisingly stingy in its boxing sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
The made-for-TV Guide for the Married Woman was conceived by screenwriter Frank Tarloff as an "answer" to his frolicsome 1968 theatrical feature Guide for the Married Man. If the sequel isn't quite as much fun as the original, it may be because what was deemed "risque" in 1968 was kid's stuff in 1978. In her TV-movie debut, Cybill Shepherd plays a bored housewife who yearns for romance and excitement. With the help of a steady stream of celebrity guest stars, Shepherd is able to fantasize about extramarital hijinks to her heart's content. The supporting cast includes such luminaries as Peter Marshall, Eve Arden, John Beradino, John Byner, Bill Dana, Bonnie Franklin, George Gobel, Tom Poston, Barbara Feldon and Chuck Woolery (the guest-star list of the original Guide for the Married Man included Art Carney, Jack Benny, Lucille Ball, Carl Reiner, Terry-Thomas, Joey Bishop and Jayne Mansfield: guess which film had the bigger budget?) Guide for the Married Woman originally aired October 13, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Originally known as Christmas Miracle in Caulfield, USA, this made-for-TV film concerns the true story of striking coal workers who are imprisoned in a collapsed mine on Christmas Eve, 1951. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Lawrence Kerwin stars as James Hunter, a gawky Oregon teenager who moves to Boston with his family. Suffering the requisite growing pains and insecurities, James has a few problems "fitting in" with his new crowd. The boy's sincerity and likability eventually wins the day, but the ending of the film is left open-ended enough to accommodate the subsequent TV series. Linden Chiles and Lynn Carlin co-star as James' parents, while Kate Jackson plays an "older woman" art student who sets James on the right course when the boy tries to run away from home. This 2-hour pilot first aired on September 5, 1977; the series proper (its name changed to James at 16 on the occasion of the protagonist's first sexual experience!) premiered on October 27, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
The cast of the popular old TV series Peyton Place reunite when Allison MacKenzie and Rodney Harrington are found dead. Other than that, and a decade's worth of gossip, nothing much has changed there. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1976
A pair of scientists must travel through the Time Tunnel to search for the cure for a deadly epidemic. They land in late 19th century Chicago the night before the big fire. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1976
The first official co-production between the United States and the Soviet Union, The Blue Bird was the third screen adaptation of the children's story by Maurice Maeterlinck about a pair of children, Tyltyl (Todd Lookinland) and Mytyl (Patsy Kensit), who leave home to search for the Blue Bird of Happiness. After spending some time wandering through a fantasy world and encountering The Night (Jane Fonda), The Cat (Cicely Tyson), Luxury (Ava Gardner), Father Time (Robert Morley), and The Oak (Harry Andrews), they meet The Queen of Light (Elizabeth Taylor) and discover that true happiness can be found right at home, with your family. As the box-office failure of the first two versions of this story proves, putting this sort of children's fantasy on film is tricky business, and despite a top-notch cast of American and Soviet talent and the directorial expertise of veteran filmmaker George Cukor, The Blue Bird had a notoriously difficult production, with the American and Russian crews not always understanding each other's working methods, the Soviet camera crew not knowing how to light African-American actress Cicely Tyson, and Jane Fonda often trying to engage the Russian crew members in political discussions. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Taylor, Jane Fonda, (more)
- 1975
The made-for-TV A Girl Named Sooner stars newcomer Susan Deer in the title role. Sooner is an illiterate 8-year-old, growing up in a backwater Indiana community. Lee Remick co-stars as Elizabeth McHenry, Sooner's new foster parent, who hopes to properly educate the girl--and in so doing, give purpose to her own turbulent life. Dominating the proceedings is Cloris Leachman as Old Mam, a toothless, whisky-swigging crone who has raised Sooner from birth, and who has no patience with booklearnin'. First telecast June 18, 1975, A Girl Named Sooner was based on the novel by Suzanne Clauser. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Remick, Richard Crenna, (more)
- 1974
Shelley Winters is appropriately cast as Big Rose, a rough 'n' tough private detective. Nobody messes with Big Rose, least of all her new young partner (Barry Primus), who likes to joke his way through dangerous situations. The two detectives are hired to thwart a gang of confidence tricksters who specialize in blackmail. Though she makes an conspicuous target, Big Rose heads directly into the line of fire, with her younger assistant barely keeping pace. The pilot film for an unsold TV series, Big Rose is currently advailable under its alternate title, Double Trouble. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Winters, Barry Primus, (more)
- 1974
The made-for-TV Stowaway to the Moon may be regarded by some as an excellent argument for birth control. Michael Link plays E.J., an 11-year-old boy fascinated by manned space travel. While visiting Cape Canaveral, E. J. accidentally finds himself on board a space missile. By and by, he is accidentally launched to the moon. But don't despair--this is a kiddie movie. Also in the cast is Lloyd Bridges, Jeremy Slate, and, in the role of a TV commentator, real-life former astronaut Pete Conrad. Curiously, the full-color Stowaway to the Moon was often telecast in black and white when it went into local syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
