BroadwayWorld has learned that acclaimed actress and Broadway vet Novella Nelson died on Friday, September 1st at the age of 77.
- 9/2/2017
- by BWW News Desk
- BroadwayWorld.com
Yvonne Rainer’s artistic output is a wellspring of innovation and singularity. In 1962, she co-founded the Judson Dance Theater and created new worlds with experimental, expressive movement that stripped dance of its spectacular nature in favor of creating a new language through the human body. But as daring as her choreography happened to be, she found the end result limiting at the time and looked for other outlets of expression. This is how Rainer came to filmmaking, and she took what she learned from dance to once again trail-blaze a path for her voice — this time in the landscape of art films in New York from the ’70s onward. To celebrate her work, the Film Society of Lincoln Center is offering a rare glimpse into the filmography of Rainer with a retrospective spanning her entire career, as well as influences, from July 21-27.
In the late ’60s, Rainer began infusing...
In the late ’60s, Rainer began infusing...
- 7/21/2017
- by The Film Stage
- The Film Stage
Nancy Boy: Semans Debut Morbidly Entertaining
She’s the one that got away, but not in the way you’d think in Andrew Seman’s debut, Nancy, Please, an entertaining little jaunt of a film that manages to use its singularly structured point of view to give us something new concerning the plight of the privileged, white man-child. Overriding its own one note nature to give us an acerbic tale of arrested development, Semans, who also co-wrote with first time writer Will Heinrich, proves to be an adept storyteller, even if not quite everything about his debut is successful. But you may be surprised at whose perspective you align yourself with come the film’s final frames.
Yale PhD student Paul (Will Rogers) has recently moved in with his longtime girlfriend, Jen (Rebecca Lawrence) after what seems to have been an unpleasant experience as a roommate to a young...
She’s the one that got away, but not in the way you’d think in Andrew Seman’s debut, Nancy, Please, an entertaining little jaunt of a film that manages to use its singularly structured point of view to give us something new concerning the plight of the privileged, white man-child. Overriding its own one note nature to give us an acerbic tale of arrested development, Semans, who also co-wrote with first time writer Will Heinrich, proves to be an adept storyteller, even if not quite everything about his debut is successful. But you may be surprised at whose perspective you align yourself with come the film’s final frames.
Yale PhD student Paul (Will Rogers) has recently moved in with his longtime girlfriend, Jen (Rebecca Lawrence) after what seems to have been an unpleasant experience as a roommate to a young...
- 6/20/2013
- by Nicholas Bell
- IONCINEMA.com
The wonderful life of the Yale graduate student turns into a purgatory of dysfunctional relationships in this Tribeca dark comedy. New Director/writer Andrew Semans comes busting out of the gate with the world premiere of his hyper-edgy psychodrama .Nancy, Please. at the 2012 Tribeca Film Festival. Featured in the Tff World Narrative Competition, this film will be sure to provide the slate with competition. Black Reel Award winner Novella Nelson plays Dr. Bannister, Paul.s flummoxed faculty advisor. The good doctor does everything a tenured Yale professor at the top of her game can do to get Paul moving, but nothing works. Paul (Will Rogers) is a Yale graduate student, one of the best and the brightest, stuck in...
- 6/4/2012
- by Ron Wilkinson
- Monsters and Critics
Nancy, Please
Written by Andrew Semans and Will Heinrich
Directed by Andrew Semans
USA, 2011
No subject is more over-represented in American indies than graduate (or post-graduate) stasis, so it’s only natural to approach Andrew Semans’s feature directorial debut, Nancy, Please, with extreme cynicism. Thankfully, despite the fact that it revolves around a graduate student’s attempt to complete his thesis – or, more accurately, the means by which he does anything but attempt to complete it – Semans’s film is more a darkly comic psychodrama than an aimless defense of navel-gazing.
Paul (Will Rogers) has a problem, but it’s one he immediately misidentifies. He’s already months behind on his dissertation on Charles Dickens’s Little Dorritt when he loses his self-annotated copy – he’s left it behind at his former apartment, in the care of a notoriously unstable girl named Nancy (Elenore Hendricks). To the chagrin of...
Written by Andrew Semans and Will Heinrich
Directed by Andrew Semans
USA, 2011
No subject is more over-represented in American indies than graduate (or post-graduate) stasis, so it’s only natural to approach Andrew Semans’s feature directorial debut, Nancy, Please, with extreme cynicism. Thankfully, despite the fact that it revolves around a graduate student’s attempt to complete his thesis – or, more accurately, the means by which he does anything but attempt to complete it – Semans’s film is more a darkly comic psychodrama than an aimless defense of navel-gazing.
Paul (Will Rogers) has a problem, but it’s one he immediately misidentifies. He’s already months behind on his dissertation on Charles Dickens’s Little Dorritt when he loses his self-annotated copy – he’s left it behind at his former apartment, in the care of a notoriously unstable girl named Nancy (Elenore Hendricks). To the chagrin of...
- 4/24/2012
- by Simon Howell
- SoundOnSight
Director/writer: Robert O'Hara.
Tagline: "A new meaning to blood relatives."
Image Entertainment dropped Robert O'Hara's The Inheritance on DVD and Blu-Ray April 12th and the film is one of only a few which features an almost all African American cast. Rusty Cundieff came out with Tales from the Hood in 1991 and Snoop Dog produced Bones in 2001, but overall there have been few horror films with primarily African American actors. That is until now. Robert O'Hara has brought together an excellent cast for this film, including: Keith David (Platoon), Rochelle Aytes (Trick 'r Treat), Golden Brooks and many others. The film is a blend of supernatural mythos and slavery inspired superstition and the film works, except for a cut-off ending.
In the film, the cliche of the African American dying first in horror is reversed. Instead, two Caucasian characters wind up offed before anyone else, with few lines offered...
Tagline: "A new meaning to blood relatives."
Image Entertainment dropped Robert O'Hara's The Inheritance on DVD and Blu-Ray April 12th and the film is one of only a few which features an almost all African American cast. Rusty Cundieff came out with Tales from the Hood in 1991 and Snoop Dog produced Bones in 2001, but overall there have been few horror films with primarily African American actors. That is until now. Robert O'Hara has brought together an excellent cast for this film, including: Keith David (Platoon), Rochelle Aytes (Trick 'r Treat), Golden Brooks and many others. The film is a blend of supernatural mythos and slavery inspired superstition and the film works, except for a cut-off ending.
In the film, the cliche of the African American dying first in horror is reversed. Instead, two Caucasian characters wind up offed before anyone else, with few lines offered...
- 4/17/2011
- by Remove28DaysLaterAnalysisThis@gmail.com (Michael Allen)
- 28 Days Later Analysis
Director: Tanya Hamilton Writer: Tanya Hamilton Starring: Kerry Washington, Anthony Mackie, Novella Nelson, Thomas Roy, Ron Simons It is the summer of 1976 and Marcus (Anthony Mackie) rolls back into Philadelphia after having cut off all communication with his family and former Black Panther comrades since his hasty departure four years prior. Though it only seems natural that Marcus would return to his family’s home in the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia not for the Bicentennial celebrations but for his father’s funeral, suspicions regarding his motives and agenda fester throughout the community nonetheless. The most displeased about Marcus's reappearance are his Muslim brother, Bostic (Tariq Trotter), and the local Panthers’ new leader, Dwayne (Jamie Hector). Then, there are the local police, led by Detective Gordon (Wendell Pierce), who tail and harass Marcus to no end. Someone even has the audacity to spray paint "Snitch" on the side of the black...
- 12/3/2010
- by Don Simpson
- SmellsLikeScreenSpirit
Elaine Stritch is putting the mother in Mother's Day on "30 Rock."
On the Thursday, May 6 episode titled "The Moms," Stritch reprises her role as Colleen Donaghy, mother to Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). And let's just say that she gets a little involved with his Avery-Nancy (Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore) love triangle.
"Well she thinks he's got to catch up for God's sakes. You know, grow up," Stritch tells the press. "He's involved in a lot of romantic bull**** and she tries to straighten him out."
Jack doesn't exactly welcome his mother's meddling though.
"[He takes] another stab at trying to get her to stay out of his life," explains Stritch. "I don't think he wants her to try to straighten him out. But as it turns out, he's very grateful because she's very straightforward with him. They really have a wonderful relationship and love each other very, very deeply."
Aww, we're getting rather verklempt.
On the Thursday, May 6 episode titled "The Moms," Stritch reprises her role as Colleen Donaghy, mother to Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin). And let's just say that she gets a little involved with his Avery-Nancy (Elizabeth Banks, Julianne Moore) love triangle.
"Well she thinks he's got to catch up for God's sakes. You know, grow up," Stritch tells the press. "He's involved in a lot of romantic bull**** and she tries to straighten him out."
Jack doesn't exactly welcome his mother's meddling though.
"[He takes] another stab at trying to get her to stay out of his life," explains Stritch. "I don't think he wants her to try to straighten him out. But as it turns out, he's very grateful because she's very straightforward with him. They really have a wonderful relationship and love each other very, very deeply."
Aww, we're getting rather verklempt.
- 5/6/2010
- by editorial@zap2it.com
- Zap2It - From Inside the Box
30 Rock: Episode 420: The Moms (TV-14) It's Mother's Day at Tgs, and the moms come to visit. Guest starring Buzz Aldrin, Elizabeth Banks, Anita Gillette, Jan Hooks, Cheyenne Jackson, Patti LuPone, Novella Nelson, and Elaine Stritch. Liz Lemon (Tina Fey) meets her mother's (Guest Star Anita Gillette) old flame, while Jack Donaghy's (Alec Baldwin) mother, Colleen (Guest Star Elaine Stritch), gets tangled in his relationships with Avery Jessup (Guest Star Elizabeth Banks) and high school love, Nancy Donovan. Jenna's (Jane Krakowski) mother, Verna (Guest Star Jan Hooks) returns, while Tracy learns a lesson from his "mom" (Guest Star Novella Nelson). Also starring: Jack McBrayer (Kenneth), Judah Friedlander (Frank), Scott Adsit (Pete), and John Lutz (Lutz).
- 4/27/2010
- BroadwayWorld.com
Mother and Child
Opens: 2010
Cast: Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Summary: A tale of a mother and daughter, separated at birth, who struggle with the damage done by the most important person missing in their lives while a young African-Americn woman deals with an unwanted pregnancy and the adoption process.
Analysis: Scoring rave reviews in Toronto, the $7 million latest effort of Rodrigo Garcia ("Nine Lives," "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her") once again shows off his skill at weaving multiple narratives together in clever and unexpected ways. At its heart it's an emotional family drama, but Garcia excels with his female characters which makes the involvement of Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington and especially Annette Benning thrilling.
The few criticisms levelled at the film were toward some pacing and credibility issues in the last act, but otherwise praised it for not...
Opens: 2010
Cast: Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Summary: A tale of a mother and daughter, separated at birth, who struggle with the damage done by the most important person missing in their lives while a young African-Americn woman deals with an unwanted pregnancy and the adoption process.
Analysis: Scoring rave reviews in Toronto, the $7 million latest effort of Rodrigo Garcia ("Nine Lives," "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her") once again shows off his skill at weaving multiple narratives together in clever and unexpected ways. At its heart it's an emotional family drama, but Garcia excels with his female characters which makes the involvement of Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington and especially Annette Benning thrilling.
The few criticisms levelled at the film were toward some pacing and credibility issues in the last act, but otherwise praised it for not...
- 12/29/2009
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Mother and Child
Opens: 2010
Cast: Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Summary: A tale of a mother and daughter, separated at birth, who struggle with the damage done by the most important person missing in their lives while a young African-Americn woman deals with an unwanted pregnancy and the adoption process.
Analysis: Scoring rave reviews in Toronto, the $7 million latest effort of Rodrigo Garcia ("Nine Lives," "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her") once again shows off his skill at weaving multiple narratives together in clever and unexpected ways. At its heart it's an emotional family drama, but Garcia excels with his female characters which makes the involvement of Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington and especially Annette Benning thrilling.
The few criticisms levelled at the film were toward some pacing and credibility issues in the last act, but otherwise praised it for not...
Opens: 2010
Cast: Naomi Watts, Annette Bening, Samuel L. Jackson, Kerry Washington
Director: Rodrigo Garcia
Summary: A tale of a mother and daughter, separated at birth, who struggle with the damage done by the most important person missing in their lives while a young African-Americn woman deals with an unwanted pregnancy and the adoption process.
Analysis: Scoring rave reviews in Toronto, the $7 million latest effort of Rodrigo Garcia ("Nine Lives," "Things You Can Tell Just By Looking At Her") once again shows off his skill at weaving multiple narratives together in clever and unexpected ways. At its heart it's an emotional family drama, but Garcia excels with his female characters which makes the involvement of Naomi Watts, Kerry Washington and especially Annette Benning thrilling.
The few criticisms levelled at the film were toward some pacing and credibility issues in the last act, but otherwise praised it for not...
- 12/29/2009
- by Garth Franklin
- Dark Horizons
Following a successful mini-series, USA Network assumed that viewers would want to watch a weekly version of The Starter Wife. After 10 episodes, it seems the numbers weren't big enough and the TV show's been cancelled.
The Starter Wife mini-series stars Debra Messing as Molly Kagan, a Hollywood wife/mother who has it all. Her life is turned upside down when her studio exec husband, Kenny (Peter Jacobson, later David Alan Basche), dumps her for a young starlet. Within hours, Molly's social circle discards her and all that she knows is in turmoil. She slowly rebuilds her life and, by the time the TV show begins, Molly's on her way to thriving. Castmembers include Judy Davis, Chris Diamantopoulos, Joe Mantegna, Stephen Moyer, Anika Noni Rose, Novella Nelson, Aden Young, Bethany Whitmore, Miranda Otto, Trilby Glover, Hailee Denham, Gigi Edgley, Hart Bochner, Danielle Nicolet, Reggie Austin, James Black, Brielle Barbusca, and Daniel Gerroll.
The Starter Wife mini-series stars Debra Messing as Molly Kagan, a Hollywood wife/mother who has it all. Her life is turned upside down when her studio exec husband, Kenny (Peter Jacobson, later David Alan Basche), dumps her for a young starlet. Within hours, Molly's social circle discards her and all that she knows is in turmoil. She slowly rebuilds her life and, by the time the TV show begins, Molly's on her way to thriving. Castmembers include Judy Davis, Chris Diamantopoulos, Joe Mantegna, Stephen Moyer, Anika Noni Rose, Novella Nelson, Aden Young, Bethany Whitmore, Miranda Otto, Trilby Glover, Hailee Denham, Gigi Edgley, Hart Bochner, Danielle Nicolet, Reggie Austin, James Black, Brielle Barbusca, and Daniel Gerroll.
- 2/14/2009
- by TVSeriesFinale.com
- TVSeriesFinale.com
PARK CITY, UTAH -- Written by Lars Von Trier and directed by Thomas Vinterberg, Dear Wendy is not a conventional romance -- it's a love story about a gun. This is what happens when a bunch of alienated teenagers in a poor southwest mining town are exposed to weapons of individual destruction. Part parable, part wild west shoot-out, yet totally original, "Dear Wendy" is a powerful indictment of American gun culture that is sure to draw controversy and heated discussion wherever it plays -- just as the filmmakers must have intended.
The leader of the pack is a young man named Dick (Jamie Bell) who is saved from a life in the mines by his black nanny Clarabelle (Novella Nelson). She says he is too sensitive and weak for the mines and will one day do something great to save the world one day. He gets a job at a super market and wanders aimlessly through life until he meets and falls in love with a small, sleek and stylish handgun he names Wendy, although he professes to be a devout pacifist.
Dick is befriended by his sullen co-worker Stevie (Mark Webber), who happens to know everything about guns, and the two boys form an instant bond over their fascination with weaponry. Stevie's a pacifist too.
After a while they decide to spread their wealth and recruit a handful of the town's young misfits--a cripple and his brother, Huey (Chris Owen) and Freddie (Michael Angarano), Susan (Alison Pill), a pretty girl who was unfortunate enough to be the one in high school without breasts, and later, Dicks's nemesis, the street smart black kid Sebastian (Danso Gordon).
What draws them together is that they have absolutely nothing in life to look forward to--until they get their guns. Hiding out in a deserted mine shaft, they create a home for themselves where they practice, shoot and create an elaborate secret society dubbed The Dandies.
Dressing in costumes ranging from a union soldier's coat to a revolutionary war stove pipe hat and a coonskin cap, they look like a ragtag survey of American history. Brilliantly accompanying them throughout the film as they swirl their guns around, is the music of the Zombies, singing stuff like "let me tell you about the way she acted, the color of her hair..."
In a conventional American film, Dick would fall for Susan and ride off into the sunset, but here he only has eyes for Wendy. Sex is not part of the equation. Any erotic feelings are directed towards their weapons, and, in fact, one of the rituals they study is a technique used by German soldiers in World War II in which they bind their genitals to the point of excruciating pain so that they will fight more fiercely.
Although it is not their intention, exposed to enormous firepower, which they have no trouble acquiring, it is inevitable that they will one day use it. As police chief Krugsby (Bill Pullman) says, they are "the kind of boys this country is built on." And like many innocent young men in this country introduced to the mystique of guns, they will eventually be led to slaughter.
For a time these kids feel empowered by the guns and can look people in the eye. Bell's perpetual sneer and hawk like gaze make it hard to take your eyes off him. Equally compelling is Pullman, who gives a complex performance as a sincere man who sends out mixed messages only because he doesn't have all the answers. All the kids seem to have been melded into their roles with Webber and Pill bringing a deep understanding to the tortures of growing up in an absurd world.
The filmmakers appropriate bit and pieces of American culture and film history, but these are Europeans commenting on our society. The iconic town of Etherscope with its sad center know as Electric Square was modeled, fittingly, after Pocahontus, West Virginia and magnificently reconstructed in Denmark by Karl Juliusson and Jette Lehmann.
Strutting and fretting across this stage, the kids are alternately fascinating and far fetched. Vinterberg's storytelling is straight forward and unadorned, imbuing the stylized and timeless setting with a believability that, for the most part, allows one to suspend disbelief, although the action is at times frustratingly slow. With The Battle Hymn of the Republic playing softly in the background, Vinterberg is not being subtle. But the cumulative power watching these kids self-destruct for nothing is heartbreaking and angering. Any impatience with the film is dispelled by the power of the ending, a ballet of violence right out of Peckinpah. This is Von Trier and Vinterberg's vision of America today and it's sobering.
DEAR WENDY
Lucky Punch I/S/A Nimbus/Zentropa Production
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Writer: Lars Von Trier
Producer: Sisse Graum Jorgensen
Executive producers: Peter Aalbaek Jensen, Bo Ehrhardt, Birgitte Hald
Director of photography: Anthony Dod Mantle
Production designer: Karl Juliusson
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch
Co-producer: Marie Cecile Gade
Costume designer: Annie Perier
Editor: Mikkel E. G. Nielsen
Cast: Jamie Bell, Bill Pullman, Michael Angarano, Danso Gordon, Novella Nelson, Chris Owen, Alison Pill, Mark Webber;
MPAA rating: unrated
Running time -- 100 minutes.
The leader of the pack is a young man named Dick (Jamie Bell) who is saved from a life in the mines by his black nanny Clarabelle (Novella Nelson). She says he is too sensitive and weak for the mines and will one day do something great to save the world one day. He gets a job at a super market and wanders aimlessly through life until he meets and falls in love with a small, sleek and stylish handgun he names Wendy, although he professes to be a devout pacifist.
Dick is befriended by his sullen co-worker Stevie (Mark Webber), who happens to know everything about guns, and the two boys form an instant bond over their fascination with weaponry. Stevie's a pacifist too.
After a while they decide to spread their wealth and recruit a handful of the town's young misfits--a cripple and his brother, Huey (Chris Owen) and Freddie (Michael Angarano), Susan (Alison Pill), a pretty girl who was unfortunate enough to be the one in high school without breasts, and later, Dicks's nemesis, the street smart black kid Sebastian (Danso Gordon).
What draws them together is that they have absolutely nothing in life to look forward to--until they get their guns. Hiding out in a deserted mine shaft, they create a home for themselves where they practice, shoot and create an elaborate secret society dubbed The Dandies.
Dressing in costumes ranging from a union soldier's coat to a revolutionary war stove pipe hat and a coonskin cap, they look like a ragtag survey of American history. Brilliantly accompanying them throughout the film as they swirl their guns around, is the music of the Zombies, singing stuff like "let me tell you about the way she acted, the color of her hair..."
In a conventional American film, Dick would fall for Susan and ride off into the sunset, but here he only has eyes for Wendy. Sex is not part of the equation. Any erotic feelings are directed towards their weapons, and, in fact, one of the rituals they study is a technique used by German soldiers in World War II in which they bind their genitals to the point of excruciating pain so that they will fight more fiercely.
Although it is not their intention, exposed to enormous firepower, which they have no trouble acquiring, it is inevitable that they will one day use it. As police chief Krugsby (Bill Pullman) says, they are "the kind of boys this country is built on." And like many innocent young men in this country introduced to the mystique of guns, they will eventually be led to slaughter.
For a time these kids feel empowered by the guns and can look people in the eye. Bell's perpetual sneer and hawk like gaze make it hard to take your eyes off him. Equally compelling is Pullman, who gives a complex performance as a sincere man who sends out mixed messages only because he doesn't have all the answers. All the kids seem to have been melded into their roles with Webber and Pill bringing a deep understanding to the tortures of growing up in an absurd world.
The filmmakers appropriate bit and pieces of American culture and film history, but these are Europeans commenting on our society. The iconic town of Etherscope with its sad center know as Electric Square was modeled, fittingly, after Pocahontus, West Virginia and magnificently reconstructed in Denmark by Karl Juliusson and Jette Lehmann.
Strutting and fretting across this stage, the kids are alternately fascinating and far fetched. Vinterberg's storytelling is straight forward and unadorned, imbuing the stylized and timeless setting with a believability that, for the most part, allows one to suspend disbelief, although the action is at times frustratingly slow. With The Battle Hymn of the Republic playing softly in the background, Vinterberg is not being subtle. But the cumulative power watching these kids self-destruct for nothing is heartbreaking and angering. Any impatience with the film is dispelled by the power of the ending, a ballet of violence right out of Peckinpah. This is Von Trier and Vinterberg's vision of America today and it's sobering.
DEAR WENDY
Lucky Punch I/S/A Nimbus/Zentropa Production
Director: Thomas Vinterberg
Writer: Lars Von Trier
Producer: Sisse Graum Jorgensen
Executive producers: Peter Aalbaek Jensen, Bo Ehrhardt, Birgitte Hald
Director of photography: Anthony Dod Mantle
Production designer: Karl Juliusson
Music: Benjamin Wallfisch
Co-producer: Marie Cecile Gade
Costume designer: Annie Perier
Editor: Mikkel E. G. Nielsen
Cast: Jamie Bell, Bill Pullman, Michael Angarano, Danso Gordon, Novella Nelson, Chris Owen, Alison Pill, Mark Webber;
MPAA rating: unrated
Running time -- 100 minutes.
- 1/24/2005
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
In a small Deep South town in 1942, "The Summer of Ben Tyler" was a tough summer -- even if liberating.
Another of those involving Hallmark Hall of Fame tales on CBS, "Tyler" covers two anguishing problems, at least for this town at that time.
One is the adoption of a newly orphaned black boy, Ben (Charles Mattocks), by the loving and white Rayburns (James Woods and Elizabeth McGovern). The other is the domination of the town in general, and lawyer Temple Rayburn specifically, by slyly munificent Spencer Maitland (Len Cariou), owner of town employer Maitland Mills.
The town, at least the gossipy old marms, fuss over Ben's presence in the Rayburn home; Maitland, desiring to extend his power base, urges Rayburn to run for the state Senate and pays the bills. But then Maitland's drunken son kills a black woman in a rainy hit-and-run and looks to get away with it, enveloping Rayburn in moral dilemmas.
It's a warm, wise script by Alabama native Robert Inman, and director Arthur Allan Seidelman has a solid cast, including the can-do-everything Woods as the laid-back lawyer and Cariou as the deceptive town tyrant. Two newcomers deserve special mention: Julia McIlvaine as the Rayburns' spunky daughter and Mattocks as the mildly retarded Ben, who is "a fine fellow" and wise well beyond his supposed capabilities.
THE SUMMER OF BEN TYLER
CBS
Hallmark Hall of Fame Prods.
Executive producers Richard Welsh,
Ronnie D. Clemmer, Bill Pace, Richard P. Kughn, Sharon Cicero
Co-executive producer Brent Shields
Producer Dan Witt
Co-producer Jeffrey R. Coates
Line producer Timothy M. Bourne
Director Arthur Allan Seidelman
Writer Robert Inman
Director of photography Neil Roach
Production design Jan Scott
Costume design Helen Butler
Casting director Lynn Kressel
Editor Toni Morgon
Music Van Dyke Parks
Cast: James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Len Cariou, Charles Mattocks, Julia McIlvaine, Kevin Isola, Clifton James, Anita Gillette, Gregory Perrelli, Jack Gilpin, Novella Nelson, Millie Perkins, Ronn Carroll, Ed Grady, Phil Loch, Richard Olsen
Airdate: Sunday, Dec. 15, 9-11 p.m.
Another of those involving Hallmark Hall of Fame tales on CBS, "Tyler" covers two anguishing problems, at least for this town at that time.
One is the adoption of a newly orphaned black boy, Ben (Charles Mattocks), by the loving and white Rayburns (James Woods and Elizabeth McGovern). The other is the domination of the town in general, and lawyer Temple Rayburn specifically, by slyly munificent Spencer Maitland (Len Cariou), owner of town employer Maitland Mills.
The town, at least the gossipy old marms, fuss over Ben's presence in the Rayburn home; Maitland, desiring to extend his power base, urges Rayburn to run for the state Senate and pays the bills. But then Maitland's drunken son kills a black woman in a rainy hit-and-run and looks to get away with it, enveloping Rayburn in moral dilemmas.
It's a warm, wise script by Alabama native Robert Inman, and director Arthur Allan Seidelman has a solid cast, including the can-do-everything Woods as the laid-back lawyer and Cariou as the deceptive town tyrant. Two newcomers deserve special mention: Julia McIlvaine as the Rayburns' spunky daughter and Mattocks as the mildly retarded Ben, who is "a fine fellow" and wise well beyond his supposed capabilities.
THE SUMMER OF BEN TYLER
CBS
Hallmark Hall of Fame Prods.
Executive producers Richard Welsh,
Ronnie D. Clemmer, Bill Pace, Richard P. Kughn, Sharon Cicero
Co-executive producer Brent Shields
Producer Dan Witt
Co-producer Jeffrey R. Coates
Line producer Timothy M. Bourne
Director Arthur Allan Seidelman
Writer Robert Inman
Director of photography Neil Roach
Production design Jan Scott
Costume design Helen Butler
Casting director Lynn Kressel
Editor Toni Morgon
Music Van Dyke Parks
Cast: James Woods, Elizabeth McGovern, Len Cariou, Charles Mattocks, Julia McIlvaine, Kevin Isola, Clifton James, Anita Gillette, Gregory Perrelli, Jack Gilpin, Novella Nelson, Millie Perkins, Ronn Carroll, Ed Grady, Phil Loch, Richard Olsen
Airdate: Sunday, Dec. 15, 9-11 p.m.
- 12/12/1996
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
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