Mostly on account of a pride struggle, Mike Dunmore has lived his whole life keeping a secret which he believed would only cause shame if it came to light. Personal relationships with his ...
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Title: The Secret (TV Movie 1992)
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1 nomination.
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Cast
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Kirk Douglas | ... | Grandpa Mike Dunmore | |
| Bruce Boxleitner | ... | Patrick Dunmore | |
| Brock Peters | ... | Thurgood 'Uncle T.' Carver III | |
| Laura Harrington | ... | Meredith Dunmore | |
| Jesse R. Tendler | ... | Grandson Danny Dunmore | |
 |
Anne Twomey | ... | Dr. Meyers |
| Kathleen McNenny | ... | Mrs. Norell | |
| Stanley Anderson | ... | Pete (Voter) | |
| Skipp Sudduth | ... | Jack (Voter) | |
| John Christopher Jones | ... | Link | |
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Richard Paul Cockayne | ... | Billy |
| Richard Donat | ... | Shane | |
| Jeremy Akerman | ... | Benson | |
| Linda Watters | ... | Receptionist | |
|
|
Patrizia Quas | ... | Waitress (as Pat Quas) |
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Plot Summary
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Storyline
Mostly on account of a pride struggle, Mike Dunmore has lived his whole life keeping a secret which he believed would only cause shame if it came to light. Personal relationships with his son Patrick have been strained as a result. The only ones who ever knew anything about it were his deceased wife and his best friend, Thurgood who he works with, who both agreed to help keep it covered up for him as long as they could. However, when his treasured grandson begins experiencing the same problems, Mike realizes that he can't hide his secret any longer, or if he tried to, it would be most difficult. Even more so when he is endorsed and volunteers to run as a candidate for local election. Written by Anonymous
Even before his stroke Kirk Douglas was gracefully transitioning into elderly character roles as he is in The Secret. I've always admired him for taking charge of his own career and having a very good instinct over what was a challenging role for him.
In The Secret he plays Mike Dunsmore a well respected businessman in a small New England coastal village with what he thinks is a terrible secret, he's dyslexic, he cannot read or write. When he was a youngster this was not a diagnosable condition. With the help of his late wife and his friend and store employee Brock Peters, Douglas covered this up very well. But it's led to a breach with his grown son Bruce Boxleitner.
Now however dyslexia has struck his grandson Jesse Tendler and these two have the relationship that Douglas and Boxleitner didn't. Daughter-in-law Laura Harrington is caught in the middle. How it all works out for the Dunmore family is the basis of The Secret.
I did love the location cinematography in Nova Scotia standing in for New England. And Kirk Douglas is a totally different character than the larger than life Spartacus or Jonathan Shields in his younger days. Those characters are not even hinted at when Douglas essays the part of Mike Dunmore. He gets great support from the ensemble and his scenes with young Tendler have poignancy and those with Boxleitner are quite real and touching.
The Secret is a wonderful film even with the made for television tag it has. Good for the whole family.
I knew someone who had a learning disability, possibly dyslexia. In his short life Roy Gomez was raised in a group home which never diagnosed the problem. A secretary in a lawyer's office I was with him in spotted it and a lot of things made sense. Roy read comics exclusively, now I realize because of the pictures and in restaurants I remember him struggling with the menu. I wonder had he been diagnosed would he have lived a long productive life, he had a lot of issues besides this one.
Anyway, this review is dedicated to Roy Gomez 1970-1996.