Arlen Dean SnyderFilmography

Cora Unashamed

Actors: Regina Taylor, Cherry Jones, Michael Gaston

Synopsis: A short story by Langston Hughes provides the source material for this emotional made-for-TV drama. Ma Jenkins (CCH Pounder) and her adult daughter Cora (Regina Taylor) work as servants for the Studevant family, a wealthy clan living in a small Iowa community in the 1930s. Cora and Ma are also the Read More

Running Cool

Actors: Andrew Divoff, Bubba Baker, James Gammon, DeDee Pfeiffer, Tracy Sebastian

Synopsis: How many films combine an environmentalist theme with rowdy cycle gang stuff? Not many, but this film does and it works. In Running Cool, two motorcycle guys help their friend save his wetlands wildlife property from being spoiled by an unscrupulous land developer. There's plenty of action as the Read More

Willing to Kill: The Texas Cheerleader Story

Synopsis: Do not confuse this fact-based feature with the more tongue-in-cheek cable TV version, The Positively True Adventures of the Alleged Texas Cheerleader Murdering Mom. This one looks seriously at the story of a Texas mother who was willing to kill to ensure her daughter's place on the cheerleading Read More

Coopersmith

Actors: Grant Show

Synopsis: Coopersmith is the title of a never-sold TV series, assembled by producer/writer Peter S. Fischer of Murder She Wrote fame. In the 2-hour pilot episode, Grant Show stars as insurance investigator C. D. Coopersmith. Nicolas Surovy costars as a homicidal race-car driver whose wife dies in a highly Read More

Hunter: The Reporter

Synopsis: Embarking upon another robbery investigation, Novak (Lauren Lane) is joined by her reporter friend Amy Rivers (Kelly Curtis). To enhance the excitement of the job at hand, Amy resorts to sniffing cocaine. Not surprisingly, Amy's ever-increasing dependency on the drug not only jeopardizes her life Read More

Summer Dreams: The Story of the Beach Boys

Synopsis: This biopic chronicles the rapid rise to fame of the enduringly popular California rock band. Though it was a fast ascent, it was not without problems and each of the band members suffered personal problems. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Murder, She Wrote: Murder, Plain & Simple

Synopsis: While travelling through Amish country in hopes of purchasing a quilt, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) is stuck there after a traffic mishap. Not surprisingly, murder soon rears its ugly head, the victim on this occasion being a taciturn Amish farmer. The suspects include the farmer's wife, the farmer's Read More

Marked for Death

Actors: Steven Seagal, Basil Wallace, Keith David, Tom Wright, Joanna Pacula

Synopsis: In Marked for Death, Steven Seagal is told to "try to find the gentle person inside yourself." But he doesn't spend too much time looking, preferring instead to crack the spines of his victims. Seagal plays John Hatcher, a burned-out narcotics agent who resigns from the Drug Enforcement Read More

Internal Affairs

Actors: Richard Gere, Andy Garcia, Nancy Travis, Laurie Metcalf, William Baldwin, Richard Bradford

Synopsis: In this glossy L.A. crime drama by Mike Figgis, Andy Garcia stars as Sgt. Raymond Avila, a cop who just joined the Internal Affairs division of the L.A.P.D. An investigation into police corruption has led Avila and his partner, Sgt. Amy Wallace (Laurie Metcalf), to Officer Dennis Peck (Richard Gere Read More

Full House: 5 Viva Las Joey

Synopsis: Appearing as himself, singer Wayne Newton) hires Joey (David Coulier) for his Las Vegas nightclub act (it seems that a group of trained chimps have fallen ill). Disturbingly, Joey invites everyone to attend his premiere performance except his father, Col. Gladstone (Arlen Dean Snyder). Thus, DJ Read More

Wheels of Terror

Synopsis: A demonic black sedan terrorizes a single mother driving a school bus in her small Arizona town in this action thriller. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Terror in Copper Valley

Synopsis: The small town of Copper Valley is invaded by a mysterious stranger in an ominous-looking black car. School bus driver Joanna Cassidy looks on in horror as the stranger kidnaps her little daughter right before her eyes. With a mixture of trepidation and determination, Joanna goes off on her own to Read More

Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North, Part 1

Actors: David Keith, Barnard Hughes, Annette O'Toole

Synopsis: Follow the military career of Marine Lt. Col. Oliver North beginning with his Naval Academy days through to his role in the Iran-Contra scandal. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Bird

Actors: Forest Whitaker, Diane Venora, Michael Zelniker, Sam Wright, Keith David

Synopsis: Forest Whitaker stars as the brilliant jazz saxophonist Charlie "Bird" Parker in this elegiac biopic. Director Clint Eastwood pays full homage to Parker's musical genius, but also devotes ample time to the musician's twin demons--drugs and alcohol-which accelerated his death at the age of 34. In Read More

Kansas

Actors: Matt Dillon, Andrew McCarthy, Leslie Hope, Brent Jennings

Synopsis: A drifter becomes both a bank robber and a hero in this crime thriller. Andrew McCarthy stars as Wade Corey, who hitches a ride on a freight train already occupied by Doyle Kennedy (Matt Dillon), a charming ex-con who convinces Wade to accompany him to his hometown. Once there, Wade realizes too Read More

Prison

Actors: Lane Smith, Viggo Mortensen, Chelsea Field, Andre de Shields, Lincoln Kilpatrick

Synopsis: Prison guard Ethan Sharpe (Lane Smith) watched as Burke (Viggo Mortensen) dies in the electric chair in 1964. Over two decades later, Sharpe is the warden, and Burke returns from the dead to exact revenge on the wicked warden when the prison re-opens. Two victims drip blood while dangling in Read More

Murder, She Wrote: A Very Good Year for Murder

Synopsis: Jessica (Angela Lansbury) heads to wine-growing country to help wealthy vintner Salvatori Gambini (Eli Wallach) celebrate his 75th birthday. Unfortunately, Gambini's fractious family isn't in a celebratory mood, and the festivities come to a grim climax when a corpse is found in the wine cellar. Read More

No Man's Land

Actors: Charlie Sheen, D.B. Sweeney, Randy Quaid, Lara Harris, Bill Duke

Synopsis: Benjy Taylor (D.B. Sweeney) is a rookie cop who goes undercover to nab a gang of car thieves in this routine crime drama. Taylor salivates over the lifestyle and money enjoyed by Ted Varrick (Charlie Sheen), the smooth operator who leads the Porsche pilferers, and he reports back to Lieutenant Read More

Heartbreak Ridge

Actors: Clint Eastwood, Marsha Mason, Everett McGill, Moses Gunn, Eileen Heckart

Synopsis: Having spent much of his directorial career emulating Don Siegel and John Ford, Clint Eastwood borrows a page from the catalogue of Sam Fuller in Heartbreak Ridge. Eastwood casts himself as an old-fashioned Marine Corps sergeant who is out of step with the new-fashioned military. He returns to his Read More

MacGruder and Loud

Synopsis: A clandestine marriage between 2 police officers is kept from the department. ~ All Movie Guide Read More

Magnum, P.I.: Torah, Torah, Torah

Synopsis: When a priceless Torah is stolen by a particularly mean-spirited smuggler, Magnum (Tom Selleck) teams with Higgins' old friend, Rabbi Asher Solomon (Nehemiah Persoff), to retrieve the sacred document. A battle-scarred survivor of European persecution against the Jewish race, Rabbi Solomon had Read More

Night Partners

Synopsis: California wives band together to form a tough neighborhood watch in this crime drama that is a failed television pilot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide Read More

Deadly Force

Actors: Wings Hauser, Joyce Ingalls, Paul Shenar, Al Ruscio, Arlen Dean Snyder

Synopsis: After being kicked off the force, Stoney Cooper (Wings Hauser) turns private detective for special cases; one involves tracking down a serial killer noted for carving X's into the forehead of each woman he kills. While Cooper is on the case, he's harassed by an old job partner (Lincoln Kilpatrick) Read More

M*A*S*H: Oh, How We Danced

Synopsis: B.J. (Mike Farrell) is hardly in a festive mood as his wedding anniversary approaches. What Beej doesn't know is that 4077th plans to throw him a surprise party--with a bit of home-movie input from his wife Peg (Catherine Bergstrom) and a dash of audiotape subterfuge from Hawkeye (Alan Alda) and Read More

No Place to Hide

Synopsis: In this taut made-for-television psychological thriller, a young woman has never been able to overcome the guilt she feels about her father's accidental death. She nearly goes insane when a stalker begins watching her every move and she becomes convinced that it is the ghost of her late dad. Read More

Red Flag: The Ultimate Game

Synopsis: Purportedly based on a true story, this made-for-TV drama was filmed on location at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. The focus is on two highly competitive jet pilots, Major Jay Rivers (Barry Bostwick) and Major Phil Clark (William Devane). Unable to leave their rivalry on the ground, Rivers and Read More

The Night the Lights Went Out in Georgia

Actors: Kristy McNichol, Dennis Quaid, Mark Hamill, Don Stroud, Arlen Dean Snyder

Synopsis: A would-be Nashville star finds himself in hot water during a stay in Georgia in this drama based (very loosely) on the hit song of the same title. Travis Child (Dennis Quaid) is a country singer looking for his big break, crisscrossing the country playing honky-tonks with his younger sister (and Read More

Attica

Actors: George Grizzard

Synopsis: Attica is a probing, no-nonsense TV-movie re-creation of the tragic events which followed the Attica (New York) Correctional Facility rebellion of September 9, 1971. Inmates demanding better food and living conditions used jerry-built weapons to take 38 guards as hostage. Negotiations begin Read More

Hellinger's Law

Synopsis: In his first major TV project since Kojak, Telly Savalas stars as maverick Philadelphia criminal lawyer Nick Hellinger. He heads to Houston to defend a syndicate accountant accused of murder. The government seems inordinately interested in the case, as well it should be: The accountant is actually Read More

Yanks

Actors: Richard Gere, Lisa Eichhorn, Vanessa Redgrave, William Devane, Rachel Roberts, Chick Vennera

Synopsis: John Schlesinger directs the war romance Yanks, based on the story by Colin Welland. Set in England at the end of WWII, the story concerns three American GIs and their affairs with British women of varying social status. The central romance concerns Sgt. Matt Dyson (Richard Gere) and Jean Moreton Read More

Dear Detective

Young Love, First Love

Actors: Valerie Bertinelli

Synopsis: In this made-for-TV movie, a young girl (Valerie Bertinelli) is stuck in a dilemma when her insistent boyfriend wants to have sex, and she isn't sure whether she should give in or hold out. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide Read More

Tendre Poulet

Actors: Annie Girardot, Philippe Noiret, Catherine Alric, Hubert Deschamps, Paulette Dubost

Synopsis: Dear Inspector and Dear Detective were the English-language titles of Philippe De Broca's Tendre Poulet. Annie Girardot plays the old flame of Greek professor Philippe Noiret. The prof tries to rekindle the flames of passion, but Girardot seems curiously preoccupied. It turns out that she's a Read More

Scalpel

Actors: Robert Lansing, Judith Chapman, Arlen Dean Snyder, David Scarroll, Sandy Martin

Synopsis: A deranged plastic surgeon, who has probably murdered his wife and who definitely has murdered his daughter's boyfriend, is distressed when he learns of his father-in-law's will. Rather than leave any money to the transparently awful son-in-law, the man leaves his entire (very large) estate to the Read More

Hot Rod Hullabaloo

Synopsis: A young hot rodder, needing money to go to college, decides to participate in an illegal drag race. He knows he has the fastest car around and so does his competitor who is willing to stop at nothing to win the large pot and begins plotting to shooting the hero. When the good driver's best friend Read More