Wed 3 Dec 2008
TV Movie Review: JOHNNY RYAN (1990).
Posted by Steve under Crime Films , Reviews , TV mysteries[11] Comments
JOHNNY RYAN. Made for TV. 1990. Clancy Brown, Julia Campbell, Jason Beghe, Robert Rossilli, J. Kenneth Campbell, Teri Austin, Robert Prosky. Director: Robert E. Collins.
So far my research hasn’t turned up which network or cable channel first telecast this very much retro-1940s cops-against-organized-crime show, but IMDB says the date was 29 July 1990. My copy came from Encore’s Mystery Channel some time later on, but that’s no help.
IMDB also says the story takes place in 1949. Could be, but it felt more like 1946 to me, just after the war, when old Model T’s were still on the road and little else but old coupes and boxy sedans were available.
As far as the cast is concerned, they’re all pretty much unknown to me. Clancy Brown plays Johnny Ryan, the stalwart new head of a special task force against the mob in Manhattan, very much in the Robert Stack mode, complete with pulled down brim.
His broad features (but still good-looking) and Bronxish accent (at least in this film) hardly made for very many other leading roles. Most of his subsequent career has been as a voice artist for superhero cartoons.
The picture you see of him here is not from this TV movie, I’m sorry to say, but it’s from the same time period. I also apologize that it’s in black and white. The film’s in color.
Johnny’s job in the movie is to break the stories of the two cops supposedly watching an important witness in a hotel room. (The witness is thrown from the window when their backs are turned.)
Night club owner Steve Lombardi (either Jason Beghe or Robert Rosilli – IMDB lists them both) is in on the killing. When Johnny tries to find a way to get at him, he uses Lombardi’s girl friend and club entertainer Eve Manion (Julia Campbell), not expecting the next obvious plot twist, but the avid viewer of movies of this type certainly will. (The photo here of Julia Campbell is not in 1940s mode, but it’ll give you an idea.)
There are a few other plot twists, but none of them are particularly earth-shattering, or even bending. Well, maybe bending. I certainly didn’t mind the 95 minutes or so it took to watch this movie. If it happened to be a pilot for a projected series, which is a strong possibility, I’d have wanted to see more, but I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff. Maybe nobody else is.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:19 am
Steve, you end your review with a comment “…but I’m a sucker for this kind of stuff. Maybe nobody else is.” Well I am also; in fact I’ve been watching a crime or film noir movie just about every day at midnight for several years now. Usually bootleg dvds of old movies from the 1930’s, 40’s, 50’s. Sometimes later ones, like yesterday I watched Brown’s Requiem based on Ellroy’s novel of the same name. I’m now reading the novel and I’m impressed as to how the movie captured much of the atmosphere of the novel.
Just finished watching a 1950 film that stunned me with several points that were similar to the TV show, The Fugitive. So I’m with you about being addicted to these movies.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:48 pm
Well as we’ve known for a long time, that makes two of us, Walker. If anyone else likes these old movies, real or ersatz, they’re not admitting it.
— Steve
PS. I didn’t say that I was addicted. Just that I lick them up like lollypops.
December 3rd, 2008 at 12:55 pm
Hello Steve,
The brief plot outline to Johnny Ryan (which I haven’t seen) sounds somewhat familiar. Based on an event in history, perhaps?
In 1941, while kept in the Half Moon Hotel in New York under police custody (as a prime witness against Bugsy Siegel), Murder Inc. gangland member Abe ‘Kid Twist’ Reles ‘fell’ to his death some six floors from an open window. Mmm?
Peter Falk, in a brilliant performance, played Reles in the grim 1960 study Murder, Incorporated (aka Murder, Inc.), directed by Burt Balaban & Stuart Rosenberg (from the book by Burton Turkus and Sid Feder).
Regards,
Tise
December 3rd, 2008 at 1:41 pm
Clancy Brown is a giant, hunk-and-a-half guy, mainly known for ultra-macho roles. He was the head prison guard in “The Shawshank Redemption”, probably cast because he was big enough to look intimidating even beside giant lead Tim Robbins. He was also the tough Drill Sergeant-to-end-all-Drill-Sergeants in “Starship Troopers” (a horror sf not for the squeamish).
CB got a rare lead in Johnny Ryan. He plays a tough cop back in the days when men were men, and gangsters were nervous. You left out the scene where Ryan keeps the head mobster in a cage, taking him out for an occasional interrogation! This film is over the top.
December 3rd, 2008 at 2:45 pm
Tise:
It sure sounds like the same story to me, at least as a starting off point. I haven’t seen MURDER, INC., but I think I have a copy somewhere. I’ll try to dig it out.
Mike:
Yes, that’s the same Clancy Brown. Never saw SHAWSHANK or STARSHIP TROOPERS, so I didn’t recognize him from either of those.
And I’m glad to know that someone besides myself has seen JOHNNY RYAN. Your three line paragraph sums it up very nicely. From the lack of information I’ve been able to find out about it, and some of that wrong, I was beginning to think I was wallowing in total obscurity!
— Steve
December 26th, 2008 at 9:22 am
Nice period movie with a pedestrian “hurrah” cop theme. Clancy Brown should do another.
January 30th, 2015 at 7:51 am
I know it was a TV Movie, but how can I watch it?
January 30th, 2015 at 10:11 am
My copy was on a video cassette taped from cable TV. It exists, but a quick search just now turned up no copies on DVD. In cases like this Google is usually your best friend. My only advice is to keep looking. As I say, it does exist.
May 19th, 2015 at 1:21 pm
Steve, do you still have a copy of it on VHS?
May 26th, 2015 at 6:29 am
I’d like to see it too, even if only on VHS.
August 16th, 2019 at 10:56 am
There was a well known “extra” from Chicago, Illinois, who was in many of the background, in this tv show; a guy named Joseph J. Miller (Joe Miller). In fact, Joe Miller informed me, that most of the show was filmed in Chicago, Illinois, even though it was “supposed” to be New York.