James Cromwell

On Sunday, July 8th, 2007, Mrs. BEULAH BARBARA CROMWELL (nee Shaw), beloved wife of the late James E. Cromwell, Jr.; dear sister of the late Suzanne Y. Herron; loving mother of Debbie Paris and her husband Steve, Ernest Murray, Dorothy Louise Murray and her companion Ulyesses, Raymond James Cromwell and his wife Vivian; loving grandmother to Amber, Miranda, Jessica, Matthew, Brandon, Gregory, and Kyle. She is also survived by many aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. Visitation for family and friends will be held on Thursday, July 12th, 2007 from 3-5 and 7-9:00 PM in HUBBARD FUNERAL HOME, INC., 4107 Wilkens Avenue, Baltimore, Maryland, where Funeral Service will be held on Friday, July 13th, 2007 at 10:00 AM in the Funeral Home.

"The General's Daughter" has some very good parts. The problem is that the sum of those parts is a nasty, altogether unsatisfying movie that leaves a sour aftertaste of moral corruption once the final credits roll. What starts out looking like a pretty good thriller winds up being not only decidedly unthrilling, but exploitative and hypocritical in the bargain.The setup looks promising: Warrant officer Paul Brenner (John Travolta) has been assigned by the Army Criminal Investigations Division to look into some backdoor arms dealing at Fort MacCallum, a swampy Georgia base run by the revered Gen. "Fighting Joe" Campbell (James Cromwell)

TV harks back to its first Golden Age at 9 p.m. today on WJZ, Channel 13, with a live, black-and-white broadcast -- an adaptation of "Fail Safe," the 1964 Cold War drama about a potential American nuclear strike on Moscow. Sidney Lumet directed the original film in which, thanks to a faulty transmission of orders, U.S. bombers are sent to the Soviet capital -- and make it past the point of no return before horrified military leaders can stop them. The original starred Dan O'Herlihy, Walter Matthau, and Fritz Weaver, with Henry Fonda as the president who must assure Soviet leaders it's all a terrible mistake.

By the end of two hours that feel more like three, filmgoers may come up with a new name for the calcified un-film they've just seen: "Snow Falling on Cedarzzzzzz." The armature around which "Snow Falling on Cedars" turns -- very, very slowly -- is the mysterious death of a fisherman off San Piedro Island, north of Puget Sound. It's the early 1950s, when memories of World War II are still fresh in Americans' minds, so it's no surprise that the police pick up Kazuo Miyanmoto, one of the many Americans of Japanese descent who live on the island, for murder.

What happens to Oscar nominees the next night? At least one of them shows up as a cop on CBS."Blossom" (4: 30 p.m.-5 p.m., WNUV, Channel 54) -- Today, on a very special "Blossom," our young friend travels to Paris to visit her estranged mom (played by singer Melissa Manchester). If you want the whole story, get ready to spend some time in front of the TV the next four days: This is the first of a four-parter."Married With Children" (6: 30 p.m.-7 p.m., WBFF, Channel 45) -- Waylon Jennings plays one bad dude, as Al and the gang strive to resist becoming P.C."

Two major networks are about to unveil their competing biographical treatments of Pope John Paul II, arriving as sober-minded preludes to later, lighter holiday fare. First, there's ABC's TV movie Have No Fear: The Life of John Paul II (8 p.m. tonight), then CBS' two-part miniseries, Pope John Paul II (beginning 9 p.m. Sunday). The verdict is fairly straightforward. The more star-studded CBS effort (which concludes at 8 p.m. Wednesday) is twice as long and twice as effective. ABC's Have No Fear is dignified and respectful, and it covers an even wider span of the late pope's life than the CBS venture.

Isaac Asimov's I, Robot was a cautionary tale and a rumination, a warning about intellect without soul and an exploration of what it means to be human. The movie I, Robot, based on Asimov's ideas but not directly on his work, is an action thriller that touches on those themes, but is mostly an excuse for Will Smith to show off his pecs and for CGI guys to strut their stuff. That's not necessarily a bad thing; the movie moves along with great speed and verve, and it's got just enough of a sci-fi sheen to make things interesting, if not provocative.

A SLIGHT CASE OF MURDER -- Warner Home Video / $19.97 William H. Macy has never delivered as finely crafted a comic performance as he does in A Slight Case of Murder. That's right, never - not even in Fargo (1996) - and he was superb in that feature film. The 1999 made-for-cable murder mystery becomes available Tuesday on DVD, and Macy's brilliant work is not the only reason to recommend it. There are outstanding supporting performances by Adam Arkin, James Cromwell and Felicity Huffman, Macy's wife and one of the stars of ABC's Desperate Housewives.

Road House [MGM] $20 Though this 1989 action-drama was lambasted by the critics and took in a modest $30 million at the box office, it's had a blockbuster afterlife, becoming one of the most popular movies in rotation on cable TV. And for good reason -- it's campy, silly and addictive fun. Patrick Swayze plays Dalton, a Zen-like bar bouncer with a perfectly coiffed mullet and a degree in philosophy, who finds himself going mano a mano with sadistic mobster...

Eighty years ago last July, a Tennessee courtroom erupted in a furious battle over the teaching of evolution in schools. As legal titans William Jennings Bryan and Clarence Darrow clashed in the landmark Scopes "monkey" trial, the country tuned in to listen -- a first, thanks to the youthful medium of radio. To commemorate that event, L.A. Theatre Works has re-created the 1925 "trial of the century" radio experience for a 24-city, live radio theater tour of British playwright Peter Goodchild's docudrama The Great Tennessee Monkey Trial, based on the trial transcripts.