Gloria Edwards Movies
African American actress Gloria Edwards was primarily active in theater and on television, but she also worked in a few films including 1972's Black Girl, a reprisal of a role she made famous on stage. Edwards served as the vice president of the Black Women in Theater West. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
A crazed sniper picks off motorists at random, then taunts the authorities by providing cryptic clues to a radio psychiatrist. Sarah "Sunny" Harper (Darlanne Flugel), the fiancee of one of the victims, tries to piece together the evidence without official help, hopefully to beat the psycho at his own game. Directed by Francis Delia, Freeway was inspired by a series of real-life freeway shootings in the Los Angeles area. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Darlanne Fluegel, James Russo, (more)
- 1982
Maya Angelou may be eminently qualified for her position as America's poet laureate, but her skills as a scriptwriter areat play in Sister Sister. Diahann Carroll plays a Southern schoolteacher who lives in the large house willed to her by her pullman-porter father; here she takes care of younger sister Irene Cara, striving to keep the girl on the straight and narrow. Into this proper household descends Carroll's other sister, Rosalind Cash, an uninhibited swinger. The inevitable confrontation is spiced by the fact that the "saintly" Carroll has been busy helping her preacher boyfriend (Dick Anthony Williams) siphon church funds in order to finance his political career. Set in North Carolina, the made-for-TV Sister Sister was actually filmed in Alabama. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
This Americanized remake of Lina Wertmuller's The Seduction of Mimi offered audiences the novelty of seeing Richard Pryor performing three different roles in the same film. Which Way Is Up? tells the tale of Leroy Jones (Pryor), a poor orange picker who gets fired from his job when he accidentally joins a worker's union during a demonstration. He is forced to travel to Los Angeles and abandon his family, which includes his wife, Annie Mae (Margaret Avery), and his perpetually randy father, Rufus (also Pryor). While there, he falls in love with labor organizer Vanetta (Lonette McKee), but is soon rehired by his former employers when they realize he is easily manipulated. Back home, Leroy discovers his new managerial role alienates him from his former friends as he tries to divide his time between Annie Mae and Vanetta. When he discovers Annie Mae has been impregnated by the Reverend Lennox Thomas (Pryor's 3rd role) during his absence, Leroy sets his sights on seducing Lennox's wife. The resulting film had ambition to spare, but was generally panned as an inferior remake by the critics and failed to find a mass audience. However, Which Way Is Up? gained a second lease on life via cable and home video and has become a cult favorite with Pryor's fans. ~ Donald Guarisco, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Pryor, Lonette McKee, (more)
- 1972
In this melodrama a mother tries to compensate for her feelings of inadequacy and failure as a parent to her own children by taking in a troubled foster child. As she struggles to make up for her past mistakes, her jealous daughters mistreat the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1968
Paul Winfield (Sounder) guest stars as Robert Phillips, a prominent African American militant accused of murder. With racial tensions at an all-time high, Commissioner Randall (Gene Lyons) asks Ironside (Raymond Burr) to quietly conduct an investigation to ascertain Phillips' guilt or innocence. Determined to thwart Ironside's efforts are a number of extremists--both black and white--who intend to use Phillips' arrest as catalyst for a bloody, apocalyptic race riot. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
