Nanette Fabray Movies

Directed by Rick McKay, who traveled across five continents during the documentary's production, Broadway: The Golden Age is both a celebration of current Broadway stars and a tribute to Broadway legends past. Through a plethora of interviews and vast amounts of archival footage, McKay presents a variety of factoids, anecdotes, and memories from over 100 Broadway actors, writers, and directors. The careers of Laurette Taylor, Kim Hunter, Jessica Tandy, and Marlon Brando are all animatedly retold, as is some of the Broadway "lore of olde," such as Angela Lansbury's struggle to land a role in Mame and the shocked reaction to West Side Story on its opening night. In addition to footage and discussion regarding highly successful Broadway stars, a variety of actors recount their experiences and struggles in finding even a small amount of critical recognition. The cast includes Shirley MacLaine, Bea Arthur, Edie Adams, Alec Baldwin, and Kaye Ballard, and many others. ~ Tracie Cooper, Rovi

Jerry Orbach makes a return appearance as Boston private eye Harry McGraw. Deep in Kentucky Horse Country, Harry investigates the murder of horse owner Randolph Sterling (Kevin McCarthy), who had been embroiled in a feud with his neighbor Lamar Morgan (Gregory Walcott) concerning a stud fee and two unexpected foals sired by one of Sterling's thoroughbreds. Real-life attorney Melvin M. Belli is appropriately cast as a judge. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Amy Medford (Jenny Agutter) is a dutiful housewife of the early 1900s. But when her husband objects to a wife with a career, Amy leaves her husband and comfortable lifestyle. She goes on to devote her life to teaching sight-and-hearing-impaired students at a tradition-bound special school. This film betrays its Disney-studio origins with an audience-rousing action climax, in which Amy's students take on a team of "normal" kids at a football game. Amy was produced by onetime Hollywood leading man Jerome Courtland. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This low-budget expansion of the popular Tom T. Hall/Jeannie C. Riley song "Harper Valley PTA" is surprisingly good, boasting lively performances by star Barbara Eden and everybody else in the cast. Eden plays Stella Johnson, a widowed single mom whose gaudy makeup, miniskirts and tight jeans are a source of scandal for the smug, self-righteous members of the local PTA. Forced to leave town with her teenaged daughter Dee (Susan Swift), Stella gets revenge with photographic evidence revealing the sexual peccadilloes and drunken misbehavior of the oh-so-righteous PTA members. The supporting cast includes such seasoned comic pros as Nanette Fabray, Louis Nye, Pat Paulsen and Audrey Christie, all performing above and beyond the call of duty. A weekly-TV version of Harper Valley PTA, also starring Barbara Eden, soon followed. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Susan St. James stars as Timothea Lamb, an American language student in Rome who hires on as a tour guide. For some reason, Timothea cannot help but get involved in the problems of her customers, notably a handsome "stowaway" who turns out to be a fugitive from the law. Filmed on location and first broadcast by ABC on November 6, 1972, Magic Carpet was intended as the pilot film for a weekly TV series (either a half-hour sitcom or hour-long "dramedy"), with Susan St. James and costars Jim Backus and Nanette Fabray (the wife of producer-writer Ranald MacDougall) as regulars. Instead, the project failed to post a sale, and St. James went on to costar in McMillan and Wife. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Charley (Dan Blocker) is the kindly but simple-minded blacksmith who sends a year's earnings back East for a mail-order bride. When he and the town turn out for the woman's arrival at the train station, he is embarrassed when she never appears. The saddened giant plans to leave town. The townspeople recruit the new saloon-girl Sadie (Nanette Fabray) to pose as the bride-to-be so the residents will retain the services of the blacksmith. Jim Backus is the sheriff who runs for mayor. Wally Cox plays Mr. Bester, the henpecked husband of his harridan wife (Marge Champion). Mickey Rooney, Stubby Kaye, Iron Eyes Cody and Jack Cassidy also appear in this western comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

In this comedy western, a town rallies together to help a heart-broken blacksmith find new love after his mail-order-bride is a no show. They end up pairing him with a dance hall girl. The story is also called Cockeyed Cowboys of Calico County. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Originally telecast November 26, 1966, Fame is the Name of the Game was the first official entry in NBC-TV "Project 120" series of made-for-TV movies (after two false starts in 1964). Tony Franciosa plays a magazine writer investigating the suicide of a beautiful girl. He uses the girl's address book as a key to piecing together the mystery of her self-destruction--and in so doing discovers that she'd actually been murdered. Advertised as an "original" for television, Fame is the Name of the Game was actually a remake of the 1949 Alan Ladd melodrama Chicago Deadline, right down to the identity of the mystery killer. Jill St. John and Jack Klugman co-star, with Jack Weston, Robert Duvall, Nanette Fabray and Jay C. Flippen popping up in supporting roles. This film served as the pilot for the 1968-71 TV series Name of the Game, with cast members Tony Franciosa and Susan St. James retained for the series proper. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Kim Novak is clearly out of her depth as legendary Broadway actress Jeanne Eagels, but one can't fault her for trying very hard. As this filmed biography gets under way, wide-eyed Eagels finds herself stranded in a tank town by a smooth-talking traveling salesman. Carnival operator Sal Satori hires Eagels as a kootch dancer, but her ambition is to become a serious dramatic actress. When she and Sal reach New York, she signs up for acting lessons under the tutelage of a Mme. Neilson (Agnes Moorehead). Before long, Jeanne is understudying on Broadway, and in 1922 she takes audiences and critics by storm with her unforgettable portrayal of Sadie Thompson in Rain, a role she landed by ruthlessly double-crossing the actress originally slated for the part (Virginia Grey). When her rival commits suicide, the chastened Jeanne turns to booze and drugs to assuage her conscience. The real-life Jeanne Eagels died of narcotics addiction in 1929, a fact that the Hollywood version skims over. Eagels' family sued Columbia Pictures over the "distortions" offered in Jeanne Eagels. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Nanette Fabray and Joey Faye repeat their original Broadway roles in this live, 90-minute TV adaptation of the 1948 Jule Styne-Sammy Cahn musical comedy hit High Button Shoes. Based on a semi-autobiographical novel by Stephen Longstreet, the story is set in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in the year 1913. Returning to his home town after many years, glib con artist Harrison Floy (a part immortalized on stage by Phil Silvers, but played here by Hal March) hopes to find at least few people he hasn't already fleeced. Floy targets his former girlfriend Sara Longstreet (Fabray) and her husband Henry (Don Ameche), smooth-talking them into unwittingly participating in a land scam. As if that wasn't enough skullduggery, Harrison and his cohort Pontdue (Joey Faye) even try to fix the upcoming Princeton-Rutgers football game. The musical numbers include "I Still Get Jealous", "Papa Won't You Dance With Me?", "You're My Girl", "Nobody Ever Died for Dear Old Rutgers" and "The Cops and Robbers Ballet" (originally titled "The Mack Sennett Ballet until former comedy-movie producer Sennett sued for unauthorized use of his name). An abridged version of High Button Shoes was later staged as a 1966 episode of The Garry Moore Show. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A Child is Born is a remake of 1932's Life Begins, softened to conform to stricter movie censorship and lengthened to qualify as an "A" picture. The film is an episodic account of one particularly busy night in a maternity hospital. A generous portion of screen time is lavished on a gangster's moll (Geraldine Fitzgerald), about to give birth to her illegitimate baby. The young woman dies in childbirth, but other subplots end more happily. Even at 79 minutes, A Child is Born seems more padded and protracted than its 1932 predecessor--notably in a contrived sequence wherein the only surgeon qualified to perform a delicate operation is blinded in an accident. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

It is no secret that Bette Davis and Errol Flynn were at each other's throats throughout the filming of The Private Lives of Elizabeth and Essex. Boiled down to essentials: Davis felt that Flynn was unprofessional, while Flynn thought that Davis took herself too damned seriously. Besides, Davis had wanted Laurence Olivier to play the Earl of Essex opposite her Queen Elizabeth I. She was forced to compromise on this point, but refused to allow Flynn proxy top billing via his suggestion that the film be retitled The Knight and the Lady. The finished product, a lavish Technicolor costumer allowing full scope to Davis' histrionics and Flynn's derring-do, betrays little of the backstage hostilities (though Flynn does seem uncomfortably hammy in his scenes with Davis). Adapted by Norman Reilly Raine and Aeneas McKenzie from Maxwell Anderson's blank-verse play Elizabeth the Queen (which served as the film's reissue title), the story concerns the tempestuous relationship between the middle-aged Elizabeth and the ambitious Essex. At one point, the Queen intends to marry Essex and relinquish her throne, until she realizes that his plans for advancement would ultimately prove disastrous for England. When afforded the opportunity to execute Essex for treason, she reluctantly signs his death warrant. Minutes before his final walk to the chopping block, Elizabeth begs Essex to ask for a pardon. But Essex, fully aware that his warlike policies will only resurface if he is permitted to live, refuses to accept the Queen's mercy, and goes off to meet his doom. Olivia de Havilland is wasted in the role of a lady-in-waiting who carries a torch for Essex. If the scenes of Essex' triumphant return to London after winning the battle of Cadiz seem familiar, it is because they were reused as stock footage in Warner Bros.' The Adventures of Don Juan (1949) and The Story of Mankind (1957). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi