Ed Griffith Movies
Ed Griffith has extensively played supporting roles on television and on the Buffalo, New York stage. He has also worked on television commercials and appeared occasionally in films. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Co-written by Paul Reubens and Phil Hartman, Pee Wee's Big Adventure marks the debut of director Tim Burton, who stamps the entire film with his quirky trademark style. The premise: Pee Wee (Reubens), an overgrown pre-pubescent boy sporting a molded Princeton cut, blush, lipstick, and a shrunken gray flannel suit, lives an idyllic life in his bizarre home (some have compared the remarkable set design to the expressionistic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) until someone nabs his most prized possession: a fire engine-red customized bicycle. He then embarks on an epic cross-country search to find his lost love, not to mention more than a little adventure. Along the way, he makes friends with various oddball characters, visits the Alamo, endures various hallucinatory nightmares, and has a supernatural run-in with a spectral trucker. In this reprisal of his popular standup routine, Reubens is wonderful as the nerdy man child; he plays it silly, yet he manages to imbue the role with some sensitivity without ever seeming maudlin. The score by Danny Elfman is terrific -- as is the case in nearly every film Burton has directed -- and the script is fresh and inventive. Some of the most memorable moments: the opening sequence involving Pee Wee's morning activities is a stroke of genius (note the bunny slippers and talking breakfast), as are the scenes at the truck stop, and the "Hollywood" version of Pee Wee's story at the end (starring James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild in surprise cameos). In all, Pee Wee's Big Adventure is a delightful film, enjoyable for children as well as adults. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Reubens, Elizabeth Daily, (more)
For the first (and thus far the only) time in his career, Chevy Chase plays a genuinely sympathetic character in Neil Simon's Seems Like Old Times. This time around, Chase is a divorced novelist who is abducted by crooks and set up as the fall guy in a bank robbery. Arrested, Chase manages to escape and to make his way to the home of ex-wife Goldie Hawn, now a highly respected liberal defense attorney. Chase's unexpected arrival coincides with an important dinner party on behalf of Goldie's current husband, district attorney Charles Grodin. At first making every effort to give Chase the boot, Hawn, ever the champion of the underdog finally decides to help him out of his dilemma--much to the discomfort of her politically ambitious husband. Wisely, Grodin does not play his character as an unpleasant stuffed shirt; he is as likeable as Chase and Hawn, giving the farcical plot convolutions a tinge of reality. We care about the people involved, thus the laughs spring as much from characterization as they do from the situation. If only Seems Like Old Times didn't have that lame-brained final close up..... ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Goldie Hawn, Chevy Chase, (more)
Comedy writers David and Jerry Zucker and Jim Abrahams of Airplane and The Naked Gun fame got their start at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, when they formed a theatrical group known as The Kentucky Fried Theater. The Kentucky Fried Movie is based on the KFT's gag-filled theatrical skits. Including well-known stars such as Bill Bixby, Donald Sutherland, Tony Dow, George Lazenby and Henry Gibson, the film has over 22 different segments of varying lengths. Some are seconds long. Longer segments include such highlights as: "Zinc Oxide," which spoofs school educational films; "Cleopatra Schwartz," a spoof of female blaxploitation action films, whose heroine is married to a rabbi; "Sex Record," which depicts a couple who are attempting to follow the step-by-step instructions of a how-to-do-it record; "Catholic High School Girls In Trouble," and "A Fistful of Yen," (the longest episode), which is an elaborate spoof of martial-arts films. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, George Lazenby, (more)
- 1969
Candy is forced to kill the rancher husband of Lisa Campbell (Charlotte Stewart) in self-defense. Hoping to overcome Lisa's bitterness, Candy goes to work for her as a ranchhand. Ultimately, love blossoms between the two-but Lisa has already hired gunslinger Jake (Lloyd Battista) to kill Candy, and Jake refuses to back down from the job. Scripted by Star Trek stalwart D.C. Fontana, "The Stalker" first aired on November 2, 1969, then was selected by NBC for an encore presentation in the summer of 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, (more)
- 1969
Bucky (Jordan Christopher) is the local psychotic who kidnaps his niece and hides out for days with the dead body of his father's mistress Sally (Eileen Heckart). Bucky hates his mother, seemingly a prerequisite for all mental abnormality of the psycho-sexual variety. He rapes his sister after killing her husband. Suffering from temporary sanity, he feels a fleeting moment of remorse and contemplates suicide in this exploitation drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jordan Christopher, Eileen Heckart, (more)
Elvis Presley hits the high seas in this musical comedy. Ted Jackson (Presley) is a former Navy frogman who divides his time between twin careers as a deep sea diver and nightclub singer. Ted discovers what he believes could be a fortune in Spanish gold aboard a sunken ship and sets out to rescue it with the help of go-go dancing yoga expert Jo Symington (Dodie Marshall). However, Gil Carey (Skip Ward) is also after the treasure and uses his girlfriend Dina Bishop (Pat Priest) to foil Ted's plans. Elvis sings six tunes in this picture, including the deathless "Yoga Is as Yoga Does" and "The Love Machine." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elvis Presley, Dodie Marshall, (more)
- 1966
Yes, that's 19-year-old Richard Dreyfuss guesting in this episode as neurotic teenager Durf the Drag. Hoping to bolster Durf's confidence, kindhearted Gidget (Sally Field) agrees to go out on a date with him. The plot thickens when Gidge is afforded the opportunity to date handsome UCLA student Ed Batson (Ed Griffith)--and she can't work up the gumption to tell poor Durf. This episode was originally scheduled to air on December 1, 1965. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
