Kaye Ballard Movies
Kaye Ballard was fifteen when she made her professional debut, singing in a USO show in her home town of Cleveland. Two years later, Kaye was a solo performer on the RKO vaudeville circuit. She made it to the New York legitimate stage in 1946's Three to Make Ready. A much-in-demand cabaret performer, Kaye Ballard brought her con brio musical comedy technique to television in the 1951 weekly Henry Morgan's Great Talent Hunt. The first of her all-too-infrequent film appearances was in The Girl Most Likely, the 1957 musical remake of Tom Dick and Harry. Kaye's Broadway credits in the 1960s included the musical hit Carnival (1961) and the intimate revue The Decline and Fall of the Whole World as Seen Through the Eyes of Cole Porter Revisited (1965). From 1967 to 1969, Kaye co-starred with Eve Arden on the Desi Arnaz-produced TV sitcom The Mothers-in-Law. Kaye Ballard was later seen on a weekly basis on The Doris Day Show (1970) and The Steve Allen Comedy Hour (1980), and such films as Freaky Friday (1977), The Ritz (1980) and Tiger Warshaw (1984). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edie Adams, Bea Arthur, (more)
- 1994
This Canadian made-for-television movie spawned the popular series about a crime-fighting Royal Canadian Mountie. Paul Gross stars as Constable Benton Fraser, an RCMP who sets out to track down his father's killer. His chase takes him all the way to Chicago where he hooks up with Ray Vecchio, (David Marciano) a macho, local Chicago detective. Together they hit the streets as a crime-fighting and justice-seeking duo. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
- 1994
When a youngster falls victim to food poisoning, Benton Fraser (Paul Gross) traces the source of the tainted meat ingested by the child. The trail ultimately leads to a gang of crooks trafficking in illegal horse meat. Along the way, Fraser makes the acquaintance of gorgeous horsewoman Stephanie Cabot (Teri Polo), but this pleasant diversion is forgotten when he and his partner Ray Vecchio (David Marciano) find themselves trapped in a meat locker. While the freezing cold has a devastating effect on city-boy Ray, the Canadian-born Fraser is less perturbed--and it is the resourceful Fraser who hits upon a unique but effective way of staying warm until help arrives. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Gross, David Marciano, (more)
- 1994
Accompanied by his trusty pet wolf Diefenbaker, RCMP constable Benton Fraser doggedly pursues the murderer of his Mountie father (whose death has been officially deemed an "accident") from the snowy environs of the Yukon to the urban sprawl of Chicago. Once in the Windy City, Fraser meets wisecracking local police detective Ray Vecchio, whose career has likewise been motivated by the death of his father. Forming a tentative friendship, Fraser and Ray become an unofficial team, determined to track down miscreants by combining their separate but equally effective police methods. Along the way, our heroes discover that Fraser's father was killed while investigating a large-scale coverup involving a hydroelectric dam project. This two-hour pilot episode of the weekly seriocomic cop series Due South has since been divided into two hour-long episodes for syndication. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Gross, David Marciano, (more)
- 1990
- PG
In 1980, 20-year-old novice director Stuart Paul exhibited far more chutzpah than talent with Falling in Love Again. Ten years later, an older, wiser Paul has picked up some talent, but it's still outweighed by sheer nerve. In Fate, Paul casts himself as the last of the truly nice guys (or so he regards himself). He has his future all planned, specifically an ideal marriage to the perfect woman. The next step is to find that woman. Cheryl Lynn co-stars, along with veterans Kaye Ballard and Susannah York, who seem to have a better grasp on what they're doing than the ubiquitous Mr. Paul. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Paul, Cheryl Lynn, (more)
- 1990
- R
In this blend of fantasy and romantic comedy, a man isn't sure if he's stuck between past and present or if his imagination is simply working overtime. Edward (Jon Voight) is a prince in Medieval Europe, where his greatest rival is his brother Roni (Armand Assante). Roni wants to declare war on neighboring kingdoms, while Edward believes in keeping the peace, and both are in love with a beautiful gypsy named Dahlin (Eileen Davidson); only the frequent intervention of their father, the King (Wilford Brimley), keeps the two from killing each other. Or at least that's how it seems until Edward wakes up. It seems that his name is really James, he's the host of a talk show in Los Angeles, and he keeps having a recurring dream in which he and his co-workers are characters in a tale of knights in shining armor. Eric, his boss, looks just like the King, and Roni is a dead ringer for Sean, a high-powered businessman who is organizing a hostile takeover of James' company. However, things really start to get interesting for James when he meets Valerie, who is directing a television commercial at James' studio. She bears a striking resemblance to Dahlin the gypsy girl, and James can't help but tell her that she's the girl of his dreams. But are they really dreams, or memories of a past life? Eternity was Jon Voight's first film in three years; he also co-wrote the screenplay with director Steven Paul and Dorothy Koster Paul. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Voight, Armand Assante, (more)
- 1990
- R
While working as a publicist, an average guy (Robby Benson) meets a girl (Karla DeVito, Robby's real-life wife), ends up marrying her and has a child (Lyric Benson, Robby's real daughter). Problems soon arise as the harried husband and father begins to crack under the pressure. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robby Benson, Karla de Vito, (more)
Chuck "Tiger" Warsaw (Patrick Swayze) returns to the steel town of Sharon, Pennsylvania hoping to be reunited with his estranged family after 15 years. He spent his time away from home in Miami in a perpetual fog of drugs and alcohol and is struggling to remember what prompted his departure. Tiger eventually remembers seeing his sister Paula (Mary McDonnell) naked. Her premature and hysterical cries of attempted incest prompted an argument with his father Mitchell (Lee Richardson), and in the melee Tiger shot Mitchell and fled. Upon his return home, Tiger finds that as a result of the shooting, his dad's injuries are such that he can't remember anything except his love for high-school sports. Frances (Piper Laurie) is Tiger's sympathetic mother who along with his former high-school sweetheart Karen (Barbara Williams) and buddy Tony (Bobby DiCicco) readily accepts him. His spiteful sister and her yuppie fiancee Roger (James Patrick Gillis) join with other irate relatives to ruin the happy family reunion for Tiger. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patrick Swayze, Piper Laurie, (more)
- 1986
This comedy drama examines a fading film star who divides her time between the couch in her psychiatrist's office and her memories of past glories. The latter are told in a series of episodes with cameo roles by well-known names: Kaye Ballard, Sammy Davis, Jr., Anne Meara, and many others. At one moment , the scenery shifts to Argentina and elsewhere for a few episodes based on her search for a leading man. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kaye Ballard, Sheila MacRae, (more)
Part of the Broadway Theater Archives, this stage production of Lewis Carroll's children's fantasy Alice in Wonderland was directed by Kirk Browning. Kate Burton plays young Alice, the little girl who wanders into a bizarre wonderland that just gets more and more curious. Her real-life father, Richard Burton, plays the White Knight. Also starring Eve Arden as the Queen of Hearts, Maureen Stapleton as the White Queen, and Donald O'Connor as the Mock Turtle. Broadway star Nathan Lane can also be seen in one of his earliest roles as the Dormouse. Alice in Wonderland was originally broadcast on PBS in 1983 as an episode of Great Performances. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kate Burton, Richard Burton, (more)
- 1982
- PG
Tom Smothers and Carol Kane co-star with Paul Reubens and Judge Reinhold in this uneven comedy spoof of slasher films. Sergeant Cooper (Smothers) is a Canadian Mountie who investigates the death of cheerleaders attending a summer camp at Indiana's It Had To Be University. Cameo appearances by Eve Arden, Kaye Ballard, Eileen Brennan, Tab Hunter, and Donald O'Connor fail to add anything to the thin, sophomoric plot. This film should not be confused with the similarly titled 1988 Australian feature directed by Hadyn Keenan. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Smothers, Carol Kane, (more)
- 1980
- PG
Also known as In Love, Falling in Love Again stars Elliott Gould. While en route to a class reunion, Harry Lewis (Gould) recalls the golden days of his youth. These flashbacks are contrasted with his current sorry existence as the unhappy husband of his high-school sweetheart, Sue (Susannah York). This was the directorial debut for 20-year-old Steven Paul (whose brother Stuart plays the younger Gould) as well as the big-screen debut of Michelle Pfeiffer (playing the teenage Sue). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elliott Gould, Susannah York, (more)
- 1980
Old-time Hollywood director Vincent Sherman brings a glossy studio-bound look to The Dream Merchants, a two-part, four-hour adaptation of Harold Robbins' novel. The story follows the career of a pioneer filmmaker (Mark Harmon), who comes to Hollywood in the early 20th century with a pocketful of dreams and helps build the sleepy California orange-grove community into the world's entertainment capital. Typical of the Harold Robbins ouevre, most of the characters are based on real-life movie personalities: Robert Goulet's vainglorious matinee idol is a combination of John Barrymore and Douglas Fairbanks, while Vincent Gardenia's vitriolic mogul can be taken as a low-budget Louis B. Mayer. The film is rife with historical inaccuracies (Goulet is informed that the closeup has "just been invented by D. W. Griffith" as a means to convince him to sign a long-term contract assuring him plenty of closeups!), while the haircuts and speech patterns are firmly locked into the 1980s. All the same, The Dream Merchants was a profitable entry in the syndicated "Operation Prime Time" series of TV specials. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Kaye Ballard guest stars as Seama, an ersatz gypsy whom Alice (Linda Lavin) catches stealing the diner's silverware. Outraged at being exposed, Seama places a curse on Alice's head. This is a source of amusement for all concerned--until all manner of accidents, both trivial and catastrophic, befall our benighted heroine. Future Barney Miller regular Ron Carey appears as Rick. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Prolific television director Gary Nelson made the Walt Disney live-action comedy Freaky Friday, based on the novel by Mary Rodgers. Barbara Harris stars as suburban housewife Ellen Andrews, the wife of Bill (John Astin) and the mother of Annabel (Jodie Foster) and Ben (Sparky Marcus). Ellen just can't understand what's going on with teenaged Annabel, who hangs around the house making snappy remarks, eating ice cream for breakfast, and calling her brother Apeface. They each make a separate wish to be in the other's place, and they get their wish on Friday 13th. Ellen has to go through the day as a kid, playing on the field hockey team and dealing with typing class. Annabel has to deal with grown-up problems like getting appliances fixed and preparing a banquet. The whole silly story ends with a wacky car-chase/water skiing/hang-gliding conclusion in keeping with other Disney movies of the day. Freaky Friday was remade twice with the same title, and spawned a whole subgenre of body-switching movies in the 1980s. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Harris, Jodie Foster, (more)
With The Ritz, Terrence McNally's hit Broadway play of the same name is cinematized by director Richard Lester. Jack Weston plays Gaetano Proclo, a minor mob flunky who's been targeted for elimination by his brother-in-law, Carmine Vespucci (Jerry Stiller). Gaetano takes refuge in what he thinks is a Turkish bath. Actually, it's The Pits. That's the name, "The Pits" -- a gay bathhouse (this is the pre-AIDS era), where the exquisitely awful Googie Gomez (Rita Moreno) entertains the homosexual patrons with her ear-splitting renditions of such show tunes as "Everything's Coming Up Roses." Hoping to save his neck by pretending to be gay, Gaetano effusively praises Googie. Assuming that he is a big-time Broadway producer, she plays up to him. Everything would be hunky-dory, except that the bathhouse is owned by the very mob that has put a contract on Gaetano. What follows is an old-fashioned door-slamming farce, except that there are no doors to slam. The supporting cast includes Kaye Ballard, Treat Williams, George Coulouris, F. Murray Abraham, Dave King, and (as one of the patrons) a pre-Cheers John Ratzenberger. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Weston, Rita Moreno, (more)
The third season of The Doris Day Show ushers in the series' second format change. During season one, widow Doris Martin (Doris Day) and her sons Toby (Tod Starke) and Billy (Philip Brown) spent all their time in the upstate California farm owned by Doris' uncle Buck Webb. Season two found Doris commuting daily from the farm to San Francisco, where she was employed as secretary at "Today's World" magazine. With the departure of both Denver Pyle as Uncle Buck and Naomi Stevens as Buck's housekeeper Juanita just before the launching of season three, Doris and her sons move off the farm and into a small San Francisco apartment, located just above the Italian restaurant owned by Angie and Louie Palucci (Kaye Ballard, Bernie Kopell). Meanwhile, she remains employed at "Today's World," taking orders from editor Michael Nicholson (McLean Stevenson) and assistant editor Ron Harvey (Paul Smith), and palling around with fellow secretary Myrna Gibbons (Rose Marie). The drop off in The Doris Day Show's ratings during season three -- it wound up in 20th place, down from 10th place in season two -- indicated that the new format wasn't quite clicking. How else can one explain the radical format change that would occur during season four? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doris Day, Philip Brown, (more)
- 1970
- G
Brendan (Jerry Lewis) is an eccentric multimillionaire who is rejected for military service in this misfired comedy. Eager to help the Allies, he gathers a quartet of offbeat irregulars and sails to Italy to join the conflict. Brendan captures a Nazi general and masquerades as the enemy. When Allies arrive, he is mistaken for the real general. Jan Murray, Dack Rambo, John Wood and Steve Franklin help the inept but patriotic Brendan. Also appearing are Kaye Ballard, Neil Hamilton, and George Takei, all allumni of successful television programs from the late 1960s. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jerry Lewis, John Wood, (more)
- 1964
This drama tells the true story of one of Broadway's most successful madams in the 1920s. It is loosely based on the autobiography of Polly Adler. The story begins when young Polly is seduced and raped at her job by the sweatshop foreman. When her uncle, with whom she lived, learns of the act, he blames her and tosses her out. She then moves into an apartment owned by a racketeer. It is he who encourages her into her "helping" profession when he gives her money for bringing her pals to a gangster party. Soon she is beginning to build up her own clientele. As her business prospers, she begins to choose nicer locations. Her tiny cathouse becomes a haven for sleazy politicos, mobsters, and businessmen. The madame herself has a passionate romance with a young songwriter and she helps his career. He does not know of her vocation and she eventually breaks up with him to keep his reputation intact. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Winters, Robert Taylor, (more)
- 1957
The Girl Most Likely owns the distinction of being the last RKO Radio picture ever produced at the studio's Hollywood facilities; shortly afterward, RKO moved out and Desilu moved in. A musical remake of the 1941 Ginger Rogers comedy Tom, Dick and Harry, the film stars Jane Powell as Dodie, an eligible bachelorette who must choose between three suitors. Wealthy Neil (Keith Andes) offers her a life of luxury and ease; salesman Buzz (Tommy Noonan) offers stability; and roughneck mechanic Pete (Cliff Robertson) can offer nothing but love. In a series of elaborate dream sequences, Dodie imagines what life would be like with her three beaus. Though Paul Jarrico wrote the original script upon which The Girl Most Likely was based, he was refused screen credit thanks to the insidious Hollywood blacklist. When the RKO Radio distribution chain collapsed in 1958, The Girl Most Likely was distributed by Universal-International. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Powell, Cliff Robertson, (more)
