Priscilla Pointer Movies
American character actress Priscilla Pointer was the wife of famed theatrical director Jules Irving, and the mother of actress Amy Irving and writer/director David Irving. After extensive theatrical experience, Pointer attained her first major TV job in the daytime drama Where the Heart Is (1969-73). She went on to play Mrs. Austin in From Here to Eternity (1980). Rebecca Barnes Wentworth in Dallas (1981-83) and Lillie in Call to Glory (1984-85). One of her more memorable film assignments was the 1976 chiller Carrie, in which she played the mother of the character played by her daughter Amy. Perhaps as a by-product of Carrie, Priscilla Pointer was engaged to play important roles in Twilight Zone: The Movie (1983) and the made-for-TVTwilight Zone: The Lost Classics (1994). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi- 1981
The plan was to develop a Star Wars type TV series with heavy injections of Sword N Sorcery. The title of the pilot was Archer: Fugitive From the Empire (the Archer part was lopped off when the film went into syndication). Soap opera refugee Lane Caudell plays a prince on a faraway planet who has been accused of murdering his father. The deed was actually perpetrated by the king's nephew and an evil warrior, but the Prince can prove this only if he goes on a quest (naturally) to find a beneficent sorcerer. Belinda Bauer, wearing next to nothing, is the "Princess Leia/Red Sonja" of this saga. Archer: Fugitive From the Empire resulted in a very short-lived (and presumably very costly) series, which ran for about half a minute in mid-1981. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1980
- PG
Can two prodigies fall in love and stay in love, even when they are competing against one another in an international piano competition? Richard Dreyfuss and Amy Irving attempt to answer that question in The Competition. Richard Dreyfuss plays Paul Dietrich, a shabby prodigy slouching past the thirty year mark. Embittered at never having won an international competition and being pushed and prodded by his parents, Paul decides to enter one last time and, if he fails, he will devote himself to teaching. Since this is his last chance, he throws himself into the competition with an energy and determination comparable to Duddy Kravitz. During preparations for the competition he meets Heidi (Amy Irving), a natural talent who is does not have Paul's drive to succeed. Heidi takes one look at Paul and immediately falls in love with him. Paul feels an attraction for her but holds his feelings in check, trying to center himself on winning the competition. Looking at the burgeoning love affair with dread is Heidi's possessive music teacher Greta Vandemann (Lee Remick), who sees Heidi's relationship with Paul as compromising her talent and jeopardizing her standing in the competition. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Amy Irving, (more)
- 1980
- PG
After displaying his easygoing charm in a number of television appearances and a showy supporting role in The Electric Horseman, Willie Nelson scored his first leading role in this romantic comedy-drama in which he (appropriately enough) plays a musician. Buck Bonham (Nelson) is a country singer/songwriter with a loyal following in his native Texas and the neighboring Western states. However, Buck hasn't yet had the hit record that would make him a star nationwide; in the meantime, Buck and his band keep up a busy tour schedule, much to the annoyance of his wife, Viv (Dyan Cannon), and son, Jamie (Joey Floyd), who would like to see Buck at home every once in a while. As Buck wonders if he should press on with his musical career or call it quits, his close friend and longtime guitarist Garland Ramsey (Slim Pickens) announces he's retiring, and suggests a good replacement -- his daughter, Lily (Amy Irving). Lily had a crush on Buck as a child, and now as a full-grown and very beautiful woman, her infatuation has only increased with time. Consequently, Buck must choose between Viv and Lily as well as his home and his career. Honeysuckle Rose was written specifically for Nelson, and his character bears more than a passing similarity to Willie and his life before the album Red Headed Stranger made him a star; the film also earned Nelson an Academy Award nomination for the film's theme song, "On the Road Again." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Willie Nelson, Dyan Cannon, (more)
Joseph Wambaugh's The Onion Field is based on an actual 1963 case. L.A. plainclothesmen Karl Hattinger (John Savage) and Ian Campbell (Ted Danson) routinely investigate a pair of suspicious types, Greg Powell (James Woods) and Jimmy Smith (Franklin Seales). Unexpectedly, Powell pulls a gun on the cops, then forces them into a deserted onion field, where he kills Campbell in cold blood. Hattinger manages to escape, and through his eyewitness account, Powell and Smith are arrested. But that is not that. Thanks to their knowledge and manipulation of the quicksilver legal system, Powell and Smith manage to evade prosecution for years. Meanwhile, Hattinger goes through hell on earth, tortured with guilt over the fact that he lived while Campbell died so ignominiously. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- John Savage, James Woods, (more)
- 1978
Quincy (Jack Klugman) investigates when the mother and sister of apparent murder victim Peter Nielsen (Bruce Wright)--whom he has already officially declared dead--come forth to declare that the "dead" man is not only still alive, but has been in contact with them since the "killing." The investigation leads to a downtown messenger service, which turns out to be a front for an illegal drug ring. Appearing as the alleged victim's mother is Priscilla Pointer, in real life the mother of actress Amy Irving. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1978
A very young Rosanna Arquette stars in this poignant, Emmy-winning ABC Afterschool Special as a troubled teenager named Charlie. Although Charlie's parents (Stephen Elliott, Priscilla Pointer) are proud of their daughter, the feeling isn't mutual, and for a unique reason: Charlie's mom and dad are deaf. Ashamed of her parents (she even "screams" at them in sign language!), Charlie refuses to introduce them to her friends. It takes several daunting and unanticipated events to show Charlie how wrong she has been all along. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Rosanna Arquette, Stephen Elliott, (more)
- 1977
A casual glance at the cast list for the made-for-TV 3000 Mile Chase might lead one to conclude that stars Cliff De Young and Glenn Ford play dual roles. In fact, De Young is a bonded courier, and Ford is a government witness. Both men are obliged to assume false identities while en route to a murder trial, lest they be shot full of holes by syndicate henchmen. Produced by Roy Huggins, 3,000 Mile Chase was a revamping of his earlier busted pilot film Target Risk (1974). Originally telecast June 16, 1977, Chase likewise failed to graduate to a weekly series. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1977
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First aired March 13, 1977, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years was the brilliant follow-up to the equally praiseworthy 1976 TV movie Eleanor and Franklin: The Early Years. The film is framed in a flashback experienced by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Jane Alexander) while accompanying the casket carrying the body of her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Edward Herrmann) to its final resting place in Hyde Park. Elected in 1933, FDR endeavors to pull the country out of the Depression with the New Deal during his first term, while Eleanor emerges as a formidable public figure in her own right during the second term, tirelessly working on behalf of social change and reforms. Ever under the baleful eye of his mother Sara (Rosemary Murphy), Roosevelt tries to maintain family equilibrium in the White House as he seeks an unprecedented third term. Sara dies in December of 1941, two days before Roosevelt, in his "Day of Infamy" speech, declares war on Japan. Despite health problems, FDR successfully pursues a fourth term in 1944; he dies in office in April of 1945, a scant few months before the end of World War II. Despite her long-standing displeasure over her husband's long-ago affair with artist Lucy Mercer (Linda Kelsey), a stiff-lipped Eleanor puts on a brave front when Roosevelt dies in the company of Deakins at a health spa in Georgia. Based on Joseph P. Lash's Pulitzer prize-winning biography, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years earned Emmies for "Outstanding Special" and for director Daniel Petrie. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Edward Herrmann, Jane Alexander, (more)
- 1977
- R
Adapted from Judith Rossner's best-selling novelization of a true story, Richard Brooks's melodrama turns one woman's search for a liberated life into a cautionary tale about promiscuity. After an affair with her college professor, no-longer-good Catholic girl Theresa Dunn (Diane Keaton) follows the lead of her hedonistic sister (Tuesday Weld) and moves out of her oppressive family home to forge a life of her own. A compassionate teacher of deaf children by day, Theresa metamorphoses into a sexually free cruiser of singles bars by night. She prefers the satisfying attentions of unpredictable, danger-tinged stud Tony Lopanto (Richard Gere) to the more noble intentions of social worker James (William Atherton), but she ditches anyone who prevents her from being her "own girl." As Theresa's life threatens to spin out of control, she makes a vow to clean up her existence once and for all. But before she makes the break, she goes to one more bar and brings home one more man (Tom Berenger). ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi
- Starring:
- Diane Keaton, Tuesday Weld, (more)
- 1977
Ingredients essential to this made-for-TV movie are a famous former pro football player, an interracial romance, and a brutal murder. Yes, the football player is O.J. Simpson, but the film was made a full 17 years before the death of Nicole Brown Simpson. In A Killing Affair, Simpson is cast as police detective Woody York, who is partnered with white female cop Viki Eaton (Elizabeth Montgomery) to solve a mysterious killing. In the course of the assignment, Woody and Viki fall in love. Also known as Behind the Badge, A Killing Affair premiered September 21, 1977, on CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Dean Stockwell, Elizabeth Montgomery, (more)
- 1977
Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night stars Susan Dey as a young mother with a history of mistreating her 3 year old daughter. Ms. Dey's erratic behavior is rooted in her own unhappy childhood and her failed marriage. Tricia O'Neil plays the doctor who endeavors to help both Dey and her daughter, despite the interference of well-meaning bureaucrats. Joanna Lee's script for this TV movie would have been twice as effective had it not relied so heavily on character stereotypes. The title character of Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night was played by little Natasha Ryan, who portrayed several battered children during her short career. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
This classic horror movie based on Stephen King's first novel stars Sissy Spacek as Carrie White, a shy, diffident teenager who is the butt of practical jokes at her small-town high school. Her blind panic at her first menstruation, a result of ignorance and religious guilt drummed into her by her fanatical mother, Margaret (Piper Laurie), only causes her classmates' vicious cruelty to escalate, despite the attentions of her overly solicitous gym teacher (Betty Buckley). Finally, when the venomous Chris Hargenson (Nancy Allen) engineers a reprehensible prank at the school prom, Carrie lashes out in a horrifying display of her heretofore minor telekinetic powers. Many films had featured school bullies, but Carrie was one of the first to focus on the special brand of cruelty unique to teenage girls. Carrie's world is presented as a snake pit, where the well-to-do female students all have fangs -- even the reticent Sue Snell (Amy Irving) -- and all the males are blind pawns, sexually twisted around the fingers of Chris and her evil cronies. The talented supporting cast includes John Travolta, P.J. Soles, and William Katt. One of the genre's true classics, the film was followed by a sequel in 1999, as well as by a famously unsuccessful Broadway musical adaptation that starred Betty Buckley, the movie's gym teacher, as Margaret White. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sissy Spacek, Piper Laurie, (more)
- 1976
- PG
Peter Bogdanovich's early career as a film writer stood him in good stead for this comedy drama about the early days of the motion-picture industry, based in part on his interviews with pioneering directors Raoul Walsh and Allan Dwan. Leo Harrigan (Ryan O'Neal) is a lawyer and Buck Greenway (Burt Reynolds) is a cowboy and gunman. Both are sent to California to shut down a renegade group of silent-movie makers -- financed by blustery H.H. Cobb (Brian Keith) -- who are in violation of the Motion Picture Patents Co. Trust. Harrigan and Greenway somehow find themselves working with the movie crew instead of shutting them down; they join forces with cameraman Franklin Frank (John Ritter), leading lady Kathleen Cooke (Jane Hitchcock), and precocious prop girl Alice Forsyte (Tatum O'Neal). Greenway becomes a star and Harrigan a respected director, but both battle over the affections of Cooke. Incidentally, Cobb's big speech near the end is taken almost verbatim from a quote given to Bogdanovich in an interview with actor James Stewart. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Burt Reynolds, (more)
- 1976
- R
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Exploitation film vixen Claudia Jennings stars with Jocelyn Jones in this all-trash rip-off of Bonnie and Clyde with Jennings and Morgan playing a pair of sexy bank robbers who blast their way into countryside banks with a carload of fresh dynamite. The story literally begins with a bang as Candy Morgan (Claudia Jennings) dynamites her way out of jail and proceeds to blow up a bank where Ellie-Jo Turner (Jocelyn Jones) has just lost her job. Candy and Ellie-Jo team up and go on a bank-robbing crime spree. When Ellie-Jo is detained for shoplifting, the outlaw girls take Slim (Johnny Crawford) as a hostage. Slim and Ellie-Jo become lovers and Slim joins the merry band, playing the role of hostage during the gals' bank robberies. However, the law is slowly closing in on them. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Claudia Jennings, Jocelyn Jones, (more)
- 1975
The Keegans was a TV pilot film for a projected serialized weekly about an extended Irish-American family. Tim Keegan (Tom Clancy), the clan's father is a dock worker. Son Larry Keegan (Adam Roarke) is a magazine reporter, while Larry's brother Pat (Spencer Milligan) is a pro football player. And daughter Brandy (Heather Menzies) is an aspiring model, hampered by her petty-crook father. Mom Keegan (Joan Leslie) is apparently nothing more than "special guest star" (along with Judd Hirsch, as a police lieutenant). In the pilot, Larry has to clear Pat of the murder of the man who attacked Brandy. While The Keegans didn't make the grade as a series, it wasn't long before Hollywood took notice of the directorial skills of John Badham, leading to such prestige theatrical-film assignments as The Bingo Long Travelling All-Stars and Motor Kings, Saturday Night Fever, and Blue Thunder. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1975
Azure Dee (Denyce Liston), a former prostitute who has struck it rich, is found hanging from the chandelier in the living room of her lavish home. Curiously affected by this death, Kojak begins to investigate Azure's friends, family members and customers, hoping to determine if the woman committed suicide or was murdered--and in either case, why it happened. Series star Telly Savalas is heard singing the episode's theme song in the final scenes. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1975
The Big Rip-Off was the pilot film for Tony Curtis' shortlived TV series McCoy. Curtis plays a sly but basically decent con artist who is engaged to recover $250,000 in ransom money from a recent high-society kidnapping. In the tradition of The Sting, Curtis uses scam tactics to get the money back--all the while keeping one step ahead from his own mobster creditors. Roscoe Lee Browne costars as Curtis' loyal assistant, a nightclub comedian, while Brenda Vaccaro guests as an investigate reporter who assists in the sting. When McCoy graduated to series status in the fall of 1975, Curtis and Browne were back, but Vaccaro was off to her own series, Sara. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1974
In the conclusion of a two-part story, Jim continues probing into the kidnapping and murder of computer programmer Alec Morris, despite pressure brought to bear by Morris' bosses at Fiscal Dynamics. Based on evidence provided by other employees, it appears that the company's higherups ordered the killing--but Jim still doesn't know why. Ultimately, Jim's dad Rocky (Noah Beery Sr.) puts his own life on the line to help solve the mystery (while simultaneouly trying to figure out why his garbage disposal has suddenly gone on the blink!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1974
In the first episode of a two-part story, Alec Morris (John Carter), a terrified computer programmer for Fiscal Dynamics Incorporated, comes to Jim Rockford (James Garner) for help, only to be promptly kindapped. Following up this puzzling incident on behalf of Morris' wife Helen (Priscilla Pointer), Jim finds out that there's a major coverup in the works--and that he is up against some very powerful people who will stop at nothing to prevent him from learning the whole truth. Al Stevenson makes his first series appearance in the recurring role of L.J., an old pal of Jim's dad Rocky (Noah Beery Jr.). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1973
Officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) is in for quite a drubbing from his partner Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and the rest of the police force when he decides to grow a mustache. But the kidding diminishes as the day wears on and the two mobile cops tackle a variety of tough cases during their brief sojourn with the Van Nuys Division. Foremost on the docket tonight is a plane crash in which a passenger is injured, and a scatterbrained female shoplifter. Featured in the cast is Priscilla Pointer, the mother of film star Amy Irving. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1971
This 1971 TV movie remake of the 1934 film of the same name (see the above synopsis) adds little to the original story about Death assuming human form to discover why mankind fears him. In updating the story, the scenarists removed much of the "nobility" of the principal characters--and also a lot of their charm. Melvyn Douglas and Myrna Loy are superb in roles played in 1934 by Sir Guy Standing and Helen Westley, while Monte Markham is okay but nothing more in the old Fredric March role as "Death". Yvette Mimieux is utterly forgettable as the enigmatic Grazia; her wisecracking American friend (originally Gail Patrick) is played by Maureen Reagan, a few years before the daughter of Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman (rather wisely) abandoned acting. Whatever appeal Death Takes a Holiday had in 1934 utterly withers and expires in this halfhearted remake. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1971
Jane Wyman makes her TV-movie debut in The Failing of Raymond. She plays a middle-aged schoolteacher on the verge of retirement. Just before packing up and heading out, she is terrorized by former student Dean Stockwell. Having flunked out of her class ten years earlier, the demented man intends to kill his ex-teacher unless she changes his grade. Talk about your "permanent record"! The Failing of Raymond debuted November 27, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
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