Milton Berle Movies

Seven in Darkness has the distinction of being the first made-for-TV "ABC Movie of the Week." The "seven" are all blind people, passengers on a flight en route to a convention for the visually impaired. The plane crashes, forcing the sightless seven to struggle for survival in the hostile wilderness. Arthur O'Connell is given "special guest star" billing, a reliable tip-off as to which of the seven dies first. The rest of the party includes Dina Merrill, Barry Nelson, Sean Garrison, Milton Berle, Alejandro Rey and Lesley Ann Warren. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sparrows, Mary Pickford's 1926 release, superbly combines the two elements--sentiment and adventure--that characterized Pickford's best work. At first glance, the film seems to be a horror picture, as satanic potato farmer Grimes (Gustav Von Seyfertitz) crushes a child's doll with his thumb and forefinger and tosses the plaything into the dismal swamps surrounding his lands. We learn that Grimes has been exploiting the children from a local orphanage, forcing them to work his farm day and night. Though collecting a hefty maintenance pay for the orphans, Grimes dresses them in rags and feeds them a starvation diet. Happily, Mary Pickford, the oldest of the orphans, has enough gumption to stand up to Grimes and prohibit him from inflicting any further atrocities. The plot thickens when a kidnaped child is left in Grimes' care in exchange for a generous portion of the ransom money. Mary rescues the abducted child, as well as all the other orphans, by leading them through the alligator-infested and quicksand-festooned swamp--a truly frightening sequence, made even more so by the use of real gators. Sparrows falters only in those scenes where Pickford, with genuine but somewhat misguided piety, "converses" with the Almighty, and in the final motorboat-chase sequence, which seems prolonged (and unnecessary!) after that heart-pounding swamp escape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A trip to the attic of his new house lands young Brandon and his loyal dog in a magical world ruled by a wicked queen. There he meets a captive prince and vows to help the youthful prince relocate a powerful sword and prevent it from falling into the queen's greedy hands. This fantasy adventure is aimed at younger audiences. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Cesar Romero plays an outwardly tough prohibition-era gangster who in reality wouldn't hurt a fly. He maintains his "killer" reputation by planting evidence of his involvement at the scenes of other crooks' crimes. Romero begins aspiring for respectability when he falls in love with Virginia Gilmore and adopts the orphaned Stanley Clements. Through his own non-homicidal means, Romero redeems himself by wiping out a genuinely nasty gangster boss (Sheldon Leonard). Tall, Dark and Handsome was remade in 1950 as Love That Brute, with Paul Douglas in the Cesar Romero role--and with Romero playing the villain! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Milton Berle stars as jeweler Sam Morris, who is forced to kill a teenaged thief. Already grief-stricken by the incident, Morris is further tormented by the dead boy's vengeful sister (Carol Lawrence). She pretends to soften in order to allow Sam to think he's fallen in love with her--all part of her cruel scheme to hold up Sam to ridicule and humiliation. As good as Carol Lawrence is in her change-of-pace role, Milton Berle is even better; in fact, his portrayal of Sam Morris represents some of Berle's finest noncomic work. That He Should Weep for Her originally aired as a 60-minute entry of Kraft Suspense Theatre on November 5, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The big news during The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air's fourth season is the arrival of new cast member Daphne Maxwell Reid, replacing Janet Hubert-Whitten in the role of Vivian Banks, the wealthy but down-to-earth aunt of wise-guy West Philly transplant Will Smith (Will Smith). Otherwise, the rest of the main cast is pretty much the same, with Will continuing to enrich and sometimes complicate the lives of his rich Bel-Air relatives, including Vivian's lawyer husband Philip (James Avery), their mild-mannered son Carlton (Alfonso Ribeiro), their trend-conscious daughters, Hilary (Karyn Parsons) and Ashley (Tatyana M. Ali), and their new baby son Nicholas (who would grow up real fast within the next year or so). Also on hand, as ever, is the Banks family's devastatingly sardonic butler Geoffrey (Joseph Marcell). It is during this season that Will and Carlton graduate from high school and begin attending the University of Los Angeles. To celebrate their "independence," the boys move into their new pad -- which turns out to be the pool house on the Banks family's Bel-Air estate. In another development, Will is reunited with his ex-girlfriend from West Philadelphia, Jackie Ames (Tyra Banks). An unusually high number of guest stars grace this season. Among them are Hugh Hefner in the episode "Fresh Prince After Dark," Branford Marsalis in "Sleepless in Bel-Air" and "Stop Will in the Name of Love," Robert Guillaume in "You'd Better Shop Around," Pam Grier in "M Is for the Many Things She Gave Me," Ben Vereen (as Will's long-missing father) in "Papa's Got a Brand-New Excuse," Donald Trump in "For Sale By Owner," and Dick Clark in "The Philadelphia Story." Though the last-named episode was originally intended as the series finale with Will leaving Bel-Air and returning home to Philadelphia, The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air was renewed for a fifth season at the very last moment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Legend of Valentino is a TV-shorthand retelling of the life and loves of legendary silent screen star Rudolph Valentino, here portrayed by Franco Nero. This TV movie was advertised as "romantic fiction," which was just as well since its only nods to the truth are the basic facts of Valentino's enormous screen fame and the national hysteria attending his early death in 1926 of peritonitis. Typical of Legend of Valentino's fabrications is the depiction of Valentino's first meeting with his future mentor, screenwriter June Mathis (played by Suzanne Pleshette). In real life, Mathis discovered Valentino by watching him play a string of supporting roles; in Legend, she confronts him in her living room while he's burglarizing her house! Despite its historical shortcomings, Legend of Valentino is a lot better than the 1951 and 1977 biopics of the "Latin Lover." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The satire in Evelyn Waugh's darkly comic novel The Loved One was originally double-edged. The book was not only an attack on the Southern California funeral industry but also a lampoon of Hollywood's "British colony," those clannish, cricket-playing English actors of years gone by who bemoaned the artificiality of Tinseltown while eagerly accepting the demeaning and insignificant movie roles they were offered. The film version of The Loved One, anxious to live up to its ad-campaign promise of containing "something to offend everybody," downplays the British-colony business (save for the presence of the magnificent Robert Morley) and pumps up the "death" gags. Innocent British poet Dennis Barlow (Robert Morse) falls in love with funeral-home cosmetician Aimee Thanatogenos (Anjanette Comer), who in turn is loved by prissy funeral director Mr. Joyboy (Rod Steiger). The latter lives with his obese mother (Ayllene Gibbons), whose eating sequence is far more hilarious (and more tasteless) than many of the film's calculatedly "black" jokes. A huge guest-star cast is headed by Jonathan Winters in a dual role as a funeral home manager and his covetous twin brother, who operates an elaborate pet cemetery. Musician Paul Williams is also on hand as a 13-year-old aeronautics genius who develops a method of sending corpses into "eternal orbit" (a plot device that Waugh neglected to include in his novel). Film historian William K. Everson has commented that The Loved One is one of the best and most underrated comedies of the 1960s. For others, especially those who might feel guilty chuckling at the sight of Anjanette Comer committing suicide with an embalming needle, it's purely a matter of taste...or lack of same. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In preparation for a dramatic movie role, comedian Milton Berle shows up at a skid-row soup kitchen disguised as an alcoholic bum. (He's got tea in his wine bottle, explaining "I'm not a wino -- I'm a tea-o." Barrump-bump!) Doing volunteer work at the soup kitchen, Lucy (Lucille Ball) spots Berle and is convinced that he's a genuine derelict. To throw her off the track, the comedian explains that he's really "Arthur Berle," the down-and-out twin brother of Milton Berle. Swallowing the story whole, Lucy takes "Arthur" home in hopes of rehabilitating the poor man. To quote Mr. Berle, "I'w kiww you a miwwion times" if you give away the ending of this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear, from of the large crew of loveably fuzzy characters created by puppetmaster Jim Henson, have embarked on a quest for stardom. They take a trip to Hollywood, riding in or on a wide variety of vehicles along the way. They begin their journey on a bicycle pedalled by Kermit, but friends accumulate along the way, and they change vehicles to accomodate them. They have the additional challenge of fending off the entreaties of the heartless Doc Hopper (Charles Durning), who wants Kermit to make some advertisements promoting fried frog legs. Kermit must also cope with his amorous feelings for Miss Piggy, and hers for him. This appealing children's adventure movie has numerous scenes which do homage to classic films, and features a huge cast of Hollywood greats, from Edgar Bergen to Orson Welles, in cameo roles. A great box-office success, this movie paved the way for a number of sequels. One of the film's many songs, The Rainbow Connection, was nominated for an Oscar. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

This somewhat offbeat 30-minute cartoon special was originally part of Cinar's The Real Story of... anthology, wherein the histories of such popular songs as "O Christmas Tree" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" were recounted in a highly fanciful fashion. On this occasion, Milton Berle provides the voice of the evil Prince of Darkness, who despises sunlight and especially moonlight. Hoping to plunge the world into eternal night, the Prince casts a spell over Pierrot, guardian of the moon, sending the poor fellow into a deep, deep slumber. Pierrot's pal, Marvin, realizes that the only person who can save Pierrot and restore the moonlight is a young boy named Jamie -- who, alas, is so scared of the dark that he dares not venture from his home. First seen on Canadian television, Au Clair de la Lune made its U.S. cable bow via the HBO service on January 15, 1994. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This television documentary chronicles the career of Spike Jones, a talented musical satirist who had audiences of the '50s rolling in the aisles as he and his City Slickers committed inventive forms of musical murder on some of America's most beloved songs. Archival footage from performances during the early '50s, coupled with interviews of former band members and Jones' family, round out the show. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide