Ruth Gordon Movies

In Roman Polanski's first American film, adapted from Ira Levin's horror bestseller, a young wife comes to believe that her offspring is not of this world. Waifish Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) and her struggling actor husband, Guy (John Cassavetes), move into the Bramford, an old New York City apartment building with an ominous reputation and only elderly residents. Neighbors Roman and Minnie Castevet (Sidney Blackmer and Ruth Gordon) soon come nosing around to welcome the Woodhouses to the building; despite Rosemary's reservations about their eccentricity and the weird noises that she keeps hearing, Guy starts spending time with the Castevets. Shortly after Guy lands a plum Broadway role, Minnie starts showing up with homemade chocolate mousse for Rosemary. When Rosemary becomes pregnant after a mousse-provoked nightmare of being raped by a beast, the Castevets take a special interest in her welfare. As the sickened Rosemary becomes increasingly isolated, she begins to suspect that the Castevets' circle is not what it seems. The diabolical truth is revealed only after Rosemary gives birth, and the baby is taken away from her. Polanski's camerawork and Richard Sylbert's production design transform the realistic setting (shot on-location in Manhattan's Dakota apartment building) into a sinister projection of Rosemary's fears, chillingly locating supernatural horror in the familiar by leaving the most grotesque frights to the viewer's imagination. This apocalyptic yet darkly comic paranoia about the hallowed institution of childbirth touched a nerve with late-'60s audiences feeling uneasy about traditional norms. Produced by B-horror maestro William Castle, Rosemary's Baby became a critically praised hit, winning Gordon an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. Inspiring a wave of satanic horror from The Exorcist (1973) to The Omen (1976), Rosemary's Baby helped usher in the genre's modern era by combining a supernatural story with Alfred Hitchcock's propensity for finding normality horrific. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

This 1977 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Ruth Gordon and features musical guest Chuck Berry. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide

The Actress is based on Years Ago, one of several autobiographies by actress/playwright Ruth Gordon. Jean Simmons stars as blossoming teenager Ruth Gordon Jones, who is determined to become a famous stage star despite the objections of her stubborn ex-sea captain father Clinton Jones (Spencer Tracy). Papa wants Ruth to become a physical-education instructor, but she wants none of this. With the covert help of her understanding mother (Teresa Wright), Ruth seeks out stage work--any stage work. Ultimately, it is Papa who dips into the Jones family's limited coffers to bankroll his daughter's first big break. The Actress represented the movie debut of Anthony Perkins, here cast as Ruth Gordon Jones' gawky boyfriend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Made for television, The Great Houdinis tells the life story of famed American illusionist/escape-artist Harry Houdini and his wife Bess. Studiously avoiding covering the same ground as the 1953 Houdini theatrical-film biopic, director Mel Shavelson's script for Great Houdinis spends a great deal of time on the conflict between Harry's Catholic wife Bess and his Jewish mother. The spiritualism angle so important to the Houdini story allows the 1976 film to recreate Houdini's meetings with "true believer" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Again departing from the 1953 Houdini, this later film does not end with Houdini's death from peritonitis in 1926; instead, we watch as the widowed Bess desperately tries to make contact with her husband in the "other world," all the while debunking phony mediums, just as her husband had done. Paul Michael Glaser and Sally Struthers star as the Houdinis, with Ruth Gordon as Harry's mother Mrs. Weiss, Peter Cushing as Conan Doyle, Jack Carter as Houdini's brother, Adrienne Barbeau as his mistress, Nina Foch as a medium, and Vivian Vance as the all-around best friend/severest critic, who narrates the film. The Great Houdinis first aired on October 8, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Prince of Central Park is 11-year-old Jay Jay (T. J. Hargrave). An orphan from Hell's Kitchen who has been shunted from one foster home to another, Jay Jay is conditioned to despise, or at the very least distrust, all adults and authority figures. Running off to Central Park, Jay Jay and his kid sister Laurie (Lisa Richard) set up housekeeping in an abandoned treehouse. There they remain, cut off from the adult world, until a third "outcast" joins them: Mrs. Miller (Ruth Gordon), a lonely widow with a boundless capacity for loving, giving, and caring. First telecast June 17, 1977, the made-for-TV Prince of Central Park was adapted by Jeb Rosebrook from a novel by Evan H. Rhodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Try and Catch Me could easily be the title of any episode of the TV series Columbo. It so happens, however, that this particular installment aired on June 23, 1978. Ruth Gordon guest stars as a popular mystery writer who turns one of her own plots into reality by bumping off her hateful nephew. She knows that Lt. Columbo (Peter Falk) is on to her, but she's counting on her own literary knowhow to throw him off the trail. Fat chance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When a collection of alien rock stars descend to earth, a young teenage couple finds themselves caught up in an unusual adventure. The film was shelved for quite some time, hence the presence of octogenarian Ruth Gordon, who died in 1985. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Director Carl Reiner, most closely associated with the homey values of situation comedies, shocked, surprised, and (in some cases) delighted his admirers with the jet-black comedy Where's Poppa?. George Segal plays Gordon Hocheiser, a New York attorney whose love life is constantly being sabotaged by his senile mother (Ruth Gordon), who constantly asks the question of the title. (She doesn't realize Poppa is dead). Every time Gordon has a prospective bride or lover lined up, Mrs. Hocheiser gums up the works with her insane behavior. The attorney at last finds a kindred spirit in the beautiful caregiver Louise Callan (Trish VanDevere), who has likewise been a victim of someone else's eccentricities (her first husband used the conjugal bed as his own personal toilet). When Mrs. Hocheiser chases Louise away like she has all the others, Gordon begins entertaining notions of killing his mother. In desperation, Gordon begs his brother Sidney (Ron Leibman) to take his mother off his hands, which leads to several comic vignettes in deliriously bad taste. The film's incest-themed original ending (trimmed from the video version but still included in cable prints) finds Gordon climbing into bed with Mrs. Hocheiser, only to be greeted with a "Here's Poppa." The celebrated "tush scene," wherein Mrs. Hocheiser bites Gordon on his bare backside while Louise looks on in horror, packed a real wallop back in the early '70s, as did a courtroom scene involving a disgruntled hippie (Rob Reiner) and a psychotic U.S. general who graphically describes his homicidal acts against the Vietnamese. Though Carl Reiner would continue to "push the envelope" in his later films (Steve Martin as a "poor black child"? George Burns as God?) he would never again attempt anything as risky as Where's Poppa?. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide