Nancy Walker Movies
The daughter of vaudevillians, 4'11" entertainer Nancy Walker had wanted to establish herself as a serious singer. But when Nancy auditioned for Broadway impresario George Abbott, he burst out laughing at her reading of the line "Is this where the aliens go to register?" and immediately cast her as the hoydenish Blind Date in his 1941 musical production Best Foot Forward. She went on to make her Hollywood debut in the film version of this production, then returned to Broadway, where she skyrocketed to stardom in such productions as On the Town (1944) and Look, Ma, I'm Dancin' (1948). She continued headlining on Broadway throughout the 1950s, occasionally showing up on television variety series, most memorably as the teen-aged president of the Milton Berle fan club. Despite her enormous success as a comedienne, Walker was the archetypal "laughing on the outside, crying on the inside" type in private life, undergoing several years of therapy to purge herself of her insecurities. When theatrical opportunities began drying up in the late 1960s, Nancy relied more and more on television for a living. She was featured as Rosie the waitress in a series of paper-towel commercials ("It's the quicker picker upper"), co-starred as Mildred the maid on MacMillan and Wife (1971-75), and, most memorably, was cast as Ida Morgenstern, the Jewish mama to end all Jewish mamas, on The Mary Tyler Moore Show (1970-77) and Rhoda (1974-78). Though nominated for five Emmies, she never won the coveted statuette, a fact that seemed to bother her husband David Craig (a vocal coach whom she'd met when she lost her voice during Look Ma, I'm Dancing) more than Walker. Banking on her renewed celebrity, she attempted several TV starring vehicles of her own, but none lasted beyond the first season. She had better luck as a stage director, helming such theatrical productions of UTBU and A Pushcart Affair. In 1980, Walker made her film directorial debut with the Village People starrer Can't Stop the Music, produced by her then-manager Alan Carr. Nancy Walker's final regular TV-series stint was on the 1990 Fox Network weekly True Colors; two years later she died of lung cancer at the age of 71. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Glitz producer Allan Carr tries to cash in on the late-'70s disco boom with Can't Stop the Music -- a film of such Brobdingnagian banality that it almost in itself stopped the disco movement cold. Comedienne Nancy Walker directed this musical chronicle, purporting to relate the legend of the formation of the disco group The Village People. Valerie Perrine is Samantha Simpson, a helpful ex-model who attempts to get her roommate, Jack Morrell's (Steve Guttenberg), songwriting career off the ground by assembling a motley group of her Greenwich Village friends (The Village People) together to cut a demo tape of Jack's ditties. All Samantha has to do is charm the square lawyer Ron White (Bruce Jenner) in order to get him to listen to The Village People's scintillating disco strains. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valerie Perrine, Ray Simpson, (more)
- 1978
In this comedy, inspired by Oh, God! and designed as a pilot for a TV series, an ambitious young angel persuades the Almighty to allow seven days to find six good people in Las Vegas. If he cannot, God will destroy the whole town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1976
- PG
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This spoof makes fun of a certain famous German shepherd movie star from the 1920s. The mayhem begins when the head honcho of a financially struggling studio turns a lost dog into a legend. The story features a number of old stars making cameo appearances. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Dern, Madeline Kahn, (more)
As penned by Neil Simon, this satire of movie mysteries is set in motion when several prominent detectives are invited to the mansion of the reclusive Lionel Twain (Truman Capote). In Ten Little Indians fashion, the gathered sleuths are locked into the forbidding mansion, and subject to various death-dealing devices. While struggling for their lives, the vainglorious gumshoes continue to try to one-up one another. Each character is broadly based on a famous literary detective: Sidney Wang (Peter Sellers) is an aphorism-spouting Charlie Chan clone: Dick and Dora Charleston (David Niven and Maggie Smith) are patterned on the protagonists of the Thin Man flicks; Milo Perrier (James Coco), a Hercule Poirot takeoff, stalks through the proceedings declaring "I'm a Belgie, not a Frenchie!"; Sam Diamond (Peter Falk) is Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe and Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade rolled in one; and Jessica Marbles (Elsa Lanchester) is a dottier variation of Agatha Christie's Miss Marple. Best bit: a "conversation" between blind butler Jamessir Bensonmum (Alec Guinness) and deaf-mute maid Yetta (Nancy Walker). The fade-out gag of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson showing up late for Lionel Twain's party was edited from the theatrical version of Murder by Death, but was restored for TV. The film marked the big-screen directorial debut of Robert Moore, who'd previously directed several of Neil Simon's Broadway productions. Moore went on to direct another Simon spoof, The Cheap Detective (1978), before his untimely death. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eileen Brennan, Truman Capote, (more)
- 1975
As McMillan and Wife launched its fifth season, the series remained a rotating component of The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie, along with Columbo, McCloud, and McCoy. Rock Hudson and Susan Saint James reprise their familiar roles as San Francisco police commissioner "Mac" McMillan and his lovely wife Sally in six new episodes, each two hours in length. For starters, Jack Gilford plays a nonagenarian businessman who is targeted for assassination in "The Deadly Inheritance." Next up, the new wife of one of Mac's best friends drops dead on her wedding night in "Requiem for a Bride." In "Aftershock," an earthquakes reveals a dead body bricked up in the wall of the McMillan home. A hospitalized and heavily sedated Mac thinks he has witnessed a murder in "The Deadly Cure." In "Secrets for Sale," Sgt. Enright (John Schuck) quits the police force to get married in the midst of a major political scandal. Martha Raye makes her first series appearance as Agatha, sister of the McMillans' housekeeper, Mildred, in "Greed." And last but far from least, Naval reserve officer Mac returns to active duty to defend a lieutenant on a murder charge in "Point of Law." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Susan Saint James, (more)
- 1975
The made-for-TV Requiem for a Bride opens with San Francisco police commissioner McMillan (Rock Hudson) congratulating an old friend (Henry Darrow) on the friend's recent marriage. McMillan's words ring hollow when the bride (Susan Sullivan) is murdered. Complicating the issue is the growing suspicion that the killer had been gunning for McMillan. Susan St. James costars as "Mac"'s inquisitive spouse, Sally. Requiem for a Bride originated as the October 26, 1975 episode of TV's McMillan and Wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson
The 1975 TV movie Death Scream is based on the shameful Kitty Genovese affair of 1964, in which a N.Y.C. woman was stabbed to death while 38 witnesses locked their windows and doors and pretended not to hear. Raul Julia stars as the detective who investigates the murder and stirs up the guilt feelings of those who refused to help. The film casts celebrity actors in the roles of the witnesses (Diahann Carroll, Cloris Leachman, Lucie Arnaz, Nancy Walker, Art Carney, et al.). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
When Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) signs up for a creative writing course, co-worker Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) sees no reason that he should not do the same. But newsroom boss Lou Grant (Ed Asner) can think of several reasons when Ted begins writing his own news copy -- beginning with a "nightly moment of prayer." But the worst is yet to come when Ted "borrows" a couple of story ideas from Mary's personal reminiscences. "Two Wrongs Don't Make a Write" was originally telecast on February 23, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Still a rotating component of The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (along with Columbo, McCloud and Amy Prentiss) in the fall of 1974, the "domestic detective" series McMillan and Wife offered six new two-hour episodes for its fourth season. The opening episode is "Downshift to Danger," in which San Francisco police commissioner "Mac" McMillan (Rock Hudson) and his charming wife Sally (Susan Saint James) connecting the dots between a mysterious murder and an antique car collection. In "The Game of Survival," Sally is kidnapped (once again!) as Mac tries to find out if a short-tempered tennis champ is also a killer. A former Naval Intelligence colleague of Mac's returns from the dead -- only to promptly die once more -- in "Buried Alive." In "Guilt by Association," the McMillans' housekeeper, Mildred (Nancy Walker), is exposed to danger when she serves on a jury. "Night Train to L.A." is a good, old-fashioned Agatha Christie-style whodunit, as a train heading to a police convention becomes a murder scene. And in the season's last episode "Love, Honor, and Swindle," Mac tries to dissuade his sister (portrayed by Mildred Natwick) from wedding a slick con artist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Susan Saint James, (more)
- 1974
James L. Brooks' Thursday's Game is a witty made-for-television comedy about two businessmen (Bob Newhart and Gene Wilder) who meet every Thursday night to play poker and discuss their professional and personal problems. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Remaining a rotating component of The NBC Sunday Mystery Movie (along with Columbo, McCloud, and Hec Ramsey), the "domestic detective" series McMillan and Wife offered four new 90-minute episodes for its third season. The festivities begin as San Francisco police commissioner Stewart "Mac" McMillan (Rock Hudson) and his wife Sally (Susan Saint James) encounter intrigue during a trip to Scotland in "Death of a Monster...Birth of a Legend." Next on the docket, Sally and the McMillans' housekeeper, Mildred (Nancy Walker), are targeted by a Satan-worshipping cult in "The Devil, You Say." Then, Mac suspects that there's more to the suicide of a business executive than meets the eye in "Free Fall to Terror." And in "Reunion in Terror," someone is systematically bumping off the members of Mac's college football team. In addition to the above-listed episodes, season three of McMillan and Wife features a pair of two-hour episodes: "Man Without a Face" in which Mac tackles the murder of his old friend from military intelligence; and "Cross and Double Cross," featuring Rock Hudson in a dual role as Mac and his look-alike, a murderous mobster. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Susan Saint James, (more)
- 1973
This episode marks the return of Gerald Hiken in the role of pediatrician Bernie Applebaum, previously introduced in the Season Two entry "In 25 Words or Less". Making a concerted effort to win the hand and heart of Shirley Partridge (Shirley Jones), Dr. Applebaum succeeds only in making a nuisance of himself--with the assistance of his overbearing mother, played by the ubiquitous Nancy Walker). The Partridge kids try to save their mom from Bernie's unwanted attentions by pretending to be a bunch of spoiled brats! Song: "One Day at a Time". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
- PG
Adapted by Jay Presson Allen from the French farce by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy, Forty Carats is a standard-issue sex comedy elevated by the performances of its stars. Fortyish Realtor Ann Stanley (Liv Ullman) finds herself attracted to Peter Latham (Edward Albert) - a man literally half her age. After a summer fling in Greece, Ann and Peter come to a parting of the ways, and that, Ann supposes, is that. Imagine her surprise when Peter comes to visit her back in New York. Though at first dismissed as a fortune hunter, Peter turns out to a financial whiz with a lot more in the bank than his lady friend. Both Ann's mother (Binnie Barnes, whose husband Mike Frankovich produced the film) and daughter (Deborah Raffin) are delighted at the prospect of Ann's romance with Peter -- the only one unsure is Ann herself. Lending his considerable comic expertise to Forty Carats is Gene Kelly as Liv Ullman's ex-husband-who also takes a liking to the personable Edward Albert and encourages the May-December romance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liv Ullmann, Edward Albert, (more)
One of the best of the early-1970s Disney farces, The World's Greatest Athlete stars Jan-Michael Vincent in the title role. A "wild boy" living off the land in the jungles of Africa, Vincent is discovered by coaches Tim Conway and John Amos. Cursed with a last-place college athletic lineup, Conway and Amos hope that Vincent will pull them out of their years-long slump. And he does, but not before several Disneyesque slapstick highlights, not to mention a handful of amusing special-effects gags (at one point, Conway is shrunk to mouse size by witch doctor Roscoe Lee Browne). Despite its formidable lineup of comedians-Conway, Billy DeWolfe, Nancy Walker, Vito Scotti et. al.--The World's Greatest Athlete's funniest line goes to guest star Howard Cosell! The script is the handiwork of Gerald Gardner and Dee Caruso, late of That Was the Week That Was and Get Smart. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Conway, Jan-Michael Vincent, (more)
- 1973
Still reeling over the breakup of his marriage, Lou (Edward Asner) begins dropping over for dinner at Mary's apartment -- practically every night of the week, Sundays included. Though sympathetic to Lou's plight, Mary (Mary Tyler Moore) would do just about anything to get rid of him. And in this case, "just about anything" amounts to stage-managing a reconciliation between Lou and his wife, Edie (Priscilla Morrill). Directed by frequent series guest star Nancy Walker, "Just Friends" first aired on November 24, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Seven 90-minute episodes of McMillan and Wife are served up during the series' second season as a rotating component of The NBC Mystery Movie. For the record, its "companion" series this season included Columbo, McCloud, and Hec Ramsey. In the opener, "The Night of the Wizard," San Francisco police commissioner Stewart "Mac" McMillan is aided in solving a murder case -- by the ghost of the victim! In "Blues for Sally M, Mac's lovely wife Sally (Susan Saint James) finds herself in trouble via her connection with a hard-luck musician. Next up, Mac's assistant Sgt. Enright (John Schuck) is accused of murdering his new wife just as he is receiving an award in "Cop of the Year." The remaining season two episodes include "Terror Times Two," in which Mac is abducted and replaced by his exact look-alike, a mob hitman; "No Hearts, No Flowers," wherein Sally is apparently targeted for death by a stalker; "The Fine Art of Staying Alive," with Mac being forced to surrender a valuable painting to rescue a kidnapped (but as it turns out, far from helpless) Sally; and the season finale, "Two Dollars on Trouble to Win," in which William Demarest plays the owner of a thoroughbred stable who is being victimized by some highly suspicious accidents. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Susan Saint James, (more)
- 1972
According to this cookie-cutter TV movie, every man needs a woman to put down his rampant chauvinism. Ken Berry is a swinging architect (yes, he has long sideburns) who doesn't believe that women should work. Enter Connie Stevens, a highly intelligent young lady whom Berry reluctantly hires as an assistant. There's lots of talk about women's liberation, but note how most of the liberated ladies wear miniskirts and go-go boots. Every Man Needs One is inexorably a product of the early 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
- PG
This gag-filled movie makes a stab at examining the women's liberation movement but never quite gets there. The effects of the movement are shown through a series of comic and romantic episodes between men and women. The story is loosely tied together as the research of Sheila Hammond (Jacqueline Bisset), a fashion magazine editor who is preparing an article on women's liberation. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Although McMillan and Wife had been introduced as a two-hour TV movie, Once Upon a Dead Man, on September 17, 1971, the series proper did not get underway under 12 days later, as one of the rotating components (along with McCloud and Columbo) of The NBC Mystery Movie. Having long resisted any sort of TV-series commitments, Rock Hudson nonetheless looks quite at home in the role of San Francisco police commissioner Stewart "Mac" McMillan, as does Susan Saint James as Mac's insatiably curious young wife, Sally. In the first of the seven 90-minute season one episodes, "Murder in the Barrel," Sally has trouble convincing the cops that she has found a dead body in a barrel full of crockery while moving into the MacMillan's luxurious new home. The next episode, "The Easter Sunday Murder Case," involves Mac and Sally in a double kidnapping -- with one of the victims being a pampered pet dog! In "Husbands, Wives and Killers," the MacMillans vainly try to prevent the theft of a priceless necklace during a masquerade ball. A clue to a crime is found stuffed inside a football in "Death is a Seven-Point Favorite." Sally is targeted for extermination by a jewel thief who thinks she "knows too much" in "The Face of Murder." While housekeeper Mildred (Nancy Walker) is away, the McMillans are sealed inside their own booby-trapped house in "'Til Death Do Us Part." And in the season's final offering, "An Elementary Case of Murder," the McMillans are swept up into a homicide investigation by an old flame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Susan Saint James, (more)
- 1971
The Davises are surprised when housekeeper Emily (Nancy Walker) announces that she has other plans on the night of her son Jim's graduation ball. Eventually, it is revealed that Emily is staying away from the ceremony because she doesn't want to embarrass Jim (Peter Duryea): She has no date, she owns no formal clothes, and she can't dance. Assuming the role of "Fairy Godmother", Buffy (Anissa Jones) comes to the rescue of "Cinder-Emily" by pulling all sorts of strings, including maneuvering Mr French (Sebastian Cabot) into serving as Emily's escort--but there are surprises in store for one and all before the stroke of twelve! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
