Carol Cole Movies
- 1975
Feeling out of place and neglected, Grady (Whitman Mayo) decides to move out of his old Watts neighborhood. He is immediately installed in the fashionable Westwood home of his daughter Ellie (Carol Cole), his son-in-law Hal (Joe Morton), and his grandchildren Laurie (Rosanne Katon) and Haywood (Haywood Nelson). The result: Poor Grady feels even more like a "fifth wheel" than ever before. Originally telecast as the final episode of Sanford and Son's fourth season, "The Family Man" was actually the pilot for Whitman Mayo's short-lived spin-off series Grady. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson, (more)
- 1974
- R
- Add The Taking of Pelham One Two Three to QueueAdd The Taking of Pelham One Two Three to top of Queue
On a quiet midday in New York, along the Lexington Avenue subway line, the train designated "Pelham One Two Three" -- so named for its station of origin and time of departure -- makes its way down the East Side of Manhattan. One by one, three men board the train, and at 28th Street, a fourth man approaches the motorman (James Broderick) and points a pistol at him, ordering him to unlock the door to his cab and admit the man waiting there; meanwhile, another man points a gun at the conductor and threatens to kill him unless he holds the doors open and then closes them when the man talking to the motorman is aboard. Once on board, "Mr. Blue" (Robert Shaw) and "Mr. Green" (Martin Balsam) halt the train between stations, while "Mr. Brown" (Earl Hindeman) and "Mr. Gray" (Hector Elizondo) seal off the lead car. With Mr. Green at the controls, the front car is separated and isolated in the tunnel with 17 passengers aboard, and then Mr. Blue presents their demands over the radio: one million dollars in cash, within one hour, or they will start shooting one passenger each minute. On the other end, Transit Police Lieutenant Zachary Garber (Walter Matthau) must overcome his initial disbelief to deal with this threat, amid the confusion of a subway system that's chaotic even when it's running normally. With the mayor reluctantly aboard to pay the ransom, Garber must keep the hijackers from carrying out their threat while the money is transported, and keep the hotheads around him and on the police force under control -- and figure out how they intend to get away with a million dollars from inside a subway tunnel with police on all sides. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Matthau, Robert Shaw, (more)
- 1970
- PG
Nina (Melina Mercouri) is a former silent-film star from Russia who abandons her career to care for her son. She is a single mother -- the boy's father is a famous actor who wants nothing to do with either Nina or her child. She joins an acting troupe where she impersonates a famous French fashion designer, but she leaves the group in Krakow, Poland, when her true identity is discovered. She travels to France, taking several odd jobs in Nice to support her son. When the boy grows to young adulthood, he is recruited to fight during World War II for the French and later the British. He is decorated for valor and returns to locate his estranged mother after two years have passed. Upon arriving home, he finds that his mother had died several years earlier but that she meticulously wrote over 250 letters to give her son moral support and encouragement in the years to come. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melina Mercouri, Didier Haudepin, (more)
- 1969
- R
In this horror tale, Ellen Hardy (Stella Stevens) shares a home with widow Gladys Armstrong (Shelley Winters). Ellen is engaged to marry Gladys' stepson, Sam Aller (Skip Ward). Ellen receives word that her brother and sister are soon to be released from a mental institution and need a place to stay; Ellen asks Gladys if they can live with them, and Gladys agrees. But Ellen hasn't told Gladys the whole truth. It seems that the siblings were institutionalized because their parents were murdered, and it was widely believed that they were responsible (though their guilt in the crime could not be proven). Not long after the now-teenage brother and sister move in with Ellen and Gladys, Gladys finds out about their secret -- and she is soon discovered brutally murdered. The kids, however, both claim that they had nothing to do with Gladys' death, and that the other must have done it. In the meantime, Ellen has to dispose of the body without raising suspicion, but after Ellen buries the corpse in the garden, the dog digs up a severed hand, and now Ellen must make sure the dog doesn't give away her family's ugly secret. The original version of The Mad Room included two songs by the pop group Nazz, which included songwriter, guitarist, and producer Todd Rundgren several years before he reached stardom as a solo artist; due to licensing restrictions, the songs do not appear on all video releases of the film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stella Stevens, Shelley Winters, (more)
George (Gary Lockwood) is a disillusioned 26-year-old who has just quit his stifling job. He lives in Los Angeles with an aspiring young actress named Gloria (Alexandra Hay), who is none too pleased with his recent unemployment. Hanging over his head is the constant threat of repossession of his car and the virtual certainty that he will be drafted into the army. He sees a beautiful woman in a big car and follows her to her home in the Hollywood hills. A rock-star friend loans him money for a car and he follows the mystery woman to a photography shop. Lola (Anouk Aimée) is an older French model who poses for photographs to pay the bills. After he takes pictures of her, he begins to fall in love with the woman. Gloria discovers the pictures and throws George out of the house. He returns to the model and the two have conversation over drinks before ending up in bed together. Lola wishes to return home to be with her young son and is reluctant to get involved in a relationship. George's relationship with Gloria ends when she leaves him over her failure to understand his motivations. He resigns himself to the fact he will be drafted and probably end up dead in a Vietnam rice paddy in this story of a young man in search of the greater meaning of life. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anouk Aimée, Gary Lockwood, (more)
Columbia Pictures tried to create a tongue-in-cheek American James Bond with this, the first of five motion pictures based on the character of Matt Helm, a spy created in a series of novels by Donald Hamilton. Dean Martin stars as Helm, a boozing, womanizing cad of a spy coaxed out of retirement by ex-girlfriend Tina Batori (Daliah Lavi). His mission: stop the evil Big O organization, whose leader, Tung-Tze (Victor Buono), schemes to sabotage an atomic missile and thus spark World War III. Producer Irving Allen had once been partners with Albert R. Broccoli in the British film production company Warwick Films, their alliance ironically disintegrating over the merits of creating a Bond series. When Broccoli's instincts proved correct, Allen attempted to create his own spy franchise with the Helm character. The sequels to The Silencers (1966) were Murderers' Row (1966), The Ambushers (1967), and The Wrecking Crew (1968). Allen unsuccessfully tried to resurrect the character as a TV movie, Matt Helm (1975). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dean Martin, Stella Stevens, (more)
