Sandy Dennis Movies
With her distinctive, some say irritating, high-pitched voice, her nervous mannerisms, and her tendency to stammer and mutter her way through lines, Sandy Dennis was one of the most easily recognizable serious actresses of stage and screen during the '60s and '70s. Dennis started out appearing in community theater and then moved to New York where she studied at the Actors Studio where she became a staunch proponent of Method acting. In 1961, Dennis made her film debut with a supporting role in Elia Kazan's romantic melodrama Splendor in the Grass. Dennis spent the next few years on Broadway winning two successive Tony Awards two years in a row for her performances in A Thousand Clowns and Any Wednesday. In 1966, she made an auspicious sophomore film appearance playing the chirpy, naïve sexpot wife of young college professor George Segal in Mike Nichol's gut-wrenching marital drama Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf? (1966), which starred Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. The role won Dennis an Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress and was to influence most of her subsequent roles by getting her somewhat typecast as bewildered young women who manage to be both tough and vulnerable. In 1967, she played another memorable role as a new school teacher trying to help students in one of NYC's worst schools in Up the Down Staircase. Though her career as a movie star held great promise, Dennis primarily remained a stage actress and by the mid-'70s, she worked less frequently in films. Dennis did, however, briefly return to prominence in the early '80s after appearing in such films as Alan Alda's The Four Seasons (1981) and Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean (1982). Afterwards, she basically disappeared from films until 1988 when she made a memorable cameo as a cynical alcoholic actress in Woody Allen's Another Woman. Dennis made her final appearance playing a cameo role in actor Sean Penn's directorial debut Indian Runner in 1991. At the time, the 54-year-old Dennis was battling ovarian cancer; it was a battle she lost the following year. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This underrated teen-revenge horror film starring Stephen Geoffreys (Fright Night) was the directorial debut of Robert Englund, best known as Freddy Krueger in the Nightmare on Elm Street series. Geoffreys plays Hoax, a picked-on nerd who lives with his religious-nut mother Lucy (the marvelous Sandy Dennis). One day Hoax calls a 976-line for a "Horrorscope," and the demonic voice at the other end starts giving him wicked advice. Before long, he has killed his brother's girlfriend with tarantulas, slashed the face of a teen tough with his newly-sprouted talons, and gutted several of his tormentors. Only a well-meaning journalist and a sexy schoolmarm can stop the now-demonic Hoax before he sends the whole neighborhood straight to Hell. Granted, the screenplay is rather confused and slow-moving, but Geoffreys and Dennis are great, the effects work by Kevin Yagher is skillful, and this is one of the few teen-horror films with characters that are actually interesting. Look for Robert Picardo (The Howling) in a fun cameo as the diabolical Mark Darke. After a brief stint as a teen star, Geoffreys went on to appear in gay porn films as "Sam Ritter." ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Geoffreys, Jim Metzler, (more)
Grad-school administrative head Marion Post (Gena Rowlands) is in the midst of writing a book. The walls are thin in the apartment she's taken for work purposes, and soon Marion begins listening to the sessions conducted by her neighbor, an analyst. One of the patients is Hope (Mia Farrow), whose marriage is in tatters. As Hope prattles on, Marion begins flashing back to highlights (and lowlights) of her own marriage. Her musings are constantly interrupted by the memory of the man (Gene Hackman) she'd once ardently loved. Later on, chance encounters with old friends force Marion to face the fact that she has lived her life sheltering herself from her true emotions. Director Woody Allen's career-long indebtedness to Ingmar Bergman is underlined in Another Woman via Bergman's frequent cinematographer Sven Nykvist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gena Rowlands, Mia Farrow, (more)
- 1982
- PG
Robert Altman directed this low-budget film version of the play by Ed Graczyk, also directed by Altman on Broadway with the same cast. The film takes place in the small Texas town of McCarthy in 1975. Inside of a five-and-dime store, a reunion is planned for the members of a local 1950s James Dean fan club. An odd assortment of women arrive, revealing hidden secrets, as Altman flashes back, showing the women as young James Dean fans, and then jumps forward to present day to reveal the ravages of time and lost innocence. Among the women returning for the reunion is Mona (Sandy Dennis), a disturbed woman who, in the '50s, got a job as an extra on the Giant shoot and nine months later gave birth to a son, who she claims is James Dean's child. There is Sissy (Cher), a wisecracking waitress, and also Joanne (Karen Black), who holds a shocking secret that is revealed at the reunion. Besides the three main players, a collection of supporting characters maneuver around the periphery. They are Stella Mae (Kathy Bates), the wife of a rich petroleum executive; Edna Louise (Marta Heflin), a shy, withdrawn woman with numerous children; Juanita (Sudie Bond), the manager of the five-and-dime store; and Joe Qualley (Mark Patton), a young man who likes to dress up in women's clothing. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandy Dennis, Cher, (more)
- 1978
In this entry from the "Police Story" series of police dramas, bank robbers have taken five hostages in a besieged skyscraper. It is up to the SWAT negotiator to see to their safe release. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Released theatrically as God Told Me To, this inventive film from "B"-movie auteur Larry Cohen was later re-named Demon after television distributors refused to air it under the original title. The convoluted, tabloid-flavored storyline (predating the kind of stories frequently featured on The X-Files) involves a series of motiveless murders committed by various New York residents: a sniper picks off targets from a water tower; a mild-mannered father murders his entire family; and a cop (Andy Kaufman, of all people) opens fire during a St. Patrick's Day parade. The only consistent pattern to the crimes involves the perpetrators' calm admissions of guilt, explaining, "God told me to." While investigating the murders, devoutly-Catholic police detective Peter Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco) is increasingly troubled by evidence of a Christ-like figure named Bernard Phillips (Richard Lynch) who appeared to each of the killers and can't seem to shake the feeling that his own fate is inexplicably linked to this mysterious being. As he comes closer to the truth, his worst fears are confirmed -- particularly after a telling conversation with Bernard's tormented mother (Sylvia Sidney), who reveals the horrifying secret of her son's unnatural birth. Cohen has often used the "B"-movie format to address rather lofty concepts, and this is certainly no exception -- tackling no less than the existence of God and the nature of human beliefs -- but clumsy editing and an outrageous FX-heavy finale tend to obscure this film's unique vision. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1974
A meek and mild mailman decides that the only way to escape the constant nagging of his battle-ax of a wife is to turn himself into the title tree in this off-beat fantasy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Robards, Jr., Sandy Dennis, (more)
- 1976
An all-star female cast (Glenda Jackson, Melina Mecouri, Geraldine Page, Sandy Dennis, Anne Jackson, Anne Meara, and Dame Edith Evans) enliven this satirical treatment of the Nixon Watergate scandal, Nasty Habits -- based on Muriel Sparks's novella The Abbess of Crewe. When a dying abbess (Dame Edith Evans) of a Pennsylvania convent is ready to name Sister Alexandra (Glenda Jackson) as her successor, Sister Alexandra and her two flunkies (Sandy Dennis and Anne Jackson) try to get the abbess to sign a document of intent. But their plans are dashed when liberal Sister Felicity (Susan Penhaligon) arrives and wants to change the institution. Her arrival delays the signing of the document of intent, and before the abbess can sign the paper she dies.Now the job of running the convent is up for grabs, with Sister Alexandra employing Nixon-like techniques of surveillance and dirty tricks to get the goods on Sister Felicity. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Glenda Jackson, Melina Mercouri, (more)
- 1989
- R
In this bizarre and very black comedy set in 1950s suburbia, Michael Laemle (Bryan Madorsky) comes to suspect that his conventional parents (Randy Quaid and Mary Beth Hurt) have a little secret which they have kept from him. Nothing too major - - just that they happen to be cannibals. It seems that Dad has been bringing home some extra meat from his place of work, a mortuary. As the lad grows ever more hysterical, he confesses his suspicions to the school psychologist (Sandy Dennis). She ridicules his notions and even comes to the house to show him how foolish he's being. Instead, she becomes an entree in the next family dinner, as Michael's parents attempt to indoctrinate him into their odd lifestyle. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Randy Quaid, Mary Beth Hurt, (more)
- 1978
We're not sure who the gentlemen are in this TV movie adaptation of Nora Ephron's Perfect Gentlemen, but there's no doubt as to the identity of the ladies. The plot revolves around three convict's wives. Sandy Dennis owns a bankrupt deli; Lisa Pelikan is pregnant and broke; and Lauren Bacall (in her TV movie debut) is the wealthy wife of an incarcerated labor leader, who has just learned that her husband was cheating on her. Teaming up, the three ladies plan to steal the million dollars that was supposed to secure the release of Bacall's errant hubby. Along for the ride is Lisa Pelikan's mother-in-law Ruth Gordon, a veteran safecracker. Perfect Gentlemen sags a bit a midpoint, but overall is good underhanded fun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
A young Steven Spielberg helmed the made-for-TV Something Evil. Johnny Whitaker (Family Affair) is cast as Stevie Worden, an angelic child whose parents move into a foreboding Pennsylvania mansion. It isn't long before Stevie is possessed with the house's resident demonic spirit. In anticipation of The Exorcist and The Omen, the spirit within Stevie never lets anyone know when it's going to strike -- but everyone knows full well when it does. Spielberg evokes horror throughout by contrasting the most terrifying events with the plodding commonplace of day-to-day life. Something Evil was Spielberg's last TV-movie assignment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
1961's premiere "date" movie represented the screen debut of Warren Beatty. Set in the 1920s, William Inge's screenplay concerns the superheated romance between working-class high schooler Natalie Wood and rich kid Beatty. Trying their best to keep their relationship from going "all the way," Beatty and Wood go through a series of unsatisfying interim romances. The troubled Wood attempts suicide and is sent to a mental institution, while Beatty impregnates freewheeling waitress Zohra Lampert. Wood and Beatty still carry a torch for one another, but circumstances preclude their getting together -- and besides, Wood suddenly realizes that she's outgrown the still-floundering Beatty. Scriptwriter William Inge shows up as a minister in Splendor in the Grass, while comedienne Phyllis Diller does a cameo as famed nightclub entertainer Texas Guinan; also, keep an eye out for Sandy Dennis, making her first movie appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Natalie Wood, Warren Beatty, (more)
- 1968
Sarah Deever (Sandy Dennis) is an idealistic young woman living in Brooklyn. Her altruistic nature finds her taking in visitors for a month at a time to help them in their time of need. Charlie Blake (Anthony Newley) is her latest reclamation project, a cardboard-box factory worker and owner of an annoyingly loud alarm on his wristwatch. Charlie gains entrance to her apartment and eventually her heart when he reveals he always wanted to be a poet. Sarah seeks to overcome her own problems by helping those in need, but her need for Charlie's love soon supersedes her initial intentions. He is allowed to stay for the month of November as she adheres to her traditional deadline on guests. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandy Dennis, Anthony Newley, (more)
- 1969
- PG
Also titled A Touch of Love, this British drama concerns a woman who decides to keep and raise a baby born out of wedlock. Sandy Dennis stars as Rosamund Stacey, a graduate student who has an affair with a television broadcaster, George (Ian McKellen). When she learns that she is pregnant, her friends advise her to have an abortion, but after some confusion she decides to have the child. She doesn't tell George about it, and they drift apart. Her child is born, but the little girl has a heart condition and must undergo delicate surgery. Her life is saved, and Rosamund returns to school to complete her doctoral degree. Her daughter is a year old when Rosamund meets George again and invites him to her home. The story was written by Margaret Drabble from her own novel The Millstone. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandy Dennis, Ian McKellen, (more)
- 1969
- R
A spinster goes to extraordinary lengths to assuage her loneliness in Robert Altman's 1969 drama. Wealthy Frances Austen (Sandy Dennis) conducts herself as if she were older than she actually is, but when she spies a blond youth (Michael Burns) sitting alone in a rain-swept Vancouver park, she takes him to her apartment. Apparently mute, the boy accepts Frances's ministrations, content to have a bed of his own and to listen to her talk, even if he has to come and go through his window after she locks his bedroom door at night. But when he leaves his bed empty on the night that Frances attempts to seduce him, the boy soon learns who is in control of their relationship and how far Frances will go to keep it that way. This film began Altman's 1970s effort to experiment with established movie genres: in this case, the Gothic thriller. Making the most of Frances's creepy apartment, cinematographer Laszlo Kovacs zooms in to symbolic details of Frances's life and zooms out to reveal her unnerving isolation in her own space. Altman maintains an awareness of the world outside Frances and the boy through mobile visuals and snippets of other conversations whenever either is in public, signaling the emphasis on the periphery that marked his future films, while underlining Frances's and the boy's estrangement from "normal" life. Too odd, distant and, well, cold, That Cold Day in the Park flopped. Producer Ingo Preminger claimed that if he had seen That Cold Day in the Park, he never would have hired Altman to direct his next film: the 1970 smash hit MASH. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandy Dennis, Michael Burns, (more)
- 1985
Five Holocaust survivors conspire to have revenge upon the Nazi doctor who tormented them in this taut made-for-TV drama. All five are women living in Los Angeles and all have vividly painful memories of the atrocities he performed upon them. The memories come flooding back when they find him innocently running a local restaurant. Realizing that no one else will help them, the ladies conspire to kill him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The Four Seasons follows the trials and tribulations of a group of middle-aged friends during a 12-month period. Alan Alda (who also directed) and Carol Burnett play a married couple who consider themselves paragons of sensitivity and sensibility. Alda and Burnett are the instigators of a series of vacations (from New England to the Virgin Islands), which they take in the company of two other couples: Jack Weston and Rita Moreno, and Len Cariou and Sandy Dennis. Everyone's interrelationships are put to the test when Cariou and Dennis divorce, and Cariou subsequently marries the much-younger Bess Armstrong. Not too surprisingly, the comings and goings of The Four Seasons are underscored by the music of Antonio Vivaldi. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Alda, Carol Burnett, (more)
- 1967
- PG
Based on a novella by D.H. Lawrence, this drama concerns Jill (Sandy Dennis) and Ellen (Anne Heywood), a lesbian couple who live in a remote, snowbound cabin. While Ellen dominates the relationship, she has also grown dissatisfied and is no longer sure she wants to stay with Jill. When Paul (Keir Dullea), a handsome stranger, happens by, the women invite him in. Soon Paul and Ellen are having an affair, which leads to an ugly confrontation among all three. The Fox won a Golden Globe Award as Best English Language Foreign Film of 1968 (it was made in Canada). Originally rated R in 1968, it was re-edited and rated PG in 1973. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandy Dennis, Keir Dullea, (more)
- 1963
Arriving in a small West Virginia town, Kimble (David Janssen) gets involved in a barroom brawl. To avoid being arrested by the local authorities--which of course would reveal his true identity as an accused murderer--Kimble takes refuge in the mountain cabin shared by Cassie Bolin (a pre-stardom Sandy Dennis) and her grandmother (Ruth White). Cassie offers to help Kimble escape the local authorities, but only if he agrees to take her with him. The girl's neurotic intrusiveness nearly proves fatal to both "fugitives" during dangerous trek down a steep mountainside. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The Indian Runner, Sean Penn's debut film as director (he also wrote the script, based on the Bruce Springsteen song "Highway Patrolman") is a brooding tale of two brothers -- one peaceful and sedate, the other violent and aggressive -- whose natures, left unchecked since they were children, are set to the boiling point as they head toward middle-age. David Morse is the quiet brother, Joe Roberts, who is a deputy sheriff in a small town. His older brother Frank (Viggo Mortensen) shows up on Joe's doorsteps, after a recent run-in with the police. Frank tells Joe that he is coming back home to stay and that he has given up his criminal life. His wife Maria (Valeria Golino) is skeptical, but Joe tells her that he is prepared to help Frank get his life back together. Frank has almost convinced himself that his future holds real promise and he's ready to start a new life with his pregnant girlfriend Dorothy (Patricia Arquette). But, once again, Frank's violent temper explodes, and everyone's plans for Frank's future crumble into rubble. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Morse, Viggo Mortensen, (more)
- 1970
The man with the "life wish" is multi-billionaire Burl Ives, who maintains an isolated medical research center. Stuart Whitman is hired as the new head of this center, where he is told to ignore any unusual goings-on and to keep his mouth shut. Slowly it dawns on Whitman that there's an inordinate number of wealthy old men entering the center--and the research lab is busy dissecting younger cadavers. Without revealing any more of the plot, we can point out that the film's closing line refers to Chinese leader Mao Tse-Tung, who was 80 years old at the time. The original title of Man Who Wanted to Live Forever was The Heart Farm, which would have given the game away from the outset. This TV movie was released theatrically in Europe as The Only Way Out is Dead, which likewise lowered the film's element of surprise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Ohio businessman Jack Lemmon is offered a golden job opportunity; all he has to do is relocate himself and wife Sandy Dennis to New York City. What follows has led some critics to complain that playwright Neil Simon has written a "hate letter" to Manhattan. Within a 36 hour period, the couple (a) loses their airplane luggage; (b) are forced to travel from Boston to New York in a greasy old train; ( c ) can't get any sort of service because virtually everyone in Fun City is on strike; (d) are mugged twice, once while they're asleep; (e) are reduced to sleeping on Central Park benches in their day clothes.....and so it goes, until the shabby, disheveled Lemmon tells his prospective bosses off, and he and his wife head back to Ohio---- almost. Punctuated by Sandy Dennis' plaintive "Oh, my Gawwwwd", The Out of Towners tightens the screws and ups the ante on the classic "comedy of errors" formula. Filmed on location, the picture features a who's who of character actors (Milt Kamen, Anne Meara, Phil Bruns, Dolph Sweet, Richard Libertini, Paul Dooley, Robert Walden, Ron Carey etc. etc. etc.) When first shown on network television, the film was shorn of its closing punchline because of an eccentric censorship rule. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Sandy Dennis, (more)
- 1965
The Three Sisters is a literal transcription of the 1965 Actor's Theatre production of the Chekhov drama. Kim Stanley, Geraldine Page and Shelley Winters play the title characters, all members of a wealthy but unhappy 19th-century Russian family. Stuck in a forsaken garrison town by their army-officer father, the sisters long to return to Moscow, a dream that, along with all their other dreams, is doomed to be unfulfilled. Featured in the cast are Kevin McCarthy and Sandy Dennis, the latter performer somewhat less mannered than usual. Originally lensed on videotape, The Three Sisters was transferred to 35 millimeter film for limited theatrical release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geraldine Page, Shelley Winters, (more)
A serious social drama film of the type that flourished in the 1960's, Up the Down Staircase seems somewhat dated and preachy when viewed by modern audiences. The subject matter is laudable, of course: an ambitious, spirited and concerned young teacher determined to make a difference in a troubled inner city school. And there are quite a few memorable moments, including a very well-directed juxtaposition of Sylvia Barrett triumphing by getting her class excited about A Tale of Two Cities as the lovelorn and dejected Alice Blake quietly and calmly examines the classroom of the teacher she loves before jumping from a window. Director Robert Mulligan also provides appropriate tension to a scene in which another troubled student forcefully comes on to the young teacher, and throughout he does a commendable job of using a hand held camera and a very busy, overlapping soundtrack to convey the tumult, confusion and chaos of the high school. He is less successful in overcoming the script's tendency to excessive earnestness and dialogue that often sacrifices subtlety and nuance to make its points. The film also suffers from a bit of hollowness at its core. Some of this is due to Sandy Dennis's performance - her peculiar brand of acting, while effective in conveying much about the character, also tends to isolate her from the other cast members. However, the decision to present the character solely in terms of the school and its immediate environs and never in her home life also contributes to the hollowness. The supporting cast is marvelous, with a mixture of seasoned pros and novices, although one wishes Eileen Heckart had been given more to do. Despite its flaws, Staircase remains involving. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sandy Dennis, Patrick Bedford, (more)
- 1966
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"You are cordially invited to George and Martha's for an evening of fun and games." Thus read the ad copy for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf, which in 1966 went farther than any previous big-studio film in its use of profanity and sexual implication. George (Richard Burton) is an alcoholic college professor; Martha (Oscar-winner Elizabeth Taylor) is his virago of a wife. George and Martha know just how to push each other's buttons, with George having a special advantage: he need only mention the couple's son to send Martha into orbit. This evening, the couple's guests are Nick (George Segal), a junior professor, and Honey (Sandy Dennis), Nick's child-like wife. After an evening of sadistic (and sometimes perversely hilarious) "fun and games," the truth about George and Martha's son comes to light. First staged on Broadway in 1962 with Uta Hagen and Arthur Hill, Edward Albee's play was adapted for the screen by Ernest Lehman, who managed to retain virtually all of Albee's scatological epithets (this was the first American film to feature the expletive "goddamn"). Lehman opened up the play by staging one of George's speeches in the backyard, and by relocating the film's second act to a roadside inn (he also added four lines--"all bad," according to Albee). Thanks to the box-office clout of stars Taylor and Burton, not to mention the titilation factor of hearing all those naughty words on the big screen, Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf was a hit, and it won 5 Oscars, including awards for Taylor and Dennis, though it lost Best Picture to A Man for All Seasons. First-time director Mike Nichols lost the Oscar, but this movie gave him a perfect transition from his stage work and established him as a hot young Hollywood director, leading to his acclaimed (and Oscar-winning) work on his next movie, The Graduate. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, (more)
