Colleen Dewhurst Movies
With the same drive that had distinguished her father's hockey career, Colleen Dewhurst took any number of odd jobs to pay for her tuition at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts. On Broadway from 1955, Dewhurst became one of America's foremost interpreters of such pantheon playwrights as Eugene O'Neill and Edward Albee; she won a 1981 Tony Award for her performance in the revival of O'Neill's A Moon for the Misbegotten. The forceful, deep-throated Dewhurst was not always easy to cast in films, but she chalked up several memorable movie portrayals, not least of which was as Diane Keaton's WASP-ish mom in Annie Hall (1977). Her TV work included the delightful "middle aged pregnancy" comedy And Baby Makes Six (1979) and numerous appearances as Candice Bergen's mom on Murphy Brown. From 1985 through 1991, Colleen was president of Actors' Equity. Twice married to actor George C. Scott, Colleen Dewhurst is the mother of another performer, Campbell Scott. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Lucy Maud Montgomery's novel Anne of Green Gables, previously filmed in 1934, was afforded a TV-movie treatment in 1985. Megan Follows stars as 13-year-old Anne Shirley, an orphan girl sent to live with a foster family on Canada's Prince Edward Island. Though she has great difficulty controlling her temper, impulsiveness and vivid imagination, Anne eventually wins over her new guardians, domineering Marilla Cuthbert (Colleen Dewhurst) and Marilla's shy brother Matthew (Richard Farnsworth). Anne's secondary adventures concern her "bosom friend" Diana (Schuyler Grant) and her supposed enemy Gilbert Blythe (Jonathan Crombie). Anne of Green Gables was offered on American television as a 3-part presentation on PBS' Wonderworks; it aired from February 17 through March 3, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Megan Follows, Colleen Dewhurst, (more)
- 1984
This excellent documentary fills a gap in American history. It illustrates the role of thousands of Americans who left the safety of the United States at the end of the 1930s to fight against fascism in Spain. About 40,000 foreign volunteers from 50 countries were in the International Brigade, and the American Abraham Lincoln Brigade was a small part of that larger corps. The story of the American involvement is told with historical footage, newsreels, still photos, and other media, as well as interviews with survivors from the fighting. The soldiers who returned after the 1939 defeat of the Spanish Loyalists by Francisco Franco were blacklisted and unjustly accused of being Communists (there were many Communists in the International Brigade, and American Communists were among the leading opponents of fascism at the time). Many of the soldiers suffered for daring to fight for American ideals against a rising fascist army supported by Mussolini and Hitler. Interviews with a few of these soldiers reveal that some feel the Spanish Civil War bought time for the Western nations to prepare for World War II, others feel that the defeat of democracy in Spain was symptomatic of a repeating historical truth: the forces of greed and power regularly defeat humanistic aspirations and ideals. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- 1984
This 116-minute TV adaptation of Kaufman and Hart's Pulitzer Prize-winning You Can't Take It With You was taped during a stage performance before a live audience. Staged by Ellis Rabb, this is a faithful rendition of the original, concentrating on the zany goings-on of the Sycamore household, stage-managed by Grandpa Vanderhof (Jason Robards). With everyone doing just what he or she wants, regardless of what outsiders may think, there is eccentricity to spare at the Sycamores. Their freewheeling lifestyle is briefly threatened by the IRS and by the staid parents of Alice Sycamore's boyfriend Tony Kirby, but everything turns out OK by the final curtain. The cast of 19 includes George Rose as a snide ballet impresario, Elizabeth Wilson as would-be novelist Penny Sycamore, and James Coco as iceman-turned-model Mr. DePinna. First telecast in May of 1984 on the Showtime Cable service, You Can't Take It With You was repeated the following November on PBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
Produced for HBO, The Glitter Dome is based on the crime novel by Joseph Wambaugh. Manhattan detectives Al Mackey (James Garner) is forced to wade his way through the glamorous cesspool known as Hollywood. Mackey's quarry is the unknown person who brutally murdered studio mogul Malcolm Sinclair (Alistair MacDuff). Providing a brief diversion for the diligent Mackey is Margot Kidder as eccentric young actress Willie. Also on hand is James Garner's Rockford Files cohort Stuart Margolin, who, in addition to directing the film, plays the murder victim's smarmy nephew. When first telecast on November 11, 1984, The Glitter Dome was criticized for a brief bondage sequence involving Margot Kidder: in retrospect, however, the scene serves to affirm the integrity and decency of the character played by Garner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Christopher Walken plays a schoolteacher, Johnny Smith, who awakens from a five-year coma. He discovers that he has acquired the ability to foretell a person's future simply by touching his or her hand. After seeing several examples, Smith's doctor (Herbert Lom) becomes convinced that Smith can not only predict the future, but also has the power to change it. This ability is given its severest test when Smith shakes the hand of ruthless political candidate Greg Stillson (Martin Sheen) -- and suddenly has a flash-forward to a nuclear holocaust. The Dead Zone is not only one of the best-ever Stephen King adaptations, but also one of the most consistently successful (and least gory) efforts of director David Cronenberg. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Walken, Brooke Adams, (more)
Part of the Broadway Theater Archives, this stage production of Lewis Carroll's children's fantasy Alice in Wonderland was directed by Kirk Browning. Kate Burton plays young Alice, the little girl who wanders into a bizarre wonderland that just gets more and more curious. Her real-life father, Richard Burton, plays the White Knight. Also starring Eve Arden as the Queen of Hearts, Maureen Stapleton as the White Queen, and Donald O'Connor as the Mock Turtle. Broadway star Nathan Lane can also be seen in one of his earliest roles as the Dormouse. Alice in Wonderland was originally broadcast on PBS in 1983 as an episode of Great Performances. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kate Burton, Richard Burton, (more)
- 1982
After the death of a Down's Syndrome Child, pediatrician Barbara Lubow (Colleen Dewhurst) asks Quincy (Jack Klugman) to perform an autopsy. Much to his dismay, Quincy determines that the child had been starved to death by his parents--at the encouragement of their family doctor. Appalled by this callous attitude towards Down's children, Quincy becomes involved in the trials and tribulations of a married couple (Tyne Daly, Clu Gulager), whose efforts to establish a group home for six handicapped youngsters is meeting with violent opposition from their bigoted neighbors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Originally networkcast in three installments, the 8-hour Blue and the Gray is a sprawling adaptation of a story concept by Civil War historian Bruce Catton. The drama begins in 1859, with young war correspondent-to-be John Hammond meeting future Union officer Stacy Keach at the trial of abolitionist John Brown (Sterling Hayden). They are reunited two years later during the presidential campaign of Abraham Lincoln (Gregory Peck) and are eyewitnesses at the battle of Bull Run. Keach marries Julia Duffy in 1862, while Virginia-born Hammond writes his dispatches from the Deep South. A subplot concerning a family torn by North/South loyalties is resolved just before Appomattox. The Blue and the Gray was first telecast November 14, 16 and 17, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
In this family drama, a famed lawyer is forced to come to grips with the lousy way he has treated his emotionally disturbed brother. Most of the story centers on the attorney's attempts to atone for his actions. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Brandon, Pat Harrington, Jr., (more)
- 1981
Not much time is actually spent in Weasel Creek in this made-for-TV movie, despite its title. Essentially, this is a semiserious "road" picture concerning the misadventures of a rambunctious young girl (Mare Winningham). Linking up with a runaway farm boy (John Hammond), the girl heads to California with only the clothes on her back and the few possessions from her house trailer. En route, the boy stops over in the aptly named Weasel Creek to visit his aunt (Colleen Dewhurst). The film is populated with such familiar rustic types as Barry Corbin, Richard Farnsworth and Trey Wilson. A Few Days in Weasel Creek first aired October 21, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this complex spy caper, Nicole (Genevieve Bujold) is a Canadian broadcast journalist working on assignment in the former U.S.S.R. She is there to cover a visit by the Canadian prime minister, but along the way she discovers an unethical experimentation on children involving the use of steroids. She is also involved in smuggling out a girl for emergency brain surgery and develops a romantic liaison with Lyosha (Michael York), a bureaucrat in the Soviet press corps. A Jewish businessman she knows just happens to be in Russia, and she asks him to help her in the smuggling attempt. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geneviève Bujold, Michael York, (more)
- 1980
John Sayles, of Trial of the Catonsville 9 and Brother From Another Planet fame, wrote the teleplay for A Perfect Match from an original story by director Mel Damski and Andre Guttfruend. Fashion designer Linda Kelsey is diagnosed as suffering from a rare form of anemia. Kelsey's only hope is to find a bone-marrow donor whose blood type matches hers. It turns out that the only suitable potential donor is the daughter (Lisa Lucas) whom Kelsey had given up for adoption 16 years earlier. The dramatic intensity of Ms. Kelsey's plight is matched by the anguished performances of Ms. Lucas and (as the adoptive parents) Colleen Dewhurst and Charles Durning. A well-above-average TV movie, Perfect Match deserved better than being scheduled for its premiere showing opposite a network telecast of Jaws. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
The sequel to the popular 1979 TV movie And Baby Makes Six, Baby Comes Home reteams Colleen Dewhurst and Warren Oates as middle-agers who find themselves the parents of a newborn child. The first film dealt with the impact of the 47-year-old mother's unexpected pregnancy on her three grown children, as well as on her own well-ordered lifestyle. The sequel concentrates on the alienating effect that Dewhurst's affection towards her baby has on the rest of her family. Both And Baby Makes Six and Baby Comes Home were intended as pilot films for a weekly series, though one wonders if the ever-busy Colleen Dewhurst would have found the time to star in such a project. The point is a moot one: The series never sold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
The made-for-TV Escape was inspired by the true story of Dwight Worker, an American imprisoned in Mexico for smuggling hashish. Given the country's stringent anti-drug laws, Worker's chances of release are slim to none (a situation similar to the protagonist's plight in Midnight Express). Against all odds, Worker plans a daring getaway from the notoriously impenetrable Lecumberri Prison (for obvious reasons, the film was not shot on location). Timothy Bottoms stars as Worker, with Kay Lenz as Barbara Chilcoate, the woman who became his wife; Colleen Dewhurst co-stars as the sympathetic "Mother Jones" type who helped engineer the escape. Adapted from Dwight and Barbara Worker's autobiography, Escape debuted February 20, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
Colleen Dewhurst stars as psychologist Elaine Lipton in the made-for-TV Death Penalty. A strong opponent of the eponymous punishment, Dr. Lipton struggles valiantly to rehabilitate street gang member Carlos Rivera (David Labiosa). Convicted of murdering two rival gang members, Carlos faces the gas chamber unless Lipton can prove that he's cleaned up his act. This fictional drama would make an interesting double feature with the fact-based Dead Man Walking (1996). Death Penalty originally aired January 22, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
- PG
Jack Lemmon stars in an Academy Award-nominated performance as Scottie Templeton, a Broadway press agent dying of cancer, in Bernard Slade's film adaptation of his Broadway play (in which Lemmon originated the role). Divorced from his wife Maggie (Lee Remick), Scottie leads a happy-go-lucky life until he is informed by his doctor (Colleen Dewhurst) that he has contracted leukemia. She tells him that, without treatment, he will die. Scottie is unsure whether he wants to bother with the treatment, but he has some unfinished business with his son Jud (Robby Benson), a serious-minded person who scorns Scottie's job. As their relationship begins to improve, Scottie begins to reconsider his decision against the cancer treatments. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Robby Benson, (more)
- 1980
This critically-acclaimed film chronicles nineteen years in the life of a divorcee (played by Lee Remick), from the repressive 1950s through the liberated 1980s. Women's Room earned three Emmy nominations: one for Best Drama Special, and one each for costars Patty Duke Astin and Colleen Dewhurst. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1980
- Add Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones to QueueAdd Guyana Tragedy: The Story of Jim Jones to top of Queue
This two-part TV movie was, of course, sparked by the November 1978 mass suicide of 913 people at the South American religious "colony" of Jonestown. The catalyst for this tragedy was cult-leader Reverend Jim Jones (played by Powers Boothe, who won an Emmy for his performance), head of the so-called People's Temple. The film traces the life of Jones from his days as an idealistic 1960s activist. He drifts into penny-ante confidence scams and bed-hops from woman to woman, before electing to pass himself off as a modern messiah--eventually believing his own feverish sermons. The climactic scenes are chillingly staged in a near-documentary fashion, with Puerto Rico and Georgia substituting for Guyana. Ned Beatty plays the ill-fated Representative Leo Ryan, while James Earl Jones has a cameo as 1930s religious-leader Father Divine; most of the other main characters are composites of real people. Originally broadcast April 15 and 16, 1980, The Guyana Tragedy was adapted by Ernest Tidyman from the Washington Post and Charles A. Krause's Guyana Massacre: An Eyewitness Account. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Powers Boothe, Veronica Cartwright, (more)
- 1979
Middle-aged Colleen Dewhurst shocks her family-and herself-when she announces she is pregnant. Partly out of concern for her health, and partly out of selfishness, the family argues over whether or not she should go to term. Husband Pat Hingle is indecisive until he witness the baby's development via ultrasound. The film's final scenes are an amalgam of truly touching moments and bedslat comedy. Timothy Hutton makes one of his first major appearances as Dewhurst and Hingle's teenaged son. First telecast October 22, 1979, And Baby Makes Six was intended as the pilot for a weekly series; as it turned out, it yielded only a feature-length sequel, Baby Comes Home (1980) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
This speculative made-for-TV drama examines the courtship and early marital life of Mary and Joseph before the birth of their remarkable son, Jesus. The film is also known as the Beginning Was Love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Blanche Baker, Jeff East, (more)
- 1979
The made-for-television Silent Victory: The Kitty O'Neill Story is a true story about a woman (Stockard Channing) who overcame her deafness to become one of the top stunt women in Hollywood, as well as earning the female land speed record. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1979
The biblical story of Mary and Joseph's life before the birth of Christ is dramatized in this film. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1979
Adapted from the once-notorious trilogy of novels by James T. Farrell, the three-part miniseres Studs Lonigan isn't quite as earthy and explicit as its source, but is lot more faithful to the original than the 1960 film version. Set in Chicago and covering the years from 1916 to 1931, this is the story of a brawling, braggadocio young Irish-American lad named Studs Lonigan (played as a child by Dan Shor, and as an adult by Harry Hamlin in his first major TV role). Despite his rough veneer, Studs is sensitive and concerned about his future, though he doesn't want to follow the values set forth by his tradition-bound parents (Charles Durning, Colleen Dewhurst). Hanging around with his childhood buddies, Studs gets into all sorts of scrapes and becomes involved with a number of women, notably the decent, demure Catherine (Diana Scarwid) and the lusty, libidinous Lucy (Lisa Pelikan). Though he grows in age and size, Studs has trouble maturing emotionally, surrounded by the pressures of a rough, prejudice-ridden neighborhood and the increasing hooliganism of his cronies. As the Depression crashes heavily upon the scene, Studs finds himself "trapped" in the very sort of middle-class quagmire that he'd always hoped to avoid. Earning an Emmy Award for art/set direction, the 6-hour Studs Lonigan originally aired March 7, 14 and 21, 1979, as part of NBC's Novels for Television anthology. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Teri McLuhan, the daughter of theorist/philosopher Marshall McLuhan, was the producer/director/co-scripter of the Canadian The Third Walker. The story concerns a pair of twins, separated at birth (McLuhan was herself an identical twin). Nearly three decades later, the twins are reunited at their father's funeral. They become the closest of friends, totally shutting out a third, non-twin sibling. The adult twins are portrayed by William Shatner and Colleen Dewhurst. Teri McLuhan's celebrated father plays an "invisible cameo" as the voice of a judge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colleen Dewhurst, William Shatner, (more)
In this thriller, a baby-sitter is terrorized by an anonymous telephone caller who turns out to be a particularly persistent serial killer. When a stranger calls to ask, "Have you checked the children lately?" teenaged sitter Jill Johnson (Carol Kane) is understandably spooked. After a series of increasingly creepy calls culminates in a request for "your blood...all over me," Jill learns from the police operator that the man is calling from inside the house. One narrow escape and two dead children later, the police capture British maniac Curt Duncan (Tony Beckley). Several years later, the killer escapes from a mental institution and plagues Tracy (Colleen Dewhurst), a hard-drinking New Yorker. Foiled by John Clifford (Charles Durning), the same cop who investigated the original case, Duncan sets his sights back on his original victim, Jill Johnson, who, now married and out to dinner with her husband, has left her own young children at home -- with a baby-sitter. When a Stranger Calls helped inspire Drew Barrymore's famous opening scene in Wes Craven's Scream. Kane, Durning, and director Fred Walton would return for 1993's TV-movie sequel, When a Stranger Calls Back. Beckley died a year after the original film's release. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carol Kane, Charles Durning, (more)
