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
In this sports melodrama that boldly illustrates the thrill of victory and the agony of defeat, Lynn-Holly Johnson plays Iowa farm girl Alexis Winston, who has a God-given talent for ice skating. With the encouragement and training of the local ice-skating rink operator Beulah Smith (Colleen Dewhurst), she manages to win the first prize trophy at a regional ice-skating competition. At the competition, she is spotted by Olympic coach Deborah Machland (Jennifer Warren), who promotes her as an underdog competitor, and she skyrockets to fame. Her career is going like gangbusters, until she is blinded in a freak accident. But with the help of her caring boyfriend Nick (Robby Benson) and her encouraging father Marcus (Tom Skerritt), she overcomes her depression just in time to prove herself at a major competition. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lynn-Holly Johnson, Robby Benson, (more)
Woody Allen's romantic comedy of the Me Decade follows the up and down relationship of two mismatched New York neurotics. Jewish comedy writer Alvy Singer (Allen) ponders the modern quest for love and his past romance with tightly-wound WASP singer Annie Hall (Diane Keaton, née Diane Hall). The twice-divorced Alvy knows that it's not easy to find a mate when the options include pretentious New York intellectuals and lifestyle-obsessed Rolling Stone writers, but la-di-dah-ing Annie seems different. Along the rocky road of their coupling, Allen/Alvy weigh in on such topics as endless therapy, movies vs. TV, the absurdity of dating rituals, anti-Semitism, drugs, and, in one of the best set pieces, repressed Midwestern WASP insanity vs. crazy Brooklyn Jewish boisterousness. Annie wants to move to Los Angeles to find that fame that finally does in the relationship -- but not before Alvy gets in a few digs at vacuous, mantra-fixated California. Originally entitled Anhedonia (the inability to enjoy oneself), Annie Hall blended the slapstick and fantasy from such earlier Allen films as Sleeper (1973) and Bananas (1971) with the more autobiographical musings of his stand-up and written comedy, using an array of such movie techniques as talking heads, splitscreens, and subtitles. Within these gleeful formal experiments and sight gags, Allen and co-writer Marshall Brickman skewered 1970s solipsism, reversing the happy marriage of opposites found in classic screwball comedies. Hailed as Allen's most mature and personal film, Annie Hall beat out Star Wars for Best Picture and also won Oscars for Allen as director and writer and for Keaton as Best Actress; audiences enthusiastically responded to Allen's take on contemporary love and turned Keaton's rumpled menswear into a fashion trend. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, (more)
Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst star in this made-for-TV adaptation of Eugene O'Neill's final play, featuring the cast and director of the award-winning 1974 Broadway production. James Tyrone Jr. (Robards) is a washed-up former actor whose dreams of stardom on Broadway were washed away by alcoholism and emotional irresponsibility. James makes a meager living renting property; Phil Hogan (Ed Flanders) is an Irish immigrant, who, along side his outwardly gruff daughter, Josie (Dewhurst), works a small farm he's renting from James. James wants to sell the farm and is interested in making a deal with his well-to-do neighbors. Phil hatches a scheme by which Josie will talk James into selling the land to them instead, for a lower price. As James and Josie's conversation veers away from business, they begin to open up to one another about their dreams, their fears, and their many disappointments, and the two begin to realize just how much they have in common -- as well as how wide a gulf separates them. Ed Flanders received an Emmy award for his performance in this production of A Moon for the Misbegotten; Jason Robards and Colleen Dewhurst also received nominations for their work. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Robards, Jr., Colleen Dewhurst, (more)
Undoubtedly having second thoughts after turning down Dirty Harry, John Wayne showed up in 1974 in his own "maverick cop" adventure, McQ. Wayne, playing McQ, a veteran detective, turns in his badge when he's officially denied the opportunity of clearing the name of his late best friend, who has been posthumously accused of drug pushing. Investigating on his own, McQ becomes romantically involved with his friend's widow (Diana Muldaur), who unbeknownst to him is up to her neck in police corruption. Considering the usual flag-waving content of John Wayne's 1970s films, it is rather startling to discover that the real villains in McQ are a coterie of crooked cops! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Eddie Albert, (more)
The made-for-television movie The Story of Jacob and Joseph tells the Biblical tale of Jacob (Keith Michell) and Esau (Julian Glover), who spend 20 years fighting over their birthright. They eventually reconcile and sell their younger brother, Joseph (Victor LoBianco) into slavery. Joseph is taken to Egypt, where he becomes the Pharoah's chief advisor, yet he still resents his family for selling him into slavery. Alan Bates narrates the film, which is expertly adapted by screenwriter Ernest Kinoy and director Michael Cacoyannis. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Prowler in the Heart is a videotaped mystery thriller, originally telecast on ABC's Wide World Mystery late-night series. Colleen Dewhurst heads the cast as a mystery novelist. When her husband is convicted of murder, Dewhurst draws upon her writing expertise to concoct a perfect alibi for her beloved. The alibi unfortunately implicates someone else--who may in fact be a killer, if not the killer. Martin Sheen costars in this videotaped 74-minute melodrama. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In one of John Wayne's more interesting late Westerns, "The Duke" plays Will Anderson, a crusty veteran cattleman preparing a 400-mile drive to get a herd of steers to market. Shortly before the trip is scheduled to begin, Will's crew quits when they get word of a nearby gold strike. With little time and few alternatives, Will recruits eleven boys, ages nine through 13, and teaches them the basics of herding cattle and riding the range. Bruce Dern plays a memorably foul villain and cattle rustler named Long Hair, while Roscoe Lee Browne portrays Jebediah, the cattle drive cook, and Colleen Dewhurst is Kate, a madam. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Wayne, Roscoe Lee Browne, (more)
- 1971
- PG
George C. Scott stars in The Last Run as an aging mob driver hoping to make one last big haul and retire. Harry Garmes (Scott) is persuaded by his old cronies to drive escaped criminal Paul Ricard (Tony Musante) and his girlfriend, Claudio Schemer (Trish VanDevere), across Spain to safety. Garmes has premonitions throughout the flight of his own demise, but his fate will not be known until the end of his journey. John Huston was supposed to direct, but was replaced after a series of confrontations with Richard Fleischer.The cast includes Scott's then-wife, Colleen Dewhurst, alongside his wife-to-be, Trish VanDevere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George C. Scott, Tony Musante, (more)
- 1966
Coleen Dewhurst guest stars as Amy Doucette, a deranged woman who is hired sight unseen as a babysitter by a young couple (Davey Davison, Geoffrey Horne). Kidnapping the baby, Amy enlists the aid of her neurotic sister Stella (Collin Wilcox) in her efforts to elude the authorities. Armed with the knowledge that Amy is morbidly obsessed with the date "April 2", Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) literally races against time to save the life of the abducted child. (Trivia note: costars Collin Wilcox and Geoffrey Horne were husband and wife at the time). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Sean Connery attempted to make a clean break from his "James Bond" image in the boisterous comedy A Fine Madness. Connery plays Samson Shillitoe, a Brendan Behan-like poet with a mile-wide misogynistic streak. Try as he might to complete his latest masterpiece, Shillitoe is constantly interrupted by the women in his life. Driven to a nervous breakdown, he seeks help from the medical establishment -- and ends up a babbling shell of his former self. The film takes scattered potshots at a repressive society that forces the truly creative among us into near-madness; at times, it is sidesplittingly funny, though never quite as potent as the Elliot Baker novel upon which it is based. Sean Connery is brilliant, but the public wanted James Bond to behave himself, thus the film didn't do as well at the box office as it should have. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sean Connery, Joanne Woodward, (more)
- 1965
After killing a cop, criminal Jerry Walsh (Tom Simcox) is himself seriously wounded in a shoot-out. Rushed to the hospital, Jerry strikes up a friendship with night nurse Ellen Hatch (Colleen Dewhurst). Eventually, she agrees to help him escape the law...but Ellen is not quite the paragon of kindness and charity that she seems to be. Watch for a pre-Mod Squad Peggy Lipton in a minor role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colleen Dewhurst, Tom Simcox, (more)
- 1960
An unexceptional spy drama by Andre De Toth, Man on a String is based on an autobiography by counterspy Boris Morros, here given the name of Boris Mitrov and played by Ernest Borgnine. Mitrov was born in Russia but had been a citizen of the U.S. for some time when he joins up with a Russian spy network. He is caught out by the CIA, and they offer him a deal: go to the USSR and spy for our side, or else. Boris' boss is Bob Avery (the handsome Kerwin Mathews) and Colleen Dewhurst is Helen Benson, the lone female in the story. Clichéd dialogue aside, the scenes shot in Moscow and Berlin add convincing realism to the action. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernest Borgnine, Kerwin Mathews, (more)
Audrey Hepburn stars in The Nun's Story as Sister Luke, postulant of a Belgian order of nuns. Though frequently disillusioned in her efforts to spread good will -- at one point she is nearly killed by a mental patient (Colleen Dewhurst) -- Sister Luke perseveres. Sent as a nurse to the Belgian Congo, an assignment she'd been hoping for, Sister Luke is disappointed to learn that she will not be ministering to the natives but to European patients. Through the example of no-nonsense chief surgeon Peter Finch, the nun sheds her idealism and becomes a diligent worker -- so much so that she contracts tuberculosis. Upon the outbreak of World War II, Sister Luke tries to honor the edicts of her order and not take sides, but this becomes impossible when her father (Dean Jagger) is killed by the Nazis. Realizing that she cannot remain true to her vows, Sister Luke leaves the order and returns to "civilian" life. The Nun's Story ends with a long, silent sequence in which Sister Luke divests herself of her religious robes, dons street garb, and walks out to an uncertain future. There is no background music: director Fred Zinnemann decided that "triumphant" music would indicate that Sister Luke's decision was the right one, while "tragic" music would suggest that she is doing wrong. Rather than make an editorial comment, the director decided against music, allowing the audience members to fill in the blanks themselves. The Nun's Story is based on the book by Kathryn Hulme, whose depiction of convent life was a lot harsher and more judgmental than anything seen in the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Audrey Hepburn, Peter Finch, (more)
Four-time Emmy Award-winning actress Colleen Dewhurst and Tony Award-winner Myron McCormick star in this performance of the classic John Steinbeck play concerning a veteran circus performer who is crushed to learn that he will soon die without having ever fathered a child. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Colleen Dewhurst, Dana Elcar, (more)
