Susan Anspach Movies

This odd film was shot in 1967 but wasn't released until 1991. The reality of the production is quite amazing. The director, who up until then had only filmed documentaries, decided that he wanted to provoke his actors and crew beyond their level of tolerance so that they would in some fashion hijack his production. Ostensibly, they are filming an arty story called "Over the Cliff," which shows the same scene of a split between husband and wife as played by five different couples from a variety of different angles. Eventually the (secretly anticipated) revolt does happen, and the cast and crew film their late-night sessions in which they discuss what can be done to save the movie. Their uncensored and quite intelligent comments were then included in the completed film along with the footage of the continuing saga of the endlessly filmed marital break-up. While the set-up is nothing like that of the contemporaneous television show Candid Camera, reviewers professed discomfort in viewing the cold manipulations which led to the desired result. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

A disaffected man seeks a sense of identity in one of the key films of Hollywood's 1970s New Wave. Once a promising pianist from a family of classical musicians, Bobby Eroica Dupea (Jack Nicholson, in his first major starring role) leads a blue-collar life as an oil rigger, living with needy waitress girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black) and bowling with their friends Elton (Billy "Green" Bush) and Stoney (Fannie Flagg). Feeling suffocated by responsibilities, Bobby seeks out his sister, Tita (Lois Smith), and, discovering that his father is gravely ill, he reluctantly heads back to the patrician family compound in Puget Sound with a pregnant Rayette in tow. After a road trip featuring a harangue from hitchhiker Palm (Helena Kallianiotes) about filth, and Bobby's ill-fated attempt to make a menu substitution in a diner, he tucks Rayette away in a motel before heading to the house. There Bobby seduces his uptight brother Carl's cultured fiancée, Catherine (Susan Anspach), but Rayette shows up unexpectedly. As Rayette's crassness collides with the snobbery of the Dupea circle, Bobby loses patience with both sides. After trying to reconcile with his mute father, Bobby departs, unwilling to give in to either destiny. Director Bob Rafelson and screenwriter Adrien Joyce (aka Carole Eastman) used the creative control afforded by the low budget to craft a European-influenced character study, catching a cultural mood of anomie and resentment as it was embodied in Bobby. Neither older generation nor hippie, Bobby fits in nowhere, and his desire for independence conflicts with his emotional emptiness. Nicholson's nuanced performance of simmering frustration resonated with 1970 audiences caught between Nixon's "silent majority" and the troubled counterculture; a substantial hit, Five Easy Pieces was nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and established Nicholson as a star. Offering no "easy" answers to Bobby's existential crisis, Five Easy Pieces is one of the pre-eminent films in the early-'70s cycle of alienated American art movies, as even the fantasy of rebellion is reduced to merely running away. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a college president takes a sabbatical so he can work as a ditch-digger and a cafe cook. The story is based on John Chapman's autobiographical book, Blue Collar Journal. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When an heiress is falsely accused of the murder of her husband, she is assisted by 2 crafty criminal lawyers. ~ All Movie Guide

Richard Dreyfuss plays Moses Wine, an ex-Sixties radical who pays the bills as a private eye. Wine is hired to stem a smear campaign against a popular political candidate. Gradually the plot thickens into a murder case, involving a hippie leader whose values, like Wine's, have been severely compromised over the years - and who plans to blow up a major LA freeway as a protest. Susan Anspach provides a great deal of dramatic (and sexual) tension as Wine's boss. Among the minor players are future stars Mandy Patinkin and F. Murray Abraham. The Big Fix was adapted by Roger L. Simon from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Last Giraffe was adapted by Sherman Yellin from the book Raising Daisy Rothschild by Jock and Betty Leslie-Melville. Put two and two together, and you'll figure out from the above information that the giraffe of the title and Daisy Rothschild are one in the same. Filmed in Kenya, the fact-based story details the efforts of married-couple Susan Anspach and Simon Ward to save an injured baby Rothschild giraffe and to rescue the animal's herd from nasty poacher Gordon Jackson. It turns out that Jackson is not the only threat to the Rothschilds: the expanding human population of Kenya is unwittingly stripping the land of the precious foliage upon which Daisy and the other giraffes must feed. Thankfully, the film avoids sappy sentiment and Disneyesque preciousness. Made for television, The Last Giraffe premiered June 7, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The title character, a nasty landlord (Elliott Gould), is killed in a car accident and descends into hell. There he meets the Devil (Bill Cosby), who promises him his life back if he can find three people willing to sell their souls in three months. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Marilyn Jordan (Susan Anspach), an American-born housewife, mother, and socialite living in Sweden, is crumbling under the weight of her own existence. She deeply resents her husband Martin's (Erland Josephson) frequent holiday absences and his indifferent attitude toward their two children ("If they are going to grow up in today's world," he admits, "it's about time they faced the fact that nobody keeps promises anymore"). Moreover, Marilyn's eccentric father (who believes he is Buffalo Bill and fires off guns in the house to prove it) and her children -- who hatch an outrageous plan to set up a dating service for senior citizens -- start to drive her completely around the bend. Marilyn feels herself domestically imprisoned -- encased in a bell jar. Her subsequent behavior grows not simply eccentric, but irrational and then comically outrageous. She cooks wiener schnitzel for the entire family, but eats it all herself; unsuccessfully attempts to poison the family beagle; and -- convinced that insects are attacking her during the night -- showers the plant above her bed with bug repellent, much to Martin's consternation. Finally, irritated by Martin's sexual indifference to her, Marilyn manages to get his attention in a last, desperate move by setting his bed on fire late one night. Deeply concerned, Martin consults psychologist Dr. Pazardjian (Per Oscarsson), who does little to help Marilyn and (indeed) turns out to be even nuttier than any of the members of the Jordan family. Via a comic security mix-up, Marilyn later becomes stranded at the Stockholm airport and hitches a ride with a band of horny Yugoslavian immigrants celebrating the new year; they take her to their ZanziBar nightclub for a couple of days, where she begins to break out of her domestic prison by engaging in a torrid extramarital affair with randy Slavic zookeeper Montenegro and by performing as a one-time chaunteuse on-stage. Eventually, Marilyn's family beckons for her to return -- but her brush with independence has made her a very different woman, indeed. Montenegro marked controversial writer/director Dusan Makavejev's English-language debut, and earned widespread critical raves for Anspach's career-defining performance. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

In this exciting aerial actioner, a young woman convinces her ex-boy friend, who used to fly a chopper in Vietnam, to help her out. The airborne special effects are particularly effective. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The wacky comedy-melodrama Gone are the Dayes was assembled in 1984 as an "original production" for the Disney cable channel. While dining out at a Japanese restaurant, the Day family witnesses a gangland slaying. Federal agent Mitchell (Harvey Korman) persuades the Daye parents (Susan Anspach, Robert Hogan) to serve as witnesses in the upcoming trial of the gang boss who ordered the hit. Mitchell then puts everyone in protective custody, a decision he comes to regret when he's forced to baby-sit the Dayes' unruly teenaged kids. It's all typical Disney nonsense, right down to the obligatory slapstick chase. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide