Melvyn Douglas Movies
American actor Melvyn Douglas began his stage career shortly after being mustered out of World War I Army service. Douglas secured a position with the Owens Repertory Company, making his debut in a production of Merchant of Venice. He spent the first part of the 1920s touring with Owens Repertory and with the Jessie Bonstelle Company, reaching Broadway in the 1928 drama A Free Soul. Brought to Hollywood in the early talkie "gold rush" for stage-trained actors, Douglas made his film bow in 1931's Tonight or Never. With The Old Dark House (1932), the actor established his standard screen character: a charming, blase young socialite who could exhibit great courage and loyalty when those attributes were called upon. After a brief return to Broadway in 1933, Douglas returned to films in 1935, signing a joint contract with Columbia and MGM. Most often appearing in sophisticated comedies, Douglas was one of the busiest stars in Hollywood, playing in as many as eight films per year. One of the actor's better roles was a supporting one: as Cary Grant's beleaguered lawyer and business adviser in Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House (1947), who spends most of the film trying to keep Grant from spending himself into bankruptcy. Douglas found movie roles scarce in the early 1950s thanks to the "Red Scare." The actor was married to Congresswoman Helen Gahagan, the woman labeled by Richard Nixon as the "pink lady" friendly to communism. The more rabid anti-communists in Washington went after Douglas himself, suggesting that because he was Jewish and had changed his name for professional reasons, he was automatically politically suspect. Douglas began recovering his career with a 1950s detective program, Hollywood Off-Beat - ironically playing a disbarred lawyer trying to regain his reputation. He headed back to Broadway, gaining high critical praise for his "emergence" as a topnotch character actor (his prior stage and film credits were virtually ignored). Some of Douglas' stage triumphs included Inherit the Wind (replacing Paul Muni in the Clarence Darrow part) and The Best Man (which had a character based on Richard Nixon) Douglas' long-overdue Academy Award was bestowed upon the actor for his role as Paul Newman's dying father in Hud (1963); other highlights of Douglas' final Hollywood days included I Never Sang for My Father (1971) and Being There (1979), the latter film winning the actor his second Oscar. Melvyn Douglas died at age 80, just before the release of his final film, Ghost Story (1981). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This made-for-cable documentary traces the filming of the imperishable classic Gone with the Wind, from its inception to its triumphant Atlanta premiere in December of 1939. Filmmaker David Hinton interviews as many survivors of the experience as he's able to round up, but the main attraction of this film is its precious "test" clips. We watch a montage of screen tests of the many actresses considered for the role of Scarlett O'Hara, ranging from such front-runners as Paulette Goddard to such not-a-chancers as Lana Turner. The Goddard footage is particularly enjoyable as we watch her eagerly reciting the lines of all the characters as she auditions for Scarlett. The documentary also turns up several tantalizing bits of trivia, notably the fact that the film was shown to a preview audience with an entirely different musical score (portions of which are played on the soundtrack). There is, of course, very little suspense involved in Making of a Legend, but even those who've heard all the Gone With the Wind factoids from other sources will watch in fascination as the saga unfolds. This documentary was produced by David Selznick's sons, and written by iconoclastic movie historian David Thomson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
In this routine action film, Danny Fairchild (Wayne Rogers) and Vincent Reblack (Patrick Macnee) are partners in an art-scam operation in which Danny forges valuable paintings and Vincent authenticates them; both pretend to run a company that legitimately authenticates art for sale at auction. Their illicit operation has been undetected for years until one day someone catches on and Severo (Lloyd Bochner) shows up, threatening to turn them in, or worse, if Danny does not forge a series of paintings that disappeared in World War II. Although the two partners have to agree, they begin to develop a scam that will get Severo and his unknown boss right where it hurts the most. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wayne Rogers, Marie-France Pisier, (more)
This 1981 John Irvin picture constitutes an adaptation of Peter Straub's colossal, bestselling novel. The central plot -- shared by both book and film -- revolves around the four elderly members of the Chowder Society (Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and John Houseman), who gather in each other's drawing rooms each winter to sip cognac and spin elaborate ghost stories. The four men also share a dark secret far more unsettling than fiction -- a secret which has literally come back to haunt them, as well as their own adult offspring. Each man is visited by a hideous specter bearing the likeness of a young woman (Alice Krige) they accidentally killed 50 years ago when spurning her mischievous sexual advances. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, (more)
Featuring Lila Kedrova and Melvyn Douglas as elderly couple Eva and David who, after forty years of a less-than-satisfying marriage, find the lost love they once had for each other as they travel to San Francisco to visit their grandchildren. Actress Lee Grant's first directorial feature, this drama is based on a novella by Tillie Olsen. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvyn Douglas, Lila Kedrova, (more)
Peter Medak's The Changeling is among a handful of films, including The Haunting (1963), Ghost Story (1981), and Lady in White (1988), that have successfully recreated the intimate, drawing-room atmosphere of supernatural horror fiction. After his wife and daughter are killed in a snowbound car accident, classical composer John Russell (George C. Scott) relocates from New York to Seattle to teach at his alma mater. Looking for a quiet place to rest and continue writing music, he is referred Claire Norman (Trish Van Devere) at the Seattle Historical Preservation Society. Claire shows John a large, sparsely furnished estate in the outlying countryside. He takes the house, appreciating its remoteness and the solitude it might afford, and diverts himself by renovating and settling in. He even starts to compose, putting aside his older work in favor of a new, sentimental piece for the piano. It is not long, however, before he begins having nightmares about the accident that killed his wife and daughter. Possibly because of this trauma, he is open to communications from the house's ghostly occupants. Pursuing a loud, repetitive pounding noise in an upper room, he stumbles on the apparition of a young boy drowning in a tub. Working together with Claire, John discovers frightening parallels between this vision and buried events from the house's past. Horror writer M.R. James once said that his goal as a writer was to make the reader feel "pleasantly uncomfortable." Those looking for a similar experience in movies will appreciate The Changeling as a gem in the horror genre. ~ Anthony Reed, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George C. Scott, Trish VanDevere, (more)
Having lived his life as the gardener on a millionaire's estate, Chance (Peter Sellers) knows of the real world only what he has seen on TV. When his benefactor dies, Chance walks aimlessly into the streets of Washington D.C., where he is struck by a car owned by wealthy Eve Rand (Shirley MacLaine). Identifying himself, the confused man mutters "Chance...gardener," which Eve takes to be "Chauncey Gardiner." Eve takes him to her home to convalesce, and because Chance is so well-dressed and well-groomed, and because he speaks in such a cultured tone, everyone in her orbit assumes that "Chauncey Gardiner" must be a man of profound intelligence. No matter what he says, it is interpreted as a pearl of wisdom and insight. He rises to the top of Washington society, where his simplistic responses to the most difficult questions (responses usually related to his gardening experience) are highly prized by the town's movers and shakers. In fact, there is serious consideration given to running Chance as a presidential candidate. Both a modern fable and a political satire, Being There was based on the novel by Jerzy Kosinski and costars Melvyn Douglas, who won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar as Eve's aging power-broker husband. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Sellers, Shirley MacLaine, (more)
- 1979
- R
Alan Alda wrote and starred in this tale about a big-time politician's struggles with his own morality and the corruption he finds surrounding him. He plays a U.S. Senator, Joe Tynan, who falls for a lovely lady attorney and has an affair that jeopardizes his marriage, and possibly, his career. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Alda, Barbara Harris, (more)
- 1977
- R
Soured on America by his experiences as a POW in Vietnam, General Lawrence Dell (Burt Lancaster) hopes that his government will someday tell the truth about the Southeast Asian debacle, thereby allowing his country to embark upon a healing process. Regarded as a dangerous embarrassment by the higher-ups, Dell is framed on a manslaughter charge and sent to prison. Escaping with three hardened convicts (Paul Winfield, Burt Young, and William Smith), Dell takes over an SAC base, threatening to launch nine Titan missiles if his demands that top-secret Vietnam files be made public are not met. Thus, the fate of the world rests in the hands of the mentally unbalanced Dell, his former superior General MacKenzie (Richard Widmark), and U.S. president David Stevens (Charles Durning). For this picture, Edward Huebach and Ronald M. Cohen adapted Walter Wager's novel Viper Three. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Richard Widmark, (more)
- 1977
This film tells the story of a young artist who desperately wants to finish a painting of his grandfather for his first one-man show. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1977
This grim made-for-TV domestic drama examines the terrible effects caused by spousal abuse. The story centers on the mental and physical battering endured by a wife at the hands of her troubled husband. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Director Roman Polanski casts himself in the lead of the psychological thriller The Tenant. Trelkovsky (Polanski) rents an apartment in a spooky old residential building, where his neighbors -- mostly old recluses -- eye him with suspicious contempt. Upon discovering that the apartment's previous tenant, a beautiful young woman, jumped from the window in a suicide attempt, Trelkovsky begins obsessing over the dead woman. Growing increasingly paranoid, Trelkovsky convinces himself that his neighbors plan to kill him. He even comes to the conclusion that Stella (Isabel Adjani), the woman he has fallen in love with, is in on the "plot." Ultimately, Polanski assumes the identity of the suicide victim -- and inherits her self-destructive urges. Some critics found the movie tedious and overdone; others compared it to Polanski's early breakthrough, Repulsion. The film was based on Le Locataire Chimerique, a novel by Roland Topor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roman Polanski, Isabelle Adjani, (more)
- 1974
Made for television in 1974, a doctor (Melvyn Douglas) is accused of murdering his terminally ill wife. The defense receives a shot in the arm when a famed lawyer returns from retirement to help the case. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Made for television, Death Squad focuses on a group of renegade police responsible for the murder of shady crooks--especially the ones who have avoided conviction on small technicalities. The commissioner decides to hire an ex-cop to bring the vigilantes to justice. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Filmed on location in Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, The Going Up of David Lev is a dramatized salute to the 25th anniversary of the state of Israel. Courtship of Eddie's Father star Brandon Cruz portrays a young Jewish boy searching for the truth behind the death of his father. He is aided in his quest by a friendly cabdriver, played by Fiddler on the Roof's Topol. Melvyn Douglas and Claire Bloom costar in this warmhearted celebration of liberty, which offers as highlights two songs performed by the ebullient Topol. The Going Up of David Lev was telecast over the ABC network on April 25, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
"What do we do now?" Director Michael Ritchie and executive producer/star Robert Redford satirically explore the machinations and manipulations of media-age political campaigns in this cynical political drama. Rumpled left-wing California lawyer Bill McKay (Redford), the son of a former governor (Melvyn Douglas), is enlisted by campaign maestro Marvin Lucas (Peter Boyle) to challenge Republican incumbent Crocker Jarmon (Don Porter) for his Senate seat. McKay agrees, but only if he can say exactly what he thinks. That approach is all well and good when McKay does not seem to have a chance, but things change when his honesty unexpectedly captivates the electorate. As McKay inches up in the polls, Lucas and company start to do what it takes to win, leaving McKay to ponder the consequences of his political seduction. Working without studio interference from a script by Jeremy Larner, a speechwriter for 1968 Presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy, Ritchie enhanced the behind-the-scenes realism of Larner's insights with a realistic, cinéma vérité approach. He orchestrated a campaign parade for "candidate" Redford that drew such a considerable unstaged audience that local politicians wanted to draft Redford for a real election. Redford's resemblance to the telegenic Kennedys, and his character's resonance with the future career of California governor Jerry Brown, only emphasized how close to the bone The Candidate was (and is). Released the fateful year of Richard Nixon's reelection, the film garnered accolades, if not substantial box office; Larner won the Oscar for Best Original Screenplay and thanked the "politicians of our time" for inspiration. Creating a documentary fiction about the semi-truths manufactured to market a candidate, The Candidate shrewdly exposed the effects of the media on the increasingly cynical political process, posing unanswerable questions that have become all the more pressing with every soundbite-ruled election. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Peter Boyle, (more)
- 1972
- PG
A woman struggles to rebuild her life after her husband leaves her in this drama. Amy Brower (Trish VanDevere) is a 27-year-old woman who thinks that her marriage to James (Paul Jenkins), a college professor, is a happy one until he unexpectedly files for divorce after falling for one of his students. On her own for the first time in her life, Amy is introduced by her best friend Madge (Jane Elliot) to a support group for divorced women, but the bitterness of Gert (Janet Leigh), the group's leader, doesn't make her feel much better; her search for a career proves just as unsatisfying. Amy finds friendship and solace with Joseph Provo (Melvyn Douglas), an elderly man whose wife of 40 years recently passed on and is also dealing with loneliness, and she dips her toes back into dating when she meets Howard Carpenter (Monte Markham) at an art gallery, and he shows a keen interest in her, though he seems more interested in her body than her mind. Trish VanDevere's performance earned her a Best Actress nomination at the 1973 Golden Globe Awards. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Trish VanDevere, Monte Markham, (more)
- 1971
This 1971 TV movie remake of the 1934 film of the same name (see the above synopsis) adds little to the original story about Death assuming human form to discover why mankind fears him. In updating the story, the scenarists removed much of the "nobility" of the principal characters--and also a lot of their charm. Melvyn Douglas and Myrna Loy are superb in roles played in 1934 by Sir Guy Standing and Helen Westley, while Monte Markham is okay but nothing more in the old Fredric March role as "Death". Yvette Mimieux is utterly forgettable as the enigmatic Grazia; her wisecracking American friend (originally Gail Patrick) is played by Maureen Reagan, a few years before the daughter of Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman (rather wisely) abandoned acting. Whatever appeal Death Takes a Holiday had in 1934 utterly withers and expires in this halfhearted remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- PG
Based on the play by Robert Anderson, I Never Sang for My Father is devoted to the prickly relationship between aged Tom Garrison (Melvyn Douglas) and his grown son Gene (Gene Hackman). A college professor who feels that he has never been fully accepted by his self-made dad, Gene announces that he is going to move from New York to marry a California divorcee. His mother (Dorothy Stickney) approves of the union but worries that her son's move will have a negative effect on the increasingly truculent Tom. When his mother dies just before the wedding, Gene is forced to help his father through his dark days. His sister (Estelle Parsons) urges her brother to break the ties for good and all--or else he'll wind up as bitter and withdrawn as their father. Gene realizes the wisdom of these words when he tries to reach out to his father during a vulnerable moment, only to have the crabby Tom tell him to get lost and leave him alone. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvyn Douglas, Gene Hackman, (more)
- 1970
Hard Frame is the syndication title for the made-for-TV film Hunters Are for Killing. Burt Reynolds plays a man who returns home after serving six years in prison for manslaughter. Reynolds knows that he was framed; so does someone else in town. The most nervous citizens are Burt's father (Melvyn Douglas), his ex-girlfriend (Suzanne Pleshette) who is now chief of police, and the man (Martin Balsam) whose testimony cinched Reynolds' conviction. The film was shot on location in the wine country of Northern California. Under its original title, this 2-hour actioner first aired on March 12, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Melvyn Douglas made his TV-movie debut in Companions in Nightmare. Douglas plays a famous psychiatrist who conducts a group-therapy session with several high-priced professionals. One of the patients turns out to be a murderer; the truth will come out, and it will be a shocker. Gig Young, Anne Baxter, Patrick O'Neal, Dana Wynter and Leslie Nielsen are among the special guest suspects (aren't they always?) Filmed late in 1967, Companions in Nightmare was first telecast on November 23, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
The posh St. Gregory Hotel in New Orleans is the setting for this drama based on a popular novel by Arthur Hailey. Trent (Melvyn Douglas) is the long-time owner who realizes that the hotel is in dire financial straits. Trent calls on faithful manager Peter McDermott (Rod Taylor) to try and bring about the necessary reversal of fortune so that they can stay in business. After the Duke (Michael Rennie) and Duchess (Merle Oberon) of Lanbourne check in, the Duke is involved in a vehicular homicide after he has too much to drink. His car is traced back to the St. Gregory by hotel detective Dupere (Richard Conte), who blackmails the Duke. Although not on the same level of Grand Hotel, the film contains first-rate performances from a fine cast portraying a variety of eccentric guests. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Taylor, Catherine Spaak, (more)
- 1966
Kimble (David Janssen) covers several states using several aliases in this episode, barely escaping capture at every turn. The reason? Lt. Gerard (Barry Morse) has opted to use technology in his efforts to trap Kimble, and to this end has teamed with electronics expert Dr. Mark Ryder. Utilizing Ryder's state-of-the-art computer "2130", Gerard is now able to anticipate Kimble's every move by evaluating the geographical pattern of the fugitive's travels. For once, it looks as if Kimble has met his match--but machines, like people, are capable of making mistakes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1966
Adapted for television by Robert Hartung from the play by Barrie Stavus, Lamp at Midnight deals with the 16th-century conflict between the Catholic Church and Italian astronomer Galileo Galilei. After exhaustive research, Galileo (played by Melvyn Douglas) concludes that the Aristotelean concept of the Universe is incorrect. It is Galileo's contention--like Copernicus before him--that Earth is not the center of the universe, but merely another planet, revolving around the sun. This theory is considered heresy by the Church, and before long Galileo is dragged before Cardinal Bellarmin (George Voskovec), leader of the dreaded Court of the Inquisition. Also in the cast of this impressively mounted production are David Wayne, Kim Hunter, Hurd Hatfield, and, as Pope Urban VIII, Michael Hordern. Originally telecast April 27, 1966, the videotaped Lamp at Midnight was the final presentation of Hallmark Hall of Fame's 15th season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1965
Raised in the country with only her world-weary, cynical father, a former judge, for company, a young woman grows up believing that she too is angry at the world. Other than her reclusive father, her only human contact comes from her personal maid and a scarecrow that the girl mistakenly believes has come to life. Her life abruptly changes one day when a fugitive criminal shows up and begs the judge for shelter. Hating all things having to do with the law, the old man lets him in. The young woman is enchanted by the fugitive's presence and grows close to him until she discovers that he and the maid have become lovers. The enraged young woman vows to kill the maid, but the latter hastily leaves. With no hindrance, the girl and the fugitive fall in love and head for Paris where the girl learns valuable lessons about herself and tragedy ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melvyn Douglas, Patricia Gozzi, (more)
- 1965
A renegade policeman who is committing gang-like executions is hunted down by an ex-cop who was hired by the police commissioner. ~ All Movie Guide
