Anne Archer Movies
The daughter of actors John Archer and Marjorie Lord, noted actress Anne Archer began her own career in the early 1970s, landing her first important film role in the 1972 Bob Hope comedy Cancel My Reservation. A year later, Archer played the Natalie Wood part in a TV-sitcom adaptation of Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice. Often cast in vulnerable, imperiled roles, the actress gave one of her most memorable performances as Michael Douglas' wife in Fatal Attraction (1987), for which she earned an Oscar nomination. She also proved her mettle as the wife of Harrison Ford in both Patriot Games (1992) and Clear and Present Danger (1994). In addition to being one of the industry's most reliable onscreen spouses, Archer has done solid work in such films as Robert Altman's Short Cuts (1993), in which she played a woman racked with moral conflict over her husband's questionable behavior during a weekend fishing trip. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideBased on a true story from 1910, this made-for-television movie tells the story of a teen who is hidden in an attic by his older lover. Anne Archer stars as Krista Heldmann, the bored housewife of a factory owner (Len Cariou). After the death of her son, Krista takes comfort by spending time with young Edward Broder (Harris), a teen employee of her husband's factory. Their relationship soon turns more serious, and the two become secret lovers. In an effort to conceal the relationship from her husband, she hides Broder in her attic. Their affair lasts over 20 years, despite Krista's eventual boredom and lack of devotion to her enslaved and now obsessed lover. The strange situation comes to a head one night when Edward and Krista's husband have a violent confrontation. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
The sensitive topic of the working mother is the subject of this made-for-television movie. Anne Archer stars as Abby, the working, single mother of a 6-year-old. Abby shares her son with her husband by alternating custodial weekends with him. At first, she enjoys the freedom it affords her to advance her career. When her re-married ex-husband Ted (John Heard) gets pangs for more custodial rights, he decides to take her to court for full-time parental custody, and he has a fighting chance because of Abby's demanding career. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
This is the third film based on Tom Clancy's high-tech espionage potboilers starring CIA deputy director Jack Ryan. Harrison Ford, returning to the Ryan role after his first go-round in 1992's Patriot Games, is assigned to a delicate anti-drug investigation after a close friend of the President (a Reaganesque Donald Moffat) is murdered by a Colombian drug cartel. When Ryan discovers that the President's wealthy friend was in league with the cartel, the President's devious national security adviser (Harris Yulin) and an ambitious CIA deputy director (Henry Czerny) send a secret paramilitary force into Colombia to wipe out the drug lords. The force is captured and then abandoned by the President's lackeys. It falls to Ryan to enter Colombia and rescue them, aided only by a renegade operative named Clark (Willem Dafoe), with both his life and career on the line. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Willem Dafoe, (more)
Similar to the premise of American Graffiti, this film centers on eight California high school students whose lives intersect over two nights in the hot summer of 1965. As the Watts riots begin, the young people make decisions that will impact their entire lives. Writer-director Floyd Mutrux examines at the graduating class of 1965 of Westwood High School in Los Angeles, which was featured on the cover of Look magazine in 1961. The story is narrated by the class valedictorian, Mary Beth (Lucy Deakins). Kelli Williams plays Sunshine, a prototypical flower child. Characters played by Dermot Mulroney and Rick Schroder and others struggle with decisions about the Vietnam war, aspire to be rock musicians, and take divergent paths on politics while navigating various romantic entanglements. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dermot Mulroney, Rick Schroder, (more)
Based on stories by Raymond Carver, Short Cuts follows 22 Los Angeles residents whose lives intersect over the course of a few days. Ann and Howard Finnegan (Andie MacDowell and Bruce Davison) are preparing for their son Casey's birthday party when the boy is injured in an auto accident and falls into a coma. Meanwhile, Andy (Lyle Lovett), a baker, seethes with anger over the birthday cake that wasn't claimed, and Howard's father, Paul (Jack Lemmon), decides that a visit with his ailing grandson is a good time to discuss his infidelities. Lois (Jennifer Jason Leigh) is a new mother who watches over her baby when not making money doing phone sex, which bothers her husband, Jerry (Chris Penn), though he knows they need the money. Pilot "Stormy" Weathers (Peter Gallagher) takes a very literal approach to dividing up community property with his ex-wife (Frances McDormand). Doreen (Lily Tomlin) is trying on to hold her marriage with Earl (Tom Waits), who is a good man on the rare occasions that he's sober. Zoe (Lori Singer), a classical musician, is trying to find some way to connect with her mother, Tess (Annie Ross), a jazz singer. Dr. Ralph Wyman (Matthew Modine) and his wife, Marian (Julianne Moore) put their bickering on hold while they have dinner with another couple, Stuart and Claire Kane (Fred Ward and Anne Archer). Stuart and his pals Gordon and Vern (Buck Henry and Huey Lewis) earlier went on a fishing trip where they discovered the body of a drowned woman but decided not to report it until the end of the weekend. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andie MacDowell, Bruce Davison, (more)
Madonna plays Rebecca Carlson, a sex bomb who parades naked in front of the open windows of her houseboat at all hours while the lobstermen catch crabs. This entry in the Basic Instinct sweepstakes poses the question: If love hurts, does sex kill? The judge and jury certainly want to find out when Rebecca's latest conquest, a multi-millionaire, dies of a heart attack while making love to her. Eight million dollars was bequeathed to Rebecca in his will, and District Attorney Robert Garrett (Joe Mantegna) is convinced that Rebecca, knowing that her rich lover had a weak heart, killed him with wild sex so that she could get her mitts on the money. Rebecca's lawyer, Frank Dulaney (Willem Dafoe), thinks differently, suspecting the millionaire's private secretary Joanne Braslow (Anne Archer) of the crime, since she was dumped by the millionaire for Rebecca. Besides which, Frank is attracted to Rebecca himself and throws legal ethics out the window as he starts a sadomasochistic affair with her. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Madonna, Willem Dafoe, (more)
Graham Greene stars as Ishi, the lone survivor of the Yahi Indian tribe, who is discovered and cared for by anthropologist Albert Kroeber (Jon Voight) in this made-for-cable docudrama. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Graham Greene, Jon Voight, (more)
In Patriot Games, Harrison Ford plays former CIA agent Jack Ryan, taking over from Alec Baldwin, who had played author Tom Clancy's brainy protagonist in Hunt for Red October. This time around, Ryan foils an attempted assassination, thereby incurring the wrath of a maniacal Irish radical (Sean Bean). After seemingly neutralizing the villains, and deciding to celebrate the occasion with his wife (Anne Archer) and daughter (Thora Birch), everything appears to be back to normal; then all hell breaks loose. Author Tom Clancy himself bemoaned the liberties taken with his novel in the final sequences; the picture scored with audiences, however, and soon inspired a followup, A Clear and Present Danger (1994), also starring Ford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Anne Archer, (more)
Maniacal Dennis Hopper plays a high-strung L.A. homicide detective who embarks upon a vengeful hunt for the drug pushers who brutally murdered his partners. His investigation soon reveals that the dealers' influence extends to the highest echelons of city government. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Set in 1969 Los Angeles, this movie aims at nostalgia but really is more a depiction of the tragedy of a dysfunctional family. Young Andrew, a 13-year-old male on the brink of manhood, is saddled with a Father who is a compulsive gambler and a Mother who is immersed in constant battle with him because of it. Often desperate for money, their dependence on Andrew's older sister for money is one more cause of tension and anxiety in an already unhappy household. As Andrew cares for himself and his younger sister, the symbol of his coming of age--his approaching bar-mitzvah--comes to symbolize more than just a rite of passage. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Mantegna, Anne Archer, (more)
Polish bureaucrat Jozef Burski (Donald Sutherland) all but loses his reason for living when he is "downsized" by his government. Reduced to non-person status, Burski reaches out to his friends for moral support, but they turn their backs on him. Worse still, he doesn't know why he's been targeted for this emotional abuse; every time he tries to find out, something calamitous happens. The emotional strain takes its biggest toll on Burski's wife Mira (Anne Archer), who ends up in a state asylum. Suddenly, Burski's exile is lifted: it's all been a test of his loyalty to his homeland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Sutherland, Anne Archer, (more)
Narrow Margin directed by Peter Hyams and loosely based on the classic film noir of the same title, tells the story of a resourceful District Attorney who must return a witness to San Francisco alive so she can testify in a trial. Carol (Anne Archer) is in the bathroom of the hotel room of her blind date when he is murdered by mobsters for stealing money. Knowing she is the only witness, Carol flees to an isolated Canadian mountain home to hide out. She is followed by Caulfield (Gene Hackman) who knows that she is a witness and wants to make her testify. When the mobsters track Caulfield to the cabin, Carol must join him in a run for her life on a Canadian train. This film, while it is somewhat uneven, is a tour de force for director/writer/cinematographer Peter Hyams, who delivers a fast-paced, action-packed chase through the Canadian mountains, stunningly photographed and well acted by both Hackman and Archer. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Anne Archer, (more)
Director Alan Rudolph's 1989 model mood piece stars Tom Berenger as shabby private eye Harry Dobbs, who is hired by the mysterious Miss Dolan (Anne Archer). Dolan wants Dobbs to tail her abusive boyfriend, Rick (Neil Young). Dobbs immediately demonstrates his uncanny powers of detection by trailing the wrong man (Ted Levine), whose story turns out to be far more fascinating than Rick's. Meanwhile, Dobbs is himself pursued by female P.I. Stella Wynkowski (Elizabeth Perkins), which hardly pleases Dobbs' jealous girlfriend, Doris (Ann Magnuson). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Berenger, Elizabeth Perkins, (more)
A young woman learns that she has a lethal, rare kind of cancer. This fact-based, heart-wrenching made-for-TV drama chronicles her struggle to cope with her own personal feelings and those of her family. She then begins looking for alternative ways to treat her disease while her husband deals with his denial. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Archer, Sam Neill, (more)
Anne Archer stars in the made-for-TV movie A Different Affair--and, surprise, she doesn't play a long-suffering victim. Anne is cast as a chic radio psychologist who has lived alone and liked it since the death of her husband. All this changes when the plot requires that she take in a troublesome 12-year-old foster child, played by Bobby Jacoby. Tony Roberts fills the standard best friend/lover/severest critic role, while other parts are essayed by Stuart Pankin and Alan Fudge. Filmed in 1985, A Different Affair didn't land an airdate until March 24, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Archer, Tony Roberts, (more)
"Fatal attraction" has become a household term for love turned to murderous obsession, thanks to the success of Adrian Lyne's 1987 movie. Dan (Michael Douglas) is a family man whose one-night affair with Alex (Glenn Close) turns into a nightmare when she insists on continuing the relationship, claiming to be carrying his baby. Alex systematically terrorizes Dan, even temporarily kidnapping his daughter, in her attempts to win back his affection. Douglas' besieged family man guiltily tries to preserve his marriage and family from the consequences of his own indiscretion. Close's performance as the love-struck psycho-siren remains her signature role: She conveys the buried feminist message of the film in her challenge to Dan to take responsibility for his sexual behavior. Though many critics acknowlegded the film's striking similarities to Clint Eastwood's 1971 film Play Misty for Me, Fatal Attraction spawned numerous other movies about middle-class families besieged by a lone psychotic intent on infiltrating and destroying the fabric of the family unit, including The Stepfather (1987), Pacific Heights (1990), The Hand That Rocks the Cradle (1992), and Fear (1996). ~ Laura Abraham, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Douglas, Glenn Close, (more)
This uneasy mix between a slasher film and a police story focuses on a series of murders in a luxury Manhattan apartment building and the main suspect in the case, an eccentric doorman (Ian McShane). The chief detective sent to unravel the crimes, Lt. Dinardo (Mike Connors) is involved with Kate (Anne Archer), an undercover cop who installs herself in the apartment building to lure the killer into action. This makes the lieutenant particularly interested in the outcome of Kate's ploy. Although potentially prone to high suspense and dramatic turns, the story is not quite as tension-filled (or gory) as its outlines suggest. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Connors, Anne Archer, (more)
In an unusual comedy by Joan Darling, Brian Dennehy and Anne Archer star as the Richard, a druggist, and his wife Peggy, a pair of debt-ridden parents who rebel against the system. Nothing goes right while they try to uphold the system, then things get even worse when they leave it. Richard decides to pull the plug on modernity when he cannot meet his utility bills and creditors are at his door like wolves. He shuts off the electricity and sets up candles, buys a goat, and digs a well in the back yard. He finally does hit water, but it happens to be the city's water main. Peggy is not quite as crazed as her husband so she goes to see a shrink -- who promptly dies on her. If anything can go wrong for Richard and Peggy, it will. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brian Dennehy, Anne Archer, (more)
In this fast-paced, often complex murder mystery, a psychiatrist's patient and later his secretary are killed, yet the police seem unable to come up with any answers so the doc takes matters into his own hands. Roger Moore is Dr. Judd Stevens, a rather meek Chicago psychiatrist whose patient is killed while wearing a jacket borrowed from Stevens. After Stevens' secretary is brutally slain, Lieutenant McGreavy (Rod Steiger) is certain that Stevens is guilty and is ready to prove it, but when his vendetta gets too obvious, he is taken off the case. That leaves his partner Angeli (Elliott Gould), a much more sympathetic cop, to continue on with the investigation. Even then, the killings continue, so Stevens gives up on the police and goes for help to a wacky P.I. (Art Carney) who lives surrounded by clocks and at first seems like a hopeless nitwit. As Stevens continues in his pursuit of the killers, life is complicated by a Mafia bride who seeks his professional help and clues that lead increasingly to the Mafia and cops on the take. The acting may be a bit uneven, and Moore might have fared better if allowed a little Bond action, but the movie is engaging enough to maintain interest throughout. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roger Moore, Rod Steiger, (more)
This drama chronicles the experiences of three women as they endure the rigors of NASA training and compete with each other to become the first female astronaut in US history. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
In this easily predictable romantic comedy, Gail (Anne Archer) is a no-nonsense geologist from the East Coast and John (Terry Jastrow) is a down-home, intuitive Texan whose expertise lies in guessing where petroleum is located -- Gail, as a geologist, is not in the habit of guessing. As the two meet and work together on a wildcat well in Texas, their romantic and financial fortunes are transparently tied together, and nothing at all comes as a surprise after their first initial meeting and disagreement. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Archer, Terry Jastrow, (more)
An electronics engineer (Ryan O'Neal) and his gal pal (Anne Archer) travel to South America, where they become involved in a plot to rob an emerald smuggler (Omar Sharif) of his fortune. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Anne Archer, (more)
This box-office bomb is about some schemers' hell-bent efforts to raise the fated vessel from its murky grave when they suspect that there's a fortune in radioactive cargo aboard. To add a little excitement, a bunch of Russians decide they want to get there first. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jason Robards, Jr., Richard Jordan, (more)
John Ritter plays an unsuccessful actor who takes a job posing as comic-book hero Captain Avenger at comics stores and conventions. While thus garbed, Ritter foils a grocery store robbery. He skedaddles from the scene when the cops show up, leading witnesses to assume that he is a genuine costumed superhero, the sort that shows up to foil the villains and then modestly retreats after his job is done. Ritter is hired by the mayor's staff, who hope that the Captain Avenger tie-in will help the mayor win an upcoming election. This plan comes acropper, and Captain Avenger finds himself on the outs with the public. Prodded by his girlfriend Anne Archer to be himself and not rely on a costume and mask to gain adulation, Ritter becomes a bonafide hero when he rescues several citizens from a fire. Thanks to the enthusiastic performance of John Ritter, Hero at Large remains amusing even when you know what's going to happen next (a common occurrence in this film). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ritter, Anne Archer, (more)
Chuck Norris plays John T. Booker, a Vietnam vet who finds out that several of his army buddies lost their lives in a mission that was intended to fail. Seeking answers, Booker quits his school-teaching job and tracks down the surviving members of his unit. One by one, his old friends are being knocked off by sinister forces, orchestrated by a crooked, and legally untouchable, politician. Amidst a plethora of martial arts, gunfire and explosions, the film briefly pauses for a comic-relief scene involving over-aged bellboy Jim Backus. Good Guys Wear Black did so well at the box-office that it warranted a sequel, A Force of One (1979). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chuck Norris, Anne Archer, (more)

























