Norman Fell Movies
A prolific character player whose lived-in face was his fortune, Norman Fell attended Temple University, served in World War II, then took acting lessons at the American Academy of Dramatic Art and the Actors' Studio. Fell entered films in 1959, playing such peripheral roles as the radio technician in Inherit the Wind (1960) until achieving a measure of fame as a detective named Meyer Meyer on TV's 87th Precinct (1961). His meatier film assignments included the role of Mr. McCleery in The Graduate (1967) and a pushy American tourist in If It's Tuesday, It Must Be Belgium (1969). In 1966, Fell was cast as the second lead in the pilot for the Girl From UNCLE series, but "skewed old" and was replaced by Noel Harrison. Fell finally achieved TV stardom as the sex-obsessed landlord Mr. Roper in the popular 1970s sitcom Three's Company, which resulted in a spin-off vehicle for Fell titled The Ropers (both series were based on British TV originals; the English equivalent of The Ropers was George and Mildred). A later video vehicle for Fell, 1982's Teachers Only, was less successful. Norman Fell made his final film appearance in the independent feature The Destiny of Marty Fine (1996). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
As the third most popular program on network television, Three's Company entered its third season on ABC with the greatest of ease in the fall of 1978. No major changes had been made in the format or premise: Jack (John Ritter) still shared a Santa Monica apartment with Janet (Joyce DeWitt) and Chrissy (Suzanne Somers), the relationship was still strictly platonic, and the trio's landlord, Mr. Roper (Norman Fell), remained convinced that Jack was gay (this was the story given him by the girls, who didn't want to be kicked out), though both Jack and the audience knew that this was far from the truth. As the season progressed, Jack graduated from cooking school and began work as a caterer, Chrissy landed a new secretarial job in the firm run by female executive J.C. Braddock (Emmaline Henry), and Janet, the "calm, reliable" roommate, occasionally kicked over the traces and acted silly just for the heck of it. Towards the end of the season, Mr. Roper and his wife, Helen (Audra Lindley), sold their apartment building and moved into a ritzy Cheviot Hills townhouse, thereby seguing into their own spin-off series, The Ropers, which premiered on March 13, 1979. (A precedent for this move had been established on Man About the House, the British sitcom upon which Three's Company was based, which had likewise spawned a spin-off called George and Mildred.) At the same time, recurring actor Richard Kline was elevated to regular status in the role of glib car salesman Larry Dallas. Not only did Three's Company retain its popularity, but it actually increased its viewership, moving from the number three to the number two ratings slot by the end of its third season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt, (more)
At the beginning of The End, Wendell Sonny Lawson (Burt Reynolds) is informed by his doctor that he's dying from "the same thing Ali MacGraw had in Love Story." Lawson's first reaction is to cry uncontrollably, much to the discomfort of his fellow elevator passengers. He heads to a nearby church to confess all his sins, only to be distracted by the wide-eyed fecklessness of the novice priest (Robby Benson). Attempting to resolve a few issues with ex-wife Mary Ellen (Sally Field), daughter Julie (Kristy McNichol), and his parents (Myrna Loy and Pat O'Brien), Lawson finds that they're all too absorbed in their own problems to pay him any attention. At the end of his rope, Lawson decides to kill himself -- with the help of a nutty mental patient (Dom DeLuise). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, (more)
Having quickly climbed to 11th place during its six-week tryout in the spring of 1977, Three's Company was assured a full-season run by ABC beginning in the fall of that same year. Sensing the series' excellent potential, network boss Fred Silverman moved Three's Company to ABC's powerhouse Tuesday-night lineup, right after the league-leading sitcoms Happy Days and Laverne & Shirley. Since audiences had proven their devotion to the new series, there was no need to tinker with its format. The action still took place in the Santa Monica apartment building owned by Stanley and Helen Roper (Norman Fell, Audra Lindley). The Ropers' prize tenants were three roommates, two female, one male: florist-shop clerk Janet (Joyce DeWitt), sexy typist Chrissy (Suzanne Somers), and chef-in-training Jack (John Ritter). The girls were still passing Jack off as gay so that the prudish Mr. Roper would not break their lease, while the aggressively non-gay Jack continued dating hot chicks and trying to make the moves on the curvaceous Chrissy -- who, of course, was too pure-hearted to succumb to Jack's charms. Continuing to make sporadic appearances was Jack's friend, slick-talking car salesman Larry Dallas (Richard Kline), who would not be elevated to full regular status until the following season. New developments during season two included Janet's promotion to manager of the flower shop (with J.J. Barry making his first series appearances as Janet's boss, Mr. Compton), Chrissy's problems with her straight-laced clergyman father (Peter Mark Richman), and Jack's continued education in the culinary arts under the tutelage of cooking-school headmaster Dean Travers (William Pierson). Three's Company ended its second season as the third highest-rated program in America, beaten out only by its Tuesday-night neighbors Happy Days (number one) and Laverne & Shirley (number two). No wonder they called Fred Silverman "The Man With the Golden Gut." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt, (more)
Based on the British sitcom Man About the House, Three's Company was given a six-week trial run on ABC's Thursday-night schedule in the spring of 1977. In the first episode, aspiring chef Jack Tripper (John Ritter) was found sleeping in the bathtub of the Santa Monica apartment shared by floral-shop employee Janet Wood (Joyce DeWitt) and typist Chrissy Snow (Suzanne Somers) the morning after the girls' going-away party for their former roommate. Hoping to quickly snatch up a new roomie to share expenses -- and gratified that at last they had found someone who could actually cook -- Jane and Chrissy invited Jack to move in with them -- on a strictly platonic basis, of course. In order to persuade their landlord, Stanley Roper (Norman Fell), that no hanky-panky was going on, the girls convinced Mr. Roper that Jack was gay. This, of course, was the subterfuge to end all subterfuges: not only was Jack aggressively heterosexual, but he never let an opportunity pass to be alone with the voluptuous but innocent Chrissy (though he never succeeded in making her one of his conquests). Roper's wife, Helen (Audra Lindley), discovered early on that Jack was not gay, but she agreed to keep his secret because she liked the girls -- and she liked to one-up her bombastic, overbearing husband. A handful of recurring characters were introduced in season one, notably slick-talking car salesman Larry Dallas (Richard Kline), who would become a regular by the end of season three. Most of the episodes during the series' six-week tryout were adapted from scripts originally written for Man About the House, a derivative practice that would slowly die out over the next several years. After its requisite six showings, Three's Company was replaced, as intended, by ABC's The Tony Randall Show. But during its brief tryout, Three's Company managed to soar to 11th place in the ratings, making its return for a full season in the fall of 1977 a fait accompli. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ritter, Joyce DeWitt, (more)
- 1977
This family adventure chronicles the adventures and exploits of George Clark (Denver Pyle), one of the early naturalists. Clark was a friend and peer of John Muir, the man whose writings did so much to encourage the development of the national park system in the U.S. The two men attempt to save Yosemite Valley in California from the lumbermen and managed to get Abraham Lincoln to sign a piece of national legislation which would do just that. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Denver Pyle, John Dehner, (more)
- 1976
More ambitious and expensive than ABC's first "novel for television" miniseries QB VII, the eight-episode, 12-hour Rich Man, Poor Man was the one that truly put the genre on the map, its phenomenal success in the ratings making possible the even more spectacular Roots. Adapted from the mammoth novel by Irwin Shaw, the miniseries covers the years from WWII to the 1960s, detailing the vacillating fortunes of the immigrant Jordache brothers. "Rich Man" Rudy Jordache (Peter Strauss) is determined to use his hard-earned education -- and his inherent ruthlessness -- to carve out a business and political empire not unlike that enjoyed by Joseph P. Kennedy and his progeny. "Poor Man" Tom Jordache (Nick Nolte), a quick-fisted hothead, goes an entirely different route, first as a professional boxer, then as a functionary of the evil gangster chieftain Falconetti (William Smith). Naturally, both brothers become entangled in romance along the way, with Julie Prescott (Susan Blakely) ending up as Rudy's benighted spouse. Originally telecast on February 1, 2, 9, 16, 23, and March 1, 8, and 15 in 1976, Rich Man, Poor Man earned 20 Emmy nominations and led to a weekly sequel, Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book 2, in the fall of 1976 (this version necessitated a title change for the original, which was rebroadcast as Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book 1 in the spring of 1977). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Strauss, Nick Nolte, (more)
- 1976
In the conclusion of Streets of San Francisco's two-part Season Five opener, a band of urban revolutionaries continue to hold an entire jury hostage on a ship, threatening to kill them one by one unless the group's leaders are released from prison. The tension mounts as the first hostage is murdered and homicide inspector Steve Keller (Michael Douglas, in his final series appearance) is gunned down on the eve of his retirement from the force. Keller's partner Mike Stone (Karl Malden) must rely upon the daring and resourcefulness of SFPD newcomer Dan Robbins (Richard Hatch) to rescue the terrified prisoners. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
In this thriller, an amnesiac woman hires a young detective to investigate the two men who seem to be trying to kill her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1976
The two-part opener of Streets of San Francisco's fifth and final season marks a major transition, as SFPD homicide detective Mike Stone (Karl Malden) loses his longtime partner Steve Keller (Michael Douglas) and gains a new one, athletic young inspector Dan Robbins (Richard Hatch). But before Keller can leave the force to launch a teaching career, he and Stone are faced with the daunting task of rescuing a busload of jurors who have been kidnapped by a "family" of dangerously misguided revolutionaries, who demand the release of their imprisoned cohorts. This two-parter is clearly inspired by the Patty Hearst kidnapping, with former Partridge Family regular Susan Dey delivering a shockingly powerful performance. As a publicity ploy, the season opener features fourteen guest stars, including Marion Ross (then appearing regularly on Happy Days, Barry Sullivan, Dick Van Patten, Norman Fell and Doris Roberts--not to mention such stars-to-be as Anthony Geary and Ron Glass. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
- R
This sequel to the blaxploitation hit Cleopatra Jones mixes in elements of the kung-fu genre and James Bond-styled spy adventures as it sends its colorful heroine to a high-flying adventure in an exotic locale. When fellow operatives (and childhood friends) Matthew Johnson (Albert Popwell) and Melvin Johnson (Caro Kenyatta) disappear during an undercover mission in Hong Kong, Cleopatra Jones (Tamara Dobson) travels there to find them. With the help of local detective Mi Ling (Tanny), Cleopatra discovers that her friends' disappearance has to do with The Dragon Lady (Stella Stevens), a much-feared woman who runs a Macao casino and controls a major chunk of the local drug trade. The finale finds Cleopatra and Mi Ling squaring off against the Dragon Lady and her minions in an explosive casino battle that involves kung-fu, gunplay, and roaring motorcycles. Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold didn't reach the same heights of success of its predecessor, but its colorful barrage of action has made it an enduring favorite amongst blaxploitation aficionados. Director Chuck Bail would go on to bigger success next year with the car-chase hit The Gumball Rally and star Dobson continued to play tough heroines in films like Chained Heat. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tamara Dobson, Magali Noël, (more)
- 1974
In this made-for-TV thriller, a vacation for two men turns deadly when their wives are kidnapped by several escaped convicts. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
In the wake of the 45-million-dollar gross of the original Airport (1970), Universal was all but required by an act of Congress to produce Airport '75. Charlton Heston heads the all-star cast as Alan Murdock, the former test pilot who must keep a disabled 747 from crashing in flames. The crisis begins when a businessman (Dana Andrews), flying his small private plane, suffers a fatal heart attack and the plane smashes into the cockpit of the 747. Following Murdock's radioed instructions, stewardess Nancy Pryor (Karen Black) takes over the controls. The special-guest passenger lineup includes Helen Reddy as a singing nun (a character wickedly satirized in the 1980 parody Airplane!), Myrna Loy as an alcoholic, and Sid Caesar as a garrulous passenger. While Airport '75 yielded only 25 million dollars at the box office, the franchise continued, spawning Airport '77 a few years later and Airport '79 two years after that. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, Karen Black, (more)
- 1974
James L. Brooks' Thursday's Game is a witty made-for-television comedy about two businessmen (Bob Newhart and Gene Wilder) who meet every Thursday night to play poker and discuss their professional and personal problems. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
Don Siegel directed this offbeat crime thriller which stars Walter Matthau as the titular Charley Varrick. Varrick is a small-time stick-up man who, in tandem with his partner Harman Sullivan (Andrew Robinson), makes plans to rob a small bank in New Mexico. Varrick and Sullivan are expecting a modest payday for a simple heist, but to their surprise they walk away with $750,000 in cash. But it turns out this isn't entirely good news; the bank was flush with cash because a number of well-connected Mafia chieftains have been using the bank to launder their ill-gotten gains, and they're determined to get their money back. Before Varrick can figure out a way to return the money, sadistic hired killer Molly (Joe Don Baker) is on his trail, forcing Varrick to outwit both the cops and the robbers if he is to stay alive.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Matthau, Joe Don Baker, (more)
- 1973
- R
The John Gardner novel A Complete State of Death became this bloody crime flick that united frequent action genre collaborators Charles Bronson and director Michael Winner. Bronson stars as Detective Lieutenant Lou Torry, a grizzled undercover New York City cop who ruins his career when he is caught going violently overboard while apprehending a ghetto punk. As punishment, Torry is banished all the way to the L.A. Police Department, where he begins investigating a mysterious chain of events involving ex-soldiers that seem to be Mob related. It turns out that Don Alberto Vescari (Martin Balsam), an aging Mafia chieftain, is planning the use of mentally disturbed Vietnam vets as assassins in a campaign of murder. With one broad, gory stroke, Vescari schemes to wipe out his underworld enemies, retaliating for a massacre that wiped out a generation of Sicilian mobsters 40 years earlier. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Martin Balsam, (more)
- 1971
In this detective drama, super police sleuth Dan August looks into two cases involving female murderers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Returning to college to take a Psychology course, Shirley (Shirley Jones) makes the acquaintance of 19-year-old Paul Bruner (Michael Burns), who mistakes her maternal kindness for true love. Before long, the moonstruck Bruner is ardenty courting the nonplussed Shirley--and he won't take no for answer. In desperation, Shirley enlists the aid of Paul's parents (played by former Dick Van Dyke Show regular Anne Morgan Guilbert and future Three's Company costar Norman Fell) to help her let the boy down gently...with surprising results. Song: "Brown Eyes". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
In this episode of the murder mystery series, a police detective must cope after he learns that his friend is a murderer. A student also discovers that his fencing teacher is involved in a killing. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1971
The Killing Affairs is comprised of two one-hour episodes from the 1970 TV series Dan August. Burt Reynolds stars as August, a detective on the San Luisa (California) police force. The two episodes included herein deal with politics, scandal and murder . The better of the two is "The Manufactured Man", featuring guest stars Mickey Rooney and Billy Dee Williams. The Killing Affairs was one of several ersatz Dan August feature films released to TV in the late 1970s to capitalize on the enormous popularity of Burt Reynolds. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Gene Wilder and Bob Newhart star as husbands who have some explaining to do in this made-for-television comedy. Wilder stars as Harry Evers and Newhart as Marvin Ellison, two friends who decide to keep up their Thursday night escapades after their weekly poker game breaks up. When their wives find out though (Ellen Burstyn and Cloris Leachman, respectively) they want to know just what their husbands have been doing. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
Director Mike Nichols and writer-actor Buck Henry followed their enormous hit The Graduate (1967) with this timely adaptation of Joseph Heller's satiric antiwar novel. Haunted by the death of a young gunner, all-too-sane Capt. Yossarian (Alan Arkin) wants out of the rest of his WW II bombing missions, but publicity-obsessed commander Colonel Cathcart (Martin Balsam) and his yes man, Colonel Korn (Henry), keep raising the number of missions that Yossarian and his comrades are required to fly. After Doc Daneeka (Jack Gilford) tells Yossarian that he cannot declare him insane if Yossarian knows that it's insane to keep flying, Yossarian tries to play crazy by, among other things, showing up nude in front of despotic General Dreedle (Orson Welles). As all of Yossarian's initially even-keeled friends, such as Nately (Art Garfunkel) and Dobbs (Martin Sheen), genuinely lose their heads, and the troop's supplies are bartered away for profit by the ultra-entrepreneurial Milo Minderbinder (Jon Voight), Yossarian realizes that the whole system has lost it, and he can either play along or jump ship. Though not about Vietnam, Catch-22's ludicrous military machinations directly evoked its contemporary context in the Vietnam era. Cathcart and Dreedle care more about the appearance of power than about victory, and Milo cares for money above all, as the complex narrative structure of Yossarian's flashbacks renders the escalating events appropriately surreal. Confident that the combination of a hot director and a popular, culturally relevant novel would spell blockbuster, Paramount spent a great deal of money on Catch-22, but it wound up getting trumped by another 1970 antiwar farce: Robert Altman's MASH. With audiences opting for Altman's casual Korean War iconoclasm over Nichols' more polished symbolism, the highly anticipated Catch-22 flopped, although the New York Film Critics Circle did acknowledge Arkin and Nichols. Despite this reception, Catch-22's ensemble cast and pungent sensibility effectively underline the insanity of war, Vietnam and otherwise. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, (more)
- 1970
Though usually listed as a feature film, Murder My Friend is actually a pastiche of two 60-minute episodes of the 1970 TV series Dan August. Burt Reynolds stars as August, a detective on the Santa Luisa (California) police force. Though not originally intended to be shown in tandem, the two episodes included in this package are thematically linked: Both concern a volatile romance that places Dan August and his friends in jeopardy. "Bullet for a Hero" is the better of the two installments. In this one, a Medal of Honor winner is murdered; the prime suspect is the man's widow (Meg Foster), who is incensed by the fact that her husband had taken up with a Vietnamese girl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The inept Ensign Garland (Robert Morse) battles a trio of jewel thieves in this Walt Disney comedy. Garland starts by spilling paint on the lovely Kate Fairchild (Stephanie Powers). Harry (Phil Silvers), Max (Norman Fell) and Charlie (Mickey Shaughnessy) try to recover the jewels accidentally dumped by Garland into a picnic basket. Garland's superior is Commander Taylor (Don Ameche), who hounds the harried ensign for being a constant bumbler. Jason Bennett (Wally Cox) is the playboy who has replaced his yacht engine with a wine cellar. Character actors Joe E. Ross and Al Lewis witness the sight gags and react to the seafaring shenanigans. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Morse, Stefanie Powers, (more)
- 1969
- G
- Add If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium to QueueAdd If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium to top of Queue
A mid-1960s TV documentary special (and a New Yorker cartoon before that) was the inspiration for If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium. The film is a likeable satire of "packaged" European tours, where the nonplused tourists are expected to rush from one landmark to another in a breathless 18 days. Ian McShane stars as the amorous tour guide, with Suzanne Pleshette as the American department store buyer he falls for; their romance ends when Pleshette decides that the supposedly worldly McShane is too immature for her. An all-star cast, including Murray Hamilton, Peggy Cass, Pamela Britton, Marty Ingels, John Cassavetes and Vittorio De Sica, pops up in comic cameo roles. Our favorite bit: an American and German tourist, simultaneously regaling their respective wives with wildly divergent accounts of the same wartime confrontation. If It's Tuesday, This Must Be Belgium was reworked in 1987 as a made-for-TV movie, cleverly title If It's Tuesday, It Still Must be Belgium. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Suzanne Pleshette, Ian McShane, (more)
- 1969
Communist army officer Miguel Torres (Alejandro Rey) hijacks the airliner bearing Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) and Maria Sandoval (Pilar Seurat), the political defector whom Erskine is escorting to a congressional hearing. The plane crashes somewhere in New Mexico, leaving the survivors at the mercy of Torres, who is determined that Maria won't live to testify. Will Erskine's aide Colby (William Reynolds) be able to come to the rescue in time? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
