Robert Fields Movies
Robert Fields has always been a far busier stage actor than a film performer, but this hasn't prevented him from appearing in a number of notable theatrical and made-for-television features since the 1950s. His first break came in 1957 when he was chosen for the role of Tony, one of the "teenagers" (though he was well into his twenties at the time) in The Blob, an independently produced sci-fi/horror film being shot in Pennsylvania. Fields was a friend of Steve McQueen, who starred in the film, and their scenes together had a dynamism in the acting that made them one of the most effective parts of the movie, which has become regarded as a classic of the sci-fi genre. Fields was absent from films for the next decade but did a considerable amount of theater work, including Marat/Sade. He next appeared on screen in The Incident, a tense drama about a group of people victimized by a pair of thugs on a New York City subway. Following the hit They Shoot Horses, Don't They?, the next two films in which Fields worked, Cover Me Babe and The Sporting Club, fared so poorly among critics and at the box office that they virtually disappeared without a trace. But in 1973, he played an assistant district attorney in The Marcus-Nelson Murders, which was one of the most watched made-for-television features of the decade. Fields also played major roles in such films as the international production Vertigo En Manhattan during the early 1980s and appeared in Bob Fosse's Star 80, but has had his most visible big-screen success to date with his performance as the male lead in Anna, directed by Yurek Bogayevicz and starring Sally Kirkland. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1991
Law & Order's first two-part episode begins with an assault on the owner of a candy store. Following the trail of clues, Greevey (George Dzundza) and Logan (Chris Noth) end up at the door of prominent gangster boss Frank Masucci (Charles Cioffi). The so-called "Dandy Don" has long eluded prosecution, but attorneys Stone (Michael Moriarty) and Robinette (Richard Brooks) believe that they at last have enough evidence to put Masucci away for life. Alas, the lawyers have placed all their eggs in a single "basket" -- namely, Masucci's mercurial brother-in-law Harv Beigel (Bruce Altman). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Anna's early scenes concentrate upon Czech refugee Krystyna (Paulina Porizkova), who arrives in New York in search of her idol, famed actress Anna (Sally Kirkland), who was denied reentry to her native country after the 1968 communist invasion. Unable to recapture her celebrity in New York, Anna is forced to go through a series of humiliating auditions conducted by insensitive directors who have no inkling who she is. She must also endure marriage to a self-involved music video director (Robert Fields). When Krystyna and Anna finally meet, each draws strength from the other, enabling both women to survive whatever indignities life has to offer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Kirkland, Robert Fields, (more)
- 1983
Blood Feud was a two-part TV drama, originally presented as an "Operation Prime Time" special. Robert Blake is disturbingly convincing as labor leader Jimmy Hoffa, engaged in a decade-long war of words with attorney (and later attorney general) Robert F. Kennedy. Cotter Smith makes his TV debut as Kennedy, a role he'd repeat on future occasions. Thoroughly compelling when sticking to the facts, the drama falls apart whenever indulging in flight of fanciful speculation (Sample: two of Hoffa's lieutenants watch the live telecast of Lee Harvey Oswald's murder, then celebrate the fact that Oswald will never be able to reveal their complicity in the JFK assassination!) Blood Feud was syndicated to local TV stations beginning April 24, 1983. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Blake, Cotter Smith, (more)
Director Bob Fosse's fact-based tale of Playboy centerfold Dorothy Stratten's short life and gruesome death focuses less on Stratten (played by Mariel Hemingway) than on her husband/manager, sleazoid pornographer and all-around failure Paul Snider (Eric Roberts, ideally cast). He sees the young beauty as his meal ticket and sets out to pimp her in the adult entertainment business. He marries her and appoints himself her career manager; soon after, she attracts the attention of Playboy executives and wins a spot in the magazine. As her success increases however, so does Snider's alienation as he finds himself left out in the cold. His jealousy begins to consume him; she spurns him on the advice of her new friends; he goes berserk and confronts her. The same murder-suicide inspired the made-for-television Death of a Centerfold. This was choreographer/filmmaker Bob Fosse's final film. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mariel Hemingway, Eric Roberts, (more)
- 1981
Written for television by Allan Sloane, Family Reunion stars Bette Davis as an ageing New England schoolteacher who is given an "unlimited" bus ticket as a retirement present. She uses this gift to visit the farthest-flung members of her long-estranged family. In her absence, Davis' small town falls prey to corruptive influences, but with the help of her more honest relatives (four generations' worth, including Bette's real-life grandson J. Ashley Hyman), everything is resolved at the annual Founder's Day gathering. Family Reunion originally aired in two parts, on October 11 and 12, 1981; the preponderance of Davis' family members and unresolved plot strands would seem to suggest that this 4-hour film was intended as a series pilot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
In this drama, a Spanish woman becomes obsessed with finding her ex-lover who lives in New York and leaves her home in Barcelona. She has not seen him in several years, but eventually she finds him. Unfortunately, he totally rejects her. She then begins hanging in the bar across the street from his apartment where she spies upon him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1981
A young "ugly duckling" from Barcelona (Jeannine Mestre) has been divorced for four years when she decides to fly to New York and hunt down her ex-husband. Her trials and tribulations in the Big Apple's seedy hotels and subways all center on her search for the ex, though there is no apparent reason why she is now hunting him out. Eventually, she spots him while she is riding a tourist bus and with some effort and much self-pity, discovers where he lives through using the Hispanic Institute in Washington Heights. By the time the last day of her trip arrives, she follows him from his loft apartment without his knowledge, intent on achieving the objective of her trip before she has to return home. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeannine Mestre, Robert Fields, (more)
In the William Goldman-scripted, Bryan Forbes-directed adaptation of Ira Levin's savagely satiric sci-fi novel The Stepford Wives, housewife Joanna (Katharine Ross) moves with husband Walter (Peter Masterson) and their children to the "ideal" suburban community of Stepford, CT. Slowly, Joanna deduces that something is amiss; most of the other housewives are vapid creatures who speak in trivialities and live only to please their husbands. Together with new friend Bobby (Paula Prentiss), she investigates this curious status quo. When Bobby also succumbs to cloying sweetness, Joanna discovers that Stepford's husbands have conspired with male chauvinist scientists to replace all the wives with computerized android duplicates. The Stepford Wives became a massive, runaway hit, earning four million dollars domestically. Mega-producer Scott Rudin and director Frank Oz teamed up for a remake in 2004. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Katharine Ross, Paula Prentiss, (more)
Rhinoceros is another American Film Theatre movie recording a notable stage production. The incomparable duo of Zero Mostel and Gene Wilder, whose earlier work in The Producers is now a comedy classic, join forces here to make the surreal comedy of Eugene Ionesco's play come to life. Ionesco was a leading exponent of "theater of the absurd," and realism was the last thing on his mind. For that reason, many people find this comedy rough going. Stanley (Gene Wilder) seems to be the only one who notices that everyone in the world is turning into Rhinoceroses--Everyone. First, they are overcome by a certain indifference to human values, and then POOF! they are on all fours, knocking over buildings and eating vegetation. He confides his concerns to his friend John (Zero Mostel), but even he swiftly begins to develop certain "thickish" tendencies. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1973
A roman a clef depicting the Wylie-Hoffert murders, this is the first of the made for TV movies introducing the Kojak character and was essentially the pilot for the long-running crime series. When a black ghetto youth is accused of two bizarre murders, Kojak takes it upon himself to find the real murderer. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- R
This exploitative melodrama is set in northern Michigan where an exclusive private hunting club is located. There some of the country's richest, most powerful men come to relax and get closer to nature. Unfortunately, that means that they become engaged in debauchery and become brutal, amoral killers. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- PG
An amoral film student will stop at nothing to gain a movie contract in this pretentious effort. Tony Hall (Robert Forster) insults his cinema professor (Reegis Toomey), degrades his girlfriend Sondra Locke), and alienates his agent. Ken Kerchival and Sam Waterston also appear in this dreary film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Forster, Sondra Locke, (more)
- 1969
- PG
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A total of nine Academy Award nominations went to this wildly acclaimed, allegorical drama set amongst the contestants in a marathon dance contest during the Great Depression. Gig Young stars as Rocky, the obnoxious emcee for a dance marathon that offers prize money of $1,500, a small fortune during hard economic times that brings out the worst in several participants. Among them are Gloria Beatty (Jane Fonda), a malcontent who's partnered with a drifter, Robert Syverton (Michael Sarrazin); a pregnant farm girl (Bonnie Bedelia) and her husband (Bruce Dern); a sailor (Red Buttons); and an aspiring actress (Susannah York). As the marathon winds into a staggering second month, suspicion, doubt and insecurity rages among the competitors and even the decaying and increasingly manipulative Rocky, leading to a shocking crime. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Fonda, Michael Sarrazin, (more)
- 1967
Martin Sheen may be the Grey Eminence of movies nowadays, but back in 1967 he often as not played switchblade-wielding punks. This he does, in the company of Tony Musante, in The Incident. After mugging a helpless old man, Sheen and Musante take over a subway car, terrorizing its occupants. In Stagecoach fashion, all the best and worst qualities of the passengers are brought to the surface by the presence of danger. Among the passengers are angry black man Brock Peters and his supplicative wife Ruby Dee, ex-alcoholic Gary Merrill, timorous Jewish couple Jack Gilford and Thelma Ritter, blowhard Ed McMahon, and homosexual Robert Fields. It is furloughed army private Beau Bridges who puts an end to Sheen and Musante's reign of terror. Based on Ride with Terror a 1963 TV play by Nicholas E. Baehr, The Incident is an unpleasant but undeniably fascinating character study. And yes, that cute young blonde playing Alice Keenan is Donna Mills. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Musante, Martin Sheen, (more)
In his first starring role, Steve McQueen plays a typical oversexed, car-lovin' highschooler who can't get anyone to believe his story about a huge meteor, which crashes to earth and begins exuding a pink, gooey substance. Affixing itself to the body of an old man, the "blob" begins parasitically sucking the life out of several unfortunate humans, growing to an enormous size. Problem is, the disappearances of the victims can all be explained (one is supposed to be out of town, another is attending a convention), so the cops still won't believe McQueen or his girlfriend Aneta Corsaut (the future Helen Crump of The Andy Griffith Show). Rallying his teen pals, McQueen finally manages to get the adults' attention-but by now, the Blob is consuming entire city blocks. In 1972, the sequel Beware the Blob followed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve McQueen, Aneta Corsaut, (more)
