Lucy Lee Flippin Movies

The McCarthy-era "witch hunts" in the entertainment industry set the stage for this comedy drama set in the 1950s. Howard Prince (Woody Allen) is a cashier at a corner bar who works as a small-time bookie on the side, with little success. One day, Howard's old friend Alfred Miller (Michael Murphy), a successful television writer, makes a business proposal to him; Alfred's leftist political views have resulted in him being blacklisted from the major television networks, and he can no longer get work. Alfred asks Howard to act as a "front" -- Howard puts his name on Alfred's scripts, sells them, and takes a cut of the payment for his trouble. Howard's new career as a "writer" is an instant success, and soon Howard is fronting for a handful of blacklisted scribes while earning a healthy income and becoming the toast of the television industry; another fringe benefit is a romance with beautiful network employee Florence Barrett (Andrea Marcovicci). However, comic Hecky Brown (Zero Mostel), who had a brief fling with socialism years before, now finds his past catching up with him, and he's told in order to save his job as host of a weekly television show, he has to get the goods on some suspicious figures, among them Howard Prince, whose background looks a little too clean for comfort. The Front was written by Walter Bernstein, who was himself blacklisted during the 1950s, as were co-stars Zero Mostel, Herschel Bernardi, and Lloyd Gough. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Woody Allen's romantic comedy of the Me Decade follows the up and down relationship of two mismatched New York neurotics. Jewish comedy writer Alvy Singer (Allen) ponders the modern quest for love and his past romance with tightly-wound WASP singer Annie Hall (Diane Keaton, née Diane Hall). The twice-divorced Alvy knows that it's not easy to find a mate when the options include pretentious New York intellectuals and lifestyle-obsessed Rolling Stone writers, but la-di-dah-ing Annie seems different. Along the rocky road of their coupling, Allen/Alvy weigh in on such topics as endless therapy, movies vs. TV, the absurdity of dating rituals, anti-Semitism, drugs, and, in one of the best set pieces, repressed Midwestern WASP insanity vs. crazy Brooklyn Jewish boisterousness. Annie wants to move to Los Angeles to find that fame that finally does in the relationship -- but not before Alvy gets in a few digs at vacuous, mantra-fixated California. Originally entitled Anhedonia (the inability to enjoy oneself), Annie Hall blended the slapstick and fantasy from such earlier Allen films as Sleeper (1973) and Bananas (1971) with the more autobiographical musings of his stand-up and written comedy, using an array of such movie techniques as talking heads, splitscreens, and subtitles. Within these gleeful formal experiments and sight gags, Allen and co-writer Marshall Brickman skewered 1970s solipsism, reversing the happy marriage of opposites found in classic screwball comedies. Hailed as Allen's most mature and personal film, Annie Hall beat out Star Wars for Best Picture and also won Oscars for Allen as director and writer and for Keaton as Best Actress; audiences enthusiastically responded to Allen's take on contemporary love and turned Keaton's rumpled menswear into a fashion trend. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Sentenced to hang in a backwater western town, horse thief Henry Moon (Jack Nicholson) is saved when frontierswoman Julia Tate (Mary Steenburgen) agrees to marry him. Taking advantage of the town law that prohibits the execution of married men, Moon follows Tate back to her ranch, planning all the while to escape at the first possible opportunity. But Tate insists that he honor his end of the bargain at work on the ranch. She has no intention of consummating the union, a fact that drives the hot-to-trot Moon up a wall. She puts him to work on the gold mine that she has on her property, while his old gang prepares to relieve the couple of their gold once it's on the surface. Jack Nicholson personally selected movie newcomer Mary Steenburgen for Goin' South. The film also features John Belushi in the role of a dyspeptic deputy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

No sooner has Walnut Grove's first telephone been installed in the town's hotel than self-appointed operator Mrs. Oleson (Katherine MacGregor) begins eavesdropping on her neighbors. Overhearing a conversation between Alice Garvey (Hersha Parady) and her mother, Mrs. Oleson is shocked to discover that Alice was married before her union with her present husband, Jonathan (Merlin Oleson). This revelation causes a serious rift in the Garvey household -- at least until Jonathan finds out the real reason that Alice has never talked about her first husband. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

James Olson guest stars as "Reverend" Edward Danforth, a bombastic faith healer who descends upon Walnut Grove. So persuasive is Danforth's rhetoric and his laying-on-of-hands technique that soon both Rev. Alden (Dabbs Greer) and Doc Baker (Kevin Hagen) are shunned by the community as being hopelessly old-fashioned. But Danforth is exposed as a fraud when tragedy strikes in the home of a boy suffering from a ruptured appendix. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Victor French returns to Little House on the Prairie in the role of Isaiah Edwards, now a successful logger. When he is crippled by a falling tree, Edwards loses his will to live. Though he appears to shake himself out of his doldrums when he renews his friendship with the Ingalls family, Edwards nonetheless continues to exhibit suicidal tendencies -- never more dramatically than during a hunting trip with Charles (Michael Landon). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A slick sports promoter (Ray Walston) convinces Jonathan Garvey (Merlin Olsen) that he has genuine talent as a wrestler. It is all part of a scheme to bilk the citizens of Walnut Grove by staging a rigged wrestling match. Things get really sticky when, consumed by gambling fever, Mrs. Oleson (Katherine MacGregor) bets the church funds on the outcome of the match. It is up to the crooked promoter's henchman (played by B-movie favorite Leo Gordon) to unexpectedly save the day. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Love comes into the life of Walnut Grove's Rev. Alden (Dabbs Greer) in the form of the widowed Anna Craig (Iris Korn). This turn of events outrages the insufferable Mrs. Oleson (Katherine MacGregor), who is of the staunch opinion that a minister should be "married to his work." In her efforts to break up the romance, Mrs. Oleson spreads some malicious gossip that may very well destroy Rev. Alden's status as the town's spiritual leader. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the concluding episode of Little House on the Prairie's two-part season six opener, the rivalry between Laura (Melissa Gilbert) and Nellie (Alison Arngrim) over the affections of their teacher's handsome brother, Almanzo (Dean Butler), reaches a fever pitch when the two girls come to blows. Breaking up the fight, Almanzo decides that it might be best to take Laura to his home to get over her anger. Naturally, Laura's dad, Charles (Michael Landon), suspects that Almanzo is harboring ulterior motives -- and thus another fight is inevitable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of Little House on the Prairie's two-part season-seven opener, the wedding of Laura Ingalls (Melissa Gilbert) and Almanzo Wilder (Dean Butler) is still on hold due to financial problems. When Almanzo's schoolteacher sister, Eliza Jane (Lucy Lee Flippin), has her heart broken by Harv Miller (James Cromwell), she decides to leave town. As it turns out, Eliza Jane's loss is Laura's gain when the latter is hired as the new schoolmarm -- thereby allowing the wedding to go forth as planned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of a two-part story, Laura (Melissa Gilbert) tries to get over the departure of her fiancé, Almanzo (Dean Butler), by helping her sister Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson) and brother-in-law Adam (Linwood Boomer) set up a new school for the blind in the town of Sleepy Eye. As fate would have it, this is the same town where Almanzo has relocated -- and when she sees her beloved in a compromising situation with a saloon gal, Laura angrily breaks off her engagement. Things change dramatically when Laura discovers a remarkable secret about Almanzo while nursing him through an illness. And Laura's father, Charles (Michael Landon), is prompted to reconsider his insistence that the girl wait until she is 18 to get married. But what of the still-blossoming romance between Nellie Oleson (Alison Arngrim) and Percival Dalton (Steve Tracy)? This was the final episode of Little House on the Prairie's sixth season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this special two-hour episode, a fire at the blind school claims the lives of both Mary's baby and the wife of farmer Jonathan Garvey (Merlin Olsen). In the aftermath of the tragedy, Mary (Melissa Sue Anderson) goes into a state of shock and Jonathan angrily rails against God. The only person who can set things right is Mary's adoptive brother, Albert (Matthew Laborteaux) -- but he is also the person who accidentally started the fire. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide