Elizabeth Ashley Movies
A graduate of Louisiana State University and New York's Neighborhood Playhouse, Elizabeth Ashley started her professional career as a model and ballet dancer (she had studied with Tatiana Semenova). Ashley was still travelling under her given name of Elizabeth Cole when she made her 1959 Broadway bow in The Highest Tree. She first adopted the billing of "Ashley" for her 1961 breakthrough stage appearance in Take Her, She's Mine, which won her the Theatre World Award. Ashley followed this triumph with her performance as newlywed Corrie Bratter in Neil Simon's Barefoot in the Park (1963). She made her film debut as Monica Winthrop in The Carpetbaggers (1963), co-starring with then-husband George Peppard (she had previously been married to actor James Farentino). After the 1965 film Ship of Fools, Ashley dropped out of acting for five years. In her candid 1978 autobiography Actress: Postcards From the Road, she attributed her career hiatus to a number of mitigating circumstances: a bout with cancer, a difficult pregnancy, her increasingly unhappy marriage to Peppard, and a professional "freeze-out" because she'd turned down the film version of Barefoot in the Park. By the time she reactivated her career in 1970, Ashley's performances had taken on a harsh, dangerous edge -- which, in the long run, had a most salutary effect on her career. With her searing portrayal of Maggie in the 1974 Broadway revival of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, her comeback was complete. A busier-than-ever character actress in films and on stage, Elizabeth Ashley was also seen on a semiweekly basis as husky-voiced Aunt Frieda on the TV sitcom Evening Shade (1990-1994), which starred fellow Floridian Burt Reynolds. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Edward Dmytryk brings Harold Robbins' trashy, dirt-dishing Hollywood best-seller to the screen with George Peppard starring as Jonas Cord, a rancidly-sketched portrait of Howard Hughes. In 1925, when his father dies of a stroke, Jonas inherits the Cord Chemical factory, a manufacturer of dynamite and other explosives. Jonas proceeds with several cut-throat transactions, making a settlement with his sexy stepmother Rina (Carroll Baker) and liquidating the stock owned by cowhand Nevada Smith (Alan Ladd, in his final American film role). With the help of Mac McAllister (Lew Ayres), his father's attorney, Jonas builds his father's company into a multi-million dollar business, expanding into plastics and aeronautics. Meanwhile, Rina has become a top fashion model and movie star and Nevada Smith has parlayed his laconic demeanor into a career as a popular silent film cowboy idol. Jonas then marries, then ignores, the well-meaning Monica Winthrop (Elizabeth Ashley), and ruins her father's company in the process. Then, with the advent of sound films, Jonas helps Nevada Smith through the sound film crisis by offering financial backing for a film to star both Nevada and his ex-mother-in-law Rina. Jonas decides to direct the film himself, hoping to seduce Rina. But Jonas's insensitive and egomaniacal behavior causes Monica to leave him. Jonas invests all his time in film production but the alcoholic Rina dies in a car accident. The owners of the film studio -- Bernard B. Norman (Martin Balsam) and Dan Pierce (Robert Cummings) -- want to sell the studio to Jonas but hide the fact that Rina, the studio's biggest star, has died. Jonas buys the studio and when he finds his biggest asset is gone, he goes on a drunken binge. But Jonas quickly meets call girl Jennie Denton (Martha Hyer), who he decides to turn into a superstar modeled upon Rina. Despite having made her a star, Jonas's vile treatment of Jennie repulses both her and his old friend Nevada Smith, and Smith decides it's time to beat some sense into Jonas's head. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Peppard, Alan Ladd, (more)
The first person the audience sees in Ship of Fools is dwarf Michael Dunn, who speaks to viewers directly and acts as a Greek chorus throughout the film. It begins on the deck of an ocean liner travelling from Vera Cruz to Bremerhaven. The time is the 1930s, so close and yet so far from war. The cross-section of humanity on board includes ship's doctor Oscar Werner, Spanish political activist Simone Signoret, aging coquette Vivien Leigh, hedonistic baseball player Lee Marvin, philosophical Jew Heinz Ruhmann, a smattering of pro- and anti-Hitlerites (Jose Ferrer plays the nastiest and most vocal "pro") and young lovers George Segal and Elizabeth Ashley. Yes, it's Grand Hotel at sea, a feast for stargazers and an endurance test for those who aren't comfortable with non-stop speechmaking. Despite such lines as "What can the Nazis do? Kill all six million of us?," Ship of Fools manages to stay afloat throughout its 148 minutes. Michael Dunn was nominated for an Academy Award for his interlocutory characterization; the rest of the performances range from brilliant to merely filling up the room. Other Oscars were presented to cinematographer Ernest Lazslo and to the art-direction staff. Ship of Fools was adapted by Abby Mann from the novel by Katharine Ann Porter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vivien Leigh, Simone Signoret, (more)
- 1965
This quirky melodrama opens with an automobile crash. The driver, Steve Mallory (George Peppard), comes out of unconsciousness with amnesia. As his memory slowly returns, he learns that he is a wealthy manufacturer of table china. His wife Alexandria (Elizabeth Ashley) wants to leave him, and his cousin Oliver Parsons (Roddy McDowall) wants Steve to sell him the family business. He also learns that the passenger in his car, a cocktail waitress named Holly Mitchell (Sally Kellerman), was killed in the accident. Her husband Lester (Arte Johnson) joins forces with Parsons to frame Steve and blame him for the accident, and Steve is arrested. Lester then kidnaps Alexandria and threatens to kill her in revenge for Holly's death. The film is based on a novel by Joseph Hayes. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Peppard, Elizabeth Ashley, (more)
Michael Douglas made his TV-movie debut in When Michael Calls. The film wastes no time in establishing its premise: the possibility that someone long dead may be trying to communicate with the living. Elizabeth Ashley plays Helen Connelly, who is driven to distraction after receiving several phone calls from her nephew Michael. Trouble is, Michael's been dead these 15 years. Could this be a paranormal experience, or merely an attempt to drive Helen bonkers? Ben Gazzara co-stars as Helen's worried spouse, while Michael Douglas plays a shady character named Craig. Based on a novel by John Farris, this "ABC Movie of the Week" debuted February 5, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ben Gazzara, Elizabeth Ashley, (more)
- 1971
Made for TV, The Face of Fear resuscitates a plot gimmick that probably wasn't new when it was used in Doug Fairbanks' 1916 vehicle Flirting With Fate. Elizabeth Ashley plays a Midwestern schoolmarm who is dying of leukemia. Hoping to end the suffering as expeditiously as possible, she hires a mob assassin to kill her. It must needs be that she changes her mind; equally predictable is the fact that her killer-to-be hasn't changed his. With the help of a police lieutenant (Jack Warden), the woman desperately tries to locate and dissuade the hit man before he can fulfill his end of the bargain. Shot on location in San Francisco, Face of Fear was first telecast October 8, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ricardo Montalban, Elizabeth Ashley, (more)
Originally billed as merely $, Dollars stars top box office draws Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn. Beatty plays a security whiz, employed in Hamburg, Germany. He devises a clever method of robbing the secret bank vaults of notorious criminals, reasoning that the crooks will never turn to the cops. The notion that the crooks may have a few words to say to him does not dissuade Beatty as he and gold-hearted hooker Hawn work out their carefully calculated, meticulously timed robbery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Warren Beatty, Goldie Hawn, (more)
- 1971
The harpy of the title is Elizabeth Ashley, the greedy, demanding ex-wife of architect Hugh O'Brian. As a means of escaping his former spouse's tirades, O'Brian quietly trains his pet eagle to be a hunter. A confrontation between eagle and "ex" is inevitable, but masterfully handled. Tom Nardini, playing a loyal Native-American friend of O'Brian's, is the principal instigator of the film's screeching denouement. Made for television, Harpy was first shown March 12, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Elizabeth Ashley shines in an extremely difficult guest-star turn in the Mission:Impossible episode "Encounter." The IMF is assigned to halt the extortionist activities of crooked business executives Frank Brady (Val Avery) and Martin Stoner (Lawrence Dane). The key to the mission's success is the mercurial -- but potentially beneficial -- behavior of Stoner's alcoholic wife Lois (Ashley). Originally seen on October 30, 1971, "Encounter" was written by Howard Beck. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Greg Morris, (more)
- 1971
- R
A man who can't stop looking at other women finds that it might cost him his marriage in this farcical comedy. William and Lisa Alren (Richard Benjamin and Joanna Shimkus) are a young married couple whose relationship has begun to go stale. Bored and looking for diversion, William begins spying playfully on the sexual habits of their neighbors and watching attractive women passing by; while his voyeurism falls short of criminal activity, it doesn't sit at all well with Lisa. Eventually, she becomes so troubled by William's roving eye that she leaves their home and moves in with her sister Nan (Elizabeth Ashley), a harridan who has verbally browbeaten her attorney husband Chester (Adam West) into submission. At Nan's insistence and with Chester's help, Lisa begins divorce proceedings against William, but he tries to convince her to give him another chance. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Benjamin, Joanna Shimkus, (more)
- 1972
In this made-for-TV comedy, the writer for a hit TV show learns that the lead actress is about to marry the show's wealthy sponsor, thus putting him (and the rest of the show's cast and crew) out of a job. To get his revenge, he writes her into a kidnaping scheme -- and then turns it into fact. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Brian Keith plays a wealthy stockbroker who purchases dusty Nevada ghost town. Remembering his own humble roots, Keith sets up the town as a community where life's losers can congregate. Here these unfortunates are afforded a "second chance"-which also happens to be the name of the town. If this made-for-TV feature sounds like a pilot film, that's because it is. Filmed on location in Phoenix, Arizona, Second Chance first aired February 8, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
This TV movie stars Bill Bixby as a professional magician who is wrongly accused of a crime and sent to prison. Upon his release, Bixby swears to fight criminals and wrongdoers and to champion the underdog, using his prestidigitory skills to accomplish this. The film proudly states in its prologue that all the illusions seen during the story are actual magic tricks, minus special camera effects--though it strains credibility to assume that Bixby carries a prop for every occasion to confound the crooks at a moment's notice. The Magician was transformed into a weekly 60-minute series in the fall of 1973. The series lasted only one season, the victim of executive indecision over whether to play the series straight or with tongue in cheek. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Elizabeth Ashley, whose guest-star turn as a pathetic alcoholic on the sixth-season Mission:Impossible episode "Encounter" won her the praise of critics and viewers alike, again tackles a difficult and demanding role in the seventh-season entry "The Question." This time, Ashley is cast as IMF agent Andrea, who poses as an operative of the "Federal Intelligence Service" to find out if alleged defector Nicholas Varsi (Gary Lockwood) is telling the truth to his Federal captors. George O'Hanlon, best known to TV fans as the voice of cartoon favorite George Jetson, appears as Captain Douglas. First broadcast on January 19, 1973, "The Question" was written by Stephen Kandel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Greg Morris, (more)
- 1973
- R
A small-time athlete is suddenly confronted by the real world in this thoughtful comedy drama from Canada. Rick (Keir Dullea) is the star player on a semi-pro hockey team in a small town on the Canadian prairie. While Rick has to hold down a job in a hardware store to pay his rent, his skills on the ice make him a local hero; he never has to pay for a beer or a meal if he doesn't want to, and he makes as much time as he wants with a number of women, though his loyal girlfriend Loretta (Elizabeth Ashley) is still convinced he'll settle down and marry her one day. To go along with his minor celebrity, Rick has constructed an outsized persona for himself, wearing a cowboy hat, carrying a pistol, and grooming himself in the model of Sheriff Matt Dillon from Gunsmoke. But Rick's world begins to fall apart when he first loses his job and then gets word that his team's owners can't afford to keep the franchise going. After the team's final game turns into an angry brawl and Rick is rejected by Joanna (Dayle Haddon), the college-age daughter of the team's manager, Rick takes a final stand in a foolish bid to prove himself. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Laurence Luckinbill is cast as novice diamond smuggler James Danzer, who while eluding the FBI searches high and low for a buyer to take some stolen gems off his hands. In the course of events, Danzer kidnaps a blind woman named Claire (Elizabeth Ashley). Unless Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) can catch up with Danzer, both smuggler and captive may meet an untimely end at the hands of a none-too-ethical private eye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- PG
This martial arts film has an interesting twist. The conflict is over a mythical 30-inch-tall statue with very special properties. Protruding from the sculpture are seven golden needles. If the needles are inserted into a man's body in the precisely right positions, he will become a sexual superman. If the position is incorrect, the man will instantly die. Despite the risks, several men begin fighting over the precious object. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Elizabeth Ashley guest stars as Laura Keyes, who after suffering a heart attack crashes her car into Ironside's van. Laura is rushed to a hospital, where the doctors discover that the woman had had a bullet lodged near her heart for years. Ironside (Raymond Burr) is amazed to discover that, not only is Laura unconcerned about her wound, but she doesn't even remember being shot! His curiosity further aroused when Laura refuses to let the doctors remove the bullet, Ironside launches an investigation...and ends up reopening a cold murder case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
Though set in Key West, Florida, a goodly portion of 92 in the Shade was filmed in England. Peter Fonda plays Tom Skelton, a bum who gets a job as a fishing guide in his old home town. Nobody wants to have anything to do with Skelton, least of all rival guides Nichol Dance and Carter (Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton). Faced with financial disaster and widespread hostility, he turns to his wealthy grandfather Goldsboro (Burgess Meredith) for help. Taking time off from his lovemaking sessions with sexy secretary Bella (Sylvia Miles), his grandfather pumps some money into Tom's operation, and our hero makes his peace with Carter. A climactic fight with Nichol puts an end to that problem, while Tom's romantic relationship with Miranda (Margot Kidder) helps him sort out his priorities. Director/writer Thomas McGuane adapted the script from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, (more)
In Frank Perry's curious, off-center comedy Western, Jeff Bridges and Sam Waterston play Jack McKee and Cecil Carlson, a couple of cattle rustlers whose special target is taciturn rancher John Brown (Clifton James). Both men are outcasts by choice; McKee can't stand being around his stuck-up ex-wife (played by Doria Cook), while Carlson, an Indian, finds his fellow tribesmen too tradition-bound for his tastes. Together, they plan to lift themselves out of the penny-ante class with one big crime caper. Brown gets wind of their scheme, and sends private eye Henry Beige (Slim Pickens) after them. The cast is top-heavy with attractive women, ranging from Brown's bored wife, Cora (Elizabeth Ashley), to "camp followers" Betty Fargo (Patti D'Arbanville) and Mary Fargo (Maggie Wellman). Thomas McGuane authored the script; Jimmy Buffett provides the songs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeff Bridges, Sam Waterston, (more)
- 1976
The War Between the Tates is a diluted but still enjoyable TV-movie adaptation of Alison Lurie's satirical novel. Elizabeth Ashley plays Erica Tate, a middle-aged suburban homemaker. Richard Crenna is her professor husband Brian Tate. When Erica runs across evidence that Brian is conducting an affair with a nubile co-ed (Annette O'Toole), Brian promises he'll cease and desist, but doesn't. Already suffering an ego crisis due to the affair, Erica finds her emotions churned up further when she meets her husband's pregnant girlfriend--an eminently likable creature whom Erica cannot bring herself to despise. Though set in a midwestern college town, The War Between the Tates was filmed in Toronto. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Vacationing in a small town (actually Lake Arrowhead, California), a frantic James Franciscus shows up at the local police station, declaring that his wife has disappeared. Franciscus imperiously demands that easygoing police inspector Jack Klugman drop everything and find his missing spouse. Within a few days, a woman claiming to be the wife shows up-but Franciscus insists that he's never met the woman before. What's going on here, and why does Klugman seem so calm and collected. First telecast March 5, 1976, One of My Wives is Missing was based on the Robert Thomas novel Trap for a Single Man. The book had previously been filmed for TV in 1970 as Honeymoon with a Stranger, and would be remade in 1984 as Vanishing Act. One would think that, with three versions of the Thomas story floating about, virtually everyone in the audience would be privy to that clever twist ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
- PG
In this broad comedy-western set in 1908 Colorado, Lee Marvin and Oliver Reed team up as Sam Longwood and Joe Knox, two con-men who once worked as a team. They reunite in order to get revenge upon their third partner, Jack Colby (Robert Culp), who used the trio's ill-gotten gains to become a high society big shot. Oliver Reed's ridiculously stereotypical portrayal of an Indian goes down in film history as the most absurd casting of a Native-American role since Howard Keel's "distinctive" portrayal of Levi Walking Bear in The War Wagon. Kay Lenz also appears as the sexy prostitute Thursday, who has an affair with Sam. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Marvin, Oliver Reed, (more)
A feisty, feminist intern uncovers a medical conspiracy in this icy thriller about mysterious goings-on at Boston Memorial Hospital. When her best friend and aerobics partner, Nancy Greenly (Lois Chiles), emerges in a vegetative state from a routine abortion, Dr. Susan Wheeler (Genevieve Bujold) does some digging and discovers an overabundance of anesthesia-induced comas among otherwise healthy young patients. The male authority figures who challenge Susan's technically illegal tampering with medical records include her boss, Dr. Harris (Richard Widmark); the chief anesthesiologist, Dr. George (Rip Torn); and even her boyfriend, Dr. Mark Bellows (Michael Douglas), who doesn't want Susan's shenanigans to get in the way of his shot at chief resident. As Susan continues her crusade, the paper trail leads to the Jefferson Institute, a mysterious, experimental facility in which vegetative patients are stored en masse, suspended from the ceiling by wires threaded through their long bones, in order to reduce the cost of long-term care. A shadowy assailant begins to stalk Susan just as she uncovers the link between the Jefferson Institute and the comas at Boston Memorial, setting the stage for climactic suspense scenes involving morgues, malpractice and endless institutional corridors. Writer/director Michael Crichton adapted his second feature film from Robin Cook's bestseller of the same name. Tom Selleck, who would star in Crichton's Runaway several years later, appears briefly in Coma as another victim of lethal anesthesia. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Geneviève Bujold, Michael Douglas, (more)
- 1978
The story begins as an astronomer notices that a blazing comet is headed straight for Phoenix Arizona. Unfortunately, no one believes him. They will eventually, but only after most of Phoenix has been reduced to cinders. Emmies went to the special effects (among the best ever seen on TV in those days before computer-generated special fx) and sound recording. The all-star cast includes Richard Crenna, Elizabeth Ashley, David Dukes, Joanna Miles, Lloyd Bochner, Merlin Olsen and Andrew Duggan, all of them superbly cast and none merely doing the usual celebrity walk-through. Originally telecast in a three-hour slot, Fire in the Sky debuted November 26, 1978. This film should not be confused with the 1993 alien-abduction film of the same name. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
- R
Slow-moving and dark, this Klute clone stars Talia Shire as Emily Hollander, a retiring, painfully introverted woman with a stutter who advertises her insecurity. She is attacked one day and her anguish recorded on tape by her assailant. It soon becomes apparent that her wacko lesbian neighbor Andrea (Elizabeth Ashley) is in love with her but too demented to express herself openly. She hired the assailant, though exactly why is not clear. Detective Bob Luffrono (Joseph Cortese) is called in to watch over Emily and perhaps corner her attacker. The relationship between Emily and the detective starts to slowly heat up, but meanwhile, there is Andrea with her telescope, spying on Emily and definitely up to no good. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Talia Shire, Joe Cortese, (more)
