Alice Ghostley Movies

Is it a routine delivery job, or the first stage of the apocalypse? No one is quite sure in Palmer's Pick-Up, a bizarre road comedy from writer/director Christopher Coppola. Bruce Palmer (Robert Carradine) and his pal Pearl (Richard Hillman) run their own small trucking service and are doing none too well, so when they get offered a large paycheck for hauling an huge crate, contents unknown, from California to Florida in time for the millennial New Year's Eve, they leap at the chance. However, the farther they go, the more people are trying to stop them, and they start picking up just enough details from the increasingly bizarre interlopers they encounter en route to wonder if perhaps they're transporting the Devil himself across state lines (after all, Florida is near the Bermuda Triangle ...). Palmer's Pick-Up features a remarkable supporting cast which includes Talia Shire, Morton Downey Jr., Soupy Sales, Alice Ghostley, Rosanna Arquette, Clu Gulager and his sons John and Tom, and Grace Jones in the role of a lifetime as one half of a pair of Siamese twins. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Manhattan pediatrician Meg Salter (Priscilla Presley) impulsively flies to Paris to surprise her professor husband Brian (Ben Masters). But it is Meg who is surprised, and not pleasantly so: Also on board the plane is Brian's pregnant mistress Olivia (A. J. Langer)--who goes into labor during a heavy rainstorm. With Monica (Roma Downey and the other angels occupied elsewhere, rookie caseworker Celeste (Hudson Leick) may have to straighten out this situation all by herself, a task that becomes more problematic with each passing minute! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this comedy, a group of former Cub Scouts (Louie Anderson, Richard Belzer, and Richard Lewis) get together for a reunion over twenty years later and land themselves in a mess of trouble when a deranged convict (John Goodman) takes them for FBI agents. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

If the Perils of Pauline were set in a campy New York City with a dash of trash added in, Not for Publication would result, though the awful jokes and kinky characters are not going to be entertaining to everyone. Lois (Nancy Allen) is a reporter at a sleazoid newspaper, a paragon of yellow journalism that she is determined to turn back to its first incarnation as The New York Enforcer, a better paper. The not-so-good Mayor Franklyn (Laurence Luckinbill) adopts Lois as his personal assistant when she bursts into his office one day and strongly advises him to cut the pressure to shut down porn shops or he will lose the vote of New York's youth. She hires a photographer (David Naughton) to work in the mayor's office, planning to use his skills for her tabloid paper -- but then a quirky menage à trois arises between the mayor, the photographer, and Lois. After some undercover sleuthing in Long Island, Lois connects the mayor to various robberies that have occurred in the city and thinks of a way to bring back the New York Enforcer and handle the mayor at the same time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Several former college students find their former drug experiences catching up with them in an unexpected and terrifying manner in this clever horror outing. Jerry Zipkin (Zalman King) is a bright but troubled man in his late twenties who graduated from Stanford University in 1968 but hasn't had much luck getting his life in order since then. One night Jerry attends a party with a few old college buddies, and is shocked when one of them, Frannie (Richard Crystal), suddenly loses all his hair in a single lump and goes on a bloody rampage. When circumstantial evidence makes Jerry a key suspect in the murders of three women at the party, he sets out to find out what happened, and with the help of another school friend, surgeon David Blume (Robert Walden), he discovers a link between Frannie's bizarre behavior and several similar incidents which recently occurred. In each case, the killers attended Stanford in the late '60s, and all had used Blue Sunshine, a potent but tainted variety of LSD sold by Ed Flemming (Mark Goddard), a bootleg acid chemist who is now a respected mainstream political candidate. Jerry struggles to stay one step ahead of the law as he tries to piece the story together, knowing that another victim of the drug could go insane at any moment. Blue Sunshine was directed by Jeff Lieberman, who has two other cult favorites to his credit, Squirm and Just Before Dawn. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

"Grease," said the poster and the Barry Gibb song, "is the word." Transferring its setting from Chicago to sunny California, and adding a dash of disco to the ersatz '50s score, producer Allan Carr and director Randal Kleiser turned this long-running Jim Jacobs-Warren Casey Broadway smash into the biggest blockbuster of 1978. 1950s teens Danny (John Travolta) and Australian transfer Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) spend their "Summer Nights" falling in love, but once fall comes, it's back to Rydell High and its cliques. As one of the bad-boy T-Birds, Danny has to act cool for best pal Kenickie (Jeff Conaway) and their leather-clad mates Sonny (Michael Tucci) and Doody (Barry Pearl, in the role Travolta played on-stage). Despite befriending Frenchy (Didi Conn), one of the rebel Pink Ladies, virginal Sandy is "too pure to be Pink," as the Ladies' leader, Rizzo (Stockard Channing), acidly observes. Declaring their devotion in such ballads as "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "Sandy," Sandy and Danny split, reconcile, and split again amidst a pep rally, dances, drive-ins, and a drag race, before deciding "You're the One That I Want" at the climactic carnival. With Travolta white-hot from Saturday Night Fever (1977), Grease soundtrack singles climbed the charts and summer movie crowds poured in. With the presence of Joan Blondell, Eve Arden, Sid Caesar, Edd "Kookie" Byrnes, and Frankie Avalon appealing to grown-up memories, Grease became the highest-grossing film of 1978, the highest-grossing movie musical ever, and the third most popular film of the new blockbuster '70s after Star Wars (1977) and Jaws (1975). Its sequel, Grease 2, did not exactly set the world on fire in 1982. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

In the concluding episode of Good Times' fifth-season opener "The Evans Get Involved," Willona (Ja'net DuBois) hopes to adopt 10-year-old Penny Gordon (Janet Jackson), but may not be able to do so because she is unmarried. In a misguided effort to help Willona (and, incidentally, to increase her rent), landlord Bookman (Johnny Brown) claims to be her husband. Meanwhile, the Evans children ponder a move to Arizona, the new home of their mother Florida and stepfather Carl. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Having created the character of Gator McKlusky in 1973's White Lightning, Burt Reynolds reprises the role in the appropriately titled Gator. Once again, ex-convict McKluskey is strong-armed into helping the feds nab a dangerous criminal, who turns out to be an old high-school chum (Jerry Reed). He is aided and abetted by TV reporter Aggie Maybank (Lauren Hutton) and comedy-relief FBI agent Irving Greenfield (Jack Weston). Talk-show host Mike Douglas makes his film debut as a Jimmy Carter-style governor. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bumbling Esmerelda is pressed into service to babysit young Ralph (Ricky Powell), the son of Darrin's new client, Mr. Norton (Richard X. Slattery). In the course of the evening, Esmerelda takes it upon herself to tell Ralph that she's a witch, performing several disastrous acts of witchcraft to prove her point. It is up to Samantha to run damage control by claiming that Esmerelda is really a professional magician. Written by Philip Sharp and Henry Sharp, "Samantha's Magic Sitter" first aired on January 5, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the second episode of a two-part story, Esmerelda again accidentally causes George Washington (Will Geer) to materialize in the Stephens living room -- and this time George has brought along his wife, Martha (Jane Connell). As Mrs. Washington drinks in the wonders of Samantha's modern kitchen, George insists upon defending himself in court from the public disturbance and assault charges he'd accrued in the previous week's episode. To top it off, Larry and Darrin lose an account thanks to Washington's inability to tell a lie. Written by Michael Morris, "Father of Our Country" first aired on February 26, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Long ago and far away, Patty Duke occasionally played hippie types. One can get a glimpse of Duke's "far out" period in the 1972 TV movie Two on a Bench. Psychedelic Patty finds herself eyeball to eyeball with uptight square Ted Bessell when each suspects the other of working for a notorious spy. The supporting cast includes Alice Ghostley as Duke's klepto mom, John Astin (Duke's future husband) as a psychiatrist, and Jeannie Berlin (Elaine May's daughter) in a comedy vignette. Filmed in Boston, Two on a Bench is a surprising misfire from the otherwise dependable writing team of Richard Levinson and William Link. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi