Patty Duke Movies
American actress Patty Duke was groomed almost from infancy for a starring career by her manager/guardian John Ross. She studied at the Quintano School for Young Professionals and earned her Equity card at age seven, appearing in numerous TV productions and in such Hollywood films as I'll Cry Tomorrow (1955), The Goddess (1958) (playing young Kim Stanley, the "Marilyn Monroe" character in that film), and Happy Anniversary (1959). Duke also appeared as a quiz-show contestant, and was later compelled to testify as to her honesty during the cheating scandals of 1958 and 1959. Just before her 13th birthday, Duke made her stage debut in the role of Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker; the production won the girl instant stardom and later an Academy Award for the film version of Miracle Worker (1962). Manager John Ross very carefully monitored Duke's public appearances, making certain the world saw her as a sweet, uncomplicated young lady. The truth was that Duke was terribly unhappy, feeling pressured into performing and into suppressing her own emotions. That's not what the world saw in the three seasons of The Patty Duke Show (1963-1966), a sitcom wherein the young actress literally talked to herself in the dual role of cousins Patty and Cathy Lane. She became cynical with stardom in a hurry, and in a bold act of defiance, 18-year-old Duke married a man twice her age, director Harry Falk Jr. Her first grown-up role as a Judy Garland type in Valley of the Dolls (1967) was panned, and it was suggested that she'd lost her talent. The next few years she was cast in a series of unsuccessful films but made a strong comeback with the 1969 TV movie My Sweet Charlie, which won her the first of three Emmys; the others being for the miniseries Captains and the Kings(1976) and a remake of The Miracle Worker (1979) in which she played the role of Annie Sullivan, co-starring with Melissa Gilbert as Helen Keller. In 1972 she married actor John Astin. Their union produced actor sons, Sean Astin and Mackenzie Astin. Duke also briefly changed her professional name to Patty Duke Astin. The Astins worked together prolifically for the duration of their marriage (which eventually ended in divorce). Building up her self-confidence and completely rebuilding her reputation in the '80s, Patty Duke served from 1985 through 1988 as president of the Screen Actor's Guild (the first woman to do so), starred in three separate network sitcoms, and wrote her harrowing best-selling memoirs, Call Me Anna, which in 1990 was adapted into a TV movie that she co-produced and starred in. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1970
Two episodes of the 1970-71 TV series Matt Lincoln were welded together to create the made-for-TV "movie" The Cliff. In one of the episodes, Patty Duke plays a suicidal unwed mother who struggles over whether or not to give up her child for adoption. In the other, Martin Sheen plays a homicidal maniac who keeps in touch by telephone with suicide prevention center psychiatrist Matt Lincoln (Vincent Edwards). Through a little juggling and an additional line or two of dialogue, the two separate plotlines become one. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
- PG
Since she was a child, Natalie Miller (Patty Duke) has always thought she was an ugly ducking. When a boy called her "clown face", the six-year-old knocked out his front teeth with a shovel. Despite her mother's encouragement that she will grow up to be pretty, Natalie has never believed it will happen. When her parents bribe a young medical student to date her, Natalie discovers the ruse and moves out of her parent's house. She rents a Greenwich Village apartment from an eccentric landlady (Elsa Lanchester) and gets a job at the Topless Bottom Club. She rides a motorcycle to work, decorates her loft with a moose head, and rides up and down a dumbwaiter to get to her apartment. There Natalie meets David (James Farentino) an artist, and the two have a love affair before she discovers he is married. She considers returning home after finding him in bed with his wife. Al Pacino makes his first screen appearance in a minor role in this engaging drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patty Duke, James Farentino, (more)
- 1968
Though local TV outlets have occasionally run a two-hour "movie" under the title Journey to the Unknown, the original TV series bearing this title was only one hour in length; those makeshift movies are thus comprised of two episodes threaded together. Produced in England by longtime Alfred Hitchcock associate Joan Harrison, Journey to the Unknown was a one-season anthology of stories concerning ordinary people caught up in extraordinary circumstances, usually supernatural in nature. The series was stylish but derivative: its first episode, in fact, was a variation on John Collier's old reliable chill-inducing tale Evening Primrose. The casts of Journey to the Unknown were largely comprised of American actors, the better to sell the series (and its feature-length adjuncts) to markets outside the British Isles. Journey to the Unknown has also been distributed as Out of the Unknown. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A cinematic take on a 1960s best-seller, Valley of the Dolls traces the ups and downs of three young women as fame, booze, pills, and men consume their lives. Well-bred, small-town Anne Welles (Peyton Place star Barbara Parkins) arrives in New York eager for fame but settles for a job assisting theatrical attorney Henry Bellamy (Robert H. Harris). The job leads her to cross paths with Helen Lawson (Hollywood veteran Susan Hayward), the grand dame of Broadway musicals, and Neely O'Hara (sitcom star Patty Duke), an up-and-coming performer whom Lawson unceremoniously boots from her latest show. Neely lands on her feet thanks to a series of nightclub gigs, and soon she and Anne befriend Jennifer North (Sharon Tate), a buxom starlet. As Neely becomes a huge star of stage and screen and Jennifer appears topless in a string of European "art" films, Anne becomes a wealthy cosmetics spokeswoman and suffers though a passionate but failed affair with aspiring writer Lyon Burke (Paul Burke). As the pressures of fame and failed romance take their toll on all three women, they take refuge in food, sex, liquor, and pills -- especially Neely, who becomes downright monstrous (the titular "dolls" are the uppers and downers to which she becomes hopelessly addicted). Although the film's characters are fictitious composites, Neely most closely resembles Judy Garland; Garland herself was originally cast as Lawson, but she was replaced after only a few days by Hayward. Although the film's trailer played up the story's titillating subject matter, the script for Valley of the Dolls actually toned down Jacqueline Susann's novel. And despite the fact that Dionne Warwick can be heard singing "(Theme From) The Valley of the Dolls" twice during the film, contractual snags kept her from releasing the soundtrack version; a different arrangement later became a number two pop hit in 1968. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Parkins, Patty Duke, (more)
Four stories from Hans Christian Andersen appear in The Daydreamer, a feature using the Animagic process that uses live action combined with stop-motion puppets. Included are "The Little Mermaid," "The Emperor's New Clothes," "Thumbelina," and "The Garden Of Paradise." Songs and dances compliment an international all-star cast of voices used for the characters. Ray Bolger, Margaret Hamilton, Burl Ives, Hayley Mills, Boris Karloff, Cyril Ritchard, Patty Duke, Terry-Thomas and Victor Borge join Ed Wynn in his second-to-last screen role. This was the last film in which fans would hear the voices of Sessue Hayakawa and Tallulah Bankhead. Director Jules Bass provided the lyrics, with Murray Law providing the music for this entertaining children's fantasy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cyril Ritchard, Paul O'Keefe, (more)
Billie is a screen version of Ronald Alexander's perennial stage favorite Time Out For Ginger. Patty Duke plays a tomboyish high schooler who excels in athletics but who continues to strike out socially. Jim Backus and Jane Greer perform yeoman service as Duke's parents, who wonder how long it's going to be before their daughter stops trying to be their son. Backus is particularly concerned because he's running for mayor on a platform of "male supremacy" (this is 1965, remember?). From time to time, Duke expresses her frustration in song: her big number finds her holding her gym shoes in one hand, a bottle of perfume in the other. Warren Berlinger also stars as Duke's long-suffering boyfriend. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patty Duke, Jim Backus, (more)
From 1963 to 1966, American audiences were treated to the weekly comic hijinks of identical twin cousins, Patty Lane, a normal American teenager living in Brooklyn Heights, New York and Cathy Lane, her Scottish cousin freshly arrived in the United States to finish her secondary schooling. Patty Duke, already an Academy Award-Winner for her role in The Miracle Worker, played the roles of both girls. The Patty Duke Show immediately won over television audiences and ran for three fun-filled seasons, totaling 104 hilarious episodes.
- Starring:
- Patty Duke
Based on William Gibson's Broadway play and retaining its acclaimed cast, Arthur Penn's The Miracle Worker tells the true story of Helen Keller (Patty Duke), an Alabama girl struck blind and deaf as a baby after an elevated fever. Enter Annie Sullivan (Anne Bancroft), a partially-blind woman assigned the task of teaching Helen sign language. After first separating Helen from her over-protective parents (Victor Jory and Inga Swenson), Annie begins the arduous process of teaching the girl. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anne Bancroft, Patty Duke, (more)
- 1959
In this comedy, a married couple is deeply embarrassed when their daughter reveals her father's indiscretions on a national TV show for children. It is doubly embarrassing when it is revealed that none of the allegations are true. It seems the child overheard a slightly inebriated conversation during her parent's thirteenth wedding anniversary in which the father disclosed that he and his wife had slept together before their marriage. This leads the daughter to believe that they are about to be divorced. Fortunately, the whole mess is straightened out in the end, and peace is restored. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Niven, Mitzi Gaynor, (more)
James Congdon plays Tony Nelson, a brilliant but foolhardy young scientist who is experimenting with matter and its relationship to time and space. Using a specially designed amplifier, he thinks he has found a way of releasing matter from the time and space that it occupies, thus allowing its atoms to freely intermingle with any surrounding matter without losing its integrity. After accidentally destroying the lab where he is working, he goes to his older brother Scott (Robert Lansing) for help. Scott is even more brilliant than Tony, but is his opposite in every other way: very orthodox, highly respected in his field, and also horribly overworked in his job and responsibilities. The two also have a fiercely competitive relationship that becomes more strained when Tony develops an attraction to Linda Davis (Lee Meriwether), Scott's fiancée. In testing Tony's equipment, Scott gets the experiment to work, passing one object through another, and achieves much more; his own hand accidentally passes through one of the test objects, gets caught, and then released. When he tries to repeat the experiment for Tony, he again passes his hand through the test object, and then discovers that the amplifier isn't functioning properly; the power to move into 4D is now being channeled through his own brain. He can pass through any solid object at will, and the previously staid, stolid scientist is uncharacteristically exultant at this success, though it seems to nullify the project he has spent years working on, the development of a supposedly impenetrable substance. Possessing this power causes Scott's basest desires to emerge for the first time; he starts out by going on a robbery spree, passing through locked bank vaults and stealing the financial reward that has been denied him in his job. The truly dire consequences of his new-found powers emerge the next morning, however, when Scott awakens to discover that he looks and feels at least 15 years older; apparently, using his new ability to move into 4D drains his life force. Worse yet, he discovers that he can replenish his life energy, but only by passing himself through people; this contact restores him, but accelerates their aging so that they shrivel up and die in seconds. Scott is riven by the struggle between his basic decency and his desire to survive, coupled with his now unbridled lust and greed, and the body count keeps rising as he rampages through the city. The police are unable to stop him, and Tony, feeling more responsibility than he's ever displayed before, prepares to turn the 4D amplifier on himself so that he can battle his brother. It is Linda, however, who takes the ultimate risk, luring Scott back to normal one last time. The story is exciting (albeit a bit grim) and played in a lively fashion, and the careful use of Ralph Carmichael's jazz-based score to accent the action also helps set 4D Man apart from other science fiction films of the era. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Lansing, Lee Meriwether, (more)
- 1958
Screenplay writer Paddy Chayefsky, and indeed everyone involved with the film, insisted that The Goddess wasn't really all about Marilyn Monroe. Nawww. Kim Stanley plays a neglected young woman living in poverty who aspires to be a movie star. She gets a few roles here and there on looks alone. She marries a washed-up athlete (Lloyd Bridges) who becomes fiercely jealous of her sex appeal. She sleeps her way to the top, then finds that her success is hollow. Regarded in many circles as the pinnacle of dramatic art in 1958, The Goddess is more likely to invoke howls of laughter from today's in-the-know audiences. The most famous bit: Patty Duke, playing Kim Stanley as a child, telling her pet cat that she got promoted in school. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Stanley, Lloyd Bridges, (more)
- 1958
Though produced on a shoestring, Country Music Holiday has a lot more going for it than most popular-music melanges of the 1950s. Ferlin Husky stars as Verne Brand, a talented hillbilly warbler who is discovered by fast-talking Sonny Moon (Jesse White). Verne's rise to the top of country-western fame is compromised by the machinations of a predatory Hungarian lass (Zsa Zsa Gabor) who owns 50 percent of the boy's contract. The film boasts some of the strangest casting of any film of its era: Rocky Graziano, for example, costars as a savvy record-company executive, while Patty Duke is seen as Ferlin Husky's kid sister! In addition to Husky, Country Music Holiday offers such rural favorites as June Carter, The Jordanaires, Drifting Johnny Miller, Lonzo & Oscar, the La Dell Sisters and Bernie Nee. In comparison, the strip-joint comedy team of Al Fisher and Lou Marks seems as sophisticated and urbane as Noel Coward. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ferlin Husky, Zsa Zsa Gabor, (more)
- 1957
This second presentation of the classic dramatic anthology Du Pont Show of the Month is a lavishly mounted adaptation of Mark Twain's historical novel The Prince and the Pauper. Although virtually every film version of this work has either cast twin boys in the roles of young Prince Edward and his ragamuffin lookalike Tom Canty, or has employed split-screen photography to convey the impression that one child actor is actually two different people, this production aired live and was unable to recruit twins at such short notice. Thus, Rex Thompson, best known for his portrayal of Prince Chulanlongkorn in The King and I, plays Edward, while the remarkably similar-looking Johnny Washbrook, previously the star of the TV series My Friend Flicka, plays Tom. Twain's familiar plot remains intact, with the royal Edward and the peasant Tom trading places, leading to all manner of complications for the high- and lowborn citizens of 16th century England. Heading what was advertised as "a cast of 60" is Christopher Plummer as Sir Miles Herndon, who while seeking revenge against the brother who betrayed him befriends the incognito Prince Edward; Hurd Hatfield as that evil sibling, Sir John; Rosemary Harris as the brothers' mutual sweetheart Lady Edith; and Sir Cedric Hardwycke as the scheming Earl of Hartford, who knows that the youngster claiming to be the Prince of England isn't anything of the kind. Also seen is a very young Patty Duke as Edward's sister Princess Elizabeth. "he Prince and the Pauper" was adapted for television by Leslie Slote, who spent much of the 1950s fronting for fellow writers who had been blacklisted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Plummer, Rosemary Harris, (more)
