Beverly Hope Atkinson Movies
Though her first role as a sassy prostitute who gives George C. Scott a piece of her mind in The New Centurions may not have been the most flattering role to launch a career with, stage, screen, and television actress Beverly Hope Atkinson would later get the chance to shine in expanding on her sometimes sympathetically desperate characterizations with a recurring role as a troubled drug addict in Steven Bochco's Hill Street Blues.A New York native who studied under Lee Strasberg in the 1960s and later became a member of the Actors Studio, Atkinson attended New York's City College before joining the Café LaMama Theater troupe on the East Coast, and Theater West in Los Angeles. Frequently touring on-stage, Atkinson relocated to Hollywood in the 1970s and essayed the majority of her roles while residing in California. Following up Centurions with film roles in Cornbread, Earl and Me (1975) and on the small screen in Law and Order (1976) and Skag (1980), Atkinson continued to work on-stage as she essayed roles in television and film.
In December of 2001, Atkinson died of cancer in Los Angeles. She was 66. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1991
In this fact-based made-for-cable docudrama, Leonard Nimoy stars as Mel Mermelstein, a Nazi death camp survivor who wages a court battle against the revisionist Institute for Historical Review over their claims that the Holocaust never occurred. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonard Nimoy, Dabney Coleman, (more)
- 1981
- PG
A small California town is gripped by UFO fever in this well-acted, surprisingly rich comedy. At the center of the mania is Arlene, a grocery store clerk and born-again Christian fascinated with flying saucers. This interest soon evolves into a full-blown obsession when Arlene is visited by a visionary dream, which she believes predicts the imminent arrival of a vessel from outer space in the nearby desert. Not even the doubts of her skeptical boyfriend, a good-hearted petty thief named Sheldon, are enough to dissuade her from her new role as prophet of the coming spaceship. At first hesitant and awkward, Arlene soon blossoms into a confident leader, and Sheldon puts aside his disbelief to revel in their sudden fame. Indeed, two have soon attracted enough of a following to pique the interest of Reverend Bud Sanders, the local revivalist preacher. Soon, Reverend Bud has joined in the crusade, and a good portion of the town has gathered to anxiously await the spaceship's arrival. Rather than resorting to easy ridicule, director John Binder creates an unexpectedly sympathetic, yet still comedic, portrait of the UFO believers, neither condemning their faith nor denying the fine line between belief and gullibility. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cindy Williams, Harry Dean Stanton, (more)
- 1978
J.J. (Jimmie Walker) is the only witness to a car accident involving his brother-in-law, Keith (Ben Powers), and girl named Savannah (Beverly Hope Atkinson). Keith naturally expects J.J. to tell the whole truth as to what he saw. But J.J. is also under intense pressure from Savannah's boyfriend, thuggish loan shark Sweet Daddy Williams (Teddy Wilson), to come up with a different story -- or else. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
The protagonists of this ABC Afternoon Special are three parentless children of divergent backgrounds, all of whom share the same foster home. All their lives, Carlie (Kristy McNichol), Harvey (Johnny Doran), and Thomas J. (Sparky Marcus) have been "pinballs," bouncing around from one foster family to another. Now that they have settled into one happy home, will the situation be permanent -- or are they doomed to be "pinballs" for all time? ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kristy McNichol, Johnny Doran, (more)
Yvette Mimieux delivers a sensitive, nuanced performance in a role that could have easily spread into a cheap exploitation turn in Jackson County Jail. Mimieux plays advertising executive Dinah Hunter, who leaves Los Angeles and a promising career after she discovers her lover has been cheating on her. Determined to start fresh in New York City, she gets into her car and heads east. Picking up some young hitchhikers along the way, she ends up stranded in an out-of-the-way western town after being beaten up and having her car stolen. Thrown into the local jailhouse on trumped up charges, she finds herself at the mercy of a psychopathic guard who further beats her and then rapes her. Dinah kills the jailkeeper and goes on the lam with fellow jailhouse inmate and down-home radical Coley Blake (Tommy Lee Jones). The sheriff's department engages the couple in a wild car chase through a parade commemorating the United States' Bicentennial, as Dinah and Coley try to break free to the open road. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvette Mimieux, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
- 1974
Watching over the Sanford home while Fred is out of town, Grady (Whitman Mayo) has vowed to honor Fred's requests to the letter. At first, this doesn't bother Lamont (Demond Wilson), especially since Grady bars Aunt Esther (LaWanda Page) and her church-lady pals from congregating in the living room. But when Grady refuses to allow Lamont to have any women over (lest he indulge in an "orgy"), the younger Sanford blows his stack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Demond Wilson, Whitman Mayo, (more)
Heavy Traffic represents a follow-up to animator Ralph Bakshi's first feature film, Fritz the Cat (1972). The central character is Michael, the ingenuous son of an Italian father and Jewish mother. An aspiring cartoonist, Michael leaves home in a huff and outrages his family by conducting an affair with an African-American woman. Heavy Traffic was originally intended to be a cartoon adaptation of Hubert Selby's notorious novel Last Exit to Brooklyn, but negotiations fell through, and Bakshi was obliged to cook up a similar but not identical "mean streets" plotline. (Last Exit to Brooklyn was made as a live-action film in 1989.) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Joseph Wambaugh's best-seller about patrol-car cops in urban Los Angeles is given a competent yet antiseptic treatment by director Richard Fleischer. The film has a bad-tasting us-versus-them mentality in its depiction of patrolmen-civilian interaction, and its hopeless atmosphere carries over into the bleak suicide of one of the principle characters. But behind its rancid veneer, the story is the old "B"-movie police story concerning a rookie cop being shown the ropes by a kindly and wizened old veteran. Roy (Stacy Keach) is the young patrolman introduced into the ways of Los Angeles street life by Kilvinsky (George C. Scott), the philosophical old pro. Kilvinsky is just short of retirement and wants to educate Roy to succeed him when he leaves. Roy, however, is on the edge because of a recent divorce, and it takes many speeches by Kilvinsky and the love and affection from his new black girlfriend Lorrie (Rosalind Cash) to keep from going over the deep end. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George C. Scott, Stacy Keach, (more)
- 1967
Matilde (Esperanza Roy) is a former prostitute married to Tom (Robert Parker), an African-American pilot stationed in Madrid. Flashbacks show how the couple met, fell in love and married. She deals with the guilt of her past life, while Tom deals with the fact he may soon be sent back to Vietnam where he has seen friends of all colors die. Tom resents working for a government who expects duty and honor from black soldiers while race relations at home and abroad are strained and rampant with prejudice. The couple battles with fallout over their racially mixed marriage as the sword of Damocles hangs over Tom's head, always ready to fall and send him to Vietnam ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Esperanza Roy, Robert Packer, (more)
