Jerry Hausner Movies

Vera (Linda Lavin) becomes addicted to TV soap operas, so much so that begins to neglect her work. When Mel (Vic Tayback) informs her that she'll have to choose between her job and her soaps, Vera wastes no time making her decision--and quits on the spot. Elsewhere, regular diner customer Henry (Marvin Kaplan) has some really big news for the gang. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Future Rocky supporting player Burt Young guest stars as Willy, the mentally challenged friend of undercover cop Tony Baretta (Robert Blake). Though he'd like to spend more time with Willy, Baretta must first solve a series of bizarre burglaries. As the evidence mounts up, Baretta comes to the uncomfortable conclusion that Willy himself may be involved in the crimes. The title of this episode refers to the song heard during the credits of Baretta, sung by Sammy Davis Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Policewoman Eve Whitfield (Barbara Anderson) is faced with a profound personal crisis when she shoots and kills an armed robber in self-defense. It turns out that the victim was only 17 years old, regarded as a "model kid" by friends and loved ones alike. Tortured by guilt and self-doubt, Eve must rely upon Chief Ironside (Raymond Burr) to determine if her instincts were correct when she pulled the trigger. This episode was cowritten by famed crime novelist Evan Hunter, whose screenwriting credits include the landmark "J.D." drama The Blackboard Jungle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As the staff of "The Alan Brady Show" prepare for the series' annual summer hiatus, Rob (Dick Van Dyke) flashes back to his first year as Brady's head writer. On the occasion of the summer layoff, Rob suddenly found himself unemployed and virtually penniless -- and with a pregnant Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) at home. The remainder of the episode involves the various face-saving stratagems concocted by Rob to hide the fact that he's out of work...and to pick up some spare change on the sly. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Toward the end of Jerry Lewis's Paramount studio period, Lewis slapped together this bitter comedy about Hollywood phoniness and fame that has to be the most rancid portrait of the Hollywood star system in the Rat Pack era this side of Clifford Odets. When a famous entertainer suddenly is killed in an airplane crash, his team of flunkies -- producer Caryl Fergusson (Everett Sloane), writer Chic Wymore (Phil Harris), press agent Harry Silver (Keenan Wynn), director Morgan Heywood (Peter Lorre in his final film role), valet Bruce Alden (John Carradine), and secretary Ellen Betz (Ina Balin) -- decide to continue their life style by finding a complete unknown and manufacturing him into a Hollywood star. That unknown turns out to be the nervous and inept bellboy Stanley Belt (Jerry Lewis). They train Stanley to become an over-night singing sensation, and despite a disastrous recording session and a failed nightclub performance, the public relations blitz makes Stanley's recording of "I Lost My Heart in a Drive-In Movie" a smash single. So much so that Stanley is given a shot at appearing on "The Ed Sullivan Show." Expecting the worst, Stanley's management team abandons him right before his performance. But Stanley musters up enough confidence to go on the live program alone and manages to surprise his pessimistic ex-staff. A collection of Hollywood celebrities circa 1964 --George Raft, Ed Wynn, Ed Sullivan, Mel Torme, Rhonda Fleming and Hedda Hopper -- make cameo appearances. High spots include an apocalyptic music lesson with voice teacher Dr. Mule-rrr (Hans Conried), Ed Sullivan performing a bizarre impersonation of himself, and an ending that would make even Jean-Luc Godard blush. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

For the third year in a row, PTA president Mrs. Billings (Eleanor Audley) hornswoggles Rob (Dick Van Dyke) into directing the annual charity show. This time around, Buddy (Morey Amsterdam) and Sally (Rose Marie) help Rob out by writing the material, but the problems of casting the right people for the right roles remain as troublesome as ever. Things come to a head when Rob must choose between his wife Laura (Mary Tyler Moore) and their talented neighbor Anita Lebost (Sylvia Lewis) for the coveted dance-solo spot. This is the episode in which would-be ventriloquist Mel Cooley (Richard Deacon) performs a side-splittingly awful routine with his "little friend Dummy McGee." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This frantic comedy finds Raymond (Jerry Lewis) working in a department store. Mr. Tuttle (John McGiver) is the watchful owner, whose outspoken wife Phoebe (Agnes Moorehead) makes no secret about her feelings that Raymond is an incompetent boob. Barbara (Jill St. John) is the pretty elevator operator, and unknown to Raymond, the boss' daughter. Quimby (Ray Walston) is the floor manager who has more of an eye for the ladies than his job at the store. Raymond proceeds to wreck every department in the store, earning new positions with each mishap. Two of the many sight gags are when Raymond is sent to paint the top of a flagpole and a hilarious vacuum cleaner demonstration that naturally goes awry. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of The Dick Van Dyke Show's second season (and the first with the famous "falling over the furniture" opening), Rob (Dick Van Dyke) brings home two live ducklings, left over from a sketch on "The Alan Brady Show." Son Ritchie (Larry Mathews) instantly falls in love with the ducklings, naming them Oliver and Stanley. Eventually Oliver dies, whereupon Ritchie obsessively clings to Stanley, and refuses to entertain the thought of letting his pet out of his sight -- which causes no end of trouble for Rob and Laura (Mary Tyler Moore), since Stanley has grown too large (and too hungry!) to remain a part of the Petrie household! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Petries' prankish neighbor Jerry Helper (Jerry Paris) takes great delight in telling anyone who will listen that Rob's most recent script for "The Alan Brady Show" is, in his humble opinion, terrible. The angrier Rob (Dick Van Dyke) gets and the more Millie Helper (Ann Morgan Guilbert) tells her husband to shut up and drop the subject, the more Jerry persists in insulting the script, at one point, even hiring a singing telegram service to deliver a musical message about how rotten the show is! Ultimately, the joke goes too far, and Jerry ends up with a punch in the nose -- but from whom? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapting Humphrey Cobb's novel to the screen, director Stanley Kubrick and his collaborators Calder Willingham and Jim Thompson set out to make a devastating anti-war statement, and they succeeded above and beyond the call of duty. In the third year of World War I, the erudite but morally bankrupt French general Broulard (Adolphe Menjou) orders his troops to seize the heavily fortified "Ant Hill" from the Germans. General Mireau (George MacReady) knows that this action will be suicidal, but he will sacrfice his men to enhance his own reputation. Against his better judgment, Colonel Dax (Kirk Douglas) leads the charge, and the results are appalling. When, after witnessing the slaughter of their comrades, a handful of the French troops refuse to leave the trenches, Mireau very nearly orders the artillery to fire on his own men. Still smarting from the defeat, Mireau cannot admit to himself that the attack was a bad idea from the outset: he convinces himself that loss of Ant Hill was due to the cowardice of his men. Mireau demands that three soldiers be selected by lot to be executed as an example to rest of the troops. Acting as defense attorney, Colonel Dax pleads eloquently for the lives of the unfortunate three, but their fate is a done deal. Even an eleventh-hour piece of evidence proving Mireau's incompetence is ignored by the smirking Broulard, who is only interested in putting on a show of bravado. A failure when first released (it was banned outright in France for several years), Paths of Glory has since taken its place in the pantheon of classic war movies, its message growing only more pertinent and potent with each passing year (it was especially popular during the Vietnam era). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After several years of domestic squabbles, the marriage of Nina and Robert Tracy (Judy Holliday, Jack Lemmon) goes "phffft"! Upon receiving their divorce papers, Nina and Robert are certain that they'll remain friends, no matter how many new lovers they pick up along the way. Nina dallies briefly with bombastic Charlie Newton (Jack Carson), while Robert has a fling with the luscious Janis (Kim Novak). These romantic episodes only serve to make Nina and Robert realize how much they're still in love with each other. According to costar Jack Lemmon, the original title of this film was Phfffft!, but after an all-night bull session at Columbia Pictures it was decided to take out one of the "F"s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

At age 50, Bob Hope was getting a bit too long in tooth for frenzied farces like Off Limits, but his surplus of energy makes up for his chronological unsuitability. Hope plays the manager of boxing champ Stanley Clements, who has just received his draft notice. Gangster Marvin Miller strong-arms Hope into enlisting himself to keep tabs on Clements; when the latter is given a medical discharge, poor Hope is stuck in uniform. During training, Hope makes the acquaintance of draftee Mickey Rooney, an aspiring boxer who wants Hope to handle him. There's one obstacle, however: the Mick's aunt doesn't want her nephew to box. Hope promises to talk the "old lady" into his way of thinking, only to discover that Rooney's aunt is the luscious Marilyn Maxwell. Before the climactic bout between Rooney and Clements, Hope and Rooney sign up to be military policemen under the aegis of buffoonish CO Eddie Mayehoff. If Bob Hope looks slightly uncomfortable at times in Off Limits, it is probably because he isn't politely inclined to such upstarts as Mickey Rooney and Eddie Mayehoff getting most of the laughs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide