Helen Hayes Movies

In the space of 74 minutes, Helen Hayes goes from naïve French country lass to elderly harridan in Sin of Madelon Claudet. Is it any wonder that she won an Academy Award? (She truly deserved this Oscar; the jury is still out concerning her cutesy supporting turn in 1969's Airport, which also copped her the gold statuette). Betrayed by artist Neil Hamilton, Hayes moves on to jewel thief Lewis Stone, who commits suicide to avoid arrest, leaving Hayes to her fate. After ten years in jail for her complicity in Stone's crimes, Hayes turns to the only profession open to her. She walks the streets to raise enough money to support her illegitimate son, who grows up to be Robert Young and who has no idea that Hayes is his mother. Thanks to his mother's anonymous financial support, Young is able to attend medical school, eventually becoming a wealthy doctor. Even allowing for the illogical nature of the plotline and the lachrymose dialogue, the heartrending final scenes of Sin of Madelon Claudet can still raise a lump in the throat after 65 years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This first film version of Ernest Hemingway's novel A Farewell to Arms stars Gary Cooper and Helen Hayes. Cooper plays Lt. Frederick Henry, a World War I officer who falls in love with English Red Cross nurse Catherine Barkley (Hayes)-after first mistaking her for a woman of ill repute. Henry's friend, Major Rinaldi, is envious of the romance, and pulls strings to have Catherine transferred to Milan. When Henry is wounded in battle, he ends up in the very hospital where Catherine works. They resume the affair, which reaches an ecstatic peak just before Henry is returned to the front. The now-pregnant Catherine remains in Switzerland, sending letters by the bushelfull to Henry. But the jealous Rinaldi sees to it that Henry never receives those letters, leading Catherine to conclude sorrowfully that Henry has forgotten her. As the Armistice approaches, Henry makes his way to Switzerland, hoping to find Catherine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Given the usual pedestal upon which mothers were placed by MGM head Louis Mayer, it's all the more amazing that Mayer gave the go-ahead for Another Language. Louise Closser Hale plays a domineering matriarch who controls the lives of her grown, married sons, using a fabricated heart condition to keep them in line. Helen Hayes marries youngest son Robert Montgomery, only to sit by in mute horror as Mother exerts her authority over her timorous offspring at a weekly family get-together. At the end, only Hayes and Montgomery's nephew John Beal have the courage to break the apron strings, but not without the formidable opposition of Monster Mom. Based on the Broadway play by Rose Franken, Another Language represented the screen debut of Margaret Hamilton, recreating the supporting role she'd played on stage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the 1909 novel by F. Marion Crawford, The White Sister stars Helen Hayes as an aristocratic Italian girl who spurns the potential husband chosen by her father in favor of a handsome army lieutenant (Clark Gable). When her lover is reported killed in World War I, Hayes renounces the world to become a nun. After taking her vows, the lieutenant shows up very much alive. He implores her to give up the Order, but she refuses. The lieutenant is later injured in a bombing raid; he dies, with Hayes lovingly at his side. The White Sister was previously filmed in 1922, with Lillian Gish and Ronald Colman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Legendary "improvisational" director Gregory La Cava elected to stick to the script for his film version of the James M. Barrie play What Every Woman Knows. Helen Hayes repeats her stage role as a Victorian Scotswoman of far-reaching ambition. Using her supposedly frail feminine wiles, Hayes maneuvers her fatuous husband Brian Aherne into a successful political career. He rises to a parliamentary seat, never quite realizing that he hasn't done it alone. The charm of What Every Woman Knows was augmented by the pleasing Scots burr adopted by the American leading lady. An earlier version of the Barrie play was filmed in 1921, starring Lois Wilson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filled with the kind of Red Scare propaganda that must have delighted members of McCarthy's House Un-American Activities Committee, this drama chronicles the attempts of two All-American parents to save their son from the temptations of Communism. Unfortunately, they are too late. The arrogant and intellectual young man, a worker in a federal agency, returns home from a long absence spouting pro-Ruskie doctrine and deriding the beliefs of capitalism and US at every opportunity. Enraged at his son's mocking ways, he beans him with the family bible. Things get worse when an FBI agent shows up to tell the horrified parents that their son is an enemy spy. The mother blows a gasket and flies to Washington, DC where her son works to make him swear on the same book that the FBI agent is wrong. The son does so, but its a lie. The mother soon finds this out. She also learns that her treacherous son's girlfriend is a Commie. What's a mother to do? Fortunately, before it is too late, her son realizes the error of his ways and tries to double-cross his Pinko superiors. Unfortunately, it is too late and they shoot him and just before he gaspingly dies upon the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, he tapes his final confession and gives American youth everywhere a potent message about honor. The star of the film, Walker, best remembered for his gripping portrayal of a psychopath in Hitchcock's Strangers on a Train, died before production finished and so scenes from that film were spliced into My Son, John. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Included are two Christmas specials from 1953: Christmas with Liberace and Playhouse Past Memories. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Irregularly scheduled on NBC from 1954 through 1957, Producers' Showcase was a series of lavish, full-color 90 minute specials, bringing the best of Broadway to the 21 inch screen. On September 11, 1955, the series expanded to two hours to offer an elaborate "life from Hollywood" staging of Thornton Wilder's surrealistic comedy The Skin of Our Teeth. Though the action ostensibly takes place in New Jersey--first the city of Excelsior, then on the boardwalk of Atlantic City--the episodic plotline girdles the entire history of the world, with Mankind represented by the "ubermensch" Antrobus family. Surviving the Creation, the Ice Age, the seven deadly plagues, the Black Death and every other historical calamity, the unflappable and always fastidiously dressed George Antrobus (a rare acting performance by legendary Broadway director George Abbott) and his even-tempered wife (Helen Hayes) personify every man and woman who has weathered the most harrowing of storms "by the skin of their teeth." Acting as a combination Greek Chorus and Protean Player is the Antrobus' sexually uninhibited maid Sabina (Mary Martin, in a role created on Broadway by Tallulah Bankhead), whose duties range from wrangling baby mastodons to periodically replenishing the human race. Featured in the cast as Gladys is Heller Halliday, the daughter of costar Mary Martin. This lively adaptation of Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning play was originally staged in Paris as part of the American National Theater Academy's Salute to France program. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of several filmed presentations seen on the otherwise "live" TV anthology Playhouse 90, "Four Women in Black" is a western story based on fact. Ralph Meeker plays outlaw Carbine Webb, who while fleeing a posse takes refuge in a covered wagon in the middle of the desert. But Carbine is not alone: The wagon also shelters four Roman Catholic nuns, who'd been heading to Tucson when they were besieged by horse thieves. Hoping that there is still some essential goodness in Webb, the nuns prevail upon him to guide them to safety. He does so, assuming that once he's played good samaritan, the sisters will leave him alone--but he's very, very wrong. Helen Hayes heads the cast as Sister Theresa, with Katy Jurado, Janice Rule and Narda Onyx as the other three nuns. Originally telecast in 1957, Four Women in Black was rebroadcast by Playhouse 90 on August 22, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Airport had enough plot and enough star power in its cast for three feature films, and it only encompassed about half of the complexity or characters found in Arthur Hailey's best-selling potboiler. Essentially built around 12 harrowing hours at a major Midwestern airport, the film had everything an audience of the period could have wanted -- suspense, romance, drama, and comedy -- all spread across a vast canvas. Mel Bakersfeld (Burt Lancaster) is the manager of Lincoln Airport, facing a night beset by the worst blizzard in a decade, a wife (Dana Wynter) who announces she wants a divorce, a primary runway blocked by an airliner stuck in a snowdrift, and a governing board ready to fire him. Bakersfeld's cynical, smooth-talking brother-in-law, Vernon Demerest (Dean Martin), won't let up on his criticism of the management at Lincoln, but he has his own problems as well, mostly in the form of a young stewardess, Gwen Meighen (Jacqueline Bisset), who is pregnant by him and whom he finds he genuinely loves. Add to that the presence of an old lady stowaway (Helen Hayes) and a mentally disturbed passenger (Van Heflin) carrying a bomb, and there's more than enough plot to keep viewers engrossed for two hours plus. Airport became one of the top-grossing movies of its era, racking up seven-digit box-office numbers and spawning an entire film genre -- the disaster movie. With Jean Seberg, George Kennedy, Lloyd Nolan, Barry Nelson, and Maureen Stapleton filling out the rest of the leading roles, there was something for almost everyone in this film. The movie still has a lot to offer if only as a prime example of Hollywood at its most successfully glitzy, but, if possible, viewers should try and see the letterboxed version of Airport on DVD (released May 2001). ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

First telecast December 16, 1972, The Snoop Sisters was the pilot for a Richard Levinson/William Link detective series. Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick play a couple of mystery writers who happen to be siblings. With the help of their pragmatic chauffeur (Art Carney), the Snoop Sisters take it upon themselves to solve real-life mysteries. In this instance, the ladies try to uncover the truth behind the murder of reclusive film star Paulette Goddard. The highlights of The Snoop Sisters include a slapstick car chase and an extended vignette from Ms. Goddard's 1940 feature film The Ghost Breakers. Also worth noting is the early supporting-cast appearance by Jill Clayburgh. When packaged for local syndication, The Snoop Sisters was retitled Female Instinct. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An antacid pill, provided by Gwen Snoop, causes a basketball star to become ill prior to appearing on a television talk show. ~ All Movie Guide

A Black Day for Bluebeard is a typically lighthearted murder yarn from the Snoop Sisters TV series. Vincent Price guests as a washed-up horror movie star suspected of killing his wealthy wife (Tammy Grimes). The grey-haired Snoop sisters (Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick), mystery writers par excellence, try to crack the case. Among the many suspicious characters in this 90-minute whodunit are Roddy McDowell, Mort Sahl, William Devane and Katherine Helmond. A Black Day for Bluebeard premiered over the NBC network on March 19, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide