Edward Herrmann Movies

In this sentimental comedy, two British World War II veterans (played by English stage and screen veterans Sir Alec Guinness and Leo McKern) have come back to Normandy together to revisit the site of their most harrowing wartime experiences, to look up the gravesite of a fallen comrade, and to look up the prostitute (Jeanne Moreau) who put joy back into their lives. At their hotel, they meet Waldo (John Randolph), an American veteran, who is on a similar mission. Unlike them, however, he is saddled with the company of his disagreeable daughter and her stuffy husband (Geraldine Chaplin and Edward Herrmann) who think they are doing him a favor by coming with him. One highlight of the film is Moreau's rendition of the Edith Piaf classic, La vie en rose. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Based on the 1976 autobiography My Luke and I by Eleanor Gehrig and Joseph Durso, Love Affair: The Eleanor & Lou Gehrig Story provides a slightly different slant on the events previously dramatized on film as Pride of the Yankees (1942). The story is told in flashback from the point of view of the wife of baseball's "Iron Man". Sitting in a deserted Yankee stadium, Eleanor (Blythe Danner) relates her tale to her biographer Joseph Durso (Robert Burr). She recalls how she met the painfully shy ballplayer Lou Gehrig (Edward Herrmann) on a blind date in 1933. She remembers her battle of wills with Lou's domineering and possessive mother (played with a nearly impenetrable foreign accent by Patricia Neal), and her 1934 elopement with her "Luke." Other memories include the New York Yankees' goodwill trip to Japan, where relationships became strained between teammates Gehrig and Babe Ruth (Ramon Bieri). Also recalled is the fact that Lou played 2130 consecutive games (a record was only recently broken by Cal Ripken Jr.). Eleanor's story ends inevitably with Lou's slow death from amyotropic lateral sclerosis. In summing up, Eleanor insists that despite the tragic final years, she wouldn't have traded her short time as Mrs. Lou Gehrig for anything. Edward Herrmann took pride in the fact that his portrayal of Lou Gehrig won the unqualified praise of the real Eleanor (though Herrmann learned to bat southpaw for the role, he is seen actually playing baseball only once) Originally scheduled for broadcast on October 9, 1977, the made-for-TV Love Affair was bumped by a World Series playoff game; it was rescheduled for January 15, 1978--smack dab opposite the Super Bowl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This family classic is adapted from the Broadway musical, which was based on the comic strip Little Orphan Annie. During the Great Depression in New York City, a plucky red-haired scrapper named Annie (Aileen Quinn) is the voice of hope for her fellow orphans who live under the supervision of drunken floozy Miss Hannigan (Carol Burnett). Annie's spirit is fueled by the belief that her real parents dropped her off at the orphanage with a half of a locket, promising to return for her with the other half. One day, the dingy orphanage is visited by the sophisticated Grace Farrell (Ann Reinking), personal secretary to conservative politician Oliver Warbucks (Albert Finney). In order to improve his image, Grace brings Annie to the Warbucks estate for a weeklong visit. Annie quickly wins the hearts of servants and politicians alike, eventually even bringing her song of hope, "Tomorrow," to President Roosevelt in Washington. Warbucks and Grace even go so far as to perform a public search for Annie's parents, creating an opportunity for Miss Hannigan, Rooster (Tim Curry), and Lily (Bernadette Peters) to scam their way to the reward money. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

In this dark comedy, three sisters try to make the most of their lives in a supremely dysfunctional family. Maryann (Catherine Corpeny), Elizabeth (Deborah Hedwall), and Gail (Wendy Hoopes) were raised by their eccentric mother Nora (Olympia Dukakis), mostly without the help of their father Tom (Roy Scheider), a policeman who left the house 15 years earlier and never came back. Now Maryann is a nervous wreck who cries most of the time, Elizabeth is a lawyer who works as a public defender and doesn't enjoy it very much, and Gail prefers to stay home with her dumb lug of a boyfriend, Junior (James Villemarie). However, they're all busy dealing with Nora, who has decided to build a cavern in the basement (with the help of a jackhammer that threatens to destroy the house), and Tom, who has made an unexpected return after developing a survivalist bent. The sisters eventually have to enlist the help of their Uncle Jack (Edward Herrmann), a priest with rather lax moral fiber, to get things back to "normal." This was the debut feature for writer/director Max Mayer. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This 1993 remake of the 1950 film Born Yesterday (based on the 1946 Garson Kanin stage play) was retooled as a star vehicle for then-marrieds Melanie Griffith and Don Johnson. Roughneck self-made millionaire Harry Brock (John Goodman) wants to become a powerful Washington lobbyist. Brock's efforts to hobnob with DC uppercrust are compromised by his brash, embarrassingly vulgar mistress Billie Dawn (Melanie Griffith). He'd like to unload the ex-chorus girl, but he thinks he's in love: besides, she knows too much about his crooked dealings to be running around loose. Thus, Brock hires bookish Paul Verrall (Don Johnson) to educate Billie. Verrall does his job amazingly well, awakening Billie to her responsibilities as a loyal, honest American: along the way, the two fall in love. Featured in the cast are Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and his star reporter (and wife) Sally Quinn, cast as DC power brokers. Also appearing in a small role is 1960s starlet Celeste Yarnell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The History Channel's Columbus: The Last Voyage details one of the lesser known voyages of Christopher Columbus. Far removed from his initial journey to North America, Columbus found himself facing challenges from his preoccupation with finding a passage to the Orient, to the deteriorating condition of his ships, and the threat of mutiny. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Pulitzer prize-winning writer David Halberstam hosts the six-part documentary David Halberstam's The Fifties. The series disassembles the complicated decade from its paranoid beginning to its violent end. David Halberstam's The Fifties, Vol. 1: The Fear and the Dream introduces the early years with the emergence of a middle class. Babyboomer prosperity sweeps the suburbs as Americans embrace global dominance. However, underneath the calm surface of planned neighborhoods, a menace loomed. The shadow of communism and the Cold War hung over. David Halberstam's The Fifties, Vol. 1: The Fear and the Dream describes the atmosphere which allowed McCarthyism and the real threat of nuclear war. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide

A decade comes clean in the third installment of Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Halberstam's series. Apron strings became shackles for millions of American women during this time. Families, when faced with the reality of having it all, wondered if they really wanted it. David Halberstam's The Fifties, Vol. 3: Let's Play House uncovers the hidden burden of the perfect family. Traditional roles of men and women began to crumble in the '50s as dissatisfaction reared its ugly head. Author Betty Friedan helped feminists label their pain as Sloan Wilson shattered the myth of the stoic hero. As the freewheeling '60s approached, Americans imagined a different world. The result was the death of the nuclear family and the emergence of dysfunction as an art form. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide

David Halberstam's The Fifties cracks open the decade and exposes it for what it was. In many ways, the time period served as a test ground for an explosive future. In David Halberstam's The Fifties, Vol. 5: The Beat, poetry and music define a generation. A culture of cool emerged in the 1950s that was composed of rebels and freaks. Beat writers like Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg provided the language for a revolution. Shocking words were matched by the twirling hips of rock & rollers. Elvis' appropriation of African-American music took the world by storm. Suddenly, everyone wanted to be young. While bobby soxers fawned, beat students yearned to write the great American novel. The gathering storm clouds of the late '50s portend a dynamic next decade. ~ Sarah Ing, All Movie Guide

While traveling across Arizona with his divorced mother and her new boyfriend, a precocious young boy stumbles onto a grisly murder scene, placing the three of them in mortal danger at the hands of a pair of good-ol'-boy twin psychopaths. It's hard to tell whether the producers of this film decided to "dress up" a standard slasher script with spooky desert vistas and quality actors (including cuddly little Peter Billingsley, who forever endeared himself to viewers of the perennial favorite A Christmas Story), or rather chose to inject gratuitous T&A and gore scenes into an otherwise more sophisticated Hitchcockian thriller to lure the Friday the 13th crowd. Whatever the motivation, the end result is a muddled mishmash of family drama and sleazy dead-teen mayhem that never found an audience. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

The second film to be made from Woody Allen's successful stage comedy (following a 1969 feature starring Jackie Gleason), Don't Drink the Water is a made-for-television adaptation directed by and starring Allen himself. The fish-out-of-water premise remains the same: Allen plays Walter Hollander, a caterer from New Jersey who takes his family on vacation to a fictional Eastern European country. The trip turns sour when, thanks to a series of misunderstandings involving some inopportune snapshots, they are accused of espionage. The family goes on the run, taking refuge in the American Embassy. There, with the help of a wily young diplomat, they try to figure out a way to return to America without sparking an international incident. Though this version is set 25 years later than the original film, the changes are mostly cosmetic: the visual style is hand-held and more frantic, and the script replaces numerous references to the Cold War with a few glancing nods to present-day politics. Another notable change, the addition of an opening montage parodying newsreels, was reportedly the result of network pressure after Allen's initial cut proved too short for the planned time slot. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide