Beau Bridges Movies

A latter-day attempt to update the swordplay success of Errol Flynn movies, this film is part burlesque, part homage to old-fashioned pirate films. James Earl Jones and Robert Shaw play Nick Debrett and Ned Lynch, two pirates who save a noblewoman, Jane Barnet (Geneviève Bujold), and take her to Jamaica. They find that their friends have been taken captive by a ruthless dictator -- Peter Boyle plays the foppish villain Lord Durant with an over-the-top swagger. Debrett and Lynch set out to rescue their friends and overthrow the perverted tyrant. Beau Bridges plays Major Folly, a fancy-dressing Scarlet Pimpernel sort. A young Anjelica Huston has a minor part as a nameless woman. There is plenty of swordplay, blood, slapstick, and cleavage, all directed by James Goldstone in a frenzied fashion. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

A woman struggles to rebuild her life after a devastating accident in this drama based on the true story of Jill Kinmont. Kinmont (played by Marilyn Hassett) was a top ranked amateur downhill skier who seemed assured of a place on the 1956 Olympic team. But while racing in Utah's Snow Cup competition, Kinmont suffered a serious fall from a mountain that left her paralyzed from the shoulders down. Kinmont became severely depressed; her career as an athlete was over, and her fiancée, who couldn't deal with the emotional toll of her accident, left her. But when she met pilot Dick Buek (Beau Bridges), she found both love and a new inspiration to make a career for herself as a teacher. But Kinmont discovered she still had more mountains to climb when Buek died in the crash of a small plane. Marilyn Hassett won a Golden Globe award for her performance as Jill Kinmont, and she reprised the role in a sequel two years later. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this 1974 TV movie, Meredith Baxter and Beau Bridges portray adult adoptees, desirous of meeting their natural parents. Through the auspices of a tracing agency, Baxter, Bridges and several others (including future TV luminary Patrick Duffy) locate their actual mothers and fathers, with results ranging from hosannas to heartache. The centerpiece of the film is a brief dialogue between Baxter and her real-life mother, Whitney Blake. While the film has as much to do with Bridges as with Baxter, the print ads emphasized her participation in the film over everyone else's. The Stranger Who Looks Like Me was directed by Larry Peerce, touted by those aforementioned ads for his direction of Goodbye Columbus (69). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Young Joey Grant (Ike Eisenmann) is thrown for a loop when his parents (played by Beau Bridges and Margaret Blye) split up. Even worse, Joey's dad has been ordered out of the house, and must take up residence in a hotel room. What happens following this traumatic incident is told (sometimes literally) from Joey's point-of-view -- and don't expect everything to be tied up in a nice, neat, "happily ever after" package. My Dad Lives in a Downtown Hotel was adapted from Peggy Mann's book of the same name. ~ All Movie Guide

Beau Bridges plays an uptight insurance clerk. Ron Leibman plays Bridges' laid-back pal, who talks Beau into skipping work in order to drive Leibman to the airport. This little trip across town turns into an idyllic trek up the California coast. While Leibman wheels and deals in his efforts to con the Establishment, Bridges loosens up with several nubile females, totally forgetting his proper fiancee Janet Margolin. While it has all the earmarks of a typical "youth trip" film of the 1970s, Your Three Minutes Are Up scores with its believable characterizations and its perceptive view of California's mixed-up social values. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Loosely based on the Faust legend, Hammersmith is Out stars Richard Burton as the title character, a mental patient confined to the sanitarium owned by a loony doctor (Peter Ustinov, who also directed). Befriending a lackadaisical orderly named Billy Breedlove (Beau Bridges), the satanic Hammersmith offers Billy untold wealth and power if he'll help him escape. Once on the outside, Hammersmith keeps his promises to Billy, with the help of slovenly hash-slinger Jimmie Jean Jackson (Elizabeth Taylor). When time comes to pay the piper, however, Hammersmith and Jimmie Jean conspire to leave Billy hanging out to dry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Also known as Return of the Boomerang, Adam's Woman is set in the rough-and-tumble Australia of the 1840s. Beau Bridges plays Adam, convicted of a crime he didn't commit and shipped off to the penal colony "Down Under". Enduring brutal treatment, he escapes, only to be captured again. Thanks to the intervention of a reform-minded warden John Mills, Adam is offered a fresh start in life. An unexpectedly vicious climax finds Adam and his new wife (Jane Merrow) fending off a group of scurrilous ex-prisoners headed by Adam's onetime cellmate (James Booth). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ben Hecht's reminiscences from his youth as a cub reporter in 1910 Chicago makes an uneasy transition to the screen in this Norman Jewison production. During the Galena, Illinois, Independence Day celebration of 1910, Ben Young (Beau Bridges) determines that it is time to seek his fortune and sets out by train to Chicago. Once in Chicago, Ben has his money stolen, and he faints from hunger. To his rescue comes Queen Lil (Melina Mecouri), a local madam, who takes him to her brothel, where he is allowed to stay on the top floor of the house. Queen Lil gets Ben a job on the Chicago Journal and he meets the gruff, but kind, editor Francis X. Sullivan (Brian Keith). Sullivan takes Ben on a drinking tour of the Tenderloin, where Ben's naiveté is given a good working-over as Ben experiences the political realities of the city. Ben decides to devote his life to reforming the shady politics of Chicago. Meanwhile, reform leader Axel P. Johanson (George Kennedy) is trying to obtain a ledger of civic corruption compiled by Honest Tim Grogan (Hume Cronyn). During a party for Grogan at Queen Lil's, Ben inspires friendly prostitute Adeline (Margot Kidder) to change her evil ways. Her first act as a reformer is to steal Grogan's ledger and join the Salvation Army mission. But everyone thinks that Ben has stolen the ledger, and soon Sullivan, Queen Lil, Grogan and Johanson are all after him to get the ledger back. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Martin Sheen may be the Grey Eminence of movies nowadays, but back in 1967 he often as not played switchblade-wielding punks. This he does, in the company of Tony Musante, in The Incident. After mugging a helpless old man, Sheen and Musante take over a subway car, terrorizing its occupants. In Stagecoach fashion, all the best and worst qualities of the passengers are brought to the surface by the presence of danger. Among the passengers are angry black man Brock Peters and his supplicative wife Ruby Dee, ex-alcoholic Gary Merrill, timorous Jewish couple Jack Gilford and Thelma Ritter, blowhard Ed McMahon, and homosexual Robert Fields. It is furloughed army private Beau Bridges who puts an end to Sheen and Musante's reign of terror. Based on Ride with Terror a 1963 TV play by Nicholas E. Baehr, The Incident is an unpleasant but undeniably fascinating character study. And yes, that cute young blonde playing Alice Keenan is Donna Mills. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Travelling to California under the alias "Jim Parker", Kimble (David Janssen) is trapped by a sheriff named Corby (John Larch), who unexpectedly strikes a bargain with the fugitive. It seems that Corby's estranged son Larry (Beau Bridges), in desperate need of money for himself and his pregnant girlfriend Ellen (Melinda Plowman), has been wounded while attempting a holdup. If Kimble agrees to tend to Larry's injuries and assist in covering up his crime, the Sheriff promises to set him free. It's a tempting offer--providing that the duplicitous Corby can be trusted. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Posing as "Frank Whistler", Kimble (David Janssen) hitches a ride with a small-town minister--only to be involved in a car accident when the minister is accidentally shot and killed by young Gary Keller (Beau Bridges). Though Gary wants to turn himself in to the authorities, his domineering father Steve (Telly Savalas) refuses to let the boy jeopardize his future, so he manipulates the evidence to framed Kimble for the clergyman's death. Now all that remains is for Steve to track down and permanently silence the fugitive Kimble before the police catch up with him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Beau Bridges guest stars as a wounded young man who stumbles into the Justice Department Building in Virginia, carrying half a million dollars in stolen cash. Awakening from a brief coma, the boy can remember nothing about what has happened to him nor how he came into possession of the loot. Though they suspect that "John Doe" is a thief and a possible killer, the Feds go through an elaborate charade of alerting the public that they are holding the money for its rightful owner. Predictably, the FBI offices are swamped with dozens of phony claimants--including two shady-looking gentleman who are determined to silence "John Doe" permanently! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Beau Bridges guest stars as Pvt. Orville Putnam, King Company's newest replacement. Anxious to be accepted by his fellow soldiers, Putnam hides the fact that he is interested in botany--and also neglects to tell anyone that he is only 15 years old (it seems he fibbed to his draft board). Despite his lack of life experience and his innate clumsiness, Putnam proves to be an asset to the platoon when he uses his knowledge of all things botanical to save their lives! (Incidentally, Beau Bridges was actually 24 years old at the time of this episode). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide