Basil Hoffman Movies
Tight-lipped, bespectacled American character actor Basil Hoffman made his first screen appearance in Lady Liberty (1972). Hoffman was at his brusque best playing cut-no-slack authority types. He was, for example, ideally cast as the gloriously named Principal Dingleman in the TV sitcom Square Pegs. Apparently a favorite of actor-director Robert Redford, Hoffman has been prominently featured in such Redford projects as All the President's Men (1976), The Electric Horseman (1979), Ordinary People (1980) and The Milagro Beanfield War (1988). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1975
Ellery Queen (also known as Too Many Suspects) was the 78-minute pilot film for a TV series based on the fictional intellectual author/sleuth created by cousins Frederick Dannay and Manfred Lee. Jim Hutton plays Ellery (the tenth actor to do so on screen!), while David Wayne is his police inspector father. The plot, set in 1947 Manhattan, involves the murder of a fashion model. Fifteen minutes before the fade-out, Ellery turns to the audience, presents the clues, and asks us to solve the murder--a cute if unnecessary trick, since Ellery's got the case all worked out and the killer is no surprise to anyone who's watched TV murder mysteries in the last 25 years (the actor in question has said "I did it!" so often that it's a wonder he can walk the streets without being apprehended). Ellery Queen was a pet project of the TV writing team of Richard Levinson and William Link (of Columbo) fame. After the subsequent Queen TV series expired after a single season, Levinson and Link revived the notion of a murder-solving novelist and changed the gender of the protagonist--and the result was Murder She Wrote. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
Susan Dey inaugurated her long and successful campaign to shuck her Partridge Family image in the made-for-TV Cage Without a Key. Dey plays a teenager mistakenly convicted for murder (some mistake!) She is sentenced to a grim woman's penal institution straight out of a Linda Blair movie. As she struggles against the iniquities of prison life, her friends and relatives on the outside fight for justice. A shockingly substandard effort from accomplished TV director Buzz Kulik, Cage Without a Key is credible only in its exterior scenes, filmed at Las Palmas School for Girls in City of Commerce, California. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
- G
Peter Bogdanovich's attempt to direct a homage to the great musicals of the 1930s is now remembered as one of the embarrassments of the 1970s. The film's thin plot, standard for the genre, centers on the romantic entanglements and misunderstandings among six stock characters: the bored playboy (Burt Reynolds), his never-ruffled valet (John Hillerman), the debutante (Cybill Shepherd), the Broadway diva (Madeline Kahn), her gambler boyfriend (Duilio Del Prete), and her maid (Eileen Brennan). All six are likely to burst into song and dance at any time, and they often do (the performances were recorded live on the set, not pre-recorded), but sixteen Cole Porter tunes, lavish sets and costumes, and an expensive production cannot hide the fact that Reynolds and Shepherd, the two leads, are way out of their depth. A notorious failure, At Long Last Love left a permanent stain on Bogdanovich's career. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Cybill Shepherd, (more)
- 1975
As The Waltons begins its fourth season, Rev. Matthew Fordwick (John Ritter) and schoolteacher Rosemary Hunter (Mariclare Costello) are about to leave Walton's Mountain for their wedding and honeymoon. In their absence, John-Boy Walton (Richard Thomas) agrees to deliver the Sunday sermon, while his mother Olivia (Michael Learned) takes over Miss Hunter's classroom. The new responsibilities take quite a toll on both Waltons--especially John-Boy, who is convinced that he will never be able to come up with the right words to inspire the parishioners. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
When the strapped-for-cash Lamont (Demond Wilson) takes an outside job at a haberdashery, Fred thinks that the saga of "Sanford and Son Salvage" is at an end. To prevent this, Fred poses as an eccentric millionaire and heads to Lamont's place of business, intending to buy all the clothes and put the haberdashery out of business. Is it really necessary to note that the scheme backfires spectacularly? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson, (more)
- 1972
The well-known short-story writer Ring Lardner, Jr. wrote the screenplay for La Mortadella, an Italian/French production with mostly English dialogue. The story concerns the difficulties and reactions of Madelena (Sophia Loren), an Italian visitor to New York City. She has come to the country carrying a huge mortadella sausage which she intends as a gift for her fiancé. U.S. Customs has other ideas, however, and she is detained until she hits upon the idea of sharing the offending foodstuff with the customs officers. Finally allowed entry into the U.S., she grows disenchanted with her fiancé and other men she meets and is only with difficulty able to make her escape to a more agreeable location. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
