Hal Holbrook Movies
American actor Hal Holbrook broke into performing as a monologist at various esoteric nightspots in San Francisco and Greenwich Village. Holbrook worked on stage in the early 1950s and appeared on the CBS TV soap opera The Brighter Day. He might have spent the rest of his career as a talented but unremarkable performer had Holbrook not decided to bank upon his lifelong fascination with humorist Mark Twain. Donning elaborate Twain makeup and costume and memorizing several hours' worth of the writer's material, Holbrook put together a one man show, Mark Twain Tonight. After touring in small towns, Holbrook brought Mark Twain to an off-Broadway theater, scoring an immediate hit which led to some 2000 subsequent appearances as Twain (one of these in a 1967 CBS one-hour special) and a top-selling record album. The fame attending Mark Twain Tonight enabled Holbrook to flourish as a starring actor in numerous non-Twain projects. Among Holbrook's films are The Group (1966), Wild in the Streets (1968), Magnum Force (1973), The Star Chamber (1987), Wall Street (1987) and The Firm (1993); in 1976 the actor portrayed the shadowy amalgam character "Deep Throat" in All the President's Men. Holbrook has also stayed busy in TV, starring on the weekly series The Senator (1970) and appearing several times as Abraham Lincoln in various network specials.A multi-Emmy winner, Hal Holbrook spent much of the late 1980s and early 1990s appearing as a regular cast member on the CBS sitcoms Designing Women (from 1986 to 1989, alongside real-life wife Dixie Carter) and Evening Shade (1990-94) in the role of Burt Reynolds' father, Evan Evans. Holbrook's big-screen activity also crescendoed during the 1990s and early 2000s; among many other assignments, he resumed his frequent typecast as a shady businessman with a deceptively paternal exterior in Sydney Pollack's blockbuster Grisham thriller The Firm (1993), provided an animated voice for the children's fantasy Cats Don't Dance (1997), and nastily evoked the prejudices of a bigoted commanding naval officer named Mr. Pappy in the military drama Men of Honor (2000). Holbrook also drew on his vast knowledge of Mark Twain as one of the participants in the epic-length documentary Ken Burns' Mark Twain (2001). The distinguished thespian received a Best Supporting Actor Oscar nomination for his work in Sean Penn's critically-acclaimed drama Into the Wild (2007). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
In this comedy, an accountant aids a group of children to help save the local zoo from being razed by those wanting to build a museum in its place. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1970
Parents worry about their daughter when she freaks out on drugs and is hospitalized. Arthur (Eli Wallach) and Gerri (Julie Harris) face the reality when Maxie (Deborah Winters) must remain at the facility or return home. Della (Rue McClanahan) is Arthur's straight shooting secretary and mistress who offers an objective opinion of the situation. Dr. Salazar (Nehemiah Persoff) is the concerned physician treating Maxie. David (Hal Holbrook) and Tina (Cloris Leachman) are the neighbors whose son Sandy (Don Scardino) turns out to be a juvenile drug dealer. The story was taken from an award winning 1968 television special but fails to live up to the promise of the initial production. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eli Wallach, Deborah Winters, (more)
- 1970
The Bold Ones was the umbrella title given a group of rotating hour-long TV series, which ran from 1969 to 1973. Joining established Bold Ones components The Doctors and The Lawyers in 1970 was The Senator, starring Hal Holbrook as RFK-like Senator Hays Stowe. The pilot for The Senator was A Clear and Present Danger, which first aired March 21, 1970. In this 2-hour "problem drama", Senator Stowe tackles the issue of air pollution after a close friend dies of emphysema. The Emmy-nominated Hal Holbrook, Sharon Acker (as Erin Stowe) and Cindy Eilbacher (as Norma Stowe) carried their roles over to the "Senator" series proper, while Michael Tolan was cast as Stowe's aide Jordan Boyle, the role played in A Clear and Present Danger by Joseph Campanella. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
Hal Holbrook guest stars as Christopher Seims, a prolific art forger who specializes in copies of famous oil paintings. The FBI becomes interested in Seims' activities when he gets enmeshed in a Mafia scheme to flood the market with expensive counterfeits. Meanwhile, Seims finds his future (and his life!) on the line when he becomes attracted to Susan Craig (Nan Martin), a wealthy but rather gullible art connoisseur. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
The Whole World Is Watching is a TV movie starring Burl Ives, Joseph Campanella and James Farentino as a high-profile law partnership. They take on the case of student activist Rick Ely, who is accused of killing a campus cop during a riot. Basking in the publicity for his cause, Ely refuses to take the stand in his own defense. This leaves the lawyers but one alternative: to locate the only eyewitness, another radical with reasons of his own for keeping silent. Taking hold of a hot issue and provocative title, The Whole World Is Watching cops out by trying too hard to be fair to everyone. This film and the subsequent Sound of Anger were both pilot films for The Lawyers one-third of the rotating NBC weekly series The Bold Ones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1968
A rock star decides he'd rather rule the free world than just sell records in this ambitious fusion of political satire and teen exploitation. Teenage rebel Max Flatow (Christopher Jones) has grown tired of life in suburbia with his domineering mother (Shelley Winters) and weak-willed father (Bert Freed), and, having saved up 800 dollars he earned by selling home-brewed LSD to his schoolmates, he blows up the family car with a makeshift bomb and strikes out on his own. A few years later, Max has adopted the name Max Frost, and is one of the world's biggest rock stars, selling millions of records and earning a fortune from concert appearances and music publishing. Max has learned firsthand about the buying power of America's youth, and when Sen. John Fergis (Hal Holbrook) asks Max to appear at a "youth rally" to mobilize younger voters, he realizes the kids could also sway an election if they wanted. At Fergis' rally, Max debuts a new song, "Fourteen or Fight," which demands the voting age be reduced to 14; the youth respond by rising up in support of Max's demands, reducing many American cities to a standstill. As political leaders bow to public pressure, the age of suffrage is reduced to 15, but rather than choosing candidates to support, Max decides it's time he and his inner circle took control. After Max doses Washington, D.C.'s water supply with LSD, congress votes to make any registered voter eligible to hold federal office, and before long Max Frost has become president of the United States. Once in office, Max unveils a bold plan to once and for all do something about people over 30 -- including his parents. Wild in the Streets features an early screen appearance from Richard Pryor as drummer and political activist Stanley X, while media personalities Dick Clark, Walter Winchell, Army Archerd, and Melvin Belli portray themselves. Barry Mann and Cynthia Weil wrote the songs for fictional rockers "Max Frost and the Troopers," including the hit single "The Shape of Things to Come." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Winters, Christopher Jones, (more)
Recorded in March 1967, this performance captures Hal Holbrook's amazing portrayal of one of America's greatest author's, Mark Twain. Holbrook, who memorized more than 14 hours of Twain's material, becomes the legendary character for 90 minutes with only a white suit, white hair and mustache, a lectern, and that signature cigar. One of the best television performances ever captured on film, this one-man show has lasted for over 40 years. ~ Heather M. Fierst, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hal Holbrook
- 1966
Based on the novel by Mary McCarthy, The Group was one of the slickest, and most highly publicized, cinematic soap operas of the 1960s. Filmed largely in New York, the story charts the exploits of eight young women, all of whom graduate from an exclusive Vassar-ish college in the middle of the Depression. Among the talented young actresses making their screen debuts herein are Candice Bergen as Lakey, the group's resident Lesbian; Joan Hackett as Dottie, a repressed socialite who takes up with bohemian artist Dick Brown (Richard Mulligan); Joanna Pettet as Kay, who marries philandering playwright Harald Peterson (Larry Hagman); and Kathleen Widdoes as Helena, the wealthiest of the girls who insists upon proving her value in the workplace. The other girls are Pokey (Marin-Robin Redd), who seems happiest when pregnant; Jessica Walter as Libby, the group's viper-tongued gossip and the darling of the Manhattan literary set (some have suggested that McCarthy based this character on herself); Elizabeth Hartman as Priss, the requisite heart-on-sleeve liberal; and Shirley Knight as Polly, whose bumpy love life culminates in a very colorful engagement party. Hal Holbrook, likewise making his first screen appearance, plays Gus LeRoy. Sumptuously produced, The Group is a bit empty dramatically, though the sheer volume of continuing characters manages to sustain audience interest. (Incidentally, here's a note for "blooper" spotters: wasn't the Pan Am building constructed in the 1950s? ) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Candice Bergen, Joan Hackett, (more)
- Add North and South: The Complete Collection to QueueAdd North and South: The Complete Collection to top of Queue
The epic 1985 miniseries North and South, set during the American Civil War, arrives on DVD with this five-disc set that presents the program in its original broadcast aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The English soundtrack is rendered in Dolby Digital Mono. English, Spanish, and French subtitles are accessible. Supplemental materials include a making-of documentary that allows the cast and crew to look back on the making of the show almost 20 years after it was created. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hal Holbrook
