Anthony Holland Movies
Supporting actor, onscreen from the '60s; often played comedic big-city neurotics. ~ All Movie GuideA wealthy woman (Robin Givens) is stalked by her ex-boyfriend, who escaped from an asylum. He traps her in her penthouse. ~ All Movie Guide
Based on a real-life 1983 incident, The Accused tells the story of Sarah Tobias (Jodie Foster), a working-class party girl who likes to live it up with her friends and flirt hard with the guys. After a fight with her boyfriend, she heads to a local bar to cool down -- and after a few drinks, plus some dancing and flirting, she finds herself thrown on top of a pinball machine and gang-raped by a bunch of locals, while others watch and cheer the proceedings. District attorney Kathryn Murphy (Kelly McGillis) takes Sarah's case but quickly negotiates a plea bargain in which the attackers' charges are reduced to reckless endangerment. Her reason: defense attorneys could use Sarah's not-so-pretty past to paint her as "asking for it," getting their clients off completely. But a stunned Sarah accuses Murphy of selling her out, and when the lawyer sees how the incident continues to destroy Sarah's life, she decides she must seek true justice. This time, she goes after the crowd of onlookers for "criminal solicitation" -- those who were egging the rapists on. Foster won the Best Actress Oscar for her performance. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kelly McGillis, Jodie Foster, (more)

- 1987
- Add Christmas Comes to Willow Creek to QueueAdd Christmas Comes to Willow Creek to top of Queue
The Duke boys (John Schneider, Tom Wopat) return to play different characters: arguing brothers who are forced to take a shipment of toys to a remote Alaskan town. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Schneider, Tom Wopat, (more)
Local bullies find themselves the recipients of a Christmas miracle when they perform in the Christmas pageant. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
Marlo Thomas fully justifies her star status in the made-for-television Nobody's Child. Ms. Thomas portrays the real-life Marie Balter, a Massachusetts woman consigned to a mental hospital after a suicide attempt at age 16. For the next 20 years, Marie is and out of the institution, mostly under the care of a sensitive doctor (Caroline Cava) who treats her for panic disorder and depression. Finally able to curb her inner demons without the use of drugs and therapy, Marie leaves the hospital for good, hoping to pursue a normal life. She falls in love with another ex-mental patient (Ray Baker), and strives successfully to earn a college diploma (she later became a health administrator). Aside from Marlo Thomas' Emmy-winning performance, Nobody's Child boasts the stunning camerawork of longtime Ingmar Bergman associate Sven Nykvist. One scene, in which Marie Balter imagines she sees serpents emerging from a typewriter, is as frightening a piece of celluloid as has ever been presented on television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Christmas Star is a two-hour whimsy assault, originally telecast December 14, 1986 on The Disney Sunday Movie. Ed Asner plays an escaped convict who adopts a stolen Santa Claus suit as a disguise. Several impressionable youngsters, believing Asner to be the genuine Santa, latch onto him. He decides to use these moppets to help him find his ill-gotten loot, which his partner has hidden in department store Christmas decorations. The ending is as misty-eyed as it is predictable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The "wise guys" referred to in the title, Harry Valentini (Danny DeVito) and Moe Dickstein (Joe Piscopo), turn out to be not so wise after all in this crime-oriented comedy. Harry and Moe run the risk of certain death when they steal money from a Mafia don (Dan Hedaya) and then try to multiply their ill-gotten gains at the horse races. Naturally, they lose the bundle and the next thing they know they're running from hitmen and trying to come up with enough cash to pay back their debt. Wise Guys' blend of comedy and action represented something of a change of pace for director Brian DePalma, best known for his offbeat thrillers and Hitchcock homages. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Danny DeVito, Joe Piscopo, (more)
In this comedy, a would-be writer's dreams come true when his uncle hires him to be an assistant detective. Assigned to save a troubled woman, the bumbling writer ends up finding a cache of Nazi treasure and winning the heart of the girl. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dave Foley, Roberta Weiss, (more)
A trio of rich ex-cops begin to investigate a murder involving baseball and gangsters. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ted Wass, Markie Post, (more)
Aimed primarily at the television audience, this somewhat predictable prison drama centers on Danny Baker (Winston Rekert), a lifer put into solitary confinement. Though shut off from most of the outside world, Baker supplies needed information to Joan Tremblay (Andrée Pelletier) in her fight against the practice of isolating prisoners for long periods of time. After Danny is released from solitary, he is falsely accused of having drugs and is about to be sent back to the same confinement. Threatened, he and a few others take Tremblay hostage to protest the use of solitary as punishment -- a risk that does not bode well for anyone concerned. The stereotyped dialogue in this uneven film is set against some gruesome prison scenes, meant to underscore the inhumanity of prison conditions in general. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andree Pelletier, Winston Rekert, (more)
Jane Doe, played by Karen Valentine, is an amnesiac with no clue as to her true identity. She does know that she's recovering from a brutal attempted murder. She also knows that a psychopath--a serial killer known as the Roadside Strangler--is tracking her every move. But why? William Devane plays the detective on the case, David Huffman appears as Doe's husband, and Stephen E. Miller is sufficiently menacing as the Strangler. But don't be lulled into complacency: there's a surprise ending. Originally telecast March 12, 1983, Jane Doe was written by Cynthia Mandelberg and Walter Halsey Davis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karen Valentine, William Devane, (more)
This undistinguished drama goes no further than clichéd views about women who gain success by bedding down those who have it. Pia Zadora stars as Jerilee, just out of high school and married to a prominent Hollywood screenwriter, with her own heart-felt aspirations to get her screenplays noticed by the right producers. Her marriage fails for many reasons and once on her own, she comes to the difficult decision that she really will go nowhere fast unless she uses her sexual charms to pave the way to recognition -- and so she does, with a bit of revenge thrown in at the end for good measure. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pia Zadora, Lloyd Bochner, (more)
This comedy is set upon a remote Greek island and is very loosely based on Shakespeare's classic play. The tale centers on a middle-aged New York architect who abandons his wife and moves to the island with his teen-age daughter and his new lover, a Greek singer, in hopes of finding meaning in his life. The only resident of the island is an old hermit, and the father is finally happy until his wife, her lover, his son and others get in a shipwreck and end up marooned on the island with him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Cassavetes, Gena Rowlands, (more)
Francis Ford Coppola protégé Phillip Borsos directs this elegiac, low-key tale about real-life bandit Bill Miner that has become a classic of Canadian cinema. Having been released from jail in 1901 following a 33-year prison sentence for robbing stagecoaches, Bill Miner (Richard Farnsworth) finds himself living in a society that has completely changed from the one of his youth. He tries to put his life of crime behind him and settle down in Washington state with his sister, but the quiet life does not suit him. He feels restless but uncertain as to how to proceed next. The answer comes to him when he sees Edward S. Porter's The Great Train Robbery. Soon, Miner has slipped over the border into Canada and, along with his new partner, Shorty (Wayne Robson), robs the Canadian Pacific Railway Transcontinental Express. Later, while laying low after the crime in a remote corner of British Columbia, he meets the beautiful, strong-willed photographer Kate Flynn (Jackie Burroughs). In writing this script, Borsos reportedly made heavy use of contemporary court documents and testimonies. This film was screened at the 2001 Toronto Film Festival in honor of its 20th anniversary. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Farnsworth, Jackie Burroughs, (more)
Directed by George Schaefer, this light made-for-television drama is based upon the novel of the same name by Robert Oliphant. Starring Bette Davis as Esther Cimino, a 73-year-old widow, the film traces the events following Esther's son George's (George Hearn) decision that she is no longer capable of caring for herself in her ederly state. Despite her protests, Esther is ruled incompetent by the legal system, leading her to wage a court battle to regain not only her estate but her dignity as well. Also starring Penny Fuller and Christopher Guest, A Piano for Mrs. Cimino first aired on February 3, 1982 on CBS and was later nominated for an Emmy for Outstanding Film Editing. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
In this mild sequel to the 1977 appearance of George Burns as God, the Heavenly Father shows up again, this time to talk to Tracy (Louanne), a young girl whose earthly father (David Birney) is in the advertising business. God's intention is to promote himself among the children first. Tracy comes up with a way to further awareness of the Supreme Being with posters and graffiti that say "Think God." She and her classmates set out on this campaign, but Tracy ends up facing a phalanx of psychiatrists for talking to an invisible God. Being who He is, God decides to finally make an appearance for the benefit of everyone. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Burns, Suzanne Pleshette, (more)
"It's showtime!" In this part film à clef, part musical phantasmagoria, director/choreographer Bob Fosse takes a Felliniesque look at the life of a driven entertainer. Joe Gideon (Roy Scheider, channeling Fosse) is the ultimate work (and pleasure)-aholic, as he knocks back a daily dose of amphetamines to juggle a new Broadway production while editing his new movie, not to mention ex-wife Audrey (Leland Palmer), steady girlfriend Kate (Ann Reinking), a young daughter, and various conquests. Joe cannot, however, avoid intimations of mortality from white-clad vision Angelique (Jessica Lange) that lead him to look back at his life as he heads for a near-inevitable coronary and his departure from this mortal coil with the appropriate razzle-dazzle. Taking his cue from Federico Fellini's 8 1/2 (1963), Fosse moves from realistic dance numbers to extravagant flights of cinematic fancy, as Joe meditates on his life, his women, and his death. Following a similarly dark revisionist vein as Martin Scorsese's New York, New York (1977), Fosse shows the stiff price that entertaining exacts on entertainers (among other things, he intercuts graphic footage of open-heart surgery with a song and dance), mercilessly reversing the feel-good mood of classical movie musicals. Critics praised Fosse's daring even as they damned his self-indulgence, while Scheider was lauded for giving the best performance of his career. Though not a disastrous failure, All That Jazz came nowhere near the popularity of 1978's Grease, as late '70s audiences increasingly turned away from "difficult" movies. For all its excesses, Fosse's fiercely personal approach turned All That Jazz into another striking work from one of the few directors able to make, and experiment with, movie musicals after the 1960s. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Scheider, Jessica Lange, (more)
Not surprisingly, this fascinating dissection of Gypsy life in America was vilified by several ethnic special-interest groups, who'd previously delivered their mimeoed missives to novelist Peter Maas, on whose book the film was based. Sterling Hayden is the "king" of a New York-based gypsy tribe, who on his deathbed passes his crown to his reluctant grandson, Eric Roberts. Roberts' scuzzy father Judd Hirsch, envious that he's been passed over, begins plotting the demise of his own son. It appears at first that the boy, a thoroughly assimilated Manhattanite, would be more than willing to give up his invisible throne to Hirsch, but there's something about his heritage that always draws him back to his own people. Several genuine gypsies took part in the film as extras, bit players and technical advisers; reportedly, they also spent much of the shooting time trying to cadge a few dishonest dollars from cast and crew. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sterling Hayden, Shelley Winters, (more)
Recently widowed Dr. Nichols (Walter Matthau) finds himself ill at ease in re-entering the singles scene. Then he meets Ann Atkinson (Glenda Jackson), a patient recuperating from a jaw operation. Freshly divorced from a philandering spouse, Jackson is as reluctant to inaugurate a lasting commitment as Walter--but inaugurate they do, in a hilarious scene wherein Jackson and Walter try to emulate those romantic couples in 1930s movies who were forced by the censors to keep one foot on the floor while lying in bed. It is Jackson who encourages Matthau to stand up for his ideals during a lawsuit involving senile head physician Dr. Willoughby (Art Carney, who is unbearably funny at times). Richard Benjamin rounds off the cast of polished farceurs who add so much sparkle to House Calls. The film was later adapted into a TV sitcom starring Wayne Rogers in the Matthau role, Lynn Redgrave (and later Sharon Gless) in the Jackson counterpart, and David Wayne as a less aphasiatic version of the Carney character. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Walter Matthau, Glenda Jackson, (more)
In the wake of such Satanic-themed thrillers as Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist and The Omen comes The Sentinel. When New York fashion model (Cristina Raines) splits with her fiance (Chris Sarandon) and moves into an old brownstone, she soon discovers she has more than she bargained for in the lease. As luck would have it, a mysterious blind priest (John Carradine) who lives upstairs happens to be guarding the doorway to Hell, and she has been chosen as his replacement. Incidentally, when the door is finally opened, out spills an assortment of deformed humans whom director Michael Winner hand-picked from hospital wards and circus sideshows. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Sarandon, Cristina Raines, (more)
Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna cowrote as well as starred in this 1976 TV remake of the 1941 Tracy-Hepburn vehicle Woman of the Year. Except for a handful of updated details, the storyline is substantially the same in both versions: A down-to-earth male sportswriter (Bologna, in the Spencer Tracy part) marries a high-profile female international news commentator (Taylor, in the Katharine Hepburn part). In fine "golden age" tradition, the stars are complemented with an excellent supporting cast, including Richard Bakalyan as a punch-drunk bartender, Leon Belasco as a refugee Russian musician and John Fiedler as a justice of the peace. Only Anthony Holland's swishy male secretary strikes a discordant note. The remake's "reconciliation" finale wisely avoids the ponderous, sexist slapstick setpiece at the end of the original film, wherein Katharine Hepburn nearly destroys her kitchen by cooking her first breakfast. A surefire audience pleaser, Woman of the Year was curiously premiered in July of 1976, a time when most potential viewers were out of the house. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
During the Prohibition era, Walker (Burt Reynolds) and Kibby (Gene Hackman) run a liquor smuggling operation in Mexico; they team up with Claire (Liza Minnelli), a cabaret entertainer who has an "in" with several big-time nightclub owners. Complications ensue when both men fall in love with Claire, and she can't make up her mind between them. Escaping both the law and a murderous gang of rival crooks, the threesome set sail on a small boat called the "Lucky Lady." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Hackman, Liza Minnelli, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, (more)
This drama contains a strongly anti-military message as it presents the supposed abuses that go on inside US military stockades. The story is set in the fictitious Fort Nix (based on Fort Dix, New Jersey where many of the accounts the film is based on came from), and contains scenes of graphic violence as it tells the prisoners' tales. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

























