Wendy Hughes Movies

As the brainchild of writer-director-producer Donald Wrye, the 14 1/2 hour ABC movie event Amerika marked one of the most expensive and controversial miniseries in the history of prime time television when it bowed over the course of seven nights in February of 1987. Regarded as something of a conservative counterpoint to Nicholas Meyer's The Day After (which screened on ABC, four years prior and allegedly demonstrated leftwing bias - prompting very outspoken criticisms from Republican pundit Ben Stein), this $40 million production imagines a dystopian future set in the late 1990s. When the drama opens in May of 1997, the Russians have effectively won the Cold War by wresting control over the United States, with the backing of a U.N. Peacekeeping Force. Although the initial takeover was not annihilative or even apparently violent, the consequences are overwhelming; a puppet leader holds court in the Oval Office, the American economy has fallen to pieces with Midwesterners lining up for vegetables, and gulag prisons are scattered across the land; meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of refugees have hit the countryside and wander aimlessly. The majority of the action unfurls in a rural Nebraska community, where onetime antiwar protester and presidential candidate Devin Milford (Kris Kristofferson) has just been released from a gulag, and now discovers his family farm being whittled away by the Russians. Meanwhile, his childhood friend Peter Bradford has somehow landed a position in the government hierarchy and finds himself being drawn in more deeply. Across the land, Russian stormtroopers engage in acts of violent intimidation, such as burning farmhouses and brainwashing abductees, while the Russian occupiers systematically maneuver on the political front to bring the once-powerful republic tumbling down. The supporting cast includes Christine Lahti, Wendy Hughes, Sam Neill, Armin Mueller-Stahl and many others; the title, of course, was intended to reflect "America" as modified to a slightly more Russian spelling. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A small desert town in western Australia is the scene of several love affairs in this romantic drama. Forty-year-old Stella (Wendy Hughes) works at her father's hotel and bar. She receives annual New Year's marriage proposals from rodeo rider Andy Ford (John Hargreaves), who talks himself into asking her one more time. Stella's father Billy (Norman Kaye) is a former cricket star whose career ended early when he was involved in a sex scandal. She spends the night with vacationing Arthur (Michael Siberry) when his car breaks down. Andy elects not to pop the question to Stella in lieu of her one-night stand with the stranger. When Billy elects to marry June Thompson (Julie Nihill), the local gossipmongers have a field day recalling the woman's promiscuous past. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Donor is a variation on a familiar theme, played to the hilt by a topnotch cast. Doctor Melissa Gilbert-Brinkman is shocked when her close friend is strangled by an elderly patient. Before she has a chance to investigate, the killer himself dies in a mysterious accident. Probing further, Melissa deduces that the hospital administators are hiding something from her. She's right: there's a conspiracy in the making, and it's all traceable to a new organ-donor program. Pernell Roberts and Jack Scalia costar in Donor, which made its broadcast premiere December 9, 1990. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Maria McEvoy (Wendy Hughes) deals with the death of her beloved father and discovers her attorney husband George (Steven Jacobs) is a philandering louse in this romantic drama. At the suggestion of a friend, Maria takes a vacation in Thailand, where she falls for Raka (John Lone), an exiled dancer from Bali. She also wonders about the sexual ambiguity of fellow Australian Terry (Rod Mullinar), the expatriate who runs the vacation resort. The film gives Hughes ample opportunity to show the full range of human emotions in her role of the grieving daughter and wronged wife. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Happy New Year is an Americanized remake of the 1974 French film of the same name. Peter Falk and Charles Durning play Nick and Charlie, a pair of seedy but suave jewel thieves. Preparing to rob the exclusive Florida jewelry store managed by Tom Courtenay, Nick and Charlie meticulously pre-plan their heist, adopting a variety of false identities and silly costumes along the way. Unfortunately for our heroes, Nick becomes enamored of Caroline (Wendy Hughes, in her American film debut), the beautiful owner of the antique shop next door to the jewelry store. Nick's fascination with Caroline effectively scuttles his and Charlies' "perfect" crime. Claude Lelouch, writer/director of the original Happy New Year, appears in an amusing cameo role. Bedeviled with production problems, the Falk-Durning Happy New Year didn't see the light of day until nearly a year after its completion; after a fitful theatrical release, the film went straight to video, where it finally built up a following. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Still frustrated by the unsolved Watson murder, Bayliss (Kyle Secor) and Pembleton (Andre Braugher) are in no mood to tackle the murder of a police dog -- but they must, since the Baltimore municipal code dictates that any police killing in the line of duty must be given first priority. Meanwhile, Howard (Melissa Leo) and Felton (Daniel Baldwin) go after a sadistic drug dealer who has ritualistically murdered his victim -- and in so doing, they find a link to a case being handled by Lewis (Clark Johnson). And on the domestic scene, Bolander (Ned Beatty) meets the teenage son (Stiv Paskoski) of his current amour Dr. Carol Blythe (Wendy Hughes); and Crosetti's (Jon Polito) wife is pregnant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Bayliss (Kyle Secor) and Pembleton (Andre Braugher) continue their investigation of the murder of 11-year-old Adena Watson. Bolander (Ned Beatty) and Munch (Richard Belzer) are confronted with a murder victim who is not entirely dead. And despite the skepticism of her partner Felton (Daniel Baldwin), Howard (Melissa Leo) insists that the solution to another murder case rests in the "testimony" of the victim's ghost. This episode includes the first of Homicide's celebrated "red ball" cases -- those so important politically that they effectively supersede the rest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Beginning its first (short) season just after ABC's telecast of the 1993 Super Bowl, Homicide: Life on the Street gets under way as rookie detective Tim Bayliss (Kyle Secor) joins the Baltimore, MD, police department's homicide division. Almost immediately, Bayliss is teamed with veteran cop Frank Pembleton (Andre Braugher) to investigate the murder of 11-year-old Adena Watson -- a frustrating case that will haunt Bayliss for the rest of his career. In other story arcs, the normally indolent Steve Crossetti (Jon Polito) is galvanized into action when his former partner, Officer Chris Thormann (Lee Tergesen), is blinded in a shoot-out; ambitious female detective Kay Howard (Melissa Leo) finds herself attracted to States' Attorney Danvers (Zeljko Ivanek); and resident "old timer" Det. Stanley Bolander (Ned Beatty) (aka "The Big Man") falls in love with forensics specialist Dr. Carol Blythe (Wendy Hughes). The inaugural season's nine-episode run ends as one of the detective's wives announces her pregnancy. Two Emmys were bestowed upon Homicide: Life on the Street during season one; producer/director Barry Levinson won for his helming of the opening episode, while producer/writer Tom Fontana was honored for his script work on the episode "Three Men and Adena." ~ All Movie Guide

Crossetti (Jon Polito) insists upon handling the case of his ex-partner Thormann (Edie Falco), who was shot in the head on assignment. Bayliss (Kyle Secor) is becoming increasingly frustrated by the dead ends in the Watson killing, the most recent being a raid on the dead girl's house. Felton (Daniel Baldwin) may have found the evidence necessary for Lewis (Clark Johnson) to tighten the noose around "black widow" Calpurnia Church (Mary Jefferson). And a dispute over a bust of Maryland's own Spiro Agnew leads to tragedy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This comedy follows the exploits of Tony Petersen (Jack Thompson), a mature married man with two children who decides to go back to school for an undergraduate degree. Tony has one problem, which he probably feels is only a minor complication: he is like catnip for women. Luckily for him, he likes them back. Luckier still, his wife understands this. When things on the campus get dicey for a young woman, the incredible social skills of Petersen enable him to save the day. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Effusive piano tuner Norman Kaye is on the less sunny side of forty and still unattached. Shy and self-effacing office worker Wendy Hughes is likewise getting on in years sans a lifetime companion. From the outset, we know that Kaye and Hughes will somehow come together. This, however, is the only predictable aspect of this quirky Australian comedy. Director Paul Cox co-wrote the ever-fresh screenplay of Lonely Hearts with John Clarke. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This caustic Australian comedy is meant to burn those commercial interests who sponsor artists for tax breaks. It also a sexually unresponsive wife's revenge against her cheating husband. Heiress Georgina Oliphant, the daughter of pharmaceutical magnate George Oliphant is on a mission to find a sculptor suitable of her father's sponsorship. Normally, George doesn't give a hoot about art, but tax time approaches and he needs a big deduction. Since large bronze statues are 100% deductible, that's what he wants. Georgina comes through with the lesbian sculptor Lily Carmichael who suggests a detailed male nude, sans fig leaf. For her model, lily chooses unemployed hunk Karl-Heinz Applebaum who at first doesn't realize he is to model totally nude. Fortunately, coquettish Georgina is around to convince him to shed those clothes. He soon begins looking forward to the sessions much to the dismay of his frowsy, sexually frosty wife Cecilia, a devout member of the "Center for Synchronic Awareness," an esoteric religious cult which is headed by the oily, avaricious Baba Charles whose picture Cecilia has placed throughout her home (Aussie film buffs may recognize the photo as that of director Rolf de Heer, a rival of this film's director Paul Cox). Soon enough, her husband and Georgina become lovers causing Cecilia to hatch an elaborate plot for revenge, a plot in which the financially beleaguered George Oliphant unwittingly assists by having her pose with her husband for an even larger, more tax deductible sculpture. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide