Madeline Kahn Movies

An American Tail is a beautifully rendered animated flim that tells an overly familiar story in terms children can easily understand. Fievel Mousekewitz and his family of Russian-Jewish mice escape from their homeland in the late 1800s, boarding a boat headed toward America to evade the Czarist rule of the Russian cats. Fievel, however, is separated from his family upon his arrival in New York City, and he discovers to his horror that there are cats in America too (his father said there weren't). Fievel meets his share of friendly and hostile mice, and he eventually befriends a cat as well. Former Disney animator Don Bluth co-produced and directed this often heartwarming yarn, the first animated feature presented by Steven Spielberg, and it has its charms despite a number of cliché situations. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide

Offbeat fashion student Betsy Hopper (Molly Ringwald) and her straight-laced investment-banker fiancé, Jake Lovell(Dylan Walsh), just want an intimate little wedding reception, but Betsy's father, Eddie (Alan Alda), a Long Island construction contractor, feels so threatened by Jake's rich WASP parents (Nicolas Coster and Bibi Besch) that he blows the ceremony up into a bank-breaking showpiece, sending his wife, Lola (Madeline Kahn), into a financial panic. Pressure from Betsy's extended family to include their joint Jewish and Italian-Catholic heritage in the ceremony doesn't do much to assuage the title character's worries, nor does the lovelorn bitterness of her older sister, Connie (Ally Sheedy), who's single, her parents assume, because she has the audacity to pursue the unfeminine profession of police officer. With all of his funds tied up into the money pit of a house he's building, Betsy's dad has to turn to his crooked brother-in-law, Oscar (Joe Pesci), for financial assistance, and soon a soft-spoken but menacing young mobster named Stevie Dee (Anthony LaPaglia) is supervising Eddie's construction project and casting his romantic aspirations toward the clueless Connie. Underworld hijinks and unconventional matrimonial practices ensue in this broad domestic comedy written and directed by star Alan Alda. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

This standard, tongue-in-cheek, gangsters and good guys saga is carried on the star power and screen presence of Clint Eastwood as Lt. Speer, a taciturn, tough, play-it-by-the-book cop, and on Burt Reynolds as Mike Murphy, Speer's old friend in the force, now turned private eye but still a captivating rogue at heart. With a sub-text of playing their well-known screen personas off each other, Eastwood and Reynolds provide more than a surface interpretation of the characters that made them famous. After Murphy's partner is murdered, he focuses on pitting one mob boss against another in an attempt to have both mobsters kill each other. In the meantime, Lt. Speer -- who has never approved of Murphy's private detective business -- does not really know if Murphy is for or against the two top gangsters. Set in the era of speakeasies and Prohibition, an added layer of "film noir" can be discerned under the complex plot, verbal repartée, and episodes of toned-down violence (a kind of parody in themselves). Although this may not be the best film either star has made, it is still interesting to see them together on screen. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

To catalog the visual and verbal gags in The Dove would be to ruin this delightful short-subject spoof for the uninitiated viewer. Suffice to say that this "winner of the Golden Escargot Award" (and Oscar nominee) is a dead-on satire of Ingmar Bergman movies in general and Wild Strawberries and The Seventh Seal in particular. An aging professor named Viktor Sundqvist muses on his past while making a crucial stop at a roadside outhouse (the first of several gags involving waste products). He remembers that particular summer in his youth when he and his beloved Inga were forced into a confrontation -- and a badminton game -- with Mr. Death. The film's dialogue is spoken in hilarious faux Swedish, with English-language subtitles "translating" the Scandinavian double-talk. (One character offers another a cigar, asking "Phalliken sym-bol?") Madeline Kahn makes a brief appearance as a woman in love with a cow. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sleep rituals have been a part of families for thousands of years. But for the past four decades, children have been demanding to have Dr. Seuss' The Sleep Book read to them every night. Random House has brought the book to video, thereby breathing life into Snorter McPhail and his Snore-a-Snort Band as well as Jo and Mo Redd-Zoff, the world champion sleep-talkers. Young snoozers will enjoy seeing all ninety-nine zillion nine trillion and three creatures fall asleep. Recommended for ages three to six. ~ Heather M. Fierst, All Movie Guide

This made-for-television drama is based on a novel by Ivana Trump and centers on a Czechoslovakian immigrant's rise to the highest levels of the American aristocracy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this children's movies, a young brother and sister escape from the boredom of their suburban neighborhood and high-tail it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. There they wind up hiding within the maze of hallways until the girl finds a beautiful white statue. She is captivated by it and becomes obsessed with trying to discover if it is really a Michaelangelo. This leads her and her brother to the mansion of a 70-year old recluse with whom the girl becomes friends. They begin sharing their secrets and talking about art. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This routine drama-comedy about the trials of walking out of the closet has some notable performances such as that of Madeleine Kahn as a salty, warm-hearted, and terribly promiscuous neighbor, and Robert Viharo as an outgoing father. Francis Geminiani (Alan Rosenberg) has a romance going with Judith (Sarah Holcomb) until he drops her after a few nights of intimacy. Besieged by guilt and misgivings, Francis is eventually forced to admit that he is really in love with her brother Randy (David Marshall Grant), who does not really live up (or down) to his name. Randy is a wealthy, conservative Harvard student and Francis is a poor and liberal Harvard student. The story is based on the play Gemini by Albert Innaurato. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Mel Brooks produced, directed, wrote, and starred in this episodic comedy in the spirit of Monty Python and the 1957 studio travesty The Story of Mankind. The film is divided into five sequences that play like blue-toned Eddie Cantor vaudeville sketches -- "The Dawn of Man," "The Stone Age," The Spanish Inquisition," "The Bible," and "The Future." Also included is a Brooksian depiction of The Last Supper and a long-winded sequence about the French Revolution. The film starts with a 2001: A Space Odyssey parody, narrated by Orson Welles, in which a collection of ape-men learn to stand erect (in more ways than one). The Stone Age reveals the origins of both the first homo sapien and homosexual marriages. Brooks then appears in an Old Testament sequence as Moses, descending from Mount Sinai with three heavy stone tablets bearing the 15 Commandments; after he drops one of these tablets, the laws of God become 10 Commandments. The Roman period picks up with Brooks as Comicus, attempting to get a gig as a "stand-up philosopher" at Caesar's Palace. The Spanish Inquisition is a musical production number with monks torturing Jews to lively Broadway musical strains. The final French revolution section is a broad parody of The Man in the Iron Mask story. The film closes with coming attractions of "History of the World, Part II" that features a rousing Star Wars parody (anticipating Space Balls) called "Jews in Space" that includes a jaunty theme song. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Crafted in the mold of his classic play-cum-films Plaza Suite and California Suite, the legendary Neil Simon authors London Suite, a made-for-television movie that took its first bows in September 1996. As in the prior films, Simon presents a series of couplets that unfold in and around a single hotel, this one in the city of Big Ben and Westminster. Of the four sketches, the first stars Julie Hagerty (Lost in America) and Michael Richards (Seinfeld) as husband-and-wife Mark and Anne Ferris, who journey to Wimbledon for the matches, only to suffer gravely when they lose their tickets and Mark injures his back; matters go from difficult to unbearable when Mark takes a trip through comic hell at the hands of a sadistic chiropractor. Episode two features Seinfeld's Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Weekend at Bernie's star Jonathan Silverman as Debra and Paul Dolby, honeymooners who lose track of their suitcases and then each other. In episode three, Frasier's Kelsey Grammer and Far From Heaven's Patricia Clarkson portray divorcees Sidney and Diana Nichols, who meet up in London town, where Diana hopes to promote her new television program and Sidney schemes to wheedle money out of his ex, to pass it along to his gay lover, Max. In the final segment, the late Madeline Kahn (Blazing Saddles) plays Sharon Semple, an American on a London shopping spree with her daughter, who meets and falls in love with Dennis Cummings, "The Snorting Scotsman," (Empty Nest's Richard Mulligan), only to contend with his penchant for Ferraris and his obnoxious laugh. London Suite is helmed by Jay Sandrich, veteran director of The Mary Tyler Moore Show, The Bob Newhart Show, and Laverne and Shirley. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

This episode of Lucky Luke, the comedy-western television series, follows Luke (Terrence Hill) as he escorts a group of brides to their new miner husbands. Unbeknownst to him, one of the brides is Jenny, his old outlaw rival who may not be the blushing bride her husband expects. Luke suspects she's plotting a way back into a life of crime, and it's up to him and his talking horse, Jolly Jumper, to save the day. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

A holiday comedy with dark overtones, Mixed Nuts presents a supposedly humorous look at the behind-the-scenes events at a crisis hotline on Christmas Eve. Philip (Steve Martin) runs Lifesavers, a Venice, California organization dedicated to helping the depressed and troubled. Unfortunately, Philip is a bit down himself, having learned that Lifesavers is on the verge of eviction. His staff isn't feeling particularly helpful either, with Mrs. Munchnik (Madeline Kahn) giving gruff, often insulting advice, and Catherine (Rita Wilson) obsessing over her own unspoken love for Philip. As the holiday approaches, various weirdoes of all shapes and sizes -- from to a pregnant clothing store owner (Juliette Lewis) to a disenchanted Santa Claus (Anthony LaPaglia) -- begin dropping in, throwing the already strained office into utter chaos. Director Nora Ephron followed her smash success Sleepless in Seattle with this remake of the cult 1982 French comedy Le Père Noël est une Ordure, co-authoring the script with her sister Delia Ephron. However, Mixed Nuts met with little box office or critical approval, with most viewers finding the film's manic farce disappointingly forced and abrasive. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide