Madeline Kahn Movies

Judy Berlin allows the audience to take a glimpse of a day at once strange and ordinary with the residents of Babylon, Long Island. Judy (Edie Falco) is an aspiring actress who is quitting her job as a "pilgrim" in a local historical museum's display to take her chances in Los Angeles. Her mother is a gifted but bitter schoolteacher (Barbara Barrie) who has long loved principal Arthur Gold (Bob Dishy) from afar. However, Arthur has a wife, Alice (Madeline Kahn), who's more than a bit eccentric and has driven him to distraction. Arthur and Alice have a son, David (Aaron Harnick), who like Judy has showbiz aspirations (he wants to be a filmmaker), though unlike Judy he has no idea of what to do about it; when Judy and David meet, could romance be lurking around the corner? First-time director Eric Mendelsohn has equipped this offbeat comic drama an outstanding cast, which also includes Julie Kavner, Anne Meara, and Novella Nelson. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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, Rovi

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, Rovi

An Emmy Award winning production, this movie depicts the plight of a single parent and her children, who are desperately seeking a Mr. Right for their divorced mother. ~ Tana Hobart, Rovi

Thirteen-year-old Ben Affleck heads the cast of this semi-comic ABC Afterschool Special. Affleck plays Danny Coleman, the teenaged son of New York divorcée Ellie Coleman (Madeline Kahn). Sensing his mother's loneliness, Danny conspires with his girlfriend, Melanie (Pam Potillo), to secretly advertise for a "perfect guy" (and, hopefully, future stepfather) in the newspaper. Though Danny imagines that it is he who will conduct the screening process, it is Ellie who must ultimately make the final choice -- and the results are surprising. ~ Rovi

Switching roles is an entertaining concept that has been explored in movies. In Reading Rainbow: Bea and Mr. Jones, a five-year-old girl takes on her father's persona and goes to work, while her dad attends kindergarten. Host LeVar Burton checks out the costume collection of the program and plays dress-up, pretending to be different characters. The series encourages young children to enter the world of books and reading, featuring one picture book per episode. Their entertaining approach to learning has won many awards. ~ Alice Day, Rovi

This 1977 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Madeline Kahn and features musical guest Taj Mahal. ~ Skyler Miller, Rovi

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, Rovi

Oliver Stone, the most outspokenly political American filmmaker of the 1980s and '90s, directs this epic-length biography of Richard Nixon, the 37th President of the U.S., who was re-elected by a landslide in 1972, only to resign in disgrace two years later. Taking a non-linear approach, Nixon jumps back and forth between many different periods and events, from Nixon's strict upbringing at the hands of his Quaker mother, through the many peaks and valleys of his political career, to his downfall in the wake of the Watergate scandal. The facts of his life are blended with supposition and speculation to create a portrait that is often critical of the man's policies but displays an unexpected compassion toward his failings as a human being. Anthony Hopkins stars as Nixon, Joan Allen plays his long-suffering wife Pat, Mary Steenburgen portrays his mother Hannah, Bob Hoskins is cast as J. Edgar Hoover, Powers Boothe plays Alexander Haig, Paul Sorvino portrays Henry Kisinger, and Ed Harris plays E. Howard Hunt. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

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, Rovi

Gilda Radner, Bob Newhart, and Madeline Kahn star in this comedy. The farce sends up an idiotic First Family in the persona of a bumbling president (Newhart), his semi-alcoholic wife (Kahn), and his oversexed daughter (Radner). Satirizing the artificial, formal speech of real-life First Families in television interviews, director Buck Henry carries this mode of speech into their private lives as well. The trio travel to an African country where the First Daughter is kidnapped and white Americans are traded as slaves in exchange for some special animal dung that is able to accelerate plant growth. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

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, Rovi