Sally Kellerman Movies

Luis Spain (Don Gordon), Genaro Planetta (Tony Mordente), and Henry Castle (Chris Warfield) are three seeming social misfits who are recruited into the ranks of the Invisibles, a subversive underground organization run by an alien race. The Invisibles, small creatures with hard shell-covered bodies and sharp claws, have the ability to invade and merge with any human being, taking over control of their minds and bodies; they have already done this with several high-ranking politicians and other prominent personalities, and are planning on doing it with more, with help from Spain, Planetta, and recruits like them. Spain turns out to be an agent of the GIA (Government Intelligence Agency), sent to infiltrate the ranks of the Invisibles' followers. Cut off from his agency by the murder of his partner (William O. Douglas, Jr.), he is sent on his first mission, the takeover of a top defense department advisor (Neil Hamilton), only to learn that the Invisibles have suspected him from the beginning, and that he is the target, their goal to get one of their own into the ranks of the GIA. Seriously injured and desperately seeking help, Spain turns to his fellow recruit Planetta, with whom he developed a tenuous bond during their indoctrination. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

In the eighth volume in a collection culled from the 1963-1965 science fiction anthology television series, a bizarre experiment causes a psychiatrist and his unbalanced patient to swap identities. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Newly engaged to an American girl named Sally Benner (Sally Kellerman), London policeman Tommy Bonn (Ron Randell) brings his sweetheart back home, only to find that he has been assigned to track down a strangler. The situation gets personal when, while taking a nocturnal stroll in the London fog, Sally disappears. The subsequent events not only involve Sally and Tommy, but also Tommy's partner, Stephen Leslie (Michael Pate), and a disturbed young man named Clarke (David Carradine) -- who apparently has a compulsion to confess to every crime that occurs. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The series' second pilot episode (following the then-unaired "The Cage") is an extraordinary science fiction-adventure for its time. The starship Enterprise, commanded by Capt. James Kirk (William Shatner), is about to probe outside of the galaxy when they encounter an old-style disaster buoy from a spaceship listed as missing for two centuries. Examining its memory banks, they find that the ship encountered an unknown form of energy at the galaxy's edge, which precipitated a frantic search for information in their computer about paranormal mental powers and the captain's ordering of the destruction of his own vessel. The Enterprise proceeds on course and hits the same energy barrier, escaping with its main drive disabled, nine crewmen dead, and First Officer Gary Mitchell (Gary Lockwood) mutating as a result of contact with the barrier. With the ship now years from any Federation base as a result of its disabled drive, the crew finds itself with a monster aboard. Mitchell quickly manifests extraordinary mental powers and an increasing contempt for the crew around him. Science Officer Spock (Leonard Nimoy) warns that Mitchell will soon be a threat to all of them, while psychiatrist Elizabeth Dehner (Sally Kellerman), who is in love with him (and, as later revealed, is also mutating from the energy blast), defends Mitchell as a potentially improved, evolved version of humanity. Kirk at first cannot face the choice that he knows he must make, of leaving his oldest friend marooned on an uninhabited planet that may also have the facilities to repair the main engines. Finally, Mitchell forces his decision when he turns on Kirk and the crew with mental powers they can't combat. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

The Movie Maker relates the last days of an old-fashioned Hollywood mogul. Mike Kirsch (Rod Steiger) built his studio from nothing in the 1920s; now, four decades later, he is on the way out, the victim of a corporate takeover. We follow Kirsch as he exercises his waning authority on a temperamental movie star (Sharon Farrell), browbeats his alcoholic wife (Anna Lee), rebellious daughter (Sally Kellerman) and longtime yes-man associate (James Dunn), and vainly attempts to push through an outdated pet movie project. Finally he is wrenched off his throne by a former assistant (Robert Culp), who is now in cahoots with the conglomerate buying the studio. Kirsch is left alone to weep in his projection room as one of his past hits plays upon the screen. The Movie Maker was originally a one-hour drama titled "A Slow Fade to Black," written by Rod Serling and telecast in 1963 on The Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre. To pad the running time to two hours, Universal filmed a series of badly written and acted flashback sequences set in the 1920s, with Michael Pataki delivering an overbaked Rod Steiger imitation as young Mike Kirsch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Boston Strangler adopts the split-screen technique then in vogue (see also The Thomas Crown Affair) to relate the true story of self-confessed mass murderer Albert DeSalvo. Adapted by Edward Anhalt from the book by Gerold Frank, the film covers the years 1962 to 1964, during which time a dozen women were raped and murdered in the Boston area. State-appointed officer John Bottomly (Henry Fonda) arrests as many known sex offenders as he can get his hands on in hopes of finding a clue as to the Boston Strangler's identity. As these things often happen, the police come across the necessary evidence through pure luck. Well-played by Tony Curtis (whose makeup is startling), DeSalvo himself does not appear until an hour into the film. When caught, the schizophrenic DeSalvo insists that he knows nothing of the murders. Under interrogation and hypnosis, his homicidal impulses are exposed. Meticulously cast, The Boston Strangler offers excellent vignettes by Sally Kellerman as the Strangler's only surviving victim and by Hurd Hatfield as an erudite sex pervert. When Boston Strangler was first shown on TV in 1974, a voice-over coda was added, noting that Albert DeSalvo was stabbed to death in prison on November 26, 1973, and that many experts were convinced that he was not the killer but that his confessions were the product of a delusional mind. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although he was not the first choice to direct it, the hit black comedy MASH established Robert Altman as one of the leading figures of Hollywood's 1970s generation of innovative and irreverent young filmmakers. Scripted by Hollywood veteran Ring Lardner, Jr., this war comedy details the exploits of military doctors and nurses at a Mobile Army Surgical Hospital in the Korean War. Between exceptionally gory hospital shifts and countless rounds of martinis, wisecracking surgeons Hawkeye Pierce (Donald Sutherland) and Trapper John McIntyre (Elliott Gould) make it their business to undercut the smug, moralistic pretensions of Bible-thumper Maj. Frank Burns (Robert Duvall) and Army true-believer Maj. "Hot Lips" Houlihan (Sally Kellerman). Abetted by such other hedonists as Duke Forrest (Tom Skerritt) and Painless Pole (John Schuck), as well as such (relative) innocents as Radar O'Reilly (Gary Burghoff), Hawkeye and Trapper John drive Burns and Houlihan crazy while engaging in such additional blasphemies as taking a medical trip to Japan to play golf, staging a mock Last Supper to cure Painless's momentary erectile dysfunction, and using any means necessary to win an inter-MASH football game. MASH creates a casual, chaotic atmosphere emphasizing the constant noise and activity of a surgical unit near battle lines; it marked the beginning of Altman's sustained formal experiments with widescreen photography, zoom lenses, and overlapping sound and dialogue, further enhancing the atmosphere with the improvisational ensemble acting for which Altman's films quickly became known. Although the on-screen war was not Vietnam, MASH's satiric target was obvious in 1970, and Vietnam War-weary and counter-culturally hip audiences responded to Altman's nose-thumbing attitude towards all kinds of authority and embraced the film's frankly tasteless yet evocative humor and its anti-war, anti-Establishment, anti-religion stance. MASH became the third most popular film of 1970 after Love Story and Airport, and it was nominated for five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Director. As further evidence of the changes in Hollywood's politics, blacklist survivor Lardner won the Oscar for his screenplay. MASH began Altman's systematic 1970s effort to revise classic Hollywood genres in light of contemporary American values, and it gave him the financial clout to make even more experimental and critical films like McCabe and Mrs. Miller (1971), California Split (1974), and Nashville (1975). It also inspired the long-running TV series starring Alan Alda as Hawkeye and Burghoff as Radar. With its formal and attitudinal impudence, and its great popularity, MASH was one more confirmation in 1970 that a Hollywood "New Wave" had arrived. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

When Bonanza debuted in 1959, its first episode was "A Rose for Lotta", guest-starring Yvonne DeCarlo as real-life musical peformer Lotta Crabtree. Written by Stanley Roberts, the series' March 1, 1970 episode "Return Engagement" found Sally Kellerman in the role of the fabulous Lotta. As indicated by the title, Ms. Crabtree has once again honored Virginia City with a visit, and both Joe and Hoss Cartwright are swept off their feet by the glamorous actress (Joe even begins entertaining notions of pursuing a stage career himself!) Things take a sinister turn when Lotta's leading man is killed and Hoss is accused of the crime. Joyce Bulifant, who later played Marie Slaughter on The Mary Tyler Moore Show, appears as Bonnie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a play by Neil Simon, this comedy concerns Barney Cashman (Alan Arkin), the owner of successful seafood restaurant who is stuck in the depths of a mid-life crisis. Barney's marriage is no longer providing him with a sense of romantic adventure, and when he discovers his mother's apartment is empty one day a week, he decides that a series of extra-marital affairs is just what he needs. However, Barney's career as a spoiler of women quickly proves to be laughably unsuccessful; he's able to lure three different women to his make-shift love nest -- Elaine (Sally Kellerman), Bobbi (Paula Prentiss), and Janette (Renee Taylor) -- but try as he might, he can't convince any of them to sleep with him, and in the end, Barney has to settle for seducing his wife. Last of the Red Hot Lovers was the fourth of five Neil Simon adaptations that director Gene Saks would bring to the screen; Saks also directed a number of Simon's successes on Broadway. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In Slither, James Caan plays Dick Kanipsia, a recently paroled car thief whose plans to go straight are interrupted when his best pal Harry Moss (Richard B. Schull) is shot and killed. As he lies dying, Moss advises Kanipsia to seek out fellow crook Barry Fenaka (Peter Boyle), who knows where a huge amount of money stolen by Moss is hidden. Aware that he himself is a marked man, Kanipsia has to play it cool en route to Fenaka. This proves difficult when his erstwhile travelling companion, dopehead Kitty Kopetzky Sally Kellerman, robs a roadside diner in his presence. Since nothing is ever quite what it appears to be in Slither, perhaps we shouldn't tell you any more. This truly serpentine tale served as the feature-film directorial debut of Howard Zieff, the former TV-commercial helmsman responsible for the famous Spicy Meatball ad. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Big Bus is set aboard a nonstop, nuclear-powered luxury bus commandeered by Joseph Bologna. Naturally, Bologna is a tortured hero with a deep dark secret (he keeps insisting he didn't eat all those passengers on his last disastrous drive). Stockard Channing and Harold Gould play the designers of the big bus, and of course they have a few skeletons in their closet. In fact, there isn't a passenger on the all-star manifest that isn't hiding something. The supporting cast features contributions by René Auberjonois (parodying his M*A*S*H role), Ned Beatty, José Ferrer, Ruth Gordon (doing a devastating send-up of Airport's Helen Hayes), Sally Kellerman, Richard Mulligan, and many others; Murphy Dunne contributes a memorable bit as a smarmy cocktail pianist. Unfortunately, The Big Bus was dumped onto the summer 1976 release schedule without fanfare by Paramount, and it sank without a trace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide