Sally Kellerman Movies
Bitten by the acting bug in high school, statuesque leading lady Sally Kellerman studied with Jeff Corey and at Actors Studio West before making her film debut in Reform School Girl (1959). In the 1960s, she built up her reputation with offbeat guest spots on such TV series as Bob Hope Chrysler Theatre, Slattery's People and It Takes a Thief. She also essayed small but attention-grabbing parts in films like The Boston Strangler (1968, as the only surviving victim) and The April Fools (1969). Her breakthrough role was her Oscar-nominated turn as Major "Hot-Lips" Houlihan in MASH--a role she very nearly talked herself out of. Upon reading the script, she angrily confronted director Robert Altman, raging over the insulting and humiliating aspects of the part. She was then mollified by Altman, who declared that her unbridled outrage was just what he wanted from "Hot Lips." Though MASH opened up better film opportunities for Kellerman, she continued playing more oddball character roles than traditional "star" assignments. From time to time, she has spelled her film activities with nightclub singing appearances. Previously married to director Rick Edelstein, Sally Kellerman is currently wed to Jonathan Kane, who has produced many of her more recent films. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1981
This 1981 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Sally Kellerman and features musical guests Jimmy Cliff and Sally Kellerman. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sally Kellerman, Jimmy Cliff, (more)
Sally Kellerman stars in this made-for-television adaptation of the short story by Dorothy Parker. A free-spirited model (Kellerman) decides it's time to settle down, and gets married to a salesman (John Lithgow). Her new husband, however, soon turns out to be an ill-tempered alcoholic who is often off on the road, and she soon finds herself turning to liquor and other men for solace as her spirit slowly collapses. Also starring Anita Morris and George Coe, The Big Blonde was produced and first aired as part of the PBS series Great Performances. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Foxes details the exploits of four teenage San Fernando Valley girls as they drink, dope and sleep their way into oblivion. Jeanie (Jodie Foster, in a standout performance), the most grounded of the quartet, deals with her burned-out working-student-mother (Sally Kellerman, also excellent) while playing mother to her cohorts; Annie (Cherie Curie), a promiscuous drug-vacuum, attempts to dodge her psychotic police officer-father while partying round the clock; Madge (Marilyn Kagan), an overweight tag-along, who tries desperately to fit in with her wilder friends; and Deirdre (Kandice Stroh); an insecure liar and also-ran. While the performances (particularly the aforementioned) are good, and the direction is solid, the script doesn't seem to go anywhere; maybe that's the point, though, since neither do the characters in their vacuous, instant-gratification-based existences. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jodie Foster, Scott Baio, (more)
- 1980
- PG
Susan Sarandon gives a sprightly performance in this sex farce involving couples swapping mates. Shirley MacLaine is Evelyn, a doctor, who is spending some quality time horseback riding when she is spotted by Greg (Stephen Collins), who is driving his sports car. Greg looks at her a bit too long and crashes the car, and since Evelyn is a doctor, she feels free to ride up to the prone Greg and rip off his pants. Soon the two are having an affair behind the backs of Greg's TV weather-girl lover Stephanie (Susan Sarandon) and Evelyn's workaholic husband, Walter (James Coburn). When Walter finds out about the affair from Stephanie, the two decide to reciprocate and engage in an affair of their own. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shirley MacLaine, James Coburn, (more)
There are no cliff-hanging moments in Serial, but there's plenty of laughs in this trenchant comedy comment on 1970s lifestyles. Martin Mull plays the father of a Marin County family that succumbs to every silly fad coming down the pike. Mull tries to distance himself from his family's idiocies, but it's always the man who pays the piper. The film, based on a collection of newspaper essays by Cyra McFadden, is neatly tied up with a Capraesque ending allowing Mull to finally prevail. Some of the best moments involves Mull's tiltings with his trend-happy neighbor Bill Macy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Martin Mull, Tuesday Weld, (more)
The disarming comedy A Little Romance features Diane Lane as a 13-year-old American, living in Paris with her businessman stepfather (Arthur Hill) and her promiscuous mother (Sally Kellerman). Mom is currently enamored with pretentious-filmmaker David Dukes, and it is on the set of Dukes' latest picture that Lane meets another 13-year-old, insatiable French film buff Thelonious Bernard. A likeable street-smart petty thief and gambler, Bernard is instantly attracted to Lane. With the help of roguish old Laurence Olivier, Lane and Bernard arrange a romantic rendezvous under the Bridge of Sighs in Venice. Naturally, when the kids disappear it's a cause for international concern, but all ends as it should. Some of the best moments in A Little Romance belong to Broderick Crawford, unselfconsciously playing "himself" at a movie party. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Laurence Olivier, Arthur Hill, (more)
Based on a short story by Paul Gallico, this drama (produced for public television) stars Sissy Spacek as Verna Vane, a small-town girl who dreams of hitting it big in show business. Verna isn't much of a singer or a dancer, but she is able to land a job with a U.S.O. troupe entertaining American soldiers in Europe during World War II. Verna imagines this is a major stepping stone in her career as an entertainer, but even though Maureen (Sally Kellerman) and Eddie (Howard Da Silva), two veteran vaudevillians touring with Verna, know better, they don't have the heart to tell her. While in Belgium, Verna meets Walter (William Hurt), a Lieutenant in the U.S. Army who becomes smitten with her. Verna: USO Girl was first aired in 1978 as part of the PBS series Great Performances. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- 1978
When his freight business is threatened by a repo man, the skipper kidnaps the repo man's daughter to try and save his business. (AKA Magee and the Lady) ~ All Movie Guide
- 1978
Magee and the Lady was filmed for Australian TV, where it was shown as She'll Be Sweet. Steamer captain Tony Lo Bianco, with nary a penny to his name, is about to lose his vessel. He tries to stave off foreclosure by kidnapping the daughter (Sally Kellerman) of the man holding the mortgage. From here, the film veers off into a quasi-African Queen direction, with both captain and captive learning to respect, and then love, each other. Acceptable in 1978, The Magee and the Lady might run into trouble from the Political Correctness Brigade these days. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
- R
Two weapons dealers are ambushed in Africa, but their luck changes when a wealthy widow hires them. She blames the natives for her husband's death, so she uses her power to control the water in the arid region to ration the natives' water. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Sally Kellerman, (more)
The longest (26-1/2 hours), most expensive ($25 million) and most complicated (four directors, five producers, five cinematographers, almost 100 speaking parts, several hundred extras) project made for television up to that time, Centennial was shown in two- and three-hour installments over a period of four months. An adaptation of James Michener's best-selling novel, it told the story of the settling of the American West by looking at the founding of the fictional town of Centennial, Colorado, from the settling of the area in the late 18th century to the present. Emmy-nominated for film editing and art direction, it boasts of sterling performances from Richard Chamberlain as frontiersman Alexander McKeag, Robert Conrad as the French-Canadian trapper Pasquinel, and a surprisingly powerful performance from former football star Alex Karras as compassionate but iron-willed immigrant farmer Hans Brumbaugh. ~ Brian Gusse, All Movie Guide
- 1977
This rather complex animated adventure concerns the quest of a toy wind-up mouse and his son to become self-winding.The two accidentally fall off a shelf, and are thrown out with the garbage. Then, they must escape from an evil rat who imprisons them. ~ John Bush, 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
- Starring:
- Joseph Bologna, Stockard Channing, (more)
- 1976
- R
Alan Rudolph's first feature Welcome to L.A. displays his characteristic mood of romantic despair utilizing a La Ronde-like circle of sexual adventures and failed affairs centered around song-writer Carroll Barber (Keith Carradine) which spread out through the city. Barber is an aloof womanizer who cannot commit or love and is used by Rudolph to illustrate the loneliness inherent in big-city life. The film, featuring a haunting score by Richard Baskin, is a bit too ambitious for the beginning director. However, he gets good performances from Sally Kellerman as a lonely real estate agent, Geraldine Chaplin, as a Valley housewife addicted to taxi rides and Lauren Hutton as the mistress of a wealthy man. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keith Carradine, Sally Kellerman, (more)
- 1975
- R
The "Gold Dust Twins" are two L.A. gals who kidnap a likable-loser type who's a driving instructor (Alan Arkin) and force him to take them from Los Angeles to New Orleans. On the way they run into action of all sorts, and by the time they get to the Bayou state, the three have bonded as buddies. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Arkin, Sally Kellerman, (more)
- 1973
James Hilton's beloved fantasy novel about the land of Shangri-La was given an awkward musical treatment in this extravagantly produced flop. Larry Kramer's screenplay stays close to the 1937 Frank Capra original, as a plane fleeing China crashes in the Himalayas and a mixed group of survivors discovers the magical, peaceful land of Shangri-La. Here the film becomes a full-fledged musical, with songs by Burt Bacharach and Hal David illustrating the distant realm's nature and the conflict that happiness causes amongst the survivors. Curiosity-seekers may be intrigued by the film's reputation as a notorious dud, but fans of the story would be better served by the classic original, despite a cast of well-respected names, including Peter Finch (in the Ronald Colman role), John Gielgud, Liv Ullmann, and Charles Boyer. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Finch, Liv Ullmann, (more)
- 1973
- PG
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
- Starring:
- James Caan, Peter Boyle, (more)
- 1972
- PG
In A Reflection of Fear a young woman, Marguerite (Sondra Locke), cloistered in a turn-of-the-century Victorian dream-world by her mother, vies for the attention of her visiting dad, Michael (Robert Shaw), both conventionally and sexually, in hopes that she'll get to live with him. Her plans are complicated by a series of murders that may or may not be by Marguerite or her eerie life-size doll Aaron. The perpetrator moves around the estate through secret passageways. The first victims are Marguerite 's mother and grandma. While the investigation is under way, a local boy tries to woo the girl, but whenever he gets too close, the girl lashes out in unpredictable ways. Meanwhile Michael's fiancée, Anne (Sally Kellerman), becomes suspicious of Marguerite and what she understandably sees as Marguerite's creepy competitions for her dad's love. Anne's initial efforts to befriend Michael's daughter turn into exasperation and disgust. As the situation spirals out of control, the long-absent father is forced to confront Marguerite 's twisted personality and upbringing. ~ Michael Buening, 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
- Starring:
- Alan Arkin, Sally Kellerman, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Elliott Gould, Donald Sutherland, (more)
- 1970
- R
A boy yearns to fly in Robert Altman's whimsical youthquake parable. With the aid of seraphic Louise (Sally Kellerman), owlish Brewster (Bud Cort) constructs a pair of human-size wings in his Houston Astrodome nest to realize his dream. Meanwhile, conservative creeps, including a witchy "Star-Spangled Banner"-belting crone (Margaret Hamilton) and Brewster's skinflint boss (Stacy Keach), keep turning up dead covered with bird droppings; the Houston Establishment calls in blue-eyed, turtleneck-wearing "San Francisco super cop" Frank Shaft (Michael Murphy) to investigate. Brewster cooks his own goose, however, when he defies Louise's edict against sex and hooks up with Astrodome usher Suzanne (Shelley Duvall) after she impresses him (and saves him) by out-driving Shaft in her Road Runner. Despite her apparent sweetness, Suzanne ultimately will not compromise her comfortable home for flight with Brewster. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bud Cort, Sally Kellerman, (more)
- 1970
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
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, (more)
- 1969
Virtually the first third of The April Fools takes place at a trendy party held by sharkish executive Ted Gunther (Peter Lawford). It is here that Howard Brubaker (Jack Lemmon), one of Gunther's employees, makes the acquaintance of the boss' lovely young trophy wife Catherine (Catherine Deneuve). It happens that Brubaker is unhappily wed to Phyllis (Sally Kellerman, who gives an excellent performance in an essentially one-note role) and that Catherine is equally unhappy in her relationship with Gunther. The two lost souls run off together, planning to fly to Paris. There's approximately 25 minutes' worth of plot in The April Fools; much of the leftover time is eaten up by a protracted drunken-driving sequence involving suburban hubbies Lemmon, Jack Weston, Harvey Korman and Kenneth Mars, and by a lengthy episode featuring Charles Boyer and Myrna Loy as a robust, free-thinking elderly married couple. Some good dialogue, notably Lemmon's shaggy-dog story about goldfish and Chinese food, cannot hide the slightness of the piece. Still, a great many filmgoers were charmed by The April Fools. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Catherine Deneuve, (more)
- 1968
Roy Thinnes was the star of this 1967-1968 science fiction series, about an Earth poised on the brink of alien takeover. ~ Jason Ankeny, 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
- Starring:
- Tony Curtis, Henry Fonda, (more)
