Margot Kidder Movies
The daughter of a mining engineer, Canadian actress Margot Kidder spent her first two-and-a-half years living in a caboose. While attending the University of British Columbia, Kidder was talked into appearing in a college stage production of Take Me Along; she was hooked, though she later learned there was more to acting than crying on cue and partying. In her first professional years with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation headquarters in Vancouver, Kidder played everything from simpering ingenues to an unhinged murderess. She made her first film in 1969, an American production titled Gaily Gaily, then worked with Gene Wilder in the British-made Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx (1970). Kidder disliked the seamier side of the movie business and retreated to Canada in hopes of learning how to become a film editor, but was brought back to the U.S. in 1971 for a continuing role in the James Garner TV series Nichols. She liked Garner but not the hassles of making a weekly series, and for the next decade concentrated on film work, plunging headfirst into a kinky Brian DePalma chiller titled Sisters (1972). Kidder's best-known work in the '70s and '80s was as Lois Lane in the Superman films starring Christopher Reeve. Other movie roles and a stint on 1987 TV series Shell Game followed; although her acting has been limited by injuries she suffered in an on-set accident in the late 1980s, she has nonetheless sustained her career with such voice-only assignments as the character of Gaia on the TV cartoon series Captain Planet and the Planeteers. Kidder married and divorced writer Tom McGuane and actor John Heard (their union lasted six days!) and remains a vocal activist for political and ecological causes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1985
- R
In a weakly-limned story that starts off on one foot and then quickly jumps to another, Margot Kidder plays Margo, a stripper out looking for her long-lost father (Burt Lancaster) in a remote area of Mexico. After she arrives, Eugene (Ted Danson), an American settled in Mexico for the duration, offers her some help in her mission. Although Margo and her father eventually find each other, their reunion fades into the distance as Eugene and Margo chase after some stolen money. Along the way, Margo is propositioned by wealthy Norman Kane (Joseph Hacker) to perform for one of his pool parties -- further stripping the plot of credibility. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margot Kidder, Ted Danson, (more)
- 1985
Picking Up the Pieces is a TV movie firmly locked in mid-1980s sensibilities: beware your husband, ladies, he's pond scum. Margot Kidder, a high school guidance counselor and mother of two, is the wife of wealthy surgeon and all-around heel David Ackroyd. After 17 years of emotional abuse, Kidder agrees with Ackroyd that divorce is the answer. She returns home from work to find the house stripped and her valuables gone; they've been seized by her husband, who is perfectly within his legal rights because their state has no community property laws. As Kidder battles her ex in court, she struggles to regain her own self-esteem. James Farentino costars in Picking Up the Pieces as the compassionate widower with whom Kidder finds happiness. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margot Kidder, David Ackroyd, (more)
- 1985
Page Fletcher stars as the title character in this 1983-1988 made-for-cable suspense anthology. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1984
This epic story about a Louisiana plantation owner trying to hold on to her estate before, during, and after the American Civil War, a place ironically called "Bagatelle," rides on the illustrious fame of Tara and its more famous mistress in another Southern state. Virginia Tregan (Margot Kidder) comes back to Louisiana after finishing her schooling in France and is soon left without financial support when her father dies. Motivated by dire economic straits, she marries the owner of Bagatelle, but her real love turns out to be the steward (Ian Charleson). Husbands come and go while the steward remains in the background, and clichéd characters abound: a chamber-maid whose husband is tragically murdered for supporting the Abolitionists, an evil aristocrat who rapes and kills Tregan's daughter, and the matriarch herself. The original six hours of TV miniseries time was cut to a three-hour cinema format, but the downsizing in this Danielle Steele-type story also extends to the acting, cinematography, dialogue, and dramatic interest -- making it a bagatelle rather than a real gem. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margot Kidder, Ian Charleson, (more)
- 1984
Produced for HBO, The Glitter Dome is based on the crime novel by Joseph Wambaugh. Manhattan detectives Al Mackey (James Garner) is forced to wade his way through the glamorous cesspool known as Hollywood. Mackey's quarry is the unknown person who brutally murdered studio mogul Malcolm Sinclair (Alistair MacDuff). Providing a brief diversion for the diligent Mackey is Margot Kidder as eccentric young actress Willie. Also on hand is James Garner's Rockford Files cohort Stuart Margolin, who, in addition to directing the film, plays the murder victim's smarmy nephew. When first telecast on November 11, 1984, The Glitter Dome was criticized for a brief bondage sequence involving Margot Kidder: in retrospect, however, the scene serves to affirm the integrity and decency of the character played by Garner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In a major departure from the tone of the preceding two Superman adventure films, this mix of vile deeds and fantasy heroics drops the "S" out of cosmic and goes for comic instead. Right at the starting gate, Gus Gorman (Richard Pryor) and a subsequent slapstick sequence upstage (Christopher Reeves again), who later develops an identity crisis. Gorman, newly trained as a computer whiz, starts working for a conglomerate run by the corporate nemesis Ross Webster (Robert Vaughn), intent on world domination. Gorman is sent to Superman's small town of Smallville to wipe out Columbia's coffee crop by fiddling with the computer side of a weather satellite. Clark Kent is in town for his class reunion, leading Superman to clash with Gorman, which in turn, leads Gorman to develop a hybrid red Kryptonite. Unwittingly, since Gorman's wits are always in doubt, the Red Kryptonite causes Superman to split into a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde schizophrenia -- but in two separate bodies. As the evil Superman swaggers around town, megalomaniac Ross Webster has other tricks in mind -- and in one of the more memorable action scenes (interspersed with a video game sequence), Superman is chased through the Grand Canyon by a fast-flying, very determined missile. Lana Lang (Annette O'Toole) is on hand for romantic interest (Margot Kidder only appears briefly -- she was growing tired of Lois Lane). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Reeve, Richard Pryor, (more)
Among the first original anthology series to be produced for cable television, The Hitchhiker was a collection of tales of the supernatural and bizarre. The title character, played during the first season by Nicholas Campbell and thereafter by Page Fletcher, was an unnamed drifter who wandered ubiquitously from story to story, sometimes briefly commiserated with the main characters, sometimes acting as a disinterested observer, but always ready with a few pithy and occasional chilling comments of the events which had transpired. Inasmuch as the series carried on pay cable and not "mainstream" commercial TV, the stories contained an abundance of nudity, profanity, and violence. Even so, in most of the half-hour playlets, Evil was severely punished (usually in an ironic "postman always rings twice" fashion) and Virtue more or less triumphed. After 39 episodes on HBO, the series moved to a basic-cable channel, USA, for 46 additional installments. While censorship was somewhat more stringent on USA, The Hitchhiker still managed to serve up rawer and meatier fare than was customary on over-the-air TV of the period. The series was first-run on HBO from November 23, 1983, to May 12, 1987, and on USA from January 4, 1989, to February 22, 1991. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1983
- PG
In this pseudo-farce, the heroine Mickey (Margot Kidder) takes two weeks off work to go to Malta and write a mystery novel and finds herself caught up in a series of real-life murders that she weaves into her progressing story. Caught between a parody, a children's film, and a who-dunnit, the overplayed Disney charm of Trenchcoat wears thin very quickly. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margot Kidder, Robert Hays, (more)
Richard Pryor gives a compelling performance in Some Kind of Hero, playing a Vietnam veteran who tries to readjust to civilian life. Pryor plays Eddie Keller, who has just spent five years in a North Vietnamese prisoner-of-war camp. Most of the time there, Eddie was able to hold his own against his captors, but he eventually was forced to sign a statement denouncing United States involvement in the Vietnam War. Eddie decided to sign the document in order to insure that his friend Vinnie (Ray Sharkey) would be given proper medical treatment. Because of this denunciation, when Eddie returns home from the war he is denied his back pay. He also discovers that his wife has left him for another man, his business has fallen apart, and his mother has been sent to an asylum. Eddie falls into a deep depression and hits rock bottom. But he meets a friendly prostitute, Toni (Margot Kidder), who helps him straighten out his life. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Pryor, Margot Kidder, (more)
William Tepper, whose only significant credit to date was the lead role in the Jack Nicholson-directed 1972 cult film (#Drive, He Said), wrote and stars in Miss Right. He plays Terry Bartell, a U.P.I. reported stationed in Rome. Bartell is an inveterate ladies man who suddenly decides he's through playing meaningless romantic games and wants to find "Miss Right." As a prelude to beginning the search, he sets up a series of "farewell" dinners with his three current girlfriends, scheduled in his apartment in two hour intervals. Most of the film consists of these lengthy encounters, including one with veteran Italian actress Virna Lisi, playing an older married woman. Karen Black is another of the ladies, who arrives by jet for a midnight rendezvous and is unpleasantly surprised. The following morning, Terry picks up Juliet (Margot Kidder), indicating that he's not ready to change his lifestyle after all. Miss Right was made in Rome in 1980 by American director Paul Williams for an Italian production company. It was never released theatrically in the United States. The 1989 video release shows signs of extensive cutting and revisions. Actress Clio Goldsmith, listed in the credits, never appears on screen, and British star Jenny Agutter is glimpsed only in a cameo in the opening minute. Williams was known in the late '60s and early '70s for his films about the hippie counterculture, including Out of It (1969) and The Revolutionary (1970). After several years of inactivity he returned in 1978 with the independent feature Nunzio. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Karen Black, Margot Kidder, (more)
- 1981
- R
Margot Kidder and Annie Potts star in this distaff buddy picture concerning two friends undergoing a series of misadventures in their love lives. Potts plays Bonnie Howard, the wife of Stanley (Robert Carradine), an immature child/man who irresponsibly spends most of his time racing cars and getting drunk. Bonnie also happens to be pregnant, but the father of her unborn child does not happen to be Stanley. Rather than hit Stanley in the face with that fact, she decides to leave him. As she heads for town to obtain an abortion, she runs into the foul-mouthed man-hunter Rita Harris (Margot Kidder in a blonde wig and tight pants). The two characters get involved in a number of vignettes, with the humor arising from the contrast between the streetwise Rita and the relatively innocent Bonnie. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margot Kidder, Annie Potts, (more)
Between giving up his super powers, confronting criminals from outer space, and having problems with his girlfriend, it's a bad time to be the Man of Steel in this sequel to the 1978 blockbuster. When terrorists threaten to destroy Paris with a thermonuclear device as they hold reporter Lois Lane (Margot Kidder) hostage, Superman (Christopher Reeve) comes to the rescue and flings the weapon into space. However, its blast outside the earth's orbit awakens Zod (Terence Stamp), Ursa (Sarah Douglas), and Non (Jack O'Halloran), three villains from Superman's home planet of Krypton who were exiled to outer space for their crimes. Zod and his partners arrive on Earth and use their powers in a bid to take over the U.S., and then the world. However, when Lois realizes that mild mannered Clark Kent and Superman are actually the same person, he brings her to his Fortress of Solitude, where his decision to marry Lois costs him his remarkable strength. Without his super powers, how can Superman vanquish Zod and save the world? Gene Hackman, Ned Beatty, Susannah York, and Jackie Cooper return from the first film, which was shot at the same time as parts of the sequel. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Reeve, Gene Hackman, (more)
- 1980
- R
Director Paul Mazursky's follow-up to his 1978 hit An Unmarried Woman found this filmmaker creating a feature-length homage to the François Truffaut classic Jules and Jim. Willie and Phil begins with Jewish intellectual schoolteacher Willie (Michael Ontkean) meeting gregarious Italian-American fashion photographer Phil (Ray Sharkey) at a screening of Jules and Jim. The two hit it off immediately and soon find their circle of two expanding to three when they meet Jeanette (Margot Kidder), a free-spirited Southerner who has moved to New York City to figure out her life. Jeanette soon moves in Willie, but the three find themselves in a romantic triangle that constantly shifts over the next nine years as each of the three struggles to find their destiny while honoring the love they feel for each other. Mazursky would later remake another foreign classic (Boudu Saved From Drowning) into his hit Down and Out in Beverly Hills ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Ontkean, Margot Kidder, (more)
- 1979
This 1979 episode of Saturday Night Live is hosted by Margot Kidder and features musical guest the Chieftains. ~ Skyler Miller, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Margot Kidder, The Chieftains, (more)
"For God's sake, GET OUT!" was the ad campaign for the 1979 shocker The Amityville Horror. The film was based on the allegedly true story of the luckless Lutz family, who move lock, stock, and barrel into a new home, only to find that it is possessed by the demonic spirits of its previous owners. Variations of the Seven Deadly Plagues emanate from virtually every household fixture, while other forms of otherworldly mischief are suffered by the Lutz children. Enter kindly Father Delaney (Rod Steiger), who does his utmost to exorcise the house. The Amityville Horror was frequently greeted with laughs from its first-run audiences, especially after it was discovered that the "actual" events depicted in the film (based on a book by Jay Anson) were complete fabrications. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Brolin, Margot Kidder, (more)
Richard Donner's big-budget blockbuster Superman: The Movie is an immensely entertaining recounting of the origin of the famous comic book character. Opening on Krypton (where Marlon Brando plays Superman's father), the film follows the Man of Steel (Christopher Reeve) as he's sent to Earth where he develops his alter-ego Clark Kent and is raised by a Midwestern family. In no time, the movie has run through his teenage years, and Clark gets a job at the Daily Planet, where he is a news reporter. It's there that he falls in love with Lois Lane (Margot Kidder), who is already in love with Superman. But the love story is quickly sidetracked once the villainous Lex Luthor (Gene Hackman) launches a diabolical plan to conquer the world and kill Superman. Superman: The Movie is filled with action, special effects and a surprising amount of humor. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Marlon Brando, Gene Hackman, (more)
- 1975
- PG
Robert Redford plays Waldo Pepper, a former World War I pilot who exaggerates his accomplishments in order to impress the rabble. After a brief rivalry with air-show entrepreneur Axel Olsson (Bo Svenson), Pepper teams with Axel to barnstorm all over the Midwest; later, after a series of unexpected (and calamitous) events, Pepper gets a job as a movie stunt pilot. On the set, he meets the film's technical advisor: former German ace Ernst Kessler (Bo Brundin), a man whom Pepper has been claiming falsely to have fought during the war, thereby advancing his own reputation. He is as disillusioned with civilian life as Pepper is, and ignoring the entreaties of the film's director, stages a genuine dogfight (sans live ammo) with his old "opponent." The Great Waldo Pepper represented the third filmic collaboration between star Robert Redford and director George Roy Hill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Redford, Bo Svenson, (more)
- 1975
- R
Max Ehrlich adapted his own novel for the screen in this fitfully amusing paranormal thriller. College professor Michael Sarrazin feels that someone else is inside him, and is led by his dreams to a small town where Margot Kidder (Black Christmas, Superman) has murdered her cheating husband. She senses something odd about Sarrazin too, even more so when he falls for Jennifer O'Neill (Scanners), who may or may not be his and Kidder's daughter. Regardless of its merits, this film will probably best be remembered for its poster art, which depicts an anguished Sarrazin being smashed in the testicles with a boat paddle. That's what happens when actors do things like turn down Midnight Cowboy. Director J. Lee Thompson later went on to direct the even less subtle Happy Birthday to Me. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Sarrazin, Jennifer O'Neill, (more)
- 1975
Margot Kidder guest stars as Terry Lake, the erstwhile girlfriend of small-time hood Danell (Nicholas Colasanto). A murder has been committed, and Tony Baretta (Robert Blake) is convinced that Danell is the guilty party. Protesting his innocence, the hoodlum is confident that Terry will supply him with an alibi -- but both he, and Baretta, are in for several surprises. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Blake, Dana Elcar, (more)
- 1975
Though set in Key West, Florida, a goodly portion of 92 in the Shade was filmed in England. Peter Fonda plays Tom Skelton, a bum who gets a job as a fishing guide in his old home town. Nobody wants to have anything to do with Skelton, least of all rival guides Nichol Dance and Carter (Warren Oates and Harry Dean Stanton). Faced with financial disaster and widespread hostility, he turns to his wealthy grandfather Goldsboro (Burgess Meredith) for help. Taking time off from his lovemaking sessions with sexy secretary Bella (Sylvia Miles), his grandfather pumps some money into Tom's operation, and our hero makes his peace with Carter. A climactic fight with Nichol puts an end to that problem, while Tom's romantic relationship with Miranda (Margot Kidder) helps him sort out his priorities. Director/writer Thomas McGuane adapted the script from his own novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Fonda, Warren Oates, (more)
- 1974
The title of this Canadian film drama is, need we say, ironic. Director Milad Bessada underlines the tragedy and futility of Ireland's civil war by heavily underlining the sameness between the two warring factions. This he does by casting Margot Kidder in a dual role. Ms. Kidder plays twin Catholic girls, one loyal to the "cause," the other in love with a British soldier. Though A Quiet Day in Belfast is not rated, the unrelenting hopelessness of the subject matter may prove too intense for very young children. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- R
The Gravy Train stars Stacy Keach and Frederic Forrest as a husky but none-too-bright pair of West Virginia brothers. Feeling stifled by their blue-collar jobs, the boys become tentatively involved in crime, only to discover that they enjoy working on the wrong side of the law. The moments of extreme violence in this film erupt naturally, not arbitrarily, but still come as a shock to those viewers who've grown to like the sociopathic protagonists. Terence Malick co-wrote the film's seriocomic script under the "nom de plume" of David Whitney. The Gravy Train is better known by its alternate title, The Dion Brothers. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
- PG
In this adventurous western set in 1836, four misanthropic people band together to find a golden treasure. But as they progress, members of the group, including a scalper, a gunman, an indentured female servant, and an aging sea captain begin double and triple-crossing each other in hopes of getting all the gold for themselves. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Although this Canadian production saw its widest U.S. cable TV distribution in the early '80s (primarily under the title Stranger in the House) to capitalize on the phenomenal success of Halloween and its offspring, this effective suspense-thriller actually predates John Carpenter's film by four years. The story involves a dangerous psychopath hiding out in the attic of a sorority house who torments a small group of pretty young sisters (including Olivia Hussey and Margot Kidder) who are staying behind over Christmas break. His tactics range from making obscene phone calls from their house-mother's phone, to stalking the terrified boarders with sharp objects and murderous intent. Director Bob Clark, who mistook dreariness for tension in his previous horror effort Children Shouldn't Play With Dead Things! (1972), here demonstrates a tight, aggressive style that generates some very original shocks -- particularly the surprise ending -- which clearly influenced dozens of similarly-themed slasher films to follow. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Olivia Hussey, Keir Dullea, (more)
- 1974
Honky Tonk represented an attempt by writer/director Douglas Heyes to create a TV series based on the 1941 Clark Gable-Lana Turner film of the same name. In Heyes' version of Honky Tonk, the role of gambler Candy Johnson, originally essayed by Gable, is filled by Richard Crenna, while Margot Kidder portrays Turner's character Lucy Cotton. A romantic triangle forms between Johnson, Lucy and dance-hall chanteuse Gold Dust (Claire Trevor in 1941, Stella Stevens in 1974). Meanwhile, Johnson and Lucy's old reprobate father (Will Geer) try to take advantage of every boom-town prospector within shouting range. Wisely running some 15 minutes shorter than the original, the TV-movie Honky Tonk was originally telecast April 1, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
