Adrienne Barbeau Movies
American actress Adrienne Barbeau was encouraged by her mother to take dancing and singing lessons. Adrienne was active in theatre both in high school and at Foothills Junior College; by age 19 she was touring Pacific military bases as a member of the San Jose Light Opera. After an unprepossessing job with a termite-control company, Adrienne set out for New York, paying the bills with a variety of jobs including go-go dancing in New Jersey nightclubs. In 1968 she was cast as Hodel in the long-running Broadway production Fiddler on the Roof, and three years later was featured in Grease, winning a Tony nomination through her rendition of "Look at Me, I'm Sandra Dee." From here, Adrienne was hired by Norman Lear to replace first-choice actress Marcia Rodd in the role of the divorced daughter on the controversial TV sitcom Maude. She played the role from 1972 through the series' cancellation in 1978, after which she began a whole new career as a successful horror-film star and sexy pin-up model. Adrienne married film director John Carpenter in 1979; most of her subsequent screen appearances were in such Carpenter-directed terrors as The Fog (1980), Escape from New York (1981) and Creepshow (1982). Perhaps Adrienne Barbeau's most enjoyable performance was as the Marlon Brando counterpart (!) in an uproarious distaff parody of Apocalypse Now, sublimely titled Cannibal Women in the Avocado Jungle of Death (1989). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1976
Originally titled Giving Birth, Having Babies was the first of three pilot films for a TV series that eventually appeared under the title Julie Farr MD. In omnibus fashion, the film focuses in on four couples and their reactions to impending parenthood. Essentially, this is a feature-length "commercial" for the Lamaze method of natural childbirth. Adrienne Barbeau plays Lamaze-class supervisor Allie Duggin, while the mommies-to-be are portrayed by Karen Valentine (as tennis pro Beth Paterno), Jessica Walter (as middle-aged Sally McNamara), Linda Purl (as teenager Laura Gorman) and Vicki Lawrence (as unwed mother Grace Fontrell). Having Babies was originally telecast October 17, 1976. It was followed by Having Babies II in 1977, Having Babies III in 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Made for television, The Great Houdinis tells the life story of famed American illusionist/escape-artist Harry Houdini and his wife Bess. Studiously avoiding covering the same ground as the 1953 Houdini theatrical-film biopic, director Mel Shavelson's script for Great Houdinis spends a great deal of time on the conflict between Harry's Catholic wife Bess and his Jewish mother. The spiritualism angle so important to the Houdini story allows the 1976 film to recreate Houdini's meetings with "true believer" Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Again departing from the 1953 Houdini, this later film does not end with Houdini's death from peritonitis in 1926; instead, we watch as the widowed Bess desperately tries to make contact with her husband in the "other world," all the while debunking phony mediums, just as her husband had done. Paul Michael Glaser and Sally Struthers star as the Houdinis, with Ruth Gordon as Harry's mother Mrs. Weiss, Peter Cushing as Conan Doyle, Jack Carter as Houdini's brother, Adrienne Barbeau as his mistress, Nina Foch as a medium, and Vivian Vance as the all-around best friend/severest critic, who narrates the film. The Great Houdinis first aired on October 8, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Filmed primarily at NASA's Manned Space Center in Houston, the made-for-TV Red Alert is an apocalyptic "man vs. machine" spellbinder. A potentially dangerous explosion at a nuclear power plant near Minneapolis is fortunately kept under control. The huge plant-monitoring computer named Proteus concludes that the explosion was the result of wide-spread sabotage. Security-investigator William Devane concludes instead that only one saboteur was responsible-and that saboteur is trapped in the reactor room, which Proteus is programmed to protect. Devane races against time to find a way into the reactor room to prevent the saboteur from wreaking further havoc. First telecast May 18, 1977, Red Alert was based on Paradigm Red, a novel by Harold King. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
There is a rapist on the loose in Los Angeles, and Quincy (Jack Klugman) is fairly certain of the man's identity. Unfortunately, some potentially damning evidence has been destroyed while the most recent victim was being treated at an E.R. Even so, Quincy turns up the heat on the most likely suspect--who exacts a terrible revenge upon Carol Bowen (Adrienne Barbeau), a rape counselor who happens to be one of Quincy's closest friends. This is the final episode of Quincy, M.E.'s second season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
A sequel to the 1977 TV movie Fantasy Island, this film was originally titled Fantasy Island II and slated to air on November, 1977, but was instead re-christened and broadcast as the initial episode of the weekly Fantasy Island series. Once again, six people spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to fulfill their dreams on a lavish island resort overseen by the enigmatic Roarke (Ricardo Montalban) and his dwarf assistant, Tattoo (Herve Villechaize). This time, "de plane" arrives on the island with a passenger roster including Charles Fleming (Horst Buchholz), who allegedly wants to restore the memory of his amnesiac wife, Janet (Karen Valentine); love-struck executive, Benson (George Maharis), and his bitchy boss, Margo Dean (Adrienne Barbeau), whom Benson hopes to woo and win Taming of the Shrew style; and long-married couple Brian and Lucy Faber (Joseph Campanella and Pat Crowley), who yearn to be reunited with the child they gave up for adoption years earlier. Return to Fantasy Island premiered January 20, 1978, on ABC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Hot on the heels of his theatrical-feature megahit Halloween, writer-producer John Carpenter concocted this nailbiting made-for-TV suspenser. Lauren Hutton stars as stylish career girl Leigh Michaels, who lives in an ultra-modern, glassed-in high rise apartment. Leigh's relatively tranquil existence is shattered when she begins receiving disturbing phone calls--and ostentatious gifts--from a man living in the high-rise next to hers. Despite the increasingly threatening tone of her mystery caller, Leigh is unable to get any help from the police, simply because there's no real evidence that she's in danger. Rest assured, however, that she is--and that, in traditional "John Carpenter heroine" fashion, she will ultimately deal with her tormentor all by herself. Filmed under the title High Rise, Someone's Watching Me! first aired November 24, 1978, on NBC. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Originally made for television and based on true events from 1972, the story concerns an airline crash in the Everglades and the courageous adventures of the 73 survivors. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1978
In this drama, a politically ambitious lawyer, a bookie, and a barmaid become finalists in a large lottery. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Darker Side of Terror is a TV movie that wants to have its cake and eat it too: it is a science fiction drama and a romantic triangle all in one. Researcher Robert Forster submits to an experiment in cloning conducted by his former professor (Ray Milland) The operation is a success--except in terms of Forster's personal life. It seems that the researcher's wife (Adrienne Barbeau) finds the clone to be more desirable than the original. To make matters dicier, the clone is a homicidal maniac! Darker Side of Terror is derivative from start to finish; the producers should have simply put their cards on the table and titled the film The Adventure of Frankenstein's Sexier Brother. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1980
The 1980 Winter Olympics at Lake Placid provides the setting for this drama that centers on a man's mid-life crisis. While there, he gets involved with love, sex and other diversions. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Following the phenomenal box-office success of his seminal horror classic Halloween, director John Carpenter teamed up with producer Debra Hill for a second independent horror project, this time in the mode of an old-fashioned ghost story. The end result was The Fog, a spooky romp about a dark secret that returns to haunt the Pacific fishing community of Antonio Bay on the 100th anniversary of the town's charter. Carpenter sets the mood in the film's prologue, which features grizzled old sea salt Mr. Machen (John Houseman) spinning ghost stories for a group of local children. For his final tale, he recounts the legend of the Elizabeth Dane -- a ship which crashed 100 years ago against the very rocks upon which the children are sitting. Meanwhile, as the clock strikes midnight on the fateful anniversary of that disaster, eerie phenomena begin to plague the town as a dense fog bank creeps toward the bay. Seeming to appear from nowhere and emitting a ghostly glow, the fog surrounds a small trawler filled with drunken fishermen, who glimpse the vague outline of a decrepit sailing vessel before being brutally killed by shadowy figures brandishing hooks and swords. That morning, news of their disappearance is relayed to the town by Stevie Wayne (Adrienne Barbeau), owner and operator of the local radio station. The news reaches the wife of one of the fishermen, city councilwoman Kathy Williams (Janet Leigh) and local boy Nick Castle (Tom Atkins), who takes a trip out to the abandoned boat to investigate, accompanied by teenage drifter Elizabeth Solley (Jamie Lee Curtis). As the day progresses, a grim series of events paints a decidedly unpleasant picture of Antonio Bay's founders, and foreshadows the ghostly retribution that awaits the town's present-day residents. When Mrs. Williams visits local priest Fr. Malone (Hal Holbrook) about a benediction for that night's centennial ceremony, he relates a ghastly tale discovered in his grandfather's journal, which details the town fathers' decision to murder a group of lepers who had planned to build a commune outside of Antonio Bay. Just as the night's proceedings are haunted by the horrors of the past, the ghosts of the murdered dead have returned to seek symbolic revenge by claiming the lives of six townspeople, arriving amid the ominous fog bank which has completely engulfed Antonio Bay. Carpenter reportedly shot and inserted additional gory scenes after the original 'PG' cut failed to impress preview audiences. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Adrienne Barbeau, Hal Holbrook, (more)
- 1980
The made-for-TV Valentine Magic on Love Island was accurately dismissed by one reviewer as a "bubble headed brew of I Dream of Jeannie and a Club Med Vacation." Janis Paige stars as Madge, a benign sorceress who runs a lavish tropical resort with the help of her nephew Jimmy (Christopher Knight) and niece Cheryl (Dominique Dunne). Through mystical, magical means of her own (manifested in a bouquet of enchanted roses), Madge sets about to transform eight of her unattached hotel guests into four loving couples. Naturally, the supporting cast is top-heavy with celebrity guest stars, among them Adrienne Barbeau, who was seen in one of the two Fantasy Island pre-series specials, and Bill Daily, an alumnus of the aforementioned I Dream of Jeannie. The pilot for an unsold weekly series, Valentine Magic on Love Island first aired February 15, 1980, on NBC; in syndication, it was retitled simply Magic on Love Island, apparently to avoid the "holiday special" onus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The year is 1997. Manhattan Island is now a heavily guarded maximum-security prison, where the scum of the earth have converged. When Air Force One crash-lands in Manhattan, the president (Donald Pleasence) is held hostage by its denizens. One-eyed mercenary Snake Plissken (Kurt Russell) is strong-armed into rescuing the chief executive. He is aided, not always willingly, by a tough gal (Adrienne Barbeau) and a manic cab driver (Ernest Borgnine). Escape from New York was followed by a sequel of sorts in 1996, Escape From L.A., again starring Kurt Russell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kurt Russell, Lee Van Cleef, (more)
Burt Reynolds and director Hal Needham team up for the fourth time, this time bringing an all-star cast of characters on a cross-country car race in the vein of 1976 release The Gumball Rally. The police are the least of the Cannonballers' worries as they push the pedal to the metal in a race from Connecticut to California. Reynolds stars as J.J. McClure, a speed-loving racer disguised as an ambulance driver to outsmart the police. He is paired up with Dom Deluise, who plays his dimwitted sidekick Victor and who, on occasion, dons the suit of Captain Chaos. Rat Packers Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. join the lineup as Ferrari-driving priests, while martial arts expert Jackie Chan takes on one of his first U.S. film roles driving a souped-up Subaru. Among the many other stars are Roger Moore doing a parody of his 007 character, complete with secret devices and weapons, Farrah Fawcett as Pamela, a woman McClure and Chaos pick up, and Jamie Farr as a deranged Islamic sheik. Jack Elam joins the cast as a crazed proctologist along for McClure's ambulance ride, and Needham makes a cameo as a patient. ~ Rachel Koetje, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, (more)
- 1982
In this carefree children's adventure, a grandfather and his grandson fulfill the former's life-long dream and embark upon a cross-country ballon flight. Back on the distant ground, the flyers are pursued by the boy's mother, the cops, the Feds, and others. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Two of the most venerable names in the horror field, author Stephen King and director George A. Romero, present this anthology of original twisted tales inspired by the E.C. horror comics of the 50's and 60's (themselves a more direct basis for the popular Tales from the Crypt TV series). The five stories are framed within the pages of a comic book which a boy's insensitive father has thrown in the garbage. The first tale, "Father's Day," features a zombie patriarch returning to claim his Father's Day cake; "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" stars King himself as a slack-jawed yokel whose discovery of a radioactive meteorite turns him into a walking weed; "Something to Tide You Over" presents a deadly-serious Leslie Nielsen as a cuckolded husband who plans an elaborate seaside revenge; "The Crate" unleashes its ferocious man-eating contents on the enemies of a meek college professor; and "They're Creeping Up On You" pits obsessively-clean billionaire E.G. Marshall against a swarm of cockroaches in his sterile penthouse. The chapters are uniformly creative, filmed in garish comic-book colors, and Tom Savini's makeup effects are quite memorable (particularly the monster from "The Crate"), though the campy treatment does become exhausting after two hours' runtime. The final segment is the most impressive, thanks to Marshall's over-the-top performance, though the planned scope of the cockroach invasion was drastically reduced (no doubt due to budget constraints). ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, (more)
- 1982
In this standard sci-fi romance, the widow Andrea (Adrienne Barbeau) lives on a Greek island with her son Timmy (Jeremy Licht) and, like the other islanders, is amazed when a stranger Keir Dullea washes up on shore during a magnetic storm. She brings the apparently injured man home to help him recuperate his health, and a relationship develops between the two of them. At first seeming to suffer from amnesia, the stranger has a mysterious quality that comes more into focus when he performs certain miracles. As he demonstrates his powers, it is slowly revealed that he is a time-traveler, and his brother, in fact, once traveled back 2,000 years further in time. That makes the stranger the "Next One" on this time journey -- appearing as a second Christ to the population, at least for awhile. With limited special effects and a chaste romantic scenario, this film debuted as a pay-for-view TV feature and was not released theatrically. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Keir Dullea, Adrienne Barbeau, (more)
Director Wes Craven, who went on to fame as the force behind blockbuster horror films such as A Nightmare on Elm Street, departed from his favorite genre to film this unique cult classic -- a spoof on the mad scientist movies of the 1950s. Adrienne Barbeau stars as Alice Cable, a government agent sent to replace a man who has disappeared while guarding a secret experimental lab in the middle of the Louisiana bayous. Dressed in heels and a skirt, Cable professes unease at her strange new surroundings, but she is soon wooed by Dr. Alec Holland (Ray Wise). Holland is working on a concoction that combines plant and animal cells. Arcane (Louis Jourdan) is the criminal mastermind who is trying to steal the secret recipe for the potion. When Arcane and his mercenaries break into the government camp, they kill Holland's sister Linda (Nannette Brown) and the scientist is accidentally doused with his own formula and bursts into flames, then dives into the swamp. Arcane's men pursue Cable, but she is rescued by a mysterious green man. It takes several rescues for her to understand that the Swamp Thing (Dick Durock) is Dr. Holland, transformed by his own formula. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louis Jourdan, Adrienne Barbeau, (more)
- 1985
The scene is the West Barrington Institute for Women, where warden Elizabeth Gates (Vera Miles) invites Jessica (Angela Lansbury) to lecture on creative writing. Of course, wherever Jessica goes, murder follows, and this time the victim is the prison's doctor Irene Matthews (Janet McLachlan). Believing that an innocent woman has been accused of the crime, the inmates stage a riot, taking several hostages--including Jessica--in the process. In order to save Warden Gates from being killed in the mistaken belief that she is the "real" culprit, Jessica races against time to solve the murder herself. This is the only Murder She Wrote episode to boast an all-female cast. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
The story of Jack The Ripper may be the cause of a small town's crime spree in this strange made-for-television thriller. David Hasselhoff stars as Don Gregory, a cop in an Arizona town whose claim to fame is being the home of the newly transplanted pieces of the original London Bridge. When the bridge is fully assembled and a murder spree begins, Gregory suspects that the bridge's historical link to Jack The Ripper and the Thames River, may have something to do with the killings. ~ Bernadette McCallion, All Movie Guide
Just who is seduced in the made-for-TV Seduced? Technically, it is Vicki Orloff (Cybill Shepherd), who once had a torrid affair with attorney Mike Riordan (Gregory Harrison). But when Vicki meets Mike again after several years, it is Riordan who is seduced into a most dangerous situation. Vicki, you see, is now the mistress of multimillionaire James Killian (Jose Ferrer). And when Killian is murdered-well, Mr. Riordan was seen hanging around the murder site. Gregory Harrison both produced and starred in Seduced, which had its world premiere March 12, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Self-made wealthy guy Rodney Dangerfield decides he needs a better education--and also to spend some time away from his cheating new wife. Dangerfield joins his son Keith Gordon at college. Dad hopes to gain his son's respect (isn't that always Dangerfield's motivation?), while son tries to fit in with his snobbish and brutish fellow students. English professor Sally Kellerman forms a strong bond with Dangerfield, encouraging both father and son to stick out their first year despite all odds. The finale involves some slapstick at the swimming pool diving board, and the obligatory commencement address delivered by Dangerfield, who proves that he can crack jokes without tugging at his tie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rodney Dangerfield, Sally Kellerman, (more)
- 1986
- R
In this slice-n-dicer acclaimed pop psychologist Dr. David Kelley hosts a radio call-in show in LA. The current topic of discussion is a baffling series of murders that has been occurring throughout the town. All of the victims are beautiful real estate agents. One day he gets a strange call from "Harry," who claims that each of the victims deserved everything they got, because he believes that the real estate agents encourage the further displacement of the poor and homeless. He also describes their murders in detail. When the calls become more frequent, Dr. Kelley becomes even more concerned. He should be because his own lady love is a real estate agent. The film features considerable gore, nudity and simulated sex. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joseph Bottoms, Adrienne Barbeau, (more)
- 1987
In Denver to appear on a TV book-review show, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) witnesses a nasty confrontation on the set of a consumer-advocacy show hosted by the pompous and abrasive Steve Honig (Robert F. Lyons). Soon afterward, Honig is murdered, and the main suspect is one of the targets of the victim's on-the-air wrath. Jessica, however, quickly learns that practically everyone in the studio--if not everyone in Denver--had ample motive to kill Honig, whose "advocacy" could be bought at the right price. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
