Cloris Leachman Movies

An Anglo-American co-production, S.O.S. Titanic is a costly, 150-minute reenactment of the infamous sea disaster of 1912. Heading the cast is David Janssen as millionaire John Jacob Astor, who went down with the Titanic, and Cloris Leachman as raucous Denver dowager Molly Brown, who didn't (for the record, Leachman had previously played Brown on a 1957 episode of the TV anthology Telephone Time). Third-billed is Susan Saint James as fictional passenger Leigh Goodwin, who carries most of the dramatic load. Written by Hallmark Hall of Fame veteran James Costigan, the made-for-television S.O.S. Titanic premiered September 23, 1979. In subsequent network and syndicated showings, the film was pared down to 102 minutes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Kermit the Frog and Fozzie Bear, from of the large crew of loveably fuzzy characters created by puppetmaster Jim Henson, have embarked on a quest for stardom. They take a trip to Hollywood, riding in or on a wide variety of vehicles along the way. They begin their journey on a bicycle pedalled by Kermit, but friends accumulate along the way, and they change vehicles to accomodate them. They have the additional challenge of fending off the entreaties of the heartless Doc Hopper (Charles Durning), who wants Kermit to make some advertisements promoting fried frog legs. Kermit must also cope with his amorous feelings for Miss Piggy, and hers for him. This appealing children's adventure movie has numerous scenes which do homage to classic films, and features a huge cast of Hollywood greats, from Edgar Bergen to Orson Welles, in cameo roles. A great box-office success, this movie paved the way for a number of sequels. One of the film's many songs, The Rainbow Connection, was nominated for an Oscar. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Stephanie Zimbalist stars as the brilliant, athletic teen-aged daughter of Cloris Leachman and Michael Connors. Stephanie's perfect world is shattered when she is caught in the middle of a bus-train collision. She survives, but suffers severe brain damage and the loss of a leg. Zimbalist must make the "long journey back" to recovering her health and self-esteem, with her parents and friends helping every step of the way. Originally telecast December 15, 1978, Long Journey Back was adapted for television by Audrey Davis Levin from a true story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Marlo Thomas' first mistake was optioning the classic It's a Wonderful Life for this TV remake; her second was starring in it herself in the Jimmy Stewart part! This gender switch aside, It Happened One Christmas follows the original virtually to the letter. Thomas is a young woman who dreams of leaving her small town to see the world, but circumstances force her to remain in town as head of the local bank--and in so doing she enriches the lives of everyone around her. In a moment of financial crisis, Thomas contemplates suicide, but is rescued by her guardian angel (Cloris Leachman, overacting her way--complete with British accent--through the old Henry Travers part). The angel shows Thomas what life in her town would have been like if Thomas had never been born. You know the rest. It was already hard to believe in the original film that Donna Reed would have become a spinster had she never met Jimmy Stewart; it was impossible to believe in the remake that Wayne Rogers (in the equivalent to the Reed part) would not only have remained unmarried, but also would have become an embittered failure without Thomas' presence. Only Orson Welles, in the Lionel Barrymore role as the villainous Potter, comes across with any credibility. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This is Mel Brooks' spoof of over ten Alfred Hitchcock classics, including Psycho, Vertigo, and The Birds (Brooks actually used the bird trainer from that classic suspense movie in making his film). Brooks plays Dr. Richard H. Thorndyke, a renowned Harvard psychiatrist with a concealed fear of heights, or High Anxiety. Thorndyke takes over as the newest director of the PsychoNeurotic Institute for the Very, Very Nervous after the last director dies under suspicious circumstances. He soon finds himself to be in the company of some very strange colleagues, including longtime Brooks collaborators Cloris Leachman and Harvey Korman, with Madeline Kahn as Victoria Brisbane, the eccentric daughter of a patient at the institute and Thorndyke's love interest. Korman takes on the role of Dr. Charles Montague, a psychiatrist with a closeted habit of his own. Leachman plays Charlotte Diesel, a charge nurse with a dark sneer and tendency towards domination. As Thorndyke heads to a psychiatry conference, he is faced with saving the Institute, his reputation, and his own sanity. Although the film was not well-received by critics, it picked up a 1978 Golden Globe nomination for best picture (musical or comedy) and landed Brooks a nomination for best actor. The movie has a number of cameos, from a young Barry Levinson's spot as an unstable bellboy to a small part by Hitchcock's right-hand special effects man, Albert J. Whitlock, who plays Kahn's father. ~ Rachel Koetje, All Movie Guide

While The Mary Tyler Moore Show no longer enjoyed Top 20 ratings as the series entered its seventh season, CBS hoped that the show would last forever as the linchpin of its Saturday-night lineup. However, series star Mary Tyler Moore (cast as Mary Richards, newscast producer at Minneapolis TV station WJM) had already decided to emulate the example set by her previous sitcom, The Dick Van Dyke Show: quit while the applause and laughter are still ringing in your ears, rather than hang around until nobody is left in the room. Thus, season seven of The Mary Tyler Moore Show was predestined to be season last. Even so, the series' final batch of episodes uphold the lofty standards of previous seasons, as indicated by the fact that Mary Tyler Moore earned its third Outstanding Comedy Series Emmy award in a row at the 1976-1977 ceremonies. Things get off to a grand start with "Mary Midwife," in which Georgette Baxter (Georgia Engel), the pregnant wife of WJM-TV's vainglorious anchorman, Ted Baxter (Ted Knight), goes into labor right in the middle of one of Mary Richards' infamous dinner parties. Subsequent episodes of note include "Sue Ann's Sister," in which WJM's "Happy Homemaker" Sue Ann Nivens (Betty White) suffers a bad case of sibling rivalry when her sister -- and professional competitor -- Lila (Pat Priest) comes to town; and "Sue Ann Gets the Ax," wherein Sue Ann accepts a humiliating supporting role on a TV kiddie show when her own series is canceled. Also worth noting are "Ted's Change of Heart," in which Ted undergoes an epiphany after suffering a heart attack while on the air; "Lou Proposes," featuring another lively appearance by Eileen Heckart as Mary's globetrotting journalist aunt Flo Meredith; "Mary's Insomnia," combining slapstick with melodrama as Mary inadvertently becomes addicted to sleeping pills; "The Critic," guest-starring Eric Braeden as a waspish arts critic who is given a gooey comeuppance by an unwitting Ted; "Hail the Conquering Gordy," marking a return appearance by John Amos in the role of former WJM weatherman Gordy Howard; "Mary's Big Party," in which Johnny Carson makes a guest appearance -- we think; and the series' only fantasy episode, "Mary's Three Husbands." The Mary Tyler Moore Show neatly wraps things up after seven seasons with the now-classic series finale, in which the new manager of WJM-TV fires everyone on the staff -- except, amazingly, Ted Baxter! (It's a long way to Tipperary....) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The 1975 TV movie Death Scream is based on the shameful Kitty Genovese affair of 1964, in which a N.Y.C. woman was stabbed to death while 38 witnesses locked their windows and doors and pretended not to hear. Raul Julia stars as the detective who investigates the murder and stirs up the guilt feelings of those who refused to help. The film casts celebrity actors in the roles of the witnesses (Diahann Carroll, Cloris Leachman, Lucie Arnaz, Nancy Walker, Art Carney, et al.). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cloris Leachman stars as Melba, a woman with whom violence is a way of life, in Jonathan Demme's high-pitched "B"-movie Crazy Mama. The film spans three decades in the violent life of Melba, beginning in Jerusalem, Arkansas in 1932, when law enforcers kill her father (Clint Kimbrough), turning her mother Sheba (Ann Sothern) into a bitter widow. Mother and daughter take off to Long Beach, California, and the time jumps to 1958, when the two are thrown out of their beauty salon for non-payment of back rent. Melba now has an attractive (and pregnant) teenage daughter Cheryl (Linda Purl). The three generations take to the road, stealing cars and creating general mayhem across the United States, robbing a motorcycle racetrack box office and a bank. But in 1959, Melba and Cheryl are picked up again, running a Miami Beach snack bar, their lives wasted in free-living terror. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The second made-for-TV movie based on Charles Moulton's classy comic-strip heroine Wonder Woman, The New Original Wonder Woman was the one that "sold", resulting in a popular and durable weekly series. Replacing Cathy Lee Crosby, who'd starred in the disastrous 1974 adaptation of Wonder Woman, is the statuesque Linda Carter. Having dwelled exclusively among females on Paradise Islandsince 200 BC, immortal Amazonian princess Diana comes in contact with the real world for the first time in her life when US Army Major Steve Trevor (Lyle Waggoner) crash-lands on the island during WWII. Falling in love with Steve, the Princess assumes the identity of mousy, bespectacled Diana Prince and returns with him to the mainland. Every so often, and unbeknownst to Steve, Diana occcasionally transforms herself into the scantily clad superheroine Wonder Woman (golden lasso, magic belt and bracelets, the whole bit) in order to save the world from the Nazi menace. On this occasion, Wonder Woman does her thing in order to prevent the Nazis from destroying the prototype of a revolutionary new bombsight. First telecast on November 7, 1975, The New Original Wonder Woman was seen on ABC; by the time the Wonder Woman series proper ran its course on September 11, 1979, the property had switched networks to CBS. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

For middle-aged vacationer Claire Stevens (Cloris Leachman), the nightmare begins when she picks up personable young hitchhiker Keith Mile (Michael Brandon). Feeling a bit lonely, Claire strikes up a friendship and then a romance with her handsome passenger. Little does she know that Keith has just finished murdering his stepmother -- and that his fondness for older women is, to put it mildly, conditional. Hitchhike made its ABC network bow on February 23, 1974, scheduled in a Saturday-night slot opposite The Mary Tyler Moore Show (which, fortunately for indecisive Cloris Leachman devotees, did not feature Phyllis on that particular evening). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Season five of The Mary Tyler Moore Show gets under way with all but one of its familiar regular characters in attendance: Valerie Harper has departed the series in the role of Rhoda Morganstern to star in her own weekly spin-off, Rhoda. However, Harper and Mary Tyler Moore would be reunited in a "crossover" Rhoda episode telecast October 28, 1974, in which Rhoda is married to her boyfriend, Joe Gerard (David Groh). Otherwise, it is business as usual in Minneapolis, as Mary Richards (Mary Tyler Moore) divides her time between her associate-producer duties in the WJM-TV newsroom and her home life in the apartment house owned by flighty Phyllis Lindstrom (Cloris Leachman). Mary's grouchy boss, Lou Grant (Edward Asner), is still adjusting to his recent divorce; newswriter Murray Slaughter (Gavin MacLeod) continues to mask his neuroses with a smile and a wisecrack; the "humanization" of dimwitted, self-centered anchorman Ted Baxter (Ted Knight) carries on under the watchful and loving eye of his fiancée, Georgette Franklin (Georgia Engel); and "Happy Homemaker" Sue Ann Nivens proves tireless in her efforts to sleep with every eligible man within a 50-mile radius.

Season five kicks off with the Emmy-winning "Will Mary Richards Go to Jail," in which wide-eyed Mary finds herself in the slammer with a pair of cynical "working girls" after she refuses to reveal a news source. Subsequent first-rate episodes include "You Sometimes Hurt the One You Hate," with a contrite Lou Grant bending over backward to patch things up with Ted Baxter after tossing him through his office doors over an on-the-air gaffe; "Lou and That Woman," featuring Sheree North as Lou's sometimes girlfriend, lounge singer Charlene Maguire; "The Outsider," guest-starring Richard Masur as WJM's new business consultant, who manages to get on the wrong side of everyone in the newsroom; "A New Sue Ann" (or "All About Eve in Minneapolis"), in which Sue Ann is hoodwinked into hiring a perky young assistant (Linda Kelsey) who is plotting to take over as the Happy Homemaker; "Mary Richards: Producer," Mary's annual blow struck on behalf of feminism; "Marriage Minneapolis Style," in which Ted finally pops the question to Georgette -- then begs his friends to help him break the engagement; and the deathless "Ted Baxter's Famous Broadcasters' School," which surely needs no synopsis. Arguably, the season's most interesting episode is "Phyllis Whips Inflation," which serves a the pilot for Cloris Leachman's own spin-off series, Phyllis. Ranking at number 11 in the 1974-1975 ratings, the fifth season of The Mary Tyler Moore Show was also the first in which the program earned an Emmy award for Outstanding Comedy Series. Also earning Emmys were Betty White as Outstanding Supporting Actress and Cloris Leachman for Outstanding Single Performance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide