Bessie Love Movies

Few filmmakers other than Warren Beatty would have had the courage and vision to fashion an epic film from the life of famed American Communist John Reed (who is the only US citizen buried in the Kremlin). The film is an effort to humanize a political movement that has previously been depicted on screen in a series of unsubtle and prejudicial broad strokes. The film begins in 1915, when Reed (Beatty) makes the acquaintance of married Portland journalist Louise Bryant (Diane Keaton). So persuasive is Reed's point of view--and so charismatic is Reed himself-- that Bryant kicks over the traces and joins Reed and his fellow radicals. Among the famous personages depicted herein are Emma Goldman (Maureen Stapleton), Eugene O'Neill (Jack Nicholson) and Max Eastman (Richard Herrmann). The second half of this nearly-200-minute film skims through the years when Reed, now a Russian resident, becomes disillusioned by the harsh realities of Bolshevism. Despite the celebrity line-up of real-life "witnesses" to the events depicted in the film (ranging from novelist Henry Miller to comedian George Jessel!), historians took Reds to task for its oversimplification of events and its laundering of the notoriously promiscuous Louise Bryant. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This adaptation of D. H. Lawrence's novel Lady Chatterly's Lover stars Sylvia Kristel as Constance Chatterly, the young wife of an emotionally distant aristocrat in 1910's England, who becomes only less accessible to his spouse when he loses the use of his legs in World War I. He gives her leave to take up a lover, but when Constance turns to the bed of the low-born groundskeeper, Mellors (Nicholas Clay), she not only discovers what passionate lovemaking is really like, but also experiences actual intimacy and love for the first time, leading to a dramatic love triangle, and a bevy of subtext about classism and emotional freedome. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

With The Ritz, Terrence McNally's hit Broadway play of the same name is cinematized by director Richard Lester. Jack Weston plays Gaetano Proclo, a minor mob flunky who's been targeted for elimination by his brother-in-law, Carmine Vespucci (Jerry Stiller). Gaetano takes refuge in what he thinks is a Turkish bath. Actually, it's The Pits. That's the name, "The Pits" -- a gay bathhouse (this is the pre-AIDS era), where the exquisitely awful Googie Gomez (Rita Moreno) entertains the homosexual patrons with her ear-splitting renditions of such show tunes as "Everything's Coming Up Roses." Hoping to save his neck by pretending to be gay, Gaetano effusively praises Googie. Assuming that he is a big-time Broadway producer, she plays up to him. Everything would be hunky-dory, except that the bathhouse is owned by the very mob that has put a contract on Gaetano. What follows is an old-fashioned door-slamming farce, except that there are no doors to slam. The supporting cast includes Kaye Ballard, Treat Williams, George Coulouris, F. Murray Abraham, Dave King, and (as one of the patrons) a pre-Cheers John Ratzenberger. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This Hammer-flavored gothic outing (originally titled Daughters of Dracula) involves the sanguinary exploits of two female vampires (Marianne Morris and Playboy centerfold Anulka) who bed down together in a queen-sized coffin by day and seduce male and female victims by moonlight, leading to lots of steamy soft-core sex scenes followed by copious amounts of the red stuff. One of their victims (Murray Brown) falls in love with Moore, even as he grows increasingly anemic due to her nutritional requirements. Moody photography and lush sets enhance the film's fatally hedonistic atmosphere, and the stars assay temptingly feline performances that render their characters' seductive powers chillingly real. This was a late entry in the European "lesbian vampire" sub-genre, a 1970s phenomenon made popular by such filmmakers as Jean Rollin and Jess Franco that made a comeback in the late 1990s. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

Based on a novel by Louis L'Amour, this comedic western tells of a thieving man who tries to get his hands on two million dollars of government cash while trying to avoid his friend--who happens to be a lawman. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

It wasn't as well received at the box office as the pictures that preceded it or followed it, but Peter Hunt's On Her Majesty's Secret Service is one of the finest of the James Bond movies. James Bond, portrayed here by George Lazenby (in his only performance in the role) has spent nearly two years trying to track down Ernst Stavro Blofeld (Telly Savalas), the head of SPECTRE. He has been taken off the case by his chief (Bernard Lee), an action the pushes him to the point of considering resigning from Her Majesty's Secret Service, just as he opens a possible new avenue of attack on his quarry. Whilst in the field, Bond has chanced to cross paths with the Contessa Teresa Di Vicenzo (Diana Rigg), a beautiful but desperately unhappy woman, whom he rescues from one apparent suicide attempt and an embarrassing moment at a casino gaming table -- the Contessa, who prefers to be called Tracy ("Teresa was a saint"), is the daughter of Marc Ange Draco (Gabriele Ferzetti), an industrial and construction magnate and also a crime boss, who is impressed with Bond personally as well as professionally, and would like to see him marry his daughter. Bond is, at first, unwilling to involve himself with a woman -- any woman -- on that level, but Draco's underworld contacts give Bond a vital clue to Blofeld's whereabouts that get him back on the case and hot on the man's trail. Journeying incognito to Blofeld's mountaintop retreat in the Swiss Alps, Bond finds the criminal mastermind posing as a would-be nobleman and also as a philanthropist, running a clinic devoted to the treatment and eradication of allergies. It's all a front for a surprisingly sinister (and scientifically valid) plot for international blackmail that would make any previous Bond villain quake in fear. And in the process of staying alive long enough to have a chance of stopping Blofeld, Bond discovers the Tracy is truly like no woman he's ever known before -- one special enough that he finds himself willing to give up his life as a free-living, free-loving bachelor. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

In this rabid anti-communist science fiction tract, scientist Arnold Kramer (Peter Arne) convinces the Pentagon that the communist Chinese are digging a complex series of tunnels from China and beneath the United States, from which they plan to detonate nuclear weapons and destroy the free world. Kramer enlists Commander Jonathan Shaw (Kerwin Mathews) to assist Kramer in trying to prevent the literal and final collapse of the U.S.A. Shaw sets up shop inside an extinct Hawaiian volcano, attempting to destroy the main supply tunnel coming from China. But before the team can complete their mission, they are captured y the evil Chinese. Now it is up to Shaw and Kramer to escape the clutches of the Chinese in order to activate a nuclear stockpile inside the tunnel and incinerate the Chinese forces. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

In this sexy comedy an affianced woman decides to sow one last wild oat before becoming a devoted wife. She therefore dresses up in a slinky black number and goes to her company Christmas party. The shapely lass impresses both her boss and a sales manager for the cosmetic company. The manager then sends her a new dress and she goes to his hotel room to have a little lunch. When he makes a pass, she flees and returns to the party and spikes the punch. When her fiance shows up, they all kick him out. Soon the drunken party-goers begin cozying up to one another. The girl realizes she has gone too far and sets off the company sprinkler system to sober them up. Things are suitably dampened and the partiers begin getting rather glum until they hear that one of the employee's wives has given birth. Later, the troublemaker makes nice with her fiance and they leave. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

A woman has to choose between the rich man she wants and the bohemian type who loves her in this comedy. Michele O'Brien (Leslie Caron) is a young widow raising a baby in Greenwich Village. She's decided that her child needs a father, and she determines that her best bet as a prospective mate is Dr. Phillip Brock (Robert Cummings), a well-heeled child psychologist. The only trouble is, Phillip doesn't like children very much, so Michele tries to keep her baby a secret from him. Michele's upstairs neighbor, Harley Rummell (Warren Beatty), is in love with her and is more than happy to baby-sit; however, Harley makes his living shooting nudie films in his flat, and when the baby begins making cameo appearances in the films, Michele starts wondering if Harley might be a bad influence on the tyke. William Peter Blatty, later to write the best-selling novel The Exorcist, penned the screenplay. Keep an eye peeled for a young Donald Sutherland in a bit part. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A young Susannah York had her first lead role in this drama about a teenage girl on the cusp of womanhood. When her mother falls ill during a vacation in the French wine country, 16-year-old Joss Grey (York) is left to her own devices as she and her three younger siblings are left in the reluctant care of Madame Zisi (Danielle Darrieux), the proprietor of the hotel where they were staying. Eliot (Kenneth More), Zisi's strapping boyfriend, offers to show the youngsters some of the sights in the countryside, and Joss finds herself developing a strong infatuation with the older man. However, when she realizes that Eliot and Zisi are lovers, she becomes despondent and ends up getting drunk on wine with Paul (David Saire), a boy who works in the kitchen at Zisi's hotel. When Joss learns that Eliot is actually a jewel thief wanted by the law, she informs the police of his whereabouts. However, that same night, Paul's efforts to seduce Joss degenerate into a violent attempt at rape, but when Eliot hears her screams for help, he comes to Joss' rescue. Having spared her virtue and perhaps her life, Joss confesses to Eliot that she has turned him in to the police, and urges him to flee for his own safety. One of Joss' sisters is played by Jane Asher, a distinguished actress who was most famous in the United States not for her abilities as a performer, but for spending several years as Paul McCartney's girlfriend. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Based on the stageplay Pick-up Girl, this film adaptation by director Muriel Box retains enough of the verbose theatrical styling and single-set focus to wobble as a cinematic effort. The story centers around an unfortunate period in the life of Elizabeth (Pauline Hahn), a fifteen-year-old girl who lives with her mother in New York while her father is away working in California. Because her mother works late into the night, there is not enough guidance or supervision in Elizabeth's life to keep her from making bad choices. And so she ends up with some dubious-looking friends, and after a brief fling with a sailor she goes through the trauma of an abortion. By that time any split with her parents has widened into a major chasm. Eventually she gets into even more trouble and ends up in juvenile court. It is in that setting under the understanding eye of a worldly wise judge (Thomas Mitchell) that her story unfolds in flashbacks as her fate hangs in the balance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Maggie Smith makes her film debut in this outing as an aristocrat whose sheltered existence is shattered by the arrival of George Nader. Nader is a fugitive from justice who can expect no help from his fellow criminals. He takes refuge in Smith's home, entreating her to shield him from the police. She draws closer to Nader after the latter is accidentally shot. The film was adapted from a novel by Donald McKenzie. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi