Mary MacGregor Movies
Lee Remick is Torn Between Two Lovers in this made-for-TV romantic drama. Happily married to Joseph Bologna, Remick becomes involved with handsome architect George Peppard after a chance meeting in Chicago's O'Hare International Airport. Halfway down the cast list is Second City TV regular Andrea Martin in the role of Remick's buttinsky sister-in-law. The film's title was inspired by Peter Yarrow and Philip Jarrell's syrupy 1970s song hit of the same name. Representing the third TV-movie collaboration between actress Lee Remick and director Delbert Mann, Torn Between Two Lovers debuted May 2, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
The Last Giraffe was adapted by Sherman Yellin from the book Raising Daisy Rothschild by Jock and Betty Leslie-Melville. Put two and two together, and you'll figure out from the above information that the giraffe of the title and Daisy Rothschild are one in the same. Filmed in Kenya, the fact-based story details the efforts of married-couple Susan Anspach and Simon Ward to save an injured baby Rothschild giraffe and to rescue the animal's herd from nasty poacher Gordon Jackson. It turns out that Jackson is not the only threat to the Rothschilds: the expanding human population of Kenya is unwittingly stripping the land of the precious foliage upon which Daisy and the other giraffes must feed. Thankfully, the film avoids sappy sentiment and Disneyesque preciousness. Made for television, The Last Giraffe premiered June 7, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Magazine publisher Clark Gable is happily married to Myrna Loy. Clark's devoted, super-efficient secretary Jean Harlow may have once harbored a secret desire for her boss, but she's perfectly content with boyfriend James Stewart. Accompanying Gable on a crucial business trip, Jean answers the phone in her boss' suite. Myrna, on the other end of the line, misunderstands, thereby setting the stage for a series of subsequent misunderstandings. As one can see, nothing much really happens in Wife vs. Secretary. The film is a vehicle in every sense of the word, totally reliant on the appeal of its stars. But it works beautifully, and remains as entertaining now as it did sixty years ago. One film historian has wondered what Wife vs. Secretary would have looked like had it been made before the imposition of the production code: would Jean have really had an affair with Clark, thereby giving Myrna something to really worry about? No matter; while it may have been racier, it's not likely the film could have been any more entertaining than it already is. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clark Gable, Jean Harlow, (more)
- 1918
Randolph Shorb (Herbert Rawlinson) and his father have always been on the level when it comes to business. Their competitors, however, lack such high-minded scruples and ruin the pair. The father commits suicide and Randolph becomes bitter and ruthless, out only for the money and nothing else (perhaps this wasn't as common in 1918 as it was today). He gets involved with a crook, Philadelphia Johnson (Charles West), and they bring Randolph's brokerage business back to life. Country boy Joe Freeman (Jack Nelson) comes to the big city and gets a job at a bank. Like all movie country boys, he's glaringly naive. The crooks swindle him out of a big chunk of the bank's money and he's ready to kill himself. But in quite an incredible (and incredulous) climax, Randolph, who has vouched for Freeman, gets ahold of him by finding the city's main electrical power, shutting it down, then contacting him by Morse code! So Randolph makes good the bank's shortage and after that he decides he prefers the straight and narrow. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
