Nancy Marchand Movies
Following extensive dramatic training at Carnegie Tech, American actress Nancy Marchand did some stage work, then entered the infant TV medium with a 1950 production of Little Women. One year later she appeared on Broadway for the first time; for the rest of the '50s she fluctuated between on-stage classics (Shakespeare, Euripedes) and TV anthologies and soap operas. In later years, Nancy explained that she retreated to contemporary characters on TV because she was "tired of being a queen or a poor put-upon Greek" on stage. A handsome woman, but not voluptuously beautiful in the then-fashionable Marilyn Monroe tradition, Ms. Marchand was usually cast in character roles: she was the dateless "dog" with whom lonely Bronx butcher Rod Steiger fell in love in the original 1953 telecast of Paddy Chayefsky's Marty. Marchand made her movie bow in another Chayefsky work, The Bachelor Party (1957). In 1960, Ms. Marchand won an Obie for her stage performance as the Madam of a fantasy-granting brothel in Genet's The Balcony (also in the cast were future TV stars Michael Conrad and Jack Dodson). From 1977 through 1982, Ms. Marchand played Mrs. Margaret Pynchon, a powerful newspaper executive said to be patterned after the Washington Post's Katherine Graham, on the TV series Lou Grant; she won four Emmies, one for each year of the series' existence. When at one point her character suffered a stroke and spent several weeks recovering, Ms. Marchand was besieged with get-well cards from fans who believed that the actress' fictional stroke was genuine. Recent film appearances for Nancy Marchand include the role of the long-suffering mayor in The Naked Gun (1988). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1979
In this made-for-TV drama, a spunky waitress (Deborah Raffin) is left to support herself, her two small children, and her unborn baby when her no-good husband runs off. Determined not to spend her life in a dead-end job, the woman quits waitressing and sets out to become a truck driver. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1979
David Dukes stars as a marriage-bound young man who is rendered a paraplegic by a surfing accident. Dukes fears that his paralysis has resulted in impotence. His future wife Andrea Marcovicci is similarly fearful. Without the help of counselors or physical therapists, the unmarried couple manages to overcome the young man's sexual dilemma. Are you still sure you want to see this TV movie? Some Kind of Miracle was based on some kind of an autobiography by Mary and Jack Willis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The 44-minute Soldier's Home is based on a story by Ernest Hemingway. Richard Backus stars as a returning World War I veteran who can't adapt to the changes in his home town. Nancy Marchand, Mark LaMura and Lane Binkley costar. Though released separately on videocassette, Soldier's Home was originally telecast on PBS' American Short Story series in tandem with another short drama: Almos' a Man, based on a Richard Wright story and starring LeVar Burton and Madge Sinclair. The two playlets initially aired on April 25, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A Touch of the Poet is the only completed play in Eugene O'Neill's planned 11-part "American History" cycle. Set in a rundown tavern in 1820s Boston, Poet focuses on the relationships between tavern owner Cornelius Melody, his wife Nora, and daughter Sara. Born into wealth in the old country, Cornelius has fallen on hard times, a consequence of a disgrace he suffered while serving in the Peninsular Wars. He took his family to start over in America but lost his fortune buying a secluded inn that attracts few customers. He maintains his haughty airs, however, and constantly abuses his loving, hard-working wife, which only makes Sara more scornful of her father's inability to face reality. For her part, Sara is in love with Simon, a wealthy American who has taken ill. When Simon's father arrives on the scene, he takes a quick measure of the kind of man Cornelius is and forbids Simon and Sara from marrying. Greatly offended, Cornelius swears to avenge this insult, but the result of his efforts are far different than what he intended. This production originally aired as part of PBS's Theatre in America series. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fritz Weaver
Directed by Arthur Hiller from the second of three Academy Award-winning screenplays by Paddy Chayefsky, The Hospital is a black comedy centering on Dr. Herbert Bock (George C. Scott), a bitter, suicidal surgeon. While patients at the hospital die left and right due to the extreme carelessness and ineptness of the staff that surrounds him, the lonely Bock finds himself falling for Barbara (Diana Rigg), the daughter of Edmund (Barnard Hughes), a patient. Meanwhile, a mysterious killer has begun stalking the hospital, taking out staff members. In addition to Chayefsky's Oscar win, The Hospital garnered a Best Actor nomination for Scott, who lost to Gene Hackman for The French Connection. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George C. Scott, Diana Rigg, (more)
- 1970
Upon completing Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon, a tearful Liza Minnelli declared publicly that she would never, ever work with tyrannical director Otto Preminger again. Worse luck for her: Junie Moon contains what may well be Minnelli's best non-musical performance. Based on the novel by Marjorie Kellogg, the film surprisingly manages to evoke humor and pathos from some of the least promising material in movie history. Minnelli plays an emotionally imbalanced young girl whose face is horribly disfigured by her psycho boy friend Ben Piazza. Ken Howard is cast as an epileptic who has wrongly been diagnosed as mentally retarded. And Robert Moore (future director of such films as The Cheap Detective and Murder by Death) portrays a homosexual, confined to a wheelchair after a hunting accident. After meeting one another in a hospital, these three social outcasts decide to move in together, forming a united front against a cold, judgmental world. The devastating events that follow might have lapsed into the grotesque and exploitational, but director Preminger is extremely careful to depict his protagonists as three-dimensional human beings rather than "freaks." Unfortunately, some filmgoers, assuming that any film with a title like Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon just had to be a campy laff riot, were turned off by the repellant aspects of the early scenes and refused to give the rest of this fascinating film a chance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liza Minnelli, Ken Howard, (more)
- 1969
- PG
Since she was a child, Natalie Miller (Patty Duke) has always thought she was an ugly ducking. When a boy called her "clown face", the six-year-old knocked out his front teeth with a shovel. Despite her mother's encouragement that she will grow up to be pretty, Natalie has never believed it will happen. When her parents bribe a young medical student to date her, Natalie discovers the ruse and moves out of her parent's house. She rents a Greenwich Village apartment from an eccentric landlady (Elsa Lanchester) and gets a job at the Topless Bottom Club. She rides a motorcycle to work, decorates her loft with a moose head, and rides up and down a dumbwaiter to get to her apartment. There Natalie meets David (James Farentino) an artist, and the two have a love affair before she discovers he is married. She considers returning home after finding him in bed with his wife. Al Pacino makes his first screen appearance in a minor role in this engaging drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patty Duke, James Farentino, (more)
- 1966
Produced by the public affairs department of the American Broadcasting Company, Directions was that network's "answer" to the established religious programs on NBC and CBS. This Sunday-afternoon series ran from November 13, 1960 to March 25, 1984. Each year, the show's title underwent a subtle change, hence this video's cognomen, Directions '66. At this juncture (1966), the series was experimenting with music and drama as means to convey its nondenominational message. In this video, a pious couple (Nancy Marchand and Lawrence Keith) have their faith sorely tested when they take charge of a group of "problem kids." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1963
This thought-provoking and only slightly heavy handed anti-war tract is based on a real incident that occurred during the atomic terror of the Cuban missile crisis. The tragedy begins when a civil defense siren is accidentally tripped while a school is in session. The panic-stricken children are immediately sent home. One young girl has an air-raid shelter in her backyard and invites many children inside. A less popular girl begs to be let in, but the first girl makes excuses and shuts her out leaving the terribly frightened child to hide out in an abandoned refrigerator where she dies. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Connell, William Daniels, (more)
- 1957
Like his earlier Marty, Paddy Chayefsky's The Bachelor Party began life as a TV play. The film version centers around the impending wedding of thirtyish Arnold (Philip Abbott). As they gather for the traditional "wild" bachelor party, Arnold's married pals begin reflecting on their own lives. Most of what develops is seen through the eyes of Charlie Samson (Don Murray), a staid bookkeeper who intends to cut loose at Arnold's premarital bacchanale. The unexpected pathetic figure in the proceedings is Walter (E. G. Marshall), a self-described "swinger" who after a few drinks bursts out in a uncontrolled fit of self-loathing. Though by necessity their characters are secondary, the women in The Bachelor Party--including Nancy Marchand, Patricia Smith, and Karen Norris - also reveal their true natures in ways both mundane and profound. Particularly memorable is Carolyn Jones in a brilliant, Oscar-nominated turn as a "good time girl" with whom Charlie Samson briefly dallies. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Murray, E.G. Marshall, (more)
- 1953
Not the 1955 film, but a television version filmed two years earlier, Marty is the story of a lonely New York man (Rod Steiger) who finds solace with an equally introverted woman. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Steiger, Nancy Marchand, (more)
