Edie McClurg Movies

After going out once with Crystal (Natalie West), Roseanne gets hooked on bingo and can't seem to stop. Edie McClurg and Mitzi McCall guest star as the bingo-crazed ladies Harriet and Peg, respectively. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide

Robert Redford's lyrical direction sets the tone for this evocative adaptation of author Norman MacLean's memoir of his idyllic Montana youth. The MacLean family is presided over by the strict but encouraging Rev. MacLean (Tom Skerritt) and his loving wife (Brenda Blethyn). Craig Sheffer stars as the young Norman, the older son in his family, who takes his school work and writing a bit too seriously for Paul (Brad Pitt), the impetuous younger son, to take much stock in. Paul would rather have a good time, drink and play cards than get involved with academic study. Where Norman wants to be a college literature professor, Paul would prefer to stay in Montana all his life and wrangle some kind of job writing for a local newspaper. But, ironically, Paul is the better fly fisherman and in this way attains a sense of perfection. The film also details the MacLean boys' involvement with a colorful group of town's people -- including a young Indian woman Paul decides to date and the defiant Jessie (Emily Lloyd), whom Norman later marries. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

John Hughes dishes out the sentiment by the ladle-full in Curly Sue. The film stars James Belushi as Bill Dancer, a down-on-his-luck drifter who lives by his wits on the highways and byways of the United States, stealing free meals, slipping into movie theaters, and sleeping in welfare hotels. Bill is also the guardian of cute pint-size moppet Curly Sue (Alisan Porter), a cutey pie cross between Little Orphan Annie and Tatum O'Neal's Addie Loggins character from Paper Moon. Bill and Curly Sue are a perfect con team, and they practice their scams when they need money for food. Pulling a knockdown car-accident scam, Bill makes hard-bitten Chicago lawyer Grey Ellison (Kelly Lynch) think that she slammed into him with her car. She buys dinner for the two mountebanks before being taken away by her snotty boyfriend Walter McCormick (John Getz). But the next morning, Grey actually does hit Bill with her car, and she takes the two back home with her. At first, Grey can't seem to get Curly Sue out of her mind, but then she finds herself falling in love with Bill. They begin to form a perfect family until Walter puts in a call to the Department of Children and Family Services. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The made for TV Menu for Murder was first telecast December 4, 1990. An unpopular PTA leader is murdered with a poisoned croissant sandwich during a gala luncheon. Though practically every woman on the committee had expressed a desire to kill the victim, the principal suspect is housewife Julia Duffy. Detective Ed Marinaro conducts an intense investigation of Julia-much to the discomfort of her husband. Joan van Ark and Morgan Fairchild also star, the latter incrongrously cast as a PTA treasurer. Originally titled Murder at the PTA Luncheon, Menu for Murder was reportedly withheld from view until a few legal matters could be smoothed out with the Parent-Teacher's Association. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Disney's The Little Mermaid was the first in a series of blockbusters that restored the venerable firm's reputation as the world's premiere animated-feature factory. The title character is a precocious teenager named Ariel, the daughter of Triton, king of the Sea. Against her dad's wishes, Ariel journeys beyond her own world to the surface, where she falls in love with Prince Eric, a handsome human. Foolishly, the little mermaid enters into an agreement with evil sea witch Ursula in order to become human herself. The wistfully melancholy ending of the original Hans Christian Andersen story is dispensed with in favor of a joyously happy ending-but not before a spectacular climactic confrontation between Ursula and Triton. The obligatory Disney comic relief is handled by such freshly minted characters as Sebastian the Crab, who, courtesy of voiceover artist Samuel E. Wright, sings the film's Oscar-winning "Under the Sea." Other voices are provided by Broadway star Jodi Benson (as Ariel) and such Hollywood reliables as Buddy Hackett, Pat Carroll, Kenneth Mars, and Rene Auberjonois. The enormous box-office take of The Little Mermaid made possible such future Disney cartoon ventures as Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin, Pocahontas, and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This lightweight and slightly ribald comedy marks the feature film debut of Elvira (Cassandra Peterson), a buxom seductress best known for hosting a popular syndicated television show that features wonderfully bad old horror movies. After losing her latest job for refusing to sleep with her new boss, Elvira tries to launch a Vegas career. Just before that scheme falls flat, she finds salvation when an aunt dies and leaves her a huge old New England mansion. When the black-clad and sexy Elvira, with her flamboyant make-up and acres of cleavage hit the town, she creates an instant scandal amongst the old folks and inspires lusty dreams in the minds of the young. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

An aspiring writer faces up to the responsibilities of marriage and family in this romantic comedy from writer, director, and producer John Hughes. Despite the misgivings he pours out to best friend Davis McDonald (Alec Baldwin), Jake Briggs (Kevin Bacon) marries high-school sweetheart Kristy (Elizabeth McGovern). After an abortive attempt at graduate school in New Mexico, the couple settle in suburban Chicago. Jake fakes his way into a job as an advertising copywriter, while Kristy settles into her own corporate job. The couple face the typical ups and downs of any new marriage, especially after Davis visits with a bimbo on his arm, regaling his pal Jake with tales of the good life. A few years later, Kristy decides to stop taking her birth-control pills -- and tells Jake about it three months later. Plagued by doubts, unfulfilled ambitions, and images of a fantasy girl (Isabel Lorca) he once spotted in a club, Jake resists the idea of fatherhood. Then he finds out he has low sperm count and, his manhood thus challenged, lines up for fertility clinic-assisted stud duty. The birth doesn't go as smoothly as Jake expected, however, setting the stage for climactic realizations. Edie McClurg, who played the nosy school secretary in Hughes' Ferris Bueller's Day Off, makes a cameo appearance as an officious neighbor. In addition, a who's who of other Hughes alums and Hollywood stars lend their faces and voices to a series of closing-credits shots in which each suggests a name for the titular baby. ~ Brian J. Dillard, 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

Whoopi Goldberg earned an Emmy nomination for her guest-star turn as a con artist named Camille Brand (Whoopi Goldberg). While evading arrest, Camille unintentionally saves the life of a politician. Duly impressed, Maddie (Cybill Shepherd) is convinced that the highly untrustworthy Camille might be a valuable addition to the Blue Moon Detective Agency. This final episode of [#Moonlighting's second season contains a few choice "It's only a TV show, folks" moments (at one point, the villain is disarmed by the studio prop man)--not to mention a cameo appearance by famed dwarf actor Billy Barty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed on location "Somewhere in France", this umpteenth version of Dumas' The Corsican Brothers stars the zoned-out comedy team of Cheech and Chong. Perhaps inspired by the Ritz Bros.' spin on The Three Musketeers, the duo retains enough of the original story (about twin brothers who feel one another's pain) to keep the plot going, but try to inject their own peculiar brand of humor throughout. The film's highlight is a duel with two loaves of stale bread. Yes, that's the highlight. Just as the 1930s comedy team of Wheeler and Woolsey lost their audience when they dropped their risque humor and Prohibition gags, so too do Cheech and Chong falter when not indulging in the drug-oriented comedy which made them famous in the early 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jack Butler (Michael Keaton) is a Detroit automobile engineer unjustly fired by his boss. Jack's wife Caroline (Teri Garr) is compelled to get a job to make ends meet, and is soon hired on as an advertising executive in a firm run by the shifty Ron Richardson (Martin Mull. This leaves Jack at home doing the housework and taking care of the kids, which he discovers is a lot more complicated than he ever imagined. Moving from breadwinner to househusband doesn't do much for his self-esteem, and he bides his time playing poker for 10-cents-off coupons with a gaggle of neighborhood housewifes and pondering infidelity with dedicated homewrecker Joan (Ann Jillian). Among Keaton's fish-out-of-water bits: trying to maneuver a shopping cart with the inevitable wobbly wheels; and imagining a soap opera-cum-film noir episode in which he gives in to Joan's advances, only to be found out by Caroline. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frustrated with the Walt Disney studio's reluctance to produce full-length animated films, Don Bluth and a number of animators left the studio in the early '80s with the intent of creating movies in the style of Disney's classics. The Secret of NIMH is the first film Bluth produced after leaving the studio. Adapted from Robert C. O'Brien's acclaimed children's book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H., the film is about a widowed mouse whose home is threatened; also, one of her children is gravely ill. On her way to find help, she discovers NIMH, a secret society of highly-intelligent rats who have escaped from a nearby science lab. The rats help the widow to protect her family and home. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide