Kay Medford Movies

Slow-moving and dark, this Klute clone stars Talia Shire as Emily Hollander, a retiring, painfully introverted woman with a stutter who advertises her insecurity. She is attacked one day and her anguish recorded on tape by her assailant. It soon becomes apparent that her wacko lesbian neighbor Andrea (Elizabeth Ashley) is in love with her but too demented to express herself openly. She hired the assailant, though exactly why is not clear. Detective Bob Luffrono (Joseph Cortese) is called in to watch over Emily and perhaps corner her attacker. The relationship between Emily and the detective starts to slowly heat up, but meanwhile, there is Andrea with her telescope, spying on Emily and definitely up to no good. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Alan Arkin directed and starred in this anarchic comedy. Benny Fikus (Vincent Gardenia) is the owner of a department store that's on its last legs, with his nebbishy son Russell (Rob Reiner) serving as his second-in-command. Benny's bother Ezra (Arkin) used to work with him at the store, but he quit to coach basketball in the midst of a long losing streak. Ezra's wife Marion (Anjanette Comer) desperately wants a child, and Ezra needs a new star player, so he thinks he's helping both of them when he adopts a black teenager (Byron Stewart) who shoots mean hoop. Benny, looking for a way out of the store's irrevocable financial slump, wants to burn the place down for the insurance money, but rather than hire an arsonist, he tries to convince his brother-in-law, Zabbar (Sid Caesar), that the store is actually a Nazi stronghold so Zabbar that will do the deed on his own. The supporting cast also includes Sally K. Marr, whose son was controversial comedian Lenny Bruce. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The made-for-television No Place to Run stars Herschel Bernardi as a seriously ill 73-year-old grandparent. Despite his many ailments, Bernardi is roused into action when he is denied custody of his orphaned grandson (Scott Jacoby). Grandpa and grandson decide to skip town together, with the authorities hot on their heels. Ironically, production of No Place to Run had to shut down briefly when star Herschel Bernardi fell ill for real. During this period, original director John Badham had to leave for another commitment; the film was completed by Delbert Mann, who receives sole directorial credit. Advertised as a "touching film drama" (well, it was!), No Place to Run debuted on September 19, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This made-for-TV movie stars Herschel Bernardi as a middle-aged widower, contentedly resigned to his bachelorhood. Bernardi's well-meaning friends and relatives are tireless in their efforts to hitch him up with a new bride. All the candidates are played by prominent actresses (Shirley Jones, Tina Louise, June Lockhart et. al.); few of them are compatible with poor Mr. Bernardi. The bemused bachelor is determined to remain unmarried until he meets a lovely widow who is similarly indisposed to matrimony. Under the directorial guidance of Jerry Paris, But I Don't Want to Get Married rolls along with TV-sitcom efficiency. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Minister Sam (Andy Griffith) and his wife Mary Elizabeth (Lee Meriweather) move to a Kansas town divided by political concerns that stall the town's progress. Will Sinclair (Henry Jones) and Alex Gresham (Edgar Buchanan) have allowed a long-standing family argument to impede the progress of the small rural community. Sam must contend with his mother-in-law (Kay Medford) and his wild brother-in-law Bubba (Jerry Van Dyke) when Bubba sets up a moonshine still in the church basement with the help of his friend Calvin (Parker Fennelly). Art Shields (Gary Collins) is the ambitious young country lawyer who runs for mayor in hopes of bringing peace to the families, and he works for the best interests of the divided community. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A nosey housewife (Marguerite Viby) takes on extra responsibilities when her husband (Buster Larsen) hurts his back while reading the Sunday paper. When she finds a dead body in the upstairs office, she calls the police. The detective (Ole Monty) is summoned, and he discovers the woman is his old school dancing partner. When she turns around to renew the old acquaintance, the corpse is gone in this offbeat situation comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The crew of the USS Reluctant is at it again in this comedy sequel to Mister Roberts. The story opens toward the end of WWII as the great ship drops her cargo at various island bases. Their captain is an unbending tyrant. Young Pulver aspires to become a doctor just like his hero and mentor, the ship's physician. A terrible storm erupts and the ruthless captain is knocked overboard by a rogue wave. Brave Pulver dives over to save the commander and together the two end up stranded on a deserted island. When the captain suddenly doubles over with appendicitis it is up to Pulver to save him via a radio and the ship's doctor's instructions. Fortunately, it all comes out well in the end. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Anne Francis stars as a young prostitute in search of a way out. She seeks out the help of a discreet psychiatrist (Lloyd Nolan), to find out why she has doomed herself to her sordid profession and why she can't seem to shake loose. At this point the film becomes a virtual monologue for Anne Francis, who is magnificent. Girl of the Night never quite rises above its exploitation trappings, but Ms. Francis' performance is worth the admission price alone. The film was advertised as a "case study", based on the book The Call Girl by Dr. Harold Greenwald. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A somewhat uneven but still entertaining comedy-drama, The Rat Race, by director Robert Mulligan, co-stars Tony Curtis and Debbie Reynolds as Peter Hammond, Jr. and Peggy Brown, two performers who meet in New York and are thrown together by their mutual poverty. Peter arrives on a bus from the Midwest with his sax in hand and high hopes for a career. He gets a one-room walk-up and then meets Peggy, a dancer down on her luck who needs a place to stay. Ever the gentleman, Peter offers her space in his apartment and they string up a modesty curtain to divide their separate domains. But luck is not kind to Peter, right from the beginning. Some pranksters hose him down with cold water on his first trip into the city and he later gets his precious saxophone stolen by a trio of devious musicians/thieves. Peggy offers companionship in the face of difficulties, and before long the platonic relationship has distinct romantic overtones. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The meteoric popularity of Arthur Godfrey was allegedly the basis of the 1957 drama Face in the Crowd. Andy Griffith makes a spectacular film debut as Lonesome Rhodes, a philosophical country-western singer discovered in a tanktown jail by television talent coordinator Patricia Neal and her assistant Walter Matthau. They decide that Rhodes is worthy of a TV guest spot, the result being that the gangly, aw-shucks entertainer becomes an overnight sensation. As he ascends to stardom, Rhodes attracts fans, sponsors and endorsements by the carload, and soon he is the most powerful and influential entertainer on the airwaves. Beloved by his audience, Rhodes reveals himself to his intimates as a scheming, power-hungry manipulator, with Machiavellian political aspirations. He uses everyone around him, coldly discarding anyone who might impede his climb to the top (one such victim is sexy baton-twirler Lee Remick, likewise making her film debut). Just when it seems that there's no stopping Rhodes' megalomania, his mentor and ex-lover Neal exposes this Idol of Millions as the rat that he is. She arranges to switch on the audio during the closing credits of Rhodes' TV program, allowing the whole nation to hear the grinning, waving Rhodes characterize them as "suckers" and "stupid idiots." Instantly, Rhodes' popularity rating plummets to zero. As he drunkenly wanders around his penthouse apartment, still not fully comprehending what has happened to him, Rhodes is deserted by the very associates who, hours earlier, were willing to ask "how high?" when he yelled "jump". Written by Budd Schulberg, Face in the Crowd was not a success, possibly because it hit so close to home with idol-worshipping TV fans. Its reputation has grown in the intervening years, not only because of its value as a film but because of the novelty of seeing the traditionally easygoing Andy Griffith as so vicious and manipulative a character as Lonesome Rhodes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Zachary Scott plays Max Thursday, an alcoholic ex-police detective working as a bouncer at a sleazy rooming house owned by Smitty (Mary Boland), a likeable, earthy old lady. Thursday's former wife, Georgia (Faye Emerson), shows up one night, while her ex-husband is in an alcoholic stupor, to tell him that their three-year-old son Jeff is missing, taken by her brother, Fred, on some errand from which he did not return. Thursday goes after his ex-brother-in-law's employer, Doc Elder (Jed Prouty), a broken-down physician with a shady past, who manages to get the former cop drunk before knocking him cold. Awakening in a police cell, Thursday is questioned by his former boss, Capt. Mark Tonetti (Sam Levene), about where he was last night, and who might've murdered Doc Elder. Thursday has no choice but to stay sober as he tries to trace the leads he has left. No one admits to knowing anything about the person named Saint Paul, who Elder was meeting, so he tries to find the man Elder was afraid of, Otto Varkas, a notorious smuggler. Varkas (J. Edward Bromberg) isn't much help, though he reveals that he is worried about a hired killer named Stitch Olivera (Elliott Sullivan). While leaving Varkas' office, Thursday spots Angel (Kay Medford), a "business girl" he last saw near Elder's building. He finds out that she's the girl Fred was seeing, and that she's got him on ice, wounded, but he hasn't said anything about a kid; he also won't reveal the whereabouts of the package that he was picking up for Doc Elder (a diamond necklace worth 400,000 dollars) which was to go to Saint Paul. Before they can get to Fred, two of Varkas' men grab him, and Thursday is just drunk enough from his stop with Angel to be unable to stop them. He tries to get to Varkas, but the gang leader and his men are killed and Fred is taken by Olivera. Thursday fights off the hit man in a vicious battle in a Brooklyn subway station that leaves him with a clue that to his astonishment seems to point Thursday back where he started: to the rooming house where he lives. He pieces it together through a fading alcoholic haze, and figures out what's been bothering him about Olivera being a step ahead of him each time he was getting close to Fred: Smitty is Saint Paul, and has been manipulating Thursday since he left with Georgia. The wounded Fred tells the ex-cop what he knows, and Thursday, sober and focused for the first time, takes Olivera in a sudden explosion of gunfire. Ignoring Smitty's offer of a half-share from the sale of the jewels, he calls police headquarters and then his wife, so they can go and get their son together. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Set at the beginning of the Civil War, Tap Roots is all about a county in Mississippi which chooses to secede from the state rather than enter the conflict. The county is protected from the Confederacy by an abolitionist (Ward Bond) and a Native American gentleman (Boris Karloff). The abolitionist's daughter (Susan Hayward) is courted by a powerful newspaper publisher (Van Heflin) when her fiance (Whitfield Connor), a confederate officer, elopes with the girl's sister (Julie London). The daughter at first resists the publisher's attentions, but turns to him for aid when her ex-fiance plans to capture the seceding county on behalf of the South. A pocket-edition Gone With the Wind, Tap Roots is way too ambitious for its smallish budget. Modern viewers can have fun spotting such anachronisms as the Southern troops' use of dynamite--several years before it was invented. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Margaret O'Brien, MGM's newest child sensation, was given her first starring vehicle with Lost Angel. O'Brien plays Alpha, who has been groomed to be a genius by a trio of well-meaning but misguided professors (Philip Merivale, Henry O'Neill and Donald Meek). Taking pity on the reluctant prodigy, police reporter Mike Regan (James Craig) takes it upon himself to "deprogram" Alpha and transform her into a normal, healthy child. In an effort to inflate this B picture into "A" proportions by increasing the running time, the scriptwriters contrive a silly subplot involving a gang of Runyonesque gangsters (headed by the ineluctable Keenan Wynn). Margaret O'Brien's appeal may be elusive to modern viewers, but she was a proven audience favorite back in 1944. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide