Mary Michael Movies
- 1968
Two parents worry about the feelings of their love-struck teenage son in this engaging romantic comedy. Grif (James Garner) and wife Jenny (Debbie Reynolds) are concerned about their son Davey (Donald Losby). When his girlfriend is slated for a tour of Europe, the teenage boy is heartbroken. Grif, a photographer by trade, draws the assignment as a photo journalist to cover the girl's tour. Jenny is swindled by Mr. Tilly (Terry-Thomas) who takes her money as rent payment on a Riviera villa. The house is owned by a French playboy who allows the pretty mom to stay. Comedy ensues when a jealous Grif discovers wife Jenny in a bikini given to her by the amorous Frenchman. Prolific songwriter Jimmy Webb provides the music for this feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Garner, Debbie Reynolds, (more)
Derek Flint (James Coburn) is back in this James Bond-styled spy spoof sequel to Our Man Flint. Flint's boss Cramden (Lee J. Cobb) assigns him to stop a group of felonious females on the Virgin Islands who hope to take over the world; the bad femmes are kidnapping astronauts and replacing them with doubles to gain access to the world's missile sites. Andrew Duggan plays the U.S. President and his nefarious double. The feature was typical of the spoofs that followed in the wake of the successful James Bond spy films of the 1960s. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Coburn, Lee J. Cobb, (more)
- 1957
Produced by Himan Brown (of radio's Inner Sanctum) and directed by John Newland (of TV's One Step Beyond), The Violators stars Arthur O'Connell as a rule-bound probation officer. When O'Connell refuses to loan $500 to his prospective son-in-law Fred Beir, the latter cooks up a swindling scheme to raise the money. This rash act causes O'Connell to realign his thinking insofar as his strained relationship with daughter Nancy Malone is concerned. The plight of the central character is subjugated to the film's central "juvenile delinquent" storyline, involving Beir and his youthful cohorts. Produced by RKO Radio, The Violators was distributed by Universal-International. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arthur O'Connell, Nancy Malone, (more)
- 1955
Irregularly scheduled on NBC from 1954-1957, Producers' Showcase was a series of lavish, full-color, 90-minute specials, bringing the best of Broadway to the 21-inch screen. One of the more memorable presentations in this anthology was director Vincent Donahue's live staging of Clare Boothe Luce's brilliantly vitriolic 1936 stage comedy, The Women, which had previously been filmed by MGM in 1939. Boasting a stellar all-female cast, The Women centers around the tactics used by the supposedly demure Mary Haines (here played by Ruth Hussey) to win back her husband from predatory shopgirl Crystal Allen (Shelley Winters). Meanwhile, Mary's so-called friends gossip, bicker, and "diss" with bitchy abandon, both in New York and on a Reno "divorce ranch." Mary Boland, who played the much-married Countess DeLage in the 1939 movie, repeats her role in the TV version, while Paulette Goddard, who portrayed mercenary chorus dancer Miriam in the film, is here ironically cast as the malicious Sylvia Fowler, whose husband is stolen away by Miriam (played on this occasion by Valerie Bettis). The Women was adapted for television by Sumner Locke Elliot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Shelley Winters, Paulette Goddard, (more)
