Yvette Mimieux Movies
Born to a French father and Mexican mother, actress Yvette Mimieux grew up within shouting distance of Hollywood Boulevard. The blonde, well-proportioned Mimieux was a beauty contest winner and model when signed to an MGM contract in 1959. With her second film appearance as ethereal 800th century girl Weena in The Time Machine (1960), Mimieux achieved stardom; with her next film, Where the Boys Are (1960), she proved capable of heavy dramatics via a discreetly handled "gang rape" sequence. An appearance as a terminally ill girl on the 1964 Dr. Kildare episode "Tyger Tyger" drew a great deal of press attention for Mimieux, principally because she spent most of her early scenes in a bikini. The actress's subsequent roles showed promise, but she generally found herself playing second fiddle to the leading man; in Disney's Monkeys Go Home (1966), she was upstaged by a chimpanzee. Tired of adhering to the whims of others, Mimieux took to writing her own screenplays: in the 1974 TV movie Hit Lady, she is undeniably impressive as a scantily clad professional assassin. Since her 1972 marriage to director Stanley Donen Mimieux has curtailed her film appearances to devote her time to her husband, her poetry, her dance and music lessons, and her many lucrative business endeavors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
In this entry in the long-running mystery series, Perry Mason represents a Marine Officer who is accused of killing a Nazi war criminal. He is the prime suspect because the Nazi had treated his mother terribly at a concentration camp. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Filmed in Malta, this three-hour TV movie nailbiter was based on the novel The Gold Crew by Thomas M. Scortia and Frank M. Robinson. David Soul plays the commander of a Trident submarine, engaged in an test designed to measure the crew's psychological reaction to an actual nuclear missile launch. Only Soul and two other officers (Robert Conrad and Sam Waterston) know that the war alert is false; the crew is led to believe that the crisis is genuine. Unfortunately, toxic fumes from the newly painted mess hall trigger a psychotic reaction from most of the crew--and commander Soul. Now convinced that he's on the brink of war, the near-lunatic commander orders the firing of ship's live warhead, instead of the four dummy weapons designed for the test. Officers Conrad and Waterston race against time to avert World War III. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
- Add The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal to QueueAdd The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal to top of Queue
The works of "Puppetoon" creator and special effects wizard George Pal are perhaps best seen separately and in toto rather than lumped together in fragmentary form. The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal contains an abundance of enjoyable film clips, but most are far too short for the audience to fully appreciate Pal's cinematic contributions. The narration suffers from banality, while the overall pacing of the documentary is lumpy. Still, for those who've never seen Pal's Puppetoon shorts, or his early features The Great Rupert (1950) and Destination Moon, this compilation serves as a tantalizing teaser. Paul Frees narrates The Fantasy Film Worlds of George Pal, while several Pal associates and admirers, including Ray Bradbury, Roy Disney, Ray Harryhausen and Walter Lantz, are interviewed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
"Her fantasy is to possess him. But now, it had become an obsession." The ad copy for the TV movie Obsessive Love said it all. Yvette Mimieux stars as the "number one fan" of soap-opera actor Simon McCorkindale. Not content with an autographed 8X10 glossy, Mimieux plots and plans to seduce McCorkindale and ruin his marriage to Constance McCashin. It could be worse: Yvette Mimieux could have been Kathy Bates. The best scenes go to Lainie Kazan as the Agnes Nixon-ish soap opera creator. Co-produced and co-written by Ms. Mimieux, Obsessive Love made its TV debut on October 2, 1984 ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
The short-lived prime-time TV soap opera Berrenger's was introduced with this 90-minute opener. Berrenger's is a fancy New York department store, owned by family patriarch Simon Berrenger (Sam Wanamaker). Simon announces his plans to merge with another store, much to the dismay of his son Paul (Ben Murphy), the company president. Complications include the married Simon's clandestine romance with female exec Yvette Mimieux, a deep dark secret harbored by model Laura Ashton, and the trials and tribulations of starry-eyed new employee Leslie Hope. Berrenger's debuted January 5, 1985; by March 9, it was history. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
California wives band together to form a tough neighborhood watch in this crime drama that is a failed television pilot. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1982
This made-for-television drama chronicles an atypical May-December romance involving a twenty-something doctor and a middle-aged woman. The two soon fall passionately in love and this causes a little friction between the woman and her full-grown daughters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1979
It's Airplane on the rails in the made-for-TV Disaster on the Coastliner. A crazed engineer holds his employers responsible for the deaths of his wife and daughter. He gets even by setting two passenger trains on an irrevocable collision course. Salvation comes from a most unexpected corner in this otherwise thoroughly predictable disaster flick. The requisite all-star cast includes Mike Connors, Lloyd Bridges, Robert Fuller, Pat Hingle, E. G. Marshall, Yvette Mimieux and William Shatner. Disaster on the Coastliner premiered October 28, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Though not actually a film addressing the evil lure of cream-filled chocolate cakes, this amusingly cheesy made-for-TV opus from director Curtis Harrington pits a relatively normal suburban family against a slavering, demonically-possessed German shepherd whose hunger for human souls far exceeds that of the normal household pet. Although not above resorting to the usual throat-maulings, the satanic psycho-pup's preferred method of attack is to supernaturally cause the deaths of various friends and neighbors, in a style reminiscent of The Omen. Though the gory potential of this scenario is obviously dulled by the TV-movie format, there are enough implied shocks and chills to keep up the pace -- particularly a grueling scene in which Dad finds himself unable to resist the urge to plunge his hand into a spinning lawnmower blade, while the possessed pooch looks on with tongue-wagging glee. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Dinah (Yvette Mimieux) has had a string of bad luck. In a previous film, Jackson County Jail, she was driving from Los Angeles to New York, and her car, her money and all her identification papers are stolen from her. A series of misunderstandings and false charges land her in jail, where a male guard rapes her. She killed the guard rapist, and escaped from prison with another inmate. In the made for television film Outside Chance, the same sequence of events happens, except that Dinah is tried and sentenced for the guard's murder with no extenuating circumstances (her story of a rape is not believed). Later, she escapes with the girlfriend of the man who stole her car in the first place. Both films, Jackson County Jail and Outside Chance, have become cult favorites. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1977
Ransom for Alice was the pilot film for the unsold series The Busters. The protagonists are not narcotics agents as might be assumed, but instead a male-female team of government undercover agents (Gil Gerard, Yvette Mimieux) operating in Seattle in the 1890s. Their current assignment is to rescue a teenaged girl (Laurie Prange) who has been abducted by a white slave ring. The male agent has plenty of opportunity to pose as a gunslinger (with a vast array of creative weaponry), while the female agent is consigned to pose as a dance hall girl. Ransom for Alice is an uncertain blend of cop drama, western, and espionage caper; it had all been done earlier, and better, as The Wild Wild West. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this made-for-television chiller, an enormous and angry Bigfoot launches a campaign of death and destruction against the skiers who have disturbed its home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Yvette Mimieux delivers a sensitive, nuanced performance in a role that could have easily spread into a cheap exploitation turn in Jackson County Jail. Mimieux plays advertising executive Dinah Hunter, who leaves Los Angeles and a promising career after she discovers her lover has been cheating on her. Determined to start fresh in New York City, she gets into her car and heads east. Picking up some young hitchhikers along the way, she ends up stranded in an out-of-the-way western town after being beaten up and having her car stolen. Thrown into the local jailhouse on trumped up charges, she finds herself at the mercy of a psychopathic guard who further beats her and then rapes her. Dinah kills the jailkeeper and goes on the lam with fellow jailhouse inmate and down-home radical Coley Blake (Tommy Lee Jones). The sheriff's department engages the couple in a wild car chase through a parade commemorating the United States' Bicentennial, as Dinah and Coley try to break free to the open road. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvette Mimieux, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
- 1975
Legend of Valentino is a TV-shorthand retelling of the life and loves of legendary silent screen star Rudolph Valentino, here portrayed by Franco Nero. This TV movie was advertised as "romantic fiction," which was just as well since its only nods to the truth are the basic facts of Valentino's enormous screen fame and the national hysteria attending his early death in 1926 of peritonitis. Typical of Legend of Valentino's fabrications is the depiction of Valentino's first meeting with his future mentor, screenwriter June Mathis (played by Suzanne Pleshette). In real life, Mathis discovered Valentino by watching him play a string of supporting roles; in Legend, she confronts him in her living room while he's burglarizing her house! Despite its historical shortcomings, Legend of Valentino is a lot better than the 1951 and 1977 biopics of the "Latin Lover." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Suzanne Pleshette, Franco Nero, (more)
- 1974
Hit Lady star Yvette Mimieux also wrote the screenplay for this made-for-TV suspenser. Per the title, Mimieux plays a professional assassin. "And she never misses," declared the print ads for this film. When not working for the mob, she is a successful painter. Hit Lady slammed and blammed its way to the airwaves on October 8, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
This 1971 TV movie remake of the 1934 film of the same name (see the above synopsis) adds little to the original story about Death assuming human form to discover why mankind fears him. In updating the story, the scenarists removed much of the "nobility" of the principal characters--and also a lot of their charm. Melvyn Douglas and Myrna Loy are superb in roles played in 1934 by Sir Guy Standing and Helen Westley, while Monte Markham is okay but nothing more in the old Fredric March role as "Death". Yvette Mimieux is utterly forgettable as the enigmatic Grazia; her wisecracking American friend (originally Gail Patrick) is played by Maureen Reagan, a few years before the daughter of Ronald Reagan and Jane Wyman (rather wisely) abandoned acting. Whatever appeal Death Takes a Holiday had in 1934 utterly withers and expires in this halfhearted remake. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Black Noon is a witchcraft-on-the-prairie endeavor starring Roy Thinnes as a minister and Lyn Loring (Mrs. Roy Thinnes) as his wife. Newly arrived in a small western town, Thinnes finds his spirtual leadership challenged by a mysterious force that is causing misfortune to befall the settlers. Once he gets past the closed-mouthed residents, Thinnes learns that the town's controlling force is a cult of devil worshippers who practice voodoo. The allegorical elements of Black Noon are on the spell-it-out level of those religious pamphlets one frequently finds stuffed under one's windshield wiper. The film was shot in the desert regions just north of Los Angeles. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Thinnes, Lynn Loring, (more)
- 1968
A modern Don Juan pays the price when he "two-times" three different women. Paxton Quigley (Christopher Jones) is the campus Casanova who sleeps with Caucasian coed Tobey (Yvette Mimieux), the black beauty Eulice (Judy Pace) and the Jewish hippie girl Jane (Maggie Thrett). The three women discover the extra curricular activities of the man, and they seek revenge by locking Paxton in a attic where they feed him steak and try to kill him with sex. Soon Paxton goes on a hunger strike as the viewer is left to wonder whether or not a man's ultimate sexual fantasy can lead to his downfall -- or even death. What a way to go. Chad and Jeremy provide the music, which includes the title track in this feature plagued by lines like "Is it possible for a woman to be Jewish and psychedelic at the same time?" ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yvette Mimieux, Christopher Jones, (more)
- 1968
Curry (Rod Taylor) is a veteran soldier-of-fortune hired by the president of the Congo for a three day mission. He and native Congoan Ruffo (Jim Brown) are to oversee the safe passage of a train through hostile enemy territory and bring back some uncut diamonds and a human cargo of fugitives loyal to the Congo cause. The two employ the drunken Doctor Wreid (Kenneth More) and a suspicious ex-Nazi named Henlein (Peter Carsten). The quartet, along with 40 of the Congo's best soldiers, try to maneuver the train against the rebel forces and save the beautiful missionary Claire (Yvette Mimieux) at no extra charge. The action takes place in the wake of the political unrest that swept the Congo in the 1950s. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Taylor, Yvette Mimieux, (more)
- 1967
Career bank robber Peter Churchman Stephen Boyd plans to retire from his life of crime and live the good life in this uninspired crime thriller. He is blackmailed by Angela Tresler Giovanna Ralli into pulling off one last heist of some precious jewels located in the bank in Pamplona, Spain. Peter and three accomplices must steal the jewels during the annual running of the bulls. The festival atmosphere will hopefully allow them to pull off the crime, but the bank is located directly across the street from the local police station. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stephen Boyd, Yvette Mimieux, (more)
A man begins monkeying around with his new farm with hilarious results in this comedy for the whole family. American Hank Dussard (Dean Jones) inherits an olive plantation in a small French village after his uncle passes away. Hank soon gets a crash course in the expense of hiring pickers for the olive harvest from Father Sylvain (Maurice Chevalier), the local priest. Hoping to cut expenses, Hank buys four monkeys, and teaches them how to pick olives. While the plan looks good on paper, it doesn't go over well with the town's farm laborers -- who threaten a strike if Hank doesn't get rid of his new help. Hank also has troubles with his new work force when he discovers that his monkeys are all female, and the arrival of a male chimpanzee takes their minds off the olives. Monkeys, Go Home! features Maurice Chevalier in his final screen role; the supporting cast also includes Yvette Mimieux and Jules Munshin. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Maurice Chevalier, Dean Jones, (more)
- 1965
In this romantic drama based on a novel by Betty Smith, Carl Brown (Richard Chamberlain) is a student in law school who wants to marry his sweetheart, Annie McGairy (Yvette Mimieux). However, Carl and Annie's parents knew each other when they grew up in Ireland before emigrating to America, and Carl's father Patrick (Arthur Kennedy) vehemently objects to their engagement. The young couple decide to tie the knot anyway, and Patrick retaliates by cutting off financial support to his son. The young couple deal with the usual tribulations of newlyweds while they struggle to keep their heads above water -- Carl takes a job as a night watchman, while Annie makes a few dollars babysitting for Beverly Karter (Joan Tetzel), a married woman who is cheating on her husband with Stan Pulaski (Oscar Homolka), a married man. Living in a tiny apartment on the shabby side of town, Carl and Annie get to know other people too poor or too different to fit in elsewhere in an upscale college town. When Annie becomes pregnant, she leaves Carl, not wanting to burden him so that he can continue with his education. This sends Carl into an emotional tailspin, and Patrick tries to patch up the marriage he once opposed for the sake of his son's happiness. Joy in the Morning marked the first and only feature film role for TV and stage actor Donald Davis, who played Anthony, a gay florist who befriends the young couple. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Chamberlain, Yvette Mimieux, (more)
- 1965
Director Serge Bourguignon coadapted the screenplay for The Reward from a novel by Michael Barrett. Efrem Zimbalist Jr., usually cast on the right side of the law, is here a fugitive from American justice hiding from a murder rap in Mexico. Zimbalist and his girlfriend Yvette Mimieux try to avoid those who'd like to collect the $50,000 dead-or-alive price on his head. Police chief Gilbert Roland captures Zimbalist alive, promising to divvy up the reward with his men. But the police officers greedily turn on each other, leaving the audience to sort out for themselves just who's the real "bad guy" hereabouts. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Max von Sydow, Yvette Mimieux, (more)
