Rosemary Murphy Movies
Born in Germany to American parents, Rosemary Murphy was educated in Paris. When her family relocated to the U.S. in 1939, Murphy completed her schooling in Kansas City. After preparing for an acting career at Neighborhood Playhouse and the Actors Studio, she returned to Germany, where she made her film bow in Berlin Express (1948) and her stage debut in a 1949 production of Peer Gynt. The following year, she made her first Broadway appearance. Murphy's stage credits include Period of Adjustment (1961), Any Wednesday (1964) and A Delicate Balance (1966); she earned Tony nominations for all three, and was honored with the New York Critic's Poll award for her work in Balance. Her film and TV characterizations ranged from meek subservience to homicidal intensity. She spent several years as Loretta Fowler on the daytime soap opera Another World, and has played such "historical celebrity" roles as Dorothy Parker in Julia (1977), Mary Ball Washington in the 1984 miniseries George Washington, and Rose Kennedy in the 1991 TV biopic A Woman Named Jackie. Rosemary Murphy has also been prominently featured in three recent Woody Allen productions: September (1987), Don't Drink the Water (1994), and Mighty Aphrodite. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1949
In this witty, well-written, and fast-moving drama, director Josef von Baky and scripter Fritz Kortner have fashioned a cutting statement on the nature of prejudice and ethnicity. A professor who emigrated from Nazi Germany to teach in Los Angeles comes back to Germany ten years later, intending to continue his career. He also needs to find out what happened to his ex-wife and son, the biggest motivation for his decision to return. He does find his ex-wife and they are happily reunited but exactly where his son may be is another question entirely. Meanwhile, a professor who stayed through the Nazi period in Germany is resentful of the repatriated "American" German, creating one of several problems that take their toll on the returned exile. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fritz Kortner, Johanna Hofer, (more)
- 1957
That Night! was the film version of a TV drama by Robert Wallace and Burton J. Rowles titled The Long Way Home. John Beal plays a hard-working ad man who suffers a mild heart attack. Despite the admonitions of his doctor, Beal refuses to cut down on his work load, feeling that by doing so he would be depriving his wife (Augusta Dabney) and children of their lavish lifestyle. A second attack is more serious, landing Beal in intensive care. As he recovers, Beal and his wife reassess their values and sort out just what is truly important in their lives. That Night was produced by Himan Brown, the man who created radio's Lights Out and directed by John Newland, best known for his hosting chores on TV's One Step Beyond. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Beal, Augusta Dabney, (more)
- 1960
Having been invited to spend the weekend at a lavish estate, Donald Stuart (John Hudson) is upstairs preparing for dinner when he sees a man (Francis Bethencourt) beating his wife (Narda Onyx) to death. Rushing downstairs, Donald is surprised to see the same couple, happily exchanging affectionate words as if nothing has happened. In truth, nothing HAS happened: the murder which Donald saw won't occur until tomorrow...unless he does something to prevent it. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1961
- NR
This slick hospital soap opera features Ben Gazzara as Dr. David Coleman, a young physician hired into the pathology department at a big hospital. The aging head of the department, Dr. Joseph Pearson (Fredric March), is insulted and treats the new hire as a rival. They battle over many medical issues. Coleman falls in love with a nurse, Cathy Hunt (Ina Balin), but she develops a tumor on her knee. Pearson says that it is malignant and orders her leg amputated. Coleman disagrees but must go along with the decision. Coleman then orders three blood tests on an expectant mother, Mrs. Alexander (Phyllis Love), because she has a rare blood condition. Pearson thinks that the tests are excessive and cancels the third test. When the baby is born seriously ill, Pearson is berated by Dr. Charles Dornberger (Eddie Albert), Alexander's personal physician, who then conducts a blood transfusion to save the baby's life. Pearson's future at the hospital becomes uncertain, at best. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fredric March, Ben Gazzara, (more)
Harper Lee's Pulitzer Prize-winning autobiographical novel was translated to film in 1962 by Horton Foote and the producer/director team of Robert Mulligan and Alan J. Pakula. Set a small Alabama town in the 1930s, the story focuses on scrupulously honest, highly respected lawyer Atticus Finch, magnificently embodied by Gregory Peck. Finch puts his career on the line when he agrees to represent Tom Robinson (Brock Peters), a black man accused of rape. The trial and the events surrounding it are seen through the eyes of Finch's six-year-old daughter Scout (Mary Badham). While Robinson's trial gives the film its momentum, there are plenty of anecdotal occurrences before and after the court date: Scout's ever-strengthening bond with older brother Jem (Philip Alford), her friendship with precocious young Dill Harris (a character based on Lee's childhood chum Truman Capote and played by John Megna), her father's no-nonsense reactions to such life-and-death crises as a rampaging mad dog, and especially Scout's reactions to, and relationship with, Boo Radley (Robert Duvall in his movie debut), the reclusive "village idiot" who turns out to be her salvation when she is attacked by a venomous bigot. To Kill a Mockingbird won Academy Awards for Best Actor (Peck), Best Adapted Screenplay, and Best Art Direction. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregory Peck, Mary Badham, (more)
- 1966
The star of the Broadway version of Any Wednesday was Sandy Dennis. Headlining the 1966 film version is Jane Fonda, who imbues her character with enough quirkiness to satisfy both herself and the endearingly mannered Ms. Dennis. Fonda plays the dippy mistress of philanderer Jason Robards, who visits his paramour only on Wednesdays (hence the title). Dean Jones costars as the erstwhile swain who messes up Robards' routine by falling in love with Fonda. Screenwriter Julius J. Epstein does a expert job at expanding Muriel Resnick's play for the screen without robbing it of its inherent charm. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Fonda, Jason Robards, Jr., (more)
- 1966
Now working as a tenement janitor under the name "Carl Baker", Kimble (David Janssen) offers a helping hand to an emotionally disturbed youth named Roger Roland (Robert Drivas)--who repays the favor by stealing Kimble's passkey. Shortly afterward, a female tenant is murdered and a shadowy figure is seen running from her apartment. Suspected of the crime, Kimble must figure out a way to clear himself before his true identity is discovered...and the road to exoneration may lead to Roger Roland's doorstep. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
- PG
Though it sometimes looks like a TV "Movie of the Week' deflected to big screen, You'll Like My Mother is all in all a neat little nailbiter with a strong cast. Pregnant army widow Francesca Kinsolving (Patty Duke), conditioned by her late husband to expect a warm welcome, visits her in-laws in snowbound Minnesota. Mother-in-law Rosemary Murphy is not only resentful of Patty's presence, she refuses to acknowledge fact that her son ever married. There are other surprises in store for Francesca, including a homicidal son-in-law Richard Thomas and a mentally-challenged sister-in-law Sian Barbara Allen. In addition, Francesca's mother-in-law harbors a "little" secret: she's not Patty's real mother-in-law at all, but a scheming aunt who wants to inherit family fortune and wants no inconvenient relatives blocking her path. Slowly and deliberately, terror builds upon terror, right up to the bone-chilling finale. Jo Heims adapted the script from a Naomi A. Hintze novel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patty Duke, Rosemary Murphy, (more)
- 1972
Football is the focus of this drama, adapted from Frederick Exley's famous novel. It tells the tale of an aspiring writer obsessed with football. His father was a football star, and the writer, wanting to follow in his dad's illustrious footsteps, constantly berates himself for not having any talent for the sport at all. The young man becomes so distraught, that he winds up in a mental hospital. In time, he comes to accept the fact that he is destined to be only a fan of the game. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1972
- PG
This sequel to the rampaging-rodent chiller Willard stars Lee H. Montgomery as young Danny Garrison, a neglected kid who finds a new little friend in Ben -- an intelligent rat whose furry minions managed to slaughter most of the cast of the previous film. Proving that one can't teach an old rat new tricks -- just variations on the old ones -- Ben displays his affection for Danny by directing his posse to off anyone who torments him... in the sweetest possible way, of course, since this is a PG-rated endeavor. This film's reputation was secured primarily by the inclusion of Michael Jackson's saccharine title tune, which seems to resonate more profoundly when regarded as a love song for a big greasy rat. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Montgomery, Joseph Campanella, (more)
A runaway box-office hit to the tune of 17 million dollars, Walking Tall is the unabashedly manipulative story of real-life Tennessee sheriff Buford Pusser. As played by Joe Don Baker, Pusser can either be regarded as a tireless champion of justice or a baseball-bat-wielding hooligan. But with some of the most scurrilous villains this side of a Republic serial as the main targets of Pusser's wrath, the audience cannot help but applaud the sheriff's strongarm methods. When the town baddies seek vengeance by killing Pusser's wife (Elizabeth Hartman), the you-know-what really hits the fan! Never resorting to subtlety, Walking Tall was such a winner that it spawned two sequels, a made-for-television movie, and a weekly TV series -- none of which were enjoyed by the real Buford Pusser, who had long since died under questionable circumstances. At the time of the film's theatrical release, the MPAA rating system was comparatively new, so the studio launched an ad campaign aimed at parents, letting them know that the R-rated Walking Tall contained violence and not sex, and therefore was good family entertainment. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
- PG
Adapted by Jay Presson Allen from the French farce by Pierre Barillet and Jean-Pierre Gredy, Forty Carats is a standard-issue sex comedy elevated by the performances of its stars. Fortyish Realtor Ann Stanley (Liv Ullman) finds herself attracted to Peter Latham (Edward Albert) - a man literally half her age. After a summer fling in Greece, Ann and Peter come to a parting of the ways, and that, Ann supposes, is that. Imagine her surprise when Peter comes to visit her back in New York. Though at first dismissed as a fortune hunter, Peter turns out to a financial whiz with a lot more in the bank than his lady friend. Both Ann's mother (Binnie Barnes, whose husband Mike Frankovich produced the film) and daughter (Deborah Raffin) are delighted at the prospect of Ann's romance with Peter -- the only one unsure is Ann herself. Lending his considerable comic expertise to Forty Carats is Gene Kelly as Liv Ullman's ex-husband-who also takes a liking to the personable Edward Albert and encourages the May-December romance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Liv Ullmann, Edward Albert, (more)
- 1973
When Cliff Robertson was toasted by Ralph Edwards on the TV series This is Your Life in 1972, Robertson was standing on the set of Ace Eli and Roger of the Skies. This production was announced as an "upcoming release"-though as it turned out, the film lay on the shef for several years thereafter. Robertson plays a barnstorming stunt flyer of the Roaring Twenties. Accompanying him from job to job is his 11-year-old son, Eric Shea. Despite having a child in tow, Robertson has no trouble scoring with the local lovelies wherever they go. 20th Century-Fox had so little faith in Ace Eli and Roger of the Skies that the company changed many of the names in the production credits: producer "Boris Wilson" was really Robert Fryer, director "Bill Sampson" was actually John Erdman and screenwriter "Chips Rosen" was known to friends and family as Claudia Salte. Only poor Cliff Robertson was denied the opportunity to cloak himself in an alias. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) mingle with the cream of San Francisco society in search of a murderer. The victim was the blackmailing publisher of a sleazy tell-all magazine--and as a result, the detectives are confronted with a veritable "Who's Who" of suspects. This is the final episode of Streets of San Francisco's second season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
David Hartman stars as Lucas Tanner in this made for TV film. A former athlete and sportswriter, Tanner decides to become a high school teacher after losing his wife and son in an auto accident. His new career is almost over before it begins when Tanner is held responsible for the death of a student. Rosemary Murphy co-stars as Tanner's rules-are-rules principal. First telecast May 8, 1974, Lucas Tanner served as the pilot for the subsequent series of the same name, which also starred Hartman and Murphy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Of the two rape-oriented TV movies of the 1973-74 season, A Case of Rape, first telecast February 20, 1974, is far and away the finer film (the other was the compelling but contrived Cry Rape). Elizabeth Montgomery stars as a housewife who is sexually assaulted not once but twice by a so-called family friend (Cliff Potts). The rape is only the beginning of a long cycle of humiliation and self-doubt: the investigating police are dismissive of Montgomery's charges, the female defense attorney (Rosemary Murphy) tries to put the victim on trial, and Montgomery's reputation and marriage (to Ronny Cox) are irrevocably damaged. Though things don't go well for her in the courtroom, Montgomery emerges from the experience a stronger and more self-reliant person, unwilling to allow herself to be destroyed by outside influences. Don't miss the final confrontation between raper and rapist after the trial--an underplayed but bone-chilling vignette. Had not Cicely Tyson sewn up the Emmy with The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Elizabeth Montgomery would certainly have copped the prize with A Case of Rape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
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The winner of 11 Emmy awards, the made-for-TV Eleanor and Franklin stars Edward Herrmann as Franklin D. Roosevelt and Jane Alexander as Eleanor Roosevelt. The film traces the first four decades of the lives of cousins Franklin and Eleanor, beginning with their marriage in 1905. Conflicts loom in the form of FDR's domineering mother (Rosemary Murphy) and Eleanor's discovery of an affair between her husband and artist Lucy Mercer (Linda Kelsey). After Franklin is stricken by polio in 1921, Eleanor emerges as a formidable and influential public figure. James Costigan wrote the teleplay for Eleanor and Franklin, which first aired as a two-parter on January 11 and 12, 1976. The film was followed several months later by a multipart sequel, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Herrmann, Jane Alexander, (more)
The film traces the lifelong relationship between playwright Lillian Hellman and Julia, a wealthy girl who turns her back on her upbringing to follow her ideals. In the 1930s, while the adult Hellman (Jane Fonda) struggles to establish herself as a playwright with the help of her lover, Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards), Julia (Vanessa Redgrave) battles the exigencies of the Nazi regime. Visiting Julia in Germany, Lillian realizes how much her friend's idealism has cost her, both physically and financially. Lillian is asked by Julia's friend Johann (Maximilian Schell) to smuggle a large sum of money from Paris to Germany, the better to combat the Nazis from within. Nominated for 11 Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, and four acting awards, Julia won for Alvin Sargent's screenplay and Robards' and Redgrave's performances, leading to Redgrave's infamous "Zionist hoodlums" acceptance speech. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Fonda, Vanessa Redgrave, (more)
- 1977
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First aired March 13, 1977, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years was the brilliant follow-up to the equally praiseworthy 1976 TV movie Eleanor and Franklin: The Early Years. The film is framed in a flashback experienced by first lady Eleanor Roosevelt (Jane Alexander) while accompanying the casket carrying the body of her husband Franklin Delano Roosevelt (Edward Herrmann) to its final resting place in Hyde Park. Elected in 1933, FDR endeavors to pull the country out of the Depression with the New Deal during his first term, while Eleanor emerges as a formidable public figure in her own right during the second term, tirelessly working on behalf of social change and reforms. Ever under the baleful eye of his mother Sara (Rosemary Murphy), Roosevelt tries to maintain family equilibrium in the White House as he seeks an unprecedented third term. Sara dies in December of 1941, two days before Roosevelt, in his "Day of Infamy" speech, declares war on Japan. Despite health problems, FDR successfully pursues a fourth term in 1944; he dies in office in April of 1945, a scant few months before the end of World War II. Despite her long-standing displeasure over her husband's long-ago affair with artist Lucy Mercer (Linda Kelsey), a stiff-lipped Eleanor puts on a brave front when Roosevelt dies in the company of Deakins at a health spa in Georgia. Based on Joseph P. Lash's Pulitzer prize-winning biography, Eleanor and Franklin: The White House Years earned Emmies for "Outstanding Special" and for director Daniel Petrie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Edward Herrmann, Jane Alexander, (more)
- 1979
The "before" version of Patty Duke is obese and slovenly. Emerging from a "fat farm," the "after" version of Patty Duke discovers that her husband (Bradford Dillman) has been playing the field while she's been trying to shed her excess poundage. Duke then takes up with a handsome artist (Art Hindle), who gives her new incentive to lose weight, even though he's made it clear that her physical appearance isn't all that important to him. His jealousy aroused, Duke's hubby tries to win her back, but she soon learns that he hasn't really changed a bit. The made-for-TV Before and After was initially broadcast October 5, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Patty Duke, Bradford Dillman, (more)
- 1980
After 1970's Diary of a Mad Housewife, actress Carrie Snodgress found her career moving in frets and starts rather than barrelling ahead. By 1979, Snodgress was making do with gothic horrors like The Attic. In a variation on a theme previously explored in The Barretts of Wimpole Street and The Heiress, Snodgress plays a shy, withdrawn young woman who is totally dominated by her tyrannical father Ray Milland. At father's insistence, she remains sequestered in her attic room, denied contact with any men. When she finally breaks free, a spectacularly bloody denouement is the result. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Oliver Stone's first directorial effort for a major studio (and his second horror film after the 1974 Seizure) came shortly after the phenomenal success of Midnight Express, which was based on Stone's Oscar-winning screenplay. The director turned to Mark Brandel's obscure thriller "The Lizard's Tail" as source material for what is essentially a silly psychosexual variant on low-budget horror films like The Crawling Hand. The title appendage belongs (for a while, anyway) to smug, conceited artist Joe Lansdale (Michael Caine), who owes his success to a popular comic strip featuring a macho, Conan-type hero. After Lansdale's drawing hand is sheared off in a grisly car accident, his career, dignity, self-control and even his sanity soon begin to abandon him as well. His tenuous relationship with his wife Anne (Andrea Marcovicci) falls apart as she takes steps to improve her own self-worth -- something she had never had the strength to do before the accident. Bitter and paranoid, Joe begins to lash out in anger at everyone around him ... and becomes convinced that his severed hand has come back, wandering in fields and dark alleys and squeezing the life out of everyone it comes in contact with. The question of whether the hand is real or merely a manifestation of Lansdale's rage is never answered, even in the film's "shock" coda. At any rate, it's impossible to take the film seriously -- the crawling-hand effects are laughably shoddy for a major studio production, reflecting none of the skills of effects wizard Carlo Rambaldi, and Caine's sweaty, pop-eyed histrionics are too goofy to be convincing. On the plus side, James Horner's score is remarkably chilling, contributing a great deal to a few effective suspense scenes -- but it belongs in a better film than this. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, Andrea Marcovicci, (more)
- 1982
Through some freakish glitch in the time-space continuum, Magnum (Tom Selleck) awakens in the year 1936. Despite this bizarre displacement, he's still a private eye, and he's still very much for hire. In fact, his latest client is Brenda McCutchen (Anne Lockhart), whose labor-leader father has been framed for the murder of an evil industrialist. Playing the "30s" angle to the hilt, the episode is stylishly written and directed in the manner of an old Warner Bros. detective film, and the familiar Magnum PI characters conform to Depression-era sensibilities: Magnum speaks fluent "Dashiel Hammett", Higgins (John Hillerman) is a Noel Coward-ish bon vivant, and so on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
When college freshman Cary Stadler (Timothy Wead) is accidentally killed during a sadistic fraternity hazing, the other frat brothers hastily cover up all evidence to the crime. On behalf of Cary's grieving parents (Robert Hogan, Carol Rossen), Quincy (Jack Klugman) investigates the boy's death, only to be stonewalled by students and faculty alike. Meanwhile, Cary's brother Nick (Timothy Patrick Murphy), convinced that justice will never be served, prepares to exact a terrible revenge against Cary's killers. This is the final episode of Quincy, M.E.'s seventh season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
