Neva Patterson Movies

The Solid Gold Cadillac was adapted from the George S. Kaufman-Howard Teichmann Broadway hit of the same. Both the play and film were predicated upon the notion of a humble ten-share stockholder triumphing over a corrupt big-business board of directors, but there was one significant difference. In the stage version, septuagenarian Josephine Hull starred as Laura Partridge, a sweet little old lady who asks several embarrassing questions at a stockholder's meeting. In the film version, Laura's age is lowered by at least four decades to accommodate star Judy Holliday. In both versions, a romance develops between Laura Partridge and Edward L. McKeever, the owner of the corporation she takes on. McKeever (played in the film by Paul Douglas, Holliday's co-star in the Broadway version of Born Yesterday) is an honest man, which is more than can be said for his self-serving board of directors (Fred Clark, John Williams, Ray Collins et. al.) With McKeever's covert help, Laura, who has been given a dummy executive position in the corporation in hopes that she'll shut up, forms a stockholder's association intent upon throwing the rascals out. Though the dialogue in Solid Gold Cadillac is consistently entertaining, the film's best line goes to Judy Holliday: Describing her brief career as an actress in a Shakespearean troupe, she recalls ruefully that "No one's allowed to sit down unless you're a king." George Burns, taking over from the stage version's Fred Allen, provides the wry scene-setting narration. Currently available TV prints of The Solid Gold Cadillac have restored the original Technicolor final shot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the Broadway play by Robert Fryer and Lawrence Carr, Desk Set represents the eighth screen teaming of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn. Hepburn plays the head of a TV network research department; Tracy plays an efficiency expert, hired to modernize Hepburn's operation. When Tracy has a huge computer installed, Hepburn and her co-workers (including Joan Blondell and Sue "Miss Landers" Randall) fear that they're going to lose their jobs. Their suspicions are confirmed when the computer merrily begins issuing pink termination slips. But something is obviously amiss: the computer not only fires the ladies, but also the head of the network--and Tracy, who isn't even on the company payroll! At this point, Tracy explains that the computer was designed to help Hepburn and her staff and not replace them; he also confesses that, given the pink-slip incident, this might not have been such a hot idea. But Hepburn, who has fallen in love with Tracy, is in just the right mood to forgive him--and doesn't need to consult her research files to come up with this decision. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Too Much, Too Soon was adapted from the warts-and-all autobiography of actress Diana Barrymore, the troubled daughter of "great profile" John Barrymore. As played by Dorothy Malone, Diana is a basically decent young lady who suffers mightily from lack of parental love. Her famous father, played with boozy bravado by Errol Flynn, is the soul of graciousness and affection when sober, but a human monster when drunk -- which is often. Her poetess mother, Michael Strange (Neva Patterson), is too preoccupied by her bitterness against Barrymore to pay much attention to Diana. Striking out on her own as an actress, Diana vainly seeks personal happiness with several husbands: actor Vincent Bryant (actually Bramwell Fletcher), played by Efrem Zimbalist Jr.; jealous, possessive tennis player John Howard (Ray Danton); and another actor, alcoholic Robert Wilcox (Ed Kemmer). Unable to find satisfaction in her work or her private life, Diana follows family "tradition" by turning to liquor; this leads to extended sanitarium stays and innumerable suicide attempts. It is suggested at the end of the film that she is on the road to recovery, thanks in part to her biographer Gerold Frank (Robert Ellenstein); the sad truth is that two years after the release of Too Much, Too Soon, Diana Barrymore killed herself at the age of 39. This filmed version of Diana's tragic life seldom rises above soap-opera level, save for Errol Flynn's knowing performance of his old friend and drinking companion John Barrymore. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This stark and spare look at the world of the mentally disturbed was one of the beacons of the new American independent film movement. Keir Dullea and Janet Margolin star as two adolescents who make contact with each other in a home for disturbed youngsters. Dullea is David Clemens, who is placed in the home by his mother because of his constant fear of being touched. Margolin is Lisa, a 15-year-old schizophrenic who speaks only in rhyme, when she speaks at all. David rejects the help of psychiatrist Alan Swinford (Howard Da Silva) but makes an emotional connection with Lisa. Because of his contact with Lisa, David eventually opens up to Swinford and his mother. But his mother is dissatisfied with his progress and takes him back home. Home life, however, consists of his mother's domineering ways and parental quarrels, so David runs away and returns to the home for disturbed youngsters. But then an argument with Lisa leads to a climactic confrontation. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The beauty of classical music confronts the ugliness and treachery of war in this unusual drama. Lionel Evans (Charlton Heston) is the director of a well-respected symphony orchestra touring European concert halls in 1944. In the midst of one concert, the city where they are playing is attacked by German troops, and as Evans and his musicians try to escape, they are captured by Nazi soldiers led by Col. Arndt (Anton Diffring). Evans and the orchestra are taken to a castle where they are to bide their time before being executed; but it turns out that Arndt's superior, Gen. Schiller (Maximilian Schell), is a classical music buff. Schiller commands Evans and his symphony to prepare a special concert for the Nazis, but Evans realizes that the moment the concert is over, he and his musicians will be killed. The orchestra's performances, which include works by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Brahms, Wagner, and Schubert, were performed by the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Myrna Loy guest stars as Andrea Wollcott, a pioneering feminist author. Over the years, Andrea has made many enemies--one of whom apparently hates her enough to fire a few gunshots at her. Assigned by Ironside (Raymond Burr) to protect Andrea, Fran (Elizabeth Baur) is thrilled at meeting one of her idols...at least at first. Meanwhile, Ed (Don Galloway) falls in love with the Great Lady's granddaughter April Morris (Jacqueline Scott), leading to unanticipated complications. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A troubled orphan runs away from his unhappy foster home and makes friends with a young leopard that has escaped from captivity in a nearby animal refuge. The two bond and become companions in this warmly sensitive family film. ~ All Movie Guide

Conspiracy film specialist Alan J. Pakula turned journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's best-selling account of their Watergate investigation into one of the hit films of Bicentennial year 1976. While researching a story about a botched 1972 burglary of Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex, green Washington Post reporters/rivals Woodward (Robert Redford, who also exec produced) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) stumble on a possible connection between the burglars and a White House staffer. With the circumspect approval of executive editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards), the pair digs deeper. Aided by a guilt-ridden turncoat bookkeeper (Jane Alexander) and the vital if cryptic guidance of Woodward's mystery source, Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook), Woodward and Bernstein "follow the money" all the way to the top of the Nixon administration. Despite Deep Throat's warnings that their lives are in danger, and the reluctance of older Post editors, Woodward and Bernstein are determined to get out the story of the crime and its presidential cover-up. Once Bradlee is convinced, the final teletype impassively taps out the historically explosive results. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

If for no other reason than its provocative title, this is the single most famous episode of Charlie's Angels. Our three heroines pose as lawbreakers in order to infiltrate a brutal and corrupt woman's prison farm in the Louisiana swamplands. Their mission: To solve the disappearance of one of the inmates, and to find out why so few prisoners leave the farm alive. Among its other virtues, "Angels in Chains" boasts an impressive supporting cast, including cult-film favorite Mary Woronov and future leading ladies Kim Basinger and Lauren Tewes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

From the time he was a high-school student in Lubbock, Texas until his tragic death at age 22 in 1959, Buddy Holly ignored the condemnation by townspeople and his conservative relatives and dedicated his life to the new music he became famous for performing: rock 'n roll. Gary Busey stars as Buddy Holly in this widely acclaimed big-screen biography and sings well enough on camera for the film's adapted musical score to win an Oscar. Among the classic songs by Buddy Holly and the Crickets which can be heard are: Oh Boy, That'll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, and Not Fade Away. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this suspenseful drama, an angry husband hatches an ingenious plot to get his avaricious wife and the pesky detective she has hired out of his life. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Way back in 1936, moonshiner Swamp Molly (Neva Patterson) saved the life of Jesse Duke (Denver Pyle). Now, 33 years after the fact, Molly wants the Dukes to repay the favor by helping her make one last, big moonshine run in broad daylight--which of course would mess up the probation of Luke (Tom Wopat) and Bo (John Schneider), something that Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) and Sheriff Roscoe (James Best) have been anxiously awaiting for a long, long time! This is the first episode filmed in California, and the first in which Boss and Roscoe are depicted as bumbling buffoons rather than credible "bad guys." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide