Austin Pendleton Movies

Patti D'Arbanville guest stars as Darlene Everett, who shows up at the squad room with a videotape that "proves" that her husband, a bestselling author of espionage thrillers, was killed by his agent. Trouble is, there's no corpse -- and for the moment at least, it looks like there was no crime. In another case, an old woman is found dead after a break-in at her home -- but was she murdered? And on the romantic scene, Munch (Richard Belzer) pursues waitress Bille Lou (Ellen McElduff), while Falsone (Jon Seda) pursues fellow detective Ballard (Callie Thorne). Austin Pendleton makes his first appearance as eccentric Baltimore coroner Dr. Griscom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part story, former homicide detective Mike Kellerman (Reed Diamond) returns to Baltimore. Now a private detective, Kellerman has been hired by a prominent family to prove that their daughter Debbie (Jena Malone) did not murder her newborn baby. It so happens that Falsone (Jon Seda) is working on this case, and he isn't comfortable with the apparent fact that Kellerman has sold his soul for a quick dollar. This episode was originally scheduled to air on December 4, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Troubled, unemployed New York office worker Sue (Anna Thomson) lives in Manhattan's Chelsea neighborhood. However, job interviews lead nowhere, and she's behind in the rent, forced to accept a prostitute as a roommate. Meanwhile, she veers close to a mental precipice as she wanders the city, seeking human contact. She finds a friend in free-lance journalist Ben (Matthew Powers), but after he leaves the country on an assignment, she becomes increasingly disturbed and unable to cope, facing both eviction and mental collapse. Shown at 1997-98 film festivals (Toronto, Berlin). ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide

Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) decides that the time has come to replace the worn-out knocker on his apartment door with a brand new one of elaborate design. In doing so, however, Frasier runs afoul of the condo's board of directors, who tyrannically refuse to grant permission for this improvement. Outraged, Frasier vows to change the condo's draconian rules by running for board president. The question: Is "regime change" always a good thing? ~ All Movie Guide

Noted producer Ismail Merchant stepped up to the director's chair for this drama. Adrienne Mark (Jeanne Moreau) is the most acclaimed French novelist of her generation, whose best known work, Je M'Appelle France, was an international best-seller made into an award-winning French film (and a disastrous Americanized remake). Adrienne is living in New York City when she learns that the flat in Paris where she grew up (as Adrienne Markowsky) is up for sale. Looking for a key to her past, she buys the apartment and discovers a cache of letters written by her late mother. Adrienne's mother died in a Nazi concentration camp during WWII, but while she's been led to believe that her mother was betrayed while working with the resistance, the letters suggest that the truth was far more troubling. Along the way, Adrienne is romantically pursued by a young fan, William O'Hara (Josh Hamilton), though he instead finds love with Virginia Kelly (Sean Young), an American film producer eager to work with the great writer. The Proprietor also features Sam Waterston, Nell Carter, and Austin Pendleton. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The classic 1955-59 sitcom The Phil Silvers Show (also known as "You'll Never Get Rich" in its first few episodes) became this high concept comedy with an all-star cast. Steve Martin stars as U.S. Army Master Sergeant Ernest G. Bilko, a conniving motor pool supervisor who uses his position to finance various get-rich-quick schemes, including illegal gambling, at a Kansas military base. His commanding officer, Colonel Hall (Dan Aykroyd) is mostly oblivious to Bilko's antics. Trouble arrives when the master sergeant's old rival, Major Thorn (Phil Hartman), appears. It seems that Thorn, the butt of several past Bilko capers, is eager to settle the score by spearheading a review of Bilko's records and stealing away his fiancée Rita (Glenne Headley), who may have been left at the altar one too many times. At the same time, military engineer Major Ebersole (Austin Pendleton) is testing a new high-tech "hover tank" that may not be quite ready for deployment. Directed by light comedy specialist ($Jonathan Lynn, who brought a similar touch to My Cousin Vinny (1992) and Greedy (1994), the updated Sgt. Bilko costarred Cathy Silvers, daughter of the TV show's late star, as Lieutenant Monday. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In this romantic comedy-drama, a couple learns that the relationship between the mind and the body can take many different forms. Rose Morgan (Barbra Streisand) is a plain and pudgy middle-aged college English professor who shares a house with her mother, Hannah (Lauren Bacall). Rose got the brains in her family, but her sister Claire (Mimi Rogers) got the good looks, and as Claire prepares for her wedding to Alex (Pierce Brosnon), Rose can't help but despair over the blank page that is her love life, especially since she's long had a crush on Alex. Gregory Larkin (Jeff Bridges) teaches mathematics at the same school as Rose, and he has come to the conclusion that sex serves no purpose but to complicate relationships between men and women; after a series of disastrous romantic affairs, Gregory is looking for an intellectual relationship with a woman -- and nothing more. One day, Gregory passes by Rose's lecture hall as she discusses the role of chaste love in literature, and he's intrigued; he takes her out on a date and is impressed by Rose's quick wit and broad range of knowledge. Gregory is so taken with Rose that he proposes marriage, but under the condition that theirs be strictly a meeting of the minds, without sexual relations. While Rose is very much attracted to the handsome mathematician, the prospect of spending the rest of her life either alone or with Hannah seems far worse than a marriage without passion, and she agrees to his proposal. However, Rose's affection for Gregory makes it difficult for her to stop with a handshake, and one night she puts on her best nightgown and attempts to seduce her husband, much to Gregory's annoyance and confusion. Gregory leaves on a lecture tour shortly afterward, and after Hannah reassures a heartbroken Rose that she was beautiful as a child, Rose goes on a crash course in self improvement. She goes on a diet, starts working out, changes her hairstyle, learns a few makeup tricks, and revamps her wardrobe, and by the time Gregory returns, he discovers that there's a very different woman in the twin bed next to his own. The Mirror Has Two Faces, based on the 1958 French comedy Le Miror a Deux Faces, was Barbra Streisand's third project as a director; she also served as co-producer and helped compose the film's theme song, "I Finally Found Someone." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

It's been said that while most people love their families, they don't always like them very much, and that emotional dividing line is the heart of this comedy directed by Jodie Foster. Claudia Larson (Holly Hunter) usually approaches family reunions with a certain trepidation, but as she prepares to fly from her home in Chicago to her parent's place in Baltimore for Thanksgiving, she is more apprehensive than usual. Claudia has just lost her job, she's not feeling at all well, and her teenage daughter, Kitt (Claire Danes), who is staying behind, informs Claudia on the way to the airport that she plans to use the weekend to lose her virginity with her boyfriend. The family festivities are already under way when Claudia arrives at the home of her mother, Adele (Anne Bancroft), and father, Henry (Charles Durning). Claudia's brother, Tommy (Robert Downey Jr.), whose homosexuality is tolerated without being discussed on a practical basis, has brought along his new friend Leo Fish (Dylan McDermott). Tommy doesn't get along well with his fussbudget sister, Joanne (Cynthia Stevenson), who wears her self-sacrifice like a badge of honor, and he simply hates her husband, Walter (Steve Guttenberg), who has often been the target of Tommy's barbed sense of humor. While the siblings and in-laws struggle to remain civil, their quite eccentric aunt Gladys (Geraldine Chaplin) arrives; she insists on discussing her digestive problems, and after a few drinks, she confesses her long-ago lust for Henry. Home for the Holidays was Jodie Foster's second film as a director, and the first in which she didn't also star. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The second film to be made from Woody Allen's successful stage comedy (following a 1969 feature starring Jackie Gleason), Don't Drink the Water is a made-for-television adaptation directed by and starring Allen himself. The fish-out-of-water premise remains the same: Allen plays Walter Hollander, a caterer from New Jersey who takes his family on vacation to a fictional Eastern European country. The trip turns sour when, thanks to a series of misunderstandings involving some inopportune snapshots, they are accused of espionage. The family goes on the run, taking refuge in the American Embassy. There, with the help of a wily young diplomat, they try to figure out a way to return to America without sparking an international incident. Though this version is set 25 years later than the original film, the changes are mostly cosmetic: the visual style is hand-held and more frantic, and the script replaces numerous references to the Cold War with a few glancing nods to present-day politics. Another notable change, the addition of an opening montage parodying newsreels, was reportedly the result of network pressure after Allen's initial cut proved too short for the planned time slot. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Rain Without Thunder is a "pro-choice" tract, expertly packaged in the form of speculative fiction. In a futuristic society, abortion is a crime punishable by a harsh prison term, and all female sexual activity is electronically monitored. When young Ali Thomas chooses not to bring her unborn child to term, she is thrown into jail. And since her mother (Betty Buckley) had driven Thomas to the abortionist, she too is arrested--charged with kidnapping the fetus! The filmmakers wear their ideology on both sleeves, but one cannot deny that Rain Without Thunder drives its point home forcefully. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A has-been wrestler (Hulk Hogan) spends most of his time fishing, but decides to become a bodyguard to make some money. He is hired by a rich professor (Austin Pendleton) to supervise his children, but the wrestler finds that the kids are more than he bargained for. An evil scientist (David Johansen, aka Buster Poindexter) decides to kidnap the professor's children as a blackmail scheme to gain control of a microchip capable of taking over the world. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Made for cable television, this frothy western spoof chronicles the exploits of a citified optometrist who exchanges his well-ordered Big Apple life for a wild and woollier version in Tombstone, Arizona. Once there, he is thrilled to meet his hero Wyatt Earp. Unfortunately, the heroic Earp he admired in the many dime-store novels he read is totally different from the real McCoy who turns out to be myopic and continually skunk drunk. Still with the optometrist's help, the sheriff is able to clean up the town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Whatever else turns out to be real or false in this film, the antipathy that the office-worker therein has for his overbearing wife is clearly real. Everything else is up for grabs, including the two men whom he discovers in the house when he gets home from work. They claim that he hired them to murder his wife, but he doesn't remember it at all. When his wife comes home, the discussions and arguments continue, culminating in the apparent murder of his wife and the office worker being arrested for it, along with the two hired hit men. Then, he discovers that this whole scenario has been arranged by his wife to keep him distracted while preparations for a surprise birthday party are being made. Then the clerk discovers that the party, too, may have been an imaginary product of someone's dreams. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide