Pamela Reed Movies
Although her earthy and somewhat plain appearance might have prevented her from landing the sort of glamorous parts Hollywood seems to reserve for A-list beauty queens, actress Pamela Reed still managed to maintain a healthy career with a series of winning supporting roles. A Washington native who spent the majority of her childhood in Maryland, Reed moved back to the Northwest for an opportunity to work on the Trans-Alaska Pipeline. There, she began to study drama at the University of Washington, where she stood out amongst her classmates due to her age (she was nearly 30 when she graduated and began seeking out roles in New York and L.A.). She later appeared off-Broadway in Curse of the Starving Class and impressed audiences with her performance in Aunt Dan and Lemonand her skillful interpretation of Shakespeare in All's Well That Ends Well. In 1978, Reed made her Broadway debut in a production of The November People. With a solid stage resumé, the actress moved to the screen in Walter Hill's 1980 Western The Long Riders. Reed could bring style and depth to even the most threadbare of roles, and in the years that followed, she made a name for herself by essaying key supporting parts in such films as Eyewitness (1981) and The Right Stuff (1983); though her characters rarely broke the mold of supportive wife/girlfriend, her performances were always graceful and believable.Reed took a turn toward the small screen with a role in the 1990 comedy series Grand, and alternated frequently between film and television for the remainder of the decade. From her scene-stealing turn alongside Arnold Schwarzenegger in Kindergarten Cop (1990) to her performance as a housewife with a history in the made-for-TV mystery Woman With a Past, Reed proved equally adept at both comedy and drama. Following a memorable role in Tim Robbins' 1992 political satire (and directorial debut) Bob Roberts, the actress returned to television in 1995 for the short-lived comedy series The Home Court. She built a sturdy fan base of Lifetime viewers with such made-for-cable features as The Man Next Door (1995), and continued to appear in such hit features as Bean (1997) and Why Do Fools Fall in Love (1998). Reed later starred in the 2000 blockbuster Proof of Life, and appeared in the small-screen drama Book of Days (2003) and Glory Days in 2004. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
Comic actor Rowan Atkinson brought his bumbling character Mr. Bean from television to the big screen with this British comedy. Mr. Bean (Rowan Atkinson) is a well-meaning but not especially bright fellow with a gift for making the worst of any situation. Bean is about to be fired from his job as a guard at the Royal Nation Art Gallery for sleeping on the job, but the Chairman (John Mills) intervenes at the last moment. To insure that his incompetence will manifest itself so completely that there will be no choice but to get rid of him, Bean's superiors come up with a plan -- they'll send him to America to speak at a posh private gallery owned by George Grierson (Harris Yulin), where General Newton (Burt Reynolds) will display the most recent addition to his art collection, "Whistler's Mother." It's even money whether or not the museum will still be standing before Bean is done; as if this weren't enough, while in L.A. Bean is mistaken for a surgeon and forced to operate on an injured police officer. Richard Curtis, one of the film's producers, said after viewing the final product, "It's an unpleasant family movie. I'm very pleased." ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rowan Atkinson, Peter MacNicol, (more)
In the tradition of This Is Spinal Tap, producer/ director/ star Tim Robbins' Bob Roberts is a satire disguised as a documentary. Robbins plays the titular Roberts, a wealthy, well-connected young man running for a senatorial seat in Pennsylvania. On the surface, Roberts is an ingratiating glad-hander, a sincere believer in the restoration of such intangibles as national pride, family values, etc. But the longer Roberts is followed about by documentary filmmaker Brian Murray, the more we become aware that the candidate is a textbook case of cynicism and contempt. Only Giancarlo Esposito, a reporter for an underground newspaper, is willing to dig beneath Roberts' veneer--a habit that leads to the film's ironic conclusion. Several well-known actors make cameo appearances as TV commentators, notably Tim Robbins' longtime partner Susan Sarandon. Bob Roberts started out as a Tim Robbins-directed short subject for the TV series Saturday Night Live, then was expanded into a $4 million feature. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tim Robbins, Giancarlo Esposito, (more)
- 1993
In this domestic drama a young couple's life and relationship is nearly shattered after the wife gives birth three months early. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Moriarty, Pamela Reed, (more)
Robin Williams stars in this oddball comedy about a fast-talking car salesman who is down on his luck and in over his head until an extreme situation forces him to use his sales skills to save lives. Joey O'Brien (Williams) is the stereotypical car salesman: enterprising, aggressive, and desperate to make enough money to spend on his high-maintenance girlfriends. But suddenly the pressure is really on: he owes money to the mob, his ex-wife is nagging him about not spending enough time with their teenage daughter, and if he doesn't sell at least a dozen cars by the time the big sale is over on Saturday, he's going to lose his job. As Joey attempts to placate several potential buyers, his day is interrupted by Larry (Tim Robbins), the insanely jealous husband of dimwitted showroom receptionist Donna (Annabella Sciorra), who's been having an affair with someone who works at the dealership. With the police surrounding the place, his job (and life) on the line, Joey realizes that it's up to him to use his wits to persuade Larry -- who's not even sure what he wants out of the situation -- not to kill anyone. ~ Don Kaye, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Williams, Tim Robbins, (more)
- 1990
This suspenseful drama first aired on television as part of the Hallmark Hall of Fame Theater. It tells the story of a young woman who suddenly appears at the family estate claiming to be the title character and demanding her rightful inheritance. The family doesn't know what to think, because they have spent the last 15 years believing that Caroline died in a plane crash. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1998
Army doctor Carmen Travis (Judith Light) is hot on the trail of a killer virus. Tracing the source of the scourge from Africa to a government facility in Alabama, Carmen and her assistant Holly Parker (Pamela Reed) abruptly run up against the stone wall of conspiracy. It seems that the virus is the unfortunate residue of a genetic-restructructing experiment involving identical twin children--and the higher-ups who have concocted the experiment as a means to carry out future biological warfare have no intention of allowing Carmen to tell what she knows to the world. Carriers was telecast in Germany two months before its American TV debut over the CBS network on October 27, 1998. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judith Light, Pamela Reed, (more)
Since Chattahoochee is a story based on true events, it may seem absurd to suggest that the actual events of Chattahoochee are pirated from other true-life tales like Gideon's Trumpet. But it certainly seems as if true stories are just as derivative as any fictional narrative coming out of Hollywood. The Chattahoochee saga details the Emmett Foley (Gary Oldman) story. The film takes place in 1955, when Foley, a Korean war veteran depressed and shattered by continual unemployment, snaps and shoots up his neighborhood, hoping that the police will come and shoot him down like a crazed dog so that his wife Mae (Frances McDormand) can collect on the insurance money. Instead of being gunned down by the law enforcement officers, he is sent to Chattahoochee, a notorious prison for the mentally ill which makes The Snake Pit look like a vacation in Bermuda. The gruesome conditions in the jail send Foley into listlessness. But then his anger gets the better of him and, encouraged by a friend, Walker Benson (Dennis Hopper), he begins sending letters to the authorities protesting the sub-human conditions in the mental facility. Due to his efforts, a state commission is formed to investigate conditions in Chattahoochee, and Foley has a chance to tell the world of the horrible conditions. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Oldman, Dennis Hopper, (more)
- 1996
- R
An unplanned pregnancy throws a monkey wrench into the carefully orchestrated plans of a financially struggling young couple. They already have two children, and having another baby would force the mother to drop out of college and would be a terrible financial strain on the family. While trying to decide whether or not to terminate the pregnancy, the poor wife finds herself caught in the middle of an increasingly heated debate between pro-choice and anti-abortion factions. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Betty Buckley, Pamela Reed, (more)
- 2005
In the tradition of Behind the Camera: The Unauthorized Story of Three's Company and Growing Up Brady comes the telemovie Dynasty: the Making of a Guilty Pleasure: a slightly tongue-in-cheek docudrama that purports to tell the scintillating story behind the scenes of ABC's nine-season prime time soaper about the Carringtons and the Colbys. The feature (produced by ABC itself) reflects on the parent network's own lust after a serial drama in the face of drowning competition from Dallas. To solve this issue, producer Aaron Spelling (here played by Nicholas Hammond) and show creators Richard and Esther Shapiro (Ritchie Singer and Pamela Reed) conceive of a modern American dress version of I, Claudius about the corrupting influences of wealth and power in the Reagan era. The suits devise the scheming character of Alexis Carrington Colby and bring Joan Collins (Alice Krige) in to play her as a kind of feminine equivalent of J.R. Ewing. The main thrust of the story involves the program's rise to one of the top-tiered series on television, followed by its inevitable fall when it disrespects and underestimates its regular audience. John Bart portrays John Forsythe, Melora Hardin plays Linda Evans, and Robert Coleby is Rock Hudson. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pamela Reed, Alice Krige, (more)
Fresh off the success of Breaking Away(1979), writer Steve Tesich and director Peter Yates re-team on a thriller starring a young William Hurt as a janitor infatuated with television reporter Sigourney Weaver. When she arrives at his building to interview the tenants about a murder that's occurred on the premises, the janitor, having discovered the body, implies that he knows more than he's saying in order to keep the newswoman interested. Although he reveals nothing more, she does become interested in him, and when her nefarious aristocratic boyfriend (Christopher Plummer) learns from the unwitting woman that there's someone with knowledge of the murder, he's more concerned about what Hurt might know than about her relationship with him. Meanwhile, his paranoid, loose cannon of a friend James Woods has managed to get himself incriminated, although he had no involvement in the case. Hurt and Weaver continue to investigate the murder together, and as they become more closely entwined, both of their lives are put in jeopardy. ~ Michael Costello, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Hurt, Sigourney Weaver, (more)
- 1983
Written for television by Gary Devore, Heart of Steel concentrates on a societal dilemma that has only gotten worse since 1983. Second-generation steelworker Peter Strauss loses the job he's held all his life when the mill closes down. Unable to find work, Strauss takes to drink, then vents his frustration on his family. A personal tragedy snaps Strauss out of his self-pity and renews his will to survive. Only the "feel good" ending strikes a false note in the otherwise grimly persuasive Heart of Steel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
This drama is adapted from the true story of Barbara Graham, a woman sentenced to die in the mid-1950s after she allegedly committed a murder during a robbery. Graham pleaded innocent until the day she died in the San Quentin gas chamber. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1981
This ABC TV movie is set in an experimental coed prison, presided over by progressive warden E.F. Crown (Shirley Jones). The wisdom of incarcerating men and women together is placed in doubt when white-collar criminal Roy Matson (Perry King) falls in love with hard-boiled, streetwise Jane Mount (Kate Jackson). In addition to Shirley Jones, Tony Curtis pulls special guest star duty as Flanagan, a two-bit hoodlum who aspires to "class." Inmates: A Love Story debuted on February 13, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 2005
Jane Doe: Now You See It, Now You Don't is one of several Hallmark Channel TV-movies starring Lea Thompson as suburban housewife and mom Kathy Davis (Lea Thompson), who unbeknownst to her family occasionally moonlights as an undercover special agent and "problem solver" for the NSA. When the Declaration of Independence is stolen while on display at a Los Angeles bank, NSA higher-up Frank Darnell (Joe Penny) calls in Kathy--code name "Jane Doe"--in hopes of figuring out who did it. It's a standard "locked room" mystery which Kathy manages to figure out in no time flat, but the murder of the chief suspect and the kidnapping of the suspect's wife makes things a bit more complicated. As she endeavors to crack the case, Kathy must also deal with her neurotic husband Jack (William R. Moses) as he adjusts to working in the same office with a former girlfriend, and she must contend with the jealousy of her NRA cohort, case officer Helen Morrison (Tamlyn Tomita). Jane Doe: Now You See It, Now You Don't made its first TV appearance on February 24, 2005. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Jericho returned for a second astounding season thanks to unprecedented and impassioned support from its legion of loyal fans, many of whom sent peanuts (reportedly totaling thousands of pounds) to the CBS offices in New York and Los Angeles. Why peanuts? That was a reference to the Season 1 cliffhanger finale, which ended with a character uttering "Nuts." CBS responded by bringing the series back for this concluding seven-episode Season 2 run in the spring of 2008. In the aftermath of a devastating nuclear explosion, and a battle with neighboring New Bern, the once peaceful town of Jericho begins to rebuild itself as it attempts to communicate with the outside world. The newly formed Cheyenne government strives to establish its stronghold in the region, but Jericho's citizens become suspicious of these new leaders as they question their true intentions.
- Starring:
- Skeet Ulrich, Ashley Scott, (more)
Ultimate manly man Arnold Schwarzenegger learns what it's like to be an expectant mother in director Ivan Reitman's high-concept comedy. Schwarzenegger plays Dr. Hess, a medical researcher working on a revolutionary drug to help mothers carry endangered infants to term. When government regulations prevent Dr. Hess from testing the drug through normal channels, his partner Dr. Arbogast (Danny DeVito) develops an unorthodox solution: they will steal a female egg and implant it in Hess, who will carry the child himself. Predictably, much of the subsequent humor centers on the incongruous sight of the muscular Schwarzenegger undergoing the trials and tribulations of pregnancy, from morning sickness to labor pains. Emma Thompson returns to her comic roots and provides romantic interest as an incorrigibly clumsy but intelligent scientist who catches on to Hess' deception. Reitman, Schwarzenegger, and DeVito had previously had a hit with Twins (1988), which revolved around a similarly ludicrous medical premise, but they failed to repeat that film's success here, as audiences largely ignored the film and reviewers criticized the humor as disappointingly obvious. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Danny DeVito, (more)
Arnold Schwarzenegger sheds his action image in Ivan Reitman's police comedy Kindergarten Cop, where he plays an undercover cop teaching a class of hyperactive six-year-olds. As the film begins, John Kimble (Schwarzenegger) and his partner Phoebe O'Hara (Pamela Reed) are in pursuit of notorious drug dealer Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson) and his scabrous mother Eleanor (Carroll Baker). John learns Cullen is searching for his ex-wife and his little boy, and Kimble plans to nail them when they find the former wife, who is believed to have $3 million of Cullen's drug profits. John and Phoebe follow the trail to Astoria, Oregon, where they believe Cullen's son is attending kindergarten. Although the child and his mother have changed names, John hopes they can pick up some clues. By coincidence, Phoebe used to be a schoolteacher and the school board permits her teach the kindergarten class, but Phoebe gets food poisoning and John is forced to teach the six-year-old whippersnappers himself. Along with lighthearted gags with the kids and the pursuit of the drug dealers, John has time for a little romance when he falls in love with one of the teachers (Penelope Ann Miller), who ends up surprising him with more than love. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Arnold Schwarzenegger, Penelope Ann Miller, (more)
A former high-school track star who has taken to staving off reality with the all-too-occasional cocktail must summon the strength to save his marriage and pull back from the abyss when his friends and family stage an intervention that goes horribly awry. Michael Elgin (Eion Bailey) may have been a master of the track back in high school, but now he's hit his thirties and his once-perfect form has devolved into a depressing drunken stumble. Life after high school just wasn't what he expected, and when his wife (Ellen Pompeo) threatens to walk out while his career hangs by a thread Michael simply drinks away the pain. Michael isn't alone in life though, and when he crashes his best friend's car and emerges miraculously unscathed the people who care for him most plan an emergency intervention. When Michael arrives home one day to find his friends and family waiting for him it appears as if the jig is up, but the psychiatrist who was supposed to lead the intervention proves a no-show and crafty Michael skillfully convinces his guests to stay and party. Some things just aren't a laughing matter though, and as tensions flare and bottled-up secrets spill Michael finally begins to realize just how dire his situation has truly become. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eion Bailey, Ellen Pompeo, (more)
Jonathan Demme's breakthrough movie featured the shaggy energy and affection for marginal American eccentrics that marked his earlier Citizens Band (1977) and such later films as Something Wild (1986) and Married to the Mob (1988). Melvin Dummar (Paul LeMat) is a barely-getting-by Nevada milkman. One day in the early 1970s, while driving down a lonely highway, Melvin picks up a shaggy, bearded bum (Jason Robards Jr.) and offers him a ride into town. Melvin gives the bum a quarter at the end of the ride, and that, so far as Melvin is concerned, is that. The story goes off on a new tangent, involving the on-and-off marriage between Dummar and his contest-happy wife Lynda (Mary Steenburgen). During one of the multitude of financial crises endured by the Dummars, Melvin discovers that the tramp he picked up was none other than billionaire Howard Hughes -- and when Hughes dies, Melvin inherits $150 million. The movie's wide acclaim included Oscars for Steenburgen and Goldman's script and New York Film Critics Awards in almost all major categories, including Best Picture and awards for Demme, Goldman, Steenburgen, and Robards. Demme would gain even greater attention in the 1990s as the director of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Philadelphia (1993). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Le Mat, Jason Robards, Jr., (more)
- 1992
- PG13
In this black comedy, elderly Jack Scanlan (Jack Warden) passes away just as he's about to tell his oldest son Johnny (Bob Hoskins) what he's decided is truly important in life, which does little to ease Johnny's mid-life anxieties. Jack's funeral and the subsequent wake brings together the various members of the Scanlan Family, most of whom are having troubles of their own. Johnny's mother Mary (Maureen Stapleton) is not dealing well with losing her husband. His brother Frank (William Petersen), a would-be union delegate, has a nagging wife, Denise (Debra Rush), and a pregnant daughter, Rachel (Teri Polo). His sister Nora (Frances McDormand) is a leftist nun who has brought along a guest, a South American dissident wanted by the INS. Terry (Pamela Reed) is splitting up with her husband Boyd (Tim Curry) after finally realizing that he's gay. And Johnny is thinking of quitting his job and leaving his wife Amy (Blair Brown), which makes the mysterious Cassie (Nancy Travis) seem all the more attractive. Passed Away marked the directorial debut of successful screenwriter Charlie Peters. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Hoskins, Jack Warden, (more)
