Mildred Shay Movies
- 1990
- R
A hectic caper flick with farcical overtones, Bullseye! doesn't quite hit the....oh, you know. Government scientist Michael Caine and his titled pal Roger Moore plan to auction off a cold fusion formula to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, a pair of con artists-also played by Caine and Moore-impersonate the scientist and his friends in hopes of getting a piece of the action. This leads to an unending supply of comic complications, deadly encounters, wacky recurring characters and Sennett-style chases. Is louder and faster really funnier? You be the judge (but you'll have to catch the film on home video, since it never received a US theatrical release). Roger Moore's real-life daughter Deborah Barrymore shows up as a CIA agent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, Roger Moore, (more)
It started as a 1960 Roger Corman horror comedy, filmed in two days; it then inspired a lavish 1982 Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Alan Menken and Howard Ashman. Finally in 1986, Little Shop of Horrors (1960) graduated into a multimillion-dollar, all-star film musical. Rick Moranis plays nebbishy Seymour Krelborn, who works in a rundown flower shop on Skid Row. While his boss (Vincent Gardenia) bemoans the lack of business, Seymour seeks a way of bringing the shop -- and himself -- fame and fortune. He purchases a strange plant from an even stranger oriental street vendor (Vincent Wong), naming the plant after his girlfriend Audrey (Ellen Greene, one of the few carry-overs from the Broadway version). Gradually, Seymour learns to his horror that "Audrey II" (given the voice of R&B performer Levi Stubbs) craves blood and flesh. With each of Audrey II's "FEEED MEEE"s, Seymour must scare up human food to satisfy the plant's appetite. One such victim is dentist Steve Martin, a leather-jacketed Elvis type (the dentist's ultra-masochistic patient played by Jack Nicholson in the 1960 original is here impersonated by Bill Murray). The lighthearted tone of the film darkens as Audrey II grows in monstrosity, but the unhappy ending of the Broadway version is avoided herein. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rick Moranis, Ellen Greene, (more)
Michael Winner ups the ante once again in Death Wish 3. Any pretense of Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) having a career in architecture is completely gone. Kersey's new career appears to be as a professional vigilante, blowing away muggers, rapists and thieves off the mean streets -- or as he terms it "thinning the herd." Back in New York City, Kersey, with his usual luck, arrives just in time to find an old friend dying after a vicious beating by a multi-cultural gang of thugs. The cops arrest Kersey, but it just so happens that police chief Richard S. Shriker (Ed Lauter) is like Kersey with a badge: "I'm the law, and that means I get to violate your civil rights." He makes a deal with Kersey: he can go free as long as he keeps the cops informed of his death counts. Kersey grunts in agreement and proceeds to move into a decaying tenement building in the middle of a bombed out gang war zone. The building is populated by a group of elderly tenants who are terrified by the neighborhood gang warfare. Kersey declares his own personal war on the neighborhood gang, led by a frenzied leader named Fraker (Gavan O'Herilhy), who wears a reverse Mohawk hair-style. As Kersey devises booby traps and trip-wire bombs to confound the gang, the senior citizens gleefully take pot shots at the wounded gang members from their windows. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charles Bronson, Deborah Raffin, (more)
- 1982
This weak, unevenly plotted story of a con artist and his helper features Gregg Henry as Ben who works as a lounge pianist in a London hotel, and Elizabeth Daily as Cass, a fellow American out looking for some fun in life. The two team up to fraud hotel guests by stealing and using the guests' credit cards, with Ben showing Cass the tricks of the trade. Their scam is not foolproof, so the daring duo may be living free on borrowed time unless they just happen to change their ways. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gregg Henry, Elizabeth Daily, (more)
Though she owns a large estate and is herself a noblewoman, Lady St. Edmund (Helen Hayes) is anything but rich. Indeed, if she cannot raise the money needed to pay taxes on the estate, she and the large crew of orphans she has taken in will be thrown out. Legend has it that one of her ancestors, a pirate, hid a substantial treasure in gold coins somewhere in the mansion. Lady St. Edmund has not lost sight of the legend, but neither has she found the coins. With the willing help of her children and her valet-of-all trades, Priory (David Niven), she is doing her plucky best to keep the wolf from the door. However, the thieving duo of Bundage and Grimsworthy (Leo McKern and Vivian Pickles) have decided to mount a search for the legendary loot themselves and have persuaded Casey (Jodie Foster), a waif from L.A., to pose as Lady St. Edmund's long-lost granddaughter and help find and steal the loot. This being a Disney production, one can be confident that good will somehow prevail. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Niven, Helen Hayes, (more)
- 1977
- R
Rudolph Valentino, born in Italy in 1895 as Alfonzo Raffaele Pierre Philibert Guglielmi, emigrated to the U.S. and became for a time the reigning male romantic lead of the silent-film era. He died in 1926, having led a short, troubled and tempestuous life which included several stints in prison. The crowds surrounding his coffin before and during his funeral were among the largest ever seen in the U.S. In this film, Ken Russell has used events from the famous actor's life as the basis for an extended meditation on the nature of stardom, and especially on what it means to be a sex idol. Beginning and ending with the funeral of Valentino (Rudolf Nureyev), the story chronicles his rise to Hollywood stardom from life as an Italian emigrant dishwasher and show-dancer. Often embroiled in controversies about his manliness (or perceived lack of ), in the film he dies as a result of internal injuries suffered in a boxing match he fought in to defend his honor. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rudolf Nureyev, Leslie Caron, (more)
- 1945
In this romance, an impoverished chorine masquerades as a nurse so that she can find a job. She is hired to care for an alcoholic hypochondriac who also happens to be a show-biz composer. Because of his outrageous actions, the composer's wife left him and went to Majorca. To find her, the nurse and her charge go there too. Things do not turn out exactly as planned, and the nurse, and the now-cured composer fall in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1942
The final pairing of Jeanette MacDonald and Nelson Eddy, an adaptation of a Rodgers & Hart musical, stars Eddy as a playboy who fantasizes that he is romancing an angel (MacDonald). ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeanette MacDonald, Nelson Eddy, (more)
Though the United States still wasn't at war when Phantom Submarine was made, the film emphasizes the importance of "preparedness." Plucky newspaperwoman Madeleine (Anita Louise) is sent to the Panama Canal to get the lowdown on a mysterious enemy submarine that has been bedevilling Allied shipping lanes. Stowing away on a salvage vessel, Madeleine immediately runs afoul of diver Sinclair (Bruce Bennett), who's ostensibly looking for sunken gold off the Carribean. In truth, Sinclair is testing out a diving suit of his own invention, which previously had been rejected by the Navy. Between them, Madeleine and Sinclair manage to discover the purpose behind the "phantom submarine", exposing an Axis spy ring in the process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anita Louise, Bruce Bennett, (more)
- 1940
In Old Missouri is an entertaining Republic "regional" aimed at the thriving Country-Western fandom of the 1940s. Heading the cast are The Weaver Brothers and Elviry, a popular cornpone aggregation of the period. In a plot that predates The Beverly Hillbillies by two decades, the Weavers are bullied around by the snooty family of millionaire Pittman (Thurston Hall). But when the chips are down and the Pittmans face bankruptcy, it is Abner, Cicero and Elviry (Leon, Frank and June Weaver) who come to the rescue. Slickly produced despite its obviously skin-tight budget, In Old Missouri holds up surprisingly well when seen today; as a bonus, the nominal romantic lead is played by none other than Alan Ladd! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leon Weaver, Frank Weaver, (more)
Unique among the Gene Autry starrers of 1940, Ride Tenderfoot Ride actually contains more action than music. In this one, Autry falls heir to a meat-packing firm which has been targetted for a hostile takeover by the villains. June Storey plays Ann Randolph, owner of a rival meat concern, who is unaware until the last reel that her subordinates have been plotting to ruin or murder our hero. By the time Gene and Ann decide to merge-both professionally and romantically---the bad guys have been soundly trounced by Autry and his saddle pal Frog (Smiley Burnette). Legendary Broadway entertainer Joe Frisco is somewhat wasted in a minor role as a stuttering haberdasher. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Autry, Smiley Burnette, (more)
- 1939
In this romantic musical, a Russian prince sees a lovely singer in a town cafe and falls head-over-heels. Realizing that he cannot be seen with her in royal garb, he masquerades as a worker. Later he secretly arranges for her to sing at the Imperial Opera. Unfortunately, his father the emperor is wounded that night by the wicked Reds. The girl's father is among the would-be assassins. Years pass. Just before the dawn of WWII, the girl and her family are exiled to Siberia while the former prince heads for Paris to become a famous nightcub singer. When revolution erupts in Russia, the girl is freed and the lovers are eventually reunited. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nelson Eddy, Ilona Massey, (more)
Based on the Clare Booth Luce play of the same name, this MGM comedy is justly famous for its all-female cast and deft direction by George Cukor. The plot centers on a group of gossipy high-society women who spend their days at the beauty salon and haunting fashion shows. The sweet, happily wedded Mary Haines (Norma Shearer) finds her marriage in trouble when shopgirl Crystal Allen (Joan Crawford) gets her hooks into Mary's man. Naturally, this situation becomes the hot talk amongst Mary's catty friends, especially the scandalmonger Sylvia Fowler (Rosalind Russell), who has little room to talk -- she finds herself on a train to Reno and headed for divorce right after Mary. But with a bit of guts and daring, Mary snatches her man right back from Crystal's clutches. Snappy, witty dialogue, much of it courtesy of veteran screenwriter Anita Loos, helps send this film's humor over the top. So do the characterizations -- Crawford is as venomous as they come, and this was Russell's first chance to show what she could do as a comedienne. And don't discount Shearer -- her portrayal of good-girl Mary is never overpowered by these two far-flashier roles. The only part of The Women that misses is the fashion-show sequence. It was shot in color -- an innovative idea in its day -- but now both the concept and clothes are dreary and archaic. Do keep an eye on the supporting players, though, especially Mary Boland as the Countess DeLage. The role was based on a cafe society dame of that era, the Countess DiFrasso, who had a wild affair with Gary Cooper; that romance is satirized here. ~ Janiss Garza, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Norma Shearer, Joan Crawford, (more)
