Sylvia Sidney

This documentary, produced for PBS's American Masters series, is based on A. Scott Berg's well-received biography of Samuel L. Goldwyn (1882-1974), Hollywood's first and likely still greatest independent producer. (Berg cowrote the screenplay.) Like many Hollywood pioneers, Goldwyn was born in Europe in modest circumstances, began his professional life in America in another business (selling gloves), and then fell into motion pictures, in Goldwyn's case, just as production was moving to the West Coast. His first film, with partner Jessie L. Lasky, was The Squaw Man, directed by Cecil B. DeMille and shot on location in the newly minted community of Hollywood. Goldwyn's career was slow getting started, but he hit his stride in the sound era, with literary adaptations of Sinclair Lewis's Arrowsmith and Dodsworth, Lillian Hellman's These Three and The Little Foxes (which Goldwyn, famous for slips of speech, always referred to as The Three Little Foxes), Sidney Kingsley's Dead End, and Emily Bronte's Wuthering Heights. He also made the first two screen versions of the venerable weepie, Stella Dallas, produced Eddie Cantor's big foray into film, Whoopee, and made the iconic baseball biography, Pride of the Yankees. Goldwyn finally reached the pinnacle of movie success in 1946 with The Best Years of Our Lives, which brought him his first Oscar for Best Picture. His postwar career arc was largely downward; two big musicals, Guys and Dolls and especially Porgy and Bess, failed to capture the public attention in spite of lavish production values and big-name casts. The newly filmed interviews, mostly with the surviving members of the Goldwyn family, including his son Sam Goldwyn, Jr., his daughter from his first marriage, Ruth Capps, and his actor grandson Tony Goldwyn, offer insights into Goldwyn the man, while excerpts from vintage interviews with Bette Davis, William Wyler, John Huston, Rouben Mamoulian, Lillian Hellman, Danny Kaye, Dana Andrews, Merle Oberon, and Laurence Olivier (doing a hilarious impression of Goldwyn) offer glimpses into his working persona. ~ Tom Wiener, All Movie Guide

Todd Graff wrote the screenplay for this eccentric romantic comedy in the spirit of Moonstruck that exchanges pasta for matzo balls. The film takes place in Queens in 1969, where Pearl Berman (Shirley MacLaine) has just arrived back from the funeral of her husband. As her dysfunctional family kvetches in the living room, the dapper Joe Meledandri (Marcello Mastroianni) arrives. It seems that Joe has admired Pearl from afar for a number of years, ever since he met her husband in a bar and persuaded him to return to his wife. He invites Pearl for coffee, provoking the wisecrack from her mother (Jessica Tandy): "She got picked up at her own husband's funeral." As Pearl is wooed by Joe, she has to deal with her lonely, overweight daughter Bibby (Kathy Bates) and her prettier daughter Norma (Marcia Gay Harden), who suffers from such a lack of self esteem that she assumes the personalities of Marilyn Monroe, Jackie Kennedy, and Bonnie Parker. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Thanks to the carelessness of a cute little dog, newlyweds Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin are killed in a freak auto accident. Upon arriving in the outer offices of Heaven, the couple finds that, thanks to a century's worth of bureaucratic red tape, they're on a long celestial waiting list. Before they can earn their wings, Davis and Baldwin must occupy their old house as ghosts for the next fifty years. Alas, the house is now owned by insufferable yuppies Catherine O'Hara and Jeffrey Jones. Horrified at the prospect of sharing space with these obnoxious interlopers, Davis and Baldwin do their best to scare O'Hara and Jones away, but their house-haunting skills are pathetic at best. In desperation, the ghostly couple engage the services of a veteran scaremeister: a yellow-haired, snaggle-toothed, profane, flatulent "gonzo" spirit named Beetlejuice (Michael Keaton). The problem: Beetlejuice cannot be trusted-especially when he falls in love with O'Hara and Jones' gloomy, black-clad teenaged daughter Winona Ryder. Beetlejuice producer David Geffen, director Tim Burton, and composer Danny Elfman were also involved in an animated TV-series spin-off. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Film clips and interviews with actors and colleagues provide the material for this laudatory view of the career of Alfred Hitchcock. Among those interviewed who provide a bit of humor in the bargain are Philippe Noiret and Joan Fontaine. The "master of suspense" is shown according to stereotypes already in vogue: he is alternately a melancholy man who wanted stardom in front of the cameras or someone who mistreated actors and actresses on a regular basis. This latter attribute is denied by those interviewed, while the more controversial aspects of Hitchcock's behavior are never mentioned.
~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Actress Joanne Woodward made her (surprisingly unheralded) directorial debut with Come Along With Me. Estelle Parsons stars as a freewheeling woman who decides to start over completely when her husband dies. Before leaving town, she sells everything she owns and burns all her bridges behind her. Parsons sets up residence in a faraway burg under a new name, where she pursues her first love--the occult. The 60-minute Come Along With Me was based on an unpublished short story by Shirley Jackson; it debuted February 16, 1982, on PBS' American Playhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Brass Ring is one of the first American films produced expressly for cable TV. Dina Merrill heads the cast, as an emotionally disturbed wife and mother. Desperately in need of treatment, Merrill refuses to heed the warnings of her family and doctor, leading to dire consequences. Sylvia Sidney and April Lerman also appear. Listed in many sources as a 1983 production, The Brass Ring wasn't shown on the Showtime Cable Network until February 2, 1985. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Wim Wenders made his American film bow with the ultra-stylish Hammett. Based on the speculative novel by Joe Gores, the story concerns real-life detective novelist Dashiell Hammett (Frederic Forest), who early in his career is involved in a complex mystery that will profoundly influence his later works. While hacking away for pulp magazines, Hammett is asked by Jimmy Ryan (Peter Boyle), his old boss at the Pinkerton agency (and the model for the writer's "Continental Op" character), to help out on a particularly difficult case. Before long, Hammett is prowling the nooks and crannies of San Francisco in search of a missing Chinese prostitute-blackmailer (Lydia Lei). Among the several delectable "inside jokes" in Hammett is the presence of Elisha Cook, who'd appeared in the 1941 film adaptation of Hammett's Maltese Falcon, as Eli the Cab Driver. Cinematographers Philip H. Lathrop and Joseph Biroc work overtime to invest Hammett with the "feel" of a classic 1940s detective yarn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A policeman masquerades as a homeless alcoholic and teams up with a bag lady, who is really a college professor, to bring a drug lord's assassin to justice in this memorable made-for-television drama. Along the way, the two disparate partners find themselves falling in love. The story is based upon Richard Barth's novel The Rag Bag Clan. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Gossip Columnist is a rare one-part offering from Operation Prime Time, the TV-syndication service responsible for such miniseries as The Kent Family Chronicles. Fourth-billed Kim Cattrall plays the title character, journalist Dina Moran. Instructed by her boss (Dick Sargent) to take over the gossip column previously written by Hedda Hopper-clone Alma Llewellyn (Sylvia Sidney), Dina becomes a veritable Rona Barrett (why, one would think that scenarist Michael Gleason had purposely based the character on Barrett). In the course of 2 hours, our heroine makes and breaks several celebrities. Martha Raye plays a character not far removed from herself: a formerly big star hoping for a comeback. The cast includes such TV perennials as Robert Vaughn, Bobby Vinton, Bobby Sherman, Richard Deacon and Lyle Waggoner, along with such guest stars as Steve Allen, Jim Backus, Jack Carter, Allen Ludden, Jayne Meadows, Rip Taylor and Betty White. The Gossip Columnist first aired during the third week of March, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first episode of the first season of WKRP in Cincinnati finds troubleshooter Andy Travis (Gary Sandy) blowing in from Santa Fe to pump new life in WKRP, an all-but-moribund "beautiful music" radio station in Cincinnati. Almost immediately Andy junks the station's format in favor of Top 40 rock and roll, transforms mercurial daytime deejay Johnny Caravella (Howard Hesseman) into "Doctor Johnny Fever", and installs his own mellow overnight host, "Venus Flytrap" (Tim Reid). Andy's methods result in wide-eyed astonishment from WKRP's ineffectual station manager Carlson (Gordon Jump) and resentment from the station's uptight news reporter Les Nessman (Richard Sanders) and boorish sales manager Herb Tarlek (Frank Bonner), but the ratings are undeniably on the upsurge. Alas, Mr. Carlson's imperious mother (played in the pilot by Sylvia Sidney) and thereafter by Carol Bruce), who owns WKRP, despises the new format--and demands that Andy be fired almost as soon as he is hired! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Satan's son comes of age in this horror sequel. Shortly after the events of The Omen, a pair of anthropologists uncovers an ancient crypt that depicts the face of the Antichrist -- that of Damien Thorn (Jonathan Scott-Taylor), recently orphaned scion of a wealthy industrialist. Before they can warn the world of the child's evil lineage, both men are buried under tons of rubble. Seven years later, 13-year-old Damien attends military school alongside his cousin, Mark (Lucas Donat), and spends lots of time with his adoptive parents, Uncle Richard (William Holden) and Aunt Ann (Lee Grant). After the boy's Great Aunt Marion (Sylvia Sidney) tries to convince the Thorns that Damien is a malevolent influence on Mark, she dies suddenly, and, unbeknownst to the family, horrifically. Ravens, it seems, are the harbingers of Damien's power, and in addition to Aunt Marion, they visit a long procession of characters who get too close to Damien's true identity. The most horrible death is suffered by Joan Hart (Elizabeth Shepherd), an investigative reporter who's digging into the boy's life; she gets flattened by a truck after having her eyes devoured by those menacing birds. Meanwhile, executive Paul Buher (Robert Foxworth) climbs the corporate ladder at Thorn Industries and takes young Damien under his devil-worshiping wings. Sgt. Neff (Lance Henriksen), one of the boy's instructors, also helps initiate Damien. As the pile of bodies gets bigger -- and closer -- Uncle Richard begins to suspect the truth, and, like his brother before him, plot the death of Damien. The existence of another sequel, 1981's The Final Conflict, gives a good indication of the outcome. Although Damien: Omen II is his only Hollywood feature credit, Scott-Taylor appeared frequently in the theater and on television; he once even portrayed Damien's arch-nemesis, Jesus, on-stage. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

A New York policeman (Harvey Keitel) imprisons and tortures an admitted cop-killer (John Lydon), but finds the tables turned when his victim refuses to break and in fact urges more punishment. Highlighted is the intense interplay between the irrepressible Keitel and Lydon, the sneering frontman of the Sex Pistols as Johnny Rotten. The film is also known as Cop Killers and Order of Death. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-television chiller, an enormous and angry Bigfoot launches a campaign of death and destruction against the skiers who have disturbed its home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide