Connie Stevens Movies

Mickey Stern (Joseph Bologna) is living in the past. When he was still in high school, Mickey (played as a young man by Joshua Fishbein) was a baseball phenom, signed by his beloved Yankees. He was on his way to Korea, proud to fight for his country. Then, visiting Fire Island with his best friend, Harry (Brett Tabisel), he met Leah (Kylie Delre), a beautiful young woman on her way to medical school. Mickey and Leah quickly hit it off, spending a romantic night together before circumstances parted them. Mickey went off to Korea, where he was wounded, which ended his dreams of baseball stardom. Leah went to medical school. It wasn't until 50 years later that she wrote to him, explaining that she'd never gotten over him. He felt the same way, so they were reunited and married. They spent one joyous year together before she passed away. Now, with Harry (Tom Bosley) still at his side, Mickey returns to Fire Island to collect Leah's old things. There, he makes a startling discovery. He sees a woman who looks exactly like Leah (Delre) and even has the same name. More shocking, he finds a young man named Michael (Fishbein) who is exactly like his 17-year-old self, right down to the smallest mannerism. Everyone thinks he's crazy, but Mickey is determined to correct the mistakes of his own past through these two young people. As he fumblingly tries to bring the two together, he makes some key discoveries about his own life. Written and directed by first-timer Michael Prywes, Returning Mickey Stern was cast, in part, through a website created by Prywes, www.castourmovie.com, where visitors got to view auditions and vote among the finalists for four key roles. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide

Romeo and Juliet gets updated -- and played for laughs -- in this romantic comedy set in the City Island section of the Bronx. Mike and Sadie Cappamezza (Joseph Bologna and Lainie Kazan) are a hard-working couple who have run a family-style Italian restaurant for years. The Cappamezzas' fiercest rivals have long been Count and Countess Malacici (Paul Sorvino and Barbara Carrera), who operate a pretentiously upscale Neapolitan eatery (and whose titled nobility seems to be in question). The Malacicis don't like the Cappamezzas any more than the Cappamezzas like them, and for years they've been trying to run each other out of business. So no one is pleased when Rosario Cappamezza (Nathaniel Marston), Mike and Sadie's son, and Gina Malacici (Angelina Jolie), the daughter of the Count and Countess, are cast in a student production of Romeo and Juliet -- and annoyance gives way to shock when Rosario and Gina fall in love offstage as well as on. The husband and wife team of Joseph Bologna and Renee Taylor co-wrote and co-directed this film; Taylor also appears in a small role as a psychic. While completed in 1994, Love Is All There Is didn't enjoy a theatrical release until 1996. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The second of two TV-movie attempts to revive the Dobie Gillis sitcom series of the 1950s and 1960s, Bring Me the Head of Dobie Gillis rounds up as many cast members of the old show as humanly possible. Dwayne Hickman took a break from his busy career as a CBS daytime-drama executive to recreate the role of Dobie Gillis, while Bob Denver was back as his beatnik "good buddy" Maynard G. Krebs. Also making return appearances are Sheila James as Zelda Gilroy (now Mrs. Dobie Gillis), Steve Franken as ridiculously wealthy Chatsworth Osborne Jr., and William Schallert as Dobie's college teacher Mr. Pomfritt. The plot concerns the attempts by Dobie's former high school sweetheart, the ever-mercenary Thalia Menninger, to wrest Dobie away from wife Zelda and claim him for her own. Tuesday Weld, the original Thalia, wasn't interested in reprising the character (nor was Dwayne Hickman interested in working with the troublesome Ms. Weld again), so the role was assumed by another 1950s TV icon, Connie Stevens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello not only starred in the delightfully "retro" Back to the Beach, but also served as executive producers. Appropriately set 25 years after such drive-in faves as Beach Blanket Bingo, the film finds Frankie and Annette as husband and wife, living far from the surf 'n' sand in Ohio. Heading to California to visit their daughter Lori Loughlin, Frankie and Annette are appalled to learn that she has been keeping time with punker Tommy Hinkley. In time-honored fashion, our hero and heroine set about to make the beach safe for funlovers everywhere by driving out Hinkley's unsavory pals. Along the way, Frankie nearly bollixes up his marriage by dallying with Connie Stevens-one of several pop-culture icons appearing in Back to the Beach, including Don Adams, Bob Denver, Jerry Mathers, Tony Dow, Dick Dale & the Del-Tones , Stevie Ray Vaughan, and even Pee-wee Herman! Back to the Beach is fun for a while, but its six-person writing team can't figure out a logical way to wind it all up. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-TV movie, a teenage boy runs away from home and joins a circus, discovering that his new life is not exactly what he thought it would be. When the boy is the witness to a murder, he must struggle to keep himself out of the killer's way. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the Judith Krantz novel of the same name, the CBS miniseries Scruples zeroes in on a trendy, upscale Beverly Hills boutique. The guiding force behind the Scruples shop is beautiful Billy Ikelhorn (Lindsay Wagner), who, though born into grinding poverty, had risen to the uppermost rungs of L.A. society by virtue of her marriage to millionaire Ellis Ikelhorn (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.). When her husband dies after a long illness, Billy compensates for her grief by becoming a Boadicea of the fashion industry. Her personal and professional life is entangled with those of her closest associates, fashion photographer Spider Elliott (Barry Bostwick) and designer Valentine O'Neill (Marie-France Pisier). Originally telecast in six two-hour episodes on February 25, 26, and 28, 1980, Scruples proved popular enough to warrant a 1981 TV-movie sequel, starring Shelley Smith as Billy, Dirk Benedict as Spider and Olga Karlatos as Valentine. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A made-for-TV drama clearly inspired by Gone With the Wind, Love's Savage Fury is an account of a Southern belle and two Union prison escapees who vie for a hidden treasure. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Pop star Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees star in this musical, loosely based on the popular 1967 Beatles album Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band. In the story, Billy Shears, who now heads the Lonely Hearts Club Band, is the grandson of the famous Sergeant Pepper. He is confronted by the need to save the magical musical instruments of the band from the bad guys, led by music tycoon B.D. Brockhurst (Donald Pleasance), who want to steal them. If they succeed, the magic which infuses "Heartland U.S.A." will disappear. Among the many Beatles' songs performed in the film by well-known popular artists are: "She's Leaving Home" (Bee Gees, Jay MacIntosh, John Wheeler), "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" (Steve Martin), "Got To Get You into My Life (Earth, Wind & Fire), "When I'm 64" (Sandy Farina), "Come Together" (Aerosmith), "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band" (sung by the Bee Gees, Paul Nicholas), "With a Little Help from My Friends" (Peter Frampton, the Bee Gees), "Fixing a Hole" (George Burns), and "Get Back" (Billy Preston). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Connie Stevens appears both with and without clothing in this made-for-TV a clef version of the Marilyn Monroe saga. The script, based on Alvah Bessie's novel The Symbol, contrives to have Stevens portray La Monroe in everything but name, right down to entering into a marriage with a famous sports figure (also given a fictitious name). ABC was threatened with legal action by several interested parties upon announcing plans to telecast Sex Symbol. The film was ultimately shown, albeit with several minutes of nudity and profanity trimmed (this was 1974, not 1994), though the missing footage was well documented in the press. The full "director's cut" version was shown theatrically in Europe, but has yet to be released on videotape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Mom" is Connie Stevens, who stars in this made-for-TV comedy. Stevens plays a small-town waitress who is appointed the housemother for a rambunctious fraternity house on the local college campus. The frat boys assume that freewheeling Stevens will allow them to party to their hearts' content, but "Mom" takes her job quite seriously and compels the students to behave themselves. She also becomes involved in a campus feminist movement that threatens to topple the college's male power structure (headed by dean Van Johnson). Call Her Mom was the pilot for a Connie Stevens TV series that found neither a sponsor nor a network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Grissom Gang is a remake of the notorious 1949 British melodrama No Orchids for Miss Blandish. Kim Darby plays a 1920s-era debutante who is kidnapped and held for ransom. Her captors are the Grissoms, a family comprised of sadists and morons, and headed by Ma Barker clone Irene Dailey. One of the Grissoms, played by Scott Wilson, takes a liking to his prisoner, which results in a bloody breakdown of the family unit. Both The Grissom Gang and the original No Orchids for Miss Blandish were inspired by the best-seller by James Hadley Chase, though neither film retains Chase's original ending. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-television musical fable, a young boy yearns to become an angel after he dies in a fall. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide