Beatrice Straight Movies

Goldie Hawn delivers a surprisingly understated performance (allowing the audience to shift their laughter from the usually comic Hawn to the unbelievable storyline) in the unsuccessful thriller Deceived. Hawn plays Adrienne Saunders, a successful art restorer who is married to Jack (John Heard), a devoted husband who is also an expert in the antiques business. Married for six years and parents of a charming 5-year-old daughter Mary (Ashley Peldon), the Saunders appear to have everything going for them. But after a series of odd occurrences that even an idiot would notice, Adrienne finally comes the conclusion that her husband is not the man she thought he was when she married him. After Jack tells Mary that he was in Boston but Adrienne's friend tells her she saw him in New York, the mysterious clues begin piling up and are too numerous to ignore: there's a call from a department store concerning some sexy lingerie that Jack purchased; a friend is found murdered after checking on the authenticity of an Egyptian necklace; and there are indications that Jack was involved with a scheme to steal artifacts from a museum. Adrienne is finally convinced that something is fishy about her husband when he mysteriously dies is an auto wreck, and she discovers that Jack has been using the name of a man who had died 16 years earlier. Adrienne proceeds to polish her magnifying glass and conducts some detective work on her own to find out who her husband really was. This is when the danger really begins. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Under Siege was first telecast in February 1986, a time when the notion of foreign terrorists in America was still speculative fiction. A militant group sets off explosives at US Army bases, then branches out to such civilian targets as crowded shopping centers. FBI director Peter Strauss discovers that these outrages are possibly being orchestrated by Iranian extremists. Despite pressure to take retaliatory action, US President Hal Holbrook continues to preach moderation, until he can be certain of the true source of the attacks. Under Siege was cowritten by Bob Woodward, of All the President's Men fame. Little Rock, Arkansas substitutes for Washington DC in several scenes, including one startling sequence set in the Capitol Building. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This made-for-TV effort from horror director Wes Craven and Salem's Lot producer Richard Kobritz involves a case of cryogenic suspension gone horribly wrong. A wealthy industrialist (Michael Beck) arranges for his body to be kept on ice in a high-tech cryonic chamber with specialized instructions regarding his revival at a future date when medical science can restore him to life. Thanks to a computer malfunction, these instructions are not followed properly, and Beck emerges from the frozen crypt as an empty, soulless creature and a vessel of pure evil with an appetite for destruction. So evil, in fact, that his own mother (Beatrice Straight) decides he must be destroyed and sets out to do the deed herself. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John attempt to rekindle the box office sparks of Grease with this screwball fantasy comedy. The tale begins during a golf match in heaven among four angels --Charlie (Charles Durning), Earl (Scatman Crothers), Gonzales (Castulo Guerra), and Ruth (Beatrice Straight)-- who have been in charge of heaven for the last twenty-five years. But their game is interrupted by God (voice of Gene Hackman), who has now returned to the office and doesn't like what he sees down on earth. God wants to order up another flood and start all over again, but the angels persuade God to reconsider, reasoning that if a typical earth man can reform, it would prove that all mankind is capable of it. God agrees to the scheme and the typical man selected is Zack Melon (John Travolta) a failed inventor who, threatened by loan sharks, decides to hold up a bank. Zack points his gun at bank teller Debbie Wylder (Olivia Newton-John) and she gives him all of the money. But when Zack peers into the sack after the robbery, he sees that Debbie has substituted bank deposit slips for the cash and realizes that she has kept the money for herself. Zack tracks her down to reclaim his stolen money and the two fall in love. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Based on a novel by Scott Spencer, Endless Love details the doomed romance between 17-year-old David (Martin Hewitt) and 15-year-old Jade (Brooke Shields). Banished from Jade's home by her daddy Hugh (Don Murray), David obsessively cooks up a scheme to get back into the family's good graces. Since this plan involves setting Jade's house on fire, one can easily predict that the puppy-love romance is in for a bumpy ride. Jailed for arson, David heads directly to Jade the moment that he's released, with tragic results. Posting respectable earnings thanks to the popularity of Brooke Shields, Endless Love was also the film debut of Tom Cruise, billed 18th in the cast list. A young James Spader lends a supporting role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bloodline, a thriller based on a mystery novel by Sidney Sheldon and directed by Terence Young, is the story of Elizabeth Roffe (Audrey Hepburn), who inherits a huge pharmaceutical company and then discovers that some of her family members may be plotting her death in order to gain control of the company. Despite an all-star cast including the usually excellent James Mason, Irene Papas, Ben Gazzara, the lovely Romy Schneider and Omar Sharif and wonderful locations, this thriller just doesn't generate much suspense despite numerous likely suspects and plot twists. Director Young gets only an average performance from Audrey Hepburn and manages to do little with his distinguished cast. The film while not particularly suspenseful is aided by the lovely color photography of Freddie Young and a lively, original score by Ennio Morricone. ~ Linda Rasmussen, Rovi

A woman is torn between betraying her benefactor and keeping her pledge to the man she loves in this romantic drama. Nancy (Kathleen Quinlan) and Michael (Stephen Collins) are two college students who have fallen in love and want to get married. However, Michael's widowed mother, Marion (Beatrice Straight), is opposed to the match; she wants Michael to take over the family business, and she's convinced that Nancy would be a bad influence. Later, Nancy and Michael get into a terrible auto accident -- he falls into a deep coma and she suffers severe facial disfigurement. Neither Nancy or her family have the money for plastic surgery; Marion agrees to pay for Nancy's facial reconstruction, but only under the condition that she change her name and never see Michael again. Nancy has little choice but to agree, and she changes her name to Marie; however, years later "Marie" meets Michael, and their love begins anew. The Promise was based on a story by best-selling author Danielle Steele. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A trenchant satire of "trash TV," Network seems to grow only more relevant with each passing year. Howard Beale (Peter Finch), the dean of newscasters at the United Broadcasting System, is put out to pasture because he "skews old." Network executive Max Schumacher (William Holden), Howard's best friend, is forced to deliver the bad news. Beale can't stomach the idea of losing his 25-year post as anchorman simply because of age, so in his next broadcast he announces to the viewers that he's going to commit suicide on his final program. Network head Frank Hackett (Robert Duvall) is all for kicking Beale out then and there, but when it looks as though the UBS is going to have its greatest ratings ever on the night of Beale's self-destruction, ambitious programming exec Diana Christensen (Faye Dunaway) talks Hackett into treating that fateful final telecast as a special event. Naturally, Beale doesn't go through with it -- but he does begin rambling about the horrible state of the world in general and television in particular. He concludes his tirade by admonishing his viewers to "Go to the window and shout as loud as you can: 'I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!'" With that, Howard Beale becomes the hottest TV personality in America, and Diana becomes the network's fair-haired girl. She draws up plans to treat the nightly news broadcast as garish entertainment (complete with a psychic), all built around the rants of Beale, billed as "The Mad Prophet of the Airwaves." Network won Oscars for Paddy Chayefsky's screenplay as well as for three of four acting categories -- Dunaway for Best Actress, Peter Finch for Best Actor (in the only posthumous Oscar yet awarded), and Beatrice Straight for Best Supporting Actress, in one of the shortest-screen-time performances ever to win an Oscar. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The IMF agents arrive in Austria, where widowed American scientist Dr. Martha Zubrovnik (Beartice Straight) has fallen under the influence of the Communists. Though Dr. Zubrovnik is not a traitor, she has been hoodwinked into cooperating with the enemy by phony medium Sigismund Poljact (Donald Davis), who claims to be in contact with the spirit of the scientist's husband Kurt. With the help of genuine psychic consultant Ariana Domi (Martine Bartlett), Rollin and Barney pose as a paranormal research team in order to convince Dr. Zubrovnik that her husband does not want her to cooperate with the enemy. Written by Robert Lewin, "Zubrovnik's Ghost" first aired on November 26, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Widow Ida Blythe (Beatrice Straight) insists upon spending the weekend alone in her remote cabin, despite news that an escaped lunatic is somewhere in vicinity. Ida's tranquility is shattered by a visit from a strange young woman named Madeleine (Fay Spain), who not only appears to be obsessed with violence, but is also a compulsive liar. Suspecting that Madeleine is the fugitive lunatic, Ida knocks her down and makes her escape -- seeking assistance from another stranger, a soft-spoken gentleman (Donald Buka) with a few problems of his own. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Suburbanites Bill and Cynthia Fortnam (Steve Dunne, Beatrice Straight) are a tad surprised when their 11-year-old son, Tom (Peter Lazer), receives a special-delivery package. The package turns out to contain mushroom seeds, which the industrious Tom plants and cultivates in the cellar. Although Bill is nervous about the quality of the mushrooms, they turn out to be addictively delicious; in fact, it would not be inaccurate to say that the mushrooms are "out of this world." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Directed by Roy Kellino, this British comedy stars David Niven as Roger Tweakham, an accountant for a silk manufacturer who finds himself digging deeper and deeper into trouble. Not only is he suddenly smitten by a French model (Geneviève Page) despite his marriage to his wife (Dorothy Alison), Roger has also devised an ambitious plan to fix the financial books to make his company appear more successful than a rivalrous nylon maker. The final film for director Kellino, who suffered a fatal heart attack before it was released, The Silken Affair was written by Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Robert Lewis Taylor. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi