Esther Sutherland Movies
African-American singer, musician, and actress Esther Sutherland worked on stage, screen, and television. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide- 1983
Thanks to a series of financial windfalls, the Jeffersons and the Willises are living high off the hog. Envious Florence (Marla Gibbs) would like to get in on this good fortune, especially after Helen Willis (Roxie Roker) meets a number of celebrities at a fancy health spa. Using her own savings, Florence arranges a session at the selfsame spa, where in due course she meets none other Gladys Knight -- whom she fails to recognize. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, (more)
- 1982
Jenny Jefferson (Berlinda Tolbert) has agreed to let the gospel group organized by Florence (Marla Gibbs) sing at the baptism of baby Jessica. What Jenny and Florence don't know is that Jenny's father-in-law, George (Sherman Hemsley), has already secured the services of famous gospel singer Andrae Crouch (played by -- who else? -- Andrae Crouch). Fans of Sherman Hemsley's later sitcom Amen will be amused by George's brief impersonation of a clergyman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, (more)
In this comedy, a group of randy young interns turn City Hospital upside down with their romantic liaisons and their blunders. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael McKean, Sean Young, (more)
- 1981
- PG
A small California town is gripped by UFO fever in this well-acted, surprisingly rich comedy. At the center of the mania is Arlene, a grocery store clerk and born-again Christian fascinated with flying saucers. This interest soon evolves into a full-blown obsession when Arlene is visited by a visionary dream, which she believes predicts the imminent arrival of a vessel from outer space in the nearby desert. Not even the doubts of her skeptical boyfriend, a good-hearted petty thief named Sheldon, are enough to dissuade her from her new role as prophet of the coming spaceship. At first hesitant and awkward, Arlene soon blossoms into a confident leader, and Sheldon puts aside his disbelief to revel in their sudden fame. Indeed, two have soon attracted enough of a following to pique the interest of Reverend Bud Sanders, the local revivalist preacher. Soon, Reverend Bud has joined in the crusade, and a good portion of the town has gathered to anxiously await the spaceship's arrival. Rather than resorting to easy ridicule, director John Binder creates an unexpectedly sympathetic, yet still comedic, portrait of the UFO believers, neither condemning their faith nor denying the fine line between belief and gullibility. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cindy Williams, Harry Dean Stanton, (more)
After the excellent audience response to their teaming in Silver Streak, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor reunited for this zany comedy. Wilder and Pryor play a couple of out-of-work numbskulls who take a promotional job that requires them to dress up like gigantic woodpeckers. Unfortunately, a pair of thieves, likewise decked out in woodpecker suits, pull off a bank job not long after Wilder and Pryor make their first public appearance. The boys are arrested and sentenced to 120 years each (at this point, we know we're not dealing with real life). After a concerted (and hilarious) effort to make the best of things "in stir," Wilder and Pryor break out of jail, hoping to track down the genuine thieves. The mess never really works itself out, suggesting that perhaps the stars had a Stir Crazy II lurking in the recesses of their minds. Written by Bruce Jay Friedman and directed by Sidney Poitier, it never did spawn a sequel, though a TV series spin-off, starring Larry Riley and Joseph Guzaldo, briefly surfaced in 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gene Wilder, Richard Pryor, (more)
Judy Bernly (Jane Fonda), a housewife whose husband has left her for his secretary, begins her own secretarial career at a huge corporation. Violet Newstead (Lily Tomlin), a feisty, veteran office manager, instructs her on the perils and procedures of office life -- and of working for Franklin Hart Jr. (Dabney Coleman), their chauvinistic, sleazy boss, and his right-hand woman, the crisp, nosy Roz (Elizabeth Wilson). Meanwhile, Hart's endless attempts to seduce his happily married secretary, Doralee Rhodes (Dolly Parton), lead the entire office to think she's a trollop. When Hart unfairly passes Violet over for a promotion, she drowns her sorrows at a local bar with Judy and Doralee, who regales the others with tales of Hart's epic advances. Later, at Doralee's house, the women smoke pot, eat barbecue, and concoct hilarious revenge fantasies -- a rodeo hog-tie, a Wild West shootout, and a gothic Snow White scenario -- about killing their boss. When a mix-up leads the women to think they have accidentally poisoned Hart's coffee, they hatch a scheme to protect themselves by stealing Hart's body from the morgue. When he turns up alive, never having drunk the coffee, they must kidnap him to prevent him from blackmailing them or calling the police. The women then use the occasion of their boss' absence to effect some changes around the office. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, (more)
- 1980
In this first episode of a two-part story, George and Louise Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford) reluctantly face the possibility that their son, Lionel (Mike Evans), and his wife, Jenny (Berlinda Tolbert), may move to Chicago. While Lionel is out of town to talk to his potential new employer, George is pressed into service to take the pregnant Jenny to her natural-childbirth class. This being a sitcom, it is only to be expected that Jenny will go into labor with no one but George around to help her. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, (more)
- 1980
In this concluding episode of a two-part story, George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley), with the help of several new "good buddies," manages to get his extremely pregnant daughter-in-law, Jenny (Berlinda Tolbert), to the maternity hospital just in time. Jenny's husband, Lionel (Mike Evans), his move to Chicago still pending, rushes back to New York to be by her side when the baby arrives. As the in-laws gather in the waiting room, a perplexing question arises: Since Lionel is black, and Jenny is the product of an interracial marriage, exactly what color will the baby be? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, (more)
Marsha Mason is known as "The Goodbye Girl" because of all the live-in boyfriends who have said ta-ta to her in the past few years. A former Broadway chorus dancer, the divorced Mason lives in the Manhattan apartment of her latest lost love with her daughter Quinn Cummings. Enter arrogant actor Richard Dreyfuss, who has subleased the apartment from Mason's former boyfriend and moves in bag and baggage in the middle of the night. Dreyfuss and Mason spend the next few weeks getting in each other's way and fighting like cats and dogs. The wind is taken out of Dreyfuss' sails when he opens in a production of Richard III, which has been sabotaged by the director (Paul Benjamin), who insists that Dreyfuss portrays Richard as a hip-swinging homosexual. The play closes after one performance, and the once-overconfident Dreyfuss goes on a self-pitying drunken binge. Touched by his vulnerability, Mason begins falling in love with Dreyfuss despite her lousy track record with men. Richard Dreyfuss became the youngest ever "Best Actor" Oscar winner as a result of his performance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Dreyfuss, Marsha Mason, (more)
- 1976
Troubled by huge gambling debts, Steve (Richard Grand) is a salesman whose life and prospects are dreary indeed. His wife is anxious to move upward economically and socially, and he is caught between her desires and the grimness of his situation if he is unable to repay the debts. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Grand, Joe Turkel, (more)
Isaac Hayes puts his gun where his groove is in his role as hard-case bounty hunter Mack "Truck" Turner, three years after composing the legendary score for Shaft (1971). Ex-football star turned skip-tracer, Turner specializes in bringing in the criminals police are too scared to chase, and when he's hired to capture sociopathic pimp Gator (Paul Harris), he finds himself confronted by the most vicious killers in the underground scene. Little does Turner know that Gator's woman, Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols), has a deep-running cold streak of vengeance, and has hired ruthless hit man Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto), as well as a legion of other like-minded and equally determined assassins, to snuff out Truck's supercharged motor once and for all. It's now up to Truck to keep his cool long enough to get to the source of the seemingly endless stream of bullets that come at increasingly unsettling intervals. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Robert Clouse, director of Enter the Dragon, returned with this blaxploitation actioner starring Jim Kelly as an instructor at a martial-arts school in the Watts section of Los Angeles. Teaming with former Bond girl Gloria Hendry, Kelly saves the school and Hendry's dad (Scatman Crothers) from the Mob. Eric Laneuville, Malik Carter, and Love Boat bartender Ted Lange are also onhand. Kelly was one of the subgenre's most popular heroes at the time, starring in films like Black Terminator and Black Eliminator by the score. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jim Kelly, Gloria Hendry, (more)
- 1974
Kathleen Quinlan guest stars as Jan Conforti, a college coed who is brutally raped by two men. Adding to the horror, Jan witnesses the murder of one of her two assaulters--and now there's a third person stalking her to keep her from talking. Kojak (Telly Savalas) tries to persuade the traumatized girl to tell him what she's seen, but she can't even bring herself to admit that the rape ever took place. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) and his perennial fiancée Donna Harris (Lynn Hamilton) are finally going to get married. On the day of the big event, Fred's son Lamont invites a full complement of annoying relatives. Sure enough, a loud family quarrel ensues -- which is precisely what Lamont (who doesn't want Fred to tie the knot with Donna) has been planning all along. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson, (more)
- 1968
A young unmarried couple leave the politically turbulent Berkeley behind for a life in the country. Finding a place in sheep country, the couple awaits the birth of their first child as they revel in bucolic splendor. The tensions of city life are left behind as things progress towards the anticipated due date. The couple wishes to have a natural childbirth and are comforted that the expectant father is a pre-med student with some knowledge of the upcoming situation. Things go along smoothly until the expectant mother's father returns after years of being a sailor. Louise Ober, Mark Jenkins, and John McLiam star in this independent feature by John Korty. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Louise Ober, Mark Jenkins, (more)
