Renée Taylor Movies

A handful of men and women "of a certain age" pick up the pieces of their lives and look for new love after the loss of their mates in this comedy drama from writer-director Susan Seidelman. Jack (Len Cariou) married his high school sweetheart when they were still in their teens, and when she dies in her early sixties, he is emotionally devastated. Jack's friends and family insist he needs to start living again, and he begins attending a support group for bereaved senior citizens. Jack strikes up a friendship with fellow widower Harry (Joseph Bologna), who offers advice on making time with the ladies, something he's developed a strong interest in since his wife's passing. At their meetings, Jack makes the acquaintance of Sandy (Sally Kellerman), an attractive and intelligent woman who - via a number of obvious sexual advances - makes no secret of her attraction to Jack, though he isn't sure he's ready for a new relationship. Jack and Harry also cross paths with Sandy's friends Marilyn (Brenda Vaccaro), who recently lost her husband to an absent-minded driver with a cellular phone, and Lois (Dyan Cannon), who still flaunts her considerable sex appeal and is dating a younger man, Donald (Michael Nouri). Also screened as The Boynton Beach Bereavement Club, The Boynton Beach Club also stars Renee Taylor, Bologna's wife and frequent acting partner. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The comedienne who shot to stardom as "the world's worst housewife" offers an intimate look at her life and career on the eve of her farewell stand-up performance. Phyllis Diller has been keeping her fans in stitches for nearly half-a-century. A gleefully self-depreciating comic whose outlandish sense of style always set her apart from the pack, Diller not only recollects her rise to stardom, but also allows viewers into her home to show just what life is like behind the scenes. A press conference leading up to her final performance showcases the quick-witted Diller at her unscripted best, with additional rehearsal and dressing room footage showing just what an incredible impact she has had on the world of show-business. Additional appearances by Rip Taylor, Don Rickles, Roseanne Barr, Red Buttons, and Lily Tomlin offer a chance for some of Diller's best known fans to reflect on their fondest memories of the star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

Season five of The Nanny begins with a wrap-up of the cliffhanger established at the end of season four, with Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy) firmly and without hesitation declaring his love for Fran Fine (Fran Drescher), the down-to-earth nanny for Maxwell's three children. Unlike the "false start" of the previous season, in which Maxwell took back his words of love, this season he fully intends to march Fran down the aisle -- which indeed happens in the season's two-part finale, with a genuine rabbi presiding over a traditional Jewish wedding ceremony. Even allow for this golden moment, season five ends on yet another cliffhanger. It seems that Fran is so enchanted by the prospect of a honeymoon cruise with Maxwell that she falls overboard -- whereupon her dutiful husband dives into the briny deep after her! Guest stars appearing this season include Roseanne as Fran's cousin Sheila in "The Morning After"; Lainie Kazan, repeating her off-and-on role as our heroine's Auntie Frieda in "The Ex-Niles"; Ray Charles, as the uncle (!) of TV personality Bryant Gumbel in "Fair Weather Fran"; Harry Hamlin as a college philosophy teacher idolized by Maxwell's daughter Maggie (Nicholle Tom) in "Educating Fran"; Scott Baio as a fledgling doctor in "Rash to Judgment"; Ray Romano in his Everybody Loves Raymond guise as Ray Barone in "The Reunion Show"; and even Nanny regular Charles Shaughnessy, appearing in the dual role of Maxwell Sheffield and a Middle Eastern sultan in "Not Without My Nanny." And we haven't even mentioned those celebrities who appear as themselves during season five, notably Elton John, Chevy Chase, Michael Bolton, columnist Cindy Adams and "The Donald's" then-inamorata, Marla Maples. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

As season three of the CBS sitcom The Nanny drew to a close, widowed Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy) was stammering out the words "I love you" to Fran Fine (Fran Drescher), a Jewish gal from Queens who for the past several years had been working as the nanny for Maxwell's three children. But as season four commences, Maxwell panics and takes the words back! Sent into an emotional spiral, Fran consults a therapist named Dr. Miller (played by legendary monologist Spalding Gray), who tells her that she should put the kibosh on her insatiable man-chasing -- words that do not sit too well with Fran's mother, Sylvia (Renee Taylor), who is anxious to marry off her daughter post-haste. Despite the cooling off of her relationship with Maxwell, Fran continues to work in the Sheffield town house, enduring the taunts and put-downs of Maxwell's female business partner, C.C. (Laura Lane), who is laboring under the misapprehension that she can get her own lunchhooks into Maxwell. As it turns out, however, the main man in C.C.'s life may very well be her worst enemy -- namely, Maxwell's sarcastic butler, Niles (Daniel Davis). This year's guest star crop includes Seinfeld's Jason Alexander, cast against type as a blind man in the season opener, "A Tart With Heart"; Nora Dunn, who would later join the series' cast as obstetrician Dr. Reynolds, but in the meantime is seen as Mrs. Richardson in "The Bird's Nest"; Donald O'Connor as a millionaire to whom Fran gives dancing lessons (!) in "Frieda Needa Man"; Robert Vaughn as Maxwell's dad and Joan Collins as Maxwell's new mother-in-law in "Me and Mrs. Joan"; Pamela Anderson, introduced as Fran's gold-digging archrival Heather Biblow in "Danny 's Dead and Who's Got the Will?"; and future Daily Show host Jon Stewart as a Jewish doctor whom Fran gets serious about until she learns a startling fact about him in "Kissing Cousins." And, of course, a number of celebrities show up as "themselves": Rosie O'Donnell, Jay Leno, Monty Hall, Donald Trump, and Celine Dion, to name but a few. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Moving from Wednesdays to Mondays, The Nanny begins its second season on CBS, with Fran Drescher as the title character. Offering 26 episodes this season (up from the previous year's 22), the series provides ample time and space for abrasive, down-to-earth Fran Fine (Drescher) to gleefully upset the decorum of the posh town house owned by her widowed employer, Broadway producer Maxwell Sheffield (Charles Shaughnessy). Despite Fran's million-and-one social gaffes, Maxwell could never bring himself to fire her as the family's nanny, especially since his children, Maggie (Nicholle Tom), Brighton (Benjamin Salisbury), and Grace (Madeline Zima), dote upon our heroine. Even the Sheffields' haughty butler, Niles (Daniel Davis), has warmed up to Fran, if for no other reason than she provides a potential threat to Niles' sworn enemy: Maxwell's bitchy, predatory business partner C.C. Babock (Laura Lane) -- who has been trying to manipulate Maxwell into marriage for years. This season, the possibility begins to arise that the relationship between Fran and Maxwell will eventually blossom into something more than "strictly business." The first clue occurs in the season opener, "Fran-Lite, in which Fran encourages Maxwell to re-enter the dating scene, only to have him go out with a woman who is exactly like her! Other episodes of note include "Everybody Needs a Bubby," in which Fran's freewheeling grandmother Yetta (Ann Morgan Guilbert) briefly moves into the Sheffield household (and now it's Fran's turn to go into the "snob" act!); "A Star Is Born," in which Fran finds herself on-stage playing Juliet, with Fran Drescher's then real-life husband, Peter Marc Jacobson, as Romeo; and the season finale, "Fran Gets Mugged," which not only offers a delightful spin on an old urban legend, but also sets up a situation whereby Fran and Maxwell come very, very close to exchanging their first romantic kiss. As in the previous season, The Nanny exploits the fact that Maxwell Sheffield is supposed to be a major producer by featuring several celebrity guest stars, cast as "themselves": Bob Barker, Sally Jessy Raphael, Steve Lawrence, Eydie Gorme, Shari Lewis, and Billy Ray Cyrus, to name but a few. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actress Theda Blau is well on the wrong side of forty, but she's gamely pretending to be thirty. Though it's hard to believe, she nonetheless manages enough of the ancient siren's song to get a middle-aged producer of TV commercials to come back to her apartment with her. She gets him to stay by "accidentally" spilling water on him - but she's not trying to get him into bed. Her game is to get him to stick around long enough to read the screenplay she's written, and maybe (just maybe) decide that he's good for more than just making commercials. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Renee Taylor and Joseph Bologna cowrote as well as starred in this 1976 TV remake of the 1941 Tracy-Hepburn vehicle Woman of the Year. Except for a handful of updated details, the storyline is substantially the same in both versions: A down-to-earth male sportswriter (Bologna, in the Spencer Tracy part) marries a high-profile female international news commentator (Taylor, in the Katharine Hepburn part). In fine "golden age" tradition, the stars are complemented with an excellent supporting cast, including Richard Bakalyan as a punch-drunk bartender, Leon Belasco as a refugee Russian musician and John Fiedler as a justice of the peace. Only Anthony Holland's swishy male secretary strikes a discordant note. The remake's "reconciliation" finale wisely avoids the ponderous, sexist slapstick setpiece at the end of the original film, wherein Katharine Hepburn nearly destroys her kitchen by cooking her first breakfast. A surefire audience pleaser, Woman of the Year was curiously premiered in July of 1976, a time when most potential viewers were out of the house. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sean Connery attempted to make a clean break from his "James Bond" image in the boisterous comedy A Fine Madness. Connery plays Samson Shillitoe, a Brendan Behan-like poet with a mile-wide misogynistic streak. Try as he might to complete his latest masterpiece, Shillitoe is constantly interrupted by the women in his life. Driven to a nervous breakdown, he seeks help from the medical establishment -- and ends up a babbling shell of his former self. The film takes scattered potshots at a repressive society that forces the truly creative among us into near-madness; at times, it is sidesplittingly funny, though never quite as potent as the Elliot Baker novel upon which it is based. Sean Connery is brilliant, but the public wanted James Bond to behave himself, thus the film didn't do as well at the box office as it should have. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This remake of Lewis Gilbert's 1966 film of the same name features Jude Law filling the shoes Michael Caine once wore in the title role of Alfie. As with the original, Law occasionally speaks directly to the camera while his character talks of the opposite sex. Under the direction of Charles Shyer, Alfie follows a charming, if morally lacking, womanizer from one bed to the next. While his actions arise more from nonchalance than malice, Alfie nonetheless faces a moral dilemma when considering that he's impregnated one of his latest girlfriends. Alfie also includes performances from Marisa Tomei, Susan Sarandon, and Nia Long. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide

Forever: A Ghost of a Love Story was inspired by the unsolved murder of movie director William Desmond Taylor in 1922. High-living music video director Keith Coogan moves into a crumbling Hollywood mansion. Here he is visited by a friendly and very beautiful wraith (Sean Young), who turns out to be the ghost of long-ago screen star Mary Miles Minter, the late Mr. Taylor's lover. Coogan's ectoplasmic romance is complicated by his sexually aggressive--and very much alive--female agent (Sally Kirkland). The film's in-the-know screenplay manages to conjure up the ghosts of silent movie favorites Fatty Arbuckle, Mabel Normand and Wallace Reid, all of whom, like Minter and Taylor, were destroyed under spectacularly scandalous circumstances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Actress Dyan Cannon, whose 1976 directorial debut Number One was nominated for a "best short subject" Academy Award, moves on to feature-length projects with The End of Innocence. In addition to directing, Ms. Cannon wrote the screenplay and played a leading role in this story of a young girl spiritually torn apart by forces beyond her control. Rebecca Schaeffer plays Stephanie Lewis, unwanted and ignored by her eternally squabbling parents. Mom and Dad do further damage to Stephanie's battered psyche by giving her mixed messages concerning sex and religion. The girl's self-esteem dwindles to microscopic proportions thanks to a series of no-good boyfriends. Suffering a nervous breakdown, she is placed in an asylum, where for the first time she treated as a human being rather than a nuisance by compassionate psychiatrist John Heard. Completed in the late 1980s, End of Innocence was released in 1990, one year after the death of star Rebecca Schaeffer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

One of a number of films that dealt with addiction following the explosion of recreational drug use in the 1960s, Jennifer on My Mind opens as footloose twentysomething Marcus (Michael Brandon) is wandering through Europe. In Venice, he meets a beautiful young woman named Jenny (Tippy Walker); they fall in love, start travelling together, and smoke an awful lot of marijuana. When Jenny decides to return to the United States and heads back to New York, Marcus tags along, but before long (as usually happens in films of this sort), Jenny moves from pot to harder drugs, and Marcus has to deal with the fact the woman he loves has become a heroin addict. Written by Erich Segal, who had earlier gained fame for Love Story, Jennifer on My Mind also features a prescient supporting performance by Robert DeNiro, who plays a taxi driver. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide