Connie Booth Movies

A Jewish Londoner embarks on a journey to find himself after learning some shocking news about his past in this eccentric British comedy. As the film begins, Leon (Mark Frankel) is already in a time of transition, having quit his job for moral reasons and assumed a position in his mother's catering firm. His life is thrown into even more disarray when a bizarre coincidence reveals the truth behind his birth: not only was his birth the result of artificial insemination, but a lab mix-up means that his real, biological father is a complete stranger. The confused Leon sets out to find his "real" dad, and unexpectedly discovers that he is descended from a family of Yorkshire pig farmers. Co-directors Vadim Jean and Gary Sinyor move their story in fits and starts, allowing room for countless digressions, from a torrid affair with a outrageous artist (Maryam d'Abo) to the accidental breeding of a rather unique pig. While the film proves uneven, fans of the quirkier varieties of British comedy should find Leon the Pig Farmer's off-beat tone and taste for surrealistic details suitably entertaining. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Set in Kenya, this made-for-TV adventure chronicles the courageous attempts of a safari guide to stop avaricious ivory poachers from slaughtering elephants. In order to succeed though, the guide must reconcile with his estranged son who is still angry that his father stole the young man's former wife. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A middle-aged dentist who is frustrated and bored with his commonplace life looks for greater adventure. This appeared on the PBS "American Playhouse." ~ All Movie Guide

In this classic mystery story, Sherlock Holmes (Ian Richardson) is requested to investigate deaths around the Baskerville mansion because Henry (Martin Shaw), the last direct heir to the Baskerville fortune is worried that he may die by their unique curse; a ghost hound has eliminated his ancestors and is now wreaking havoc in the woods again. The crafty Holmes sends faithful Dr. Watson (Donald Churchill) ahead to check things out, while unknown to Watson, Holmes assumes the disguise of a local gypsy to observe the mansion and anyone connected with it. As the mist of Grimpen Moor and the howling hound lend an eerie atmosphere to the tale, false leads take the protagonists into dead ends, and the real culprit waits in the wings for his chance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In this made-for-television mystery (adapted from a novel by Agatha Christie) a man dying on a beach utters the question "Why didn't they ask Evans?" Amateur detectives Frankie and Bobby subsequently begin digging for an explanation for the enigmatic query, which leads them to an utterly surprising conclusion. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

When the health department gives the Fawlty Towers kitchen a surprise inspection, Basil (John Cleese) is informed that the sanitation is far below acceptable standards and is given 24 hours to get the place ship-shape. Basil assigns his staff to give the kitchen a thorough cleaning, but when he goes looking for Manuel (Andrew Sachs), he discovers the waiter has been keeping his pet rat in the kitchen. Manuel insists the animal is a Siberian hamster, but Basil knows the truth and demands he get rid of it. Manuel gives the rat to Polly (Connie Booth), but instead of taking it home, she stashes it in a storage shed in the back; the rat soon finds its way back into the hotel, with Basil hot on its trail. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Originally broadcast from February 19 to October 25, 1979, the second and final season of BBC2's Fawlty Towers finds Torquay hotelier Basil Fawlty (John Cleese) continuing to insult and terrorize guests and staffers alike, while Basil's wife Sybil (Prunella Scales) proves anew that she is the most spectacularly unhelpful "helpmate" in the history of domestic relations. The first of the season's six episodes, "Communication Problems," finds Basil the prime suspect when a wealthy and deaf-as-a-post guest insists that she's been robbed. In "The Psychiatrist," Basil's inherent paranoia and Sybil's suspicions that her husband is cheating on her reach hitherto unimagined heights. An American guest's demands for after-hour room service drives Basil batty and the other guests to mount a "revolt" in "Waldorf Salad." "The Kipper and the Corpse" is set in motion by the death of a guest after being served breakfast in bed, obliging Basil to hide both the body and the breakfast! "The Anniversary" is a slapstick comedy of errors involving a surprise party and a missing guest of honor. And in the concluding episode, "Basil the Rat," the hotel's Spanish waiter, Manuel (Andrew Sachs), courts disaster when he adopts a "Siberian hamster." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John Cleese co-wrote and stars in this satiric comedy as the less-than-spectacular progeny of the world's greatest detective. A mysterious super-villain announces across the globe that the world will come to an end in five days unless their demands are met. Research reveals that the fiend in question is descended from the infamous evil-doer Dr. Moriarty, so Scotland Yard takes the logical approach and contacts Arthur Sherlock Holmes (John Cleese), the grandson of the legendary detective Sherlock Holmes who ferreted out Moriarty so many times in the past. However, Arthur soon reveals himself to be dim-witted, inept, and not in especially good control of his drug habit, while his sidekick William Watson (Arthur Lowe) is even more pathetic, despite his dependence on his electronically altered testicles. Realizing he needs help, Arthur calls upon the world's best known detectives to come to his aid, though by bringing them all to one place, he's also created an irresistible target for the young Moriarty. The Strange Case Of The End Of Civilization As We Know It also features guest appearances by Denholm Elliott, Ron Moody, Connie Booth, and Bert Kwouk. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

" 'Nutter' runs small hotel" is the terse-but-true description given by an English catalog to the weekly comedy series Fawlty Towers. Created by John Cleese, the series stars Cleese as Basil Fawlty, the insufferable--and insufferably inept--owner-manager of a tenth-rate British hotel. Co-starring as Basil's equally impossible wife Sybil is Prunella Scales, while Connie Booth (who co-wrote and occasionally directed the series) is on hand as Jill-of-all trades Polly Sherman. First seen on the BBC in 1975, Fawlty Towers made it to American viewers by way of local PBS outlets in 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Created in 1969 as the British Broadcasting Corporation's answer to America's Rowan & Martin's Laugh-In (one of its guiding forces was BBC executive and former Laugh-In writer Barry Took), Monty Python's Flying Circus was both the title of the series and the name of the comedy troupe appearing in the show. (The name was chosen precisely because it didn't mean anything!) The cast -- Cambridge and Oxford graduates all -- included John Cleese, Graham Chapman, Eric Idle, Terry Jones, and Michael Palin. A sixth Python, American-born Terry Gilliam, provided the series' zany, non sequitur animated sequences and occasionally appeared on camera. Most of the female roles were handled by Connie Booth (Cleese's then-wife) and Carol Cleveland. Virtually indescribable to anyone who hasn't seen it, the series (which opened each week to the tune of John Philip Sousa's "Liberty Bell March") was a wild, irreverent collection of open-ended comedy sketches, sometimes tenuously tied in with a single theme. The individual sketches were usually connected only by the sonorous announcement, "And now for something completely different," which also served as the title for the group's first theatrical feature film. Favorite Python targets included dull BBC talk shows and documentaries, idiotic legal restrictions, bean-counting bureaucrats, incomprehensible foreigners, and venerated British traditions. For some curious reason, all of the Pythonites enjoyed dressing up in women's clothing, usually portraying frumpy, strident-voiced suburban housewives. Among the series' more famous bits were "The Pet Shop," "The Lumberjack Song," "The Spanish Inquisition," "Department of Silly Walks," "The World's Deadliest Joke," "Hell's Grannies," "The Annual Twit of the Year Awards," and a lengthy science fiction movie parody in which evil aliens (who looked like French pastries) transformed all British subjects into Scotsmen, the better to win the annual Wimbledon tennis match (a premise which, in context, makes perfect sense). Though the 45-episode series enjoyed an enormous following in England, it didn't arrive in America until 1974, when the package was picked up by PBS (ABC had evinced interest in the property, but insisted upon cutting all the "naughty bits" and arbitrarily inserting commercials). In addition to making stars out of virtually all its cast members, Monty Python's Flying Circus has spawned several comedy record albums, movie spin-offs, and many solo projects like Fawlty Towers. In 1999, the series, long available on videocassette, was picked up for yet another go-round by the Arts and Entertainment cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The owner of an Irish castle decides to attract visitors by falsely claiming that the building is haunted, only to have a pair of real ancestral spirits start causing trouble in this uneven attempt at fantasy-comedy. The story centers on Jack and Sharon (played by Steve Guttenberg and Beverly D'Angelo), naive American tourists who are initially unimpressed by the owner's attempts at fraud but become more interested in the real ghosts, Mary and Martin (played by Daryl Hannah and Liam Neeson). This is especially true for Jack, who falls in love with the beautiful Mary, despite several centuries' difference in their ages. After the film's initial unsuccessful release, people involved with the production blamed studio interference for damaging director Neil Jordan's original vision, although Jordan is better known as a director of quirky, dark dramas (Mona Lisa, The Crying Game, Interview With a Vampire, The Company of Wolves). For whatever reason, the end result was an awkward, forced comedy that more often than not falls flat, squandering a strong collection of talent. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide

Helene Hanff's book 84 Charing Cross Road had previously been a TV program and a stage play before it was converted into this 1986 film. The scene is New York, 1949: Anne Bancroft plays a struggling writer and passionate bibliophile, who answers an advertisement from a rare-volumes bookshop at 84 Charing Cross Road in London. Thus begins a two-decade romance by correspondence between Bancroft and Briton Anthony Hopkins, the man in charge of the overseas department of Marks and Company. Though several meetings are arranged, Bancroft and Hopkins never come face to face thanks to mitigating circumstances. But Anne finally makes it to London, and finds that much has changed. 84 Charing Cross Road was produced by Mel Brooks, the husband of star Anne Bancroft. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide