Teresa Wright Movies
After apprenticing at the Wharf Theater in Provincetown, MA, she debuted on Broadway in 1938 as the lead's understudy in Our Town; the following year her performance in the ingénue part in Life With Father caught film mogul Samuel Goldwyn's attention, and he signed her to a screen contract. Wright debuted onscreen in The Little Foxes (1941), for which she received a Best Supporting Actress Oscar nomination. The following year she was nominated in both the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories for her third and fourth films, The Pride of the Yankees and Mrs. Miniver, respectively; she won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar. She remained busy onscreen through 1959, after which she appeared in only a handful of films during the next three decades. From 1942 to 1952, she was married to novelist and screenwriter Niven Busch; later she married, divorced, and remarried playwright Robert Anderson. In the '70s, she appeared in TV dramas. Her later stage work included Mary, Mary (1962) and the Broadway revival of Death of a Salesman (1975). ~ All Movie Guide- 1999
This documentary is a loving look at the cinematic genius of Alfred Hitchcock. Speeding through much of his early British works, the film focuses on his American classics, such as Marnie, Vertigo, and particularly Psycho. The movie also neatly examines Hitchcock's signature touches, from his inevitable brief cameo to his famous MacGuffin. Kevin Spacey narrates, and there are interviews with such film figures as Jonathan Demme, Peter Bogdanovich, and Janet Leigh. Dial H for Hitchcock was screened at the 1999 Denver Film Festival. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kevin Spacey, Jonathan Demme, (more)
- 1994
Throughout the 20th century, women have met the challenges and struggles of balancing work and family. Narrated by Jane Fonda, A Century of Women: Work & Family weaves fictional and factual stories to illustrate the history of women in the workforce, as well as their roles as wives and mothers. Performances and testimonies from a stellar group of women including Meryl Streep, Gloria Steinem, Twyla Tharp, and Maya Angelou facilitate the film's innovative method of storytelling. Archival film, photographs, and interviews retrace historical events -- from the founding of the PTA to early unions -- that changed our social landscape. Diaries, letters, and personal memories honor women of the past and make it clear that the balancing of labor and family was a matter of life and death. ~ Brooke Hodess, All Movie Guide
- 1991
There oughta be a law against TV-movie "title thinker uppers." Lethal Innocence is not a crime or judicial melodrama, but instead an innocuous family-oriented effort about a Cambodian refugee child. Adopted by an American couple, the child presses her new family to bring the rest of her Cambodian relatives to US shores. The film boasts some good work from Blair Brown as the foster mother and Brenda Fricker as an efficient UN representative. Lethal Innocence was originally made for cable. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
In this entry in the long-running mystery series, Perry Mason represents a Marine Officer who is accused of killing a Nazi war criminal. He is the prime suspect because the Nazi had treated his mother terribly at a concentration camp. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1988
In this droll derivation of "Arsenic and Old Lace", former 1940s film ingénues Teresa Wright and Joan Leslie are cast as the spinsterish Appletree sisters, Cabot Cove's resident eccentrics. With the annual flower show coming up, it looks as though dear old Helen and Lillian Appletree are going to win first prize with their chrysanthemums, which have bloomed beautifully and beyond all expectations. What no one else in town knows is that the ladies have come upon a wonderful new "fertiziler"--namely, the body of one Morris Penroy (Henry Jones), whom they have buried beneath their flower bed. When a second corpse pops up at the Appletree house, Cabot Cove's new sheriff Mort Metzger (Ron Masak, making his first appearance in this recurring role) cannot help but suspect that the old biddies have committed murder--but as usual, Jessica (Angela Lansbury) has concluded that someone else is responsible. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
The Fig Tree was the opening installment of the 1987-88 season of PBS' Wonderworks series. Set in 1903 Texas, the story concerns Miranda (Karron Graves), an 8-year-old whose mother died when she was very young. Like the most of the rest of her family, Miranda has never come to terms with her mother's death. Only great-aunt Eliza (Doris Roberts), an erstwhile naturalist, seems willing or able to help Miranda on the road to emotional maturity. Based on a short story by Katherine Anne Porter, The Fig Tree premiered October 10, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1983
Bill: On His Own is the laudable made-for-TV sequel to the Emmy-winning 1981 film Bill. Mickey Rooney once more shines as Bill Sackter, a mentally-retarded adult struggling to survive in the mainstream. The owner of a coffee kiosk at the University of Iowa, Bill becomes disoriented when his friend and mentor Dennis Quaid moves to Los Angeles. Taking over Bill's case is idealistic young social worker Helen Hunt. While studying towards his Bar Mitzvah (which he was denied at the age of 13 because of his "incompetence"), Bill suffers a severe personal blow that threatens to send him spiralling back into helplessness. Bill: On His Own was originally telecast November 9, 1983, some four months after the death at age 70 of the real-life Bill Sackter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
First telecast February 4, 1980, Golden Honeymoon is an easygoing adaptation of the Ring Lardner short story. James Whitmore and Teresa Wright play a New Jersey couple who celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary with a second honeymoon. Their Florida idyll is disrupted when the couple's old acquaintance Stephen Elliott shows up. Elliot had been engaged to Teresa 52 years earlier, a fact that prompts Whitmore to behave in an uncharacteristically obnoxious nature. Calculated to put Elliott in his place, Whitmore's boorishness succeeds in alienating Teresa as well. Scripted by Frederic Hunter, the 60-minute Golden Honeymoon was the second-season opener of PBS' American Playhouse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
New York's Roseland ballroom was in 1977 the traditional gathering place of senior citizens who wanted briefly to relive the good old days. Appropriately, the cast of Merchant/Ivory's Roseland includes a quartet of always-welcome showbiz veterans: Teresa Wright, Lou Jacobi, Helen Gallagher. The episodic storyline is unified by an unending flow of vintage hit songs, including "Slow Boat to China", "Stranger in Paradise" and "Rockin' Chair". The most effective vignette involves cleaning-lady Skala, whose minimum-wage job supports her weekly ballroom nostalgia-fests. The film was written by Merchant-Ivory perennial Ruth Prawer Jhabvala. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teresa Wright, Lou Jacobi, (more)
- 1976
Having already exhausted the dramatic possibilities of fire with The Towering Inferno, producer Irwin Allen turns to water in the made-for-TV Flood! The film is set in a small community, conveniently (for the purposes of the plot) located near a huge earthen dam. As the flood waters rise and the dam threatens to collapse, we are made privy to the individual reactions of such all-star victims-to-be as Robert Culp, Martin Milner, Richard Basehart, Cameron Mitchell, Barbara Hershey, Teresa Wright and Carol Lynley. As in Inferno, helicopter pilots come to the rescue. Most of the film was shot in Eugene, Oregon. Flood! first aired on November 24, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
In this thriller, a politician's wife finds her life endangered when she gets herself entangled in a deadly web of murder and illicit romance. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1974
An all-star "disaster" flick set in an elevator: is there no limit? This made-for-TVer top-bills James Farentino as a bank robber suffering from claustrophobia. Fleeing from his latest crime, the criminal is forced to take an elevator, populated with the likes of Roddy McDowall, Craig Stevens, Teresa Wright, Myrna Loy and Carol Lynley. Naturally, the elevator stalls between floors, high above ground level. The Elevator debuted as an ABC Movie of the Week on February 9, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1974
Murder on the 13th Floor is a 90-minute episode of the Jimmy Stewart TV series Hawkins. Detective Hawkins (Stewart) tries to clear the murder-suspect son (Andrew Parks) of an old flame (Teresa Wright). The boy was found at the scene of the crime just minutes after the victim breathed his last. Love those new, untested plotlines! Murder on the 13th Floor originally aired February 5, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Crawlspace is a quirky made-for-TV movie about a strange young drifter (Tom Harper) who arrives in a small New England town. He is sheltered by a generous middle-aged couple (Arthur Kennedy and Teresa Wright), but he insists upon living in a tiny crawlspace in the couple's cellar. His hosts had hoped that the boy would fill an emotional gap in their childless lives, but the young visitor refuses to leave his cramped living area, where he harbors disturbing notions of taking revenge on a world he feels has wronged him. Crawlspace was adapted from the suspense novel by Herbert Lieberman. It should not be confused with a 1986 slasher flick also titled Crawlspace, wherein Klaus Kinski hides in the homes of the beautiful girls he intends to murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1964
An isolated peach farm is the setting for this nail-biting episode, in which Teresa Wright is cast as Stella, the young wife of bucolic farm owner Emery (Pat Buttram). When Emery hires a sinister-looking farmhand named Jesse (Bruce Dern), Stella is apprehensive -- especially since Jesse seems to have a morbid fascination with knives. Emery, however, refuses to fire Jesse, possibly because he is too frightened to do so. Things come to a head late one night when Jesse attacks Stella, who is unable to summon help because Emery has fallen into a deep sleep -- or has he? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teresa Wright, Pat Buttram, (more)
- 1964
Marion Brown (Teresa Wright) of Cleveland, OH, travels to Newark, NJ, there to meet and murder Bernice Brown (Jean Hale). It seems that Marion has discovered that her traveling-salesman husband (Dan Duryea) is a bigamist, and she is determined to knock off not only his "second" wife but also his "third" spouse, Lucille (Linda Lawson). Making matters worse for the peripatetic Mr. Brown is the fact that every time Marion strikes, he loses yet another source of income to feed his gambling habit...but the absolute worst is still to come. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teresa Wright, Dan Duryea, (more)
- 1964
A widower for many years, Ben Cartwright finally decides to take another bride, the lovely Katherine Saunders (Teresa Wright). Alas, the wedding plans are shelved when Katherine's son Eden (Dee Pollack) is accused of murder. Out of loyalty to his fiancee, Ben defends Eden from the law, but soon has reason to wonder if he made the right decision. Written by Denne Petitclerc, "My Son, My Son" originally aired on January 19, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, (more)
- 1958
Small-minded small town 1950's mores threaten a youthful romance in this sudsy melodrama based on the play Teach Me How to Cry by Patricia Joudry and reminiscent of the previous year's Peyton Place (1957). Sandra Dee stars as Melinda Grant, an illegitimate girl facing the stigma of being a fatherless child in the rigidly judgmental atmosphere of her hometown. Melinda's problems are further compounded by the fact that her mother Elizabeth (Teresa Wright) is a neurotic woman slowly losing her mental grip. Then Melinda meets Will Henderson (John Saxon), the new boy in town, and the two fall in love. Will is from the wrong side of the tracks, however, and his down-on-his-luck father Ed (James Whitmore) doesn't do much to improve the family's reputation. Local tongues are soon wagging over the Melinda-Will romance, casting its future in doubt. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Saxon, Sandra Dee, (more)
Christmas is decommercialized by an elderly man who thinks he is Santa Claus. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1957
Filmed on location, Escapade in Japan stars child actors Jon Provost and Roger Nakagawa. Separated from their parents, Tony (Provost) and Hiko (Nakagawa) wander through such sites as a Shinto temple, the teeming streets of Kyoto and a geisha house. Believing that they've somehow broken the law, the boys do their best to elude the authorities, who of course only want to reunite the kids with their families. Teresa Wright and Cameron Mitchell co-star as Provost's parents, Kuniko Miyake and Susumu Fujita play Nakagawa's mom and dad, and a young Clint Eastwood shows up as a Marine named "Dumbo." Produced by rapidly fading RKO Radio Pictures, Escapade in Japan was distributed by Universal-International. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teresa Wright, Cameron Mitchell, (more)
- 1956
The Search for Bridey Murphy was inspired by the purportedly true story of a Colorado housewife named Virginia Tighe, who while under hypnosis insisted that she'd lived a previous life as an 18th century Irish housemaid named Bridey Murphy. The hypnosis sessions were conducted under the supervision of Dr. Morey Bernstein, who later wrote a book on the subject. This hastily assembled filmization of Dr. Bernstein's book stars Teresa Wright as Ruth Simmons (Ms. Tighe's pseudonym) and Louis Hayward as Bernstein. Except for the "astral world" sequences, Search for Bridey Murphy adopts a semi-documentary approach, often to the point of tedium. Bridey Murphy herself is portrayed at various ages by Teresa Wright, Ruth Robinson, Denise Freeborn and Hallene Hill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Teresa Wright, Louis Hayward, (more)
- 1955
The 20th Century-Fox Hour (later syndicated as The Hour of Stars) ran on CBS just shy of two years, from October 1955 through September 1957. An anthology program, the series typically featured readaptations of 20th Century-Fox feature films for a sixty-minute TV airslot. The 1955 production of Miracle on 34th Street - a reworking of George Seaton's 1948 blockbuster and Christmas perennial - was just such an example and became one of the first episodes of the series. The program makes its home video debut following recent appearances on The Fox Movie Channel. In this slightly condensed version of the Seaton story, Thomas Mitchell takes over the Edmund Gwenn role, portraying Kris Kringle, Teresa Wright plays Doris Walker, and Sandy Descher stars as her daughter, Susan Walker, filling the role originally made famous by Natalie Wood. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Thomas Mitchell, Teresa Wright, (more)
- 1955
Bigotry and interracial adoption form the basis of this drama. The trouble begins when an Army captain and his wife adopt a Japanese orphan. Suddenly they find themselves facing unanticipated prejudice. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
In this experimental 1954 Western, director William Wellman uses black-and-white backgrounds with occasional splatches of color on certain characters' bodies and clothes. On a snowbound ranch in northern California, the Bridges family is trapped by winter weather and its own internal conflicts. It is run by a stern matriarch, Ma Bridges (Beulah Bondi), who lords it over her weak, alcoholic husband (Philip Tonge) and her bitter, unmarried daughter, Grace (Teresa Wright). The three sons squabble constantly. Staying at the ranch is a young neighbor, Gwen Williams (Diana Lynn), who is smitten with one of the sons, Harold (Tab Hunter). But the arrogant Curt (Robert Mitchum) wants to take control of the ranch and take possession of Gwen too. During the winter, a black panther has been killing the cattle on the ranch. Curt and the third brother, the quiet Arthur (William Hopper), set out to kill the panther, but when Curt leaves to get more food, the cat kills Arthur. The grief-stricken family blames Curt, who then sets out on his own to kill the beast. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Teresa Wright, (more)
