George Wyner Movies

Mel Brooks and his real-life wife Anne Bancroft play Frederick and Anna Bronski, musical comedy stars in 1939 Poland. The highlight of the Bronskis' act is Frederick's imitation of Adolf Hitler, but he is forced to eliminate this turn for fear of offending the Nazis. Meanwhile, Anna enters into a harmless flirtation with Polish bomber pilot Andre Sobinski (Tim Matheson). The pilot's nightly signal to visit Anna in her dressing room is "To Be or Not to Be," spoken by Bronski during the Shakespearean portion of his act. When the Germans march into Warsaw, the Bronskis and the rest of their troupe are forced into hiding (notably the homosexual Lupinski, played by Lewis J. Stadlen, who is forced to endure the humiliation of wearing a pink star). Flying for the Polish resistance in England, Sobinski asks kindly Professor Seletzky (Jose Ferrer) to deliver his "To Be or Not to Be" message to Anna. When Seletzky doesn't seem to recognize the name of Anne Bronski, Warsaw's biggest star, Sobinski suspects that something is amiss. Sure enough, Seletzky is a Nazi spy, heading to Warsaw to help Col. "Concentration Camp" Ehrhardt (Oscar-nominated Charles Durning) destroy the underground movement. Parachuting into Poland, Sobinski enlists the aid of the Bronski troupe to foil the Nazis. What follows is an uproarious series of disguises and deceptions, capped by Bronski's impersonation of Der Fuhrer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Richard Benjamin's directorial debut is an engaging slice of nostalgia, purportedly based on an incident in life of Mel Brooks. Mark Linn-Baker stars as Benjy Stone, junior writer on the popular 1950s TV comedy/variety series The King Kaiser Show. Kaiser (Joseph Bologna)'s guest star this week is Hollywood matinee idol Alan Swann (Peter O'Toole), a swashbuckling Errol Flynn type, right down to his indiscriminate womanizing and fondness for mass quantities of booze. Stone is assigned to keep the actor out of trouble during rehearsals and deliver him sober to the performance. Becoming fast friends, Stone and Swann alternate baby-sitting responsibilities: Swann takes the young writer to the Stork Club and on an early-morning jaunt through Central Park with a "borrowed" police horse, while Stone takes Swann to his home in the Bronx, where the star is fawned over by Benji's mom (Lainie Kazan) and asked embarrassing questions about his love life by Uncle Morty (Lou Jacobi). Despite a few anxious moments, all goes well until Swann, panicking at the discovery that King Kaiser's show will be telecast live and not on film, walks out just before airtime. Shamed by Benjy into honoring his committment, Swann makes a spectacular, timber-smashing entrance, saving the show and rescuing Kaiser from being rubbed out by a gangster (Cameron Mitchell) whom the comedian has offended. Though it fluctuates between wistful realism and the manic exaggeration of a TV comedy sketch, My Favorite Year holds together quite well, delivering a plentitude of solid laughs. Jessica Harper, usually the star of bizarro films like Inserts and Suspiria, is quite appealing as Benjy Stone's girlfriend; that lady dancing with O'Toole at the Stork Club is 1930s film star Gloria Stuart, later an Oscar nominee for Titanic; the King Kaiser Show wardrobe mistress is played by Selma Diamond, a real-life comedy writer for Sid Caesar. My Favorite Year was converted into an unsuccessful Broadway musical in the early 1990s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The hospital where Quincy (Jack Klugman) works is in full security-lockdown mode when President Sarejo (Rudy Solari), a Latin American dictator, is rushed to the emergency room for a serious operation. It soon becomes apparent that a group of radicals has also arrived in Los Angeles, possibly planning to assassinate the ailing leader. But before this can happen, two members of the President's cabinet die of apparent heart failure--whereupon Quincy swings into action to determine if the deaths were mere happenstance, or the result of a vast and insidious conspiracy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Archie rushes Stephanie to the hospital when she suffers an attack of appendicitis. Upon meeting Stephanie's doctor, however, Archie very nearly rushes Stephanie back home again. It turns out that Dr. Shapiro (George Wyner) was once the childhood playmate of Archie's daughter, Gloria -- and seemingly for this reason alone, he refuses to operate on Stephanie. Written by Phil Sharp and Milt Josefsberg, "The Appendectomy" first aired on January 21, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Kojak (Telly Savalas) is tempted to leave the police force when he is offered a highly-paid position as private investigator for a prestigious law firm. Meanwhile, however, the detective is kept busy tracking down the source of some dangerously contaminated heroin. Will Kojak's sense of responsibility for the citizens he is protecting outweigh his ambition to advance himself? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dennis Weaver plays a retired mainland lawyer who becomes a hotel owner in Honolulu. Despite his most strenuous efforts, Weaver can't resist playing detective from time to time. You're absolutely right: The Islander was the pilot for an unsold TV series. Weaver's first and last case involves a runaway grand-jury witness, a mobster, and a senator suspected of murder. The mobster is played by Sheldon Leonard, as ideally suited for his role as Robert Vaughn is perfect in the part of the senator. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Someone at the 4077th has been filing official complaints about Colonel Potter (Harry Morgan). Which of the heartbroken Potter's subordinates has been spreading those awful stories about him? Even more disturbing is the possibility that General Kent (Peter Hobbs) will relieve Potter from duty and put the old campaigner out to pasture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lucan is the pilot film for a late 1970s TV adventure weekly. The story begins in 1967, when a group of Minnesota hunters come across a "wild boy" raised by wolves. After ten years in a research center, Lucan (Kevin Brophy) feels ready to enter the civilized world. On a quest for his human parents, Lucan comes across several people in distress; he uses his inbred wolfen skills to help them out. But as an escapee of the research plant, Lucan is subject to the persecution of bounty hunter Prentiss (Don Gordon). While it bears the usual TV-movie earmarks of too much exposition crammed into too little space, Lucan works well on its own merits. The Lucan series itself ran from September 1977 through December 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

There is a rapist on the loose in Los Angeles, and Quincy (Jack Klugman) is fairly certain of the man's identity. Unfortunately, some potentially damning evidence has been destroyed while the most recent victim was being treated at an E.R. Even so, Quincy turns up the heat on the most likely suspect--who exacts a terrible revenge upon Carol Bowen (Adrienne Barbeau), a rape counselor who happens to be one of Quincy's closest friends. This is the final episode of Quincy, M.E.'s second season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Conspiracy film specialist Alan J. Pakula turned journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's best-selling account of their Watergate investigation into one of the hit films of Bicentennial year 1976. While researching a story about a botched 1972 burglary of Democratic Party headquarters at the Watergate apartment complex, green Washington Post reporters/rivals Woodward (Robert Redford, who also exec produced) and Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) stumble on a possible connection between the burglars and a White House staffer. With the circumspect approval of executive editor Ben Bradlee (Jason Robards), the pair digs deeper. Aided by a guilt-ridden turncoat bookkeeper (Jane Alexander) and the vital if cryptic guidance of Woodward's mystery source, Deep Throat (Hal Holbrook), Woodward and Bernstein "follow the money" all the way to the top of the Nixon administration. Despite Deep Throat's warnings that their lives are in danger, and the reluctance of older Post editors, Woodward and Bernstein are determined to get out the story of the crime and its presidential cover-up. Once Bradlee is convinced, the final teletype impassively taps out the historically explosive results. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

The success this underdog comedy from director Michael Ritchie almost single-handedly spawned the kids' sports film boom of the 1980s and '90s. When beer-breathed ex-minor-league ball player and professional pool cleaner Morris Buttermaker (Walter Matthau) agrees to coach a little league team in the San Fernando Valley, he soon finds he's in over his head, having inherited an assortment of pint-sized peons and talentless losers. They play well-organized teams and lose by tremendous margins, and the parents threaten to disband the Bears to save the kids (and themselves) any further embarrassment. Buttermaker refuses, though, and brings in a pair of ringers: Amanda (Tatum O'Neal), his ex-girlfriend's tomboy daughter, and Kelly (Jackie Earle Haley), a cigarette-smoking delinquent who happens to be a gifted athlete. With their help, the Bears manage to change their losing ways and qualify for the championship, where they face their arch-rivals, the Yankees. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

Rich widow Grace Rodeheaver (Gertrude Flynn) hires the Angels to find out who is systematically stripping her of her wealth. Our heroines soon determine that the culprit may be the shady medium who is "helping" Grace contact the spirit of her late husband. Kelly (Jaclyn Smith) poses as another wealthy widow in order to prove that the medium is neither rare nor well-done -- and nearly ends up in the spirit world herself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Emily is swept up by the enthusiasm of a group of fellow teachers, who want to open a children's summer camp. Though Bob is disdainful of the idea -- and of the silly nicknames the future counselors have bestowed upon themselves -- he finally breaks down and agrees to help Emily set up the camp. There's only one teeny-tiny problem: This undertaking is going to require an awful lot of money. Also in the cast are George Wyner as Flipper, Tom Newman as Spitball, Susan Davis as Band Aid, and Lillian Garrett as Shingle. Written by Jerry Mayer, "Emily Hits the Ceiling" was originally broadcast on February 22, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide