Hal Ashby Movies

This routine film should have been called the "rock singer's husband" because it is about the life of a baseball player affected by his love for a singer. Darryl Palmer (Michael O'Keefe) plays for the Atlanta Braves, and when he walks into a nightclub and sees an attractive woman singing (Rebecca DeMornay), he pulls up to home plate and is anxious to meet her. From then on, his persistence in courting her is unstoppable in spite of several unhappy setbacks, and finally their romance makes it to first base when she realizes she loves him too, and they are married. From that point onward, his career starts to soar, while her career begins to slide in the opposite direction. In fact, she has given up her job to go live with him on his home turf, and the sacrifice, in the end, proves to be too much. A separation is inevitable, and while he still has his teammates (Randy Quaid, Cleavant Derricks), he would rather have his wife back. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Jon Voight starred and co-wrote the script for this comedy (directed by Hal Ashby) concerning two gamblers on the run from their debts who try to score big in Las Vegas. When Alex Kovas (Jon Voight) loses $10,000 to local New York City hoods Joey (Allen Keller) and Harry (Jude Farese) in a poker game, he hightails it to Vegas with his pal Jerry Feldman (Burt Young). In Vegas they make friends with Patti Warner (Ann-Margret), a former call girl, and move into the MGM Grand Hotel after winning big in the casino. But word gets out and Joey and Harry take a trip out West to pay the boys a surprise visit. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

After a string of box-office hits, including Coming Home and Being There, director Hal Ashby announced in 1979 that his next film would be a "personal" project called The Hamster of Happiness. Two years would pass before this effort would appear on screen, by which time it had been heavily retooled in the editing room (by Ashby himself) and retitled Second-Hand Hearts. Robert Blake plays a boozing drifter, who while drunk as a skunk marries waitress Barbara Harris. The newlyweds set off on a long car trip to California, with Harris' two wretched children in tow. For this we waited two years? Weighted down with allegory, symbolism and "meaningful" character names, Second-Hand Hearts was the beginning of the end of Hal Ashby's glory days. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Hal Ashby's 1978 melodrama examines the impact of the Vietnam War on the "war at home" among the men who fought it and the women in their lives. Left alone in Los Angeles when her gung-ho Marine husband Bob (Bruce Dern) heads to Vietnam in 1968, proper wife Sally Hyde (Jane Fonda) decides to volunteer at the V.A. hospital where her new friend Vi (Penelope Milford) works. There she meets Luke Martin (Jon Voight), a former high-school classmate and Marine who has returned from 'Nam a bitter paraplegic. As their relationship grows, Sally sees the effect of the war on the soldiers after they come back, inspiring her to rethink her priorities; Luke's spirits begin to lift, and a hospital tragedy helps focus his anger toward meaningful protest. After a Hong Kong visit with her increasingly withdrawn husband, Sally finds a love and companionship with Luke that she had never known with her husband. Once Bob comes home with his own injury, however, the three must find a way to deal with a changing world and with a system that betrayed the men fighting for it. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

A frankly adult comedy about the sex lives of the aimless and the rich, Shampoo is also a pointed commentary on the demise of 1960s idealism at the dawn of the Nixon era. It is Election Day, 1968, and randy Beverly Hills hairdresser George Roundy (Warren Beatty) is too worried about attending to all of his women's tonsorial and sexual needs, while trying to swing a bank loan to fund his own salon, to notice the fateful Presidential race. As George juggles the demands of girlfriend Jill (Goldie Hawn) and mistress Felicia (Lee Grant), not to mention Felicia's daughter (Carrie Fisher), he meets Felicia's husband Lester (Jack Warden) to get money for the salon and discovers that his beloved ex-girlfriend Jackie (Julie Christie) is now Lester's mistress. Lester asks George to escort Jackie to a banquet for Nixon supporters, leading to a series of climactic confrontations at the dinner and a Hollywood orgy that expose the conflicting demands of sex, love, and security among these terminally narcissistic L.A. denizens. As Nixon's victory speech drones in the background the following day and Paul Simon's mournful '60s music plays on the soundtrack, George's free-wheeling world collapses around him for reasons that he can barely begin to comprehend. Produced and co-written (with Chinatown scribe Robert Towne) by its star Warren Beatty, Shampoo became Beatty's second critical and popular success as a producer after Bonnie and Clyde, and it bolstered Hal Ashby's track record as director. Shampoo earned Grant an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress, as well as a Supporting Actor nomination for Warden and Beatty's first nomination as writer. With Nixon's 1974 Watergate disgrace adding an extra edge to the humor for 1975 audiences, this tragic bedroom farce became one of the highest-grossing films in Columbia Pictures' history at the time. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

A young man with a death wish and a 79-year-old high on life find love in Hal Ashby's cult black comedy. Deadpan rich boy Harold (Bud Cort) keeps staging elaborate suicide tableaux to get the attention of his mother (Vivian Pickles), but she keeps planning his brilliant future for him instead. Obsessed with the trappings of death, Harold freaks out his blind dates, modifies his new sports car to look like a mini-hearse, and attends funerals, where he meets the spirited Maude (Ruth Gordon). An eccentric to the core, Maude lives exactly as she pleases, with avid collecting and nude modeling among her many pursuits. To the disgust of Harold's relatives and the befuddlement of Harold's shrink, Harold falls in love with her. As lilting Cat Stevens tunes play on the soundtrack, Maude teaches Harold a valuable lesson about making the most of his time on earth. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Ben Hecht's reminiscences from his youth as a cub reporter in 1910 Chicago makes an uneasy transition to the screen in this Norman Jewison production. During the Galena, Illinois, Independence Day celebration of 1910, Ben Young (Beau Bridges) determines that it is time to seek his fortune and sets out by train to Chicago. Once in Chicago, Ben has his money stolen, and he faints from hunger. To his rescue comes Queen Lil (Melina Mecouri), a local madam, who takes him to her brothel, where he is allowed to stay on the top floor of the house. Queen Lil gets Ben a job on the Chicago Journal and he meets the gruff, but kind, editor Francis X. Sullivan (Brian Keith). Sullivan takes Ben on a drinking tour of the Tenderloin, where Ben's naiveté is given a good working-over as Ben experiences the political realities of the city. Ben decides to devote his life to reforming the shady politics of Chicago. Meanwhile, reform leader Axel P. Johanson (George Kennedy) is trying to obtain a ledger of civic corruption compiled by Honest Tim Grogan (Hume Cronyn). During a party for Grogan at Queen Lil's, Ben inspires friendly prostitute Adeline (Margot Kidder) to change her evil ways. Her first act as a reformer is to steal Grogan's ledger and join the Salvation Army mission. But everyone thinks that Ben has stolen the ledger, and soon Sullivan, Queen Lil, Grogan and Johanson are all after him to get the ledger back. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The winner of the 1967 Oscar for Best Picture (as well as four other Oscars), In the Heat of the Night is set in a small Mississippi town where an unusual murder has been committed. Rod Steiger plays sheriff Bill Gillespie, a good lawman despite his racial prejudices. When Virgil Tibbs (Sidney Poitier), a well-dressed northern African-American, comes to town, Gillespie instinctively puts him under arrest as a murder suspect. Tibbs reveals himself to be a Philadelphia police detective; after he and Gillespie come to a grudging understanding of one another, Tibbs offers to help in Gillespie's investigation. As the case progresses, both Gillespie and Tibbs betray a tendency to jump to culture-dictated conclusions. Still, the case is solved thanks to the informal teamwork of the two law officers. Based on the novel by John Ball, In the Heat of the Night inspired two sequels, both starring Poiter as Virgil Tibbs. In 1987, a TV series version of In the Heat of the Night appeared, with Carroll O'Connor as Gillespie and Howard Rollins as Tibbs. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Steve McQueen stars as the Cincinnati Kid, a crackerjack New Orleans stud poker player. Tired of chicken feed, the Kid decides to challenge The Man (Edward G. Robinson), the reigning poker champ, who is in town for a private game. The Shooter (Karl Malden), another gambling pro, arranges a game between the Kid and the Man, with the Shooter dealing. The game is compromised by the intervention of Slade (Rip Torn), an old foe of the Man's who tries to fix the outcome. The Kid finds out about this and tells Slade to get lost, preferring to win fair and square. The outcome is in the cagey hands of The Man, who is smart enough to do (as one reviewer put it) the wrong thing at the right time. The Cincinnati Kid was based on the novel by Richard Jessup. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi