Lee Grant Movies
Primarily a stage actress, Lee Grant has also been distinguished for her feature film and television work. She was born Lyova Rosenthal in New York City and received her training at Juilliard. The daughter of an actress and model, Grant was only four when she debuted in a show at the Metropolitan Opera. Grant joined the American Ballet at age 11, graduated from high school at 14, and then received a scholarship to the Neighborhood Playhouse where she was seen by stage director Sidney Kingsley who cast her as a young shoplifter in his 1949 Broadway production Detective Story. The role won Grant a Critics Circle Award. She reprised the role in the 1951 film version and earned an Oscar nomination and the Cannes Festival's Best Actress award. Her promising film career abruptly derailed when the House Un-American Activities Committee tried forcing Grant to testify against her already blacklisted playwright husband, Arnold Manoff. She refused and was promptly blacklisted. Though her stage career thrived, it would be 12 years before Grant would be able to get substantial roles in television or movies. By the time she returned to the media in the mid-'60s, she was relegated to character roles wherein she typically played ambitious, tough, and beautiful women. During the second season of the sudsy television drama Peyton Place (1964-1969), Grant won an Emmy for her portrayal of Stella Chernak. In 1970, Grant won her second Oscar nomination for Hal Ashby's The Landlord and her first Oscar for Shampoo (1975). But for yet another Oscar nomination in Voyage of the Damned (1976), Grant the actress spent the rest of the decade making cameo appearances in big-budget disaster pictures. Grant became a movie director in 1980 with the moving Tell Me a Riddle. Subsequent directorial efforts include A Matter of Sex (1984) and Reunion (1994). ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The harsh realities of war are brought into focus in this documentary fromHBO. Acclaimed filmmakers Jon Alpert and Matthew O'Neill offer an uncensored look at life inside the 86th Combat Support Hospital during the second U.S. war in Iraq, presenting tense moments in the operating room as well as intimate interviews with both doctors and soldiers. Designed as a testament to the thankless job done by the military's medical staff, Baghdad ER went on to win four Emmy awards. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- 2005
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The rich legacy of cinema legend Kirk Douglas is explored in Academy Award-winning actress and documentary-filmmaker Lee Grant's illuminating look at the personal side of a Hollywood royalty. With roles in such indisputable Hollywood classics as Spartacus, Kirk Douglas achieved the kind of cinematic superstardom that dreams are made of. As the torch was passed to his talented son Michael in such efforts as Romancing the Stone, Wall Street, and Basic Instinct, it became obvious to filmgoers that the Douglas dynasty would continue to thrive. Now, for the first time ever on camera, filmmaker Grant conducts exclusive interviews with both Kirk and Michael, their friends, and various family members to offer the definitive look at both the public and private lives of the father and son who made Hollywood history. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 2003
According to this made-for-cable documentary, stage and film star John Garfield set the standard for naturalistic acting that blazed the trail for such future "method" types as Marlon Brando and Robert De Niro. Lovingly narrated by Garfield's actress daughter, Julie Garfield, the film details the early childhood of Julius Garfinkel in the mean streets of New York, his fascination with acting, his absorption into the influential Group Theatre, and his ultimate journey to Hollywood, where as John Garfield, he earned an Oscar nomination for his first starring feature film, Four Daughters. From there, Garfield's star continued to ascend, unaffected by his internal battles with the studio bosses and his many marital infidelities. Yet for all his fame and fortune on the silver screen, Garfield was frustrated at being typecast as a "tough guy," yearning for more substantial, three-dimensional roles. With rare exceptions, such roles would elude him in Hollywood, compelling him to return to New York at the height of his movie popularity to star in Clifford Odets' Broadway hit The Big Knife -- ironically the story of a movie idol who had "sold out." Though extremely liberal in his politics, Garfield was never a Communist, but this didn't stop him from being persecuted by the HUAC in the late '40s, which led to his being blacklisted in Hollywood. Hounded and tormented by the anti-Red witch hunt of the era, Garfield's health suffered mightily, and by age 39 he was dead. In addition to an abundance of precious film clips (including rare footage of the actor's only TV appearance), The John Garfield Story features interviews from Garfield's co-worker's, friends, family members, and modern-day fans. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Garfield
From the makers of The Alien Saga comes The Omen Legacy, an AMC documentary covering all four films in the thrilling series on the coming of the antichrist. The special follows the filmmakers as they break box-office figures with the first film, only to see each one after become more commercially and creatively stunted (the nail in the coffin being the fourth made-for-television Omen IV: The Awakening). Featuring interviews with director Richard Donner, producer Harvey Bernhard, and writer David Seltzer, among others, Legacy offers theological dissections of the series biblical groundwork, along with rare behind-the-scenes stories of the infamous Omen "curse." Included are most of the graphic, visceral kills from each film, making it also a breezy best of for fans of the more grisly scenes. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, All Movie Guide
- 1999
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Sydney Poitier's talent and sheer magnetism in such films as In the Heat of the Night and Raisin in the Sun broke color barriers during the height of segregation and permanently rearranged racial politics in America. This PBS documentary charts Poitier's life and career from his humble origins as a farmer's son in the Bahamas to being the first (and only) African-American to win a Best Actor Oscar. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
- 1997
Directed by actress Lee Grant, this powerful 90-minute documentary focuses on various breast-cancer survivors in the United States. Among the people represented herein are a mother and two daughters, all suffering from cancer. But the film's most poignant moment belongs to host-narrator Rosie O'Donnell, as she recounts the lingering illness and death of her own mother. A prime example of "advocacy" filmmaking, Say It, Fight It, Cure It was originally telecast by the Lifetime cable network on October 5, 1997. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosie O'Donnell
The Young Kennedy Women is a biographical portrait of the women of one of America's most well-known political families. With family photographs, interviews, and home movies, the documentary chronicles the public and private lives of the "next generation" of Kennedy women. Caroline Kennedy, Maria Shriver, Kerry Kennedy, and Kathleen Kennedy are included in the 50-minute program, which also features Senator Edward Kennedy discussing the strengths of the Kennedy women. ~ Kathleen Wildasin, All Movie Guide
After her own daughter abandons her child, an ambitious and orderly publisher has little choice but to raise the grandchild as her own. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carol Burnett, George Segal, (more)
Ann-Margret stars as a recently widowed woman who pursues her dream of becoming a country singer by heading to Nashville on a bus tour. ~ Carly Wray, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ann-Margret, George Segal, (more)
- 1994
This gay melodrama is based on a novel by Michael David Brown and is centered around AIDS of which the filmmaker Peter Reed died. Dean is 36 and recently diagnosed as HIV positive. He has come home to tell his mother and his older brother Milo. Dean's father committed suicide 20 years earlier; his mother has never completely recovered from the shock. Dean attempts to talk to his family, but they are enmeshed in their own trials. Since her husband's inexplicable death, the mother has been drinking heavily. Now doctors have discovered a tumor in her. It could be malignant. Milo still continues to see his heroin addicted drug dealing girl friend Velma. She likes to tamper with people, and this precipitates a disaster. His ex-wife and children patiently await his return. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lee Grant, Robert Knepper, (more)
Frank Pierson's made-for-cable adaptation of Nicholas VonHoffman's biography, Citizen Cohn stars James Woods as the controversial lawyer Roy Cohn. The film is structured as a series of flashbacks while Cohn lies in a New York hospital dying of AIDS. In the 1940s and early '50s, Cohn became one of the most powerful men in the country after becoming an important associate of Senator Joseph McCarthy (Joe Don Baker) and his Communist witch hunts. The film recounts those turbulent times and features portrayals of such real-life figures as J. Edgar Hoover (Pat Hingle), Dashiell Hammett (Frederic Forrest), Cardinal Spellman (Daniel Benzali), and Walter Winchell (Joseph Bologna). ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Woods, Joe Don Baker, (more)
- 1992
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Something to Live For: The Alison Gertz Story was one of a myriad of early 1990s TV movies centering around the AIDS issue. Molly Ringwald stars as Alison Gertz, an upscale Manhattanite who thinks she knows her way around. Still, Alison conducts an "unprotected" one-night affair, which results in her contacting the AIDS virus. Despite her alleged smarts, Alison continues to seek out sexual partners and can't understand why they're reluctant to sleep with her, even though she belatedly offers to use contraceptives. Perhaps if it had been made five years earlier, and perhaps if it didn't have its characters speaking fluent pop profundities, Something to Live For might have been one of the truly important made-for-TV AIDS sagas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1992
Following an temporary insanity acquittal of her daughter's rapist and murderer, a mother goes after the criminal. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donna Mills, Lee Grant, (more)
- 1991
This is a modern-day retelling of the Cinderella fairy tale. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1990
The acting of its stars saves She Said No from the "lurid dreck" category. Judd Hirsch is a successful but utterly amoral attorney who rapes Veronica Hamel. She sues, but he uses his legal expertise to walk free. Then Hirsch turns around and sues Hamel for slander (or for libel, depending on whether you believe the ads or the synopsis)--to the tune of ten million dollars! The lizardlike lawyer comes acropper when he forgets the unwritten rule of jurisprudence and acts as his own attorney. Lee Grant plays the DA on the case, who was denied the opportunity to retry Hirsch and is smarting for a chance to show the creep up. She Said No is better written than it deserves to be by Michael O'Hara. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
Written with heartbreaking attention to detail by Ara Watson and Sam Blackwell, No Place Like Home was one of the first TV movies to direct itself to the plight of the homeless. Jeff Daniels plays a Pittsburgh apartment superintendent and aspiring electrician who loses his job--and his home--when the apartment building burns to the ground. Daniels, his wife Christine Lahti, and his two children (Lantz Landry and Kyndra Joy Casper) move in with Daniels' brother Scott Marlowe, but the resultant family hostilities render the situation impossible. As the family takes the downward journey from welfare hotel to homeless shelter, Daniels searches in vain for an electrician's job, Lahti takes a few stints as a waitress, and son Lantz Landry gets involved with a drug dealer. The film offers little hope or comfort, nor any pat solutions to the ever-growing homeless dilemma. The final shot in No Place Like Home is a stunner, grimly evocative of King Vidor's more upbeat finale in 1928's The Crowd. Lee Grant, director of this numbingly realistic TV movie, had earlier directed a documentary on the same subject, Down and Out in America. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christine Lahti, Jeff Daniels, (more)
- 1989
In this crime drama, based on the true story of Leon and Marilyn Klinghoffer, from 1985, terrorists attempt to hijack a luxury cruise ship in the Mediterranean. The attempt resulted in the death of a handicapped passenger. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The Big Town is Chicago, circa 1957. Matt Dillon stars as a small-town crapshooter who heads to the Windy City to seek his fortune. There he becomes the pawn of two high-rolling professional gamblers, played by Lee Grant and Bruce Dern. He later gets mixed up in a revenge scheme cooked up by Diane Lane, the embittered wife of strip-joint owner Tommy Lee Jones. Before he knows what's happened, Dillon is embroiled in two torrid romances, one with Lane and the other with "nice" girl Suzy Amis; he also nearly loses his life by ending up in the middle of a deadly feud between Dern and Jones. Based on The Arm, a novel by Clark Howard, Big Town tends towards uneveness, a result perhaps of the defection of its first director, Harold Becker. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matt Dillon, Diane Lane, (more)
Marlo Thomas fully justifies her star status in the made-for-television Nobody's Child. Ms. Thomas portrays the real-life Marie Balter, a Massachusetts woman consigned to a mental hospital after a suicide attempt at age 16. For the next 20 years, Marie is and out of the institution, mostly under the care of a sensitive doctor (Caroline Cava) who treats her for panic disorder and depression. Finally able to curb her inner demons without the use of drugs and therapy, Marie leaves the hospital for good, hoping to pursue a normal life. She falls in love with another ex-mental patient (Ray Baker), and strives successfully to earn a college diploma (she later became a health administrator). Aside from Marlo Thomas' Emmy-winning performance, Nobody's Child boasts the stunning camerawork of longtime Ingmar Bergman associate Sven Nykvist. One scene, in which Marie Balter imagines she sees serpents emerging from a typewriter, is as frightening a piece of celluloid as has ever been presented on television. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Actress and director Lee Grant returns to documentary filmmaking with this award-winning look at a cross-section of luckless Americans and the societal factors that contributed to their impoverishment. During an hour of diverse footage, narrated by Grant, Down and Out in America examines a group of protesting farmers foreclosed on by the bank, a grassroots homeless coalition stymied by greedy landlords, and a family of six living in a squalid welfare hotel after losing their home in a fire. Grant does not draw explicit connections between the downtrodden Americans. Instead, she lets the common suffering they express serve as an overarching comment on a society that has turned a blind eye to the needs of its weakest members. The film won the 1986 Oscar for Best Documentary feature. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- 1986
In a drama from New Zealand that addresses prejudices against its Maori population, Monica (Judy McIntosh) comes home to her live-in boyfriend Nick (Peter Hayden) after a long absence in Europe. The two have a hard time getting along, so she talks Nick into taking a vacation on the beach and the couple head north for some time together. They run into Riki (Rawiri Paratene), a charming Maori, and offer him a badly-needed lift in their car. As the trio continues down the road, Nick starts to feel wildly jealous of Monica's interest in the Maori and is getting irked at Riki's references to white settlers and their treatment of Native New Zealanders. At the end of his tether, Nick boots Riki out and tells Monica he is going back home. This leaves Monica with very few options. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judy McIntosh, Peter Hayden, (more)
- 1985
This updated version of Cinderella is set in the New York of the 1980s. A very young Kyra Sedgwick stars as Cindy Eller, a shy and awkward teenager burdened with a seemingly insensitive stepmother and two attractive, trendy, and overbearing stepsisters (one of whom is played by Jennifer Grey!). Yearning to attend an upcoming dance with handsome classmate Greg Prince (Grant Show), Cindy receives assistance from an unlikely "fairy godmother" in the form of an all-knowing Central Park "bag lady" named Martha (Pearl Bailey, who won an Emmy Award for her performance). And in the process, our heroine comes to realize that her "new" mother and sisters aren't really so bad after all. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kyra Sedgwick, Pearl Bailey, (more)
- 1985
In this informative documentary (an unusual approach to looking at the nature of sexual identity), director Lee Grant interviews several Americans who have undergone sex-change operations. As of 1985, about 2500 Americans a month undergo operations that transform them from male to female, or vice-versa. Grant provides the history-making precedent of Christine Jorgensen, an American soldier who went to Denmark for the operations that would change his gender. After some black-and-white television coverage of the "new" Christine, she is interviewed here again, about 30 years later. As Grant points out, the combination of operations and hormonal therapy changes more than the physical aspects of the individual -- the effect on one's emotions and social interactions can be devastating, and so counseling is often provided. In one instance filmed by Grant, a man regretted his decision, but there was nothing that could be done to reverse the changes. Viewers may want to compare this documentary to Teit Ritzau's work on transvestites and sex change, Paradiset Er Ikke Til Salg (Paradise Is Not for Sale), which takes a slightly different approach to the topic. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
