Norman Jewison Movies

A happily married couple discover their friends are not as happy as they thought, and they begin to wonder how sound their own relationship can be, in this made-for-cable adaptation of the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Donald Margulies. Gabe (Dennis Quaid) and Karen (Andie MacDowell) are a pair of wedded food writers who more than a decade ago introduced their close friends Tom (Greg Kinnear) and Beth (Toni Collette). Tom and Beth fell in love and got married, but one night as Gabe and Karen are making dinner, they receive startling news from Beth -- Tom has left her for another woman, and the two are filing for divorce. Gabe and Karen soon feel as if they are being forced to take sides in the heated battle between Tom and Beth, and as the combative couple separates and both parties move on to new relationships, Gabe and Karen find themselves taking a long, hard look at their own marriage -- and they're not sure how happy they are with what they find. Directed by Norman Jewison, Dinner With Friends was produced for the HBO premium cable network, where it premiered on August 11, 2001. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In this latest of a long string of underground films, Lothar Lambert has chosen to parody himself and the underground film industry, flying Ulrike S. to New York and Toronto for sequences in which she talks to the well-established movie director Norman Jewison (Moonstruck, Agnes of God) about mainstream work and to other underground filmmakers about their projects. Finally, Ulrike decides to chuck the whole business and go back to what she was doing in the first place -- working at a drug store. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Though Desi Arnaz plays the title role, Gregory Peck is top billed in Billy Two Hats. Arnaz plays a thief who teams up with Scottish bank bandit Peck. A botched robbery results in a tiny amount of cash and an accidental killing. Peck rescues the captured Billy, enduring a leg wound in the process. While resting in the home of an old rancher, Peck goes off in search of a doctor, while Billy enjoys the sexual favors of the rancher's young wife. This interruption in the bandits' escape enables Indian-hating sheriff Jack Warden to catch up with Arnaz and Peck. A last-reel shoot-out ensues, involving sheriff's deputies, the rancher, and a band of Indian renegades. Billy Two Hats (reissued as The Lady and the Outlaw) was the first American western to be filmed in Israel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

Light and laugh-filled, Send Me No Flowers is typical Rock Hudson and Doris Day fare. George (Hudson) is a hypochondriac married to Judy (Day) in this marital comedy. When George goes to visit the doctor, he overhears two doctors talking about a diagnosis of a terminally ill patient. George believes they are talking about him and that he is doomed to die. He recruits his friend Arnold (Tony Randall) to find a new husband for Judy. Judy thinks George is covering up for an illicit affair and throws him out of the house. George locates Judy's old college flame Bert (Clint Walker), now a Texas oil millionaire. Excellent performances by Edward Andrews as Dr. Morrissey and Paul Lynde as the aggressive cemetery-plot salesman help this feature along. Although not as solid as the Day/Hudson pairing in Pillow Talk or Lover Come Back, Send Me No Flowers is still a good romantic comedy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this collection of clips from The Judy Garland Show, which ran for 26 episodes on CBS television in 1963 and 1964, the legendary singer and actress performs a number of songs, several of them collaborations with up-and-comer Barbra Streisand, grand dame Ethel Merman, and Garland's own daughter, the then-teenaged Liza Minnelli. Garland's solos include several of her signature numbers, from "I'm Nobody's Baby," which she performed as a fresh-faced MGM star in 1940's Andy Hardy Meets Debutante, to "The Man That Got Away," written especially for 1954's comeback vehicle A Star Is Born. Garland and Streisand alternate friendly banter about hating each other's talent with solo renditions and two extended medleys. The most famous of these pairings is their show-stopping combination of the standards "Get Happy" and "Happy Days Are Here Again"; Garland had performed the former in 1950's Summer Stock, while Streisand recorded the latter the same year the program aired. In another segment, Merman appears in the middle of the audience and joins Streisand and Garland for a leather-lunged rendition of "There's No Business Like Show Business." The Merman and Streisand footage was taped on October 4, 1963, for episode nine of Garland's eponymous program. A sequence featuring three duets and lots of clowning with Minnelli was taped a few months earlier, on July 16, for episode three. Several years after her program was cancelled, Garland was set to play Helen Lawson, a character based on Merman, for the film version of Jacqueline Susann's Valley of the Dolls; she was replaced, however, by Susan Hayward. Streisand would go on to star in her own remake of A Star Is Born, while Minnelli would mine her mother's legacy in her own repertoire. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

The legendary Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, and Dean Martin co-headline a live, vintage concert performance before a packed house in the home video issue, Most Famous Hits: Judy Garland/Frank Sinatra/Dean Martin. Featured in this 60-minute show are 20 numbers, performed solo and together. Selections include Garland interpreting "Just in Time," "When You're Smiling," "I Left My Heart in San Francisco," and "The Man that Got Away"; Sinatra on "Too Marvelous for Words" and "I See Your Face Before Me"; and Martin covering "Almost Like Being in Love" and "Bye Bye Blackbird." The three team up for "You're Nobody 'Til Somebody Loves You," while Garland performs two separate versions of "You Do Something to Me," one with Sinatra and one with Martin. Martin and Sinatra pair up on "The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else." ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide

A man who has been able to avoid the consequences of his actions for nearly 50 years suddenly finds he must answer pursuers on both sides of the law in this drama, based on the novel by Brian Moore and inspired by a true story. After France fell to German occupation during World War II, the Nazi-controlled Vichy government established a law-enforcement group known as the Milice, who were under the direct control of Nazi authorities. In 1944, Pierre Brossard (George Williams) is one of a handful of Milice officers who round up and execute seven Jewish resistance members in the village of Dombey. After the liberation of France, Brossard is tried and convicted for his crimes, but he manages to escape capture, and years later is pardoned. In 1992, Brossard (now played by Michael Caine) is an elderly man living a quiet life in Provence and modestly supported by fellow veterans of the Vichy regime when he's ambushed and nearly killed by a man whom he learns was a hired killer. Brossard discovers this is hardly his only problem; new legislation will allow Vichy-era war criminals who escaped punishment to be charged and tried again, and Anne Marie Livi (Tilda Swinton), a bright and aggressive French prosecutor, has joined forces with Col. Roux (Jeremy Northam) to bring Brossard, among others, to justice. While Brossard is still being clandestinely assisted by church officials and Vichy sympathizers, he must go on the run to avoid capture, and finds himself hiding from the French police as well as a cadre of underground assassins, whose alliances and purposes are frustratingly unclear. The Statement also stars Charlotte Rampling, Alan Bates, and Frank Finlay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide