Andrew Kuehn Movies
- 2006
They're called trailers, because originally they trailed the feature presentation. But before long, movie marketers learned there was a better chance of grabbing the audience's attention before the film. Trailers have since gone on to become one of the quintessential elements of movie-going, as illustrated in this documentary from Michael J. Shapiro and Jeff Werner. Featuring interviews with Joe Dante, Leonard Maltin, voice-over artist Don LaFontaine and several others, Coming Attractions: The History of the Movie Trailer traces a century of movie previews. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Osborne, Joe Dante, (more)
Musician and historian Michael Feinstein is your host for this whirlwind look at the golden age of American popular song, from the '30s through the '50s. The Great American Songbook offers a look at the significant trends in music and the styles of the great tunesmiths of the day, as well as presents dozens of vintage film clips of such artists as Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Judy Garland, Lena Horne, and many more performances of the great songs celebrated in this film. Along the way, The Great American Songbook also chronicles the history of the American movie musical and how Hollywood and Tin Pan Alley learned to work together. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
This is a documentary portrait of a Hollywood comedy writer cited by many of entertainment's biggest stars as their comedic "secret weapon." Bruce Vilanch is a rotund, hirsute New Jersey native who left a job at a Chicago newspaper in the 1970s to become a gag writer for singer and actress Bette Midler. After toiling for several years in the dying genre of television variety shows and celebrity roasts, Vilanch became a staple of awards shows, scripting one-liners and song parodies at the Oscars, Emmys, and Grammys, for such luminaries as Robin Williams, Billy Crystal, and Whoopi Goldberg. All three of those stars, and many others, are interviewed about Vilanch's contributions to their work. Of particular note is a national controversy sparked by Vilanch's "off-color" racial remarks written for Ted Danson and Goldberg at a Friar's Club event, and his memorable riffs for emcee Crystal on the one-armed push-ups of Jack Palance at an Oscar telecast. Get Bruce! made Vilanch a more recognizable figure to mainstream audiences, and he became a regular on the TV game show revival of Hollywood Squares. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Vilanch, Bette Midler, (more)
"They didn't kill me; I was dead already," is the statement uttered by Dexter Cornell (Dennis Quaid), an English professor at the University of Texas at Austin who has been poisoned by a slow-acting toxin and who has twenty-four hours to track down his killers before he ceases to exist. Remade from the 1949 Rudolph Mate thriller by Annabel Jankel and Rocky Morton, the co-directors jazz up the old luridness with slap-up doggishness that boosts the intensity-level higher than it deserves to go. Cornell is a burned-out novelist trying to hold on to tenure at the university while seeing his marriage collapse around him. As if that weren't enough, he is receiving amorous come-ons from smart, young student Sydney Fuller (Meg Ryan) and being badgered by another student, Nick Lang (Robert Knepper), to read his brilliant first novel. Not long after Dex demurs to Nick to read his novel, Nick is killed in a fall. Only then does Dex find out that Nick has been having an affair with his wife. Things keep going from bad to worse when, after an all-night drinking binge, Dex discovers that he has been slipped a poison that will kill him within 24 hours. Teaming up with the adoring Sydney, Dex tries to track down the person who poisoned him while dodging the cops, since he happens to be a prime murder suspect. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Quaid, Meg Ryan, (more)
- 1984
- R
Director Andrew Kuehn has excerpted brief segments of terror and suspense in a wide variety of horror movies and strung them together with added commentary, as well as some enacted narrative, to create a compilation of cinematic, fright-inducing effects. Donald Pleasance and Nancy Allen provide the commentary on topics such as "sex and terror" (Dressed to Kill), loathsome villains (Nighthawks, Vice Squad), and the occult (Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist). Alfred Hitchcock presents his concepts of how to create suspense in a clip from Alfred Hitchcock: The Men Who Made the Movies, in one of the better segments of this anthology. Horror film buffs may chafe at the selection criteria, the truncated clips, and other scholarly points -- non-specialists will still get an overview of aspects of the genre. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Pleasence, Nancy Allen, (more)
- 1981
Flush is an amiably goofy British comedy of bad manners. William Calloway, William Bronder and Jennie Linaro head the cast. The humor rises from a series of rude noises, emanating from various body functions. Oddly, the film's combination of British reserve and Mel Brooksish flatulence is quite effective. This 1981 release is no relation to the 1975 buried-treasure farce Flush It. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
The considerable talents Rip Torn, Viveca Lindfors and Sally Kirkland are largely squandered in this Manhattan-based film. In this symbolic and erotic drama Manhattan psychiatrist Joe Glazer (Torn) is a psychoanalyst who specializes in female neuroses. Obsessed by his work, he begins filming his sessions, voyeuristically watching the results in his off-hours. He interviews a masochist who can only be sexually aroused with pain (Markle) and is willingly fellated by his sex-starved patient JoAnn (Kirkland). He is also pursued by an uninhibited hippie girl and a transvestite. In his focus to help his patients, Joe fails to realize he is falling into his own world of madness. His sexual encounters are a diversion which prevent him from admitting his own feelings, wants and needs, and his filmmaking activities climax with a record of his own emotional background. Nudity and sexual situations prompted an X rating for this film at the time of the initial release. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rip Torn, Lois Markle, (more)
