Viveca Lindfors Movies
Though of the same era as her Swedish compatriots Greta Garbo and Ingrid Bergman, talented and beautiful leading lady of stage and screen Viveca Lindfors never achieved their superstar status due in large part to working in movies that inadequately displayed the full extent of her ability and charismatic personality. Still, she earned accolades and awards from critics and film societies around the world, including two awards from the prestigious Berlin Film Festival.Born Elsa Viveca Torstensdotter Lindfors in Uppsala, Sweden, she learned to act at the Royal Dramatic Theater in Stockholm. She made her Swedish film debut in Snurriga Familjen (1940). For the next six years, she would appear in more films and establish a stage career. Moving to Hollywood in 1946, she contracted herself to Warner Bros. studios and two years later starred opposite Errol Flynn in The Adventures of Don Juan (1948); however, in 1947, she appeared in Night Unto Night, Ronald Reagan's first starring role, but the film was not released until 1949. The following year, she debuted in her first French film, Singoalla. She made her first Broadway appearance playing the lead in Anastasia. Other memorable stage roles include Miss Julie (1955), Brecht on Brecht (1961), and I Am Woman (1973), a one-woman show.
For her filmwork, Lindfors won her first Best Actress Award from the BFF in 1951 for Die Vier im Jeep (Four in a Jeep). Her second BFF Best Actress Award was for her role in Huis Clos (No Exit) (1962). In her personal life, Lindfors was renowned for her numerous romantic liaisons -- this in a decade when such behavior was considered shocking. She claims to have married the first of her four husbands just to prove that a promiscuous woman could indeed marry a decent man.
Unlike many actresses for whom the aging process marks the death of their careers, Lindfors grew gracefully into her latter years, gaining a dignified beauty and an even more commanding presence in such films as Welcome to L.A. and Robert Altman's A Wedding (1978). In 1985, she made her debut as a screenwriter and director with Unfinished Business. Lindfors made her final film appearance in Henry Jaglom's Last Summer in the Hamptons (1995). She died in October that year of complications from rheumatoid arthritis in her home town of Uppsala. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
As the French-Spanish Bell from Hell gets under way, the hero released from a mental institution in which he was unjustly confined. He returns home to his aunt and his three female cousins, who had him committed years earlier so that they could get their hands on his inheritance. Biding his time and playing it cool, he plans to exacts chilling revenge. The film's Wellesian climax takes place atop a treacherous bell tower. On the final day of shooting, director Claudio Hill was killed in a fall from that tower, obliging an uncredited Juan Antonio Bardem to finish the picture. Originally La Campana del Infierno, Bell From Hell was also released as The Bell of Hell. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
A TV pilot film, Doctor's Story explores the rights--or rather, the lack of them--of geriatric patients. Howard E. Rollins Jr. plays a young doctor who resents the throwaway attitude conveyed towards the elderly. Among Rollins' patients are a near-senile old man (Art Carney), a woman (Vivece Lindfors) with a mysterious abdominal ailment, and a suicidal widow (Uta Hagen). Stymied by hospital bureaucracy and indifference, Rollins fights to give his older charges the same care and attention afforded younger patients--and in so doing, his own marriage on the critical list. Whether or not this premise could have sustained a weekly series is problematic (the pilot didn't sell), but as a self-contained drama, Doctor's Story was certainly worth two hours of anyone's attention, young or old. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Loosely based on a true story this sudsy made-for-television courtroom drama tells the story of a rather hedonistic young divorcee who is accused of killing her own child. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Robert Altman's over-frenetic satire on American marriage rituals and hypocrisy concerns the upper-crust marriage between Dino Corelli (Desi Arnaz Jr.) and Muffin Brenner (Amy Stryker). As the film begins, a senile bishop forgets the lines to the wedding ceremony and Nettie Sloan (the groom's grandmother) drops dead in an upstairs bedroom. Nettie's death is not disclosed to the two families who converge at the wedding reception. As the two sets of in-laws slam into each other, the bride and groom disappear in the ensuing whirlwind of chaos as both extended families vie for sexual favors and try to keep hidden never-discussed family secrets. Regina Corelli (Nina Van Pallandt) is revealed to be a drug addict, while Luigi, is endeavoring unsuccessfully to keep his Mafia connections under wraps. Meanwhile, the bride's family, although more down to earth, are revealed to be no better. Tulip Brenner (Carol Burnett) begins to flirt with one of the wedding guests, Mackenzie Goddard (Pat McCormick), while Snooks Brenner (Paul Dooley) acts like a lout and drinks heavily. And flying around the edges of the action like Tinkerbell is Buffy Brenner, the Brenners' youngest daughter, who is pregnant by the groom. As other characters bang into each other -- sexual degenerates, hard-nosed radicals, raw-boned emotional wrecks -- the wedding reception heads for its inevitable nuclear explosion. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Carol Burnett, Paul Dooley, (more)
- 1964
This episodic drama is set in New York and chronicles the sexual lives and difficulties of three people as they describe their romantic woes. One is an aging fashion model who clings to her young lover because she knows that she will never have another. Two others are married, unhappy, and totally neurotic. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1946
Swedish writer/director Olof Molander emulated his older brother Gustav with 1946's Appassionata. Like Gustav's Intermezzo, Olof's Appassionata in set in the rarefied world of musicians and concert tours. Brilliant pianist Georg Rydeberg falls madly in love with the much-younger Viveca Lindfors (on the threshold of her Hollywood career). Rydeberg soon learns he has a rival both for Lindfors and for his standing in the musical community: up-and-coming young musician Alf Kjellin. The piano music in Appassionata is provided by the accomplished Polish keyboard maestro W. Witkowsky. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viveca Lindfors, Georg Rydeberg, (more)
- 1950
When he's discharged from a military hospital, ex-GI Bob Corey (Gordon MacRae) goes on a search for his army buddy Steve Connolly (Edmond O'Brien). A reformed crook, Connolly is on the lam from a trumped-up murder rap, and Corey hopes to clear his pal. Tagging along is Army nurse Julie Benson (Virginia Mayo), who has fallen for Corey. The rest of the film emulates the 1946 noir exercise The Killers, with Julie and Corey interviewing various people with whom Connolly has come in contact. One of those people, of course, is the actual killer, who now adds the GI and the nurse to the "hit list." Warner Bros. used Backfire to test the dramatic potential of singing star Gordon MacRae, who passes that test with flying colors. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Virginia Mayo, Gordon MacRae, (more)
- 1994
In this complexly-plotted action-packed police drama, Pittsburgh policewoman Keri Finnegan (Linda Kozlowski) returns to her home turf to clean up crime and clear the ruined name of her father, a cop who was wrongfully disgraced and fired from the force. McKees Rocks is one Steeltown's roughest ethnic neighborhoods, and though many residents are impoverished, they have yet to surrender their pride. Keri's father's reputation, plus her gender, make it very difficult for her to do her job. When a serial killer begins slaughtering owners of local property, Keri masquerades as an old woman and is attacked by what appears to be a policeman. He is eventually arrested for killing his wife, but for some reason the cops ignore the other killings. Keri, however, doesn't and thus launches her own investigation. She finds herself opposed at every turn, not only by her lover and fellow-detective Nick Donovan (John Shea), but also by the police chief, Nick's father, and a powerful gangster. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Kozlowski, Paul Sorvino, (more)
- 1965
Written by Dick Carr, "The Spotlight" is a showcase for Viveca Lindfors in the role of long-retired opera diva Angela Drake. Appointed entertainment-committee chairman of the Virginia City anniversary celebration, Ben persuades Angela to come out of retirement for a command performance. Angela is so euphoric that she accepts the offer, neglecting to admit that she has completely lost her singing voice. Sharp-eared fans will hear a brief but pointed "inside joke" referring to recently departed series regular Pernell Roberts (Hint: It has something to do with Shakespeare). Also seen are Ron Randell as Carleton, Winnie Coffin as Mrs. Brown and Jean Determann as Mrs. Finch. "The Spotlight" originally aired on May 16, 1965, and was rebroadcast as the Christmas offering for Bonanza's 1965-66 season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Michael Landon, (more)
- 1965
Brainstorm is a somewhat contrived but still well done and frightening thriller written and well-directed by actor William Conrad. Jim Grayam (Jeffrey Hunter) is a young scientist who saves Lorrie Benson (Anne Francis) from committing suicide. They fall in love, but Lorrie's husband Cort Benson (Dana Andrews), who had driven her to the brink of suicide before, discovers that Jim has had a history of mental instability and fabricates obscene phone calls and other actions to create the impression that Jim is unstable. The pair decide to murder Cort, using insanity as a defense. The film has a series of interesting plot twists and a plausible ending, and the performances are generally excellent with Conrad's direction maintaining a good pace and an excellent visual style aided by a good, simple musical score by George Duning. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jeffrey Hunter, Anne Francis, (more)
- 1991
This effective made-for-TV supernatural thriller (based on the novel Virgin by James Patterson) involves the travails of a Catholic priest (Anthony John Denison) who is ordered by his superiors to investigate the prospect of two separate virgin births -- one of which will bring the Son of God into the world, the other the Son of Satan. Unfortunately, there is no overt indication as to which child is which. Omen-style apocalyptic portents abound as the forces of Evil throw a variety of obstacles in Denison's path, even possessing the soul of the nun (Sela Ward) who is assisting him. Potent, gripping stuff -- and very intense for a TV movie -- this retains much of the metaphysical punch of its source material. ~ Cavett Binion, 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)
Two of the most venerable names in the horror field, author Stephen King and director George A. Romero, present this anthology of original twisted tales inspired by the E.C. horror comics of the 50's and 60's (themselves a more direct basis for the popular Tales from the Crypt TV series). The five stories are framed within the pages of a comic book which a boy's insensitive father has thrown in the garbage. The first tale, "Father's Day," features a zombie patriarch returning to claim his Father's Day cake; "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill" stars King himself as a slack-jawed yokel whose discovery of a radioactive meteorite turns him into a walking weed; "Something to Tide You Over" presents a deadly-serious Leslie Nielsen as a cuckolded husband who plans an elaborate seaside revenge; "The Crate" unleashes its ferocious man-eating contents on the enemies of a meek college professor; and "They're Creeping Up On You" pits obsessively-clean billionaire E.G. Marshall against a swarm of cockroaches in his sterile penthouse. The chapters are uniformly creative, filmed in garish comic-book colors, and Tom Savini's makeup effects are quite memorable (particularly the monster from "The Crate"), though the campy treatment does become exhausting after two hours' runtime. The final segment is the most impressive, thanks to Marshall's over-the-top performance, though the planned scope of the cockroach invasion was drastically reduced (no doubt due to budget constraints). ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Hal Holbrook, Adrienne Barbeau, (more)
- 1950
Though he had previously appeared in David Bradley's film adaptation of Julius Caesar, Dark City marked Charlton Heston's first role in a major Hollywood production. Danny (Heston) and his pals Augie (Jack Webb), Soldier (Henry Morgan), and Barney (Ed Begley Sr.) set up a poker game to take Arthur Winant (Don DeFore) for all his money, but after the fact they discover that the money he lost wasn't really his and, in desperation, Arthur killed himself. Arthur's brother Sidney (Mike Mazurki), a large man not known for his emotional stability, becomes enraged when he learns the facts about Arthur's death, and he vows to kill the men responsible. When his friends start dropping like flies, Danny hides out with his girlfriend, nightclub singer Fran Garland (Lizabeth Scott), and pays a visit to Arthur's widow Victoria (Viveca Lindfors) in hopes of finding out who the killer might be. Jack Webb and Henry Morgan later reformed after their first appearance together as criminals when they co-starred in the TV show Dragnet. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, Lizabeth Scott, (more)
- 1951
It's a lucky thing that Four in a Jeep was bankrolled by a Swiss production company; if ever a movie needed a neutral approach, this is the one. The scene is postwar Vienna, a city sliced up into four United Nations sectors. Viveca Lindfors, a recent escapee from a Soviet prison camp, tries to win freedom for her husband. American MP Ralph Meeker attempts to help Lindfors, and to avoid falling in love with her himself. Filmed on location, Four in a Jeep was released in the US by United Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Viveca Lindfors, Ralph Meeker, (more)
- 1982
Mayhem and tangled love knots in the Southwest U.S. desert are the scourge of a group of stranded German immigrants living in a few mobile homes at the crossroads of two desert highways. Joe loves Rosa, and kills someone she had slept with because he thought their union was consentual (a rape), and he gets five years for the murder. When he is released from jail, his first priority is to attend his mother's funeral -- a death that has upset his sister so much that she is on the verge of a breakdown. His sister is supposed to marry a Mennonite, but is stuck on Joe and so that plan is scotched. Meanwhile, Rosa has taken up with another trucker, who is jealous of Joe and tries to kill him. The next thing anyone knows, the trailers and nearby buildings are going up in flames -- will Joe and Rosa survive to continue their desert saga? ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ángela Molina, Vera Tschechowa, (more)
- 1982
This superior ABC Theatre of the Month presentation is not so much about the reasons for divorce as it is about the tensions surrounding the actual litigation. Tom Selleck plays a topnotch Seattle divorce lawyer, juggling several delicate cases at once. Arrogantly secure in his legal prowess, Selleck suffers a major ego blow when his own wife (Jane Curtin) files for divorce. In a half-comic, half-serious manner, the travails of Selleck and Curtin are counterpointed with those of Selleck's clients. Donald Wrye and Linda Elstad's high-quality script for Divorce Wars: A Love Story bears a very faint resemblance to the recent movie hits Kramer vs. Kramer and Ordinary People--a resemblance pounced upon and amplified by the print ads for this TV movie. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1958
Previously filmed twice in Hollywood, Thornton Wilder's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Bridge of San Luis Rey was brought to television in this lavish, live, star-studded DuPont Show of the Month adaptation. The story essentially begins at the end -- July 20, 1714 -- when the famous San Luis Rey bridge near Lima, Peru, collapses, plunging five people to their deaths. The victims were the wealthy but embittered Marquess de Montemayor (Judith Anderson); the Marquess's young maid, Pepita (Sandra Whiteside); Uncle Pio (Hume Cronyn), mentor of the celebrated Peruvian actress La Perichole (Viveca Lindfors); Jaime (Miko Oscard), Pio's youthful traveling companion; and Esteban (Steven Hill), a talented young scribe who left behind a twin brother, Manuel (Clifford David). Investigating the tragedy, Captain Alvarado (Theodore Bikel), an intimate of one of the victims, tries to figure out how it came to be that the unfortunate five were all brought together on the same disastrous day. Also in the cast is the celebrated actress/director Eva Le Gallienne as Madre Maria, and Kurt Kaznar, with whom Theodore Bikel would later co-star in the Broadway production The Sound of Music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Judith Anderson, Hume Cronyn, (more)
- 1967
Also known as Cauldron of Blood, Blind Man's Bluff is a Spanish-made horror film long on gore but short on logic. Several beautiful models have disappeared, and the prime suspect is blind sculptor Boris Karloff, a surly and secretive sort who produces skeletal statues. Lovely model Rosanda Monteros tries to get to the bottom of the mystery, and of course nearly winds up a victim herself. The killer is not Karloff but his wife Viveca Lindfors, who hopes to sustain her husband's reputation by providing fresh skeletons for his artwork. Lindfors ends up hoisted on her own petard when she accidentally dips her arm in a vat of acid. Yeccch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
This political drama takes a look at the underground network that helps South American refugees travel safely to the US. The story centers on a freedom fighter from Central America who uses the underground to get to the US and settle in a small town. His wife lies to a restaurant owner, telling him her husband is dead, and gets a job as a waitress. Soon after, the owner's son falls in love with her. Meanwhile a crooked CIA agent leads a death squad in pursuit of the former freedom fighter and things get worse when the local sheriff threatens to reveal his hideout to the hunters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1964
Fanfare for a Death Scene was one of a handful of TV dramas originally presented on NBC's Kraft Suspense Theatre, then reedited for European theatrical release. Richard Egan stars as an American secret agent, on the trail of a vanished scientist. Egan must recover the scientist's revolutionary secret formula before the Enemy catches up with his quarry first. Musician Al Hirt, a hot property in 1964 thanks to his recording of "Java", provides the jazz background score. Fanfare for a Death Scene was first shown in feature-film form in the US on local television, as part of Universal's syndicated movie package. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
Gregory Harrison breathes some humanity into his two-dimensional character in For Ladies Only. Harrison plays an unsuccessful actor who decides to bank on his awesome physique to survive. He becomes a $100-per-night exotic dancer at a ladies-only nightclub. For those female fans who can get past the sight of Harrison bumping and grinding away, For Ladies Only affords some excellent choreography and a modicum of wry humor. Patti Davis, daughter of you-know-who, makes her TV-movie acting debut in For Ladies Only, which debuted on November 9, 1981; also in the cast are Lee Grant and her daughter Dinah Manhoff. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
In this provocative drama, the young son of a Holocaust survivor searches for the answers to many painful questions about the great tragedy when he is cast as Hungarian-Jewish poet Miklos Radnoti for an upcoming film. The young man is a Method actor and as he researches his role he becomes so engrossed in the life of the poet, who was killed in a Jewish labor camp, that he begins to lose his identity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chris Sarandon, Renée Soutendijk, (more)
- 1978
- PG
One of the first fictional efforts by former documentary maker Claudia Weill, Girlfriends focuses on a pair of roommates, Susan Weinblatt and Anne Munroe, played by Melanie Mayron and Anita Skinner. Anne gets married, leaving the plump, insecure Susan alone for virtually the first time in her life. A mild flirtation with a rabbi leads to a whole new life for Susan when she becomes a portrait photographer for Jewish weddings and bar mitzvahs. Claudia Weill wrote the (presumed) autobiographical screenplay with Vicki Polon. Filmed in New Jersey, Girlfriends was an expansion of a short subject subsidized by the American Film Institute. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Melanie Mayron, Eli Wallach, (more)
- 1990
In this drama, independent filmmaker Paul Leder has brought to the screen the story of some young people enthusiastically campaigning for the (very liberal) presidential candidate Eugene McCarthy in the late 1960's. When it becomes clear that McCarthy cannot win, one of the young folks, who has plenty of money, heads off for a vacation in Europe. The remaining youngsters stay the course until the devastating assassination of Robert Kennedy, which finally extinguishes their hopes of a liberal renaissance. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cleavon Little, Viveca Lindfors, (more)
