Red Buttons Movies
The son of a milliner from New York City's Lower East Side, Aaron Chwatt became a performer after winning an amateur contest at age 12. Six years later he was a singing bellboy in a Bronx tavern. It is from the uniform that he took his famous moniker, Red Buttons. A talented and versatile performer of stage, screen, and television, Buttons is equally at home in dramatic or comedic roles, but it was as a burlesque comedian working in the Catskills Mountains that he first made a name for himself. Buttons first appeared on Broadway playing a supporting role in Vickie (1942). Buttons appeared in the play Winged Victory a short while later, and he reprised his role in the 1944 screen version. In 1952, the red-haired comedian starred in the CBS television series The Red Buttons Show. Extremely popular during its first season -- Button's distinctive theme song in which he'd clap his hands together as if in prayer and sing, "Ho Ho! He He! Ha Ha! Strange things are happening!" was a sort of hit amongst American kids -- it was a blend of variety acts and a weekly sitcom. The show declined in popularity its second season and was canceled, then picked up by NBC the following year where it ran in different formats until 1955. Button's career went into decline, but the feisty little performer made an auspicious comeback playing a love-struck American soldier who defies the racist policies of the U.S. military and marries a Japanese woman in the tragic Sayonara (1957). His role landed him an Oscar for Best Supporting Actor. After that Buttons became a prolific character actor who could always be counted upon to bring an extra dinemsion of believablity to the roles he played. From television to film it was always an adventure for Buttons, with his role as a soft-spoken survivor in The Poseidon Adventure and small screen roles in The Love Boat, Fantasy Island, The Cosby Show, and Roseanne serving well to keep the amiable actor busy and in the public eye. At the 2005 Emmys, Buttons was nominated for a "Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama Series" for his recurring role as Jules "Ruby" Rubadoux in the long-running medical drama ER. Just one year later Buttons would succumb to vascular disease at the age of 87. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 2004
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The comedienne who shot to stardom as "the world's worst housewife" offers an intimate look at her life and career on the eve of her farewell stand-up performance. Phyllis Diller has been keeping her fans in stitches for nearly half-a-century. A gleefully self-depreciating comic whose outlandish sense of style always set her apart from the pack, Diller not only recollects her rise to stardom, but also allows viewers into her home to show just what life is like behind the scenes. A press conference leading up to her final performance showcases the quick-witted Diller at her unscripted best, with additional rehearsal and dressing room footage showing just what an incredible impact she has had on the world of show-business. Additional appearances by Rip Taylor, Don Rickles, Roseanne Barr, Red Buttons, and Lily Tomlin offer a chance for some of Diller's best known fans to reflect on their fondest memories of the star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Phyllis Diller
- 2002
"Welcome to Life on the Outside" was the advertising tag for the weekly, hour-long Showtime cable network dramatic series Street Time. Rob Morrow starred as former marijuana smuggler Kevin Hunter, recently paroled from prison after five years. Moving into the same neighborhood as his parole officer James Liberti (Scott Cohen), Hunter did his best to go straight, and to mend fences with his common-law wife Rachel Goldstein (Michelle Nordin), the mother of Kevin's nine-year-old son. The no-nonsense Liberti was determined to keep Hunter from lapsing back into his old crooked habits, a task made difficult by Liberti's own chronic gambling and his prickly relationship with wife Karen (Kate Greenhouse). Meanwhile, Hunter's former partners in crime -- who happened to be his brother Peter (Christopher Bolton) and brother-in-law Steve (Simon Reynolds) -- put the pressure on the protagonist to return to the "family business." Street Time debuted on June 23, 2002. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rob Morrow, Scott Cohen, (more)
Bruce Willis and Michelle Pfeiffer star in this romantic comedy as Ben and Katie Jordan, a couple who have been married for fifteen years. They have two great kids, a nice home, and a comfortable life, but somewhere down the line, the spark went out of their marriage, and they find that they don't really love each other anymore. With their relationship at a crossroads, Ben and Katie, two different people who have never felt more different, have to decide if they want to try to salvage their marriage, or if it's time to move on. The Story of Us was directed by Rob Reiner, and features Julie Hagerty, Tim Matheson, Paul Reiser, Tom Poston, Rita Wilson, and Jayne Meadows. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, (more)
- 1996
Paramedics Shep (Ron Eldard) and Raul (Carlos Gomez) respond to a call from the projects, where an abandoned row house yields 22 youngsters suffering from malnutrition. Though his actions in this crisis are compassionate, Shep nonetheless makes a careless remark which Benton (Eriq La Salle) and Malik (Deezer D) regard as racist. Benton has other problems in the form of Jeanie (Gloria Reuben), whose husband, Al (Michael Beach), wants a reconciliation. In other developments, Greene (Anthony Edwards) is served with divorce papers while on the job; and Carter (Noah Wyle) tests out a risky surgical procedure on the terminally ill wife of octogenarian Mr. Rubadoux (Red Buttons). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Reluctant to tell his daughter, Rachel (Yvonne Zima), that he and Jenn (Christine Harnos) are about to get a divorce, Greene (Anthony Edwards) instead takes her ice skating -- and invites Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) along, much to Rachel's open dismay. Elsewhere, Vucelich (Ron Rifkin) has invited his research assistant, Benton (Eriq La Salle), to an exclusive dinner party, whereupon Benton asks Jeanie (Gloria Reuben) to accompany him -- a request that causes no end of embarrassment when he mistakenly thinks that he himself has been uninvited. And Carter (Noah Wyle) can't bring himself to tell Mr. Rubadoux (Red Buttons) that his wife has died. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1996
Benton (Eriq La Salle) strongly suspects that Vucelich (Ron Rifkin) is manipulating the results of his study on the "clamp-and-run" procedure. Elsewhere, rumors buzz throughout the ER that Greene (Anthony Edwards) and Lewis (Sherry Stringfield) are lovers. And Carter (Noah Wyle) risks his career when he goes ballistic while dealing with an alcoholic patient named Nathan (Mark Pellegrino) and Nathan's "enabler" girlfriend, Angel (Charlotte Ross). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1995
Christmas and Hanukkah are simultaneously acknowledged during the holiday season at the ER. The faith of Holocaust survivor Hannah Steiner (Joan Copeland) is sorely tested when she is injured in a carjacking and her baby granddaughter is apparently kidnapped; and a priest (Tony Plana) who has been mortally wounded in a shooting at his own church prays that this tragedy will not result in wholesale gang war. As for the staffers, Greene (Anthony Edwards) sullenly prepares to spend his first Christmas without his wife; and Shep (Ron Eldard) finally expresses his true feelings toward Carol (Julianna Margulies). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Loosely based on a true story, this uneven romantic comedy depicts the unexpected way in which a winning lottery ticket unites a pair of strangers. Waitress Yvonne (Bridget Fonda) first meets police officer Charlie (Nicolas Cage) when he eats in her restaurant. Realizing that he doesn't have enough money to give her a tip, Charlie promises Yvonne to split any winnings from the lottery ticket he just bought. The skeptical Yvonne dismisses Charlie as just another cheapskate until he wins four million dollars and, much to Yvonne's surprise, decides to honor the agreement. His action becomes front page news and wins public acclaim, but it doesn't go over nearly so well with Charlie's wife Muriel (Rosie Perez), who has her own plans for the money. Muriel's shallow, greedy behavior disgusts Charlie, who finds himself spending more and more time with Yvonne, developing a friendship that threatens to blossom into something more. Jane Anderson's screenplay stresses the relationship between Charlie and Yvonne's characters over the situation's comic potential; this earnest tone will please romance fans but may disappoint viewers expecting the farcical comedy of writer/director Andrew Bergman's and Cage's previous effort, Honeymoon in Vegas. ~ Judd Blaise, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Nicolas Cage, Bridget Fonda, (more)
- 1994
Bev (Estelle Parsons) moves into the Conner household when she breaks her pelvis in her rest-home apartment. She blames Dan for the accident because he didn't fix her shower, but Roseanne finds out that the injury happened during a sexual encounter between Bev and Jake (Red Buttons). ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- 1993
Red Buttons guest stars as Jake, Bev's (Estelle Parsons) new friend from the retirement home. Roseanne and Jackie interfere and try to get a romance started between them. Meanwhile, Darlene gives David (Johnny Galecki) hell after Molly (Danielle Harris) kisses him. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Hoping to take advantage of a sale at the appliance store owned by his old pal Jake Bennett (Red Buttons), Cliff (Bill Cosby) ends up as peacemaker in a long-standing feud between Jake and another septugenarian named Stanley Rappaport (E.G. Marshall). Not only is Cliff's new power sander at stake, but so is the "Montague-Capulet" romance between Jake's daughter Cookie (Audrey Landers) and Stanley's son Jonathan (Ken Meseroll). Originally produced for Season Six of The Cosby Show, this episode marks the final appearance of Lisa Bonet as Denise Huxtable Kendall. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
This paranoid thriller begins as Eric Roberts' girlfriend (Janine Turner) is taken away in an ambulance and he can't find her. She's been taken prisoner by Eric Braeden, a crazed doctor who kidnaps people and sells their bodies for spare parts. Roberts hooks up with pretty cop Megan Gallagher to solve the mystery. A campy, action-packed thriller from cult director Larry Cohen (It's Alive), The Ambulance features a cameo by Marvel Comics prez Stan Lee and lots of tongue-in-cheek humor. It's as quirky as Cohen's other genre forays, and is entertaining enough for a rainy day rental, with clever photography by Jacques Haitkin and a tense score by Jay Chattaway. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Roberts, James Earl Jones, (more)
On his 81st birthday, grandpa George Burns, bemoans the fact that he's wasted his life, and wishes he had it to do all over again. He gets his wish when he and his 18-year-old grandson Charles Schlatter are involved in an auto accident. When he awakens, Burns' personality has been transferred to Schlatter's body, and vice versa! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Burns, Charlie Schlatter, (more)
- 1985
Filmed in England, Reunion at Fairborough served as the fourth movie pairing of Robert Mitchum and Deborah Kerr. Mitchum plays a disgruntled American, who arrives in England for a reunion with his old wartime bombing squadron. Ms. Kerr plays the local woman whom Mitchum had seduced and left behind forty years earlier. She greets her ex-love with the daunting news that he's a father -- and grandfather. Too verbose for its own good, Reunion at Fairborough fails to ignite the same sparks as the earlier Mitchum/Kerr teamings (Heaven Knows, Mr. Allison (1957), The Sundowners (1960), The Grass is Greener (1961)), but at least it's attractively photographed. Originally telecast as an "HBO Premiere" on May 12, 1985, Reunion at Fairborough was briefly released theatrically overseas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Deborah Kerr, (more)
- 1984
In this made-for-TV movie, a teenage boy runs away from home and joins a circus, discovering that his new life is not exactly what he thought it would be. When the boy is the witness to a murder, he must struggle to keep himself out of the killer's way. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1984
In this stock, low-budget occult horror film, a tiny 2-inch-high Aztecan idol is stolen from a professor and ends up in the experimental hands of three high-school students who use it in some creative attempts to get in touch with the spirit world. Things start to go wrong when a cemetery worker dies during one of these spirit sessions, and everything goes wrong after the Aztecan god possesses the body of a young man who steals the idol for his own purposes. Special effects create the appropriate flying objects and body bulges where needed, and makeup is grotesque enough by anyone's standards, but these pluses cannot erase the lack of interesting characters or situations or the uninspired acting. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Susan Stokey, Warren Lincoln, (more)
This 1982 made-for-TV version of the Lewis Carroll classic Alice in Wonderland features an all-star cast. Such celebrities as Donald O'Connor, Maureen Stapleton and Eve Arden struggle to perform while buried under mounds of makeup and tons of eccentric costuming as Carroll's alternate-world loonies. Alice in Wonderland was first telecast Oct 3, 1983, on PBS' Great Performances. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1982
- PG
In this comedy, the aged residents of Flo Adler's Mapleview Nursing Home revolt against the corporate conglomerate threatening to take over their home. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1982
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Rudolph & Frosty's Christmas in July is an animated feature where Santa Claus must rescue Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and Frosty the Snowman from a cruel wizard who has stranded the beloved characters on a sunny seashore. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1981
Mickey Rooney stars in this made-for-TV docudrama as circus clown Jack Thum, who aids his wife (Anne Jackson) in raising dozens of orphans; despite learning he is dying, Jack still struggles to earn money to support his growing brood. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1980
Old-time Hollywood director Vincent Sherman brings a glossy studio-bound look to The Dream Merchants, a two-part, four-hour adaptation of Harold Robbins' novel. The story follows the career of a pioneer filmmaker (Mark Harmon), who comes to Hollywood in the early 20th century with a pocketful of dreams and helps build the sleepy California orange-grove community into the world's entertainment capital. Typical of the Harold Robbins ouevre, most of the characters are based on real-life movie personalities: Robert Goulet's vainglorious matinee idol is a combination of John Barrymore and Douglas Fairbanks, while Vincent Gardenia's vitriolic mogul can be taken as a low-budget Louis B. Mayer. The film is rife with historical inaccuracies (Goulet is informed that the closeup has "just been invented by D. W. Griffith" as a means to convince him to sign a long-term contract assuring him plenty of closeups!), while the haircuts and speech patterns are firmly locked into the 1980s. All the same, The Dream Merchants was a profitable entry in the syndicated "Operation Prime Time" series of TV specials. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
After producer Irwin Allen highlighted the dangers of fire in the Towering Inferno and the dangers of water in the Poseidon Adventure, he is back to fire again but this time it is within the earth, at least for awhile. This fairly routine disaster film is set on a resort island with a volcano that is beginning to rumble. Stars include a long list of names: Paul Newman is Hank, the savvy oil driller who gets people to safety even against their will, Jacqueline Bisset is the woman he is interested in, William Holden, Eddie Albert, Barbara Carrera, Veronica Hamel and several others play individuals trapped on the island. Hank convinces some people to follow him to the highest part of the island as the volcano gets set to blow its top. They encounter several dangerous situations after the dormant volcano wakes up but nothing quite like the non-stop, action filled, death-defying scenes from the explosion of volcano movies that hit the screens in 1997: Dante's Peak, Volcano, Eruption, Volcano: Fire in the Mountain, and a few more from around the world. They formed a virtual 1997 "ring of fire." ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, (more)
- 1980
In this made-for-TV "roman a clef", Joe Don Baker stars as Tommy Vanda, a Hoffa-esque labor leader. Told in flashback, the film recounts Vanda's humble beginnings on the Chicago docks, where he gains fame and notoreity amongst his coworkers and his bosses by spearheading a wildcat strike. Rising to top dog of the Cartage Union, Tommy doesn't care whon he has to crush on the way up the ladder. Inevitably, Tommy's peccadilloes catch up with him, resulting in federal charges, an arrest, and (remember who he's supposed to be) a mysterious disappearance in the night. Written by Ernest Tidyman of The French Connection fame, Power was telecast in two two-hour installments by NBC on January 14 and 15, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Brian Foster (Wesley Eure) is a young inventor who creates a mechanical dog as part of a home protection system. When he falls out of favor with his boss Ralph Norton (Conrad Bain), the boss' pretty daughter Casey (Valerie Bertinelli) uses her pull to save the company and Brian's job. Mr. Gibbs (Jim Backus) is the rival company president who covets the mechanical mutt. He sends double agent Ken Sharp (Larry Bishop) to do his bidding, and Ken in turn hires a pair of bumbling crooks (Red Buttons), (Chuck McCann) to steal the dog. The real star of this family-oriented comedy is the mechanical dog Chomps. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wesley Eure, Valerie Bertinelli, (more)
