Henry Mancini Movies
American composer Henry Mancini was introduced to music by his Italian immigrant father, who tutored young Mancini on piano and flute. After World War II service, Mancini attended Carnegie Tech and Juilliard, played piano with the Glenn Miller Orchestra, and ultimately became a staff composer at Universal, writing snatches of music for everything from the studio's newsreels to the Abbott and Costello comedies. In 1954, he was given the opportunity to arrange the music for a film that might well have qualified as a labor of love: The Glenn Miller Story. The Academy Award nomination he received for this effort elevated Mancini's industry status, as did his long association with producer/director Blake Edwards.When Mancini wrote the jazzy theme music for Edwards' TV series Peter Gunn and Mr. Lucky, Mancini was so proud and protective of his work that he had a clause in his contract prohibiting the networks from running spoken "plugs" for upcoming programs over the closing-credit music. Mancini went on to win Oscars for his contributions to the Blake Edwards-directed films Breakfast at Tiffany's (1961), for which he wrote "Moon River"; Days of Wine and Roses (1962); and Victor/Victoria (1982). He also composed the theme to the popular television series Newhart (1982-90). The composer managed to put 20 Grammies on his shelf before his death in 1994. Though arguably the best-known film composer of his time, Henry Mancini was still modest enough in 1989 to title his autobiography Did They Mention the Music? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The world's most inept detective returns to the screen in this modern slapstick comedy. France's come-from-behind victory in the World Cup soccer championships turns tragic when the team's coach, Yves Gulant (Jason Statham), is murdered during a post-game celebration. Gulant's girlfriend, pop star Xania (Beyoncé Knowles), was standing by his side as he was felled by a poisoned dart, and in the chaos that followed a diamond ring he gave her was stolen, which held one of the world's largest and most valuable jewels, known as "the Pink Panther." The media and the public demand that the killer be found out and brought to justice, and Chief Inspector Dreyfus (Kevin Kline) of the Paris Police pledges to put his best man on the case. However, somehow the astoundingly clumsy but consistently lucky Inspector Jacques Clouseau (Steve Martin) gets the assignment instead, and with his assistant, Gendarme Gilbert Ponton (Jean Reno), in tow, Clouseau follows a dizzying trail of clues from Paris to New York City as he attempts to recover the rare diamond and find the villains who killed Gulant. An updated variant on the Inspector Clouseau comedies that helped make Peter Sellers a major star in the United States, The Pink Panther also stars Emily Mortimer, Kristin Chenoweth, Roger Rees, and William Abadie; leading man Steve Martin also wrote the film's screenplay. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Martin, Kevin Kline, (more)
- 1999
- NR
This is a comedy about homosexuals, transvestites, and taboos. The main character is a young woman from the provinces whose gay father lives in Paris. She decides to dress like a man to understand social prejudice. The director, who plays the main character, wrote the script with her sister. Their joint efforts draw an insightful portrait of life's lies, hypocrisies, and illusions. ~ Gönül Dönmez-Colin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Valérie Lemercier, Claude Rich, (more)
A retrospective of the acclaimed NBC variety series The Andy Williams Show. The show ran from 1962-1971, winning three Emmy awards for Best Variety Series and entertaining millions of viewers along the way. This video is a compilation of some of the greatest performances seen on the show, featuring solos by Williams and duets with some of the greatest musical stars of all time, like Julie Andrews, Judy Garland, Tony Bennett, Sammy Davis Jr., and many others. The segments were hand-picked by Williams, allowing the viewer to escape back in time with one of the great legends in musical entertainment.
~ Sarah Block, All Movie Guide
~ Sarah Block, All Movie Guide
This filmed stage production of Victor/Victoria came to be through the collaboration of director Blake Edwards and his wife, singer and actress Julie Andrews. Andrews reprises her role as a female pretending to be a male who is impersonating a female, while Edwards once again directs. As with the 1982 film and 1996 Broadway productions of Victor/Victoria, Andrews' character rises through the entertainment circuit by means of her unique gimmick, leaving a Chicago gangster and the rest of her audience thoroughly confused about her true sexuality and its implications. Filmed shortly before her vocal chords were unfortunately injured, this production of Victor/Victoria marks the last musical performance by Andrews prior to the damage incurred to her singing voice after undergoing subsequent surgery. ~ Tracie Cooper, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Andrews, Tony Roberts, (more)
This homage to the cinema by venerated movie-maker Agnes Varda, often dubbed the "grandmother" of the French New Wave, features an all-star international cast. The story is based upon the memories and insights of the 100-year old Mr. Simon Cinema. He lives in a magnificent house filled with movie memorabilia. To help him remember the important details of his career he hires Camille, a film student to write down his remembrances and experiences which have involved all areas of movie-making. Camille comes once a day for 101 days. Film clips, photographs and actual visitors highlight his stories. As he continues to spin his yarns, the imagery in the film smoothly morph into other images. Camille, when not recording, is involved in other exploits including a romance with a production assistant, Mica who aspires to becoming a director. She also begins plotting a way to get to Mr. Cinema's fortune by having a friend pose as his long lost heir. Many other characters are peripherally involved including Death, an Italian seeking the rights to his film catalogue, and a memory specialist. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michel Piccoli, Marcello Mastroianni, (more)
Arthur Hiller directed this comedy/drama concerning three couples, thrown together by fate, who become friendly and help each other through their marriage difficulties. Claire (Cybill Shepherd) and Leo (Ron Silver) are a wealthy couple having trouble with a daughter from a previous marriage. John (Beau Bridges) and Iris (Stockard Channing) are a couple from the '60s who have weathered a relationship involving sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. Chuck (Robert Sean Leonard), a securities analyst, and Nina (Mary Stuart Masterson), a child psychologist, are newlyweds needing guidance through the pitfalls of married life. The couples meet on a committee formed at a PTA meeting. They find they like each other and invite each other to dinner parties. As they meet and talk with one another, they reveal their problems and help each other. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Beau Bridges, Stockard Channing, (more)
- 1993
A tongue-tied Frasier (Kelsey Grammer) manages to say all the wrong things at the breakfast table after his father, Martin (John Mahoney), has spent the night with a woman. Realizing that he has embarrassed his dad, Frasier tries to make amends during his radio show -- and succeeds to make things worse, only this time in front of the entire city of Seattle. Our hero's last-ditch effort to smooth out the situation just might work...and then, it just might not. Patrick Kerr makes his first series appearance as irritating Star Trek aficionado Noel Shempsky, eternal nemesis of Frasier's co-worker, Roz (Peri Gilpin). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
After the death of Peter Sellers in 1980, writer/director Blake Edwards assembled a new "Pink Panther" film from outtakes of Sellers as Inspector Clouseau from previous movies in the series (the result was called The Trail of the Pink Panther) and later made two attempts to revive the series with another actor. In this case, Edwards cast Roberto Benigni as Jacques Gambrelli, a hopelessly inept French policeman who turns out the be the illegitimate son of Inspector Clouseau. Gambrelli becomes involved with the investigation of a kidnapping involving the beautiful Princess Yasmin (Debrah Farentino) literally by accident, when he crashes into a car driven by Police Commissioner Dreyfus (Herbert Lom). Gambrelli soon becomes smitten with Yasmin, while the investigation suggests that the kidnapping was set up by her mother, the Queen (Shabana Azmi), and her lover, General Jaffar (Aharon Ipale). Claudia Cardinale who played a different character in the original Pink Panther returns, while Burt Kwouk returns as the violent Korean manservant Cato. Roberto Benigni's Gambrelli proved no more successful at the box office than Ted Wass's Clouseau-like Clifton Sleigh in The Curse of the Pink Panther (1983), though after his multiple-Oscar winning success with 1998's La Vita e Bella, Roberto's probably gotten over it. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roberto Benigni, Herbert Lom, (more)
The popular animated duo of cat and mouse team up again to appear this time on the big screen. Homeless, the 'toons end up helping out a young girl who stays with a nasty auntie while she is separated from her father. Will the young Robyn be reunited with her loving father? Will the odd pair make it on the streets? Will they find a home? Those are some of the burning questions that may plague the minds of young viewers of this fun adventure. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Kind, Dana Hill, (more)
- 1993
Desmond Denton (Joe Gibbons) is a whacko psychiatrist who has invented a machine that enables him to practice giving himself "personality transplants" using his patients for the source material. When he adopts the personality of a terrorist client, the rest of the world had better watch out: he's getting addicted to this one. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1991
In this fact-based made-for-cable docudrama, Leonard Nimoy stars as Mel Mermelstein, a Nazi death camp survivor who wages a court battle against the revisionist Institute for Historical Review over their claims that the Holocaust never occurred. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leonard Nimoy, Dabney Coleman, (more)
Ellen Barkin stars in this mystical comedy about a detestable male chauvinist temporarily reincarnated into the body of a woman. Steve Brooks (Perry King) foolishly accepts an invite for an evening of debauchery from three former girlfriends, and thinks he's got it made when he shows up to find them waiting for him in a hot tub. Eager to exact revenge on the scoundrel, the women proceed to drown him, and Steve is cast into a purgatory in which two unseen voices are deciding whether to send him to heaven or hell. Steve is given one chance to save himself from damnation -- if he can find a woman alive who actually liked him. To complicate his task and teach him a lesson, Steve is reincarnated as a sexy woman (Barkin), just the type who would have been the target of his cheesy advances. Sloppily adjusting to his new body, Steve (now Barkin) tells people he is the sister of the missing Steve Brooks, and begins working at his old advertising agency as a means toward completing his arduous task. As Steve's sister, he also enlists the help of his best friend, Walter (Jimmy Smits), despite the complication that Walter is noticeably attracted to the woman he has become. Steve's homophobia -- and several of his other hateful traits -- are put to the test. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ellen Barkin, Jimmy Smits, (more)
Bill Cosby mugs so uncontrollably that it looks as if he may be the victim of a muscular disorder in the inane and unfunny Ghost Dad. Cosby plays Elliot, a workaholic widower with three children -- Danny (Salim Grant), Amanda (Brooke Fontainbe), and the teenage Diane (Kimberly Russell). Elliot is hoping to close a big deal that will mean a promotion, more money, and lots of perks, but a cab ride with a freaked-out cab driver causes his untimely demise. Elliot discovers that he is now a ghost and has to learn to spend more time with his kids rather than worry about money and career. Otherwise, after three days, he'll be whisked away into the great beyond. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Cosby, Kimberly Russell, (more)
- 1990
- R
Fear stars Ally Sheedy as a psychic who frequently helps the police track down criminals. This time, however, there's a serial killer at large who's a pretty efficient psychic in his own right. The story boils down to a battle of wills, and for while it looks as though the villain's will is the stronger of the two. Fear was tensely, tersely written and directed by Rockne O'Bannon, a veteran of the Twilight Zone TV-series revival of the 1980s, as well as the author of the screenplay for Alien Nation (1988). The star-studded supporting cast included Lauren Hutton, Michael O'Keefe, John Agar, Stan Shaw and Dina Merrill. Originally intended for theatrical release, Fear debuted July 15, 1990, over the Showtime Cable Network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ally Sheedy, Lauren Hutton, (more)
Blake Edwards, mining the same territory as in his 10, Micki and Maude, The Man Who Loved Women, and That's Life, (not to mention Blind Date), once again deals with male mid-life menopausal angst. Zach (John Ritter) is a novelist suffering from writer's block, spiraling downward in a sea of women and booze. To illustrate the depths to which Zach's life has sunk, the film begins when his mistress catches him in bed with another woman. Then his wife walks in. As a result, his wife leaves him. Things keep getting worse --his agent is dying, his house burns down, and he gets picked up for drunk driving. But in spite of his despair, he can't help chasing women, engaging in a series of bedroom misadventures with a collection of women --including a female body builder; a woman who likes to set pianos on fire; and the girlfriend of a rock star who suggests that he wear one of her boyfriend's glow-in-the-dark condoms. Helping Zach regain control of his life is Barney the lawyer (Vincent Gardenia) and Dr. Westford (Michael Kidd), a helpful psychiatrist. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Ritter, Vincent Gardenia, (more)
Though this police and courtroom drama did not do well at the box-office, some reviewers thought that the lead performances by Burt Reynolds and Theresa Russell were first-rate. Joe Paris (Reynolds) is a policeman suspended from active duty. He awakens from an alcoholic binge to discover that he is being charged for a murder he has no memory of. Jenny Hudson (Russell) is his court-appointed defense lawyer, a young feminist eager to prove herself in the courtroom. After some initial difficulties, the two cooperate to unravel the tangled circumstances behind the murder. Michael Crichton directed but did not collaborate on the story or screenplay. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Theresa Russell, (more)
- 1989
Peter Gunn was a one-shot TV movie revival of the classic detective series (1958-61) created by Blake Edwards. Edwards wrote and directed this pilot for a potential Gunn revival, with Peter Strauss stepping into Craig Stevens' gumshoes as private eye Peter Gunn. Peter Jurasik assumes Herschel Bernardi's old role as Lt. Jacobi, while Barbara Williams takes over for Lola Albright as saloon singer Edie ("Mother's", the night spot where Edie vocalizes, is operated by "special guest star" Pearl Bailey). The film is not updated to the present time, but is set in 1964. Gunn finds himself between gangsters and rogue cops when he agrees to get to the bottom of a mob hit. A lot more verbose than the old, visually dynamic TV series, Peter Gunn (1989) has the saving grace of Henry Mancini's original progressive-jazz theme song and musical score. Blake Edwards' daughter Jennifer is featured as Gunn's ditsy secretary, a character (thankfully) missing from the earlier series. This actually represented Edwards's second attempt to revive the Peter Gunn character in a movie format; he first did so with the 1967 big-screen feature Gunn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Strauss, Pearl Bailey, (more)
- 1989
- R
In this made-for-cable TV drama, Lt. Jake Robbins (Kris Kristofferson) was presumed to have been killed in action during the Vietnam War. His wife, Sarah (JoBeth Williams) and his son were forced to get on with their lives; however when Jake turns up in Thailand many years later with a Cambodian wife and two children, the two families must struggle to deal with this complication. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, JoBeth Williams, (more)
Director Blake Edwards departed from his customary sex farces to direct an unusual satirical Western comedy-thriller. In 1927, legendary lawman Wyatt Earp (James Garner) comes to Hollywood to serve as an advisor to a film studio making a movie about Earp's life. He meets silent screen cowboy star Tom Mix (Bruce Willis). The two stumble upon a murder that has apparently occurred on the set but is linked to a renowned bordello. The aging cowboy and the young actor set off on a series of time-warp misadventures to try to solve the mystery. Along the way, they encounter the shady Alfie Alperin (Malcom McDowell) and the intriguing Cheryl King (Mariel Hemingway). ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, James Garner, (more)
- 1988
In this kooky, spooky comedy, a dead private detective comes back from the Great Beyond to investigate his own death. He enlists the aid of an unemployed actress. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
According to Without a Clue, master detective Sherlock Holmes was a wholly fictional character. Well, we knew that; what we didn't know was that Holmes was a figment of the imagination of his chronicler, Dr. John Watson (Ben Kingsley). When Holmes' fame begins to grow, would-be clients besiege Watson's office for chance to consult the Great Detective. In desperation, Watson hires a seedy provincial actor (Michael Caine) to pose as Holmes. Trouble is, the preening actor hasn't got a clue -- about anything. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Caine, Ben Kingsley, (more)
When speaking of Laurel and Hardy's first feature film Pardon Us, Stan Laurel described it as "a three-story building on a one-story base"-in other words, a 2-reeler stretched and bloated into 6 reels. Much the same could be said of Blake Edwards's Blind Date, though one wonders if Stan Laurel could have even gotten two reels out of its wafer-thin premise. At the outset, yuppie Bruce Willis is warned not to let his blind date, southern belle Kim Basinger, drink anything stronger than lemonade. So what does Willis do the first chance he gets? That's right, kids; he plies poor Basinger with champagne. And then he wonders why his life rapidly goes to hell in a handbasket. In his first starring movie role, Bruce Willis manages to find all sorts of nuances in his one-note role, while Kim Basinger is very funny when she's blotto-at least, for the first five minutes or so. John Laroquette costars as a character straight out of a 1920s bedroom farce; he's also pretty good, even though his dialogue is numbingly unamusing. Blake Edwards is famous for his ability to make a lot out of a little...but there has to be a limit somewhere. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kim Basinger, Bruce Willis, (more)
- 1987
- PG
Paul Newman directed this moving adaptation of Tennessee Williams' classic play The Glass Menagerie. Joanne Woodward stars as aging Southern belle Amanda Wingfield, whose domineering parenting has driven her shy, timid daughter Laura (Karen Allen) inward and has made her adventure-hungry son Tom (John Malkovich) miserable. Newman hasn't tried to open the original stage play up at all, preferring to keep all of the action within the Wingfield apartment. The cast performed the play in a Broadway revival prior to the filming. James Naughton appears as Laura's gentleman caller. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joanne Woodward, John Malkovich, (more)
- 1987
Robert Hays stars in Murder by the Book in the dual role of mild-mannered mystery writer D. H. Mercer and his creation, hard-boiled private eye Biff Deegan. While writing his latest book, Mercer becomes so immersed in his material that he inadvertently causes Biff to come to life. Mercer teams up with his Chandleresque doppelganger to solve a genuine mystery involving art fraud, murder, and a beautiful lady in peril (Catherine Mary Stewart). Made for television, Murder By the Book was based on a novel by Mel Arrighi, titled (what else?) Alter Ego. It was filmed late in 1985 and first telecast on March 17, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
When a tour bus driver plans to save his daughter from her captors, a Belgian circus performer, the Americans on his European bus tour lend a help hand. ~ All Movie Guide
