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, Rovi
- 1986
- PG13
Blake Edwards co-wrote and directed this seriocomedy about a couple of rich and famous Malibuans forced to re-examine their lives and values during a weekend party celebrating the husband's 60th birthday. Jack Lemmon and Julie Andrews star as Harvey and Gillian Fairchild. Harvey is a successful architect who has attained his wealth by flattering his rich clients and compromising his ideals. Although he has everything he could want out of life, he is still unhappy. He looks at himself in the mirror and sees a middle-aged man who hates himself, feels that his children don't love him, and thinks that he is dying. Gillian, a successful singer, tries to bolster his self-confidence so that he can have a wonderful birthday. But she has problems of her own -- she has just returned from her doctor, who has informed her that she may have throat cancer. The doctor won't know for sure until the tests come back on Monday. In the meantime, Gillian tries to keep up a brave front for Harvey's celebration. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Jack Lemmon, Julie Andrews, (more)
Blake Edwards comes a cropper in this lunk-headed slapstick homage to Laurel and Hardy, Mack Sennett, and Jerry Lewis. Ted Danson and Howie Mandell play Spence Holden and Dennis Powell, a couple of idiots who find themselves involved with a pack of gangsters. Spence is a two-bit actor who is at a racetrack location with his pal Dennis, when he overhears two small-time thugs, Wayne "Turnip" Parragella (Richard Mulligan) and Maurice "Binky" Drundza (Stuart Margolin), talk about doping a horse set to run a race. It turns out that Turnip and Binky are under orders to carry out the dastardly scheme by their underworld boss Tony Pazzo (Paul Sorvino). When Spence and Dennis are found out, they find themselves pursued all over the Los Angeles area by an angry Tony Pazzo mob in an ever-escalating series of races and chases, crashes and smashes, and shouting and screaming. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ted Danson, Howie Mandel, (more)
This sci-fi spoof stars Frank Stallone (Sly's brother) as Tony Mareda, Jr., a hot-shot private detective. Mareda leaves the funeral of his father, and while on the road and chased by two gunmen, he picks up a winsome hitchhiker and they end up at a drive in movie. While a "Zombie Beach Party 3" film flickers across the screen, a local weatherman and his date start talking about life in outer space, and lo-and-behold, a pink meteorite lands not far from the drive-in. It turns out that this "pink Mamma" transforms innocent, nubile maidens into pink chiquitas whose lust for men is a prelude to enslaving them and taking over the world. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Frank Stallone, John Hemphill, (more)
The first Disney animated feature to make extensive use of computer technology, The Great Mouse Detective was based on the children's novel Basil of Baker Street by Eve Titus. The titular hero is Basil, a Holmes-like rodent (complete with deerstalker) who solves crimes in the company of his friend and chronicler Dr. Dawson. Basil and Dawson are retained by the daughter of a mouse toymaker who has been kidnapped by the diabolical Ratigan. The villain hopes to force the toymaker to construct a fake version of the queen who will grant power to the bad guy--or at least, for that part of the world behind the walls of London. Though nearly eliminated by Ratigan, Basil and Dawson trap the villain in the fast-moving mechanisms of Big Ben. By relying on computer animation, Disney was able to keep the budget of Great Mouse Detective down to a manageable size, thus earning back the losses incurred by the studio's previous cartoon feature, The Black Cauldron. Among the talented voice actors utilized in The Great Mouse Detective is Vincent Price, who plays guess what part? (Hint: he ain't Basil). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Val Bettin, Eve Brenner, (more)
Nine years after his last compilation of musical-movie highlights (That's Entertainment, Part II), producer Jack Haley Jr. offers another enjoyable nostalgia-fest, That's Dancing. Unlike his earlier films, which were confined to the output of MGM, That's Dancing offers vignettes from the best of Warner Bros. (the Busby Berkeley extravaganzas, On Your Toes), RKO (Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers), 20th Century-Fox (The Nicholas Brothers, Carmen Miranda), Universal (1969's Sweet Charity) and United Artists (the "Cool" number from West Side Story). There are also highlights from the top musicals of the 1970s and 1980s, which with such rare exceptions as Saturday Night Fever (1977) can't hold a candle to Hollywood's vintage songfests. Host/narrators Gene Kelly, Sammy Davis Jr., Mikhail Baryshnikov, Liza Minnelli and Ray Bolger help put the clips in their historical perspective, though all five stars seem tired and unenthusiastic. The real money scene in That's Dancing is Ray Bolger's "wind" dance, which was cut from the final release print of The Wizard of Oz (1939). In answer to the excellent audience response to this vintage sequence, Haley's next compilation, That's Entertainment III (1995), incorporated several such "lost" musical gems from the MGM vaults. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Gene Kelly, Sammy Davis, Jr., (more)
Director Tobe Hooper adapts Colin Wilson's edgy novel The Space Vampires in this in this horror/sci-fi epic with a cult following. The story concerns a joint British-American space probe of Hailey's Comet. Inside the comet, the astronauts, headed by Carlsen (Steve Railsback), find a spaceship that contains the dead bodies of several aliens, along with the naked bodies of three human-like creatures in suspended animation. They bring the aliens aboard the ship for examination, but the specimens are sloppily guarded and soon the trio spread contagion among the population of the ship. Returning to earth, the beautiful space vampire (Mathilda May) escapes into London and begins to feed of the bodies of the unwary Britons, turning the city into a zombie-populated wasteland. It is now left for Carlsen to stop the vampire invaders. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Steve Railsback, Peter Firth, (more)
After introducing how Santa and Mrs. Claus came to the North Pole and began their work delivering toys at Christmas time, this routine children's film segues into a story about an evil corporate magnate (John Lithgow). One of Santa's elves (Dudley Moore) goes to work for the nasty tycoon and invents a wild array of far-out toys. Then there is a little boy who does not believe in Santa Claus and a girl who finds out about the toymaker's plans to defraud his company. Santa's reindeer are a little under the weather, not to mention Santa himself. This labyrinth of subplots quickly draws attention away from the story, wherever it is. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Huddleston, Dudley Moore, (more)
- 1984
- PG
Harry (Paul Newman), a middle-aged hardhat, has trouble communicating with his teenaged son Howard (Robby Benson). While Harry wants Howard to find a bread-and-butter job, the sensitive boy would rather pursue a writing career. Howard tries his best to please his dad, but ultimately realizes that he must march to his own beat if he's to find lasting happiness. The best scenes in this by-the-numbers domestic drama are those between Howard and his pregnant girlfriend (Ellen Barkin). Adapted from The Lost King, a novel by Don Capite, Harry and Son represents one of the rare occasions that star Paul Newman directed himself (at least officially!) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Paul Newman, Robby Benson, (more)
- 1983
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This mammoth TV miniseries, based on the best-selling novel by Colleen McCullough, proved to be a ratings bonanza; indeed, its viewership was surpassed only by the 1978 blockbuster Roots. Set in Australia, the story covers 42 years in the life of Ralph de Bricassart (Richard Chamberlain), a Roman Catholic priest engaged in a constant struggle between his calling and his carnal desires. The women in de Bricassart's life include Meggie Cleary (Rachel Ward, in her first American TV role) and Meggie's iron-willed grandmother Mary Carson (Barbara Stanwyck). Also in the cast are Jean Simmons and Richard Kiley as the Clearys, Sydney Penny as the young Meggie, Bryan Brown as Luke O'Neill, Mare Winningham as Justine (Meggie's daughter) and Christopher Plummer as the Archbishop. This 4-part, 10-hour presentation earned an Emmy award for Barbara Stanwyck, and Golden Globes for Stanwyck and Richard Chamberlain. Originally telecast March 27 through March 30, 1983, The Thorn Birds was followed 13 years later by The Thorn Birds: The Missing Years, again starring Richard Chamberlain. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Richard Chamberlain, Rachel Ward, (more)
Curse of the Pink Panther was released just after Trail of the Pink Panther with a script that has someone looking for the inept Inspector Clousseau and the fabulous stolen Pink Panther diamond at the same time. In Curse, Clifton Sleigh (Ted Wass) is a New York retread of the bumbling Inspector, chosen to look for him by Clousseau's former boss because Sleigh most certainly will never find him. Although peppered with a few inventive stunts, Curse still falls short of the Sellers classics. In a bizarre side note, David Niven was himself terminally ill at the time of his appearance in Trail of the Pink Panther and unable to speak adequately. His voice was dubbed in by impressionist Rich Little. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ted Wass, David Niven, (more)
This remake of François Truffaut's 1977 comedy misses out on Truffaut's subtext that delves into the nature of love and instead simply recounts the sexual and romantic exploits of David, a sculptor who is an incurable womanizer (Burt Reynolds). In order to come to grips with his obsession for women, David goes to see a psychiatrist, Marianna (Julie Andrews), and sure enough, she later joins him on the couch. His tale is told by Marianna, as flashbacks reveal their relationship and other loves of David's life, most notably Louise (Kim Basinger), a married woman hooked on intimacy in odd, if not dangerous, places. In all these relationships, David is as much attracted to the women as they are to him. Unfortunately, with flat dialogue and uninspired comedy, David fares better than the film as a whole. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Julie Andrews, (more)
- 1983
The usually reliable director Bryan Forbes came acropper in Better Late Than Never. In one of his last films, a noticeably weary David Niven plays Nick, the supposed grandfather of 10-year-old heiress Bridget (Kimberly Partridge). Charley (Art Carney) shows up to cramp Nick's act, claiming that he is the genuine grandpa. Both men once slept with Bridget's grandmother, and she was never certain which of the two "inaugurated" her family. Neither Nick nor Charley are exactly prime parental material, so Bridget must choose from the lesser of two evils. Maggie Smith and Catherine Hicks are excellent in their thankless secondary roles. Better Late Than Never was lensed on location in the South of France; the scenery is the film's most pleasing aspect. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- David Niven, Art Carney, (more)
- 1983
- PG
In this skewed, unreal view of a woman's choice in men, almost nothing is believable. Amy (Lucie Arnaz) is a savvy, well-educated lawyer in Santa Fe who divorces her husband, an exec in the banking business, to become involved with Will (Craig Wasson) a street musician with the same iron-clad brain as her ex when it comes to women. The musician is regularly picked up by the police for his loitering, though he seems never to fully realize why they are doing this to him. Amy drops him at last, and when she finds out she is pregnant, she goes to the hospital to have an abortion -- and is introduced to a Boris Karloff-type doctor. Before anything further happens, Will comes along and forcibly carries her off to a remote, run-down building in a ghost town where he ties her to a bed intending to keep her there until she has the baby. Hard to believe, but things only get worse from here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Lucie Arnaz, Craig Wasson, (more)
- 1982
- PG
Two years after the death of Peter Sellers, Blake Edwards tried to exhume his corpse in this pastiche of clips and out-takes from the old Pink Panther films. The plot concerns the legendary "Pink Panther" diamond which is once more stolen. Inspector Clouseau (Peter Sellers) is again enlisted to find the stolen bauble. When he follows the trail of the diamond to another country, he leaves on an airplane that is soon reported missing. Television reporter Marie Jouvet (Joanna Lumley) then sets out to interview old acquaintances and associates of Clouseau, including Lady Litton (Capucine), Inspector Dreyfus (Herbert Lom) and Sir Charles Litton (David Niven), who recall their experiences with the bumbling inspector. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Peter Sellers, David Niven, (more)
On the verge of starvation in 1930s Paris, erstwhile entertainer Victoria (Julie Andrews) is rescued by gay cabaret performer Toddy (Robert Preston). What she needs to succeed, opines Toddy, is a gimmick. What if she becomes a male impersonator? Better still: what if she becomes a male impersonator, pretending to be a female impersonator? As "Victor/Victoria," s/he becomes the toast of Paree, and an object of fascination for big-time Chicago gangster King Marchan (James Garner), who can't quite understand the teasing sensations he experiences whenever watching her in action-especially since he, like everyone else, assumes that she is a he. Enjoyable though the stars of Blake Edwards' comedy may be, the film is stolen by Lesley Ann Warren, who won an Oscar nomination as King's screechy-voiced moll, and Alex Karras as King's chief henchman, who, assuming that his boss is "that way," literally comes out of the closet. Victor/Victoria was a remake of the 1931 German film Viktor und Viktoria, which had previously be reworked in 1937 as the Jessie Mathews vehicle First a Girl. In 1996, Victor/Victoria was transformed into a Broadway musical, again directed by Edwards and starring Andrews. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julie Andrews, James Garner, (more)
When her adoptive mother Joan Crawford died in 1977, erstwhile actress/author Christina Crawford and her brother Christopher were left out of Joan Crawford's will, "for reasons which are well known to them." Industryites have suggested that it may have been this posthumous act of rejection rather than an alleged lifetime of parental abuse that inspired Christina Crawford to pen her scathing autobiography Mommie Dearest. The 1981 film version of this tome was evidently meant to be taken seriously, but the operatic direction by Frank Perry and the over-the-top portrayal of Joan Crawford by Faye Dunaway (whose makeup is remarkable) has always seemed to inspire loud laughter whenever and where-ever the film is shown. According to the film (and the book that preceded it), Joan Crawford was a licentious, child-beating behemoth, who stalked and postured through life as though it was one of her own pictures-more Strait-jacket than Mildred Pierce. This is the film with the notorious "wire coat hanger" scene, just in case you need a reminder. Surprisingly, one emerges from Mommie Dearest with more sympathy for the monstrous but intensely vulnerable Crawford than for her whining daughter (played as an adult by Diana Scarwid, and as a child by Mara Hobel). Our favorite scene: Joan Crawford dazedly replacing her ailing daughter in the cast of a daytime TV soap opera. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Faye Dunaway, Diana Scarwid, (more)
In this biting comedy satirizing Hollywood cynicism from writer-director Blake Edwards, Felix Farmer (Richard Mulligan) is a motion picture director whose career is on the skids. Having just completed a family musical that is sure to be a $30 million flop, Felix knows that his days are numbered and tries unsuccessfully to commit suicide. When he recovers, Felix suddenly has a brainstorm and hatches a scheme to buy the film back from his studio and lens new scenes that will turn it into a pornographic movie with big stars, a sure-fire box office winner. In order to pull it off, he'll need to convince his female lead and wife, Sally Miles (Julie Andrews, not coincidentally the director's real-life wife) to defy her wholesome, squeaky-clean public image by baring her breasts on film. S.O.B. (1981) was the final film of legendary actor William Holden. ~ Karl Williams, Rovi
- Starring:
- Julie Andrews, William Holden, (more)
For his follow-up to 1979's Academy Award-winning Norma Rae, director Martin Ritt re-teams with that film's star, Sally Field, for this gritty romantic road comedy. Reportedly Ritt's homage to Frank Capra's films of the 1930s, Back Roads stars Field as Amy Post, a no-nonsense prostitute in the deep South struggling with the fact that she gave up her only child for adoption. When Amy first encounters the recently unemployed Elmore Pratt (Tommy Lee Jones), she is anything but fond of the drifter. But after taking to the road together with dreams of California, the two societal misfits find themselves falling for each other. Ritt and Field would team together once again four years later in another romantic comedy set in the South, Murphy's Romance. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi
- Starring:
- Sally Field, Tommy Lee Jones, (more)
- 1981
- PG
The creator of a comic-book series (Michael Crawford) is recruited by a friend in the CIA (James Hampton) to rescue a beautiful Soviet defector (Barbara Carrera). He agrees, as long as he is permitted to don the persona of his most famous character, Condorman. ~ John Bush, Rovi
- Starring:
- Michael Crawford, Oliver Reed, (more)
- 1980
Henry Mancini and guest singers perform titles such as "Moon River," "Inspector Clouseau Theme," "The Best Is Yet To Come" and others. ~ Rovi
Middle-aged angst is the catalyst for this drama about an older married couple who join up with younger partners. When Karen Evans (Shirley MacLaine) discovers that her husband Adam (Anthony Hopkins) has been dallying around with young co-ed Lindsey Rutledge (Bo Derek), she is furious. She fights back by starting up an affair with young Pete Lachapelle (Michael Brandon) and pretending to tolerate her husband's pecadillos. Adam is selfish and arrogant, a typical college professor stereotype. The odd couples decide to take off for a skiing holiday in Vermont during which their relationships will be tested. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Shirley MacLaine, Anthony Hopkins, (more)
Screenwriter Walter Bernstein made his directorial debut with Little Miss Marker, a re-make of the Damon Runyon story that has been filmed many times before (most notably as Little Miss Marker with Shirley Temple, Sorrowful Jones starring Bob Hope, and the Tony Curtis vehicle 40 Pounds of Trouble). Here the cute little moppet is played by Sara Stimson, with Walter Matthau as the kid's nemesis Sorrowful Jones. The story concerns the relationship between the two when Little Miss Marker is left with Sorrowful as a down payment for one of her father's bets. Jones is involved with Blackie (Tony Curtis), who's trying to open an undercover casino in a mansion owned by Amanda (Julie Andrews). Jones and the kid find themselves in a number of dangerous scrapes as they try to keep one step ahead of the law -- and of Blackie. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi
- Starring:
- Walter Matthau, Julie Andrews, (more)
- 1980
Advertised as "Paul Newman's First Film for Television," Shadow Box was more specifically the first TV movie to be directed by Newman. Moving in a slow, deliberate fashion, the film concerns three terminally ill people. Their stories intertwine as the unfortunate spend their last days with their families in a cottage-complex hospice. Christopher Plummer and Joanne Woodward play a pair of ex-spouses, whose chances for reconciliation are strained somewhat by the presence of Plummer's male lover Ben Masters. James Broderick plays a blue-collar worker, sharing precious final moments with wife Valerie Harper. And elderly Sylvia Sidney comes to terms with her daughter Melinda Dillon. Based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Michael Cristofer, Shadow Box was co-produced by Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward's daughter Susan Kendall Newman. The Emmy-nominated drama was first telecast December 28, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- 1979
This attenuated adaptation of Helen Van Slyke's novel stars Donna Reed (her first TV appearance in 12 years) as a widow with financial and domestic problems. Her adult daughter Stephanie Zimbalist has turned to drugs; her sons Michael Shannon and Tim Hutton have less severe but no less time-consuming personal difficulties; and her mother Mildred Dunnock is aloof and remonstrative. In addition, Reed is torn between two loves: old flame Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and doctor John Phillip Law, who is young enough to be her son. The above-mentioned plot contrivances would seem to be sufficient to fill the four hours (and two parts) of The Best Place to Be several times over; still, there's time enough left over for a tragedy to strike Reed's family before she finally settles down with the elder Zimbalist. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Stephanie Zimbalist
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