Evelyn Purcell Movies
In the direct-to-video thriller Borderline, Gina Gershon stars as Dr. Lila Coletti, a psychiatrist who treats insane criminals in prison. Following a bitter divorce, her wealthy ex-husband Paul (Nick Boraine) gains custody of their two children. Then one day, the ex-husband and his new girlfriend end up brutally raped and murdered. Lila becomes the main suspect in a police investigation led by Macy Kobacek (Michael Biehn), whom she's also romantically involved with. Lila is convinced the murder was committed by Ed Baikman (Sean Patrick Flanery), her obsessive former patient who was recently moved out of prison to a halfway house. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gina Gershon
- 1996
- R
A woman accused of brutally murdering her husband denies the allegations, but only her attorney believes her. Teri Hansen's ordeal with the law begin when police discover her hiding in a desert gully near the car where her husband's charred, bullet-ridden corpse smolders accusingly. Frightened to the point of incoherency, the police do not find out what happened right away. The bullets point to murder, and since her fingerprints are on the gun... Teri swears she didn't kill him, and attorney Ross Bishop takes the case. The tragic details of her story unfold by flashback and begin with her unhappy marriage to Allen, a paranoid and jealous man. Allen proves a lousy lover and Teri seeks solace in the arms of others, something that only makes matters worse. A pregnancy and her decision to abort the baby escalate matters into the violence that led her to jail. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mary McDonnell, Randy Quaid, (more)
This sharp drama is about the trials and tribulations of a young woman defeated by her past, yet tempted to overcome it through a meaningful relationship. Cassie (Rosanna Arquette) works as a waitress in a southwestern town. Not that long ago, she stabbed her lover (and the father of her baby) in public, and even though he recovered, she did not. The most immediate result of her action is that she gave away her baby, and the next, more severe result is that she lost all of her self-respect. Now she takes care of her mother and younger, offensive brother and also dallies on and off with her ex-lover -- who is married. Then Riley (Eric Roberts) comes into town for awhile with a theatrical troupe and he falls for Cassie. He is only in town for a short period of time and that may or may not be enough to convince Cassie to leave with him when he goes. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rosanna Arquette, Eric Roberts, (more)
- 1981
Director Evelyn Purcell has put together a documentary on one week in the life of sororities on the campus of the University of Mississippi - the week of recruitment called "rush," a ritual that would be reminiscent of tribal behavior if most tribes were at a sorority level. Unlike the brutality of male initiations into their fraternal organizations, the women at Ole Miss are satisfied with a few incantations and odd-sounding rites - at least to the outside observer. The sororities here are courting white, upwardly mobile women while the rushees whose credentials are not 24 carat, bite their well-manicured nails in anxiety over acceptance. If a woman does not make it into a sorority, it not only means that she will be an outsider to the elite on campus, it may also mean she will not have the right connections to get set up in a high-paying, prestige job when she graduates, or to get into the "right" graduate school. So the anxiety level is high as the camera follows the performances, the antics, and the conversations that dominate rush week - and viewers can marvel at what tuition is paying for these days. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
Jonathan Demme's breakthrough movie featured the shaggy energy and affection for marginal American eccentrics that marked his earlier Citizens Band (1977) and such later films as Something Wild (1986) and Married to the Mob (1988). Melvin Dummar (Paul LeMat) is a barely-getting-by Nevada milkman. One day in the early 1970s, while driving down a lonely highway, Melvin picks up a shaggy, bearded bum (Jason Robards Jr.) and offers him a ride into town. Melvin gives the bum a quarter at the end of the ride, and that, so far as Melvin is concerned, is that. The story goes off on a new tangent, involving the on-and-off marriage between Dummar and his contest-happy wife Lynda (Mary Steenburgen). During one of the multitude of financial crises endured by the Dummars, Melvin discovers that the tramp he picked up was none other than billionaire Howard Hughes -- and when Hughes dies, Melvin inherits $150 million. The movie's wide acclaim included Oscars for Steenburgen and Goldman's script and New York Film Critics Awards in almost all major categories, including Best Picture and awards for Demme, Goldman, Steenburgen, and Robards. Demme would gain even greater attention in the 1990s as the director of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Philadelphia (1993). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Le Mat, Jason Robards, Jr., (more)
- 1976
- R
Peter Fonda here gives a studied performance of a man alone against the odds. When he discovers that members of his family are going to be killed because they are standing in the way of a corporate master plan which involves their land, and the local sheriff seems unconcerned about the threat, he must take care of the matter himself. ~ Tana Hobart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Fonda, Lynn Lowry, (more)
Cloris Leachman stars as Melba, a woman with whom violence is a way of life, in Jonathan Demme's high-pitched "B"-movie Crazy Mama. The film spans three decades in the violent life of Melba, beginning in Jerusalem, Arkansas in 1932, when law enforcers kill her father (Clint Kimbrough), turning her mother Sheba (Ann Sothern) into a bitter widow. Mother and daughter take off to Long Beach, California, and the time jumps to 1958, when the two are thrown out of their beauty salon for non-payment of back rent. Melba now has an attractive (and pregnant) teenage daughter Cheryl (Linda Purl). The three generations take to the road, stealing cars and creating general mayhem across the United States, robbing a motorcycle racetrack box office and a bank. But in 1959, Melba and Cheryl are picked up again, running a Miami Beach snack bar, their lives wasted in free-living terror. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cloris Leachman, Stuart Whitman, (more)
Considered the quintessential "girls in prison" flick of the 1970s, novice director Jonathan Demme's Caged Heat is set in a hellish American woman's penitentiary run by vicious, wheelchair-bound Barbara Steele. Statuesque convict Erica Gavin is forced to undergo horrible (but legal) tortures when she is falsely accused of trying to escape. Gavin and fellow con Juanita Brown decide to make a real break, but return to prison to rescue a friend who is about to be lobotomized by the sadistic prison doctor. Then they stage a robbery, only to find a group of male robbers at the bank ahead of them. A final shootout in the prison yards brings the film to a bloody climax. Caged Heat was also released under the title Renegade Girls. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
