Herbert Ross Movies

Including such songs as "Broadway Baby," "I'm Still Here," "The Ladies Who Lunch," and "Losing My Mind," this video features a filming of the well-known Stephen Sondheim musical as it was performed at New York's Lincoln Center in 1985. ~ Iotis Erlewine, Rovi

British filmmaker Peter Yates directs singer Cliff Richard in the starring role in this early 1960s pop music romp. Richard plays Don, a mechanic who, with three friends, is preparing to launch an offbeat European continental travel service using an old London double-decker bus. On a test run, they collide with a car occupied by a group of female rock musicians, demolishing it -- so they offer to give the girls a ride to Athens. They also pick up an American pop singer, Barbara (Lauri Peters), who is posing as a boy to hide from her press agent and mother, who refuse to allow her a vacation from a demanding tour schedule. Don and Barbara fall in love, but Barbara's mother accuses him of abducting her, and the bus and the music roll on to Greece after a series of comic misadventures. The cast includes the real rock group The Shadows. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

In 1943, Oscar Hammerstein Jr. took Georges Bizet's opera Carmen, rewrote the lyrics, changed the characters from 19th century Spaniards to World War II-era African-Americans, switched the locale to a Southern military base, and the result was Carmen Jones. Dorothy Dandridge stars as Carmen Jones, tempestuous employee of a parachute factory. Harry Belafonte plays Joe (originally José), a young military officer engaged to marry virginal Cindy Lou (Olga James). When Carmen gets into a fight with another girl, she is placed under arrest and put in Joe's charge. Succumbing to her attractiveness, Joe accompanies Carmen to her old neighborhood, where, after killing a sergeant sent to retrieve him, he deserts the army. Carmen tries to be faithful, but fortune-telling Frankie (Pearl Bailey) warns her that she and her soldier are doomed. Enter Joe Adams in the role of boxer Husky Miller (a play on Carmen's bullfighter Escamillo), who sweeps Carmen off her feet, ultimately with tragic consequences. Alhough both Dorothy Dandridge and Harry Belafonte were singers, their opera voices were dubbed in by LeVern Hutcherson and Marilyn Horne. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

John Cusack and James Spader play against type in Kevin Wade's morality play, directed by Herbert Ross. Spader plays Tim Gerrity, a well-heeled WASP blueblood, who has dedicated his life to justice and public service. Engaged to Diana Stiles (Imogene Stubbs), the daughter of a powerful senator (Richard Widmark), Tim seems to have a rosy future ahead of him. Enter Peter Burton (John Cusack), Peter's working-class roommate at the University of Virginia. Peter, a ravenous and devouring go-getter, is out to climb the political ladder at any cost. He sees Tim and latches onto him. Their friendship blooms at the university and continues afterwards, with the weak-willed Tim constantly deferring to the antagonistic and aggressive Peter. But they finally come to blows on skis when Tim finds out that Peter has bedded Diana, who has decided to drop Tim for his lack of ambition. When Peter blackmails Senator Stiles to secure a House seat, Tim rouses himself from his lethargy to fight Peter politically. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The deeper, broader issues behind the rise and fall of one of the world's greatest ballet dancers and choreographers, Vaslav Nijinksy (1888-1950), is not at the fulcrum of this two-hour British biographical drama. Director Herbert Ross and screenwriter Hugh Wheeler base the film on Nijinsky's diaries and his wife's book Nijinsky but what they portray are the years between 1912-1913 and Nijinsky's affair with Sergei Diaghliev, his mentor and the impresario and founder of Ballets Russes. With the life of the great man (played by dancer George de la Pena) explained via the dominant, impossible personality of Diaghliev and the love of his wife (Leslie Browne), there is no room for larger questions. The business and politics and especially the homosexuality that are involved with the art of ballet are also given primary focus. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

In the comedic farce Soapdish, the behind-the-scenes lives of several soap opera actors are just as melodramatic as those of their television counterparts. Sally Field stars as Celeste Talbert, the star of a declining TV show. To make matters worse, Talbert's career is thrown into turmoil when her rival, Montana Moorehead (Cathy Moriarty), tries to persuade producer David Barnes (Robert Downey Jr.) to write Talbert off the show. Smitten by Moorehead, Barnes comes up with a scheme to get Talbert off the show by hiring her niece Lori (Elisabeth Shue) and then Jeffrey (Kevin Kline), an old flame and cast member who was written out of the show 20 years prior. Soon, mayhem rules on the set as the cast and crew tangle, culminating in a special episode, broadcast live. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Released at the height of his popularity on Family Ties and in the wake of Back to the Future and Teen Wolf, Michael J. Fox stars in this "country boy in the big city" comedy, directed by Herbert Ross. After making the move from Kansas to New York City, Brantley Foster (Fox) secures a job in the mailroom at his uncle's large corporation. Doffing any plans of working his way up the corporate ladder the old fashioned way, Brantley begins impersonating an executive to impress a high-ranking female co-worker, played by Helen Slater. Once his oversexed aunt enters the mix, Brantley finds himself juggling two identities, two jobs, and two women. ~ Matthew Tobey, Rovi

Choreographer and filmmaker Herbert Ross directs the romantic backstage drama The Dancers, which features a production of Giselle by the American Ballet Theatre. Mikhail Baryshnikov stars as macho lead dancer Tony Sergoyev, the director of a ballet company beginning a production of Giselle in southern Italy. Tony has been involved with several of the dancers in his troupe, but has recently become close to Contessa (Mariangela Melato). When American teenager Lisa (Julia Kent) arrives, he becomes attracted to her during rehearsals. The conclusion involves the final production, with Tony in the role of Albrecht. Tony's other lover, Francesca (Alessandra Ferri), plays the role of Giselle, while cynical Nadine (Leslie Browne) plays the role of the Queen of the Wilis. ~ Andrea LeVasseur, Rovi

In this lively adolescent-oriented musical, a city kid attempts to adapt to life in an ultra-conservative backwater Midwestern town. Once there, he ends up leading the repressed teenagers into a rebellion against the town fathers, who have outlawed rock & roll and dancing. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Neil Simon based his screenplay for I Ought to Be in Pictures on one of his more serious theatrical pieces. Walter Matthau is top-billed as Herbert Tucker, a struggling screenwriter who suddenly finds his 19-year-old daughter, Libby(Dinah Manoff), on his Hollywood doorstep. Having deserted his family years earlier, Herbert isn't keen on having his daughter around to cramp his lifestyle, which at this point consists of drinking his meals and telling lies to his faithful girlfriend, Stephanie (Ann-Margret). Libby takes it upon herself to put Herbert's life in order. There are plenty of angry outbursts and recriminations between father and daughter before the tearful, upbeat conclusion. Incidentally, Dinah Manoff is the daughter of actress Lee Grant, who'd previously co-starred with Walter Matthau in Neil Simon's Plaza Suite -- which, like I Ought to be in Pictures, was directed by Herbert Ross. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

One of a cycle of '70s post-Women's Liberation "women's pictures," Herbert Ross's drama uses the ballet world to examine the conflict between family and career. Former dance colleagues Deedee (Shirley MacLaine) and Emma (Anne Bancroft) are reunited when Emma's New York ballet company stops in Oklahoma City for a performance. Having dropped her career for marriage and motherhood, Deedee envies prima ballerina Emma's limelight life; aging Emma, realizing that her days as a star are numbered, wishes that she had the fulfillment of a family like Deedee's. Tensions simmer when Deedee's talented teenage daughter, Emilia (Leslie Browne), moves to New York to join Emma's company. As Emma maternally bonds with Emilia, and Emilia falls in love with womanizing dancer Yuri (Mikhail Baryshnikov), Deedee feels that she's losing her place even as a mother. After Emilia's triumphant debut, Deedee's and Emma's resentments boil over into an all-out catfight that ends when they realize they can unite in happiness for Emilia's future. Splitting the desires to nest and to work between two characters, Ross and writer Arthur Laurents reveal the difficulty faced by women in a world of expanding options. As in Michael Powell's and Emeric Pressburger's seminal ballet film The Red Shoes (1948), dancing and a personal life don't mix, even as the films display ballet's seductive power here in the gracefully integrated numbers by dance stars Browne and Baryshnikov. Despite reservations about its melodramatic aspects, The Turning Point earned box-office success and eleven Oscar nominations (but no wins). Even if its wife/work struggle seems a bit old-fashioned, Deedee's and Emma's final bond suggests that the next generation may not have the same regrets. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Nicholas Meyer based his screenplay for the "retro" Sherlock Holmes adventure The Seven Percent Solution on his own best-selling novel. As any Baker Street Irregular will tell you, the title refers to the dosage of cocaine taken by Sherlock Holmes (Nicol Williamson). The Great Detective's friend and chronicler Doctor Watson (Robert Duvall), concerned that Holmes' drug dependency is getting out of hand, suggests a cure under the auspices of Viennese psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud (top-billed Alan Arkin). While undergoing treatment, Holmes comes to the realization that his archival Professor Moriarty (Laurence Olivier) is not the Napoleon of Crime, but instead a somewhat pathetic philanderer. Not yet completely cured, Holmes recharges his deductive batteries by undertaking a tricky conspiracy case involving another ex-addict, beautiful actress Lola Devereaux (Vanessa Redgrave). The traditional Holmesian sleuthing and split-second rescues of the film's second half are not as innovative as the Holmes-Freud scenes at the beginning of The Seven Percent Solution, but they provide this largely cerebral effort with a rousing climax. A success with both critics and filmgoers, The Seven Percent Solution opened the floodgates for subsequent TV and movie "reprises" of Conan Doyle's immortal literary figure. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Funny Lady, the follow-up to the 1968 Funny Girl which made a movie star of Barbra Streisand, picks up the character of Fanny Brice in the 1930s. Although she is a tremendously famous Broadway star, she has suffered from the stock market crash and needs to boost her finances. Even Ziegfeld, who soon will pass away, is having a hard time raising money for a show. Into this scene bursts brash young Billy Rose (James Caan), an egotistical lyricist with unrestrained ambition. He cajoles and charms Fanny into linking up with him, convincing him that he can produce a revue that will showcase her to their mutual advantage. Out of town, the show is an unmitigated disaster, and Fanny uses her professional know-how to whip the show into shape. It arrives in New York a hit -- and Fanny and Billy arrive an item. Both of their careers blossom, but even though they marry, their relationship suffers. Fanny still carries a torch for first husband Nick (Omar Sharif), and Billy, partially because of insecurities caused by Fanny's feelings for Nick, has a roving eye. In California working on a lucrative radio show, Fanny and Nick connect again -- and Fanny realizes that she is finally over him. Thrilled, she flies to Cleveland, where Billy is working on a new show, ready to commit herself totally to him -- only to find him in bed with another woman. The two part, but years later they meet again to discuss a new show, and it's clear that the chemistry between them is still there. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi