AGNES OF GOD

Meg Tilly and Jane Fonda

AGNES OF GOD (1985). Director: Norman Jewison. 

A young nun, Sister Agnes (Meg Tilly), is arrested for manslaughter when her strangled baby is found in a waste basket at the convent. Dr. Martha Livingstone (Jane Fonda), a psychiatrist, is brought in to assess the nun's mental condition. She has some problems in this due to the nun's reticence in talking about or even acknowledging her pregnancy, and the Mother Superior, Miriam (Anne Bancroft). has objections as well. Martha is a lapsed Catholic and Miriam accuses her of hating the Church. Martha decides to do some investigating and find out who the father of the baby is, and if somebody else strangled the infant. She discovers there's a secret exit from -- and entrance into -- the convent.

Anne Bancroft and Jane Fonda

The film version of Agnes of God, which was based on a stage play by John Pielmeier (who also wrote the screenplay) was packaged in movie houses as a murder mystery. If viewers, especially non-Catholic and non-religious viewers, knew it was actually a kind of dopey exploration of faith and the immaculate conception, there probably would have been even less of them in the theater. The film has a visual gloss to it due to Sven Nykvist's cinematography, some nice music by Georges Delarue, and the acting from the three leads can not be faulted, yet ... Most sensible viewers will feel that Sister Agnes definitely needs a psychiatrist! This is a study of severe mental illness masquerading as an examination of faith.

Verdict: Beatific looks can't help put this one over. **.  

THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL

THE TRIP TO BOUNTIFUL (1985). Director: Peter Masterson. 

A lovely, low-key movie and character study about an elderly woman, Carrie Watts (Geraldine Page, who won and deserved an Oscar), who desperately wants to go back to her childhood home for at least one last look. Carrie lives with her son, Ludie (John Heard) and daughter-in-law Jessie Mae (Carlin Glynn) in a small home and sometimes there is a definite strain. Based on Horton Foote's play (he also wrote the screenplay), the mood piece is moving because it invokes feelings of lost youth, distant times of (alleged) happiness, past regrets and wasted chances, and all the things that most human beings feel as they grow older. Still, the film primarily works because of Page's superb performance. She makes a woman that many of us would find quite tiresome in real life (what with her hymns and dumb religious assertions) perhaps more interesting than she deserves to be. Still she comes off as a very real person. Heard and Glynn are also quite good. Rebecca De Mornay and Richard Bradford are also notable as a fellow bus passenger and the local sheriff, respectively. One could quibble about certain things, but this is all about mood. 

Verdict. Quietly touching. ***.

THE EXECUTION

Loretta Swit, Sandy Dennis, Valerie Harper

THE EXECUTION (1985 telefilm). Director: Paul Wendkos.

In San Diego in 1970, several women who were survivors of the Birkenau concentration camp and who somehow met up with each other years later, get together each week to play mah jongg. Elsa (Sandy Dennis) spots a restaurant owner named Walter Grauman (Rip Torn of Sweet Bird of Youth) on a TV ad and is afraid that he may actually be Wilheim Gehbert, who raped and brutalized the women at Birkenau and was responsible for several thousand deaths. Marysia (Loretta Swit) agrees to find out if Walter has a certain scar on his back, and winds up sleeping with him when he doesn't. However, she is in for a rude awakening the next morning. The ladies decide that one of them will secretly murder Grauman, but things get complicated when an innocent man is arrested for the crime ...

Rip Torn with Loretta Swit

The Execution has an excellent premise but in its second half it becomes overly complicated, ignores points of law, and is almost sunk by its contrivances; even a final twist doesn't quite make up for the script deficiencies.  In fact, it becomes ridiculous at times. Loretta Swit, however, gives an outstanding performance, giving 150% to the role. The other ladies -- including Valerie Harper, Barbara Barrie and Jessica Walter  -- are good but a notch below Swit. Dennis indulges in her usual quirky all-tics-and-mannerisms acting style and is actually not that compelling. Of the male actors, Torn gives a good if second-rate performance, although Alan Miller and Peter White are fine as two of the spouses. Paul Wendkos also directed theatrical films such as The Burglar.

Verdict: No one expected Judgment at Nuremberg, but a film with this premise should have been much, much, more powerful -- Swit can not be faulted, however. **3/4. 

INTO THIN AIR (1985)

Ellen Burstyn

INTO THIN AIR (1985 telefilm). Director: Roger Young.

Brian Walker (Tate Donovan of Nancy Drew) bids his family good-bye to go to a writer's retreat. When days go by without a word from Brian, his mother Joan (Ellen Burstyn of (Same Time, Next Year), brother Stephen (Sam Robards), and father Larry (Nicholas Pryor) -- who apparently lives apart from the others -- begin to worry and start to search for him. Joan is told by police that he can't be considered a missing person until thirty days go by, but even when the deadline passes they don't put his name in the system. Alarmed at police disinterest, Joan contacts a private eye named Jim Conway (Robert Prosky), whom she convinces to search for her son. Just when things get hopeless, Conway gets a lead, a lead that the FBI could have also uncovered if they had just been more concerned and diligent ...

Sam Robards and Nicholas Pryor

Into Thin Air is based on a true story and it is both suspenseful and very well-acted by all. This includes Patricia Smith, who in her few short scenes etches a memorable portrait of Conway's wife, Olga, and John Dennis Johnston as the sleazy, if sexy, Earl Pike. Unlike other fact-based true crime telefilms, Into Thin Air also works as well as it does because it is well-directed by Roger Young. It all builds to a satisfying but heartbreaking conclusion. Sam Robards is the son of Jason Robards Jr. and Lauren Bacall. Ron Howard was one of the executive producers. (As this film is told from the frustrated family's pov we don't really know if the authorities were really as disinterested or as inept as portrayed.)

Verdict: Absorbing, well-done made-for-TV crime drama. ***.

JANE WYMAN: A BIOGRAPHY

JANE WYMAN: A BIOGRAPHY. Joe Morella and Edward Z. Epstein. Delacorte; 1985.

Jane Wyman had a distinguished career with one Oscar win, several nominations, and Emmy awards for her work on the TV series Falcon Crest. It has been suggested that the fact that her ex-husband Ronald Reagan became president had a lot to do with her late-in-life success -- even this book makes that point -- but the book also makes clear that Wyman had quite a body of work and a long list of achievements that would have made her a major Hollywood figure no matter whom she was married to.

This book goes on a bit too much about Reagan, which is not necessary considering the life and career enjoyed by Wyman. But it also looks at Wyman's other marriages, her toiling as a contract player in numerous forgettable movies where she was the wise-crackng blonde, then her emergence as a serious player in such films as Johnny Belinda, Miracle in the Rain, The Blue Veil, All That Heaven Allows and others. Many were surprised that Wyman, who continued making (mostly minor) movies, fled to television for her own anthology series a la Loretta Young, when her movie career was going much, much better than Young's. Wyman, however, felt that her type of picture was on its way out. The series, Jane Wyman Theatre, lasted several seasons.

Wyman had two children via Reagan, Maureen and Michael (who was adopted), upon whom Wyman would use a riding crop when he misbehaved, although he apparently never held it against her. Wyman's show Falcon Crest, in which she was excellent as the scheming Angela Channing, lasted for nearly a decade. Her last credit was on an episode of Dr. Quinn, Medicine Woman. A conservative Republican like her ex-husband (whom she probably divorced because she found his constant yakking about politics boring beyond belief), Wyman refused to play "ax murderers or lesbians" (!) when she was offered scripts with same.  Wyman was a private woman, and the book has no major interviews with insiders who knew her well. Still, it manages to be a good read.

Verdict: Solid if sometimes superficial study of a very talented movie star. ***. 

JACK LEMMON

JACK LEMMON. Michael Freedland. St. Martin's; 1985.

This overview of Lemmon's life and career is a fast read which gives most of the facts and highlights without digging too deeply, but it does manage to get across Lemmon's character, his devotion to acting, and his approach to certain challenging roles, such as in Some Like It Hot and Days of Wine and Roses. The book briefly discusses his first marriage, then his relationship with actress Felecia Farr, which led into his second, long-lasting marriage which was not without its problems, although this book downplays them considerably. His film work is certainly not ignored, and the book explores his working and friendly relationships with director Billy Wilder and actor Walter Matthau, with whom he collaborated numerous times. Along the way Lemmon did television and stage work, but his most frequent appearances were in films. He appeared in such early works as Betty Grable's penultimate film Three for the Show, the dreadful It Should Happen to You, and the vastly over-rated The Apartment. Frankly Lemmon was guilty of shameless mugging in some of his films, such as Luv, but he developed into a fine dramatic actor in such movies as The China Syndrome, Missing and Save the Tiger, for which he won a Best Actor Oscar (he had won a supporting Oscar for Mr. Roberts). Published in 1985, this book doesn't go into his later major triumphs in Glengarry Glen Ross and in the stage and TV adaptations of Long Day's Journey Into Night.

Verdict: A nice book on Jack Lemmon, but hardly the last word. ***.  

SILVER BULLET

SILVER BULLET (aka Stephen King's Silver Bullet/1985). Director: Daniel Attias.

In the small town of Tarkers Mills, a "maniac" is on the loose, targeting young and old, tearing people literally to pieces. Young Marty (Corey Haim), who is in a wheelchair, inadvertently discovers the identity of the person who can transform into a werewolf, and has to do what he can to protect himself and his family, including his sister, Jane (Megan Follows) and fairly obnoxious Uncle Red (Gary Busey of The Firm). With this premise there's no reason why Silver Bullet shouldn't have emerged as an edge-of-your-seat terrifying suspense film and mystery, but there's way too much of the comparatively boring kid and his family, minimizing the tension despite a couple of exciting and scary sequences. Stephen King's screenplay, based on his book "Cycle of the Werewolf," features characters that often act stupidly, as well as moments of sheer illogic. Busey's irritating presence is no help, although there are good performances in the film: Haim is notable as the kid; Everett McGill makes a mild impression as the town's minister; Terry O'Quinn [Black Widow] is fine as the sheriff; but Kent Broadhurst really scores as the father of a murdered boy -- his reaction when he finds his son's body (the pieces of which which are not shown) is very powerfully played. Lawrence Tierney [Bodyguard] has a small role as a bartender who meets a grim end. Carlo Rambaldi's creature FX are mostly first-rate.

Verdict: So-so werewolf movie with some good scenes and interesting elements. **1/2.

PERRY MASON RETURNS

Della (Hale) is comforted by Perry (Burr)

PERRY MASON RETURNS (1985). Director: Ron Satlof.

Twenty years after Perry Mason went off the air, Raymond Burr returned as the character in what would turn out to be the first of many telefilms. Della Street (Barbara Hale) is now a private secretary to a difficult wealthy man named Gordon (Patrick O'Neal). In what would become a typical development in these movies, Gordon is killed by a hit man (dressed as a woman) in order to frame Della, who goes on trial for murder with Perry as her defense lawyer. Mason, who is now a judge, quits the bench to come to Della's rescue. The many suspects include members of the dead man's family as well as assorted business rivals and personal enemies. There are good performances from Kerrie Keane [Incubus], Holland Taylor, Richard Anderson, James Kidnie, and William Katt [Carrie], Barbara Hale's real life son who plays the son of investigator Paul Drake. Frankly, there's a little too much of Drake Jr. running around hither and thither, probably to pad the running time, but this still emerges as an entertaining TV flick.

Verdict: It's good to have Perry back. ***.

DEADLY INTENTIONS

Michael Biehn and Madolyn Smith Osborne

DEADLY INTENTIONS (1985 telefilm/mini-series). Director: Noel Black.

Charles Raynor (Michael Biehn) is an aspiring doctor who boards with the Livanos family and has a rather neurotic adoptive mother (Cloris Leachman). Charles falls in love with Katherine Livanos (Madolyn Smith Osborne) and the two move to a new town where he gets a job at a hospital. Katherine discovers that her new husband is rather peculiar, giving her lists of things to do each day, treating her like a child, and deliberately frightening her as he takes photos of her distress. When he gives her medicine for their baby boy, and Katherine discovers from a pharmacist (Robert Clarke in a bit) that the stuff could have killed the child, she makes up her mind to get out. This leads to an incredibly suspenseful and scary sequence that ends part one. Part two, while still entertaining, and which details events that occurred after the Raynor's divorce and Charles' plot to murder his wife, should have been compacted to about half an hour. In any case Deadly Intentions, based on a true crime book written by the prosecutor in the attempted murder trial, is quite absorbing, and features two terrific lead performances. With his crazy eyes one could suggest that Biehn [Aliens] is halfway there with his part, but he really does give an outstanding and marvelously intense performance that deserved an Emmy (I don't think he was even nominated). Cloris Leachman, Kevin McCarthy as a defense lawyer, and Cliff De Young [Dr. Giggles] as the prosecutor are also notable. Noel Black also directed the theatrical film Pretty Poison. Followed by Deadly Intentions ... Again?

Verdict: Watch out for those eyes. ***.

THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO

Jeff Daniels and Mia Farrow

THE PURPLE ROSE OF CAIRO (1985). Writer/director: Woody Allen.

"In New Jersey, anything can happen."

In a dreary small town in 1935, Cecelia (Mia Farrow) has an unhappy marriage with the often out-of-work Monk (Danny Aiello of City Hall). Cecelia seeks refuge in the movies, where she especially loves a film called The Purple Rose of Cairo, and the lead character, Tom Baxter, played by actor Gil Shepherd (Jeff Daniels). In an astonishing turn of events, "Tom Baxter" walks right off the screen and into the real world, leaving the other actors/characters in the movie standing around wringing their hands. "How many times is a man so taken with a woman that he leaves the movie just to meet her," muses Tom. Just as Cecelia, who begins a romance with the charming Tom, is trying to make sense of all this, the real Gil Shepherd, who has heard what's happened, shows up in town ... This movie and its look at how influential movies can be on real life and the necessary escape they offer may not work for everyone, but I found it charming, absorbing, and ultimately moving. The actors offer sensitive and dead-on portrayals. Van Johnson, Edward Herrmann, Zoe Cladwell, and Milo O'Shea, among others, appear in the film-within-a-film.

Verdict: Not perfect perhaps, but it remains one of Allen's most likable movies. ***.

QUEEN OF ICE, QUEEN OF SHADOWS: THE UNSUSPECTED LIFE OF SONJA HENIE

QUEEN OF ICE, QUEEN OF SHADOWS. The Unsuspected Life of SONJA HENIE. Raymond Strait and Leif Henie. Stein and Day; 1985.

You wouldn't think that a book on the milk-wholesome, Norwegian skating actress Sonja Henie would be so interesting, but the authors have done a thorough job of digging into the often contradictory life of Ms. Henie. Sonja became famous as a skating champion at the Olympics, then made up her mind that she would become an actress, a star, even though her talent for being a thespian didn't match her skill on the ice. This book covers her early days, her career triumphs as a skater, including various competitions and ice shows that she put on across the U.S. and the world. Sonja could be as generous as she was petty at times, and her chief problem seems to be that she was adored too much at too early an age, making her so self-absorbed as to appear monstrous at times. Much of the information in the book comes from her estranged brother, so it must be taken with a grain of salt. It is likely that Sonja was no different from a lot of other egocentric movie stars surrounded by admiring -- and grasping -- sycophants. Sonja was friendly with an admiring Adolph Hitler in pre-WW2 days, but there is no indication that she was close to him or supported his horrendous policies, although apparently she never made any public statements denouncing him, either. To Henie, her career was everything and nothing much else ever mattered. While Henie was not without appeal, her lack of acting skills were on display in such films as Thin Ice and It's a Pleasure. NOTE: A more recent edition of this book is also available.

Verdict: Fascinating look at a self-absorbed skater and unlikely movie star. ***1/2.

RED: THE TEMPESTUOUS LIFE OF SUSAN HAYWARD

RED: THE TEMPESTUOUS LIFE OF SUSAN HAYWARD. Robert LaGuardia and Gene Arceri. Macmillan; 1985.

Reading this book I was reminded of how grateful I am never to have been continually in the orbit of any self-absorbed and difficult movie star, as Susan Hayward is not someone I would have liked to have known personally. Hayward was a good actress who could be excellent in some roles and merely indifferent in others. According to this very readable biography, Hayward never got over the fact that her family, her mother especially, favored her sister Florence and thought she would become the star. When it didn't work out that way, Florence virtually starved while Hayward made millions and cut off all contact with her. Hayward cast off first husband, actor Jess Barker, when his career didn't reach the same level hers did, but seemed to love second husband Eaton Chalkley, who ran her career (some would suggest right into the ground) and is depicted as a racist, obsessive quasi-Catholic, heavy drinker, and possible closet queen. Hayward was nominated for Oscars several times, and finally won one for I Want to Live! As she got older, she often regretted her film choices, although she did get attention for appearing in Back Street, Where Love Has Gone, and Valley of the Dolls, among others. A funny incident has Hayward being very bitchy with Celeste Holm when the latter was going to replace her in Mame, and Hayward is generally described as being cold and distant with her co-workers. There were people who were devoted to her, however, and she made some friends without ever growing terribly close to anyone. She admitted more than once that she "wasn't a nice person." The authors include many interviews and anecdotes, and describe Hayward's final days -- an awful death due to multiple brain tumors -- in nearly excruciating detail. Hayward will be remembered as a feisty star with charisma, personality, and genuine talent, which the authors clearly have an appreciation of.

Verdict: Graphic, uncompromising look at Susan Hayward. ***1/2.

LAUGHING ON THE OUTSIDE, CRYING ON THE INSIDE Judy Carne

LAUGHING ON THE OUTSIDE, CRYING ON THE INSIDE: The Bittersweet Saga of the Sock-It-To-Me Girl. Judy Carne with Bob Merrill. Rawson Associates; 1985.

Judy Carne had appeared in sitcoms before hitting it "big" -- if that's the word -- in Rowan and Martin's Laugh-In as the "Sock It To Me" girl who was always being doused with water or some other eventually humiliating stunt. Leaving the show, she did theater, hoped to star on a sitcom that didn't pan out, had two very bad marriages, two lesbian relationships that were comparatively wonderful (in fact, it's tempting to suggest that Carne's tragedy was in being bisexual instead of a committed lesbian, because her relationships with women were much better than the ones she had with men. She discarded one woman because the powers-that-be were telling her it would adversely affect her career, which in essence went nowhere anyway.)

Carne was trained to be a ballerina in childhood, but then the ballet is never mentioned again.  Her first marriage was to Burt Reynolds, who began to slap her around on a regular basis when her career was doing better than his. At one point, according to Carne, Reynolds knocked her unconscious when her head hit the mantel and he just ran out and left her there with a concussion. Yet she calls Reynolds the great love of her life -- sick! Carne's second husband was a young gigolo who stole from her, got her arrested because of his drug and other bad habits, and cracked up a car she was in due to his drunk driving, breaking her neck and putting her head in a metal contraption for months. There were problems with Carne's Las Vegas appearances, her tour (which lost money), and despite some good reviews for her show in New York, she got more publicity when a brawl broke out at the tony Persian Room. Burt Reynolds actually had her on as a guest the first time he hosted the Tonight Show  -- she even mentioned the fireplace mantel incident -- and when she desperately needed some money he gave her a grand total of five hundred dollars. Carne became addicted to heroin but was arrested more than once on drug charges after she became clean and sober; these charges were eventually dropped when "heroin" proved to be something else. One disaster and complication after another, with little real work.

Sadly, Carne's story of Show Biz Gone Sour makes for a compelling read. (The book is very well-written by Bob Merrill, whom she doesn't mention in the acknowledgments). Bad marriages, drug addiction, financial woes, battered wife syndrome -- at times the whole thing borders on grotesque black comedy, but it keeps the pages turning. Laughing on the Outside would probably make a terrific movie if it were done with care.

A note on Laugh-In. Even when I was a kid I thought the show was stupid and unfunny and couldn't understand how it became so successful for a time. The painted, bony Carne looked ridiculous, Jo Anne Worley was gross and overbearing, I couldn't stand Alan Sues, and I didn't think much of Henry Gibson's poetry, although I must say the poem he wrote as his introduction to this book is excellent.

Verdict: Often horrifying and harrowing account of one woman's descent into drug and show business purgatory. ***1/2.

UPDATE: Ms. Carne passed away at age seventy-six the very day this review was posted.

MURDER IN SPACE

Michael Ironside questions a suspect

MURDER IN SPACE (1985 telefilm). Director: Steven Hilliard Stern.

An international crew is assembled for several months on board a space lab where political intrigue and mixed-up personal relationships are taking a toll. Things get worse when one of the women, Olga, is found murdered -- and she was two months pregnant, meaning her husband back in the USSR couldn't possibly be the father. Suspects include Guy (Timothy Webber), who's having an affair with Domenica (Alberta Watson), and Kurt (Tom Butler), who's having an affair with David (Scot Denton), and even the captain, Neal Braddock (Michael Ironside of Scanners), who's keeping some secrets. More murders follow, with such people on the ground as Dr. MacAllister (Wilford Brimley) and Alexander Rostov (Martin Balsam) worrying about their respective countries' representatives and more. Murder in Space has an intriguing premise and location, but while it holds the attention the solution isn't that satisfying or believable. The cast is quite good for the most part, although the usually intense Ironside seems bored through most of the movie and gives a boring, uninvolved performance, as does Brimley [The China Syndrome], who doesn't really seem to be an actor. Balsam is excellent, as usual, and Nerene Virgin and Wendy Crewson score, respectively, as Dr. Leigh and David's wife, Irene.

Verdict: Comes very close but ultimately misses despite definite entertainment value. **1/2.

FRIGHT NIGHT

Roddy McDowall as Peter Vincent

FRIGHT NIGHT (1985). Writer/director: Tom Holland.

High school student Charley Brewster (William Ragsdale) becomes convinced that his new next-door neighbor Jerry Dandrige (Chris Sarandon) is a vampire who is preying upon women in the neighborhood, but he has trouble convincing his girlfriend, Amy (Amanda Bearse), let alone the police. When Jerry tells Charley that his days are numbered, the desperate boy appeals to local television celebrity Peter Vincent (Roddy McDowall), who hosts a movie program called "Fright Night" and played a vampire hunter countless times in the cinema. Unfortunately, Vincent has no real skill at killing vampires and is horrified at the whole situation, first thinking Charley is unhinged, and almost becoming unhinged himself when he discovers the lad is telling the truth. When Amy is kidnapped by Jerry, these two unlikely vampire hunters have to gather up their courage to take action ... Fright Night skillfully blends suspense, scares, sensuality and humor in an absorbing and very entertaining movie that features top-notch performances from all of the named principals, as well as good work from Stephen Geoffreys as Charley's friend "Evil" Ed, and Jonathan Stark as Jerry's non-vampire but hardly human helpmate. One clever scene has Amy dancing with Jerry in a disco, glancing in the wall-length mirror, and seeing that she's apparently dancing with herself -- vampires cast no reflection. Excellent special effects throughout as well. Followed by Fright Night Part 2 and remade in 2011; this version was also good but had a lot less charm.

Verdict: Rousing, light-hearted horror thriller. ***.

RE-ANIMATOR

RE-ANIMATOR (1985). Director: Stuart Gordon.

H.P. Lovecraft's "Herbert West, Reanimator," which appeared in several installments during the writer's lifetime, was a zesty and fascinating story about a mad doctor's experiments with reviving the dead, experiments which always led to incredibly horrific and grotesque consequences. The story spanned several decades, and had West operating in different locales, finally winding up in a basement near the Cobb's Hill cemetery in the south end of Boston. West not only "reanimates" bodies, but pieces of bodies. Lurid and pulp-ish in a good sense, it was atypical but highly entertaining.

This film version uses the main character and premise and certain elements from the stories, but is updated and handled like a black comedy to the point where it pretty much turns into a burlesque. Stuart Gordon's direction is uneven, and Richard Band's music is a homage to/rip-off of Herrmann's Psycho theme, but there is some decent acting, especially from Jeffrey Combs as the mad doctor and Barbara Crampton as the dean's daughter. The liveliest scenes have to do with West keeping alive the head of Dr. Hill (David Gale), who is able to control his body even after being beheaded. Some "serious" newspaper critics at the time of the film's release were taken with its combination of yuks and some inventive gore, but one still wishes for a more faithful adaptation of the fascinating and truly horrific source material.

Verdict: Some grisly laughs and energy. **1/2.

THREE PHASES OF EVE: EVE ARDEN

THREE PHASES OF EVE: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Eve Arden. 1985; St. Martin's Press.

One could argue that there are two kinds of actors: those who live primarily for their careers, and those who find more joy and fulfillment in family. Arden is definitely of the latter type. The trouble is that those hoping for an insider's look at radio, TV, movies and theater -- Arden appeared in all of those mediums -- are going to be disappointed. Arden made dozens of movies but you won't find many on-set anecdotes or even a list of films, let alone her comments on most of them. Although her second sitcom, The Eve Arden Show, may have only lasted one season, it did have 26 episodes, but not only won't you find the names of any of the guest-stars, Arden doesn't even list the supporting cast -- the show rates only half a page. Her more successful sitcom, Our Miss Brooks, only gets a few pages -- not even a full chapter, although it was both on radio and television for several years -- and The Mothers-in-Law doesn't fare much better. Arden prints full-length rave reviews for her stint as Auntie Mame on stage, but most of the book is a travelogue detailing the many months she and her husband [actor Brooks West] and their children spent in Italy and other European locations. These chapters are not without interest, and Arden always writes very well, but who cares? You could have more fun looking at photos of your own European travels. The pages looking at a disastrous near-production of Applause in Australia are much more entertaining, as are the early sections where Brooks writes of working with such legends as Fanny Brice and the Marx Brothers, among others. Still, Arden's wit and warmth are on every page, and her obvious adoration for her family is admirable [even if one suspects there's no full disclosure on her marriage], especially when you consider some of the self-absorbed celebrities who barely mention their relatives on the dedication page let alone anywhere else in the manuscript. That being said, you can expect the usual kind of name-dropping in the book, but it never becomes obnoxious.

Verdict: Not what one would hope for, but very well-written. **1/2.

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS 1985

ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS 1985.

In 1985 there was a new color edition of Alfred Hitchcock Presents which used Hitchcock's original introductions -- colorized -- for remakes of some classic episodes, although not always the episode they were originally used for. Later on the program featured some all-new material. The most memorable episodes were do-overs of "An Unlocked Window" [with Annette O'Toole and an excellent Bruce Davison]; "Final Escape" [starring Season Hubley in a lead role sex-switch]; Cornell Woolrich's "4 O'clock"; "Man on the Ledge" with Mark Hammill; and "Pen Pal" with a fine Jean Simmons in the role originally played by Katherine Squire. Many of the new episodes were pretty bad, but there were a few exceptions: "Twist," which had a lot of them in a tale of adultery and murder; "Kadinsky's Vault" with Eli Wallach as a book store owner with a secret; and the diabolical "Final Twist" with Martin Landau as the nasty boss of a fed-up special effects crew. I'm not certain if "The Impatient Patient" [with E. G. Marshall as a dying patient in a war with an overbearing hospital employee]; "Murder Party" [with David McCallum] or "Tragedy Tonight" [a woman's sister has acting exercises that lead to tragedy] were remakes or new material, but all of them were interesting. Some of the remakes were vastly inferior to the originals, such as "The Creeper;" and the all-time worst new episode featured a hapless Patrick Wayne in a dreadful spoof of North by Northwest.

Verdict: Too many unmemorable episodes to make this a classic, but not without interest. **1/2.

A VIEW TO A KILL

A VIEW TO A KILL (1985) Director: John Glen.

Roger Moore's final Bond film plays better on TV than it did in the movies; on the small screen its low-key (as opposed to epic or grandiose) quality can be better appreciated. Christopher Walken is an Americanized ex-KGB agent who wants to dominate the computer market by manipulating [via flooding] the faults near Silicon Valley. Walken is fine as the psychotic villain, although the scene with him gleefully machine-gunning the mine workers is a bit over the top. While the movie is more serious than other Moore-Bond adventures, there is a cartoonish early scene on the Eiffel Tower, and late in the movie some San Francisco men in blue chase Bond in a long and inappropriate scene like something out of the Keystone Kops. A deadly steeplechase race isn't bad, however, nor is the flooding of the mine and the subsequent draining of the lake above. The finale involving a dirigible and the Golden Gate Bridge is a knock-out. Patrick Macnee is very appealing as Bond's associate, as is pretty Tanya Roberts as a normal girl caught up in the nasty business. Grace Jones is also fine as Walken's exotic bodyguard and hit woman.

Verdict: While the picture is entertaining and holds the attention, it just isn't special enough to be a classic. **1/2.