Both of her children with Shaw had become involved with hard drugs, and Deidre became briefly involved with the Manson Family. Offscreen, however, Lansbury's personal life had taken on a darker tone. Lansbury recreated the role for a 1982 PBS broadcast of the production, which brought her a Cable ACE award and an Emmy nomination. Lovett, daffy co-conspirator to a ghoulish plan of revenge in Stephen Sondheim's gory blockbuster "Sweeney Todd" (1979). Back on Broadway, she landed a third Tony for her performance as the determined Mama Rose in the revival of "Gypsy" (1974) and as Mrs. She also began her long association with mysteries with a flamboyant turn as a besotted romance novelist who becomes involved in a murder on board an Egyptian boat cruise in "Death on the Nile" (1979), which brought her a National Board of Review award and a BAFTA nomination. She earned a Golden Globe nomination as a European noblewoman who runs afoul of a scheming butler in the cult comedy "Something For Everyone" and charmed children as a benevolent witch who tries to use magic to aid the Allies in World War II in Disney's "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" (1971). For the next four years, Lansbury kept away from film and television to concentrate on her stage career, which by 1969, included "Dear World," a musical version of "The Madwoman of Chaillot" which, despite savage reviews from critics and an abbreviated Broadway run, won Lansbury her second Tony.īy 1970, Lansbury, now in her forties, began an audience-pleasing run of film roles that tapped her boundless energy and flair for eccentric comedy. The show ran for 1,500 performances and earned her a Tony for her memorable turn. Lansbury made her Broadway musical debut in 1964 in the short-lived "Anyone Can Whistle," but two years later, she scored her first major musical success with "Mame" (1969) as the eccentric and beloved Auntie Mame. Laurence Harvey, who was just three years Lansbury's junior, in Frankenheimer's gripping "The Manchurian Candidate," which earned her a third Oscar nomination. Lansbury's willingness to play older women, in many cases, she was less than five years older than her on-screen sons, led to her casting as the malevolent mother of brainwashed ex-G.I. But, being taunted by Sally Kirkland's character, Charlene, the motel manager, is worth watching the movie.Film continued to yield steady work for her, though the quality of the parts often varied greatly: "The Dark at the Top of the Stars" (1960), as the alleged town floozy whose friendship with married Robert Preston threatens to destroy his reputation, and "All Fall Down" (1962) as Warren Beatty's mother for John Frankenheimer were highlights, while "Blue Hawaii" (1962), as Elvis Presley's mother, and the tabloid biopic "Harlow" (1965), as 1930s platinum blonde star Jean Harlow's mother, was engaging fluff. It is an entertaining thriller with an interesting plot. Instead, as fate would have it, his plan is foiled when Paul slips in the boat as he's throwing death props out of the boat, falls backwards, severely injures his head & shows up at the motel where Charlene, the manager who's got a fanatical crush on him, finds him minus his memory. He'll stage his death in the lake while he's supposed to be in his row boat fishing then, skip town with Veronica. However, Paul's childhood experience with his friend's d eath & disappearance is the likely event that gives him another idea. They meet routinely in a motel managed by Charlene Hunt (Sally Kirkland), who has a strange & secret crush on Paul.īecause he's so miserable in his marriage & doesn't like his stepson, he's more easily pressured by Veronica to get divorced & be with her instead. Paul's also having an affair with his stepson's, Edgar's, school teacher, Veronica Dow (Dara Tomanovich). Paul is haunted by flashbacks to that traumatizing event. When Paul Keller was a youth, one of his playmates drowned in a nearby lake where his body was never found. Together they live unhappily at each other's throats in a small town. Minister Paul Keller (Nicholas Walker) is married to a widow, Martha Keller (Ally Sheedy), who has a son, Edgar Keller (Vincent Berry). OH WHAT A TANGLED WEB WE WEAVE WHEN WE PLAN TO DECEIVE
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