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It barely got renewed for a second season. Its ratings in the first season were at the bare minimum for a show to get considered for renewal - and the show had the benefit of going up against very weak competition ("Manhunter" on CBS and "Get Christie Love" on ABC). The decision was made to replace the show with a George Peppard medical drama "Doctors Hospital", but "Petrocelli" got a last-minute renewal solely because NBC couldn't find a variety show that they liked. The ratings tanked in the second season going up against "Starsky and Hutch".
It was also far more expensive than a TV movie of the era. It had a budget of $1.7 million, while the typical 2 hour TV movie of the day cost $400,000 (and the 90 minute ABC Movies of the Week typically cost $350,000).
Death Penalty - six counts of first-degree murder with the motive of financial gain (not a chance she could claim an insanity defense), plus two counts of attempted murder.
I think he started wearing it mainly because he was tired of everyone saying he looked like Marlon Brando
Deneuve was pretty wooden acting in English - no knock on her - try to imagine an American or British actor trying to act in French.
Agreed - it was the fourth highest grossing film of 1961, but I think that was due in great part to the fact that epic films were at their peak of popularity, and it was Heston's follow up to "Ben-Hur". Had this film been released a few years later, it might very well have met the fate of Samuel Bronston's subsequent epics like "55 Days at Peking" or "The Fall of the Roman Empire".
It was the fourth highest grossing film of 1961, so pretty much anyone who was of movie-going age in '61 would know of the movie even if they didn't see it.
"Ben-Hur" is a far better film - a genuine classic - very emotionally moving. I've seen "El Cid" once and have no desire to ever watch it again - it's a very expensive epic with very impressive visuals, but it's just not very memorable or emotionally engaging.
Longtime fan of her's - a very beautiful and classy woman, indeed. I'd rank her films as follows:
THEATRICAL: 1) "The War Lord" 2) "Shenandoah" 3) "Whatever Happened to Aunt Alice?" 4) "Texas Across the River" 5) "How Do I Love Thee?" 6) "Where It's At" 7) "Some Kind of a Nut"
TELEVISION: 1) "My Father's House" 2) "The Death of Me Yet" 3) "The Brotherhood of the Bell" 4) "City Beneath the Sea" (this one is really awful and not recommended)
<blockquote>Sadly, Forsyth (who has a beautiful speaking voice) was obviously re-dubbed throughout most of the film. I THOUGHT her voice sounded different as the movie went on, but when I read Heston's book ''The Actor's Life'', he confirmed it. I wonder why?.</blockquote>
Although this is an old post, I feel compelled to correct the record, lest anyone might actually believe this nonsense. The poster responsible for the quote above misread what Heston wrote. Heston wrote "Rosemary is effective in what she does, less so in what she says. We may have her loop her dialogue." Forsyth was not redubbed by another actress - Heston simply wrote that they were thinking about having HER loop (re-record) her lines.
Longtime fan of hers - she was indeed a very beautiful and elegant woman. Rosemary was one of those actresses who put her personal life above her career: she took two years off from acting in 1966 after marrying her first husband and having a child and she took another two years off after marrying a multimillionaire businessman in 1972. In between these marriages, she had a highly publicized three-year love affair (1968 to 1971) with one of her leading men - David Janssen - during which her career took a backseat to her romance.
About the only thing I'd criticize it for was the blatant nepotism in the casting of Lorraine Gary (the wife of Universal President Sid Sheinberg) as Mrs. Brody - and it got worse in "Jaws 2" - she was actually given name above the title billing for the sequel and MCA shareholders were irate when they found out she was paid $242,349 - a pretty hefty "Star" salary for the day (i.e. Gregory Peck was paid $250,000 for "The Omen"; Faye Dunaway was paid $200,000 for "Network"; Roy Scheider was paid $100,000 for the first "Jaws" and $400,000 for the sequel, etc).
No, it flopped. Universal clearly knew they had a turkey on their hands because the film was finished in early 1977 and it wasn't released until the spring of 1978. In those days, a film usually didn't make its network television premiere until three years after its theatrical release - this film was sold to TV much sooner than that - it premiered on NBC in the fall of 1979.
<blockquote>Its a good scene with an interesting actor who didn't have too long a career. His name was Rick Lenz, and he was known at the time for two things:
One was co-starring in a short lived "Mystery Western" called "Hec Ramsey," starring Richard Boone and co-starring Harry Morgan(so three of the "Hec Ramsey" cast were in The Shootist.")
But Lenz was also sold as being "a young Jimmy Stewart" -- and that may have hurt him. When a young star is too MUCH like an old star...its hard to become a star.
Anyway, it ended up doubly ironic that this young reporter so abused by John Wayne would be a young Jimmy Stewart clone.</blockquote>
Agreed with all points. Lenz had made enough of an impression in the Broadway and film versions of "Cactus Flower" to be given a shot at film stardom - he was cast in a "showcase" lead role in "How Do I Love Thee?", a comedy which starred Jackie Gleason, Maureen O'Hara, Shelley Winters, and Rosemary Forsyth, in which he played the son of Gleason and O'Hara and the husband of Forsyth, but the movie bombed.
Heston's limited screentime was a major part of what attracted him to sign on to the disaster films he did for Universal - a huge backend deal for about 10 days of work. I imagine that same reasoning is what persuaded him to sign on a decade later for that awful nighttime soap opera "The Colbys" - because it had a large ensemble cast, he was collecting a big paycheck for about two or three days work per week.
Universal was out of their minds to think they could use their cookie-cutter disaster movie formula for an R-rated movie.