. Elizabeth McGovern
Ragtime (1981) Title: Ragtime Released: 1981 Genre: Drama Runtime: 155 min Country: USA Language: English Tagline: The passion, the violence, the birth of America's Gilded Age. Plot Summary: The story runs in the 1910's New York. Coalhouse Walker Jr. is a black man piano player. He has won fame and fortune playing with a jazz band. Some white men do not like this situation, and one day they assault him and spoil his brand new car. Walker tries by all means to get justice, without an answer... Comments: Now clearly a classic. Ragtime has emerged as a classic film. Its astonishing array of great performances--literally a score of them, from Howard Rollins's truly tragic stand for human dignity at the film's center to James Cagney's historic return to film at the end of his life and the end of this motion picture--would almost alone qualify this as a great motion picture. But Michael Weller's breathtakingly complex and complete dramatization of Doctorow's sprawling novel, the gorgeous production and costume designs and the superb direction of Milos Forman seal the deal. This is a magnificent tapestry of American life at the beginning of the American century. Lavishly entertaining, genuinely heartbreaking and a dandy history lesson to boot, Ragtime has joined the pantheon of great, epic movies. Scene Description: Elizabeth McGovern of She's Having a Baby fame walking into a room and dropping a blanket to reveal her breasts and a bit of bush as she tries to cover with her hands before kissing a guy and then sitting on a couch talking with some more guys for several minutes all while topless. ..Movie Stills Women and Men: Stories of Seduction (1990) Title: Women and Men: Stories of Seduction Released: 1990 Genre: Romance Runtime: 90 min Country: USA Language: English Plot Summary: Three short stories come to the screen, each focused on a man and a woman. The first is set in the 1940s, the other two in the 1920s. In "The Man in a Brooks Brothers Suit," a businessman of about 40 plies a younger Leftist women with liquor aboard a train. They spend the night together, and he decides he's in love with her. She plays along. In "Dusk Before Fireworks," Kit, a youthful flapper, arrives at Hoby's classy flat intent on an evening of passion. A constantly ringing telephone interrupts each embrace. In "Hills Like White Elephants," a couple traveling in Spain discuss her pregnancy: he wants things to stay as they are, she sees that notion as a fiction. Comments: Watch it for McGovern. This film is three short films in one, all inspired by short stories featuring one male lead and one female lead. James Woods and Melanie Griffith do a credible job in the Hemingway story, but the story itself is far superior to this script. The Dorothy Parker adaptation with Molly Ringwald and Peter Weller is awful; the two actors appear to be in two completely different stories. It's Elizabeth McGovern's performance in "The Man with the Brooks Brothers Shirt" that makes this tape worth the price of the rental. Beau Bridges is good as the traveling salesman, but McGovern's performance as the stranger he meets on the train is one of the most skillful, powerful performances I've ever seen on film. This is a hugely gifted, vastly underrated actress who ought to be seen a lot more often than she is. Three stars overall, but Elizabeth McGovern gets five. ..Movie Stills ..Movie Stills Racing with the Moon (1984) Title: Racing with the Moon Released: 1984 Genre: Comedy / Drama / Romance Runtime: 108 min Country: USA Language: English Plot Summary: Henry and Nicky are small town pals from blue collar families with only a short time before they ship off to World War II. Henry begins romancing new-to-town Caddie Winger, believing her to be wealthy. Mischievious and irresponsible, Nicky gets into trouble which forces the other two to become involved, testing their relationship, as well as the friendship between the boys. Comments: Unlike most Hollywood movies that must be pigeonholed into categories--comedy, drama, romance--this movie dared to be all of these. And it dared to be low-key, without large, manufactured tragedies or plot hooks. Rather, it had the elegiac mood and idiosyncratic details of a fine short story, with its characters neither good nor bad but human, their lives honestly and touchingly observed by a sensitive screenwriter and director. Scene Description: Elizabeth McGovern kissing a guy in a lake and rising up out of it to reveal her breasts. From Racing with the Moon. ..Movie Stills
Trivia Has a younger sister, Cammie. Dropped out of college when she was studying acting at Julliard in order to accept the ingenue role in Ordinary People (1980). As a young actress on the New York stage, McGovern was required in one play to pray over some candles that were set on a bed. Realizing that the bed had caught fire halfway through her monologue, McGovern kept talking while trying to pat out the flames. She thought she had the situation pretty well under control, when firefighters suddenly arrived onstage to clear the theater. Measurements: 34-23-32 Personal quotes On careers other than acting: "I probably would have become a veterinarian, or I might have lived on a ranch somewhere and raised horses, or I might have become more serious about painting, or I might have worked in a Burger King." Elizabeth McGovern - Filmography Below is a complete filmography (list of movies she's appeared in) "Brotherhood of Poland, New Hampshire, The" (2003) TV Series .... Helen Shaw Buffalo Soldiers (2001) .... Mrs. Berman ... aka Army Go Home (2002) (Germany) ... aka Buffalo Soldiers - Army Go Home! (2003) (Germany: DVD title) "Hawk" (2001) (mini) TV Series .... Susie Hawkins ... aka "Hawkins" (2001) (mini) (UK) Flamingo Rising, The (2001) (TV) .... Edna Lee Thursday the 12th (2000) (TV) .... Candice Hopper House of Mirth, The (2000) .... Mrs. Carry Fisher ... aka Chez les heureux du monde (2001) (France) ... aka Haus Bellomont (2001) (Germany) Manila (2000) .... Elizabeth Scarlet Pimpernel and the Kidnapped King, The (1999) (TV) .... Marguerite Blakeney Scarlet Pimpernel Meets Madame Guillotine, The (1999) (TV) .... Marguerite Blakeney "Scarlet Pimpernel, The" (1999) (mini) TV Series .... Lady Marguerite Blakeney Misadventures of Margaret, The (1998) .... Till Turner ... aka Folies de Margaret, Les (1998) (France) Man with Rain in His Shoes, The (1998) .... Diane ... aka If Only... (1998) (Australia) (France) (UK) ... aka Lieber gestern als nie (1999) (Germany) ... aka Lluvia en los zapatos (1999) (Spain) ... aka Twice Upon a Yesterday (1999) (USA) Clover (1997) (TV) .... Sara Kate Wings of the Dove, The (1997) .... Susan 'Susie' Stringham Summer of Ben Tyler, The (1996) (TV) .... Celia Rayburn Broken Glass (1996) (TV) .... Margaret Hyman "If Not for You" (1995) TV Series .... Jessie Kent Broken Trust (1995) (TV) .... Janice Dillon ... aka Court of Honor (1995) (TV) Wings of Courage (1995) .... Noelle Guillaumet ... aka Guillaumet, les ailes du courage (1996) (France) Changeling, The (1994) (TV) .... Beatrice-Joanna Favor, The (1994) .... Emily ... aka Favour, The (1994) (UK) ... aka Indecent Favour, The (1994) (Australia) King of the Hill (1993) .... Lydia, Prostitute Me and Veronica (1992) .... Fanny Tales from Hollywood (1992) (TV) .... Helen Schwartz "Ashenden" (1991) (mini) TV Series Women and Men: Stories of Seduction (1990) (TV) .... Vicki Tune in Tomorrow... (1990) .... Elena Quince ... aka Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter (1990) Shock to the System, A (1990) .... Stella Anderson Handmaid's Tale, The (1990) .... Moira ... aka Geschichte der Dienerin, Die (1990) (West Germany) Johnny Handsome (1989) .... Donna McCarty She's Having a Baby (1988) .... Kristen 'Kristy' Briggs Bedroom Window, The (1987) .... Denise Native Son (1986) .... Mary Dalton Racing with the Moon (1984) .... Caddie Winger Once Upon a Time in America (1984) .... Deborah Gelly ... aka C'era una volta in America (1984) (Italy) Lovesick (1983) .... Chloe Allen "Faerie Tale Theatre" (1982) TV Series .... Snow White (Snow White) ... aka "Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre" (1982) (USA) Ragtime (1981) .... Evelyn Nesbit Thaw Ordinary People (1980) .... Jeannine Pratt Last Year's Model (1979) Elizabeth McGovern - Notable TV Guest Appearances "Table 12" (2001) playing "Mel" in episode: "Preserves" (episode # 1.9) 28 July 2001 "Tales from the Crypt" (1989) in episode: "Horror in the Night" (episode # 7.5) 24 May 1996 "California Fever" (1979) playing "Lisa" 2 October 1979