Out of Darkness (1994 film)

Last updated

Out of Darkness
Diana Ross Out of Darkness.jpg
VHS cover
GenreBiography
Drama
Written by Barbara Turner
Directed byLarry Elikann
Starring Diana Ross
Ann Weldon
Rhonda Stubbins White
Beah Richards
Carl Lumbly
Music by Michel Colombier
Country of originUnited States
Original languageEnglish
Production
Executive producers Diana Ross
Andrew Adelson
ProducerGeorge W. Perkins
CinematographyEric Van Haren Noman
Editor Peter V. White
Running time100 minutes
Production companiesAnaid Film Productions
Andrew Adelson Company
Original release
Network ABC
ReleaseJanuary 16, 1994 (1994-01-16)

Out of Darkness is a 1994 American made-for-television drama film starring singer-actress Diana Ross. The movie was distributed and released by ABC on January 16, 1994, in the United States, Germany, Spain, France, Greece, Italy and Portugal.

Contents

Plot

In the film, Ross's character, named Pauline Cooper, is a former medical student who becomes ill with paranoid schizophrenia and loses 18 years of her life due to the sickness. After her release from a mental ward, Pauline returns home to live with her mother and struggles to rebuild her life with help from doctors, nurses, and a new experimental medication that will help aid her back to health but refusing to set foot in the outside world.

A psychiatric worker, Lindsay Crouse who resolves to help Pauline face up to herself and what lies beyond the front door. [1]

Throughout the movie, Pauline seeks to better herself in a world that she felt had shunned her.

The story is open-ended, concluding with Pauline seeing a homeless woman rummaging through junk cans and talking to herself, leaving Pauline in tears. The question of whether this will be Pauline's future or was a fate Pauline had avoided but to which she could still fall victim to was not answered, only raised.

Cast

Production

The film was rated PG-13 and rated M in Australia. The movie was made by several different production companies; these included Ross's Anaid Film Productions Inc., Andrew Delson Company, Capital Cities/ABC Video Enterprises Inc. and Empty Chair Productions Inc.

In an attempt to improvise the "walk" of a homeless indigent, Ross discreetly placed an orange between her skirted thighs and proceeded to hobble along on cue. The effort required to keep the concealed orange in place, and without using her hands, resulted in a gait so uncanny that Ross's director, Larry Elikann, later quizzed her about how she walked the "walk." But according to Ross herself, as she related to the audience of Inside the Actors Studio on February 19, 2006, she never did disclose the simplicity of her little ruse.

Awards

Ross earned a Golden Globe nomination for Best Actress – Miniseries or Television Film at the 52nd Golden Globe Awards in 1995.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Andie MacDowell</span> American actress and model (born 1958)

Rosalie Anderson MacDowell is an American actress and former fashion model. MacDowell is known for her starring film roles in romantic comedies and dramas. She has modeled for Calvin Klein and has been a spokeswoman for L'Oréal since 1986.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michelle Pfeiffer</span> American actress (born 1958)

Michelle Marie Pfeiffer is an American actress. She was one of the most bankable stars in Hollywood during the 1980s and 1990s, and her performances have earned her numerous accolades, including a Golden Globe Award and a British Academy Film Award, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards and a Primetime Emmy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kim Hunter</span> American actress (1922–2002)

Kim Hunter was an American actress. She achieved prominence for portraying Stella Kowalski in the original production of Tennessee Williams' A Streetcar Named Desire, which she reprised for the 1951 film adaptation, and won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Renée Zellweger</span> American actress (born 1969)

Renée Kathleen Zellweger is an American actress. The recipient of various accolades, including two Academy Awards, two British Academy Film Awards, and four Golden Globe Awards, she was one of the world's highest-paid actresses by 2007.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Samantha Eggar</span> British actress

Victoria Louise Samantha Marie Elizabeth Therese Eggar is a retired English actress. After beginning her career in Shakespearean theatre she rose to fame for her performance in William Wyler's thriller The Collector (1965), which earned her a Golden Globe Award, a Cannes Film Festival Award and an Academy Award nomination for Best Actress.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dyan Cannon</span> American actress and filmmaker (born 1937)

Dyan Cannon is an American actress, filmmaker and editor. Her accolades include a Saturn Award, a Golden Globe Award, three Academy Award nominations and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. She was named Female Star of the Year by the National Association of Theatre Owners in 1973 and the Hollywood Women's Press Club in 1979.

<i>Lady Sings the Blues</i> (film) 1972 film by Sidney J. Furie

Lady Sings the Blues is a 1972 American biographical musical drama film directed by Sidney J. Furie about jazz singer Billie Holiday, loosely based on her 1956 autobiography that, in turn, took its title from Holiday's song. It is produced by Motown Productions for Paramount Pictures. Diana Ross, in her feature film debut, portrays Holiday, alongside a cast that includes Billy Dee Williams, Richard Pryor, James T. Callahan and Scatman Crothers. The film was nominated for five Academy Awards in 1973, including Best Actress for Diana Ross.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Patty Duke</span> American actress (1946–2016)

Anna Marie "Patty" Duke was an American actress. Over the course of her acting career, she was the recipient of an Academy Award, two Golden Globe Awards, three Primetime Emmy Awards, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Katharine Ross</span> American actress and author (born 1940)

Katharine Juliet Ross is a retired American actress. Her accolades include an Academy Award nomination, a BAFTA Award, and two Golden Globe Awards.

Lindsay Ann Crouse is an American actress. She made her Broadway debut in the 1972 revival of Much Ado About Nothing and appeared in her first film in 1976 in All the President's Men. For her role in the 1984 film Places in the Heart, she received an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actress. Her other films include Slap Shot (1977), Between the Lines (1977), The Verdict (1982), Prefontaine (1997), and The Insider (1999). She also had a leading role in the 1987 film House of Games, which was directed by her then-husband David Mamet. In 1996, she received a Daytime Emmy Award nomination for "Between Mother and Daughter", a CBS Schoolbreak Special episode. She is also a Grammy Award nominee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tracee Ellis Ross</span> American actress (born 1972)

Tracee Joy Silberstein, known professionally as Tracee Ellis Ross, is an American actress. She is known for her lead roles in the television series Girlfriends (2000–2008) and Black-ish (2014–2022) receiving nominations for five Primetime Emmy Awards for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for the latter.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Felicity Huffman</span> American actress (born 1962)

Felicity Kendall Huffman is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Lynette Scavo in the ABC comedy-drama Desperate Housewives and her role as a transgender woman in the film Transamerica (2005). Over her career she has received numerous accolades including a Primetime Emmy Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as a nomination for an Academy Award.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Spring Byington</span> American actress (1886–1971)

Spring Dell Byington was an American actress. Her career included a seven-year run on radio and television as the star of December Bride. She was a MGM contract player who appeared in films from the 1930s to the 1960s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ann Jillian</span> American actress (born 1950)

Ann Jillian is a former American actress and singer whose career began as a child actress in 1960. She is best known for her role as the sultry Cassie Cranston on the 1980s sitcom It's a Living.

<i>If These Walls Could Talk</i> 1996 American TV series or program

If These Walls Could Talk is a 1996 American anthology television film, broadcast on HBO. It follows the plights of three women and their experiences with abortion. Each of the three stories takes place in the same house, 22 years apart: 1952, 1974, and 1996. All three segments were co-written by Nancy Savoca. Savoca directed the first and second segment while Cher directed the third. The women's experiences in each vignette are designed to demonstrate the popular views of society on the issue in each of the given decades.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nikki Blonsky</span> American actress, singer, and dancer

Nicole Blonsky is an American actress, singer, dancer, and internet personality. She is known for playing Tracy Turnblad in the film Hairspray (2007), for which she won two Critics' Choice Awards and nominations for a Golden Globe Award and a Screen Actors Guild Award.

<i>Eleanor and Franklin</i> (miniseries) 1976 American television miniseries

Eleanor and Franklin is a 1976 American television miniseries starring Edward Herrmann as Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR) and Jane Alexander as Eleanor Roosevelt which was broadcast on ABC on January 11 and 12, 1976. It is the first part in a two-part "biopic" miniseries based on Joseph P. Lash's biography and history from 1971, Eleanor and Franklin, based on their correspondence and recently opened archives. Joseph Lash was Eleanor's personal secretary and confidant. He wrote several books on the Roosevelts including some on both Eleanor and Franklin individually and was also a controversial activist in his own right in leftist, liberalism, social and labor issues of the era.

<i>Bye Bye Love</i> (film) 1995 American film

Bye Bye Love is a 1995 American romantic comedy film that deals with the central issue of divorce. It was directed by Sam Weisman and written by Gary David Goldberg and Brad Hall. It stars Matthew Modine, Randy Quaid, Paul Reiser, Janeane Garofalo, Amy Brenneman, Eliza Dushku, Rob Reiner, Amber Benson, and Lindsay Crouse. Production costs were heavily underwritten by McDonald's product placement.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Taylor Schilling</span> American actress (born 1984)

Taylor Jane Schilling is an American actress. She is best known for her role as Piper Chapman on the Netflix original comedy-drama series Orange Is the New Black (2013–2019), for which she received a nomination for the Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series and two Golden Globe Award nominations for Best Actress – Television Series Musical or Comedy and Best Actress – Television Series Drama. She made her film debut in the 2007 drama Dark Matter. She also starred as Nurse Veronica Flanagan Callahan in the short-lived NBC medical drama Mercy (2009–2010). Her other films include Atlas Shrugged: Part I (2011), the romantic drama The Lucky One (2012), the comedy Take Me (2017), and the science-fiction thriller The Titan (2018).

<i>Joni</i> (film) 1980 American film

Joni is a 1980 American independent biographical drama film directed by James F. Collier. It is the true story of Joni Eareckson Tada, a seventeen-year-old girl who becomes paralyzed after a diving accident. It is based on her autobiography of the same name. Through her physical, emotional and spiritual struggles, Joni learns to trust in God. Billy Graham financed the film through his company World Wide Pictures and appeared in a cameo.

References

  1. Gibraltar Chronicle newspaper; Entertainment Guide section; 30/08/1995; Page 17