Phone Call From a Stranger (1952), Barcelona (1994), Love Finds Andy Hardy (1938), Oh, God! (1977), Bachelor Flat (1961), Some Velvet Morning (2013), An Angel From Texas (1940) ... Let's take a look at the ranked list of the best Surprise Visit movies.
Storyline: On a flight from Chicago to Los Angeles, lawyer David Trask befriends three of his fellow passengers while one technical issue after another lead to unscheduled stops and delays. The other three are physician Dr. Robert Fortness, a struggling actress with the stage name Binky Gay, and loud-mouthed salesman Eddie Hoke, who is both quick with a joke and quick to show off a photograph of his beautiful wife, Marie. Two of them confess to David having painful reckonings waiting for them in Los Angeles. Dr. Fortness, an alcoholic, is returning to own up to his responsibility for a car accident in which his friend and two others were killed, and his guilt over letting his wife Claire lie for him, which destroyed their marriage and alienated his son. Binky, who has tried and failed to realize success on the New York stage for the past year, is returning to her husband, Mike Carr, hoping to keep his affection despite his overbearing mother, former vaudeville star Sally Carr, who still basks in her former but no longer shining glory, and who resents Binky as competition on and off stage. David feels compelled to help their families come to terms with their losses, especially in the case of Dr. Fortness, who hired David as his attorney. Each case is different. The doctor's wife and son need to face the truth. Binky's mother-in-law thinks she knows everything and won't let David get a word in edgewise, so he fools her into thinking that Binky had been successful in New York, only discussing the truth with her husband. Meeting Eddie's widow, David finds that she has more comfort to give him than he has for her. Marie's reminiscence about her marriage to Eddie causes David to reflect on his own marriage, leading him to make a decision.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: lawyer, actress, doctor, salesman, wife, moving, engaging ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Ted, a stuffy white guy from Illinois working in sales for the Barcelona office of a US corporation, is paid an unexpected visit by his somewhat less stuffy cousin Fred, who is an officer in the US Navy. Over the next few months, both their lives are irrevocably altered by the events which follow Fred's arrival, events which are the trivial stuff of a comedy of manners at first but which gradually grow increasingly dramatic.—Tim Horrigan <horrigan@hanover-crrel.army.mil>
Plot Keywords: salesman, naval officer, cousin, love interest, assistant, boss, lighthearted ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Andy's girlfriend Polly is planning to spend Christmas at her grandmother's, which puts a kink in his plans to take her to the country club Christmas party. He agrees (for a fee) to pretend to be the boyfriend of his buddy Beezy's girl Cynthia to discourage other suitors (Beezy is also leaving for the holidays), but Andy soon finds her too infatuated with him. Meanwhile, Andy's next door neighbor Betsy begins to fall in love with Andy even though she's younger than him. Everything comes to a head at the country club party.—Ed Sutton <esutton@mindspring.com>
Plot Keywords: teen boy, girlfriend, neighbor, judge, best friend, girl, madcap ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Married to Bobbie Landers with two pre-teen children, Adam and Becky, living in Tarzana, California. Mild-mannered Jerry Landers is a hard working Assistant Manager at a Food World supermarket outlet. He's always trying to do his best at his job. But his generally uneventful life takes a turn when he receives a hand delivered note in the mail to attend an interview with God. Believing it a gag from his friend Artie Coogan, Jerry decides to go to the interview based on circumstances which compel him to do so. Based on further circumstances of the interview, Jerry, despite not being a religious person, ultimately does believe that who he meets with, initially only a voice, is indeed God, who eventually does show himself in a physical form to Jerry. God wants Jerry to be his messenger, much like a present day Moses, to pass along to the human race that "he" has provided all the necessary components of a successful existence, and it is up to the human race to do with those components as they believe fit to reach that success. God came at this time because of his disappointment with the current state of the world. He also chose Jerry as his messenger because of Jerry being a decent person. Jerry tries to convey the message as best as he can, but runs into one roadblock after another. Once Jerry does gain a wider audience, he is treated as a crazy person and/or a fanatic, those opinions which affect his and his family's life. Jerry believes he has no other option but to continue to do this job for God despite these negative effects. It may take him getting a meeting with so-called experts, theologians, before he is taken seriously, or not, as some of those, such as Reverend Willie Williams, God knows is using religion for their own as opposed to societal benefit.—Huggo
Plot Keywords: husband, wife, god, bishop, doctor, charming, quirky ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Anthropology Professor Bruce Patterson (Terry Thomas) has the natural British charm that allures women automatically. When his fiancée Helen Bushmill (Celeste Holm) is abroad for an extended time, he has to fight the neighborhood ladies and his students away. Helen has failed to tell him that she has a seventeen year old daughter Libby (Tuesday Weld) who shows up at her mother's home unaware that she in engaged. Bruce's neighbor Mike (Richard Beymer) and his mischievous dachshund also get mixed up in the all the shenanigans happening around the "bachelor flat."—Richard Jones <rjo339@swbell.net>
Plot Keywords: professor, fiancée, daughter, neighbor, student, airy, playful ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Fred (Stanley Tucci) arrives at the doorstep of his beautiful young mistress Velvet (Alice Eve) after four years apart, claiming to have finally left his wife. But when she rejects his attempts to rekindle their romance, his persistence evolves into obsession - and a dark history between the former lovers comes into focus. A return to form for writer/director Neil LaBute (In the Company of Men, Your Friends & Neighbors), Some Velvet Morning is an astutely written portrait of a very modern romance.—Tribeca Film
Plot Keywords: mistress, former lover, amusing, creative, sultry, house, surprise visit ...
Movie Details Click Here!Storyline: Stage struck Lydia Weston leaves her small Texas town for Broadway. Left behind is her steady beau Peter. Lydia sends letters and news clippings back home telling everyone she's now a big star. Peter soon heads to New York to surprise her, but instead he gets the surprise when he learns Lydia has no job and is broke. The pair soon get involved with a couple of phony producers who con Peter into backing their play with Lydia in the lead.—Daniel Bubbeo <dbubbeo@cmp.com>
Plot Keywords: aspiring actress, boyfriend, producer, texan, wife, sweetheart, amusing ...
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