Ralph Burns

Birth : 1922-06-29,

Death : 2001-11-21

Movies

Fosse
Orchestrator
Fosse is a three-act musical revue showcasing the choreography of Bob Fosse. The musical was conceived by Richard Maltby, Jr., Chet Walker, and Ann Reinking. It won the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2000. In 2002, Fosse, featuring Reinking and Ben Vereen, was aired as part of the "Great Performances — Dance In America" series on PBS television. This filmed Broadway tribute strings together acclaimed director/choreographer Bob Fosse's "greatest hits."
All Dogs Go to Heaven
Original Music Composer
When a casino-owning dog named Charlie is murdered by his rival Carface, he finds himself in Heaven basically by default since all dogs go to heaven. However, since he wants to get back at his killer, he cons his way back to the living with the warning that doing that damns him to Hell. Once back, he teams with his old partner, Itchy, to prep his retaliation. He also stumbles onto an orphan girl who can talk to the animals, thus allowing him to get the inside info on the races to ensure his wins to finance his plans. However, all the while, he is still haunted by nightmares of what's waiting for him on the other side unless he can prove that he is worthy of Heaven again.
Sweet Bird of Youth
Music
Tennessee William’s masterful melodrama about an aging movie star who, appalled by her own image on the screen, flees from her movie premiere and goes into seclusion, becoming entangled with a much younger hotel masseur and resident gigolo.
In the Mood
Music
When 15-year-old Sonny Wisecarver has an affair with his older neighbor Francine and then runs off to marry her, a stern judge has the union annulled. Then, when Sonny finds himself before the same judge after getting involved with another woman in her 20s, the publicity from this case makes him the object of affection for millions of young women
The Christmas Star
Original Music Composer
Horace McNickle (Edward Asner) is a two-time felon serving prison time for counterfeiting. On the week before Christmas, he escapes from prison dressed as Santa Claus due to his uncanny resemblence to St. Nick resulting from his long white beard and heavyset features. McNickle hides out from the police in a nearby suburban neighborhood where he is befriended and helped by two local children who think he is the real Santa Claus. McNickle takes advantage of the kids naive ness to help him get his counterfeit money hidden somewhere in a local department store while he develops kind-hearted feelings for his two con victims that make him slowly understand the true nature of Christmas.
The Penalty Phase
Music
Things looked pretty simple: the confessed murderer had all the evidence against him. The Prosecutor Jansen could not have been more relentless, conservative and incisive. Furthermore, the jury already had a verdict: guilty of the more than 30 charges against him. But suddenly Judge Kenneth Hoffman finds out that the evidence was not obtained legally, so the procedure is void. Judge Hoffman is in the middle of this legal storm, although he wants to apply the law strictly, he will find everybody against him.
Perfect
Original Music Composer
A female aerobics instructor meets a male reporter doing a story on health clubs, but it isn't love at first sight.
Moving Violations
Original Music Composer
A group of careless and unlucky drivers are sentenced to attend traffic school to keep their records clean.
The Muppets Take Manhattan
Original Music Composer
When the Muppets graduate from Danhurst College, they take their song-filled senior revue to New York City, only to learn that it isn't easy to find a producer who's willing to back a show starring a frog and a pig. Of course, Kermit the Frog and Miss Piggy won't take no for an answer, launching a search for someone to take them to Broadway.
Ernie Kovacs: Between the Laughter
Music
This is a splendid little sleeper of a movie. Ernie Kovacs was one of the giants of early television. I think he would be pleased with the way Jeff Goldbloom captures his wonky personality. Melody Anderson also distills that of Edie Adams. There is a very basic heart tugging story about the search for Kovacs' two abducted daughters. But at the same time the film is funny --- Cloris Leachman is a hoot as Kovacs impossible mom --- and has many of the offbeat and innovative qualities of the old Kovacs show itself.
Star 80
Original Music Composer
Paul Snider is a narcissistic, small time hustler who fancies himself a ladies man. His life changes when he meets Dorothy Stratten working behind the counter of a Dairy Queen. Under his guidance Dorothy grows to fame as a Playboy Playmate. But when Dorothy begins pursuing an acting career, the jealous Paul finds himself elbowed out of the picture by more famous men.
National Lampoon's Vacation
Original Music Composer
Clark Griswold is on a quest to take his family on a quest to Walley World theme park for a vacation, but things don't go exactly as planned.
The Phantom of the Opera
Music
The Budapest Opera House's diva commits suicide after the owner ruins her career for having rejected his advances but her conductor-husband, believed killed in a fire, plans his revenge on all those he deems responsible for her suicide.
Kiss Me Goodbye
Original Music Composer
Not until three years after the death of her husband Jolly, Kay dares to move back into their former home, persuaded by her new fiancée Rupert. But soon her worst expectations come true, when not only her old memories haunt her, but also Jolly's ghost, who doesn't approve of her new mate. Invisible to anyone but Kay, he tries to prevent the wedding.
My Favorite Year
Original Music Composer
Fledgling comic Benjy Stone can't believe his luck when his childhood hero, the swashbuckling matinee idol Alan Swann, gets booked to appear on the variety show he writes for. But when Swann arrives, he fails to live up to his silver screen image. Instead, he's a drunken womanizer who suffers from stage fright. Benjy is assigned to look after him before the show, and it's all he can do to keep his former idol from going completely off the rails.
Annie
Music
An orphan in a facility run by the mean Miss Hannigan, Annie believes that her parents left her there by mistake. When a rich man named Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks decides to let an orphan live at his home to promote his image, Annie is selected. While Annie gets accustomed to living in Warbucks' mansion, she still longs to meet her parents. So Warbucks announces a search for them and a reward, which brings out many frauds.
Pennies from Heaven
Music
During the Great Depression, a sheet music salesman seeks to escape his dreary life through popular music and a love affair with an innocent school teacher.
Golden Gate
Music
A venerable San Francisco publishing family becomes embroiled in a bitter power struggle between the iron-fisted, but ailing, patriarch's son and a ruthless businessman who tries for a takeover.
Side Show
Music
A teenage boy who runs off to join the circus as a side show puppeteer stumbles onto the dark secrets of the fellow performers.
Make Me an Offer
Music
Joyce Windsor is a woman who gets involved in the real estate game after the husband she helped put through law school dumps her. But she has to deal with Pete Strickland, the "King" of Beverly Hills real estate, who wants more than she cares to give for teaching her the ins and outs of the business.
All That Jazz
Original Music Composer
Joe Gideon is at the top of the heap, one of the most successful directors and choreographers in musical theater. But he can feel his world slowly collapsing around him - his obsession with work has almost destroyed his personal life, and only his bottles of pills keep him going.
Movie Movie
Original Music Composer
Three movie genres of the 1930s, boxing films, WWI aviation dramas, and backstage Broadway musicals, are satirized using the same cast.
High Anxiety
Orchestrator
A psychiatrist with intense acrophobia (fear of heights) goes to work for a mental institution run by doctors who appear to be crazier than their patients, and have secrets that they are willing to commit murder to keep.
New York, New York
Music Supervisor
An egotistical saxophone player and a young singer meet on V-J Day and embark upon a strained and rocky romance, even as their careers begin a long uphill climb.
Lucky Lady
Conductor
When an American booze smuggler gets murdered in Prohibition-era Mexico, his widow, a nightclub singer, joins forces with her lover and a desperate loner to become rum-runners to the U.S.
Lucky Lady
Original Music Composer
When an American booze smuggler gets murdered in Prohibition-era Mexico, his widow, a nightclub singer, joins forces with her lover and a desperate loner to become rum-runners to the U.S.
Lenny
Music Supervisor
The story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentary was often deemed by the establishment as too obscene for the public.
Lenny
Original Music Composer
The story of acerbic 1960s comic Lenny Bruce, whose groundbreaking, no-holds-barred style and social commentary was often deemed by the establishment as too obscene for the public.
Bananas
Orchestrator
When a bumbling New Yorker is dumped by his activist girlfriend, he travels to a tiny Latin American nation and becomes involved in its latest rebellion.
Sweet Charity
Orchestrator
Taxi dancer, Charity continues to have faith in the human race despite apparently endless disappointments at its hands, and hope that she will finally meet the nice young man to romance her away from her sleazy life.