Desmond Dhooge Movies
- 1986
- R
A canine trained to kill provides the gruesome action in this horror film. Hester Yvonne DeCarlo buys a rottweiler by the name of Greta and then gives it to her niece Audrey (Stephanie Dunnam) with completely malicious intent. Hester has always hated her sister (Audrey's mother) for marrying the man that Hester loved. Now that both of them are dead, Hester wants revenge on Audrey and her family and friends. She controls Greta's killer activities through a series of hocus-pocus incantations. A dim-witted police inspector is not much of a threat to Hester or her murderous canine who are getting away with murder, at least for awhile. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Yvonne De Carlo, Stephanie Dunnam, (more)
If the Perils of Pauline were set in a campy New York City with a dash of trash added in, Not for Publication would result, though the awful jokes and kinky characters are not going to be entertaining to everyone. Lois (Nancy Allen) is a reporter at a sleazoid newspaper, a paragon of yellow journalism that she is determined to turn back to its first incarnation as The New York Enforcer, a better paper. The not-so-good Mayor Franklyn (Laurence Luckinbill) adopts Lois as his personal assistant when she bursts into his office one day and strongly advises him to cut the pressure to shut down porn shops or he will lose the vote of New York's youth. She hires a photographer (David Naughton) to work in the mayor's office, planning to use his skills for her tabloid paper -- but then a quirky menage à trois arises between the mayor, the photographer, and Lois. After some undercover sleuthing in Long Island, Lois connects the mayor to various robberies that have occurred in the city and thinks of a way to bring back the New York Enforcer and handle the mayor at the same time. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Nancy Allen, David Naughton, (more)
The sheriff of a small Texas town is pitted against a genetically engineered super-villain. ~ Rovi
- Starring:
- Chuck Norris, Ron Silver, (more)
The year is 1936. Orphaned Addie Loggins (Tatum O'Neal, in her film debut) is left in the care of unethical travelling Bible salesman Moses Pray (Ryan O'Neal, Tatum's dad), who may or may not be her father. En route to Addie's relatives, Moses learns that the 9-year-old is quite a handful: she smokes, cusses, and is almost as devious and manipulative as he is. They join forces as swindlers, working together so well that Addie is averse to breaking up the team -- which is one reason that she sabotages the romance between Moses and good-time gal Trixie Delight (Madeline Kahn). Later, while attempting to square a $200 debt that Addie claims he owes her, Moses runs afoul of of a bootlegger (John Hillerman) and is nearly beaten to death by the criminal's twin-brother sheriff. Painfully pulling himself together, Moses gets Addie to her relatives, whereupon she adamantly refuses to leave his side. Photographed in black-and-white by Laszlo Kovacs, the film was made largely on location in Kansas and Missouri (an experience colorfully recalled by director Peter Bogdanovich in his 1972 book of essays Pieces of Time). 9-year-old Tatum O'Neal won a Best Supporting Actress Oscar, beating out costar Kahn. Paper Moon later became a short-lived TV series, starring Ryan O'Neal lookalike Christopher Connelly and future Oscar winner Jodie Foster. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Tatum O'Neal, (more)
- 1972
- PG
A grease monkey becomes so obsessed with stock-car racing that the rest of his life begins to fall apart in this character-driven drama. The one who suffers most from his fixation is his devoted wife whom he totally ignores until she gets a job and her husband begins thinking she is fooling around with her boss. In a jealous rage, he makes his accusation and during the ensuing scuffle kills his rival and takes off with the police in hot pursuit. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi
- 1970
- R
This plodding crime drama concerns the life of Depression-era gangster Pretty Boy Floyd. Imprisoned for the manslaughter of a jealous rival for his affections, Floyd escapes from jail a hardened criminal with ties to the mob in Kansas City. After meeting up with a whorehouse madam, he goes on a series of bank robberies that makes him public enemy number one on the FBI most wanted list. Soon G-man Hossler (Robert Glenn) is assigned to end the crime spree spawned by Floyd and his gang. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi
- Starring:
- Fabian Forte, Jocelyn Lane, (more)
- 1960
Leaning more toward acting and special effects work in his career, this is one of the occasional films that Ray Kellogg directed. Geared solely to the youngsters, the story is about a young boy, Ted Dodd (Travis Lemmond) and his dog Buddy (played by London who starred in The Littlest Hobo, and is trained by Chuck Eisenmann). Buddy's stunts are surprising, brilliant moments of canine tomfoolery as he carries the biggest challenge in the otherwise routine movie. The dog has been separated from his little master after a tragic auto accident in which Ted's parents were killed and he was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance. The only clue Buddy has for tracking down his beloved owner is the sound of the ambulance siren going to the hospital. With that premise, a series of mishaps and misadventures befalls the German Shepherd as he devotedly keeps on his journey toward finding his owner. In the meantime, several flashbacks fill in events before the accident. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi
- Starring:
- Ken Curtis
In The Giant Gila Monster, most of the plot is given over to a group of hot-rod enthusiasts, headed by nice-guy Chace Winstead (Don Sullivan), who sometimes breaks into song. Before long, the titular gila monster, which is just that -- a real gila monster -- is lumbering about on miniaturized sets terrorizing the community, killing at random, knocking over trains and barns, and in general making a nuisance of itself. When the monster threatens to devour Chace's kid sister, he attempts to dispatch the beast with a hot rod full of nitroglycerin. The Giant Gila Monster was originally released on a double bill with The Killer Shrews. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi
- Starring:
- Don Sullivan, Lisa Simone, (more)
