Victor Izay Movies

When a pair of ultra-competitive clerks at a discount super store discovers that a beautiful, newly-transferred cashier has a reputation for only dating employees who have won the coveted Employee of the Month award, their desperate efforts to earn the title and get the girl lead to a hilarious war of one-upmanship in this winner-takes-all comedy starring Dane Cook, Jessica Simpson, and Dax Shepard. Zack Bradley (Cook) and Vince Downey (Shepard) have been working at the cavernous Super Club for ten years and counting, but while the ambitious Vince has advanced to the position of head cashier and landed 17 consecutive "E of M" awards, laid-back Zack is content to simply sit back and enjoy the company of his fellow box boys. Longtime rivals whose conflicting attitudes as to what constitutes success has led to more than a few conflicts, Vince and Zack find their bitter battle for Super Club supremacy coming to a head when attractive new employee Amy (Simpson) transfers over from another store. When word quickly spreads that Amy only has eyes for the cream of the crop, slacker Zack attempts to clean up his act and break free from his box boy roots while uptight Vince tries to impress by maintaining his top dog position and keep cool in the face of competition. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

In this Western based loosely on actual events and people, Emilio Estevez stars as William H. Bonney (aka Billy the Kid). Sought for a petty crime in Lincoln County, Billy is taken in by John Tunstall (Terrence Stamp), a British ranch owner seeking to make it in the cattle business. Tunstall employs a group of "regulators," comprised of wayward youths he's gathered over the years, to watch over his ranch; in turn, he teaches them how to read and reforms them into better men. Tunstall's business interests come into conflict with those of corrupt and murderous businessman Lawrence Murphy (Jack Palance), whose widespread connections make him a power to be reckoned with. When Tunstall won't budge from his right to pursue a living, Murphy's henchmen stage an ambush and kill him. This triggers a vow of vengeance from the quick-tempered Billy and his five fellow regulators, who are deputized to serve arrest warrants in the murder. However, when Billy decides to gun down the suspects instead of detaining them, his loyal pals become accessories in a vigilante spree to wipe the territory clean of Murphy and his web of conspirators. Soon, the supposed lawmen are on the run from bounty hunters, henchmen, and government soldiers, from all directions of the compass. This box-office hit also stars Charlie Sheen, Kiefer Sutherland, Lou Diamond Phillips, Dermot Mulroney, and Casey Siemaszko. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide

In one of his first acting roles, Arnold Schwarzenegger is typecast as professional bodybuilder Josef Schmidt. Anticipating Arnold's earliest, villainous film appearances, Schmidt is dangerously sensitive to criticism of his chosen profession--a sensitivity that leads inexorably to murder. Who'd have thought back in 1977 that Schwarzenegger would one day forsake the Streets of San Francisco to take up residence in the gubernatorial mansion in Sacramento? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Disaster strikes the Walton family when their house is gutted by a raging fire. While the neighbors help John (Ralph Waite) rebuild, Olivia (Michael Learned) arranges for several neighbors to shelter her children in the interim, causing a great deal of friction between the younger Waltons and their temporary "families." Meanwhile, John-Boy (Richard Thomas) despairs over the possibility that his nearly-completed novel has gone up in smoke--and is wracked with guilt over the likelihood that he himself caused the fire. This is the first half of a two-part story, originally telecast as a single two-hour episode. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Nurse-in-training Mary Ellen Walton (Judy-Norton Taylor) makes the wrong diagnosis, and it is her own Grandma (Ellen Corby) who suffers. Elsewhere on the medical front, the Mountain's doctor (Victor Izay), fed up with working on a barter rather than cash basis, is on the verge of quitting. Meanwhile, Erin Walton (Mary Beth McDonough) takes her first job, as assistant to fussy switchboard operator Fanny Tatum (Sheila Allen). Be assured that all three of these plot strands will be interwoven by fadeout time. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After Billy Jack belatedly became a box-office smash two years after its original release and The Born Losers, the biker film in which Tom Laughlin created the Billy Jack character, had enjoyed a highly successful re-release, Tom Laughlin brought everyone's favorite martial arts hero turned Native American mystic back to the screen for a third go-round in The Trial of Billy Jack. As Billy Jack (Tom Laughlin) awaits trial for murder, Jean Roberts (Delores Taylor) continues to operate her "Freedom School" on an Indian reservation, where the student-operated television station comes under fire for airing a series of hard-hitting political exposes (just how an alternative school run by threadbare hippies obtained cameras, broadcasting equipment and an FCC license is not explained here). The attempts to silence the student journalists and run Billy Jack out of town lead to a deadly confrontation between the kids and the National Guard. Tom Laughlin wrote and directed The Trial of Billy Jack, though on-screen credit is given to his son, Frank Laughlin; similarly, Laughlin also directed the first two films under the name T.C. Frank. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Of the two rape-oriented TV movies of the 1973-74 season, A Case of Rape, first telecast February 20, 1974, is far and away the finer film (the other was the compelling but contrived Cry Rape). Elizabeth Montgomery stars as a housewife who is sexually assaulted not once but twice by a so-called family friend (Cliff Potts). The rape is only the beginning of a long cycle of humiliation and self-doubt: the investigating police are dismissive of Montgomery's charges, the female defense attorney (Rosemary Murphy) tries to put the victim on trial, and Montgomery's reputation and marriage (to Ronny Cox) are irrevocably damaged. Though things don't go well for her in the courtroom, Montgomery emerges from the experience a stronger and more self-reliant person, unwilling to allow herself to be destroyed by outside influences. Don't miss the final confrontation between raper and rapist after the trial--an underplayed but bone-chilling vignette. Had not Cicely Tyson sewn up the Emmy with The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Elizabeth Montgomery would certainly have copped the prize with A Case of Rape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although she is becoming increasingly infirm and hard of hearing, Grandma Walton (Ellen Corby) stubbornly refuses to see a doctor. Grandma's intractability is more or less mirrored by 14-year-old Mary Ellen Walton (Judy Norton-Taylor), who wakes up one morning determined never again to be treated like a child. Unfortunately, Mary Ellen's declaration of independence may have negative results when she falls in love with a much-older college boy (James Carroll Jordan). The episode's closing narration clues us in to what the future holds in store for Mary Ellen--information which completely contradicts what will actually occur in such later Waltons episodes and TV-movies like Mother's Day on Walton's Mountain! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Seeking solitude to write his stories, John-Boy (Richard Thomas) takes a hike into the mountains. But peace and quiet is not on his schedule when he comes across his friend Sarah Simmonds (Sissy Spacek in her second series appearance), who has run away from her husband--and who is very pregnant and very, very ill. This chance meeting occurs not long after an earlier encounter between John-Boy and elderly mountain dweller Granny Ketchum (Frances Williams), who in repayment for a favor had supplied him with a home-made medicinal potion. When Sarah downs the potion, she suddenly goes into labor...and John-Boy is the only person within miles who can help her! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Single Girls was also released as Private School. When that didn't work, it was shipped out as Bloody Friday, which pretty much summed things up. The late Claudia Jennings costars in this R-rated farrago, which deals with a group of sex-obsessed swingers who go on a Carribean holiday-cum-orgy. The revellers eventually tire of trading partners and thinking up new positions, so they turn to murder. "Murder" is right. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the first half of The Waltons' two-part Season One finale (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Mary Ellen (Judy Norton-Taylor) nervously looks forward to her first Easter dance. But her anticpation of this momentous event is eclipsed by a potential tragedy in the Walton household: Olivia (Michael Learned) has been stricken with polio. Though Dr. Vance grimly predicts that Olivia will never walk again, John-Boy (Richard Thomas) refuses to give up hope, and embarks upon a curious odyssey in desperate search of a miracle. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dr. Brackett (Robert Fuller suspects that a boy whom the paramedics have rescued from a deep hole is the victim of child abuse. The problem now is to convince the Court, a task made difficult by the hotshot attorney (Richard Jaeckel) hired by the boys' parents. Meanwhile, the station adopts a stray dog named Boot, who turns out to be a literal lifesaver. John Travolta makes his first network TV appearance as an imperiled hiker in this episode . ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Globetrotting author A.J. Covington (David Huddleston) finds himself briefly stranded on Walton's Mountain. In answer to John-Boy's incessant questions on how to become a writer, Covington modestly advises him to "write what you know"--and, not so modestly, regales the boy with tales of his own adventures. Inevitably, John-Boy (Richard Thomas) begins spending far too much time conversing with Covington, neglecting his responsibilities at the Walton's lumberyard to the extent that the family may lose a lucrative (and sorely needed) timber contract.This episode won an Emmy Award for Best Cinematography. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide