Charles Jackson Movies

In this occult horror film, director John Russo, best known for Night of the Living Dead, has created a few twists on the plot of a heroine escaping one evil, only to encounter another, even worse. Some asides on the nature of racism are thrown in for good measure. After Nancy Johnson (Melanie Verlin) runs away from home because her drunken stepfather (Lawrence Tierney) tried to rape her, she is given a ride by two men who are actually thieves, and they all end up prisoners of a Southern family of Satanists. They plan on offering Nancy to the Devil himself at midnight on Easter Sunday. Some cinematic goofs -- Easter Sunday apparently falls in autumn since the leaves are turning color outside, and the "South" looks a lot like Pittsburgh -- are somewhat off-set by the make-up artistry of Tom Savini and a lively performance by Lawrence Tierney. Yet the pace is slow and the lesser protagonists solidly one-dimensional, tipping the balance more toward the minus -- which may be a plus to some viewers. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

With her "sponsor" William Randolph Hearst pulling the strings, Ziegfeld Follies beauty Marion Davies launched her screen career in 1917. Davies' second film effort was Cecilia of the Pink Roses, adapted from a novel by Katherine Haviland Taylor. The star was cast as Cecilia Madden, the daughter of impoverished bricklayer Jeremiah Madden (Edward O'Connor). Never complaining and seldom losing her bright, winning smile, Cecilia sacrifices her own happiness to look after her father's welfare. Her hard work is rewarded when Madden suddenly strikes it rich and ships the girl off to a fancy finishing school. Alas, her crude manners and lack of breeding causes her all sorts of problems -- and to make matters worse, her widowed father has fallen under the spell of a gold-digging cabaret dancer. With only two or three reels to go, Cecilia has to go into warp drive to set everything right. Though most critics were unimpressed by Cecilia of the Pink Roses, the newspapers owned by Mr. Hearst were enthusiastic to the point of lunacy, with one Hearst-controlled reviewer "thanking her stars" that Marion Davies had deigned to enter the motion picture industry. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi