Woody Strode Movies
Towering (6'5") black athlete Woody Strode, together with fellow U.C.L.A. All-American Kenny Washington, successfully broke the NFL's "color line" in 1946 when he signed with the L.A. Rams. Strode went on to play with the Canadian Football League, then attracted a TV following as a pro wrestler. Though he'd made an isolated movie appearance in 1941, Strode's film career didn't really take off until the 1950s. At first, little in the way of acting was required; it was enough for him to convey strong, silent dignity in such fleeting roles as the King of Ethiopia in De Mille's The Ten Commandments (1956). Like many other black athletes-turned-actors of the era, Strode was often called upon to play African warriors and tribal chieftains.This he did in a variety of small parts on the 1952 TV series Ramar of the Jungle; as Lothar on an obscure 1954 video version of Mandrake the Magician; and in the 1958 feature film Tarzan's Fight for Life. A close friend of director John Ford, Strode received some of his best acting opportunities in Ford's films of the 1950s and 1960s -- notably Sergeant Rutledge (1960), in which he starred as a black cavalry soldier unjustly charged with rape and murder. He was also well-served in Stanley Kubrick's Spartacus (1960) in the role of Draba, the gladiator who refuses to kill Kirk Douglas in the film's pivotal scene. During the 1960s, Strode was a familiar presence in westerns and actioners filmed in the U.S. and Europe. In 1968, he starred in Black Jesus, an Italian-made roman a clef based on the life of African activist Patrice Lumumba. In 1990, Strode published his candid, life-affirming autobiography Coal Dust. Woody Strode continued acting up until his death at age 80, accepting such prominent roles as the Storyteller in Mario Van Peebles' Posse (1993) and Charlie Moonlight in the Sharon Stone/Gene Hackman western The Quick and the Dead (1995). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Director Sam Raimi brings his trademark comic book-influenced visual panache to this post-modern Western. Sharon Stone stars as Ellen, a mysterious female gunslinger who arrives in the frontier hamlet of Redemption for a contest pitting quick-draw artists against each other. The event is the brainchild of Redemption's evil, corrupt mayor, Herod (Gene Hackman), a criminal who has taken over the town and charges a 50% tax on local businesses. The pot for Herod's deadly game has swollen, attracting numerous colorful gunfighters from around the territory. As each battle thins the ranks of players, the pasts of several participants are revealed. Ellen is seeking revenge on Herod for a heinous past injustice. The fast-talking braggart known as "The Kid" (Leonardo DiCaprio) may in fact be Herod's son. The pacifist Reverend Cort (Russell Crowe), who refuses to participate in the bloodshed, is the fastest draw in the West and a former colleague of Herod's. After several spectacular slayings, Ellen and Herod stage a final showdown, but not before he has made her an unexpected proposal. The Quick and the Dead (1995) is dedicated to veteran Western actor Woody Strode, who appears in a cameo as Redemption's coffin maker, his final performance. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sharon Stone, Gene Hackman, (more)
Writer, director, and star Mario Van Peebles tried to correct historical misconceptions about African-Americans on the frontier with this action-packed western that's also an homage to spaghetti Westerns. During the Spanish-American War, a squadron of black soldiers led by Jesse Lee (Van Peebles) is assigned a dangerous mission behind enemy lines in Cuba by evil Colonel Graham (Billy Zane). Joined by a white gambler, Little J (Stephen Baldwin), the troupe is to recover a chest of gold. Realizing that Graham will slaughter them once they've relinquished the booty, Lee and his men retrieve the chest, wound Graham, and head for home. Ambushed by Graham in New Orleans, the "posse" heads for Lee's hometown of Freemanville, a frontier settlement of ex-slaves. Years ago, Lee's minister father (Robert Hooks) was murdered there by Klansmen, and the gunslinger wants revenge. There's new trouble brewing in Freemanville, however. Sheriff Bates (Richard Jordan), top lawman in neighboring Cutterville, plans to wipe out Freemanville's citizens and sell their lucrative property to a railroad. Then there's Graham, still on Lee's trail. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mario Van Peebles, Stephen Baldwin, (more)
Mark Frost, the writer and director best known for his work with David Lynch on the TV series Twin Peaks, made his feature film directorial debut with this convoluted thriller. Cray Fowler (James Spader) is running for congress, partly to satisfy his own political aspirations and partly to resolve certain controversies in his life; he divorced his wife after discovering that she was unfaithful, and his father committed suicide after he became involved in a scandal regarding valuable oil rights. While on the campaign trail, Fowler is persuaded to visit Lee Tran (Charlotte Lewis), a waitress he meets at a fund raiser. Fowler and Lee Tran have sex, which is caught on videotape; as if this isn't strong enough blackmail material, Lee Tran's father turns up dead in the room where Fowler wakes up. But Lee, not Fowler, is charged with the murder, and Fowler, a lawyer, agrees to defend her in court. Fowler wins the case against beautiful District Attorney Natalie Tate (Joanne Whalley-Kilmer), Fowler's former girlfriend, but now he needs to find out who is trying to set him up and for what reason; he hopes he can get some help from his uncle, Clifford Fowler (Jason Robards), a political kingmaker of the old school who knows all the family's secrets. The supporting cast includes Piper Laurie, Michael Parks, Chuck McCann, and Woody Strode. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Spader, Joanne Whalley, (more)
- 1990
- R
The fearsome, enigmatic leader of a downtrodden group ends up betrayed, put in prison and tormented in this drama. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Gathering of Old Men was based on the novel by Ernest J. Gaines, who'd previously written The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Like Pittman, Gathering builds its narrative upon a tapestry of deep-bred racial intolerance in the South. When a bigoted white Louisiana tenant farmer is killed, black sharecropper Louis Gossett Jr. is the most likely suspect. Plantation manager Holly Hunter, fearing a lynching, rallies Gossett's friends to form a united front to ward off any vigilantes. Sheriff Richard Widmark arrives to arrest Gossett, whereupon his old friends, in Spartacus fashion, all confess to the killing. Even threats of violent retaliation cannot dissuade these elderly black men from displaying their pride to the white powers-that-be. Adapted for television by Charles (A Soldier's Story) Fuller, it was first broadcast on May 10, 1987. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
On Fire stars John Forsythe as the chief arson inspector of a major metropolis. After 22 years' service as a firefighter, Forsythe is summarily ordered to retire. He tries to fight this in court, but learns that, although mandatory retirement is illegal on a federal basis, it can be enforced on a local level in cases of life-threatening jobs. While this TV movie starts well with Forsythe's anger and confusion over being cast adrift at age 60, the script descends into by-the-numbers melodrama after a harrowing experience leaves Forsythe more scared and distracted than ever. Carroll Baker, the "Baby Doll" of the 1950s, is cast against type in On Fire as John Forsythe's patient and supportive wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
NYC humans attempt to defend themselves against attacks from malevolent androids in this sci-fi martial arts actioner. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
A controversial spoof on the Spaghetti western (some love it, some hate it), Lust in the Dust features the 300-pound Divine as the inimitable Rosie Velez, riding into view in full drag on a poor donkey as solemn commentary muddles on about the passions that enslave men and women -- and then Rosie, who weighs more than the donkey, is gang-raped by Hard Case Williams' (Geoffrey Lewis) outlaws. Eventually Rosie is rescued by the tough, taciturn cowboy Abel Wood (Tab Hunter), and together they reach the miserable town of Chili Verde where the entire population, not many after all, can always be found at a saloon run by Marguerita Ventura (Lainie Kazan) and her nit-wit bouncer/gunslinger, Bernardo (Henry Silva). Abel soon discovers that the reason why the population is so interested in Marguerita's saloon has nothing to do with hard liquor -- Marguerita and Rosie each have one half of a map of buried treasure tattooed on their backsides, and everyone wants a look at the whole map. That situation introduces rather absurd bedroom farce. Viewers with a very broad if not bawdy sense of humor will most enjoy this earthy exercise in parody. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tab Hunter, Divine, (more)
- 1984
This routine actioner is about several models caught in a South American jungle battle between drug lords and drug busters. Cesar (Paul L. Smith) and Don Vito (John Vernon) are about to conclude a cocaine deal in Peru, and a drug enforcement agent is about to bust both men by sending a secret agent, disguised as a model, into the jungle with several other models, a photographer (Nina Van Pallandt), and their manager (Marjoe Gortner). Cesar shoots down the plane carrying the models, captures them alive and unharmed, and keeps them imprisoned where they are tortured by his evil sister (Sybil Danning). Just as everything looks the darkest, the final battle arrives at last. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul L. Smith, John Vernon, (more)
Combining electric song and dance performances with drama (both on and off screen), Francis Ford Coppola's The Cotton Club (1984) looks back to the 1920s-1930s peak of the legendary Harlem nightclub where only blacks performed and only whites could sit in the audience. Mixing historical figures with characters loosely based on actual people, Coppola and co-writers William Kennedy and The Godfather's Mario Puzo create a panorama of love, crime, and entertainment centered on the Club. Among them are cornet player Dixie Dwyer (Richard Gere, playing his own solos), who escapes psycho gangster "benefactor" Dutch Schultz (James Remar) for a George Raft-type Hollywood career as a gangster film star; Schultz's nubile mistress Vera Cicero (Diane Lane), who loves Dixie against her mercenary instincts; Cotton Club Mob owner Owney Madden (Bob Hoskins) and close associate Frenchy Demarge (Fred Gwynne); Vincent (Nicolas Cage), Dixie's no-good Mad Dog Coll-esque brother; Club tap star Sandman Williams (Gregory Hines), who woos ambitious light-skinned Club singer Lila Rose Oliver (Lonette McKee); and cameos by Charles "Honi" Coles and Cab Calloway impersonator Larry Marshall. Complementing the period story, Coppola evokes the style of '30s gangster movies and musicals through an array of old-fashioned devices like montages of headlines, songs and shoot-outs. Conceived by producer Robert Evans as his crowning achievement and directorial debut, Evans had to hand over the troubled production to Coppola, but the budget spiraled out of control as the script was repeatedly re-written throughout the chaotic shoot. By the time it was released, The Cotton Club's epic production story of power struggles, financial bloat, and even a murder overshadowed the "reunion" of The Godfather's creative team. Neither a Heaven's Gate-sized failure nor a wallet-saving hit like Coppola's Apocalypse Now, The Cotton Club got some favorable critical notices (although it drew fire for subordinating the African American stories). It did not, however, find a large enough audience to justify its expense and controversy, becoming another mark against 1970s "auteur" cinema in increasingly blockbuster-driven 1980s Hollywood. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Gere, Gregory Hines, (more)
Only Kelly Reno and Teri Garr from the cast of the original Black Stallion make appearances in The Black Stallion Returns. In the first film, young Reno rescued his beloved stallion from its cruel Arab owner. This time around, the stallion is abducted by Moroccan henchmen and bundled back to Africa. This paves the way for a repeat of all the salient action from the first Black Stallion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kelly Reno, Vincent Spano, (more)
- 1983
In this post-apocalyptic action film, a nuclear war has spread its contamination to all but a few protected cities. Scores of irradiated people are left outside the cities, and hunting them becomes the new sport for a group of elite citizens. It is up to a renegade engineer named Alan (William Mang) to remain alive long enough to stop the atrocities ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Mang, Marina Costa, (more)
The excessive violence in this action thriller makes New York City look like the site of a civil war -- or rather, a nauseatingly uncivil war fought between factory workers allied with neighborhood citizens against their enemies: drug pushers and other low-lifes. At first the worker Eddie Merino (Robert Forster) refuses to join a vigilante movement, but when his wife is stabbed and his son killed by a Puerto Rican gang, Eddie eventually opts for his own right to kill. His decision is not allowed to come quickly, he is made to agonize a bit longer. When the gang leader (singer Willie Colón) who killed Eddie's son is caught and brought up for trial, he gets off with a suspended sentence because of a corrupt defense lawyer and an inept judge. Eddie attacks the judge in court and is sent to jail for contempt. When he gets out of jail, he becomes a vigilante, out to kill the guilty or those he sees as protecting the guilty in the death of his son. From then on, a non-stop bloodbath takes over as the star of the film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Forster, Fred Williamson, (more)
- 1983
In a confusing plot that seems to skip a few vital points, three men fight together to rescue children in a region near the Lao-Thai-Cambodian border. Then Paolo (Woody Strode) turns against his two buddies and sets up shop running arms for the KGB and drugs for the Mafia. Eventually, one of the three buddies comes hunting for Strode to offer him a better deal: the U.S. government will give him even more money for what he is selling. Before a huge question mark can be raised over this twist, the three former buddies are back together again and out on another mission. Logic might have been a good ingredient to add here, anywhere. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Henry Silva, Harrison Muller, (more)
- 1983
- R
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Not to be confused with another Scream -- that of a jubilant Wes Craven when he went to the bank in 1993 with the release of his popular horror film -- this much weaker Scream was never heard at the box office. Like in many a similar film, a most thick-headed group of dullards go hiking for the weekend, this time in a remote Western ghost town. Once there, they end up joining the ghosts, one by one. As they sit waiting for the next victim to be bumped off, a horseback-riding stranger comes into town. He entertains them with a story of his seafaring days nearly a half-century earlier and then rides off -- but not for long. Apparently that was the intermission. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Pepper Martin, Hank Worden, (more)
- 1981
In a tale of drama and adventure, young journalist Andy Cameron (Robert Walker) has to get into Cambodia (it is assumed this is during the genocidal reign of Pol Pot). Cameron has to smuggle out his girlfriend Mieng (Nit Alisa) before she is killed (along with the other two million Cambodians), but he cannot manage this alone. He enlists the aid of an American Vietnam vet and the help of a few Khmer men. Eventually, Cameron makes his way into Cambodia where he encounters many dangers, some human and some inhuman (though the thousands of landmines that pose a continuing threat to a now peaceful Cambodia are not mentioned here). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher George, Woody Strode, (more)
Assignment: Kill Castro was originally released as Cuba Crossing. Stuart Whitman stars as a mercenary hired to "off" the Cuban dictator. He soon discovers that he will be immediately expendable once the deed is done, and that co-stars like Robert Vaughn should not automatically be trusted. Raymond St. Jacques, Woody Strode and Caren Kaye are among the good actors who appear fitfully in the film; the bulk of the story, however, is carried by such inexpensive unknowns as Mary Lou Gassen. Don't miss jewelry-bedecked pop star Monty Rock III as a "cruiser"--and we don't mean the Evinrude variety. A giveaway that Assignment: Kill Castro had trouble finding an audience is its plethora of alternate titles; in addition to Cuba Crossing, the film was also known as Kill Castro, The Mercenaries and Sweet Violent Tony. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Whitman, Robert Vaughn, (more)
- 1980
In the series' only Christmas episode, Bo (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat) are delivering Christmas trees to needy families when their cargo is hijacked by the hired goons of Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke). Accused of staging the hijacking themselves, the Duke boys have to do some quick thinkin' to clear themselves and to force the Spirit of Christmas down "Scrooge" Hogg's throat. In addition to serving up a Hazzard County variation on Charles Dicken's"A Christmas Carol", this episode is highlighted by a wild finale involving no fewer than three identical pickup trucks! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
- PG
Set in the ravaged post-WWIII world, this grim sci-fi fantasy centers on the vengeful quest of a bereaved husband whose wife was raped and murdered by a gang of leather-clad bikers. After getting his revenge, the fellow roars off on the other's bike and along the way encounters another survivor who has food and weapons. They set off together and then find a beautiful young woman who joins them. Though there is strength in numbers, their troubles are far from over for the bikers aren't through with them yet. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Harris, Ann Turkel, (more)
- 1979
- PG
Karate champion Joe Lewis stars as a special agent on a worldwide mission to put the skids on a drug cartel. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Joe Lewis, Christopher Lee, (more)
In Kingdom of the Spiders a swarm of huge tarantulas, enraged by the misuse of pesticides, try to take over their part of the world. Dr. Robert Hansen (William Shatner), a local Arizona veterinarian joins forces with entomologist Diane Ashley (Tiffany Bolling) to keep the spider population under control. Woody Strode and Altovise Davis also appear as the owners of a neighboring ranch. Unstylishly directed by John Cardos and produced with a sense of humor by "Arachnid Productions," -- and despite bad dialogue, wooden acting and poor special effects -- Kingdom of the Spiders has become a cult classic and favorite of several generations of giant insect horror film buffs. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Shatner, Tiffany Bolling, (more)
The Longest Drive is the syndication title for the network TV movie The Quest, which first aired May 13, 1976. Evidently inspired by John Ford's The Searchers, this western concerns the search by two brothers, Quentin and Morgan Baudine (Tim Matheson, Kurt Russell), for their sister, who as an infant was kidnaped by Indians. Morgan himself had spent time as an "adopted" Cheyenne tribesman; his Indian name was, appropriately enough, Two Persons. Breaking up the main storyline is a subplot involving desert rat Brian Keith and a race between a horse and a camel! Written by Tracy Keenan Wynn (Tribes), The Longest Drive served as the pilot for the subsequent Quest weekly series, which ran from September 22 to December 29, 1976. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Half-breed Keoma (Franco Nero) returns to his border hometown after service in the Civil War and finds it under the control of Caldwell (Donald O'Brien), an ex-Confederate raider, and his vicious gang of thugs. To make matters worse, Keoma's three half-brothers have joined forces with Caldwell, and make it painfully clear that his return is an unwelcome one. Determined to break Caldwell and his brothers' grip on the town, Keoma partners with his father's former ranch hand (Woody Strode) to exact violent revenge. ~ Paul Gaita, All Movie Guide
- 1976
- PG
This melodramatic adventure follows the exploits of a young Blackfoot Indian who goes to the Anglos for some badly needed smallpox serum. Instead of helping him, they attack. The young man is enraged and retaliates by kidnapping two young people from the unfriendly settlement. He takes them through beautiful wild country, and as they go he and his female hostage begin falling in love. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Leif Erickson, Woody Strode, (more)
