Mel Welles Movies

When a group of evil, power-hungry people take over a trio of kingdoms, it is up to a young magician to free his lands from their rule. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

Invading aliens seek to control the minds of viewers at a sci-fi film festival in this monster spoof. The aliens hope to numb the minds of the unsuspecting viewers and change them into zombies. Clips from many of the science fiction favorites of the 1950s and 1960s are included in the plot in which four teens band together to stop the fiendish aliens. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

This high-tech spin on the slasher genre pits a group of sex-obsessed teens spending the night in a shopping mall against the mall's marauding robotic security guards -- whose programming turns homicidal after a bolt of lightning scrambles their control circuits. Director Jim Wynorski cut his exploitation teeth working for Roger Corman's legendary "B"-movie factory New World Pictures in the '70s and '80s, and this film's comic early scenes contain homages to that outfit's heyday -- with humorous cameos from Paul Bartel and Mary Woronov (reprising their characters Paul and Mary Bland from Bartel's Eating Raoul) and the ubiquitous Dick Miller. The majority of the film, however, is essentially a teens-in-jeopardy story, with the lethal bots unleashing their amped-up arsenal and bringing the victims to nasty ends amid buckets of gore -- such as the unforgettable moment when one woman's head is targeted by one of the droids and blown up like an overripe melon. (The shot is repeated during the end credits.) ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

A group of teens search for a woman to help them lose their innocence in this sex comedy from Boaz Davidson. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

Wolfen, a frightening horror movie based upon a novel by Whitley Strieber, is an absorbing update on the werewolf legend. Detective Dewey Wilson (Albert Finney) is assigned to investigate the strange murder of a millionaire and his wife in a downtown park. Wilson and his friend, city coroner Whittington (Gregory Hines), aided by criminal psychologist Rebecca Neff (Diane Venora) connect the killing to those of several others, primarily winos, drug addicts and derelicts, all of whom seem to have been mutilated by wild animals. Their search leads them to a group of Native Americans led by Edward James Olmos who tell them of a legend of a superior species that once roamed the area, but now are living and hunting in the slums of New York. The film is engrossing, frightening and intelligent, with sensational special effects. Director Michael Wadleigh uses these effects to great advantage, frequently showing the movements of the characters through the eyes of the "Wolfen." This film is also the screen debut of Gregory Hines. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Mel Welles, best remembered for his portrayal of skid-row florist Mushnick in Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors, occupied the director's chair for Joy Ride to Nowhere. Leading ladies Leslie Ackerman and Sandy Serrano play two bored suburbanites who decide to hit the road together. Along the way, they stumble across a fortune in stolen loot. The film is aptly titled; though a lot of ground is covered, it's really much ado about nothing. Completed in 1978, Joy Ride to Nowhere lay on the shelf until 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Mel Welles, who faced the wrath of a man-eating plant as florist Gravis Mushnik in Roger Corman's Little Shop of Horrors, moves to the other side of the camera to direct a film featuring even more specimens of carnivorous plant-life. Cameron Mitchell portrays the evil, worm-munching Von Wesser, a homicidal horticulturist on a remote island who breeds several forms of monstrous hybrid plants which feed on human blood. His routine practice of feeding wealthy tourists to the hungry foliage proves his undoing when intrepid shutterbug David Moss (George Martin) catches on. Silly but fun, this campy Spanish production benefits from some wonderfully seedy (no pun intended) character types whose unpleasant behavior makes their gruesome deaths particularly satisfying. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

This fact-based, but exploitational drama, chronicles the sordid case of Christine Keeler. It opens with an actual interview with the woman who had just been released from prison. The story begins in London where Keeler worked as a model and a hostess. There she meets Barrymore and soon ends up living with him platonically. She falls for a West Indian musician and leaves Barrymore. She is at a crazy pool party when she encounters the British minister of war and the Russian naval attache. She gets involved with both of them and the musician gets mad enough to shoot through her door. Scotland Yard investigates and exposes the great scandal causing the minister to step-down, the Russian to return home, and Barrymore to kill himself. For her part in the trouble, Keeler spent 9 months in jail. The film was made when the whole mess was still in the public eye. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Perhaps the greatest movie ever shot in two days, Little Shop of Horrors was originally conceived as a followup to Roger Corman's black comedy A Bucket of Blood (1959). Jonathan Haze plays Seymour Krelboin, a schlemiel's schlemiel who works at the Skid Row flower shop of Mr. Mushnick (Mel Welles). Experimenting in his spare time, Seymour develops a new plant species that he hopes will lead him to fame and fortune. Unfortunately, the mutated plant -- named Audrey Junior, in honor of Seymour's girlfriend Audrey (Jackie Joseph) -- subsists on blood and human flesh. It also talks, or rather, commands: "Feed Me! FEEEEED ME!" Before long, the luckless Seymour has fed his plant the bodies of a railroad detective, a sadistic dentist, and a flashy trollop. Meanwhile, Mr. Mushnik, who has stumbled onto Seymour's secret, has inadvertently offered up a burglar (played by Charles Griffith, who also wrote the script and supplied the plant's voice) as a midnight snack for the voracious, ever-growing Audrey Junior. (When the plant blooms, the faces of its various victims are reproduced in its flowers.) Ignored on its initial release, Little Shop of Horrors began building up a cult following via repeated TV exposure in the 1960s. By the mid-1970s, it had attained classic status, spawning a big-budget Broadway musical (and followup feature film) in the 1980s and a Saturday morning cartoon series in the 1990s. Enhancing the original Little Shop's reputation was the brief appearance by star-in-the-making Jack Nicholson as a masochistic dental patient (Nicholson is often incorrectly referred to as the star of the film, though in fact he barely receives billing). Much as we love Nicholson, our vote for the most memorable Little Shop cast member goes to the ubiquitous Dick Miller ("No thanks, I'll eat it here"). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A perennial victim of bullying, shy young Kurt Sprague (Peter Breck) hires Paladin (Richard Boone) to teach him how to use a gun. Paladin proceeds according to plan, but when it becomes obvious that Kurt enjoys the prospect of shooting down other men, he is told to "take that gun off and forget it." But it's already too late: The next time Paladin sees Kurt, the boy has transformed into a sadistic gunslinger who kills for the love of killing. This episode was written by Frank D. Gilroy, future author of the prize-winning Broadway play "The Subject Was Roses." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

On the verge of starting a business with Walter Osbourne (John Vivyan) in Mexico, Bart (Jack Kelly) discovers that all his money has been stolen by can-can dancer Karen Gustavson (Anna-Lisa). Tracking the girl down, Bart is not entirely convinced when Karen insists that the grabbed the cash in order to save his life. But when two sinister strangers express an interest in the money as well, Bart begins to believe Karen's story. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Its title notwithstanding, Roger Corman's Rock All Night is a tense little hostage melodrama. Corman regular Dick Miller stars as Shorty, a much-maligned hanger-on at the Cloud Nine tavern. Shorty's hotheaded pugnaciousness comes in handy when a pair of gunmen (played by Russell Johnson--yes, "The Professor" on Gilligan's Island! -- and Jonathan Haze) invade the Cloud Nine and terrorize the patrons. Mel Welles, who later played the kvetching flower-store proprietor in Little Shop of Horrors, is a riot as a hip-talking showbiz agent. Also on hand is Abby Dalton, the soon-to-be star of Corman's Viking Women and the Sea Serpent. The film's very brief musical interludes are provided by the Platters and the Blockbusters. Rock All Night was originally released on a double bill with Dragstrip Girl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Journalist Helmut Dantine, having spent eight years as a convict on Devil's Island, devotes his energies to exposing the horrible conditions at the notorious penal colony. The governor of French Guinea is sympathetic but helpless, since the Devil's Island overseer (William Talman) has technically committed no crime. Investigating the situation, Dantine learns that Talman is the mastermind of a gold-smuggling operation run by the owners of a nearby plantation. The reporter catches Talman in the act, breaks up the operation, and claims the governor's daughter (Donna Martell) for the fadeout clinch. Hell on Devil's Island is one of a group of inexpensive second features produced by 20th Century-Fox's Regal Films division in the late 1950s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide