Lonny Chapman Movies

Filling the shoes occupied by Walter Matthau in the Bad News Bears and William Devane in The Bad News Bears in Breaking Training, Tony Curtis takes on the role of the teams newest coach in this, the third installment in the series. Jackie Earle Haley returns as Kelly Leak, the Bears' star player, as the team ventures to the other side of the world to face off against the best little league team in Japan. While there, the Bears find their way into mischief and Kelly finds love with a local girl. Though this was the last entry in the film series a television series followed a year later. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide

Quincy (Jack Klugman) and Sam (Robert Ito) are summoned to the small Arizona town of Porterville, where a mysterious disease has sent several local citizens to the hospital. The source of the disease remains a mystery until Quincy finds a correlation between the human epidemic and and malady that is decimating the livestock of tyrannical cattle baron Jack Porter (Guy Stockwell). This episode was originally scheduled to air on December 2, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Two interesting figures in offbeat cinema -- director Matt Cimber (who was married to Jayne Mansfield and directed her final film before going on to a handful of expressive blaxploitation efforts) and screenwriter Robert Thom (who wrote Wild in the Streets and Bloody Mama) -- teamed up for this unusual portrait of one woman's descent into madness. Molly (Millie Perkins) is a woman who is haunted by vivid memories of abuse and molestation at the hands of her father, who was a ship's captain; now middle-aged, Molly is obsessed by the ocean and images associated with pirates and sailing lore, which fill her with both fascination and loathing. Molly dotes on her young nephews (Jean Pierre Camps and Mark Livingston) and often spins tall tales for them in which her father is a noble hero, but her sister, Cathy (Vanessa Brown), is not comfortable with her presence, and soon the boys are old enough to spend their time elsewhere. Single and lonely, Molly longs for a man, and is openly attracted to strong, burly types, but at the same time she bears a deep hatred for them, and sometimes murders and dismembers the men she lures into her home. However, given Molly's penchant for fantasy, how much of her story is real, and how much is the product of her twisted imagination? Shot in 1971 but not released until 1976, The Witch Who Came From the Sea was one of the first feature films for cinematographer Dean Cundey, who later went on to work with Steven Spielberg and Ron Howard. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

A tense turf battle between rival street gangs becomes full-fledged warfare after one teen is knifed in a reprisal raid. Caught in the middle is dedicated youth-center worker Eddie Griffin, played by former Mission: Impossible regular Greg Morris. Efforts by Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) to avoid further bloodshed are complicated by Griffin's insistence upon trying to defuse the situation himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The made-for-TV Hurricane was based on William C. Anderson's novel Hurricane Hunters, which, in turn, was inspired by events surrounding Hurricane Camille in 1969. The scene is Cassler, MS, where a pair of hurricane chasers, patrol-plane pilot Major Stoddard (Martin Milner) and seafarer Paul Damon (Larry Hagman) do their best to rescue the citizens of the community from a devastating storm. Other key characters include: feminist TV weatherperson Lee Jackson (Michael Learned); old-fashioned (but shrewd) meteorologist Dr. McCutcheon (Will Geer); Damon's imperiled wife, Louise (Jessica Walter); and oblivious Bert Pearson (Frank Sutton in his final movie role). Hurricane originally aired September 10, 1974, as the first installment of a brand-new ABC Movie of the Week season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the novel by Wilson Rawls, this film follows the events that befall a young Oklahoma farm boy as he, with the help of his two beloved hounds, struggles to help his family get by in the hard times of the 1930s. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

This Mexican-filmed melodrama was released under a multitude of titles. Running Wild was evidently its working title, but even this apparently changed from day to day. Lloyd Bridges is given top billing, though Dina Merrill carries the plot as a big-city reporter who heads west to cover the activities of a humanitarian movement. Wild horses are being rounded up to be sold to dog-food companies, and a group of pro-animal activists want this practice to be discontinued. Veteran actors Pat Hingle, Morgan Woodward and Gilbert Roland manage to avoid the "take the money and run" attitude that most major names impose upon quickies like Running Wild. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Monte Markham plays a professor of psychic phenomena who is himself "blessed" with ESP. When Monte picks up vibes about a plan to plant a time bomb, the cops don't believe him. Later the authorities change their minds, and finger Markham as their Number One suspect (maybe they've been watching all those other TV movies in which Monte turned out to be the "surprise killer"). That ellipsis at the end of the title Visions... led viewers to expect a punch line, so the film was retitled Visions of Death for syndication. On-location filming in Denver is one of the few tangible assets of this predictable yarn. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In the conclusion of a two-part story (originally telecast as a single two-hour episode), Ironside (Raymond Burr) works in concert with attorney Ken Klaven (Cameron Mitchell) to secure the release of Walter Booth (William Campbell), whom the Chief had sent to prison on a manslaughter charge seven years before. Though now convinced of Booth's innocence, Ironside encounters a great deal of trouble persuading the DA's office. The Chief's only hope is to force a young woman to come forward with testimony she'd withheld during the original trial--but there are mysterious forces who are determined to silence both Ironside and his witness for keeps! Prominent in the supporting cast is Geraldine Brooks, who had played the sniper responsible for the Chief's confinement to a wheelchair in the original 1967 Ironside pilot film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gerald S. O'Loughlin makes a return visit to Mission: Impossible, this time in the role of Syndicate chieftan Frank Delaney. To break the mob's stranglehold on the waterfront, the IMF endeavor to terrify Delaney into providing evidence against himself and his cohorts. Phelps impersonates the skipper of a "haunted" freighter, while Casey poses as the daughter of one of Delaney's murder victims. Written by Ed Adamson and Norman Katkov, "Shape Up" first aired on October 16, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Pirosh's teleplay for this Bonanza episode was based on an actual 19th century phenomenon. In the years following the Civil War, many young and disillusioned ex-soldiers formed nomadic groups called the "Weary Willies", who roamed throughout the west living off the land and avoiding "proper" employment. In other words, they were the hippies of their time, something with which viewers could instantly relate when this episode first aired on September 27, 1970. In the course of the story, the Ponderosa welcomes the Willies to their property, but their neighbors do not. When a girl is attacked, the Willies are accused of the crime, but the truth lies closer to home. The cast includes a pre-Waltons Richard Thomas as Billy, Lee Purcell as Angie, Elisha Cook Jr. as Marcus, and Kevin Tighe as Krulak. In keeping with its flower-child ambience, "The Weary Willies" features several songs, including "Man Passing Through", "Blood Brothers" and "It Won't Be Very Long". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

When Woody Allen's fans refer to his "earlier, funnier" pictures, they often cite his directorial debut as a shining example. Co-written by Allen and Mickey Rose, this side-splitting takeoff of crime documentaries stars Allen as Virgil Starkwell, a sweetly inept career criminal. The film's most celebrated sequence involves Virgil's inability to write coherent holdup notes ("I have a gub"), but others include Virgil's losing battle with a recalcitrant coke machine and his misguided effort to emulate John Dillinger by carving a gun out of a bar of soap (his weapon disintegrates in a heavy rain). As was often the case in Allen's early films, not all the gags work, but for the most part, Take the Money and Run is a delight, enhanced by the on-target supporting performances of Janet Margolin, Marcel Hillaire, and (uncredited) Louise Lasser, as well as the energetic musical score of Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide