Annazette Chase Movies
In The Toy, director Richard Donner and screenwriter Carol Sobieski update the 1976 Pierre Richard farce Le Jouet as a vehicle for comedian Richard Pryor. Pryor stars as out-of-work journalist Jack Brown, who's hit with the sudden realization that his idle book writing won't pay a 10,000-dollar sum necessary to keep his house from going to auction. Desperate, he is improbably hired as a cleaning lady in the offices of rich businessman and newspaper magnate U.S. Bates (Jackie Gleason). Running afoul of Bates' quick temper, Jack gets the axe, but is later spotted goofing around in a Bates-owned toy store by Bates' bratty son, Eric (Scott Schwartz), who's spending his annual week together with his estranged father. Taking his father's offer that he may have "anything in the store" quite literally, the spoiled kid asks for Jack as his personal toy for the week. Initially unwilling to be treated as a possession, Jack soon agrees after Bates offers to pay him enough to climb out of debt. When Eric's idea of fun includes dumping buckets of booby-trapped oatmeal on Jack's head and riding down the stairs of his father's mansion with Jack riding shotgun in a miniature car, it tests both Jack's patience and his resolve. But Jack discovers that Bates is ignoring Eric, which strengthens the bond between them and prompts them to seek revenge on the big jerk. ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Pryor, Jackie Gleason, (more)
- 1979
The 11th Victim was partially based on the activities of California's Hillside Strangler. Bess Armstrong stars as a Des Moines TV journalist whose younger sister, an aspiring actress, has entered a life of prostitution in Los Angeles. When the sister becomes the eleventh victim of a sex murderer, Armstrong conducts her own investigation into Hollywood's night world of commercial sex. Max Gail plays a sympathetic cop who tries to save her from becoming a victim herself. The 11th Victim had potential, but was defeated by the usual TV-movie budgetary restrictions and desire to exploit rather than explore a "hot" issue. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
With Muhammad Ali cast as himself, The Greatest covers Ali's life from his "Cassius Clay" days to the celebrated Ali/George Foreman bout. Along the way, the film focuses on Ali's conversion to Islam and his potentially career-breaking decision not to serve in the Army. Ernest Borgnine palys Ali's first trainer Angelo Dundee, while Roger E. Mosley shows up as Sonny Liston. The Greatest was the final directorial effort from the late Tom Gries. The same subject would later be covered in Michael Mann's Ali, starring Will Smith as the champ. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Muhammad Ali, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
- 1976
Black Fist, a tedious "blaxploitation" film made in 1976, concerns a young man -- Leroy Fist (Richard Lawson) -- who becomes involved in the mob. When he attempts to change his life, the mobsters kills his wife and Leroy goes out to seek his bloody revenge. The film contains much action but generates little real interest because the characters are lifeless and the plot trite. Black Fist was also released as Homeboy and Black Streetfighter. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Isaac Hayes makes his first appearance as ex-convict Gandolph "Gandy" Fitch--and in the bargain, contributes his own character's theme music. Released from San Quentin after 20 years, Gandy hires Jim (James Garner) to prove that he was innocent of the crime for which he was convicted: namely, the murder of his girlfriend Lila. Though he's fairly certain that Gandy was guilty, and despite his resentment over his client's insistance upon calling him "Rockfish", Jim accepts the job...and the process nearly meets his doom at the hands of Lila's vengeful family. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1976
Part 2, Sounder was the sequel to the 1973 filmization of William H. Armstrong's novel Sounder, with the same scenarist (Lonnie Elder III) but with a different director (Graham) and releasing company (Gamma III). Still set amongst Depression-era black sharecroppers in Louisiana, Part 2 features Harold Sylvester and Ebony Wright stepping into the roles originated in first film by Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson. They're still struggling against poverty and prejudice, but have now been given a ray of hope by activist teacher Anzanette Chase (taking over from first film's Janet McLachlan). Her school is closed down by the white landowners, who don't want the "coloreds" to get too "uppity." The sharecroppers band together to build their own school, so that their children can learn to create a better world. Musician Taj Mahal is back from the first film, doubling in a supporting role and providing the musical score. Originally designed as a made-for-TV movie, Part 2: Sounder was redirected to theatres instead. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harold Sylvester, Ebony Wright, (more)
Isaac Hayes puts his gun where his groove is in his role as hard-case bounty hunter Mack "Truck" Turner, three years after composing the legendary score for Shaft (1971). Ex-football star turned skip-tracer, Turner specializes in bringing in the criminals police are too scared to chase, and when he's hired to capture sociopathic pimp Gator (Paul Harris), he finds himself confronted by the most vicious killers in the underground scene. Little does Turner know that Gator's woman, Dorinda (Nichelle Nichols), has a deep-running cold streak of vengeance, and has hired ruthless hit man Harvard Blue (Yaphet Kotto), as well as a legion of other like-minded and equally determined assassins, to snuff out Truck's supercharged motor once and for all. It's now up to Truck to keep his cool long enough to get to the source of the seemingly endless stream of bullets that come at increasingly unsettling intervals. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Fred (Redd Foxx) and Lamont (Demond Wilson) must travel to St. Louis to collect the 1,500-dollar inheritance left by Fred's late Uncle Leotis. Unfortunately, this requires them to take a plane -- and Fred of course is terrified at the prospect of flying. Only after Fred has made the "supreme sacrifice" (and driven everyone crazy in the process) do we learn that the jaunt to St. Louis is all for naught. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Redd Foxx, Demond Wilson, (more)
A box-office success during the early '70s, this blaxploitation flick traces the life of a Bay Area pimp facing drug dealers, crooked cops and fellow pimps ready to settle a few scores. Richard Pryor makes a small appearance as Slim. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Max Julien, Richard Pryor, (more)
In the Los Angeles of yoga, therapy, and well-off liberals, a divorcé decides that his ex-wife is the love of his life in Paul Mazursky's romantic comedy. Beverly Hills divorce lawyer Stephen Blume (George Segal) becomes his own client when his social worker wife Nina (Susan Anspach) throws him out for sleeping with his secretary. Only then does Blume realize that he can't live without Nina, even though she seems fine without him, and he has a new sex partner in divorcée Arlene (Marsha Mason). So what does he do to win Nina back? Befriend her laid-back musician beau, Elmo (Kris Kristofferson), show up at her house with breakfast bagels, eavesdrop on her therapy sessions, and forcibly impregnate her, of course. Banished to their former honeymoon site in Venice, Italy while Nina thinks things over, Blume reflects on his past and his obsession, as he dreamily hopes for the best. Cutting between Blume's musings on love and loss in Venice's Piazza San Marco and the events in L.A. that brought him there, Mazursky humorously yet sharply dissects the complications of marriage in the let-it-all-hang-out Me Decade of the 1970s. Blume and Nina face the same dilemma as the couples in Mazursky's 1969 hit Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice: how to mesh traditional vows with the new freedom and its temptations. In this case, it takes a divorce to convince the solipsistic Blume that the woman he wants most is his own wife. Considered by some critics one of the decade's best interrogations of contemporary coupledom, Blume in Love astutely captured the absurdity of Blume's self-involved romantic quest, while slyly celebrating the operatic spirit of love that drives him. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Segal, Susan Anspach, (more)
- 1965
This is the second Perry Mason episode based on Erle Stanley Gardner's 1940 novel The Case of the Vagabond Virgin (the first version, filmed in 1958, was discreetly retitled "The Case of the Vagabond Vixen"). After giving a ride to pretty hitchhiker Debbie Conrad (Angela Dorian), Victor Montalvo (Philip Bourneuf), the Hefneresqe co-owner of a men's club called the Golden Bear, is blackmailed by Debbie and her partner in crime Rick Durbin (Bruce Glover). Things go from bad to worse when Montalvo is charged with the murder of his partner Stacey Garrett (George Neise). In order to clear Montalvo, Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) must locate the only person who can provide the poor fellow with an alibi--and that person is Debbie Conrad, who has apparently vanished from the face of the earth! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
