Alex Sharp Movies

Co-written by Paul Reubens and Phil Hartman, Pee Wee's Big Adventure marks the debut of director Tim Burton, who stamps the entire film with his quirky trademark style. The premise: Pee Wee (Reubens), an overgrown pre-pubescent boy sporting a molded Princeton cut, blush, lipstick, and a shrunken gray flannel suit, lives an idyllic life in his bizarre home (some have compared the remarkable set design to the expressionistic The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari) until someone nabs his most prized possession: a fire engine-red customized bicycle. He then embarks on an epic cross-country search to find his lost love, not to mention more than a little adventure. Along the way, he makes friends with various oddball characters, visits the Alamo, endures various hallucinatory nightmares, and has a supernatural run-in with a spectral trucker. In this reprisal of his popular standup routine, Reubens is wonderful as the nerdy man child; he plays it silly, yet he manages to imbue the role with some sensitivity without ever seeming maudlin. The score by Danny Elfman is terrific -- as is the case in nearly every film Burton has directed -- and the script is fresh and inventive. Some of the most memorable moments: the opening sequence involving Pee Wee's morning activities is a stroke of genius (note the bunny slippers and talking breakfast), as are the scenes at the truck stop, and the "Hollywood" version of Pee Wee's story at the end (starring James Brolin and Morgan Fairchild in surprise cameos). In all, Pee Wee's Big Adventure is a delightful film, enjoyable for children as well as adults. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

Jake (Charles Grodin), an insurance investigator, is assigned to probe the killing of a wealthy businessman in Acapulco. To help him, he hires a beautiful New York model, Ellie (Farah Fawcett), to act as his wife, and they pretend to be tourists on vacation. Art Carney plays Marcus, a local detective who befriends Jake but gets him into various scrapes. Joan Collins also appears as the suspicious Nera. Sunburn was a made-for-TV movie which featured a pop-song soundtrack blaring from characters' tape recorders that included tunes by Herbie Hancock. The movie was based on the novel The Bind by Stanley Ellin. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

When Jonathan Garvey's crops burn, leaving his family destitute, his wife, Alice (Hersha Parady), decides to take a job at the local post office. But the stubbornly proud Jonathan (Merlin Olsen) is outraged that his wife must support his family, and threatens to divorce her if she doesn't quit her job and come home. Before long, the conflict separating the Garveys has spread to the rest of the men and women of Walnut Grove. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With Howard Hawks's Bringing Up Baby (1938) as his blueprint, Peter Bogdanovich resurrected and payed homage to 1930s screwball comedy in What's Up, Doc? (1972). When wacky co-ed Judy Maxwell (Barbra Streisand, in the Katharine Hepburn part) spies nebbishy musicologist Howard Bannister (Ryan O'Neal in bespectacled Cary Grant mode) in a San Francisco hotel lobby, she decides that Howard and his precious igneous rocks are right up her alley. Too bad Howard already has a fiancée, the propriety-fixated Eunice (Madeline Kahn in her film debut). Using all her arcane knowledge from brief stays at numerous colleges, Judy tries to charm her way to a $20,000 grant for Howard, and Howard himself, at a banquet with grantor Frederick Larrabee (Austin Pendleton). Things get even more complicated the next day when Judy's underwear-filled overnight bag gets mixed up with Howard's rock bag, which gets mixed up with Mrs. Van Hoskins' bag of jewels, which gets mixed up with Mr. Smith's bag of top secret government papers. All sides converge at Larrabee's mod townhouse and the chase begins. Retaining Hawks' machine-gun pace (as well as the sly pop culture referentiality of Billy Wilder), Bogdanovich and writers Buck Henry, David Newman, and Robert Benton updated the opposites-attract screwball convention for contemporary times. O'Neal gently parodied not only Grant but also his own Love Story (1970) preppy, while Kahn represents stiff-wigged 1950s manners as opposed to Streisand's long-haired, pants-wearing free spirit. The happy ending, in which Cole Porter-belting youth wins out over old manners, found favor with audiences, as What's Up, Doc? became one of the most popular films of 1972, and the second hit in a row for Bogdanovich after 1971's The Last Picture Show. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Aranda (Rodolfo Acosta, the Mexican-born sheriff of Prince River, regularly betrays his own people by participating in a land grab perpetrated by ruthless miner Owen Driscoll (Warren Stevens). The Cartwrights become involved when Aranda frames Mexican farmer Ramon Cardenas (Jaime Sanchez) for murder, the first step in Driscoll's scheme to buy out the other farmers for ridiculously low prices. A shocker ending caps this Bonanza episode, which was written by Ken Pettus and Dick McDonough. "El Jefe" first aired on November 15, 1970. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lola Albright returns in the role of crusading frontier newspaperwoman Ann Williams. Once again, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) comes to Ann's aid in her efforts to break an important news story. This makes Jason a very busy man: He has already hired on as surveyor for a railroad, thus also making him a target for extermination by train-hating freight line owner Tad Evers (John Ireland). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Film favorite Joan Leslie appears in this episode as Mrs. Cooper, a Quaker widow who hires Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) as a ranch hand. It soon develops that Jason will also have to act as Mrs. Cooper's bodyguard, thanks to vengeful one-armed rancher Renger (John Ireland). Embittered over the fact that he was crippled in a war in which Mrs. Cooper's pacifist husband refused to fight, Renger is determined to drive the widow off her land--and he's not above committing extreme acts of violence to achieve his goal. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Vengeance is a low-key American "B" western with a largely unknown cast. William Thourlby plays ex-Confederate officer, who seeks revenge for his brother's death. Only after much blood is shed does Thourlby discover that the man he seeks is not the genuine culprit. Wrestlers Tiger Joe Marsh and the Great John L show up in bit roles. Vengeance attained a bit of regional drive-in play before being consigned to the Late Show. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Old Sheba" is a scraggly circus elephant, which the Cartwrights receive as payment for Hoss' one-night stand as a big-top performer. Ben and Adam insist that Hoss and Joe return the pachyderm, but the boys are convinced that they can take care of Old Sheba all by themselves. To make a long story short, they can't. Also appearing are William Demarest as Tweedy, Henry Kulky as Bearcat, and Clegg Hoyt as Barney. First shown on November 22, 1964, the hilarious "Old Sheba" was written by Alex Sharp. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this comic episode, Adam and Hoss Cartwright want to enter their newly purchased thoroughbred in the Virginia City Sweepstakes. Alas, Hoss loses the horse in a card game, and now must move heaven and earth to win the nag back. Complication piles upon complication, culminating in a wild racetrack finish wherein Little Joe is pressed into service as a jockey. The supporting cast is filled to overflowing with such familiar character actors as William Demarest, Ellen Corby, and Percy Helton. Written by Alex Sharp, "The Hayburner" was originally telecast on February 17, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While Ben Cartwright nurses his son Adam through a high fever, his thoughts drift back to Adam's late mother, Ben's first wife Elizabeth (Geraldine Brooks. Ben also recalls his seafaring days under the command of Captain Abel Morgan Stoddard (Torin Thatcher), Elizabeth's father. Also in the cast are Berry Kroeger as Mandible, Richard Collier as Otto, Alex Sharpe as Blackmer, and future Mary Tyler Moore Show regular Ted Knight. First seen on May 27, 1961, this classic Bonanza episode was written by Anthony Lawrence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this dark drama, a schizophrenic is forced out of his hospital due to overcrowding, and his doctors tell him to avoid stressful situations. He goes to a beachside motel and likes both the area and the owner's daughter. Her father discovers that he is a mental patient and threatens to have him recommitted unless he leaves his daughter alone. The schizophrenic snaps momentarily, killing him, and he and the daughter flee down the beach. He tries to kill her by pushing her into the water, but comes to his senses and rescues her. He ends up turning himself in. ~ Steve Huey, All Movie Guide

Strong acting and direction overcomes the more cliched aspects of Red Sundown. It all begins when gunslinger Alec Longmire (Rory Calhoun), weary of living up to his reputation, decides to hang up his firearms and start life anew as a cowpuncher. Before long, however, Alec is obliged to strap on his shooting irons as the deputy of sheriff Jade Murphy (Dean Jagger). It's for a good cause, of course: Murphy hopes to avoid a violent range war with a nonviolent show of force. Will Longmire be able to keep the peace without resorting to his six-guns, or will his hand be forced by crooked land baron Rufus Henshaw (Robert Middleton) and Henshaw's menacing hired gun Chet Swann (Robert Middleton)? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide