Craig Wasson Movies
Born in Oregon, Craig Wasson was educated at that state's university. Wasson made his first Broadway appearance in 1975's All God's Chillun Got Wings. Three years later, he made his film bow in Boys from Company C, for which he also wrote and performed a song. His TV credits include continuing roles on Phyllis (1975) and Skag (1980), and the part of Mark Twain in the 1983 "American Playhouse" presentation Innocents Abroad. Craig Wesson is best known to Brian De Palma devotees for his performance as claustrophobic actor Jake Scully in Body Double (1984). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
Mildred (Linda Gillin) is a young woman caught in the vise of a gender conflict, made worse by the fact that she has bought into all the female stereotypes against her own nature. Mildred fantasizes about "true love" and is sure that she has found it in the person of Max (Craig Wasson), a super-macho cowboy who whoops it up with the boys at O'Rears. All the bravado cannot disguise an underlying emptiness, but neither can it improve Max's character. He and his overbearing buddies do not have a clue - about anything - and Mildred suffers because of their crass behavior. The more she tries to reach out to Max, the more he mistreats her until one day Mildred ends up injured and in the hospital because of one of Max's crude stunts. He comes to visit her, and at that point, Mildred must either look at the truth or bury herself in a neurotic denial. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Wasson, Linda Gillin, (more)
- 1981
Thornwell was based on a documentary directed by Harry Moses, which formed the nucleus of a 60 Minutes piece. Moses also directed this TV-movie dramatization of the incident, a truly shameful chapter in the history of the American military. James Thornwell (Glynn E. Turman), an African American soldier suspected in 1961 of being a spy, is subjected to an intense, painful, and humiliating interrogation. The Army's grilling tactics are within the accepted boundaries--until it is decided to use Thornwell as a guinea pig for the "mind-expanding" drug LSD. Once released, Thornwell suffers from mental and physical agony which he cannot fully comprehend, because he has no idea that he's been pumped full of the hallucinogenic drug. It is only 16 years later, thanks to the Freedom of Information act, that Thornwell learns what has been done to him. He is awarded a sizeable cash settlement by Congress, but Thornwell makes clear that this is inadequate compensation for two lost decades in a man's life. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Also known as Moritorium and Georgia's Friends, Four Friends follows the titular quartet from high school to young adulthood. The film is set during the tumultuous 1960s, an era when everyone's values were turned inside out, shaken around, and reassembled. The central character is first-generation American Craig Wasson, who confounds his Yugoslavian father (Miklos Simon) by pursuing his own let-it-all-hang-out lifestyle. Wasson's best friends are athlete Jim Metzler and chubby Michael Huddleston; all pursue the affections of bewitching Jodi Thelan. Though they are obviously deeply in love with one another, Wasson and Thelan continue to foolishly avoid a long-term commitment as the sixties unfold around them. Four Friends calls for a fresher approach than the one offered by director Arthur Penn, whose handling of the material is much too pat and old-fashioned. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Wasson, Jodi Thelen, (more)
This 1981 John Irvin picture constitutes an adaptation of Peter Straub's colossal, bestselling novel. The central plot -- shared by both book and film -- revolves around the four elderly members of the Chowder Society (Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and John Houseman), who gather in each other's drawing rooms each winter to sip cognac and spin elaborate ghost stories. The four men also share a dark secret far more unsettling than fiction -- a secret which has literally come back to haunt them, as well as their own adult offspring. Each man is visited by a hideous specter bearing the likeness of a young woman (Alice Krige) they accidentally killed 50 years ago when spurning her mischievous sexual advances. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Astaire, Melvyn Douglas, (more)
- 1980
- R
In Robert Kaylor's Carny, the world of the carnival is an illusion manipulated by the carnies to fleece the suckers. The marks generally deserve what they get, because of their greed, corruption, or just plain stupidity. It's share and share alike for Frankie (Gary Busey) and Patch (Robbie Robertson), partners in a dunk-the-bozo act in a carnival travelling through the American South. At one of the small-town stops, Donna (Jodie Foster), an alienated teenager, dumps her obnoxious boyfriend and, with Frankie's encouragement, joins up and moves into their trailer (and Frankie's bed). Feeling displaced, Patch schemes to get Donna out of the carnival. However, the carnival's owner needs Donna to foil a loathsome pair of local officials who demand payoffs. She plays her part perfectly and is accepted by all, although she moves into another trailer. ~ Steve Press, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gary Busey, Jodie Foster, (more)
- 1980
When Dr. Peter Fales's (Klaus Kinski) patients start getting annhilated by an unknown serial killer, he and his daughter Alison (Donna Wilkes) both come under suspicion. Part slasher film and part psychological thriller, Schizoid co-stars Marianna Hill as Julie, a syndicated "Dear Abby"-style columnist who also happens to be in one of Dr. Fales's therapy groups. After she receives several ominous letters she not only wonders if Dr. Fales might be behind the killings, she also starts to suspect her estranged husband. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Klaus Kinski, Marianna Hill, (more)
- 1979
The short-lived TV series Skag was introduced with a 3-hour premiere on January 6, 1980. Karl Malden stars as Pete "Skag" Skagska, Pittsburgh steel mill foreman and family man. In the pilot, Skag attempts to deal with several family crises: his father's debilitating stroke, his strained relationships between himself and his two grown sons, and his daughter's sexual misadventures. Suddenly a new crisis looms: Skag himself suffers a stroke, and it looks as though he'll be inactive for a long and indeterminate period. Piper Laurie co-stars as Skag's supportive (but not always patient) wife Jo. While the subsequent Skag series never really took off, this pilot film earned six Emmy nominations. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
- R
The ugly conflict between Irish and British forces in Northern Ireland provides the backdrop for this drama set in the early 1970s. Michael Flaherty (Craig Wasson) is an American of Irish descent who, after returning home from a tour of duty in Vietnam, is deciding what to do with his life. Since his childhood, Michael's grandfather Seamus (Sterling Hayden) has told him of his glorious younger days in Ireland, when he fought against the British with the Irish Republican Army. Michael decides to go to Belfast to help the battle for home rule, but he soon finds out that he's not welcomed by many of the locals. He's considered more important as a symbol than as a soldier or an activist -- so much so that the IRA plans to have him killed in a way that can be blamed on British forces in order to help elicit financial support from wealthy Americans. The Outsider was primarily filmed in Dublin, while several of the American sequences were shot in Detroit. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Craig Wasson, Sterling Hayden, (more)
Go Tell the Spartans is set in Vietnam during that period in which American troops were euphemistically termed "advisors". Reluctantly dispensing much of that advice is veteran American major Asa Barker (Burt Lancaster). Though he knows what works and what doesn't on the battlefield, Barker is obliged to carry out the go-nowhere policies of the American military brass. His current objective is a woebegone, barely crucial outpost, which he must defend with a handful of green soldiers and end-of-tether Vietnamese militiamen. True to his predictions, the outpost is overwhelmed by the Vietcong, who have something to fight about and are ruthless in their tactics. Before the relief troops can arrive, virtually everyone is senselessly killed, including Barker. The only survivor is Corporal Stephen Courcey (Craig Wasson), a willing draftee whose initial idealism dies along with his comrades. Wendell Mayes adapted Go Tell the Spartans from the novel Incident at Muc Wa by Daniel Ford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, (more)
Rollercoaster was a by-product of the brief "Sensurround" craze of the 1970s. Nutsoid Timothy Bottoms sabotages an amusement-park roller coaster, killing several innocent revelers. After several other acts of terrorism, Bottoms (whose character is credited as Young Man) presents his demands to the authorities via audio tape: one million dollars, or he'll stage five roller-coaster disasters simultaneously in five different parks. Because detective Harry Calder George Segal evinces a grudging respect for the elusive extortionist, Bottoms declares that only Detective Calder will be permitted to deliver the money. Thus the stage is set for an explosive climax, which during the film's original run was accompanied by the Sensurround effect, a gimmick that electronically caused the filmgoer's chairs to begin shaking and vibrating during the "thrill scenes." As with most disaster flicks of the era, Rollercoaster is top-heavy with "guest stars," including Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, Harry Guardino, and Susan Strasberg. Watch for 13-year-old Helen Hunt as Detective Calder's spunky daughter. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- George Segal, Richard Widmark, (more)
- 1977
Weary of the exigencies of life in the big city, Bob applies for a professorial post at a small-town college. The institute, located in Iowa, is essentially a farming college, so one can guess the direction of the episode's comic thrust. The supporting cast includes Tresa Hughes as Dr. Doctor (trivia note: Newhart played Major Major in the film version of Catch 22), Richard Libertini as Dr. Pitt, Craig Wasson as Chuck Morgan, Addison Powell as Dr. Scranton, and director James Burrows as a maintenance man. Scripted by Michael Zinberg, "Halls of Hartley" first aired on January 29, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bob Newhart, Suzanne Pleshette, (more)
Cowritten by director Sidney J. Furie, The Boys in Company C charts the fortunes of five young Marine recruits. Led by Stan Shaw, the quintet is shipped off to Vietnam. The film makes no bones about the demoralizing effect the war has on its participants, nor the pigheadedness of the military higher-ups who think only in terms of body counts and photo ops. Of the five recruits, the most memorable are Michael Lembeck as Vinnie Fazio, the resident wiseguy (the same type of role played by Lembeck's dad Harvey in 1950s war films) and Andrew Stevens as Billy Ray Pike, a straight-arrow type who succumbs to the lure of drugs; the others are played by Craig Wasson, James Canning, and Scott Hylands. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stan Shaw, Andrew Stevens, (more)
- 1976
In a rare dramatic appearance, Desi Arnaz Jr. appears as B.J. Palmer, the lead singer of a popular rock group. When the group's avaricious manager David Breen (Conrad Janis) is bludgeoned to death, B.J. is convinced that he himself is the guilty party. After all, the troubled young singer suffers from congenital insanity--or at least, that is what he has been led to believe by certain other parties! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
The Silence is based on the true story of Stanley Greenberg, a finer West Point cadet who broke one of the Point's most intimidating traditions. Richard Thomas plays Greenberg, a young man to whom being in the right is something of an obsession. Already an unpopular cadet, Greenberg is accused by of cheating by an upper classman and "invited" to leave West Point. He refuses, whereupon he is subjected to "The Silence:" the other cadets not only refuse to speak to him, but pretend as though he doesn't exist. After two years of this treatment, Thomas hires writer Cliff Gorman to publish the details of his ordeal. The result is the legal elimination of West Point's "Silence;" we should be happy at this, but Richard Thomas' portrayal of Greenburg character is so doggedly obnoxious that we don't care one way or another what happens to him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
