Gerald Wilson Movies

A rare film from the tiny nation of Iceland, this comic parable chronicles the adventures of Embi (Sigurdur Sigurjonsson) a Christian divinity student who has been sent by his bishop from the divinity school in Iceland's capital city of Reykjavik to investigate the strange absence of any information coming from one of the island's remote parishes. Unfortunately for the boy, Iceland is still very much permeated with paganism, and he soon comes under the spell of an outpouring of ancient magic and modern-day adherents, growing very confused into the bargain. Meanwhile, his bishop is wrestling with his own doubts about the gospel, flirting with odd Oriental cults, and generally behaving a little strangely. The story is based on the novel Christianity Under the Glacier by the Nobel Prize-winning Icelandic author Halldor Laxness, and is directed by his daughter (Gudny Halldorsdottir). ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

The John Gardner novel A Complete State of Death became this bloody crime flick that united frequent action genre collaborators Charles Bronson and director Michael Winner. Bronson stars as Detective Lieutenant Lou Torry, a grizzled undercover New York City cop who ruins his career when he is caught going violently overboard while apprehending a ghetto punk. As punishment, Torry is banished all the way to the L.A. Police Department, where he begins investigating a mysterious chain of events involving ex-soldiers that seem to be Mob related. It turns out that Don Alberto Vescari (Martin Balsam), an aging Mafia chieftain, is planning the use of mentally disturbed Vietnam vets as assassins in a campaign of murder. With one broad, gory stroke, Vescari schemes to wipe out his underworld enemies, retaliating for a massacre that wiped out a generation of Sicilian mobsters 40 years earlier. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

In Lawman, Burt Lancaster is Jered Maddox, a dedicated marshal with an inflexible adherence to upholding the law at all costs. Riding into a nearby town to pick up a group of local carousers who, during a drunken spree, killed an old man, Maddox meets up with Vincent Bronson (Lee J. Cobb). Bronson is the local town boss, and Maddox discovers that the men he is looking for work for him. Unlike most western heavies, Maddox, although he is powerful and unscrupulous, abhors violence. But violence is something Maddox cultivates. A major confrontation between the reluctant Bronson and the intransigent Maddox builds -- particularly when Maddox enlists the help of weak-willed local sheriff Cotton Ryan (Robert Ryan). ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Film editor Bill Brame directed this standard juvenile-delinquent entry featuring a notable cast of exploitation veterans. Richard Beymer stars as a cash-strapped teenager named Dean, who is lured into the world of bikers and addicts by Link (Russ Tamblyn), a sadistic drug dealer. Dean's girlfriend Karen (Lana Wood) helps him smuggle marijuana from Mexico to Los Angeles to raise money, and things appear to be going well until they are involved in the murders of two federal agents (Jody McCrea, Lindsay Crosby). The frightened Dean wants out of the arrangement, but Link drugs him with LSD, attempts to roast him alive, and kidnaps Karen. Dean eventually comes down from his bad trip and rescues his beloved, leaving the hippies in the audience with a warning to avoid free marijuana. Casey Kasem and Warren Finnerty also appear in this odd drug film, which makes very little sense and meanders from one scene to another for no apparent reason. That may be understandable, considering that it took four credited screenwriters to make Free Grass filmable. Leads Tamblyn and Beymer had co-starred in West Side Story and would reunite on television for the cult series Twin Peaks. Brame directed The Cycle Savages the same year. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide