Bob Cunningham Movies

In this grim and gory horror outing, a remote hotel is but a facade for a human abattoir where the guests are butchered and their body parts sold on the black market. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

When a hundred pounds of plutonium are stolen by a terrorist group, a determined female reporter from the U.S. succeeds in tracking the culprits down. In doing so, she performs a valuable service, though it considerably shortens her life expectancy. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

Los Angeles is the natural site for a film about earthquakes: they happen there frequently, and the landscape is familiar to moviegoers from thousands of films. A huge number of ongoing vignettes which include cameos from numerous celebrities and stars are tied together by the ongoing efforts of architect Graff (Charleton Heston) to rescue his estranged spoiled-rich-girl wife (Ava Gardner), while helping out with the ongoing rescue efforts taking place around him and while trying to determine what has happened to his mistress Denise (Genvieve Bujold). The rumbling sound effect designed for this film (Sensurround) won a "Best Sound" Oscar for the film in 1975. ~ Clarke Fountain, Rovi

In this western adventure, Shalako (Sean Connery) leads a hunting expedition in the wilds of New Mexico. There they run across an Apache camp where the Countess Irina (Brigitte Bardot) is being held hostage. When the Indians retaliate by destroying the camp of the European aristocrats, Shalako must use his wiles to battle the Indians and the jealous members of his own hunting party. The camp is robbed by Fulton (Stephen Boyd), who runs off with the wife of Sir Dagget (Jack Hawkins). Lady Boyd (Honor Blackman) leaves her rich husband in a dramatic split decision prompted by the marital discord between her and her pompous husband. Shalako leads the survivors through dangerous mountain terrain, engaging in climactic hand-to-hand combat. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Filmed in Cinerama and Technicolor, Circus World may have drawn the crowds for various reasons -- not the least, perhaps, for the big names. John Wayne stars as circus owner Matt Masters, who takes his show to Europe hoping to save it from financial ruin. Accompanying Matt, is young Toni (Claudia Cardinale), whom Matt had raised since her aerialist mother Lili (Rita Hayworth) left them years before. Just before he departs from New York, Matt is reminded that Lili may be somewhere in Germany. Upon their arrival in Europe, much of the equipment is lost when their ship sinks in a Spanish port. Matt doesn't let that get the best of them, and he is soon up and running with the show, becoming a hit throughout Europe. Against Matt's wishes, Toni trains to become an aerialist like her mother. A quiet figure in the shadows proudly watches Toni rehearse her daring routines. The writing team of Ben Hecht, James Edward Grant and Julian Halevy adapted their screenplay from a story by Philip Yordan and Nicholas Ray. Though this was not a gunslinger role for Wayne, Matt Masters was not a far stretch. This could have been due to the fact that Wayne had previously worked on several projects with director Henry Hathaway and writers Hecht and Grant -- and the part was altered to suit him. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Based upon a novel by Shelley Smith, The Running Man opens at the memorial service for Rex Black (Laurence Harvey), the owner of a small air transport company who is believed to have drowned in a recent glider accident. It soon turns out, however, that Black is very much alive; he faked his death as a means of getting back at the insurance company who denied an earlier claim because he was one day late in making his payment. He has enlisted the cooperation of his wife Stella (Lee Remick) in this scheme. While she waits for the insurance company to approve the claim, he disguises himself, assumes a new identity (that of Charles Erskine, a shoe salesman) and goes to wait for Stella in Spain. Once there, he meets drunken Australian millionaire Jim Jerome in a bar; when Jerome inadvertently leaves his passport at the bar, Rex confiscates it and hatches a new plan to collect on Jerome's insurance as well. In the meantime, Stella has met with insurance representative Stephen Maddox (Alan Bates), who eventually approves her claim. She journeys to Spain, but finds Rex a changed man, and isn't comfortable with either his new personality or his latest scheme. To make matters worse, Maddox shows up. Is it a coincidence or is he suspicious? The rest of the film hinges on the answer to this question, as well as what Maddox's plans are in either case. ~ Craig Butler, Rovi

This is an indecisive, ultimately unconvincing wartime drama set in the 1930s when Spain was caught in a bloody civil war, a situation that is never clearly delineated in that the story supports the fascists without specifically saying so. The hero is a voluntarily defrocked priest, Arturo Carrera (Dirk Bogarde) who is being hunted by the leftist, anti-clerical, and anti-fascist forces. While on the run himself, he encounters a beautiful prostitute, Soledad (Ava Gardner) and as sure as the sun rises, the two fall in love and stay together. Eventually, they are both caught by the anti-Franco fighters who are trying to get their hands on a precious holy relic. The ex-priest is trapped into making a no-win decision between his love for Soledad and his love for the church while she has a similar but more tragic decision to make on her own. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Robert Stack stars in this sea-faring historical epic as John Paul Jones, the first great hero of the American Navy. While originally a loyal soldier of the King's army, Jones in time becomes a fervent supporter of the American Revolutionaries, and he volunteers to lead the colonists' ragtag fleet to impressive victories against the British Navy; during a battle against the British ship Serapis, Jones utters the deathless words "I have not yet begun to fight." While his brave and intelligent leadership helps win America its freedom, his appeals to Benjamin Franklin (Charles Coburn) and the other leaders of Congress to strengthen the United States Navy fall on deaf ears; Jones is eventually branded a troublemaker, and in time, he is ordered to Russia, where he is to help guide the fleet of Catherine The Great (Bette Davis). Jones leads the Russian Navy to stunning victories in the Black Sea, reestablishing his reputation as one of the great military minds of his day. John Paul Jones also features a rousing score by the great film composer Max Steiner. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

For its time, The Sun Also Rises was a reasonably frank and faithful adaptation of the 1926 Ernest Hemingway novel. Its main concession to Hollywood formula was the casting of star players who were all too old to convincingly portray Hemingway's "Lost Generation" protagonists. Tyrone Power heads the cast as American news correspondent Jake Barnes, who, after incurring a injury in WW I that has rendered him impotent, relocates to Paris to escape his troubles. Barnes links up with several other lost souls, including the nymphomaniacal Lady Brett Ashley (Ava Gardner), irresponsible drunkard Mike Campbell (Errol Flynn) and perennial hangers-on Robert Cohn (Mel Ferrer) and Bill Gorton (Eddie Albert). In their never-ending search for new thrills, Barnes and his cohorts trundle off to Spain, where they participate in the annual Pamplona bull run and act as unofficial "sponsors" of handsome young matador Pedro Romero (played by future film executive Robert Evans). Additionally, Lady Brett pursues a romance with Jake, despite her engagement to the dissolute Campbell. Filmed on location in Pamplona, Paris, Biarritz and Mexico, The Sun Also Rises was budgeted at $5 million; like many "big" pictures of the era, it tended to be hollow and draggy at times. The film's best performance is delivered by Errol Flynn, though it can be argued that, in taking on the role of the hedonistic, hard-drinking, burned-out Mike Campbell, he was merely playing himself. A vastly inferior version of The Sun Also Rises was produced for television in 1984. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

War and Peace is a commendable attempt to boil down Tolstoy's long, difficult novel into 208 minutes' screen time. In recreating the the social and personal upheavals attending Napoleon's 1812 invasion of Russia, $6 million was shelled out by coproducers Carlo Ponti, Dino de Laurentiis and Paramount Pictures. Some of the panoramic battle sequences are so expertly handled by second-unit director Mario Soldati that they appear to be Technicolor-and-Vistavision newsreel footage of the actual events. Still, the film falters dramatically, principally because of a lumpy script and King Vidor's surprisingly lustreless direction. In addition, the casting is wildly consistent: for example, while Audrey Hepburn is flawless as Natasha, Henry Fonda is far too "Yankeefied" as the introspective Pierre. Proving too long and unwieldy for most audiences, War and Peace died at the box office; far more successful was the epic, scrupulously faithful 1968 version, filmed in the Soviet Union. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Nobody has an easy time of it in the costume actioner Shark River. Wanted for murder, Clay Webley (Warren Stevens) and his wounded cellmate Curtis Parker (Robert Cunningham) hack their way through the Florida swampland. With the help of Clay's brother Dan (Steve Cochran), Clay is able to elude the authorities, but Parker dies of a snakebite. Subsisting on alligator meat, Dan and Clay make their way to the tiny cabin inhabited by widowed Jane Daughterty (Carole Mathews), her mother-in-law, and her son Johnny (Spencer Fox). The brothers rest here awhile, formulating plans to cross the Gulf of Mexico and head for Cuba. An Indian attack scotches these plans, and also ties up several loose plot ends and eliminates any and all extraneous characters. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi