Paul Baxley Movies

In the conclusion of a two-part story, Bo (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat), still operating undercover for the Feds, continue to race the General Lee under the banner of crooked promoter J.J. Carver (Ramon Bieri). The good news is that the Duke boys have managed to gather enough evidence to put Carver behind bars for a long time. The bad news is that Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) and Sheriff Roscoe (James Best), unaware of what the Dukes are up to and hoping to get the good on Carver themselves, succeed only in blowing Bo and Luke's cover at the worst possible moment! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Roberta Lighton guests as Candy Dix, a former Marine girlfriend of Luke Duke (Tom Wopat). Now embarked upon a career as a country western star, Candy arrives in Hazzard for a concert. Unbeknownst to either Luke or Candy, her heavily-in-debut manager (Jeffrey Osterhage) has arranged for a fatal "accident" so he can collect the girl's $75000 life insurance policy! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Boss Hogg's supercharged tank "The Mean Green Machine" (introduced in the season opener) is stolen by Baxter (Joel Bailey), the man who originally designed it. Baxter intends to use the well-armed vehicle to steal all the gold in the Hazzard County Emporium. Normally, the Dukes would put a stop to this perfidy, but they are kept at bay by the fact that Baxter has kidnapped their pal Cooter (Ben Jones) as "insurance"--and, incidentally, as the vehicle's chief mechanic. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) stoops even lower than usual to get his hands on Jesse's secret moonshine recipe. Hiring disreputable magician Jasper Fenwick (Jim B. Baker) to frame the Dukes for stealing money intended for an orphanage, Boss then generously offers to clear the cousins. But, oh yeah, there's a price tag for Boss' largesse: Jesse (Denver Pyle) must give up that precious recipe--immediately!. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In order to qualify for the "Miss Tri-Counties" pageant, a girl must be beautiful, a terrific driver, and possessed of fantastic mechanical abilities. Daisy Duke (Catherine Bach) fulfills all of these qualifications, but "Miss Hatchipee" Melanie DuBois (Damone Simpson), the girlfriend of Chickasaw County boss Big Jim Mathers (Joe Higgins), does not. Even so, Boss Mathers is willing to "persuade" Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) to the tune of $10,000 to make sure that Melanie wins and Daisy loses! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Season Five of The Dukes of Hazzard begins two Dukes short. Having walked off the series after their demands for a merchandising percentage were turned down, Tom Wopat and John Schneider), respectively cast as cousins Luke and Bo Duke, are nowhere to be found. Their replacements are another pair of Duke cousins, Coy (Byron Cherry) and Vance (Christopher Mayer), who have arrived in Hazzard county to help Uncle Jesse (Denver Pyle) around the farm while Bo and Luke are off racing on the NASCAR circuit (what happened to their probation?) The plot proper gets under way as Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) prepares to utilize his new, high-tech "Mean Green Machine" to steal a bunch of hundred-dollar engraving plates. Naturally, Boss thinks that he'll get away with it now that Bo and Luke are out of town--but he hasn't reckoned with Coy and Vance, who (according to the original TV Guide ad) are "tougher than their cousins ever were!" (PS: Sonny Shroyer is back as Deputy Enos, his own spinoff TV series having been cancelled). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) transforms Stonewall Jackson Day into a huge, elaborate celebration for Hazzard County. Of course, Boss is not motivated by any sort of Confederate patriotism; he has merely figured out a method to steal General Jackson's famous sword, sell it to the highest bidder, and then frame the Dukes for the theft. Saving the day for the good guys is a hitherto unknown and unseen cousin, Jeb Stuart Duke (Christopher Hensel) (who, if we are to believe contemporary accounts, was originally intended to be a recurring character). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Never at a loss for sneaky schemes, Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke) has come up with "foolproof" scheme to rob an armored truck from his own bank. Seeking to frame Luke (Tom Wopat) and Bo (John Schneider) for the crime, Boss hires a pair of impostors (Robin Strand, Morgan Woodard) and fixes them up with "Duke" face masks--and to top it off, he arranges for the phonies to make their getaway in an exact replica of the "General Lee." Singer Donna Fargo appears as the latest victim of Boss' "celebrity speed trap." ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Comedian Marty Feldman directed and co-wrote this satire of the less-scrupulous side of organized religion. Brother Ambrose (Marty Feldman) is a monk who has spent nearly his entire life within the walls of his monastery and knows little of the outside world. However, when he learns that the monastery has fallen on economic hard times and may be forced to close, he takes it upon himself to raise the funds to save his home. Ambrose ends up on Hollywood Boulevard, where he solicits donations from passers-by and gets a crash course in life in the fallen world from Mary (Louise Lasser), a smart-mouthed hooker. Ambrose and Mary soon encounter Armageddon T. Thunderbird (Andy Kaufman), a fire-and-brimstone televangelist who agrees to help Ambrose by making him a partner in his house of worship, The Church of the Divine Profit. However, Thunderbird's methods don't agree with Ambrose, and eventually he turns to God Himself (Richard Pryor) for help. In God We Trust was Feldman's second and last directorial assignment; the supporting cast also includes Peter Boyle, Wilfrid Hyde-White, and Severn Darden. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

A trio of Texas con artists, claiming to have $3,000,000 in gold bullion, store their treasure in Boss Hogg's bank. Boss (Sorrell Booke) immediately formulates a scheme to steal the gold and collect the insurance, little realizing that the bullion is fake and that he himself will be out the three million! Needless to say, it is up to Luke (Tom Wopat) and Bo (John Schneider) to simultaneously thwart and rescue the billious Boss. Originally slated to air on December 14, 1979, this episode was moved forward as replacement for another second-season installment, "Uncle Boss"--which ended up on the shelf until November of 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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, Rovi

Raymond Burr was already three years into Perry Mason when he decided to return to his movie-villain roots with Desire in the Dust. Burr, playing the patriarch of a Southern family, befriends the ex-convict (Ken Scott) who'd supposedly killed Burr's son in an auto accident. Actually the accident was caused by Burr's daughter (Martha Hyer), who hopes that she can buy the accused man's silence and thus secure her daddy's political future. The ex-con goes along with the deception, having fallen in love with the daughter, but soon learns that Burr plans to double-cross him. Based on a novel by Harry Whittington. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi