Walter Kelley Movies
- 1993
Former jewel thief turned insurance investigator Dennis Stanton (Keith Michell) has changed professions once more, and is now chief of security on a cruise ship. When a woman is found dead in the ship's cargo section, it soon develops that virtually everyone on board is either a thief or a liar--not to mention a potential murderer. The only passenger whom Dennis can trust is his old friend Jessica (Angela Lansbury), who of course agrees to help him solve the case. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A man discovers that his best friends are actually spies -- or are they? -- in this thriller based on Robert Ludlum's best-selling novel. John Tanner (Rutger Hauer) is the host of a television news show who once a year spends a long weekend with three of his best friends from college, Bernard Osterman (Craig T. Nelson), Joseph Cardone (Chris Sarandon), and Richard Tremayne (Dennis Hopper). Tanner is approached by Lawrence Fassett (John Hurt), a CIA agent who has evidence proving that his three pals are actually agents working with the Soviet Union. With Tanner's reluctant approval, his house is wired with video surveillance equipment so that the CIA can monitor what Osterman, Cardone, and Tremayne say and do over their weekend together in hopes of putting the traitors behind bars. However, Tanner soon realizes that Fassett's agenda is not all that it appears to be. The Osterman Weekend was directed by Sam Peckinpah; it proved to be his last film, as he died a year after its release. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rutger Hauer, John Hurt, (more)
- 1978
- PG
The CB (citizen's band) radio fad had nearly run its course when this feel-good action film was made by director Sam Peckinpah. In the story, based on C.W. McCall's song "Convoy", a group of struggling truckers (who stay in touch by CB) run into a situation which ignites their indignation. They arrange to form a truck convoy under the leadership of the man whose CB nickname is "Rubber Duck" (Kris Kristofferson). He is the most aggrieved of the bunch, having been harassed beyond the point of endurance by Lyle Wallace (Ernest Borgnine) a blackmailing traffic cop who pursues him ever more frantically through several states after he fails to submit to the phony speed trap he had set up. As news of the truck convoy spreads, unexpected allies join the line, and the now-gigantic illegal protest becomes the subject of national news reports. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, (more)
A quote from Bertolt Brecht ends this bitter and angry war film by Sam Peckinpah: "Do not rejoice in his defeat, you men. For though the world has stood up and stopped the bastard, the bitch that bore him is in heat again." Peckinpah's intense and belligerently non-commercial work, (based on the book by Willi Heinrich), is a World War II tale told from the German perspective, following a platoon of German soldiers in the Russia of 1943, when the German Wehrmacht forces had been decimated and the Germans were retreating along the Russian front. James Coburn is Steiner, a German corporal and recipient of the Iron Cross who feels that he owes his loyalty to his family and fellow soldiers and not to Hitler and the German war machine. But when a new commander, Captain Stransky (Maximillian Schell), takes over the platoon, Steiner and Stransky come into immediate conflict. Stransky is a career soldier, the complete opposite of Steiner, and a man who pledges himself heart and soul to Hitler and the war. But he envies Steiner for having been awarded an Iron Cross and deeply desires one himself. The problem is Stransky is a complete coward and recognizes that the only way he can be awarded an Iron Cross would be to get the bitter Steiner on his side. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Coburn, Maximilian Schell, (more)
A former friend betrays a legendary outlaw in Sam Peckinpah's final Western. Holed up in Fort Sumner with his gang between cattle rustlings, Billy the Kid (Kris Kristofferson) ignores the advice of comrade-turned-lawman Pat Garrett (James Coburn) to escape to Mexico, and he winds up in jail in Lincoln, New Mexico. After Billy theatrically escapes, inspiring enigmatic Lincoln resident Alias (Bob Dylan) to join him, the governor (Jason Robards Jr.) and cattle baron Chisum (Barry Sullivan) requisition Garrett to form a posse and hunt him down. Rather than flee to Mexico when he can, Billy heads back to Fort Sumner, meeting his final destiny at the hands of his friend Pat, who, two decades later, is forced to face the consequences of his own Faustian pact with progress. With a script by Rudolph Wurlitzer, Peckinpah uses the historical basis of Billy's death to eulogize the West dreamily yet violently as it is desecrated by corrupt capitalists. Both Pat and Billy know that their time is passing, as surely as Garrett's posse knows that they are participating in a legend. Using familiar Western players like Slim Pickens and Katy Jurado, Peckinpah underscores the West's existence as a media myth, and he even appears himself as a coffin maker. Just as the bloodletting of Peckinpah's earlier The Wild Bunch (1969) invoked the Vietnam War, the casting of Kristofferson and Dylan alluded to the chaotic late '60s/early '70s present; the counterculture has little place in a corporate future. Also like The Wild Bunch, Pat Garrett was truncated by its studio; the cuts did nothing to help its box office. Key scenes, particularly the framing story of Garrett's fate, have since been restored to the home-video version. In this director's cut, Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid stands as one of Peckinpah's most beautiful and complex films, killing the Western myth even as he salutes it. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Coburn, Kris Kristofferson, (more)
Giant Flesh-Eating Rabbits Ravage American Southwest After Scientist Slips Up! Such is the plot of this unintentionally campy horror outing. The trouble begins when a researcher's experiment to use hormone injections to control Arizona's burgeoning rabbit population goes terribly awry, causing the cuddly rodents to grow to enormous proportions. In order to facilitate their growth, the rabbits need extra protein, and what better source than the relatively slow-moving human population that surrounds their huge subterranean lairs? ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Whitman, Janet Leigh, (more)
- 1971
Forming an unholy alliance, mobsters Frank Mason (Frank Mason) and Edward Trask (Richard Jaeckel) have been successfully modernizing, computerizing and (violently) streamlining the Syndicate's gambling activities. The IMF is assigned to break up the relationship between the two master criminals. The plan calls for Phelps to pose as the owner of a prize racehorse, and for Casey to impersonate a wealthy racetrack aficionado. Written by Edward J. Lasko, "Run for the Money" was originally broadcast on December 11, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Peter Graves, Greg Morris, (more)
- 1968
Featuring plenty of low-budget biker action, this exploitation outing follows the sleazy exploits of a mean motorcycle gang member who beats up the black man he found flirting with his girl friend. Never mind, that before the biker was busily and unsuccessfully trying to seduce the young daughter of a Mexican migrant. Invigorated by the violence, the bad boy returns to the migrant girl and tries to rape her. Unfortunately for him, she is tough and makes him pay a terrible price for his misdeeds. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1967
In this routine biker film, Rod (Steve Alaimo) is a former stock-car racer who joins the police department. He infiltrates the Satan's Angels motorcycle gang to stop a bank robbery by the malevolent trio of bikers bent on terrorizing South Florida. Watch for former boxing champ Willie Pastrano as one of the bad boy bikers. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steve Alaimo, Willie Pastrano, (more)
- 1963
Thanks to the curbstone advice of Perry Mason (Raymond Burr), Sarah Breel (Lurene Tuttle) is cleared of a shoplifting charge. Not long afterward, Sarah's niece Virginia (played by former child star Margaret O'Brien) tells Perry that she believes her aunt is involved in a jewel robbery--or at the very least, is covering for her no-good brother George. When George's partner Austin Cullins (Blair Davies) is murdered, Sarah is found near the scene of the crime with the murder weapon and a cache of jewels in her purse. Naturally, Perry agrees to handle Sarah's defense--a job that becomes doubly difficult when dear brother George turns up murdered as well. Keep at eye out for a pre-"Mr. Spock" Leonard Nimoy in a supporting role. This episode is based on a 1938 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Anthony Mann, best known for his intelligent Westerns and hard-boiled crime films, directed this unflinching look at the realities of war set against the backdrop of the Korean conflict. Lt. Mark Benson (Robert Ryan) is the leader of a platoon that has just been given orders to advance to Hill 465, where they are to join awaiting troops and advance on the territory. While Benson and his men are weary, they have little choice but to comply. Needing a transport for their weapons, Benson and his men commandeer a truck, only to discover that it's not empty -- Sgt. "Montana" Williamette (Aldo Ray) has been ordered to escort a colonel (Robert Keith) suffering from extreme battle fatigue to a field hospital for examination and treatment. While Benson's loyalty is to his troops and his mission, Montana refuses to turn over the truck; the colonel is one of the only men he's been able to rely on during his stretch in the Army, and he is determined to stand by him in his time of need. Either way, the men find themselves frequently confronted by danger, and their numbers are decimated when they're ambushed by enemy troops. The supporting cast includes L.Q. Jones, Nehemiah Persoff, and Vic Morrow, who five years later would confront the dark side of war on a weekly basis as star of the TV series Combat. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, (more)
Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning slice-of-life drama is a heartwarming story about Marty Pilletti (Ernest Borgnine), a lonely Bronx butcher. Marty is a burly but gentle man, easing into middle age without much hope for romance or a career. He lives at home with his mother (Esther Minciotti), a kind but life-smothering woman, and a small circle of dead-end friends. Marty has no self-confidence and feels he's dumpy and unattractive. While it takes some doing, Marty's mother finally convinces him to go to the Stardust Ballroom in Manhattan, where he meets a plain-looking schoolteacher named Clara (Betsy Blair), whose life appears to mirror his own. He asks Clara to dance and soon they are smitten with one another. But to Marty's surprise and frustration, his friends put her down and his mother is hostile to her. Swayed by his friends and his mother, he doesn't call Clara back. But sitting at the bar with his friends the next night, Marty decides he has had enough, and defying his enclosed little world, he rushes to a phone booth to call Clara. As Marty shouts to his friends, "You don't like her. My mother don't like her. She's a dog. And I'm a fat, ugly man. Well, all I know is I had a good time last night ... You don't like her? That's too bad!" ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ernest Borgnine, Betsy Blair, (more)
In the original Broadway production of this William Inge play, Shirley Booth played Lola Delaney, the vulgar, dumpy, less-than-bright "shotgun bride" of recovering alcoholic Doc Delaney, played on stage by Sidney Blackmer, who won a Tony award for his efforts. When time came to film the play, Shirley Booth was retained as Lola, but Burt Lancaster replaced Blackmer as Doc. Although Lancaster seems far too youthful for the role, the film is a fascinating and sometimes funny study of an unhappy marriage made unhappier by the arrival of a sexy stranger. Young Marie (Terry Moore) rents a room from Lola, a tiresome creature who never stops talking, especially about the "imminent" return of her runaway dog Sheba. Doc is having enough trouble staying away from the bottle and resigning himself to his marriage without the curvaceous Marie arousing his baser instincts. The characters interact with gloomy consequences, in the typical kitchen-sink-realism style of Inge's Fifties plays, although a tacked-on happy ending, common to Fifties movie melodramas, pretends otherwise. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Shirley Booth, (more)
