Leo L. Fuchs Movies

Malone (Burt Reynolds) has been a "wet" operative for the CIA for many years, serving his country by performing assassinations. He is tired of his job and wants to get out of "the company" (as it is called) and live a normal life. He is looking along the Pacific Northwest for a place to settle down when his much-cherished classic Mustang breaks down outside the town of Comstock. He manages to get to a small gas station and is treated like family by a Vietnam veteran, who is the station's owner, and his daughter. They are suffering from the nefarious activities of a local bigwig (Cliff Robertson) to take over all the land in the city in a hare-brained development scheme. He soon runs afoul of the town sheriff, who is basically an employee of the developer, but eventually wins his respect. Meanwhile, the CIA is none too pleased to hear of Malone's intended retirement and send a succession of hit-men after him to ensure that he divulges none of their dirty secrets. Malone destroys the first two killers at some cost to his own well-being. The next assassin turns out to be a woman who is susceptible to his charms. Meanwhile, he has a thorough-going local scoundrel to put out of business. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

In this look at Yiddish filmmaking and its changing perspectives during the era of the early sound pictures (1930s), director Russ Karel uses film clips taken from the archives of the National Center for Jewish Film at Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts, and he also illustrates his subject with still photos, old posters, and other mementos from this period. Orson Welles narrates. About one and a half million Jews came to settle in New York in the first two decades of the 20th century, and many of these early immigrants such as Louis B. Mayer went to Hollywood and found future success as actors, directors, screenwriters, and producers. The revolutionary talkie film that saved the Warner Bros.' studio from financial ruin, The Jazz Singer with Al Jolson (1927) was almost made in Yiddish. In fact, Yiddish was so common in the 1930s that for the entire decade -- ending significantly with the beginning of World War II -- Yiddish films continued to be created, not only in the U.S., but in Europe as well. The 1997 French film Madame Jacques sur la Croisette is another poignant if fictional, look at the vanishing culture of the Ashkenazi Jews and their distinctive Yiddish language. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Robert Aldrich returns to the western-spoof genre he'd previously explored in Four for Texas with The Frisco Kid. Gene Wilder plays Polish rabbi Avram Belinsky, who intends to set up a congregation in San Francisco. Eminently unsuited for life in the Old West, poor Avram is victimized by everyone with whom he comes in contact. Salvation arrives in the unlikely form of taciturn bank robber Tommy (Harrison Ford). Incredibly, Tommy takes a liking to the feckless Avram, and together the two men embark on a series of seriocomic adventures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This Biblical epic stars Elana Eden as Ruth, who serves in the temple where the High Priestess (Viveca Lindfors) leads the worship of the Pagan idols of the people of Moab. When Ruth falls in love with Mahlon (Tom Tryon), a Hebrew, she must come to terms with his spiritual beliefs, but in time she embraces his faith and converts to Judaism when they marry. Ruth travels with Mahlon and his mother Naomi (Peggy Wood) to their homeland of Bethlehem. Ruth suffers hardship and religious persecution, and when Mahlon dies, Ruth's faith is severely tested. But her belief in God survives this trial by fire, and in time Ruth finds a new love with Boaz (Stuart Whitman). ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

I Want to be a Mother is the cry of heroine Amelia (Hannah Hollander) in this Yiddish-language film. Raised to believe she is the daughter of a Bronx couple, Amelia is shocked to learn that she is the illegitimate offspring of her so-called aunt. Even worse, the father of Amelia's husband is actually her own long-lost father! Under these circumstances, the prospect of Amelia having a child of her own seems out of the question -- but the day is saved by a last-minute revelation provided by marriage broker Chaim Bok (Leo Fuchs). Though shabbily produced, I Want to Be a Mother is consistently entertaining. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide