Christopher George Movies

Originally billed as merely $, Dollars stars top box office draws Warren Beatty and Goldie Hawn. Beatty plays a security whiz, employed in Hamburg, Germany. He devises a clever method of robbing the secret bank vaults of notorious criminals, reasoning that the crooks will never turn to the cops. The notion that the crooks may have a few words to say to him does not dissuade Beatty as he and gold-hearted hooker Hawn work out their carefully calculated, meticulously timed robbery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In a tale of drama and adventure, young journalist Andy Cameron (Robert Walker) has to get into Cambodia (it is assumed this is during the genocidal reign of Pol Pot). Cameron has to smuggle out his girlfriend Mieng (Nit Alisa) before she is killed (along with the other two million Cambodians), but he cannot manage this alone. He enlists the aid of an American Vietnam vet and the help of a few Khmer men. Eventually, Cameron makes his way into Cambodia where he encounters many dangers, some human and some inhuman (though the thousands of landmines that pose a continuing threat to a now peaceful Cambodia are not mentioned here). ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

John Wayne toplines this biography of the cattle owner John Simpson Chisum, a controversial figure who was the most powerful man in New Mexico during the Wild West era. A founder and prominent citizen in the town of Lincoln, Chisum is slow to act when ruthless land baron Lawrence Murphy (Forrest Tucker) moves in on several local businesses and takes them over. By the time Chisum and his ally, fellow rancher Henry Tunstall (Patrick Knowles), decide to go to the law, Murphy's already bought and paid for influence there, as well. The only recourse left to the cattlemen is to take Murphy on in all-out range war that embroils everyone in the county, including Tunstall's hand Billy the Kid Bonney (Geoffrey Deuel) and his comrade Pat Garrett (Glenn Corbett). Screenwriter and producer Andrew J. Fenady based the script for Chisum (1970) on his own short story, a very loosely fact-based account of Chisum, Billy the Kid and their involvement in the Lincoln County wars. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

This delightfully bad made-for-TV movie throws together an assortment of television stalwarts and movie has-beens for what is essentially a horror version of The Love Boat. The plot involves a vacation cruise in the Gulf of Mexico, during which some of the passengers find an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus in an underwater cavern. Instead of "wasting time" explaining what Egyptian ruins are doing so far from Northern Africa, the writers decide to make things easy by making the coffin's occupant none other than the Devil himself. This stirs things up a bit for the hapless vacationers -- particularly for the fire-and-brimstone preacher (John Forsythe) who happens to be aboard. Cheap, campy, and topped off with a ridiculous ending, the film, at least, is not as boring as most TV movies of the sort. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Photographer Christopher George is mistaken for an assassination target by paid killers. Since the actual victim-to-be is now safe, George cannot count on the protection of the authorities, so he takes it on the lam. He is sheltered by former girlfriend Judy Carne, who is kidnapped and threatened with death for her troubles. George decides to take matters in his own hands when it becomes impossible for him to separate the good guys from the bad. Made for television, Dead Men Tell No Tales would dearly love to be a Hitchcock film; it falls short of this goal, but is diverting fun all the same. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having struck pay dirt with his 1958 western Rio Bravo, Howard Hawks more or less remade the picture twice in the 1960s. The first of these rehashes was El Dorado, with Rio Bravo star John Wayne back for more. Wayne plays a gunfighter who rides into El Dorado to link up with his old pal, sheriff Robert Mitchum ("It's the big one with the big two!" declared the film's advertisements). Wayne has turned down a job with evil land baron Ed Asner, who'd hoped to drive a family off the land that he needed for its water. That family, headed by R.G. Armstrong, is convinced that Wayne is working with Asner; when Armstrong's son Johnny Crawford dies, Wayne is held responsible, earning him a bullet in the spine from Crawford's sister Michele Carey. A year passes: Wayne returns to El Dorado, in the company of his new saddle pal James Caan. They find that Asner is still up to his old tricks, and that Mitchum has descended into alcoholism. Several plot twists and power shifts ensue, leading to the slam-bang climax, with the partially paralyzed Wayne, the newly crippled Mitchum (on crutches), and the concussion-suffering Caan battling together to stave off Asner's minions. The final long-shot, of Wayne and Mitchum limping off together arm-in-arm, is one of the most enduring images in the entire Hawks canon. If they loved it twice they'll love it thrice: in 1969, John Wayne and Howard Hawks teamed up for a third Rio Bravo derivation, Rio Lobo--which, like the first two films, was scripted by Leigh Brackett. Incidentally, that's famed artist Olaf Weighorst (whose paintings appear in the title sequence) in a cameo as the gunsmith. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The first of two TV movies bearing the title Escape, this 1971 film was the pilot for a potential series. Christopher George stars as Cameron Steele, a famous escape artist who solves crimes on the side. Steele and his faithful assistant Nicholas Slye (Avery Schreiber) tackle the case of a kidnapped scientist (William Windom). The scientist's daughter (Marilyn Mason) is likewise in jeopardy, but leaves it to Steele to out-Houdini Houdini in rescuing both father and daughter from the clutches of Numero Uno villain John Vernon. Escape was originally offered as an ABC Movie of the Week on April 6, 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Gavilan was also released as The Ballad of Gavilan. This was in deference to the off-camera musical contributions of balladeer Pete Seeger, whose melodic commentary upon the action is the best part of the film. Christopher George stars as a young westerner whose family is wiped out by villains. George spends nearly two decades seeking out revenge. It's a plot device as old as the movies itself, but a device that never seems to lose its dramatic value. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This ecology-themed horror movie took its inspiration from the success of Jaws and moved that film's man-versus-nature conflict from the seaside to the forest. The plot of Grizzly focuses on Mike Kelly (Christopher George), a forest ranger whose peaceful tenure over a forest housing a busy nature lodge is interrupted by the arrival of a very deadly and hungry 15-foot grizzly bear. As the bear starts killing rangers and campers, Park Supervisor Charley Kittridge (Joe Dorsey) tries to cover up the problem and tries to keep Kelly from acting in a way that will cause public suspicion. Finally, Kelly decides to do what is right and teams up with macho pilot Don Stober (Andrew Prine) and eccentric naturalist Arthur Scott (Richard Jaeckel) to hunt the grizzly down on its own turf. Grizzly was roundly panned by critics for its slavish, blow-by-blow imitation of its more sophisticated model, Jaws, but its gruesome shock power made it a major hit with audiences around the world. Director William Girdler followed this success up with another ecology-themed shocker in Day of the Animals, and the film's producers made a still-unreleased sequel, Grizzly II, which provided early roles for Charlie Sheen and George Clooney. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide

Man on a String was a derivation of Tightrope, a 1959-60 TV series starring Mike Connors as an undercover agent. Despite high ratings, Tightrope was forced off the air due to its excessive violence, but its producers held out hopes that someday they'd be able to revive the property. This 1971 TV-movie attempt stars Christopher George as a government undercover man, answerable only to his superior William Schallert. Guest-star Joel Grey plays a psychic criminal, called in to help solve a series of murders. Man on a String was first telecast on February 18, 1972; its ratings were respectable, but a series was not forthcoming. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An expensive war epic, Midway emulates The Longest Day and Tora! Tora! Tora! in attempting to re-create a famous World War II battle from both the American and Japanese viewpoints. The 1942 battle of Midway was the turning point of the War in the Pacific; the Japanese invasion fleet was destroyed, and America's string of humiliating defeats was finally broken. Though the battle itself was sufficiently dramatic to fill two films, Midway also has plotline involving the mixed-race relationship between Ensign Garth (Edward Albert), son of Navy Captain Matt Garth (Charlton Heston), and Haruko Sakura (Christina Kokubo), a Hawaiian girl of Japanese descent. The real-life personages depicted herein include American Admirals Nimitz (Henry Fonda), Halsey (Robert Mitchum) and Spruance (Glenn Ford), and Japanese Admiral Yamamoto (Toshiro Mifune, his voice once again dubbed by Paul Frees, whom Mifune personally selected for the job). For its original road show release, Midway was offered in the "Sensurround" process, which electronically shook and vibrated the audience's chairs during the battle sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Crown International's leading sleaze director, Hikmet Avedis (The Fifth Floor) was behind this bloody horror film. Greg and Christie are a young married couple who are investigating the mysterious death of Christie's father. Their search takes them to mortician Hank Andrews (Christopher George), who leads a Satanic cult along with his demented son Paul (Bill Paxton in an early role). However, even Christie's own mother (Lynda Day George) may be in on the series of embalming-needle murders surrounding the mortuary. This occasionally creepy chiller co-stars horror regulars Michael Berryman, Paul Smith, and Alvy Moore. Porn auteur Gary Graver (aka Robert McCallum) was the cinematographer. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide