Chuck Hicks Movies

Director Robert Aldrich's last film, All the Marbles stars Peter Falk as a "win-at-all-costs" type manager of a ladies tag-team wrestling combo. These girls are good and Falk wants them great. And he doesn't really care what they've got to do to get there. (This film's "R" rating is not for Raunchy, but it could be for "Revealing.") Following sort of a Rocky theme, this film finds our ladies tag team climbing its way to the top of the women's wrestling world where they face off against the world's best. ~ Rovi

Brian Dennehy plays a Wambaugh-type cop who has flourished as a novelist. At the moment, however, Dennehy is suffering from a profound case of writer's block. Coming to the rescue, as it were, is professional hit man James Woods. Recently dumped by his boss, above-suspicion business executive Paul Shenar, Woods is anxious to tell his life story to Dennehy, in hopes of striking it rich with a tell-all bestseller. Shenar, however, takes a dim view of Woods' indiscretions, and for a while it looks as though it's curtains for both Dennehy and his teenaged daughter Allison Balson. Screenwriter Larry Cohen has claimed that Best Seller was based on Strangers on a Train. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Bronco Billy stars Clint Eastwood (who also directed) as the impresario of a seedy wild west show. Going along for the ride is spoiled socialite Sondra Locke, who is "initiated" by being pressed into service as the wrong end of a knife-throwing act. The rest of the troupe, like Eastwood himself, are losers in life who yearn for the freedom and opportunity of the long-gone Old West. Despite its raucous ad campaign, Bronco Billy is at base a wistful character study, avoiding the usual trappings of car chases and redneck villains and offering quiet chuckles instead of belly laughs. Unfortunately it failed to click with the public, compelling Eastwood to temporarily return to his old crash-bang-pow formula in his next few films. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This standard, tongue-in-cheek, gangsters and good guys saga is carried on the star power and screen presence of Clint Eastwood as Lt. Speer, a taciturn, tough, play-it-by-the-book cop, and on Burt Reynolds as Mike Murphy, Speer's old friend in the force, now turned private eye but still a captivating rogue at heart. With a sub-text of playing their well-known screen personas off each other, Eastwood and Reynolds provide more than a surface interpretation of the characters that made them famous. After Murphy's partner is murdered, he focuses on pitting one mob boss against another in an attempt to have both mobsters kill each other. In the meantime, Lt. Speer -- who has never approved of Murphy's private detective business -- does not really know if Murphy is for or against the two top gangsters. Set in the era of speakeasies and Prohibition, an added layer of "film noir" can be discerned under the complex plot, verbal repartée, and episodes of toned-down violence (a kind of parody in themselves). Although this may not be the best film either star has made, it is still interesting to see them together on screen. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Warren Beatty directed and starred in this big-budget action comedy featuring Chester Gould's square-jawed, two-dimensional comic strip detective. Ruthless gangster Big Boy Caprice (Al Pacino) touches off a gang war against underworld boss Lips Manlis (Paul Sorvino), with Big Boy and his minions rubbing out enough of Manlis's goons (along with Manlis himself) to take over his nightclub, and a healthy percentage of the city's criminal activities in the process. Caprice also gains proprietary rights to Manlis's girlfriend, nightclub chanteuse Breathless Mahoney (Madonna). Big Boy's next move to is unite the rest of the city's crooks under his command; this wave of corruption attracts the attention of lawman Dick Tracy, who is determined to smash Caprice's criminal network once and for all. As Tracy plots to put Big Boy behind bars where he belongs, Breathless uses her considerable charms in an attempt to sway Tracy from the path of righteousness; this causes no small amount of anxiety for Tracy's long-suffering female companion, Tess Trueheart (Glenne Headly), and the street-smart kid (Charlie Korsmo) they've been keeping an eye on. The various bad guys, heavily made up to resemble Gould's cartoon characters (though Beatty is not made up to resemble Tracy), include Dustin Hoffman, James Caan, R.G. Armstrong, and William Forsythe. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Clint Eastwood's first comedy feature proved to be one of his most profitable vehicles. Eastwood plays Philo Beddoe, a bare-knuckle boxer who travels from fight to fight in a beat-up truck, accompanied by his "pal" Clyde, a orangutan with a mean right hook, and his human buddy Orville (Geoffrey Lewis). During a stopover, Philo meets and falls in love with would-be country & western singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke). After a while, she wants to break off the relationship, but he doesn't -- a shaky plot peg upon which to hang several reels' worth of zany car chases and confrontations with such opponents as a gang of bikers and a battalion of hostile lawmen. Adding to the fun is Ruth Gordon as Eastwood's don't-mess-with-me octogenarian mother, and Beverly D'Angelo as an ace sharpshooter. The enormous box-office success of Every Which Way But Loose yielded an equally wacky -- and equally lucrative -- sequel, Any Which Way You Can. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When Cissy (Kathy Garver) declares that she and Gregg (Gregg Fedderson) are going to be married, Bill (Brian Keith) decides to take the family with him on a business trip to Hollywood. The idea is to put as much distance between Cissy and Gregg as possible, so that she will forget all about marriage. But the plan backfires when Cissy falls for handsome TV star Steve Hunter (Aron Kincaid)--who turns out to be even a worse matrimonial prospect than Gregg! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this western, passengers of a stagecoach endure danger and hardship as they travel across the Arizona territory. They are protected from renegade Indians by a sheriff who lies concealed on top of the coach. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Star James Caan made his directorial debut in the fact-based Hide in Plain Sight. Caan plays a divorced husband and father who comes to visit his ex-wife and children, only to discover that they've evidently disappeared from the face of the earth. Running up against the stonewall tactics of the authorities, Caan eventually learns that his wife's present husband is a witness against the mob, and that his family members have been given a new home and new identities via the Justice Department's new witness relocation program. Denied information concerning his children's whereabouts, Caan desperately attempts to find them himself. Hide in Plain Sight was adapted by Spencer Eastman from the book by Leslie Waller. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Embarking upon another robbery investigation, Novak (Lauren Lane) is joined by her reporter friend Amy Rivers (Kelly Curtis). To enhance the excitement of the job at hand, Amy resorts to sniffing cocaine. Not surprisingly, Amy's ever-increasing dependency on the drug not only jeopardizes her life, but Novak's as well--and Hunter (Fred Dryer) may not be able to come to the rescue this time. ~ 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

Johnny Reno (Dana Andrews) is a US Marshall who is bushwhacked by outlaws on his way to Stone Junction, Kansas. Joe Connors (Tom Drake) and his brother Ab (Dale Van Sickle) mistakenly believe the lawman is after them and fire on Reno, and Reno captures Joe after Ab is killed in the gun battle. The two face an angry mob in a town where local Sheriff Hodges (Lon Chaney, Jr.) is in cahoots with the corrupt Mayor Jess Yates (Lyle Bettger). Although Reno believes Joe may have killed an innocent Indian, he must protect the prisoner from the growing mob that threatens to lynch the man before his trial. Jane Russell plays Johnny's sweetheart Nona, owner of the local saloon. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

Hawkeye (Alan Alda) is once again forced to come face to face with the horror of war when he finds that the life of his old buddy, iconoclastic journalist Tommy Gillis (James Callahan), is in his hands. Meanwhile, Frank (Larry Linville) tries to parlay a minor injury into a Purple Heart medal. Former child actor and future director Ron Howard guest-stars as Wendell Peterson, a 15-year-old PFC. "Sometimes You Hear the Bullet" originally aired on January 28, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi