Walter Barnes Movies

A knife-happy young lady escapes the asylum (after being imprisoned for disembowelling her lecherous father) and soon joins forces with a sleazy pig farmer with murderous tendencies of his own. Together, the deranged duo manages to keep the piggies supplied with protein-rich vittles, thanks to the chopped-up corpses of unlucky diners from the greasy spoon down the road. This Deliverance-flavored hog pile (known merely as Pigs in many of its home-video incarnations) is practically a one-man show -- written, produced, directed by and starring character actor Marc Lawrence, a familiar face in over a hundred gangster films from the past 50 years. Katherine Ross fans take note: this is not the Katharine Ross of The Graduate but a virtual unknown, whose name was nevertheless top-billed on the video sleeve. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Car chases abound in this youthful, comedy action outing that centers on the rivalry between a small-town Southern sheriff and a mischievous, but basically good-hearted kid who bedevils him by joy riding in stolen cars and then destroying them. As added insult, the sheriff's daughter, the boy's steady, is frequently involved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

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, All Movie Guide

The insufferably rule-bound paramedic Craig Brice (James G. Richardson) makes himself even more obnoxious than usual when he gets his name in the newspapers. Brice's insatiable thirst for self-aggrandizing publicity drives John (Randolph Mantooth) and Roy (Kevin Tighe) crazy throughout the episode. Back on the job, the paramedics attempt to rescue a young girl from a backhoe, while simultaneously mollifying her apoplectic father; a babysitter suffers an anxiety attack when she tries to take care of too many kids at once, a hardware store catches fire, and a boy accidentally wounds himself with a pellet gun. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Claude Lelouch's Another Man, Another Chance is set in 1870. Fleeing from the Franco-Prussian war, Jeanne (Genevieve Bujold) and boyfriend Francis (Francis Huster) escape to the American west. Their course does not run smooth, and soon Jeanne is left alone to care for her baby. Meanwhile, American veterinaran Jimmy (James Caan), an absolute stranger to Bujold, endures his share of woes, not least of which is the rape and murder of his wife by desperadoes. Inevitably, Caan and Bujold meet and fall in love. Having already suffered the death of Huster, Jeanne tries to dissuade Jimmy from his single-minded pursuit of his wife's murderers. This character conflict determines the outcome of the film's final scenes. Another Man, Another Chance was distributed in the US by United Artists. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This fast-paced Disney endeavor stars Kim Richards and Ike Eisenmann as two adolescents with acute psychic powers. The kids are actually space aliens, but suffer from amnesia and are unaware of their origins. Pursued by greedy business-mogul Ray Milland, who wants to harness their special powers for his benefit, Kim and Ike are rescued by likeable camper Eddie Albert. He and the kids escape to the mountain of the title when Albert's RV suddenly acquires the power of flight. In 1978, the film spawned the sequel Return from Witch Mountain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

"Who are you?" the dwarf Mordecai (Billy Curtis) asks Clint Eastwood's Stranger at the end of Eastwood's 1973 western High Plains Drifter. "You know," he replies, before vanishing into the desert heat waves near California's Mono Lake. Adapting the amorally enigmatic and violent Man With No Name persona from his films with Sergio Leone, Eastwood's second film as director begins as his drifter emerges from that heat haze and rides into the odd lakefront settlement of Lago. Lago's residents are not particularly friendly, but once the Stranger shows his skills as a gunfighter, they beg him to defend them against a group of outlaws (led by Eastwood regular Geoffrey Lewis) who have a score to settle with the town. He agrees to train them in self-defense, but Mordecai and innkeeper's wife Sarah Belding (Verna Bloom) soon suspect that the Stranger has another, more personal agenda. By the time the Stranger makes the corrupt community paint their town red and re-name it "Hell," it is clear that he is not just another gunslinger. With its fragmented flashbacks and bizarre, austere locations, High Plains Drifter's stylistic eccentricity lends an air of unsettling eeriness to its revenge story, adding an uncanny slant to Eastwood's antiheroic westerner. Seminal western hero John Wayne was so offended by Eastwood's harshly revisionist view of a frontier town that he wrote to Eastwood, objecting that this was not what the spirit of the West was all about. Eastwood's audience, however, was not so put off, and an exhibitors' poll named Eastwood a top box-office draw for 1973. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Scripted by Rick Husky from a story by Sam Roeca, "Trapped" is a radical departure from the usual Mission:Impossible format. Things start traditionally enough, as the IMF sets about to recover an $8 million army payroll from a family of smugglers: Joe, Arthur and Doug Stafford (Tom Tully, Jon Cypher, and Bert Convy). But the odds change dramatically when Phelps is hit on the head and loses his memory--then wanders straight into a trap set by the crooks. "Trapped" first aired on February 26, 1972, as the final episode of Mission:Impossible's sixth season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Wounded in an ambush, Joe Cartwright is rescued by the Griswolds, a farming family. Delirious with fever, Joe experiences surrealistic flashbacks and bizarre disturbing visions (in one, he sees Hoss trying to kill him!) As his condition worsens, it becomes obvious that emergency surgery is called for-but Joe is too seriously injured to be moved from the Griswold farm. Featured in the cast of this superbly directed and photographed episode are Richard O'Brien and Peggy McCoy as Mr. and Mrs. Griswold, and David Huddleston as Doc Scully. Originally telecast October 3, 1971, "Bushwacked!" was written by Preston Wood. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this unusual black comedy, Stacy Keach plays Jonas Candide, a former carnival showman who roams the southern U.S. in 1918 with a portable electric chair. He offers his services as a freelance executioner for $100 a pop. He takes a job in a prison in Alabama, where he is supposed to execute a young woman named Gundred Herzallerliebst (Marianna Hill) and her brother. He electrocutes the brother first. On the night before she is scheduled to die, Gundred seduces Jonas and he falls for her. Jonas tries to get Doc Prittle (Graham Jarvis) to help him fake her execution, but the doctor demands a high price. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

When Will Griner (Walter Barnes) is acquitted of murder, the angry townsfolk, convinced that the trial was rigged in Will's favor, organize a lynch mob. It is up to the Cartwrights, Candy, and Sherriff Coffee to protect Will throughout a long and violent night. Meanwhile, Ben quietly re-opens the murder case to see if, indeed, Will was as guilty as the townspeople claim. The supporting cast includes Guy Stockwell as John Degnan, Ellen Weston as Louise Thurston, Ted Gehring as Jim, Stacy Harris as Teague, Tyler McVey as Al, and Mills Watson as Pete. Written by Preston Wood, "Anatomy of a Lynching" was initially telecast on October 12, 1969. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide