John Phillip Law Movies

A gaggle of young adults discovers a cache of gold in an abandoned mine. Little do they realize that the vengeful ghost of the long-dead miner (Vernon Wells) protects the hoard with a gaffing hook, pick axe, and shovel, despite the efforts of the sheriff (John Phillip Law) and zany Aunt Nelly (Karen Black). ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, a seductive young woman returns to the home of her step-father, after having spent the last few years in an institution for the criminally insane for killing her mother, and causes all sorts of trouble. She comes in the midst of a terrible thunderstorm. Her step-daddy's girl friend Michelle is not pleased by Angel's sudden appearance, for she is truly a luscious lass. Meanwhile realtor, step-father Steven has his own problems as he and his partner have borrowed a fortune, from violent loan shark Johnny, to finance a failing Palm Springs condo scheme. In Johnny's business defaulting on loans is usually fatal and now he wants Steven to pay up, so he sends out his best killer. Back at home Angel uses her considerable physical charms on both Steven and Michelle to convince them to allow her to stay. When the killer suddenly shows up, Angel gets him into the sack and that's when all hell breaks loose. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Italian filmmaker Sergio Bergonzelli (Nelle Pieghe della Carne) directed this ridiculous horror film starring John Phillip Law as another in the long line of the genre's crazed artists. Reminiscent of A Bucket of Blood and Color Me Blood Red, the film delights in showing Law painting with blood, ranting about being the reincarnation of Van Gogh, and pursuing pianist Brigitte Christensen. He wants her to replace his dead wife, whose corpse sits at the piano in his stately castle. The dead wife isn't spared either, getting molested by Law's necrophiliac butler (former sword-and-sandal star Gordon Mitchell), who spends his spare time sawing up local women. To add to the catalogue of silliness, Law gets his ear lopped off by a ghost before the castle comes tumbling to the ground. Absolute trash, this one is for completists and masochists only. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

The opening episode of Murder She Wrote's second season marks the first occasion in which matronly mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) assumes a different identity in the cause of justice. Summoned to a Caribbean resort by a desperate letter from her old friend Antoinette Farnsworth (Reggie Savage), Jessica arrives to find that Antoinette has been murdered. To ferret out the guilty party, who has already been pinpointed as a jewel thief, our heroine poses as a very wealthy--and very reclusive--widow. Len Cariou, who previously costarred with Angela Lansbury in the hit Broadway musical "Sweeney Todd", makes his first appearance as redoubtable British secret agent Michael Haggerty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A former Green Beret becomes a low-budget Rambo after he stops a gang from robbing his LA gas station and they retaliate by slaughtering his family. Enraged, the veteran joins forces with a CIA agent and a mercenary band. Together they head to Southeast Asia's Golden Triangle to break up a major drug ring. Much of the film, including the LA sequences, were shot in the Philippines ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Force Z is a crack Australian military corps during World War II. When a plane carrying a high-profile Japanese defector crash-lands somewhere in the South Pacific, it's up to Force Z to find it. Complicating matters is a traitor in the good guys' midst. John Philip Law heads the cast of Attack Force Z, but some video companies have bestowed top billing upon Mel Gibson, originally listed 3rd in the cast. The film also features an early leading peformance by Sam Neill. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This attenuated adaptation of Helen Van Slyke's novel stars Donna Reed (her first TV appearance in 12 years) as a widow with financial and domestic problems. Her adult daughter Stephanie Zimbalist has turned to drugs; her sons Michael Shannon and Tim Hutton have less severe but no less time-consuming personal difficulties; and her mother Mildred Dunnock is aloof and remonstrative. In addition, Reed is torn between two loves: old flame Efrem Zimbalist Jr., and doctor John Phillip Law, who is young enough to be her son. The above-mentioned plot contrivances would seem to be sufficient to fill the four hours (and two parts) of The Best Place to Be several times over; still, there's time enough left over for a tragedy to strike Reed's family before she finally settles down with the elder Zimbalist. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A mother discovers a horrifying secret about her young son's imaginary friend in this gothic shocker based on Henry James' The Turn of the Screw and directed by the late Marcello Aliprandi. Twelve-year-old Martino may as well live alone at his family's sprawling Venetian villa. Largely ignored by his wealthy, self-absorbed parents and left with few playmates with whom to pass the day, Martino soon falls under the spell of an imaginary friend named Luca. When Martino's mother begins to investigate her son's increasingly hostile invisible playmate, a revelation about her past leads her to believe that Luca may in fact be the vengeful spirit of the child she lost before Martino was born. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide

During World War II, American USO tours gave new life to Italy's native music-hall performers, as it gave them a livelier venue for entertaining both the local population and the incoming soldiers. This Italian film, starring Alberto Sordi and Monica Vitti, tells the story of two such performers, their ambitions and their struggles. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Michael Strogoff (John Phillip Law) is the courier to the Czar who is helped by Nadia (Mimsey Farmer) to repel Tartar barbarians led by Feofar Khan (Kurt Meisel) from raping and pillaging in the steppes of Siberia. Ivan (Hiram Keller) is the Tartar sympathizer and activist who conspires against the Czar and his minions. Several expansive battle scenes employ the beautiful Bulgarian countryside to re-enact the clash between the rival factions. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A voluptuous outer space agent travels to another galaxy in search of a missing inventor in this science fiction send-up. Barbarella (Jane Fonda), an interstellar representative of the united Earth government in the 41st century, is dispatched to locate scientist Durand Durand, whose positronic ray, if not recovered, could signal the end of humanity. Outfitted in an array of stunning Star Trek/Bond girl outfits and cruising around in a plush, psychedelic spaceship, Barbarella travels to the Tau Seti system and promptly crash-lands. She then spends the rest of the film discovering the joys of interstellar sex with a keeper of feral children (Ugo Tognazzi), a blind, beatific angel (John Phillip Law), and an inept revolutionary named Dildano (David Hemmings). Slowly but surely, she also finds her way to Durand Durand by moving from one exotic, Wizard of Oz-style locale to another. Along the way, she meets the kindly Professor Ping (a surprisingly verbal Marcel Marceau), a Eurotrash dominatrix named the Great Tyrant (Rolling Stones gal pal Anita Pallenberg), and the Concierge (Milo O'Shea), a strangely familiar lackey of the Great Tyrant who tries to destroy Barbarella with his great big organ of love. Jean-Claude Forest, who created the character Barbarella in 1962 for V-Magazine, served as visual advisor on the adaptation. The film's missing scientist character famously inspired the band name of '80s pop stars Duran Duran (who altered the spelling slightly). Almost two decades later, the film also inspired electronic act Matmos, which was named after the aqueous personification of evil unleashed by the Concierge at the movie's climax. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide