Donald May Movies

In what can only be described as a dramatic change of pace, Robert Altman directed this raunchy teen comedy based on the antics of two characters featured in a series of stories published in the National Lampoon. Oliver Cromwell Ogilvie (Daniel Jenkins), aka O.C., and his buddy Mark Stiggs (Neil Barry), are a pair of misfit teenagers whose greatest joy in life is making those around them miserable. O.C.'s ancient grandfather (Ray Walston) has just had his insurance cancelled, and when he discovers that suburbanite salesman Randall Schwabb (Paul Dooley) is responsible, O.C. and Stiggs swing into a summer-long campaign to get revenge on Schwabb and his family. While it received some of the most brutally negative reviews of Altman's career, O.C. and Stiggs is worth a quick look for its cast, which includes fellow outcast auteurs Dennis Hopper and Melvin Van Peebles, comics Louis Nye and Jane Curtain, the one-time glamour girl of the Clifford Irving scandal Nina Van Pallandt, and Thomas Hal Phillips, reprising his role as Hal Phillip Walker from Nashville. World music superstars King Sunny Ade and his African Beats appear and provide the musical score. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Vincent Sherman, who back in Hollywood's heyday directed Humphrey Bogart in The Return of Dr. X and All Through the Night, helmed the TV biopic Bogie. Unfortunately, Sherman was unable to overcome a cliched, bowdlerized screenplay, nor could he cover up the fact that star Kevin O'Connor had none of Humphrey Bogart's movie-star charisma. The film sketchily covers Bogart's life between 1899 and 1944, then zeroes in on the romance between Bogie and his To Have and Have Not leading lady Lauren Bacall, phlegmatically portrayed by Kathryn Harrold (the real Bacall reportedly refuses to see this film). Ann Wedgeworth makes a meal of her portrayal of Bogart's third wife Mayo "Sluggsy" Methot, while Bogie's close pals Patrick O'Moore and "Prince" Michael Romanoff are played, respectively, by Donald May and Alfred Ryder. Other Bogart intimates impersonated in this film include Peter Lorre (played by Herb Braham), Jack Warner (Richard Dysart), Leslie Howard (Stephen Keep), Howard Hawks (Ross Elliot), and wife #2 Mary Phillips (Carol Vogel). The script was by Daniel Tadarash, who wrote the 1949 Bogart film Knock on Any Door; it was based on Joe Hyams' affectionate (and far superior) biography of the star. Bogie was first telecast March 4, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Having previously played a homicidal kidnapper during The F.B.I.'s inaugural season, Wayne Rogers upholds his villainous tradition in this episode as a bigoted extortionist. Harboring a pathological hatred for all Latinos, Tyler Cray (Rogers) devises a nasty method of extorting $200,000 from a Mexican-American rancher (Ray Avila). Can this be the same Wayne Rogers who appeared as an upright federal agent in the 1975 TV movie Attack on Terror: The FBI vs. the Ku Klux Klan? Stephen Brooks makes his final series appearance as Special Agent Jim Rhodes in this, the last episode of The F. B.I.'s second season. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Follow Me, Boys!, Disney's paean to the Boys Scouts of America, leaves no cliché unturned: we're even offered the old reliable "kid hanging over cliff by rope" bit. Corny, sentimental and obvious though it may be, the film is a delight to watch, especially whenever Fred MacMurray dominates the screen. MacMurray plays Lem Siddons, a 1930s musician who decides to settle down in a small Midwestern town. Here he meets pretty bank teller Vida Downey (Vera Miles), who bemoans the fact that the local boys have no organized activities with which to occupy their time. Volunteering to be a scoutmaster, Lem begins a local scout troop. There are some tense moments when banker Ralph Hastings (Elliot Reid) demands that Lem's scouts vacate their headquarters, but Reid's feisty millionaire Aunt Hetty (Lillian Gish) comes to the rescue. The film's throughline is the regeneration of local "tough kid" Whitey (Kurt Russell), who, after joining the Boy Scouts, straightens out and matures into a solid citizen. The film's lachrymose climax is kept "honest" by the sincere underplaying of Fred MacMurray. Though lambasted by reviewers, Follow Me, Boys! struck a responsive chord with filmgoers, to the tune of a $5.5 million box-office take. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Behind every great woman, there's a man who isn't so sure he's happy to be there -- or at least that's the state of affairs in this gender-switch comedy. Leslie McCloud (Polly Bergen) makes history when she becomes the first woman elected to the office of President of the United States. However, while Leslie's achievement is a great step forward for women, her husband Thad McCloud is less enthusiastic about his own role in closing the gender gap. Thad soon finds his daily schedule is filled with meeting women from garden clubs, his official quarters are still filled with pink and frilly furniture from the previous resident, and Leslie's extremely busy schedule is putting a severe crimp in their love life. While Thad stews over his lowly status as a male "First Lady," Leslie is attempting to avoid an international incident by negotiating with Latin dictator Valdez (Eli Walach), who develops a less-than-diplomatic interest in the Leader of the Free World. Kisses For My President also features Arlene Dahl, Edward Andrews, and Ana Capri. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

During a bombing attack, Hanley (Rick Jason) is helplessly pinned under a fallen beam--a few feet away from an unexploded bomb. Hanley's life depends upon the defusing skills of David Woodman (Alex Davion), a combat-weary British explosives expert who is the sole survivor of his UXB team. Complicating matters is the fact that the embittered Woodman hates all Americans in general...and Hanley in particular. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Director Alfred Hitchcock lets us know from the outset that The Wrong Man is a painfully true story and not one of his customary fabricated suspense yarns, through the simple expedient of walking before the camera and telling us as much (this introductory appearance replaced his planned cameo role as a nightclub patron). The real-life protagonist, musican Christopher Emmanuel Balestrero, is played by Henry Fonda. Happily married and gainfully employed at the Stork Club, Balestrero's life takes a disastrous turn when he goes to an insurance office, hoping to borrow on his wife's (Vera Miles) life insurance policy in order to pay her dental bills. One of the girls in the office spots Balestrero, identifying him as the man who robbed the office a day or so earlier. This, and a few scattered bits of circumstantial evidence, lead to Balestrero's arrest. Though he's absolutely innocent, he can offer no proof of his whereabouts the day of the crime. Lawyer Frank O'Connor (Anthony Quayle) does his best to help his client, but he's up against an indifferent judicial system that isn't set up to benefit the "little man". Meanwhile, Balestrero's wife becomes emotionally unhinged, leading to a complete nervous breakdown. As Balestrero prays in his cell, his image is juxtaposed onto the face of the actual criminal-who looks nothing like the accused man! Utilizing one of his favorite themes-the helplessness of the innocent individual when confronted by the faceless bureaucracy of the Law-Hitchcock weaves a nightmarish tale, all the more frightening because it really happened (the film's best moment: Fonda looking around the nearly empty courtroom during his arraignment, realizing that the rest of the world cares precisely nothing about his inner torment). Hitch enhances the film's versimilitude by shooting in the actual locations where the real story occured. His only concession to Hollywood formula was the half-hearted coda, assuring us that Mrs. Balestrero eventually recovered from her mental collapse (she sure doesn't look any too healthy the last time we see her!) Watch for uncredited appearances by Harry Dean Stanton, Bonnie Franklin, Tuesday Weld and Charles Aidman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide