Billy Beck Movies

Goofy team Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong play chauffeurs hired by a couple of Arabs (also played by the two) to make a cross-country trip with a limo which happens to contain $5 million hidden inside. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

Les Tremayne guest stars as Boss Hogg's "Big Daddy", a well-known philanthropist who is every bit as kindly, honest and generous as his son is not. Worried about upsetting his daddy, Boss (Sorrell Booke) calls off his scheme to frame the Duke boys with a hot license plate--but his sudden attack of integrity is foiled when his own henchman uses the General Lee as a getaway car for another crime! This episode marks the final appearance of series regular Rick Hurst (Deputy Cletus), who'd just signed on with the new sitcom Amanda's. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Middle-aged angst is the catalyst for this drama about an older married couple who join up with younger partners. When Karen Evans (Shirley MacLaine) discovers that her husband Adam (Anthony Hopkins) has been dallying around with young co-ed Lindsey Rutledge (Bo Derek), she is furious. She fights back by starting up an affair with young Pete Lachapelle (Michael Brandon) and pretending to tolerate her husband's pecadillos. Adam is selfish and arrogant, a typical college professor stereotype. The odd couples decide to take off for a skiing holiday in Vermont during which their relationships will be tested. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

After the excellent audience response to their teaming in Silver Streak, Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor reunited for this zany comedy. Wilder and Pryor play a couple of out-of-work numbskulls who take a promotional job that requires them to dress up like gigantic woodpeckers. Unfortunately, a pair of thieves, likewise decked out in woodpecker suits, pull off a bank job not long after Wilder and Pryor make their first public appearance. The boys are arrested and sentenced to 120 years each (at this point, we know we're not dealing with real life). After a concerted (and hilarious) effort to make the best of things "in stir," Wilder and Pryor break out of jail, hoping to track down the genuine thieves. The mess never really works itself out, suggesting that perhaps the stars had a Stir Crazy II lurking in the recesses of their minds. Written by Bruce Jay Friedman and directed by Sidney Poitier, it never did spawn a sequel, though a TV series spin-off, starring Larry Riley and Joseph Guzaldo, briefly surfaced in 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

It's hardly likely that anyone will confuse 1977's First Love with the 1939 Deanna Durbin musical of the same name. In the earlier film, Durbin received her first screen kiss from Robert Stack. In the 1977 film, no one stops at kissing. College boy Elgin (William Katt) falls for coed Caroline (Susan Dey, light-years removed from The Partridge Family), despite Caroline's deep involvement with an older man. 1950s leading lady Virginia Leith makes a comeback appearance in a minor role. Critics applauded the sensitive direction by Joan Darling, even while carping that the title First Love seemed to be a misnomer: neither Katt nor Dey appear to be inexperienced in sexual matters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A cinematic take on a 1960s best-seller, Valley of the Dolls traces the ups and downs of three young women as fame, booze, pills, and men consume their lives. Well-bred, small-town Anne Welles (Peyton Place star Barbara Parkins) arrives in New York eager for fame but settles for a job assisting theatrical attorney Henry Bellamy (Robert H. Harris). The job leads her to cross paths with Helen Lawson (Hollywood veteran Susan Hayward), the grand dame of Broadway musicals, and Neely O'Hara (sitcom star Patty Duke), an up-and-coming performer whom Lawson unceremoniously boots from her latest show. Neely lands on her feet thanks to a series of nightclub gigs, and soon she and Anne befriend Jennifer North (Sharon Tate), a buxom starlet. As Neely becomes a huge star of stage and screen and Jennifer appears topless in a string of European "art" films, Anne becomes a wealthy cosmetics spokeswoman and suffers though a passionate but failed affair with aspiring writer Lyon Burke (Paul Burke). As the pressures of fame and failed romance take their toll on all three women, they take refuge in food, sex, liquor, and pills -- especially Neely, who becomes downright monstrous (the titular "dolls" are the uppers and downers to which she becomes hopelessly addicted). Although the film's characters are fictitious composites, Neely most closely resembles Judy Garland; Garland herself was originally cast as Lawson, but she was replaced after only a few days by Hayward. Although the film's trailer played up the story's titillating subject matter, the script for Valley of the Dolls actually toned down Jacqueline Susann's novel. And despite the fact that Dionne Warwick can be heard singing "(Theme From) The Valley of the Dolls" twice during the film, contractual snags kept her from releasing the soundtrack version; a different arrangement later became a number two pop hit in 1968. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

Marty Ingels guest stars as Dan, the owner of Samantha and Darrin's diaper service. Or at least, that is who Dan claims to be. In truth, he is a spy from a rival advertising agency, and he plans to swipe all of Darrin's ideas by planting a "bug" in baby Tabitha's rattle. Featured in the cast are Don Keefer as Kimberly and Alex Gerry as Wright. Written by David Braverman and Bob Marcus, "Dangerous Diaper Dan" first aired on November 3, 1966. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this musical aimed at teenagers, Frankie Avalon, and Fabian battle it out for Annette Funicello's affections on the stock car track. The tale begins when smugglers trick Avalon into taking on contraband during a cross-country race. He catches on to their ploy and helps the Feds capture the crooks. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The unexpected arrival of notorious "coward" Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) in a small town proves to be both surprising and embarrassing for a young ne'er-do-well named Tuck Fraser (Larry Pennell). Thanks to a series of incredible circumstances, Tuck is being lauded by the local populace as the man who has finally killed the much-hated McCord. Now that Jason has turned up very much alive, Tuck is forced to desperate measures to retain his undeserved reputation. This is the first of several Branded episodes directed by Larry Peerce, whose later film credits include Goodbye, Columbus and Two-Minute Warning. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With the Germans advancing, Hanley (Rick Jason) and his men are ordered to evacuate a French village. Taking advantage of the situation, Frenchman Paul Lejeune (Jay Novello) switches a few road signs in order to misdirect Hanley's platoon into another village--his own. Lejeune hopes that by pulling the wool over the Americans' eyes, he can not only save the lives of the few villagers remaining, but also prevent a local winery from being bombed into oblivion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This romantic comedy opens with a resounding warning: its chief concerns are passion, bloodshed, desire, and death. "Everything," exclaims the narrator, "that makes life worth living." Irma La Douce (Shirley MacClaine) is Paris' most prosperous prostitute. Wise, endearing, and compulsively clad in green, Irma rules the rue Casanova. She triumphantly works the most coveted corner on a street where the cops gladly look the other way and the naughty johns leave tips. Her street is a content community of live and let live and good-natured desire, an Augean stable of human understanding. However, to upright Nester Patou (Jack Lemmon), the area's new policeman, genial wrongdoing is still wrongdoing. Freshly promoted from day patrol at a children's playground, the scrupulous Nestor arrests Irma and her colleagues in a bumbling, unauthorized raid. He takes pity on Irma, but harasses the guilty johns -- including the police captain. Promptly unemployed, Nester returns to the scene of his crime, the rue, and to Irma. After physically besting her pimp, Nester unwittingly takes his position. The two fall madly in love, but Nestor quickly grows jealous of Irma's patrons. Thus, he masquerades as a wealthy English aristocrat and becomes Irma's sole customer -- only to eventually grow violently jealous of himself. Soon enough, this formally righteous cop is comically jailed for his own brutal murder! As the film's prologue promises, Irma La Douce is a celebration of life from beginning to end -- unabashedly adoring lust, emotion, fervor and, above all, foolish love. ~ Aubry Anne D'Arminio, All Movie Guide

First telecast April 4, 1963, this grim 60-minute Twilight Zone installment would seem to be more suited to Alfred Hitchcock Presents or Thriller. Martin Balsam stars as Martin Senescu, curator of a "chamber of horrors" wax museum. Upon learning that the museum is to be demolished, Martin takes his favorite wax statues -- those of Jack the Ripper, Henri "Bluebeard" Landru, and ax murderer Albert W. Hicks -- to his home, much to the dismay of his wife Emma (Maggie Mahoney). Not long afterward, two brutal murders take place -- and the evidence leads Martin to conclude that the culprits were his beloved wax figures. Though credited to Charles Beaumont, "The New Exhibit" was actually scripted by longtime Beaumont collaborator Jerry Sohl. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide