Reggie Nalder Movies

Fray Santiago is a genuinely godly Christian priest who has come to the New World with the Spanish conquistadors. When he observes the typical behavior of his countrymen, which ranges from merely awful to truly shocking, his sense of mission is shaken. Ostensibly, he is here with them to convert the heathen Indians. Instead, it begins to look to him as though he ought to be converting Spaniards to Christianity. When he tries to carry out his mission with the Indians, they ignore him, then absorb him completely into their life and culture. The bemused priest is happy to be among these more civilized human beings, and his eventual "rescue" by the Spanish is a cause of immense suffering and frustration for him. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Novelist David Soul returns to his hometown of Salem, finding that things have changed a bit. More than a bit, in fact: the previously warm and friendly community is downright sinister. Soul suspects that the bizarre behavior of his onetime friends and neighbors is the handiwork of oddball antique dealer James Mason. We won't reveal here the secret of Salem; suffice to say that the action goes directly to the jugular, and that makeup artists Jack Young and Ben Lane won an Emmy nomination. Based on the best-selling novel by Stephen King, Salem's Lot was originally telecast in two parts on November 17 and 24, 1979; it was subsequently pared down to a single three-hour installment, which in turn was whittled down to about two hours for cable-TV play. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cycle-flick veteran William Smith stars as the head of a highly trained US intelligence team, each with the requisite invaluable "special talent." Headquartered in Hawaii, the team aims its sights on a powerful crime syndicate. Since the syndicate's henchmen are all martial arts experts, a combination of brawn and brains will be required throughout. The title alludes to the seven mobsters who must be wiped out by Smith & company in order to collect their $7 million reward. One gag in Seven was later appropriated (unconsciously or otherwise) by Raiders of the Lost Ark. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fellini's Casanova is played by Donald Sutherland. The film takes great pains to debunk the myth of the Great Lover by presenting him as an ordinary human being swept up in extraordinary circumstances. This Casanova breezes through his various political and amorous adventures with an air of bored detachment, allowing the audience to "fill in the blanks" regarding motivations and emotions. Though the film's plotline hop-scotches all over Europe, Fellini lensed the picture entirely within the lavish confines of Rome's Cinecitta Studios. Danilo Donati won an Oscar for costume design, while Nino Rota (of Godfather fame) should have won for his musical score. A sumptuous visual treat, Fellini's Casanova is something of a chocolate Easter Bunny: delicious going down, but hollow on the inside. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This British/German horrorama was the sequel to....drum roll please....Mark of the Devil (1970). The original film starred Herbert Lom as a "burning judge" preying upon accused witches in 18th century Austria. Anton Diffring substitutes for Herebert Lom in Part 2, but the basic premise remains intact. The overall tenor of the film is implicit in its alternate English-language title, Witches: Violated and Tortured to Death. Neither the original nor the sequel to Mark of the Devil had anything to do with the similarly titled 1985 Val Guest production. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This trend-setting thriller put its director, Dario Argento, on the international map and began a flood of imitative mystery-horror hybrids which dominated Italian genre output in the early 1970s. Tony Musante, best known for the television series Toma, portrays an American who witnesses the murder of a woman at a trendy Rome art gallery. Before long, Musante finds himself targeted by a mysterious killer. Based on a story by Byron Edgar Wallace, Bird and hints at the flamboyance which would become Argento's trademark. This and Argento's subsequent two films Il Gatto a Nove Code and Quattro Mosche di Velluto Grigio were much less horror-oriented than his later work. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Coming across a Nazi work camp, Saunders (Vic Morrow) and the squad liberate a group of starving Polish slave laborers. These men had been abandoned by their captors because they are to weak to walk--and it is for the same reason that Saunders may also be forced to leave the prisoners behind. A clue to the story's outcome can be found in titular reference to the Biblical Gideon, an Israelite military leader whose ragtag army won an important battle armed only with trumpets, torches and clay jars! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on the autobiography of convicted killer John Resko (played here by Ben Gazzara), this routine biographical drama looks at the crucial years between 1931 and 1949 in the convict's life. That period begins when Resko is convicted of killing a store owner and is sentenced to life in prison. After his arrival in prison Resko eventually gets involved in creating art, an activity that leads to a transformation in his character. That change became evident enough to garner the attention of the powers-that-be and by 1949, Resko receives a pardon. The prison system is shown as improving between the killer's first internment and his release, which in itself might make some viewers wonder what happened then, in the years between 1949 and the present. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

An unusually tense and intelligent political thriller, The Manchurian Candidate was a film far ahead of its time. Its themes of thought control, political assassination, and multinational conspiracy were hardly common currency in 1962, and while its outlook is sometimes informed by Cold War paranoia, the film seemed nearly as timely when it was reissued in 1987 as it did on its original release. It opens with a group of soldiers whooping it up in a bar in Korea as their commander, Sgt. Raymond Shaw (Laurence Harvey), arrives to inform them that they're back on duty. These men obviously have no fondness for Shaw, and he feels no empathy for them. While on patrol, Shaw and his platoon are ambushed by Korean troops. Months later, Shaw is receiving a hero's welcome as he returns to the United States to accept the Congressional Medal of Honor, and several of the soldiers who served under Shaw repeatedly refer to him as "the bravest, finest, most lovable man I ever met." It soon becomes evident that after their capture by the Koreans, Shaw and his men were subjected to an intense program of brainwashing prior to their release. While several are troubled by bad dreams and inexplicable behavior, it's Capt. Bennett Marco (Frank Sinatra) who seems the most haunted by the experience. In time, Marco is able to piece together what happened; it seems Raymond Shaw was programmed by a shadowy cadre of Russian and Chinese agents into a killing machine who will assassinate anyone, even a close friend, when given the proper commands. On the other side of the coin, Shaw is also used for political gain by his harridan mother (Angela Lansbury), who guides the career of her second husband, John Iselin (James Gregory), a bone-headed congressman hoping to win the vice-presidential nomination through a campaign of anti-Communist hysteria.

The Manchurian Candidate features a host of remarkable performances, several from actors cast cleverly against type. Frank Sinatra's edgy, aggressive turn as Marco may be the finest dramatic work of his career; Laurence Harvey's chilly onscreen demeanor was rarely used to s better advantage than as Raymond Shaw; James Gregory is great as the oft-befuddled Senator Iselin; and Angela Lansbury's ultimate bad mom will be a shock to those who know her as the lovable mystery writer from Murder, She Wrote. George Axelrod's screenplay (based on Richard Condon's novel) is by turns compelling, witty, and horrifying in its implications, and John Frankenheimer's direction milks it for all the tension it can muster. While Frankenheimer's career has had its ups and downs, The Manchurian Candidate and Seconds (1966) suggest that he deserves to be recognized as one of the most brilliantly paranoid American filmmakers of the '60s. Entertaining yet unsettling, both films indicate that things in the '60s were not what they seemed, with a resonance that still echoes uncomfortably in the present. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

The debate still rages as to whether Alfred Hitchcock's 1956 remake of The Man Who Knew Too Much is superior to his own original 1934 version. This two-hour remake (45 minutes longer than the first film) features more stars, a lusher budget, and the plaintive music of Bernard Herrmann (who appears on-camera, typecast as a symphony conductor). Though the locale of the opening scenes shifts from Switzerland to French Morocco in the newer version, the basic plot remains the same. American tourists James Stewart and Doris Day are witness to the street killing of a Frenchman (Daniel Gelin) they've recently befriended. Before breathing his last, the murder victim whispers a secret to Stewart (the Cinemascope lens turns this standard closeup into a truly grotesque vignette). Stewart knows that a political assassination will occur during a concert at London's Albert Hall, but is unable to tell the police: his son (a daughter in the original) has been kidnapped by foreign agents to insure Stewart's silence. The original script for Man Who Knew too Much was expanded and updated by John Michael Hayes and Angus McPhail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clark Gable's final effort for his longtime home studio MGM, Betrayed is an exciting espionage thriller set during World War II. Intelligence agent Gable is ordered to keep tabs on suspected Nazi collaborator Lana Turner (a brunette for the occasion). Both Gable and Turner join the Dutch underground, making contact with a flamboyant resistance leader known as "The Scarf" (Victor Mature). Turner poses as a sexy chanteuse, the better to gain the confidence of the lascivious Nazi officers. Within the next few weeks, several underground operatives are captured and shot, and it begins to look as though Gable's suspicions concerning Turner are correct. The real collaborator is revealed some twenty minutes before the finale, but the suspense level is expertly maintained throughout. The location-filmed Betrayed would later be mercilessly lampooned in the 1984 spy spoof Top Secret! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Just before wowing international critics and moviegoers with his adventure romp Fanfan le Tulip, director Christian-Jaque dashed off the lampoonish Barbe-Bleu. Ostensibly the story of the famed wife-killing potentate Bluebeard (Pierre Brasseur), this lighthearted costumer begins as the title character is poised to march down the matrimonial aisle for the eighth time. Barbe-Blue's newest spouse Aline (Cecile Aubry) is kept in line by her husband's claims of murdering her predecessors. But when Aline opens the famous locked door to the equally famous hidden room, both she and the audience are in for quite a surprise. The frivolous nature of Barbe-Bleu is underlined by its pleasing utilization of the French Gezacolor process. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide