Charles Napier Movies

Director Jonathan Demme made one of his more conventional movies with Swing Shift, an examination of life on the American home front during WWII. Goldie Hawn, who also served as the film's producer, stars as Kay, a woman who takes a job on the line at a plant producing war planes after her husband goes off to fight in Europe. One of her coworkers is her best friend Hazel, played by Christine Lahti, whose performance earned an Oscar nomination and a New York Film Critics award. Kay falls in love with another coworker, Lucky (Kurt Russell), who couldn't enlist because of a weak heart. Kay's husband Jack (Ed Harris) comes home on leave and finds out that his wife has betrayed him. Lucky then decides to pursue Hazel, driving a wedge between the two best friends. ~ Michael Betzold, Rovi

The A-Team heads to the small town of Haleyville to aid female fire chief Annie Saunders (Stepfanie Kramer), whose job may be taken away from her by unscrupulous, mob-connected rival chief Roy Kelsey (Paul Gleason). In their efforts to help Annie and find out what Kelsey is REALLY up to, our heroes must avoid capture by Col. Briggs (Charles Napier), the latest in a long line of military antagonists. The best scenes involve "Little Squirt", a revolutionary fire-fighting apparatus (actually a glorified seltzer bottle!) created by the redoubtable Murdock (Dwight Schultz). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This time the A-Team takes up the cause of migrant workers who are being treated as slaves--and cheated out of their meager salaries in the bargain--by evil landowner Ted Jarrett (played by prison-movie perennial John Vernon). Once on the scene, the Team sets about to organize the beleagured workers into a union, a task that necessitates the conversion of a huge cabbage-bailing machine into an armored vehicle. Meanwhile, the Team's perennial nemesis Col. Decker (Lance LeGault) continues to breathe down the Good Guys' necks. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Designed as a spoof of slasher movies, this gory comedy is set in a town that more than a decade ago was home to the infamous lawnmower killer. Set just before the big Halloween soiree at the local high school, it follows officer Dick Harbinger as he desperately tries to convince the town that the dreaded mechanical reaper is about to return for more bloodshed and horror. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Jonathan Demme's breakthrough movie featured the shaggy energy and affection for marginal American eccentrics that marked his earlier Citizens Band (1977) and such later films as Something Wild (1986) and Married to the Mob (1988). Melvin Dummar (Paul LeMat) is a barely-getting-by Nevada milkman. One day in the early 1970s, while driving down a lonely highway, Melvin picks up a shaggy, bearded bum (Jason Robards Jr.) and offers him a ride into town. Melvin gives the bum a quarter at the end of the ride, and that, so far as Melvin is concerned, is that. The story goes off on a new tangent, involving the on-and-off marriage between Dummar and his contest-happy wife Lynda (Mary Steenburgen). During one of the multitude of financial crises endured by the Dummars, Melvin discovers that the tramp he picked up was none other than billionaire Howard Hughes -- and when Hughes dies, Melvin inherits $150 million. The movie's wide acclaim included Oscars for Steenburgen and Goldman's script and New York Film Critics Awards in almost all major categories, including Best Picture and awards for Demme, Goldman, Steenburgen, and Robards. Demme would gain even greater attention in the 1990s as the director of The Silence of the Lambs (1991) and Philadelphia (1993). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Nice to see veteran hardcase character actor Charles Napier in a leading role, even if it's in something as eminently forgettable as Big Bob Johnson and His Fantastic Speed Circus. The eponymous Big Bob (Napier) is head man of a spit-and-vinegar auto racing team. Bob's aggregation makes a brief pit stop to save a deserving young man from being swindled by his devious uncle (William Daniels). The upshot of all this is a cross-country race between two souped-up Rolls Royce. Aimed squarely at the Smokey and the Bandit crowd, the made-for-TV Big Bob Johnson debuted June 27, 1978. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

David Carradine and Kate Jackson spend most of their time peering over dashboards and revving up outboard motors in this extended chase film about moonshiners engaged in a frantic racing contest. Carradine is Harley Thomas, a Florida moonshiner who challenges Ralph Junior (Roger C. Carmel), the father of his girlfriend Nancy Sue Hunnicutt (Kate Jackson), to a competition to determine who can produce the most moonshine. Ralph Junior takes up the challenge and the two adversaries struggle to get the brew from their home stills to thirsty patrons without the cops or the mob trying to confiscate the firewater. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

Tony Baretta (Robert Blake) goes undercover as a stevedore to investigate a series of dockside murders. Unfortunately, a waitress with a long-standing grudge against Baretta recognizes him. Will she blow the whistle on his cover, thereby putting both Tony and herself in jeopardy? Susan Tyrrell essays a dual role in this episode. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A pre-Rocky Sylvester Stallone is prominently featured in this episode as young detective Rick Daley, who accidentally shoots a boy while on duty. Daley claims that shots were being fired all around him at the time of the tragedy, and that he is innocent. Pressured by the higher-ups to protect Daley, Kojak (Telly Savalas) refuses to accept the young cop's story without positive proof--while certain members of the Internal Affairs division seem willing to throw Daley to the wolves whether he's guilty or not. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Korean War veteran Jim Rockford (James Garner) is contacted by his former commanding officer Col. Daniel Hart-Bowie (Frank Maxwell), who turns up dead after leaving a very brief and uninformative message on Jim's answering machine. Before long, the Army is exerting pressure on Jim to reveal the words that passed between the Colonel and himself. At the same time, Hart-Bowie's daughter Shana (Jesse Welles) is determined to prove that her dad's "accidental" death was anything but. At the bottom of the mystery is a smuggling ring and a handful of corrupt authority figures--both in and out of uniform. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Russ Meyer followed-up his delirious Beyond the Valley of the Dolls with this surprisingly straighforward drama, which offered little of Meyer's traditional tongue-in-cheek humor or remarkably proportioned women in favor of a serious message about the evils of censorship. A bookstore sells a copy of a notorious erotic novel, entitled The Seven Minutes, to a teenager who is later arrested for rape. A prosecutor on a crusade against pornography seizes upon this as an opportunity to have the book declared obscene, and the trial sparks a heated debate about the issue of pornography vs. free speech, as well as revealing a startling revelation about the novel's true author. Adapted from a novel by Irving Wallace, The Seven Minutes featured one of Meyer's more interesting casts, including veteran character actors John Carradine and Alexander D'Arcy, a post-Munsters Yvonne de Carlo, a pre-Magnum P.I. Tom Selleck, lounge comic Jackie Gayle, and Wolfman Jack as himself. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi