Stack Pierce Movies

An inner-city point man is on the run from both the cops and the crooks in this streetwise blaxpolitation drama. T (Robert Hooks) is a combination pool shark, private detective, and all-purpose ghetto fixer who operates out of a billiards parlor in South Central Los Angeles. T has done well for himself -- he drives a fancy new car, wears expensive suits, and lives in an upscale apartment -- but he also looks out for folks on the block, and knows how to tell the good guys from the bad guys on either side of the law. T is approached by Chalky (Paul Winfield) and his partner, Pete (Ralph Waite), who run a floating dice game in the neighborhood. Chalky tells T they've been ripped off by a band of thieves several nights running, and they want him to find out who the masked stick-up men are. T is willing to do the job for the right price, but it turns out Chalky and Pete are trying to take down rival crime kingpin Big (Julius Harris), and when one of Big's underlings turns up dead, T is blamed for the crime by both Big and corrupt police captain Joe Marx (Bill Smithers). Trouble Man also stars Paula Kelly's as T's love interest, and features an original score by Marvin Gaye. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

This is a remake of The Asphalt Jungle with an all black cast. In it a paroled convict plans to steal $3 million work of jewels, sell them, and use the bread to start a bank to back black businesses. He is assisted by two pals, his half-brother, and a preacher who also works as a thief. The operation is ultimately backed by a man who cheats on his wheelchair-bound wife with a sexy woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A man who fights his way to success learns the people who helped him may be his biggest enemies in this action drama. B.J. Hammer (Fred Williamson) is a dock worker who used to box in the Golden Gloves and still knows how to handle himself in a fight; when he gets into a brawl at work, he's seen in action by an associate of Davis (Bernie Hamilton), a flashy businessman who manages boxers. Davis thinks Hammer has potential, and offers him a contract. Soon Hammer is training with Professor (Mel Stewart, an experienced boxing coach, and begins romancing Lois (Vonetta McGee), one of Davis's secretaries. After easily winning several fights, Hammer's career is on the rise and he seems poised to become a championship contender. But Davis isn't just interested in boxing; he's an underworld kingpin who also traffics in drugs and prostitutes, and often uses washed-up fighters as pawns in his criminal games. Hammer soon learns just how Davis operates when his manager orders him to take a dive in an upcoming fight, and when Hammer refuses, both he and Lois could face deadly retribution. Also starring William Smith and D'Urville Martin, Hammer was a major box-office success that established Fred Williamson as one of the major stars of the 1970s blaxploitation boom; the film also included an original score from soul music legend Solomon Burke. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Laurence Luckinbill is cast as novice diamond smuggler James Danzer, who while eluding the FBI searches high and low for a buyer to take some stolen gems off his hands. In the course of events, Danzer kidnaps a blind woman named Claire (Elizabeth Ashley). Unless Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) can catch up with Danzer, both smuggler and captive may meet an untimely end at the hands of a none-too-ethical private eye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A group of solid citizens, upset by the increase of crime in their neighborhood, form a vigilante team. During the team's assault on a sleazy bar, a street informer is killed and the head of the vigilantes--who happens to be an old college friend of detective Steve Keller (Michael Douglas)--is accused of murder. As it turns out, however, the killing has far more serious and wide-ranging ramifications, with a vicious drug ring ultimately taking center stage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

John (Randolph Mantooth) would like to date a new nurse named Daisy (Britt Lind), but it looks like he'll have to wait in line. Among the evening's emergency patients is a refrigerator repairman who ends up frozen to an ice-house floor, an elderly hobbyist (John Carradine) who has glued himself to a model ship, and a man trapped in a theater fire. The guest cast this week includes TV-sitcom veterans Steve Franken ("Chatsworth Osborne" on Dobie Gillis) and Ann Morgan Guilbert ("Millie Helper" on The Dick Van Dyke Show. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Cornbread (Keith Wilkes) is an African-American youth who strives to escape his ghetto surroundings. He does so by becoming a high school basketball star--and the idol of the other youngsters in his community. On the verge of starting college on a scholarship, Cornbread is mistakenly killed by a police officer. Keith Wilkes, who plays the title role, was in real life an all-American at UCLA. Cornbread, Earl and Me, which was based upon Ronald Fair's novel Hog Butcher, marked the big screen debut of Laurence Fishburne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, an innocent man is wrongfully committed to an asylum for the criminally insane. While there he learns how to tap into his psychic powers and to affect the lives of others via astral projection. These skills come in mighty handy after he is released and he heads out for revenge against those who framed him. This movie was originally filmed as The Kirlian Force. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

With Muhammad Ali cast as himself, The Greatest covers Ali's life from his "Cassius Clay" days to the celebrated Ali/George Foreman bout. Along the way, the film focuses on Ali's conversion to Islam and his potentially career-breaking decision not to serve in the Army. Ernest Borgnine palys Ali's first trainer Angelo Dundee, while Roger E. Mosley shows up as Sonny Liston. The Greatest was the final directorial effort from the late Tom Gries. The same subject would later be covered in Michael Mann's Ali, starring Will Smith as the champ. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Chuck Norris plays John T. Booker, a Vietnam vet who finds out that several of his army buddies lost their lives in a mission that was intended to fail. Seeking answers, Booker quits his school-teaching job and tracks down the surviving members of his unit. One by one, his old friends are being knocked off by sinister forces, orchestrated by a crooked, and legally untouchable, politician. Amidst a plethora of martial arts, gunfire and explosions, the film briefly pauses for a comic-relief scene involving over-aged bellboy Jim Backus. Good Guys Wear Black did so well at the box-office that it warranted a sequel, A Force of One (1979). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Sam (Robert Ito) finds it impossible to believe that his friend Steve Yomoshira (Bill Saito), a kind and gentle man, had gone berserk and killed a police officer before taking his own life. The subsequent autopsy reveals that Steve suffered from radiation poisoning, possibly connected with a covert Army experiment to determine a man's ability to withstand torture. With the help of Quincy (Jack Klugman), Sam sets about to learn the truth about this questionable procedure--and in the process, to clear Steve's name for the sake of his widow (Nobu McCarthy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Adapted from the novel by Pete Hamill, Flesh and Blood stars Tom Berenger as Bobby Fallon, a street punk who develops into a topnotch boxer while in prison. Upon his release, Bobby is taken under the wing of manager John Cassavetes. Outwardly tough and unmovable, Bobby is tortured with memories of his miserable childhood, which included an incestuous episode with his mother (Suzanne Pleshette). This two-part TV movie concludes with a heavyweight championship bout, bankrolled by Bobby's long-estranged father (Mitchell Ryan). Photographed with Rocky-like intensity by Vilmos Zsigismond, Flesh and Blood first aired on October 14 and 16, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this carefree children's adventure, a grandfather and his grandson fulfill the former's life-long dream and embark upon a cross-country ballon flight. Back on the distant ground, the flyers are pursued by the boy's mother, the cops, the Feds, and others. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide