Clayton Prince Movies
By day, Malik Ali (Clayton Prince) is a high-profile defense attorney who is extremely successful at getting blatantly guilty thugs out of jail. Racked by guilt, he spends his nights in a black mask protecting the city from evil as -- ta da! -- the Black Ninja. When lovely Tracy (Carla Brothers) is kidnapped by a low-level mobster (Nicky DeMatteo) before she can testify against him in court, the Black Ninja must confront his arch nemesis, a highly-skilled killer dressed in red (Yuki Matsuzaki), to save her. ~ Buzz McClain, All Movie Guide
A vigilante judge administers final justice to crooks in this crime drama that is comprised of a trio of episodes from a television action series of the same title.
- 1993
The third and final season of Dark Justice finds ex-cop Nick Marshall (Bruce Abbott) continuing to lead his double life as a respected judge by day, and a leather-jacket vigilante by night. Using an admirably variety of stings and scams, Marshall and his team of "Night Watchmen"--Moon (Dick O'Neill), Gibs (Clayton Prince), Kelly (Janet Gunn) and sometimes Kari-Lynn (Joanne Haas)--succeed in tracking down and trapping criminals who have otherwise escaped prosecution via legal technicalities and loopholes. Added to the cast this season is sexy Samantha "Sam" Collins (Elisa Heinsohn), replacing Tara McDonald (who departed the show in Season Two to relocate to Boston) as Mitchell's super-efficient secretary and researcher. In addition to offering the series' first two-part episode, "In Cover of Darkness", the series also follows traditional lines by pitting the Night Watchmen against such adversaries as a crooked doctor, a homicidal novelist, and a game-playing serial killer. Guest stars this season include Erik Estrada, Mary-Margaret Humes, Peter Haskell, Edward Albert, Kent McCord and Anne Francis. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Abbott, Dick O'Neill, (more)
- 1992
Moving its production unit from Spain to Hollywood for its second season, Dark Justice serves up 22 new episodes in which the benevolent vigilante group The Night Watchman, secretly commandeered by Judge Nick Marshall, mete out punishment to criminals who have otherwise evaded capture by using the intricacies of the legal system for their own advantage. This year, Bruce Abbott replaces Ramy Zada in the leading role of Judge Marshall, though Dick O'Neill and Clayton Prince return as the Judge's versatile operatives Moon and Gibs. Also carried over from season one is Carrie-Ann Moss as Marshall's faithful "Girl Friday" Tara, though she would only appear in a handful of episodes. New to the Night Watchman team is sexy private eye Kelly Cochrane (Janet Gunn), who tumbles to Marshall's secret identity but who joins his team after he tracks down the "dirty cops" who have ganged-raped her right outside the Federal courthouse. Another new face is that of Joanne Haas as Kari-Lynn, a toothsome waitress who occasionally assists the Night Watchmen in their various schemes and scams. The move from Spain to Tinseltown enables the producers to hire more easily recognizable actors for guest-star appearances. Among those showing up in Season Two of Dark Justice are Elyssa Davalos,Erin Gray, andahl Bergman, David Groh, Joseph Campanella, Priscilla Barnes and Lauren Tewes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Abbott, Dick O'Neill, (more)
- 1991
A Spanish-American coproduction, the 60-minute action-adventure series Dark Justice was initially filmed in Barcelona, Spain, but set in a large Manhattan-like American metropolis. Ramy Zada originally headed the cast as Nicholas Marshall, a youthful ex-cop turned judge who had lost faith in the legal system after his family was killed in a car bombing meant for him. Determined to make criminals who'd slipped through the fingers of the law via legal loopholes and technicalites (many of them in his own courtroom), Judge Marshall led a double life: Distinguished jurist by day, leather-jacketed, motorcycle-riding vigilante by night. Working in concert with his covert "Night Watchman" team, Marshall entrapped a number of "untouchable" criminals, not so much by violence but by concocting elaborate sting operations in which the greedy villains would be foiled by their own gullibility. He was assisted in his mission by two super-efficient (and gorgeous) secretary-researchers, Tara McDonald (Carrie-Ann Moss) and Samantha "Sam" Collins (Elisa Heinsohn). Though Marshall and his Night Watchmen risked being arrested themselves for their nobly motivated by underhanded tactics, their results proved quite satisfactory to crusading DA Ken Horton (Kit Kincannon), who of course was totally ignorant of Judge Marshall's dual identity. During Season One, Marshall's team of confederates included Dick O'Neill as ex-forger and counterfeiter Arnold "Moon" Willis and Clayton Prince as special-effects maestro Jerico "Gibs" Gibson. Begona Plaza was seen in the first seven episodes as female adventuress Catalina "Cat" Duran, and when Cat was killed her place in Marshall's team was taken by the equally voluptuous Vivian Vives as Maria Marti. Dark Justice moved production from Barcelona to Los Angeles beginning with Season Two, at which point Bruce Abbott took over from Ramy Zada as Nicholas Marshall. Of the supporting cast, all but Vivian Vives were carried over in the American version: New additions to the Night Watchman roster were beauteous private eye Kelly Cochran (Janet Gunn) and versatile waitress Keri-Ann (Joanna Haas). In the United States, the 66-episode Dark Justice was seen as part of CBS' late-night "Crime Time in Prime Time" rotation from April 5, 1991 through April 14, 1994. The series was created by Jeff Freilich, who also served as executive producer and also wrote the theme music. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ramy Zada, Dick O'Neill, (more)
Hangin' with the Homeboys follows four young men--two Black, two Puerto Rican--over the course of one night in the Bronx. During the night, they have several misadventures as they talk, argue, play and get into accidents. This coming-of-age film was directed by the late Joseph B. Vasquez and features an early performance by John Leguizamo. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Doug E. Doug, Mario Joyner, (more)
Forever interested in the kitsch built into past eras, director John Waters chooses the TV dance show craze of the early '60s for his playful focus in Hairspray. Ricki Lake plays Tracy Turnblad, just one of several alliteratively named characters coming of age in 1962 Baltimore, where "The Corny Collins Show" is the most popular American Bandstand-type program, watched by hundreds of young dreamers each day after school. Being chosen to dance on it is the ultimate status symbol and every young girl's dream, and Tracy improbably wins a featured spot when she infiltrates a dance contest and makes a better impression than her favored rival, the catty Amber von Tussle (Colleen Fitzpatrick). Always able to have fun, even when she's being mocked by the jealous popular girls, Tracy wins the affections of Amber's boyfriend and soon begins leading a movement to integrate the dance show, which has previously featured blacks only in a once-weekly theme night. She is arrested following a demonstration at a local theme park owned by Amber's father (Sonny Bono), who subscribes to the same theory of race relations as "The Corny Collins Show." Tracy's adventures are also filtered through her loving but eccentric parents (Divine and Jerry Stiller) and involve a humorous cultural clash with pot-smoking beatniks (Ric Ocasek and Pia Zadora). ~ Derek Armstrong, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ricki Lake, Michael St. Gerard, (more)
- 1986
After a grueling nonstop week at the hospital, an exhausted Cliff (Bill Cosby) retreats to his home for a Saturday of complete rest and relaxation. Alas, our hero is unable to get a room all to himself, thanks to the various and sundry subplots involving the Huxtable children--to say nothing of the ubiquitous Robert (Dondre T. Whitfield) and Elvin (Geoffrey Owens). This episode won an Emmy Award for "outstanding editing." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
The Children of Times Square are alienated and disenfranchised kids from all over the country. With nowhere to go and no real purpose in life, they converge on the streets of New York, totally vulnerable despite their outward toughness. Howard Rollins plays a ruthless cocaine dealer who, in the tradition of Fagin, wins the confidence of many of these kids and organizes them into a criminal gang. The film traces the "recruitment" by Rollins of two teenagers, runaway Brandon Douglas and New Yorker Danny Nucci. Joanna Cassidy plays Douglas' mother, who desperately tries to free her son from Rollins' influence. Made for TV, Children of Times Square debuted on March 3, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
The TV prints of this entertaining melange whittled down the film's original self-serving title (Motown king Berry Gordy was the producer), and settled on merely The Last Dragon. Taimak stars as an African American martial-arts whiz, so devoted to his hobby that he dresses and behaves in what he thinks is true Chinese fashion. Taimak falls in love with sexy veejay Vanity. Gangsters intrude on both their lives when crook Julius J. Carry III tries to promote his talentless protegee into rock stardom. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
