Aldo Ray Movies
Born Aldo DaRe. A leading man of Hollywood and some European films with a husky frame, thick neck, and raspy voice, he specialized in playing brawny but lovable tough guys. In World War Two he served as a Navy frog-man; later he was briefly the constable of Crockett, California, during the campaign for which he was spotted by Hollywood scouts. Ray debuted onscreen in the small role of a cynical football player in Saturday's Hero (1951), going on to frequently portray American rednecks and military men. His career went downhill rapidly in the '70s -- he made a string of low-budget films as a beefy character actor. His last film was Shock 'Em Dead (1990). Briefly married to actress Jeff Donnell, Ray is the father of actor Eric DaRe, best known as the character Leo in the TV series Twin Peaks. ~ All Movie Guide
Randolph Cohlan both wrote and directed the unrelentingly grim Night Shadow. Brenda Vance plays a prodigal daughter who comes home after long absence. En route, she picks up mysterious hitchhiker. Once she reaches her home town, her passenger disappears into night; shortly afterwards, a series of brutal murders occurs. Held responsible for bringing on this killing spree, Brenda sets about to catch the murderer herself., ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1990
- R
In this thriller, geek Martin (Stephen Quadros) makes his dream of becoming a famous rock musician come true when he sells his soul to the Devil. As Martin is rocketed to stardom as a performer known as Angel, he is also transformed into a ghoulish undead creature who must kill in order to survive. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Traci Lords, Stephen Quadros, (more)
- 1989
When a war-training competition pits a group of tough recruits against a pathetic platoon of soldiers, confusion and chaos results. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1988
Siblings Eric Roberts and Julia Roberts appear in this old-fashioned saga about oppressed Sicilian wine-growers in 19th-century California. Giancarlo Giannini stars as Sebastian Collogero, the robust Italian patriarch who is battling with railroad mogul William Bradford Berrigan (Dennis Hopper) to prevent his land from being taken over by the rail company. Sebastian's spirited son, Marco (Eric Roberts), is in love with Angelica (Lara Harris), the daughter of a rival wine-grower's clan. Marco is not very concerned about the warfare about to erupt between the wine-growers and the railroad until Berrigan's thugs torture and kill Sebastian in front of his daughter Maria (Julia Roberts). Marco then gets his friends together and organizes a revolt against Berrigan and his railroad empire. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Eric Roberts, Giancarlo Giannini, (more)
- 1988
In this actioner, a small town mayor kills a young girl, stashes her corpse in a junk yard and figures that no one will be the wiser. He then continues his reign of terror on his town until a vengeful mercenary shows up to stop him. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Gorgeous space traveller Taura (Sandy Brooke) is captured on the planet Arous (as in "The Brain From..."?) Taura is accused of a murder she didn't commit by Bantor (Ross Hagen) , chief flunkey of the all-powerful Inquisitor (Aldo Ray). She is incarcerated in an intergalactic prison ship, populated by beautiful, barely dressed woman. Thus does science fiction segue into "babes behind bars",complete with a sadistic female guard named Muffy (Dawn Wildsmith). Don't worry: you're not supposed to take this one seriously. John Carradine costars in this lively R-rated cheapie, which was also released as Star Slammer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ross Hagen, Sandy Brooke, (more)
- 1987
- R
Turkey (David Goss) is a Hollywood cop who goes undercover against the mob in this routine crime adventure. With his partner Jaguar (Lincoln Kilpatrick), Turkey helps Rebecca Fresno (Julie Schoenhofer) find her young son kidnapped when her husband Joe (Larry Lawrence) stiffs the mob to the tune of 6 million. Troy Donahue and Aldo Ray co-star with Jim Mitchum and Cameron Mitchell. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Mitchum, Cameron Mitchell, (more)
The final directorial effort from the late filmmaker Andre De Toth, Terror Night is a schlocky horror flick featuring such B-list performers as Alan Hale Jr. of Gilligan's Island and Dan Haggerty of Grizzly Adams. Set in a creepy mansion, the film follows a cast of characters as each one enters the house and meets a different gruesome fate. ~ Matthew Tobey, All Movie Guide
Adapted from Mario Puzo's novel, The Sicilian is an attempt to chronicle the life and times of Mafia leader, patriot and real-life Robin Hood Salvatore Giuliano, the infamous bandit who, together with his rag-tag band of guerillas, attempted to liberate 1940s Sicily from Italian rule and make it an American state. Giuliano (Christopher Lambert) robs from the rich conservative landowners to give to the poor, serf-like peasants, who in turn hail him as their savior. As his popularity grows, so does his ego, and he eventually thinks he is above the power of his backer, Mafia Don Masino Croce (Joss Ackland). The Don, in turn, sets out to kill the upstart by convincing his cousin and closest advisor Gaspare (John Turturro) to assassinate him. Nearly thirty minutes of screen time were haphazardly hacked off director Michael Cimino's original cut by the studio. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Lambert, Terence Stamp, (more)
- 1986
In this crime drama, an escaped convict, the only man ever to make it out of Alcatraz alive, is faced with the daunting prospect of having to sneak back to the dreaded island to find the key to the safety deposit box containing his loot. He will stop at nothing to get it back. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This uproariously bad sci-fi horror oddity plays like a modern version of a cheesy '50s alien invasion flick, only not as clever. The filmmakers deserve some credit for throwing everything but the kitchen sink into the plot (and perhaps even the sink's in there somewhere), which involves the diabolical plans of three silver-suited aliens, played by -- ready for this? -- John Carradine, Julie Newmar (TV's Catwoman), and Tina Louise (Ginger from Gilligan's Island), who hire a couple of drunken wrench jockeys (Neville Brand and Aldo Ray) to help them abduct a bunch of lame-brained teenage campers for use in the production of a youth-restoring serum. This allows for endless riffing on the Friday the 13th scenario, as over-sexed teens are stalked by ski-masked Brand and Ray. B-movie fans should be forewarned that this film's once-in-a-lifetime acting ensemble does virtually nothing to enhance the negligible entertainment value. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 1985
Florida shlockmeister Fred Olen Ray cranked out this ludicrous little charmer about a trans-dimensional mutant which "crosses over" via the annoying intervention of a busty psychic researcher of some sort (Anjelique Pettyjohn, who Star Trek fans may recognize as the green-haired female warrior who gets the hots for Captain Kirk in the episode "Gamesters of Triskelion"). Upon arrival in this dimension, a canister bearing the space-hopping beastie is left on someone's kitchen table (naturally) and eventually pops open, releasing its ravenous contents. After groping Pettyjohn for several minutes, the ineffectual hero manages to find a solution for stopping the rapidly-growing monster's rampage... or not. Daring viewers who manage to wade through this mutant mess are rewarded (kind of) with a gratuitously rockabilly-themed end title sequence intercut with outtakes that are more entertaining than the entire movie. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aldo Ray, Angelique Pettyjohn, (more)
- 1984
- R
Just for the record, an Executioner, Part 1 never existed. That the filmmakers would be too lazy to bother changing the title of this film should provide viewers with ample warning that they are about to watch a low-budget stinker. Designed as a crime drama, it tells the tale of an L.A. homicide detective who risks his life to stop a crazed vigilante from throwing hand grenades at criminals. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Christopher Mitchum, Aldo Ray, (more)
A cheesy rubber-suit monster flick from Wisconsin -- where they should know a thing or two about cheese. When a lazy local begins fishing with dynamite in scenic Bog Lake, something a bit larger pops to the surface: a green, bug-eyed mutant "were-fish," awakened from decades-long sleep, which promptly begins making hot meals of any unfortunate hard-drinking fishermen who stumble across its lair. When biologist Ginny Glenn (Gloria DeHaven) discovers the creature's evolutionary nature, the local sheriff (Aldo Ray, who looks really tired of playing a sheriff) decides to employ everything from pesticides to plastic explosives to slay the tenacious beast. It is hard to tell whether the filmmakers conceived this out of genuine nostalgia for 1950s rubber-monster films like Horror of Party Beach or Attack of the Giant Leeches, or genuinely thought their monster was scary. The still-attractive DeHaven appears also in heavy old-age makeup as the local hermit -- probably the producers' attempt to keep the film's only legitimate actor on screen as much as possible. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Gloria de Haven, Aldo Ray, (more)
- 1983
This peculiar thriller was directed by Paul Leder (I Dismember Mama) and features the husband-wife team of Greg Mullavey and Meredith MacRae, who appeared in several of his films. Another low-budget shocker concerning the murders of a greedy family gathering around the deathbed of a dying man, Vultures deserves points for its sheer outlandishness and an oddball cast. Female impersonator Jim Bailey appears in half a dozen different roles and does a Barbra Streisand imitation. Stuart Whitman, Aldo Ray, and Yvonne DeCarlo are among the suspects, and such obscure cult figures as Maria Perschy show up as well. Genre buffs are likely to find it amusing, while most other viewers will be left perplexed. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Stuart Whitman, Yvonne De Carlo, (more)
- 1983
In this unexceptional thriller, not released theatrically, Cristina Carver (Angelica Maria) finds herself in dire straits after she arrives to spend some time with her TV-reporter husband (Dean Stockwell) who is visiting a Latin American country run by a military dictator. After a car accident one day, Cristina brings the helpful Col. Kostik (Donald Pleasence) home and then kills him in self-defense when he violently attempts to rape and murder her. Terrified, she covers up her act and hides the body -- yet in spite of her husband's efforts to protect her, a crafty local police detective starts to figure out what really happened. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Angélica María, Dean Stockwell, (more)
- 1983
In this horror spoof, after not paying his yearly taxes, Dr. Frankenstein is in danger of being kicked off of the family estate. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Donald Pleasence, Yvonne Furneaux, (more)
Frustrated with the Walt Disney studio's reluctance to produce full-length animated films, Don Bluth and a number of animators left the studio in the early '80s with the intent of creating movies in the style of Disney's classics. The Secret of NIMH is the first film Bluth produced after leaving the studio. Adapted from Robert C. O'Brien's acclaimed children's book Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of N.I.M.H., the film is about a widowed mouse whose home is threatened; also, one of her children is gravely ill. On her way to find help, she discovers NIMH, a secret society of highly-intelligent rats who have escaped from a nearby science lab. The rats help the widow to protect her family and home. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Hartman, Dom DeLuise, (more)
- 1982
When oil is discovered in a small town, greedy prospectors hire a bunch of wild bikers to drive the townsfolk away. However, when a group of teenage pilots stumble across the underhanded plot, they plan an effective retaliation. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1982
This direct-to-video thriller involves a seriously unbalanced, former-alcoholic housewife who tries to make a clean start by moving into a new address after her release from therapy. What she finds there, however, are disturbing and violent visions which seem to be related to the brutal decapitation murder of the house's former owner... until consultation with a local psychic hints that some of the nightmares may actually be foreshadowing her own fate. In an unusual twist, her premonitions are echoed by a recently-suspended cop (Aldo Ray). Poor performances and slack pacing derail most of the suspense and reveal the rank amateurism of the filmmakers. The cable TV release of this cheapie usually carries the working title Straight Jacket (not to be confused with the properly-spelled Joan Crawford psycho-thriller Strait-Jacket). ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aldo Ray, Kory Clark, (more)
Don't Go Near the Park begins in a cave 12,000 years ago, where an old crone with phony rubber hands curses her sinful children, Gar and Tre (Crackers Phinn, Barbara Monker). They will age ten years for every year of life and never die. To appear youthful, they must kill people by ripping their stomachs open and eating their guts. To end the curse, Gar must marry a woman and produce a virgin girl who will be sacrificed at age 16. The next segment follows Gar (now named Mark) as he hypnotizes his landlady (a young Linnea Quigley) into bearing him a child, Bondi. On her 16th birthday, Bondi is upset by her parents' fighting and runs away to Griffith Park, blowing up a van full of rapists along the way. In the park, supposedly cursed by the "demons of Los Feliz," Bondi is taken in by Patty, who is actually Tre in disguise. Patty lives in an abandoned ranch house with two other runaways. Cowboy (Chris Riley) is a handsome teen who shows Bondi his child-abuse scars and falls in love with her, while Nick is a sassy eight-year-old played by Voyager from the Unknown's Meeno Peluce, first seen as he tries to fondle Bondi in her sleep. Aldo Ray plays a writer named Taft who tells Nick about the park's curse, leading the three kids to try an escape. They end up in a corpse-filled cave, where Mark tries to rape Bondi until Patty hits him on the head with a rock. The witchy siblings shoot lasers out of their eyes at each other, then Bondi turns into their mother and causes all the corpses to come alive, devouring them. Reverting to her normal form, Bondi helps Nick and Cowboy escape the cave, but rips Nick's stomach open on a playground slide in a predictable "shock ending." Director Lawrence D. Foldes and co-screenwriter Linwood Chase appear as two of the van rapists, and their fiery demise at least provides some measure of revenge for the audience. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1981
- R
Box Office tells the story of the road to success in Hollywood, and how once the destination is achieved, the journey can seem too treacherous to be worth the effort. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robin Clarke, Monica Lewis, (more)
