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- 1970
Angel (Don Stroud) is the biker who joins a commune of hippies near a small town out West. When the town rednecks attack them in a dune buggy convoy, Angel calls up some of his bad biker buddies to exact revenge. Tremaine (Luke Askew) is the commune leader targeted extermination by the looney locals. Tyne Daly plays a hippie chick and Aldo Ray is the lazy local sheriff who refuses to calm things down in this cycle drama. Music provided by Randy Sparks and Jim Helms. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Stroud, Luke Askew, (more)
Adapted by Leon Uris from his own novel, the film follows a group of World War II marines, from Basic Training to Battlefield. Major Van Heflin knows that his men are spoiling for a real fight, but must make do with the desultory skirmishes assigned them by the Brass. All this changes with an onslaught of heavy-duty battling in the South Pacific. Aldo Ray plays a tough leatherneck who falls in love with demure Nancy Olson, while James Whitmore, Tab Hunter, Dorothy Malone and Raymond Massey costar. And watch for young Justus McQueen, cast as private L.Q. Jones; McQueen liked his character name so much that he adopted it as his professional cognomen. Composer Max Steiner's musical score earned him an Oscar nomination. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Van Heflin, Aldo Ray, (more)
- 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)
- 197z
The Pig (Harold Sakata) is an international crime lord who has commissioned the creation of a lethal "freeze bomb," which he plans on auctioning off to the highest bidder. Dr. Mason (T.E. Forman) is appalled; he intended his climate control device to be used to eliminate droughts. He sabotages the operation, destroying his files and condensing all the data into a microdot which he implants in the forehead of his assistant, Felicia (Terry Moore). When Mason turns up dead and Felicia is kidnapped, it's up to karate-kicking detective John Ash (Jim Kelly) to investigate. With his partner, Li (Myron Bruce Lee), Ash infiltrates the Pig's cathouse hideout and finds the girl, though the sadistic villain has already cut the microdot out of her skin and escaped to the mountains via ski lift. While Li cleans up some police corruption they've discovered in the Pig's organization, Ash pursues his quarry until he can exact justice with lethal martial artistry and an airplane crash. ~ Fred Beldin, 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)
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)
- 1972
The shadow of the recent Attica uprising looms large over the October 3, 1972 Bonanza episode "Riot!" While on a tour of the Nevada State Prison, Ben Cartwright and several other prominent men are taken hostage by rioting prisoners. Though some of the inmates hope to escape, most of the others simply want to expose the brutal conditions in the prison-conditions that the corrupt wardens are determined will never be made public. The supporting cast includes Gregory Walcott as Will Cooper, Marco St. John as Plank, Aldo Ray as Heiser, Barney Philips as Calhoun, and Denver Pyle as the head warden. Also on hand is Tim Matheson, making the first of several Bonanza appearances as reformed convict Griff King. Riot! was written by Robert Pirosh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Landon, David Canary, (more)
- 1964
"The Wild One" is ornery Lafe Jessup (Aldo Ray), a pugnacious horse wrangler who'd sooner pick a fight than eat or sleep. While trying to pummel Hoss Cartwright, Lafe is interrupted by Prudence (Kathryn Hays), the Quaker wife whom he'd deserted a few months back. Prudence announces that Lafe is about to become a father-but in his typical bullheaded fashion, he wants nothing to do with either his wife or his unborn child. First telecast October 4, 1964, "The Wild One" was written by Jo Pagano. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lorne Greene, Pernell Roberts, (more)
- 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)
- 1967
Gravel-voiced Aldo Ray stars as Sgt. Cloadec in the Italian-Spanish Suicide Commandos. As you've probably already guessed, the film takes place during World War 2. Cloadec is one of the many Allied guerilla fighters assigned to destroy an enemy airport deep within occupied territory. Pamela Tudor is on hand to do the Lili Palmer bit as a resistance fighter. Based on a novel by Piet Legay, Suicide Commandos was also released in the US as Man Without Mercy (and guess who that man is!) ~ Hal Erickson, 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)
James Coburn stars in this comedy-melodrama as Eli Kotch, who uses his charm to obtain a parole from prison by having an affair with a female psychologist. Eli's plan upon getting out of jail is to rob a bank at the L.A. International Airport. The date of the bank robbery coincides with the arrival of the Russian premier, so that bank security will be minimal with the premier attracting most of the airport security forces. Harrison Ford appears in his film debut in the bit part of a bellhop. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Coburn, Camilla Sparv, (more)
- 1969
The made-for-TV Deadlock stars Leslie Nielsen as Lt. Sam Danforth (since this is long before the Police Squad era, Nielsen plays it straight). The white Danforth finds himself at ideological loggerheads with black district attorney Leslie Washburn (Hari Rhodes). Racial tensions are escalated when a black ghetto kid is killed by a cop, and a white reporter covering the case also turns up dead. Future stars Fred Williamson and James McEachin show up in supporting roles. First telecast February 22, 1969, Deadlock served as the pilot episode for The Professionals, a single-season component of NBC's rotating series The Bold Ones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Kill Factor was originally released as Death Dimension. Either way, the audience was hep to the fact that it wasn't a Disney picture. The presence of onetime James Bond George Lazenby and Harold "Oddjob" Sakata in the cast was enough to give this one away as a spy picture. And a spy picture it was, with the extra added dimension of kung-fu and karate, courtesy of top-billed Jim Kelly. Veteran Hollywoodites Terry Moore and Aldo Ray also appear in the film, which has something to do with a deadly "Freeze Bomb" (which happened to be the working title of this film when it was lensed in 1978). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
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
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
- 1960
A daring escape from prison whips open this actioner right at the beginning, and though the action continues from that moment onward it does not sustain the same break-neck pace. Matt Kirk (Aldo Ray) is in jail, wrongly accused of a crime, and along with three other inmates he escapes by hiding out in an ambulance. Circumstances then lead Matt and the others to set off in a small boat that ends up drifting toward an island called Pinchgut in Sydney's harbor. As the fugitives hole up on the island, Matt devises a way to call attention to his demand for a retrial that instead calls attention to more police... and a siege of the island begins. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Aldo Ray, Neil McCallum, (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)
Erskine Caldwell's steamy novel God's Little Acre was given a film adaptation in 1958. A heavily grayed-up Robert Ryan plays Ty Ty Walden, the patriarch of a slovenly backwoods family. As Ty Ty digs around his farm in search of gold (which he has yet to find), his son in law Bill Thompson (Aldo Ray) carries on an adulterous affair with the sluttish Griselda (Tina Louise). Comedy relief is provided by the dimwitted Pluto (Buddy Hackett). Others in the cast include future TV stars Jack Lord as Buck Walden and Michael Landon as Ty Ty's albino farmhand. A flop when first released, God's Little Acre made back its cost on the TV rental circuit; today, it is in the public domain, available to everyone, even the "under 18s" who were prohibited from seeing it back in 1958. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Ryan, Aldo Ray, (more)
An all-star cast including James Caan, Stefanie Powers and Sammy Davis, Jr. headlines this shoestring-budget revisionist western from 1975. Caan stars as Jud McGraw, a cowboy unjustly framed for a crime he didn't commit; he partners up with an ethically wronged Native American woman named Little Moon (Powers). In response to the ills they have each suffered, the two set off to wreak vengeance on a small western town. Onetime Alfred Hitchcock Presents directorial mainstay Bernard Girard helms. ~ Nathan Southern, All Movie Guide
- 1977
- PG
Despite bearing the earmarks of a cheap slasher outing, this quirky little thriller emerges a surprisingly original murder mystery with some well-executed twists. May Britt (formerly Mrs. Sammy Davis Jr.) plays a seemingly innocent farm girl (with more than a few toys rolling loose in the attic) convinced that her slovenly uncle (played by a delightfully grumpy Cameron Mitchell) is the man responsible for the grisly scissor-murders of several local girls. The validity of her suspicion has little bearing on the story's outcome, however, as the plot takes a rather unexpected turn halfway through. This seedy but fun horror film is buoyed by Britt's enjoyably loony performance coupled with the cranky antics of Mitchell and the town's drunken sheriff, Aldo Ray. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- 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)
- 1979
- R
Country singer Rachel Foster (Linda Haynes) stumbles across the scene of a mass murder in this routine horror feature. She is arrested and charged with the murders and placed in prison. Psychiatric sessions are run by the sadistic and misogynist Dr. Kline (Geoffrey Lewis). His idea of mental health is to erase the patient's personalities and completely replace them with new ones through brainwashing. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Haynes, Geoffrey Lewis, (more)
- 1960
The Italian Musketeers of the Sea transports cast and crew to Maracaibo, then barely takes advantage of the attendant scenic wonders before settling into its creaky plot. The story has something to do with locating vast amounts of gold, and the greed and treachery resulting in the race for the valuable ore. If nothing else, the film allows us to see the lengths that faded Hollywood stars of 1960 would take to stay in the limelight. In this instance, the unfortunate lost Tinseltown souls are Robert Alda, Aldo Ray and Pier Angeli. There must have been good solid reasons for all three of these worthies to omit Musketeers of the Sea from their official resumes. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
