Carlos Rivas Movies

Neighborhood pride runs deep in Echo Park, so when two lifelong friends join the local gang as a matter of course, they're handed down gang names from the previous generation of homegirls. Unfortunately, Sad Girl (Angel Aviles) and Mousie (Seidy Lopez) don't remain friends for long. When Mousie withdraws into herself to cope with the responsibilities of young motherhood after bearing the child of her one true love, Ernesto (Jacob Vargas), Sad Girl and Ernesto turn to each other for comfort. Soon, Sad Girl herself ends up pregnant, and warm sisterhood cools to an icy feud. Ernesto starts dealing drugs to support his two young families -- and to outfit the gussied-up low rider that he hides from both of his unsuspecting girlfriends. The economic and romantic entanglements of these three characters serve as the entry point into this multifaceted exploration of L.A. street life, but Mi Vida Loca rapidly expands in scope to take in other characters, most of them female. Bleach-blond Whisper (Nelida Lopez), for instance, learns the drug-dealing ropes from Ernesto and considers crossing gender lines to open her own operation. The slightly older Giggles (Marlo Marron), however, refuses to fall into old dependencies and habits after being imprisoned for four years for a crime her boyfriend committed. Sad Girl's sister, La Blue Eyes (Magali Alvarado), the only character to choose college over gang life, chances upon a poem written by a prison inmate and becomes hopelessly smitten, abandoning her books for a passionate jailhouse correspondence. The focus of Mi Vida Loca shifts freely between these and several other characters, many of whom take turns providing narration and context. The director's daughter, Tiffany Anders, has a small role in the film alongside many real-life Echo Park denizens; several musicians and film directors also make cameos, among them Spike Jonze, Kurt Voss, Kid Frost, and the members of Los Lobos. Salma Hayek got her SAG card by playing a tiny role. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide

George Pal's final film is a kiddie action saga based on the popular comic strip and action book series by Kenneth Robeson. Ron Ely is all flash and charmless brawn as the blonde-haired superhero Doc Savage, the Man of Bronze. When his father is mysteriously murdered, Savage gathers together five of his cronies -- The Amazing Five -- to head off on an expedition to South America to find some answers. There he battles Captain Seas (Paul Wexler) and "the green death." Along the way, he charms native girl Mona (Pamela Hensley), who immediately falls for the blonde chiselhead. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

This Western presents a fictionalized account of the ways in which the Gatling gun was created. Also chronicled are its tremendous effects on the great frontier. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Implicated in a major bond scam, George Breen (James Olson), an accountant in the employ of the Cosa Nostra, jumps bail and runs off to Portland with his wife Peggy (Linda Marsh) in tow. Complicating Breen's escape efforts is the fact that Peggy is pregnant, and due any moment. Worse still, a mob-connected relative is dogging the couple's trail, determined to kill George before the FBI can catch up with him. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed on locations ranging from Denmark to the Universal backlot, Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz is based on a novel by Leon Uris. Frederick Stafford, a veteran of European-filmed James Bond rip-offs of the 1960s, is cast as Andre Devereaux, a French secret agent assigned to snoop around Cuba in the months prior to the 1962 missile crisis. Someone is supplying Castro -- and, by extension, Moscow -- with NATO secrets; it is up to Devereaux to liquidate the "mole." Aiding Devereaux is CIA agent Nordstrom (John Forsythe) and aristocratic anti-Castro Cuban Juanita (Karin Dor), who happens to be the girlfriend of pro-Castroite Rico Parra (John Vernon). The director seems to be in awe of the fact-based storyline, and as a result, the film is more cut-and-dried than most Hitchcock efforts. Three different endings were filmed for Topaz; the Laserdisc version carries all three, as does the print available to the American Movie Classics cable service. According to the MPAA, the film was originally rated M but later changed to PG; however, a number of home-video issues of Topaz officially list it as "Not Rated." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The focus in this Bonanza episode of September 29, 1968 is on ranch hand Candy, played by David Canary. Candy and the Cartwrights offer their assistance to a US Army unit, presently under attack from a gang of gold bandits. Crisis mounts upon crisis when it develops that Captain Harris (Pat Conway) is married to Candy's ex-wife Ann (Sandra Smith)-and the leader of the outlaws is Candy's childhood friend Angel Montana (Carlos Rivas). "Salute to Yesterday" was written by John Hawkins. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After his head is surgically removed and sustained, Hitler is, essentially, still alive and living on an island in the Caribbean. When a young woman and her husband goes in search of her scientist-father and sister, they find a group of Nazis--still under the command of Der Fuhrer--who plan to resume their atrocities upon humanity in a scheme of world domination. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide

In the first episode of a two-part story, Jason McCord (Chuck Connors) is again summoned to Washington by President Grant (William Bryant). This time, Jason is asked to infiltrate a group of insurrectionists who may or may not be plotting to assassinate the President and overthrow the government. John Carradine repeats his role as Jason's grandfather, General Josh McCord, in this story co-written by series star Chuck Connors--whose wife Kamala Devi also makes a guest appearance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Science goes too far as one of the greatest villains of the 20th century makes a last stand in South America in this crackpot thriller. After government scientists develop a new and virulent variety of nerve gas, Professor John Coleman (John Holland) sets out to create an antidote until he mysteriously disappears. Coleman's daughter Kathy (Audrey Caire) and her husband, Phil Day (Walter Stocker), who works in U.S. intelligence, begin to suspect foul play; they're approached by a man named Teo (Carlos Rivas) who is trying to tell them about the professor and a strange place called Mandoras when he's suddenly shot to death. With no other clues to follow, Kathy and Phil travel to the tiny Latin American nation of Mandoras, where Kathy happens to meet her hepcat sister, Suzanne (Dani Lynn), at a nightclub. Suzanne tells Kathy and Phil that she and the professor had been kidnapped, and when they're introduced to Teo's brother Camino (also played by Rivas), they learn of a bizarre plot. According to Camino, scientists in a secret lab on Mandoras have kept the disembodied head of Adolf Hitler (Bill Freed) alive in a jar, and under the orders of "Mr. H" they're engaged in a deadly scheme to take over the world and resurrect the Third Reich. The film Madmen of Mandoras received a brief theatrical release in 1963; later, when it was sold to television, the movie (running a brief 74 minutes) was padded with additional sequences, reported shot by a group of film students, that feature a completely different cast and don't at all resemble the shadowy visual style of the original movie. The strange variant television cut of the film gained a cult following under its title, They Saved Hitler's Brain. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

In a variation on the classic Guy de Maupassant short story "Boule de Suif", gambler Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly) is ostracized by his more "respectable" fellow passengers during a stagecoach ride. But when the coach is held up by a vicious bandit, the passengers must literally put their lives in Bart's hands, as he plays a game of poker to determine the fate of the bandit's captives. There are some fascinating interracial tensions in this episode--all the more fascinating when one remembers that it was filmed way back in the censor- and sponsor-controlled 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Historically, one of the members of the infamous Dalton Brothers outlaw gang, Emmet Dalton, did escape with his life after that fateful 1892 shootout in Coffeyville, Kansas. He lived to a ripe old age, touring the country and lecturing on the evils of dishonesty. In the 1960 low-budgeter The Dalton That Got Away, Emmet is played by future Mannix star Michael Connors. As depicted herein, Emmet's post-bandit activities are heaps more exciting than we've been led to believe. The preponderance of Latino names in the cast and crew of The Dalton That Got Away lead us to conclude that the film was not lensed in Kansas. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Whatever the "miracle" is in this story, set back in the 19th century, it tends to be buried underneath the multiple romances of the heroine Teresa (Carroll Baker), a woman who leaves the convent to find one specific man. Teresa falls in love with Michael (Roger Moore) a dashing Englishman in the British army that is fighting Napoleon in Spain. She opts for leaving the cloister to find her love. Meanwhile, during her absence, a statue of the Virgin Mary comes to life and takes her place in the convent, hence the "miracle" of the title. Along her journey, Teresa meets and eventually marries a handsome gypsy (Vittorio Gassman) who comes to an unhappy end. Widowed and grieving, young Teresa next becomes enamored of a bullfighter (Gustavo Rojo) whose luck in the ring ends tragically one day. At this point, it would seem the cloister was a better offer, but Teresa continues in her journey to find Michael. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide