Ronnie Schell Movies

The concert video The Kingston Trio 45th Anniversary Tribute features the legendary folk trio performing a variety of their most well-known numbers. The setlist includes "MTA," "Tom Dooley," and "This Land Is Your Land." They share the stage with fellow acts The Limeliters and The Shw Brothers. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

A middle-aged couple are troubled by the pitter-patter of grown-up feet in this comedy. Clayton Avolini (Bernie Sparago) and his wife Lindsay (Catherine McGoohan) share their home with their grown son Bud (James O'Leary), who is trying to break into hip-hop music. Clayton has just become eligible for retirement, and he's eager to sell the family home and move someplace quiet down South. However, Clayton's plans haven't gotten very far when he suddenly has to deal with some unwelcome guests. His three other adult children, Scott (Brian Williams), Michael (Tony Mortillaro), and Ann Marie (Heather McClurg), have all washed out of their careers, and have come home to live with Mom and Dad for a while. Clayton and Lindsay are trying to decide what to do with their suddenly crowded home when Lindsay's mother Nellie (Sparkle) also appears at the doorstep. Writer, director, and actor Tony Mortillaro shot Pride and Peril on high-definition videotape; it was transferred to film for theatrical screenings. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Fatal Instinct is an Airplane-style spoof of the late-'80s, early-'90s cycle of erotic crime thrillers. Setting the plot in motion is a kinky murder. Armand Assante plays the cop assigned to the case; he's also the prosecuting attorney; the "Sharon Stone" part is essayed by Sean Young. A dash of Body Heat is thrown in the pot as Assante's wife Kate Nelligan plots her hubby's demise. Tony Randall has a bit as a judge, while the film's semi-mocking jazz score is provided by Clarence Clemmons -- who shows up on screen to toot his sax at various crucial plot junctures. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Hanna-Barbera's Space Age clan made the leap to the big screen in this animated feature, in which George and the family are transferred to a remote space outpost. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

In an unusual comedy by Joan Darling, Brian Dennehy and Anne Archer star as the Richard, a druggist, and his wife Peggy, a pair of debt-ridden parents who rebel against the system. Nothing goes right while they try to uphold the system, then things get even worse when they leave it. Richard decides to pull the plug on modernity when he cannot meet his utility bills and creditors are at his door like wolves. He shuts off the electricity and sets up candles, buys a goat, and digs a well in the back yard. He finally does hit water, but it happens to be the city's water main. Peggy is not quite as crazed as her husband so she goes to see a shrink -- who promptly dies on her. If anything can go wrong for Richard and Peggy, it will. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

During the 1950s and 1960s, San Francisco's hungry i nightclub (the lower case is not a mistake: that's how the name read on the club's outside wall) was a primary breeding ground for young and hungry comedy talent. The "i" is no longer in existence, but most of its more illustrious alumni are still alive and kicking. Taped in 1981, The hungry i Reunion is comprised of interviews and brief snatches of several classic comic monologues. The star roster includes Mort Sahl, Jonathan Winters, Ronnie Schell, Jackie Vernon and the inimitable Professor Irwin Corey. And just so we won't forget that the "i" was also famous for its folk-singing sessions, the Kingston Trio is on hand to stir up fond baby-boomer memories. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A team of phony song publishers cheat Daisy (Catherine Bach) out of fifty bucks in a songwriting contests. Hoping to recover the money, Luke (Tom Wopat) and Bo (John Schneider) end up smack dab in the middle of an FBI raid, right along with Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke), who (of course!) is in cahoots with the crooks. Meanwhile, the bad guys gull Daisy into a fake recording session which may end up blowing all of Hazzard County sky high! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

George Hamilton confounded his detractors by turning in a first-rate comic performance in Love at First Bite. Hamilton plays Count Dracula, who is evicted from his Transylvanian domicile when the Communist government decides to nationalize his castle. With faithful toady Renfield (Arte Johnson) at his side, Dracula heads for the Big Apple, where he finds the vampire pickings radically different from those on his home turf: for example, ol' Drac suffers the mother of all hangovers when his sinks his fangs into the neck of a wino. Klutzy Cindy Sondheim (Susan Saint James) falls in love with Dracula, not fully aware of his colorful background. But Cindy's stuffy fiance Dr. Jeff Rosenberg (Richard Benjamin), a descendant of Dracula's perennial foe Professor Van Helsing, knows what Dracula's up to and does his best to thwart the vampire's plan. This proves very difficult, since such time-honored remedies as the stake through the heart are frowned upon by the New York City authorities. So successful was Love at First Bite that Hamilton was encouraged to have a satiric go at another literary icon in 1982's Zorro, the Gay Blade. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Show-business hopeful Alice (Linda Lavin) is convinced that her big break has come when she is chosen to sing and dance in a commercial for Mel's Diner. Alas, the assignment requires Alice to hide much of her talent--and most of her body--under a huge, idiotic-looking hamburger costume. Though filmed as the third episode of Alice, this entry was held back until mid-March of 1977, ultimately airing as the Season One finale. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Fred Sanford (Redd Foxx) is thrilled when the mayor appoints him to the Watts Community Relations Committee. No sooner has he accepted the post than Fred is approached with a bribe to push through legislation for a new housing project. Will Fred's greed win out over his civic duty, or will he surprise everyone onscreen and in the viewing audience? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Robert Stevenson, Walt Disney Productions' house director, cobbled together his 19th family film for the organization with this slapstick sequel to the Disney comedy The Shaggy Dog (produced 17 years after the fact). Dean Jones plays Wilby Daniels, a lawyer running against the villainous John Slade (Keenan Wynn) for district attorney. His campaign is cast into doubt when he comes upon an ancient ring that transforms him into a fat sheepdog. But the campaign progresses on a level playing field when the unscrupulous Slade finds himself also turned into a canine -- a disgruntled bulldog. Another sequel, The Return of the Shaggy Dog, followed. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

Just before they end their shift, the Rampart emergency team is summoned to an apartment house which has been struck by a jet liner. Elsewhere, nurse Dixie (Julie London) administers some T.L.C. on the worried husband (J. Pat O'Malley) of an elderly patient (Florence Lake); another man suffers multiple cardiac arrests within a disturbingly short space of time; and Roy (Kevin Tighe) and John (Randolph Mantooth) try to separate the brawlers in a bar fight. And in a chucklesome subplot, Chet (Tim Donnelly) refuses to rest until he has rid the station house of a pesky rodent. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With precious little time on their hands, the doctors at Rampart try to diagnose a mysterious ailment that has befallen a marijuana smoker. Elsewhere, the team rushes to a boat explosion; a worker is pinned to a wall by a semi; a boy falls in a gravel pit; and while trying to avoid running down a dog, a motorist and his son are seriously injured. No wonder John (Randolph Mantooth) is having so much trouble getting to sleep these days (actually, there are other reasons, but why give away too much of the plot?) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide