Ron Soble Movies

Yet another Saturday Night Live alumnus makes his bid for big-screen success as Rob Schneider, best remembered as the "Making copies!" guy, tackles his first leading role in this broad comedy. Deuce (Rob Schneider) earns a meager living as a professional fish tank cleaner until he's asked to housesit for a gigolo. Deuce mistakenly answers the gigolo's business phone and finds himself having sex with a woman he's never met and getting paid for it (not a bad deal, since women generally avoid Deuce like the Ebola virus). It's not long before Deuce learns that there's more to selling your body than one might expect: for example, being re-styled by your pimp or having to explain your new source of income when the owner of the house gets home. Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo was the first feature film produced by Adam Sandler's production company, Happy Madison; Sandler himself makes a cameo appearance, while Oded Fehr, William Forsythe, Eddie Griffin, and Marlo Thomas highlight the supporting cast. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The five-hour miniseries The Mystic Warrior began life in 1979 when producer David L. Wolper announced plans for a ten-hour adaptation of Hanta Yo, an epic historical novel by Ruth Beebe Hill. Using as her main source a full-blooded Sioux named Chunksa Yuha, Hill fashioned what amounted to a Native American version of Roots, chronicling the history of the Matho tribe of the Ogala Dakota Sioux. Although Hill was briefly the darling of the literary cognoscenti, her book was ultimately attacked and discredited by a veritable army of Indian historians, teachers, and activists, who accused her of distorting and falsifying truths in order to promote her own (and Yuha's) sociopolitical agenda. Suddenly, all of the Native American support that had been promised to the miniseries version of Hanta Yo evaporated; even the filming location had to be changed from New Mexico to Thousand Oaks, CA, so as not to offend the Indian tribes in the former state. When the project finally aired on May 20 through 21, 1984, its running time (and budget) had been cut in half, and the producer was obliged to qualify the credits by noting that the teleplay was based partially on Hill's book, but mostly on "other sources." Judging by the results, those sources would seem to have been such Hollywood fictional films as Cheyenne Autumn and A Man Called Horse. Set in the years 1802 to 1808, the finished film focused on a young brave named Ahbleza (Robert Beltran), the son of a Matho chief. Blessed with supernatural visionary powers by the ancient Mahto seer Wanagi (Ron Soble), Ahbleza set about to save his people from the devastations of the future, among them the invasion of the white man. After a lengthy, truth-seeking odyssey fraught with tragedy and sacrifice, Ahbleza assumed his rightful place as spiritual leader of his tribe. Mystic Warrior was entertaining enough, but failed to draw viewers away from such formidable competition as The Jeffersons, Alice, and One Day at a Time. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

When You Comin' Back, Red Ryder? has been presented often as a stage play by amateur theatrical groups. Evangelist-turned-actor Marjoe Gortner plays Teddy, a cracked Vietnam vet who holds the denizens of a Texas roadside diner hostage at gunpoint. Candy Clark plays Cheryl, his zoned-out hippie girlfriend. After nearly two hours of tension, Gortner is overpowered and things return to normal. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jim (James Garner) is dispatched to Las Vegas in search of Susan Parsons (Lee Purcell), the missing mistress of millionaire mogul Charles Dexter (Tim O'Connor). Along the way, Susan's roommate Louise (Linda Kelsey), who identifies herself as a law student, insists upon helping Jim in his investigation. Alas, Louise isn't exactly telling the truth about herself and her relationship with Susan--but by the time Jim finds this out, he has been knocked unconscious by his own client, and arrested on a trumped-up sexual molestation charge! ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

The autobiography of Henri Charriere, one of the few people to successfully escape from the notorious French penal colony of Devil's Island, served as the basis for Papillon. Steve McQueen plays the pugnacious Charriere (known as "Papillon," or "butterfly," because of a prominent tatoo), incarcerated--wrongly, he claims--for murdering a pimp. He saves the life of fellow convict Louis Dega (Dustin Hoffman), a counterfeiter who will later show his gratitude by helping Charriere in his many escape attempts, and by smuggling food to Charriere when the latter is put in solitary confinement. One breakout, which takes Charriere and Dega to a leper colony and then to a native encampment, is almost successful, but Charriere is betrayed (allegedly because he stopped for an act of kindness) and back the prisoners go to French Guiana. Years later, Dega is made a trustee and is content with his lot, but the ageing, white-haired Charriere cannot be held back. A tribute to the unquenchability of the human spirit, Papillon brought in an impressive $22 million at the box office. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ironside (Raymond Burr) and his team are assigned to escort Soviet spy Hruska (Diana Hyland) to Mexico to exchange for an American scientist (John Archer) held by the Russians. En route, Ironside and Hruska a kidnapped by a gang of Mexican activists. As Ed (Don Galloway) struggles to stall the Russian officials, Ironside endeavors to formulate a plan of escape--all the while becoming increasingly fond of his beautiful prisoner. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This violent western tale finds Macho (David Janssen) as a Union Army regular in a Confederate prison. He escapes by planting dynamite in the coffin of an executed officer, making his move when the coffin is being carried outside the gate. He returns to a small town where he waits for Duffy (Lee J. Cobb), who put Macho in jail years before. Newlyweds Alexandra (Jean Seberg) and David (Carradine) arrive in town, and David heads to the saloon. The drunken one armed Confederate Army veteran is killed by Macho when he becomes drunk and belligerent. Alexandra puts a price on Macho's head, hiring two killers to finish him off. Macho kills them both and rapes a beaten up Alexandra, who falls in love with her attacker. He also gets revenge of Duffy by stringing him up by the neck on the windmill in the town square. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

A half-Navajo man accepts the help of a white rancher after suffering a rattlesnake bite, not knowing that the rancher actually intends to hunt him for sport. This suspenseful western follows the man's attempts to survive in the wilderness and evade the rancher's violent attacks. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi

Steve McQueen stars as the Cincinnati Kid, a crackerjack New Orleans stud poker player. Tired of chicken feed, the Kid decides to challenge The Man (Edward G. Robinson), the reigning poker champ, who is in town for a private game. The Shooter (Karl Malden), another gambling pro, arranges a game between the Kid and the Man, with the Shooter dealing. The game is compromised by the intervention of Slade (Rip Torn), an old foe of the Man's who tries to fix the outcome. The Kid finds out about this and tells Slade to get lost, preferring to win fair and square. The outcome is in the cagey hands of The Man, who is smart enough to do (as one reviewer put it) the wrong thing at the right time. The Cincinnati Kid was based on the novel by Richard Jessup. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Ben Cartwright plays host to Judge Whitaker (Otto Kruger), better known to one and all as "Hanging Harry." Among those sentenced to death by Whitaker was the father of Bob Jolley (Keir Dullea), who, believing his dad was innocent, now relentlessly dogs Whitaker's trail, trying to goad the Judge into a showdown. As the story progresses, Adam Cartwright comes to believe that Bob is right, and that "Hanging Harry" has a lot to answer for. Written by E.M. Parson and Shirl Hendryx, "Elegy for a Hangman" was originally telecast on January 20, 1963. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Paladin (Richard Boone) is among those startled when Miss Macintosh (Paula Raymonds) walks into the lobby of the Hotel Carleton and begins firing a rifle. It turns out that Miss Macintosh had been gunning for Rudy Rossback (Jack Weston), the man who killed her brother during the Civil War. Subsequently failing in her efforts to hire Paladin to knock off Rossback, Miss Macintosh then engages the services of a sadistic gunslinger (Ron Soble) who intends to kill both Paladin and Rossback in a grimly unique fashion. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Rod Steiger is the screen's first "method mobster" in the title role of Al Capone. The film traces Big Al's progress from a torpedo in the hire of Chicago gangster Johnny Torrio (Nehemiah Persoff) to Capone's takeover of the Windy City's bootlegging operations, and his ultimate downfall at the hands of the IRS. Rod Steiger delivers every line with maniacal gusto, as though it will be his last; sometimes he sounds like Frank Gorshin doing a Rod Steiger impression, but for the most part it is a dynamite performance. Featured in the cast are Murvyn Vye as Bugs Moran, Joe De Santis as Big Jim Colosimo, Lewis Charles as Hymie Weiss, Robert Gist as O'Banion, and James Gregory and Martin Balsam as composite characters, respectively based on honest Chicago cop John Siege and duplicitous newspaper reporter Jake Lingle. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi