Whitney Blake Movies

A handful of women with something get mad and get even in this blend of comedy, drama and action from writer and director Israel Luna. Pinky La'Trimm (Kelexis Davenport) is a flamboyant transgender woman who runs a nightclub in a rough-and-tumble Texas town. Bubbles Cliquot (Krystal Summers), Tipper Sommore (Jenna Skyy), Rachel Slurr (Willam Belli) and Emma Grashun (Erica Andrews) are fellow trannies who are both performers and regular customers at Pinky's club, and one night after a few drinks Bubbles is picked up by Boner (Thomas Zembrod), a redneck who doesn't realize she's not all woman. Confused and humiliated by his experience with Bubbles, Boner and his pals Chuey (Gerard Davila) and Nacho (Kenny Ochoa) decide they want revenge and beat Bubbles within an inch of her life. After visiting Bubbles in the hospital, Pinky, Tipper, Emma and Rachel decide they're not about to let this hate crime stand, and when the police refuse to help they set out to get street justice against the men who attacked their friend. Shot, designed and edited to resemble a vintage 1970s exploitation film, Ticked-Off Trannies With Knives was an official selection at the 2010 Tribeca Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Based on the novel by Harold Robbins, this is the story of Loren Hardeman, Sr., a Midwestern automobile manufacturer (Lord Olivier) who pins his future on The Betsy, a "wonder car" named after his daughter (Kathleen Beller). The Betsy is designed to last practically forever, which doesn't rest well with the "planned obscolence" mindset of the auto industry. Flashbacks cover his career from his 40s to the present, when he is in his 90s. Hardeman, Sr. has a weak-willed son, Hardeman, Jr., (Robert Duvall) who is forced into taking charge of the family business. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Returning Home attempts to do in 72 minutes what the Oscar-winning 1946 film The Best Years of Our Lives did in 172. This TV movie is a potted remake of that classic film, tracing the lives of three returning World War II servicemen. Dabney Coleman plays the Fredric March role as a married banker with two grown children. Tom Selleck fills Dana Andrews' shoes as a decorated ex-pilot who is grounded in peacetime by a dead end job and an unhappy marriage. And James Miller is a sailor who has lost both arms in the war, a fact that his family and fiancee struggle to come to grips with. Just as in the case of Best Years of Our Lives' Harold Russell, James Miller is a genuine amputee who'd been wounded in Vietnam. Why did Returning Home try to pack so much plot and so many characters into so short a running time? Because it was the pilot for an unsold TV series...titled The Best Years of Our Lives. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Mark Lester, star of the 1968 Oscar-winner Oliver!, heads the cast of the made-for-TV The Boy Who Stole the Elephant. Lester plays a young employee of a 19th century travelling circus. He befriends the circus' elephant (played by "Margie"), which is appearing on loan. When the larcenous circus manager (David Wayne) covertly plans to sell the elephant, Lester kidnaps the friendly pachyderm and embarks upon a long journey to find the animal's rightful owner. Based on a novel by Jullily Kohler, The Boy Who Stole the Elephant was originally telecast September 20 and 26, 1970, as a two-part episode of TV's Wonderful World of Disney; it was then released theatrically overseas. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jason (Chuck Connors) rides into a small town to visit Frank Allison (John Anderson), who once saved his life. Unfortunately, the reunion is neither happy nor lengthy: Allison is scheduled to be hanged the next day. It now falls to Jason to prevent Allison's embittered son Lon (Beau Bridges) from exacting revenge against the townsfolk for his father's execution. Featured in the cast is Whitney Blake, the mother of actress Meredith Baxter and the co-creator (with husband Alan Manings) of the long-running sitcom One Day at a Time. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

It's late Thursday night at the local paper and a savvy city editor, a world-weary but upright writer, and a beleagured copy boy prepare to put the next day's paper to bed. Suddenly two stories come over the wire. In the first, a young girl has gotten lost in the city's storm drains, and her life is endangered when a terrible storm erupts and the sewers begin to fill with runoff. In the second, the grandson of the writer is among a team of missing Air Force pilots who were attempting to set a record flying from Hawaii to Washington, DC. This suspenseful, newsroom drama chronicles the ways in which these situations affect the workers as they try to get the paper out on time. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

Bart (Jack Kelly) is one of several stagecoach passengers who are attacked by the Apaches. With their coach destroyed, the hapless passengers are left stranding in the desert, under a blazing sun. The others insists that Bart strike out on his own and seek out help--an assignment that borders on the suicidal. The supporting cast includes Whitney Blake, the mother of actress Meredith Baxter and later the cocreator (with husband Alan Manings) of the popular CBS sitcom One Day at a Time. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Whitney Blake, who played the first client of Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) in the series opener "The Case of the Restless Redhead", returns in this episode as blonde Diana Reynolds, who shows up in Perry's office clad in a bathrobe and sporting a black eye. As Perry and Della listen attentively, Diana weaves an incredible tale of being framed for a jewel theft. But this turns out to be the least of the girl's problems when she is charged with the murder of Marian Shaw (Judith Ames). A long-lost grandson also figures prominently in this episode, which is based on a 1944 novel by Perry Mason creator Erle Stanley Gardner. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Robert Bray, best known to baby-boomers as "Ranger Corey" on TV's Lassie, is cast as Mickey Spillane's rough-edged private eye Mike Hammer in My Gun is Quick. Mike's mission this time out is to solve a murder and a jewel robbery. He faces opposition from two warring criminal gangs, but when has that ever stopped him in the past? Co-starring as a typically Spillanesque cool blonde is Whitney Blake, who like Bray later gained TV fame in a more sedate role on the weekly sitcom Hazel (incidentally, Ms. Blake is the mother of actress Meredith Baxter). Not quite as accomplished as Robert Aldrich's classic Mike Hammer yarn Kiss Me Deadly, My Gun is Quick works well within its modest limits. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi