Woody Strode Movies

On Fire stars John Forsythe as the chief arson inspector of a major metropolis. After 22 years' service as a firefighter, Forsythe is summarily ordered to retire. He tries to fight this in court, but learns that, although mandatory retirement is illegal on a federal basis, it can be enforced on a local level in cases of life-threatening jobs. While this TV movie starts well with Forsythe's anger and confusion over being cast adrift at age 60, the script descends into by-the-numbers melodrama after a harrowing experience leaves Forsythe more scared and distracted than ever. Carroll Baker, the "Baby Doll" of the 1950s, is cast against type in On Fire as John Forsythe's patient and supportive wife. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Only Kelly Reno and Teri Garr from the cast of the original Black Stallion make appearances in The Black Stallion Returns. In the first film, young Reno rescued his beloved stallion from its cruel Arab owner. This time around, the stallion is abducted by Moroccan henchmen and bundled back to Africa. This paves the way for a repeat of all the salient action from the first Black Stallion. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In a confusing plot that seems to skip a few vital points, three men fight together to rescue children in a region near the Lao-Thai-Cambodian border. Then Paolo (Woody Strode) turns against his two buddies and sets up shop running arms for the KGB and drugs for the Mafia. Eventually, one of the three buddies comes hunting for Strode to offer him a better deal: the U.S. government will give him even more money for what he is selling. Before a huge question mark can be raised over this twist, the three former buddies are back together again and out on another mission. Logic might have been a good ingredient to add here, anywhere. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In the series' only Christmas episode, Bo (John Schneider) and Luke (Tom Wopat) are delivering Christmas trees to needy families when their cargo is hijacked by the hired goons of Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke). Accused of staging the hijacking themselves, the Duke boys have to do some quick thinkin' to clear themselves and to force the Spirit of Christmas down "Scrooge" Hogg's throat. In addition to serving up a Hazzard County variation on Charles Dicken's"A Christmas Carol", this episode is highlighted by a wild finale involving no fewer than three identical pickup trucks! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Half-breed Keoma (Franco Nero) returns to his border hometown after service in the Civil War and finds it under the control of Caldwell (Donald O'Brien), an ex-Confederate raider, and his vicious gang of thugs. To make matters worse, Keoma's three half-brothers have joined forces with Caldwell, and make it painfully clear that his return is an unwelcome one. Determined to break Caldwell and his brothers' grip on the town, Keoma partners with his father's former ranch hand (Woody Strode) to exact violent revenge. ~ Paul Gaita, All Movie Guide

This strange, disjointed feature film boasts a performance by Muhammed Ali as himself, clowning his way around a Black rodeo held near Harlem at Randall's Island, NY. Among the features of this film is an extended discussion by actor Woody Strode on the long-suppressed history of the Black Cowboy. Another unusual feature of the film is the running commentary by rodeo spectators, as they relate what it means to them to be at such an event. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide

Tarzan (Ron Ely) tries to stop a bloodthirsty Colonel (Jock Mahoney) from taking over an African village with his soldiers of fortune. The ape-man has been rendered deaf by an exploding hand grenade, effectively limiting one of his keen senses. Tarzan relies on his telepathic powers to stop a lion. Woody Strode also appears in this film that combines two made for television episodes. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

A Congo rebel leader is captured and imprisoned with two white felons in this feature deep with religious symbolism and condemnation of colonial exploitation. Maurice Lalubi (Woody Strode) is thrown in jail with a soldier and an Italian thief. The trio endures torture at the hands of their captors, while a newly formed military regime decides the fate of the insurgent. His imminent demise could turn him into a martyr and spell trouble for the new government dictator in this sometimes violent film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The internationally produced historical epic Genghis Khan sometimes wavers uncertainly between spectacle and self-parody. Though Omar Sharif essays the title role, top billing is bestowed upon Stephen Boyd as Genghis Khan's mentor-turned-enemy Jamuga. It's hard to generate audience sympathy for a Mongolian leader who laid waste to much of the civilized world, but Sharif manages to pull it off. While the battle scenes are impressive, the most memorable sequence involves an outsized fireworks display (which turns out to be a clever bit of military strategy). James Mason is amusing as an epigrammatic Chinese leader, Eli Wallach is appropriately hissable as the film's main villain, and the late Francoise Dorleac is decorative as the romantic bone of contention between Genghis Khan and Jamuga. Most of the film was lensed in Yugoslavia, a country that served as a generic location for many a historical pageant of the 1960s and 1970s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Like Pontius Pilate, director John Ford asks "What is truth?" in The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance--but unlike Pilate, Ford waits for an answer. The film opens in 1910, with distinguished and influential U.S. senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) and his wife Hallie (Vera Miles) returning to the dusty little frontier town where they met and married twenty-five years earlier. They have come back to attend the funeral of impoverished "nobody" Tom Doniphon (John Wayne). When a reporter asks why, Stoddard relates a film-long flashback. He recalls how, as a greenhorn lawyer, he had run afoul of notorious gunman Liberty Valance (Lee Marvin), who worked for a powerful cartel which had the territory in its clutches. Time and again, "pilgrim" Stoddard had his hide saved by the much-feared but essentially decent Doniphon. It wasn't that Doniphon was particularly fond of Stoddard; it was simply that Hallie was in love with Stoddard, and Doniphon was in love with Hallie and would do anything to assure her happiness, even if it meant giving her up to a greenhorn. When Liberty Valance challenged Stoddard to a showdown, everyone in town was certain that the greenhorn didn't stand a chance. Still, when the smoke cleared, Stoddard was still standing, and Liberty Valance lay dead. On the strength of his reputation as the man who shot Valance, Stoddard was railroaded into a political career, in the hope that he'd rid the territory of corruption. Stoddard balked at the notion of winning an election simply because he killed a man-until Doniphon, in strictest confidence, told Stoddard the truth: It was Doniphon, not Stoddard, who shot down Valance. Stoddard was about to reveal this to the world, but Doniphon told him not to. It was far more important in Doniphon's eyes that a decent, honest man like Stoddard become a major political figure; Stoddard represented the "new" civilized west, while Doniphon knew that he and the West he represented were already anachronisms. Thus Stoddard went on to a spectacular political career, bringing extensive reforms to the state, while Doniphon faded into the woodwork. His story finished, the aged Stoddard asks the reporter if he plans to print the truth. The reporter responds by tearing up his notes. "This is the West, sir, " the reporter explains quietly. "When the legend becomes fact, print the legend." Dismissed as just another cowboy opus at the time of its release, The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance has since taken its proper place as one of the great Western classics. It questions the role of myth in forging the legends of the West, while setting this theme in the elegiac atmosphere of the West itself, set off by the aging Stewart and Wayne. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide