Don Stroud Movies

With his birthday rapidly approaching, Officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) sternly informs his partner Jim Reed (Kent McCord)--and anyone else who will listen--that he does not, repeat, DOES NOT, want a surprise birthday party. So guess what happens. Elsewhere, the Rampart division is kept busy with a rash of purse snatchings and other more serious crimes, and a shootout between the cops and a gang of service-station burglars. Featured in the cast as Officer Snyder is William Wellman Jr., son of the famed Hollywood film director (Wings, A Star is Born, The High and the Mighty, etc.) ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In Armed and Dangerous, John Candy plays a cop who has been kicked off the force on a trumped up charge. Eugene Levy costars as a disbarred lawyer. The two outcasts take low-paying jobs as security officers at a company controlled by mob boss Robert Loggia. In their own stumblebum fashion, Candy and Levy uncover a smuggling operation masterminded by Loggia. Meg Ryan also shows up in an early leading role. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Garibaldi tries to interfere when an old friend prepares to participate in the "Mutai", a deadly nonhuman Martial Arts combat. Elsewhere, Ivanova comes to grips with her father's death with the help of Rabbi Koslov (Theodore Bikel). Fans of Harlan Ellison will enjoy the fleeting in-joke involving Ivanova's reading preferences, while boxing devotees should take note of the name of the character played by guest star Greg McKinney. Originally telecast on May 25, 1994, TKO was written by Lawrence G. DiTillio. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Shelley Winters, who once played the spoofish "Ma Parker" on Batman, brings the same larger-than-life approach to her portrayal of real-life Ma Barker in Bloody Mama. Presiding over her outlaw gang, consisting mainly of her goonish sons, Ma goes on a Depression-era rampage of bank robbery, murder and kidnapping. Obviously filmed in a hurry-watch as the Barker mob drives past modern shopping centers-- Bloody Mama strives for an entertaingly sleazy aura, especially when dealing with the incestuous subtext of Ma's relationship with her boys. And look who plays the Barker brood: Clint Kimbrough, Robert Walden and Robert De Niro! Bloody Mama was scripted by Robert Thom, whose previous collaboration with producer Roger Corman was the cult classic Wild in the Streets (former 1950s ingenue Diane Varsi appears in both films). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Miles O'Keeffe stars as a victim of harassment from a drug lord. After he is framed for smuggling and his sister is killed, he decides to seek revenge. ~ Kristie Hassen, Rovi

Clint Eastwood stars as Walt Coogan, an Arizona deputy sheriff who has been sent to New York City to extradite escaped killer James Ringerman (Don Stroud). On arrival, he's forced to wait by NYPD detective Lieutenant McElroy (Lee J. Cobb), who informs him that Ringerman is recovering from a bad acid trip at Bellevue Hospital. After briefly flirting with attractive probation officer Julie Roth (Susan Clark), Coogan heads for Bellevue, where he's able to con the hospital's staff into releasing the criminal. The cop and the fugitive are on the way to catch a flight back to Arizona, when Ringerman's hippie girlfriend Linny (Tisha Sterling) and a large accomplice spirit the killer away, leaving Coogan unconscious. Luckily, Julie is the girl's probation officer, and Coogan manages to get her address from the woman's files while getting to know her better. He tracks the girl to a popular psychedelic club, whereupon, deciding she likes the deputy, she takes him back to her apartment for further interrogation. The first in a series of films on which Eastwood would collaborate with director Don Siegel, it features a memorable scene in which a battle fought with billiard balls and cue sticks suggests the birth of a new martial art. Although its seemingly innocuous scenes of sex and violence drew criticism at the time, it served as the source for television's considerably more benign McCloud, starring Dennis Weaver as the laconic fish out of water. ~ Michael Costello, Rovi

The title character of this Alex de la Iglesia film made her first appearance in David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990) and was originally played by Isabella Rossellini. Rosie Perez takes over the role in this blend of black comedy, graphic sex and violence, voodoo, and weirdness. Perdita Durango is pure trash, a fact she establishes at the film's beginning. Her adventures begin when she hooks up with Romeo Dolorosa (Javier Bardem), a sleek, black-clad, sexually adventurous practitioner of Santeria who routinely kills, robs banks, and steals corpses from graves for his cannibalistic blood-soaked rituals. Santos (Don Stroud) is a pedophile and a crime boss. He hires Romeo to steal a truck filled with human fetuses that are slated to be used for cosmetic experiments. Romeo accepts but feels he must make a human sacrifice before he goes. This bothers Perdita not a bit and she even picks out a pair of blonde teens for the ritual killing. The two crooks kidnap the kids, ritually feather them, sexually abuse them, and are preparing to kill them when Romeo's cheated partner shows up with policemen. The crooks and their prey manage to escape, but the scheme to commandeer the truck gets botched and an ensuing shootout between Santos' men and DEA agents goes wrong. Santos loses many men and swears revenge upon Romeo and Perdita, who continue on their journey with their two doomed victims. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In 1934, J. Edgar Hoover and the boys made headlines for mowing down John Dillinger in a hail of bullets outside Chicago's Biograph theater. But in fact, according to this Jon Purdy gangster thriller, the Feds iced Dillinger's brother. Fast-forward five years, when mobster kingpin Al Capone (F. Murray Abraham) gives the real Dillinger (Martin Sheen) an offer he can't refuse: rob millions from a secluded vault or watch his wife and child get whacked. ~ Jonathan Crow, Rovi

Sully (Joe Lando) is beaten up by a band of scurrilous buffalo hunters, hired to clear the land on behalf of the incoming railroad. Though paralyzed, Sully vows to wreak vengeance against his attackers and to stem their slaughter of the local bison herds. Meanwhile, a slick con artist, posing as a railroad advance man, is busily swindling the citizens of Colorado Springs out of their hard-earned property. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A nuclear-powered transcontinental train provides the setting for this television pilot from the mystery series Supertrain. The story concerns a shady agent who becomes the prime target for murder. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This bargain-basement budgeted sci-fi horror movie pays a kind of tribute to 1930s sci-fi serials such as "King of the Rocket Men." It is set just after the Frog Wars of the preceding film Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988). Following that terrible battle, the Froggie mutants were placed on the special Frogtown Mutant Reservation. The story begins as the leader of Frogtown, Zar abducts Professor Tanzer and forces him to perfect a terrible serum that will turn the Earth's remaining population into croaking, fly-eating amphibians. Zar then sends out an android version of Commander Toady (a character who died in the first film) to bring in some subjects to test. Toady's first catch is the muscle-bound Rocket Ranger Jones who is injected by the lovely Nurse Cloris. To save Jones from a terrible fate, fellow rocketeers send out the courageous Ranger Sam Hell to save them. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

In this comedy, Gidget, the all-American surfer girl, has grown up, married Moondoggie, and become a travel agent. She and he, who have been married for seven years, are experiencing marital problems due to their careers and monetary pressure. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This low-budget action saga concerns Rafe Stoker, a screen idol turned film director so desperate to finish making his new opus that he enlists the financial support of the mafia. In the process, Rafe makes a series of high-flown promises to the lending thugs, including a completed film and payback out of the profits within four weeks. Unfortunately, though, the movie takes longer than anticipated, and Rafe winds up at the mercy of a cadre of redneck bikers intent on sabotaging the film for Rafe's collateral. Soon, Rafe has to both fight to finish the picture, and fend off such elements as ruthless cops and evil snipers. ~ Nathan Southern, Rovi