Stephen Stucker Movies

Mike Jittlov, a master of special effects who's strutted his stuff in several short films, is both the director and star of The Wizard of Speed and Time. Jittlov plays himself, an eager-beaver director who offers a reel of special effects to a TV producer. The director makes a huge bet to the producer that he, Jittlov, can expand his reel into a fantastic feature film. Unfortunately, he's out of money, so Jittlov is obliged, Rocky style, to employ friends and family for his epic. In the picture-within-a-picture, Jittlov plays a second role, as the Wizard of Speed and Time (from the movie of the same name). The producer sends out some hired goons to prevent Jittlov from finishing his job, but our hero--both of him--emerges triumphant. Adding to the Pirandellian quality of The Wizard of Speed and Time is the fact that the avaricious fictional producer is played by the film's real producer, Richard Kaye. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Everyone is a stereotypical extreme in this sometimes mean-spirited black comedy about the vicious staff at an orphanage, the garrulous punk kids who live there, and the pretentious overblown rich couple who adopt one of the orphans -- this is not a happy world. In the Bleeding Heart Orphanage, Sister Serene (Anne De Salvo) applies all the mental and emotional restrictions she can to her wild charges, while Kurtz (Murphy Dunne) applies the electric cattle prod. When one of the children (all around 10 years old, more or less) is adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Fitzpatrick (Martin Mull and Karen Black), his cohorts come to rescue him from the terrors of an upper-class Santa Barbara existence -- and subsequent mayhem ensues. With a low-brow, low-budget approach, the premises are obviously meant to key in to the slapstick characterizations, but for some viewers, even the comic moments may not assuage the meaner undertones of the film. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Gary Coleman stars as the title character, the bratty son of wealthy parents, who is kidnapped by a pair of bumbling crooks. The experience winds up teaching the pampered boy the realities of childhood. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

This spoof of the Airport series of disaster movies relies on ridiculous sight gags, groan-inducing dialogue, and deadpan acting -- a comedy style that would be imitated for the next 20 years. Airplane! pulls out all the clichés as alcoholic pilot Ted Striker (Robert Hays), who's developed a fear of flying due to wartime trauma, boards a jumbo jet in an attempt to woo back his stewardess girlfriend (Julie Hagerty). Food poisoning decimates the passengers and crew, leaving it up to Striker to land the plane, with the help of a glue-sniffing air traffic controller (Lloyd Bridges) and Striker's vengeful former captain (Robert Stack), who must both talk him down. Along the way, we meet a clutch of stock disaster movie passengers like the guitar-strumming nun, a sick little girl, a frightened old lady, and two African-American travelers whose "jive" has to be subtitled. Leslie Nielsen portrays the plane's doctor, launching a new phase of the actor's career that carried him through the next two decades in several similarly comedic roles. The trio of directors Jim Abrahams, Jerry Zucker, and David Zucker responsible for the film would eventually go on to solo careers, but not before making Top Secret! and Ruthless People. ~ Perry Seibert, All Movie Guide

The Big One finally hits California and as it slides into the waiting Pacific a television news team with anchor people Walter Concrete and Barbara Halters is there to record the resulting chaos and help themselves to whatever is left. This satire features performers from such noted comedy troupes as the Ace Trucking Company, FireSign Theater and Second City. The Tubes provide the music. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

A trio of dangerous criminals meet their match at a private school for girls in this oddball mixture of sexploitation, action and comedy. Three patients from an institution for the criminally insane make a break and escape to the outside world -- Carl Clooney (Michael Pataki), a deranged nightclub comic and mimic, Dick Peters (Bob Minor), a disgraced big-league baseball player and serial rapist, and Bruce Wilson (Stephen Stucker), an unhinged gay fashion designer. Looking for a car and a place to hide, the escapees first take over the home of a half-witted cowboy and his sex-starved wife, but they soon end up at the Oxford Corrective Institute for Young Women, a private learning facility for obstreperous teenagers operated by strict disciplinarian Mr. Baxter (John Aldeman). It's semester break and only six of the students are left behind, and the criminals think they're in for some sadistic fun with the attractive young women, but what they don't know is that self-defense is part of the Oxford curriculum, and the gals are well versed in karate. Also titled Carnal Madness, Delinquent Schoolgirls marked the screen debut of comic and actor Stephen Stucker, who enjoyed overnight success as the sharp-tongued air traffic controller in Airplane!; his career was cut short by his premature death in 1986. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide