Lorna Thayer Movies

The Cartwright boys' fraternal horseplay takes a painful turn when they accidentally injure their hired hand Jebediah Milbank (John Carradine). As Milbank recovers in Ben Cartwright's bedroom, Ben orders his rambunctious sons to tend to Jeb's unfinished responsibilities-and to that end, he dispatches Adam, Hoss and Joe to three different directions. Also appearing are Jena Engstrom as Ann, Claude Johnson as Paul, Denver Pyle as Theodore and John Qualen as Parley. First telecast October 1, 1961, "Springtime" was written by John Furia Jr.. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This crime-drama follows the exploits of a rock star who is finally freed from prison after being convicted of drug dealing. Though he wants to go straight, he is blackmailed by a crooked cop who forces him to sell marijuana. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Friday (Jack Webb) and Smith (Ben Alexander) are on the prowl for a man suspected of pulling a holdup. An anonymous tip leads the two detectives to the Full Moon, a cocktail bar which the suspect is known to frequent. But will the crook be scared off by the presence of The Law? Featured in one of his standard old-codger characterizations is William Fawcett, best remembered by baby boomers as grizzled ranch-hand Pete ("who cut his teeth on a branding iron") in the TV series Fury. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A disaffected man seeks a sense of identity in one of the key films of Hollywood's 1970s New Wave. Once a promising pianist from a family of classical musicians, Bobby Eroica Dupea (Jack Nicholson, in his first major starring role) leads a blue-collar life as an oil rigger, living with needy waitress girlfriend Rayette (Karen Black) and bowling with their friends Elton (Billy "Green" Bush) and Stoney (Fannie Flagg). Feeling suffocated by responsibilities, Bobby seeks out his sister, Tita (Lois Smith), and, discovering that his father is gravely ill, he reluctantly heads back to the patrician family compound in Puget Sound with a pregnant Rayette in tow. After a road trip featuring a harangue from hitchhiker Palm (Helena Kallianiotes) about filth, and Bobby's ill-fated attempt to make a menu substitution in a diner, he tucks Rayette away in a motel before heading to the house. There Bobby seduces his uptight brother Carl's cultured fiancée, Catherine (Susan Anspach), but Rayette shows up unexpectedly. As Rayette's crassness collides with the snobbery of the Dupea circle, Bobby loses patience with both sides. After trying to reconcile with his mute father, Bobby departs, unwilling to give in to either destiny. Director Bob Rafelson and screenwriter Adrien Joyce (aka Carole Eastman) used the creative control afforded by the low budget to craft a European-influenced character study, catching a cultural mood of anomie and resentment as it was embodied in Bobby. Neither older generation nor hippie, Bobby fits in nowhere, and his desire for independence conflicts with his emotional emptiness. Nicholson's nuanced performance of simmering frustration resonated with 1970 audiences caught between Nixon's "silent majority" and the troubled counterculture; a substantial hit, Five Easy Pieces was nominated for several Oscars, including Best Picture and Best Actor, and established Nicholson as a star. Offering no "easy" answers to Bobby's existential crisis, Five Easy Pieces is one of the pre-eminent films in the early-'70s cycle of alienated American art movies, as even the fantasy of rebellion is reduced to merely running away. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Terrence McNally's stage play Frankie and Johnny in the Clair de Lune was a two-character piece, which starred Kathy Bates and F. Murray Abraham on Broadway. Garry Marshall's film version of the McNally play streamlines the title to Frankie and Johnny, expands the dramatis personae to include at least a dozen fascinating characters, and "glamorizes" the decidedly unglamorous Frankie and Johnny in the forms of Michelle Pfeiffer and Al Pacino (their first co-starring stint since Scarface). Purists carped at the changes, but overall the film is likeable enough to transcend these carps. While serving an 18-month sentence on a forgery charge, Johnny (Al Pacino) discovers the joys of cooking and classical literature. Upon his release, he is hired by gruff but good-hearted New York diner owner Nick (played by Garry Marshall "regular" Hector Elizondo). Also working for Nick is a waitress named Frankie (Michelle Pfeiffer). When Johnny expresses interest in Frankie, she keeps him at arm's length, her mistrust of men stemming from an unmentioned but obviously traumatic experience in her past. Eventually, however, Frankie and Johnny do get together, their curious relationship setting the stage for a dramatic denouement wherein both lovers bare their souls. The bulk of the original McNally play is concentrated in the film's final 20 minutes; the rest of the picture is a kaleidoscope of comic and poignant vignettes and quick-sketch character studies. Of the newly minted characters, the standout is Nathan Lane in the traditional "gay best friend/severest critic" role: he plays the character so effectively that one forgets he's essentially a cliché. As for the stars, Al Pacino is ideally cast as Johnny, but Michelle Pfeiffer, superb though she is, seems a bit ill at ease as the emotionally tattered Frankie; she totally wins the audience's hearts, however, in the film's memorable bowling-alley sequence. Smoothing over the rough spots in Frankie and Johnny is the evocative musical score by Marvin Hamlisch. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Neighbors in suburban Los Angeles segue a meeting to stop freeway construction into a sexual romp. A housewife (Ann Summers) gives in to the primal urges of her neighbor, (Clark Gordon) an erotic novelist. While her husband (Bernard Barrow) is off with his mistress (Jennifer O'Neill) at a forest retreat, she decides to have some fun on her own. Her husband's business partner (Philip Pine) has his eyes on their nubile 19 year old daughter (Deirdre Lenihan) who heart and the rest of her body belongs to daddy. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

In this curiously Brechtian drama, a government official (Lewis Martin) secretly hires Paladin to bring murder suspect Billy Joe (Martin West) to trial. The reason for the secrecy is that Billy Joe is the son of Paladin's client. Upon capturing Billy Joe, Paladin is unable to turn over boy to the authorities thanks to the interference of a wandering band of saloon bums (male and female). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Paladin (Richard Boone) is summoned by the US Army to seek out Col. Nunez (Shepperd Strudwick), who had made a name for himself (and not a good one!) during the Civil War. Rumor has it that Nunez and his Native American wife Serafina (Lorna Thayer) have become renegades, aligning themselves with the hostile Apaches. Tracking down Nunez, Paladin finds out that the deranged colonel is arming and training the Indian for an all-out war against the whites--but the gunslinger may not live long enough to relay this information to the authorities. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The "Bridey Murphy" craze of the 1950s was the catalyst for I've Lived Before. Jock Mahoney plays a contemporary pilot who survives a plane crash. Upon awakening, he is under the delusion that he is another airman, who died during the first World War. The authorities pass this insistence off as delirium, until Mahoney starts recounting events and intimacies that only the long-dead pilot would know. Ann Harding portrays the ageing former lover of the soul trapped within Mahoney's body. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Charles Bronson guest stars as a neurologist trying to assess a boy's brain damage with a team of specialists, while the boy's family deals with guilt and anger over the car accident that caused it. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Garry Marshall directed this film which starts as a light comedy but moves into heavy-duty drama later on. David Basner (Tom Hanks in a good performance) works in an ad agency, where he enjoys bantering with his co-workers and meets a lot of women. He hasn't been especially close to his father (Jackie Gleason) and never thought about him much until his Dad is left devastated when his wife of 36 years walks out on him. He is soon faced with serious health problems as well. This propels the elder Basner on a downward slide that affects David and their relationship. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

The cheerleading team at Aloha High are popular with their fellow students (except for a couple of stuck-up rich girls), but they're a major cause of the school's lecherous reputation for underage sex and drug abuse. The fun-loving gals spike the lunchroom spaghetti sauce with a concoction of pot, pills, and powders, hold wild orgies in the boys' locker room, and never bother to attend their classes. The school board considers a merger with Aloha's biggest rivals, the vocational school Lincoln High, but the cheerleaders refuse to mix with the low-class juvenile delinquents that go there. A new principal, ex-Marine Hall Walker (Norman Thomas Marshall), might whip the school into shape, but it'll mean forcing the cheerleaders out of the squad and back into the classroom. Though the girls prove their importance to Aloha spirit at the crucial moment of a big basketball game, it turns out that more sinister forces are at work when the school is blown up and the principal is kidnapped. It's up to the cheerleaders to save the day and unravel a conspiracy to steal Aloha High's land for a shopping mall. Carl Ballantine, David Hasselhoff, and genre vet Rainbeaux Smith appear in this energetic sex comedy. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide

Sky Terror is the reissue title for Skyjacked, a 1972 MGM all-star adventure based on a novel by David Harper. Charlton Heston mans the controls of a Los Angeles-bound commercial airliner which is hijacked to Russia by an unknown miscreant. Even when the skyjacker, revealed to be passenger James Brolin, is subsequently subdued, the crew must contend with a hidden time bomb. The film is graced with a who's who of MGM contractees past and present, including Yvette Mimieux, Walter Pidgeon and Mike Henry. A flashback sequence contains one of the first examples of an American film coming to grips with how rudely our Vietnam veterans were ignored upon returning home; alas, this compassion quickly degenerates into the odious "crazed Vietnam vet" cliche. Footnote: The first network showing of Skyjacked was boycotted by TV stations owned by the Storer Corporation, which had a hard and fast rule against screening any film concerning a hijacked plane. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide