Regis Toomey Movies

This silly horror film stars Dean Jagger in a zoned-out performance as a mad scientist whose experiments in halting the aging process have reduced the residents of Smalltown, U.S.A. to shambling zombies. Since his serum requires massive amounts of extracted human pituitary fluid, Jagger is ever on the lookout for more unwilling donors -- i.e. nearly everyone unlucky enough to pass through town. This film is apparently assembled from pieces of two different projects, including an uncompleted film from the mid-'70s, and spiced up with some gratuitous nudity courtesy of former Playboy playmate Lynda Wiesmeier. As expected, the combination doesn't really work -- the editors have made a commendable attempt at maintaining some form of continuity, but the end result seems hardly worth the effort. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, an enigmatic phantom lives in the dank tunnels running beneath the ramshackle back lot of a former movie lot. When prospective buyers endeavor to purchase the property, the furious phantom goes on the rampage. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The FBI investigate a series of mysterious assaults in three different states. Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) has one clue to work on: each assault was somehow related to the message "Til Death Do Us Part." The villain of the piece turns out to be escaped convict Darryl Ryder (Dean Stockwell), who has sworn vengeance against everyone responsible for the annulment of his marriage. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An amoral film student will stop at nothing to gain a movie contract in this pretentious effort. Tony Hall (Robert Forster) insults his cinema professor (Reegis Toomey), degrades his girlfriend Sondra Locke), and alienates his agent. Ken Kerchival and Sam Waterston also appear in this dreary film. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Dr. John Carpenter (Elvis Presley) helps the economically disadvantaged in an inner-city medical clinic. Three nuns are assigned to help out at the facility and are allowed to wear regular clothes instead of the traditional habits. Sister Michelle (Mary Tyler Moore) is the speech therapist who Dr. Carpenter would like to examine personally after hours. Along with the other sisters (Barbara McNair and Jane Elliot), Michelle is subjected to the criticism of the local parish priest (Regis Toomey) in the social experiment of non-traditional dress. Two spinsters even mistake the nuns for prostitutes without their habits. The priest wins out in the end, and the nuns must again don their habits. As the good doctor sings to the ailing children, Sister Michelle is transfixed both by a crucifix hanging on the wall and by Elvis Presley in an ironic and symbolic scene that flashes between the two icons. This was Presley's last studio feature and he welcomed the move from stifling screen images as he returned his focus to live performances and recording for the remainder of his illustrious career. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

The Bradley sisters, alias the "Singing Sweethearts", are signed sight unseen to perform on the TV show hosted by Buddy Buster (David Ketchum). But Buddy isn't very happy upon discovering that Betty Jo Bradley (Linda Kaye Henning)--who hadn't wanted to be on the show in the first place--is visibly pregnant. Sid Melton, better known as "Alf Monroe" on Petticoat Junction's spinoff series Green Acres, is seen as fast-talking talent agent Ted Swift. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

With train conductor Wendell Gibbs (Byron Foulger) fast asleep, no one is around to pilot the Hooterville Cannonball when the pregnant Betty Jo (Linda Kaye Henning) begins feeling labor pains. Thus it is that Betty takes the controls of the train herself--with virtually everyone else in Hooterville--including Green Acres' Oliver (Eddie Albert) and Lisa (Eva Gabor)--on board as passengers. Although Bea Benadaret's voice is heard as Kate Bradley, the actress was not seen on-camera due to her illness, and a stand-in was used (Benaderet died on October 13, 1968, less than two weeks before this episode originally aired). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Although the rest of the community has been won over by Dr. Janet Craig (June Lockhart), Uncle Joe (Edgar Buchanan) is still resistant to the notion of a lady MD. Hoping to force Janet out of Hooterville, Joe pretends to come down with an exotic and incurable illness of his own invention. But the laugh is on him when his "fake" malady turns out to be the real thing! This is the first episode not to mention Kate Bradley in the opening credits or the title song; actress Bea Benaderet had died on October 13, 1968. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

A small town is terrorized by a grizzly bear in this uninspired western. Jim Cole $Clint Walker must defend his inherited property from the designs of his greedy, land-grabbing neighbor Jed Curry (Keenan Wynn). ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Unsuccessful football coach Burt Payne (Bill Williams) wants to sell his share of the Wildcats pro football team to a cartel of investors, but his wealthy wife Ellen (Mona Freeman) vetoes the deal. Even so, Ellen arranges a meeting with one of the investors--just before Burt is killed in a mysterious explosion. Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) is on hand when Burt's remains are delivered to Los Angeles by train. . .and also happens to be in the vicinity when another murder occurs and the wrong person is accused. Several real-life members of the Los Angeles Rams appear as themselves in this episode, which ends with a frenetic chase sequence filmed on location at LA Memorial Colisseum, site of the 1932 and 1984 Olympics. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

David Janssen is hardly perfect casting for the role of 1920s gambling king Arnold Rothstein (Rod Steiger or Gene Barry may have been better choices), but the sure-handed direction of Joseph Newman smooths over all the rough spots in this fanciful biopic. Set up in the gambling business by crooked politico Jack Carson, Rothstein cheats his partner Mickey Shaughnessy, cheats on his lovely wife Dianne Foster, and does his best to discredit his bitterest enemy, on-the-take police detective Dan O'Herlihy. When O'Herlihy engineers the death of Rothstein's pal Mickey Rooney, Rothstein pulls strings in the New York judicial system, assuring the conviction and execution of the rogue cop. As quickly as he rises to the top of the dung-heap, Rothstein falls with equal rapidity, and ends up riddled with mob bullets. Curiously, King of the Roaring Twenties bypasses Rothstein's involvement in the "Black Sox" baseball scandal of 1919, perhaps because too many participants in that debacle were still alive in 1960 (this incident would later be covered in toto in the 1988 film Eight Men Out, which co-starred Michael Lerner as Rothstein). While King of the Roaring Twenties ignores the facts, for the most part the film is to be treasured if for no other reason than the fact that director Newman managed to draw uncharacteristically subtle performances from Mickey Rooney and Jack Carson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide