Les Tremayne Movies

In this 3-D animated cross between Star Wars and the Knights of the Round Table, young Orin (voice by Joe Colligan) lives in an oppressed, underground world in which humans have become the slaves of robots. One day the hero finds the handle of a sword and in a vision is told that if he can locate the blade, he will be able to overthrow the robots. Off he goes on his quest, up to the surface world where he meets and teams up with Dagg (voice by Carmen Argenziano) to face the evil empire in a series of daring battles. Along the way, Orin and Dagg have their own love interests, and a bit of swarthy language occasionally peppers their conversation as well. Parents should be advised of these two excursions into a more adult world, otherwise, most moppets would enjoy the fast-paced tale of heroism and adventure. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, Rovi

Les Tremayne guest stars as Boss Hogg's "Big Daddy", a well-known philanthropist who is every bit as kindly, honest and generous as his son is not. Worried about upsetting his daddy, Boss (Sorrell Booke) calls off his scheme to frame the Duke boys with a hot license plate--but his sudden attack of integrity is foiled when his own henchman uses the General Lee as a getaway car for another crime! This episode marks the final appearance of series regular Rick Hurst (Deputy Cletus), who'd just signed on with the new sitcom Amanda's. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Chester, a plucky little cricket with the gift of making beautiful music leaves his country home to find fortune in the Big Apple, instead he finds himself overwhelmed by the dangerous bustle and hub-ub around him. Eventually, he teams up with a mouse, a boy and a cat to save the kindly owner of a corner newsstand from financial ruin. This Chuck Jones animated feature first appeared on television and earned a Parent's Choice Award. ~ Sandra Brennan, Rovi

This is low-budget filmmaker Larry Buchanan's "tribute" to Ingmar Bergman. The plot has to do with a poor girl named Erica (Monica Gayle), who engages in various sexual encounters until Death (Les Tremayne) takes her away -- but not before we manage to see her in various (and frequent) stages of nudity. Buchanan claims that this film played in Texas as a Bergman film, and nobody knew the difference -- which could explain why actual Bergman films have never been very popular in Texas. ~ Brian Gusse, Rovi

Master animator Chuck Jones has created this full length fantasy, his first since being name director of MGM's animation department. A young boy (Butch Patrick) is bored with his life in San Francisco and finds himself in a fantasy land where letters and numbers are at war with each other. He drives through the Phantom Tollbooth and into an animated fantasy land. The voices of Mel Blanc, June Foray and Daws Butler are featured in this story taken from the book by Norton Juster. The boy tries to rescue twin Princesses Rhyme and Reason, who have been banished to a castle suspended in mid air above the kingdom. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi

The British title of Billy Wilder's classic comedy was Meet Whiplash Willie -- for, despite Jack Lemmon's star billing, the movie's driving force is Oscar-winning Walter Matthau as gloriously underhanded lawyer "Whiplash" Willie Gingrich. CBS cameraman Harry Hinkle (Lemmon) is injured when he is accidentally bulldozed by football player Luther "Boom Boom" Jackson (Ron Rich) during a Cleveland Browns game. Willie, Harry's brother-in-law, foresees an insurance-settlement bonanza, and he convinces Harry to pretend to be incapacitated by the accident. To insure his client's cooperation, Willie arranges for Harry's covetous ex-wife Sandy (Judi West) to feign a rekindling of their romance. Harry's conscience is plagued by the solicitous behavior of Boom Boom, who is so devastated at causing Harry's injury that he insists on waiting on the "cripple" hand and foot. Meanwhile, dishevelled private eye Purkey (Cliff Osmond) keeps Harry under constant surveillance, hoping to catch him moving around so the insurance company can avoid shelling out a fortune. Wilder and usual co-writer I.A.L. Diamond were at their most jaundiced and cynical here, even if, after a sardonic semiclimax, the last ten minutes succumb to the sentimentality that often marred Wilder's later movies. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the first of several episodes cashing in on the "spy craze" of the mid-1960s, Tim (Bill Bixby) falls for a beautiful secret agent named Kitty (Susanne Cramer), aka "Agent 004" of the government organization TOPSEEK. For her sake, he agrees to deliver an important message, whereupon he is drafted as an undercover agent to infiltrate the sinister enemy cartel CRUSH. Not surprisingly, Tim gets in way over his head, and it's Uncle Martin (Ray Walston) to the rescue as usual. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

This mondo-style documentary was shot by American filmmakers during a voyage to the African wilderness, and offers a glimpse of life in the vanishing primitive tribes. However, the film prefers to focus on the more exploitable elements of life among the indigenous cultures, such as a real life witch doctor performing brain surgery without anesthetic, group mating rituals, blood drinking, the slaughter of animals, and other examples of sex and violence in the "Dark Continent." Kwaheri was released in the United States by exploitation kingpin Kroger Babb, who billed it as "the film that stretches your eyes." ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

Sentenced to 15 years in prison for a crime he did not commit, Howard Clements (Bradford Dillman) is released after serving only two years. Shortly afterward, he pays a visit to Isabel Smith (Barbara Baxley), the woman whose testimony put him behind bars. Though Isabel is worried that he seeks revenge, Howard explains that he is now running a successful business, and is willing to let bygones be bygones. Ultimately, Howard and Isabel are married...but if you've guessed that this is not the end of the story, your guess is right on the money. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In the first chapter of a two-part story arc, Mrs. Drysdale checks herself into a hospital, suffering from a bad case of nerves -- induced, of course, by those "dreadful hillbillies," the Clampetts. Unaware of the reason for Mrs. D's breakdown, the Clampetts pay a visit to her hospital room on New Year's Eve. That's when Granny decides that the jittery patient would be given better "doctorin'" treatment within the walls of the Clampett mansion. "Start the New Year Right" first aired on December 30, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Tom Gregory (Robert Hutton), a Los Angeles-based sports reporter, is flying into L.A. and lands his private plane after a rough descent through some kind of opaque midair disturbance, only to find the airport deserted. He meets Professor Galvin (Robert Burton) and his two daughters, Bonnie (Judee Morton) and Lisa (Susan Hart), who tell him that the city has been overrun by huge, hulking slime-covered subterraneans called Slime People, who appeared out of the sewers and other underground water concentrations. Appearing out of a strange thick fog apparently generated by a device of their own, they've killed hundreds, possibly thousands, panicked the population, fought the army to a standstill, and have now cut off the city with a wall of solidified fog. Gregory doesn't believe them completely, despite the presence of slaughtered corpses on the highways and back roads, until he gets to the television station where he works and screens the news footage. The quartet also makes contact with a young marine, Calvin Johnson (William Boyce), who was cut off from his unit and left for dead by the creatures. They manage to elude the Slime People and try to work out a plan for survival, making contact along the way with Norman Talliver (Les Tremayne), an eccentric writer, who is soon dispatched by the creatures. They discover the Slime People are impervious to harm by bullets or other convention weapons, their skin sealing up any wound instantly, but they can be killed by their own hollow-pointed spears, which don't allow wounds to close. That helps in fighting them off one-on-one, and the professor's reasoning that salt would be effective against slug-like creatures gives them a second weapon against the Slime People. But clearing them all out and freeing the city requires an assault against the creatures' own stronghold, which becomes even more essential when Bonnie is taken prisoner. Gregory and Cal manage to keep the Slime People busy long enough for the professor to destroy their fog-generating device. Overwhelmed by fresh air and sunlight, the Slime People start to collapse dead in their tracks, and the army is soon back in charge, doing what amounts to a literal mopping up operation. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi