Vincent Van Patten Movies

Vincent Edwards, four years removed from Ben Casey, enters another branch of the healing profession in the made-for-TV Dial Hot Line. Edwards plays Matt Lincoln, a community psychiatrist who is patched into a "hot line" telephone for those troubled souls unable to afford therapy. This TV movie involves three of Lincoln's call-in patients, including one potential suicide. Also featured was future Laugh-In regular Chelsea Brown as Tag, a member of Lincoln's staff. Dial Hot Line later matriculated into the brief Matt Lincoln TV series, with both Vincent Edwards and Chelsea Brown retained from the pilot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Officers Jim Reed (Kent McCord) and Pete Malloy (Martin Milner) round up some kids who have been committing minor crimes while playing hookey. Though society at large is willing to write off these youngsters as incorrigible, Reed decides to appeal to the kids' parents to help curb truancy. . .and to find out just how many crimes can actually be attributed to the truants, or to someone older who is acting as a ring leader. Barbara Nichols, one of Hollywood's favorite "dumb blondes" (dumb on film if not real life, that is), is seen as Mrs. Stephens. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Earl Holliman and Vincent Van Patten star in the made-for-TV Disney movie The Boy and the Bronc Buster. Van Patten plays a farm kid of the 1880s who joins cowboy Holliman on the rodeo circuit. The plot thickens when the boy discovers that his mentor is a fugitive from justice, wanted for murder. Filmed in Arizona, The Boy and the Bronc Buster originated as a 2-part installment of TV's Wonderful World of Disney. It was first telecast March 18 and 25, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Filmed in Flagstaff, Arizona, The Bravos top-bills George Peppard as a frontier cavalry commander. It is Peppard's job to protect his fort, and the wagon train passengers sheltered within, from the 2000 Kiowa Indian warriors who dot the surrounding hills. This being a 1972 TV movie, the Native Americans are "savage" only when provoked. When they abduct Peppard's son Vincent Van Patten, it is in retribution for the death of their own chief's son. The Bravos was the 90-minute pilot film for a never-sold western series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

During a cross-country balloon race, 2 aeronauts become entangled in the start of the Civil War. ~ All Movie Guide

The US title of this Italian-Spanish-French coproduction is Chino, in deference to the character played by star Charles Bronson. Having long suffered the stigma of being part-Indian, New Mexico horse breeder Chino Valdez (Bronson) wants nothing more than to be left alone with his beloved horses. Even so, Chino opens his heart and his home to teenaged runaway Jamie Wagner (Vincent Van Patten), who becomes his protégé. But things take an unpleasant turn when the formerly taciturn Chino falls in love with Louise (Jill Ireland, the half-sister of antagonistic rancher Maral (Marcel Bozzuffi, replacing the original choice for the role, Lino Ventura). This film was based on The Valdez Horses, a novel by Lee Hoffman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Lawrence Kerwin stars as James Hunter, a gawky Oregon teenager who moves to Boston with his family. Suffering the requisite growing pains and insecurities, James has a few problems "fitting in" with his new crowd. The boy's sincerity and likability eventually wins the day, but the ending of the film is left open-ended enough to accommodate the subsequent TV series. Linden Chiles and Lynn Carlin co-star as James' parents, while Kate Jackson plays an "older woman" art student who sets James on the right course when the boy tries to run away from home. This 2-hour pilot first aired on September 5, 1977; the series proper (its name changed to James at 16 on the occasion of the protagonist's first sexual experience!) premiered on October 27, 1977. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this youthful adventure, six adolescents head for a vacation in Arizona and end up stranded in the desert after their car crashes. They decide to hike to the closest town. En route they encounter drug smugglers who are willing to kill to keep their location a secret. Bloody mayhem ensues as the young people try to flee for safety. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

This plodding, derivative slasher opus -- a surprise box-office hit -- stars Exorcist vet Linda Blair as one of a quartet of sorority and fraternity pledges required to spend the title evening of their initiation inside the spooky Garth Manor. The mansion was the site of a gruesome multiple murder, wherein the owner killed his wife and three of his four deformed children before taking his own life. After the four pledges bed down for the night (mainly with each other, though Blair is called upon for the standard "virginal heroine" role here), mischievous upperclassmen descend into the house, intending to scare them out of their wits...but something even more repulsive than a pack of drunken frat-boys beats them to it. It comes as no surprise that Garth's fourth child -- apparently the most monstrous of the bunch -- is still roaming the premises, and doesn't take kindly to strangers. An early foray onto exploitation turf for director Tom de Simone, this film has a fairly stylish look, though mired by underlit photography and silly performances. Blair is appealing, but her role is sadly underwritten. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

A young man tries to break up the oft-disparaged sport of cockfighting in a rural Southern town. He's up against a whole lot of cockfight supporters and could use a few more folks on his side. ~ All Movie Guide

The second television film to capitalize on the classic original, The Deadly Mission concerns another team of convicts, this time assigned to rescue Nazi scientists working on a chemical-weapons project. Telly Savalas plays a different role than he did in the original (unlike Ernest Borgnine). ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

In this youthful sports drama, a former professional tennis player begins acting as a mentor for a troubled teen whose life is being destroyed by an overbearing father. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The true story of one of the most gifted card players in history provides the basis for this hard-hitting drama. Stu Ungar (Michael Imperioli) was barely in his teens when he first discovered his talent for playing cards, especially poker and gin rummy. His father, a nightclub owner and small-time bookmaker connected with the mob, was impressed with his son's abilities but worried where Stu's reckless instincts towards gambling could take him. As it happens, Stu's father was right to worry; the boy managed to lose all his bar mitzvah money during an afternoon at the racetrack (for all his skills at the card table, Stu had no talent for picking the ponies), and by the time he was 20, Stu was deep in debt to mob loan sharks. Vincent (Michael Nouri), a mob boss who knew Stu's father, gives him a chance to pay off his debts by entering a gin rummy tournament in Las Vegas; Stu wins big and soon finds the Las Vegas lifestyle is to his liking. Stu becomes something of a celebrity when he wins the World Series of Poker tournament in 1980 and 1981, but his appetite for racetrack betting, drugs and prostitutes took its toll, and the great card shark hit bottom before returning from nowhere to win the WSOP a third time in 1996; however, Stu's comeback would turn out to be tragically short lived. High Roller: The Stu Ungar Story also features appearances by Pat Morita, Renee Faia, Joe La Due, and Vincent Van Patten. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide