James Wainwright Movies

After dropping out of the CIA while in Manila, a man descends into drug addiction. After his recovery, an old flame asks him to help his own brother, who has suffered much the same trouble. ~ John Bush, Rovi

Harley Cokliss (second-unit director for The Empire Strikes Back) made his feature-film directing debut in this Mad Max-inspired action film. The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic civilization carrying on after a war for oil has depleted the world's petroleum supplies. An outlaw army under the command of Straker (James Wainwright) controls a gigantic truck used as a weapon of pillage. However, Straker's daughter Corlie (Annie McEnroe) doesn't want to be a part of her father's evil designs. She runs away from her father and takes up with Hunter (Michael Beck), a reclusive biker. With Hunter, Annie settles in a peaceful community led by Rusty (John Ratzenberger). But it is only a matter of time before the Battletruck barrels into town, and the peace of the community is shattered. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

The 4077th has had an inordinate amount of wounded lately, and the blame cannot entirely be laid at the feet of the Enemy. It turns out that the US Army is saddled with a certain Colonel Lacy (James Wainwright), whose bullheaded incompetence has cost him the highest casualty rate of any batallion commander. To stem the flow of blood, Hawkeye (Alan Alda) is forced to desperate measures--so desperate that even B.J. (Mike Farrell) is shocked and appalled. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Former TV documentary filmmaker Mel Stuart tries to inject an acceptable degree of verisimilitude in Mean Dog Blues. A victim of circumstance, country and western musician Paul Ramsey (Gregg Henry) finds himself on a Southern chain gang. Captain Omar Kinsman (George Kennedy) snarls a lot as the obligatory sadistic prison guard, but the film's real villains are Victor and Donna Lacey (William Windom and Tina Louise) as the Bonnie-and-Clyde couple who get Henry into trouble. Listed as editor is Housley Stevenson, the son of the late Hollywood character-actor Onslow Stevens. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Larry Cohen's pseudo-biography of J. Edgar Hoover (Broderick Crawford) was virtually howled off the screens upon its release in 1977. Today, with the cross-dressing Hoover so much a matter of historical record that even Oliver Stone didn't bother to make too much of a point of it in Nixon, the Cohen film plays more like a dramatic re-enactment rather than the puerile paranoid fantasy it appeared to be at the time. Unfortunately, Cohen's method is part exploitation and part historical tableau. On the one hand, Cohen dramatizes historical moments in Hoover's momentous life story -- the shooting of John Dillinger in front of Chicago's Biograph Theater, his first arrest -- with a deadening solemnity (even abandoning the backlot facsimiles to shoot on the actual historical locations). On the other hand, Cohen relishes his scenes of Hoover's homosexuality and his propensity for sitting in the dark with a bottle of whiskey, replaying tapes of the amorous liaisons of high government officials -- the decadently homosexual Hoover built his political power base by getting all the dirt he could on the government's movers and shakers -- particularly their sexual liaisons -- and blackmailing them for their support when he could not get it in any other way. A true schizophrenic masterwork in its time, the film is now muted by a reality more incredible than Cohen ever imagined in his wildest dreams. ~ Paul Brenner, Rovi

While engaged in the illegal sale of plutonium secrets, lab technician Bigelow (Joby Baker) dies in a car crash. Conducting the autopsy, Quincy (Jack Klugman) determines that Bigelow's body contained a high level of radiation. Meanwhile, the police arrest Ray Sanchez (Ronald Joseph Godines) on a charge of manslaughter for causing Bigelow's death. Case closed? Not as far as Quincy is concerned--and in the course of his own investigation, he unearths a number of disturbing facts about the dead man and his cohorts. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jim (James Garner) is pressed into service as best man when the redoubtable Angel (Stuart Margolin) gets married to Regin Boyajian (Elayne Heilveil). It is not love but fear that has motivated Angel to walk down the aisle: he figures that by wedding Regina, he will avoid being killed by her thuggish relatives, who have been victimized by Angel's latest scam. Somehow, all this matrimonial intrigue is linked to a 14-year-old unsolved murder, and to a high-profile car salesman (James Wainwright) who will go to any lengths to keep his past life as a street-gang member from becoming public knowledge. Future Simon&Simon star Gerald McRaney shows up in a small role--and listen for the voice of frequent Rockford Files director Jackie Cooper). ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A decidedly pre-Naked Gun Leslie Neilsen guest stars in this episode as veteran cop John T. Connor. Upon learning that he has a terminal illness, Connor vows to murder the slick racketeer whom he has been unsuccessfully trying to put behind bars for the past eighteen months. Thus are Stone (Karl Malden) and Keller (Michael Douglas) forced into the uncomfortable position of saving a notorious criminal from one of their own colleagues. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

A crisis ensues when Air Force One crashes while on a flight out west, apparently killing all those aboard, including President Jeremy Haines (Tod Andrews). The United States is in the midst of a confrontation with China that could lead to a nuclear war between the two countries, and the government is now in the hands of Vice President Kermit Madigan (Buddy Ebsen), a not too intelligent or sophisticated man, who was deliberately kept out of the loop. His confidence on foreign policy issues virtually nil, Madigan seeks to carry out Haines's intended policy in confronting the Chinese but gets two completely different accounts of what that policy was to be. Secretary of State Freeman Sharkey (Raymond Massey), a career diplomat, claims that Haines was pursuing firm but peaceful containment of the problem, while National Security advisor George Oldenburg (Rip Torn) says that Haines was ready to go eyeball-to-eyeball with the Chinese and go to war if necessary -- and Oldenburg quickly picks up on how to gain Madigan's confidence. As if Madigan doesn't have enough problems, the stunned Washington community cannot help but openly doubt his competence, while his ambitious wife (Mercedes McCambridge) sees this unfolding tragedy as a way for herself and her husband to finally get some respect and settle a few scores with those who belittled the Second Couple. Even more troubling, as the search teams comb the wreckage, another mystery ensues -- they can't seem to find the president's body. ~ Bruce Eder, Rovi

While on a missing persons case, a cop becomes entangled in a cover-up and is framed for murder. This film is also known as Man on the Move. ~ Jason Ankeny, Rovi

A gang of outlaws, led by the sadistic Dibs (Richard Jaeckel), descends upon the Ponderosa. The crooks are determined to retrieve $60,000 in stolen money from their duplicitous partner Don Buckler (Ron Hayes), now wounded and under the care of the Cartwright boys. Eve McVeigh appears as housekeeper Harriet Guthrie, temporary replacement for the Cartwrights' longtime servant Hop Sing, while Joan Freeman is cast as Kelly. First shown on October 15, 1967, "Night of Reckoning" was written by Walter Black. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi