Gregory Walcott Movies

Hollywood visionary Tim Burton pays homage to another Hollywood visionary, albeit a less successful one, in this unusual fictionalized biography. The film follows Wood (Johnny Depp) in his quest for film greatness as he writes and directs turkey after turkey, cross-dresses, and surrounds himself with a motley crew of Hollywood misfits, outcasts, has-beens, and never-weres. The real story, however, is his friendship with aging, morphine-addicted Bela Lugosi (Martin Landau), whom he tries to help stage a comeback. Landau's unforgettable Oscar-winning performance must be seen to be believed, as must Rick Baker's Oscar-winning makeup. While it would have been easy to make a film simply ridiculing the bumbling director, Burton instead focuses on his driving passion for filmmaking and his unwavering persistence in the face of ridicule and failure. Possibly the most surprising aspect of the film is the genuine sentiment with which Burton treats the relationship between Wood and Lugosi; his devotion to Lugosi is touching, as is Lugosi's final soliloquy -- an inane bit of dialogue from the hilariously bad Bride of the Monster that grows into a poignant metaphor for the actor's life and ultimate triumph of his spirit. Even the look of the film is right; it manages to preserve the air of one of Wood's own films while retaining a sense of artistry in much of the composition on screen (note the scene at the drug rehab where Lugosi endures a horrifying night of detox). In all, Ed Wood is a unique film -- at times side-splittingly funny; at others, tragic or even frightening -- and a heartfelt tribute to the love of movies, good and bad alike. ~ Jeremy Beday, All Movie Guide

This mundane sequel to New World Pictures' surprise horror hit bears little connection with its predecessor apart from the participation of writer Ethan Wiley, who also assumed directorial duties. This time around, the title abode is an old mansion inherited by the great-great-grandson of its original owner, a legendary frontier outlaw. The new owner, Jesse (Arye Gross), whose parents were murdered in the mansion 20 years ago, unwisely searches the premises for a cache of gems believed to be hidden there. With the aid of girlfriend Kate (Lar Park Lincoln) and buddy Charlie (Jonathan Stark), Jesse stumbles upon the original owner himself (Royal Dano), who is remarkably still alive (albeit in particularly decrepit condition) and cantankerous as all get-out. Great-great-grandpa has been preserved by the supernatural powers of an Aztec crystal skull, which is also capable of reanimating the dead and opening portals into other dimensions. Its true powers are tested readily when the skull falls into the wrong hands, leading our heroes on a wacky supernatural chase. The horror-comedy formula that kept the original film's shaky premise afloat is far less functional here, filling the story with silly contrivances that include a collection of pet monsters and a time-travel romantic subplot. Still, the film has some clever moments, mainly from Dano, who makes the most of his difficult character by adding a cartoonish flair, and from Cheers alum John Ratzenberger's amusing cameo turn as a plumber strangely accustomed to cross-dimensional travel. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Cult favorite Gregory Walcott (Plan Nine from Outer Space) appears in this episode as Big Jake, the father of waitress Jolene Hunnicutt (Celia Weston). When Big Jake, his three sons, his mom and his dog arrive in Phoenix, Jolene welcomes them with open arms. But when they all squeeze into her tiny apartment intending to stay in town indefinitely, Jolene wishes that she'd kept her arms closed! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jan Clayton, best known to TV aficionados as the first "mom" on Lassie, is here cast as widow Lucinda Meadows, an old flame of Jesse Duke (Denver Pyle). Returning to Hazzard County to claim a debt owed her late husband by Boss Hogg (Sorrell Booke), Lucinda eventually discovers that her legacy consists of nine barrels of "white lightning", deeply hidden in a mine somewhere under the Dukes' property. Jay Ripley appears as Deputy Wilbur Fudge, temporary replacement for Deputy Cletus (actor Rick Hurstwas otherwise occupied during filming). This episode was originally scheduled to air on January 9, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Norma Rae finds Sally Field cast in the title role, a minimum-wage worker in a cotton mill. The factory has taken too much of a toll on the health of Norma Rae's family for her to ignore her Dickensian working conditions. After hearing a speech by New York union organizer Reuben (Ron Leibman), Norma Rae decides to join the effort to unionize her shop. This causes dissension at home when Norma Rae's husband, Sonny (Beau Bridges), assumes that her activism is a result of a romance between herself and Reuben. Despite the pressure brought to bear by management, Norma Rae successfully orchestrates a shutdown of the mill, resulting in victory for the union and capitulation to its demands. Based on a true story, Norma Rae is the film for which Sally Field won her first Oscar; an additional Oscar went to David Shire and Norman Gimbel for the film's theme song, "It Goes Like It Goes." ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Clint Eastwood's first comedy feature proved to be one of his most profitable vehicles. Eastwood plays Philo Beddoe, a bare-knuckle boxer who travels from fight to fight in a beat-up truck, accompanied by his "pal" Clyde, a orangutan with a mean right hook, and his human buddy Orville (Geoffrey Lewis). During a stopover, Philo meets and falls in love with would-be country & western singer Lynn Halsey-Taylor (Sondra Locke). After a while, she wants to break off the relationship, but he doesn't -- a shaky plot peg upon which to hang several reels' worth of zany car chases and confrontations with such opponents as a gang of bikers and a battalion of hostile lawmen. Adding to the fun is Ruth Gordon as Eastwood's don't-mess-with-me octogenarian mother, and Beverly D'Angelo as an ace sharpshooter. The enormous box-office success of Every Which Way But Loose yielded an equally wacky -- and equally lucrative -- sequel, Any Which Way You Can. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

An expensive war epic, Midway emulates The Longest Day and Tora! Tora! Tora! in attempting to re-create a famous World War II battle from both the American and Japanese viewpoints. The 1942 battle of Midway was the turning point of the War in the Pacific; the Japanese invasion fleet was destroyed, and America's string of humiliating defeats was finally broken. Though the battle itself was sufficiently dramatic to fill two films, Midway also has plotline involving the mixed-race relationship between Ensign Garth (Edward Albert), son of Navy Captain Matt Garth (Charlton Heston), and Haruko Sakura (Christina Kokubo), a Hawaiian girl of Japanese descent. The real-life personages depicted herein include American Admirals Nimitz (Henry Fonda), Halsey (Robert Mitchum) and Spruance (Glenn Ford), and Japanese Admiral Yamamoto (Toshiro Mifune, his voice once again dubbed by Paul Frees, whom Mifune personally selected for the job). For its original road show release, Midway was offered in the "Sensurround" process, which electronically shook and vibrated the audience's chairs during the battle sequences. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The body of a murdered bookkeeper is found in a cheap motel, and a prostitute and her procurer are accused of the crime. Kojak doesn't buy this, deducing that the killing was done by a professional. Trouble is, he can't prove his theory so long as the FBI is also on the case, impeding Kojak's investigation to serve the Bureau's own ends. The guest cast ranges from Broadway veteran Robert Alda (father of M*A*S*H star Alan Alda) to B-movie stalwart Gregory Walcott (Plan 9 From Outer Space). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on an actual incident, Steven Spielberg's first theatrical feature follows the adventures of a Texas outlaw couple striving to keep their family together by any means necessary. Determined not to lose her child to the authorities, Lou Jean Poplin (Goldie Hawn) gets her obedient convict husband Clovis (William Atherton) to break out of jail and help her kidnap their baby from its foster parents. With hostage Officer Slide (Michael Sacks) in tow, the fugitives head across the plains to Sugarland, Texas, pursued by a flotilla of cop cars. Even though Slide becomes the couple's friend, the Law is bent on capturing its criminal quarry. Even though it was greeted with strong reviews, and Hal Barwood, Matthew Robbins, and Spielberg won the screenplay prize at the Cannes Film Festival, The Sugarland Express flopped. The young audience that had embraced the challenging tonal shifts of Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider in the late 1960s was no longer so reliably drawn to narrative uncertainties in 1974. The massive success of Spielberg's next picture, the popcorn thriller Jaws (1975), would confirm his suspicion that downbeat films were no longer the way to popular approval. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

Lamont Johnson's subtle direction graces this true-life success story about racecar driver Junior Jackson (Jeff Bridges), based on stock-car champion Junior Johnson. As a child in North Carolina, Jackson stays one step ahead of reform school until his father (Art Lund) is thrown in prison for moonshining. Seeing the error of his ways, Jackson begins to concentrate his driving skills, hoping to become a professional stock car racer to raise money to get his father released from jail. Jackson rises from the ranks into the highest rung of professional stock car racing, but Jackson finds his independent nature is compromised by the corporate realities of the professional sports world. The real Junior Johnson served as technical advisor on the film. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

The shadow of the recent Attica uprising looms large over the October 3, 1972 Bonanza episode "Riot!" While on a tour of the Nevada State Prison, Ben Cartwright and several other prominent men are taken hostage by rioting prisoners. Though some of the inmates hope to escape, most of the others simply want to expose the brutal conditions in the prison-conditions that the corrupt wardens are determined will never be made public. The supporting cast includes Gregory Walcott as Will Cooper, Marco St. John as Plank, Aldo Ray as Heiser, Barney Philips as Calhoun, and Denver Pyle as the head warden. Also on hand is Tim Matheson, making the first of several Bonanza appearances as reformed convict Griff King. Riot! was written by Robert Pirosh. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In John Sturges' Americanized version of Sergio Leone's Man-With-No-Name films, Clint Eastwood is Joe Kidd, a cryptic stranger who arrives in the New Mexican town of Sinola, where Mexican bandito/revolutionary Luis Chama (John Saxon) has organized a peasant revolt against the local landowners, who are throwing the poor off land that rightfully belongs to them. When a posse -- financed by wealthy landowner Frank Harlan (Robert Duvall) -- is formed to capture Luis, Kidd is invited to join but prefers to remain neutral. Harlan keeps badgering Kidd to join up, and Kidd finally relents when he finds that Luis's band has raided his own ranch and one of his ranch hands has been injured. The bloodthirsty posse rounds up five Mexicans hostages and threaten to kill them unless Luis surrenders to them. One of the hostages is the attractive Stella Garcia (Helen Sanchez), and Kidd falls in love with her. Harlan notices this and throws Kidd in jail to prevent him from helping Stella and the Mexicans. Kidd decides the position himself as the voice of reason in this nest of disorder. He escapes and saves the Mexican hostages, determined to capture Luis himself and see that he gets a fair trial. But when Kidd captures Luis and delivers him to Sheriff Mitchell (Gregory Walcott), Harlan is in town waiting for him. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide