Norman Alden Movies

In the conclusion of Adam-12's two-part series finale, Officer Jim Reed has earned the Medal of Valor for putting his life on the line. Worried that Jim's luck is running out, his wife Jean (Kristin Nelson) urges him to give up his prowl-car duties and take the investigator's exam, which would assure him permanent desk duty. Meanwhile, Officer Pete Malloy (Martin Milner), slowly recovering from a serious wound, is none too happy with the prospect of losing his longtime partner Reed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

There's a new man in the life of Alice Hyatt (Linda Lavin). Unfortunately, the new man isn't really new at all--at least not so far as Alice's coworker Flo (Polly Holliday) is concerned. Seems that the man in question is "Big Daddy" Dawson (Norman Alden), Flo's first husband, a race-car driver whom she is thinking of rewedding--despite his reputation for being just as "fast" off the track as on. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sensitive and realistic drama follows the daily dramas faced by a middle-aged retarded man living in the slums of New York City. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Several teenage lawbreakers from a so-called honor farm escape their captors while appearing in court. The kids hijack a bus and take two police officers as hostage. As the escapees demand a plane to Cuba, undercover cop Tony Baretta (Robert Blake) tries to straighten out the tense situation with a minimum of violence. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This sequel to the rampaging-rodent chiller Willard stars Lee H. Montgomery as young Danny Garrison, a neglected kid who finds a new little friend in Ben -- an intelligent rat whose furry minions managed to slaughter most of the cast of the previous film. Proving that one can't teach an old rat new tricks -- just variations on the old ones -- Ben displays his affection for Danny by directing his posse to off anyone who torments him... in the sweetest possible way, of course, since this is a PG-rated endeavor. This film's reputation was secured primarily by the inclusion of Michael Jackson's saccharine title tune, which seems to resonate more profoundly when regarded as a love song for a big greasy rat. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Joe Cartwright's life is saved by chain-gang prisoner Danny Kidd (Dean Jones), who has spent virtually his entire life behind bars. Out of gratitude, Joe manages to secure Danny's freedom. The rest of the episode deals with Danny's trials and tribulations as he makes the difficult and painful transition to life on the "outside." The supporting cast includes Janet Lake as Ann Carter and Edward Faulkner as Bob Stevens. Written by Frank Chase, "The Friendship" was originally telecast on November 12, 1961. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The thin storyline for this film is that three young women hope to gain a foothold in the acting profession, so they perform nude in front of the window of the disk jockey (Mad Man Jack played by Al Music) who is running a contest that would launch their careers. Along with many songs by a wide variety of groups -- from The Police to Blondie -- are crowds of young women cheerleading, doing aerobics, hang gliding, wind-surfing, and performing any number of physical feats. Other than music and nubile women in sporting events, the film has little to say and was never released theatrically. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

This is a routine story about Bradley (David Carradine), a stunt flyer who loves flying more than anything else, as apparently does the director, Barry Brown. Bradley is devoted to his brother who suffers from Downs syndrome and he helps a new flyer to ditch a potentially disastrous flirtation with drugs. He is clearly a "good guy" even though humanity in general tends to take a backseat to flying, as far as he is concerned. He is less successful in his relationship with his girlfriend Helen (Jennifer O'Neill) partly because of his interest in flying. The extended stunt flying sequences might cause some viewers to wish the pilot spent more time on the ground handling his personal relationships than in the air looping and twirling. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

While stopping at a rest camp, Kirby (Jack Hogan) is shaken out of his temporary complacency by a surprise German attack. Making his escape, Kirby teams up with Harry White (Mickey Rooney), a pugnacious truck driver who jealously guards the locked duffel bag in the back of his vehicle. It turns out that Harry has been systematically stealing silverware at every opportunity--and he's not going to let a little thing like the German army stop him from stealing again! Also in the guest cast are singer Claudine Longet, then the wife of Andy Williams, and former silent movie headliner Ramon Novarro, who'd starred in the original 1926 production of Ben-Hur. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This reject from slasher-movie remedial school -- featuring copious amounts of teen sex and the usual unimaginative gore murders -- involves the return of a problem teen (Donovan Leitch) to high school after his release from an institution. After essentially pinning the "Red Herring" sign on the main character, the filmmakers then pander what passes for suspense as Leitch's classmates head for that big D-hall in the sky. Not even a supporting performance by then-unknown Brad Pitt managed to rescue this lackluster thriller, which arrived far too late in the game to appeal to the teen-horror crowd -- an audience which by then had already migrated from Halloween clones and Friday the 13th sequels to Freddy Krueger territory after Wes Craven's crafty A Nightmare on Elm Street. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

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

Ace Jones (Nick Adams) is a ex-stockcar racer who finds himself in need of repairs on his truck. The garage is owned by a young widow Sandy (Jeannine Riley), whose husband was killed in a racing accident at the local track. He gets a job as a mechanic helping the veteran wrench-man Toad (Vaughn Taylor) and eventually takes over the racetrack. Two of his friends are the victims of sabotage and lose their lives in a fiery crash. Ace decides to leave the life in the fast lane behind and settle down with Sandy. This was the last film for the late Nick Adams, whose once-promising career made him the talk of Hollywood akin to his buddy James Dean. Adams was best known as Johnny Yuma on the television series "The Rebel." Plagued by personal excesses, he will be remembered just as much for what he could have done in cinema as what he left behind. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide