Collin Wilcox-Horne Movies
Gilbert Wright's novel Madman's Chain had already been adapted to television by Alcoa/Goodyear Theatre by the time that Cry in the Wilderness premiered March 26, 1974. While the first version, titled Chain and the River, was a moderately suspenseful half hour, Cry in the Wilderness manages to keep viewers on the very edges of their seats for a full 74 minutes. George Kennedy stars as a farmer who is bitten by a rabid skunk. To protect his family from the madness that he is sure will overtake him, Kennedy has his wife Joanna Pettet chain him to a post in their barn. Left alone, Kennedy discovers that the dam has burst, and that his farm will soon be consumed by flood. The climactic deluge was largely (and superbly) created in the lab by special effects maestro Albert Whitlock. Cry in the Wilderness premiered March 26, 1974. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Peter Boyle plays a social worker who deals with "special needs" children. Most of Boyle's energies are devoted to communicating with an emotionally disturbed teen (Scott Jacoby). The difficulty of the job is doubled by the fact that the boy is alienated from his anguished parents (Robert Reed, Collin Wilcox-Horne), who may unknowingly be part of the problem. Filmed in semi-documentary fashion, The Man Who Could Talk to Kids transcends its "disease of the week" earmarks to become a TV movie of lasting value. The film also helped Peter Boyle shake his bullheaded Joe screen image. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Still at the stage of his career when he was specializing in cold-blooded villainy, Martin Sheen guests in this episode as Dean Knox, a charismatic young man who has several girlfriends at his beck and call. One of these, a "Plain Jane" named Kate Evans (Collin Wilcox-Horne, stumbles onto the fact that Dean is a bank robber. It now falls to Dean to sweet-talk the girl into keeping his secret--or to get rid of her if she won't play along. Famed female impersonator Jim Bailey makes a cameo appearance as himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Most of this episode takes place in a prestigious San Francisco music conservatory, where a highly unpopular violin instructor has been murdered. Investigating the case, Ironside (Raymond Burr) discovers that there is no lack of suspects. Zeroing in on a trio of decidedly eccentric musicians (one of them played by a young Tim Matheson), the Chief tries to determine the killer's identity by following some cryptic clues left behind in the victim's collection of classical compositions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
John Ritter makes his first appearance as Matthew Fordwick, the new minister on Walton's Mountain. No sooner has the sober, upright Rev. Fordwick arrived than he pays a visit to his distant relatives, the Baldwin sisters. Innocently consuming far too much of the Baldwins' special "recipe," the Reverend ends up making a drunken spectacle of himself. It is up to John Walton (Ralph Waite) -- who'd initally been offended by Fordwick's overbearing religious fervency -- to persuade the poor man not to leave the Mountain in disgrace. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- PG
In this film, a young boy from the Appalachians realizes his dreams of a life of excitement and adventure when he becomes involved in the daredevil world of car racing. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- PG
Chester Jump (Tom Ligon) grew up hard, in a family as grim as the rural Southern countryside they lived in. His passion for automobiles transformed into a passion to run them, drive them, and race them. He took advantage of any chance to enter a drag race, or a demolition derby. This fierce ambition has not gone unnoticed by race promoter Babe Duggers (Logan Ramsey), who sees to it that Chester gets a few chances. However, when Chester begins to get really successful, there are plenty of people (including Duggers) who are willing to bring him down a notch or two. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- PG
In this symbolic drama of social and political turmoil, Jon Voight plays an aspiring revolutionary (who is only known as "A") working in a print shop. He lives with his bohemian girlfriend (Collin Wilcox-Horne) and studies philosophy at the local university. Despard (Robert Duvall) is his alleged communist boss who spurns him on to political activity. When a strike turns violent, "A" the print-shop worker is pegged as the one who passed out the leaflets that encouraged the strike. He returns home where he receives his draft notice. His first Army assignment is to forcibly break up the striking workers and he goes AWOL. When Despard denies involvement in the unrest, the disillusioned "A" aligns himself with the radical bomb-maker Leonard II (Seymour Cassel), who is constructing two bombs for a judge who sentenced the striking workers to jail time. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Voight, Jennifer Salt, (more)
- 1970
Barbara Hershey stars as the "baby maker" of the title. Tish Gray (Hershey) hires herself out to married couple Jay and Suzanne Wilcox (Sam Groom and Collin Wilcox-Horne), who've been unable to conceive a child of their own. Tish agrees to bear the child for them, assuming that her hippie boyfriend, Ted Jacks (Scott Glenn), will go along with the plan. The problem is that Tish must allow Jay to impregnate her, causing severe strains on both couple's relationships. In 1970, the notion of surrogate motherhood was radical in the extreme, so The Baby Maker seemed quite progressive and daring. This served as the theatrical-feature directorial debut for screenwriter James Bridges. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Hershey, Collin Wilcox-Horne, (more)
Director Mike Nichols and writer-actor Buck Henry followed their enormous hit The Graduate (1967) with this timely adaptation of Joseph Heller's satiric antiwar novel. Haunted by the death of a young gunner, all-too-sane Capt. Yossarian (Alan Arkin) wants out of the rest of his WW II bombing missions, but publicity-obsessed commander Colonel Cathcart (Martin Balsam) and his yes man, Colonel Korn (Henry), keep raising the number of missions that Yossarian and his comrades are required to fly. After Doc Daneeka (Jack Gilford) tells Yossarian that he cannot declare him insane if Yossarian knows that it's insane to keep flying, Yossarian tries to play crazy by, among other things, showing up nude in front of despotic General Dreedle (Orson Welles). As all of Yossarian's initially even-keeled friends, such as Nately (Art Garfunkel) and Dobbs (Martin Sheen), genuinely lose their heads, and the troop's supplies are bartered away for profit by the ultra-entrepreneurial Milo Minderbinder (Jon Voight), Yossarian realizes that the whole system has lost it, and he can either play along or jump ship. Though not about Vietnam, Catch-22's ludicrous military machinations directly evoked its contemporary context in the Vietnam era. Cathcart and Dreedle care more about the appearance of power than about victory, and Milo cares for money above all, as the complex narrative structure of Yossarian's flashbacks renders the escalating events appropriately surreal. Confident that the combination of a hot director and a popular, culturally relevant novel would spell blockbuster, Paramount spent a great deal of money on Catch-22, but it wound up getting trumped by another 1970 antiwar farce: Robert Altman's MASH. With audiences opting for Altman's casual Korean War iconoclasm over Nichols' more polished symbolism, the highly anticipated Catch-22 flopped, although the New York Film Critics Circle did acknowledge Arkin and Nichols. Despite this reception, Catch-22's ensemble cast and pungent sensibility effectively underline the insanity of war, Vietnam and otherwise. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alan Arkin, Martin Balsam, (more)
