Donna Wilkes Movies
Lead actress, onscreen from the late '70s. ~ All Movie Guide- 1988
- R
This is a Whodunit-type film, where someone is using a nasty pair of scissors to play a one-by-one elimination game with a troop of group-therapy patients. The group is made up of attractive women who soon realize that they could be next. ~ All Movie Guide
- 1987
- R
Somewhere amid the filmmakers' attempts to disorient the viewers of this film with the old movie-within-a-movie trick, it would seem they also got themselves completely lost in the process. The story opens with a false start, depicting an elderly woman being stalked by a faceless maniac (actually a scene from a retired special-effects artist's demo reel). The "real" story begins as the man's daughter (horror's head-spinning sweetheart Linda Blair) is waylaid by a band of hooligans en route to her dad's mountain cabin. This incurs the wrath of Blair's mutant brother, who lives in a hidden compartment within the cabin. As if that weren't enough, even more monsters from Blair's gnarled family tree show up for a lightning bonus round -- including Tab Hunter as a homicidal plastic surgeon. All is revealed (sort of) as yet another movie-within-a-movie, clear evidence of a writer in way over his head. Cable TV prints actually contained an additional twist ending, apparently for no reason whatsoever. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Linda Blair, Tab Hunter, (more)
- 1984
The original "honor student by day, hooker by night" melodrama, Angel stars Donna Wilkes in the title role. During the daylight hours, the 15-year-old Angel is known as Molly, a model prep school student. Devoid of parents, Molly must find some way to keep up the cash flow, so she hits the Hollywood mean streets as a prostitute. While we thankfully don't see Angel "in action", as it were, the film makes up in violence what it lacks in raw sex. Psycho John Diehl is on the loose murdering prostitutes; detective Cliff Gorman tries to stem the murder spree, but soon the hooker ranks are sorely diminished, leaving Angel the next likely target. With the help of such friends as ex-cowboy star Rory Calhoun and transvestite Dick Shawn, Angel manages to avoid becoming a statistic. We're not giving anything away here: after all, there was a 1986 sequel, Avenging Angel. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cliff Gorman, Susan Tyrrell, (more)
- 1982
Blood Song, a horror/slasher film, tells the story of a young woman (Donna Wilkes) who witnesses the murder of a hospital attendant by a psychopath during his escape from a mental institution. The young, handicapped girl, who once was given a blood transfusion from the killer, now is his next intended victim. This is an unusual thriller, with an above-average cast including Antoinette Bower as the girl's mother and Richard Jaeckel as her father. Former teen idol, Frankie Avalon also shows up in a central role. This above-average horror thriller, also released as Dream Slayer is worth a look. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- 1981
A compassionate social worker puts her own life in jeopardy when she begins investigating a powerful businessman suspected of selling babies on the black market. Kate Carlin (Lynda Carter) has dedicated her entire life to helping children. When Kate discovers that a local businessman has been taking advantage of troubled teens by purchasing their unwanted babies and selling them for a sizable profit, she makes it her personal mission to gather evidence against him and ensure that justice is served. But this is one businessman whose connections go all the way to the top, and when he discovers that Kate is about to bust the case wide open he makes it clear that he'll do everything in his power to silence her forever. Harold Gould and Dean Stockwell co-star. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Lynda Carter, Dean Stockwell, (more)
- 1980
As this gritty drama about a young teen's fight to overcome her past begins to unfold, flashbacks are interspersed with the present-tense story. This technique keeps viewers wondering exactly where Sam (Tracey Mann) is going: in the direction that led her to jail, or towards a normal life? After she gets out of prison, her old friends and a corrupt cop named Brady (Bill Hunter) provide formidable obstacles. They all see her as a rebellious delinquent in spite of her efforts to change. Faced with nearly insurmountable odds, Sam's struggle for her future is not going to be easily won. Mann won a 1980 Best Actress Award from the Australian Film Institute for her performance. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tracy Mann, John Arnold, (more)
- 1980
When Dr. Peter Fales's (Klaus Kinski) patients start getting annhilated by an unknown serial killer, he and his daughter Alison (Donna Wilkes) both come under suspicion. Part slasher film and part psychological thriller, Schizoid co-stars Marianna Hill as Julie, a syndicated "Dear Abby"-style columnist who also happens to be in one of Dr. Fales's therapy groups. After she receives several ominous letters she not only wonders if Dr. Fales might be behind the killings, she also starts to suspect her estranged husband. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Klaus Kinski, Marianna Hill, (more)
Despite being a less well-regarded virtual remake of the original film, Jaws 2 earned a tidy sum at the box office by combining its predecessor's winning formula with the popular teen horror craze, helping to spawn the era of blockbuster sequels. Roy Scheider returns as Sheriff Martin Brody, whose small resort town of Amity is poised to bounce back from the economic hardship it encountered after becoming widely known as the site of vicious shark attacks. But at the same time that Mayor Vaughn (Murray Hamilton) is welcoming a real estate developer to Amity, two divers disappear and a party of waterskiers is consumed by a shark. The incidents are explained away as accidents, but Brody knows better, tipping his bullets with cyanide and forbidding his sons Mike (Mark Gruner) and Sean (Marc Gilpin) to participate in a teen sailing regatta. Everyone foolishly chalks up Brody's fears to trauma-induced paranoia, and the regatta goes forward, with a hungry great white trailing the youthful contestants and hungrily picking them off one by one. Director Jeannot Szwarc would later helm another sequel, Supergirl (1984). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Roy Scheider, Lorraine Gary, (more)
- 1978
This film is a failed TV pilot. The action drama chronicles the lives and exploits of Air Force test pilots. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1978
Bruno Kirby was labelled an "overnight" star of the early 1990s thanks to such films as The Freshman (90) and City Slickers (91), but he'd been working since the late 1970s in both films and TV. The 1978 low budgeter Almost Summer top-bills Kirby as a "mover and shaker" high schooler who helps a nice-guy student, Darryl (John Friedrich), run against his former girlfriend. Darryl resigns from the class presidency when he learns the election was fixed. But Kirby is popular enough to win the re-election, without the crooked political machinations of certain school administrators. Featured in the cast were several members of Hollywood's 1970s equivalent to the 1980s "brat pack", including Didi Conn, Lee Purcell and Tim Matheson. The subtlety and perceptiveness of Almost Summer would be buried within a year by the onslaught of Animal House and its many clones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruno Kirby, Lee Purcell, (more)
