Arnold Williams Movies

In this frantic black comedy, Harry Fishbine (Allen Garfield) is the proprietor of the F&B Ambulance Service, a low-budget free-lance rescue service which is struggling to keep up with the bigger and better funded competition after a law in Los Angeles decrees that the first ambulance to arrive at the scene of a distress call gets the job. F&B's best driver is Mother (Bill Cosby), a free-wheeling ambulance jockey who likes to drink beer and play dance music while he makes his rounds. Mother's new assistant is Speed (Harvey Keitel), a former cop who left the force after allegations of drug use; Speed is looking for a new career and a chance to prove himself. And Jugs is the accurate-if-sexist nickname for Jennifer (Raquel Welch), the company secretary who wants to get out from behind the desk and prove her skills as a paramedic. As F&B's drivers race through the streets of Hollywood, their adventures veer between the hilarious and the tragic. Mother, Jugs and Speed also features Larry Hagman, Dick Butkus, Bruce Davison, and L.Q. Jones. ~ Mark Deming, Rovi

The wife and daughter of travelling salesman Baxter Flynn (Alllen Garfield) are unaware that he is carrying on a secret life as a compulsive gambler--and paid mob informant. When Flynn witnesses a double murder, Ironside (Raymond Burr) is determined to force the man to give testimony against the killers. Only one problem: If Flynn shows up in court, his dirty little secrets will be revealed to the world, resulting in disgrace for his family--and, very possibly, instant death for himself. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

In this horror sequel from the director of Count Yorga, Vampire, a member of an American voodoo cult revives the fanged Prince Manuwalde (William Marshall), only to become his slave. Manuwalde then puts the bite on various victims, but finds himself fixating on pretty Lisa (Pam Grier), a voodoo princess whom he believes can finally put his soul to rest. Lynne Moody, Nicholas Worth, and Bernie Hamilton are among the familiar cast, but the various occult trappings seem somewhat out of place in the modern Los Angeles setting and the production values are pretty shabby. Blaxploitation and camp fans should still find it mildly amusing, however, and Shakespearean actor Marshall is a lot of fun as the obsessive vampire. ~ Robert Firsching, Rovi

Dreams die hard in wintry Atlantic City in Bob Rafelson's downbeat character drama. Depressive deejay David Staebler (Jack Nicholson) tends to his grandfather as he philosophizes on late-night Philadelphia talk radio. When his huckster older brother Jason (Bruce Dern) calls out of the blue one day, David travels to Atlantic City to see what his latest easy money scheme is. Along with his former beauty queen companion Sally (Ellen Burstyn) and her pretty stepdaughter Jessica (Julia Anne Robinson), Jason plans to open a resort on a small Hawaiian island, insisting to an initially skeptical David that the deal is as good as done. David plays along but, as he learns the reality of the situation, tries to talk some sense into Jason. Jason and his women will have none of it, leading to a tragic lesson about the cost of superficial values like beauty and wealth, and the limits of brotherly love. Rafelson's follow-up to his 1970 hit Five Easy Pieces once again questions American myths of success, with one brother unwilling to come to earth to realize his dreams and the other unable to do much beyond talk about his inertia to an unseen radio audience. With Five Easy Pieces star Nicholson as the introverted lead, and impressive cinematography by Laszlo Kovacs, The King of Marvin Gardens had the makings of another Hollywood New Wave hit. The response, however, was not what stumbling BBS Productions hoped, as Columbia barely supported the film and 1972 audiences were not as responsive to Rafelson's second exploration of contemporary alienation. The King of Marvin Gardens' artful depiction of disillusionment roots it firmly in the 1970s Hollywood art cinema, and its failure became one more sign of that cycle's popular limits. ~ Lucia Bozzola, Rovi

Director Carl Reiner, most closely associated with the homey values of situation comedies, shocked, surprised, and (in some cases) delighted his admirers with the jet-black comedy Where's Poppa?. George Segal plays Gordon Hocheiser, a New York attorney whose love life is constantly being sabotaged by his senile mother (Ruth Gordon), who constantly asks the question of the title. (She doesn't realize Poppa is dead). Every time Gordon has a prospective bride or lover lined up, Mrs. Hocheiser gums up the works with her insane behavior. The attorney at last finds a kindred spirit in the beautiful caregiver Louise Callan (Trish VanDevere), who has likewise been a victim of someone else's eccentricities (her first husband used the conjugal bed as his own personal toilet). When Mrs. Hocheiser chases Louise away like she has all the others, Gordon begins entertaining notions of killing his mother. In desperation, Gordon begs his brother Sidney (Ron Leibman) to take his mother off his hands, which leads to several comic vignettes in deliriously bad taste. The film's incest-themed original ending (trimmed from the video version but still included in cable prints) finds Gordon climbing into bed with Mrs. Hocheiser, only to be greeted with a "Here's Poppa." The celebrated "tush scene," wherein Mrs. Hocheiser bites Gordon on his bare backside while Louise looks on in horror, packed a real wallop back in the early '70s, as did a courtroom scene involving a disgruntled hippie (Rob Reiner) and a psychotic U.S. general who graphically describes his homicidal acts against the Vietnamese. Though Carl Reiner would continue to "push the envelope" in his later films (Steve Martin as a "poor black child"? George Burns as God?) he would never again attempt anything as risky as Where's Poppa?. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

Jason Higgs (Sidney Poitier) is an angry black man who plans to rob a factory payroll. With the help of his accomplices Dennis (Al Freeman Jr.) and his white girlfriend Cathy (Joanna Shimkus), a racially motivated demonstration diverts attention from the crooks while they rob the safe. Jason is somewhat of a modern-day Robin Hood who wishes to use the money to help the children of incarcerated soul brothers. He only places his hope in the youth who have not been sullied or scalded by the hatred of racial prejudice. ~ Dan Pavlides, Rovi