Alfie Wise Movies
American general-purpose actor Alfie Wise was evidently some sort of good luck charm to film luminary Burt Reynolds. Though his movie appearances were usually nondescript (this description could also apply to the actor's participation in such busted TV pilots as Call Her Mom and Young Tom Christian), Wise could always count on a moment or two to shine whenever cast in a Reynolds vehicle. He was seen as a state trooper in The Longest Yard (1974), as "patrolman in a traffic jam" in Smokey and the Bandit (1977), and as Tony in Hooper (1978). Additional Alfie Wise bits were included in the Burt Reynolds pictures The End (1978), Starting Over (1979), and Paternity (1981). On television, Alfie Wise had recurring roles on As the World Turns, Trauma Center, and the kiddie show Uncle Croc's Block (dressed appropriately -- and ridiculously -- for his role as Mr. Rabbit Ears). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Burt Reynolds stars as the bitter bodyguard and degenerate gambler Mex in this uneven action film. He wakes up hungover, vowing to rekindle his dream of leaving Las Vegas for good if he can just raise enough money. Mex divides his time working for the low-key millionaire Cyrus Kinnick (Peter MacNicol) at the casino and moonlighting as a paid enforcer. When Mex's pretty neighbor Holly (Karen Young) is attacked by a quartet of perverted thugs, Mex goes after gang leader Danny DeMarco (Neill Barry) and company. The feature was continually plagued by production problems, with three uncredited directors employed in addition to R.M. Richards. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Karen Young, (more)
- 1986
- PG
This film's for the BMX bike racers of the world. A small town is out to raise funds by building a BMX racetrack and sponsoring a major race. They sponsor their own small-town hero Cru (Bill Allen) who's up against the big-monied sponsor's champion Bart Taylor (played by Olympic gymnast-turned-actor, Bart Thomas). Bart's the bad guy here, who doesn't play by the rules. The film's highlights are found in the stunt-filled race sequences, where the two duel it out on their high-flying two wheelers. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bill Allen, Lori Loughlin, (more)
This standard, tongue-in-cheek, gangsters and good guys saga is carried on the star power and screen presence of Clint Eastwood as Lt. Speer, a taciturn, tough, play-it-by-the-book cop, and on Burt Reynolds as Mike Murphy, Speer's old friend in the force, now turned private eye but still a captivating rogue at heart. With a sub-text of playing their well-known screen personas off each other, Eastwood and Reynolds provide more than a surface interpretation of the characters that made them famous. After Murphy's partner is murdered, he focuses on pitting one mob boss against another in an attempt to have both mobsters kill each other. In the meantime, Lt. Speer -- who has never approved of Murphy's private detective business -- does not really know if Murphy is for or against the two top gangsters. Set in the era of speakeasies and Prohibition, an added layer of "film noir" can be discerned under the complex plot, verbal repartée, and episodes of toned-down violence (a kind of parody in themselves). Although this may not be the best film either star has made, it is still interesting to see them together on screen. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Burt Reynolds, (more)
The action and stunts in this fourth racing vehicle for Burt Reynolds could be accurately foreseen by most youngsters. Stroker Ace (Reynolds) is a race car driver who gets the short end of a contract with a fried-chicken entrepreneur (Ned Beatty) but can be expected to end up with the woman (Pembrook) in compensation -- and actually did (Pembrook is played by Loni Anderson in her first movie with Reynolds). By this time, the formula of racing cars, wild stunts, blond co-stars (Goldie Hawn, Farrah Fawcett, and Dolly Parton were the most recent) was wearing thin and Reynolds starred in only one more "Cannonball" film, ending his car-chase series there. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Ned Beatty, (more)
- 1981
- PG
The directorial debut of actor and stand-up comedian David Steinberg concerns a single man who decides that he wants to be a dad -- without the complication of a wife. Burt Reynolds stars as Buddy Evans, the manager of Madison Square Garden. A longtime lothario, Buddy has always been very content as a bachelor, but he has begun to feel lately that he'd like to experience fatherhood. His yearnings receive plenty of fuel from his best friends Larry (Norman Fell) and Kurt (Paul Dooley), and from his parental-mentor relationship with a young boy, Tad (Peter Billingsley). So Buddy decides to seek out a woman who will bear his baby for a price, with no strings attached. He finds Maggie Harden (Beverly D'Angelo), a beautiful young music student working as a waitress and yearning for the financial resources to study in Paris. She agrees to serve as Buddy's temporary companion, but as the months pass and her pregnancy progresses, Maggie begins to fall in love with Buddy, who doesn't return her affections -- at first. Steinberg would go on to have greater success as a television sitcom director, calling the shots for several episodes of hit series in the '80s amd '90s. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Beverly D'Angelo, (more)
Burt Reynolds and director Hal Needham team up for the fourth time, this time bringing an all-star cast of characters on a cross-country car race in the vein of 1976 release The Gumball Rally. The police are the least of the Cannonballers' worries as they push the pedal to the metal in a race from Connecticut to California. Reynolds stars as J.J. McClure, a speed-loving racer disguised as an ambulance driver to outsmart the police. He is paired up with Dom Deluise, who plays his dimwitted sidekick Victor and who, on occasion, dons the suit of Captain Chaos. Rat Packers Dean Martin and Sammy Davis, Jr. join the lineup as Ferrari-driving priests, while martial arts expert Jackie Chan takes on one of his first U.S. film roles driving a souped-up Subaru. Among the many other stars are Roger Moore doing a parody of his 007 character, complete with secret devices and weapons, Farrah Fawcett as Pamela, a woman McClure and Chaos pick up, and Jamie Farr as a deranged Islamic sheik. Jack Elam joins the cast as a crazed proctologist along for McClure's ambulance ride, and Needham makes a cameo as a patient. ~ Rachel Koetje, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Roger Moore, (more)
- 1979
Former stuntman Hal Needham employed several of his old professional comrades in his made-for-TV Death Car on the Freeway. Shelley Hack plays a TV reporter investigating a series of freeway murders. Some demented van driver is swerving around and about, killing female motorists. This being Los Angeles, Shelley has at least a million suspects-daily-to choose from. This otherwise standard thriller is pepped up by the presence of several TV veterans, including George Hamilton, Frank Gorshin, Peter Graves, Dinah Shore, Harriet Nelson, BarbaraRush and Abe Vigoda. Director Needham also turns up in a cute supporting role. Death Car on the Freeway first aired September 25, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Scripted by James L. Brooks from Dan Wakefield's novel, Alan J. Pakula's romantic comedy follows the tribulations of a freshly divorced man as he looks for love with a wary single woman. Phil Potter (Burt Reynolds sans mustache) can't quite believe it when his aspiring songbird wife Jessica (Candice Bergen) kicks him out to realize her career dreams, but the added revelation of her adultery speeds him out the door by choice. Relocating to Boston, Phil starts to settle in with the help of his psychiatrist brother Mickey (Charles Durning), joining a divorced men's therapy group. Phil really begins to feel better when Mickey and his wife Marva (Frances Sternhagen) set him up with her friend Marilyn (Jill Clayburgh), a preschool teacher who has had her share of grief from newly single men. Phil wins her over and even convinces her to move in, but an unexpected visit from a regretful, saucily clad Jessica, and an anxiety attack over buying a couch, threaten to end Phil's new life with Marilyn before it has a chance to start. Starting Over offers a ruefully comic look at how the decade's rising divorce rate did not mean fun and games for all the new bachelors; Brooks' movie debut after a sparkling career in 1970s TV with The Mary Tyler Moore Show and Taxi, it was also proof that top '70s star Reynolds could be more than just a good 'ol boy. Still, while the three leads were all praised for their work, only Clayburgh and Bergen received Oscar nominations. Starting Over was a moderate hit, and its humorous yet down-to-earth view of single life and its discontents reassured unattached thirtysomethings that, even though it may not be easy, everything could still turn out fine in modern romance. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Jill Clayburgh, (more)
- 1979
- PG
In this comedy a trio of undercover government cops in Miami decide that it would be a good idea to open a bogus fencing operation so they can trap criminals. When the crooks find out, trouble ensues and the fun begins. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dom DeLuise, Jerry Reed, (more)
- 1979
Who better than former stuntman Hal Needham to direct the made-for-TV Stunts Unlimited? Glenn Corbett stars as former CIA agent Dirk Macauley, who enlists three movie stunt experts as an elite counter-espionage team. Macauley's "angels"-two male, one female-are Bo Carlson (Sam Jones), Matt Lewis (Chip Mayer) and C.C. Brandt (Susan Dalton-and do you want to bet that Macauley originally thought that "C.C." was a guy?) Their first assignment: retrieve a deadly laser weapon, stolen by special guest villain Alejandro Ray. While this 2-hour TV pilot didn't sell, the similarly themed The Fall Guy did. Stunts Unlimited debuted January 4, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Following the blockbuster success of Smokey and the Bandit, Burt Reynolds, Sally Field and director Hal Needham reunited to make the very similar Hooper, an action-laced comedy about a Hollywood stunt man who enters a dangerous rivalry with a younger stunt man. Hooper (Reynolds) and the younger stunt man (Jan-Michael Vincent) compete in a series of increasingly complex stunts in order to earn the title of "the greatest stunt man alive." Hooper is lightweight, mindless fun that doesn't have much story, but it is a stronger film than Smokey and the Bandit, largely because the characters are somewhat stronger. Everyone involved looks like they're having fun; the good-humor translates on screen. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Jan-Michael Vincent, (more)
- 1978
For the benefit of those who weren't around in 1977, this episode was inspired by President Jimmy Carter's real-life habit of visiting "average Americans" at random. George Jefferson (Sherman Hemsley) calls up 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, hoping that President Carter will accept an invitation to dine at the Jeffersons' apartment. Alas, George loses his temper with a White House operator -- causing the Secret Service to conclude that our hero somehow poses a threat to the Chief Executive. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sherman Hemsley, Isabel Sanford, (more)
At the beginning of The End, Wendell Sonny Lawson (Burt Reynolds) is informed by his doctor that he's dying from "the same thing Ali MacGraw had in Love Story." Lawson's first reaction is to cry uncontrollably, much to the discomfort of his fellow elevator passengers. He heads to a nearby church to confess all his sins, only to be distracted by the wide-eyed fecklessness of the novice priest (Robby Benson). Attempting to resolve a few issues with ex-wife Mary Ellen (Sally Field), daughter Julie (Kristy McNichol), and his parents (Myrna Loy and Pat O'Brien), Lawson finds that they're all too absorbed in their own problems to pay him any attention. At the end of his rope, Lawson decides to kill himself -- with the help of a nutty mental patient (Dom DeLuise). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Dom DeLuise, (more)
"Smokey," aka Sheriff Buford T. Justice (Jackie Gleason), is the prospective father-in-law of unwilling bride Carrie (Sally Field). The Bandit (Burt Reynolds), a maverick racecar driver, makes an 80,000-dollar bet that he can transport a shipment of Coors beer from Texarkana, TX, to Atlanta within 28 hours. It's important to note that in 1977, it was illegal to sell the Coors brand east of the Mississippi River without a permit; if we don't note that, then the plot won't make sense at times. Already in danger of arrest from redneck lawmen like Buford T. Justice, Bandit furthers his chances at a stiff jail term when he offers a ride to Carrie, who hopes to escape her unwanted wedding to Justice's boy. The rest of the film is one long chase; not quite as subtle as a Road Runner/Coyote cartoon, not quite as restrained as a Three Stooges comedy. Universally panned by critics upon its first release, Smokey and the Bandit reportedly pulled in just under $126 million and led to two sequels. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Sally Field, (more)
A latter-day attempt to update the swordplay success of Errol Flynn movies, this film is part burlesque, part homage to old-fashioned pirate films. James Earl Jones and Robert Shaw play Nick Debrett and Ned Lynch, two pirates who save a noblewoman, Jane Barnet (Geneviève Bujold), and take her to Jamaica. They find that their friends have been taken captive by a ruthless dictator -- Peter Boyle plays the foppish villain Lord Durant with an over-the-top swagger. Debrett and Lynch set out to rescue their friends and overthrow the perverted tyrant. Beau Bridges plays Major Folly, a fancy-dressing Scarlet Pimpernel sort. A young Anjelica Huston has a minor part as a nameless woman. There is plenty of swordplay, blood, slapstick, and cleavage, all directed by James Goldstone in a frenzied fashion. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Shaw, James Earl Jones, (more)
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
- Starring:
- Charlton Heston, Henry Fonda, (more)
Ex-football star Paul Crewe (Burt Reynolds) ends up in a prison run by sadistic sports-nut Warden Hazen (Eddie Albert). Strong-armed into forming an inmate football team, Crewe manages to instill an esprit de corps previously lacking in the prisoners' lives. Besides, they now have the chance to beat the guards' football team, headed by the hissable Capt. Knauer (Ed Lauter). Hazen orders Crewe to throw the match; otherwise, Crewe will never get the pardon he's been promised. The football game that follows consumes nearly a third of the picture. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Reynolds, Eddie Albert, (more)
- 1972
"Mom" is Connie Stevens, who stars in this made-for-TV comedy. Stevens plays a small-town waitress who is appointed the housemother for a rambunctious fraternity house on the local college campus. The frat boys assume that freewheeling Stevens will allow them to party to their hearts' content, but "Mom" takes her job quite seriously and compels the students to behave themselves. She also becomes involved in a campus feminist movement that threatens to topple the college's male power structure (headed by dean Van Johnson). Call Her Mom was the pilot for a Connie Stevens TV series that found neither a sponsor nor a network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
