Otis Young Movies
Historically noted as being the first African-American actor to co-star in a television Western, actor Otis Young began his career in front of the camera later in life than most, receiving his first formal training after enrolling in New York University's acting program following service in the Korean War.Born into a family of 13 siblings in Providence, RI, in 1932, Young fought in the Korean War after joining the Marine Corps at the age of 17. Appearing off-Broadway and in a few small roles in television and film following his service, the veteran received his breakthrough role in the television series The Outcasts during the 1968-1969 season. Later continuing his career trajectory in such efforts as The Last Detail (1973) and The Capture of Bigfoot (1979), Young also continued to work in television with roles in Twin Detectives (1976) and Palmerstown, U.S.A. (1980). After becoming an intern pastor in the early '80s, the former actor earned a bachelor's degree from Los Angeles' L.I.F.E. Bible College and served as a senior pastor at Elim Foursquare Gospel Church in Rochester, NY. A career as Communications Professor and Drama Program Director at Rochester's Monroe Community College followed, and Young received his master's degree in Communications from the State University of New York in 1992. Retiring in 1999, Young suffered a fatal stroke in October of 2001. He was 69. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1981
Sun-worshiping Californians are disappearing by the droves at a popular beach hangout, and a pair of extremely gruff detectives (John Saxon and Burt Young) grumble their way through the case until the real culprit is discovered... it seems a giant burrowing sand-monster with a taste for well-tanned human flesh has set up house beneath the surface and has been partaking of beach bums and bunnies, sucking them down to a nasty (but mostly unseen) death. The creature is kept completely concealed until the final minutes, but its triumphant arrival reveals the real reason the filmmakers kept it hidden so long: the dreaded beast looks like a giant artichoke! The potential for campy fun in this premise is defeated by a completely straight, plodding detective story, but at least Saxon and Young turned in enjoyably cranky performances before picking up their checks. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- David Huffman, Marianna Hill, (more)
Fran Drescher, Michelle Pfeiffer, and Tony Danza are the most notable aspects of this forgettable teen drama that features a gang of youths in a car club who decide to battle it out with the establishment in Beverly Hills. It seems their favorite haunt, the last drive-in restaurant in the neighborhood, has been forced to close. Their rebellion is marked by tactics that might be embarrassing to any serious rebels: they turn a high school banner into an X-rated statement, sabotage a police car, ruin a manicured garden, and urinate in a punch bowl. These shenanigans take place on Halloween in 1965, a time when practical jokes are usually in the hands of elementary school kids -- and that level of maturity is maintained here. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fran Drescher, Leigh French, (more)
- 1979
Bigfoot has managed to elude capture for nearly 25 years. One small town has made a cottage industry out of Bigfoot sightings and ancillary merchandising. All this may come to an end very soon, however. A local fat-cat businessman hopes to trap Bigfoot once and for all, so that he can get all the publicity gravy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Two Navy "lifers" and one military innocent briefly attempt to thumb their nose at Authority in Hal Ashby's The Last Detail (1973). "Badass" Buddusky (Jack Nicholson) and "Mule" Mulhall (Otis Young) are assigned to escort young sailor Meadows (Randy Quaid, who beat out John Travolta for the part) from their Virginia base to a New England military prison, where Meadows will serve an eight-year sentence for attempting to swipe the commander's wife's polio donation can. Buddusky thinks that the sentence is a waste of Meadows' formative years, and he convinces a skeptical Mulhall to show the hapless Meadows a good time by partying on their per diem for the rest of the detail's allotted week. As they head north, the comically posturing Buddusky leads Meadows through the masculinizing rituals of getting drunk, getting in a fight, and getting laid; and he teaches Meadows to stand up for himself so well that Meadows tries to escape. Despite his self-proclaimed "badass" rep, however, Buddusky is, as Mulhall tells him, "a lifer like me," and the two ultimately have a job that they were ordered to do. Taking full advantage of the new ratings system, writer Robert Towne adapted the Darryl Ponicsan novel with an ear for how Navy men really talk. Objecting to the wall-to-wall obscenities, Columbia put off releasing the movie, but, after Nicholson won the Best Actor prize at the Cannes Film Festival, finally opened it for Oscar consideration in December 1973 before a full release several months later. Even with nominations for Nicholson, Quaid, and Towne, and rave reviews despite the notorious cussing, The Last Detail failed to find an audience. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jack Nicholson, Otis Young, (more)
- 1973
- R
Call Me by My Rightful Name was cobbled together for overseas theatrical release from several episodes of the 1968 TV series The Outcasts. This "relevant" western stars Don Murray as Earl Corey, a Southern aristocrat impoverished by the Civil War. Otis Young costars as ex-slave Jemal David. Corey and David are forced by circumstances to team up as bounty hunters and Indian fighters in the West. Initial bigotry and resentment eventually gives way to a grudging respect between the two ill-matched men. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1973
- PG
A scientist (Michael Greene) discovers a plot whereby one of his co-workers (Stanley Adams) has been cloning the minds of geniuses in a nefarious attempt to control the world. With the help of a clone-chaser (Gregory Sierra), the scientist has a slim chance of saving the planet. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1968
This documentary about poet Peter Orlovsky's schizophrenic brother, Julius, is a film within a film and is generally regarded as photographer/documentarian Frank's masterwork. Brother Julius spent years in a mental hospital and upon release was put into his brother's care. Frank captures the brothers' day-to-day lives, as well as a road trip with Allen Ginsberg. At times the film breaks into another film about actors working on a film about them; cinematic devices -- including black-and-white, color cutting, and unsychronized sound -- lend an element of visual "schizophrenia" to the work. One of the players is a young Christopher Walken. The emerging document is a testament to the camera's voyeuristic tendencies and a commentary on the mentally ill in society as well as an investigation into the life of the filmmaker himself. ~ Denise Sullivan, All Movie Guide
- 1968
This comedy finds American writer Lawrence Colby (Robert Wagner) augmenting his scribing income by smuggling Swiss watch parts into France. Martine (Mary Tyler Moore) enlists his help to find her friend Sabine (Glynis Johns), an author of erotic novels. Sabine is vacationing in Greece, but crooks kidnap her beautiful ghost writer (Barbara Rhoades) by mistake. Sabine's nervous agent Merriman Dudley (Harvey Korman) feels the pressure from the book publishers for the deadline on the new book, still unfinished. Martine and Lawrence help the ghost writer escape, but she is accused of murdering a notorious gangster. The thug conveniently appears and is promptly arrested, as the writers all try to get back to work. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Wagner, Mary Tyler Moore, (more)
- 1968
A murder occurs near a controversial job-training center, but the FBI does not arrest the primary suspect due to lack of evidence. This doesn't matter at all to the local citizens who have long resented the presence of the center and its "undesirable" trainees. Several of them have already found the suspect guilty in their own minds and are aching for the opportunity to mete out their own brand of justice--and unless Inspector Erskine (Efrem Zimbalist Jr.) acts in a hurry, that's just what they will do. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1967
In this adventure, a commercial plane crashes in a remote South American jungle. All but one of the passengers survive. Unfortunately, he was the sheriff in charge of taking a dangerous criminal to the executioner. During the excitement of the crash, the prisoner killed the lawman. Among the other survivors is a famous singer, a washed-up funnyman, a mentally ill teacher, and a writer looking for his sister who married a missionary and is now living in the jungle. Amazingly, she is rumored to live fairly close to the crash sight. The survivors manage to make it to the isolated village where she resides. There the writer learns that his sister's husband has gone insane and that she is dead. The megalomaniacal missionary now believes himself king of the natives and is preparing the author and a few others to become human sacrifices when a neighboring tribe intervenes and saves them. The amiable natives then take the survivors back to the wreckage where navy rescue helicopters are preparing to land. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Egan, Harry Guardino, (more)
- 1965
Veteran exploitation filmmaker Joseph P. Mawra (White Slaves of Chinatown) directed this race-baiting drive-in feature inspired by the 1964 murders of three civil rights workers later chronicled in the mainstream feature Mississippi Burning. This film, however, is pure exploitation, patterned along the lines of '60s potboilers like The Black Klansman and Girl on a Chain Gang. Derek Crane (Sin in the Suburbs) plays the racist Sheriff Engstrom, who harasses and contributes to the murders of several Northern students who come to his Georgia town in order to register black voters. Pretty Carol Lee Byrd (Sheila Britt of Come Ride the Wild Pink Horse) is kidnapped by a deputy, and when her actor brother (Dick Stone) comes to her rescue, he is set up with a black prostitute. Finally, Carol's black friend Luther (Lou Stone) gets her free, alerting the FBI as to the heinous crimes committed by Engstrom and his men. Sam Stewart, Wayne Foster, and Otis Young (The Last Detail) co-star. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sheila Britton, Sam Stewart, (more)
