Chuck Bail Movies

In honor of the DVD release of the 1980 cult film The Stunt Man, director Richard Rush recounts the trials and tribulations he confronted while making that much praised film. Speaking from a variety of quirky settings including his private plane and a UCLA sculpture garden, he openly admits that he borrowed elements from Francois Truffaut's Day for Night (1973) and Arthur Penn's Night Moves (1975). He also gleefully delves into the film's intentional blurring of reality and fiction. Stars Peter O'Toole and Barbara Hershey also appear. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide

In this exciting actioner, maverick ex-Philadelphia cop Mike "Street" Justus lands in Southern California, rounds up a gang of ex-cons who owe him favors and violently purges a Los Angeles suburb of the hard-core crooks who plague it. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Adapted from Paul Brodeur's novel, Richard Rush's story of a Machiavellian movie director and his accidental employee takes a darkly comic look at movie reality vs. "real" reality. Running from the law, Vietnam vet Cameron (Steve Railsback) stumbles on a movie shoot just in time to interfere with a staged accident, causing (perhaps) the stunt man's death. Rather than turn Cameron in, director Eli Cross (Oscar nominee Peter O'Toole) makes him an offer he can't refuse: replace the dead stunt man in return for safe harbor. Despite objections about Cameron's inexperience, Eli keeps him on, figuring that a vet will add an extra charge of realism to the World War I opus that he's filming. As leading lady Nina (Barbara Hershey) returns Cameron's affections, and Eli becomes ever more inscrutably mercurial, Cameron begins to wonder how far Eli will go to get the screen effects he wants, and if he would think twice about killing the stunt man. Placing a Vietnam vet in the midst of movie-making chaos, Rush adds a pointedly contemporary spin to Cameron's confusion; the war experience that makes Cameron a good stunt man wreaks havoc on his life. Rush in turn disorients the audience by seamlessly interweaving scenes from Eli's movie with scenes of its being made. Made two years before Rush found a studio to release it, The Stunt Man opened to raves for its wily narrative and O'Toole's messianic director. Its sly commentary on the blurred boundaries between movies and life became all the more striking at the dawn of the Reagan '80s. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

This sequel to the blaxploitation hit Cleopatra Jones mixes in elements of the kung-fu genre and James Bond-styled spy adventures as it sends its colorful heroine to a high-flying adventure in an exotic locale. When fellow operatives (and childhood friends) Matthew Johnson (Albert Popwell) and Melvin Johnson (Caro Kenyatta) disappear during an undercover mission in Hong Kong, Cleopatra Jones (Tamara Dobson) travels there to find them. With the help of local detective Mi Ling (Tanny), Cleopatra discovers that her friends' disappearance has to do with The Dragon Lady (Stella Stevens), a much-feared woman who runs a Macao casino and controls a major chunk of the local drug trade. The finale finds Cleopatra and Mi Ling squaring off against the Dragon Lady and her minions in an explosive casino battle that involves kung-fu, gunplay, and roaring motorcycles. Cleopatra Jones and the Casino of Gold didn't reach the same heights of success of its predecessor, but its colorful barrage of action has made it an enduring favorite amongst blaxploitation aficionados. Director Chuck Bail would go on to bigger success next year with the car-chase hit The Gumball Rally and star Dobson continued to play tough heroines in films like Chained Heat. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide

With a barrage of cinematic distancing devices at hand (flashbacks and flash-forwards, super-imposed titles, missing frames, projectionist cue-marks placed in the wrong locations in a film reel), Dennis Hopper concocts a hallucinatory acid-trip concerning an American movie company making a western in Peru. In a remote mountain village in Peru, a Hollywood film company wraps up shooting a western and returns to California. Staying behind is a young stunt man, Kansas (Dennis Hopper). In the village, he takes up with the resident whore, Maria (Stella Garcia). At this point, the film flash-forwards to Kansas being crucified by the villagers. Back in the old time frame, the Peruvians decide that they want to make their own movie. Not having the necessary film equipment, but plenty of local raw material, the villagers construct the needed cameras, microphones, and sound recorders out of bamboo, and although the equipment is faked, the villagers substitute real, bloody violence for the make-believe violence of Hollywood. During this eruption of violence in the Peruvian village, the local priest (Tomas Milian) blames Kansas for the carnage. The priest decides that movies are the root of all worldly evil and convinces the villagers to seize Kansas. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide

"Movies like Getting Straight are ceasing to be tolerable" complained one conservative movie magazine of 1970. Today, the once-relevant but now merely entertaining Getting Straight is not only tolerable, but downright user-friendly. Elliot Gould plays a Vietnam vet who decides to attend college after his tour of duty. Though much too old and worldly to truly fit in with the naive flower-power generation, Gould becomes swept up in the various activist movements on campus. The leading character's crisis of conscience concerns his field of study: he wants to be a teacher for idealistic reasons, while his Establishment professors try to convince him that it's just another job, and hardly the best one at that. He finally chooses which side he's on while attempting to act as a mediator between students and faculty during a campus riot. Candice Bergen plays Gould's girlfriend, while Robert F. Lyons steals every scene he's in as a draft dodger who'll go to any lengths to avoid military service. Getting Straight represents the final screen appearance of Cecil Kellaway, here cast as a hidebound tenured professor. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Film editor Bill Brame directed this violent biker film featuring an intense performance by Bruce Dern as Keeg, the sadistic leader of a vicious gang of cyclists. When Keeg's girlfriend Lea (Melody Patterson) poses nude for an artist named Romko (Chris Robinson), the hooligan goes on a drunken rampage and rips up Romko's sketches, beating the artist severely. Later, Romko retaliates with some beatings of his own, leading to a grisly scene of revenge in which the artist's hands are slowly crushed in a metal vise. Brame's quickly paced film also includes the requisite drugged orgies and a gang-rape. Genre veterans Gary Littlejohn, Scott Brady, and Steve Brodie also appear in this brutal exploitation entry, which is fairly well-cast save for co-executive producer Casey Kasem's notion that he could be believable as Bruce Dern's brother. Trivia buffs should note that Kasem appeared in Brame's Free Grass the same year, and that his production partner for this film was California Lt. Gov. Mike Curb, who went on to lead the musical Mike Curb Congregation. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

In this exploitation western, a renegade unit of Confederates conspire to rob a Union payroll wagon. Unfortunately, they don't realize that the war is over when they ride into a little town to await the shipment. While there, they amuse themselves by raping and murdering the townsfolk. Fortunately a brave African servant manages to escape and make it safely to an encampment of newly freed slaves. They rush back to the town and fight the rebels to the death. This film is filled with graphic violence and sex. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Green Berets is an exciting war film that was lambasted by critics who at the time of its release opposed the war in Vietnam. Wayne's role is similar to his part in The Longest Day (1963), but it was evident to the worldwide public that the same bravado that flew well in World War II crash-landed in 1968 in the wake of a very different war and political time. Wayne plays the hard-nosed rough-and-ready Colonel Mike Kirby who heads a courageous bunch of tough-as-nails Green Berets determined to capture an important enemy general. They are accompanied by a skeptical reporter who soon becomes a gung-ho red-white-and-blue patriot as the Colonel and the others lecture and show him why they must defeat the "commies." Interestingly, despite the massive anti-war sentiments of the times, the film grossed over $11 million at the box-office and is especially notable for the fine battle scenes. The film also features the hit song "Ballad of the Green Berets," sung by Sgt. Barry Sadler. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide