James Booth Movies

The fourth (and final!) entry in this kick-boxing series, sees the return of Michael Dudikoff as the leading foot flinger. Here a scheming sheik trains a bevy of ninja marauders that he's hoping can help him in his plan to hold the world ransom by holding hostage none other than the city of New York. ~ All Movie Guide

American Ninja 2: The Confrontation spotlights Michael Dudikoff and Steve James as a pair of combustible U.S. Army Rangers. Dudikoff and James are ordered to find out why so many Marine guards have been disappearing from their posts at the US Embassy in a mythical Carribean country. Turns out that villain Gary Conway has been kidnapping the Marines and forcing an abducted engineer to reprogram the captive Leathernecks so that they'll join Conway's army of zombielike assassins. Naturally, the scientist has a beautiful daughter (Michelle Botes) whom Conway uses as leverage. Battling not only Conway's minions but the corrupt local authorities, martial arts experts Dudikoff and James effectively lay waste to the villain's previously impenetrable stronghold. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

These bad guys are a couple of inept cops who, when kicked off the force, decide to make their living as professional wrestlers. They become "The Boston Bad Guys" and as such, are pitted against a wrestling team managed by their manager's arch rival. To add intrigue to this wrestling fan's release (who else would watch it?) -- are appearances by several big-name professional wrestlers. ~ All Movie Guide

Originally made for television, this story concerns a champion rodeo rider (Lee Majors) and his romance with a Russian ballerina (Leslie Wing) who is trying to defect. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide

Jake (Charles Grodin), an insurance investigator, is assigned to probe the killing of a wealthy businessman in Acapulco. To help him, he hires a beautiful New York model, Ellie (Farah Fawcett), to act as his wife, and they pretend to be tourists on vacation. Art Carney plays Marcus, a local detective who befriends Jake but gets him into various scrapes. Joan Collins also appears as the suspicious Nera. Sunburn was a made-for-TV movie which featured a pop-song soundtrack blaring from characters' tape recorders that included tunes by Herbie Hancock. The movie was based on the novel The Bind by Stanley Ellin. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

A piece of made-for-television hack work that suddenly became sort of topical 23 years later, with the attacks on the New York World Trade Center and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, Evening in Byzantium was a two-part made-for-TV feature based very loosely on Irwin Shaw's best-seller. The book involved intrigue and romance at the Cannes Film Festival, but the television producers evidently thought that this did not justify a two-night prime time movie event, so they added a story about Middle Eastern terrorists using the Cannes Film Festival as part of a larger plot to attack the West. Glenn Ford plays Jesse Craig, a down-on-his-luck producer with a film project in mind involving terrorists, who goes to Cannes to raise money and finds himself dealing with his ex-wife (Shirley Jones) and romancing Erin Gray. But before too long, he uncovers a plot by real terrorists to replace commercial airliners in flight (blowing them out of the sky and taking over their authorized flight paths) with specially converted airliners and bomb targets in the United States. Also on hand is Vince Edwards, playing an actor with a radical political agenda, who is alarmed that Ford's proposed film parallels his own terrorist plans; Michael Cole as Ford's associate; Eddie Albert and Gloria De Haven as a couple with ties to the movie business; Harry Guardino as a skeptical American security officer; and Marcel Hillaire as the French police inspector trying to unravel the terrorists plans. It's all very silly, though played very sincerely by most of the cast, and none of the plot described is less plausible than the notion that Glenn Ford and Erin Gray could ignore the 36-year difference in their ages. Evening in Byzantium was originally shown in August of 1978 as part of the syndicated Operation Prime Time programming series, intended to compete with the three networks. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide

Stretching the Airport concept as far as it will go, this third film in the series sticks a jet full of old actors 50 feet underwater in the Bermuda Triangle. Oxygen (and credibility) grows short, and Jimmy Stewart plays an art collector targeted for a heist. Jack Lemmon is the unfortunate pilot, and Christopher Lee shows up along with Brenda Vaccaro, Joseph Cotten, and Olivia de Havilland. Jerry Jameson, auteur of The Bat People, was selected to helm this entry featuring that film's star, Michael Pataki. George Kennedy, the only man to appear in all four Airport films, is along for the ride as well. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide

Joan Hackett guest-stars as Judith, the fiancee of a young pastor named Jess (James Booth). Blessed-or, perhaps, cursed-with the gift of clairvoyance, Judith is called in to locate a missing Jamie. But her intensely religious sweetheart does not want Judith to use her "special powers." Written by Arthur Weingarten and Suzanne Clauser, this episode, coupled with the earlier Bonanza installment "The Strange One," formed the plot basis for the 1989 TV special Bonanza: The Movie. Due to the religious beliefs of certain cable-network CEOs, "Second Sight" itself has not been seen much since its original airing on January 9, 1972. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This dark drama unfolds in an unnamed community outside of London, where a beleaguered and grief-stricken tavern owner named Jim Radford (James Booth copes with the rape and murder of his young daughter. The remainder of his family shares his distress, and in time, it begins to rip the clan apart. When the young man who is being tried for the crime is let off thanks to paltry connecting evidence, Jim grows desperate and teams up a buddy of his named Harry (Ray Barrett) whose daughter suffered from a like fate - presumably, though not definitively, at the hands of the same killer. The two hone in on the young man who they believe is responsible, kidnap him and torture him in a number of ways. Unfortunately, the youth will not talk and ends up dead. Moreover, in time it becomes apparent that this might not have been the correct individual. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide

The Bliss of Mrs. Blossom stars Shirley MacLaine as Harriet Blossom, the wife of a moderately successful British brassiere manufacturer Robert Blossom (Richard Attenborough). When Harriet's sewing machine breaks down, her husband decides to save a few quid by sending one of his own employees to fix it. That employee is Ambrose Tuttle (James Booth), to whom Harriet takes such a fancy that she hides him in her attic, there to make love to her whenever she is so inclined. Her husband's "delusion" that he hears noises in his attic leads to a nervous breakdown, but the hidden Mr. Tuttle comes to the rescue by passing along stock tips which turn Mr. Blossom into a millionaire. When he finally does learn the truth, Mr. Blossom generously allows his wife and her lover to remain together -- and even presents Tuttle with his bra factory as a gift! ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The Anglo-Czech coproduction 90 Degrees in the Shade stars British actress Anne Heywood as a grocery clerk embroiled in an affair with manager James Booth. Though she knows that Booth is good for nothing, she remains with him because of the intensity of their physical relationship. Company auditors Rudolf Hrusinsky and Donald Wolfit make life miserable for Heywood, who cannot bring herself to reveal the fact that Booth has been stealing from the store. Her subsequent suicide humanizes the strictly-business auditors, but the unrepentant Booth merely shrugs and casts about for another willing young woman. The title is a succinct assessment of the film's sex scenes, which were as hot as it was possible to get in a mainstream movie of the 1960s. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Ken Russell's first feature film is a slight comedy about a stodgy British resort. Gormleigh-by-the-Sea is a holiday community besotted with dullness. But things liven up when Jim (James Booth), a young deck-chair attendant, convinces the local entertainment director and mayor into starting a film festival. The town convinces an ambitious French actress to be the star of the festival. What happens after that is a series of near disasters -- including the failure of a Nudist Beach and a riot at a film premiere. It is left to Jim's American journalist girlfriend (Alita Naughton) to save the situation and the reputation of the town. This first feature for film-director Ken Russell, French Dressing was neither indicative of his future controversial projects nor was it auspicious of his directorial ability. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide