Vince Edwards Movies
The youngest of the seven children of a Brooklyn contractor, Vince Edwards left vocational school when he won an athletic scholarship to Ohio State University. He subsequently gave up college to attend New York's American Academy of Dramatic Arts. After working as a chorus boy in the Broadway musical High Button Shoes, Edwards fell under the spell of the then-fashionable "Method" school of acting: "whoever had the dirtiest outfit was top man on Broadway," he would later comment. Edwards tended to be cast on the basis of his physique rather than his acting ability in such films as Mr. Universe (1951) and Hiawatha (1952). After ten years of film roles of varying quality, Edwards was starred in the television series Ben Casey (1961-66), rapidly developing a reputation as "TV's surly surgeon." Toward the end of the Casey run, Edwards began dabbling in directing, an activity that he has pursued ever since. Later projects involving Vince Edwards have included the brief 1970 TV series Matt Lincoln, an attempt to establish himself as a nightclub singer, and a voiceover stint for the TV cartoon daily The Centurions. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide- 1978
In this episode of the Police Story series a young looking rookie goes undercover as a high-school student to get into a drug ring. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
Carol Lynley makes her first significant TV appearance in this episode, which also represents an early directorial effort by Robert Altman. Lynley is cast as Janice, a psychotic 17-year-old girl who uses a thirtysomething lout named Tex (Vince Edwards) as a pawn in her scheme to rid herself of her nagging aunt, Mae (Jeanette Nolan), so that she can marry her impoverished boyfriend Stan (Stephen Joyce). At episode's end, it appears that the conniving Janice has outsmarted herself...or has she? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1989
- Add Andy Colby's Incredibly Awesome Adventure to QueueAdd Andy Colby's Incredibly Awesome Adventure to top of Queue
This crazy-quilt melange was originally released as Andy Colby's Incredibly Awesome Adventure; apparently it was retitled to avoid confusion with the very similar Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure. Randy Josselyn plays Andy Colby, a 12-year-old videotape addict. Making a visit to the local rental store, Andy comes across a cassette titled "Incredible Video Adventure". A weird-looking video clerk (isn't that a bit redundant) warns Andy in Gremlins fashion that he must not sit too close to the TV while watching the tape, and he must never, ever let loose of the remote control. Alas, Andy breaks both those rules-whereupon he and his little sister Bonnie (Jessica Puscas) are sucked into a maelstrom of thrills and adventure. Most of the highlights are culled from previous Roger Corman productions like Space Raiders, Wizards of the Lost Kingdom, Deathsport, Chopping Mall and Wheels of Fire. In other words, it's a feature-length "cheater," a hodgepodge of past cinematic glories. The young stars perform as well as possible under the circumstances (it's hard to be convincing while reacting to stock footage), but the film's acting honors go to Chuck Kovacic as the wigged-out villain. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
In the first episode of a two-part story, a recon mission led by Apollo (Richard Hatch) and Starbuck (Dirk Benedict) confronts a fleet of Vipers from the long-lost Battlestar Pegasus. Ultimately, Cmdr. Adama (Lorne Greene) comes face to face with the Pegasus' skipper, legendary colonial warrior Cain (Lloyd Bridges). Unfortunately, Cain's heroism is dwarfed by his ego and his recklessness--and he is determined to lead his vessel and the Galactica on a suicidal attack against the Cylon forces. Anne Lockhart makes her first series appearance as Cain's daughter, Sheba. Parts one and two of "The Living Legend" were later combined with excerpts from the Battlestar Galactica episode "Fire in Space" and released theatrically overseas as Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, (more)
- 1978
In the conclusion of a two-part story, Adama (Lorne Greene) clashes with Commander Cain (Lloyd Bridges), a legendary--and extremely egocentric--colonial warrior. Cain wants to use the combined forces of his battleship Pegasus and Adama's Galactica for an all-out resistance against a massive Cylon attack, but Adama, worried about the human cost of such an undertaking, is dead set against the plan. Even so, by the time the episode is over, the crews of the Pegasus and the Galactica are battling shoulder-to-shoulder--and it may be a battle to the death. Parts one and two of "The Living Legend" were later combined with excerpts from the Battlestar Galactica episode "Fire in Space" and released theatrically overseas as Mission Galactica: The Cylon Attack. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Hatch, Dirk Benedict, (more)
- 1955
Cell 2455 Death Row is based on the autobiography of condemned prisoner and "jailhouse lawyer" Caryl Chessman. William Campbell plays the Chessman counterpart, here renamed Whit. A seriously disturbed misfit, Whit begins a life of crime, culminating in sexual assault as the "Lover's Lane Bandit." Condemned to the gas chamber at San Quentin, Whit spends six years fighting his sentence, gradually winning the support and sometimes the respect of various legal experts. The film ends in 1955 (the year of its production), some five years before Caryl Chessman's ultimate execution; accordingly, the film's "open-ended" finale has been removed from many TV prints. A more thorough and incisive study of the Chessman case was offered in the made-for-TV movie Kill Me If You Can, which starred Alan Alda. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Campbell, Marian Carr, (more)
- 1987
- R
A quaint, stagebound little horror film from Charles Band's Empire Pictures, Cellar Dweller stars Jeffrey Combs (fresh off his glorious turn as Herbert West in the Empire-produced Re-Animator) as a '50s horror-comic artist who falls prey to one of his own creations -- a ferocious demon he based on a drawing from an arcane book of spells and curses. The story picks up again in the 1980's, where the late artist's palatial home has been converted into a combination boarding house and art academy led by Yvonne De Carlo. One of the students pursues her obsession with reviving the "Cellar Dweller" comic series herself, delving into Combs' old studio for inspiration, and eventually discovers the same occult manuscript secreted in the basement. History repeats itself (naturally) and the creature emerges to stalk and maul anew. This admittedly cool concept and the rather effective monster are dampened a bit by a flippant, tongue-in-cheek attitude (a more ominous, Lovecraftian tone would have been more effective), but makeup-man-turned-director John Buechler shows a definite flair for imbuing his beast with a suitably sinister personality. Observant fans of Charles Band's body of work (yes, they do exist) should spot the numerous visual references to other Band films. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Deborah Mullowney, Brian Robbins, (more)
- 1959
Fairly fast-paced, with only a lull here and there, this standard thriller by director Irving Lerner was one of his most successful films. It stars (Vince Edwards) as Vince, an escaped convict who grabs a metal vial from the prison's hospital before he makes his break. He thinks it is his ticket to the easy life because it contains heroin. Instead, the vial contains radioactive cobalt that could first sicken and then kill anyone who comes in close contact with it. The police are caught between the devil and the deep blue sea. If they publicly announce a vial of deadly cobalt is on the loose, in the hands of an escaped convict, they might touch off a stampede. On the other hand, if they keep it a secret, who knows how many people will die. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vince Edwards, John Archer, (more)
- 1977
Cover Girls isn't really a Charlie's Angels rip-off. Honest! Look: there are three girls in Charlie's Angels and only two girls (Jayne Kennedy and Cornelia Sharpe) in Cover Girls. Besides, the Angels are private eyes, working on behalf of boss John Forsythe; the Cover Girls are fashion models, doubling as secret agents on behalf of boss Don Galloway. Just because Cover Girls premiered on May 18, 1977, six months into Charlie's Angels' fabulous first season, doesn't mean that there was any conscious copycatting. Does it? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jayne Kennedy, Cornelia Sharpe, (more)
The humor in this Chevy Chase comedy lies solely in the eyes of the beholder. The comic plays Eddie Muntz, an arms dealer looking to make a big sale of war planes to a South American dictator. In order to do so, his girlfriend (Sigourney Weaver) has to sleep with the dictator and his friend (Gregory Hines) has to be convinced to do one more killing. Eddie's archenemy is Stryker (Vince Edwards) who wants to make that deal himself and will stop at nothing to obtain his ends. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chevy Chase, Sigourney Weaver, (more)
- 1974
In this made-for-TV thriller, a vacation for two men turns deadly when their wives are kidnapped by several escaped convicts. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
- 1969
Vincent Edwards, four years removed from Ben Casey, enters another branch of the healing profession in the made-for-TV Dial Hot Line. Edwards plays Matt Lincoln, a community psychiatrist who is patched into a "hot line" telephone for those troubled souls unable to afford therapy. This TV movie involves three of Lincoln's call-in patients, including one potential suicide. Also featured was future Laugh-In regular Chelsea Brown as Tag, a member of Lincoln's staff. Dial Hot Line later matriculated into the brief Matt Lincoln TV series, with both Vincent Edwards and Chelsea Brown retained from the pilot. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1991
Dillinger is a messily directed, haphazardly edited TV movie, which takes a revisionist squint at the criminal career of the 1930s' Public Enemy Number One. Mark Harmon captures some of the charisma but little of the ruthlessness of John Dillinger, while Sherilyn Fenn gives an anachronistic interpretation of the gun moll who eventually betrays Johnny D. to the Feds. Vince Edwards is supposed to be FBI founder J. Edgar Hoover, but comports himself more like a grouchy crossing guard. The film is rife with poorly staged gun battles (including the Biograph Theatre finale), shot in a shivery "MTV" fashion which suggests that the camera operator has St. Vitas' Dance. Most of Dillinger was lensed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin; the 1930s-style exteriors were well chosen, though the interior scenes at FBI headquarters look like they were filmed inside the Milwaukee Public Library--which indeed they were. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Harmon, Sherilyn Fenn, (more)
- 1971
Helen Hayes, Mildred Natwick, Myrna Loy and Sylvia Sidney star as four elderly pranksters devoted to practical jokes. When one of the ladies gets hold of a computer-dating questionnaire, the others invent a mythical girl and feed the falsified information into the computer. Alas, the description matches a very real young lady, who becomes the target of a murderous rapist (Vince Edwards). Attacked at the time of its release for making light of a potentially deadly situation, Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate led to the casting of Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick in the weekly detective series The Snoop Sisters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1978
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
- 1972
An African American youth must deal with both many physical tests and the racism of his peers as he works to become a full-fledged fire fighter in this drama that was originally made as a television pilot. As he is the only black man in an all white unit, things are difficult, especially after he learns that the man he replaced was killed in a fire set by a black arsonist. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1968
This uneven spy saga finds secret agent Charles Hood (Vince Edwards) on the trail of the criminal master spy Hammerhead (Peter Vaughan). He tries to discover some NATO secrets in between his hobby of collecting antique erotica from around the world. Hood must stop the evil Hammerhead before he uses the secret information to spark an incident of international terrorism. In order to stop Hammerhead's sordid plan, he poses as a courier delivering erotica to the spy. Distaff interests are provided by Diana Dors and Judy Geeson in this feature that fails to take advantage of some beautiful scenes of Portugal. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vince Edwards, Judy Geeson, (more)
- 1952
When Vincent Edwards attained TV stardom as "Ben Casey" in 1961, his detractors took great delight in citing Edwards' earlier starring appearance in Monogram's Hiawatha. A great deal of fun was had by all when it was revealed that Edwards had to have his chest shaved on a daily basis while playing the hero of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow's narrative poem. This aside, Edwards is fairly credible as Hiawatha, while the film itself is easy to take (perhaps too easy; action fans may be disappointed). The nucleus of the story is Hiawatha's love for Minnehaha (Yvette Dugay), the daughter of his tribe's mortal enemy, Chief Igaoo (Morris Ankrum). As war clouds gather, Hiawatha struggles manfully to prevent bloodshed between the Ojibway and Dacotah tribes. The ending of Hiawatha is slightly at odds with the Longfellow original, but works within the context of the film. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Vince Edwards, Yvette Dugay, (more)
- 1957
In this thriller, a middle-aged husband is insanely jealous of his trophy wife, a showgirl. The young bride soon becomes romantically involved with one of her husband's employees. Together they conspire to kill the old goat. The treacherous wife then leaves her late husband's estate to his twin brother, an ex-con recently released from prison. In an interesting plot twist, it is discovered that the lovers actually murdered the twin brother, not the husband. The husband then begins exacting his revenge. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cleo Moore, Hugo Haas, (more)
- 1955
Julie Harris repeats her stage portrayal of the irrepressible Sally Bowles in John Van Druten's I Am a Camera. Set in pre-Hitler Berlin, the film details the curious, chaste relationship between Sally, an entertainer at a bawdy nightclub, and fledgling writer Christopher Isherwood (Lawrence Harvey). Shelley Winters co-stars as Natalia Landauer, whose impending marriage to a wealthy young Jewish man is imperiled by the anti-Semitism which envelops Berlin as the Nazis gain political power. If all this sounds familiar to you, it is because I Am a Camera is the non-musical precursor to the Broadway musical hit Cabaret. Both properties were based on Christopher Isherwood's Berlin Stories. Those familiar with the film version of Cabaret will notice that certain plot elements have been watered down in Camera. Examples: Isherwood's homosexuality is left unmentioned, save for Lawrence Harvey's opaque opening comment that he is "a confirmed bachelor;" and Sally Bowles' third-act abortion is changed into a false-alarm pregnancy. Also, Julie Harris' dynamic but rather overbaked interpretation of Sally is not nearly as memorable as Liza Minelli's Oscar-winning interpretation of the character in Cabaret. Still, I Am a Camera is well directed and deftly adapted for the screen (by John Collier); and even taking into consideration Ms. Harris' hamminess, she remains one of the most fascinating stage personalities of the mid-20th century. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Julie Harris, Laurence Harvey, (more)
