Wings Hauser Movies
The years of struggle and near-starvation for actor Wings Hauser began paying off when, in 1977, he was cast as Greg Foster on the daytime drama The Young and the Restless. Fans of the series may remember that, at the time, the actor billed himself as J.D. Hauser. In the 1982 movie melodrama Vice Squad, Hauser forever sealed his cinematic future by playing the most scurrilous, hate-inducing bad guy this side of Richard Widmark. While he'd occasionally show up in a sympathetic role, Hauser spent most of his time "down and dirty" in "B" actioners and direct-to-video flicks. A much pleasanter chap in his TV appearances, Hauser has been seen on two TV sitcoms, 1986's The Last Precinct (as Lt. Hobbs) and the long-running Roseanne (as the Conners' off-and-on next-door neighbor). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie GuideWings Hauser stars in this direct-to-video thriller as John Saxon, an L.A. cop who learns that the head of a counterfeiting plot is the same man who rescued him from certain death in Vietnam. Also titled Blood Money. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wings Hauser, Karen Black, (more)
Wings Hauser appears as Wallace Evans, a policeman turned professor who use to teach the Manhattan College criminology course now helmed by Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury). In the spirit of friendly rivalry, Evans challenges Jessica to find the person responsible for a series of recent campus muggings before he himself fingers the culprit. The stakes in this "race" are raised considerably when murder enters the picture. This time out, the suspect list ranges from a suspicious-looking busboy to Professor Evans himself. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This violent crime drama is based on a well-known rape that happened in New York City's Central Park. The story is set in LA and concerns the disgusting practice of "wilding' in which a group of frenzied, affluent suburban youths go on terrifying crime sprees raping, murdering and pillaging anyone they come upon. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Wings Hauser directed and stars in this mystery about a Las Vegas detective who learns that a woman believed dead is actually alive and well and involved in a blackmail plot. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wings Hauser, Darcy de Moss, (more)
Karen Arthur, the Emmy-winning director of Cagney and Lacey, was in the driver's seat for the made-for-TV psychological terror film Bump in the Night. Meredith Baxter-Birney plays a onetime famous reporter who's drunk herself into near-oblivion. Her turbulent life takes a desperate turn when her 8-year-old son (Corey Carrier) is kidnapped by a dangerous pedophile (Christopher Reeves). The boy has escaped from his captor, and now his mother must find him before the kidnapper does. Richard Bradford plays the cop on the case, who'd rather do without the interference of Ms. Baxter-Birney. Bump in the Night is commendably subtle and straightforward in handling the potentially lurid details of its story. Historical note: In March of 1995, Bump in the Night became the first feature film ever telecast on the E! Entertainment Cable Network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
In this lurid sci-fi actioner a psycho LA police chief has surgeons implant a device into the spines of wounded officers that turns them into lunatic killers who are then assigned to his Scum Quelling Urban Assault Division (SQUAD). After cleaning the streets of slimy crooks, the officers are programmed to destroy themselves. When hard-nosed cop Arliss Ryder is wounded, he too receives the deadly implant, but unlike the others, he and his gal Kristin, a master kickboxer, figure out the plan and work to defeat the villain to save himself and his fellow officers. The film inspired considerable controversy when it first came out because the part of the S&M-loving police chief was played by convicted-conspirator G. Gordon Liddy of Watergate fame. After the film was completed Liddy refused to promote it to the public and later after the story made the national news withdrew all opposition. This bought the film more time in theaters, before it went to video, than it may have actually deserved. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
A team of cops investigate the destructive power of a lethal street drug being promulgated on the streets of Los Angeles. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
Wings Hauser both stars in and directs The Art of Dying. Hauser plays Jack, a vice cop who tries to unravel the mystery behind a series of murders in which each of the corpses has been found with stage makeup on its face. Turns out that the killer is Roscoe (Gary Werntz), a demented movie-maker whose overwhelming desire for realism has resulted in a variety of horrible deaths for his unwary actors. Each victim is dispatched in a manner evoking a famous film: one is killed in the shower, another dies while playing Russian Roulette a la The Deer Hunter, and so forth. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
This political drama takes a look at the underground network that helps South American refugees travel safely to the US. The story centers on a freedom fighter from Central America who uses the underground to get to the US and settle in a small town. His wife lies to a restaurant owner, telling him her husband is dead, and gets a job as a waitress. Soon after, the owner's son falls in love with her. Meanwhile a crooked CIA agent leads a death squad in pursuit of the former freedom fighter and things get worse when the local sheriff threatens to reveal his hideout to the hunters. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Wings Hauser plays a heroic bounty hunter searching for the serial killer who has been slaying streetwalkers in this slice-n-dicer. To catch him, the hero offers his own girl friend as a decoy. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This nutty low-budget thriller initially resembles a kind of suburban Repulsion, with harried, neurotic housewife Alice Lynn Adams returning from a brief stint in a psychiatric hospital after chopping her smug husband's Bill Blass suits into itty bitty pieces. Upon her release, her husband sets her up in their nearly-completed new home, where she is visited by mysterious nocturnal handyman Ed (Wings Hauser, perennial "B"-movie psycho-man) who completes the work botched by the lazy, inept contractors and lashes out against anyone who wrongs her. Just when it's becoming apparent that the carpenter is a figment of her imagination, he is revealed to be the ghost of the house's previous owner, who was sent to the chair for murdering agents of the bank who foreclosed on him. From this point forward, the film shifts into slasher-horror mode, with Ed having at Alice's tormentors with his power tools. This amusing blend of horror themes comes across a bit muddled at times but still delivers the gory goods. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wings Hauser, Lynne Adams, (more)
A frame job corners two TV-station employees trying to recover an important video. ~ John Bush, All Movie Guide
In this thriller, a bountiful female ex- cop teams up with a bounty hunter to find the psychotic artist and drug dealer who killed her partner and kidnapped an LA mayoral candidate. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Sybil Danning, Wings Hauser, (more)
Based on the true story, this film follows the struggle of a group of brave marines as they attempt to defend Firebase Gloria during the Tet Offensive, even though they are greatly outnumbered. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wings Hauser, R. Lee Ermey, (more)
A mother is plagued with mental problems years after she saw her daughter immolated in a terrible fire. The terror in this horror outing begins shortly after she is released from the mental hospital where she has stayed since the accident. Though the doctors say she is better, the woman is plagued by the apparition of her dying daughter, and trouble ensues. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
This sequel to 1986's Bedroom Eyes is the mixture as before, with Wings Hauser replacing the first film's star Kenneth Gilman. Once again, stockbroker Hauser begins succumbing to his chronic voyeurism. And also once again, his obsession gets him mixed up in a murder. The film's secondary villain-revealed early on, so we're not spoiling anything-is the vengeful twin sister (Linda Blair) of Hauser's late wife. The real villain is.....but now we would be spoiling things, though veteran filmgoers will be able to spot the guilty party in Reel One. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wings Hauser, Kathy Shower, (more)
This grim sci-fi film presents a dim view of the near future in which humanity has been decimated by a virulent plague. The survivors are rigidly divided into those who are plague-free and those who are dying. The former live in heavily-guarded areas and have most of the wealth and power, while the latter are quarantined. A few people have a fatal but not contagious mutation of the virus. These are the Zero Men, and during their lives they are able to move in an out of the different zones; some of them are mercenaries and when the daughter of a prominent industrialist is kidnapped and taken to the plague zone, it is up to one of these terminally ill soldiers of fortune to save her. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wings Hauser, Brion James, (more)
Exposure to a chemically-contaminated water supply turns scientists into raving lunatics who begin terrorizing a tiny desert burg in this violent actioner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wings Hauser, Bo Hopkins, (more)
In this action thriller, a CIA agent heads out for personalized revenge against the South American drug lords who murdered his family. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wings Hauser, Robert Tessier, (more)
One of the few Greek filmmakers to work substantially in international productions, Nico Mastorakis has primarily been responsible for undistinguished genre efforts like Blood Tide, Grandma's House, and this thriller. Meg Foster stars as Sian, an American mystery writer who comes to an imposing villa in a small Greek town to work on her new book. The villa's proprietor (Robert Morley) warns her of the killer winds that sweep up at night, but the real killer Sian should be concerned about the handyman, played by Wings Hauser of Vice Squad. Hauser murders Elias and stalks Foster through the dark, windswept villa for the rest of the film, until he is dispatched with suitably histrionic aplomb. David McCallum and Steve Railsback show up as well. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Meg Foster, Wings Hauser, (more)
Norman Mailer wrote and directed this demented film noir, which takes place in a Provincetown of perpetual twilight. Most of the tale, based on his best-selling novel, is told in flashback as Dougy Madden (Lawrence Tierney) pays a visit to his son Tim (Ryan O'Neal). Dougy, a tough ex-bartender, is ravaged by cancer and decides to see Tim one last time in order. But Tim is suffering both from writer's block and from the effects of too many years of drink, drugs, and sex. His sexy wife Patty Lariene (Debra Sandlund) has recently left him and disappeared. Even worse, one morning he awakens from his stupor to find the front seat of his car covered with blood and a severed head inside his drug stash. He tries to rekindle a relationship with his ex-wife Madeleine (Isabella Rossellini), now married to the psychotic Provincetown police chief, Alvin Luther Regency (Wings Hauser), and he re-acquaints himself with old prep school friend Wardley Meeks III (John Bedford Lloyd), who was also married to the missing Patty Lareine. As the murders pile up and Tim's psyche takes a beating, Dougy decides to help Tim put an end to this chaotic mess of murders. ~ Paul Brenner, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ryan O'Neal, Isabella Rossellini, (more)
In this adventure, an undercover cop must protect an endangered, unemployed Vietnam vet who has become a hitman's target. The story is also titled The Highwayman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
The last of the four Perry Mason movies telecast in 1987, The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel rounds up veterans Raymond Burr (as Mason) and Barbara Hale (as Della Street), with comparative newcomers William Katt (as Paul Drake Jr.) and David Ogden Stiers (as the "Hamilton Burger"-style prosecutor). The accused murderer in this outing is Susan Wilder, a reporter for a sleazy tabloid. The victim is the rag's hateful publisher, Robert Guillaume. Other suspects include Guillaume's ex-lover, and a banker who was ruined by the tabloid's half truths. Unlike most of the Perry Mason TV movies of the 1980s, The Case of the Scandalous Scoundrel doesn't play fair with the audience; vital clues and character motivations are withheld from the viewer, robbing us of the pleasure of trying to second-guess the methodical Mr. Mason. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Tim Shaw (Kevin McCarthy) is a retired army officer enjoying the life of a farmer on a ranch in South Africa. When a plane bound for Nairobi is hijacked by Arab terrorists, he calls on military veterans to intervene on behalf of the airborne hostages. Karen Black and Wings Hauser co-star in this routine action thriller. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Wings Hauser, Karen Black, (more)

- 1986
- R
- Add Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling to QueueAdd Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life Is Calling to top of Queue
Popular African-American comedian Jo Jo Dancer is severely burned while free-basing cocaine. Producer/director/writer Richard Pryor insists that the movie is not autobiographical. While hovering between life and death, Dancer flashes back to his childhood, when he grew up in a brothel. Producer/director/writer Richard Pryor insists that the movie is not autobiographical. Dancer decides to become a comic, but has a great many difficulties rising to stardom until he begins making scatological comments about race relations. Producer/director/writer Richard Pryor insists that the movie is not autobiographical. As he rises to fame, Jo Jo has problems controlling his drug addiction and womanizing. Producer/director/writer Richard Pryor insists.....Well, you've caught on by now. If one were able to excise the excruciatingly boring "introspection" scene, Jo Jo Dancer, Your Life is Calling would stand as an excellent testimonial to Richard Pryor's cutting-edge comic brilliance. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Pryor, Debbie Allen, (more)






















