Robert L. Jacks Movies

Not much time is actually spent in Weasel Creek in this made-for-TV movie, despite its title. Essentially, this is a semiserious "road" picture concerning the misadventures of a rambunctious young girl (Mare Winningham). Linking up with a runaway farm boy (John Hammond), the girl heads to California with only the clothes on her back and the few possessions from her house trailer. En route, the boy stops over in the aptly named Weasel Creek to visit his aunt (Colleen Dewhurst). The film is populated with such familiar rustic types as Barry Corbin, Richard Farnsworth and Trey Wilson. A Few Days in Weasel Creek first aired October 21, 1981. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Producer Aaron Spelling's made-for-TV Murder Can Hurt You is an unsubtle take-off of Neil Simon's theatrical feature Murder By Death. A crime is committed by the unknown, all-seeing Master Criminal. To solve the case, several top detectives are summoned, each one a takeoff of a popular TV gumshoe. Victor Buono plays Ironbottom, Jamie Farr and John Byner are Studsky and Hatch, Tony Danza is Pony Lambretta, Gavin McLeod impersonates Nojak, Connie Stevens goes by the name of Salty Sanderson, Burt Young portrays Palumbo....you get the idea. Just so we don't miss the joke, each character is introduced with the theme song of his or her "real" TV counterpart. The sporadically chucklesome Murder Can Hurt You was first telecast May 21, 1980. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, adapted from the novel Binary by John Lange and directed by Michael Crichton, a federal agent played by Ben Gazzara must stop a madman before he can unleash a toxic nerve gas upon an unwitting political convention. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide

This routine western finds Union Colonel John Henry Thomas (John Wayne) and company attacking Confederate soldiers lead by Colonel James Langdon (Rock Hudson). After a crushing defeat, Langdon torches his plantation rather than have it fall into enemy hands. A group of Southerners accept the invitation of Emperor Maximilian to join them, and Langdon heads off with a wagon train of settlers to a new land. Thomas with his adopted Indian son Blue Boy (Roman Gabriel) bring a herd of 3,000 horses across the Rio Grand for sale. The two factions meet at a Fourth of July party and relive the war through a drunken brawl. When Mexican General Rojas (Tony Aguilar) holds the Southerners hostage, Thomas orders the herd to stampede into the General's camp as ransom payment for their former enemies. Merlin Olsen plays the blacksmith Little George. Both Gabriel and Olsen were pro-football all-stars for the Los Angeles Rams. Olsen continued his acting and sports announcing after his gridiron days were over. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

When the Army pulls out of a frontier fort, Chief Running Horse (Paul Clarke) and his braves kill off the "leftovers" and move in. Unbeknownst to the Chief, there are three survivors still lurking about: Sgt. Baines (James Westerfield), Cpl. Daggott (Ted Otis) and Bart Maverick (Jack Kelly). After delivering a poignant speech lamenting the necessity of playing the hero so he can go on living as a coward, Bart tries the old "Beau Geste" strategy of fooling the Indians into thinking that the fort is still heavily guarded...but Running Horse may already be wise to his ruse. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

The dramatic weight of Man From Del Rio rests securely on the broad shoulders of star Anthony Quinn. Cast as an indigent Mexican gunslinger, Quinn is asked by an old pal to clean up an outlaw-ridden western town. Knowing that his reputation is exaggerated, Quinn relies on braggadocio and bluff to keep the villains at bay. But when he is appointed town sheriff, it is "put up or shut up" time. Katy Jurado, who'd become "typed" as a western actress since High Noon, costars as Quinn's would-be lover. Man From Del Rio offers little that hasn't been seen before, but Anthony Quinn keeps things moving at a fast and exciting clip. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this thriller, "Foggy" (Wendell Corey) is a bank teller who got his nickname for the thick spectacles he must wear. Foggy is also an inside man for a gang of thieves planning to rob his bank. Unfortunately, their plan goes awry and he is arrested. During the ensuing scuffle, his wife is accidentally killed and the crook blames the arresting officer (Joseph Cotten). While he stands trial, Foggy lets on that he plans on getting revenge by killing the officer's wife. Later he is transferred to a prison farm. The fearsome former clerk busts out of prison and kills a few people on his way to the policeman's home. The panicked policeman attempts to secure protection for his wife, but the cops decide to use the woman as a decoy to draw the criminal to them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Budd Corliss (Robert Wagner) is an ambitious, poor boy from the wrong-side-of-the-tracks who murders his girlfriend Dorothy (Joanne Woodward) -- making the death look like a suicide -- when her pregnancy eliminates his chances of being accepted by her wealthy family. Her sister Ellen (Virginia Leith), refusing to believe that Dorothy has committed suicide, begins to investigate on her own. She meets Budd, and ignorant of his prior relationship with Dorothy begins a relationship with him. When Ellen discovers that Budd knew Dorothy, the stage is set for a final, dramatic showdown as Ellen fights to revenge her sister and save her own life. The script, adapted from the novel of the same name written by Ira Levin is excellent and tension-filled. Joanne Woodward is fine in a touching performance as the vulnerable and trusting Dorothy. A wooden performance by Robert Wagner in the pivotal central role mars the film and destroys some of its credibility, as Wagner, though handsome, lacks the charm and charisma necessary to make the character of Budd believable. Also, despite an excellent performance by Mary Astor as Budd's class-conscious, greedy mother, the film fails to achieve any sympathy for Budd or understanding of the motivations that drove him to do what he did. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide

Debra Paget displays as much epidermis as the 1954 censors would allow in the escapist adventure Princess of the Nile. Ms. Paget is cast as Taura, a fearless 13th century princess who does her best to defend Egypt against an invading Bedouin (Michael Rennie). When not wielding her trusty scimitar, Taura poses as a dancing girl to undermine the Bedouin's plans. She is aided by the Prince Haidi (Jeffrey Hunter), son of the Caliph of Baghdad. The plotline is negligible: the audience was more interested in watching Debra Paget and scores of underclad lovelies undulating to the quasi-Eastern musical score by Lionel Newman. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Based on a true story from the Civil War, this drama follows a band of Confederate POWS who escape from a New England prison head for Canada and begin planning to distract Union forces by looting and pillaging a Vermont town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Man in the Attic is a sweat-stained remake of the oft-filmed Mary Belloc Lowndes suspense story The Lodger. Jack Palance plays a mild, secretive pathologist who rents an attic apartment in the heart of London. Palance falls in love with dancer Constance Smith, daughter of the landlady, but she doesn't seem interested. Meanwhile, several unsolved murders of women have been committed on the fogbound London streets--and all of the victims are showgirls. Unlike Hitchcock's 1926 version of The Lodger, the most likely suspect is indeed the "Jack the Ripper" character hunted by the police. The only surprise in Man in the Attic is that the London bobbies didn't arrest Jack Palance on sight long before the movie started. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Elia Kazan directed this drama inspired by a true story. Karel Cernik (Fredric March) is the leader of a troupe of Czechoslovakian circus performers who have been plying their trade in Eastern Europe for years. When Czechoslovakia falls under Communist rule, the proud and independent Cernik finds that he is no longer free to operate his circus as he sees fit. Many of his performers are conscripted into military service, and his equipment and possessions are declared government property, though the state fails to maintain it properly, or even to give him access to the material to fix it himself. Finally, when Cernik's remaining performers are ordered to insert pro-Communist messages into their acts, he decides that he can take no more and begins making plans to escape to Bavaria during an upcoming tour. Cernik's plans hit a snag, however, when he learns that one of his performers is a spy for the Czech communists, working in collusion with government factotum Fesker (Adolphe Menjou). While politics are making a mess of his professional life, his daughter Tereza (Terry Moore) is complicating matters at home because of her romance with the handsome but unreliable lion tamer Joe Vosdek (Cameron Mitchell), much to the chagrin of both Karel and his wife Zama (Gloria Grahame). The Birnbach Circus troupe, along with a variety of other European carnival performers, appear as themselves in this film, lending the performances a keen authenticity. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide