Jonathan Lawrence Movies
This is a "hunt & find" film where two girls are kidnapped while on vacation in Los Angeles. An all-out search is conducted, in hopes of locating their crazed abductor ~ All Movie Guide
- 1972
- PG
The good campy fun in this sci-fi horror movie really begins when the head of a racist mad scientist (Ray Milland) is sewn onto the shoulders of a large black convict (Rosie Grier) and the two heads begin fighting--literally trying to punch each other out--to control their shared body. The whole mess begins because the brain surgeon suffers from terminal cancer. He reasons that he will survive if he can transplant his head onto the shoulders of another. He and his team begin experimenting. First he has his head sewn to a gorilla (featuring a simian created by fledgling make-up artist Rick Baker). Something goes terribly wrong, he goes into a coma and when he wakes up, he finds himself having a permanent tete-a-tete with the wrongfully convicted Grier. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ray Milland, Roosevelt Grier, (more)
- 1972
- R
Three teens--a half Navajo (Dean Stockwell), a rebellious girl (Pat Stich) and a retarded boy (Todd Susman)--hit the road after they're accused of killing a policeman. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- 1971
- PG
This ridiculous '70s exploitation quickie is notable mainly for its casting: Bruce Dern toplines as the crazed doctor Girard, with Munsters star Pat Priest as his beleaguered wife and top-40 DJ Casey Kasem (who also lends his talents to various voice-overs throughout the film) as a medical colleague. Girard's semi-successful attempts at surgically attaching additional heads to various lab animals leaves him a bit unfulfilled, and it's no time at all before he goes about performing the operation on a human being. He chooses as his first subject his caretaker's simple-minded but kindly son Danny (John Bloom), onto whose massive shoulders he adds the head of a demented killer (Albert Cole) who was recently gunned down while trying to invade Girard's home. The result is less frightening than pitiful as the morose Danny's personality is subjugated to the evil will of his unwelcome new head, whose psychotic rage continues unabated in his hulking new physique. Shoddy effects, a cheesy (and horribly miscued) psychedelic score and laughably bad dialogue have ingratiated this film to many bad-movie buffs' top-ten lists. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Dern, Pat Priest, (more)
- 1969
- R
Film editor Bill Brame directed this standard juvenile-delinquent entry featuring a notable cast of exploitation veterans. Richard Beymer stars as a cash-strapped teenager named Dean, who is lured into the world of bikers and addicts by Link (Russ Tamblyn), a sadistic drug dealer. Dean's girlfriend Karen (Lana Wood) helps him smuggle marijuana from Mexico to Los Angeles to raise money, and things appear to be going well until they are involved in the murders of two federal agents (Jody McCrea, Lindsay Crosby). The frightened Dean wants out of the arrangement, but Link drugs him with LSD, attempts to roast him alive, and kidnaps Karen. Dean eventually comes down from his bad trip and rescues his beloved, leaving the hippies in the audience with a warning to avoid free marijuana. Casey Kasem and Warren Finnerty also appear in this odd drug film, which makes very little sense and meanders from one scene to another for no apparent reason. That may be understandable, considering that it took four credited screenwriters to make Free Grass filmable. Leads Tamblyn and Beymer had co-starred in West Side Story and would reunite on television for the cult series Twin Peaks. Brame directed The Cycle Savages the same year. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- 1967
Chino (Dennis Hopper) is the tough leader of a motorcycle gang who starts off a war when he abducts and mistreats the leader of the enemy biker gang, Darryl (Jody McCrea), and his girlfriend Chris (Chris Noel). When Darryl comes back for revenge, things get violent. ~ Iotis Erlewine, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dennis Hopper, Jody McCrea, (more)
- 1965
A salesman has an inspirational dream in this comedy. The sleeping salesman dreams that his boss is ordering him to increase his sales. A ghost then appears and gives him much-needed help by locating likely customers. On his ethereal journey, the ghost finds five nearly nude women. The salesman visits each one, and each woman does her darnedest to entice him. Upon his return, the ghost returns to the salesman and proves that there are plenty of potential customers about, if he will only look for them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
