Charles Nelson Movies

In Rappin', Mario Van Peebles is John Hood, a con who when released from jail goes back to his neighborhood to find his girl shacked up with a nasty gang-leader named Duane (Charles Flohe). Duane is on the take with a corrupt contractor who plans to tear down Hood's neighborhood and he and his gang serve as ruffian rowdies who help evict the tenants. John Hood will not put up with this nonsense; he throws a community rap session and gets everybody aligned against the bad guys. His rappin' is so ratin' that he impresses a record company and wins his gal back. ~ All Movie Guide

Lee Van Cleef plays a fiercely independent river ferryman in the Old West. Bandit Warren Oates, fresh from decimating a local town, rides up with his gang and demands that Van Cleef transport the crooks and their booty across the river. He refuses, and is taken prisoner. Biding his time, Van Cleef is able to turn the tables on the vicious gang. Heavily influenced by the ultraviolent "spaghetti western" school, Barquero attempts to add a contemporary note to the proceedings by having Warren Oates take an hallucinatory "trip" after smoking an unidentified weed. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This romantic and sometimes ribald historical farce finds nobleman Guerrando (Tony Curtis) knighted in the days before the Crusades. He inherits a castle, tax-collecting rights, first choice of all the fair young maidens of the region, and a draft notice from the King. Boccadoro (Monica Vitti) is the liberal-minded forest woman who catches the eye of the young nobleman. Courtship, love and marriage follows, but the wedding night is interrupted by a call to arms. Guerrando and Boccadoro are unable to consummate the marriage, and a chastity belt is used to insure her virginal status. The young bride follows her husband's troop at a distance hoping to get her hand on the coveted key to the lock. Comedy ensues as the key changes hands several times before Guerrando ultimately regains possession and is able to unlock the passions of his love-starved wife. This overlong film can best described as a punchline in search of a joke. One gets the feeling that the producers had wanted to title the film A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Crusades. As it stood, On My Way to the Crusades, I Met a Girl Who... was too unwieldy for most theater marquees, necessitating the film's title-change to The Chastity Belt. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide

Columbia Pictures tried to create a tongue-in-cheek American James Bond with this, the first of five motion pictures based on the character of Matt Helm, a spy created in a series of novels by Donald Hamilton. Dean Martin stars as Helm, a boozing, womanizing cad of a spy coaxed out of retirement by ex-girlfriend Tina Batori (Daliah Lavi). His mission: stop the evil Big O organization, whose leader, Tung-Tze (Victor Buono), schemes to sabotage an atomic missile and thus spark World War III. Producer Irving Allen had once been partners with Albert R. Broccoli in the British film production company Warwick Films, their alliance ironically disintegrating over the merits of creating a Bond series. When Broccoli's instincts proved correct, Allen attempted to create his own spy franchise with the Helm character. The sequels to The Silencers (1966) were Murderers' Row (1966), The Ambushers (1967), and The Wrecking Crew (1968). Allen unsuccessfully tried to resurrect the character as a TV movie, Matt Helm (1975). ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide

Disgusted by the smarminess of his 1963 vehicle Under the Yum Yum Tree, Jack Lemmon vowed that his next effort would be a wholesome family picture. Good Neighbor Sam is suitable for all ages, to be sure, but that doesn't stop producer-writer-director David Swift from injecting plenty of double-entendre dialogue and harmlessly risque situations. Lemmon plays ad executive Sam Bissell, happily married to all-American blonde Minerva (Dorothy Provine). Anxious to land the Nurdlinger's milk account, Sam is carefully scrutinized by the prudish Simon Nurdlinger (Edward G. Robinson), a staunch advocate of old-fashioned family values.

Meanwhile, Minerva welcomes her old school friend, sexy Janet Langerlof (Romy Schneider) into her home. Janet is in line to inherit a fortune, but only if she's married. Unfortunately, Janet is currently separated from her insanely jealous spouse Howard Ebbets (Michael Connors), so big-hearted Minerva volunteers Sam to pose as Janet's husband. The ensuing comic complications come to a head when Nurdlinger elects Sam and Janet as the nation's ideal "married" couple, and posts their pictures on billboards all over town! Some of the smaller pleasures in this film are provided by Louis Nye as a high-tech private eye, Barbara Nichols as a squeaky-voiced call girl, Robert Q. Lewis as Sam's lascivious neighbor, and an uncredited Gil Lamb as a genial wino. An amusing running gag involved the Hertz "man in the driver's seat" commercials of the 1960s has sometimes been cut from TV prints of Good Neighbor Sam. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Jack Lemmon stars as Hogan, who lives a bachelor's dream as the manager of an apartment building that caters only to single women. Hogan likes to romance his tenants, and he sets his sights on a newcomer named Robin (Carol Lynley). Robin and her boyfriend David (Dean Jones) have moved in together, intending to see how compatible they are while maintaining a platonic relationship. This arrangement is the result of a suggestion from Irene (Edie Adams), a marriage counselor who is subletting her apartment to Robin while living with her own boyfriend, Charles (Robert Lansing). Irene thinks that Robin and David need to discover whether they are suitable as marriage partners without letting sex cloud their judgment. Hogan finds out about the arrangement and schemes to get David away so he can seduce Robin. The film is based on a hit stage play by Lawrence Roman. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide

Hijinks and spyjinks lighten this effective comedy by Richard Murphy, based -- very loosely -- on an actual incident in World War II. The place is somewhere in the Pacific and the not-so-good ship USS Echo, captained by the comic Lt. Rip Crandall (Jack Lemmon), has a very specific assignment. The floating anachronism has to safely carry an Australian spy deep into enemy territory where he will be stationed to report on the Japanese fleet's activities. Since the Echo should have been dismantled and sold for its parts long ago, this assignment is not easy. As the military and its stereotypical traits are parodied with sophistication and sharp humor, the Captain and his motley crew do their best to successfully complete their mission. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

Sexual misconduct in white-collar suburbia is the topic of this routine melodrama involving two neighboring couples. Architect Larry Coe (Kirk Douglas), unhappy with his wife Eve's (Barbara Rush) fixation on their bank balance, starts taking an interest in Maggie Gault (Kim Novak), whose husband has been losing interest in her. The two steal several illicit moments together, but this activity has not gone unnoticed. Good ol' neighbor Felix (Walter Matthau) figures that Eve might be feeling a little neglected, so he decides to move into the picture. Richard Quine's direction is an asset to an otherwise clichéd tale. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

In danger of losing his job, TV-producer David Wayne hopes to cook up a real ratings winner by building a network special around the life and work of elderly doctor Paul Muni. For the past 45 years, the iconoclastic Muni has run a free clinic in the slums of Brooklyn. Muni has no time for television, however, so Wayne tries to get Muni's lifelong friend Luther Adler to talk the doctor into appearing before the cameras. Adler agrees, on the proviso that Wayne's network promises to build a nice home in the suburbs for the physician and his wife (Nancy R. Pollock). Going to work on Muni, Adler convinces the old man that a coast-to-coast special will permit him to vent his spleen on the subject of the mercenary medical profession. On the night of the broadcast, Muni discovers that one of his slum patients, Billy Dee Williams, has been arrested for car theft. Leaving Wayne high and dry, Muni rushes down to the police station, where he is pressed into service to save a life. While doing so, he suffers a fatal heart attack, with the weeping Adler at his side. Wayne finally realizes that Muni's selfless idealism was of greater value than any commercially-motivated television program, and says as much when he hands in his resignation. The Last Angry Man turned out to be the cinematic swan song for veteran-actor Paul Muni; he died eight years later. Based on a novel by Gerald Green, The Last Angry Man would be remade for television with Pat Hingle in the Muni role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this drama, a Jewish refugee finds himself stranded in Paris just as the Nazi invaders arrive. Desperate to escape, he commanders the car of a Polish colonel who hates Jews. In order to save himself, the colonel helps the fellow escape. En route, they pick up the officer's girl friend. Trouble begins when the girl finds herself attracted to the Jewish fellow who is really quite witty and charming. The colonel is not amused, but eventually they three end up hiding in a castle. Unfortunately, they are captured anyway. To help them out, the Jewish fellow pretends the colonel is his cousin and they manage to escape. This causes the colonel to change his attitudes and the two become friends. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

In this actioner, set during WW II, the hard-bitten, cynical captain of the USS "Frankenstein" must escape a Japanese invasion. Unfortunately, the ill-fated cruiser is low on food, water, and fuel. When the foundering crew spies a ship (which they believe to be a Dutch cruiser) upon the horizon, they decide to jump ship and light it on fire in the hopes that they will be spotted and saved. Unfortunately, the ship is Japanese. Fortunately, that ship is sunk by a British ship before it can get them. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

Rory Calhoun is Utah Blaine in this pinch-penny Sam Katzman-produced western. Adapted from a novel by Louis L'Amour, the story concerns the efforts of gunslinger Blaine to save a group of ranchers from an outlaw gang. When one the ranchers is killed, Utah finds himself half-owner of a valuable spread, placing him directly in the line of fire along with his attractive "business partner" Angie Kinyon (Susan Cummings). Ray Teal is all snarls as the outlaw leader, while former boxer Max Baer Sr. does a brief turn as a slow-witted hooligan. Like most Sam Katzman efforts, Utah Blaine turned a tidy profit for Katzman's home base of Columbia. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide