Michael Pataki Movies

This episode was originally seen in most markets on a Saturday night, rather than the customary Sunday-evening Alice timeslot. The plot finds the irascible Mel (Vic Tayback) suddenly and inexplicably demonstrating warmth and affection towards Alice (Linda Lavin) and Tommy (Philip McKeon). Such is Mel's curious behavior that Alice suspects the worst when he invites her to have dinner with his "family". ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

While moonlighting as a cab driver, Archie is held up and robbed of 50 dollars. At first, he insists upon prosecuting his assailant to the full extent of the law -- in fact, he'd be thrilled if armed robbery was a hanging offense. But an unexpected plot twist involving a prominent politician places an entirely new perspective on the situation. The supporting cast includes future Soap star Robert Mandan as Morrison. First shown on December 8, 1973, "The Taxi Caper" was written by Dennis Klein. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

After a two-week preemption for network Olympics coverage, Baretta returned on February 18, 1976 with this episode. The focus is on Billy Truman (Tom Ewell), the manager of the fleabag hotel that undercover cop Tony Baretta (Robert Blake) calls home. The tension begins to mount when Billy is kidnapped, and the ransom demanded is the 500,000 dollars in stolen bonds that Baretta may have recovered after thwarting a robbery. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Anna Kosovo (Kathleen Widdoes), a friend of Ben Cartwright, has good reason to be terrified of her antagonistic immigrant husband Nick (Michael Pataki). Trapped in her own house by her husband, Anna-and her young son-must rely upon Ben to rescue them. Written by Preston Wood and Karl Tunberg, this episode is climaxed by a prolonged and tension-filled gunfight. "Frenzy" first aired on January 30, 1972-coincidentally just before the release of the otherwise unrelated Alfred Hitchcock theatrical feature Frenzy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Following orders, Saunders (Vic Morrow) and his men are forced to stand aside and do nothing when a group of accused Nazi collaborators are summarily executed in a recently liberated French village. Among the condemned is the father of Marie Marchand (Marisa Pavan),who after witnessing the execution becomes hysterical and runs off into the countryside. When it is belatedly proven that Marie's father was innocent, Saunders is assigned to bring her back--not to make amends, but because the girl knows the location of a German tank emplacement. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Dan O'Bannon and Ronald Shusett, the screenwriters behind the highly successful Alien, turned their attention to earthbound terrors with this creepy horror tale. Dead and Buried focuses on Dan Gillis (James Farentino), a man who has recently returned to his hometown of Potter's Bluff to be its sheriff. His job becomes difficult when a series of strangers who visit Potter's Bluff begin dying in violent and mysterious ways. To make matters worse, his wife, Janet (Melody Anderson), has begun to act strangely, taking an odd interest in voodoo and acting like she might be having an affair. As the murder victims pile up, Gillis discovers that all his troubles have an occult origin that has to do with the town's elderly mortician, Dobbs (Jack Albertson, in his final feature film role). Gillis gets to the bottom of the mystery, only to discover that the truth is much worse than he imagined. Despite effective direction and solid acting, Dead and Buried got lost in the shuffle of the early '80s horror boom and failed to click with the movie-going public. However, it later gained an audience via home video and cable and remains a minor cult favorite today thanks to its singular blend of creepy atmosphere and gruesome shocks. ~ Donald Guarisco, All Movie Guide

A trio of dangerous criminals meet their match at a private school for girls in this oddball mixture of sexploitation, action and comedy. Three patients from an institution for the criminally insane make a break and escape to the outside world -- Carl Clooney (Michael Pataki), a deranged nightclub comic and mimic, Dick Peters (Bob Minor), a disgraced big-league baseball player and serial rapist, and Bruce Wilson (Stephen Stucker), an unhinged gay fashion designer. Looking for a car and a place to hide, the escapees first take over the home of a half-witted cowboy and his sex-starved wife, but they soon end up at the Oxford Corrective Institute for Young Women, a private learning facility for obstreperous teenagers operated by strict disciplinarian Mr. Baxter (John Aldeman). It's semester break and only six of the students are left behind, and the criminals think they're in for some sadistic fun with the attractive young women, but what they don't know is that self-defense is part of the Oxford curriculum, and the gals are well versed in karate. Also titled Carnal Madness, Delinquent Schoolgirls marked the screen debut of comic and actor Stephen Stucker, who enjoyed overnight success as the sharp-tongued air traffic controller in Airplane!; his career was cut short by his premature death in 1986. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide

Tossing wristwatches away, two bikers hit the road to find America in Dennis Hopper's anti-establishment classic. After a major cocaine sale to an L.A. connection (Phil Spector), free-wheeling potheads Billy (Hopper) and Wyatt, aka Captain America (Peter Fonda, who also produced), motor eastward to party at Mardi Gras before "retiring" to Florida with the riches concealed in Wyatt's stars-and-stripes gas tank. As they ride through the Southwest, they take a hitchhiker (Luke Askew) to a struggling hippie commune before they get thrown in a small-town jail for "parading without a permit." Their cellmate, drunken ACLU lawyer George Hanson (Jack Nicholson, replacing Rip Torn), does them a "groovy" favor by getting them out of jail and then decides to join them. Babbling about Venusians, George discovers the joys of smoking grass, but an encounter with Southern rednecks soon proves how right he is about the danger posed by Billy's and Wyatt's unfettered life in a country that has lost its ideals. With the straight world closing in, Wyatt and Billy try to revel in New Orleans with some LSD and hookers (Karen Black and Toni Basil), but the acid trip is shot through with morbidity. Once they reach Florida, Billy raves about attaining the American dream; Wyatt, however, knows the truth: "We blew it."

Produced and directed by two Hollywood iconoclasts with under a half-million non-studio dollars, Easy Rider shook up the languishing movie industry when it grossed over 19 million dollars in 1969; it captured the spirit of the times as it woke Hollywood up to the power of young audiences and socially relevant movies, along with such other landmarks of the late '60s as Bonnie and Clyde, The Graduate, and 2001. Shot on location by Laszlo Kovacs, Easy Rider eschewed old-fashioned Hollywood polish for documentary-style immediacy, and it enhanced its casual feel with improvised dialogue and realistically "stoned" acting. With a soundtrack of contemporary rock songs by Jimi Hendrix, the Band, and Steppenwolf to complete the atmosphere, Easy Rider was hailed for capturing the increasingly violent Vietnam-era split between the counterculture and the repressive Establishment. Experiencing the "shock of recognition," youth audiences embraced Easy Rider's vision of both the attractions and the limits of dropping out, proving that audience's box-office power and turning Nicholson into a movie star. The momentarily hip Academy nominated Nicholson for the Best Supporting Actor Oscar, and Fonda, Hopper, and Terry Southern for their screenplay. Though none of its imitators would match its impact, Easy Rider remains one of the seminal works of late '60s Hollywood both for its trailblazing legacy and its sharply perceptive portrait of its chaotic times. ~ Lucia Bozzola, All Movie Guide

This standard formula slasher-thriller involves an equal-opportunity psycho busily pitchforking both male and female members of a high-school track team. The killer's motivation is supposedly linked to a similar murder which occurred 40 years ago at an ill-fated graduation dance. This tedious time-waster scores a few brownie points by way of creative casting (be sure to catch Vanna White as one of the toothsome victims), but that's about it. Slasher movie completists may note the plot's strong resemblance to that of The Prowler, a lesser-known but far more stylish film released the same year. Future scream-queen-in-training Linnea Quigley appears in a small doomed-teen role. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

And still they come? This fourth entry in the Halloween franchise focuses on Jamie Lloyd (Danielle Harris), the niece of ubiquitous masked-killer Michael Myers (George P. Wilbur). Jamie tries to lead a normal life, but she can't escape the vengeance of her "funny uncle," who once more escapes from the looney bin. The only echo of the original Halloween -- and a faint one at that -- is the casting of Donald Pleasence as Dr. Loomis, who manages to get through his "We must stop him!" scenes as if mouthing the words for the first time. Though as predictable as they come, Halloween 4 etc. is at least well acted, directed and photographed. For the record, the German version of the film had to be shorn of practically all its gore before the censors would permit a general release. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Taking over for Gary Cooper, Lee Majors stars as Marshal Will Kane in this made-for-TV movie set a year after the original High Noon ends. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide