Ted Post Movies
Ted Post started out as a stage director before turning to television, TV movies, and occasional feature films. Although not a stylist in any identifiable sense, Post has a way of choosing projects that occasionally allow him a notable flourish or two on screen, and has gotten to work with several notable actors at the outsets of their careers. His feature film debut, The Peacemaker (1956), was an unusual programmer about a gunslinger-turned-minister who tries to bring peace to a western town. The Legend of Tom Dooley (1959), which seems to have been built around the hit song by the Kingston Trio, was a post-Civil War drama about a rebel unwittingly turned outlaw, notable for its star, Michael Landon, who was about to burst on the small screen as the star of Bonanza. Post's next feature film nine years later, Hang 'Em High, is probably his best movie, a western drama starring Clint Eastwood in his first American film following his trilogy of spaghetti westerns for Sergio Leone--the story of a rancher wrongly hanged for rustling, who survives to become a deputy U.S. Marshal and hunt down the men responsible, was sufficiently compelling, but Post got excellent porformances not only out of Eastwood but also Pat Hingle (who delivers one brilliant speech), Ed Begley Sr., and Bruce Dern. Post directed Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), sequel to the hit 1968 movie, but it suffered from some excessive editing. And his Magnum Force (1973), the second of Clint Eastwood's Dirty Harry movies, suffered in comparison to the neatly constructed first film. But Go Tell the Spartans (1978), a compelling drama set during the early days of the Vietnam War, featured excellent performances and pacing all around, and stands as one of the finest (if least seen), least pretentious Vietnam movies ever made. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide- 1992
- R
Ted Post directed this account of a former government agent (Michael Dudikoff) who must rescue his brother, a diabetic, from his Iraqi abductors. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Dudikoff, Tommy Hinkley, (more)
The outlaws of country music--including Johnny Cash, Waylon Jennings and Willie Nelson--team up and head across the Southwestern desert braving Indians, brigands and conflict in this made-for television version of John Ford's classic film. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1981
This pilot film for the TV detective series Cagney and Lacey stars Loretta Swit as Chris Cagney and Tyne Daly as Mary Beth Lacey. C and L are NYPD undercover officers, spending their first week on the job disguised as hookers. It's all part of a plan to flush out the person who's been going around beating up prostitutes. The storyline, which also includes the murder of a diamond merchant, shifts from Cagney and Lacey's street duty to their constant struggle against sexism at precinct headquarters and at home. Executive producer Barney Rosenzweig claimed that he'd come up with the idea of Cagney and Lacey after reading a Molly Haskell piece concerning the patronizing treatment of women in films. First telecast on October 8, 1981, the pilot film for Cagney and Lacey held its own opposite the season premiere of Taxi, leading to a weekly series which lasted from 1982 to 1988. But when the series proper went into production, Loretta Swit was replaced by Meg Foster, who in turn was replaced by Sharon Gless (later the wife of executive producer Rosenzweig). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tyne Daly, Loretta Swit, (more)
- 1979
The first "new" ABC network TV movie of the 1979-80 season, this one was advertised under the slightly more lurid title Diary of a Teenage Hitchhiker. Filmed in quasidocumentary fashion, the story chronicles the melancholy tale of rebellious, 17-year-old Trish Thurston (Katy Kurtzman), who, in defiance of her parents' wishes, hangs out with a group of teenagers who enjoyed thumbing rides for kicks. Trish's fascination with the wild, unpredictable side of life leads to a disastrous rendezvous with a crazed killer. Diary of a Hitchhiker originally aired on September 21, 1979. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1979
Filmed in and around Houston, Girls in the Office is an easily digested TV movie with an all-video-star cast. The office is in a large Houston department store. The girls are four in number: Susan Saint James, Barbara Eden, Penny Peyser and Robyn Douglass. The film follows the quartet as they try to balance their jobs with their love lives. Some of the ladies opt for business, others for pleasure; look at the cast and figure out who does which. The viewer's interest in Girls in the Office is entirely dependent upon how appealing one finds its stars. The film couldn't help but do well when it was first telecast in February of 1979: its competition was the McLean Stevenson sitcom Hello, Larry. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Chuck Norris plays John T. Booker, a Vietnam vet who finds out that several of his army buddies lost their lives in a mission that was intended to fail. Seeking answers, Booker quits his school-teaching job and tracks down the surviving members of his unit. One by one, his old friends are being knocked off by sinister forces, orchestrated by a crooked, and legally untouchable, politician. Amidst a plethora of martial arts, gunfire and explosions, the film briefly pauses for a comic-relief scene involving over-aged bellboy Jim Backus. Good Guys Wear Black did so well at the box-office that it warranted a sequel, A Force of One (1979). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Chuck Norris, Anne Archer, (more)
Go Tell the Spartans is set in Vietnam during that period in which American troops were euphemistically termed "advisors". Reluctantly dispensing much of that advice is veteran American major Asa Barker (Burt Lancaster). Though he knows what works and what doesn't on the battlefield, Barker is obliged to carry out the go-nowhere policies of the American military brass. His current objective is a woebegone, barely crucial outpost, which he must defend with a handful of green soldiers and end-of-tether Vietnamese militiamen. True to his predictions, the outpost is overwhelmed by the Vietcong, who have something to fight about and are ruthless in their tactics. Before the relief troops can arrive, virtually everyone is senselessly killed, including Barker. The only survivor is Corporal Stephen Courcey (Craig Wasson), a willing draftee whose initial idealism dies along with his comrades. Wendell Mayes adapted Go Tell the Spartans from the novel Incident at Muc Wa by Daniel Ford. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Burt Lancaster, Craig Wasson, (more)
- 1975
- PG
In this crime comedy, a gullible private volunteers to become the subject of numerous military biological and chemical weaponry experiments. Later he becomes so messed up that he is forced into early retirement. He then decides to use some of the experimental gases to rob banks. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elliott Gould, Eddie Albert, (more)
The second Dirty Harry movie, Magnum Force concerns itself with a vigilante group that has targeted notorious scofflaws for extermination. When a prominent gang boss or drug-runner is set free by the airheaded liberal courts, a covert group of "avengers" is soon on hand to blow the miscreant to bits. While detective Dirty Harry Callahan (Clint Eastwood) is no great friend of civil liberties, he is dead set against wholesale murder as a solution to legal loopholes. Discovering that all the killings have been committed by the same weapon, Callahan reaches the conclusion that his on-the-edge partner, Charlie McCoy (Mitchell Ryan), is responsible. But the answer is less transparent than that, as Harry learns almost at the cost of his own life. Co-scripted by John Milius and Michael Cimino, Magnum Force was followed by three additional Dirty Harry installments: The Enforcer (1976), Sudden Impact (1983) and The Dead Pool (1988). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Hal Holbrook, (more)
In The Harrad Experiment, young men and women attend Harrad College for what is essentially a one-year "control group" trial in pre-marital sex, to be overseen by Prof. Philip Tenhausen (James Whitmore) and his wife, Margaret (Tippi Hedren). Although initially paired off for the first month, they will be free to change partners once a month if they so desire. The film focuses on two couples, the somewhat shy Sheila (Laurie Walters), who is paired with the rich and swaggering Stanley (Don Johnson), and alluring Beth (Victoria Thompson), whose roomie is the awkward Harry (Bruno Kirby). The two couples don't get off to a good start, as Stanley is disappointed in his partner and Harry intimidated by his. There's a great deal of tension as the partners consider whether they have been paired off appropriately, and the jealousy and discomfort they feel comes to the surface in an improvisational exercise overseen by Philip. Whether this is all a result of mismatched pairs or more a result of Stanley's inability to "feel" is the subject of some debate, and leads to a number of confrontations and scenes (not to mention nude yoga classes and discussions of group marriage). Stanley also attempts to interest Margaret in having sex with him, but when she suggests that they do so freely and openly on the lawn, he can't go through with it. Stanley decides he wants to leave Harrad, but at the last minute changes his mind and joins Sheila, Beth and Harry for a group hug. Based upon Robert Rimmer's best-seller, Harrad was followed by a sequel, The Harrad Summer. ~ Craig Butler, All Movie Guide
- 1972
Sandcastles dresses up an old story with pretty seascapes and prettier actors. Bonnie Bedelia is a lonely young musician who strikes up an acquaintance with the enigmatic Jan-Michael Vincent. Even though she sees him only while walking along the beach, Bonnie falls in love with this curious young man. When she tells others of her affair, she is informed that no such young man exists...but that he did exist, before he turned criminal and was killed. The truth is out: Vincent is a ghost, returned to Earth to clear his reputation. Sandcastles was shot on videotape by veteran TV-series helmsman Ted Post. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Filmed in Flagstaff, Arizona, The Bravos top-bills George Peppard as a frontier cavalry commander. It is Peppard's job to protect his fort, and the wagon train passengers sheltered within, from the 2000 Kiowa Indian warriors who dot the surrounding hills. This being a 1972 TV movie, the Native Americans are "savage" only when provoked. When they abduct Peppard's son Vincent Van Patten, it is in retribution for the death of their own chief's son. The Bravos was the 90-minute pilot film for a never-sold western series. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
TV-movie perennial Ted Post served as director for the low-budget theatrical feature The Baby. Ruth Roman plays a boozy nutcase who, out of hatred for the husband who ran out on her years earlier, forces her teenaged son (David Manzy) to dress and behave like an infant. Social worker Ann Gentry (Anjanette Comer), understandably put off by the sight of a fully grown boy chewing on his toes in a playpen, sets about to rescue him. When sinister forces try to claim the "baby" from Ann, she resorts to murder. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Helen Hayes, Mildred Natwick, Myrna Loy and Sylvia Sidney star as four elderly pranksters devoted to practical jokes. When one of the ladies gets hold of a computer-dating questionnaire, the others invent a mythical girl and feed the falsified information into the computer. Alas, the description matches a very real young lady, who becomes the target of a murderous rapist (Vince Edwards). Attacked at the time of its release for making light of a potentially deadly situation, Do Not Fold, Spindle or Mutilate led to the casting of Helen Hayes and Mildred Natwick in the weekly detective series The Snoop Sisters. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1971
Five Desperate Women debuted as an ABC Movie of the Week on September 28, 1971. Anjanette Comer, Joan Hackett, Denise Nicholas and Stefanie Powers are four of five graduates of an exclusive girl's college, meeting together for a reunion on a remote island. The fifth girl (whose name we'll withhold for suspense purposes) is the one that's murdered first. It appears that an unknown assailant plans to pick off the girls one by one. The survivors must figure out who's doing them in and why before fade-out time. Aaron Spelling was the producer of this middling clichefest. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
An uncharacteristic Bing Crosby plays Dr. Cook, a small town physician with a little something to hide. Outwardly gentle and compassionate, Cook is less politely inclined to those in his Vermont community whom he regards as disposable. When a young man (Frank Converse) whom Cook has raised as a son returns to the community, he begins to suspect that his father-figure is keeping secrets. The young man learns that the good Doctor has been murdering those patients whom he regards as useless, and then burying the victims in his meticulously kept garden. Made for TV, Dr. Cook's Garden was adapted from a Broadway play by Ira Levin, in which Burl Ives starred in the title role. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
James Franciscus and his wife Lee Grant take a vacation in a faraway, fogbound village. Before we get a chance to ask "Why not go to the beach?" Franciscus awakens suddenly in the middle of the night to see several of the villagers compliantly boarding trucks; among these glassy-eyed passengers is his own wife. The trucks drive off into the mists. The next day, Franciscus is the only person who remembers this strange occurrence. The title of this TV movie should give you a good idea of what's afoot. Night Slaves is a 1970s spin on the old Shock Theatre favorite It Came From Outer Space. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1970
- G
- Add Beneath the Planet of the Apes to QueueAdd Beneath the Planet of the Apes to top of Queue
Sometime after the events of the first Planet of the Apes, the climax of which is repeated frame for frame at the beginning of this sequel, another set of astronauts arrives on the far-future Earth that is the titular planet. This time it's Brent (James Franciscus) who survives the crash landing and learns that evolved simians have taken over the world, post-apocalypse. After hooking up with Nova (Linda Harrison), the mute, fur bikini-clad beauty who spent the first film being squired by astronaut Taylor (Charlton Heston), Brent confers with Zira (Kim Hunter) and Cornelius (David Watson, giving Roddy McDowall his only break during the five-film series), the ape scientists whose adherence to scientific principles makes them friendly to the possibility of intelligent human life. Something of a military coup has taken place among the apes, who dispatch an army to the desolate "Forbidden Zone" where Taylor has coincidentally disappeared. With the apes and the humans both rooting about in the ruins of 20th century civilization, it's only a matter of time before they all find out what happened to the other survivors of the nuclear holocaust. ~ Brian J. Dillard, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Franciscus, Kim Hunter, (more)
Ex-lawman turned rancher Jed Cooper (Clint Eastwood) is moving a small herd of cattle when a group of nine men on horseback, led by Captain Wilson (Ed Begley Sr.), ride up and accuse him of having stolen the cattle and killed their owner. Refusing to believe his account, they string him up by the neck and leave him for dead, but they don't do the job right. Cooper is dangling there, barely alive, a few minutes later when Deputy U.S. Marshal Bliss (Ben Johnson) spots him and cuts him down. He survives the next few days in Bliss' tumbleweed wagon with the other prisoners, and is later cleared of any wrongdoing and released by Judge Fenton (Pat Hingle), just in time to witness the hanging of the man who really murdered the owner of the cattle and took Cooper's money. Cooper still wants revenge on the nine men who tried to hang him, but Fenton insists that he leave the bringing of them to justice to his deputy marshals. As it happens, Fenton is in desperate need of deputy marshals for the territory that he oversees, and he also knows that Cooper was a good lawman. Cooper, in turn, is now broke and in need of a job, and does want to see justice done. They strike an uneasy bargain, Cooper agreeing to wear a badge and bring in the men he's looking for -- alive -- for trial. The latter proves easier said than done, however, when the first of them that he spots tries to draw on him when he makes the arrest. One of the hanging party, Jenkins (Bob Steele), soon turns himself in and provides the names of the others. Cooper takes Stone (Alan Hale Jr.) alive, but the hapless blacksmith is later shot by the local sheriff (Charles McGraw) while trying to escape. The other men, led by Wilson, have no intention of dying, or even being brought to trial, without a fight. Two of them go on the run out of the territory, while Wilson and two of the others decide to take the law into their own hands once again. Meanwhile, Cooper becomes a hero when he single-handedly brings back a trio of rustlers who are also guilty of murder. This leads to Cooper's first confrontation with Judge Fenton, who, in a gripping scene, explains why it is essential that he be as seemingly quick to hang a man as he is. Unless the people are convinced that the law will do its job -- including hanging men who deserve it -- they will keep taking the law into their own hands and there will be more lynch mobs like the one that tried to kill Cooper. In the course of his quest for justice, Cooper also makes the acquaintance of Rachel (Inger Stevens), a young woman with her own search for justice, haunted by her own ghosts, and the two of them are drawn together, no more so than when Wilson and two of the others try to gun Cooper down in cold blood. The final confrontation between Cooper and Wilson escalates in violence to its savage, irony-laced conclusion. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Clint Eastwood, Inger Stevens, (more)
- 1964
While in American-held territory, Saunders (Vic Morrow) and Caje (Pierre Jalbert) and taken prisoner by a pair of SS officers (one of whom is played by future daytime-drama leading man Eric Braden, here billed under his real name Hans Gudegast). The Germans will return their hostages only if Doc (Conlan Carter) agrees to secure them a vehicle that will allow them to escape back to their own lines. Ken Berry, still one year removed from F Troop, appears as an ebullient motor sergeant. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1964
A jaunty harmonica-music score by Tommy Morgan was the main redeeming feature of this otherwise pedestrian Twilight Zone episode. John Dehner stars as Jared Garrity, a frontier con artist who convinces the citizens of a sleepy western town that he possesses the ability to bring the dead back to life. After a few examples of his power, the townsfolk are convinced -- and are willing to pay through the nose to make sure that certain people remain dead. An amusing but predictable twist caps this episode, which was scripted by Rod Serling from a short story by Mike Korologos and first aired May 8, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- John Dehner, J. Pat O'Malley, (more)
- 1964
Investigating a strange series of occurences -- eerie noises, flashing lights, reports of giant monsters -- state trooper Robert Franklin (Mark Richman) is forced to take refuge in a mountain cabin occupied by vacationing fashion designer Charlotte Scott (Hazel Court). Though Charlotte has seen and heard the weird noises and images, Franklin remains skeptical, until he too is barraged by these seemingly extraterrestrial cannonades. Before long, both Franklin and Charlotte are fighting for their lives against a huge, apparently invulnerable space alien. . .but this being Twilight Zone, all is not quite what it seems. Written by Rod Serling, "The Fear" first aired May 29, 1964. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Mark Richman, Hazel Court, (more)
- 1964
Captured by the Germans, Saunders (Vic Morrow) is rescued by Cpl. Jerry Bacon (Guy Stockwell), who claims to have just escaped from an enemy stronghold. Bacon then takes Saunders to meet his superior officer, Col. Johnson (Edward Binns. Unfortunately, it turns out that both Bacon and Johnson are German spies, hoping to use their All-American facade to pump Saunders for vital information. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
