Herb Robins Movies
This low-budget horror film about teenagers trapped in a carnival funhouse with a freakish monster is pretty standard stuff. Director Tobe Hooper manages a few shocks and includes some typically peculiar supporting characters, but this film is less entertaining than either of his previous excursions into such territory. Not as scary as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (1974) nor as bizarre as Eaten Alive (1976), The Funhouse may as well have been directed by an anonymous hack as one of the foremost names in the genre. The movie tie-in novel, penned by Dean R. Koontz under the pseudonym "Owen West," is actually far more frightening than the film on which it was based. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Elizabeth Berridge, Cooper Huckabee, (more)
- 1978
- PG
The CB (citizen's band) radio fad had nearly run its course when this feel-good action film was made by director Sam Peckinpah. In the story, based on C.W. McCall's song "Convoy", a group of struggling truckers (who stay in touch by CB) run into a situation which ignites their indignation. They arrange to form a truck convoy under the leadership of the man whose CB nickname is "Rubber Duck" (Kris Kristofferson). He is the most aggrieved of the bunch, having been harassed beyond the point of endurance by Lyle Wallace (Ernest Borgnine) a blackmailing traffic cop who pursues him ever more frantically through several states after he fails to submit to the phony speed trap he had set up. As news of the truck convoy spreads, unexpected allies join the line, and the now-gigantic illegal protest becomes the subject of national news reports. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Kris Kristofferson, Ali MacGraw, (more)
Schlockmeister Ted V. Mikels (The Corpse Grinders) produced this dreadful gross-out comedy featuring lots of bad actors consuming live worms onscreen. After the bouncy title rendition of "Nobody likes me/Everybody hates me/Guess I'll go eat worms," the viewer meets Herman Umgar (Herb Robins, who directed and scripted from Nancy Kapner's story), a worm-breeder with a club foot and a German accent. Umgar sneaks a worm-filled cake into a little girl's birthday party, causing the grossed-out guests to run around in sped-up comic style. Umgar's father was killed by his partner, the mayor's father, in 1939, but Umgar actually owns half the town and the mayor is determined to have the worm-breeder committed and take the town for himself. The first worm is eaten in a plate of spaghetti by a woman named Heidi, who turns into a half-worm mutant from the waist down for no apparent reason. Soon, Umgar has several mutants in a wire pen, gobbling like turkeys. The local lake turns red, and then three fishermen show up in Umgar's bedroom, explaining that they are part-worm and "live in peace under the red tide." They came to find mutant worm-women, and Umgar promises to make mates for them while attempting to maintain his land claim. By the time Umgar is force-fed a whole mouthful of worms and the mutants lead an attack on the mayor, the joke has worn off. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Herb Robins, Lindsay Armstrong Black, (more)
- 1974
- PG
Thomasine and Bushrod was intended as the African American counterpart to Bonnie and Clyde, the difference being that the story in this case is utterly fictional. Vonette McGee plays Thomasine, and Max Julien (who also wrote and coproduced the film) is Bushrod. They are a pair of thieves, operating in the southwest between 1911 and 1915. Fancying themselves as Robin Hoods and the White Establishment as the Sheriff of Nottingham, Thomas and Bushrod steal only from Caucasian capitalists, then distribute the booty to Mexicans, Native Americans and poor whites. George Murdock is the redneck sheriff who dogs their trail. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1969
Ironside (Raymond Burr) and Mark (Don Mitchell) show up at a prison, ostensibly to receive information about a recent crime. Instead, the pair has been lured into a trap by three desperate convicts who intend to use the Chief's van to make their getaway. How can Ironside turn this situation around to his advantage--especially since the convicts are also holding hostage the wife (Virginia Gregg) of the prison's warden (Arthur Space. Contrary to previously published reports, the role of convict Terry Wilson is not played by former child star Jackie Coogan, but instead by Coogan's son Jackie Jr. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A lackadaisical gumshoe is caught between a glamorous thief, a gang of ruthless hoodlums and a handful of vicious drug peddlers in this quirky crime drama from cut-price auteur Ray Dennis Steckler. Carrie Erskine (Carolyn Brandt) is a beautiful cat burglar who late one night cracks the safe of Big Mack (Bernard Fein), a powerful underworld boss. However, before she can make off with the bag he's locked inside, Erskine is attacked by Frankie (Gary Kent), a burly crook who knows what's inside the satchel -- a fortune in heroin. Big Mack isn't the least bit happy about losing his goods, and gives Brett (Brett Pearson), one of his underlings, three days to find the dope and deliver the thief or else. Meanwhile, Ferguson (Alan Smith), another one of Big Mack's goons, wants to get back in the gangster's good graces by finding the dope; knowing that Erskine was after Mack's valuables, he persuades Charlie Smith (Ray Dennis Steckler), a private eye who is short on money, to help him find her and the bag. Smith learns that one of Erskine's best friends is Frankie's boyfriend, and is drawn into the seedy world of drugs and crime in Hollywood as he discovers Erskine is more of an ally than a criminal. Steckler (who has also acted in films as Cash Flagg) took over as leading man in Body Fever (aka Super Cool and The Last Original B Movie) after three days of shooting due to disagreements between himself and the actor initially cast as Charlie Smith, with Steckler donning the toupee originally purchased for his male star. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Joe Saxon (Brick Bardo) is an unsuccessful actor in Hollywood who refuses to accept defeat. His wife, Liz (Liz Renay), is fed up with his dreaming, not to mention the wild parties he throws to suck up to movie industry bigwigs. Worried over their finances, Liz leaves him and goes to stay with her cousin, Linda (Laura Benedict), at the roadside café she runs, but Joe follows with a movie producer in tow who wants to give him a break. Meanwhile, a trio of lunatics has escaped from a mental hospital, cutting a swath of mayhem across California. The axe-wielding psychopaths murder a pair of newlyweds, dispatching their victims with cackling glee. The paths of all these characters cross inevitably at the café, and the fugitives hold the diners hostage. But even after escaping from her captors, Liz is abducted by Mort "Mad Dog" Click (Cash Flagg aka director Ray Dennis Steckler), the brother of one of the killers, and he is more dangerous than all three put together. A lengthy chase scene through Topanga Canyon featuring a station wagon, a motorcycle, and a horse leads to a violent conclusion. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cash Flagg, Liz Renay, (more)
