Anthony Carbone Movies

When an "I'm-just-makin'-money" developer plops his new ski lodge at the foot of a mountain, the locals warn him about snowslides. So it's not too long before a gigantic avalanche buries the lodge and all the snow bunnies in it. Rock Hudson plays the ski lodge owner and Mia Farrow is his couch-hopping wife in this disaster film. ~ All Movie Guide

More ambitious and expensive than ABC's first "novel for television" miniseries QB VII, the eight-episode, 12-hour Rich Man, Poor Man was the one that truly put the genre on the map, its phenomenal success in the ratings making possible the even more spectacular Roots. Adapted from the mammoth novel by Irwin Shaw, the miniseries covers the years from WWII to the 1960s, detailing the vacillating fortunes of the immigrant Jordache brothers. "Rich Man" Rudy Jordache (Peter Strauss) is determined to use his hard-earned education -- and his inherent ruthlessness -- to carve out a business and political empire not unlike that enjoyed by Joseph P. Kennedy and his progeny. "Poor Man" Tom Jordache (Nick Nolte), a quick-fisted hothead, goes an entirely different route, first as a professional boxer, then as a functionary of the evil gangster chieftain Falconetti (William Smith). Naturally, both brothers become entangled in romance along the way, with Julie Prescott (Susan Blakely) ending up as Rudy's benighted spouse. Originally telecast on February 1, 2, 9, 16, 23, and March 1, 8, and 15 in 1976, Rich Man, Poor Man earned 20 Emmy nominations and led to a weekly sequel, Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book 2, in the fall of 1976 (this version necessitated a title change for the original, which was rebroadcast as Rich Man, Poor Man -- Book 1 in the spring of 1977). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

In this exciting adventure, the residents of a remote California community grow tired of having their lives disrupted by growing groups of rowdy oilworkers who have no respect for law and order. In desperation they hire a Vietnam veteran to clean up the town. The ex-fighter brings in a band of other vets and does just that. Unfortunately, the veterans then begin controlling the town until the leader's brother and his friends manage to oust him and restore peace to the sleepy little town. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide

The Mad, Mad Movie Makers is the alternate title of The Last Porno Flick. The plot (yes, there is a plot!) concerns a pair of two-bit movie producers who are anxious to cash in on the Deep Throat craze (the film, not the Watergate informant). They end up producing a lampoon of Deep Throat, meaning that they've produced a lampoon of a lampoon. Setting this one apart from the usual sleaze is its cast, peopled with such respectable names as Michael Pataki, Mike Kellin, Mariana Hill, and Anthony Carbone. At 88 minutes, The Mad, Mad Movie Makers wears out its welcome long before the final fadeout. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Of the two rape-oriented TV movies of the 1973-74 season, A Case of Rape, first telecast February 20, 1974, is far and away the finer film (the other was the compelling but contrived Cry Rape). Elizabeth Montgomery stars as a housewife who is sexually assaulted not once but twice by a so-called family friend (Cliff Potts). The rape is only the beginning of a long cycle of humiliation and self-doubt: the investigating police are dismissive of Montgomery's charges, the female defense attorney (Rosemary Murphy) tries to put the victim on trial, and Montgomery's reputation and marriage (to Ronny Cox) are irrevocably damaged. Though things don't go well for her in the courtroom, Montgomery emerges from the experience a stronger and more self-reliant person, unwilling to allow herself to be destroyed by outside influences. Don't miss the final confrontation between raper and rapist after the trial--an underplayed but bone-chilling vignette. Had not Cicely Tyson sewn up the Emmy with The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, Elizabeth Montgomery would certainly have copped the prize with A Case of Rape. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Suzanne Pleshette is cast against type as Shelly Kingman, a woman with a sordid past and an uncertain future. Shelly is hired by ex-convict Roy Lewis (Dane Clark), whom Ironside (Raymond Burr) is determined to send back to prison for killing a cop. The "mystery woman"'s assignment is to get close to Ironside and set him up for murder--or, failing that, to murder him herself! (Suzanne Pleshette fans please note: though Ironside's first name is "Robert", she never calls him "Bob"--so put down those drinks!) ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Unique among Bonanza episodes, "The Companeros" does not feature any of the series' top-billed stars, but instead focuses exclusively on Ben Cartwright's nephew Will, played by Guy Williams. Guest-star Frank Silvera is cast as freedom fighter Mateo Ibara, who hopes to enlist his old friend Will's support in helping Benito Juarez assume the presidency of Mexico. Despite his fondness for Ibara and his wife Carla (Faith Domergue), Will finds himself questioning Mateo's true motives. Anthony Carbone, a familiar face in many an American-International movie epic, is here seen as Vincente. First telecast on April 19, 1964, "The Companeros" was written by Ken Pettus. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

Steven Hill guest stars in this episode as flamboyant mobster Jack "Legs" Diamond. The Mob doesn't like the publicity stirred up by Diamond's many extramarital affairs, so they order him out of town for a spell while they orchestrate a scheme to smuggle $5 million worth of narcotics into the country. But Legs get wind of the plan and hijacks the valuable cargo, demanding a piece of the action from his disgruntled fellow hoods. Ultimately, Legs double-crosses himself by continuing to flaunt his affair with Follies dancer Dawn Dolan (Suzanne Storrs) in front of his embittered wife Alice (Norma Crane). Crime historians will have no trouble identifying the characters played by Oscar Beregi and Peter Whitney as thinly disguised versions of real-life scofflaws Arnold Rothstein and Big Bill Dwyer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

American-International's standing "haunted castle" set is exhibited to peak advantage in Roger Corman's Pit & the Pendulum. Save for the climax, Richard Matheson's script bears but little resemblance to the Edgar Allen Poe original, though there are pronounced echoes throughout of Poe's The Premature Burial. Vincent Price stars as Nicholas Medina, the son of a notorious Spanish Inquisition torturer. Nicholas' wife Elizabeth (Barbara Steele) has died under mysterious circumstances, prompting Elizabeth's brother Francis (John Kerr) to arrive at the Medina castle to investigate. The tormented Medina believes that Elizabeth was buried alive, and is convinced that he can hear his wife's voice calling out to him. In truth, Elizabeth has faked her death, part of a plan concocted with her lover Dr. Leon (Anthony Carbone) to drive Medina mad. She succeeds in this goal (albeit to her own grief, as the film's very last shot reveals), pushing Medina over the brink. Convinced that he's his own father, Medina dons Inquisition robes, straps Francis to a table, and arranges for a huge steel-bladed pendulum to slowly, slooooowwly descend on his helpless victim. You'd never know that Pit & The Pendulum was shot on the budget and schedule of a B western; the film is consistently good to look at, with eerily evocative color camerawork (Floyd Crosby) and sumptuous art direction. Stock footage of the climactic torture sequence would later find its way into the 1966 spy spoof Dr. Goldfoot and the Bikini Machine, which also starred Vincent Price. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide

This weak sci-fi, post-disaster drama is about three people left alive after everyone else has been killed on earth. The trio is comprised of Harold (Antony Carbone), Martin (Edward Wain), and Evelyn (Betsy Jones-Moreland) who were underwater scuba diving when a mysterious glitch in the atmosphere depleted all available oxygen for a short period of time -- enough to kill off earth's population. The ambiance is at first eerie and increasingly ominous as the divers surface and slowly discover that no one is alive out there. Then the interaction of the two men with each other and with Evelyn (Eve?), takes over and the story veers into an odd romance drama as the two machos each try to seduce the last woman left on earth. The story was a first effort by scripter Robert Towne, whose muse was dozing at the moment, but was definitely back in form on later efforts (Chinatown, The Last Detail). Towne also co-starred here as Martin, using the pseudonym of Edward Wain. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide

A fine example -- perhaps the best available -- of "B"-movie overlord Roger Corman's "Weekend Wonders" from the producer/director's early career (see also the original Little Shop of Horrors), this horror-comedy was also the first of beloved actor Dick Miller's dozen-odd portrayals of the character Walter Paisley. A geeky waiter and busboy at a happening Beatnik café, Walter is intensely jealous of the swinging social lives of the artistic types who hang there. A bizarre twist of fate changes everything; when Paisley accidentally kills his landlady's cat, his frantic attempts to hide the body lead him to encase it in a layer of clay, creating a morbid sculpture -- which is eventually discovered and hailed as an artistic triumph by the unwitting Bohemian art crowd. (When asked what he's named the piece, the befuddled Walter stammers, "Uhh... Dead Cat?") Beset by numerous requests for similar "truthful" works, the moronic Paisley is forced to find inspiration -- a matter which is readily solved when a nosy undercover cop tries to slap a heroin-possession charge on him and finds himself on the business end of a cast-iron skillet. Before long, the creative urge prods Walter to narrow the competition by whacking his peers with various blunt or sharp implements, and the demand for more sculptures just keeps growing. Miller's tour-de-force performance, writer Charles B. Griffith's hilarious "Daddy-O" dialogue, and Corman's emphasis on the story's more lurid aspects raise this bargain-basement production (ultra-cheap even by Corman's standards) to classic status. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide

Thanks to the notorious gangland conference in Appalachian, New York, the word "Mafia" was on everyone's lips in 1959. Rushing to capitalize on this fact was the low-budget expose Inside the Mafia. Grant Richards plays a Lucky Luciano type who is about to return to the US after several years' deportation. Richards arranges for an upstate New York gangland meeting, where minor mob functionary Cameron Mitchell plans to depose big boss Ted DeCorsia. Mitchell also intends to murder Richards so that he can rule the Mafia unfettered. But Richards is still master of his own fate, and he guns down his competition during the gang conference before surrendering to the police. Inside the Mafia told the public little that wasn't already known, but the film served its purpose of cashing in on a "hot" title. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide