Raymond St. Jacques Movies
One of the most dynamic of the '60s "new wave" of African-American actors, Raymond St. Jacques had originally intended to become a social worker. Thankfully, he did not allow his richly theatrical voice and imposing physique to go to waste, and decided upon an acting career, specializing in Shakespeare. Whenever "at liberty", which was often in the mid '50s, St. Jacques was obliged to take the menial jobs then open to black males; his theatrical career picked up momentum after he underwent training at New York's Actors Studios. His big break was in the ongoing off-Broadway production of Jean Genet's The Blacks, a play that boosted the careers of virtually all the major African-American actors of the early '60s. While roles were still comparatively scarce for non-white performers, St. Jacques did quite well for himself in feature films (Black Like Me [1964], The Pawnbroker [1965], The Green Berets [1967], Cotton Comes to Harlem [1970]) and as a TV guest star. In 1973, St. Jacques produced, directed and starred in The Book of Numbers, a minor but lively film about a pair of black confidence men in the South of the '30s. One of his last assignments was as Frederick Douglass in the 1989 historical drama Glory; his agent was unable to negotiate proper billing, so St. Jacques willingly played the role sans screen credit. Raymond St. Jacques died at age 60 of cancer of the lymph glands. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1988
This episode was intended to introduce Katie Rich as a recurring character named Cougar, a member of Denise's philosophy class. After becoming Cougar's study partner, Denise (Lisa Bonet) invites the girl to crash in her dorm room, on condition that she make herself scarce whenever dorm director Lettie appears. Unfortunately, the girl finds it impossible to be inconspicuous, and ends up getting Denise in plenty of trouble--especially when it is revealed that Cougar isn't even a registered student. Curiously, though Katie Rich makes an excellent impression in this episode, her character was never seen again. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1987
When a pregnant woman is caught in the crossfire of a mob hit, Hunter (Fred Dryer) and McCall (Stepfanie Kramer) find themselves faced with two daunting tasks. Not only do they have to locate the killer, but they must also establish the identity of the brain-dead victim in order to save the life of her unborn child. A crucial decision by the compassionate McCall caps this pivotal episode, which was directed by series star Fred Dryer. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1986
Loretta Young was originally to have starred in made-for-TV Dark Mansions, but she didn't like the script and passed up the project; her role was quickly filled by another Hollywood veteran, Joan Fontaine. Aaron Spelling and Douglas Cramer, the guys who brought you Love Boat, "go gothic" in this Seattle-based tale of the supernatural. While writing the history of a shipbuilding family, Linda Purl learns a little too much for her own wellbeing. Per the film's title, most of the story takes place in a haunted house-and it's a lulu. Michael York, Philip Drake and Melissa Sue Anderson costar. Dark Mansions was first telecast August 23, 1986. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1985
The opening episode of Murder She Wrote's second season marks the first occasion in which matronly mystery writer and amateur sleuth Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) assumes a different identity in the cause of justice. Summoned to a Caribbean resort by a desperate letter from her old friend Antoinette Farnsworth (Reggie Savage), Jessica arrives to find that Antoinette has been murdered. To ferret out the guilty party, who has already been pinpointed as a jewel thief, our heroine poses as a very wealthy--and very reclusive--widow. Len Cariou, who previously costarred with Angela Lansbury in the hit Broadway musical "Sweeney Todd", makes his first appearance as redoubtable British secret agent Michael Haggerty. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1984
The two-hour debut episode of Murder, She Wrote finds former substitute teacher Jessica Fletcher (Angela Lansbury) reluctantly thrust into the limelight when her first mystery novel, "The Corpse Danced at Midnight," becomes a best-seller. Invited to a costume ball held by her publisher, Jessica comes face to face with a genuine murder when guest Dexter Baxendale (Dennis Patrick), wearing a Sherlock Holmes costume, turns up dead. Suspicion immediately falls upon Jessica's nephew Grady (Michael Horton), forcing our heroine to turn sleuth herself. Throughout the story, the widowed Jessica must also wrestle with her growing attraction to handsome Preston Giles (Arthur Hill). Watch for future Murder, She Wrote semi-regular Herb Edelman in a role other than Lt. Artie Gelber, and also for a young Andy Garcia in a bit part as a tough guy. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1981
The three-part TV miniseries The Sophisticated Gents covers 25 years in the lives of a group of close friends. Nine African-American members of a sports club gather for a quarter-century reunion. As they reminisce over the high and low points of their lives, some of the members await the arrival of the group's troublemaker with less than enthusiasm. The story comes to an out-of-left-field conclusion involving an escaped killer (Melvin van Peebles) and a pursuing cop. The nine "gents" of the title are played by Ron O'Neal, Thalmus Rasulala, Bernie Casey, Dick Anthony Williams, Raymond St. Jacques, Robert Hooks, Rosey Grier, Paul Winfield...and the aforementioned Melvin van Peebles. Based on John A. Williams' novel The Junior Bachelor Society, the 4-hour The Sophisticated Gents was originally telecast September 29, October 1 and October 2, 1981; for reasons unknown, its debut had been postponed for nearly two years. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Paul Winfield, Bernie Casey, (more)
- 1979
After football player Joe Ramsey (Lee Paul) dies of a brain aneuryism, Quincy (Jack Klugman) performs an autopsy and finds that the man was suffering from a drug-resistent strain of gonnorhea. In his efforts to trace the source of the disease, Quincy orders a round-up of the city's prostitutes--and when one of the hookers turns up murdered, it seems that the feisty medical examiner has stumbled onto a widespread conspiracy and coverup. This episode can be regarded as a seminal example of the "AIDS dramas" which proliferated on television during the next two decades (though of course AIDS had not yet been identified as an international epidemic). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1977
In this special 90-minute episode, Charles Ingalls (Michael Landon) replaces the injured Jonathan Garvey (Merlin Olsen) in a high-stakes boxing match. Charles wins with astonishing ease -- only to discover that his opponent, a black man named Joe Kagan (Moses Gunn), is in no condition to be in the ring. Doc Baker (Kevin Hagen) tells Kagan that he must give up boxing or face an early death -- but what else can Joe do, and where can he go without facing racial prejudice? ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Landon, Karen Grassle, (more)
- 1975
Three intrepid archeologists head into Pueblo country in New Mexico in search of Mankind's origins. The group hopes to locate an ancient medallion, which may or may not prove that the Earth was once a stopping-off point for extraterrestrial beings. But just finding the medallion turns out to be the easy part; complicating matters is a fierce struggle over possession of the artifact, with several would-be possessors indicating that they're willing to kill to get what they want. Filmed on location in Taos, New Mexico as the pilot for a proposed (but unsold) weekly series, Search for the Gods made its ABC network bow on March 9, 1975--where it was handily trounced in the ratings by a competing Barbra Streisand special. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1975
The Cut Man Caper originated as a 90-minute episode of the weekly TV anthology Police Story. Heading the cast is Robert Hooks as Ernie Tillis, a detective in the robbery-homicide division. On the trail of loan-company robbers, Hooks is forced to rely upon shifty informer Freddy (Lou Gossett Jr.). But the "snitch" is playing both ends down the middle-and he's also stolen the expensive miniature voice-transmitter entrusted to his care. The largely African American cast includes such old favorites as Scoey Mitchlll, Godfrey Cambridge and Raymond St. Jacques. Intended as the pilot for a spinoff series (which never materialized), The Cut Man Caper debuted October 28, 1975. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Hooks, Godfrey Cambridge, (more)
Lost in the Stars was an American Film Theatre adaptation of the musical play by Maxwell Anderson and Kurt Weill--which in turn was based on the Alain Paton novel Cry the Beloved Country. Brock Peters portrays a South African minister who goes to the Big City to locate his son Raymond St. Jacques, who is now a criminal in the eyes of the white rulers. The minister forges a curious, foredoomed friendship with a white farmer (Paul Rogers). Lost in the Stars has sometimes been accused of blunting the edge of Paton's angry study of the cruelties of Apartheid; fans of musical theatre will be more politely inclined to this loving filmization of the Broadway play. On its own, Cry the Beloved Country was previously filmed in 1951, with Canada Lee, Sidney Poitier and Charles Carson. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- 1972
This is a remake of The Asphalt Jungle with an all black cast. In it a paroled convict plans to steal $3 million work of jewels, sell them, and use the bread to start a bank to back black businesses. He is assisted by two pals, his half-brother, and a preacher who also works as a thief. The operation is ultimately backed by a man who cheats on his wheelchair-bound wife with a sexy woman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1968
James Lake (Raymond St. Jacques) is an escaped black convict imprisoned for a murder he didn't commit. Leslie Whitlock (Kevin McCarthy) offers James money to kill his wife, Ellen (Dana Wynter). He declines and tries to look up his old flame Lily (Barbara McNair), but discovers his own brother is now married to the sultry nightclub singer. James returns to Leslie, and the trio travel towards a mountain retreat. James and Ellen escape and try to find the murderer who had framed James years before. He experiences prejudices from police and civilian alike before the trail leads to the dead girl's stepfather. Due to the constant sexual and racial overtones this film is considered an exploitation feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Dana Wynter, Raymond St. Jacques, (more)
- 1968
Uptight is an updated remake of John Ford's The Informer (35). The Irish Republican rebels of the original are replaced by black activists, Dublin becomes the Cleveland ghetto, and "the troubles" of 1921 are transformed into the days just following the assassination of Martin Luther King. Julian Mayfield plays an itinerant street sweeper who betrays his militant friends to the fuzz, resulting in an underground all-points bulletin to exact vengeance on the squealer. Ruby Dee portrays a prostitute who befriends the snitch as he eludes his revolutionary ex-buddies. Jules Dassin's unrelenting directorial pace is complemented by the driving jazz score of Booker T. Jones. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Raymond St. Jacques, Ruby Dee, (more)
It's a seemingly peaceful spring morning in New York City -- graduation day at the Police Academy -- and Police Commissioner Anthony X. Russell (Henry Fonda) is looking forward to giving a speech to the new officers. But all isn't well: Russell's been given apparently incontrovertible evidence that his oldest friend, Chief Inspector Charles Kane (James Whitmore), is shaking down a bar owner, and a black minister (Raymond St. Jacques) is claiming that his son was brutalized when he was picked up for questioning in a rape/assault case. Then Russell gets a call informing him that two first-grade detectives, Daniel Madigan (Richard Widmark) and Rocco Bonaro (Harry Guardino), allowed small-time hood Barney Benesch (Steve Ihnat) to get the drop on them, steal their guns, and escape while they were trying to pick him up for questioning at the request of Brooklyn detectives -- and Benesch is now a suspect in that earlier murder in Brooklyn. Madigan has other problems, including the fact that the commissioner -- his ex-captain -- doesn't trust him, always believing him to be a loose cannon who has taken advantage of the badge in accepting favors and cutting corners where peoples' rights were concerned. Madigan also has a beautiful, upwardly mobile wife (Inger Stevens) who loves him but can't abide all the time his job takes him away from her or crimps her socializing; and he has never fully gotten over Jonesy (Sheree North), a saloon singer he knew before he was married. Madigan and Bonaro are given 72 hours to bring in Benesch and begin beating the bushes for leads. They get help from "Midget" Castiglione (Michael Dunn), a bookmaker and an old enemy of Benesch's, and a nervous, long-haired punk named Hughie (Don Stroud). While the clock ticks away on Madigan's and Bonaro's careers, the commissioner must decide how to deal with Kane, whose father -- also a police officer -- was like his own, and he must also fathom how a four-star chief could be involved with anything as tawdry as pressuring a tavern owner. Russell genuinely believes that there must be "one standard, one rule" for any member of the department, but in the course of this one weekend, he finds this notion shattered by what he discovers about Madigan, King, and himself. Meanwhile, Benesch is still on the loose, acting like a complete psycho and a threat to anyone who crosses his path. Russell's and Madigan's paths finally cross personally, as the detective proves -- and the commissioner discovers -- just how good a cop he is. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Widmark, Henry Fonda, (more)
- 1967
The humorous title of this story taken from the novel by Graham Greene gives the viewer the wrong impression. The story concerns the residents of a once-posh hotel in Haiti and the fate of the country's people under the despotic dictator Papa Doc Duvalier. Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) is the philandering wife of a South American ambassador Peter Ustinov. She seeks solace in the arms of hotel-owner Brown (Richard Burton), whose main focus is to keep making improvements on his crumbling building. Alec Guinness plays Jones, the suave charlatan who claims to be a retired military officer to hide his vocation as a shadowy weapons dealer. Brown later gets a sudden twinge of morality and decides to go off to the mountains to help the rebels in their heroic cause. Watch for silent film great Lillian Gish as Mrs. Smith in this plodding drama. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Richard Burton, Elizabeth Taylor, (more)
- 1966
James Garner plays a man who awakens in Central Park with no memories at all. This drama chronicles his search for his identity. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Garner, Jean Simmons, (more)
- 1965
A scam artist is forced to pose as a miracle worker in this adventure tale with comic touches. Joe Moses (Robert Mitchum) is a confidence man and jewel smuggler from America who somehow finds himself in Africa, attempting to pull a fast one on some natives who quickly prove to be sharper than he expected. Tossed into the river for his troubles, Joe floats downstream, where he's eventually rescued by Julie Anderson (Carroll Baker), the daughter of Rev. Anderson (Alexander Knox), a missionary doing the Lord's work in a small village. The village is to be flooded when a new dam becomes operational in a few days, but while government functionary Robert (Ian Bannen) attempts to relocate the villagers, most of them refuse to budge. Robert has told them that they cannot bring their animals with them, and since they consider their animals members of the family, they would prefer to stay and face the inevitable. Hoping to amuse the people who helped save his life, Joe performs a few sleight-of-hand tricks for the natives and sets a bush on fire. Soon they believe that Joe is the Moses that they've heard about from the Holy Bible, and that he's come to lead the people of the village to safety. Joe's not so sure that he's the right man for the job, but when Julie hears of Joe's criminal past, she gives him the option of helping to save the villages, or being turned in to the police. However, Ubi (Raymond St. Jacques), a native who was educated in the U.S., has the feeling that Joe is up to no good, and doesn't appreciate the way he's been preying on the naiveté of his people, even if it is supposedly for their own good. This was Carroll Baker's last film before her massively-hyped title role in the biopic Harlow, whose box office failure proved disastrous to her career. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Mitchum, Carroll Baker, (more)
Critically acclaimed Rod Steiger plays Sol Nazerman, a Jewish pawnbroker who survived imprisonment in a Nazi concentration camp, even though his wife and family did not. The devastating experience and unrelenting memories inhibit Sol from emotional involvement with life. He has no faith in religion and less in mankind. Though he carries on an affair with a woman who was also a victim of the Nazi camps, it is without emotion and Sol grows increasingly bitter and callous, withdrawing still further from the world around him. As his small shop in Harlem is run with little care or attention, it becomes a convenient cover for a local racketeer. Finally, a caring social worker tries to appeal to his humanity, but Sol's emotional wounds may prove to be too great to overcome. Based on a book by Edward Lewis Wallant, The Pawnbroker features the skilled camera work of Boris Kaufman, who had previously worked with director Sidney Lumet on films such as 12 Angry Men (1957) and Long Day's Journey Into Night (1962). The score is composed by Quincy Jones, who would contribute to Lumet's 1978 musical, The Wiz. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rod Steiger, Geraldine Fitzgerald, (more)
- 1964
Black Like Me is the true story of white journalist John Howard Griffin, who "became" a Negro in the late 1950s. Feeling that the best way to understand what it was like to be black in a segregated south was to experience the feeling first-hand, Griffin (James Whitmore) undergoes extensive-and sometimes painful-skin pigmentation treatments. Though he tends to look more like Al Jolson or Eddie Cantor rather than African American, Whitmore does a creditable job playing a proud man forced into subservience by an unfeeling white society. Unfortunately, the film falls prey to stylistic affectations, notably an overabundance of confusing flashbacks. Though dating and occasionally patronizing, Black Like Me is still a worthwhile effort. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- James Whitmore, Sorrell Booke, (more)
- 1991
- R
After he finds himself the target of mysterious assassins, an amnesiac (Michael Biehn) convinces a psychiatrist (Patsy Kensit) to help him remember his past. It would seem he was involved in a CIA operation that the agency does not want him to reveal. ~ Kristie Hassen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Biehn, Patsy Kensit, (more)
- 1990
- R
Adapted from Night of the Living Dead scripter John Russo's pulp horror novel, this is a more old-fashioned living-dead romp in the mode of White Zombie. The story is set in the Deep South, where a diabolical, machete-wielding voodoo priest (Candyman's Tony Todd) is busily turning migrant farm workers into flesh-eating, living-dead slaves. His plans are disrupted by the arrival of two college students searching for a missing colleague -- who turns out to have been one of the priest's earlier zombie experiments. Good performances (especially from the menacing Todd) and creepy atmosphere are diluted by slack pacing, but the gory finale packs a horrific punch. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
Glory is a celebration of a little-known act of mass courage during the Civil War. Simply put, the heroes involved have been ignored by history due to racism. Those heroes were the all-black members of the 54th Regiment of the Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry, headed by Col. Robert Gould Shaw (Matthew Broderick), the son of an influential abolitionist (played by an uncredited Jane Alexander). Despite the fact that the Civil War is ostensibly being fought on their behalf, the black soldiers are denied virtually every privilege and amenity that is matter of course for their white counterparts; as in armies past and future, they are given the most menial and demeaning of tasks. Still, none of the soldiers quit the regiment when given the chance. The unofficial leaders of the group are gravedigger John Rawlins (Morgan Freeman) and fugitive slave Trip (Denzel Washington), respectively representing the brains and heart of the organization. The 54th acquit themselves valiantly at Fort Wagner, SC, charging a fortification manned by some 1,000 Confederates. Glory was based on Lincoln Kirstein's Lay This Laurel and Peter Burchard's One Gallant Rush; the latter book was founded on the letters of Col. Robert Gould Shaw, the real-life character played by Matthew Broderick. The film won a Best Supporting Actor Oscar for co-star Denzel Washington, and additional statuettes for Best Cinematography (Freddie Francis) and Sound Recording. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Matthew Broderick, Denzel Washington, (more)
