John M. Stephens Movies
- 1991
This suspenseful drama tells the chilling true story of up-and-coming model Marla Hanson who was viciously attacked by a make-up man after she rejected his advances. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Cheryl Pollak, Dale Midkiff, (more)
- 1987
In this adventure, an undercover cop must protect an endangered, unemployed Vietnam vet who has become a hitman's target. The story is also titled The Highwayman. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
Switch was the pilot film for a tongue-in-cheek adventure series that ran on CBS from 1975 to 1978. Robert Wagner stars as Pete Ryan, an ex-con sent up for being a "scam" artists, and Eddie Albert as Frank McBride, an ex-cop turned private investigator. Working as a team, Pete and Frank devote themselves to conning other confidence artists and returning the ill-gotten gains to the rightful owners. It is therefore necessary for Pete to teach Frank how to be a crook, and for Frank to teach Pete how to be honest. In this pilot, Charles Durning guest stars as another former policeman, a two-time loser who has been framed for a jewel robbery. If we are to believe the print ads for this film, its original title was The Switch, which was probably shortened to avoid the inevitable comparisons to The Sting. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert Wagner, Eddie Albert, (more)
- 1974
In this comedy, a divorced hacker tries to make his son proud by setting the world's record for non-stop roller-skating. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1974
In this made-for-television drama, a trio of advertising executives take a motorcycle trip across the desert and end up in a life-threatening situation. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1973
Married couple Jean (Cloris Leachman) and Jim Mitchell (Ross Martin) stop at a rundown roadside eatery. When time comes to leave, Jean is ready, but Jim isn't. In fact, Jim is nowhere to be found. Jean's anguished efforts to locate her husband are mysteriously blocked by the hulking restaurant proprietor (Ned Beatty). This variation on the old radio play "Cabin 13" was written by Richard Matheson. The made-for-TV Dying Room Only debuted September 18, 1973. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Advertised as the 100th production of American International studios, Blacula stars actor/singer William Marshall in the title role. An 18th century African prince, Blacula is transmogrified into a vampire while visiting Transylvania. Two centuries later, he rises from his coffin to wreak havoc in the Watts district of Los Angeles. Blacula's particular target is Tina (Vonetta McGee), whom he thinks is the reincarnation of his long-ago lady love. Thalmus Rasulala assumes the "Van Helsing" role as the vampire hunter who can't convince the authorities to cooperate. Yes, that is the same William Marshall who later played "The King of Cartoons" on TV's Pee-wee's Playhouse. A sequel, Scream, Blacula, Scream!, appeared not long after. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Marshall, Vonetta McGee, (more)
- 1971
First telecast January 5, 1971, Alias Smith and Jones was the pilot for the popular TV series of the same name. This genial rip-off of Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid stars Pete Duel as Hannibal Heyes and Ben Murphy as Kid Curry, two notorious Western bandits who have become folk heroes because of their refusal to kill anyone. Heyes and Curry would like to go straight; the governor offers them that opportunity, provided they can stay out of trouble for one year. Assuming the aliases of Joshua Smith and Thaddeus Jones, Heyes and Curry begin their "retribution" process as tellers in a very tempting, very unguarded bank. Perennial guest star Susan Saint James provides the feminine angle in this tongue-and-cheek effort. Alias Smith and Jones ran until January 1973, by which time Roger Davis had replaced Pete Duel, who committed suicide on the last day of 1971. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
Actor/auteur Tom Laughlin created the character of Billy Jack in the motorcycle flick The Born Losers. Wandering Christlike through the Southwest, Native American Vietnam veteran Billy Jack -- soft-spoken, but well-versed in martial arts -- champions the cause of a progressive school run by Jean Roberts (Delores Taylor, Laughlin's real-life wife). The bigoted white townsfolk don't cotton to Jean's minority-group students, so they do everything they can to humiliate and physically abuse the kids. When one of her charges is cruelly coated with white flour, Billy Jack goes berserk. Thus begins an orgy of self-righteous violence, culminating with our hero being hunted down on a murder charge. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Tom Laughlin, Delores Taylor, (more)
- 1969
This surfing documentary was financed by the West Coast's Wind and Sea Surf Club. The nine-member group travels to Australia for a rematch against their Aussie counterparts with stops at Fiji and New Zealand. The world-class surfers are shown riding the waves of the most coveted locales, hanging ten on 30-foot waves in spectacular action footage. Jay North provides the narration to this exciting action feature. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- 1969
Gidget, the teenybopper surfer created by Frederick Kohner, grows up in the form of Karen Valentine (rather than such previous Gidgets as Sandra Dee and Sally Field). She leaves her friends and family at Malibu to head for New York, there to take a job as a guide at the United Nations building. Before this made-for-TV effort is over, Gidget teaches the U.N. delegates the true meaning of the words "foreign relations" by falling in love with handsome Edward Mulhare. Gidget Grows Up was one of several pilot films produced in hopes of reviving the 1966 Gidget series. This 1969 effort would be a waste of time if not for the presence of the ever-sneering Paul Lynde as Gidget's landlord. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
A top-secret Soviet spy satellite -- using stolen Western technology -- malfunctions and then goes into a descent that lands it near an isolated Arctic research encampment called Ice Station Zebra, belonging to the British, which starts sending out distress signals before falling silent. The atomic submarine Tigerfish, commanded by Cmdr. James Ferraday (Rock Hudson), is dispatched with orders to get to Ice Station Zebra carrying three passengers, a Englishman going by the name of David Jones (Patrick McGoohan), a Soviet turncoat named Boris Vaslov (Ernest Borgnine), and an American Marine officer, Captain Anders (Jim Brown), who is supposed to command the Marine unit assigned to the mission. Jones is problem enough, as he is in command of the mission and he prefers to withhold as much information as it's possible to do from Ferraday, even at the risk of the Tigerfish's safety. Add to that the fact that Anders is suspicious of Vaslov, and Vaslov seems much too inquisitive and is telling even less of what he knows about the mission, and Ferraday has his hands full trying to get these men to the polar ice -- 600 miles of dangerous travel -- in just two days. When an attempt to break through the ice -- coupled with some timely sabotage -- kills one man and nearly destroys the boat, the men surrounding these contending parties start to understand just how high the stakes are for everyone. It turns out that the Soviets want what was aboard that satellite as much as the West does; indeed, both sides are frantic to get it, and, just as much, to keep the other side from getting it -- and they're prepared to take it by brute force. Once Ferraday and his men arrive at Zebra, they find a disaster and still more mystery, with most of the men dead and the object that Mr. Jones is supposed to secure nowhere in evidence, and he and his two fellow men of mystery suddenly showing their killing instincts quite freely. And with the storm clearing from the Soviet side first, their planes and their paratroops are closing in on Ferraday, and his relative handful of men. ~ Bruce Eder, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Rock Hudson, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
- 1949
Based on a novel by Charles Huckelmann, Deputy Marshal was a "special" by the standards of cost-conscious Screen Guild productions. The film stars Jon Hall and Frances Langford, who were Mr. and Mrs. at the time. Hall plays the title character, aka Ed Garry, while Langford essays the role of Janet Masters, a Wyoming ranchowner threatened by land thieves. While Garry does the dirty work so far as keeping the villains at bay, Janet gets to sing a couple of pleasant songs. Deputy Marshal was promoted on its novelty value; the film was photographed by Carl Berger with the Garutso Balanced Lens, a deep-focus apparatus that simulated a 3-D effect. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Jon Hall, Frances Langford, (more)
Jennings (Michael Caine), a corrupt company owner will stop at nothing to open a new refinery in Alaska. Forrest Taft (Steven Seagal), a disgruntled former employee is chosen by an Eskimo chief as savior of his people. Forrest's mission is to prevent the new refinery from beginning work before the land rights are returned to the Eskimos. ~ Linda Rasmussen, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Steven Seagal, Michael Caine, (more)
Director Martin Brest, of Going in Style and Beverly Hills Cop fame, was in charge of Midnight Run. Robert De Niro stars as Jack Walsh, a hard-bitten bounty hunter offered $100,000 to bring in embezzler Jonathan Mardukas (Charles Grodin). Handcuffed to the wimpy Mardukas, Walsh assumes that the extradition trip from New York to Los Angeles will be an uneventful one. But the prisoner hasn't told Walsh the whole story: the embezzler owes $15 million to a mobster (Dennis Farina), and he's been targeted for assassination. It's a toss-up as to what is the most entertaining aspect of Midnight Run: the slam-bang action and chase sequences or the verbal byplay between DeNiro and Grodin. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Robert De Niro, Charles Grodin, (more)
- 1987
- R
An alcoholic Vietnam vet who has lost both his wife and his job as a cop while struggling to adjust to civilian life in southern California heads out for unintentionally hilarious revenge against the newly immigrated Vietnamese drug lord who slaughtered his best friend and his family in this campy "Rambo-esque" actioner. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1985
- R
Fred Williamson stars in this gritty action film as an L.A. detective named Thomas Fox, hired by a wealthy industrialist (Christopher Connelly) to find his missing niece (Donna Owen). Fox follows the girl all over Europe -- including a stop at the Cannes Film Festival -- and brings her back home, only to discover that her fate involves drugs, pornography, and other sordid doings. This is one of those movies where absolutely everyone is corrupt except for the shining hero, who has to kill the entire cast to get out alive. Despite the change in the character's name, this might as well have been a sequel to Williamson's "Jesse Crowder" films of the '70s (No Way Back and Death Journey). Lela Rochon and Arlene Golonka co-star. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Fred Williamson, Christopher Connelly, (more)
Produced by Roger Corman and directed by Martin Scorsese, Boxcar Bertha is a Bonnie and Clyde-like yarn set during the Depression. The title character, played by Barbara Hershey, links up with union organizer David Carradine (Hershey's real-life lover at the time) after the death of her father. Running afoul of anti-union forces, Bertha and Carradine are forced into a life of crime. Whereas Bonnie and Clyde robbed banks, Boxcar Bertha's specialty is trains. A story of this nature can only end in tragedy, and wait until you see Carradine's symbolic demise! For the record, there really was a Boxcar Bertha Thompson, and it is her autobiography, Sister of the Road, that serves as the basis for Joyce and John Corrington's screenplay. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Barbara Hershey, David Carradine, (more)
- 1971
- R
Would you believe Bette Davis and Ernest Borgnine as a pair of free-spirited hippies on a crime spree? That's the premise of this unlikely comedy starring the two Oscar-winning veterans. Bunny O'Hare (Bette Davis) is an elderly woman living in New Mexico who is trying to keep herself afloat financially while supporting her two grown children, both of whom have fallen into bad straits. Thanks to a mistake by her bank, Bunny is evicted from her home, which is quickly torn down, but not before one Bill Green (Ernest Borgnine) can repossess her commode. Bunny is left with nowhere to go, and Bill allows Bunny to tag along in his trailer after he leaves. Bunny soon learns that Bill was once a bank robber who is still on the run from the law, and she persuades him to show her the ropes so she can steal her nest egg back from the bank. Dressed as hippies, Bunny and Bill pull the job, but rather than escape to Mexico, Bunny decides to stay in the Southwest and rob more banks with Bill to help keep her kids out of hock. Bunny O'Hare also features Jack Cassidy, John Astin, and Jay Robinson; ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bette Davis, Ernest Borgnine, (more)
- 1969
- R
When Angel (William Smith) writes a story about the Devil's Advocates motorcycle gang, his luck changes. The good news is he sells the story to a magazine for $10,000. The bad news is he is a wanted man, now hunted by the biker gang. Angel and his girlfriend head for the northern California hills where ex-biker Dan Felton (Dan Kemp) gives the two a job on his ranch. When Dan's daughter Meg (Margaret Markov) unknowingly tells the bikers where the two are hiding, she is gang raped. Angel and his girlfriend try to stay one step ahead of the gang who would like nothing more than to send them to their great reward in this cycle drama. The title track is sung by Tammy Wynette and why not? ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- William Smith, Valerie Starrett, (more)
Director Barry Levinson follows up the low-budget An Everlasting Piece (2000) with another comedy, this one of the homegrown variety from former Twin Peaks (1990) TV series writer Harley Peyton. Bruce Willis stars as suave bank robber Joe, who has escaped from prison with his hypochondriac buddy Terry (Billy Bob Thornton). Together, the two men have devised a clever scheme to take a bank officer hostage the night before a heist, then simply escort the executive to work early the next morning when they clean out the vault. Their ingenious methods have led to the men becoming media darlings dubbed "the Sleepover Bandits," but all Joe and Terry want is to make a nice pile of money before crossing the Mexican border to a life of freedom and legitimacy. Their quest gets more complicated when Terry is struck by a car driven by Kate Wheeler (Cate Blanchett), a bored housewife who's then forced to join their crime spree. Soon both Joe and Terry are in love with Kate and she with them, realizing that the two friends put together pretty much equal the perfect man. Bandits co-stars Troy Garity, son of actress Jane Fonda. ~ Karl Williams, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Bruce Willis, Billy Bob Thornton, (more)
Ivan Reitman directed this romantic comedy-adventure that opens in New York where fast-paced magazine associate editor Robin Monroe (Anne Heche) and her boyfriend, Frank (David Schwimmer), leave for a week's vacation on a remote island. They've already been together for three years, so when Frank asks her to marry him, she says yes. For a one-day Tahiti photo shoot, Robin engages the services of South Pacific cargo pilot Quinn Harris (Harrison Ford). Robin and Quinn head off to do the shoot, but a squall forces Quinn to land his DeHavilland Beaver on the beach of a remote, unknown island. With broken landing gear, they're trapped there. Search parties set forth. Robin and Quinn cope with each other. Survival skills surface. Sexual tensions escalate. Meanwhile, back at the hotel, Frank and Quinn's girlfriend, Angelica (Jacqueline Obradors), compare concerns at the hotel bar. Several days later, the search is called off. Quinn and Robin are left to their own devices, including removing pontoons from a convenient Japanese war plane and attempting a take off. Filmed on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. ~ Bhob Stewart, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Harrison Ford, Anne Heche, (more)
