Jim Latimore has been battling the Gonzales brothers and when he marries their cousin Rosaria (Mónica Randall, The Witches Mountain), things get even worse. They hire El Matanza (Antonio Molino Rojo) to kill him and take his son to be raised as one of the Gonzales family. Rosaria is assaulted and barely survives. Three years later, Tex (Guy Madison, Long Days of Hate; he also plays Jim) arrives with four other men — Dan (Vassili Karis), Ramon (José Manuel Indios (Giovanni Cianfriglia) and Alan (Mariano Vidal Molina) — who plan on killing every one of the Gonzales brothers, giving Rosaria back her home, getting her son back and getting vengeance.
This is directed by Aldo Florio, who also made Dead Man Ride and wrote 2020 Texas Gladiators, which is pretty much a Western with cars instead of horses. This movie was written by Dirk Wayne Summers, Bernard C. Schoenfeld and Alfonso Balcázar (La casa de las muertas vivientes).
One of the camera crew with Aristide Massacesi, the man of many names who most call Joe D’Amato.
From 1976 to 1984, Tomas Milan starred in eleven movies in the Squadra antiscippo series. Starting with The Cop in Blue Jeans, these films include Hit Squad, Squadra antitruffa, Little Italy, Assassino sul Tevere, Delitto a Porta Romana, Crime at the Chinese Restaurant, Delitto sull’autostrada, Crime in Formula One, Cop in Drag and The Gang That Sold America.
It all starts here with Milan as an undercover cop named Marshall Nico “The Pirate” Giraldi. A former street hood gone good, he works on the anti-mugging squad which puts him on the case of Norman Shelley AKA Richard J. Russo, a criminal played by Jack Palance.
Unlike every cop on the force, Nico dresses like he’s the guitarist in a Britpop band and has an unkempt beard. He even has a mouse named Captain Spaulding, named for the Marx Brothers’ movie Animal Crackers years before Rob Zombie did that. Actually, his look is a lot like Rob Zombie, come to think of it.
Nico gets even deeper into the mugging case when his girlfriend (Maria Rosaria Omaggio, The Tough Ones, Nightmare City) loses her latest manuscript to a snatcher. He’ll have to get to Shelley or Russo or whatever his name is, but that guy is busy choking out his underlings in the back seats of cars. This is a comedy and Palance is still terrifying.
Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.
Directed by William A. Graham (Return to the BlueLagoon, Change of Habit) and written by Stanley Z. Cherry, this movie finds Johnny Gaines (Bill Bixby) learning that he has a son named B.J. (Darrell Larson) whom he’s never known, all while he’s still sleeping with 16-year-olds. Or nearly sleeping with them, as his kid shows up right before his initials happen to his dad.
Johnny is still a boy, protected by his father Al (Jack Albertson) and mother Ethel (Ann Sothern) who are starting to wonder why their son doesn’t want to settle down with Edye (Diane Baker). Can Johnny settle down and become a father to the son he never knew while maybe not being someone who double books dates and tries to get his son drunk to go out with someone as his replacement?
Plus: Tom Bosley as Edye’s dad and Judy Strangis in the cast (she was Dyna Girl!).
Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.
This movie is very much something I would have watched as a kid on TV.
It was a pilot for a TV series that was actually on the air from February 7 to March 21, 1981 for seven episodes, with Jerry Reed playing J.D. Reed and Geoffrey Scott taking over Tom Selleck’s role as Will Eubanks. The movie itself was released as a film in other countries with titles such as Highway Action, Nashville Detective and Ramblin’ Man.
Reed and Eubanks are two friends who constantly get on each one another’s nerves in the best of ways. Reed is devoted to gambling while Eubanks always has a book in hand. They leave a rigged card game by destroying the gas station that it was in and hop a train for Hollywood but end up in Nashville. There, they stay in the home of their friend Lonnie (Randy Powell) and get caught up in a scheme that involves Kate (Morgan Fairchild) looking for her lost singer sister Carla (also Fairchild), which brings them into the orbit of Ray Stevens, Roy Acuff and Barbara Mandrell, all playing themselves. There’s also famous country star Woody Stone (Claude Akins), a sheriff played by Elvis’ bodyguard Red West, a madame played by Lucille Benson (Mrs. Elrod, who is a major star here) and it’s all written by Hammer writer Jimmy Sangster. Huh? How is this possible? What if I told you that Grace Zabriskie (Sarah Palmer, of course) is also in this?
It’s directed by Burt Kennedy (Support Your LocalSheriff!, All the Kind Strangers, Suburban Commando) who was also a noted writer of Westerns and a fencing stunt double. He was in vaudeville at the age of four and received the Silver Star, Bronze Star,and Purple Heart with oak leaf cluster for his bravery in World War II.
I love that each chapter has paintings by Jaroslav Gebr. It gives the show a Western feel while showcasing his great art. Gebr also worked on TheSting, Buck Rogers In the 25th Century, Battlestar Galactica, Xanadu, The Blues Brothers and so many more TV shows. You can learn more about his art at the official website.
Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.
Based on the Richard Matheson novel Ride the Nightmare, Cold Sweat has Joe Moran — an American in France played by Charles Bronson — dealing with his wife and kids being taken by former associates that he once double-crossed.
Directed by James Bond director Terence Young from a script by Dorothea Bennett, Shimon Wincelberg and noir master Jo Eisinger, it shows just how quiet of a life Martin is living along with his wife Fabienne (Liv Ullmann) and daughter Michèle. But ten years ago, he’d been part of a gang with Katanga (Jean Topart), Ross (James Mason), his girl Moria (Jill Ireland), Whitey (Michel Constantin dubbed by David Hess) and Fausto (Luigi Pistilli) show back up and ruin his life.
Yeah, like Bronson is going to take that.
Liv Ullmann later complained that Bronson was rude to her and her daughter during the filming. When her daughter wandered over to his lunch table, Bronson brought her back and said, “Please keep your child to yourself.”
I grew up not far from Bronson and my dad always told me when we went to dinner, when and if we did, that the men in the bars had just come out of the mills and mines and just wanted some quiet. “They aren’t here to listen to you be stupid,” he said, and I get it. Bronson got it. And now Liv Ullmann’s kid got it.
Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.
Jennifer Upton joins Bill and Sam this week for two movies that destroy cars and people. You can join us at 8 PM EST on the Groovy Doom Facebook and YouTube pages.
Up first is Crash!which is on the Roku Channel and Amazon Freevee, which streams free on most streaming services. You can get info at this link.
Every week, we watch movies, discuss them, look at their ad campaigns and have drinks that go with each film.
Here’s the first recipe.
Car Wreck
1 oz peach schnapps
2 oz vodka
.5 oz. high proof rum
1 oz. Chambord
3 oz. orange juice
3 oz. pineapple juice
Pour all ingredients in a tall glass filled with ice.
Save the rum and pour it like a flammable oil slick on top.
Directed by William Nigh and written by Charles S. Belden, this time The Cisco Kid (Gilbert Roland) learns that Commandante Arturo (Martin Garralaga) and Bennet, a tax collector (Harry Woods), are stealing land from the poor. Can he play them against one another and return the land to the people who really deserve to live there?
Auturo’s sister Carmelita (Iris Flores) is going to marry one of those locals (Carlos Mandreno), but her brother really wants to marry her off to Bennet. Cisco decides that he’ll help these young kids in love, as he’s a sucker for romance.
The Cisco Kid Western Movie Collection is available from VCI Entertainment. It has 13 movies and extras like two Cisco Kid TV episodes, interviews with Duncan Renaldo and Colonel Tim McCoy, and photo and poster galleries. You can get it from MVD.
Milklos “Mickey” Hargitay left Hungary in 1947 to get out of being drafted into military service by the Soviet Union. He settled in Cleveland, where he worked as a plumber and carpenter. Can you imagine Hargitay coming to your house to fix your toilet? He’d already been in an acrobatic act with his brothers, a football player, a champion speed skater and a freedom fighter. He was just 21 by the time he made it to America and he started an acrobatic act with his first wife, Mary Birge. Steve Reeves inspired him to start bodybuilding and just a few years later in 1955 Hargitay won the National Amateur Body-Builders’ Association (NABBA) Mr. Universe. Jayne Mansfield demanded that he be in her movie Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter? The two became lovers, appearing in movies like The Loves of Hercules, Primitive Love and Promises! Promises! together. After they were divorced in 1963, Hargitay kept acting in Italy, appearing in Revenge of The Gladiators;Stranger in Sacramento; The Sheriff Won’t Shoot; Bloody Pit of Horror; Sette donne d’oro contro due 07; Cjamango; Ringo, It’s Massacre Time; Lady Frankenstein; Black Magic Ritesand Delirium.
Charles Allen Pendleton was born in Denver, Colorado and began working out to deal with the rough kids in his neighborhood. He was in the Battle of the Bulge and taken prisoner and when he got back to America, he became a high school teacher and guidance counselor in Los Angeles. He was reenlisted for the Korean War and when he came home, he acted in Prisoner of War, The Man with the Golden Arm and The Ten Commandments in which he drags Moses to meet the pharaoh. Before going to Italy to be an actor — the success of Steve Reeves brought every bodybuilder there — a psychic asked him if the name Gordon Mitchell meant anything to him. When he got to Italy, that was the name that he was given. He would appear in everything from Fellini’s Satyrcon to crime movies, horror, sexploitation and post-apocalyptic films.
Both Mickey Hargitay and Gordon Mitchell started their show business careers as part of Mar West’s Muscleman Review. Other bodybuilders who appeared with West included Reg Lewis (Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules), Charles Krauser (who later became Paul Novak, the love of West’s life), Armand Tanny (a Muscle Beach bodybuilder who often wrote about weight lifting; he organized a strike when West attempted to reduce pay of the group), Dan Vadis (Hercules the Invincible, Mission: Impossible), George Eiferman (The Devil’s Sleep; George of the Jungle was based on him), Irvin “Zabo” Koszewsk (Tommy Chong’s stunt double; he’s also in Spartacus), Dick Dubois (Athena), Dominic Juliano and Joe Gold (the founder of Gold’s Gym). Krauser and Hargitay even had a fight at a press conference in 1956 over West.
Anyways…
This movie is the one time that Hargitay and Mitchell would be in a movie together. Ringo Carson (Hargitay), Frank Sanders (Mitchell) and Tom (Spartaco Conversi) are hired by Walcom (Amedeo Trilli) to rescue his daughter Jane (Milla Sannoner). She falls for Ringo and that splits the friendship between him and Frank.
After the Civil War, Ringo becomes the town sheriff of Stone City and has a son with Jane. Frank is the leader of an outlaw gang who is hired by Daniels (Ivano Staccioli) to terrorize his hometown and drive down the price of ranches. Ringo is blinded in an accident and Frank takes over as the law, which allows him to go wild. Eventually, he kills Ringo’s mother and kidnaps Jane, which is not how you repair a friendship. There’s even a voodoo scene in this oddball Italian Western.
C.C. Ryder (Joe Namath, who is from a town over from me and we shared the same dentist; perhaps he is better known as the New York Jets quarterback who was such a big deal that he had his own fashion doll) is a biker who hooks up with a gang called The Heads who are led by Moon (William Smith, who as we all know improves every movie).
There’s a race between the whole gang and C.C. decides to win it to get a fashion model named Ann McCalley (Ann-Margret, whose husband Roger Smith wrote this) to notice him. She’s kidnapped by The Heads and C.C. has to save her.
This was directed by Seymour Robbie, who mostly worked in television, and was savaged by critics. Gene Siskel gave it no stars and said, “Ann-Margret has a brief nude scene in which she proves that in addition to having a foul mouth she is fat.” Let me say something. Gene Siskel’s wife Marlene Iglitzen was quite attractive, but Ann-Margaret is, well, Ann-Margaret. He’d never get away with a comment like that today.
Well, because he’s dead.
But you know what I mean.
The Heads also have members like Crow (Sid Haig), Captain Midnight (Bruce Glover), Pig (Teda Bracci, who was Bull Jones in The Big Bird Cage and Rita in The Centerfold Girls), Pom Pom (Jennifer Billingsley, The Thirsty Dead), Zit-Zit (Jacquie Rohr, The Mini-Skirt Mob, Devil’s Angels), Tandalaya (Kiva Kelly), Lizard (Greg Mullavey, My Friends Need Killing) and Rabbit (Mike Battle, who also played for the Jets).
Glover was supposed to play the lead, but when Joe Namath saw him, he got Willaim Smith. Glover said, “”He took one look at me and said I was too short to beat him up. I had no power at the time, so I couldn’t quit. But I made my character and improvised every line I had in that movie.”
Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on Tubi.
The Clock Family — Pod (Eddie Albert), Homily (Tammy Grimes) and Arriety (Karen Pearson) — are Borrowers, small people who live in the houses of human beans, as they call big people, and stay out of view. Arriety, unlike any Borrowers before, becomes friends with the eight-year-old (Dennis Larson) who lives in the house they have turned into their world.
Based on the book by Mary Norton, this was directed by Walter C. Miller (who mainly worked on the Grammy, CMA and Tony award show broadcast, as well as directing several Rodney Dangerfield specials) and written by Jay Presson Allen, who wrote the screenplays for Marnie, Funny Lady, Cabaret and Death Trap. She was a screenwriter when few women were.
The Borrowers was also made into two BBC TV series, a 1997 and 2011 movie and an anime in Japan called Karigurashi no Ariettii that was produced by Studio Ghibli.
Don’t have the box set? You can watch this on YouTube.
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