Based on the Isaac Bashevis Singer book The Magician of Lublin, this Menahem Golan-directed movie was co-written by Golan, Irving S. White and Sheldon Patinkin, who was a major force in Chicago theater, serving as a chair of the Theater Department of Columbia College Chicago, artistic director of the Getz Theater of Columbia College, artistic consultant of The Second City and of Steppenwolf Theatre and co-director of the Steppenwolf Theatre Summer Ensemble Workshops.

Yasha Mazur (Alan Arkin) is a con man and womanizer, but he’s also a stage magician of some fame. While he’s married to Esther (Linda Bernstein), but he never sees her. Instead, his life is on the road and filled with so many relationships with women, such as Zeftel (Valerie Perrine), his mentally deranged assistant Magda (Maia Danziger), the widow Emilia (Louise Fletcher) and her daughter Halina (Lisa Whelchel), a sick child who Yasa loves as if she were his own but will never be able to provide for.

Oh man — this all gets messy. Zeftel is leaving to work for a man who is really trying to sell her into human trafficking, so Yasha performs a smaller show and misses his big break and make enough money to be a success in Emilia’s eyes. Magda kills herself and as Yasha tries to burglarize a rich count, he has a vision of death. Also: Lou Jacobi, Murray from Amazon Women On the Moon, plays Yasha’s manager.

The magician comes home and lives in a tomb, giving advice to those who come to him. Emilia has become a rich kept woman for the rich man and begs for his forgiveness while Magda’s family — Shelley Winters is her mother; she also worked with Golan in Diamonds, Over the Brooklyn Bridge, Déjà Vu and The Delta Force — comes and attempts to kill Yasha, but he has escaped and fulfilled his dream of flying away.

Isaac Bashevis, who wrote the original book, also saw his stories Yentl and Enemies, A Love Story made into movies in the 80s. Also, predating Stranger Things, Golan used “The Magician,” a Kate Bush song that doesn’t appear on any albums, as the theme for his film.

This is a magic-realist story that would probably have been a great film if made by someone like Ken Russell or Alejandro Jodorowski. I love Menahem, but this is perhaps a bit out of his scope, although the does throw a big cast at this.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This was first on the site on November 7, 2021.

Yes, don’t be fooled by that title, as this is otherwise known as Yotzim Kavua, Greasy Kid Stuff or, most obvious, Lemon Popsicle 2. Yes, the film that inspired The Last American Virgin doesn’t just have one sequel, but many, many chapters to tell.

Even better, it played on double bills in the UK with Rosemary’s Killer, which we know better as The Prowler.

Directed and written by Boaz Davidson, this film boasts the same lost in translation insanity of the last one as well as twenty-two songs from the fifties. Which is weird, because while the boys have hair and clothes from the era and the music is right, the girls have makeup straight out of 1979. Maybe memory really is a fickle thing, huh?

That said, every guy in this movie is beyond a jerk. Not just in a “aren’t 80s sex comedy guys horrible” way but in a “why aren’t these young men in jail” and “why do these women keep taking them back” way. Its “heroes” Benji, Bobby and Huey are willing to screw one another over to keep screwing and one just ponders why they ever became friends in the first place.

Nobody brings anybody a bag of oranges, I’ll tell you that much.

Someone does, however, throw eggs at a child directly after making out. I am not making this up.

Eric Lewald developed X-Men: The Animated Series, but before that he directed — with Glenn Morgan — and wrote this sex comedy that got distributed by Cannon that played drive-in double features with Gas Pump Girls.

It’s about two roommates — small-town virgin Jane (Ashley Vaughn) and promiscuous Vivian (Leslie Blalock) — as they deal with their first year of college. Also, every few moments, a woman takes her clothes off because that’s the kind of movie this is.

Shot in Knoxville, TN, this also has Georgina Harrell as Maxine “The Machine,” a woman who will look down a man’s pants and declare, “What? All meat and no potatoes?” She would parlay this experience into being in The First Turn-On!! It also has a band with goat masks, a dream sequence with pig masks and a heavy teacher called Professor L.P. Bilbo (B.M. Culpepper) who ends up gang banging with every female in the movie, including our formerly innocent protagonist Jane.

Several IMDB posters — who claim to be in the movie — say that this was shot on location by two University of Tennessee Graduate students and that Cannon added in all the sex scenes. I have no idea how they did that when the leads are in several of them, but maybe they mean the cutaways to more nudity. They also would like you to believe that the original version of this movie is a coming of age film instead a movie about coming, but this sounds like the way Christopher Lee would claim Jess Franco fooled him into being in a softcore movie and was so angry he was in several more of his movies.

It took three people to write Gas Pump Girls: director Joel Bender, who also wrote The Returning and The Immortalizer as well as editing Warrior Queen; David A. Davies, who also wrote the 1990 TV movie Buried Alive and Isaac Blech, who also wrote the songs.

June (Kirsten Baker, Friday the 13th Part 2) and her friends graduate high school and help out at the failing gas station run by June’s uncle Joe (Huntz Hall, who I was amazed that was in this; when I asked the late great Mike McPadden why, he said, “If you can get Huntz Hall and Joe E. Ross to do a few hours work in Gas Pump Girls, for example, you get them.”) and keep Mr. Friendly (Dave Shelley) from putting him out of business. Hiring her boyfriend (Dennis Bowen) and the local gang the Vultures, June works on keeping Uncle Joe’s business alive through titillating uniforms and sexy advertising.

Does this sound like Starhops to you?

The aforementioned Joe E. Ross shows up with pro wrestler Mike Mazurki as two gangsters hired to kill June, but the Vultures take care of that. Actually, the teens get through all of the challenges that Mr. Friendly throws their way and have a successful business — and plenty of sex, naturally — before college even begins.

The cast also includes the last movie role of Sandy Johnson, who was the June 1974 Playboy Playmate of the Month, but more importantly played Michael Myers’ doomed sister Judith in Halloween; Steve Bond (who did a Playgirl centerfold in October of 1975 and was in Massacre at Central High and Picasso Trigger), Ken Lerner (one of the Malachi Brothers on Happy Days) and Demetre Phillips (Stone Cold, Only You) as the Vultures; Cheech Marin’s one-time wife Rikki; Leslie King (who was Tammy in Jennifer and would later write To Die For, which starred Steve Bond); Linda Lawrence (Death Dimension) and Cousin Brucie getting to be this movie’s Wolfman Jack.

I have no idea how this site has had a recap of drag race docs and a week of drag race movies and this doc never made it in. How many drag racing movies did the 70s have? How many did it need?

Directed by Bill Kimberlin, an Industrial Light and Magic visual effects editor, this was shot at Fremont Raceway and really has a lot of great footage of that era’s racers, as well as an interview with Ed Pink about the oil fire incident that claimed the life of John “the Zookeeper” Mulligan at the U.S. Nationals in 1969.

Drag racing used to be such a big thing in the 70s. I remember commercials for it and getting beyond excited. There was even a 1977 arcade game called Drag Race and the Activision game for the Atari 2600 Dragster. That’s how much people loved it. Just look at all the films on our list above. While I’m not a fan of the sport, it was fun to take a spin through its past.

Directed by John C. Broderick — who would be the guy who screwed over William Stout on The Warrior and the Sorceress — and Exorcist and Wolfen editor Jordan Leondopoulos, The Swap isn’t really about Robert De Niro no matter what the poster says. Instead, he’s the brother of the protagonist Vito Nicoletti (Anthony Charnota) and is killed in a flashback, ending Vito after the real killers who wanted a porn film that Sam was editing. Thanks to the help of an actress named Vivian (Lisa Blount, Dead and Buried), he tracks them down and takes them out.

As for those scenes, they are re-used shots and out-takes from Broderick and Leondopoulo’s first feature film, Sam’s Song, and were used without De Niro’s knowledge or permission. Things are a bit hard to follow as time keeps shifting and so do the people playing in the film. For example, one of the femme fatales, Erica Moore, is played by two totally different actresses. When the scenes are in 1969, she’s Jennifer Warren (Night Moves, Slap Shot) and in 1979, she’s Sybil Danning. Now, Warren is quite striking, but she’s not Sybil Danning.

Speaking of those 1969 scenes, The Girl with the Hourglass is Factory Girl Viva, who also appears in Forbidden Zone, Flash Gordon and has real intercourse in Warhol’s Blue Movie.

As you can imagine, this movie makes little to no sense. Sam’s Song gets used to create something that kind of is coherent, but you can also see why De Niro was so angry when this movie had his name on the poster as its star.

You can watch this on Tubi.

EDITOR’S NOTE: Originally on the site on XXX, A Force of One has been rereleased by Kino Lorber with a new 2K scan, two commentaries (film historians Brandon Bentley and Mike Leeder, as well as director Paul Aaron), a making-of doc, four TV commercials, five radio ads and the trailer.

Gene Siskel said that it was “just a poor excuse for a lot of fighting.”

Writer Ernest Tidyman* (Shaft, High Plains Drifter) claimed he only made it so he could buy his mother a house.

Chuck Norris said it was ten times better than his last movie Good Guys Wear Black.

The commercial for this movie was all my grade school class could talk about, breathlessly getting excited about Chuck kicking and spinning and beating on people.

Directed by Paul Aaron, whose stepson Keanu Reeves talked him into making the film, this film presents a world where cops are getting killed, so they turn to Matt Logan (Norris), a karate instructor. One of those narcotics officers, Amanda Rust (Jennifer O’Neill, The Psychic star who was present both when Jon-Erik Hexum accidentally shot himself on the set of Cover Up and when she shot herself in the stomach testing to see if a gun was loaded), believes that one of their own is behind it. She also falls hard for Chuck, who may not be the best actor, but gives an authentic charm as a normal guy who can kick people really hard.

This is a smart movie — no, really — as the cast surrounding Chuck is solid, like the late great Clu Gulager as detective Sam Dunne, who believes that the killer is a martial artist, and Ron O’Neal from Superfly.

A Force of One kicks into major action when Chuck’s adopted son Charlie (Eric Laneuville) is killed, making it personal. Plus, he’s headed into a karate tournament where he’ll get kicked repeatedly by Sparks, played by Bill “Superfoot” Wallace, who was the bodyguard who found the body of John Belushi. And trust me, he kicks really, really hard. You don’t get called Superfoot and half step.

Norris surrounded himself with family in this one, as brother Aaron was the fight coordinator and his son Mike was the skateboarding pizza delivery kid. It works — a movie made in the time when karate was the kind of dastardly heel move in Memphis wrestling, still mysterious in the West, but made approachable by the everyman charm of Chuck.

Called Der Bulldozer in Germany, this movie also has an appearance by Charles Cyphers, who played Sheriff Brackett just one year earlier in Halloween.

In closing, Siskel and Tidyman were both incorrect, while the kids in my class and Chuck were right.

*He co-wrote the movie with stuntman Pat E. Johnson, a 9th degree black belt in Tang Soo Do under Chuck Norris who only has this one writing credit, but did stunts for Jackie Chan (Battle Creek Brawl), Bruce Lee (Enter the Dragon), Norris (this movie), three Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles films and both Mortal Kombat movies. He’s also the referee in The Karate Kid.

Known in Australia and the UK as Cactus Jack, this Hal Needham-directed movie — written by Robert G. Kane, who often came up with jokes for Dean Martin’s Celebrity Roast — The Villain is a live-action Road Runner cartoon.

After getting an inheritance from her father Parody (Strother Martin), Charming Jones (Ann-Margret) is under the protection of a Handsome Stranger (Arnold Schwarzenegger) — wearing all of the Lone Ranger costume except for the mask — as she travels the west. The man who delivered all the money to her, Avery Simpson (Jack Elam), wants it all to himself so he hires Cactus Jack Slade (Kirk Douglas) and Nervous Elk (Paul Lynde) to get it. Handsome Stranger wants nothing to do romantically with Ms. Jones, but Cactus Jack is another story.

With Mel Tillis, Ruth Buzzi, Foster Brooks and bad guy of bad guys Robert Tessier in the cast, this was definitely made for me, no matter how silly it becomes.

Needham worked with Douglas before, acting as his stunt double for In Harm’s Way, The War Wagon and The Way West. And if you didn’t get it, the character Avery Jones is a reference to cartoon creators Tex Avery and Chuck Jones.

Even better, the saloon in this movie, Bandit’s Hangout, has the painting from Jerry Reed’s truck as its sign.

Milton Parker (Vincent Price) an eccentric game inventor — get it? — dies after losing a video game battle against with his nurse (Carol Wayne, a former Matinée Lady on Art Fern’s Tea Time Movie on The Tonight Show; she came to a mysterious end when after an argument with companion Edward Durston during a vacation, she walked alone down the beach outside Las Hadas Resort in Manzanillo, Colima, Mexico. Her drowning in a shallow bay — with no drugs in her system — was ruled accidental).

Lawyer Charles Bernstein (Robert Morley) explains the will to Parker’s greedy relatives and in keeping with his life’s work, whatever team wins the scavenger hunt will inherit the $200 million estate.

The teams are:

• Parker’s widowed son-in-law Henry Motley (Tony Randall) and his kids Jennifer (Missy Francis, a former Fox News anchor who won a $15 million settlement in a pay dispute in 2022), Michelle (Julie Anne Haddock, who was in the first season of The Facts of Life and played the superpowered Amadonna in the Wonder Woman episode “The Girl from Ilandia”), Jason (David Hollander) and Scott (Shane Sinutko).
• Parker’s staff, which includes chef Henri (James Coco), his maid Babbette (Stephanie Faracy, When You Comin’ Back, Red Ryder?), Jenkins the valet (Roddy McDowall) and Jackson the limo driver (Cleavon Little, Sheriff Bart from Blazing Saddles).
• On his own taxi driver Marvin Dummitz (Richard Mulligan).
• Parker’s widowed sister Mildred Carruthers (Cloris Leachman), her son Georgie (Richard Masur, Nick Lobo from Rhoda) and their attorney Stuart Sellsome (Richard Benjamin).
• Parker’s nephews Kenny and Jeff Stevens (Willie Aames — who gets a song on the soundtrack, “You’re the Only One That I Ever Needed” — and Dirk Benedict, for the ladies) and Mildred’s step-daughter Lisa (Maureen Teefy, Grease 2, Supergirl and 1941, so no luck at all, huh? She’s also in the strange Star Time).

Under the supervision of Bernstein and his scorekeeper Cornfeld (Hal Landon, Jr.), the teams are all given a list of clues to find a hundred items all worth 5 to 100 points. Nothing can be bought and all must be brought back to the estate by 5 p.m. that day.

The staff must steal a cash register from a convenience store, a microscope from a lab and a toilet from a 5 starhotel, while Mildred, Stuart and Georgie try to get a stuffed bear. Their adventure nearly ends when a biker named Scum (Meat Loaf) knocks out the lawyer. Kenny, Jeff and Lisa need to get a Jack in the Box head from a drive-thru (product placement, anyone?), as well as grab a large man named Duane (Not Necessarily the News‘ Stuart Pankin), as well as Ruth Gordon’s bulletproof vest, a cop’s uniform, some nitrous oxide and a football helmet. Dummitz lives up to his name, failing repeatedly to get anything before being joined by another perhaps even worse off person, Sam (Scatman Crothers), who puts on a suit of armor and promptly gets run over. As for Motley, he must find a beehive, a life preserver and a parachute, which he’ll need when gym instructor Lars (Arnold Schwarzenegger) launches him out a window in the pursuit of a medicine ball.

Somehow, every team steals one of zookeeper Avery Schreiber’s ostriches. By the way, an ostrich group, called a herd, numbers about 12 individuals.

I won’t spoil the ending for you, but if you like big dumb 70s comedies — they had a thing back then about putting way too many people in their movies and I totally forgot to mention that Robert Morley (Theater of Blood), Stephen Furst (who is probably wondering if he’s back in Midnight Madness, which might be the same movie; Disney felt similary and delayed the release of that movie because of this film), comedian Pat McCormick, Liz Torres, Henry Polic II, Marji Martin, Jerado Decordovier, Emory Bass and Byron Webster are in this — then you’ll probably enjoy this.

Amazingly, this was all directed by Michael Schultz — which explains why perhaps Scatman Crothers gets the biggest part of the endgame and this makes me happy — a black filmmaker whose resume includes standouts like Cooley High, Krush Groove, Disorderlies, The Last Dragon, Car Wash and the movie that nearly ended his career and was followed up here, Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. The script was by John Thompson, producer Steven Vail and Gerry Woolery, who did the animated titles for Mannequin and Loverboy as well as the animation for one of Jim Carrey’s first acting roles, the animation-themed and short-lived series The Duck Factory.

Arturo (Alfredo Landa) and Paco (Vincenzo Crocitti) have arrived at the castle where Paco’s wedding to Sulfurina (Carmen Villani) is to be held, but it turns out that she’s a witch.

Imagine The Fearless Vampire Killers with tons more sex and you get this movie, directed and co-written (with Mauro Ivaldi, who directed and wrote Emmanuelle’s Silver Tongue) by José Ramón Larraz.

This has some Italian in it — the Stelvio Cipriani score is quite nice. And there’s an attractive cast with Eliza Montes (99 Women), María Vico (The Legend of Blood Castle), Carmen de Lirio (Mata-Hari from Operation Mata-Hari and Jess Franco’s Marquis de Sade’s Justine), Trini Alonso (The Killer Is One of 13) and Assumpta Serna, who would one day play Lirio, the shop owner from The Craft.

There’s plenty of sex — it’s Larraz — often in this one near coffins or inside them.

It’s not the director’s final hour, but not necessarily his nadir. It’s more Satanic hijinks presented as a farce where Black Candles is much more serious; between the foggy homes of London and the castles of Spain, Larras sees the devil and hot sweaty lovemaking everywhere he looks.

And check out the posters for the alternate title, Lady Lucifera.