 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
Posted: |
Mar 21, 2020 - 12:45 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
After “Harry T. Collier” (Luis Induni), a beloved commissioner of Indian Affairs, is murdered in late March during the 1880s, CAPTAIN APACHE, an Indian graduate of West Point, is assigned by the army to investigate the crime. Suspecting that “O.J.” (George Margo), the sheriff of a town bordering the reservation may be involved in the killing, Apache travels there and finds the sheriff dining with his mistress “Maude” (Carroll Baker) at the Paradise Saloon. Meanwhile, “Griffin” (Stuart Whitman), a wealthy landowner, and six of his henchmen deliver guns across the border to a corrupt Mexican general (Jose Bodalo) who is bent on overtaking the province by force.
Lee Van Cleef and Stuart Whitman in CAPTAIN APACHE
CAPTAIN APACHE was shot at the then-new Estudios Madrid 70, in Madrid, Spain. Alexander Singer directed the 1971 release. Dolores Claman’s score has not had a release. Lee Van Cleef talk-sings the title ballad as well as the song “April Morning.” Both have music by Claman and lyrics by Richard Morris.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 21, 2020 - 1:52 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
One day while riding across his Arizona cattle ranch, “Cole Hillman” (Rory Calhoun) is forced to shoot his horse after it stumbles on a rabbit hole and breaks its leg. Cole despairs the swarms of rabbits that have taken over his grazing land, and desperate for a safe solution, discusses the problem with old friend “Elgin Clark” (DeForest Kelley), an administrator at the local university. Cole explains that the rabbit explosion came about after other ranchers all but wiped out the coyote population, thus destroying the rabbits’ natural predator.
When Cole declares his desire to control the rabbits without resorting to chemical means, which he worries will adversely affect the land’s ecological balance, Elgin advises him to see “Roy and Gerry Bennett” (Stuart Whitman and Janet Leigh), married zoologists newly hired at the university. All of these people are blissfully unaware that they are soon to experience the NIGHT OF THE LEPUS.
Janet Leigh and Stuart Whitman in NIGHT OF THE LEPUS
In an interview with film historian Tom Weaver, star Janet Leigh said she took the role because it was shot near her home, and meant less time away from her family. She also said, "I've forgotten as much as I could about that picture." Leigh declined to allow her two teenage daughters, Kelly Curtis and Jamie Lee Curtis, to appear in the movie in minor roles, as she did not want them to be part of, or see, a horror film.
William F. Claxton directed the 1972 film, which has an unreleased score by Jimmie Haskell.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 21, 2020 - 4:56 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
RUN, COUGAR, RUN is a film that has been seen by few. Filmed and set in Utah, the picture looks at the idyllic existence of a mountain lion family, which is threatened when tourists, bent on sport-hunting cougars, make their appearance. Stuart Whitman starred as “Hugh McRae.” Jerome Courtland directed the film, which was scored by Buddy Baker.
RUN, COUGAR, RUN began as a two-part drama for “The Wonderful World of Disney” television program. At some point, Disney felt the film was good enough for a theatrical release, and the picture had its premiere in Salt Lake City on 18 October 1972. It played sporadically elsewhere in the U.S. in late 1972 and early 1973. Eventually, the film was shown on “Walt Disney’s Wonderful World of Color,” as a two-part episode, on 25 November and 2 December 1973. It has pretty much not been seen since.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 21, 2020 - 9:24 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
In CALL HIM MR. SHATTER, Stuart Whitman plays “Shatter,” a middle-aged American hitman who kills an African leader and his assistant during the bloody pre-credit sequence. Shatter flies to Hong Kong, where he expects to collect his payment for the job, but what he finds out is that he wasn't hired by the U.S. Government, but rather the mob. Now it seems like everyone in Hong Kong is out to do in Shatter, so he teams up with a good-hearted kung fu expert (Ti Lung) and his "massage artist” sister (Lily Li as Shatter's love interest) to get some answers and collect his dough.
Stuart Whitman and Lily Li in CALL HIM MR. SHATTER
Filmed entirely in Hong Kong without the benefit of a studio, the film was part of a three-picture deal (only two were actually produced) that Hammer Films made with Hong Kong's The Shaw Brothers. In a "special guest" role, Peter Cushing (in his 23rd and last Hammer feature) plays a slimy British secret service agent suitably called “Ratcliff.”
Filming ran well behind schedule due to the ill health of star Stuart Whitman. Monte Hellman worked for three weeks on the film as director. He shot all of the scenes involving Peter Cushing and Anton Diffring and very few of the fight sequences. Hammer president Michael Carreras replaced Hellman, receiving sole credit on screen. David Lindup, who had scored some episodes of the television series “The Persuaders” provided the film’s unreleased score.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 21, 2020 - 11:39 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Set in the late 1950s, CRAZY MAMA stars Cloris Leachman as “Melba Stokes,” a middle-aged woman who runs a beauty parlor in California with her mother “Sheba” (Ann Sothern) and teenage daughter “Cheryl” (Linda Purl). When the shop is repossessed by a banker (Jim Backus), Sheba and the other ladies take a road trip to the old family home in Arkansas. Also along for the ride is Cheryl's redheaded surfer boyfriend, “Shawn,” played by Donny Most of "Happy Days" fame (here billed as "Donn Most”).
The gang quickly takes to a life of crime, robbing filling stations, supermarkets, and eventually banks. While playing the slot machines in Vegas, Melba falls for wayward sheriff “Jim Bob Trotter” (Stuart Whitman), Cheryl falls for a greasy biker named “Snake” (played by Leachman's son Bryan Englund), and Sheba befriends an elderly lady named “Bertha” (Merie Earle), who ran away from a nursing home. Melba and Jim Bob allegedly get hitched so their gang can rob the chapel before hitting the road again. Another scheme makes it seem that Jim Bob has been kidnapped so they can extort money from his wealthy wife (Sally Kirkland), but the plan backfires and all hell breaks loose.
Cloris Leachman, Stuart Whitman, Donny Most, and Linda Purl in CRAZY MAMA
This 1975 Jonathan Demme exploitationer was the film debut of both Bill Paxton and Dennis Quaid. Demme replaced Shirley Clarke as director after Clarke spent roughly one month working on the film during preproduction. Demme stated that Clarke was fired ten days before shooting began.
Reviews of the film were largely negative, although the Los Angeles Times' Kevin Thomas praised Demme’s direction and predicted that the director would “graduate to worthier assignments.” The film had an unreleased song score.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 22, 2020 - 12:00 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Former football star MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS (Fred Williamson) is a G.I. in Vietnam who is given a dishonorable discharge after slugging his shady commanding officer. Returning to Los Angeles as a civilian, he immediately finds himself mugged, penniless and thrown in jail (falsely accused of drunkenness). Released from the slammer and without a home, he searches for honest work, turning down an offer from mobster “Mario Racconi” (Stuart Whitman) and his father, “Don Racconi” (Luther Adler) to be a well-paid assassin. Instead, Johnny takes up employment at a gas station owned by a redneck slaver (“R.G. Armstrong”), but is forced out after his monthly pay only amounts to $21 and he again finds himself in police custody after a scuffle. A luscious blonde (Jenny Sherman) who has gained Johnny’s attentions might be the only one to convince him to work for the Racconis, who have just been hit by the rival Da Vince family.
Wanting to disassociate himself with the so-called blaxploitation genre and be recognized as an all-around action film star, Fred “The Hammer” Williamson made his directorial debut with MEAN JOHNNY BARROWS, a film he also starred in and produced for his newly formed company, Po' Boy Productions. None of Paul Riser’s score for the film has been released. However, the song “Strung Out,” by Riser, as sung by Gordon Staples, appeared on a British 2-LP/CD compilation set from Soul Jazz Records in 2009 titled “Can You Dig It? - The Music and Politics of Black Action Films 1969-75.”
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 22, 2020 - 11:23 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
In STRANGE SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM, hard-nosed Ottawa police captain "Tony Saitta" (Stuart Whitman) is enraged to learn his sister "Louise" (Carole Laure), a student at the university of Montreal, has been fatally poisoned. Actually, Louise just pulled a prank on "Dr. George Tracer" (Martin Landau), the boyfriend who just broke up with her. Then she dies in front of him, and Tracer becomes the prime suspect.
Stuart Whitman, John Saxon, and Martin Landau in STRANGE SHADOWS IN AN EMPTY ROOM
This 1976 Italian-Canadian-Panamanian co-production was directed by Martin Herbert (aka Alberto De Martino). The score by Armando Trovaioli was released on a Beat LP, which was re-issued on CD in 2008.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 22, 2020 - 12:11 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
In EATEN ALIVE!, a psychotic redneck (Neville Brand) who owns a dilapidated hotel in rural East Texas kills various people who upset him or his business, and he feeds their bodies to a large crocodile that he keeps as a pet in the swamp beside his hotel. Stuart Whitman plays “Sheriff Martin” in the film.
The film was loosely based on the story of Joe Ball from Elmendorf, Texas (also known as the “Bluebeard from South Texas” or the “Alligator Man”). Sometime after Prohibition ended, he owned a bar with an alligator pit serving as an entertainment attraction. Ball was suspected of murdering several women, but it was never proven that the flesh found in the pit was human. However, Ball committed suicide at his bar on September 24, 1938 when he was about to be arrested by the police in connection with the murders.
Stuart Whitman in EATEN LIVE
EATEN ALIVE! was shot, in part, on a soundstage, using dry-ice fog effects in the style of earlier Hollywood horror films. A sixteen-to-seventeen-foot mechanical crocodile, along with a three-foot “walking” model, were used to simulate the killer reptile.
Producer Mardi Rustam set up his own distribution company (Virgo International Pictures) for the film, originally planning an 8 September 1976 release in 600 theaters. However, the film was not released until May 1977. The 5 December 1977 Los Angeles Times review called the film, “one horrendous and ludicrous movie where bondage, brutality and sadism are rampant.”
Tobe Hooper directed the film, and he and Wayne Bell provided the film’s music, which has not had a release.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 22, 2020 - 1:12 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Dressed in Indian leathers and wearing warpaint, “Victor” (Paul Koslo) stealthily invades the Paradise police station, kills two officers with a crossbow, and leaves a message on a blackboard: The rich must pay or the rich will die. 1 million $ by 3:00 P.M. tomorrow. Victor. “Chief ‘Hal’ Haliburton” (John Ireland) arrives and tells “Officer Davey” (Arch Archambault) to clean up the mess and tell no one, not even the medical examiner. The Chief phones local millionaire “William Whitaker” (Stuart Whitman) to report what happened, and Whitaker in turn calls professional security man “Nick McCormick” (Oliver Reed). Soon, they will all be dealing with a MANIAC.
Stuart Whitman’s younger brother, Kipp Whitman appeared in the film as “Officer Bob Steiner.” The film went by a number of earlier titles before settling on MANIAC, including “Assault on Paradise,” “The Ransom,” and “The Town That Cried Terror!”
Richard Compton directed the 1977 release, which has an unreleased score by Don Ellis.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 22, 2020 - 1:52 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
In THE WHITE BUFFALO, at the close of 1874, a haunted, dying "Wild Bill Hickok" (Charles Bronson) teams up with a grieving "Crazy Horse" (Will Sampson) to hunt a murderous albino buffalo. Earlier, Hickok seeks out an old friend, “Poker Jenny” (Kim Novak). While riding a stagecoach to Jenny’s town in a thunderstorm, Hickok is nearly robbed by fellow passenger “Winifred Coxy” (Stuart Whitman), but he draws his gun and throws the attacker into the mud. Clint Walker played outlaw "Whistling Jack Kileen."
J. Lee Thompson directed the 1977 film. The film’s original score was composed by David Shire, but writer Richard Sale, who was adapting his own novel for the screen, did not like the typical western-sounding score produced by Shire. He campaigned for John Barry to re-score the film. Barry, who had worked with producer Dino DeLaurentiis the previous year on the KING KONG remake, was ultimately hired. He wrote a score for the film that was somewhat atonal. Barry's score was most recently released by Quartet in 2017.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 22, 2020 - 2:43 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
RUBY finds “Ruby Claire” (Piper Lurie) and her daughter “Leslie” (Janit Baldwin) living in an old roadhouse that was once owned by the Dade County Gang, located adjacent to Ruby’s Drive-In, a new outdoor movie theater. At twilight, Ruby watches the theater from her window as customers drive into the lot. Her employees are former members of the Dade County Gang who have fallen on hard times after being paroled from prison: “Vince Kemper” (Stuart Whitman) collects money at the gate, “Jess Littinger” (Edward Donno) runs the film projectors, and “Louie” (Paul Kent) and “Barney” (Len Lesser) work at the concession stand. Soon, a series of gruesome murders will take place at the drive-in.
Piper Lurie and Stuart Whitman in RUBY
Over the years, there were several versions of RUBY. Director Curtis Harrington was unhappy with all of them. After Harrington completed the picture, Dimension Pictures shot new footage, including a different ending that replaced Harrington’s poetic atmospherics with a more explicit denouement. Later, RUBY was re-edited for television, with new scenes added and others deleted or truncated. When this longer version was released on videotape, Harrington demanded his name be removed from the credits; this version was credited to “Alan Smithee,” a name traditionally used by directors who wish to be disassociated from a film. In his DVD “director’s cut,” Harrington was unable to restore some footage, including his original ending, because it had been discarded.
Motown Records released Don Dunn and Don Ellis’s theme song, “Ruby” on its Prodigal label. Otherwise, none of Don Ellis’s score has been released. RUBY grossed $6 million at the box office, considered good at the time for an independent feature.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 22, 2020 - 10:05 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
GUYANA - CULT OF THE DAMNED commences with the onscreen warning “Names have been changed to protect the innocent,” but all you really have to know is that Reverend Jim Jones is here called “Reverend James Johnson” and is played by Stuart Whitman, and the community of Jonesville is now called Johnsontown. In the fall of 1978, Johnson and his congregation are given permission to set up shop in Guyana, South America, with most of the flock fancying him as a Christ-like figure whose word is absolute law. But all is not rosy in this utopia, as citizens are exploited in hard labor and then given rations of rice with a spot of bland gravy. Although Johnson rants and raves about all things holy and his love for his people, he rules over them as a sadistic tyrant.
Word of the horrors of Johnsontown get back to the U.S. via complaints from friends and relatives of the followers, and an investigation gets under way. Gene Barry plays California congressman “Lee O'Brien” (Leo Ryan in real life), who sets up a team of reporters, photographers and other interested parties to fly to Johnsontown and determine the truth about it with their own eyes.
René Cardona Jr. directed and co-wrote this 1979 Mexican-financed film. Jimmie Haskell, Nelson Riddle, and three other composers are credited with the score. Possibly stock music was used. Universal cut the film from 107 minutes to 90 minutes for its U.S. release in 1980. The film grossed $3.8 million in the U.S.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 22, 2020 - 10:33 PM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Down in Florida, former CIA operative “Hud” (Robert Vaughn), who insists "I don't have time for friends," gets pulled into a plot to assassinate Fidel Castro and enlists the aid of buddy “Tony” (Stuart Whitman) to make the CUBA CROSSING. Unfortunately, they get stuck in the middle of a backstabbing heroin deal as the whole thing turns out to be some kind of shady international shell game. The supporting cast includes Woody Strode, Sybil Danning, Raymond St. Jacques, and Albert Salmi.
Charles Workman, the man behind so many of those Academy Award show film montages, directed this 1980 potboiler. The film gone by many titles in its various video releases, but it’s unclear whether it ever had a U.S. theatrical release. Jack White provided the score.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Posted: |
Mar 23, 2020 - 12:22 AM
|
|
|
|
By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
|
Twenty years ago. “Captain Hayes” of the Texas Rangers (Richard Widmark) did the seemingly impossible and captured notorious outlaw “John Henry Lee” (Willie Nelson), putting him behind bars. But having now been released and become an old man, John Henry has not changed his ways one iota and within hours of being released he has not only robbed a bank but is busy putting his old gang back together. It leads to Hayes coming out of retirement himself to go after his nemesis once and for all. But when a young gang of outlaws steal the loot which John Henry was going after, it leads to the unlikely union of John Henry and Hayes, as they along with their men go after these young outlaws. It all happens ONCE UPON A TEXAS TRAIN.
Stuart Whitman appears as one of Hayes’ men, “George Asque.” Other western stalwarts in the cast include Chuck Connors, Jack Elam, Ken Curtis, Dub Taylor, Royal Dano, and Hank Worden. Another western stalwart, Burt Kennedy, wrote and directed this made-for-television film, which aired on CBS on 3 January 1988. Arthur B. Rubinstein provided the unreleased score. The film was a loose remake of “The Over-the-Hill Gang,” a 1969 ABC television film.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
