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Posted: |
Jun 21, 2022 - 4:48 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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SUMMERTREE was based on the Pulitzer Prize-winning play by Ron Cowen, and was adapted for the screen by Edward Hume. The film follows “Jerry McAdams” (Michael Douglas), a wavy-haired 20-year-old college student torn between doing what is expected of him (finishing school with a degree) and what he really wants to do (dropout and play his guitar). Jerry falls for an older woman, “Vanetta” (Brenda Vaccaro), a nurse whose husband is in Vietnam. He also takes a young inner-city kid, “Marvis” (Kirk Callaway), under his wing. Jerry fights with his parents about what he wants to do with his life; particularly with his father (Jack Warden) – the gruff all-American who continually pushes his son, telling him that he should be entering the military to fight for freedom, proclaiming that it is his duty. William Smith plays a lawyer in the film, one who helps young men in dealing with the military draft.
Michael Douglas had played the leading role in “Summertree” when it received its first performance at the 1967 Eugene O'Neill Theatre Memorial Foundation in Waterford, CT. He was not selected to appear in the Broadway version, however, which featured David Birney as "Jerry McAdams". Kirk Douglas bought the film rights to the play as a gift to his son and produced the film version of SUMMERTREE.
Anthony Newley directed the 1971 drama. David Shire’s score has not had a release. The film had only moderate grosses of $2.1 million domestically.
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Who knew Mr. Smith was a poet? I found this one on his website along with others -- many of them are his musings on old age and remembrances of younger days:
THE REAPER
I remember when my friends and I
Thought that youth and games would never die
We cherished the girls, grog and laughter
Ribald at night, meek mornings after
But now malt’s too strong and girls too young
All our stories old, our song’s been sung
We mumble in search of long dead wit
Humor now is the daily obit
Our high is sharing a friend’s demise
He was a fine lad, echo our lies
While we gloat that it’s him not me
Knowing that they always fall by three
Wallowing secure ’cause Sam was third
Surely there’s time ’fore my taps are heard
Then there’s news of the death of old Hugh
Well, hell, that clown never paid his due
Nights alone you feel the Reaper’s chill
Then at dawn there’s a fine, undead thrill
Check pulse, poke liver, no pain, no fear
Hit the bars ’cause he’s dead, you’re still here
No canes or taxis for you today
On this fine and smogless first of May
Jauntily out the door to the street
Gaily you greet all those that you meet
Then as you stroll you think of old Hugh
The wind sighs, “He was younger than you”
As a maverick tear rolls from your eye
You know you gotta laugh instead of cry
You’ve done some bad and you’ve done some good
You wouldn’t change things even if you could
’Cause through the years you’ve run a good race
The Reaper chased and couldn’t keep your pace
So toast those that live and those that die
And while you can, spit in the Reaper’s eye
--William Smith
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Posted: |
Jun 23, 2022 - 12:32 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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The dark, violent British production GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE stars Michael Pataki as a brutish vampire apparently lacking in Dracula's powers of seduction, since he finds it necessary to brutally rape a young woman (Kitty Vallacher) in order to sire a child. The product of this unholy mating is a half-human, half-vampire baby boy, bottle-fed on the blood of his now-insane mother until her eventual death from anemia. Later as a young man, the son (William Smith) is able to spend short periods in daylight, and his bloodlust is considerably lesser than that of his father. Tormented nevertheless by his evil condition, he curses his bloodline and defies his vampire heritage, tracking his father down to the university where he teaches occult sciences.
William Smith in GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE
Even though he had top billing, William Smith did not appear on-screen until 35 minutes into the film. John Hayes directed the 1972 film, which has an unreleased score by Jaime Mendoza-Nava. Reportedly, the film was shot in just 11 days for a paltry $50,000.
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Posted: |
Jun 23, 2022 - 10:49 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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Fred Williamson stars as “B.J. HAMMER,” a former prize-winning boxer who's now working as a rough-and-tumble warehouse worker. When he beats the daylights out of a racist co-worker (John Quade) and gets fired, he is immediately embraced into the boxing world of “Big Sid” (Charles Lampkin), a promoter who deals smack and pulls hits on the side. His right-hand man, “Brenner” (William Smith) does the really dirty work for him, like running down defecting pushers in dead-end alleys. Hammer thinks he has it made: he's got his career skyrocketing and Big Sid's beautiful secretary “Lois” (Vonetta McGee) has taken a shine to him. But things are about to take a turn.
Fred Williamson, William Smith, and Charles Lampkin in HAMMER
In a 1991 interview, Fred Williamson said, "Bill Smith is the perennial bad guy. He's always the kind of guy I need to fight. I've always got to have a big guy to fight, so, I've killed him two or three times. I've had some gigantic fights with him. I'm always looking for guys who are both actors and stuntmen, which is very hard to find. Bill is definitely a believable bad guy, but he's a good stuntman too."
Bruce Clark directed this 1972 film, which has an unreleased score by Solomon Burke.
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Posted: |
Jun 24, 2022 - 3:04 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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PIRANHA! PIRANHA! (the movie so good they named it twice!) pretty much has nothing to do with the piranha fish. Instead, it’s a seemingly endless slog through the jungle disguised as a violent adventure film. In the story, a photographer named “Terry” (Ahna Capri) ropes her brother, “Art” (Tom Simcox), into heading into the wilds of South America for a photo shoot of diamond mining in the midst of nature at its most savage. They hire a guide named “Jim” (Peter Brown) to keep them safe along the way, but they still run afoul of ruthless hunter “Caribe” (William Smith), whose name happens to mean "piranha," and who has a tendency to hunt more than just big game.
In a 2010 interview, William Smith spoke about the stunts he had done in films: “Another dangerous stunt was on the film PIRANHA! PIRANHA!, which was shot down in South America. I did a stunt with a very large anaconda in the water. The local snake wrangler, who did not have the experience to handle this snake, had a hard time, and the snake almost crushed me to death.” William Gibson directed the 1972 film, which has an unreleased score by Richard La Salle.
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Posted: |
Jun 30, 2022 - 7:19 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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William Smith became a producer when he and Peter Brown created a new company, Redwine International Films, to finance writer Sean MacGregor’s original script for “Once Upon a Tribe,” in which an Indian (Smith) is accused of the rape and murder of a white girl, “Betsy Shaeffer” (C.J. Hincks). The girl's stepfather, “Kent” (Kevin Hagen), incites the townspeople to punish the Indian—to cover up the fact that it was actually he who committed the crime.
MacGregor brought the script to William Smith with the intention of starring in the film, but Smith wavered in his decision to produce it. The men reportedly decided to finance the film themselves for $500,000, and Smith took over the role of “Camper John Allen.” Although he directed the film, retitled CAMPER JOHN, MacGregor is not credited onscreen as a producer.
The film was first shown in Minneapolis in 1973 under the title CAMPER JOHN, and over the next few years it played around the country under no fewer than a half dozen other titles. Luchi De Jesus provided the unreleased score.
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Posted: |
Jul 2, 2022 - 12:29 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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A powerful cosmic force is turning Earth women into queen bees who kill men by wearing them out sexually in INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS. William Smith plays State Department security agent “Neil Agar,” who is investigating the phenomenon.
In a 2013 interview, Smith recalled that, “I knew the director, Denis Sanders, through our mutual friend [producer] Fred Weintraub. We had talked about working together, and this was a perfect opportunity. Actually, I had recently played a 'good guy' in GRAVE OF THE VAMPIRE and GENTLE SAVAGE [CAMPER JOHN] and I was looking for more 'good guy' leading roles at the time, which was one of the main things that interested me about doing this part.”
William Smith in INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS
“I really liked working with Denis,” Smith relates. “He was a very talented director and writer, and nice to work with. It was sad that he died so young. I was looking forward to working with him again. Anitra Ford and Victoria Vetri I remember as both being good to work with. Victoria was very popular at the time, having recently been Playboy Playmate of The Year, and she was still trying to get her acting career in gear.”
“I think that all of us in the cast and on the crew took this as a fairly serious film, and not anything campy. I feel that Denis certainly felt that way, and he was trying to pattern the feeling of the film after the same type of style and underlying tension that you got from INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS, which was a favorite of his. I always play a character straight unless the director tells me otherwise, and I think that even though the film is considered a little campy by today's standards, at the time it was released it was thought of as a straight science fiction / action film."
Denis Sanders directed the 1973 film, which had an unreleased score by Charles Bernstein. INVASION OF THE BEE GIRLS was Sanders’ last feature film. He later became a professor and filmmaker in residence at San Diego State University. He died of a heart attack in 1987 at the age of 58.
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THE LAST AMERICAN HERO was loosely based on the life of Robert Glenn Johnson Jr. (1931 – 2019), better known as “Junior Johnson,” who was an American NASCAR driver of the 1950s and 1960s. He won 50 NASCAR races in his career before retiring in 1966. In the 1970s and 1980s, he became a NASCAR racing team owner, winning the NASCAR championship with Cale Yarborough and Darrell Waltrip. He was nicknamed "The Last American Hero," and his autobiography is of the same name. Junior Johnson acted as a consultant and technical advisor on the film.
Jeff Bridges played “Elroy ‘Junior’ Jackson” in the film. The character of “Marge Dennison,” played by Valerie Perrine, was a composite character based on the many female track followers. Ned Beatty played a racing promoter named “Hackel.” William Smith plays champion race drive “Kyle Kingman” in the film.
William Smith, Valerine Perrine, and Jeff Bridges in THE LAST AMERICAN HERO
Lamont Johnson directed the July 1973 release, which was filmed primarily in North Carolina. Charles Fox provided the unreleased score. The film had below average grosses of $3.8 million. Jim Croce’s song “I Got a Name,” which was written by Charles Fox & Norman Gimbel and recorded for the film, was a hit continuing after Croce’s death in September 1973. It prompted 20th Century-Fox to consider re-releasing the film under the song title; however, no contemporary sources confirm that this happened.
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Posted: |
Jul 4, 2022 - 10:07 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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William Smith again co-starred with Rod Taylor in 1973’s THE DEADLY TRACKERS. Taylor played “Frank Brand,” the leader of a gang of ruthless bank robbers who are pursued by “Sheriff Sean Kilpatrick” (Richard Harris). William Smith played one of Brand’s gang, the slow-witted but vicious “Schoolboy.”
William Smith in THE DEADLY TRACKERS
A full explanation of the film's troubled production is beyond the scope of this post. Suffice it to say that the original production, begun under legendary director Samuel Fuller, was shut down after five weeks. When restarted under director Barry Shear, Taylor was brought in to replace Bo Hopkins, after most of Fuller's footage was scrapped.
Composer Fred Steiner demanded that his name not appear in the film’s credits, because the bulk of Steiner’s score was dropped by director Shear and replaced by excerpts from Jerry Fielding’s score for the Warner Bros. film THE WILD BUNCH. Because Steiner made his request several months before the picture’s release, the studio agreed not to include his name in the onscreen credits, but it was listed in early trade reviews.
The American Federation of Musicians (AFM) union sent Warner Bros. a bill for $25,000, claiming that a 6 November 1973 recording session employing AFM members violated its contract with the union. AFM protested that the session, during which portions of Fielding’s THE WILD BUNCH score were re-recorded, was a “dummy,” since a comparison of the session’s tapes to the film’s final soundtrack indicated that the original 1969 soundtrack was used in the 1973 release. Union rules prohibited studios from reusing soundtracks without permission from AFM and without compensating the original musicians. It is not known whether Warner Bros., which questioned the legality of the bill, paid the additional charges.
The $1 million picture was a failure at the box office, grossing less than $850,000. Barry Shear turned to directing television for the rest of his career, and was another William Smith director who died young—at age 56 in 1979.
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In POLICEWOMEN, red-headed vixen Sondra Currie is “Lacy Bond,” a female cop tired of the beats she's working and being treated like a "glorified secretary." Proving her skills in karate, car chases, and gunfire, Lacy is given the task of infiltrating a gang of female criminals smuggling gold into the country. The gang is made up of hookers and drug addicts and run by the 70-year-old crime lord “Maude” (Elizabeth Stuart), so Lacy finds no shortage of opportunities to kick some serious ass! William Smith did another favor for his old friend director Lee Frost and had a small role as a karate instructor in the film. The 1974 picture had no credited music score. The film had average box office of $3 million.
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Posted: |
Jul 4, 2022 - 10:06 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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With his afro, an array of African shirts, a pet lion on a leash (!) and his tall decorated walking stick, six-foot five-inch Rockne Tarkington stars as the titular character in BLACK SAMSON. Owner of a friendly neighborhood topless bar, Samson certainly doesn’t mind if the locals ogle at his cuties or guzzle one beer after another, but he doesn’t believe in drugs, fighting to keep his streets clean. This poses a problem for Italian crime boss “Joseph Nappa” (Titos Vandis) who permits his headstrong nephew “Johnny” (William Smith) to do all the dirty work. Johnny attempts to bargain with Samson using shady lawyer “Briggs” (John Alderman), nearly has him killed by his toughies on the upper level of a parking garage and in an alley, and he sends his shapely blond girlfriend “Tina” (Connie Strickland) to work in the bar as a topless dancer in order to spy on him.
William Smith and Connie Strickland in BLACK SAMSON
Actor-stuntman Charles Bail made his directorial debut with this 1974 film. Although a short announcement in the 18 November 1973 Daily Variety stated that Willie Bobo and Dale Frank had been set to score the film, the film’s unreleased score is credited to the rhythm and blues musician, songwriter, arranger and record producer Allen Toussaint.
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In the futuristic year of 2012, two men capturing pigeons in the ruins of an old factory are shot and killed by “Carrot” (William Smith), a tall redheaded man, and his gang. Carrot takes the men’s pigeons, unaware he is watched by “Baron” (Max von Sydow), leader of a commune that has barricaded off a few New York City blocks. Baron also spies “Carson” (Yul Brynner), a muscular bald man, meditating on a stoop. Realizing Carson is a fighter, perhaps THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR, Baron and his men try to recruit him, offering food and cigars.
William Smith in THE ULTIMATE WARRIOR
The film’s subway set spanned two sound stages at the Burbank Studios and was believed to be the largest indoor film set in the history of Hollywood filmmaking to that date. Robert Clouse (ENTER THE DRAGON) directed this 1975 film. Gil Mellé provided the unreleased score. The film grossed an unremarkable $2.4 million in the U.S.
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