ANITA SANDS ON MAVERICK WITH CHRIS ROBINSON TRIPLE FEATURE

Chris Robinson and Anita Sands 1959 ***

THE DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE: What's set up in the opening scroll on the dated terrors of teenage marriage winds up a basic thriller about a high-school girl recently wed to a law student being stalked and tormented by the popular high-school jerk she once rejected... 

In the latter bullying role is a young Christopher Robinson (sometimes billed as Chris Robinson), who basically steals the show alongside titular character Anita Sands... 

An incredible gorgeous and very talented, intense actress (particularly great on MAVERICK, pictured below), the film's moral lesson is of her stuffed-animal-carrying Judy, who's much too young to be married (seeking daddy's money over a husband who can't yet provide), resulting in a heated crime-genre standoff on a genuine movie set in this American International programmer directed by Burt Topper, combining a high school soap opera with cautionary tale melodrama and a heavy dose of edgy pre-1960's drive-in cinema exploitation. 

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG Year: 1960 Rating: ****

ANITA SANDS MAVERICK DOUBLE-FEATURE: Anita Sands played the titular witch on MAVERICK, the episode THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG, starring Jack Kelly as Bart Maverick... with Anita as a gorgeous hillbilly girl (she would later play a feral wild girl on BONANZA), conning Bart into believing she's a witch, until it comes true, maybe... 

Her performance is a tour-de-force combination of comedy horror and offbeat mayhem, with a frenzied performance no other actresses could come close to equaling, combining sexy with wacky, the epitome of a titular scene-stealing performance while in the same fourth season's FAMILY PRIDE she's quieter but inevitable spunky and sneaky, doing a long-game land-deal on James Garner's replacement Roger Moore: overall, Sands is the most beautiful actress who, despite her incredible looks, can play insecure and vulnerable, desperate and cunning, edgy and alluring and cagey... truly a one of a kind starlet that made episodic television better.  

Title: STANLEY Year: 1972 Rating: ***1/2

 STANLEY: Over a decade after playing the bully in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE, Christopher Robinson gets his very own starring-role PSYCHO, yet he's more BILLY JACK being part Indian and a Vietnam veteran while resembling a shaggy Alan Alda (compared to his previous sharp-nosed young Jack Nicholson look)...

He lives in a rural swampy cabin with a bevy of pet snakes he's extremely close with. In that, outdoors exploitation director William Grefé puts his cast through the ringer as snakes wind up slithering all over everyone, for real...

And while the pace is randomly sluggish and awkward, the body count horror pays off with deserved victims ranging from an obnoxious stripper to a trio of poachers working for corporate villain Alex Rocco. And as every scream needs a queen, he's got a sexy blonde daughter played by Susan Carroll, providing fifteen minutes of sexy cult fame. Each victim deals with Robinson's terror in their own nightmare-induced fashion; and his name is Tim, not STANLEY. It's surprising he's the same actor that wielded such raw energy in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE as he's pretty wooden here, even during bouts of vicious lunacy. But it's the creatures that coil, hiss and strike that matter, led by the titular rattler looking more like a boa, and who's the best actor on board, by far. 

Rod Taylor & Chris Robinson 1970 **1/2

DARKER THAN AMBER: Acting isn't the problem in this obscure curio known for a fake fight that winds up a real one between Australian leading man Rod Taylor and American tough guy/muscle man William Smith...

Only you have to wait for the climax that occurs on a cruise ship while most of the picture takes place in the sweaty pulp-inspired Florida heat...

A hippie era neo-noir thriller with a bulky, weathered Taylor as author John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee, a beach bum diver/scavenger who just happens to happen upon a beautiful blonde dumped from a bridge into the same river he and his buddy are fishing at.

Prepare to stretch even more disbelief as, later on, the same actress plays a different character set up to trick the main villain, Smith, but at this point it's future ENTER THE DRAGON voluptuous blonde bombshell Ahna Capri... working for the same director, Robert Clouse... who steals the show after a rather long, somewhat bland yet complicated but at times, semi-intriguing investigatory premise liken to the gumshoe flicks of the 1940's. The main issue is our heavy's needed much more throughout; perhaps his also-muscular henchman Robert Philips should have been channeled completely into Smith's role. And now to unbury our lead: Christopher Robinson plays a bully in a diner who goads Taylor 's McGee into kicking his ass. Not an important scene but one of the better ones. At least something happens that's easy to follow. 

Chris Robinson in DARKER THAN AMBER

Christopher Robinson and Anita Sands in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Ron Foster and Anita Sands in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson and Wendy Wilde in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Anita Sands in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson and Wendy Wilde in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson and Anita Sands in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson and Wendy Wilde in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson and Anita Sands in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson and Anita Sands in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Anita Sands in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson and Anita Sands in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE

Christopher Robinson and Susan Carroll in STANLEY

Christopher Robinson and Susan Carroll in STANLEY

"BITE HER!!!" Christopher Robinson and Susan Carroll in STANLEY

Susan Carroll in STANLEY

Snake charmer Marcia Knight in STANLEY, and she was also in Darker than Amber

Susan Carroll in STANLEY

Alex Rocco and Susan Carroll in STANLEY

Alex Rocco and Susan Carroll in STANLEY

Susan Carroll feeling a little horse in STANLEY

Steve Alaimo and Susan Carroll in STANLEY

Christopher Robinson as Tim Ochopee in STANLEY

Alex Rocco makes like a doomed tree frog STANLEY

Christopher Robinson and Ron Foster in THE DIARY OF A TEENAGE BRIDE

Anita Sands in BONANZA: THE SPITFIRE with Michael Landon

Anita Sands in BONANZA: THE SPITFIRE with Michael Landon

Anita Sands in BONANZA: THE SPITFIRE with Michael Landon

Anita Sands in BONANZA: THE SPITFIRE

Anita Sands in BONANZA: THE SPITFIRE

Anita Sands in BONANZA: THE SPITFIRE with Michael Landon

Anita Sands in BONANZA: THE SPITFIRE with Dan Blocker

Anita Sands in BONANZA: THE SPITFIRE with Michael Landon

Anita Sands in BONANZA: THE SPITFIRE

Anita Sands in BONANZA: THE SPITFIRE

Anita Sands in BONANZA: THE SPITFIRE

Anita Sands in CHEYENNE: THE RETURN OF MR GRIMM

Anita Sands in CHEYENNE: THE RETURN OF MR GRIMM

Anita Sands in CHEYENNE: THE RETURN OF MR GRIMM

Anita Sands in CHEYENNE: THE RETURN OF MR GRIMM

Anita Sands in CHEYENNE: THE RETURN OF MR GRIMM

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Roger Moore

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Karl Swanson

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Karl Swanson

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Karl Swanson

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Roger Moore

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Roger Moore

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Roger Moore

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Roger Moore

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Denver Pyle

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Denver Pyle

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Karl Swanson

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Roger Moore

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE with Roger Moore

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: FAMILY PRIDE

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG with Jack Kelly

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG with Jack Kelly

Anita Sands in MAVERICK: THE WITCH OF HOUND DOG

Warren Beatty and Anita Sands in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Dobie Gillis, Boy Actor

Anita Sands and Dwayne Hickman in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Dobie Gillis, Boy Actor

Anita Sands and Dwayne Hickman in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Dobie Gillis, Boy Actor

Anita Sands, Bob Denver and Dwayne Hickman in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Dobie Gillis, Boy Actor

Anita Sands and Dwayne Hickman in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Dobie Gillis, Boy Actor

Anita Sands and Dwayne Hickman in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Dobie Gillis, Boy Actor

Anita Sands and Dwayne Hickman in The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis: Dobie Gillis, Boy Actor

Anita Sands on WAGON TRAIN: THE CHARLEY SHUTUP STORY