cult film freak: penny peyser

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Written by James M. Tate / 6/13/2021 / No comments / cassie yates , gregg henry , herbert jefferson jr. , james carroll jordan , john anderson , kimberly beck , laraine stephens , miniseries , penny peyser , peter strauss , seventies , susan sullivan , TV , william smith

PETER STRAUSS VS WILLIAM SMITH 'RICH MAN, POOR MAN BOOK II'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmPRzUKBzKlYQd1K0-nWwk0YySsgBYoC4sNsu-Zh9vY9qvAiLC-jYH5wIh3W9pchz_pCokT1CgAT2wxTbh3lGin_bmuJmsr4EwCahWT49Dd1uT-052ORgbSkT3TjFCUKXSlZBQbdIMphgM/s901/66.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="549" data-original-width="901" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmPRzUKBzKlYQd1K0-nWwk0YySsgBYoC4sNsu-Zh9vY9qvAiLC-jYH5wIh3W9pchz_pCokT1CgAT2wxTbh3lGin_bmuJmsr4EwCahWT49Dd1uT-052ORgbSkT3TjFCUKXSlZBQbdIMphgM/s16000/66.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: RICH MAN, POOR MAN BOOK II Year: 1976-1977 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>While RICH MAN, POOR MAN BOOK II is no <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2019/02/RMPM1.html">RICH MAN, POOR MAN</a> being impossible to replace Nick Nolte after he dies in the original's climax, it's a pretty great sequel, mostly thanks to William Smith as crazy villain Anthony Falconetti who, while shaping-up and tearing-down the last four episodes of the first venture, is now a continuously formidable presence, not only stealing scenes but destroying anyone and anything in his wake...</p><p></p><p>And this time the POOR MAN are young <i>men</i>... Since there's no luckless boxer/sailor Nolte to contrast returning star and now sole headliner Peter Strauss as ambitious, sometimes idealistic Senator/businessman Rudy Jordache, Nolte's beloved son, Wesley (Gregg Henry) and con artist Billy (James Carroll Jordan), neglected son of Bill Bixby and Susan Blakely (the latter killed off/written out early), both take the POOR spot in different ways... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSrcuyKraM9Ms0Fp8Y2zTr6P3up2H9mOiHG59fhZVNH18hVCu8VwWlTvLvKmue7liO67rdtKLb-TZdMZGwcT3Qw51HHOSENb5W_Ot9U_r1A6nPvRD7VDIEKhA4PQlrYBqtXaPlhKZklNDW/s1876/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-06-13%252Bat%252B12.39.01%252BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1276" data-original-width="1876" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgSrcuyKraM9Ms0Fp8Y2zTr6P3up2H9mOiHG59fhZVNH18hVCu8VwWlTvLvKmue7liO67rdtKLb-TZdMZGwcT3Qw51HHOSENb5W_Ot9U_r1A6nPvRD7VDIEKhA4PQlrYBqtXaPlhKZklNDW/s16000/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-06-13%252Bat%252B12.39.01%252BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Penny Peyser and Gregg Henry in RICH MAN POOR MAN BOOK II Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Wesley's broke despite being taken in by his RICH uncle while Billy fights to make it big in the music industry, so he's basically the young climber version of Peter Strauss while Wesley, blond and muscular like dad, takes Nolte's hapless workingman route, <i>almost</i> having an affair with tough, stubborn yet incredibly cute girl-next-door/union man's daughter Penny Peyser... until Billy gets in quicker and ignites an addictive whirlwind romance/love triangle...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And there are so many characters to cover, including a resilient, quick-witted Susan Sullivan as Rudy's girlfriend lawyer (particularly during senate hearings straight from THE GODFATHER II including a crooked G. D. Spradlin and Peter Donat), whose daughter Kimberly Beck is a flirtatious teenager smitten with Wesley when, by the 11th hour,<i> all</i> the characters wind up in Sin City Vegas to square-off against the show's two polar opposite antagonists...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlkFKE2hU_1dX6BkYu8sFodrKy2FMtLW1TjxEh05dlnOCAsKizhQ_ioqrjMJpnwa4H-BD2Zn8JGVjsQ9DE3xCccuvHM-XiSE944oZH7Cvi0Zpu23FH1KgG-x_dqF5S4NlgHqGmLg9aQCa/s943/0.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="602" data-original-width="943" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjxlkFKE2hU_1dX6BkYu8sFodrKy2FMtLW1TjxEh05dlnOCAsKizhQ_ioqrjMJpnwa4H-BD2Zn8JGVjsQ9DE3xCccuvHM-XiSE944oZH7Cvi0Zpu23FH1KgG-x_dqF5S4NlgHqGmLg9aQCa/s16000/0.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>William Smith and Kimberly Beck in RICH MAN, POOR MAN BOOK II</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Besides Falconetti is a callous yet still somewhat charming/monopolizing billionaire Peter Haskell as Charles Estep, who Strauss's Rudy is after and whose wife, the beautiful Laraine Stephens, holds an anticipated/game-changing secret...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The most fun's had with Billy and his up-and-down dealings working at then co-owning a once-great record company (owned by endearingly grouchy in-debt gambler Sorrell Booke); he basically sells his soul to protect a fickle and neurotic knockout version of Janis Joplin in Cassie Yates, taking the otherwise womanizer on a proverbial ride... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4VPX6bxx2UX7bgkO_ZiqLsWNbto63sbHbAp2tJCnzz4QbRyhEPWddZEqwwFX2eWG_sSSbZ6z8hdRIuevRGu3zsI5UNvRkCrQ1DIiGS2CbrKJ-QAsqBHvWfKXvGhfMv2UtPOuYm-wNoSqp/s960/196143560_1256252508137256_8637572101747373707_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="667" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4VPX6bxx2UX7bgkO_ZiqLsWNbto63sbHbAp2tJCnzz4QbRyhEPWddZEqwwFX2eWG_sSSbZ6z8hdRIuevRGu3zsI5UNvRkCrQ1DIiGS2CbrKJ-QAsqBHvWfKXvGhfMv2UtPOuYm-wNoSqp/s16000/196143560_1256252508137256_8637572101747373707_n.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Russell Johnson as a detective with Peter Strauss in RICH MAN POOR MAN BOOK II</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Meanwhile, William Smith's powerfully methodical method-acting is what really stands out (especially scenes with Vegas hotel manager Ken Swofford), shaking the dust off particular moments where the original series' edgy (semi-historical) drama becomes kitschy melodrama... He's busy too, fending off Nolte's vengeful returning partner Herbert Jefferson Jr., and, also returning is Kay Lenz, Nolte's sexy little widow, this time a kooky laughing girl in a contrived/forced affair with Strauss...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And yet, despite the soap operatic tropes and romantic distractions, like any good televised serial, the characters and situations leave viewers salivating for the next episode... while Peter Strauss is even more intense and dogged, likable, sympathetic and hardcore in the leading role (providing more than a few fantastic monologue-lectures)... making both RICH MAN, POOR MAN shows a "binge-watch" experience far before there was such a thing. <br></p><p><span></span></p>

cassie yates, gregg henry, herbert jefferson jr., james carroll jordan, john anderson, kimberly beck, laraine stephens, miniseries, penny peyser, peter strauss, seventies, susan sullivan, TV, william smith

PETER STRAUSS VS WILLIAM SMITH 'RICH MAN, POOR MAN BOOK II'

Title: RICH MAN, POOR MAN BOOK II Year: 1976-1977 Rating: **** While RICH MAN, POOR MAN BOOK II is no RICH MAN, POOR MAN being impossible t...

GENE WILDER IS 'THE FRISCO KID' ALONGSIDE HARRISON FORD

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2jTdJ6rPVYSDzaAXqDDZbBqT4_PsGizuttUsbX8EAVT6UDSzgkJzdLOKwV20GVV2FuwWmvpTdyX3TNkOHL2-gOZomrJ72m-EWz01H-iDqOXbAOy6n9YP5vtoU3sQHgHqhMeKlL51Mg01M-UFMWKkjrTewQrbbBx0vFsftvwnV_KBmbPt0ZHt2v3OUsiVF/s1384/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-19%20at%206.06.53%20PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1088" data-original-width="1384" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2jTdJ6rPVYSDzaAXqDDZbBqT4_PsGizuttUsbX8EAVT6UDSzgkJzdLOKwV20GVV2FuwWmvpTdyX3TNkOHL2-gOZomrJ72m-EWz01H-iDqOXbAOy6n9YP5vtoU3sQHgHqhMeKlL51Mg01M-UFMWKkjrTewQrbbBx0vFsftvwnV_KBmbPt0ZHt2v3OUsiVF/w400-h315/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-19%20at%206.06.53%20PM.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Harrison Ford & Gene Wilder in The Frisco Kid YEAR: 1979</u></td></tr></tbody></table>After STAR WARS, Harrison Ford went from a character-actor to cinema superstar, only his status wasn't fully realized till RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK as he was usually cast in movies with another big name up front. Sure, even Han Solo was secondary yet he stole the entire movie from just about everyone and everything...<br />
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Fresh from his Solo breakthrough, Ford was billed under Robert Shaw in FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE, playing a stern, humorless officer without the wit that made him a likable leading man. His first technically starring role was in the dreary war romance HANOVER STREET but Christopher Plummer and especially Leslie Anne-Down was almost as important. And his cameo as “Luke Lucas,” the nervously exposition-spouting Willard helping send Martin Sheen on his mission in APOCALYPSE NOW, aside, he wound up as another second fiddle in THE FRISCO KID starring Gene Wilder as a Polish rabbi…  literally fresh from Poland… traveling across the Wild West to reach his new bride in San Francisco...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>William Smith in Frisco Kid RATING: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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If you look at the DVD cover you’d think Harrison Ford, who plays scruffy bank robber Tommy, is the centerpiece – Ford’s image takes up most of the artwork leaving a tiny piece for Gene, not only the title character but it’s his journey we follow. But that doesn’t mean the flawed yet resilient Tommy’s role isn’t important and more than sporadic...<br />
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After an entertaining half hour setting things up for Wilder’s naïve Avram, reminiscent of a Mel Brooks comedy where the punchline… in this case a Jew in the Wild West… owns the film's initial structure, KID eventually becomes an adventurous pairing of two polar opposites. (And if you take away a pointless fifteen minutes when our heroes are captured by Indians, it’s a helluva neat ride.)<br />
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Directed by Robert Aldrich, the intense lead villain – played by the always-formidable William Smith – will make you forget this is an intentional comedy. Meanwhile, scenes where Tommy teaches the religiously stubborn Avrim how to survive on newly-acquired existential savvy feels like an actual cowboy picture... Leading to a bloody gunfight followed by the inevitable “do or die” showdown on a dusty main street.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Harrison Ford and Gene Wilder in THE FRISCO KID</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Harrison Ford is who he learned from </u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Pouting beauty Penny Peyser's bride-to-be is the reason for the entire trip</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Penny Peyser on the left is the reason for the trip for THE FRISCO KID</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gene Wilder's Avram learns how to fire a gun</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gene Wilder and Harrison Ford in THE FRISCO KID</u></td></tr>
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action, adventure, gene wilder, harrison ford, leslie, penny peyser, road movie, seventies, western, william smith

GENE WILDER IS 'THE FRISCO KID' ALONGSIDE HARRISON FORD

Harrison Ford & Gene Wilder in The Frisco Kid YEAR: 1979 After STAR WARS, Harrison Ford went from a character-actor to cinema superstar...

Written by James M. Tate / 1/09/2013 / No comments / brian kerwin , bruce abbott , cooper huckabee , eighties , gregory peck , john hammond , jordan rhodes , kathleen beller , miniseries , penny peyser , stacy keach , war , warren oates

THE BLUE AND THE GRAY

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">year: 1982 cast: John Hammond, Stacy Keach, Gregory Peck, Penny Peyser, Bruce Abbott rating: ****</td></tr>
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In making a story about the Civil War, where “Brother fought Brother” on American soil, what better medium than an artist to tell the Civil War saga from both sides. <br />
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In this exceptional TV miniseries, we meet John Hammond’s passive John Geyser, who dreams of sketching illustrations in the big city. He lives on a farm in the South and his family’s bent on defending their land from the Northern Yankees. Although when THE BLUE AND THE GRAY begins and John (to the chagrin of his father and patriotic brothers) leaves home – traveling north to get a job from his cousin at a small town newspaper – there’s only the impending rumor of war… Which doesn’t last long.   <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Hammond's John Geyser sketching both sides</td></tr>
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When the war begins, after his brothers and cousins have all signed up, Geyser has a meeting with Abe Lincoln – who saw him sketching he and wife Mary Todd. The 16th President gives John permission to sketch both sides of the war so he doesn’t have to eventually fight his own siblings. In a previous scene, John had turned against the South because of racism: his friend, a freed slave played by Paul Winfield, was lynched for harboring runaways. This was the last straw. <br />
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The big battle scenes are shot well, and best yet, they're up close and personal. Of John’s four Yankee cousins (including Bruce Abbott and David W. Harper), Brian Kerwin as Malachy, who’s afraid of battle and surreptitiously runs away when things get hairy, is mainly centered on as he goes from “coward” to hero in the course of several campaigns.  <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Penny Peyser's Emma Geyser loses her cool</td></tr>
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Stacy Keach plays an intrepid scout named Jonas Steele – he works for Lincoln personally and has the dangerous job of riding to the front lines to check on what the South is up to. The always dependable Keach makes a worthy maverick and takes John under his wing, but his constant dreams of the future are annoyingly farfetched. These scenes (and a few subplots, mostly involving top men discussing strategies) are the only slight drawback to an otherwise perfect tale that, despite a three-part run time, is hardly searing or tedious. <br />
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There are many locations and situations on and off the battlefield, like John’s romance with society girl turned front line nurse; Steele’s courtship with John’s pretty cousin; and John’s tough sister (Penny Peyser) slowly losing her sanity – yet the baseline remains at the rural Geyser home. The final stand takes place here, and as some exceptionally cutthroat Yankee soldiers attack his family, John must chose which side he’s really on.   <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Brian Kerwin (right) faces battle</td></tr>
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An excellent miniseries that... despite the presence of bigger stars including Gregory Peck as Lincoln and Lloyd Bridges as the Geyser patriarch... never loses place of the important "smaller" characters, providing not only historic battles but involving undercover missions and plenty of suspenseful one-on-one fights, including a good old fashion duel.<br />
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THE BLUE AND THE GRAY has everything for both historians and die hard fans of the <i>war movie</i> genre.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Stacy Keach as Jonas Steele</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The lovely Kathleen Beller as Kathy Reynolds</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">John Haymond as buried lead character John Geyser</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The lovely Penny Peyser rides a fast and furious stagecoach</td></tr>
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THE BLUE AND THE GRAY

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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9sr6Gf9MYNKFoR2Ou2QUT_x3VYa1B-Y9I_cBXXbftU9oa3zdTbmnSzs50o3-S5pS0CbiK9eTrFmRO7PC_iAYyaNsbceTUz60hHToIiSZKfvp45RDQIe7Xs8AcxOgacygI-w7B2RtA5rk/s1600/inlaws.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5559238468595946802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9sr6Gf9MYNKFoR2Ou2QUT_x3VYa1B-Y9I_cBXXbftU9oa3zdTbmnSzs50o3-S5pS0CbiK9eTrFmRO7PC_iAYyaNsbceTUz60hHToIiSZKfvp45RDQIe7Xs8AcxOgacygI-w7B2RtA5rk/s200/inlaws.jpg" style="float: right; margin: 0pt 0pt 10px 10px; cursor: pointer; width: 200px; height: 160px;" /></a><strong>title:</strong> THE IN-LAWS<br /><div><strong>year:</strong> 1979</div><div><strong>cast:</strong> Peter Falk, Alan Arkin, Penny Peyser, Michael Lembeck</div><div><strong>rating:</strong> **</div><br /><div></div><div>Peter Falk and wife have dinner with their son's future in-laws, including Alan Arkin, an average-guy dentist who's stunned as Falk lies through his teeth. Seeing these two unique actors mix and mismatch is wonderful. If the entire film, which quickly becomes a zany adventure involving espionage within a third world country, remained on this extremely odd couple putting up with each other instead of battling thugs (which <em>any </em>actors could do), it might have been something. Although one scene involving flying bullets and the word "serpentine" is hilarious, most of the action/chase scenes are typical and monotonous, taking away from the personalities within. </div>

alan arkin, comedy, michael lembeck, penny peyser, peter falk, team-up