Tuesday Weld

A disturbed man (Michael Douglas) whose true identity is unknown. Stuck in L.A. traffic in summer, he abandons his vehicle. D-Fens, as he is credited in the film (based on his vanity license plate), begins walking west, trying to reach his estranged wife Beth (Barbara Hershey) and daughter Adele (Joey Hope Singer). It's the girl's birthday, and he wants to be with her. Detective Prendergast (Robert Duvall) of the LAPD is on his last day before taking an early retirement. He comes upon D-Fens's abandoned car on his way to work and helps push it out of traffic. A few years back, his pushy wife made him take a safe desk job. D-Fens wants to call his wife, but short on coins, he enters a Korean convenience store. He respects the "no change without purchase" policy and tries to buy a can of Coke. He gets angry at the 85 cents asked for the soda. He fights with the Korean owner and, after grabbing a sawed-off baseball bat from the owner, and begins wrecking the store. Heading for Venice, California, D-Fens climbs a hill in "gangland,". Two young Mexican gang-members accost him. When D-Fens fails to hand over any money, they threaten him with a knife, and he counters with the bat. He injures one assailant's arm and drives the other off. he drops the bat & takes the knife. The Latino gang members vow revenge, and a carload hunting for D-Fens. D-Fens calls his ex-wife from a pay phone, threatening to show up at his daughter's birthday party. The gangsters attempt a drive-by shooting but miss D-Fens and crash their car. They open fire, hitting several surrounding bystanders, but not D-Fens. The driver crashes. D-Fens picks up a gun, shoots the one surviving gang member in the leg, and then leaves with their bag of weapons. D-Fens encounters a panhandler who harasses him for change. D-Fens finally gives him the briefcase, which only contains his lunch. D-Fens stops by Whammy Burger, only to be told that breakfast stopped being served five minutes earlier. Not a wise thing to tell the psychotic D-Fens, as he soon pulls out a sub-machine gun, threatening everyone and deciding to have lunch instead. After berating the staff for serving him a hamburger that looks nothing like the advertising posters, he leaves. He leaves and tries to place a call from a phone booth, then shoots the booth to pieces after being hassled by someone who was waiting to use the phone. Prendergast is starting to notice a pattern and believes that all incidents are tied to the same person. The Korean store owner came in to complain, and the detective heard about the bold daylight shooting attempt. He looks on an L.A. map and sees that the mysterious man in a white shirt and a tie is walking towards the ocean. Prendergast is not taken seriously. D-Fens's ex calls the police to gain protection from him, but they don't believe he's much of a threat and leave. D-Fens passes a bank where an African American man is protesting after being rejected for a loan. The man exchanges a glance with D-Fens and says, "Don't forget me," as he is escorted away by police. The increasingly disturbed D-Fens goes into an Army-Navy surplus store run by a homophobic neo-Nazi to buy more durable footwear for his trek, as his shoe sole is half rotten. While he's being fitted, police detective Torres (Rachel Ticotin) comes in asking about him. The Nazi owner stalls her and, after she leaves, tells D-Fens he knows all about his activities. The Nazi assumes D-Fens is a racist who is attacking non-whites. After being corrected about this, and as D-Fens expresses disgust at the Nazi's bigotry, the irate skinhead attempts to handcuff D-Fens to turn him over to the police. He is instead knifed and ultimately killed. D-Fens clothes himself in military-style garb and sets out with a rocket launcher. He cuts through a nearby golf course and is accosted by two elderly golfers. After berating them for wasting such lovely green space on a silly game, he shoots up their golf cart, causing one to have a heart attack and die. D-Fens encounters a road repair crew who are not working and accuses them of doing unnecessary repairs to justify their budget. He pulls out the rocket launcher but struggles to use it, until a boy explains how it works. D-Fens accidentally fires the launcher, blowing up the construction site. D-Fens eventually reaches his former home, but his ex-wife leaves just in time. Prendergast, who has put the whole puzzle together by finally figuring out that the guy causing the mayhem is the one with the license plate D-FENS, he finds the address & reaches his mother. They find that D-Fens real name is William Foster & he was recently fired from the defense plant & is divorced from his wife who won't let him see his daughter as he has a bit of temper. Pendergast rushes to the wife's address with his friend, Detective Torres. Having turned in his weapon (it's his last day before retirement), Prendergast is unarmed. D-Fens shoots Torres, wounding her slightly, and the older detective grabs her weapon and chases D-Fens onto a fishing pier. Prendergast has a final confrontation with D-Fens where he correctly concludes that William planned to shoot his ex-wife & daughter & then turn the gun on himself and kill himself. Adele is happy to see him, but Beth wants him to leave. Prendergast arrives and distracts Foster long enough for Beth to throw his gun into the ocean. Prendergast holds Foster at gunpoint and urges him to surrender, acknowledging his complaints about social inequalities but not accepting them as an excuse for his rampage. With nothing left for him, Foster tricks Prendergast into shooting him dead. Having asserted himself, Prendergast decides to hold off retirement.

Frank (James Caan) is a highly experienced jewel thief and hardened ex-convict who has a set structure to his life. With a pair of successful Chicago businesses (a bar and a car dealership) as fronts for his lucrative criminal enterprise, Frank sets out to fulfill the missing part of his life vision: a family beginning with Jessie (Tuesday Weld), a pretty cashier he has begun dating. After taking down a major diamond score, Frank gives the diamonds to his fence, Joe Gags (Hal Frank). However, before Frank can collect his $185,000 share of the score, Gags is murdered by being pushed out of a 12th-story window for skimming off mob collection money. Barry (James Belushi), Frank's friend and associate making the pick-up, discovers that a shady plating company executive Gags was working for, Mr. Attaglia (Tom Signorelli), is responsible for Gags' murder and stealing Frank's payoff. In a tense confrontation at Attaglia's plating company, Frank demands his money back. This leads to a face-to-face meeting with Attaglia's employer, Leo (Robert Prosky), a high-level fence and Chicago Outfit boss. Unknown to Frank, Leo has been downing Frank's "merch" from Gags for some time. He admires Frank's eye for quality fenced goods and professionalism, and wants him taking down contract scores all over the country working directly for him, offering Frank large profits. "I'll make you a millionaire in four months," Leo states at their jargon-filled meeting, which is monitored from a distance by police surveillance -- as well as a hidden Barry armed with a rifle, in case the meeting goes bad. At first, Frank is reluctant to consider Leo's offer, not wanting to "deal with egos" or the added exposure. But later that night at a coffee shop, an emotional bonding with Jessie changes the game when she agrees to be part of his life after he relates a harrowing tale of prison survival by way of a toughened mental attitude. To hasten his plans, Frank now agrees to do just one big score for Leo, telling Barry that this will be their last job. With a little help from the paternal Leo after being rejected at the state adoption agency, Frank is even able to acquire a baby on the black market, a son he names David after his recently deceased mentor and closest friend from prison, nicknamed Okla (Willie Nelson). Things start heating up on account of Frank's new association with Leo. After resisting a shakedown from a group of corrupt police detectives, then subsequently ditching their surveillance, Frank and his crew are soon involved in a large-scale West Coast diamond heist organized by Leo. All goes well with Frank's "burn job" and he is expecting the agreed-upon sum of $830,000 on $4 million wholesale of unmounted stones. But when Frank returns from the job, Leo tosses him an envelope containing less than $100,000, the "cash part" according to Leo, who says he has invested the rest of Frank's cut in shopping centers, an idea Frank had flatly rejected. In addition, Leo sets up a Palm Beach score for Frank in six weeks without consulting him. An irate Frank bluntly tells Leo that their deal is over, takes the envelope of cash as he leaves and demands the rest of his money in 24 hours or "...you will wear your ass for a hat." Frank drives to his car lot unaware that Leo's henchmen have already beaten and captured Barry, and are waiting in ambush for him. In the set-up, Frank is knocked out with the butt of a carbine and Barry is killed by several shotgun blasts from Carl (Dennis Farina), one of Leo's main enforcers. Frank awakens with Leo staring down at him, surrounded by his henchmen. Leo coldly informs him that he, Jessie, their child, and everything he owns are Leo's property. He threatens to prostitute Jessie and "...whack out your whole family" if Frank does not continue working for him. Leo warns Frank to "tighten up" and focus on his responsibilities; meanwhile, his henchmen dispose of Barry's body. Frank goes home to contemplate his next move, gradually sinking into a hardened apathy akin to his prison days. He coldly orders an uncomprehending Jessie out of their house, telling her their marriage is over. He instructs an associate to drive her, the baby and $410,000 in cash somewhere where they cannot be found, informing Jessie more money will be coming at regular intervals, but that he will not be joining her. With nothing to lose, Frank blows up their home in a fiery nighttime blast using high explosive charges. He then drives to his business establishments and does the same, destroying his bar in a violent explosion then setting fire to his car lot. Armed with a pistol, he quietly breaks into Leo's house in a peaceful neighborhood and pistol whips Attaglia in the kitchen. Frank hunts for Leo, who is hiding, armed with a .357 Magnum revolver. Leo is inevitably located and gunned down. Frank then pursues Attaglia as he tries to escape from the house, but is promptly confronted in the front yard by Carl and another henchman. In the ensuing gunfight, Frank is shot, but manages to kill the trio. Frank loosens what appears to be a ballistic vest he was wearing beneath his jacket, and walks away into the night.

It's the end of the seventies. Hippies are assimilating, women are becoming aware and men are becoming confused and ineffective. Don't expect to be able to keep track of all the names. It's the end of the 1970s. Hippies are assimilating, women are raising their consciousness, and men are becoming confused and ineffectual. Don't expect to be able to keep track of all the names, or who's sleeping with whom. This movie very skillfully conveys the hopeless muddle through which the many characters move as they try to find themselves. —Molly Malloy <mailcall@kiva.net>

An executive, unhappy with his daughter's choice for a future husband, accepts a transfer to his firm's Stockholm branch and takes her along, only to discover that Sweden is far more sexually liberal than the United States. Single father Bob Holcomb, dissatisfied with his daughter JoJo's choice of partner, seizes an unexpected opportunity to bring her on a trip to Sweden in order for her to forget all thoughts on marriage. Confronted with liberal Swedish morals, he finds out that marriage might not be too bad an idea after all.

Danny Kaye cuts loose with his trademark musical clowning. Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong plays his horn and croons in that famed gargling-granite voice. Big Band icons Bob Crosby, Ray Anthony and Shelly Manne join the fun. Loring "Red" Nichols is a cornet-playing country boy who goes to New York in the 1920s full of musical ambition and principles. He gets a job playing in Wil Paradise's band, but quits to pursue his dream of playing Dixieland jazz. He forms the "Five Pennies" which features his wife, Bobbie, as vocalist. At the peak of his fame, Red and Bobbie's daughter, Dorothy, develops polio. Red quits the music business to move to Los Angeles where the climate is better for Dorothy. As Dorothy becomes a young teen, she learns of her father's musical past, and he is persuaded to open a small nightclub which is failing until some noted names from his past come to help out. —Ray Hamel <hamel@primate.wisc.edu>