Woodrow Parfrey

Craig Blake (Jeff Bridges) is a young Southern man born of a wealthy family in Birmingham, Alabama, but left lonely and idle after his parents died in a plane crash. He is content to spend his time fishing, hunting and puttering around his large family mansion, inhabited only by himself and an elderly butler named William (Scatman Crothers). Craig's "job" is a sinecure working at a shady investment firm run by a slick con artist named Jabo (Joe Spinell) and he does very little actual work. But since Craig has to have his name "on paper" somehow as an employee, he is asked by Jabo to personally transact the purchasing of a small gym that the real estate firm is buying in order to clear space for an office high-rise. Craig initially approaches the gym, called Olympic Spa, representing himself as a businessman looking to buy it, and acts relatively impersonal with its staff, one of whom includes trainer Franklin (Robert Englund), although he is strangely fascinated with the world he discovers there (reflecting the expansion of physical exercise to the mainstream which occurred in the 1970s). But Craig's primary social life is centered around the upscale country club he attends. Later, the audience is introduced to the ritzy country club crowd, including the WASP-y Lester (Ed Begley, Jr.) and the roguish rake Halsey (John David Carson). Craig Blake spends his time at this club with his friends playing tennis and shooting poker dice, and flirting with the upper-class women of all ages - one of whom asks Craig to find an "authentic" musical guest for an upcoming party at the club. As Craig moves forward with his business deal, he falls in love with the gym after visiting it several times - he is immediately taken by the pretty receptionist Mary Tate Farnsworth (Sally Field) and the free-spirited, friendly Austrian bodybuilder Joe Santo (Arnold Schwarzenegger), who aspires to win the Mr. Universe title. He cannot bring himself to sell out his newfound friends at the gym for the sake of his job, and so he evades the inquiries of his friend and co-worker Hal Foss as to his progress in the purchasing deal. All the while, he grows closer to Mary Tate and Joe Santo - who initially appear to be a couple. However, Mary Tate latches onto Craig romantically - and Santo gives Craig his blessing for this unorthodox relationship, claiming that he needs to keep himself challenged both in the gym and in his romantic life in order to succeed. Mary Tate and Craig begin a passionate and exciting relationship. But trouble erupts when he tries to integrate Mary Tate into his country-club scene. This tension comes to a head at a party at the country club, which features Joe Santo as a musical guest, performing bluegrass songs on the violin with a small country group. Craig, with Mary Tate as his guest (dressed inappropriately in a garish and revealing pink dress), is enthusiastic about Joe Santo's upcoming musical performance for the night. But Craig's friends, particularly Halsey, mock Santo as a "freak" and an outcast. When Halsey suggest that Santo disrobe and show the crowd his "tits," Craig throws a glass of Scotch in his face and tells Halsey that Santo could "crush him like an eggshell." A fight nearly breaks out between the two, but is broken up. Meanwhile a bitter Halsey and his friend Packman formulate a plan to embarrass Santo. When Santo's musical act is finally put on stage, the crowd seems enthusiastic about the music, though the hostess of the party dismisses it as a "racket." However, Halsey and Packman drunkenly bellow at Santo and heckle the band. Santo notices it, but stoically continues playing. However, when Halsey screams "let's hear it for Muscle Beach symphony orchestra!" Santo is unable to continue playing, puts down his violin and leaves the party. Meanwhile a frustrated Craig tries to convince Mary Tate to see him for who he really is, and not for his snobbish friends and ritzy surroundings. The Mr. Universe contest is approaching fast and Santo is training hard. But Jabo attempts to bribe the owner of the gym, Thor Eriksen (R.G. Armstrong), when he realizes that Craig will not purchase the building as he was supposed to. He plies Eriksen and his assistant Newton with drugs, booze and hookers, and on the day of the contest, they are busy with acts of debauchery as Santo is readying to take the stage - hoping to beat his rival Dougie Stewart (played by fellow bodybuilder Ken Waller in a memorable cameo). While Thor is drunk and distracted with the prostitutes, Newton secretly stashes the prize money inside his handbag, and then leaves the gym with the prostitutes when they are finished - stealing the money and fleeing. Meanwhile, Joe Santo and Dougie Stewart pose together on stage, to the theme song from the film 'Exodus' and the enthusiastic applause of the crowd. Meanwhile, Craig visits at the gym and engages in an intense physical fight, dodging weights and gym equipment thrown by the drunken and drug-crazed Eriksen. He finds Mary Tate at the gym, who had just moments earlier been assaulted by Eriksen in an amyl nitrite fueled rage. When the contestants at the Mr. Universe show discover that the prize money has been stolen, they run after Joe Santo, who himself is actually running to try to meet Mary Tate. The chase results in the wave of bodybuilders pouring out into the streets of Birmingham, to the amazed crowd of onlookers which sees them. The bodybuilders take advantage of this unexpected attention to put on an impromptu posing routine for the crowd, and the members of the crowd join in, imitating the athletes' poses and enjoying themselves - an embracing of the bodybuilding lifestyle by 'normal' people which arguably represents the real-life 1970s boom of personal fitness. The film ends with Craig sarcastically deriding Jabo and his former bosses at the real-estate firm, and deciding to go into the gym business with Joe Santo. A voice-over by his uncle Albert says, "you may not have been the Blake that we anticipated, but you are definitely Craig Blake - an identity that no one will dare challenge." Craig has finally "found himself" and discovered a true place in the sun, and true friendships, and he mocks his former boss Jabo with an exaggerated bodybuilding pose - acting as a final burning of the bridge between his old life and his new one. The final shot of the film shows Craig moving out of his family's mansion, passing on all of his old family memorabilia to his loyal butler William, and leaving behind his old self once and for all... on the way to a new and exciting future.

Josey Wales, a Missouri farmer, is driven to revenge by the murder of his wife and son by a band of pro-Union Jayhawkers - Senator James H. Lane's Redlegs from Kansas. Wales joins a group of pro-Confederate Missouri Bushwhackers led by William T. Anderson. At the conclusion of the war, Captain Fletcher persuades the guerrillas to surrender, saying they have been granted amnesty. Wales refuses to surrender. As a result, he and one young man are the only survivors when Captain Terrill's Redlegs massacre the surrendering men. Wales intervenes and guns down several Redlegs with a Gatling gun. Senator Lane puts a $5,000 bounty on Wales, who is now on the run from Union militia and bounty hunters. Along the way, despite wishing to be left alone, he accumulates a diverse group of companions. They include an old Cherokee named Lone Watie, a young Navajo woman, and an elderly woman from Kansas and her spinsterish granddaughter whom Wales rescued from Comancheros. In Texas, Wales and his companions are cornered in a ranch house which is fortified to withstand Indian raids. The Redlegs attack but are gunned down by the defenders. Wales, despite being out of ammunition, pursues the fleeing Captain Terrill on horseback. When he catches him, Wales dry fires his pistols through all twenty-four empty chambers before stabbing Terrill with his own cavalry sword. At the bar in Santa Rio, a wounded Wales finds Fletcher with two Texas Rangers. The locals at the bar, who refer to Wales as "Mr. Wilson," tell the Rangers that Wales was killed in a shoot-out in Monterrey, Mexico. The Rangers accept this story and move on. Fletcher pretends he does not recognize Wales, and says that he will go to Mexico and look for Wales himself. Seeing the blood dripping on Wales's boot, Fletcher says that he will give Wales the first move, because he "owes him that." Wales rides off.

In 1913, in Oklahoma, oil derrick owner Lena Doyle (Faye Dunaway), aided by her father (Sir John Mills) and a hobo (George C. Scott), is stubbornly drilling for oil despite the pressure from major oil companies to sell her land. It's oil boom time in Oklahoma, and Lena Doyle (Faye Dunaway), a hard-bitten, cyncial feminist has a fight on her hands. The big oil companies don't like the fact that she's working a potentially profitable wildcat rig. Reluctantly, Lena must accept the aid of her estranged father Cleon Doyle (Sir John Mills), and Noble Mason (George C. Scott), the man he hires to help. The three form an unlikely team: Lena hates men, Mason is out for himself, and Lena's father is trying to make up for a lifetime of neglecting his daughter. But together, they take on the big guys and put up a terrific fight. —A.L.Beneteau <albl@inforamp.net> It's the early twentieth century. Lena Doyle (Faye Dunaway) is an independently minded woman who has no need for others in her life, men or women. She owns a piece of property on the Oklahoma plain on which she is speculatively drilling for oil. She is approached by Pan-Oklahoma Oil who want to pay her for the oil rights to her property, they figure that they easily have the resources to drill a hundred wells, and even if one comes through, it will have made up their investment. Lena, however, vehemently declines their offer, wanting instead to drill on her own terms. Lena's decline of their offer leads to a stand-off of sorts between the two. Although Lena does not want his help, her father, Cleon Doyle (Sir John Mills), who was largely not there for her when she was growing up, hires an itinerant oil worker, Noble Mason (George C. Scott), to be her right-hand man. Lena accepts their help only on the condition that she remains the boss. Of what naive Cleon is unaware, when he hired Mason, is that Mason is the type of person whose allegiance goes to the highest bidder, and as such, he has no loyalty to Lena. But as the stand-off between her and Pan-Oklahoma, led by the vicious Captain Hellman (Jack Palance), increases, as Lena receives unofficial legal advice on the matter, and as Mason begins to get to know Lena, the two may begin to have a different type of relationship, one that doesn't have much of a chance against the wranglings of Pan-Oklahoma unless they strike oil quickly. —Huggo

Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau), an innocent looking husband, and his wife plan a small bank robbery in a small bank with a younger friend. But it goes wrong, it turns bloody, the wife dies. Then, wrong again, the amount is far far more than expected. Charley realizes it's the mob's money. They have now the police AND the mob looking for them. The difference is that even if you give the money back to the mob, they kill you... Charley Varrick (Walter Matthau), an innocent looking husband, and his wife plan a small bank robbery in a small bank with a younger friend. But it goes wrong, it turns bloody, the wife dies. Then, wrong again, the amount is far far more than expected. Charley realizes it's the mob's money. They have now the police AND the mob looking for them. The difference is that even if you give the money back to the mob, they kill you...

A widow hires an ex-gambler to retrieve gold bars from a sunken river boat in Colorado and discreetly return them to the Federal Mint, from where they had been stolen by her dead husband. Sam Whiskey is an all-round talent, but when the attractive widow Laura offers him a job, he hesitates: he shall salvage gold bars, which Laura's dead husband stole recently, from a sunken ship and secretly bring them back to the mint before they are missed. But how shall he manage to get several hundred pounds of gold into the mint without anyone noticing? —Tom Zoerner <Tom.Zoerner@informatik.uni-erlangen.de> At the end of the Civil War, Sam Whiskey (Burt Reynolds) is seduced away from his career as a gambler by the lovely Laura Breckenridge (Angie Dickinson). She wants him to help her recover a quarter of a million dollars worth of gold bars which her late husband stole. The gold is aboard a sunken river boat in the River Platte in Colorado and must be recovered and restored to Denver Mint before the theft is discovered - which could destroy Laura's family name. Sam agrees to do the job for $20,000 and teams up with a local blacksmith and a buddy from the war. The team heads for the Platte, unaware that they are being followed by an outlaw who wants the gold for himself. Using a home-made diving helmet that will allow Sam to go beneath the river; but after the heroes retrieve the loot, the outlaw steals it from them. With some interesting weaponry, Sam manages to recover the gold and with his cohort rejoins Laura in Denver where he poses as a government inspector, enters the mint, and "accidentally" damages a bust of George Washington. He insists upon having it repaired and takes it back to his blacksmith friend, where the gold is recast into the shape of the bronze bust. When outlaw Rick Davis catches up with the trio, he mistakenly steals the original bust. Sam and company gain entrance to the mint and there recast the bust back into gold bars. The next morning Laura rewards the men with the promised $20,000 and Sam with her heart. —T.O. (adapted from TCM) Above all, Sam Whiskey, an intrepid adventurer who's not afraid to get his hands dirty if the price is right, loves to take his chances. With this in mind, after numerous underpaid jobs, a stint in the army, and a failed attempt in the business world, desperate-for-cash Sam finds himself hopelessly seduced by the beautiful widow, Laura Breckenridge, who has an offer many would refuse. Now, on the bottom of Colorado's serpentine Platte River, somewhere in the sunken steamboat Bonnie Blue, a quarter of a million dollars in gold bars awaits one man crazy enough to confront violent river pirates and bushwhackers. However, that's not all. If Sam succeeds in retrieving the gold, he must have the stomach for yet another, even more dangerous challenge: return the precious gold ingots to the impenetrable, heavily guarded Denver Mint. This time, the odds are against him. Is bold Sam Whiskey up to the job? —Nick Riganas

When carefree bachelor David Sloane tries to persuade his best friend Harry Hunter to drop mistress Carol Corman and return to wife Mary, romantic complications suddenly spring to life. Battle-of-the-sexes comedy about a free-wheeling bachelor who decides to save his friend's marriage by proving that all mistresses are incapable of fidelity. The plot gets complicated when the bachelor offers to set up the wrong girl in a lavish love-nest and she accepts, believing that it's a marriage proposal. —alfiehitchie