Made For TV Movie Review: Talk To Me (dir by Graeme Campbell)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

Talk To Me, a made-for-television film that first aired on ABC in 1996, takes viewers behind the scenes of daytime talk show.

The Howard Grant Show has built a strong audience based on airing stories that appeal to the more prurient interests of viewers. Howard Grant (Peter Scolari) may have started out hosting a show about “issues” but now his show features wives who strip, girlfriends who cheat, and the occasional fist fight. While Howard presents himself as being a smooth-talking, compassionate advocate for society’s forgotten victims, the truth of the matter is that he’s a puppet who reads from a teleprompter and who wears an earpiece so that he can be told which questions to ask. Sadie (Veronica Hamel) is the one who is in charge of the show and she’ll exploit anyone and anything to get ratings.

Idealistic Diane Shepherd (Yasmine Bleeth) is hired to work as a segment producer for Howard’s show. Diane used to work on a talk show called “Margolis.” Margolis was cancelled because it was too concerned with “issues.” Still, Diane is hoping that she can bring the same earnest approach that she learned at Margolis to The Howard Grant Show. Why does Diane believe this? Why does it not occur to her that an approach that got her previous show canceled might not be appreciated at her new show?

Because Diane is kind of an idiot.

The movie doesn’t want us to think of Diane as being an idiot. We’re supposed to be on Diane’s side and we’re supposed to be just as shocked as she is when Sadie reveals just how manipulative the talk show game is. Unfortunately, Diane comes across as being so incredibly naive that it’s hard to really take her or her concerns seriously. It’s one thing to be upset at the way Sadie manipulates the show’s guests. It’s another to consistently be surprised by it. Diane spends so much of the movie being shocked that I eventually lost all respect for her. Diane cross the line from idealism into stupidity. Yasmine Bleeth’s wide-eyed performance doesn’t help matters. I watched this movie and wondered how Diane could even survive living in New York, let alone working there.

Jenny Lewis plays Kelly, a drug-addicted prostitute that Diane recruits to appear on the show. Talk to Me does a good job of showing how the show manipulates Kelly and then essentially abandons her once her episode has been filmed but, again, there’s nothing particularly surprising about any of it. I would have to imagine that, even in 1996, most people understood that Jerry Springer wasn’t a paragon of virtue and that his show was more interested in exploiting than helping. Talk To Me feels like an expose of something that had already been exposed.

The best thing about the film is Peter Scolari’s performance as Howard Grant. Scolari does such a good job as the unctuous talk show host that it’s actually a shame that the character didn’t get more screentime. (That said, there is a neat twist involving his character towards the end of the film.) Scolari perfect captures Howard’s fake but superficially appealing concern for his guests. He asks the most exploitive of questions but he does so in a gentle voice and his television audience loves him for it. Howard is remote and quiet off-camera but on-camera, he comes alive. He was born to talk to people. It’s just too bad that the conversation often ruins their lives.

Insomnia File #74: Listen To Me (dir by Douglas Day Stewart)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable or streaming? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!

If you were struggling to get to sleep last night, you could have jumped over to Tubi and watched the 1989 film, Listen to Me.

Listen to Me tells the story of two poor but ambitious teenagers who receive debate scholarships to fictional Kenmont University. Monica Tomanski (Jami Gertz) is a liberal from Chicago. Tucker Muldowney (Kirk Cameron) is a “shit-kickin’ conservative” who is from Oklahoma. Despite their different political beliefs, Monica and Tucker find themselves assigned to be debate partners by the college’s legendary debate coach, Charlie Nichols (Roy Scheider).

At Kenmont, debate is as popular and as important as football is at some other colleges. The entire student body shows up to listen to the debates and to cheer for their side. It’s like Oxford, if Oxford was solely populated by 80s teen actors. (Seriously, there’s a lot of familiar faces wandering around that campus.) Charlie is convinced that this could be the year that he wins the national tournament. Gar McKellar (Tom Quill), the troubled son of Sen. McKellar (Anthony Zerbe), is one of the best debaters in the country. However, Gar fears that winning a national debate tournament will somehow lead to him going into politics. He wants to be a writer and he’s got a self-destructive streak. As you probably already guessed, this all leads to Tucker and Monica debating the arrogant Harvard team in front of the Supreme Court. The topic? Whether or not Roe v Wade should be overturned….

A few thoughts on Listen to Me:

Kirk Cameron’s “Oklahoma” accent is, without a doubt, the worst that I have ever heard in any film ever made. When I was growing up, I did occasionally live in Oklahoma. I still visit Oklahoma frequently. Yes, people in Oklahoma do have an accent. However, that accent sounds nothing like whatever Cameron was trying to do in this film. Whenever Kirk Cameron speaks, he sounds less like an Oklahoma farm boy and more like the tubercular son of a once proud New Orleans family. Beyond the accent, Cameron just isn’t believable as a quick-on-his-feet debate champ. He overplays when he should underplay and underplays …. well, I can’t think of a single scene that he underplays. It’s just not a good performance.

Jami Gertz is a bit more convincing as Monica. (It perhaps helps that Gertz, like her character, is actually from Chicago.) But, for the majority of the film, Monica is seriously underwritten. She’s a straw feminist, who largely exists so that Tucker can tell her to loosen up.

As for the other debaters, we don’t learn much about them. That’s a shame because some of them — like Amanda Peterson’s crippled debater — seem like they would be much more interesting to follow than either Gar, Tucker, or Monica. It’s a crime to cast Peter DeLuise as an Ivy League debater without giving us a chance to actually see him debate.

Roy Scheider gives the best performance in the film, which isn’t really a surprise. That said, Charlie Nichols was a terrible debate coach, one whose entire philosophy seemed to be based on teaching his debaters to make loud and emotional arguments and hope that the judge doesn’t understand how competitive debating is supposed to work.

Would the Supreme Court really judge a national debate tournament?

As for the debates themselves, it’s hard not to notice that all of the arguments are emotional. There’s little talk of evidence or research or anything else. Instead, the characters talk about how abortion has personally effected them. (The Harvard team is portrayed as being snooty villains when they dare to bring up an actual clinical study about abortion.) Admittedly, I did not do college debate but I was involve with Speech and Debate in High School and, when it came to debate, I always tried to get by with the same cutesy techniques that everyone uses in this film. If the judge was a man, I definitely showed a little leg. If someone asked me about a study that disproved my argument, I’d respond by citing a fictional study that disproved their study. I was the Queen of Dramatic Personal Anecdote! And I rarely made it out of the preliminary rounds because most judges — the good ones, at least — were able to tell that I hadn’t bothered to do my homework and that I was just trying to skate by on charm and wit. My coach often told me that if I would actually do the work, I’d probably make it to the semis and beyond but …. eh, doing the work was just too much …. well, work. So, you can imagine my surprise when Tucker and Monica used the same techniques that I used and were declared to be the best debaters in the country!

Seriously, I was robbed!

Listen to Me is a very 80s film, right down to the debate montages and the explanations about why Roe v Wade would never actually be overturned. It tries to do for college debate what numerous other college-set films did for football an binge-drinking. Unfortunately, the film’s intentions are defeated by a didactic script and a miscast lead. It feels considerably longer than 100 minutes, which might help you with your insomnia.

Previous Insomnia Files:

Story of Mankind
Stag
Love Is A Gun
Nina Takes A Lover
Black Ice
Frogs For Snakes
Fair Game
From The Hip
Born Killers
Eye For An Eye
Summer Catch
Beyond the Law
Spring Broke
Promise
George Wallace
Kill The Messenger
The Suburbans
Only The Strong
Great Expectations
Casual Sex?
Truth
Insomina
Death Do Us Part
A Star is Born
The Winning Season
Rabbit Run
Remember My Name
The Arrangement
Day of the Animals
Still of The Night
Arsenal
Smooth Talk
The Comedian
The Minus Man
Donnie Brasco
Punchline
Evita
Six: The Mark Unleashed
Disclosure
The Spanish Prisoner
Elektra
Revenge
Legend
Cat Run
The Pyramid
Enter the Ninja
Downhill
Malice
Mystery Date
Zola
Ira & Abby
The Next Karate Kid
A Nightmare on Drug Street
Jud
FTA
Exterminators of the Year 3000
Boris Karloff: The Man Behind The Monster
The Haunting of Helen Walker
True Spirit
Project Kill
Replica
Rollergator
Hillbillys In A Haunted House
Once Upon A Midnight Scary
Girl Lost
Ghosts Can’t Do It
Heist
Mind, Body & Soul
Candy
Shortcut to Happiness
Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders
Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders II
Don’t Kill It

An Offer You Can’t Refuse: Lepke (dir by Menahem Golan)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

When it comes to reviewing mob movies, I usually describe them as either being “an offer you can refuse” or “an offer you can’t refuse.”

Usually, it’s not that difficult to decide which ranking I should use. If the film is well-acted and if the action unfolds at a steady pace and if there’s plenty of tommy gun action and/or a stylish recreation of the Golden Age of American Gangsterism, chances are that the film will be an offer that you can’t refuse.

Now, if it’s a movie that just features a bunch of guys sitting around trying to sound tough and if it doesn’t really do much to recreate the gangster milieu and if the dialogue sounds like it was cribbed from a hundred other gangster films, it’ll probably be an offer you can refuse.

It’s simple and usually, it only takes me a few minutes to realize which description I’m going to use. But I have to admit that I went back and forth on 1975’s Lepke. To refuse or not to refuse, that was the question.

Lepke is a biographic film about Louis “Lepke” Buchalter, an early American gangster who came to prominence in the early days of the National Crime Syndicate. An ally of Lucky Luciano’s, Lepke was the mastermind behind what became known, in the press, as Murder, Inc. (Lepke himself was smart enough not to name the organization.) If the Mob wanted someone killed, they would contact Albert Anastasia who would then contact Lepke who would then assign the job to someone else. The actual assassin rarely knew who had actually ordered the hit and Lepke was such a feared figure that it was assumed that no one was ever going to turn informant. Lepke was responsible for some of the most infamous gangland killings of the 20s and 30s, including the murder of Dutch Schultz. Unfortunately, for Lepke, someone eventually did turn informant and he ended up as one of the few gangster to meet his end in the electric chair.

Lepke features Tony Curtis as the title character. The film follows him from his youth as a member of a street gang to his early days with the National Crime Syndicate and eventually to his final days at Sing Sing. Michael Callan plays Lepke’s childhood friend, who goes straight. Gianni Russo plays Albert Anastasia while Vic Tayback plays Lucky Luciano. Lepke’s wife, Bernice, is played by Anjanette Comer. Though the beefy and rather loud Tayback is miscast as Luciano, the cast does a fairly good job. Comedian Milton Berle gives a surprisingly strong performance as Lepke’s father-in-law. There’s a great scene in which he interrogates his future son-in-law about what he’s going to get in exchange for giving away his daughter. Curtis is convincingly tough and menacing as Lepke, who this film presents as being a working class family man whose job just happens to be killing people. (Tony Curtis later wrote that he was on a cocaine high while filming Lepke, which perhaps explains the intensity of his performance.)

Lepke definitely holds your interest. There’s enough mob hits and bursts of gunfire to satisfy most gang movie aficionados. At the same time, the film’s recreation of the 20s and 30s is almost too generic and clean. For all the tough talk and the gangland violence, there’s a definite lack of grittiness to the film’s recreation of one of the most violent eras in American history, which is why I found myself conflicted on whether to recommend it or not. I decided that, in the end, the film does enough right to make it worth watching, even if it does still feel more like a made-for-TV crime flick than the gangster epic that so obviously aspires to be,

Historically, this film is important because it was the first American film to be directed by Menahem Golan and produced by Golan and Yoram Globus. Four years after Lepke, Golan and Globus would purchase Cannon Films and go on to make some of the most deliriously entertaining films of all time.

January True Crime: The Versace Murder (dir by Menahem Golan)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

In 1997, a 27 year-old man named Andrew Cunanan went on a killing spree, one that took him from San Diego to Miami Beach. Though the FBI were already looking for him, Cunanan did not receive national attention until July 15th, 1997. That was the day that Cunanan shot and killed fashion designer Gianni Versace in front of Versace’s mansion. By that time, Cunanan had already killed at least four other people. A week after killing Versace, Cunanan would take his own life, shooting himself on a houseboat that he had broken into.

Andrew Cunanan’s motives have remained a mystery. It is known that at least two of the victims, Jeff Trail and David Madson, was acquainted with Cunanan. Madson had a long-distance relationship with Cunanan that he ended a year before he was murdered. Cunanan reportedly described Madson as being “the love of his life,” though Cunanan also apparently had a history of lying. Whether Cunanan knew Chicago businessman Lee Miglin before killing him is a matter of some controversy. It’s agreed that cemetery caretaker William Reese was only killed because he came across Cunanan stealing his truck. Whether or not Cunanan had ever met Versace before in not known. Cunanan claimed he had but, again, Cunanan had a history of lying.

In 2018, Cunanan and his crimes were the focus of the second season of Ryan Murphy’s American Crime Story. Darren Criss won an Emmy for playing Cunanan and the series itself was critically acclaimed. Personally, I thought the series started out strong but ran out of gas about halfway through as it became clear that Andrew Cunanan, much like the Menendez brothers, wasn’t really that interesting of a character. Indeed, watching the show, I got the feeling that Cunanan’s main motivation was bitterness over the fact that he was essentially a fairly boring and uninteresting person. He didn’t have much of a personality so he tried to fill that void by going after people who did.

American Crime Story may be the best-known dramatization of Cunanan’s crimes but it was hardly the first. In 1998, less-than-a-year after Cunanan’s suicide, Menahem Golan’s The Versace Murder was released on video. Shane Perdue played Andrew Cunanan. A sad-eyed Franco Nero played Gianni Versace. Steven Bauer and Renny Roker played the two FBI agents who pursued Cunanan across the country. The film was shot in 20 days and watching it, it’s easy to see that it was a rush job. Some scenes run too long, some scenes run too short. Occasionally, the background music is so overwhelming that it’s a struggle to hear what anyone’s saying. It’s definitely an exploitation film, made quickly as to capitalize on the interest in the case before everyone moved on.

And yet, it’s a strangely effective film. A lot of that is due to the performance of Franco Nero, who doesn’t get a lot of screen time but who still makes a definite and even poignant impression as Versace. The film’s strongest moments come towards the end, when the two FBI agents come across as a vigil being held in front of Versace’s mansion and they realize just how much Versace meant to the people of Miami Beach. Matt Servitto and David Wolfson are also sympathetic as David Madson and Jeff Trail. These three performances capture the tragedy of Cunanan’s crimes. In the end, the fact that Shane Perdue is a bit bland in the role of Andrew Cunanan feels almost appropriate. Whether it was intentional or not, Menahem Golan’s The Versace Murder reminds us that Andrew Cunanan’s victims deserve to be remembered far more than the man who killed them.

Musical Film Review: The Apple (dir by Menahem Golan)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

1980’s The Apple takes place in the future!

Well, actually, it takes place in 1994. The film imagines that, by the year 1994, the world would be a decadent, cynical, and soulless place where everyone listened to the mindless corporate music of Mr. Boogalow (Vladek Sheybal). Really, the film’s version of the future wasn’t that far off. It was more 2014 than 1994 but still….

Anyway, at the 1994 Worldvision Music Contest, Boogalow cheats to make sure that the latest shallow offering from BIM defeats a painfully earnest love song that is performed by Alphie (George Gilmour) and his girlfriend, Bibi (Catherine Mary Stewart). Boogalow decides to sign Alphie and Bibi to a recording contract. Alphie has visions of earthquakes and imagines being taken to Hell by Boogalow. Alphie refuses to sign the contract. Bibi, having had no such visions, signs the contract and soon, she is a part of the decadent Boogalow world. Alphie, meanwhile, ends up living in a park with Mr. Topps (Joss Ackland) and a bunch of overage hippies. Eventually, the Rapture occurs, largely because something had to happen to finally end this stupid movie.

The Apple was a film that I had heard a lot about before I actually sat down and watched it. Just from what I had heard, I expected it to be bad-but-enjoyable, a disco campfest in the style of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. In fact, I would have been happy if it had just been as silly as Skatetown USA. Unfortunately, The Apple can’t compare to either of those two films. The Apple may be campy but it’s also mind-numbingly dull. It’s only has an 87 minute running time but it feels considerably longer. With one big exception, the music is forgettable. Catherine Mary Stewart probably gives as good a performance as could be expected under the circumstances but George Gilmour is a bland hero. Even Vladek Sheyball, who was so memorable as the villainous chess master in From Russia With Love, makes for a forgettable bad guy.

Now, I did mention that there is one big exception when it comes to the forgettable music and that’s a song that Bibi sings after she’s signed with Boogalow and given up her soul to be a star. The song is called Speed. “America, the land of the free/Is shooting up with her energy/and everyday she has to take more/…. SPEEEEEED!” Bibi performs the song on a stage while a bunch of backup dancers writhe on motorcycles and, for about three minutes, The Apple actually becomes the spectacle that it so obviously wants to be. The song may be about drugs but it’s also about American culture. America is a country that is on the mood. We don’t need any of that fashionable European ennui. We’re all about speed, which is one reason why I love this country. At our most mellow, we still get more done in a day than the average European. No trains for us! We’re a motorcycle nation!

Other than that one scene, though, The Apple feels like a middle school production. We’re told that Boogalow International Music is a decadent company but, in this film, that just means that people speak in an arch tone. It’s a teenager’s impression of what it means to be decadent. We’re meant to turn against BIM when its employees laugh at Alphie for being a boring straight guy. But the fact of the matter is that Alphie is a boring straight guy and his music sucks. The film takes a stand about corporate music but the 0nly alternative that it come up with is boring folk music.

Don’t listen to those who tell you that The Apple is so bad that it’s good. It’s just bad.

The Eric Roberts Collection: Shakey Grounds (dir by Michael Garcia)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Lisa Marie Bowman

One of the over 30 films to feature Eric Roberts in 2025, Shakey Grounds tells the story of Travis (Eric Nelsen), a sullen and hard-drinking singer who lives in Arkansas and who is struggling to cope with the suicide of his best friend. When recently fired record company executive Nick (Jonny Danks) shows up in Travis’s home town, it looks like it might be a chance for Travis to become a star. But can Travis get out of his own way or is he destined to just be another angry burn-out?

I will admit that I have a weakness for low-budget films like this one and, as someone who has family in the state, I appreciate that the film took place in Arkansas and that it had a relatively positive attitude towards the Natural State. Some of the performances are better than others. I liked Ella Cannon’s performance as Mel and Mackenzie Ziegler did a good job as a character named Lisa (!), even though she wasn’t given a whole lot to do. The main problem with the film was the script, which was overwritten and full exchanges of dialogue that just didn’t seem to flow naturally. Even worse, I wasn’t really sold on Travis’s music or even Travis himself. For the most part, he just came across as someone trying too hard to be Kurt Cobain. His main song sounded like it was written by an AI that had been prompted to sound angsty.

As for Eric Roberts, he appears in one scene and one scene alone. He plays the president of the record label, the one who fires Nick. Acting from behind a desk, Eric doesn’t even stand up during his performance but he does spit out a few insults with elan. Eric Roberts always seem to have fun playing a mean boss. I can’t wait to see what he has in store for us in 2026!

Previous Eric Roberts Films That We Have Reviewed:

I Loved “Eephus (2025, Dir. by Carson Lund)”

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Dazzling Erin

Eephus is a movie about one very long baseball game.

In a small Massachusetts town, the local baseball field is about to be demolished to make way for a school. Two rec league teams meet to play one final game, drink some beer, and shoot off some fireworks. The Riverdogs are led by Graham (Stephen Radochia), who brokered the deal that’s leading to the field’s destruction. He feels guilty and he wants the two teams to have one final great game. The Riverdogs and Adler’s Paint play a game that, once it becomes tied, goes far into the night. The few spectators leaves. The umpire leaves. But the players keep playing, even in the dark.

Though the player may be middle-aged and out-of-shape, they all love baseball and they love their teams. But Eephus is about more than baseball. It’s also about community and change. Many of the players talk about their memories of growing up playing on the field. They can’t leave until they finish their last game but they also know that their lives will be forever different once the game ends. They may complain about playing in the dark but no one truly wants to get that last out. The players give each other a hard time. The dialogue is frequently very funny but the occasional angry word is still exchanged. But deep down, they’re friends no matter what team they’re on. They may not be professional athletes but baseball is what brought them together. It’s their bond and it’s brought purpose to not only their lives but also to men like Franny (Cliff Blake), who have spend their free time watching the games and keeping the records. When former pitching legend Bill “Spaceman” Lee appears as himself, he’s welcomed to the game as just another local who loves baseball.

Eephus may seem plotless but it’s not. It’s about the community of players and how each of them deals with the inevitability of change. There’s a scene where someone in the stands says that they’ve been watching 30 minutes and they still don’t understand baseball. You don’t have to understand baseball to love Eephus. You just have to appreciate the bonds that bring us all together.

I Watched Perry Mason Returns (1985, Dir. by Ron Satlof)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Dazzling Erin

When his former secretary, Della Street (Barbara Hale), is arrested for murdering wealthy businessman Arthur Gordon (Patrick O’Neal), Judge Perry Mason (Raymond Burr) resigns from the bench so that he can defend her in court.

Perry Mason Returns reveals who the killer is when the murder happens. The killer is a lowlife named Robert Lynch (James Kidnie), who is wearing a gray wig and a frumpy dress so that everyone will mistake him for Della. It doesn’t take Perry and private detective Paul Dark, Jr. (William Katt) long to discover that Lynch is the murderer but, after someone shoots Lynch, they have to figure out who hired Lynch to kill Gordon. Gordon had recently disinherited his entire family so Perry and Paul have a lot of suspects to consider. 30 minutes in, I thought I knew who the killer was but it turned out I was wrong.

My Aunt Kate loved her detective stories and, when I was growing up, I would always watch them with her whenever we were visiting for the holidays. Watching Perry Mason Returns really made me feel nostalgic, even if it also made me feel dumb for not being able to guess who the killer was. Perry gives up being a judge so that he can defend Della Street in court. That’s true love. William Katt, who plays Paul Drake’s son, was Barbara Hale’s real-life son so I think that proves my theory that Della loved both Perry and Paul.

Perry Mason Returns was fun to watch. It had more action than I was expecting because Paul Drake, Jr. was always getting into tight situations. The movie really tried to make William Katt into an action star. The murder mystery held my attention and, of course, Perry got the murderer to confess on the stand and on the record. Some things never change! One thing that really amused me was that, as soon as Perry took the case, everyone naturally assumed he would win. Della wasn’t worried for a minute, even though she was facing life in prison. “You didn’t tell me Perry Mason was her lawyer!” Robert Lynch yelled at the person who hired him. He knew the gig was up. Perry Mason always wins!

Watching Perry Mason Returns, I felt like I was a kid again, watching movies with my Aunt Kate and trying to solve the mystery with her. All of the Perry Mason made-for-TV movies are on YouTube so I’ll be reviewing more of them in the future.

The Naked Gun: From the Files of Police Squad! (1988, directed by David Zucker)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Jedadiah Leland

Let’s take a moment to appreciate Frank Drebin (Leslie Nielsen), a true American hero.

Even though Frank is just a Los Angeles cop, he still goes to the Middle East and disrupts a conference of America’s greatest enemies. He beats up Fidel Castro. He knocks out Gadafi and Yasser Arafat. He cleans Gorbachev’s head. (“I knew it!” he says as the birthmark disappears.) He takes out Idi Amin and he sends the Ayatollah Khomeini through a window. Thirty-seven years ago, this scene opened The Naked Gun and, after all that time, it is still funny because Leslie Nielsen plays it all with a straight face, delivering his silly lines without flinching. It’s also interesting that none of the leaders taken down by Frank Drebin are around anymore. Khomeini died just a few months after this film came out. Gorbachev was the last to go, in 2022, by which time he was no longer an enemy. Consider it the Frank Drebin Effect. He’s making the world safe for democracy.

When Drebin returns to Los Angeles, he’s informed by Captain Ed Hocken (George Kennedy) that Police Squad has been put in charge of security for a visit from Queen Elizabeth (Jeanette Charles) and that Officer Nordberg (O.J. Simpson) is in the hospital and suspected of being a dirty cop. The Mayor (Nancy Marchand) doesn’t want Los Angeles to be embarrassed by a police scandal before the Queen arrives so Drebin has 24 hours to exonerate Nordberg. Drebin’s attempt to clear Nordberg’s name leads him to a shipping magnate (Ricardo Montalban) who has come up with a diabolical scheme to assassinate the Queen at a baseball game. It also leads to love between Drebin and Jane Spencer (Priscilla Presley).

Though Liam Neeson did a fine job in the recent reboot, there really is only one Frank Drebin and his name is Leslie Nielsen. The original Naked Gun is nearly 40 years old and, even if some of the jokes are dated, it’s still laugh out loud funny. Most of the credit has to go to Leslie Nielsen and ability to deliver even the most bizarre bits of dialogue with natural authority, gravitas and a straight face. Whether he’s mumbling his way through the National Anthem, paying an informer for information, or hamming it up as an umpire, Nielsen is never less than hilarious. By the end of the movie, it’s impossible to look at Nielsen without laughing. Kennedy, Presely, and Montalban also generate their share of laughs. John Houseman has a great cameo as an unflappable driving instructor. (“Now, extend your middle finger.”) As for OJ Simpson, he doesn’t seem to be in on the joke like the rest of the cast but he does frequently get injured and re-injured throughout the movie and there’s definitely some pleasure to be found in that.

(When Simpson died, director David Zucker said, “His acting was a lot like his murdering: He got away with it, but no one believed him.” That sounds about right.)

Liam Neeson made for a fine Frank Drebin, Jr. I hope he has many more adventures. But the greatest Frank Drebin will always be Leslie Nielsen and the original Naked Gun will always be one of my favorite comedies. Sometimes, it’s good just to laugh.

Thank you, David Zuker.

Thank you, Jerry Zucker.

Thank you, Jim Abrahams.

And most of all, thank you, Leslie Nielsen.

The Apache Kid’s Escape (1930, directed by Robert J. Horner)

Posted on January 1, 2026 by Jedadiah Leland

In the old west, the Apache Kid (Jack Perrin) has decided to go straight because his own mother refuses to accept the stolen money that he sends home. Unfortunately, other outlaws, like Buck Harris (Bud Osborne), continue to break the law while wearing the Apache Kid’s trademark checkered scarf so the Apache Kid still has a posse after him.

Using the alias Jim, the Kid gets a job working at a local ranch. Ranch hand Ted Conway (Fred Church) is looking forward to marrying Jane Wilson (Josephine Hill), the daughter of the ranch’s owner. Ted’s father, Frank (Henry Roquemore), wants Jane for himself so he reveals that Ted is actually adopted and no one knows who his real parents are. Jane’s father (Horace B. Carpenter) announces that the wedding is canceled. So, Ted decides to take on the identity of the Apache Kid and rob a stagecoach. After Ted is arrested, Jim has to return to his old ways to help Ted get out of jail.

The Apache Kid’s Escape is a 47-minute poverty row western that is remembered for being one of the first westerns to feature recorded sound. Unfortunately, the movie sounds terrible, with a steady hum in the background and all of the actors speaking slowly, loudly, and very precisely while awkwardly trying not to look straight at the camera. Everyone noticeably hesitates before speaking, as if waiting for the director to give them the signal to go. With all of the humans struggling to speak, the film’s best performance comes from Starlight the Horse, who is a natural star. Jack Perrin went on to have an active career in B-westerns so maybe he learned how to handle acting with sound.

This was the only film to feature Perrin as the Apache Kid and it’s easy to see why. The plot doesn’t even try to make sense. If Jim wants to escape being the Apache Kid, he should be happy that so many other people are willing to take over the role for him. Perrin is also stuck wearing a really big hat, which makes him look more like a Blazing Saddles extra than a cowboy star.

There were a lot of bad westerns made during the early days of the sound era. The Apache Kid’s Escape might be the worst.