Ice Cold in Alex

J. Lee Thompson

A thousand square miles of blazing, pitiless desert, and a story so unusual, so gripping that it could spring only from life itself. The Mediterranean of 1942 along the barren North African coast where war has turned towns into smoking ruins, and the grim struggle surges to and fro. But that is just the background the story is about people, not war and it happens to be true.


Death Wish 4: The Crackdown

J. Lee Thompson

The streets are filled with death and destruction. Ruthless drug traffickers prey upon the poor, the lonely, the helpless. L.A. is a city desperate for deliverance until now! Charles Bronson returns as Paul Kersey, the original urban vigilante and one-man demolition force in this pulse-pounding, take-no-prisoners thriller! Two rival drug gangs have a death-grip on L.A.'s battle-torn inner city. But their brutal reign of terror is about to come to a violent end. One man is out to avenge the cocaine-induced death of his girlfriend's teenage daughter. His name is Paul Kersey and he's armed, dangerous and mad as hell!


Taras Bulba

J. Lee Thompson

The spectacular hordes of Cossack horsemen flying across the steppes to do battle with first one enemy and then another are among the highlights of this costume drama set in the 16th century in the Ukraine. After the Cossack leader Taras Bulba (Yul Brynner) makes a pact with the Poles to join forces against the Turks and drive them from the European steppes, victory brings betrayal as the Poles then turn on their ally and force the Cossacks into the hills. From there, Taras Bulba decides that one of his sons, Andrei (Tony Curtis), will be sent to Polish schools to better learn the nature of their enemy. While away from home and hearth, the adult Andrei falls in love with a Polish noblewoman, Natalia (Christine Kaufmann). As time progresses, the tensions between father and son, loyalty and love, ethnic identity and assimilation steadily increase until they end in tragedy. Taras Bulba was nominated for a 1963 Academy Award for "Best Music", scored by Franz Waxman.


Eye of the Devil

J. Lee Thompson

A forbidding French chateau and its surrounding vineyards are the setting for Gothic thrills in this haunting excursion into the

occult. Deborah Kerr and David Niven, costarring for the first time since Separate Tables, lead an exceptional cast (Sharon Tate,

Donald Pleasence, Flora Robson, David Hemmings, Edward Mulhare, Emlyn Williams) in a chiller reminiscent of the later The Wicker

Man, in which an innocent outsider to an enclosed world peels back layers of mystery to reveal a shocking truth. Kerr plays the

outsider, the wife of a troubled marquis (Niven), who discovers – perhaps too late – that her husband's ancestral chateau is home to

witches, warlocks, a sinister priest, 12 hooded figures…and terror.


Mackenna's Gold

J. Lee Thompson

Gregory Peck and Omar Sharif battle to find a legendary cache of gold in this spectacular Wild West adventure. In the Arizona Territory of the 1870s, Marshal Sam Mackenna (Peck) is the only living person who knows the tortuous route to the fabulous "Canon Del Oro." During his journey, Mackenna is captured by Colorado (Sharif), a brutal Mexican bandit who has long sought his death. But if Mackenna is to lead the cutthroat gang to the lost treasure, Colorado must keep him alive. En route, Mackenna and the outlaw band are joined by renegade soldiers, vengeful Indians, cold-blooded killers and "gentlemen from town." As they near the golden canyon, all but Mackenna are swept by a sudden fever - the naked greed for gold. Mackenna's Gold is one of the most exciting Westerns ever made.


Cape Fear (1962)

J. Lee Thompson

Gregory Peck and Robert Mitchum star in Hollywood's classic tale of revenge and murder. Robert Mitchum is unforgettable as Max Cady, an ex-con determined to exact a terrible revenge on Sam Bowden (Gregory Peck) and his family. Sam is a small-town lawyer whose worst nightmare comes true when the criminal he helped put away returns to stalk his beautiful young wife (Polly Bergen) and teenage daughter (Lori Martin). Despite help from the local police chief (Martin Balsam) and a private detective (Telly Savalas), Sam is legally powerless to keep Max from playing his sadistic game of cat and mouse. Finally, Sam must put his family's lives at stake in a deadly trap that leads to one of the most suspenseful and heart-pounding confrontations ever committed to film. Director J. Lee Thompson builds tension with each scene leading to a deadly showdown at Cape Fear. This is truly a masterpiece of shock and suspense.


Battle for the Planet of the Apes

J. Lee Thompson

Roddy McDowall returns as Caesar, the intelligent chimp who led an ape revolution against their human masters in the last installment, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Since then, humans nearly rendered themselves extinct in an all-out nuclear war, and the survivors are now beneath the well-preserved ape society. Now a benevolent leader of his people, Caesar supports a peaceful coexistence with humans, much to the dismay of his militant counterpart General Aldo (Claude Akins). When Caesar learns that new evidence regarding his parents’ murder has been found in the Forbidden City, he journeys to the bombarded wasteland with the human MacDonald (Austin Stoker) and the omniscient orangutang Virgil (Paul Williams). While he does find what he is looking for, Caesar also unwittingly awakens a flock of human survivors, who follows his group back home. While the humans prepare for a climactic battle with the apes, General Aldo prepares to challenge Caesar for control, and all hell breaks loose as we witness the BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES.


Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

J. Lee Thompson

Colorful, futuristic sets, a relentless pace and an action-packed climax highlight the fourth episode of the legendary Apes saga, starring Roddy McDowall and Ricardo Montalban. The time is the near future. Apes have supplanted dogs and cats as household pets, and replaced servants as personal assistants - until their continual mistreatment provokes one advanced ape from the future, Caesar (McDowall), to lead a spectacular revolt.


St. Ives

J. Lee Thompson

Action star Charles Bronson ("Death Wish") is an ex-crime reporter-turned-author, who takes a job as a go-between to help recover some stolen ledgers and instead becomes involved in a scheme to steal a bribe that some American businessmen are paying to Arabs. Featuring an all-star supporting cast, including John Houseman ("The Paper Chase"), Jacqueline Bisset ("Murder on the Orient Express"), Oscar-winner Maximillian Schell ("Judgment at Nuremburg"), Harry Guardino ("Dirty Harry"), Michael Lerner ("Barton Fink") and Daniel J. Travanti ("Hill St. Blues").


Messenger of Death

J. Lee Thompson

Reporter Garret Smith (Charles Bronson) is shocked by the horrific mass murder of a Mormon farmer’s three wives and their children. Amid the secrecy and mistrust of a mysterious religious cult, Bronson sets out to uncover the truth behind a bloody family feud. A picture of an ancient avenging angel – the Messenger of Death is his only clue. But what he finds is a modern story of greed and corruption. He’s after the man who controls the power and money behind the murderers, and now the murderers are after him.


Murphy's Law

J. Lee Thompson

Charles Bronson is Jack Murphy, a burned-out cop with no future who suddenly find himself framed for the murder of his ex-wife. Together with a street-wise girl turned car thief, who is thought to be his accomplice, he is soon on the run from the very law he used to protect. But now, he is forced to run deadly gauntlet, trying to find the true killer--before he and his new-found friend become the assassin's next victim.


10 to Midnight

J. Lee Thompson

Based on the real-life Richard Speck murders, amoral, nearly psychotic killer Warren Stacey (Gene Davis) is a serial killer who has murdered a number of women; he stabs them while they are naked to minimize leaving any physical evidence. Police detective Leo Kessler (Charles Bronson) is convinced of Stacey’s guilt and, over the objections of his partner, plants evidence to get him behind bars. When Stacey is released on a technicality, he threatens to go after Kessler and his family, leaving Kessler to defend himself against a killer with little help from the police.


Messenger of Death

J. Lee Thompson

Charles Bronson is Garr Smith, a Denver police detective on the trail of a serial killer linked to a century-old cult of Mormon avengers- known as "unholy angels." Smith learns from the locals that these avengers may indeed be among the living at Lizard's Head. The evidence is, however, that common greed over a fortune in oil is the more likely ingredient, but this doesn't change the grisly nature of the murders, or the possibility that Garr could be the next victim...an eerie tale of ritual murder.


The Guns of Navarone

J. Lee Thompson

Gregory Peck, Anthony Quinn and David Niven are Allied saboteurs assigned an impossible mission: infiltrate an impregnable Nazi-held island and destroy the two enormous long-range field guns that prevent the rescue of 2,000 trapped British soldiers. Blacklisted screenwriter Carl Foreman (High Noon, The Bridge On the River Kwai) was determined to re-establish both his name and credibility after spending most of the '50s working in anonymity. To accomplish this, he decided to bring Alistair MacLean's best-selling novel, The Guns of Navarone, to the screen. Supported by an all-star cast and produced on a grand scale, the film was an enormous success, receiving seven 1961 Academy Award® nominations (including Best Picture) and winning for Best Special Effects. Although Foreman achieved his goal, it was MacLean who would wind up the true beneficiary; his novels became the source for many high adventure screen epics, including Ice Station Zebra and Where Eagles Dare. However, it is The Guns of Navarone that remains not only the best of the MacLean adaptations, but one of the greatest action/adventure spectacles ever produced.


What a Way to Go

J. Lee Thompson

A widow tells a psychiatrist the story of her four husbands, each of whom died and left her with enormous wealth.


Kings of the Sun

J. Lee Thompson

After his father is killed in a war, the chosen king of the Mayans and his tribe leave Mexico and resettle in America...where the chief of an Indian tribe leads an attack on the newcomers.


Happy Birthday to Me

J. Lee Thompson

Get ready for a taut mystery-shocker that will keep you at your wit's end and at the edge of your seat. Popular high school senior Virginia Wainwright (Melissa Sue Anderson) survives a freak accident, but suffers from memory loss and traumatic blackouts. As she attempts to resume a normal life, something terrible is happening - her friends are ruthlessly murdered one-by-one. Will she be the next victim or is she the killer? The terrifying truth is finally uncovered at Virginia's 18th birthday party and you're invited.


Huckleberry Finn (1974)

J. Lee Thompson

Strong-willed and self-raised, Huckleberry Finn (East) decides to flee his hometown of Hannibal, Missouri, when his cruel absentee father tries to kidnap him. Accompanying him is the sharp-witted Jim (Winfield), who fears he is about to be sold. As this unlikely pair journeys north to freedom, the two develop a bond of friendship and mutual respect that will help them brave a series of narrow escapes, thrilling adventures and characters so colorful only Mark Twain could pen them!