STUNTS

title: STUNTS

year: 1977

cast: Robert Forster, Fiona Lewis, Darrell Fetty, Joanna Cassidy, Ray Sharkey, Bruce Glover

director: Mark L. Lester

rating: ***1/2

Mark L. Lester rules. STUNTS involves stuntmen getting picked off by a mysterious killer. Robert Forster's little brother is one of them, and he investigates. Darrell Fetty, Joanna Cassidy, Fiona Lewis, Bruce Glover and the late Ray Sharky round out the cast. The acting is wonderful and the action is bar none. The stuntmen are killed off like campers in a slasher flick, and the tension mounts with precision. Lester is a miracle worker. He takes low budget movies and turns them into gold. Or at least, silver. And with Robert Forster at the helm: this one shines.

MELVIN PURVIS G-MAN

title: MELVIN PURVIS G-MAN

year: 1974

cast: Dale Robertson, Harris Yulin, Steve Kanaly, Margaret Blye

rating: **

John Milius's "Dillinger" (1973) has everything you'll ever want in a gangster flick with a thousand bullets to spare. Warren Oates plays Dillinger and Ben Johnson plays Melvin Purvis, both to perfection. A year after the 1973 theatrical hit, Milius figured Purvis's story needed more coverage, and we get it here with this TV-movie written by Milius and starring Dale Robertson in the title role. But there's not enough Purvis and too much of the bad guys, who are, as opposed to John Dillinger: Machine Gun Kelly and his gang of bickering villains. So this is more or less a prequel to "Dillinger", and being that it was made for TV, it falls flat on many levels. While Harris Yulin is a dependable actor, his portrayal of Kelly borders on silly. Although the climax before the climax - a shootout between the G-Men and the thugs, is fairly good, reminiscent of the Milius film. All-in-all there's nothing gained/nothing lost here, 'cept an hour fifteen minutes where you could have watched something better.