Fort Apache, The Bronx (1981)

I have multiple airings on early eighties cable television to thank for turning me on to Fort Apache, The Bronx, a modern age noir, crime drama. Paul Newman stars as a veteran cop, trying to do good and keep on the straight and narrow while policing a very active section of New York City. Ken Wahl makes the scene as his equally minded partner with Ed Anser amping up his stern glares and barely checked anger as the newly installed captain. Exploitation favorite Pam Grier vies for a lions share of viewers attention in a too slim role as a malevolent junkie hooker.

During filming local resident groups protested the movies negative depiction of both the area and those living within and threatened to file lawsuits against the production.  

In 1982 director Daniel Petrie followed up Fort Apache, The Bronx with the oddly hypnotically watchable but poorly received Kenny Rogers vehicle Six Pack.

the trailer

the feature

When Time Ran Out... (1980)

Producer Irwin Allen made this film towards the end of the disaster movie heyday. In this case, a volcano provides the destructive mayhem when it erupts near a newly constructed Pacific island resort, also threatening a local village. 

As is usually the case with his disaster films, Allen had a multitude of name actors under contract and this feature was loaded with stars, including: Paul Newman, Jacqueline Bisset, William Holden, Edward Albert, Barbara Carrera, Burgess Meredith, Ernest Borgnine, James Franciscus, and even Pat Morita. Legend has it that Paul Newman refused to appear in The Towering Inferno 2 and instead took this role to finish off a contractual obligation to Allen plus use his salary as seed money for his salad dressing company.