Charles Napier
12 April 1936 – 5 October 2011
12 April 1936 – 5 October 2011
Square-jawed cult and character actor Charles Napier died Wednesday, 5 October 2011, in Bakersfield, Calif. He was 75 years old.
Born in Mt. Union, Kentucky, a blink-twice-and-you-miss-it community close to Scottsville, high-school basketball star Napier joined the US Army in 1954 after graduation before eventually receiving a major in PE and a minor in art at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green in 1961. He worked at his old school as an assistant coach, and as an art teacher in Clearwater, Florida, before getting bitten by the acting bug while doing graduate school in Kentucky. In 1965, after a number of years doing community and little theater in the Clearwater area, he packed his bags and ended up in San Diego by way of NYC. It wasn't long before he was in Hollywood, parking cars and doing other odd jobs as he tried to break into the movies and/or TV. Despite appearances on TV and a variety of films ranging from now-forgotten schlock to cult faves, his career did not take off. After making the trucker film Moonfire (1970), he took a break from acting for two years, travelling the country writing and taking photos for the trucker magazine Overdrive Magazine, an interlude that ended with the truck strikes of 1973. Soon after, he found himself back in La La Land living out of his car in a parking lot. It is at this point that one of those continually told Hollywood legends – you know, like Lana Turner at Schwab's Drugstore – comes into play: one day while in his car, a limo pulled up and the driver told him that Alfred Hitchcock would like to see him. A trip to Universal Studios later, he was under contract and soon had a viable career, mostly as a character actor on television and in the movies – though he never did work for Hitchcock.
Over the course of a film career that spanned 44 years, Napier "became one of the most recognizable actors movie and TV audiences never heard of" and appeared in credited (and uncredited) roles of varying importance in over a hundred films and possibly as many TV shows. His specialty was bad guys and military or police types, though he could on occasion be seen playing something totally against his normal type, like his brief appearance as a hairdresser in Jonathan Demme's Married to the Mob (1988 / trailer). (Napier appeared in every film Demme made after 1977, if only in a tiny part.)
Many of the films Napier took part in were of the schlock and lowbrow-culture type that we here at a wasted life do so love. And it is for his appearances in many of these films as well as some of Russ Meyer's best color productions we feel compelled to honor him and his lengthy career. Indeed, it was his excellent performance as the psycho cop in Supervixens (1975) that engraved his face permanently in our memory, a face that was always happily seen again in any film, many of which he was the best thing involved.
What follows is a review of some of his films of note or lesser note; many we have seen, many we have not. The decision to include a given film was made – when not arbitrarily – due to his name appearing on the poster, him being seen in the trailer, or because we simply like the film or the poster.
Charles Napier, a talented and much-liked character actor – he will be sorely missed.
Born in Mt. Union, Kentucky, a blink-twice-and-you-miss-it community close to Scottsville, high-school basketball star Napier joined the US Army in 1954 after graduation before eventually receiving a major in PE and a minor in art at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green in 1961. He worked at his old school as an assistant coach, and as an art teacher in Clearwater, Florida, before getting bitten by the acting bug while doing graduate school in Kentucky. In 1965, after a number of years doing community and little theater in the Clearwater area, he packed his bags and ended up in San Diego by way of NYC. It wasn't long before he was in Hollywood, parking cars and doing other odd jobs as he tried to break into the movies and/or TV. Despite appearances on TV and a variety of films ranging from now-forgotten schlock to cult faves, his career did not take off. After making the trucker film Moonfire (1970), he took a break from acting for two years, travelling the country writing and taking photos for the trucker magazine Overdrive Magazine, an interlude that ended with the truck strikes of 1973. Soon after, he found himself back in La La Land living out of his car in a parking lot. It is at this point that one of those continually told Hollywood legends – you know, like Lana Turner at Schwab's Drugstore – comes into play: one day while in his car, a limo pulled up and the driver told him that Alfred Hitchcock would like to see him. A trip to Universal Studios later, he was under contract and soon had a viable career, mostly as a character actor on television and in the movies – though he never did work for Hitchcock.
Over the course of a film career that spanned 44 years, Napier "became one of the most recognizable actors movie and TV audiences never heard of" and appeared in credited (and uncredited) roles of varying importance in over a hundred films and possibly as many TV shows. His specialty was bad guys and military or police types, though he could on occasion be seen playing something totally against his normal type, like his brief appearance as a hairdresser in Jonathan Demme's Married to the Mob (1988 / trailer). (Napier appeared in every film Demme made after 1977, if only in a tiny part.)
Many of the films Napier took part in were of the schlock and lowbrow-culture type that we here at a wasted life do so love. And it is for his appearances in many of these films as well as some of Russ Meyer's best color productions we feel compelled to honor him and his lengthy career. Indeed, it was his excellent performance as the psycho cop in Supervixens (1975) that engraved his face permanently in our memory, a face that was always happily seen again in any film, many of which he was the best thing involved.
What follows is a review of some of his films of note or lesser note; many we have seen, many we have not. The decision to include a given film was made – when not arbitrarily – due to his name appearing on the poster, him being seen in the trailer, or because we simply like the film or the poster.
Charles Napier, a talented and much-liked character actor – he will be sorely missed.
Updated: 9 Oct 2022
The House Near the Prado
(1969, writ. & dir. Jean Van Hearn)
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According to the American Film Institute Catalog of Motion Pictures, the plot of The House Near the Prado is: "Frank Doyle a salesman from a Los Angeles electronics company arrives in a large South American city to discuss a million dollar contract. A revolution is in progress and Doyle must contact the city's police chief, Juan Valdez, and, if possible, collect the money due his firm. Valdez arranges to meet Doyle at 'The House Near the Prado', a luxurious bordello where Doyle enjoys himself until Valdez arrives. Several assassins invade the heavily guarded whorehouse and, during an exotic Arabian dance, attempt to kill Valdez. Angered, Valdez has all the women tied up and whipped until one of them confesses her part n the conspiracy and is put to death. Valdez is killed in an exchange of gunfire, and Doyle suddenly finds himself faced with execution by one of the scantily clad women."
Star Trek – The Way to Eden
(1969, dir. David Alexander)
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The Hanging of Jake Ellis
Aka The Calico Queen and Sex Cats of the West. Napier does another exploiter with forgotten auteur Van Hearn, who may possibly have written a sleaze novel or two in his day (see the image of a Brandon House novel found on the web).The Hanging of Jake Ellis costars the late Bambi Allen, seen below not from the film, best remembered from Al Adamson's Satan's Sadists (1969 / trailer). The grapevine says that she died from health complications resulting from silicon injections to increase her breast size.
Dan Pavlides at Answers.com gives the plot of The Hanging of Jake Ellis as thus: "Jake Ellis (Napier) is a cowboy who arrives in a two-fisted cattle town looking for work. Frank Hall (Jim Lemp) and his gang frame Jake for a crime he didn't commit. Dance-hall girls and cowgirls [...] are shown in various stages of undress in this western featuring nudity."
Napier once recalled, "It was a bad western that nobody saw." Another female costar, Deborah Downey, seen above, had also costarred with Napier on Star Trek as a space hippy, where she even sings a duet with Spock. She also appeared in Van Hearn's last known film We A Family (1971). That film, like most Van Hearn films, seems to be a lost film, as no visual trace of it can be found anywhere on the web... thus, we include it here primarily as excuse to show a nice poster with boobage. Some sources claim that Charles Napier also appears in We A Family.
Cherry, Harry & Raquel!
(1970, dir. Russ Meyer)
"I don't like women messing around with women. It's un-American."
Harry (Charles Napier)
This is the first appearance of Charles Napier in a Russ Meyer film – one of the director's less successful ones, though it is enjoyable in a disjointed way. Napier plays Harry, a corrupt sheriff smuggling drugs out to get an Apache who has gone into the business for himself. Harry is shacked-up with Cherry (Linda Ashton), a nurse, and bonks Raquel (Larissa Ely), a hooker writer. They guys all die violently and the gals smoke pot and get it on.... in between, Uschi Digard (credited as Astrid Lillimor) romps around the desert naked. There are three stories to why she does so: Russ Meyer supposedly needed to fill the running time after 1) one of the lead actresses quit the film early, 2) a photo lab fuckup resulted in the loss of much of the original footage, or 3) it was an intentional artistic decision on Meyer's part. (Meyer always claimed the last after he gained critical respectability.) Napier once said that the scene of him wearing nothing but a cowboy hat and boots as he romps across the desert with Ely was the most embarrassing thing he ever had to film.Cherry, Harry & Raquel:
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls
(1970, dir. Russ Meyer)
"This is my happening and it freaks me out!"
Z-Man (John LaZar)
"You will drink the black sperm of my vengeance."
Z-Man (John LaZar)
Beyond the Valley of the Dolls:
Moonfire
(1970, writ. & dir. Michael Parkhurst)
The
film that supposedly inspired Napier to take a break from acting for two years and
travel the country writing and taking photos for the trucker magazine Overdrive Magazine.
Napier has a co-starring role as Robert W. Morgan.
DVD blurb says:
"Truckdriver Charles Napier gets driven into a sinister crime operation
working along the Mexican border. And to make things even more
interesting, the operation is run by an ex-Nazi! You'll have to hold
onto your seat in this pedal-to-the-metal tale filled with cool action
and cool trucks!" Director Michael Parkhurst (13 Apr 1933 – 23 Jul 2014) says: "Charles Napier, in
his first PG film, actually learned to drive a tractor trailer for his
role. Sorry, folks, no gratuitous violence or sex scenes except a little
teaser in the beginning, and no cursing."
Where's the ranch?!
Love and Kisses
(1971, writ. & dir. by Don Dorsey)
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Has nothing to do with the film –
Manuela sings Love & Kisses (1965):
This forgotten sexploiter was once claimed by movieposter.com as being first non-Meyer film to be distributed by Meyer's Eve Productions. The film stars Charles Napier, Kathy Knight (billed as "introducing Kathy Knight"), Ruth Alda (best known for playing Joan Crawford's personal secretary in the camp classic Mommy Dearest [1981 / trailer]), and Paul Norman. Paul Norman went on to become a productive porn director of such porn faves like 1991's Edward Penishands 1 (full NSFW film) and 2.
Napier is there ever so briefly as Officer Iverson in the second of Meyer's only two Hollywood films, which is also considered one of his least successful ones, but it's still a great flick – it's aged well into prime camp. The plot, according to Mark Deming at Rotten Tomatoes: "[A] surprisingly straightforward drama [... with] little of Meyer's traditional tongue-in-cheek humor or remarkably proportioned women in favor of a serious message about the evils of censorship. A bookstore sells a copy of a notorious erotic novel, entitled The Seven Minutes, to a teenager who is later arrested for rape. A prosecutor on a crusade against pornography seizes upon this as an opportunity to have the book declared obscene, and the trial sparks a heated debate about the issue of pornography vs. free speech, as well as revealing a startling revelation about the novel's true author. Adapted from a novel by Irving Wallace, The Seven Minutes features one of Meyer's more interesting casts, including veteran character actors John Carradine and Alexander D'Arcy, a post-Munsters Yvonne de Carlo, a pre-Magnum P.I. Tom Selleck, lounge comic Jackie Gayle, and Wolfman Jack as himself."
Perhaps Meyer's last truly entertaining and successful films, starring the memorable Shari Eubank in the dual roles of SuperAngel and SuperVixen, Charlie Pitts as the put-upon Clint Ramsey and Napier as the psychopathic cop Harry Sledge. This was the first film we at a wasted life ever saw with Napier, and we never forgot his face. Other faces (and breasts) of note are supplied by the Haji, Colleen Brennan (as Sharon Kelly) and Uschi Digard. Plot: Clint Ramsey has to leave his job at Martin Bormann's gas station and go on the run after psycho cop Harry Sledge murders his wife. Throughout his travels Clint gets raped and harassed by hot wanton women before meeting his dream woman. But then Harry shows up, intent on killing Clint and his new squeeze.... Thank God for Polish dynamite.
Napier as Chrome Angel, a bigamist truck driver... the first film he made with Demme, for whom he became a favorite character actor; Napier subsequently appeared in all of Demme's feature films to date, if only in a miniscule role.
The Seven Minutes
(1971, dir. Russ Meyer)
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Trailer to
The Seven Minutes:
Supervixens
(1975, dir. Russ Meyer)
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TV Trailer to
Supervixens:
Handle with Care
(1977, dir. Jonathan Demme)
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Dave Kehr of the Chicago Reader says: "The film's original title, Citizen's Band, evokes its origins as an exploitation film designed to cash in on the short-lived CB craze, but [...] the picture was too good for its own good: audiences weren't expecting humor of this degree of piquancy and charm, and it was a failure. The action takes place in a tiny southwestern town, where the residents—among them Paul Le Mat, Candy Clark, Roberts Blossom, and Marcia Rodd—use their adopted radio personas as a means of escape from the dingy identities life has imposed on them."
A rare feature film from TV director Corey Allen, who six years previously (1971) directed the far more popular film Erotic Adventures of Pinocchio (trailer), with its great tagline "It's not his nose that grows."
Scene from
Citizen's Band:
Thunder and Lightning
(1977, dir. Corey Allen)
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T&L – which was scripted by William Hjortsberg, the man who wrote the novel Falling Angel, the book that inspired the great Alan Parker film Angel Heart (1987 / trailer) – stars the then TV-personalities David Carradine (Kung Fu) and Kate Jackson (Charlie's Angels) and is a labored comedy about hicks and poisoned moonshine. Napier has a lead role as the bearded Jim Bob.
Trailer to
Thunder and Lightning:
Big Bob Johnson and His Fantastic Speed Circus
(1978, dir. Jack Starrett)
Napier as Big Bob Johnson in a TV movie aimed at the Smokey and the Bandit (1977 / trailer) crowd, directed by the director of Cleopatra Jones (1973 / trailer) and Slaughter (1972 / trailer). Big Bob Johnson is the fearless leader of the "Fantastic Speed Circus", a group of misfits going from fairgrounds to race track to perform death defying stunts. Big Bob's main stunt – an attempt to jump a Trans Am onto the back of a flatbed trailer – always fails, but he never stops trying. A man offers him a large sum of money (needed to save his failing circus) to participate in an all out race between two souped-up Rolls Royces... the climax of the movie is Bob's attempt at jumping the Rolls Royce onto the moving flatbed to finish the race.First 30 minutes of the movie:
Last Embrace
(1979, dir. Jonathan Demme)
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Trailer to
Last Embrace:
Wacko
(1982, dir. Greydon Clark)
(1982, dir. Greydon Clark)
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"Death to all teenagers who fuck."
The Lawnmower Killer
Trailer to
Wacko!
The Cartier Affair
(1984, dir. Rod Holcomb)
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Trailer to
The Cartier Affair:
Rambo: First Blood Part II
(1985, dir. George P. Cosmatos)
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Trailer to
Rambo:
Something Wild
(1986, dir. Jonathon Demme)
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Trailer to
Something Wild:
Camping del terrore
(1987, dir. Ruggero Deodato)
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Trailer to
Body Count:
Kidnapped
(1987, writ. & dir. by Howard Avedis)
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The Night Stalker
(1987, dir. Max Kleven)
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Scene from
The Night Stalker:
Deep Space
(1988, dir. Fred Olen Ray)
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Trailer to
Deep Space:
One Man Force
(1989, dir. Dale Trevillion)
(1989, dir. Dale Trevillion)
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Matuszak died just before the film was released. Napier plays an undercover cop that gets electrocuted to death. The few who have seen this film seem to have enjoyed it.
Napier has a sizable role as the main heavy Col. Kovaks in this oddly popular piece of Italo-trash. A wasted life wasn't so amazed by the film, though, as is obvious by our review of the film found here.
What a cast! Jan-Michael Vincent! Rip Torn! Lance Henrikson! Leo Possi! And Napier, seen briefly in the trailer, as "Tom Mitchum". Comeuppance Reviews asks: "Why is this movie so under-appreciated and unrecognized? If you said to someone 'Oh, I watched Hit List last night', more than likely, they would say, 'Huh'? That's unfortunate, as a movie with the star quality this movie has, directed by William Lustig, SHOULD be a well-known 'video store classic' as we say." Plot: A gangster boss (Torn) must face his day in court, but he has a police snitch tell him names and locations of the witnesses so he kills them all – all but one. During the last hit, the hitman (Henrikson) goes to the wrong house. When Mark Collins (Vincent) comes home, his pregnant wife is unconscious in the kitchen, his friend dead in the living room, and his son kidnapped. To ensure that Luca believes he has the real witness's son, the prosecutors send Collins to prison. But he escapes to take things into his own hands...
Napier does a second film with Lustig, the fun sequel to his classic trashploitation Maniac Cop (1988 / trailer). For the life of us, we can't remember the part he plays – "Lew Brady" – but the film is so good, it deserves mention here. Undead cop Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar) returns and teams up with a Times Square killer to, well, kill everyone he can. Great stuff!
Napier has a small part in this truly hilarious cop film as Sgt. Bill Henderson – he's even seen briefly in the trailer. One of the great unseen movies around, with an excellent Fred Ward, Jennifer Jason Leigh and Alex Baldwin. Based on a novel by Charles Willeford. If we had a star system of rating here at A Wasted Life, this flick would get 5 out of 5. So why the fuck hasn't anyone seen it yet?
Napier makes on the poster in this unbelievable piece of Italo trash. And when it comes to Italo-trash, there are few directors as trashy as producer and occasional director Fabrizio De Angelis, who has directed written or produced numerous crapsterpieces – to list a few: Killer Crocodile (1989 / trailer), Zombie Holocaust (1980 / trailer), The Beyond (1981 / trailer), The New York Ripper (1982 / trailer), Rat Man (1988 / trailer) and Paganini Horror (1989 / trailer). This non-horror entry of De Angelis's directorial oeuvre is one of the most surreal – there's really nothing like watching a US football team go Rambo. And that is exactly what this team does – in their playing uniform – when they rescue their coach's daughter from a Caribbean prison. Napier must surely have been proud of this film....
Image from Movie Poster Shop. Napier makes as a headlining star for appearing mere minutes at the end of Arthur N. Mele's only known directorial credit. A movie that inspires as much déjà vu by its plot – rich girl gets kidnapped; mommy hires ex-mercenary to gather team and rescue her – as it does inspire boredom in its execution. As The Unknown Movies Page puts it simply: "[...] There are movies like Soldier's Fortune – movies that don't show any sign that anyone involved in the project is trying, and any smidgen of merit found in the movie is just there by accident."
Napier appears as Det. Wilson in this umpteenth rehash of The Desperate Hours (1955 / trailer). It also features the presence of George Lazenby. Nut-case serial killer Janice Bickle (Lenny Von Dohlen) undergoes an experimental operation to cure him of his killer urge, but he ends up more fucked up than before. He escapes and beelines for the responsible doctor.... body-count time.
Trailer to
One Man Force:
(1989, dir. Antonio Margheriti)
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German trailer to
Das Alien aus der Tiefe:
Hit List
(1989, dir. William Lustig)
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Trailer to
Hit List:
Maniac Cop 2
(1990, dir. William Lustig)
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Trailer to
Maniac Cop II:
Miami Blues
(1990, dir. George Armitage)
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Trailer to
Miami Blues:
Cop Target
(1990, dir. Umberto Lenzi)
Napier (playing "John Granger") gets his name shown and fires a machine gun in the trailer below to the probably justly unknown cop flick starring Robert Ginty that Italo-trash master Lenzi, in his twilight years, sandwiched between making the horror films Nightmare Beach (1989 / trailer) and Black Demons / Demons III (1991 / trailer). This film about a typical cop-on-the-edge given a babysitting job that of course goes wrong and thus gives him reason to go rogue seems most famous for the cop's cat-feeding machine.
Trailer to
Cop Target:
The Last Match
(1990, dir. Fabrizio De Angelis)
(1990, dir. Fabrizio De Angelis)
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What a shootout!
Soldier's Fortune
(1991, dir. Arthur N. Mele)
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Trailer to
Soldier's Fortune:
Indio 2 – La rivolta
(1991, dir. Antonio Margheriti)
Napier appears again as yet another bad guy in yet in another ecologically-minded exploiter by Margheriti, only this time there is no monster from space – instead, there's Marvelous Marvin Hagler.
Trailer to
Indio II – The Revolt:
The Silence of the Lambs
(1991, dir. Jonathon Demme)
Napier appears all of three minutes in this modern classic, and in all truth his acting is surprisingly stale (one can literally see him working in his head: "OK, now I'm supposed to notice I have to put the tray down; OK, now I look up surprised"), but his character – Lt. Bill Boyle – does become one of the iconic images of the movie, namely the gutted guard hanging from Dr. Lector's cage, so the film simply had to be included on this list.
Silence of the Lambs:
Homicidal Impulse
(1991, writ. & dir. David Tausik)
Aka Killer Instinct. Oddly enough, for Italian releases of his films, Napier often gets a headlining credit even when the English-language release ignores him. This is also the case in this Roger Corman produced erotic thriller about an assistant DA who gets a new assistant who decides to help his career...
Trailer to
Homicidal Impulse:
Eyes of the Beholder
(1992, dir. Lawrence L. Simeone)
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Trailer to
Eyes of the Beholder:
Mean Tricks
(1992, dir. Umberto Lenzi)
Aka: Hornsby e Rodriguez – sfida criminale. Charles Napier finally gets the lead role as Hornsby in an Italo crime film in this, (possibly) Umberto Lenzi's last film. Monster Hunter says: "From the absurdly spectacular slow-motion shootout on the docks that opens the film all the way until star Charles Napier (Hornsby) banters with his local partner Rodriguez and their sexy sidekick about Rodriguez marrying her despite him having heard Hornsby screw her while she was wearing a wire earlier in the movie, Umberto Lenzi's Mean Tricks is an appallingly proficient bad-ass cop movie that not only delivers every cliché you freaking demand from such films (Rodriguez's gruff captain is nicknamed Iron Balls!), but in the best Italian movie tradition invents its own along the way!" Too bad we couldn't find any video documentation online.While it lasts:
Return to Frogtown
(1992, dir. Donald G. Jackson)
The world lost a truly unique "talent" when director Donald G. Jackson died of leukemia on 20 October 2003. This flick is the second film to follow the cult fave Hell Comes to Frogtown (1988 / trailer); it was followed by Toad Warrior (1996) and Max Hell Frog Warrior (2002) – all directed by Jackson. In the post-apocalyptic, it's mutant frogs verses mankind. Another film Napier can be proud of...
Trailer to
Return to Frogtown:
Skeeter
(1993, dir. Clark Brandon)
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Trailer to
Skeeter:
Body Bags
(1993, dir. John Carpenter and the genre director everyone loves to hate, Tobe Hooper)
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Trailer to
Body Bags:
Silk Degrees
(1994, dir. Armand Garabidian)
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Trailer to
Silk Degrees:
Raw Justice
(1994, dir. David A. Prior)
Aka Good Cop Bad Cop and Strip Girl. The third film Napier made with Alabama-based director Prior. Cast includes the love pillows of Pamela Anderson, who plays a hooker and later described the experience of filming her "love scene" (seen below) as thus: "I was thrown around, I was scratched, I was bruised, I was bitten. I cried, I went home, I called my mother." Napier (seen twice in the trailer above) has a decently sized role as the Mayor that hires Mace (David Keith – the director of the super-trashy cult flick The Curse [1987 / trailer]) to find the killer of his daughter. To do so, along the way he kisses Pamela's ass... and what an ass it is.Trailer to
Raw Justice:
Hard Justice
(1995, dir. Greg Yaitanes)
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Trailer to
Hard Justice:
Comeuppance Reviews says: "The plot is basically a rip-off of the Van Damme movie Death Warrant (1990 / trailer), but it makes up for that in the action sequences. The opening is fantastic, with almost non-stop action. The climax is also well-executed. But the middle, where Adams is in the prison does lag a little. Charles Napier is great as the evil warden."
In between all the violent adult trash, Napier appears in this kiddy film directed by the director of Ultraviolet (1992 / trailer). A family film made for TV, now available on DVD. Napier's on the poster and in the trailer of a film a wasted life will probably never bother watching... but watching the trailer, it was cool to see Machu Picchu again, and to recognize the little train we took when were there...
Charles Napier as the headlining star of this film by Z-film director Peter Maris, a film that no one who has watched it seems to like. We here at a wasted life have never managed to get past the first ten minutes, so we reserve our opinion. Watch it yourself – the full film is embedded below. The plot, according to DJ Heinlein at imdb: "A fleet of UFOs is circling the Earth and a top scientist races to discover their true intentions for the planet. When the UFOs begin an attack on Earth, the scientist finds himself thrown in with a sheriff and his deputies transporting some prisoners to jail. The unlikely group is forced to seek shelter from the attack in a nearby cave, not knowing how significant the location is to the alien's plans."
Afro-American character actor and background filler Christopher Michael made this comedy horror home video and somehow even managed to talk Napier into appearing in a dream sequence as a singing cowboy named Adam that sings the same song that the intergalactic hippy Adam sang 27 years earlier in Star Trek – The Way to Eden. Artificial fangs, artificial breasts and a malt-liquor loving vampire who drinks so much his fangs won't get hard add up total idiocy...
From the man who brought you the killer transvestite-ghost movie, The Newlydeads (1987 / trailer). General opinion on the web seems to be that this is one of Gary Daniels better films – a statement of qualification that is about as convincing as, dunno, "one of Fox News's more intelligent political commentators". Plot: daughter of an English ambassador gets kidnapped, ex-boyfriend Daniels comes to save here. Napier is to be seen twice in the trailer below... or just go for the whole film, also below.
Charles Napier is the redneck Sheriff of this Roger Corman produced remake of the 1976 Roger Corman production Jackson County Jail (trailer); the reference to the low budget exploitation classic of Macon County Line (1974 / trailer) probably added for commercial reasons. In this version of the depressing tale, David Carradine takes over Tommy Lee Jones's role and Ally Sheedy, Yvette Mimieux's. LA woman (Sheedy) on the way to a new life has some setbacks along the way and ends up in a redneck jail run by Napier, whose son rapes her; she kills him and ends up on the run with lifelong criminal Carradine. One assumes the depressing Hemingwayesque ending of the original is retained...
Napier appears somewhere in this z-level production by Eric Louzil, the director of Fortress of Amerikkka (1989), Class of Nuke 'Em High Part II (1991 / trailer) and Class of Nuke 'Em High Part III (1994 / trailer). The plot, according to the DVD back cover: "An ex-cop turned private eye (L.P. Brown) and his sidekick find more than they bargained for when they team up with a feisty British female investigator (Shannon Whirry). They must recover $8 million from a heist. The brutal mastermind of the robbery (Malcolm McDowell) and his gorgeous French cohort (Lydie Denier) will stop at nothing, including police bribery, torture, and murder, to protect the jewels. Romantic sparks fly as the two detectives are thrown into a thrilling adventure through the streets of New Orleans. The stakes are high as they face certain death." A film so bad, that it hardly merits including here... but damn, Shannon Whirry sure fits that bra well.
Kill count:
Max Is Missing
(1995, dir. Mark Griffiths)
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Trailer to
Max Is Missing:
Alien Species
(1996, dir. Peter Maris)
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Full film – while it lasts:
Limp Fangs
(1996, dir. Christopher Michael)
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Trailer to
Limp Fangs:
Riot
(1997, dir. Joseph Merhi)
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While it lasts:
Macon County Jail
(1997, dir. Victoria Muspratt)
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Trailer to
Macon County Jail:
Fatal Pursuit
(1998, dir. Eric Louzil)
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Trailer to
Fatal Pursuit:
Armstrong
(1998, dir. Menahem Golan)
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Trailer to
Armstrong:
The Thief & the Stripper
(2000, dir. L.P. Brown III John Sjogren)
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Trailer to
The Theif & the Stripper:
Very Mean Men
(2000, dir. Tony Vitale)
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Trailer to
Very Mean Men:
Never Look Back
(2000, dir. Mike Tristano & Frank Zagarino)
Aka Innocent Man. A film no one seems to have seen, though there seems to have been a DVD release. "A wrongfully sentenced man is given a chance for freedom in exchange for the safe delivery of stolen diamonds." Napier is seen in the trailer twice. Anyone out there know anything about what looks to be a relatively stupid film?
Trailer to
Innocent Man:
Down 'n Dirty
(2001, dir. Fred Williamson)
Fred Williamson always reminds us of the Eveready Bunny: he just keeps on going and going and going... Plot to a movie with a title better suited for a porn flick, taken from Amazon.com: "Someone murdered his partner. Now, someone's got to pay. Dakota Smith (Fred Williamson) is a tough honest cop. Now, he's got to enter the world of corrupt politicians to find out who killed his partner. It's a dirty job, but he swore he'd get revenge. It's a bold and bloody battle that will take him from the corruption of the stationhouse to the highest offices of city hall. Get in on the action of this two-fisted story of killer lies and street justice." Napier appears in the film as Capt. Jerry Teller; on the poster above, oddly enough, the recently deceased Bubby Smith is pictured, not Williamson – but at least Bubby is also in the film. Since Williamson isn't shown, here's a photo of prime Williamson playing with a white pussy for Playgirl magazine.
Trailer to
Down 'n Dirty:
Forgive Me Father
(2001, dir. Ivan Rogers)
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Trailer to
Forgive Me Father:
Dinocroc
(2004, dir. Kevin O'Neill)
Dinocroc:
From the director of Dinoshark (2010 / trailer). Plot as found on Amazon.com: "Imagine all the fury of a prehistoric carnivore combined with the ferocity of the largest crocodile known to man and you have the makings of nonstop terror. Run for your life as Gereco Corporation's experiment to manipulate a rapid-growth hormone gets out of control, and a ravenous monster gets out of its cage. Now the residents of the once-peaceful Grant's Lake have only the talents of a crude Australian reptile hunter, the short-handed local sheriff (Napier), his daughter the animal control expert, and her boyfriend, to save them from the insatiable jaws of a beastly feeding frenzy."
Carnage Count to
Dinoshark:
The Kid & I
(2005, dir. Penelope Spheeris)
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Trailer to
The Kid & I:
Suits on the Loose
(2005, dir. Rodney Henson)
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Trailer to
Suits on the Loose:
One-Eyed Monster
(2008, dir. Adam Fields)
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Trailer to
One Eyed Monster:
The River Bridge
(2008, dir James Hunter)
A low-budget independent crime film, and the trailer below already reveals that Napier is probably the best actor in the whole thing. DVD blurb: "Jack Kellerman is a small town boozing, womanizing private eye who gets caught in a massive political conspiracy involving the governor's daughter. After much soul searching, Jack realizes he must change, but it could be too late..."
Trailer to
The River Bridge:
bgFATLdy
(2008, dir. Adam Pertofsky)
Aka Black Crescent Moon and Small Town Murder. Napier is on the DVD cover and in the trailer of this unknown independent murder-in-a-small-town-full-of-quirky-characters film. No one who has seen this flick and put an opinion online seems to have liked the movie. Pop Matters says: "Black Crescent Moon wants to be a Coen Brothers movie. More specifically, it wants to be Fargo (1996 / trailer) or No Country for Old Men (2007 / trailer). It's none of these things. Not even close."
Trailer to
bgFATLdy:
Your Name Here
(2008, dir. Matthew Wilder)
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Trailer to
Your Name Here:
Life Blood
(2009, dir. Ron Carlson)
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Trailer to
Life Blood:
The Goods: Live Hard, Sell Hard
(2009, dir Neal Brennan)
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Trailer to
The Goods: Live Hard. Sell Hard
Shadowheart
(2009, dir. Dean Alioto)
(2009, dir. Dean Alioto)
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Trailer to
Shadowheart:
Charles Napier – R.I.P.
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