cult film freak: ECLECTIC CULT TRIPLE-FEATURE FEATURES CHRISTOPHER ROBINSON

Dull nice guy Ron Foster and scene-stealing villain Christopher Robinson YEAR: 1959

THE DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE: What's set up in the opening warning-scroll on the dated terrors of teenage marriage winds up a basic thriller about a high school girl recently wed to a twenty-something law student being stalked and tormented by the popular high school jerk she once rejected...

In the latter role is a young Christopher Robinson, who steals the show alongside Anita Sands, a less glamorous version of Sherry Jackson. The film's moral lesson of a stuffed animal carrying girl too young to be married (seeking daddy's money over a husband who can't yet provide) results in a heated crime-genre standoff on a real movie set in this American International programmer directed by Burt Topper, who'd later helm one of the most creative biker flicks of the counter-culture era... but that's a different story for another time...

Poster featuring the Alan Aldish Robinson w/ STANLEY Year: 1972

STANLEY: Over a decade later, Christopher Robinson gets his very own PSYCHO, yet he's more BILLY JACK being part Indian and a Vietnam veteran while resembling a shaggy Alan Alda (compared to his previous sharp-nosed young Jack Nicholson look): He lives in a rural swampy cabin with a bevy of pet snakes he's extremely close with. In that, outdoors exploitation director William Grefé puts his cast through the ringer as snakes wind up slithering all over everyone, for real...

And while the pace is randomly sluggish and awkward, the body count horror pays off with deserved victims ranging from an obnoxious stripper to a trio of poachers working for corporate villain Alex Rocco. And as every scream needs a queen, he's got a sexy blonde daughter played by Susan Carroll, providing fifteen minutes of sexy cult fame. Each victim deals with Robinson's terror in their own nightmare-induced fashion; and his name is Tim, not STANLEY. It's surprising he's the same actor that wielded such raw energy in DIARY OF A HIGH SCHOOL BRIDE as he's pretty wooden here, even during bouts of vicious lunacy. But it's the creatures that coil, hiss and strike that matter, led by the titular rattler looking more like a boa, and who's the best actor on board, by far.

Rod Taylor ears Christopher Robinson YEAR: 1970

DARKER THAN AMBER: Acting isn't the problem in this obscure curio known for a fake fight that winds up a real one between Australian leading man Rod Taylor and American tough guy/muscle man William Smith. Only you have to wait for the climax that occurs on a cruise ship while most of the picture takes place in the sweaty pulp-inspired Florida heat: A hippie era neo-noir thriller with a bulky, weathered Taylor as author John D. MacDonald's Travis McGee, a beach bum diver/scavenger who just happens to happen upon a beautiful blonde dumped from a bridge into the same river he and his buddy are fishing at.

Prepare to stretch even more disbelief as, later on, the same actress plays a different character set up to trick the main villain, Smith, but at this point it's future ENTER THE DRAGON voluptuous blonde bombshell Ahna Capri... working for the same director, Robert Clouse... who steals the show after a rather long, somewhat bland yet complicated but at times, semi-intriguing investigatory premise liken to the gumshoe flicks of the 1940's. The main issue is our heavy's needed much more throughout; perhaps his also-muscular henchman Robert Philips should have been channeled completely into Smith's role. And now to unbury our lead: Christopher Robinson plays a bully in a diner who goads Taylor 's McGee into kicking his ass. Not an important scene but one of the better ones. At least something happens that's easy to follow.