Terrore nel deserto

A tour group (led by Arte Johnson!) heads to Las Vegas via a greyhoud bus (driven by O. J. Simpson!). Crap tables are soon the least of their worries though as they are taken hostage by a group of criminals (led by Lorenzo Lamas!). Seems they want to kidnap the wife of a wealthy businessman, but don't know he is on this trip with his girlfriend instead.

According to the L. A. Times, this was the second of a three picture deal Simpson had signed with NBC (it was preceded by Goldie and the Boxer in 1979 and followed by Goldie and the Boxer go to Hollywood in 1981) and they ran it in February 1980 as counter programming against the Winter Olympics. This is entertaining and makes good use of the desert locations. The cast is good and Johnson even has a nice dramatic bit where he talks about being a lonely tour guide. Fans of Deathstalker (1983) will be excited to see Rick Hill in here. He plays - what else? - an athlete. The one weird thing is Lamas apparently adopts an Elvis-like voice as the ring leader. Also, look closely in the background and you'll see Simpon's future wife Nicole as one of the bus passengers. The film was directed by Michael O'Herlihy (brother of Dan!) and it was one of six tele-films he had debut that year.

Well you take O.J. Simpson as a all american soldier turned all american bus driver who decides to rescue his passengers on his own just incase no one else is going to and Arte Johnson in an absolutely straight role as the tour guide who doesn't know what to do but doesn't want to admit they are in trouble and combine it with Lorenzo Lamas as one of three baby faced bad boys who intend to kidnap an heiress and leave a busload of people to die on the dessert and you have got to have action, plot twists and a lot of drama. Everyone was good but seeing Lamas as the baddest of the bad boys really blew my mind. He was much too believable as the overbearing bad guy who not only wanted to kidnap the heiress but rape the women and humiliate the guy who tried to stop him. This was evidently long before he cultivated his good guy image. And believe me a 20 year old Lorenzo in tight jeans you really don't want to miss!

. . .but it was on a UHF channel and the reception was very fuzzy. I'd really like to own the movie since the reason I watched it in the first place is because I am a bus driver and at the time I saw this movie, I was driving that model bus. It was only (during his murder trial some 15 years later) that I remember vaguely that OJ was one of the stars in it. I only recall that he was the driver and of the bus' being shot up and driven wildly. I've been looking all over for this movie to no avail, since viewing it in the mid-80s. I liked the movie, I don't usually watch thrillers, but after reading the summary in the TV guide, and viewing its beginning (although fuzzy) I stayed for the whole thing.

I haven't seen it in over twenty years. OJ was the bus driver, Arte Johnson was the tour guide, Lorenzo was the kidnapper.

Yea, Lorenzo looked very much at home as the villain, a natural. I think I watched it back then most for OJ, who I had seen Towering Inferno and Cassandra Crossing, but also to see Arte Johnson.

I was a little bored that Johnson was so serious.

And yes, it shifted plots. In reading other posts, I remember that was some plot that they were going to kidnap some rich girl, but then that priceless stamp business turned up out of the blue.

I was going, a stamp? If it came on as a late movie, I would probably record it to check it out again, but I wouldn't be nostalgic over it. Not yet anyway.

There are better movies from the seventies like this to check out.

People expect too dorn much from a movie now days. You have to remember that this was the Seventies when Cars went mad, dogs went wild, wild animals were on the loose, Towering Infernos were burning, Earthquakes were taking place on the screen, Ants were Gigantic, spiders were multiplying, and everything else rampaged, so this movie was not really badly scripted. You really could not expect too much script for a movie like this that was not on the big screen at all. The thieves ended up captured, but it was sort of suspenseful at times. You have to remember that there was not all the hightech stuff that they have in the cinema of today. I think this movie was a really good movie. come on people, you have to enjoy some cheezy stuff in life sometimes. remember the cheezy clothes you wore back in the 70's, gottcha......