#Bob Bralver

[codycawdren]

Rush Week (1989)

Director: Bob Bralver Starring: Pamela Ludwig, Dean Hamilton, Roy Thinnes Toni, a journalism student, transfers to a new college, where several female students begin to disappear under suspicious circumstances. She decides to investigate, which makes her the prime target of a mysterious killer. It’s Rush Week at Tambler College and there’s parties and plenty of pranks going around. Toni…

[marypickfords]

Rush Week (Bob Bralver, 1989)

[pierppasolini]

I’m the only one who seems to think something weird is going on.

Rush Week (1989) // Bob Bralver

[brokehorrorfan]

Blu-ray Review: Rush Week

While nostalgic viewers often look back at '80s horror through rose-colored glasses, audiences at the time became fatigued by the barrage of sequels and failed franchise starters that dominated the decade, largely with diminishing returns. It's easy to understand that mindset when viewing 1989's Rush Week, a generic college slasher from director Bob Bralver (American Ninja 5).

Written by Russell V. Manzatt (Midnight Ride) and Michael W. Leighton (The Genesis Code), the film begins by intercutting a standard cold-open kill with a rowdy frat party. It sets the tone of the film, as the first act plays out like a vapid, low-rent Animal House knockoff, while the midsection goes through the slasher motions. It's not until the rollicking finale, which includes a "Fright Night" costume party, that the film lives up to its potential.

Pamela Ludwig (Over the Edge) stars as a plucky young journalist investigating a rash of recent missing students for the college newspaper. The cast notably includes the Allman Brothers Band vocalist Gregg Allman as a hippie faculty member that runs the newspaper, Kathleen Kinmont (Halloween 4: The Return of Michael Myers) in a small role as the cheekily named Julie Ann McGuffin, and a performance from The Dickies (best known to genre fans for the Killer Klowns from Outer Space theme).

Until the reveal at the end, the double-edged axe-wielding killer's identity is concealed by an old man mask and a robe. Perhaps Bralver was preempting the MPAA's neutering of violence, or it was merely a cost-saving measure, but there is little gore on display. Despite Bralver's background as a stunt performer - with credits ranging from Star Trek: The Motion Picture to Darkman to NCIS: Los Angeles - action is minimal as well. Bralver seemingly an abundance of nudity would distract from the lack of excitement.

Rush Week's new 2K restoration from its 35mm interpositive for Vinegar Syndrome's Blu-ray release brings perfect clarity to Jeff Mart's colorful cinematography. The Hysteria Continues podcast provides an informal audio commentary with several stretches of silence and only one fun fact (the frat house also appeared in the likes of Elvira: Mistress of the Dark, Waxwork, and Witchboard). The disc also includes interviews with actors Dean Hamilton and Courtney Gebhart. Hamilton is rather dry while Gebhart is exuberant, but both share fond memories.

Rush Week is available now Blu-ray via Vinegar Syndrome.

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

Rush Week | 1989 

[redshirtgal]

Poor Lt. Grant. He was the sole redshirt sent down as security for Kirk, Spock and Bones in “Friday’s Child.” You wonder why any security chief would have sent down such a young and inexperienced (Kirk’s own words) crewman to protect The Big Three. Starfleet already knew the Capellans were experts with bladed weapons and had extremely fast reflexes. You can watch Grant’s facial expressions here as events unfold and you just know he’s doomed.  Grant was played by Bob Bralver, an actor who appeared in a few TOS episodes. He appeared in this episode as well as “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky” and “The Tholian Web.”

You wouldn’t have known he was also considered to be an expert stuntman in “Friday’s Child.”  (although he admitted in a  Starlog magazine article that he did get a $25 stunt differential on top of the standard $129 for a day’s work for that episode). But in “The Tholian Web,” he and fellow stuntman Jay Jones have an excellent scene together. Take a look at Bralver’s leap from the the catwalk in Engineering, landing exactly on top of Jones’s back. That took some good timing, you must admit. Even the fight scene was well done. It did indeed appear he was possessed by so much inner rage that two other crewmen had a hard time pulling him off Jones. 

Not only did Bralver appear in two episodes as an extra, he was McCoy’s stunt double in the episode “For the World is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky.” And he also did stunt work in one episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation and in eight episodes of Deep Space Nine as well as in Star Trek: The Motion Picture.

Bralver began his career a few short years before his appearance in TOS. Here he is in the first episode of The Bionic Woman. During his early period, he also did stunt work for I Spy, The Man from U.N.C.L.E. and Gunsmoke. After Bralver had honed his craft, he was hired on a regular basis by series such as Adam-12, Cannon, and Emergency!

Like Charles Picerni, Bralver eventually worked his way into being a stunt coordinator. He helped hire the talent and plan the stunt work for Kojak, Battlestar Galactica and Galactia 80 (that is Bob in the photo demonstrating a fall during rehearsals for G80 ), and The Fall Guy.

He appeared as an actor and stunt worker in Knight Rider as well as being their stunt coordinator for several seasons (above photo from his appearance in “Brother’s Keeper”). Bralver’s longest gig as a stunt coordinator was for the series Murder She Wrote - 136 episodes.

He has also served as second unit director, full director and a writer for many of those shows. Bob Bralver’s record as a redshirt in TOS may have been short-lived but his actual Hollywood career has lasted over fifty years and is still going strong today.

He still seems to be active in the convention circuit as well and often makes appearances in car shows. Here is one cute video of him with a Wonder Woman cosplayer. https://youtu.be/4bpsdXrRPyM

And the usual piece o’trivia at the end. While Bob Bralver was earning his Masters in Physical Education, he wrote a research paper on the physics behind the speed of a professional baseball player’s swing. When he first began working as a stuntman on television shows, he was teaching junior high P.E. classes. His son Stephen Bralver played college and professional baseball but eventually followed his father into stunt work.

[trashvideofinland]

Keskiyön pako / Midnight Ride (1990) Warner Home Video / Warner Bros. Entertainment (leikattu 03 MIN 17) https://www.videospace.fi/release/midnight_ride_nauha_warner_home_video_warner_bros_entertainment_finland

[bens-things]

American Ninja 5 (1993) dir. Bob Bralver

The American Ninja has to rescue a cute girl who gets kidnapped when her father makes a poison for a bad guy.  Rather simplistic.

[theactioneer]

Midnight Ride (Bob Bralver, 1990)

[marypickfords]

Rush Week (Bob Bralver, 1989)

[moviesandmania]

Rush Week (1988)

‘It’s a picture perfect college with a perfectly terrifying secret.’

Rush Week is a 1988 American slasher horror film directed by Bob Bralver (Midnight Ride) based on a screenplay by Russell V. Manzatt and Michael W. Leighton (producer of Pale Blood). It was released on 1 January 1989.

Main cast:

Pamela Ludwig (Pale Blood), Dean Hamilton, Roy Thinnes (The Norliss Tapes; The Horror at 37,000 Feet

[brokehorrorfan]

Rush Week will be released on Blu-ray on April 27 via Vinegar Syndrome. Direct orders ($27.99) come with an embossed slipcover designed by Earl Kessler Jr, limited to 4,000.

The 1989 slasher film is directed Bob Bralver (American Ninja 5) and written by Russell V. Manzatt (Midnight Ride) and Michael W. Leighton (The Genesis Code). Pamela Ludwig, Dean Hamilton, and Roy Thinnes star.

Rush Week has been newly restored in 2K from its 35mm interpositive. It features reversible artwork. Special features are listed below.

Special features:

Audio commentary by The Hysteria Continues podcast

Interview with actor Dean Hamilton

Interview with actress Courtney Gebhart

Toni Daniels is an ambitious young journalist working for her college newspaper. Tired of covering the same boring stories as her peers, Toni becomes intrigued by the recent disappearances of several female students and believes that they may be linked to an on-campus murder that happened the previous year during the college's raucous Rush Week. Despite being certain that something terrible has been happening on campus, no one she talks to is willing to admit that the disappearances are cause for concern. Undeterred, Tori decides to investigate the mystery on her own, but before long finds herself becoming embroiled in a twist filled saga of deeply buried, and bloody secrets which attract the attention of a sadistic killer who will stop at nothing to hide the truth...

Pre-order Rush Week on Blu-ray from Vinegar Syndrome.

[rhetthammersmithhorror]

Rush Week | 1989 

[redshirtgal]

Most of the time, the actors, extras, stunt workers, and other behind the scenes people featured on this Page are named. Their claims to “Unknown Redshirt” status are based mainly on the fact that their contributions to Star Trek are rarely recognized.  Now THESE guys are the true unknown redshirts. They have been in more than one episode but their names have yet to be discovered. Yet here they are, attacking the space probe Nomad, a very dangerous adversary. Neither was credited. In fact, the one on the left whose face is visible appeared in five episodes. And he usually runs into trouble whenever he is in a redshirt. So let’s refer to him as Lt. Unlucky. 

His first sighting is in “Charlie X” where we see him first as he walks down the corridor just as Charlie is giving Janice Rand the bottle of perfume. From there, he goes to the ....

Recreation Room and is standing to the far right as he and the others enjoy Uhura’s singing. 

Later, he and and fellow female crewman were working together when Charlie angrily strides by after losing a chess match to Spock. Lt. Unlucky actually is pretty lucky here. Usually when Charlie was in this mood, someone lost her face or turned into a reptile. Or disappeared.  But after this episode, he decides to trade in his blue uniform for a different color. That’s when his luck begins to change for the worse.

Lt. Unlucky makes his first redshirt appearance in “The Changeling.” He and his fellow redshirt helped guard sickbay when Nomad arrives to bring Scotty back to life. All is well as long as they remain in sickbay. But then, Captain Kirk cannot leave well enough alone. 

He has to assign Lt. Unlucky and friend to stand guard outside the room where Nomad was being detained. This makes the two the first pair of redshirts to be vaporized by Nomad at the same time. Because, if you remember, there is a second set who meet the same fate later. This thing evidently had it in for redshirts. But this is not the last we see of Lt. Unlucky.

It appears he has a counterpart in the Mirror Universe. This lieutenant’s assignment is standing guard over the area of Engineering that holds the manual override. However, he doesn’t get any respect there either. 

At least not from Dr. McCoy and Mr. Scott. The poor unlucky lieutenant is drugged and dragged into Jefferies Tube. But back in the main universe, his life is quiet. We assumed that is because this guy is dead. 

But no, the bad luck for this character returns (and miraculously, so did he) in “Is There No Truth in Beauty?”  When Mr. Spock goes mad from seeing Ambassador Kollos without a visor, he plows through Kirk, Bones, Sulu, and Chekov in short order. Our brave lieutenant begins moving forward during the melee and reaches Spock just in time to get hammered. And just lies there looking pitiful while Kirk manages to save the day, as always. Maybe it’s time for a change.

A while later, Lt. Unlucky has wised up and transferred over to command. We last see him as part of the crew attending the memorial service being held for Captain Kirk in “The Tholian Web.”  Hopefully, he survives the rest of the mission with no more run-ins with bad luck.  Naturally, we know this actor is not portraying the same character in every episode he appears in. At the very best, it’s possible he is portraying the same redshirt in the second and fourth episode as well as his mirror counterpart in “Mirror, Mirror.” Even that may not be true.  However, despite being unknown, he does get to be part of those who have worn all three colors in the Original Series. And not many uncredited actors in the show could say that.  Think about it. He appears five times on TOS. That’s three more times than Kevin Riley. Two times more than Lt. DeSalle. The only clue to his identity - and that is not a big one - is that he most likely was a stuntman, just not one who ever reached big-time status like Charles Picerni or Bob Bralver. But five appearances on Star Trek? That’s not bad for an unknown actor or stuntman, either way. 

[vhs-ninja]

Midnight Ride (1990) by Bob Bralver. 

[90smovies]

Midnight Ride