The Roger E. Mosley Thread

[J.J. Walters]

aka Theodore "T.C." Calvin ....

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Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

[J.J. Walters]

Any of you guys ever seen Leadbelly (1976)? Easily Roger's best work, and a powerful movie. I used to have it on tape, but that was "gone" a long time ago. I would love to get this on DVD, if it ever makes it there.

_________________
Higgins: It's not a scratch! It's a bloody gouge!

[rubber chicken]

I haven't seen Leadbelly, but would like to. I've seen The Mack, in which Mosley plays the brother of the lead actor. His character is similar in a way to TC, working towards a better community by fighting drugs and working with people etc. And of course in Magnum P.I. he's a good role model too, involved with coaching, helping young kids and being an all around good influence.

It almost works out imagining that he's a younger TC, but not quite.

Looking through his imdb filmography, I'm now going to try and find Stay Hungry which looks like a fun time - along with Mosley there's Jeff Bridges, Sally Field, and Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of his early roles.

Here's what one poster says about the film:

"Just caught this movie on cable tv, and I'm still in shock! : O
I mean this was "The Flying Nun" in the buff!
Arnold Schwarzenegger jammin' on his violin with hillbillies? Was I dreaming?
Robert Englund kicking butt sans Freddy Kruger mask.
And T.C. from Magnum P.I. giving a massage to a beautiful naked redhead but wishing he was raising chickens instead!
Surreal."

I have to see this now, no question.

[Klaus]

The R. E. Mosley scene in "Stay Hungry" is hilarious. Being an Arnold fan I saw the movies countless times, but the massage scene is one of the funnies "T.C" scenes I´ve ever seen!

[eegorr]

[Klaus]

[rubber chicken]

On the Sleuth channel today I happened to catch Roger E. Mosley on Rockford Files. The episode was "Dirty Money, Black Light" and was the last show of season three, originally airing 4-1-77.

The episode also had Martin Kove, the Cobra Kai Sensei from Karate Kid, and Stuart Margolin, the encyclopedia salesman from Magnum P.I.'s "By Its Cover" (3.21). Though it looks like Stuart was a regular on the show.

I only caught part of the show, but it looked like Mosley had a rather important part as a boxing trainer who was also a loan shark. It was played well and he even made Rockford get in the ring with one of his boxers. Needless to say Rockford didn't fair too well. Mosely was about to shoot Rockford at the end of the show when the cops came in and arrested him.

Just thought I'd mention, always fun to catch things like this.

[Klaus]

Wasn´t there a prison film where Mosely starred in, too?

[rubber chicken]

I don't know whether he did a prison film, but I watched Stay Hungry last night! What a confused movie, hehe. I wish Mosley was in more of it - he shows up maybe three times - but he does indeed play his part well. The massage scene is even more hilarious when watching from a Magnum P.I. perspective.

In a post above I mentioned how his character in The Mack is somewhat like his TC character and this role is even more so. How he reacts to being put in the massage scene situation is the same way TC could have reacted in a Magnum P.I. episode, although naked call girls sadly wouldn't have been allowed. Spoilers below if you're planning on seeing the movie and don't want to know what happens...

SPOILERS....
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The situation is this: Mosley (character's name is Newton) works as a massage therapist and late one night his boss Thor brings two call girls back to the gym where Newton and Thor both work. Thor is a demanding fellow who might be out of his gourd and prone to violence. He makes Newton take one of the girls into the massage room intending that Newton and the girl do unmentionable things to each other.

Newton doesn't want any part of this however (just how TC would react), but he's afraid of his boss or of simply being fired so he proceeds to tie the girl up (with very efficient knot skills by the way) and tapes her mouth. He then hilariously goes about giving her a massage and tan, while reading a magazine all in an anxious hyper manner.

Later Thor needs something in the room and threatens to break the door down so Newton lets him in - still wearing bug eyed tanning goggles - and says he and the girl sure are going to town etc. and acts like they're really having a great time. Meanwhile the girl is still tied to the table and tries to say Newton is crazy but Newton quickly covers her mouth.
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I wouldn't really recommend the movie or even the scene to most people. (Not for kids and maybe not too tasteful for some). It's not great but has it's oddity value, if you're wondering whether it's for you I'd read the comments about it on IMDB. I got a kick out parts of it though and it was great to watch Mosely's scene as a Magnum P.I. fan.

[Klaus]

If I remember right, Arnold was nominated for a Golden Globe for his great performance. He went down with his weight about 25 lbs. not to look too gigantic. Back then the mass audience had not seen much of those bodybuilder types and Arnie didn´t want to scare them.

He looks rather thin in this movies...

Mosley looks so young....and the scene, well, he´s really acting T.C. like. I suppose every actor is allowed to bring in some of his own values and person to the role. Like Back to to Future - would´ve been a whole different movie if Eric Stolz would´ve been Marty.