Tourist Trap, The Rifleman Meets Skinny-Dippers

We all remember Chuck Connors as the star of some great 'Old West' TV shows, "The Rifleman" and "Branded." Before there was Larry Bird, Mr. Connors helped the Boston Celtics to the 1946 NBA championship, and a few years later, this 6'5" giant would play for the Brooklyn Dodgers. Here's some good NBA trivia to stump your friends with; who was the first NBA player to be credited with breaking a backboard? You got it...Chuck Connors. Fans of slasher films will also remember this great man as star of the 1979 slasher classic, "Tourist Trap."

Weird old guy with a rifle Slausen (Connors) tends to his abandoned western wax museum. His fortune is returning as he comes across three nubile skinny-dippers in his pond, Becky (Tanya Roberts), Molly (Jocelyn Jones), and Eileen (Robin Sharwood). Their BF Jerry (John Van Ness) is tending to their broken down Jeep, and other BF Woody (Keith McDermott) has already been killed by Slausen's magic wax puppets. No matter, the Jeep is broken down and the gals and Jerry see Slausen as strange but harmless. Ha! Slausen is happy to see pretty girls as he has an affinity for them. Oh yes, Slausen's puppets can move on his command and even kill.

The fun starts when the gals get curious and the sultry Eileen starts exploring...bad move. She'll be overwhelmed and overtaken by Slausen's army of wax mannequins and she will be turned into one. We then meet the pretty Tina (Dan Jeffory). So sad. The pretty Tina will be turned into a wax mannequin as the tied up Becky and Jerry watch in horror, knowing their fate may be similar. Slausen and his brother, who may be a wax puppet, intend to make all the great looking people stranded at the museum their drones.  Slausen is more interested in the pretty gals and soon we find out why. Slausen's history is horrific and could spell excruciating doom and horror for the babes. As the puppets display a talent for marksmanship and knife throwing, the fate of "Charlie's Angels" star Tanya Roberts will be very sad.

Will anyone survive Slausen's mad plan? Will beautiful women ever smarten up and realize if they skinny-dip in these films, the slashers will find them? Does the very talented Chuck Connors deserve to have Tanya Roberts as his plaything? "Tourist Trap" is shocking and horrific and Mr. Connors steals the show as a weird old madman. For one of the first films from the Golden Era of Slasher Films, enjoy "Tourist Trap," directed by David Schmoeller.