The idea of a drug connection in Southeast Texas is not unique. But, some of the characters (James "Bubba" Busceme, Gary Lee Love, "Bones") made the film a lot more interesting to watch. Other than that the film is sort of slow developing. The action in the swamp and the street chases with the police are great, though. The plot is easy to figure out and the outcome is predictable. This film is easy to watch if one is from Beaumont, Texas (where the film was shot). But, other than that....it's mostly a middle of the road variety.
5 Reviews
Paul L. Smith vs. The Alligator!
tarbosh2200013 August 2010
Warning: Spoilers
Steve King (Edwards) is a New York gangster that moves to Beaumont, Texas, figuring he can bring his street smarts to an unsuspecting criminal underworld in a different part of the country. Shortly after the movie begins, there's an on-screen title that reads: "One Year Later" for no discernible reason. He wants to build a "sno-line" from Houston to El Paso, controlling the cocaine racket. He also has a casino and there are corrupt Senators on the take.
Meanwhile a rival gang, headed by the bearded Kenny Loggins lookalike Bedford, wants to move in on the action. They have listening devices everywhere, including at the table at the country club where King hangs out. One of the members of the rival gang, Michael (Carey Clark) wants to just escape with his girlfriend with some stolen money. So it's gangsters chasing after gangsters, and Michael running away, and cops chasing them all. Who will escape? In director O'Neons' only directorial effort, he brings us a very 80's subject. Cocaine and the people behind this drug trade. It's always fun to see Vince Edwards but the problem is this film has no heroes. You don't really root for him, Bedford or Michael to succeed. This is one of the main failings of the film. You don't really care what happens to anyone because they are all bad guys. Of course, King's assistant Gus (Louis Guss) is the most likable one, as the wisecracking old-school Italian schlub. Burt Young also could have played this role.
King hides his operation through a milk-delivery company called "King's Dairy". He delivers the coke in the milk and also collects on his gambling debts. Clever innovation. This leads to a mob war in the bayou with some good-ole-boys. King and Gus travel the back swamps in their boat named the "Fungus". A movie highlight involves Duval (Paul L. Smith) and an alligator. We won't give it away.
There are some more fights, chases and double crosses, most of which the audience is indifferent towards, even though some involve King's main lady Audrey (Wilkinson). It quickly devolves into a Dukes of Hazard episode. While the idea of a mob man dealing coke and doing mob things in Texas is pretty novel, Sno-Line lacks a certain energy and cohesiveness that would have helped considerably. We love the low-budget attitude, and all the 80's fashions alone make it watchable. Released on VHS in the U.S. on the great Lightning Video label, Sno-Line is the type of movie if you see somewhere you should pick up, but it's not necessary to go out of your way to try and find.
For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
Meanwhile a rival gang, headed by the bearded Kenny Loggins lookalike Bedford, wants to move in on the action. They have listening devices everywhere, including at the table at the country club where King hangs out. One of the members of the rival gang, Michael (Carey Clark) wants to just escape with his girlfriend with some stolen money. So it's gangsters chasing after gangsters, and Michael running away, and cops chasing them all. Who will escape? In director O'Neons' only directorial effort, he brings us a very 80's subject. Cocaine and the people behind this drug trade. It's always fun to see Vince Edwards but the problem is this film has no heroes. You don't really root for him, Bedford or Michael to succeed. This is one of the main failings of the film. You don't really care what happens to anyone because they are all bad guys. Of course, King's assistant Gus (Louis Guss) is the most likable one, as the wisecracking old-school Italian schlub. Burt Young also could have played this role.
King hides his operation through a milk-delivery company called "King's Dairy". He delivers the coke in the milk and also collects on his gambling debts. Clever innovation. This leads to a mob war in the bayou with some good-ole-boys. King and Gus travel the back swamps in their boat named the "Fungus". A movie highlight involves Duval (Paul L. Smith) and an alligator. We won't give it away.
There are some more fights, chases and double crosses, most of which the audience is indifferent towards, even though some involve King's main lady Audrey (Wilkinson). It quickly devolves into a Dukes of Hazard episode. While the idea of a mob man dealing coke and doing mob things in Texas is pretty novel, Sno-Line lacks a certain energy and cohesiveness that would have helped considerably. We love the low-budget attitude, and all the 80's fashions alone make it watchable. Released on VHS in the U.S. on the great Lightning Video label, Sno-Line is the type of movie if you see somewhere you should pick up, but it's not necessary to go out of your way to try and find.
For more insanity, please visit: comeuppancereviews.com
Low-budget action film that delivers.
exoticafan30 April 2003
This Texas-made tale of corruption, greed and Mafia vengeance tries for a number of parallel stories that culminate in two scenes of action and violence. This is itself is admirable, as most modestly budgeted films of this type are lucky to accomplish a single storyline. The umbrella story is of Steve King, financed by The Mob, attempting to open a direct "sno-line" between Texas and New York (contrary to the Tagline on IMDB, he is not a "District Attorney"). The first arc is that of a number of King's employees attempting various heists on their boss' holdings. Second occurs when a rival of King wants him eliminated from his Texas Coast territory. The last involves the appearance of a mysterious con-woman and her manipulation of King into being his confidant and co-hort.
The production employs a number of reliable mid-card and B-movie performers, including stalwart Vince Edwards as King, man-mountain Paul Smith as a West-Indies drug smuggler, and the voluptuous June Wilkinson as King's new consort. The dialog is smart, with detail given to the procedures of both the smuggling operations and the employee thefts.
What I find most interesting is that there are no "good guys" in the traditional sense: all are basically corrupt...there are just some that are "more" corrupt than others. The audience is almost forced to support the least heinous of the various culprits, and the film makers want viewers to identify with the young couple who carry a suitcase full of money stolen from King (the fact that the boyfriend's actions lead to the killing of all his friends appears to be irrelevant). There are crosses and double-crosses, all handled with a deftness that belies scrutiny. There are ingenious twists; the final two scenes will leave a smile on the audience's face.
Recommended for fans of regional film making, June Wilkinson and Paul Smith.
The production employs a number of reliable mid-card and B-movie performers, including stalwart Vince Edwards as King, man-mountain Paul Smith as a West-Indies drug smuggler, and the voluptuous June Wilkinson as King's new consort. The dialog is smart, with detail given to the procedures of both the smuggling operations and the employee thefts.
What I find most interesting is that there are no "good guys" in the traditional sense: all are basically corrupt...there are just some that are "more" corrupt than others. The audience is almost forced to support the least heinous of the various culprits, and the film makers want viewers to identify with the young couple who carry a suitcase full of money stolen from King (the fact that the boyfriend's actions lead to the killing of all his friends appears to be irrelevant). There are crosses and double-crosses, all handled with a deftness that belies scrutiny. There are ingenious twists; the final two scenes will leave a smile on the audience's face.
Recommended for fans of regional film making, June Wilkinson and Paul Smith.
Texas Godfather
BandSAboutMovies9 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Also known as Cocaine Connection, Texas Snow-Line, Texas Godfather and The Milkman, this movie comes straight out of Beaumont, Texas. Sure, some talent has been imported, like Vince Edwards (Dr. Ben Casey!) who plays the kind of, sort of hero Steve King (nobody in this is the good guy), Paul Smith (Pieces, Bluto from Popeye) as a local crime boss, Phil Foster (Frank DeFazio from Laverne and Shirley) and June "The Bosom" Wilkinson (The Private Lives of Adam and Eve, Macumba Love) in her first movie in 25 years.
A snow line is a connection for cocaine between multiple cities, here Houston to El Paso, and King is a New York lawyer who has spent a year growing his business in the Lone Star state. All the coke gets moved through a dairy, so when you get milk, you get snow. But the whole story is super slow and there's nobody to root for. But yeah, director Douglas F. O'Neons did his one and done movie here, working from a script by Robert Hilliard, who also wrote Valentine Magic on Love Island, Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter and shows up as an actor in Keaton's Cop.
I mean, the poster is a million times better than the movie, but Paul Smith does go nuts and kill a gator, which is pretty much the high point of like ten movies, right?
A snow line is a connection for cocaine between multiple cities, here Houston to El Paso, and King is a New York lawyer who has spent a year growing his business in the Lone Star state. All the coke gets moved through a dairy, so when you get milk, you get snow. But the whole story is super slow and there's nobody to root for. But yeah, director Douglas F. O'Neons did his one and done movie here, working from a script by Robert Hilliard, who also wrote Valentine Magic on Love Island, Vasectomy: A Delicate Matter and shows up as an actor in Keaton's Cop.
I mean, the poster is a million times better than the movie, but Paul Smith does go nuts and kill a gator, which is pretty much the high point of like ten movies, right?
Modest actioner loaded with too many subplots
lor_12 March 2023
My review was written in June 1986 after watching the movie on Lightning video cassette.
"Sno-Line" (filmed in 1984 under the title "Texas Sno-Line") is a competently handled Texas-style action film which suffers from too many subplots. Feature was released in June 1985 on its home turf in Beaumont and Corpus Christi; it became a home video title early this year.
Vince Edwards stars as Steve King, an upwardly mobile gangster who uses a dairy business as his front. Using money borrowed from N. Y. gangster Ralph Salerno (the late Phil Foster), he's making a multi-million dollar cocaine buy from Duval (Paul Smith) with which to create a sno-line across Texas in terms of his coverage of drug users.
King is at war with good ole boy gangster Bedford (Billy J. Holman) and a group of young punks led by Michael (Casey Clark) and Eddie (Gary Lee Love). All hell breaks loose when the punks rob King's casino, run by beautiful Audrey (June Wilkinson) and accidentally steal King's drug buy money in the bargain. Bedord's men waylay Duval and hold him prisoner. King and his minions go on the warpath for a bloody finale loaded with silly plot twists and a most unconvincing happy ending for several survivors.
Picture is watchable, but its constant cutting back and forth between stories involving various members of an overly abundant cast diffuses one's interest. In addition to the variou gangsters and their machinations, there is a dull love story involving wayward young Michael and his girlfriend Tina (Charity Ann Zachary). A simplifying rewrite on Robert Hilliard's script would have helped.
Edwards is fun as a bad guy for a change while massive Paul Smith obviously relishes the opportunity to take on half a dozen opponents at a time. Veteran sex symbol June Wilkinson is looking good, but her role is underwritten and, alas, she keeps her clothes on throughout. Supporting cast is sprinkled with locals, some sporting thick accents. Much of the production team and cast recently encored to film the comedy "Vasectomy, a Delicate Matter".
"Sno-Line" (filmed in 1984 under the title "Texas Sno-Line") is a competently handled Texas-style action film which suffers from too many subplots. Feature was released in June 1985 on its home turf in Beaumont and Corpus Christi; it became a home video title early this year.
Vince Edwards stars as Steve King, an upwardly mobile gangster who uses a dairy business as his front. Using money borrowed from N. Y. gangster Ralph Salerno (the late Phil Foster), he's making a multi-million dollar cocaine buy from Duval (Paul Smith) with which to create a sno-line across Texas in terms of his coverage of drug users.
King is at war with good ole boy gangster Bedford (Billy J. Holman) and a group of young punks led by Michael (Casey Clark) and Eddie (Gary Lee Love). All hell breaks loose when the punks rob King's casino, run by beautiful Audrey (June Wilkinson) and accidentally steal King's drug buy money in the bargain. Bedord's men waylay Duval and hold him prisoner. King and his minions go on the warpath for a bloody finale loaded with silly plot twists and a most unconvincing happy ending for several survivors.
Picture is watchable, but its constant cutting back and forth between stories involving various members of an overly abundant cast diffuses one's interest. In addition to the variou gangsters and their machinations, there is a dull love story involving wayward young Michael and his girlfriend Tina (Charity Ann Zachary). A simplifying rewrite on Robert Hilliard's script would have helped.
Edwards is fun as a bad guy for a change while massive Paul Smith obviously relishes the opportunity to take on half a dozen opponents at a time. Veteran sex symbol June Wilkinson is looking good, but her role is underwritten and, alas, she keeps her clothes on throughout. Supporting cast is sprinkled with locals, some sporting thick accents. Much of the production team and cast recently encored to film the comedy "Vasectomy, a Delicate Matter".
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