Wednesday 31 July 2019
67
Topaze (1933 - B/W) - Schmaltzy pre-code John Barrymore comdrama.
A Fire Has Been Arranged (1935 - B/W) - Sim, Flanagan and Allen in forgettable blackface-heavy variety/fire brigade thing.
The Prisoner of Shark Island (1936 - B/W) - Preachy Civil War nonsense by John Ford, full of black stereotypes.
Mr. Deeds Goes To Town (1936 - B/W) - I don't quite get most of Capra. His "small man" stories annoy me in some way.
Owd Bob (1938 - BW) - Heart-boiling sheepdogger.
Torment (1944 - B/W) - Bergman drama. Art and somewhat beautiful but not my thing.
The Razor's Edge (1946 - B/W) - Tyrone Power in a typical piece of Maugham.
Letter from an Unknown Woman (1948 - B/W) - It looks decent in some shots, but the backlot stuff looks comparatively shabby.
The Adventures of P.C. 49: Investigating the Case of the Guardian Angel (1949 - B/W) - Simplistic Eagle/BBC radio adap.
The Saint's Return (1953 - B/W) - Terrible Hammer adaptation with Louis Hayeward.
Break in the Circle (1955 - B/W) - Depressing Hammer maritime drama.
How To Murder A Rich Uncle (1957 - B/W) - Unfunny sub-Ealing sub-Ladykillers (Katie Johnson even appears) comedy with Nigel Patrick and Charles Coburn.
Town on Trial (1958 - B/W) - Like a serious version of the above. Ok.rued extensively.
Never Take Sweets from a Stranger (1960 - B/W) - Preachy but creepy Hammer paedo-drama
And the Same To You (1960 - B/W) - Forgettable Brian Rix-Tommy Cooper-Hartnell-boxingcom.
The Queen's Guards (1961) - Tedious propaganda that probably damaged Michael Powell more than Peeping Tom.
The Pigeon That Took Rome (1962)- Messy dramedy. Double-Ok.rued.
Son of Captain Blood (1962) - Aside from Sean Flynn playing his dad's old role's offspring, this Italian swashbuckler is utterly unremarkable. Angharad Rees dubs the female lead.
Hemingway's Adventures of A Young Man (1962) - Overlong, schmaltzy roadshow with a strident, mugging, Norman Wisdomesque Paul Newman in a cameo.
The Intruder (1962 - B/W) - Corman/Shatner moralising melodramatics.
The Caretaker (1963 - B/W) - Blofeld and Red Grant do Pinter, moaning in a flat. I imagine this is SPECTRE am-dram.
Cairo (1963 - B/W) - Richard Johnson is an unconvincing Arab. Nuff said.
Quick Before It Melts (1964) -Irritating Robert Morse comedy about cute penguins and women in Antarctica, with a backlot New Zealand.
The Luck of Ginger Coffey (1964) - Canadian Norn Iron sitcommery with Robert Shaw
A House Is Not a Home (1964 - B/W) - Grim, purportedly glam Shelley Winters prositution saga. Shelley is unconvincingly youthened in segments.
Marco the Magnificent (1965) - Empty, garish Italian epic with a Ming the Merciless-ish Anthony Quinn as Kublai Khan.
Angel's Flight (1965 - B/W) - Unmemorable Crown International noir.
Morgan (1966 - B/W) - David Warner, I love you, but what a load of shite.
Out of Sight (1966) - Irritating beach party fauxn with Freddie and the Dreamers and Dobie Gray.
Boy, Did I Get a Wrong Number (1966)- Silly sitcomesque Bob Hope. See also 8 On the Lam (1967)
The Naked Prey (1966) - An interesting relic rather than a good film. A time capsule of Africa.
Champagne Murders (1966) - Chabrol claptrap. Ok.rued, barely.
After the Fox (1966) - Peter Sellers does baffling Italian comedy.
Gunn (1967) - TV spinoff private eye nonsense. Ok.ru.
The Wild Season (1967) - Interesting, well-shot Universal-distributed South African fishing drama. Star Antony Thomas later directed things as varied as Death of a Princess and Follyfoot.
Come Spy With Me (1967) - A sub-Beach Party-meets-Nancy Drew Bond knockoff so whitebread and unmemorable that it is a surprise that it has a theme by William "Smoky" (sic) Robinson and the Miracles (that's how they are credited), so funky that it makes the actual film pale in comparison.
Prudence and the Pill (1968) - Idiotic all-star sexcom. David Niven tries to keep up with the Permissive Society.
The April Fools (1969) - The same Jack Lemmon comedy.
Castle Keep (1969) - Bonkers yet derisively clinical war-thing.
Che (1969) - Oh Jaysus, this film is summed up by having young Castro played by 50-odd Jack Palance looking like elderly Castro in big specs.
Puzzle of a Downfall Child (1970) - Horribly arty Faye Dunaway melodrama.
Country Dance (1970) - Terrible sleazy Peter O'Toole-Susannah York incest vehicle, Enniskerry plays a Scottish village where beardless Brian Blessed lives.
The Lady in the Car with Glasses and a Gun (1970) - Forgettably light Euronoir.
Adam's Woman (1970) - Faux-Scouse Australian immigrant saga with Beau Bridges, the kind of interminable thing repeated for TV dramas.
White Sun of the Desert (1970) - Fake-Mongols ahoy in this ponderous though visually nice Soviet western.
Chandler (1971) - Warren Oates PI nonsense that has an ending that negates its seeming intention to spawn a franchise. Gordon Pinsent pops up in his brief Hollywood era.
The Panic in Needle Park (1971) - Young Pacino moans about drugs.
Welcome Home, Soldier Boys (1971) - Despite Joe Don Baker, exploration of the masculinty of the American male and the military life bores me.
Avanti! (1972) - Blandly glossy and hideously miscast.
The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds (1972) - Dreary housewive stuff from Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward.
The Last American Hero (1973) - Dreary NASCAR stuff with Jeff Bridges.
See also Rancho Deluxe (1975) - Bridges in a bar wearing a cowboy hat.
Hearts of the West (1975) - More Bridges, more Alan Arkin over-acting and Donald Pleasence doing American, plus more self-obsessed mid-70s irritating Hollywood nostalgia on an aged backlot a la Day of the Locust. Ok.rued this.
White Fang (1973) - Barren production valued Harry Alan Towers Faux-Canadian Jack London nonsense that nevertheless spawned a subgenre.
The Apprenticeship of Duddy Kravitz (1974) - Irritating Dreyfuss-heavy Canadiana.
Night Caller (-1975) - Typical grim serial killer fare enlivened by Belmondo stuntwork. Double-ok.rued. Rewatch.
Lies My Father Told Me (1975) - Forgotten, cute but reasonably small Canadian Jewish memoir, Golden Globe winner for Best Foreign Film.
Next Stop, Greenwich Village (1976) - Alienating NY nostalgia.
The Sellout (1976) - Dull Ollie Reed actioner.
MacArthur (1977) - Very TV movie ish and budget shown by overreliance on mattes. Plus it has British bobbies in Australia.
Those Wonderful Movie Cranks (1978) - Czech Roy Clarke.
Meatballs (1979) - Idiotic teen comedy that vitalised Canada's film industry.
In God We Tru$t (1980) - This was banned in Ireland, ironic as Marty Feldman's last film had been made here. But Frank Hall made the right decision. It's awful. Ok.rued.
It Rained All Night the Day I Left (1980) - Lou Gossett and Tony Curtis are Spencer and Hill.
YOUR TICKET IS NO LONGER VALID (1981) - What have I just watched? I knew the title and that it was a Canadian film starring Richard Harris and George Peppard. I expected a downbeat drama about an ageing businessman, something like Tribute or Max Dugan Returns. But, no, turns out Barbara "Dick" Law wasn't the only Irish showbiz star to do Maple Syrup Porn. It is an utter insane trainwreck where Harris, a 60-year-old (though fifty IRL) globe-trotting gigolo gets impotence, and finds his "bit of crumpet" has gone off with Hispanic gypsy Winston Rekert who seems styled to look like Gerrit Graham in Phantom of the Paradise, except that is a delusion he has brought on by his impotence. It ends with the most astonishing sequence in cinema history I have seen. Harris gets his bollocks impaled by Jeanne Moreau, and has a hallucinatory flashback involving exploding chandeliers, S & M fantasies and horse riding. Harris pulls a face and dies. What the fuck?
Last Tango in Paris written by Harold Robinson (sic).
My Dinner with Andre (1981) - Andre Gregory is highly listenable, in small doses, even though the film is easy to drift from. But probably the best Troma film (yes, that's right - Lloyd Kaufman produced, Troma did post)
The Border (1982) - Over-arty border cop nonsense.
Tuesday 30 July 2019
123 - horror.fantasy.noir
THE STUDIO MURDER MYSTERY (1929) - Neil Hamilton, Frederic March in Paramount propaganda for itself.
The House Of The Seven Gables (1940 - B/W) - Typical period drama of the era. Vincent Price as a young lead is odd.
Five Graves to Cairo (1943 - B/W) - Typical post-Casablanca exotica mixed in with war propaganda.
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944) - Baffling, with red-haired white kids as "Caliph's sons". And drawing moustaches on regular American character actors = Mongols.
Phantom Lady (1944 - B/W) - Well-made noir, uses Franchot Tone's cadaverous features, but noir alienates me.
Experiment Perilous (1944 - B/W) - Ropey romantic noirish period drama.
Gaslight (1944 - B/W) - It feels unconvincingly Victorian in a very American way.
A Place of One's Own (1945 - B/W) - Hmm, sub-Gainsborough haunting with James Mason.
The Blue Dahlia (1946 - B/W) - Again, not a noir man.
Kiss of Death (1947 - B/W) - Lots of fedoras.
Somewhere in the Night (1946 - B/W) - Richard Conte practises for his 70s Eurocrime days in this typical alienating, grim noir.
Gilda (1946 - B/W) - Again...
So Dark the Night (1946 - B/W) - A simplistic noir-morality tale in a WW2 fairytale village.
Dead Reckoning (1947 - B/W) - Typical Bogie noir. I find it grim.
To The Ends of the Earth (1948 - B/W) - Faux-Chinese noiredium.
Corridor of Mirrors (1948 - B/W) - Sub-Powell and Pressburger reincarnation schmaltz. Christopher Lee's debut.
Caught (1949 - B/W) - Slushy Ophuls noir with James Mason and Barbara Bel Geddes, who looks like a smoother version of herself in Dallas.
Penny Points to Paradise (1951 - B/W) - Early Goons thing. Telling how Sellers kind of fakes into the background, compared to even Alfred Marks and Bill Kerr.
DER VERLORENE (1951 - B/W) - German noir. In Germany, Peter Lorre seems to be a more normal actor, if that makes sense.
Slappiest Days of Our Lives (1953 - B/W) - Sellers-narrated hodgepodge of silence. At times, may be some of his better work.
Totò all'inferno (1955) - Toto is one of those people known more for being on the walls of Italian restaurants outside Italy. This is colourful but not much else. Earth-scenes tinted blue.
Whtaever Happened to Baby Toto (1964 - B/W) - Silly parody, the ending involving sandcastles recalls Equus more than anything.
Time Without Pity (1957 - B/W) - Dreary Redgrave noir, Michael Redgrave as an unconvincing dull Canadian.
Nachts wenn der Teufel kam (1957 - B/W) - Depressing Teutonic true-crime with Mario Adorf.
Murder by Contract (1958 - B/W) - TVish noir with Vince Edwards.
The Playgirls and the Vampire (1960 - B/W) - Silly but atmospheric.
Ditto Slaughter of the Vampires (1962 - B/W)
The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete (1960) - Rosanno Schiaffino being held hostage by an impressively Muppetty bull-man is the one highlight of this typical slice of peplum tedium.
Psycosissimo (1961 - B/W) - Baffling, bumbling Ugo Tognazzi com.
Spotlight on a Murderer (1961) - Irritatingly smug Franju take on Ten Little Indians about a coffin-bound count who is killing folk. Ok.rued.
The Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961 - B/W) - Strained, forgettable Lang imitation.
The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse (1964 - B/W) - More of the same, Robert Beatty and Leo Genn shoehorned for UK audiences.
La maldición de Nostradamus (1961) - AIP-TV Mexican vampire nonsense. All Mexican vampire movies feel the same.
The Brainiac (1961 - B/W) - Ditto.
The Invasion of the Vampires (1962 - B/W) - AIP-TV imported Mexican faux-Hammer crap about Count Frankenhausen.
Landru (1963) - Baffling attempt at murder-comedy by Chabrol. Looks like a Carry On.
The Whip and the Body (1963) - The plot doesn't grab, but the visuals do.
RoGoPaG (1963) - Topo Gigio, Orson Welles, Pasolini, Godard, Rosselini and the lesser known Ugo Gregoretti. It doesn't quite work. A mess of Italian artiness.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963 - B/W) - Bava tries to do a Rutherford Marple, and fails because he hasn't got the talent.
Katarsis (1963 - B/W) - Just teens mildly spooked by Christopher Lee in a ruff.
Blood Feast (1963) - It looks better than it should.
La cabeza viviente (1963 - B/W) - Astonishingly blatant ripoff of the Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake from Mexico.
Nothing but the Best (1963) - Confused, typically "whacky" post-Frost satire.
The Blancheville Monster a.k.a. Horror (1963 - B/W) - Amateurish Spanish gothshlock.
A Taste For Women (1964 - B/W) - Baffling sub-Czech New Wave French comedy written by Polanski.
La cité de l'indicible peur (1964 - B/W) - Irritating Jean-Pierre Mocky old dark house comedy with Bourvil and a tattooed banknote, weirdly remade as the brilliant Litan.
Terror in the Crypt (1964 - B/W) - Dodgy Italian Carmilla with Christopher Lee in a wig.
Thrilling (1965) - Baffling pop-art comedy anthology with Sordi, Manfredi, etc.
Juliet of the Spirits (1965) - Overlong, self-indulgent surrealism from Fellini.
Like the sentimental La Strada (1954 - B/W), it's all about Fellini's love for Giulietta Masina.
James Tont operazione UNO (1965)/Operazione D.U.E. (1966) - Blatant, silly Dino De Laurentiis spoofs with Lando Buzzanca, a villain called Eric Goldsinger and an off-screen contact with Bond himself. Buzzanca does a British Invasion-parodying musical number in the second.
The Third Eye (1966 -B/W) - Atmospheric but dull proto-giallo melodrama with "Frank Nero".
Alice of Wonderland in Paris (1966)- Serviceable Gene Deitch hour.
Upperseven (1966) - Thick-earedAlberto De Martino South Africa/London-set spy nonsense.
The Spy who Liked Flowers (1966) - Charles Gray-alike Roger Browne stars in a silly Umberto Lenzi spy romp with a comedy soundtrack.
"Requiem For A Secret Agent" (1966) - Stewart Granger dubs himself in a sadistic little cheapie that predates Diamonds are Forever in a key sequence.
Du Rififi A Paname (1966) -Middling Euroheist.
An Angel for Satan (1966 - B/W) - Lesser Barbara Steele.
The Witch (1966 - B/W) - Socopolitical arthouse "satire" with Richard Johnson.
Ring Around the World (1966) - Eurospy mush.
The Long Night of Veronique (1966) - Forgettable colour sub-Krimi Italian nonsense.
Spies Strike Silently (1966) - Forgettable Rank-distributed fluff with Lang Jeffries.
The Hunchback of Soho (1966) -Silly Edgar Wallace krimi, full of Avengers-ish eccentric loons and a stupid hunchback targeting a Magdalene laundry/boarding school. Ok.rued.
Creature with the Blue Hand (1967) - American-accented toffs in period outfits in 1960s London, a typical krimi. Youtubed.
Danger Deathray! (1967) - Stupidispy.
Troppo per Vivere. Poco per Morire (1967) - Has fake BBC crews and Claudio Brook as Gordon Smash! Seems to think Home Counties suburbs are exotic.
Italian Secret Service (1968) - Goofball Nino Manfredi crud with Clive Revill.
If (1968) - A great cast, but schizophrenic.
The Fuller Report (1968) - Ken Barlow-alike Ken Clark in more forgettable espionage.
Castle of the Creeping Flesh (1968) - German erotic-horror haunting nonsense with Howard Vernon. Shades of Jess Franco.
A Black Veil for Lisa (1968) - Odd nonsensical semi-giallo melodrama-romance. John Mills definitely dubs himself, and at least hey, John Mills is in this. And I think Robert Hoffmann does too.
The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968) - More middle-class gialli travelogue nonsense.
Deadfall (1968) - Pervy Bryan Forbes heist. With Michael Caine and a Barry-Bassey score.
A Lovely Way to Die (1968) - Weirdly krimi-esque sub-Matt Helm goofball mystery with Kirk Douglas and Kenneth Haigh, meaning this has a connection to the oddly similar Night Train to Murder. I need to stave off terrible 60s mainstream thrillers on ok.ru.
Hand of Power (1968) - Another krimi, this time with Joachim Fuchsberger, the other German telly icon who recurred in Wallace movies, but thankfully much less problematic than aul Derrick. Full of knobbly bits, sinister lady taxidermists in white, chimpanzees hugging, a skeleton-clad killer, but it is clearly trying to be the Avengers, down to an Emma Peel-type. Although unlike the Avengers, like many of the Wallaces, this actually has black actors/characters, as if knowing diversity is as much a part of Britain as red buses,Big Ben and classical music-loving blustery comic relief Scotland Yard superiors with knighthoods and monocles. Ok.rued these krimis.
Gorilla of Soho (1968) = Lots of breasts. But just as silly. More girls' schools and strip-clubs. And yet more scenes around some docks. And funny masks.
The Hound of Blackwood Castle (1968) - Sub-Baskervilles nonsense.
The Man with the Glass Eye (1969) - A big shock climax involving the death of the female lead instead of the villainess aside, basically proto-Derrick with a few Brit dressings for Horst Tappert. Set in a working men's club with a cowboy knife thrower. There's also a scary ventriloquist's dummy resembling an acromegalic diddyman. The trouble about the German Wallaces is while the British ones are staid, the German ones are overtly goofy. It's like Scooby Doo with actual death. They feel like they mock themselves.
Double Face (1969) - Sleazy Klaus Kinski-starring Cinecitta-shot giallo/krimi hybrid. Nora Orlandi reused her soundtrack in the Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh.
Horrors of Malformed Men (1969) - Samey Japanese period horror.
Oh, Grandmother's Dead (1969) - Dull comedy giallo with the late Valentina Cortese (who I didn't realise was even still about).
Lokis. Rekopis profesora Wittembacha (1970) - Sitges-winning Polish steampunk artehouse horror bafflement.
Aoom (1970) - Bleary-eyed experimental nonsense with Lex Barker.
Hercules in New York (1970) - Sub Mel Brooks Ahnhult debut.
Scream of the Demon Lover (1970) - Grubby period gothic, dirty and unattractive.
Angels of Terror (1971)- Nice London footage, but a complete krimi mess.
The Fourth Victim (1971) - Dodgy Faux-Brit giallo by Eugenio Martin, with Michael Craig.
Something Creeping in the Dark (1971) - Idiotic,boring, badly lit Butcher's-distributed dark house giallo.
See also The Killer Has Reserved 9 Seats (1974) and Death on the Fourposter (1964)
Jack the Ripper (1971) - Dreary Paul Naschy modernisation with a ZCars-ish soundtrack.
The Devil with Seven Faces (1971) - Silly Harold Robinson-esque giallo with Stephen Boyd. I think that's my problem with gialli. They're Transatlantic Tripe with a few murders, endless traveloguery and the heroes are inevitably middle-class housewives who have been or have cheated. Brian Clemens and Harold Robbins smashed together.
Crimes Of The Black Cat (1972) - Nonsensical Poe-influenced giallo.
Death Walks At Midnight (1972) - Idiotic middle-class modelling giallo, with a camp bloke in a silver wig.
The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1972) - Nice London locations segue into something like a bloody Michael J. Bird serial.
The Scarlet Letter (1972) - Actually quite epic, beautiful, almost Karl May-ish take on Hawthorne by Wim Wenders.
Eye in the Labyrinth (1972) - Idiotic sub-Bay of Blood giallo with Adolfo Celi.
The Killer is On The Phone (1972) - Grim lesbian-themed giallo with Anne Heywood and Telly Savalas. Nice Belgian locations.
Greaser's Palace (1972) - Insufferable Robert Downey biblical-acid western.
The Loreley's Grasp (1973) - Surprisingly fun Spanish-German Gorgon-alike.
The Bloodstained Lawn (1973) - "Marina Mullligan"/Malfatti stars in this hippy eejit-countercultural industrial vampire schlock.
La Muerte Incierta (1973) - Forgettable Jose Larraz jungle nonsense prefiguring 1974's Ghost Story
What Have They Done To Your Daughters (1974)- Well-made but grim/sleazy paedothriller.
Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye (1973) - Nonsensical fauxScottish Gainsbourgiallo.
Puzzle (1974) - Dull semi-giallo from Duccio Tessari.
The Killer Wore Gloves (1974) - Spanish London giallo nonsense.
Night of the Seagulls (1975) - Awful Spanish cobblers about the Blind Dead.
Caglostro (1975) - Sub-Ken Russell biopic with Curd Jurgens.
Deadly Strangers (1975) - HTVsleaze.
Evil Eye (1975) - Asinine sexy Mexican giallo.
Tiempos duros para Drácula (1975) - Terrible comedy with Jose Lifante as a sentimental, cello-playing Hispanic Paddy Drac.
Yeti -Giant of the 20th Century (1977) - Not bad Italo-Canadian Kong knockoff shot at Cinecitta. Unlike most real Canadian films, it actually tries to be as overtly Canuck as possible, lots of RCMP, views of the CN tower, Maple leaves and even a weird Lassie/Littlest Hobo-type subplot. Was this also made to cash in on the faux-Canadian Jack London adaps swarming Rome's studios at this time?
Brass Target (1978)- Peculiar all-star WW2 conspiracy giallo. Rewatch.
Blackbirds Mystery (1983) - Peculiar Soviet Marple. Has guerrilla footage of a train station with ads for Local Hero and Hot Fantasies, and a blacked-up Mr. Mash-alike gardener. And a setting that has period costumes and Rubik's cubes.
Ten Little Indians (1987) - An unusual film. More Soviet Agatha Christie. In fact, Vladimir Zeldin is in both. It looks good, but in being so close to the book, it becomes cold, bleak and depressing.
Hard to be a God (1989) - Better than the recent version. Indebted to Highlander and Dune. Ok.ru
Split Second (1992) - Jason Watkins pops up, age 26, looking as old as he does now. Dreary, badly-shot sci-fi noir set in a flooded London with Rutger Hauer.
Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (1993) - Beautiful but disturbing British stop-motion opus, Eraserhead meets Terry Pratchett's Truckers.
The Pearl (2001) - Never have I seen a film so accurately capture the mood and feel of a 70s exploitation Europudding. Ageing Mexican exploitation director Alfredo Zacarias, the man behind The Bees directs this extremely De Laurentiis/ITC/Towers-ish Steinbeck adap. An ageing, Dumbledore-rasp-voiced Richard Harris pops up.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1960) - Nicely shot, but cheapskate. Ok.rued.
The House Of The Seven Gables (1940 - B/W) - Typical period drama of the era. Vincent Price as a young lead is odd.
Five Graves to Cairo (1943 - B/W) - Typical post-Casablanca exotica mixed in with war propaganda.
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves (1944) - Baffling, with red-haired white kids as "Caliph's sons". And drawing moustaches on regular American character actors = Mongols.
Phantom Lady (1944 - B/W) - Well-made noir, uses Franchot Tone's cadaverous features, but noir alienates me.
Experiment Perilous (1944 - B/W) - Ropey romantic noirish period drama.
Gaslight (1944 - B/W) - It feels unconvincingly Victorian in a very American way.
A Place of One's Own (1945 - B/W) - Hmm, sub-Gainsborough haunting with James Mason.
The Blue Dahlia (1946 - B/W) - Again, not a noir man.
Kiss of Death (1947 - B/W) - Lots of fedoras.
Somewhere in the Night (1946 - B/W) - Richard Conte practises for his 70s Eurocrime days in this typical alienating, grim noir.
Gilda (1946 - B/W) - Again...
So Dark the Night (1946 - B/W) - A simplistic noir-morality tale in a WW2 fairytale village.
Dead Reckoning (1947 - B/W) - Typical Bogie noir. I find it grim.
To The Ends of the Earth (1948 - B/W) - Faux-Chinese noiredium.
Corridor of Mirrors (1948 - B/W) - Sub-Powell and Pressburger reincarnation schmaltz. Christopher Lee's debut.
Caught (1949 - B/W) - Slushy Ophuls noir with James Mason and Barbara Bel Geddes, who looks like a smoother version of herself in Dallas.
Penny Points to Paradise (1951 - B/W) - Early Goons thing. Telling how Sellers kind of fakes into the background, compared to even Alfred Marks and Bill Kerr.
DER VERLORENE (1951 - B/W) - German noir. In Germany, Peter Lorre seems to be a more normal actor, if that makes sense.
Slappiest Days of Our Lives (1953 - B/W) - Sellers-narrated hodgepodge of silence. At times, may be some of his better work.
Totò all'inferno (1955) - Toto is one of those people known more for being on the walls of Italian restaurants outside Italy. This is colourful but not much else. Earth-scenes tinted blue.
Whtaever Happened to Baby Toto (1964 - B/W) - Silly parody, the ending involving sandcastles recalls Equus more than anything.
Time Without Pity (1957 - B/W) - Dreary Redgrave noir, Michael Redgrave as an unconvincing dull Canadian.
Nachts wenn der Teufel kam (1957 - B/W) - Depressing Teutonic true-crime with Mario Adorf.
Murder by Contract (1958 - B/W) - TVish noir with Vince Edwards.
The Playgirls and the Vampire (1960 - B/W) - Silly but atmospheric.
Ditto Slaughter of the Vampires (1962 - B/W)
The Minotaur, the Wild Beast of Crete (1960) - Rosanno Schiaffino being held hostage by an impressively Muppetty bull-man is the one highlight of this typical slice of peplum tedium.
Psycosissimo (1961 - B/W) - Baffling, bumbling Ugo Tognazzi com.
Spotlight on a Murderer (1961) - Irritatingly smug Franju take on Ten Little Indians about a coffin-bound count who is killing folk. Ok.rued.
The Return of Dr. Mabuse (1961 - B/W) - Strained, forgettable Lang imitation.
The Death Ray of Dr. Mabuse (1964 - B/W) - More of the same, Robert Beatty and Leo Genn shoehorned for UK audiences.
La maldición de Nostradamus (1961) - AIP-TV Mexican vampire nonsense. All Mexican vampire movies feel the same.
The Brainiac (1961 - B/W) - Ditto.
The Invasion of the Vampires (1962 - B/W) - AIP-TV imported Mexican faux-Hammer crap about Count Frankenhausen.
Landru (1963) - Baffling attempt at murder-comedy by Chabrol. Looks like a Carry On.
The Whip and the Body (1963) - The plot doesn't grab, but the visuals do.
RoGoPaG (1963) - Topo Gigio, Orson Welles, Pasolini, Godard, Rosselini and the lesser known Ugo Gregoretti. It doesn't quite work. A mess of Italian artiness.
The Girl Who Knew Too Much (1963 - B/W) - Bava tries to do a Rutherford Marple, and fails because he hasn't got the talent.
Katarsis (1963 - B/W) - Just teens mildly spooked by Christopher Lee in a ruff.
Blood Feast (1963) - It looks better than it should.
La cabeza viviente (1963 - B/W) - Astonishingly blatant ripoff of the Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake from Mexico.
Nothing but the Best (1963) - Confused, typically "whacky" post-Frost satire.
The Blancheville Monster a.k.a. Horror (1963 - B/W) - Amateurish Spanish gothshlock.
A Taste For Women (1964 - B/W) - Baffling sub-Czech New Wave French comedy written by Polanski.
La cité de l'indicible peur (1964 - B/W) - Irritating Jean-Pierre Mocky old dark house comedy with Bourvil and a tattooed banknote, weirdly remade as the brilliant Litan.
Terror in the Crypt (1964 - B/W) - Dodgy Italian Carmilla with Christopher Lee in a wig.
Terror-Creatures from the Grave (1965) - Rote Barbara Steele gothic.
Vendetta of Lady Morgan (1965 - B/W) - Another faux-Scottish boilerplate Italian gothic, though the usually villainous bruiser Gordon Mitchell is almost convincing as a romantic lead.
Vendetta of Lady Morgan (1965 - B/W) - Another faux-Scottish boilerplate Italian gothic, though the usually villainous bruiser Gordon Mitchell is almost convincing as a romantic lead.
Juliet of the Spirits (1965) - Overlong, self-indulgent surrealism from Fellini.
Like the sentimental La Strada (1954 - B/W), it's all about Fellini's love for Giulietta Masina.
James Tont operazione UNO (1965)/Operazione D.U.E. (1966) - Blatant, silly Dino De Laurentiis spoofs with Lando Buzzanca, a villain called Eric Goldsinger and an off-screen contact with Bond himself. Buzzanca does a British Invasion-parodying musical number in the second.
The Third Eye (1966 -B/W) - Atmospheric but dull proto-giallo melodrama with "Frank Nero".
Alice of Wonderland in Paris (1966)- Serviceable Gene Deitch hour.
Upperseven (1966) - Thick-earedAlberto De Martino South Africa/London-set spy nonsense.
The Spy who Liked Flowers (1966) - Charles Gray-alike Roger Browne stars in a silly Umberto Lenzi spy romp with a comedy soundtrack.
"Requiem For A Secret Agent" (1966) - Stewart Granger dubs himself in a sadistic little cheapie that predates Diamonds are Forever in a key sequence.
Du Rififi A Paname (1966) -Middling Euroheist.
An Angel for Satan (1966 - B/W) - Lesser Barbara Steele.
The Witch (1966 - B/W) - Socopolitical arthouse "satire" with Richard Johnson.
Ring Around the World (1966) - Eurospy mush.
The Long Night of Veronique (1966) - Forgettable colour sub-Krimi Italian nonsense.
Spies Strike Silently (1966) - Forgettable Rank-distributed fluff with Lang Jeffries.
The Hunchback of Soho (1966) -Silly Edgar Wallace krimi, full of Avengers-ish eccentric loons and a stupid hunchback targeting a Magdalene laundry/boarding school. Ok.rued.
Creature with the Blue Hand (1967) - American-accented toffs in period outfits in 1960s London, a typical krimi. Youtubed.
Danger Deathray! (1967) - Stupidispy.
Troppo per Vivere. Poco per Morire (1967) - Has fake BBC crews and Claudio Brook as Gordon Smash! Seems to think Home Counties suburbs are exotic.
Italian Secret Service (1968) - Goofball Nino Manfredi crud with Clive Revill.
If (1968) - A great cast, but schizophrenic.
The Fuller Report (1968) - Ken Barlow-alike Ken Clark in more forgettable espionage.
Castle of the Creeping Flesh (1968) - German erotic-horror haunting nonsense with Howard Vernon. Shades of Jess Franco.
A Black Veil for Lisa (1968) - Odd nonsensical semi-giallo melodrama-romance. John Mills definitely dubs himself, and at least hey, John Mills is in this. And I think Robert Hoffmann does too.
The Sweet Body of Deborah (1968) - More middle-class gialli travelogue nonsense.
Deadfall (1968) - Pervy Bryan Forbes heist. With Michael Caine and a Barry-Bassey score.
A Lovely Way to Die (1968) - Weirdly krimi-esque sub-Matt Helm goofball mystery with Kirk Douglas and Kenneth Haigh, meaning this has a connection to the oddly similar Night Train to Murder. I need to stave off terrible 60s mainstream thrillers on ok.ru.
Hand of Power (1968) - Another krimi, this time with Joachim Fuchsberger, the other German telly icon who recurred in Wallace movies, but thankfully much less problematic than aul Derrick. Full of knobbly bits, sinister lady taxidermists in white, chimpanzees hugging, a skeleton-clad killer, but it is clearly trying to be the Avengers, down to an Emma Peel-type. Although unlike the Avengers, like many of the Wallaces, this actually has black actors/characters, as if knowing diversity is as much a part of Britain as red buses,Big Ben and classical music-loving blustery comic relief Scotland Yard superiors with knighthoods and monocles. Ok.rued these krimis.
Gorilla of Soho (1968) = Lots of breasts. But just as silly. More girls' schools and strip-clubs. And yet more scenes around some docks. And funny masks.
The Hound of Blackwood Castle (1968) - Sub-Baskervilles nonsense.
The Man with the Glass Eye (1969) - A big shock climax involving the death of the female lead instead of the villainess aside, basically proto-Derrick with a few Brit dressings for Horst Tappert. Set in a working men's club with a cowboy knife thrower. There's also a scary ventriloquist's dummy resembling an acromegalic diddyman. The trouble about the German Wallaces is while the British ones are staid, the German ones are overtly goofy. It's like Scooby Doo with actual death. They feel like they mock themselves.
Double Face (1969) - Sleazy Klaus Kinski-starring Cinecitta-shot giallo/krimi hybrid. Nora Orlandi reused her soundtrack in the Strange Vice of Mrs. Wardh.
Horrors of Malformed Men (1969) - Samey Japanese period horror.
Oh, Grandmother's Dead (1969) - Dull comedy giallo with the late Valentina Cortese (who I didn't realise was even still about).
Lokis. Rekopis profesora Wittembacha (1970) - Sitges-winning Polish steampunk artehouse horror bafflement.
Aoom (1970) - Bleary-eyed experimental nonsense with Lex Barker.
Hercules in New York (1970) - Sub Mel Brooks Ahnhult debut.
Scream of the Demon Lover (1970) - Grubby period gothic, dirty and unattractive.
Angels of Terror (1971)- Nice London footage, but a complete krimi mess.
The Fourth Victim (1971) - Dodgy Faux-Brit giallo by Eugenio Martin, with Michael Craig.
Something Creeping in the Dark (1971) - Idiotic,boring, badly lit Butcher's-distributed dark house giallo.
See also The Killer Has Reserved 9 Seats (1974) and Death on the Fourposter (1964)
Jack the Ripper (1971) - Dreary Paul Naschy modernisation with a ZCars-ish soundtrack.
The Devil with Seven Faces (1971) - Silly Harold Robinson-esque giallo with Stephen Boyd. I think that's my problem with gialli. They're Transatlantic Tripe with a few murders, endless traveloguery and the heroes are inevitably middle-class housewives who have been or have cheated. Brian Clemens and Harold Robbins smashed together.
Crimes Of The Black Cat (1972) - Nonsensical Poe-influenced giallo.
Death Walks At Midnight (1972) - Idiotic middle-class modelling giallo, with a camp bloke in a silver wig.
The Case of the Scorpion's Tail (1972) - Nice London locations segue into something like a bloody Michael J. Bird serial.
The Scarlet Letter (1972) - Actually quite epic, beautiful, almost Karl May-ish take on Hawthorne by Wim Wenders.
Eye in the Labyrinth (1972) - Idiotic sub-Bay of Blood giallo with Adolfo Celi.
The Killer is On The Phone (1972) - Grim lesbian-themed giallo with Anne Heywood and Telly Savalas. Nice Belgian locations.
Greaser's Palace (1972) - Insufferable Robert Downey biblical-acid western.
The Loreley's Grasp (1973) - Surprisingly fun Spanish-German Gorgon-alike.
The Bloodstained Lawn (1973) - "Marina Mullligan"/Malfatti stars in this hippy eejit-countercultural industrial vampire schlock.
La Muerte Incierta (1973) - Forgettable Jose Larraz jungle nonsense prefiguring 1974's Ghost Story
What Have They Done To Your Daughters (1974)- Well-made but grim/sleazy paedothriller.
Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye (1973) - Nonsensical fauxScottish Gainsbourgiallo.
Puzzle (1974) - Dull semi-giallo from Duccio Tessari.
The Killer Wore Gloves (1974) - Spanish London giallo nonsense.
Night of the Seagulls (1975) - Awful Spanish cobblers about the Blind Dead.
Caglostro (1975) - Sub-Ken Russell biopic with Curd Jurgens.
Deadly Strangers (1975) - HTVsleaze.
Evil Eye (1975) - Asinine sexy Mexican giallo.
Tiempos duros para Drácula (1975) - Terrible comedy with Jose Lifante as a sentimental, cello-playing Hispanic Paddy Drac.
Yeti -Giant of the 20th Century (1977) - Not bad Italo-Canadian Kong knockoff shot at Cinecitta. Unlike most real Canadian films, it actually tries to be as overtly Canuck as possible, lots of RCMP, views of the CN tower, Maple leaves and even a weird Lassie/Littlest Hobo-type subplot. Was this also made to cash in on the faux-Canadian Jack London adaps swarming Rome's studios at this time?
Brass Target (1978)- Peculiar all-star WW2 conspiracy giallo. Rewatch.
Blackbirds Mystery (1983) - Peculiar Soviet Marple. Has guerrilla footage of a train station with ads for Local Hero and Hot Fantasies, and a blacked-up Mr. Mash-alike gardener. And a setting that has period costumes and Rubik's cubes.
Ten Little Indians (1987) - An unusual film. More Soviet Agatha Christie. In fact, Vladimir Zeldin is in both. It looks good, but in being so close to the book, it becomes cold, bleak and depressing.
Hard to be a God (1989) - Better than the recent version. Indebted to Highlander and Dune. Ok.ru
Split Second (1992) - Jason Watkins pops up, age 26, looking as old as he does now. Dreary, badly-shot sci-fi noir set in a flooded London with Rutger Hauer.
Secret Adventures of Tom Thumb (1993) - Beautiful but disturbing British stop-motion opus, Eraserhead meets Terry Pratchett's Truckers.
The Pearl (2001) - Never have I seen a film so accurately capture the mood and feel of a 70s exploitation Europudding. Ageing Mexican exploitation director Alfredo Zacarias, the man behind The Bees directs this extremely De Laurentiis/ITC/Towers-ish Steinbeck adap. An ageing, Dumbledore-rasp-voiced Richard Harris pops up.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1960) - Nicely shot, but cheapskate. Ok.rued.
Tuesday 9 July 2019
101
Hell's Angels - A Howard Hughes Production (1930) -A silent at heart.
Tarzan the Ape Man (1932) - I don't get movie Tarzan.
Sullivan's Travels (1941 - B/W)- Sturges forgets to focus on some of his own jokes, i.e. a hanging corpse cameo.
Public Enemy (1931), Little Caesar (1931), Petrified Forest (1936), Angels with Dirty Faces (1937), Guncrazy (1949), White Heat (1949), The Asphalt Jungle (1950) - all noir. Admired bits, but not my thing.
Elephant Boy (1937 - B/W)- Pioneering but cruel-to-animals travelogue.
The Inspector General (1949) - Danny Kaye period bafflement though the ghost number is memorable.
THE ADVENTURES OF JANE (1949 - B/W)- Mild cheesecake with the original comic's model, Christabel Leighton-Porter, now middle-aged.
The Tattooed Stranger (1950 - B/W) - Middling NY noir.
The Inspector (1962) - Turgid post-Exodus melodramawith Stephen Boyd,Sr.Dolores Hart and Arab Harry Andrews.
The Ugly American (1963)- Idiotic Brando preachiness in not-Nam.
Naked Kiss (1964- B/W)- Fuller does softporn.
The System (1964 - B/W) - Finally finished this. Basically the Damned without the nuke-children, but Reed is brilliant as always. Basically given a followup by Winner as the messy I'll Never Forget Whats'isname (1967)
Ensign Pulver (1964) - Who thought Robert Walker Jr.'d be a star?
Flight of the Phoenix (1965)- Submerged in its own length.
The Boy Cried Murder (1966)- Cheap, sub-ITC/CFF Clemensia. Baffling end.
The Last of the Secret Agents? (1966) - Dire sub-Elvis spy spoof starring sub-crooner Steve Rossi and Marty Morrissey-alike Marty Allen Ok.ru.
Who's That Knocking at My Door (1967) - Scorsese B/W sub-porn art-twaddle.
The Caper of the Golden Bulls (1967)- Idiotic Stephen Boyd caper.
Tony Rome (1967) - Telly-like Sinatra nepotism heavy actioner.
Rocket to the Moon (1967)- Lush by Towers standards but basic comedy. Rocket doesn't even leave Earth.
Kill a Dragon (1967) - Hong Kong based DocSavagery with Jack Palance. One of the worst post-Bond actioners. Ok.ru
Madigan's Millions (1967)- Sub-Shadows-Soundtracked Eurospy "comedy". You'd never know Dustin Hoffman'd be a star.
Hot Rods to Hell (1967) - Desperate attempt to combine heart-searing family melodrama and juvenile delinquency.
Head (1968)- Surreal bollocks, nice music.
Only When I Larf (1968) - Obnoxious nutty hijack. Ok.ru
The Secret of Santa Vittoria (1969) -Overlong Italian flimsy whimsy.
Take the Money and Run (1969) - Televisual, but it was made by ABC.
Riot (1969) - Depressing Jim Brown prison flick. Gene Hackman and Brown reunited from
The Split (1968) - Workmanlike Westlake adap with an insane cast by Gordon Flemyng, the man behind ze Dalek films. Ok.ru
Pendulum (1969)- Dull Peppardsploitation. Ok.ru-Tried the very-TV like P.J. (1968), which felt outdated yet trying to be hip and sexist, and the Harold Robbins-esque The Third Day (1965)
Generation (1969)- Idiotic David Janssen gap-com.
Alice's Restaurant (1970) - Beckinsale-alike Arlo Guthrie cooks up a plate of hippie shite.
Something for Everyone (1970) - Airless Michael York/Angela Lansbury juvenile Austrocaper.
The Angel Levine (1971) - Preachy ecumenical psychedelia. Free US holiday for Milo O'Shea.
The Christian Licorice Store (1971)- Post-Love Story tennis tosh.
See also Your Three Minutes Are Up (1973).
The Sandpit Generals (1971) - AIP South American youth rally.
Suppose They Gave a War an Nobody Came? (1971) - Dreadful Tony Curtis saggy M*A*S*H.
Pulp (1972) - Never knows what it is, despite Caine at his coolest.
X, Y and Zee (1972) - Caine and Taylor in domestic hell.
Le Grand Blond Avec Une Chaussure Noire (1972)- A key title in baffling French comedy.Rewatch
I Want What I Want (1972) - Early transgender film, tawdry and confused. 40-odd Anne Heywood cast as a twentysomething MTF, in her pre-transition form looks like the Freak from Prisoner Cell Block H.
Play It As It Lays (1972) -Overarty exploit/exploration of Tuesday Weld.
Hit! (1973)- Lushly produced but tedious Billy Dee Williams/Richard Pryor. Who wants a 2 1/2 hour blaxploitation?
Save the Tiger (1973)- Probably too young to get such a middle-age tale.
Steelyard Blues (1973)- All-star mess.
Crazy Joe (1974) - DeLaurentiis true-life schlock, Peter Boyle as a Mafioso. Fred Williamson wears a hairnet. New York shot by Italians looks like Italy.
Bank Shot (1974) -George C. Scott tries goofball comedy and fails. A semi-sequel to ze smug The Hot Rock (1972)
Busting (1974)/Freebie and the Bean (1974)- Dopey, obnoxious copshows. Ok.ru
Mame (1974) - Sheesh,just an excuse for Lucy's wigs.
Tough (1974) - Preachy African-American Christian Children's Film Foundation.
The Wrestler (1974) - A half-hearted Ed Asner docudrama produced by Dave Friedman.
NEWMAN'S LAW (1974)- Why was this faux-blaxploitation Peppardier released in cinemas?
Return to Macon County (1975)- Sub-American Graffiti non-sequel.
Uptown Saturday night (1974)/LETS DO IT AGAIN (1975)/ A Piece Of The Action (1977) - Samey Cosby/Potter sub-Sting.An all-star lineup of black talent from Harold Nicholas and Billy Eckstine to Johnny Sekka and Calvin Lockhart. Was Roscoe Lee Browne the black Freddie Jones?
Lady Snowblood II (1974)- The pseudo-Victorian setting adds something to a typical samuraier.
Mussolini: The Last Act (1975) - Slow, meandering, despite Steiger, Nero, Fonda as a cardinal.
Friday Foster (1975) - Dull Pam Grier comic strip.
Mahogany (1975) - Diana Ross and Billy Dee Williams in a blaxploitation take on Susann-Robbins-Sheldon pornographic muzak. The worst film my uncle Gibby has ever seen.
Give 'em Hell, Harry! (1975) - Was this devised to feel like a Saturday Live sketch?
That Lady from Peking (1975) - Rough Aussie spy thing made in 1969, understandably delayed, by which time bit-parter Jack Thompson had become one of Australia's biggest stars.
Funeral for an Assassin (1975) - Apartheid actioner. Vic Morrow probably assumed blacking up in disguise would be the worst thing to happen to him in front of camera. Sadly, he was wrong.
Whiffs (1975) - EejityElliot Gould military-com. Ok.ru.
Ebony, Ivory & Jade (1976)- Dull faux-Hong Kong Olympic prison girls gash.
A Small Town In Texas (1976) - AIP hillbilly tosh.
The Passover Plot (1976)- Cannon presents the Bible via conspiracy theory. Despite strong British character support, Zalman King maybe the worst Jesus, portrayed as an Elvis/Diana/Andy Kaufman figure. Ok.ru
Black Oak Conspiracy (1977) - Yokel action fluff.
The Black Pearl (1977) - Juvenile adventure nonsense padded out by undersea footage. Ok.ru.
World's Greatest Lover (1977) - Trite Gene Wilder vehicle.
Nunzio (1978) - Sweetly twee fable of a special needs Superman, with Joe Spinell as friendly neighbour.
Who'll Stop the Rain (1978) - Kitchen sink dirgirisation of Vietnam vigilantesploitation. Ok.ru
The One and Only (1978) - Carl Reiner tries and fails to turn Henry Winkler into Steve Martin.
Chilly Scenes of Winter (1979) - Exactly what it says on the tin.
A Touch of the Sun (1979) - A NASA-themed British-Zambian sexcom, starring Oliver Reed, PeterCushing, Keenan Wynn, Wilfrid Hyde-White, Bruce Boa, and Melvyn Hayes as a camp Tarzan? So awful it never got a proper release.
Buffet Froid (1979)-Attractively shot but rather languid Depardieu gangster pic. Ok.ru
Portrait of a Hitman (1979) - Dumpy actioner that never got a proper release despite an insane cast (Jack Palance, Rod Steiger , Richard Roundtree). Ann Turkel plays Palance's art-model/strange-lover. It gets confusing, as Herb Jeffries, the Duke Ellington Band singer/Bronze Buckaroo appears, and looks like Steiger with a tan (Jeffries was half-Sicilian, with some distant Arab/Ethiopian blood, but because Sicilians had been under Jim Crow laws due to "one drop" complications amongst various other matters, Jeffries became the first black singing cowboy).
Radio On (1979- B/W)- Accurately captures the despair of a UK roadtrip.
Used Cars (1980) - Did Zemeckis intend to make a Hal Needham fan-film?
Rollover (1981)- Dreadful Arab-financial nonsense with Kris Kristofferson miscast as a NYC establishment pre-yuppie businessman. Ok.ru
Buddy Buddy (1981)-Idiotic quasiFrench Billy Wilder swansong.
King Of The Mountain (1981) - Nothingy LA racer.
Ladies and Gentlemen: The Fabulous Stains (1981) - Wellmade but obnoxious Canadian punk odyssey with Diane Lane, Laura Dern and Ray Winstone.
Missing (1982) - Soft-focus preaching against Pinochet. Ok.ru
The Naked Face (1983) - Godawful, beige Cannon-Sydney Sheldon-Bryan Forbes thriller.Has Roger Moore shouting "Bastards!".
Compromising Positions (1985)- Very TVM-like Susan Sarandon vehicle.
Shaker Run (1985) -Beigey NZ chaser-actioner with Cliff Robertson,Lisa Harrow, Leif Garrett and Shane Briant.
Jakarta (1988)- Middling Troma Indonesian actioner.
Firehead (1991) - Rubbishy faux-Soviet action.
Thursday 4 July 2019
147 horror
Phantom Express (1932- B/W)- Dull poverty row illusion.
Thirteen Women (1932- B/W) - Primitive melo-slasher.
Kongo (1932 - B/W)- Strange yet rote jungle adventure.
The Witching Hour (1934- b/w) - Pre Code Paramount parlour room airiness.
See also proto-Meet Joe Black, Death Takes a Holiday (1934- B/W)
The Scoundrel (1935 - B/W)- Quota quickie-like Noel Coward supernatural drama.
The Return Of Peter Grimm (1935 - /W) Schmaltzy Lionel Barrymore fantasy melodrama.
Peter Ibbetson (1935) - Gary Cooper sentiment. Dreamy but inauthentic. Not my thing.
Phantom Ship (1935- B/W) - Early Hammer about the Mary Celeste, basically Bela Lugosi as a seadog.
House of Secrets (1936 - B/W) - Dreary Chesterfield faux-quota quickie.
Topper Takes A Trip (1938 - B/W)- Just a holiday for the audience.
A Christmas Carol (1938- B/W) - Sentimental Reginald Owen anachronosia.
See also Scrooge (1935- B/W).
Beyond Tomorrow (1940 - B/W)- Sentimental ghosts with C Aubrey Smith.
Chamber of Horrors (1940- B/W) - Typical British krimi.
Spellbound (1941 - B/W) - Dreary Derek Farr drawing roomer.
Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942 - B/W)- Silly color jungler. Ok.ru.
The Remarkable Andrew (1942- B/W)- William Holden's presidential Rentaghost.
The Cockeyed Miracle (1946- B/W)- Schmaltzy Frank Morgan periodcom. Keenan Wynn looks like Vincent Price.
Castle Sinister (1948) - Forgettable Brit darkhouser.
Uncle Silas (1947- B/W)- Sub-Gainsborough gothic.
The Perfect Woman (1949 - B/W) - Silly faux-fembot comedy, though nice support from Miles Malleson.
Will Any Gentleman...? (1953) - Strange, not terribly good comedy despite an attempt to make George Cole and Jon P'twee (who is in two roles, one in his earliest form)a duo.
Alias John Preston (1955 - B/W)- Dreary Danziger's Jekyll/Hyder with Christopher Lee.
First Spaceship on Venus (1960) - Decent.A rewatch.See also Planeta Bur (1962)and Ikarie XB-1 (1963).
IL MIO AMICO JEKYLL (1960- B/W) - Basically Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory with added minstrels and Ugo Tognazzi.
The Road to Hong Kong (1962 - B/W) - Idiotic Brit-based Hope/Crosby future-nonsense.
A Dream Come True (1963) - Idealistic Soviet space epic, bits reused by AIP in Queen of Blood. More proof Soviets could make good SF.
Tomb of Torture (1963 - B/W) - Dull.
Virgin of Nuremberg (1963) - Colouful but empty giallo with Christopher Lee.
The Ghost (1963)- Typical atmospheric yet lacking-in-almost-everything-else Italian Barbara Steele horror.
IL MOSTRO DELL' OPERA (1964 - B/W) -Incomprehensible gothic, typical Polselli.
Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1964)- Chaney Jr-starring salvage.
Shock Treatment (1964 - B/W) - Boring post-Psycho courtroomer, despite a gleeful Roddy McDowall.
The Hyena of London (1964- B/W) - Faux-London period cobblers.
Seven Days in May (1964- B/W)- Serling's Strangelove for politicos.
Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964- b/w)- Unlikeably grim. Ok.ru
2 On A Guillotine (1965- B/W) - William Conrad-directed overstretched psychothriller. Ok.ru
The Sweet Sound of Death (1965- B/W) - Sidney Pink-produced sub-Nouvelle Vague "suggestion".
The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (1965- B/W) Mainly slow but somewhat interesting Soviet steampunk Mabuse.
El fantástico mundo del doctor Coppelius (1966) - ChittyChitty Bang Bang-ish ballet with Walter Slezak.
Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (1966)- DeLaurentiis proto Moonraker with Mike "BeforeMannix" Connors as a lumbering US Bond aided by Dorothy Provine and Terry-Thomas as basically Lady Penelope and Parker. They even have a gadget-packed Rolls Royce. Raf Vallone plays the Nehru-jacketed Amazon-dwelling rocket baron. Basically relies on stock footage and jungle nonsense. And I bloody love Moonraker. That is joyous, and this isn't.
Gappa (1967)- Silly kaiju reused in Red Dwarf.
Privilege (1967)- Seems deliberately styled to provoke an uprising.
The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967)- Shonky Eurospy gubbins from Towers and Shonteff.
Good Times (1967) - Sub-Monkees Friedkin-directed Sonny and Cher vehicle."Bullocks" jokes ahoy. Was Sonny Bono America's Roy Castle?
Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967) - Haunted house/spy thriller/Hee Haw episode with Merle Haggard, Kenny Everett fave Ferlin Husky and others vs Carradine,Chaney and Rathbone.
The Gruesome Twosome (1967)- Possibly HG Lewis' roughest.
A Taste of Blood (1967)- Lewis' attempt at mainstream, set ina Miami-ish London.
Blood Of The Virgins (1967) - Faux-ItalianSouth American vampire grot.
House of Evil (1968) -Karloff plays the organ,in a kerfuffly Mexican thing supposedly about killer toys.
A Quiet Place in the Country (1968) - Redgrave-Nero vanity artiness.
Balsamus, l'uomo di Satana (1968) - From Pupi Avati, about the lovechild of Herve Villechaize, Les Dawson and Noele Gordon.
Psychout for Murder (1969)- Confused Rossano Brazzi giallo. Typically montagey/messy.
Thomas... gli Indemoniati (1969) - Orange-tinted Avati agitprop.
The Honeymoon Killers (1970 - B/W) - Not quite my jar, fine performances, but it has a video look.
Mark of the Witch (1970)- Begins in 17th century Lanca-shire which is seemingly just sky, but otherwise a dull student jump.
Kemek (1970)-Dispiriting Quebecois giallo with David Hedison.Somehow uses Nowhere to Run by Martha and the Vandellas.
Ice (1970) - Dystopian AFI artiness.
Necropolis (1970) - Talky, arty nonsense with Tina Aumont.
Human Cobras (1971)- Nonsensical safari giallo. Obligatory appearance from Luciano Pigozzi.
Blood Thirst (1971- B/W) - Long-delayed Filipino vampire dreck.
I Eat Your Skin (1971- B/W)- Unusually paced and interesting voodoo science from Del Tenney.
Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971)- Average above-average giallo.
Death by Invitation (1971)- Another semi-period borathon from Kirt Films.
The Touch of Satan (1971)- Very 70s, but luckless Satanist quickie shot by Jordan Cronenweth.
If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? (1971)- So Christian that the Soviets look and act like Sally Army.
Murder Mansion (1972)- Spanish psycho gubbins released by Avco Embassy.
Al Tropico Del Cancro (1972)- Junky travelogue voodoo-giallo with Anthony Steffen
French Sex Murders (1972) - Jazzmag giallo.
ToKill A Clown (1972)- Nothingy psychodrama. An unlikeably grim Alan Alda resembles Dave Thomas in an SCTV sketch.
Stanley (1972)- Dreadful sub-Gilbert O'Sullivan-scored Willard-with-snakes and burlesque.
Director William Grefe also gave us the forgettable/forgotten sub-Deliverance Whiskey Mountain (1977) and the abysmal Impulse (1974) - William Shatner as a whining, serial-killing gigolo eejit.
A Thief In The Night (1972) - Scored by Cliff Richard influence Larry Norman, supposedly worldwide peril reduced to scary ambulances, made in an Iowa funfair.
Man of La Mancha (1972)- Peter O'Toole looks like he is made of papier mache.Sophia can't sing. Blessed is sexy.
Piranha Piranha (1972)- Boring Amazon adventure with William Smith.
Stigma (1972) - Attractive but dreary Cambridge, Mass-shot thriller with Philip Michael Thomas.
Daigoro vs Goliath (1972)- Silly kiddy Toho kaiju that manages to be daft not stupid.
Death Walks At Midnight (1972)- Typical giallo.
Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf (1972) - Typically goofy Paul Naschy.
See also the dreadful Vengeance of the Zombies (1973)
Spirit of the Beehive (1973)- Undeniably beautiful piece of work.
You'll Like My Mother (1973) - Snowy, bland, messy Patty Duke-miscast Richard Thomas vehicle. Ok.ru.
Maxie (1973) - Boring/arty Scots-themed butchery with Talia Shire.
Warlock Moon (1973)- Zzzzz. Satanic college student codswallop.
The House That Cried Murder (1973)- Clemensy Bridal nonsense with Arthur Roberts, spokesman for Skoal Bandits - the tobacco scampi fry.
The Severed Arm (1973) - Mining in darkness.
Night Watch (1973)- Clemensesque boredom, Liz Taylor, Lar Harvey, and Tony Britton.
The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1974)- Was this shot on video?
La noche de los asesinos (1974) - Jess Franco's Cat and Canary. Says it all.
Down and Dirty Duck (1974)-Because it's Murakami, the animation's not bad.
L'Esorciccio (1975) -Asinine Italian comedy.
Foreplay (1975) - John G Avildsen-codirected compendium of smut, with Zero Mostel, Thayer David, Jerry Orbach, Estelle Parsons and Prof. Irwin Corey, and a dirndl-clad sex-bot/doll.
Sunburst (1975)- Dreary woodlands hippie slashie, padded out by a lecture from Rudy Vallee.
Get Mean (1975)- A spaghetti western that wants to be directed by Ken Russell.
Poor Pretty Eddie (1975) - Grotty Leslie Uggams rape-revenger.
Blood Voyage (1976) - Dreary boat-killer. Has lots of parking cars to pad it out.
Dark August (1976) - Dreary Vermont psychothriller.
Albino (1976)- Christopher Lee, James Faulkner, Sybil Danning and a drunk Trevor Howard wander about Africa, chasing Horst Frank as an African tribesman. Odd.
Naked Massacre (1976)- Troubles-set slasher, partly filmed in Belfast, but mostly in Dublin. Sleazy, depressing, but with ads for Bass and fake BBC bulletins.
Massacre at Central High (1976)- A teen comedy without the comedy, but with suspicious deaths, i.e.hang-gliding into a pylon. Ridiculous themetune. But oddly powerful.
Ransom (1977) - Roger McGuinn-soundtracked westernish Corman oddity with Oliver Reed. WHAT IS ZIS? No wonder Corman couldn't sell it.
Gran Bollito (1977) - A mainly ordinary true crime drama with Shelley Winters,except her female victims are all played by men. Max von Sydow is in a double role, one as a blonde Italian spinster, and it's disconcerting. A DISCOVERY.
Martin (1977)- Romero's a hack, this is rough but aside from Creepshow, it might be his best, if only for Pittsburgh being a character.
Welcome to Blood City (1977) - Dull Anglo-Canadian VR Westworld with Jack Palance.
Equus (1977) - Fine Burton hamming, but reprehensible and slightly Blue Remembered Hills. Plus it is clearly shot in Toronto. You can even hear the odd Canuck twang.
Holocaust 2000 (1977)- Never quite gets where it needs to be.
The Alpha Incident (1978) - Zzzz.
Joyride (1977)- Actually a sickly faux-Canadian AIP teen dramedy.
Till Death (1978)- Boring if oddly atmospheric.
Death Drug (1978) - Philip Michael Thomas in a feature-long PSA/PIF.
War of the Wizards (1978)- Tacky Asian fantasy with a topknotted Richard Kiel.
The Dark Ride (1978) Harv off Cagney and Lacey is a serial killer in a visceral butTVM-like dirge.
ORG (1979) - 1968-shot devolution in meaningless psychedelia somehow connecting young Terence Hill and kiss-me-quick hats.
Sensitivita (1979)- Awful Last House clone from Castellari.
Natural Enemies (1979)- Hal Holbrook plays a "good man" who kills his family. TVM-like, but you believe Hal.
City On Fire (1979) - Bland all-star disaster. Leslie Nielsen in serious mode.
Human Experiments (1979)- Prisoner Cell Block H - as a video nasty.
GALAXY EXPRESS 999 (1979)- Beautiful piece of work, despite not being an anime fan. This at least has nicely paced animation. The sequel, Adieu Galaxy Express 999 (1981) is probably deliberately depressing. DISCOVERY.
Vengeance is Mine (1979)- Nasty, overlong Nikkatsu serial killer yarn.
Io zombo tu zombi lei Zomba (1979) -Godawful sex-zom-com with Duilio del Prete,the Frederick Stafford to Bogdanovich's Hitchcock, and an Italian Bob Carolgees.
Hot Stuff (1979)- DomDeluise and Jerry Reed in a Miami-shot sub-Spencer and Hill comedy.
Double Negative (1980) - Deathly dull Canuck erotic thriller that has serious cameos by the SCTV team, wasting John Candy,Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas and "Katherine O'Hara" (sic).
The Private Eyes (1980) - Decent for what it is. Don Knotts and Tim Conway are fun, but "England" IS North Carolina. Heavily ok.rued.
Enter The Game Of Death (1980)- Anachronistic Bond soundtrack-bootlegging WW2 Bruceploitation nonsense, with a geeky David Hartman-alike in braces as the baddie.
Resurrection (1980)- Ellen Burstyn tear-puller.
Roar (1981)- Astonishing though impossible to follow. Basically the only mondo film to be promoted on Blue Peter.
Venom (1981)- Celebrity nutters vs snakes! Actually quite beige.
The Eyes of Amaryllis (1982)- Bergmanesque kiddie spookiness aimed at the Disney/Wonderworks set.
Still of the Night (1982) - Bland faux-De Palma.
Eating Raoul (1982) - Oddly pedestrian Paul Bartel effort. Gawd Robert Beltran's a shocking actor. Probably rejected from the Ricardo Montalban School of Fine Acting.
Tempest (1982) - Cassavetes and a pervily leered over Molly Ringwald in a modern Greek-set Shakespeare.
The Keep (1983)- Overstylised nonsense.
I Was A Teenage TV Terrorist! (1985) - Amateur Troma muck.
When Nature Calls (1985) - Troma parodic nonsense, oh so unwatchable. David Straithairn as an Indian.
SPACE RAGE (1985) - Beige post-apocalyptica.
Baby Secret of the Lost Legend (1986)- Some of the worst dinosaurs ever.
The Cosmic Eye (1986) -Nice style, but the animation styles don't mesh.
Love at Stake (1987) - Dire Puritan teen comedy.
Veld (1987)- Grim Soviet Bradbury adap.
High Crusade (1993) - Deadful German Python knockoff.
Killer Condom (1996)- German-language New York set grossout grunge based on the Teutonic equivalent of Viz.
Man of the Century (1999- B/W) - Quirky but self-liking story of a 90s guy who wants to be in the 20s.
Thirteen Women (1932- B/W) - Primitive melo-slasher.
Kongo (1932 - B/W)- Strange yet rote jungle adventure.
The Witching Hour (1934- b/w) - Pre Code Paramount parlour room airiness.
See also proto-Meet Joe Black, Death Takes a Holiday (1934- B/W)
The Scoundrel (1935 - B/W)- Quota quickie-like Noel Coward supernatural drama.
The Return Of Peter Grimm (1935 - /W) Schmaltzy Lionel Barrymore fantasy melodrama.
Peter Ibbetson (1935) - Gary Cooper sentiment. Dreamy but inauthentic. Not my thing.
Phantom Ship (1935- B/W) - Early Hammer about the Mary Celeste, basically Bela Lugosi as a seadog.
House of Secrets (1936 - B/W) - Dreary Chesterfield faux-quota quickie.
Topper Takes A Trip (1938 - B/W)- Just a holiday for the audience.
A Christmas Carol (1938- B/W) - Sentimental Reginald Owen anachronosia.
See also Scrooge (1935- B/W).
Beyond Tomorrow (1940 - B/W)- Sentimental ghosts with C Aubrey Smith.
Chamber of Horrors (1940- B/W) - Typical British krimi.
Spellbound (1941 - B/W) - Dreary Derek Farr drawing roomer.
Beyond the Blue Horizon (1942 - B/W)- Silly color jungler. Ok.ru.
The Remarkable Andrew (1942- B/W)- William Holden's presidential Rentaghost.
The Cockeyed Miracle (1946- B/W)- Schmaltzy Frank Morgan periodcom. Keenan Wynn looks like Vincent Price.
Castle Sinister (1948) - Forgettable Brit darkhouser.
Uncle Silas (1947- B/W)- Sub-Gainsborough gothic.
The Perfect Woman (1949 - B/W) - Silly faux-fembot comedy, though nice support from Miles Malleson.
Will Any Gentleman...? (1953) - Strange, not terribly good comedy despite an attempt to make George Cole and Jon P'twee (who is in two roles, one in his earliest form)a duo.
Alias John Preston (1955 - B/W)- Dreary Danziger's Jekyll/Hyder with Christopher Lee.
First Spaceship on Venus (1960) - Decent.A rewatch.See also Planeta Bur (1962)and Ikarie XB-1 (1963).
IL MIO AMICO JEKYLL (1960- B/W) - Basically Werewolf in a Girls' Dormitory with added minstrels and Ugo Tognazzi.
The Road to Hong Kong (1962 - B/W) - Idiotic Brit-based Hope/Crosby future-nonsense.
A Dream Come True (1963) - Idealistic Soviet space epic, bits reused by AIP in Queen of Blood. More proof Soviets could make good SF.
Tomb of Torture (1963 - B/W) - Dull.
Virgin of Nuremberg (1963) - Colouful but empty giallo with Christopher Lee.
The Ghost (1963)- Typical atmospheric yet lacking-in-almost-everything-else Italian Barbara Steele horror.
IL MOSTRO DELL' OPERA (1964 - B/W) -Incomprehensible gothic, typical Polselli.
Face of the Screaming Werewolf (1964)- Chaney Jr-starring salvage.
Shock Treatment (1964 - B/W) - Boring post-Psycho courtroomer, despite a gleeful Roddy McDowall.
The Hyena of London (1964- B/W) - Faux-London period cobblers.
Seven Days in May (1964- B/W)- Serling's Strangelove for politicos.
Séance on a Wet Afternoon (1964- b/w)- Unlikeably grim. Ok.ru
2 On A Guillotine (1965- B/W) - William Conrad-directed overstretched psychothriller. Ok.ru
The Sweet Sound of Death (1965- B/W) - Sidney Pink-produced sub-Nouvelle Vague "suggestion".
The Hyperboloid of Engineer Garin (1965- B/W) Mainly slow but somewhat interesting Soviet steampunk Mabuse.
El fantástico mundo del doctor Coppelius (1966) - ChittyChitty Bang Bang-ish ballet with Walter Slezak.
Kiss the Girls and Make Them Die (1966)- DeLaurentiis proto Moonraker with Mike "BeforeMannix" Connors as a lumbering US Bond aided by Dorothy Provine and Terry-Thomas as basically Lady Penelope and Parker. They even have a gadget-packed Rolls Royce. Raf Vallone plays the Nehru-jacketed Amazon-dwelling rocket baron. Basically relies on stock footage and jungle nonsense. And I bloody love Moonraker. That is joyous, and this isn't.
Gappa (1967)- Silly kaiju reused in Red Dwarf.
Privilege (1967)- Seems deliberately styled to provoke an uprising.
The Million Eyes of Sumuru (1967)- Shonky Eurospy gubbins from Towers and Shonteff.
Good Times (1967) - Sub-Monkees Friedkin-directed Sonny and Cher vehicle."Bullocks" jokes ahoy. Was Sonny Bono America's Roy Castle?
Hillbillys in a Haunted House (1967) - Haunted house/spy thriller/Hee Haw episode with Merle Haggard, Kenny Everett fave Ferlin Husky and others vs Carradine,Chaney and Rathbone.
The Gruesome Twosome (1967)- Possibly HG Lewis' roughest.
A Taste of Blood (1967)- Lewis' attempt at mainstream, set ina Miami-ish London.
Blood Of The Virgins (1967) - Faux-ItalianSouth American vampire grot.
House of Evil (1968) -Karloff plays the organ,in a kerfuffly Mexican thing supposedly about killer toys.
A Quiet Place in the Country (1968) - Redgrave-Nero vanity artiness.
Balsamus, l'uomo di Satana (1968) - From Pupi Avati, about the lovechild of Herve Villechaize, Les Dawson and Noele Gordon.
Psychout for Murder (1969)- Confused Rossano Brazzi giallo. Typically montagey/messy.
Thomas... gli Indemoniati (1969) - Orange-tinted Avati agitprop.
The Honeymoon Killers (1970 - B/W) - Not quite my jar, fine performances, but it has a video look.
Mark of the Witch (1970)- Begins in 17th century Lanca-shire which is seemingly just sky, but otherwise a dull student jump.
Kemek (1970)-Dispiriting Quebecois giallo with David Hedison.Somehow uses Nowhere to Run by Martha and the Vandellas.
Ice (1970) - Dystopian AFI artiness.
Necropolis (1970) - Talky, arty nonsense with Tina Aumont.
Human Cobras (1971)- Nonsensical safari giallo. Obligatory appearance from Luciano Pigozzi.
Blood Thirst (1971- B/W) - Long-delayed Filipino vampire dreck.
I Eat Your Skin (1971- B/W)- Unusually paced and interesting voodoo science from Del Tenney.
Black Belly of the Tarantula (1971)- Average above-average giallo.
Death by Invitation (1971)- Another semi-period borathon from Kirt Films.
The Touch of Satan (1971)- Very 70s, but luckless Satanist quickie shot by Jordan Cronenweth.
If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? (1971)- So Christian that the Soviets look and act like Sally Army.
Murder Mansion (1972)- Spanish psycho gubbins released by Avco Embassy.
Al Tropico Del Cancro (1972)- Junky travelogue voodoo-giallo with Anthony Steffen
French Sex Murders (1972) - Jazzmag giallo.
ToKill A Clown (1972)- Nothingy psychodrama. An unlikeably grim Alan Alda resembles Dave Thomas in an SCTV sketch.
Stanley (1972)- Dreadful sub-Gilbert O'Sullivan-scored Willard-with-snakes and burlesque.
Director William Grefe also gave us the forgettable/forgotten sub-Deliverance Whiskey Mountain (1977) and the abysmal Impulse (1974) - William Shatner as a whining, serial-killing gigolo eejit.
A Thief In The Night (1972) - Scored by Cliff Richard influence Larry Norman, supposedly worldwide peril reduced to scary ambulances, made in an Iowa funfair.
Man of La Mancha (1972)- Peter O'Toole looks like he is made of papier mache.Sophia can't sing. Blessed is sexy.
Piranha Piranha (1972)- Boring Amazon adventure with William Smith.
Daigoro vs Goliath (1972)- Silly kiddy Toho kaiju that manages to be daft not stupid.
Death Walks At Midnight (1972)- Typical giallo.
Dr. Jekyll and the Werewolf (1972) - Typically goofy Paul Naschy.
See also the dreadful Vengeance of the Zombies (1973)
Spirit of the Beehive (1973)- Undeniably beautiful piece of work.
You'll Like My Mother (1973) - Snowy, bland, messy Patty Duke-miscast Richard Thomas vehicle. Ok.ru.
Maxie (1973) - Boring/arty Scots-themed butchery with Talia Shire.
Warlock Moon (1973)- Zzzzz. Satanic college student codswallop.
The House That Cried Murder (1973)- Clemensy Bridal nonsense with Arthur Roberts, spokesman for Skoal Bandits - the tobacco scampi fry.
The Severed Arm (1973) - Mining in darkness.
Night Watch (1973)- Clemensesque boredom, Liz Taylor, Lar Harvey, and Tony Britton.
The Spectre of Edgar Allan Poe (1974)- Was this shot on video?
La noche de los asesinos (1974) - Jess Franco's Cat and Canary. Says it all.
Down and Dirty Duck (1974)-Because it's Murakami, the animation's not bad.
L'Esorciccio (1975) -Asinine Italian comedy.
Foreplay (1975) - John G Avildsen-codirected compendium of smut, with Zero Mostel, Thayer David, Jerry Orbach, Estelle Parsons and Prof. Irwin Corey, and a dirndl-clad sex-bot/doll.
Sunburst (1975)- Dreary woodlands hippie slashie, padded out by a lecture from Rudy Vallee.
Get Mean (1975)- A spaghetti western that wants to be directed by Ken Russell.
Poor Pretty Eddie (1975) - Grotty Leslie Uggams rape-revenger.
Blood Voyage (1976) - Dreary boat-killer. Has lots of parking cars to pad it out.
Dark August (1976) - Dreary Vermont psychothriller.
Albino (1976)- Christopher Lee, James Faulkner, Sybil Danning and a drunk Trevor Howard wander about Africa, chasing Horst Frank as an African tribesman. Odd.
Naked Massacre (1976)- Troubles-set slasher, partly filmed in Belfast, but mostly in Dublin. Sleazy, depressing, but with ads for Bass and fake BBC bulletins.
Massacre at Central High (1976)- A teen comedy without the comedy, but with suspicious deaths, i.e.hang-gliding into a pylon. Ridiculous themetune. But oddly powerful.
Ransom (1977) - Roger McGuinn-soundtracked westernish Corman oddity with Oliver Reed. WHAT IS ZIS? No wonder Corman couldn't sell it.
Gran Bollito (1977) - A mainly ordinary true crime drama with Shelley Winters,except her female victims are all played by men. Max von Sydow is in a double role, one as a blonde Italian spinster, and it's disconcerting. A DISCOVERY.
Martin (1977)- Romero's a hack, this is rough but aside from Creepshow, it might be his best, if only for Pittsburgh being a character.
Welcome to Blood City (1977) - Dull Anglo-Canadian VR Westworld with Jack Palance.
Equus (1977) - Fine Burton hamming, but reprehensible and slightly Blue Remembered Hills. Plus it is clearly shot in Toronto. You can even hear the odd Canuck twang.
Holocaust 2000 (1977)- Never quite gets where it needs to be.
The Alpha Incident (1978) - Zzzz.
Joyride (1977)- Actually a sickly faux-Canadian AIP teen dramedy.
Till Death (1978)- Boring if oddly atmospheric.
Death Drug (1978) - Philip Michael Thomas in a feature-long PSA/PIF.
War of the Wizards (1978)- Tacky Asian fantasy with a topknotted Richard Kiel.
The Dark Ride (1978) Harv off Cagney and Lacey is a serial killer in a visceral butTVM-like dirge.
ORG (1979) - 1968-shot devolution in meaningless psychedelia somehow connecting young Terence Hill and kiss-me-quick hats.
Sensitivita (1979)- Awful Last House clone from Castellari.
Natural Enemies (1979)- Hal Holbrook plays a "good man" who kills his family. TVM-like, but you believe Hal.
City On Fire (1979) - Bland all-star disaster. Leslie Nielsen in serious mode.
Human Experiments (1979)- Prisoner Cell Block H - as a video nasty.
GALAXY EXPRESS 999 (1979)- Beautiful piece of work, despite not being an anime fan. This at least has nicely paced animation. The sequel, Adieu Galaxy Express 999 (1981) is probably deliberately depressing. DISCOVERY.
Vengeance is Mine (1979)- Nasty, overlong Nikkatsu serial killer yarn.
Io zombo tu zombi lei Zomba (1979) -Godawful sex-zom-com with Duilio del Prete,the Frederick Stafford to Bogdanovich's Hitchcock, and an Italian Bob Carolgees.
Hot Stuff (1979)- DomDeluise and Jerry Reed in a Miami-shot sub-Spencer and Hill comedy.
Double Negative (1980) - Deathly dull Canuck erotic thriller that has serious cameos by the SCTV team, wasting John Candy,Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty, Dave Thomas and "Katherine O'Hara" (sic).
The Private Eyes (1980) - Decent for what it is. Don Knotts and Tim Conway are fun, but "England" IS North Carolina. Heavily ok.rued.
Enter The Game Of Death (1980)- Anachronistic Bond soundtrack-bootlegging WW2 Bruceploitation nonsense, with a geeky David Hartman-alike in braces as the baddie.
Resurrection (1980)- Ellen Burstyn tear-puller.
Roar (1981)- Astonishing though impossible to follow. Basically the only mondo film to be promoted on Blue Peter.
Venom (1981)- Celebrity nutters vs snakes! Actually quite beige.
The Eyes of Amaryllis (1982)- Bergmanesque kiddie spookiness aimed at the Disney/Wonderworks set.
Still of the Night (1982) - Bland faux-De Palma.
Eating Raoul (1982) - Oddly pedestrian Paul Bartel effort. Gawd Robert Beltran's a shocking actor. Probably rejected from the Ricardo Montalban School of Fine Acting.
Tempest (1982) - Cassavetes and a pervily leered over Molly Ringwald in a modern Greek-set Shakespeare.
The Keep (1983)- Overstylised nonsense.
I Was A Teenage TV Terrorist! (1985) - Amateur Troma muck.
When Nature Calls (1985) - Troma parodic nonsense, oh so unwatchable. David Straithairn as an Indian.
SPACE RAGE (1985) - Beige post-apocalyptica.
Baby Secret of the Lost Legend (1986)- Some of the worst dinosaurs ever.
The Cosmic Eye (1986) -Nice style, but the animation styles don't mesh.
Love at Stake (1987) - Dire Puritan teen comedy.
Veld (1987)- Grim Soviet Bradbury adap.
High Crusade (1993) - Deadful German Python knockoff.
Killer Condom (1996)- German-language New York set grossout grunge based on the Teutonic equivalent of Viz.
Man of the Century (1999- B/W) - Quirky but self-liking story of a 90s guy who wants to be in the 20s.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)