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.
Hooray for the Moonraker love!
ReplyDeleteWilliam Friedkin called Sonny Bono one of the few true geniuses he ever worked with so... yes, the American Roy Castle, absolutely.