I've always wanted to see this since I read about it on Canuxploitation. A sort of mock-documentary narrated by a 12-year-old girl, Kim about her neighbour Steven Penny, a scriptwriter who wants to make it in the world of "colour crime movies", a sort of alternative noir subgenre. Made in Canada on almost no budget by star John Paizs, it's very strange, somewhere between childlike and childish, with a kiddy theme tune, but it does go down dark passages. I thought it wouldn't live up to the tribute act-themed opening, but there are some neat jokes, i.e. using the same cameras as "Chekhov from Star Trek and Yoko Ono", and taking the mick out of the NFB. Its narrator Kim is likable but kind of annoying. A straighter more Gordon Pinsent-ish narration might have worked better, or at least more of the punchy narrator used in the "beginnings" and "endings" Steven writes. It does one's patience. I do see a lot of parallels with my own work. Not helped by the soundtrack that sounds like something from a Canadian kids' show from the period. There are some moments of sensation - i.e. killer rats. But it feels like Paizs had too many things going on his mind, but not enough mileage for a plot. The weirder moments like the Nelson Mingus costume are entertaining, as is a meeting between two creeps soundtracked to the Birdy Song and the celebratory dance sequence. Shots go on for too long, though, e.g. the voyeuristic Body Double-esque bit. There's also scenes of a cowboy riding Steven like a bull, while a Crazies-like "secret stuff" virus contaminates the town, as Hazmat-suited goons run about. The meta-ending works, and suddenly the film becomes as interesting and as punchy as the opening, with such sights as "Steven Penny World" and more glimpses of gory colour crime movies. It is unpredictable even going as far as Steven getting superpowers and a cameo from Christ, and there is a charm to it (a sort of 50s 80s charm, if Shakin' Stevens were a movie), but it is wildly uneven, like Shaky. But unlike Shaky, there's nothing really like it. Recommended, because it
Tuesday, 13 March 2018
Crime Wave (1985 - not the Raimi one, the better Canadian film)
I've always wanted to see this since I read about it on Canuxploitation. A sort of mock-documentary narrated by a 12-year-old girl, Kim about her neighbour Steven Penny, a scriptwriter who wants to make it in the world of "colour crime movies", a sort of alternative noir subgenre. Made in Canada on almost no budget by star John Paizs, it's very strange, somewhere between childlike and childish, with a kiddy theme tune, but it does go down dark passages. I thought it wouldn't live up to the tribute act-themed opening, but there are some neat jokes, i.e. using the same cameras as "Chekhov from Star Trek and Yoko Ono", and taking the mick out of the NFB. Its narrator Kim is likable but kind of annoying. A straighter more Gordon Pinsent-ish narration might have worked better, or at least more of the punchy narrator used in the "beginnings" and "endings" Steven writes. It does one's patience. I do see a lot of parallels with my own work. Not helped by the soundtrack that sounds like something from a Canadian kids' show from the period. There are some moments of sensation - i.e. killer rats. But it feels like Paizs had too many things going on his mind, but not enough mileage for a plot. The weirder moments like the Nelson Mingus costume are entertaining, as is a meeting between two creeps soundtracked to the Birdy Song and the celebratory dance sequence. Shots go on for too long, though, e.g. the voyeuristic Body Double-esque bit. There's also scenes of a cowboy riding Steven like a bull, while a Crazies-like "secret stuff" virus contaminates the town, as Hazmat-suited goons run about. The meta-ending works, and suddenly the film becomes as interesting and as punchy as the opening, with such sights as "Steven Penny World" and more glimpses of gory colour crime movies. It is unpredictable even going as far as Steven getting superpowers and a cameo from Christ, and there is a charm to it (a sort of 50s 80s charm, if Shakin' Stevens were a movie), but it is wildly uneven, like Shaky. But unlike Shaky, there's nothing really like it. Recommended, because it
Saturday, 10 March 2018
9 - A lot of the mentions I've only seen - Lady Ice, Carny, Sword and Sorcery, Albert Brooks,
Lady Ice (1973) - Average 1970s US heist movie, made for TV but then released theatrically, with Donald Sutherland when he was doing rather bland films that really only exist in my mind as trailers.
Lady Ice does feature an out-of-place Patrick Magee in a nice suit, though.
I feel like I should the Invasion of Body Snatchers (1978) more than I do. But Kaufman doesn't want to make a sci-fi picture, but a film about relationships. He thinks he's Woody Allen.
Carny (1980) - Gary Busey is typically hateful in a rather Altmanesque/aimless wander through an interesting carnival. A documentary would have been better. It's tonally confused, and despite a young Jodie Foster, doesn't know what it is. New Hollywood I found spawned many of these aimless jaunts that'd have worked better as documentaries. And that's why I find New Hollywood overrated. I believe cinema is entertainment.
Even normal swashbucklers don't really do alienate me, especially when they go ponderous, i.e. the likes of the War Lord (1965) and Taras Bulba (1962 - where the fuck is it supposed to be set? Yes, I know but both those films feel more like a fantasy epic than a historical thing).
High fantasy's never been my strong suit I used to but-not-quite-like Krull (1983) but that's sort of SF. Dragonslayer (1981) is great, but that's very different. I kind of like Conan and Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) has an atmospheric opening, a good soundtrack and some good creature design/FX, so I kind of like that even though it is badly lit, and the cod-Shakespeareanism mixed in with Californian accents does grate, especially mixed in with the Renaissance Fayre (sic) aesthetic. Richard Lynch is a good villain, and it does go a bit overboard on the tits and ass. There is an embryo of a good film hidden in there, somewhere, but Albert Pyun's never made a good film, and this is his first and best.
I find Albert Brooks' comedy to work best in short bursts, i.e. his Tommy Cooper-esque ventriloquist's act. I found Modern Romance (1982) worse than the band of the same name, apart from the George Kennedy-as-Princess-Leia bit, but Real Life (-1979) does have some moments, i.e. Brooks trying to recreate the fire at Atlanta from Gone With The Wind in a living room, as Tara's theme plays. And Lost In America is like a half-baked romcom crossed with National Lampoon's Vacation.
Lady Ice does feature an out-of-place Patrick Magee in a nice suit, though.
I feel like I should the Invasion of Body Snatchers (1978) more than I do. But Kaufman doesn't want to make a sci-fi picture, but a film about relationships. He thinks he's Woody Allen.
Carny (1980) - Gary Busey is typically hateful in a rather Altmanesque/aimless wander through an interesting carnival. A documentary would have been better. It's tonally confused, and despite a young Jodie Foster, doesn't know what it is. New Hollywood I found spawned many of these aimless jaunts that'd have worked better as documentaries. And that's why I find New Hollywood overrated. I believe cinema is entertainment.
Even normal swashbucklers don't really do alienate me, especially when they go ponderous, i.e. the likes of the War Lord (1965) and Taras Bulba (1962 - where the fuck is it supposed to be set? Yes, I know but both those films feel more like a fantasy epic than a historical thing).
High fantasy's never been my strong suit I used to but-not-quite-like Krull (1983) but that's sort of SF. Dragonslayer (1981) is great, but that's very different. I kind of like Conan and Sword and the Sorcerer (1982) has an atmospheric opening, a good soundtrack and some good creature design/FX, so I kind of like that even though it is badly lit, and the cod-Shakespeareanism mixed in with Californian accents does grate, especially mixed in with the Renaissance Fayre (sic) aesthetic. Richard Lynch is a good villain, and it does go a bit overboard on the tits and ass. There is an embryo of a good film hidden in there, somewhere, but Albert Pyun's never made a good film, and this is his first and best.
I find Albert Brooks' comedy to work best in short bursts, i.e. his Tommy Cooper-esque ventriloquist's act. I found Modern Romance (1982) worse than the band of the same name, apart from the George Kennedy-as-Princess-Leia bit, but Real Life (-1979) does have some moments, i.e. Brooks trying to recreate the fire at Atlanta from Gone With The Wind in a living room, as Tara's theme plays. And Lost In America is like a half-baked romcom crossed with National Lampoon's Vacation.
Sunday, 4 March 2018
11 - Harry and Tonto, Night of the Hunter, Doctor Death - Seeker of Souls, Grave of the Vampire,Cinerama (Terror at the Wax doesn't count), the Being, Kill and be Killed, Abominable Snowman, the Being
The January Man (1989) - All-star serial killer comedy, a serial killer movie done in the style of When Harry Met Sally or 3 Men And A Little Baby. As wrong as that sounds. Kevin Kline does "quirky tec", Alan Rickman plays unruffled Brit, Rod Steiger plays da Chief, and ex-RTE stalwart Pat O'Connor tries to direct the chaos.
The Abominable Snowman (1957 - B/W) - Early Hammer horror, despite some good photography and sets, never really holds. Peter Cushing is good, but it still feels like a TV play. It is rather slow. And the Yetis are not great. I kind of like the design - a sort of feathered Max Wall-thing, but it's not what you'd expect of the Yeti. The 50s were a strange, transient decade for horror. A lot of the stuff is entertaining, but few are genuinely great. Someone more like Paul Massie's forceful, mannered Canadian soap opera star-like, almost Shatner-esque Dr. Jekyll for Hammer might have been better than Forrest Tucker.
Kill and Be Killed/Kill And Kill Again (1976/1981) - Apartheid-era South Africa's martial arts sensation, James Ryan stars in these two dodgy, sporadically entertaining for the wrong reasons actioners. Featuring some slight racist overtones (his black sidekick's called Gorilla - because he's subhuman - ha!) and sexism (the kidnapped Professor's daughter, ex Miss World Anneline Kriel can't go on the mission because she's a woman, even if the government say so!) Set in a generic English-speaking milieu full of British Intelligence types, and involves potato oil as a McGuffin. At times like a bad imitation of a Brian Trenchard-Smith film. Also featuring a dwarf who kung fu punches with a Punch puppet, a parrot crashing a jeep, a levitating character called the Fly, early bullet-time and a Nazi baron who lives in the desert, in his own castle. I'm not a kung fu fan per se, but there is something off-kilter about these films, a pleasing nutzoid Bond knockoff quality unlike later SA-shot ninja/kickboxer films. The action is good, but rather generic, aside from the stranger moments, but the cast, mostly radio actors are stiff. The second film in particular predates the A-Team, yet is quite similar, but as if recreated by a gang of Afrikaners going mad in the desert. The first one I have only seen lengthy clips of.
The Being (1983) - Jose Ferrer and Martin Landau star in confused "alien in small town" nonsense, like a lot of similar fare, Mutant, Nightbeast, etc. A "where are they now?" epilogue suggests a spoofy tone that doesn't seem to be there.
70s Imitation-British sorts like Cinerama's Arnold! and Terror at the Wax Museum (1973) are fun if at times a little US sitcom Halloween special, but the LA-set Doctor Death - Seeker of Souls (1974) despite a Moe Howard cameo, is a bit too TV cop show/Disney movie ish, it's an overlong Night Gallery with a plot more suited to a fifteen minute segment of that show. The flashbacks are fun, and John Considine does his best, but it's almost like a Highlander knockoff that fell backwards in time and was made by ABC TV. Directed by TV man/second unit guy Eddie Saeta, who worked on Diamonds are Forever, hence why it feels like the "gorilla woman" scene from that film stretched out to feature length, mixed with the "we want to do gothic, but we can't" feel of the likes of Grave of the Vampire (1972 - ambitiously amateurish).
Cinerama also did The Killing of Sister George (1968), which always annoyed me. Beryl Reid's great, but everyone's so hateful. It's about bitchy BBC people in the 60s, but made by ABC, and shot at Paramount. I should like it, but maybe too much camp bitchiness can cause headaches for me.
Watching the 1993 BBC version of Suddenly, Last Summer, very stagey, Tennessee Williams is not my forte, Maggie Smith's southern drawl annoying. Weird to see Irish comedienne Rosaleen Linehan in something allegedly American.
Also tried watching Harry and Tonto (1974). It's a road movie that is quite sentimental and sweet, a bit too schmaltzy. Art Carney is good, but the trouble is the makeup is a little Clive Dunn-ish. He still looks like he's pushing sixty and not eighty. He looks like a comedy old man. Compared to his performance in the slightly better Going in Style (1979 - not the crap remake which is just a straight heist film - and not the subversion the original is), where he did convince as an old man, but his character there was quite different to Harry. Not quite my kind of film, but Larry Hagman appears in his mid-career phase when he had not yet struck oil.
Night Of The Hunter (1955) I find a strange film. It's not a good or a bad film, it's a singular film, somewhere in between. It's a weird piece of art. Plus my grandad didn't like Mitchum, so maybe that has got something to do with it.
Monday, 26 February 2018
And there's more...19 - Fathom, Target, Magic Toyshop, Little Girl who Lives Down the Lane, Hindenburg, The Deep, Inferno, 92 in the Shade, Saint Jack, Blood of the Vampire, Kiss of the Vampire
Fathom (1966) - Raquel Welch in spy vehicle, better than the avarage Eurospy joint but then other Eurospy films don't have Richard Briers as the love interest, still typical insubstantial, but sporadically entertaining - not surprising as it was intended to be made by Lindsay Shonteff. The spy formula works better in film than TV (because all those ITC shows repeat themselves, even The Man from Uncle gets increasingly samey and interchangeable). The IPCRESS File (1965) is decent, because it goes somewhere different, Funeral in Berlin (1966) is generically boring (though Hugh Burden is good as a Mandarin-gowned official), and Billion Dollar Brain is a surrealist mess.
The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane (1976) - Attractive but obnoxious, rather pervy Canadian melodrama. Jodie Foster as a hateful little brat, the nearest one will get to James Harries - The Motion Picture. Martin Sheen plays a paedo.
Innocent Blood (1992) - As a fan of An American Werewolf in London, it disappoints that Landis' followup is like an episode of Tales from the Crypt, and I'm not a gangster man either.
The Magic Toyshop (1987) - Dennis Potter-y Angela Carter "what a kid thinks adult drama is like" nonsense.
Hopscotch (1980) - Glenda Jackson and Walter Matthau in amiable, bloodless but smarmy, and aimless spy comedy. End has Matthau undercover as a British Asian man buying Mitchell Beazley cookbooks, but thankfully, he does a plummy RP. It's friendly, but it's a mess. An excuse for globetrotting. George Baker has a large role. It feels too jolly. No one gets killed, but there's no jeopardy.
Target (1985) - Actually quite fun, better than similar KGB/CIA nonsense from the period. Got some ace action (including a tuk-tuk chase) and easy to follow, even in German. Better than most of Hackman's 80s output, which I find unappealing. Got a synthy video company intro-type soundtrack.
Also been watching elements of the Adventures of Beans Baxter (-1987), a typically uneven though at times inventively broad Vancouver-shot spy-comedy series from Fox by Savage Steve Holland, master of uneven but broad teen comedies, who not surprisingly, went into cartoons after this. Although there are some moments, i.e. the Halloween episode with some well-designed pumpkin monsters and a dance sequence cribbed from Strange Behaviour, "Lightnin' Strikes" and Jonathan Ward is an appealing hero, it feels too much like Saved By The Bell (or considering the filming location, Degrassi High) crossed with the stupider episodes of the Man from Uncle. Holland's stuff goes a bit too above the line marked "stupid", while trying to aim at "daft" (something the slightly better Never Too Young To Die (1986) does - John Stamos is stiff, but Gene Simmons as a hermaphrodite showgirl super-bitch is definitely wonderfully, astonishingly daft). This would perhaps work better as a cartoon, i.e. Kim Possible, which did this much better but as a cartoon.
Although the similar but better-done Teen Agent (1991), another Canadian production also worked, but that had a SAW-produced soundtrack and Roger Daltrey as Britain's greatest secret agent and Roger Rees being brilliant as a villain called Augustus Steranko, the head of the EU (yes, it's a Eurosceptic spy movie - no wonder they shot it in Montreal rather than Paris), and was probably one of the few non-Bond films to somehow capture that elusive "Bond joy", i.e. it's that rare thing - a decent Bond knockoff that doesn't go into default travelogue mode. The only good thing Richard Grieco's done. And also the Duncan Jax series are astonishing, but for so many different reasons.
Why am I only lukewarm to Robert Aldrich's films? I'm not the biggest fan of psycho-biddy. He may be the ultimate "films that are good to watch on a Sunday afternoon" director.
The Hindenburg (1975) - Great soundtrack, great effects and great design. A good cast, though the (lack of) accents don't work (Rene Auberjonois tries as a Brit, bless him). But a visual feast. The best-looking disaster movie, even if it is almost documentary-like, but it works because it is so precise, like a finely tuned clock.
The Deep (1977) - Another feast of weird accents - Eli Wallach's attempts at imitating Robert Shaw are to be heard to be believe. And again visually strong, with a cast that have some fun, and a good soundtrack. It does bore a bit, but it's not that bad. It holds itself together and doesn't embarrass itself, unlike the Island (1980).
Inferno (1980) - I admit I am not an Argento fan. Suspiria (1977) I like the idea of, and I like Jessica Harper, and I like some of the characters and the German setting, and that gets by on that, but even Creepers/Phenomena (-1985) I find a chore, although that may be in the dialogue and the soundtrack. With Inferno, so much style, almost no substance, especially being a dubbed Italian movie, saddled with clunky dialogue.Though unlike other Italian filmmakers, his New York is not grotty and realistic, shot guerilla-style but this weird backlot-y anytown. Beautifully shot nonsense, as usual, but still nonsense.Choice dialogue - "Do you know the Three Sisters?" "What, the black singers?"
92 in the Shade (1975) - Peter Fonda-Warren Oates drama about nothing, not as good as Race with the Devil, but a nice portrayal of a bromance". Not for me.
Saint Jack (1979) - Slightly too sleazy and aimless (i.e. "documentary-like") for my liking, livens up when Joss Ackland, Denholm Elliot, James Villiers and Rodney Bewes (as token Northerner) appear as drunks in a bar. Made by the usually wandering Peter Bogdanovich for his old pal Roger Corman and New World, it doesn't know what it is, exploitation or a drama. Gazzara is good, and there is a transvestite dance scene to the theme from Goldfinger, which the Broccolis got a bit touchy about, especially as there's a blink and you'll miss it bit from George Lazenby too (and Villiers of course was in a Bond). It does capture Singapore in all its sleazy disgusting glamour. Based on a book by Paul Theroux. One is reminded of his son Louis' trip to Thailand, where similarly dirty old Brits were seen wandering about Asia for sex.
Blood of the Vampire (1958) -Stylistically, a nice Hammer imitation, although so generic, it could almost be a spoof if there were any jokes in there. Victor Maddern's hunchback an annoyance. Le Mesurier turns up as a judge, Bernard Bresslaw as a thief. Donald Wolfit is OTT, by the end but it isn't a great film. It is gothic by numbers. Not as good as Kiss Of The Vampire (1963), which at times looks like it could be Hammer's best vampire film up to that point, with a great opening, Clifford Evans a decent Van Helsing figure, and great sets and a great climax. You can see Hammer are learning, but it doesn't hold together, though it may be more memorable in many respects than most of the other Hammer vampire films. Apart from Evans and Edward de Souza, the lead cast aren't especially memorable (though Peter Maddern is good as the local official), and it is hard to take seriously at times, i.e. the little car our heroes drive in. And Noel Willman is a relatively weak villain, less a vampire overlord and more a vaguely sinister Ulster Protestant clergyman/minor Unionist. The problem with it I feel are the rather unmemorable and silly cadre of vampires, and Jennifer Daniel is a little bland.
The Little Girl Who Lives Down The Lane (1976) - Attractive but obnoxious, rather pervy Canadian melodrama. Jodie Foster as a hateful little brat, the nearest one will get to James Harries - The Motion Picture. Martin Sheen plays a paedo.
Innocent Blood (1992) - As a fan of An American Werewolf in London, it disappoints that Landis' followup is like an episode of Tales from the Crypt, and I'm not a gangster man either.
The Magic Toyshop (1987) - Dennis Potter-y Angela Carter "what a kid thinks adult drama is like" nonsense.
Hopscotch (1980) - Glenda Jackson and Walter Matthau in amiable, bloodless but smarmy, and aimless spy comedy. End has Matthau undercover as a British Asian man buying Mitchell Beazley cookbooks, but thankfully, he does a plummy RP. It's friendly, but it's a mess. An excuse for globetrotting. George Baker has a large role. It feels too jolly. No one gets killed, but there's no jeopardy.
Target (1985) - Actually quite fun, better than similar KGB/CIA nonsense from the period. Got some ace action (including a tuk-tuk chase) and easy to follow, even in German. Better than most of Hackman's 80s output, which I find unappealing. Got a synthy video company intro-type soundtrack.
Also been watching elements of the Adventures of Beans Baxter (-1987), a typically uneven though at times inventively broad Vancouver-shot spy-comedy series from Fox by Savage Steve Holland, master of uneven but broad teen comedies, who not surprisingly, went into cartoons after this. Although there are some moments, i.e. the Halloween episode with some well-designed pumpkin monsters and a dance sequence cribbed from Strange Behaviour, "Lightnin' Strikes" and Jonathan Ward is an appealing hero, it feels too much like Saved By The Bell (or considering the filming location, Degrassi High) crossed with the stupider episodes of the Man from Uncle. Holland's stuff goes a bit too above the line marked "stupid", while trying to aim at "daft" (something the slightly better Never Too Young To Die (1986) does - John Stamos is stiff, but Gene Simmons as a hermaphrodite showgirl super-bitch is definitely wonderfully, astonishingly daft). This would perhaps work better as a cartoon, i.e. Kim Possible, which did this much better but as a cartoon.
Although the similar but better-done Teen Agent (1991), another Canadian production also worked, but that had a SAW-produced soundtrack and Roger Daltrey as Britain's greatest secret agent and Roger Rees being brilliant as a villain called Augustus Steranko, the head of the EU (yes, it's a Eurosceptic spy movie - no wonder they shot it in Montreal rather than Paris), and was probably one of the few non-Bond films to somehow capture that elusive "Bond joy", i.e. it's that rare thing - a decent Bond knockoff that doesn't go into default travelogue mode. The only good thing Richard Grieco's done. And also the Duncan Jax series are astonishing, but for so many different reasons.
Why am I only lukewarm to Robert Aldrich's films? I'm not the biggest fan of psycho-biddy. He may be the ultimate "films that are good to watch on a Sunday afternoon" director.
The Hindenburg (1975) - Great soundtrack, great effects and great design. A good cast, though the (lack of) accents don't work (Rene Auberjonois tries as a Brit, bless him). But a visual feast. The best-looking disaster movie, even if it is almost documentary-like, but it works because it is so precise, like a finely tuned clock.
The Deep (1977) - Another feast of weird accents - Eli Wallach's attempts at imitating Robert Shaw are to be heard to be believe. And again visually strong, with a cast that have some fun, and a good soundtrack. It does bore a bit, but it's not that bad. It holds itself together and doesn't embarrass itself, unlike the Island (1980).
Inferno (1980) - I admit I am not an Argento fan. Suspiria (1977) I like the idea of, and I like Jessica Harper, and I like some of the characters and the German setting, and that gets by on that, but even Creepers/Phenomena (-1985) I find a chore, although that may be in the dialogue and the soundtrack. With Inferno, so much style, almost no substance, especially being a dubbed Italian movie, saddled with clunky dialogue.Though unlike other Italian filmmakers, his New York is not grotty and realistic, shot guerilla-style but this weird backlot-y anytown. Beautifully shot nonsense, as usual, but still nonsense.Choice dialogue - "Do you know the Three Sisters?" "What, the black singers?"
92 in the Shade (1975) - Peter Fonda-Warren Oates drama about nothing, not as good as Race with the Devil, but a nice portrayal of a bromance". Not for me.
Saint Jack (1979) - Slightly too sleazy and aimless (i.e. "documentary-like") for my liking, livens up when Joss Ackland, Denholm Elliot, James Villiers and Rodney Bewes (as token Northerner) appear as drunks in a bar. Made by the usually wandering Peter Bogdanovich for his old pal Roger Corman and New World, it doesn't know what it is, exploitation or a drama. Gazzara is good, and there is a transvestite dance scene to the theme from Goldfinger, which the Broccolis got a bit touchy about, especially as there's a blink and you'll miss it bit from George Lazenby too (and Villiers of course was in a Bond). It does capture Singapore in all its sleazy disgusting glamour. Based on a book by Paul Theroux. One is reminded of his son Louis' trip to Thailand, where similarly dirty old Brits were seen wandering about Asia for sex.
Blood of the Vampire (1958) -Stylistically, a nice Hammer imitation, although so generic, it could almost be a spoof if there were any jokes in there. Victor Maddern's hunchback an annoyance. Le Mesurier turns up as a judge, Bernard Bresslaw as a thief. Donald Wolfit is OTT, by the end but it isn't a great film. It is gothic by numbers. Not as good as Kiss Of The Vampire (1963), which at times looks like it could be Hammer's best vampire film up to that point, with a great opening, Clifford Evans a decent Van Helsing figure, and great sets and a great climax. You can see Hammer are learning, but it doesn't hold together, though it may be more memorable in many respects than most of the other Hammer vampire films. Apart from Evans and Edward de Souza, the lead cast aren't especially memorable (though Peter Maddern is good as the local official), and it is hard to take seriously at times, i.e. the little car our heroes drive in. And Noel Willman is a relatively weak villain, less a vampire overlord and more a vaguely sinister Ulster Protestant clergyman/minor Unionist. The problem with it I feel are the rather unmemorable and silly cadre of vampires, and Jennifer Daniel is a little bland.
Points of view - on gothic horror and Dracula - Ramblings part 1 - 12- exc. Price
My favourite adap of Dracula is the 1981 BBC radio serial Sherlock Holmes vs Dracula, Timothy West as Watson. Interesting how it dovetails Holmes and Watson into the mystery.
My favourite Dracula film - well I think the best Hammer Dracula is Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), followed by AD (1972). I like the opening of the Monster Squad (1987) and Duncan Regehr is magnificent, but the kids are a bit annoying. I like Horror of Dracula (1958), but I feel Mina and Lucy are a little miscast, i.e. they already feel like housewives. And MichaelGough I think has a little bit too little to do, he's a bit lost as the wet Harker-type romantic lead. It is weird how they shift roles between characters, and it is a bit too much of a drawing room drama, but it comes to life with the little cameos of Bayldon, Malleson, Woodbridge, etc. and there's real energy in the chase bits, but Dracula should be a chase, and the plot feels slowed down.
Lugosi (1931) is unsurpassable, that and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) the best Universals.
Also Love at First Bite (1979) is great, especially Arte Johnson's Renfield, which spawned a bunch of laughless but almost loveably terrible vampire spoofs, Nocturna, Mama Dracula (1980 - which escalates into a vampire variety show, and has a nice Roy Budd soundtrack but thinks "Peter von Blood" is a funny name, when the overrated Dr. Blood's Coffin already had a Peter Blood), and of course Young Frankenstein spawned Son of Dracula (1974), the Harry Nilsson musical with Ringo as Merlin and set in a future with the Channel Tunnel, and despite Freddie Jones' Frankenstein is quite rubbish, descending into a vampire Sextette, complete with Ringo and Keith Moon.
Nosferatu 1979 isn't great, the Louis Jourdan one is a little overlong and flouncy though Jourdan has presence.
Blacula (1973) is fun, the sequel a bit of a stretch. The Langella one (1979) is dreadful, even though it has some nice design at the beginning, the Whitby bits are fun but then it goes downhill.
Francis Ford Dracula's Bram Stoker's Coppola (1992) is well-designed in parts, but it mostly looks like a horribly anachronistic FMV videogame. Hopkins tries his best, but has to go panto due to lack of material. Oldman is unspeakable, and Keanu looks like Dash X from Eerie, Indiana when he gets grey hair. Tom Waits is fun.
I prefer period horror when it is rooted in Victoriana. I'm not a fan of Poe or Mittel-Europe. Per Price I kind of like House of Wax and The Fly (not so much the sequels/remakes - Return of the Fly is sort of the Fly if it were an Outer Limits ep), but I massively prefer Vincent's British films. Because often in the AIP Corman films, the cast apart from Price aren't good, until they bring in Lorre, Hazel Court, Karloff, Barbara Steele too, but they dub her. I'm not quite a Poe fan. Masque of the Red Death's good though it lags, Tomb of Ligeia I can't stand but The Premature Burial I like because of the whole Molly Malone thing, but the Poes are usually boring,they feel like cheap US sitcoms or western shows. Especially The Raven - which is almost an episode of Bewitched.
I prefer the 70s gothic, run-down Britain, even the 20s dieselpunk of the Phibes films.I like the Night of the Demon-type supernatural menace infringing on the mundane - not hauntings, I find them samey though sometimes they can almost be rewarding i.e. Full Circle, despite Farrow.
My favourite Dracula film - well I think the best Hammer Dracula is Taste the Blood of Dracula (1970), followed by AD (1972). I like the opening of the Monster Squad (1987) and Duncan Regehr is magnificent, but the kids are a bit annoying. I like Horror of Dracula (1958), but I feel Mina and Lucy are a little miscast, i.e. they already feel like housewives. And MichaelGough I think has a little bit too little to do, he's a bit lost as the wet Harker-type romantic lead. It is weird how they shift roles between characters, and it is a bit too much of a drawing room drama, but it comes to life with the little cameos of Bayldon, Malleson, Woodbridge, etc. and there's real energy in the chase bits, but Dracula should be a chase, and the plot feels slowed down.
Lugosi (1931) is unsurpassable, that and Bride of Frankenstein (1935) the best Universals.
Also Love at First Bite (1979) is great, especially Arte Johnson's Renfield, which spawned a bunch of laughless but almost loveably terrible vampire spoofs, Nocturna, Mama Dracula (1980 - which escalates into a vampire variety show, and has a nice Roy Budd soundtrack but thinks "Peter von Blood" is a funny name, when the overrated Dr. Blood's Coffin already had a Peter Blood), and of course Young Frankenstein spawned Son of Dracula (1974), the Harry Nilsson musical with Ringo as Merlin and set in a future with the Channel Tunnel, and despite Freddie Jones' Frankenstein is quite rubbish, descending into a vampire Sextette, complete with Ringo and Keith Moon.
Nosferatu 1979 isn't great, the Louis Jourdan one is a little overlong and flouncy though Jourdan has presence.
Blacula (1973) is fun, the sequel a bit of a stretch. The Langella one (1979) is dreadful, even though it has some nice design at the beginning, the Whitby bits are fun but then it goes downhill.
Francis Ford Dracula's Bram Stoker's Coppola (1992) is well-designed in parts, but it mostly looks like a horribly anachronistic FMV videogame. Hopkins tries his best, but has to go panto due to lack of material. Oldman is unspeakable, and Keanu looks like Dash X from Eerie, Indiana when he gets grey hair. Tom Waits is fun.
I prefer period horror when it is rooted in Victoriana. I'm not a fan of Poe or Mittel-Europe. Per Price I kind of like House of Wax and The Fly (not so much the sequels/remakes - Return of the Fly is sort of the Fly if it were an Outer Limits ep), but I massively prefer Vincent's British films. Because often in the AIP Corman films, the cast apart from Price aren't good, until they bring in Lorre, Hazel Court, Karloff, Barbara Steele too, but they dub her. I'm not quite a Poe fan. Masque of the Red Death's good though it lags, Tomb of Ligeia I can't stand but The Premature Burial I like because of the whole Molly Malone thing, but the Poes are usually boring,they feel like cheap US sitcoms or western shows. Especially The Raven - which is almost an episode of Bewitched.
I prefer the 70s gothic, run-down Britain, even the 20s dieselpunk of the Phibes films.I like the Night of the Demon-type supernatural menace infringing on the mundane - not hauntings, I find them samey though sometimes they can almost be rewarding i.e. Full Circle, despite Farrow.
Friday, 23 February 2018
Animation roundup + 8
Dinner for Adele (1978) - The Czech Nick Carter - some over-mannered comedy and some amusing Little Shop of Horrors-ish violin-loving plant monster schtick that is infinitely better for being the work of Jan Svankmajer.But otherwise, imagine an annoying Czech Great Race, see also some of director Oldrich Lipsky's other films, a lot of them fairytale-ish, like all those deliberately charming but rather staid Jackanory-ish fairytale films churned out by Soviet TV, e.g. the Soviet Mary Poppins and Gorky Film's Academia Pana Kleska.
I prefer Svankmajer's less surreal for the sake it, more recognisable, less experimental stuff. Was watching episodes of Adam 84, an early 80s Czech sci-fi series, somewhere between the Tripods and Star Maidens, with some Svankmajer animation and a Captain Zep-ish classroom. All very rum, but because it is Czech, it goes through some unexpected areas.
Been glimpsing a few Canadian Christmas TV specials, Teddy Bear's Picnic, the schamltzy but visual Nilus the Sandman (voiced by Long John Baldry, a prolific CanCon animation voice, thus providing a link between Up The Chastity Belt and Sonic the Hedgehog), and For Better or Worse have the same anodyne feeling. But most Christmas specials do. This is the anodyne side of Canadian animation. Even the For Better or For Worse specials don't quite have the henpecked frenetic feel of the domestic shorts of the National Film Board of Canada. The unusual spark of NFB shots such as Caroline Leaf's magical The Street and Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa, less so in her Two Sisters.
Ishu Patel's NFB work, even the Punjabi Noggin of How Death Came To Earth (1971) feel like overlong title sequences for ethnic programming.
The Journey of the Melonia (1989) - Attractive but inconsequential Swedish SVT adaptation of the Tempest, with a Worzel Gummidge-ish scarecrow-fish Caliban.
Epic (1985) - Stunning prehistoric tale about dingos, dinosaurs and lost children by Australian animation pioneer Yoram Gross, with narration by John Huston. Better animated and more serious than Gross' earlier ventures, the Dot movies and the creepy Little Convict, and not cos it has Rolf in it.
The Wind and the Song (1959) - Bretislav Pojar's short, beautiful if a little too trad, an adult Andy Pandy versus a lion, armed with an accordion.
Delta Space Mission (1981) - Romanian Movie Channel regular anime-alike, straightforward space mission from Romaniafilm, with a Terrahawks-y soundtrack. Voice Marcel Iures later starred as the shifty foreign doctor in Wicklow-shot "itinerant, farmer and vet vs cow-monster" horror Isolation with Ruth Negga and John Lynch.
Also been watching other slightly-more-Eastern European favourites such as Lotte Reiniger's striking colour work, Karel Zeman's work and clumsy stop-motion baldies Pat and Mat, simplistic woodsman filler Boris the Bold/Jan Rumcajs, and Zagreb film's Professor Balthazar - a Doctor Snuggles type educator in some charming but fairly unremarkable little shorts featuring Mice who did a Robert Powell at Big Ben and aliens who sing giallo soundtrack-like jingles.
Been watching Bruno Bozzetto's glorious Mr. Rossi films, like an Italian proto-Wallace and Gromit. The Dreams of Mr. Rossi is the weakest, Mr. Rossi's Vacation goes from inventive caravans including the Nautilus to an Italian Animal Farm rip-off to Alpine fun to funny animal frolics to fourth wall-freaking frenzies, while Mr. Rossi Searches For Happiness includes time travel, Alias the Jester cosplay, rocket houses, singing tree trunks and racist native caricatures with bones through their noses!
Also watched one of the 70s Agaton Sax animations, but the style doesn't fit the character as well as the Quentin Blake drawings, and the whole thing resembles a cartoon Edgar Wallace krimi, and London looks like Stockholm.
I prefer Svankmajer's less surreal for the sake it, more recognisable, less experimental stuff. Was watching episodes of Adam 84, an early 80s Czech sci-fi series, somewhere between the Tripods and Star Maidens, with some Svankmajer animation and a Captain Zep-ish classroom. All very rum, but because it is Czech, it goes through some unexpected areas.
Been glimpsing a few Canadian Christmas TV specials, Teddy Bear's Picnic, the schamltzy but visual Nilus the Sandman (voiced by Long John Baldry, a prolific CanCon animation voice, thus providing a link between Up The Chastity Belt and Sonic the Hedgehog), and For Better or Worse have the same anodyne feeling. But most Christmas specials do. This is the anodyne side of Canadian animation. Even the For Better or For Worse specials don't quite have the henpecked frenetic feel of the domestic shorts of the National Film Board of Canada. The unusual spark of NFB shots such as Caroline Leaf's magical The Street and Metamorphosis of Mr. Samsa, less so in her Two Sisters.
Ishu Patel's NFB work, even the Punjabi Noggin of How Death Came To Earth (1971) feel like overlong title sequences for ethnic programming.
The Journey of the Melonia (1989) - Attractive but inconsequential Swedish SVT adaptation of the Tempest, with a Worzel Gummidge-ish scarecrow-fish Caliban.
Epic (1985) - Stunning prehistoric tale about dingos, dinosaurs and lost children by Australian animation pioneer Yoram Gross, with narration by John Huston. Better animated and more serious than Gross' earlier ventures, the Dot movies and the creepy Little Convict, and not cos it has Rolf in it.
The Wind and the Song (1959) - Bretislav Pojar's short, beautiful if a little too trad, an adult Andy Pandy versus a lion, armed with an accordion.
Delta Space Mission (1981) - Romanian Movie Channel regular anime-alike, straightforward space mission from Romaniafilm, with a Terrahawks-y soundtrack. Voice Marcel Iures later starred as the shifty foreign doctor in Wicklow-shot "itinerant, farmer and vet vs cow-monster" horror Isolation with Ruth Negga and John Lynch.
Also been watching other slightly-more-Eastern European favourites such as Lotte Reiniger's striking colour work, Karel Zeman's work and clumsy stop-motion baldies Pat and Mat, simplistic woodsman filler Boris the Bold/Jan Rumcajs, and Zagreb film's Professor Balthazar - a Doctor Snuggles type educator in some charming but fairly unremarkable little shorts featuring Mice who did a Robert Powell at Big Ben and aliens who sing giallo soundtrack-like jingles.
Been watching Bruno Bozzetto's glorious Mr. Rossi films, like an Italian proto-Wallace and Gromit. The Dreams of Mr. Rossi is the weakest, Mr. Rossi's Vacation goes from inventive caravans including the Nautilus to an Italian Animal Farm rip-off to Alpine fun to funny animal frolics to fourth wall-freaking frenzies, while Mr. Rossi Searches For Happiness includes time travel, Alias the Jester cosplay, rocket houses, singing tree trunks and racist native caricatures with bones through their noses!
Also watched one of the 70s Agaton Sax animations, but the style doesn't fit the character as well as the Quentin Blake drawings, and the whole thing resembles a cartoon Edgar Wallace krimi, and London looks like Stockholm.
Saturday, 17 February 2018
Horror roundup - 32 (36 inc. the Fly/It's Alive sequels, 37 inc. Brotherhood of Satan)- Dreamscape, Last Voyage, F/X, It's Alive, Moon Zero Two, Three O'Clock High, Tam-Lin, Mumsy, Nanny, the Fly, X the Unknown,
The Witchmaker (1969) - Atmospheric if kind of dull horror, by L.Q. Jones and his mates, later to make the similar Brotherhood of Satan (1970), good production values, nice sets lit in a Poe-Corman-ish manner, and swampy locations, but hasn't got much going for it. The end has a neat climax that prefigures the later Devil's Rain, but features a lot more swamp drownings.
The Last Voyage (1960) - It's probably a good film, but its novelty is ruined by the fact that a. the crux of the film was used again and again as stock footage, and b. The Poseidon Adventure is more fun. The Last Voyage is rather dry, and the documentary style means characters are secondary. I like my disaster movies fun (though I am bored by the overlong Towering Inferno (1974)).
Flesh + Blood (1985) - Though I like Total Recall, I find Verhoeven's other dramas unwatchable. This is basically an R-rated, sexy, bloody reboot of his old Rutger Hauer kids' TV show Floris, but for the VHS age. The equivalent of making White Horses into an Emanuelle knockoff.
Dreamscape (1984) - A rather forgettable conspiracy thriller with a good cast, and a better poster. Like a lot of 70s films pre-Elm Street, e.g. The Premonition (1976), etc. - films that were emblematic that US horror in the 70s was kind of forgettable, even with good casts, the indie films tend to be oddly bland and oddly transgressive at the same time, and that those with higher aspirations just bore.
F/X (1986) and F/X 2 (1989) - the thing with these films is that the tone is not heightened enough for Bryan Brown and his character. Needed to be a bit more pulpy/superhero ish, the problem with pulp adaptations or spiritual adaptations. The second one isn't as good but has a good twist. And the theme tune's by Imagination.
The Girl in the Yellow Pyjamas (1977) - Typically routine giallo, Mel Ferrer and Ray Milland appear, lifted by being shot in Australia. A typical Italian potboiler (the titular girl is a burnt corpse with a remaining eyeball in a golden nightie) lifted by some well-shot Australian scenery. Pity the film isn't as good as the theme tune by international disco-chanteuse of mystery, Amanda Lear.
It's Alive (1974) - A good drama. Neatly performed, but Larry Cohen's stuff is like marmite. The characters aren't likeable, apart from John P. Ryan's excellent performance (It's Alive III misses his presence, Michael Moriarty is good but he doesn't do haunted like Ryan), and the budget does restrict. The sequels expand the world, but it becomes silly. A Return to Salem's Lot (1986), The Stuff (1985) and God Told Me To (1976) I find are Larry Cohen's best films. The rest tend to be messes, enjoyable messes at times but still. I think he is like Brian Clemens, a decent, dependable TV writer (and I have kind of gone off episodic TV drama - too samey, even the anthologies) and a more interesting man than most of his films, who can at times come up with something brilliant, but a lot of his work is unique but messy. sometimes either too weird or not weird enough to work.
Three O'Clock High (1987) - Typical 80s high schooler - a subgenre I never warmed to once I became a teenager (see also US sex comedies), enlivened by a few sub-Raimi jokes and some good performances by the adults - John P. Ryan, Philip Baker Hall, Jeffrey Tambor and Charles Macaulay.
Equinox (1970) - Good monsters, but otherwise an amateurish venture on a level somewhere between Blood Feast and Creation of the Humanoids. Clearly made by monster-mad kids, but still a home movie.
The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1958 - B/W) - Noirish but not very engrossing sub-Creature from the Black Lagoon fare, same makeup team and all.
Moon Zero Two (1969) - Not as fun as it should be, ITC-like, got that live-action Gerry Anderson feel where the heroes are even wooden and characterless than puppets. It's all very UFO - nice modelwork, girls in funny wigs, but everything's cold and although there's some fun cameos from Michael Ripper and some overdone western elements (i.e. people in cowboy outfits for no real reason), it just doesn't gel. Warren Mitchell has fun, and Bresslaw tries his best, but take the monsters of the shonky Green Slime (1968), and put them in here - and it'd have worked.
Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972) - Typical Spanish horror - a few interesting images - skeletal horse-riding monks' corpses massacring a steam engine, but endlessly drawn out and sloppily put together.
Tam-Lin (1970) - Ava Gardner and Ian McShane in an annoying ITC-style psychedelic erotic thriller. Nice locations. For all my childhood obsession with the Wicker Man (1973), I find that film a pleasng musical comedy with queasy horror overtones, a sort of demented Scottish sex comedy, a Pagan pantomime where Lee is the dame and Abanazer all in one, a variety show that builds up to that wonderful thing - a virgin sacrifice. This has a similar but slightly more rigid feel, despite having Cyril Cusack as a fruity vicar. It's nicely photographed, but all the characters are annoying sex-mad flower children, sort of like Blofeld's lovelies in OHMSS (and Jenny Hanley and Joanna Lumley turn up again). It feels stretched beyond its means. If it had been a TV anthology episode, it might have worked. Roddy McDowall, in his only film as director does it quite well, but it's a nonsensical eroticisation of Scottish myth. Some moments, i.e. the fiery inferno feel like a slavesploitation film, but with hippies instead of blacks, in other words boring, rather than toe-curlingly embarrassing that you can't stop watching. Gardner is convincingly terrifying, but possibly unintentionally.
Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (1970) - Freddie Francis' erotically-charged dark satire on the British family. Tonally all over the place, the innocence of the adult characters and the psycho-sexual awakening doesn't quite work. If it had been a TV production, with the more queasy sadistic elements chopped off and the childish camp played up, it might have worked in a hyped-up Avengers way, but it stands as an interesting failure. Like Tam-Lin, and inverted in Straight On Till Morning (1972), it gives us an unlikeable figure, usually a childish killer in swinging Europe and then tries to make them sympathetic, even though when we already know they are maniacs or at least dodgy sorts. It's Alan Hawe syndrome - making a psycho a saint. You can make a killer an audience surrogate, but usually if you pair them against someone worse. Not here.
Curtains (1983) - Neatly shot in attractively bleak Canadian locations, with an interesting killer (a cousin of the androgynous Compo in Pete Walker's the Comeback), but with its cold, middle of Canadian nowhereland setting, innately dull despite itself. Despite its film setting, with John Vernon as a director, Samantha Eggar as a method actress, and Linda Thorson as one of the cast, it doesn't make much of the Hollywood North setting. There's scenes in a Canadian comedy club, and Linda Thorson reading Variety, and hr agent moaning about the trades, but it could be anywhere, and maybe that was the point. The film they are making isn't a horror, which is a shame, as it would have created some biting satire on the industry at the time, but no, we get a horror that thinks it is a Canadian soap opera. The ending is neat, but the film itself is evidence this was a tough shoot.
Also saw similarly themed psychodramas Julie Darling (1983), where Anthony Franciosa wanders around Canada and West Germany posing as the US, to contend with his loving but crazy daughter who is either fifteen or twelve, but played by a nineteen year old, directed by a German calling himself "Paul Nicolas" (note the lack of H), and Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1982), which was a video nasty (the Young Ones watch it in their episode - "Nasty"), and stars Susan Tyrrell, the American Nurse Gladys Emmanuel as a crazy woman who loves her son too much, and despite being a nasty, was directed by sitcom/Beach Party vet William Asher, and produced by Comworld, a company initially founded as Osmond Enterprises, and then sold by Donny, Marie, Jimmy, and the other ones to Burt Reynolds. Both typically duff 80s horror, made without much care. Both films could be interchangeable, if they featured the same genders in the same roles. Both belong in the same bargain bin as a dozen or other 80s horrors with melodramatically melancholy theme tunes and little else.
Blue Monkey (1987) - When Canadian films try to be American, they are usually a mess. This is no exception, like an overlong episode of a bland cable anthology. William Fruet is a bit of a hack. His films are usually samey, even Spasms, lots of darkness. Then again, he directed episodes of Goosebumps and a few other TV shows, so there's a reason why it feels a bit telly-ish. The OTT hair and looks of some characters seem to suggest a spoof, other details don't.
Dr. Dowell's Testament (1980) - Slow, overlong Soviet twist from Lenfilm on the tired old "ranting disembodied brain/head" genre of sci-fi. Set in an overcast Caribbean, i.e. the Black Sea. Quite unique though, gives its subgenre a weird spin.
The Fly (1958). Weirdly, never seen this. Seen the sequels, and bits of the remake, but I'm not a Cronenberg fan (The Brood's too clinical, The Dead Zone the same, it is good, the cold Canadian landscape works, but it's too serious and a little bland - could have been a bit more like The Medusa Touch but actually consistently good). As for the 1958 The Fly, The production is grand, even though it doesn't convince as Quebec. The cast is good. Vincent Price looks happy to be in a relatively plush production. It has a sexist kid - "she changed her mind - you know how women are", while Kathleen Freeman is actually quite good in a serious role. One of the better B-movies. Well performed, well staged, well-paced = a good film.
Cul De Sac (1966 - B/W) - Polanski nonsense, as usual. Trying to make an Eastern European comedy in England and failing.
Happy Birthday To Me (1981) - Too much Degrassi-esque stuff (i.e. electrifying the teacher's hair during class) is in there, though having the lead (played by Melissa Sue Anderson, Blind Mary Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie) having a home life that is essentially a godawful Canadian Dynasty knockoff is fun, with the bitchy mother and her father being in Caracas. The teacher's accent I couldn't discern if she was Irish or Newfie. And Glenn Ford appears to be in a different, better film, one that J. Lee Thompson thinks he is making. There is a better film in there, but the actual film is too long. It is better directed than most other slashers. A few choice moments sneak in - the bellringer death is a Phibes-worthy punchline. But the doppelganger plot is confusing. A bit Clemens. One of the better-made Canadian horror ventures, but it's a disappointment.
X The Unknown (1957 - B/W) - Most fun of the 50s British SF movies. Proto-UNIT era Doctor Who.
The Last Voyage (1960) - It's probably a good film, but its novelty is ruined by the fact that a. the crux of the film was used again and again as stock footage, and b. The Poseidon Adventure is more fun. The Last Voyage is rather dry, and the documentary style means characters are secondary. I like my disaster movies fun (though I am bored by the overlong Towering Inferno (1974)).
Flesh + Blood (1985) - Though I like Total Recall, I find Verhoeven's other dramas unwatchable. This is basically an R-rated, sexy, bloody reboot of his old Rutger Hauer kids' TV show Floris, but for the VHS age. The equivalent of making White Horses into an Emanuelle knockoff.
Dreamscape (1984) - A rather forgettable conspiracy thriller with a good cast, and a better poster. Like a lot of 70s films pre-Elm Street, e.g. The Premonition (1976), etc. - films that were emblematic that US horror in the 70s was kind of forgettable, even with good casts, the indie films tend to be oddly bland and oddly transgressive at the same time, and that those with higher aspirations just bore.
F/X (1986) and F/X 2 (1989) - the thing with these films is that the tone is not heightened enough for Bryan Brown and his character. Needed to be a bit more pulpy/superhero ish, the problem with pulp adaptations or spiritual adaptations. The second one isn't as good but has a good twist. And the theme tune's by Imagination.
The Girl in the Yellow Pyjamas (1977) - Typically routine giallo, Mel Ferrer and Ray Milland appear, lifted by being shot in Australia. A typical Italian potboiler (the titular girl is a burnt corpse with a remaining eyeball in a golden nightie) lifted by some well-shot Australian scenery. Pity the film isn't as good as the theme tune by international disco-chanteuse of mystery, Amanda Lear.
It's Alive (1974) - A good drama. Neatly performed, but Larry Cohen's stuff is like marmite. The characters aren't likeable, apart from John P. Ryan's excellent performance (It's Alive III misses his presence, Michael Moriarty is good but he doesn't do haunted like Ryan), and the budget does restrict. The sequels expand the world, but it becomes silly. A Return to Salem's Lot (1986), The Stuff (1985) and God Told Me To (1976) I find are Larry Cohen's best films. The rest tend to be messes, enjoyable messes at times but still. I think he is like Brian Clemens, a decent, dependable TV writer (and I have kind of gone off episodic TV drama - too samey, even the anthologies) and a more interesting man than most of his films, who can at times come up with something brilliant, but a lot of his work is unique but messy. sometimes either too weird or not weird enough to work.
Three O'Clock High (1987) - Typical 80s high schooler - a subgenre I never warmed to once I became a teenager (see also US sex comedies), enlivened by a few sub-Raimi jokes and some good performances by the adults - John P. Ryan, Philip Baker Hall, Jeffrey Tambor and Charles Macaulay.
Equinox (1970) - Good monsters, but otherwise an amateurish venture on a level somewhere between Blood Feast and Creation of the Humanoids. Clearly made by monster-mad kids, but still a home movie.
The Monster of Piedras Blancas (1958 - B/W) - Noirish but not very engrossing sub-Creature from the Black Lagoon fare, same makeup team and all.
Moon Zero Two (1969) - Not as fun as it should be, ITC-like, got that live-action Gerry Anderson feel where the heroes are even wooden and characterless than puppets. It's all very UFO - nice modelwork, girls in funny wigs, but everything's cold and although there's some fun cameos from Michael Ripper and some overdone western elements (i.e. people in cowboy outfits for no real reason), it just doesn't gel. Warren Mitchell has fun, and Bresslaw tries his best, but take the monsters of the shonky Green Slime (1968), and put them in here - and it'd have worked.
Tombs of the Blind Dead (1972) - Typical Spanish horror - a few interesting images - skeletal horse-riding monks' corpses massacring a steam engine, but endlessly drawn out and sloppily put together.
Tam-Lin (1970) - Ava Gardner and Ian McShane in an annoying ITC-style psychedelic erotic thriller. Nice locations. For all my childhood obsession with the Wicker Man (1973), I find that film a pleasng musical comedy with queasy horror overtones, a sort of demented Scottish sex comedy, a Pagan pantomime where Lee is the dame and Abanazer all in one, a variety show that builds up to that wonderful thing - a virgin sacrifice. This has a similar but slightly more rigid feel, despite having Cyril Cusack as a fruity vicar. It's nicely photographed, but all the characters are annoying sex-mad flower children, sort of like Blofeld's lovelies in OHMSS (and Jenny Hanley and Joanna Lumley turn up again). It feels stretched beyond its means. If it had been a TV anthology episode, it might have worked. Roddy McDowall, in his only film as director does it quite well, but it's a nonsensical eroticisation of Scottish myth. Some moments, i.e. the fiery inferno feel like a slavesploitation film, but with hippies instead of blacks, in other words boring, rather than toe-curlingly embarrassing that you can't stop watching. Gardner is convincingly terrifying, but possibly unintentionally.
Mumsy, Nanny, Sonny and Girly (1970) - Freddie Francis' erotically-charged dark satire on the British family. Tonally all over the place, the innocence of the adult characters and the psycho-sexual awakening doesn't quite work. If it had been a TV production, with the more queasy sadistic elements chopped off and the childish camp played up, it might have worked in a hyped-up Avengers way, but it stands as an interesting failure. Like Tam-Lin, and inverted in Straight On Till Morning (1972), it gives us an unlikeable figure, usually a childish killer in swinging Europe and then tries to make them sympathetic, even though when we already know they are maniacs or at least dodgy sorts. It's Alan Hawe syndrome - making a psycho a saint. You can make a killer an audience surrogate, but usually if you pair them against someone worse. Not here.
Curtains (1983) - Neatly shot in attractively bleak Canadian locations, with an interesting killer (a cousin of the androgynous Compo in Pete Walker's the Comeback), but with its cold, middle of Canadian nowhereland setting, innately dull despite itself. Despite its film setting, with John Vernon as a director, Samantha Eggar as a method actress, and Linda Thorson as one of the cast, it doesn't make much of the Hollywood North setting. There's scenes in a Canadian comedy club, and Linda Thorson reading Variety, and hr agent moaning about the trades, but it could be anywhere, and maybe that was the point. The film they are making isn't a horror, which is a shame, as it would have created some biting satire on the industry at the time, but no, we get a horror that thinks it is a Canadian soap opera. The ending is neat, but the film itself is evidence this was a tough shoot.
Also saw similarly themed psychodramas Julie Darling (1983), where Anthony Franciosa wanders around Canada and West Germany posing as the US, to contend with his loving but crazy daughter who is either fifteen or twelve, but played by a nineteen year old, directed by a German calling himself "Paul Nicolas" (note the lack of H), and Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1982), which was a video nasty (the Young Ones watch it in their episode - "Nasty"), and stars Susan Tyrrell, the American Nurse Gladys Emmanuel as a crazy woman who loves her son too much, and despite being a nasty, was directed by sitcom/Beach Party vet William Asher, and produced by Comworld, a company initially founded as Osmond Enterprises, and then sold by Donny, Marie, Jimmy, and the other ones to Burt Reynolds. Both typically duff 80s horror, made without much care. Both films could be interchangeable, if they featured the same genders in the same roles. Both belong in the same bargain bin as a dozen or other 80s horrors with melodramatically melancholy theme tunes and little else.
Blue Monkey (1987) - When Canadian films try to be American, they are usually a mess. This is no exception, like an overlong episode of a bland cable anthology. William Fruet is a bit of a hack. His films are usually samey, even Spasms, lots of darkness. Then again, he directed episodes of Goosebumps and a few other TV shows, so there's a reason why it feels a bit telly-ish. The OTT hair and looks of some characters seem to suggest a spoof, other details don't.
Dr. Dowell's Testament (1980) - Slow, overlong Soviet twist from Lenfilm on the tired old "ranting disembodied brain/head" genre of sci-fi. Set in an overcast Caribbean, i.e. the Black Sea. Quite unique though, gives its subgenre a weird spin.
The Fly (1958). Weirdly, never seen this. Seen the sequels, and bits of the remake, but I'm not a Cronenberg fan (The Brood's too clinical, The Dead Zone the same, it is good, the cold Canadian landscape works, but it's too serious and a little bland - could have been a bit more like The Medusa Touch but actually consistently good). As for the 1958 The Fly, The production is grand, even though it doesn't convince as Quebec. The cast is good. Vincent Price looks happy to be in a relatively plush production. It has a sexist kid - "she changed her mind - you know how women are", while Kathleen Freeman is actually quite good in a serious role. One of the better B-movies. Well performed, well staged, well-paced = a good film.
Cul De Sac (1966 - B/W) - Polanski nonsense, as usual. Trying to make an Eastern European comedy in England and failing.
Happy Birthday To Me (1981) - Too much Degrassi-esque stuff (i.e. electrifying the teacher's hair during class) is in there, though having the lead (played by Melissa Sue Anderson, Blind Mary Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie) having a home life that is essentially a godawful Canadian Dynasty knockoff is fun, with the bitchy mother and her father being in Caracas. The teacher's accent I couldn't discern if she was Irish or Newfie. And Glenn Ford appears to be in a different, better film, one that J. Lee Thompson thinks he is making. There is a better film in there, but the actual film is too long. It is better directed than most other slashers. A few choice moments sneak in - the bellringer death is a Phibes-worthy punchline. But the doppelganger plot is confusing. A bit Clemens. One of the better-made Canadian horror ventures, but it's a disappointment.
X The Unknown (1957 - B/W) - Most fun of the 50s British SF movies. Proto-UNIT era Doctor Who.
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