In Martin Scorsese’s “King of Comedy,” Robert De Niro plays Rupert Pupkin, a demented fan obsessed with the late-night talk show host played by Jerry Lewis. If De Niro’s digs in Taxi Driver creeped you out, what did you think of his basement room in this movie? The fake talk show set – complete with…
Here’s another installment featuring Joe Dante’s reviews from his stint as a critic for Film Bulletin circa 1969-1974. Our thanks to Video Watchdog and Tim Lucas for his editorial embellishments! Attack of the giant rabbits. Poor title and lack of excitement give it only moderate potential for ballyhoo duallers. Rating: PG. The Fifties live…
Even for such a low budget movie, Bert Gordon’s THE CYCLOPS has an unusually hungry appearance. With its undernourished special effects, desolate Bronson Canyon settings and lost-and-lonely title character, the movie practically begs for its supper, inviting our sympathy if not our charity. It does offer a stalwart cast of Hollywood stars, fallen though they…
When we talk about wine, the talk always turns to Pinot Noir. It’s considered by many wine snobs to be the grape that’s hardest to get into the bottle, but the most expressive of the conditions from which it comes. If you’d like the full-length lecture, just ask the nearest wine snob. Make sure you…
Before we get to today’s Fleapit Flashback, we wanted to mention the passing of Mike Vraney of Something Weird Video who died on January 2, 2014 at the age of 56. Mike played an essential part in the preservation of film history, in particular those bizarre outliers of the movie world, the outrageous, the preposterous…
During a routine assignment in outer space, stalwart space jockey Neil Patterson (Eric Fleming) and his trusty crew crash land on the planet Venus where they’re waylaid by a mob of petulant space-babes decked out in mini-skirts and ray-guns. These comely Venusians are already enslaved by their own dictator, the deranged, man-hating Queen Illyana and…
When Ron Howard’s first film, “Grand Theft Auto,” was made, I thought great wine was the Spanada my mom kept in the fridge. I don’t know how mom would feel about her favorite beverage being relegated to the category of “bum wine,” but at $7.70 for a magnum, it would seem to come in on…
In honor of the post-Christmas euphoria that accompanies those new toys (a week or so before you tire of them), here’s a few look-backs at the commercials that made us want them in the first place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-QrIDAWUag https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXiZVOPOJZM And our thanks to Johnny Legend for passing along these yuletide leftovers! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYdlYl3Icbc
As an alternative to the usual yuletide TV fare, we’ve put together a few festive goodies that should nicely compliment the egg nog, gingerbread cookies and (eek) fruit cake. First up is a cartoon from the studio that gave us Frankenstein, Dracula and other monsters we know and love, Universal. It’s Toyland Premiere, a 1934…
Here’s another installment featuring Joe Dante’s reviews from his stint as a critic for Film Bulletin circa 1969-1974. Our thanks to Video Watchdog and Tim Lucas for his editorial embellishments! Highly exploitable thriller about two‑headed killer on the loose. Has big potential as a novelty item for horror‑ballyhoo situations. Rating: GP. The old saying…
In Mad Magazine’s 1954 send-up of Alice In Wonderland, Alice finds herself once again surrounded by the nightmare inhabitants of Lewis Carroll’s looking glass world and finally snaps, unleashing a terrified wail, “It may be quaint by you!… It may be delightful by you!… It may be Wonderland by you! By me it’s only one…
Kim Novak and James Stewart may have been feeling a bit dizzy from “Vertigo” when they teamed up again less than a year later for “Bell, Book and Candle.” This romantic comedy is set in Manhattan, during the Christmas season. The story revolves around a subculture of witches there. Despite the beautiful cinematography, the backdrop…
Here’s another installment featuring Joe Dante’s reviews from his stint as a critic for Film Bulletin circa 1969-1974. Our thanks to Video Watchdog and Tim Lucas for his editorial embellishments! Weirdo Italian‑made thriller has some unique facets. Should attract attention in sex‑ballyhoo houses and drive‑ins. Rating: R. Although it doesn’t quite fulfill the odd…
The Court Jester was a vanity project put together in 1956 by Danny Kaye’s own production company and, at nearly four million dollars (around thirty-five million in contemporary coin), the most expensive comedy produced to that date. Even with that formidable budget sitting on its shoulders, the movie never feels weighed down; with its palatial…
For the Trailers From Hell gang, nothing gets us in the mood for the holidays like a yuletide slasher movie. “Black Christmas” was directed by Bob Clark in 1974. Nine years later he would settle in to a more conventional view of the holiday season with “A Christmas Story.” Ralphie would have peed in…
Here’s another installment featuring Joe Dante’s reviews from his stint as a critic for Film Bulletin circa 1969-1974. Our thanks to Video Watchdog and Tim Lucas for his editorial embellishments! Routine horror‑plus sex entry has student scientist turning others into monsters. Slow, but neat title, some nudity and youth angles give it booking potential…
The title, Jason and the Argonauts, is slightly misleading. It’s really the story of Zeus, an overworked Greek god who is beginning to tire from the strain of dispensing (literally) earthshaking decisions seven days a week. His loving wife, Hera, is starting to assert her own divine authority and meanwhile, down on earth, mortals themselves…
Wine Goes to the Movies with Now And Zin and Trailers From Hell In “Cat People,” a man marries a woman who is afraid she will become a killer cat if she has sex with her husband. That’s right, she thinks if she lets herself be a “panter,” she’ll turn into a “panther.” Maybe a…
Here’s another installment featuring Joe Dante’s reviews from his stint as a critic for Film Bulletin circa 1969-1974. Our thanks to Video Watchdog and Tim Lucas for his editorial embellishments! Gunplay and sex, both in comparatively moderate degree, make this crime‑chase programmer a better than average booking for ballyhoo houses and drive‑ins, especially where…
Whatever Happened to Baby Jane, Robert Aldrich’s morbidly fascinating Hollywood gothic starring Bette Davis and Joan Crawford, had its premiere in October of 1962. William Castle, the director of Homicidal and sundry other shockers, took a close look at Baby Jane’s box office and two years later, with Crawford in tow, produced his own morbidly fascinating…
If you’d prefer to watch Boris and Bela duke it out rather than those two guys in aisle C wrestling each other to the ground over an iPad Air, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s 1940’s Black Friday! Karloff stars as an ethically-challenged scientist who transfers the grey matter of a brutal gangster into…
The compact 6 X 8 inch magazine first appeared in 1990 featuring one of the waterlogged ghosts from Carnival of Souls framed within a TV screen. The black and white format was pretty unprepossessing in the day but the contents were anything but. Right out of the gate Video Watchdog proclaimed itself “The Perfectionist’s Guide…
In Martin Scorsese’s “King of Comedy,” Robert De Niro plays Rupert Pupkin, a demented fan obsessed with the late-night talk show host played by Jerry Lewis. If De Niro’s digs in Taxi Driver creeped you out, what did you think of his basement room in this movie? The fake talk show set – complete with…
Here’s another installment featuring Joe Dante’s reviews from his stint as a critic for Film Bulletin circa 1969-1974. Our thanks to Video Watchdog and Tim Lucas for his editorial embellishments! Werewolves on Wheels Terrific ballyhoo title and plenty of violence should bring very good returns in exploitation, drive-in markets. Gross motorcycle horror film is…
Based on Jules Verne’s CAREER OF A COMET, Valley of the Dragons stars Cesare Danova (Mean Streets) and Sean McClory (The Quiet Man) as two dueling cavaliers suddenly swept into earth’s orbit on the back of a wayward comet. Edward Bernds, the man responsible for the Three Stooges’ comeback hit The Three Stooges Meet Hercules,…
It would happen this way: You may be walking one day and a car will slow down beside you. A door will open and someone you you know – perhaps someone you trust – will smile and offer you… a bottle of wine. The 1970s brought a new kind of spy movie to us –…