10 Rillington Place, part of a mundane row of apartments in London, was ground zero for one of the most infamous serial killers in England’s history. Richard Attenborough plays John Christie, a ghoul who used his wall space and floorboards to hide his grisly deeds. Directed by Richard Fleischer, the film co-stars John Hurt as…

Ursula Andress’s bullet-spraying bra was the talk of the nation when Elio Petri’s 1965 pop-sci fi spoof hit the screen. In the 21st century, violence is legally channeled into televised “hunts” for the public’s amusement, an outlandish idea then–but dangerously close to reality (TV) today! Unforgettable jazz-lounge score by Piero Piccioni.

Aiming squarely at the allowances of moppet readers of Famous Monsters of Filmland, William Castle followed “Percepto” with a new gimmick in 1960, “Illusion-O”. Paul Frees’ scary narration probably got him the job as the voice of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

Based on Stephen King’s 1999 short story about a haunted hotel room, Mikael Håfström’s 2007 adaptation stars John Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson. Cusack plays a skeptic who can’t resist spending a night in the spook-infested place where, as they say, “you can check in, but you can’t check out.” 

Ben Franklin and Tom Jefferson sing their hearts out in Peter Hunt’s movie version of the Tony award winning Broadway show. A musical based on events leading up to the signing of the Declaration of Independence, Howard da Silva plays Franklin, Ken Howard is Jefferson, and William Daniels dons the powered wig for John Adams….

Steven Spielberg, along with screenwriters Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, pays tribute to the all-star comedy epics of the 60s in this 1979 WWII farce, in particular The Russians Are Coming, The Russians Are Coming. It’s one of those rare big-budget films where every single penny is right there on the screen and though it suffers…

The dino-like Ymir is one of Ray Harryhausen’s most personable stop-motion creations and the last to benefit from his brilliant black-and-white lighting. Currently available in a lamentably colorized video version which shows Ray’s work to its least advantage.

Many a baby boomer’s most treasured recollections of the 1960s include one or more altered-state viewings of Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke’s game-changing science fiction film, which combined extraordinary, state-of-the-art special effects with a metaphysical meditation on life, death and rebirth played out in Super Panavision 70. Douglas Trumbull’s groundbreaking visual effects remain as…

As the manager of a sprawling New Orleans hotel, Rod Taylor has his hands full in this all-star soap opera from 1967. Written by Airport scribe Arthur Hailey, Hotel follows a similar boilerplate as the trials and tribulations of our beleaguered cast come to a head under claustrophobic conditions. Karl Malden and Kevin McCarthy play…

For years studio development execs have tried to use Sydney Pollack’s classic conspiracy thriller as a template for would-be blockbusters, but hardly any of the various subsequent attempts have equalled it. A model of plot construction and cleverly built tension.

Peter Hall’s 1969 drama proved Britain’s Kitchen Sink cinema was alive and well at the end of the sixties—though by then the focus was more on bedsheets than tablecloths. Rod Steiger plays a salesman working through his mid-life crisis with the help of a treacherous teen played by Judy Geeson. Claire Bloom plays Steiger’s very…

The largely forgotten Ann Dvorak sizzles in this snappy 63 minute‚ pre-code Warner Bros. melange of booze, drugs and gambling. Scarface star Dvorak still has a cult following, which has gotten a modern boost from‚ recent dvd releases of her films‚ by TCM Archives. As a result, Turner Classic Movies has scheduled a Summer Under…

Van Heflin plays a down-and-out rancher who meets an offer he can’t refuse; he can save his ranch if he’ll ride herd on the ruthless outlaw played by Glenn Ford. Delmer Daves directed this modern classic from a script by Halsted Welles based on Elmore Leonard’s short story. Veteran cameraman Charles Lawton Jr. (The Lady…

This 1940 Australian war film about the Light Horse Cavalry was directed by Charles Chauvel, the nephew of much-decorated Sir Harry Chauvel and the commander of that particular cavalry. In a nod to Gunga Din, the film features a trio of rowdy soldiers played by Grant Taylor, Joe Valli and Chips Rafferty. Of the three, only Rafferty broke…

Produced in the midst of the great depression, director Lloyd Bacon’s pre-code crowd-pleaser doesn’t ignore the grim cloud hanging over the country. The film’s dramatic elements could easily have tipped over to tragedy but Bacon’s choreographer (and unofficial co-director) Busby Berkeley devised a series of phantasmagorical dance sequences (including the 20 minute finale) that transported…

This was a bright spot in a fallow period for director John Frankenheimer after disasters like PROPHECY. The magic charms of the late Elmore Leonard kicked in big time with his screenplay from his own novel, part of his lucrative evolution from westerns to suspense and crime films.

Nicholas Ray’s final film was an honorable attempt to combine complex political and social issues while straining to satisfy mainstream audiences’ appetite for traditional epics. That strain got to Ray – he collapsed midway and was replaced by Andrew Marton and Guy Green. The 1963 film was a disappointment at the box office with contemporary…

The Circus of Dr. Lao, written by Charles G. Finney in 1935, was a cynical, trenchant satire of the small minds of small town people.  George Pal, whose perennially sunny demeanor was in sharp contrast to Finney’s curdled comedy, kept his rose-colored glasses firmly in place when he directed his own version in 1964 from…

This first in a series of unique Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher collaborations defines the phrase “adult western” which was primarily used to describe tv shows of the late 50s. This is a textless version of the trailer, made for foreign use, with backgrounds devoid of title cards.

Setting aside his usual gonzo theatrics, Álex de la Iglesia deftly juggles several genres in this 2002 film including action, drama and especially comedy. A bittersweet salute to spaghetti westerns and the stuntman who made them, the film stars Sancho Gracia and Carmen Maura. The suitably dusty photography was courtesy of de la Iglesia regular, Flavio Martínez Labiano.

“Life is an obscure hobo, bumming a ride on the omnibus of art.” The wit and wisdom of writer Charles B. Griffith, Roger Corman’s hipper-than-thou alter-ego, is in even fuller flower here than in his classic followup, “Little Shop of Horrors”, aided immeasurably by Dick Miller’s indelible performance as psychotic busboy Walter Paisley. Charles B….

Accept no substitutes, 1951’s A Christmas Carol stands alone as the definitive film version of Dickens’ classic. The sublime Alastair Sim is the heart and soul of the movie as Scrooge, a sour recluse whose heart and soul is kept in the cash register. Sometimes a noir, sometimes a comedy, sometimes downright scary, Brian Desmond Hurst’s film…

The Marx’s second glossy comedy for MGM is not nearly so rowdy or unpredictable as their Paramount classics but it’s the Marxes so who’s complaining. Sam Wood’s 1937 film toes the company line but Harpo, Chico and especially Groucho as the alarming Dr. Hackenbush make a point of stepping on that toe as often as…

Jean Renoir’s sun-drenched romance was filmed in 1936 but not finalized and released until 1946. It’s the bittersweet story of two couples who change partners while picnicking along the banks of the Seine. The movie was photographed by Renoir’s brilliant nephew Claude (his uncle’s The River and Vadim’s Barbarella).

Directed by George Cukor, A Double Life could be seen as a grim satire of method acting. Ronald Colman plays Anthony John, an actor who gets a little too wrapped up in the characters he plays—and when that character is a murderer, his co-stars better watch out. Colman’s “real” co-stars include Signe Hasso, Edmond O’Brien,…

A celebrity sociopath fools all of the people some of the time on his way to political office. Sound familiar? Elia Kazan’s lacerating portrait of a down home demagogue has never lost its disturbing relevance. Anchored by a ferocious performance by Andy Griffith, Budd Schulberg’s media-savvy satire, based on his story “The Arkansas Traveler”, has…