“Once it was human, even as you and I!” Initiated by Fox’s Lippert B-unit but bumped up to A-status, this 1958 baby-boomer classic spawned two sequels and David Cronenberg’s 1986 remake, which he recently turned into an opera. Vet director Kurt Neumann never lived to see his last film become one of the studio’s most…
Cronenberg’s tragicomic gross-out remake of the 1958 Vincent Price original goes to extremes unusual for a major studio release. Jeff Goldblum plays the charmingly off-kilter scientist Seth Brundle whose experiment backfires, turning him into a six foot, four inch insect; “Brundlefly”. Goldblum’s low key humor and close-to-the-vest performance, along with the empathetic screenplay (echoing the…
Another pre-code musical from director Lloyd Bacon and more unforgettably wack-a-doo dance sequences from Busby Berkeley. This one features a powerhouse cast including Joan Blondell, Dick Powell and the incendiary James Cagney (whose galvanic tap dancing leaves the adorably klutzy Ruby Keeler in the dust). Fun-starved depression audiences made this another big hit for Warners,…
Sergio Leone’s more elaborate followup to A Fistful of Dollars became one of the seminal Euro westerns, turning the Man with No Name series into a Bond-like tentpole for distributor United Artists and cementing Clint Eastwood’s international stardom. That unforgettable Ennio Morricone score ain’t bad either!
Dr. Morbius. His daughter Altaira. Robby the Robot. The Monster from the Id. Did we mention Altaira? (!) All are cultural icons introduced in the best-loved space opera of the nifty fifties, based on The Bard and bolstered by memorable special effects by Disney’s Josh Meador as well as a famous free ticket promo gimmick…
Starring a psychotronic cast including Hervé Villechaize, Viva, and Joe Spinell, director Richard Elfman fashioned this musical comedy around The Mystic Knights of the Oingo Boingo, an absurdist theater troupe. Originally shot in black and white, the cartoonish chaos revolves around the “Hercules Family” whose basement acts as a portal to the Sixth Dimension. Danny…
A super-charged throwback to the glory days of 60’s racetrack movies like LeMans and Grand Prix, James Mangold directs Matt Damon and Christian Bale who carry the mantle for speed demon thespians like Steve McQueen and James Garner. The film itself is a period piece, set in 1963 with Damon and Bale portraying the real-life auto team of…
Hitchcock’s second American movie is an up-to-the-minute, brilliantly designed (Wm Cameron Menzies) international espionage thriller, a prototype for his subsequent Hollywood career. Full of memorable setpieces and sporting a snappy script by Charles Bennett, Joan Harrison, James Hilton and Robert Benchley! Released days before the blitz of Britain, the final scene is stirring even today. Here’s…
When I think back on all the crap I learned in high school It’s a wonder I can think at all And though my lack of education hasn’t hurt me none I can read the writing on the wall -Paul Simon, “Kodachrome” Although that song plays us out ahead of and during the credits for…
Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon first met on this film, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. A seven-week hiatus ensued between the scene of Matthau racing up the stairs to Lemmon’s apartment, check in hand, and his opening the door, as Matthau suffered a near-fatal heart attack at the top of the stairs. When he…
Not Sam Fuller’s greatest western, but still stylish, ballsy and memorable if only for this exchange– Barbara Stanwyck to Barry Sullivan about his gun: “Can I touch it?” – “It might go off in your face.”
Cult favorite Samuel Fuller explodes the mid-range Hollywood oater with elements we can all appreciate: a ritualistic fetishizing of the gunslinger ethos, and a reliance on kinky role reversals and provocative tease dialogue. It’s as radical as a western can be without becoming a satire. Playing it all perfectly crooked-straight is the still formidable Barbara…
Arthur Penn’s episodic, determinedly non-Hollywood drama follows the fortunes of three boys and a girl from high school through college and beyond. Steve Tesich’s layered, semi-autobigraphical screenplay was shot on location Indiana, Illinois and Pennsylvania with a non-star cast. Praised on release as one of the most evocative portraits of the 1960s, it has fallen through the cracks…
The kind of dual-bill programmer they stopped making in the early 60s, this combines tv-level production values with mildly horrific elements and a slumming cast of aging veterans. It does have lotsa skulls, though.
Neil Simon, a first-time screenwriter with three hits running on Broadway, wanted Marcello Mastroianni to play the lead in this movie-biz caper comedy, but got Peter Sellers instead, who had always wanted to work with Vittorio De Sica. De Sica brought on his writer pal Cesare Zavattini. He and Simon wrote together through interpreters, but…
Coming of age via sex and drugs in the San Fernando Valley as observed by British director Adrian Lyne in his feature debut. Not exactly a box office bombshell, but it has come to be considered one of the most realistic portraits of teen life during the‚ era despite the overuse of atmospheric‚ smoke that…
“Don’t mess aroun’ with Foxy Brown!” Writer-director Jack Hill made blaxploitation history with Coffy, then followed it up with another Pam Grier vehicle that mines the same AIP formula of sex and sensationalism . Watch out for those razor blades in her Afro!
Frank Henenlotter’s 1990 horror spoof centers around a young medical student whose girlfriend is killed in a freak lawnmower accident. Trying to put his life (and his girlfriend) back together, he haunts the morgues in search of spare parts – with the help of a few deceased prostitutes – voilà, Frankenhooker! Most critics were wary…
Mary Shelley’s 1818 novel inspired this 1931 collaboration between James Whale and Boris Karloff, a gothic tour de force that changed the course of motion pictures. Colin Clive plays Henry Frankenstein, the over-zealous monster-maker, and Karloff is his tragic creation—manufactured from a dozen different body parts but with a lonely soul all his own. Mae…
Well, it seemed pretty futuristic in 1958! At least there’s a new-fangled atomic reactor in the Baron’s basement. Boris Karloff returns to the property that made him famous, but this time it’s 6′ 8″ wrestler Mike Lane playing the monster.
The heart of the Frankenstein monster is transplanted into an orphan who promptly blossoms into a gap-toothed giant with a flat head reminiscent of Karloff’s legendary creature. This so-called “Frankenstein” is one of Japan’s wackier anti-heroes; he does battle with a spiky critter known as Baragon, another in a long line of Toho’s rubber-suited behemoths….
The inventive director Roy William Neill makes the first of the Universal Monster rallies an exciting and surprisingly scary thrill-ride. Lon Chaney’s Wolf Man just happens to bump into the Frankenstein monster and in this particular universe, it all seems quite natural. Patrick Knowles plays the doctor who seeks to cure Chaney and revive the…
Richard Rush’s buddy/cop action comedy made hardly a ripple in its theatrical release (although there was a short-lived 1980 TV series), but over the years it’s developed a cadre of hard-core followers, not least of which is Mr. Olson. This pan-and-scan trailer is one of the dullest and least representative we’ve ever run here at…
A bizarrely inventive black comedy that devolves into a twisted riff on Little Red Riding Hood, Matthew Bright’s Freeway delights in keeping its audience off balance. The terrific Reese Witherspoon plays a plucky teen on the run from the terrifying Big Bad Wolf played by Kiefer Sutherland. This 1996 sleeper was produced by Oliver Stone….
Five Oscars went to William Friedkin’s dynamic NYPD saga based on the exploits of detective Eddie Egan, who envisioned himself being played by Rod Taylor. Instead, Gene Hackman leapt to stardom in the role. The Department, annoyed by scripter Ernest Tidyman’s portrayal of the force, canned Egan seven hours before he was to sign his…
Hitchcock’s first London-based production since Stage Fright is also one of his most surprisingly modern. A Hollywood screening as part of Edgar Wright’s “The Wright Stuff” film series delighted a packed house of 20-somethings who had never been exposed to it before. The dinner scenes between Vivien Merchant and chief inspector Alec McCowan killed.