No, really–not B-Girls, but BEE Girls! BZZZZZZ! “They’ll love the very life out of your body!” A bevy of sultry sirens turned mutated insect women prey on the male population in this gonzo sci fi epic, the last feature from usually sober-minded director/documentarian/Oscar winner Denis Sanders. Reissued as Graveyard Tramps(!).
Edward L. Cahn directed and monster-maker Paul Blaisdell built the little aliens with the great big heads for this lighthearted sci-film film released in 1957. As usual in an AIP picture, it’s teenagers to the rescue when a flying saucer sets down in the middle of lover’s lane. Steven Terrell and Gloria Castillo play the…
Lest America become overrun with Commie hordes, this urgent warning from Al Zugsmith in the form of a mass hallucination of stock footage destruction puts us on the right path to stockpiling armaments. It’s actually lots of fun and it features both Lois Lanes from the tv Superman series in small roles.
A haunted Bela Lugosi prowls his mansion and lurks in shadowy doorways as houseguests bite the dust in this 64 minute tangle of mind control, mysterious doubles and dual-personalities. Nascent noir specialist Joseph H. Lewis contributes moody atmosphere to the best-directed of Bela’s poverty row Monogram horror entries– eight years before Lewis’s triumph, Gun Crazy.
“Earth Given 24 Hours to Surrender!” It’s those darned aliens again! This time they’re reanimating dead people that they killed in the first place. Luckily for us, sci fi stalwart John Agar is on the job. But a lot of years have passed and who knows how many of these unseen creatures are currently running…
Len Deighton’s nameless working class spy becomes Harry Palmer, “the thinking man’s Bond” in the first of three downsized Harry Saltzman productions (star Michael Caine revisted the character in two ’90s entries). Many personnel from the Bond films contributed, but it’s director Sidney Furie’s off-center compositions and clever use of Techniscope that makes this one…
Gaspar Noé uses all the tricks in the book to make a standard grindhouse thriller seem like an art film. The plot is simple, two men set out to avenge the brutal rape of a woman—but the events are shown in reverse and seemingly in one continuous shot. Noé even brings back Sensurround to amp…
Karel Reisz’ epic biography of Isadora Duncan—an American dancer whose European exploits made her a political lightning rod—stars Vanessa Redgrave, no stranger to controversy herself. Told mostly in flashback as Duncan dictates her memoirs, the 1968 film co-stars James Fox and Jason Robards. Redgrave won just about every best actress award under the sun save…
One of the bigger interplanetary spectacles of the 50s, and one of the last films shot in 3-strip Technicolor, Universal’s “Supreme Excitement of Our Time” brought out the sense of wonder in a generation of cold war tykes while scaring them half to death with the unlikely but cool “Mutants”: “similar to the insect life…
“They’re restless tonight,” mutters the insane Dr. Moreau about the vengeful natives on whom he’s been doing presciently Mengele-like experiments. Philip Wylie was one of the screenwriters who adapted H.G. Wells’ anti-vivisectionist screed, which was remade in 1977 and 1996, with uncredited ripoffs in 1959 (Terror is a Man) and 1973 (Twilight People). For a…
All of us at Trailers from Hell mourn the untimely passing of TFH Guru Par Excellence Michael Schlesinger, a devout film aficionado devoted to extolling the virtues of the movies we all love, and who helped rescue a number of them from obscurity and/or decomposition. Michael left us with several unaired TFH commentaries, which we’ll…
It helps to be an Elvis fan, but this 1957 deliquency drama (his third acting role) is still one of The King’s better movies, from the “serious” period before The Colonel pimped him out to Sam Katzman.
It all comes together memorably in this, the Jewel in the Crown of the Ray Harryhausen/Charles Schneer mythological adventures. An uncommonly literate and intelligent script (by Jan Reed and Beverley Cross) and brisk direction by Don Chaffey that showcases Ray’s FX brilliance make this an enduring classic. Bernard Herrmann’s music score is one of his…
After warning us that everything there is to say about Steven Spielberg’s seminal summer blockbuster has pretty much already been said, Josh manages to find a few things to talk about anyway.
All That Jazz, director Bob Fosse’s ode to Bob Fosse, is one of the most kinetic, technically dazzling movie musicals ever made. The film, a thinly-veiled autobiography of Fosse himself, might be remembered as an ego-driven series of Fellini-esque set pieces were it not for the shrewd casting of affable, streetwise Roy Scheider as Joe…
About a young aboriginal girl raised by European parents, director Charles Chauvel said the inspiration for his 1955 film came from Merian C. Cooper, a producer who knew his way around the backwaters. Although popular in Australia as the first domestic movie filmed in color, Jedda did not fare well in the US or UK where…
Written and directed by Arthur Barron, this bittersweet high school romance won over some pretty hard-bitten critics upon its release in 1973. Robbie Benson plays the love-shy Jeremy and Glynnis O’Connor is the young ballet student who breaks the ice (she also sings the title tune). The movie was co-produced by Elliot Kastner who knew…
Jesus Christ Superstar, Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice’s rock opera about the final week in the life of Jesus, first appeared as a studio recording in 1970 before being given a fully-fledged production on Broadway in 1973. Norman Jewison’s film arrived soon after, allowing the show’s music to come full circle as it routinely…
A pre-Rocky John Avildsen directed this grungy NY indie that was conceived as an exploitation film but evolved into something more immediate and disturbing. Peter Boyle, in his breakthrough role as a hippie-hating hardhat, teams up with ad exec Dennis Patrick, who has just accidentally killed his daughter’s drug-dealer boyfriend. Boyle and Patrick are terrific…
Joe Dante visits the Severin Cellar and finds some old friends. Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing are on the menu, so join us, won’t you? And here’s a handy run-down of the treasures to be found, courtesy of Blu-ray.com. Joe Dante Enters the Severin Cellar
The three principals of John and Mary — stars Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow, plus director Peter Yates — were all coming off monster hits, The Graduate, Rosemary’s Baby and Bullitt. That they chose to follow those pop culture bombshells with this relatively low key love story says something about Hollywood clout. Barely remembered today,…
Henry Silva’s gaunt face and implacable demeanor made him the perfect villain for a host of films in the 50’s and 60’s but it wasn’t until Johnny Cool that he was awarded leading man status. William Asher (Muscle Beach Party) directed this visceral revenge thriller and cast his then-wife, Elizabeth Montgomery, opposite Silva’s malevolent hitman. Produced…
Robert Taylor is Johnny Eager, a bad-guy turned good in Melvyn LeRoy’s 1942 noir about a double-dealing racketeer who’ll step on anyone to get what he wants. That includes Lana Turner as his eager-to-please lover and Van Heflin as Johnny’s right-hand man and only friend. Heflin won an Oscar for his trouble.
Nick Ray’s wild “revisionist” western must be the most critically dissected Republic Picture ever. Pure fifties hysteria with Mercedes McCambridge at her most terrifyingly overwrought. Great cast and terrific score by Victor Young.
An exploitation picture staple was the cutdown feature version of the 12-chapter serial, but they were seldom directed by filmmakers as distinguished as Fritz Lang, who fled Hitler to become a Hollywood success. But in 1960 AIP bought two elaborate 1957 German-made Lang adventures and combined them into one hectic movie.
A sleek and smart sci-fi thriller that vanished into the cosmos due in part to the supernova that was 2001. Known as Doppelgänger in its original British release, the film starred Roy Thinnes as an astronaut with space-time continuum problems. Directed by Robert Parrish, the film was produced by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson of Supercar fame – which explains the…