Raoul Walsh gets a powerhouse performance out of an exhausted Ida Lupino in an atmospheric noir soaper that was originally intended for Ann Sheridan. This troubled production received mixed reviews, but it touched an audience nerve and became a big hit. One of Martin Scorsese’s favorites.
Austrian shoestring auteur Edgar G. Ulmer hits it out of the park with one of the first-out-the-gate alien invasion movies, which scared a lot of early ’50s tykes when it was sold to television soon afterward.
For their 1957 “Silver Jubilee”, Universal offered this occasionally accurate biopic of its biggest silent star, Lon Chaney, as portrayed by the always reliable James Cagney. At the personal request of his widow Norma Shearer, producer Irving Thalberg is played by fledgling actor Robert Evans in his second film role before later becoming a Hollywood mogul himself.
Capital and labor work together to suppress a great invention in this essential Ealing comedy. Alec Guinness invents an indestructible cloth that threatens to destroy the textile industry. Dry, witty and subversive satire from the versatile Alexander Mackendrick.
In recent years Richard Fleischer’s critically derided adaptation of‚ Kye Onstott’s ‚ steamy novel has been revalued as a progressive portrait of a racist era, but Josh Olson begs to differ. Even in its day this anti-Gone With the Wind‚ effusion was considered beyond the pale, but it was successful enough on the exploitation circuit…
In some ways the ultimate Nicolas Cage movie, Panos Cosmatos’ Mandy, gives the go-for-broke actor plenty of room to rage. Cage plays “Red”, a lumberjack seeking retribution for the unspeakable murder of his girlfriend—and the bloodier the revenge, the better (a chainsaw fight propels the hallucinatory climax). Andrea Risebourough plays the star-crossed Mandy, Cosmatos and Aaron…
Before The Silence of the Lambs, there was Michael Mann’s stylish Dino de Laurentiis-sponsored Hannibal Lecter serial killer movie with Brian Cox as Lecter. Based on the Thomas Harris novel, this underrated initial film version of the story exists in more various edits than Heinz has ketchup. TV shows such as Millennium and CSI: Crime…
Shot quickly and cheaply in New York on super 16mm, William Lustig’s sleazoid gorefest was banned in numerous countries and heavily cut in others. Tom Savini’s gruesome makeup FX set the corpuscular standard for years to come. Caroline Munro replaced Daria Nicolodi at the last minute.
Determined bachelor Rock Hudson is a so-called fishing expert but clueless when it comes to baiting a hook—fortunately Paula Prentiss really knows how to reel ’em in. The plot of Howard Hawks’s 1964 farce recalls his great screwball comedies of the 30’s but drew yawns from both audiences and critics. Molly Haskell has since recanted…
Hardly a high point in the careers of stars Richard Basehart and Gloria Grahame (not to mention an up-and-coming Lance Henrickson), this grisly little grindhouse version of Eyes Without a Face still has its disturbing moments. Insane surgeon Basehart transplants the eyeballs of unwilling live donors into the sockets of his maimed daughter and fails…
Gene Kelly and Natalie Wood manufacture some May-December fireworks in a rocky romance between a young Jewish woman and a discriminating hoofer. Directed by Irving Rapper and based on Herman Wouk’s best seller, Kelly and Wood receive able support from Claire Trevor, Ed Wynn, and especially Carolyn Jones whose performance caught the critics’ eyes.
Mark of the Vampire Blu-ray Warner Archive Collection 1935 / 1.33: 1 / 60 Min. Starring Lionel Barrymore, Bela Lugosi Written by Guy Endore, Bernard Schubert Directed by Tod Browning Tod Browning died in 1962, living long enough to see his work enjoy a resurgence on late night’s Shock Theater, a syndicated TV package featuring…
Tod Browning’s remake of London After Midnight is about as close as we’ll get to seeing how his lost Lon Chaney silent might have played. Beautifully mounted, but MGM took the scissors to it before its release and there are only 61 minutes‚ left. Some cool stuff nevertheless, until you get to the controversial twist…
Sometimes considered the first sign of Alfred Hitchcock’s late career diminishing returns, this glossy adaptation of Winston Graham’s novel about a sexually disturbed thief has also been called the director’s last masterpiece. The lead role was intended for Grace Kelly, but the princess’s husband put the kibosh on that. In a previous TFH commentary Larry…
Another elaborate personalized Hitchcock trailer. His “sex mystery” followup to The Birds has its adherents, but Larry Cohen isn’t one of them. Nice Bernard Herrmann score though, and the star of Family Plot has a supporting role. For the record, Dan Ireland has a more positive view of Marnie.
A savvy satire of both political and sexual gamesmanship, I Married A Witch, based on an unfinished novel by Topper author Thorne Smith, would seem to be the perfect union between two brilliant moviemakers, Rene Clair and Preston Sturges (Clair directed, Sturges produced). It’s full of his stock company of character actors but Sturges left…
Wrapping up our George Romero tribute in conjunction with the Melbourne Film Festival, here is one of his least heralded independent productions, which plays fast and loose with many horror traditions. John Amplas is the titular serial-killer-vampire — or is he?
Ernest Borgnine made his mark in films playing the archetypal bully before performing an abrupt about-face in 1955’s Marty, Delbert Mann’s surprise hit about a sweet-natured but shy shopkeeper. Oscars went to Borgnine, Mann, the movie itself, and screenwriter Paddy Chayefsky. As Marty’s equally awkward sweetheart, Betsy Blair won the British Academy Award for Best Actress.
This time the Corman/Poe series moves to England for what is generally considered the best film in the series. Tabloid news was made circa 1964 when costar Jane Asher’s boyfriend visited the set: Paul McCartney.
When Leo Gorcey and Huntz Hall grew too paunchy for their Dead End Kid personas they simply switched gears and became the Bowery Boys—older and far dumber versions of their former street-smart selves. Low-brow and low-budget, the Boys took a Stooges-like slapstick approach to their adventures and 1949’s Master Minds is one of their most…
TV cartoon characters Skeletor, He-Man, Beast Man and Evil-lyn spring to live action life in a broken tentpole from the pinchpennies at The Cannon Group. Josh Olson was there and gives us a breathtaking on-set report.
Filmed under the unlikely title The Presbyterian Church Wager, this opium-fueled anti-western was shot in sequence on frigid Vancouver locations. Director Altman and star Warren Beatty (in a role the studio wanted George C. Scott to play) collaborated on script revisions throughout. The mesmerizing result, strikingly shot by Vilmos Zsigmond, also owes a debt to Leonard…
Jan-Michael Vincent learns how to be a hit man from – who better? – Charles Bronson! Before they teamed on the mega-hit Death Wish, Bronson and director Michael Winner combined to pummel this well-regarded thriller into one of the key action films of the ’70s. The dialog-free opening 15 minutes plays like pure cinema.
Combining electrifying cinema-verite documentary footage shot during actual events (including the riots at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago) with a more conventional story featuring actors, director-cameraman Haskell Wexler tried to illuminate the splintering of the American psyche at the height of the war in Vietnam. The resultant film, incongruously distributed by Gulf +…
From Peter Jackson’s misspent youth comes this wild and wooly musical satire featuring a cast of misanthropic puppets. With its bizarrely designed characters and plot turns involving porn actors and drug addicts, this 1989 New Zealand release is like a nightmare version of one of Disney’s Silly Symphonies. The writers include Jackson himself and future…
“Have you ever been kissed by a woman like this?” There are no words to describe this one, but Joe comes up with a few anyway.