The Wachowskis’ $120 million big studio live-action version of Tatsuo Yoshida’s 52-episode anime series (syndicated to US TV during the 1967-68 season) was a major critical and commercial flop even after 17 years of development, which variously involved such names as Julien Temple, Gus Van Sant, Alfonso Cuaron, J.J. Abrams, Vince Vaughan, Johnny Depp and…
Once likened to a sitcom directed by Luis Bunuel, Jack Hill’s bizarre mini-budget debut feature was barely seen until the video revolution. This one-of-a-kind jet-black comedy casts Lon Chaney as the harried caretaker of an inbred family of homicidal maniacs. Weird, dark and funny, with standout performances by Chaney, Sid Haig and the mesmerizing Jill…
This classic mockumentary about The World’s Loudest Heavy Metal Band was largely improvised before unsuspecting patrons of various LA rock emporiums, who accepted Spinal Tap as a real band. May be the best film of its type ever.
Actor Andrew Duggan was Warner Bros.’ go-to guy for folksy 60s voiceovers, and he supplies a warm tone to this trailer for Elia Kazan’s popular teen drama. Warren Beatty and Natalie Wood’s Romeo and Juliet suffer nobly from living on different sides of the train tracks in William Inge’s bittersweet reminiscence of his formative years…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week is all about the laffs, as we come up with wines to pair with a trio of films that take a comedic look at other genres. No fooling. The 1999…
“Spook” being both a racial slur and slang for CIA agent, Ivan Dixon’s filmization of Sam Greenelee’s 1969 novel is one of the most astonishing Hollywood films of the Nixon era. Not merely subversive but a genuinely revolutionary call to arms, it’s not exactly polished but it is passionate. Original distributor UA pulled it from…
Ned Beatty and Liev Schreiber star in this thoughtful Odd Couple drama about two maintenance men who develop an unexpected father-son relationship. This was writer/director Tom Gilroy’s first film and his subtle approach paid off, Spring Forward won the Discovery Award for Best First Film at the 1999 Toronto International Film Festival.
The irrepressible (and who would try?) Lloyd Kaufman gives us the lowdown on the Troma Team’s first big hit, a “world series of laughs” in which disgruntled girlfriends form an all-girl softball team to challenge their macho boyfriends’ team. Notable for what is probably the pre-eminent cinematic depiction of a softball being caught between a…
Worms Gone Wild! The debut film of underrated director Jeff Lieberman is another entry in the popular 1970s nature-strikes-back genre, filmed on location in Georgia and a slimy drive-in staple for the next decade.
Bernard Kowalski’s SSSSSSSS joins 1954’s Phffft and Roger Corman’s Gas-s-s-s in the Onomatopoeic Movie Title Club. An unofficial remake of 1959’s The Alligator People, this 1973 shocker features mad doctor Strother Martin experimenting with a serum capable of turning men into snakes. Two years later producers Richard Zanuck and David Brown worked on another thriller with a bit more bite, Jaws.
John Ford’s enduring milestone (his first sound western) was the film that Orson Welles studied over and over before embarking on Citizen Kane. Dudley Nichols’ adaptation of Ernest Haycox’s story for Collier’s magazine,”Stage to Lordsburg,” was the first of many Ford films shot in Monument Valley, then one of the least accessible locations in the…
1968’s Star!, a big budget biography of Gertrude Lawrence, was a risky endeavor, even with Robert Wise at the helm and Julie Andrews in the title role. The risk didn’t pay off—as one of the last Roadshow attractions of the sixties, the three hour Star! was ignored at the box office in favor of esoteric mind-benders…
The events surrounding the murder of Playboy model Dorothy Stratten make for one of the most unpleasant films to ever come out of Hollywood—it’s made even more unbearable by the heartbreakingly sweet presence of Mariel Hemingway as the doomed Playmate. Eric Roberts plays Dorothy’s deranged husband to a T and Bob Fosse directs in a…
Cary Grant was originally entreated by co-star Judy Garland to play fading star Norman Maine in this remake of the 1937 original, but when he stepped out James Mason took over to provide one of his most iconic performances. Director George Cukor (who had filmed the first version of the story, What Price Hollywood?) was outraged…
Barbra Streisand steps into the Judy Garland role in this big-scale musical remake that works pretty well on its own terms, but would have benefitted from the original casting choice for leading man, the superstar….well, we’ll let Adam Rifkin tell you about it.
Star Trek left the airwaves in 1969 but an army of avid fans not only kept the candle burning, they were part of an unending crusade that led to an epic big budget film version of the modestly produced television incarnation. Directed by Robert Wise, Star Trek: The Motion Picture features the same familiar crew; the hot-shot…
Italian fan-turned-director Luigi Cozzi (as “Lewis Coates”) specialized in energetic mini-budget spectacles inspired by his favorite movies, from Harryhausen to Hercules to Star Wars. This comic-book space opera is loaded with ambitious home-made special effects, but somehow the spectacle of ray gun-toting Caroline Munro strutting around in her leather bikini outdoes them all.
At the height of his critical enshrinement after hitting the jackpot with Annie Hall and Manhattan, Woody Allen attempted his own version of Fellini’s 8 1/2, about a filmmaker who re-examines his life and loves at a fan-filled retrospective of his works. It was roundly rejected by critics and audiences as a misjudged, cynical muddle of pretension and narcissism. Overlooked was the…
Seth Holt, the director of some of Hammer’s most distinctive films, steers this desert-bound potboiler about an overheated vamp whose jealous husband crashes their car into an isolated oil station. Carroll Baker plays the blonde seductress and Peter van Eyck is the sadistic boss determined to keep Baker to himself and his hot and bothered…
Although nominated for two Golden Globes, this British rock comedy about an apocryphal ’70s rock band called Strange Fruit acrimoniously reuniting in middle age for a 20th-year reunion concert is virtually unknown in millennial America. Think Spinal Tap with Bill Nighy, Stephen Rea, Billy Connolly and Timothy Spall.
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. You’ve probably never heard of these films, but the upside is that watching them alone at home won’t require a mask. According to the one-sheet, in 1965’s Nightmare in the Sun, Ursula Andress…
Jonathan Demme’s 1984 film documenting Talking Heads’ three night stand at the Hollywood Pantages is one of the great concert films of all time. Thanks to Heads frontman David Byrne’s ingenious staging, the film works in a narrative vein as well, beginning with Byrne alone on the stage fidgeting through the schizo rhythms of Psycho Killer and ending…
Quartet, Dustin Hoffman’s well-received 2012 directing debut, wasn’t his first time behind the camera. In 1978 he began helming this gritty street drama but handed over the reins to Ulu Grosbard after a few days because, lacking video assist, he felt he couldn’t fairly judge his performance as an incorrigible ex-con on parole. An uncredited…
“WARNING! This picture vividly depicts AXE MURDERS!” Well, not all that vividly. Not as crappy as 13 Frightened Girls, but certainly one more step in director William Castle’s mid-sixties decline. Star Joan Crawford had Anne Helm fired as her daughter and replaced by Diane Baker, whose performance she undercut in the editing room. Our favorite…
This ironic, Douglas Sirkian romantic time capsule about an extra marital affair was originally offered to Glenn Ford, who refused to work with star Kim Novak. Coproducer Kirk Douglas took the role only to turn on her when she gave him acting lessons in front of the crew. Nevertheless, the critical and boxoffice flop has…
Memorable set pieces and brilliant visuals abound in Hitchcock’s return to major studio filmmaking after several uneven independent ventures. Robert Walker’s finest hour.