Monied suburbanites take another hit in this 1968 drama about the waterlogged journey of one man in search of an endless pool party. Directed by Frank Perry and based on a story by John Cheever, Burt Lancaster stars along with Janice Rule. Squabbles between star and director eventually put the troubled production in the hands…
This bargain basement sword & sorcery epic was part of a popular tide of early 80s historical adventures including Conan the Barbarian and Dragonslayer. This one, remembered as “the one with the three-bladed sword”, still has fans today — especially among those who saw it at the drive-in as kids. Although it sometimes buckles when…
The late Anthony Minghella (The English Patient) directs Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow and Jude Law in an adaptation of one of Patricia Highsmith’s most sinister and sardonic novels. Damon plays Tom Ripley, a walking metaphor for urbane corruption who weaves the spider web plot that results in a series of murderous cat and mouse games ensnaring both…
A killer cyborg from 2029 (played by California’s former “Governator”) arrives in the present to prevent the birth of the activist who will lead the rebellion against the corporate overlords of the future. Born of a fever dream James Cameron had while finishing Piranha II, this modestly budgeted, cleverly made sci fi thriller became a…
This 1963 offshoot of Roger Corman’s popular Edgar Allan Poe series has slipped into the public domain and is available on countless video labels, usually in crummy looking prints… this is from an original 35mm Technicolor print. For more on The Terror, check out this article at Movie Morlocks.
The great Jean Renoir made this unauthorized Robert Louis Stevenson adaptation as a multi-camera television quickie, which turned out so well it played theaters under the titles Experiment in Evil and The Doctor’s Horrible Secret. Jean-Louis Barrault provides one of the more memorably eccentric Mr. Hyde performances.
This threadbare but well received vehicle has the boys (with Joe DeRita replacing Shemp, Joe Besser and Curly) going back in time to goof on Hercules, newly popularized by the onslaught of spear-and-sandal imports that followed the late ’50s commercial smash of the Steve Reeves original.
William Castle’s craziest and most famous ballyhoo extravaganza unfolds in “PERCEPTO – Newest and most startling gimmick on the screen!” Also one of the most complicated to install in theaters, although in recent years many revival bookings have duplicated the seat-buzzing thrills that made this a late-blooming classic.
It’s ’60s style over substance in this soft-core spoof directed by Robert Freeman, best known for photographing The Beatles’ album covers. David Anthony plays a rock idol kidnapped by four adoring fans. True to Freeman’s background the Mod fashions and psychedelic settings take precedence over the slight story by Donald Cammell (before he teamed up…
Like Little Shop of Horrors, this modest exploitation film engendered an avalanche of mainstream success. Initially unnoticed, it became a hit at midnight screenings and was followed by three sequels, a tv cartoon, comic books, merchandise and at least three stage musicals. It brought good fortune to the House of Troma, whose majordomo Lloyd Kaufman…
John Frankenheimer’s 1965 World War II film is an admirable attempt to fuse the action genre with art-house drama a la The Wages of Fear. Thanks to Frankenheimer’s clean craftsmanship and star Burt Lancaster’s ambivalent performance – part rough and tumble leading man, part existential anti-hero – the movie succeeds on most counts. Burt is…
Franz Kafka’s 1925 novel about an office clerk who is arrested for a crime that is never revealed to him becomes a nightmarish black comedy in Orson Welles’ memorable adaptation. Baroque, surreal and graphically striking, it plays like a two hour dream sequence. Essential Welles. The full film can be seen in okay quality here.
The second in Tom Laughlin’s increasingly idiosyncratic Billy Jack trilogy, this three hour sequel is a passionate if ungainly political diatribe that touches on everything from Native American rights to the My Lai massacre. Delores Taylor, Laughlin’s wife and writing partner, returns as the director of the “Freedom School”, a counterculture haven for restless young…
Writer Jack Nicholson and star Peter Fonda told Roger Corman he couldn’t make a movie about LSD without trying it at least once. So Roger took a caravan of pals to Big Sur, where he dutifully dropped acid and communed with the elements. Out of it all came his most personal and revealing film, a…
To celebrate the Independence Day holiday, for the entire week we’re presenting what may be The Ultimate Trailer From Hell! It’s a transmission from an alternative facts universe. Keep telling yourself, It’s Only A Movie. It’s Only A Movie. Isn’t it? With thanks to Valerie Breiman and Mitch Watson. Josh’s sartorial T shirt can be ordered here.
A middle-aged couple views their failed marriage through the lens of their daughter’s upcoming wedding and discovers their relationship was more profound than they gave it credit for. Written and directed by former critic Jim Hemphill, this astute romantic comedy really flew under the radar upon its release in 2012. Starring John Shea and Lea…
Notorious in its day as the movie where Jekyll becomes Hyde by turning his back and -quick!- pulling his beard off, this is actually one of Hammer’s more interesting literary adaptations. Coproducer Columbia Pictures passed on it for US release and it went out in a cut version via AIP under the titles Jekyll’s Inferno…
Starring Catherine Deneuve, Jacques Demy’s dramatic musical won raves for its unique blend of popular music and light opera leanings (the film’s dialog is recited in rhythmic cadence). Michel Legrand composed the score and the brilliantly bright photography was courtesy of Jean Rabier.
Filmed under the title The Trance of Diana Love, this period time travel fantasy is one of Roger Corman’s most distinctive AIP cheapies, wackily conceived and almost absurdly ambitious, but resourcefully shot on a shoestring. Probably the sexiest showcase the statuesque Allison Hayes ever had. We get witches, imps, reincarnated courtesans and the Devil himself,…
If you want monsters, this last gasp (circa 1957) of the old-fashioned mad doctor movie delivers in spades. Made for a division of ABC television.
Directed by Lewis Allen, this elegant ghost story from 1944 is a consistently creepy yet surprisingly moving study of a dysfunctional family whose problems extend into the afterlife. Ray Milland is the skeptical but good-humored leading man and sad-eyed Gail Russell plays the troubled young woman whose mother may (or may not be) haunting her. Stella…
Managed by Andy Warhol, the Velvet Underground were ground zero for art-rock bands, though their stripped down sound influenced a multitude of musical genres from punk to low-fi to emo. Superfan Todd Haynes directed this fine documentary in 2021 with cooperation from the band’s surviving members, John Cale and Mo Tucker. We’ll never know how…
A supernatural tale of terror steeped in Jewish tradition and memories of the Holocaust, The Vigil stars Dave Davis as Yakov Ronen, a man charged with keeping watch over a deceased man who was interred at Buchenwald. Keith Thomas’s film premiered at 2019’s Toronto International Film Festival and was praised for its original approach and eerie…
Irony of ironies, Franklin Schaffner’s 1965 epic, The War Lord, was based on a play called The Lovers. Stalwart Charlton Heston plays a medieval knight tasked with defending a Druid village where he promptly falls in love with local lass Rosemary Forsyth. Richard Boone co-stars along with Maurice Evans who would reunite with Schaffner and Heston under far…
The War of the Gargantuas was planned as the sequel to Inshirō Honda’s Frankenstein Conquers the World but director Inshirō Honda had problems; he was in a contract dispute with the studio and star Tab Hunter was replaced by a less than cooperative Russ Tamblyn. Nevertheless Honda got his movie made with two of Toho’s…
“A beautiful woman by day. A lusting queen wasp by night!” If that doesn’t sound good to you, you’re on the wrong website. Roger Corman’s revamp of The Fly is a fun quickie with a great poster which completely misrepresents the film, but that’s part of the charm after all.