In his only TFH commentary, the late Ib Melchior shares some backstage info on the making of this lesser-known but diverting sci fi fantasy that sports one of the most cleverly edited climaxes in the genre. That’s Forry Ackerman, editor of Famous Monsters of Filmland, as one of the technicians transforming a circle into a square….
“You’ll know you’ve been kissed by her ebony fist when the blood from your face stains her diamond necklace!” This kind of doggerel was common in selling ’70s black action movies (that line is from the radio spot). Jeannie Bell, Richard Burton’s foxy then-girlfriend, stars in this Filipino epic for which the entirely fictitious Ebony…
Jack Benny’s greatest movie role, and no wonder–it was written especially for him by Ernst Lubitsch! Carole Lombard’s swan song earned her some of her finest reviews posthumously, but the film itself, daringly dark for the time, was generally regarded as an insensitive and even troubling satire of wartime issues. The title refers not only…
Nicole Kidman’s superb performance as a self-absorbed but beautiful monster is only enhanced by a terrific supporting cast including Matt Dillon, Joaquin Phoenix and Illeana Douglas. Buck Henry wrote the whip-smart script for Gus Van Sant’s black comedy about a fame-obsessed schoolteacher who turns to murder to make her mark.
A sweet, poignant little movie that hasn’t been on anybody’s radar since it sank from view in 1972. Notable for its frank treatment of teen sexuality and abortion, this is the kind of studio movie they stopped making a few years later. Pamela Sue Martin’s film debut and a US entry in the Cannes Film…
Hawks and Hemingway, Bogie and Bacall, most films would sink under this embarrassment of riches but the brilliant Howard Hawks not only juggles these heavy hitters, he ups the ante with a supporting cast that defines “colorful”—Hoagy Carmichael, Walter Brennan flesh out this tale of a freelance fisherman in wartime Martinique and the Yankee stunner…
A William Friedkin fan favorite reaches 4K — the reputation of this thriller has risen over the years, along with the career of its cultured villain, Willem Dafoe. On the trail of a murderous counterfeiter, William Petersen’s elite Secret Service agent goes rogue, running wild and putting lives at risk. His callous use of informants…
Sidney Poitier is indelible in one of his signature roles. A very popular model of the selfless-teacher-inspires-disaffected-high schoolers genre that has flourished ever since. Writer-director James Clavell avoids sentimentality to a surprising (but not entirely absent) degree and the film remains an audience favorite 40 years later.
The culture clash rocking a black family in South Central L.A. sparks director Charles Burnett’s 1990 film which was selected in 2017 for preservation in the United States National Film Registry. The powerful cast includes Vonetta McGee, Paul Butler as the beleaguered paterfamilias and Danny Glover as the family friend whose southern ways roil the not-so-tightknit…
Henry Fielding’s 1749 novel zoomed to the best seller lists after the success of this well-received multi-Oscar winner (best picture, director, screenplay and music score), attractively shot on location utilizing the residents of Cerne Abbas, a small village in Dorchester. Albert Finney and Joyce Redman’s elaborately erotic chow-down scene is right up there with Marco…
Roger Corman bids farewell to his Edgar Allan Poe series with a beautifully mounted departure from the heavy stylization of previous entries, played more like a gothic romance. Vincent Price would go on to topline an eccentric collection of further Poe “adaptations”, some of them in name only. Elizabeth Shepherd is a strong proto-Jane Austen…
Ken Russell’s overpowering fantasia is a psychedelic reimagining of The Who’s 1969 rock opera, moving the period from post WWI to post WW2, with new songs added and many liberties taken with both book and music. It made quite a splash in 1975, not only due to Russell’s brilliant pop imagery but the one-time-only debut…
Critics, ticket buyers, and even Hitchcock himself had mixed feelings about 1969’s Topaz, a Cold War thriller adapted from Leon Uris’s bestseller. Though the film relied on European stars like Michel Piccoli, Philippe Noiret and Krimi queen Karin Dor, the Hitchcock touch won over American audiences. The press got on board too: Sir Alfred took…
One of a kind co-production between 20th Century Fox and Japan’s Toei Studios depicts the fateful (mostly wrong) decisions leading up to the world-shaking events of December 7, 1941, depicted with semi-documentary accuracy. The fiery spectacle is real, not computer-generated, and some of the stunts herein have never been topped. No love interest, a non-star…
FX-driven director Bert I. Gordon eschews his usual giant monsters for a more intimate ghost story set in a haunted lighthouse. Genre vet Richard Carlson returns to his noirish roots (Behind Locked Doors, The Amazing Mr.X) and distinguished d.p. Ernest Laszlo apparently shuttled between this second feature cheapie and the classy Inherit the Wind.
When top-billed Charlton Heston pushed for co-star Orson Welles to direct this late noir, nobody imagined it would emerge as one of the key works in the Welles canon despite being recut and partially reshot by Universal. His last Hollywood studio venture stacks up as probably Welles’ most popular picture although in 1958 it was dumped into…
In some respects a twisted remake of his own An American Dream, Tough Guys Don’t Dance proves that as a movie director, Norman Mailer was a great writer. Mailer’s unwieldy attitude behind the camera doesn’t stop this 1987 noir from being entertaining and it’s helped by John Bailey’s beautiful cinematography and Angelo Badalamenti’s dreamy score….
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies, and many more, at Trailers From Hell. This week we’ll need a drink to get through three of what our chief guru terms “tough sits,” films that are just plain hard to watch. The 2002 French art film, Irréversible,…
Bizarre art direction and FX work by the late Robert Burns (Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Howling) helps make this one of the creepiest of the numerous low budget chillers ground out by producer Charles Band from the late 70s to date. Band’s filmography runs a close second to Roger Corman’s during this period. A favorite…
Irwin Allen followed up The Poseidon Adventure with another big budget disaster spectacle that gives the hotfoot to some of Hollywood’s biggest stars. Hardly Paul Newman’s greatest achievement, but he approaches it with the same powerful presence he brought to all his films, and teams up effectively with fellow superstar Steve McQueen.
Ruben Östlund’s sardonic take on The Admirable Crichton is an explosive black comedy about a group of monied malcontents who meet pirates on the high seas before getting stranded on their own little island. Critics raved and awards were handed out including the Palme d’Or at the 2022 Cannes Film Festival. Harris Dickinson and Charlbi…
“From the boiling rage of a world hurled back one million years comes….” Joan Crawford’s last movie. The indefatigable icon co-starred with filmdom’s biggest names but in the end her leading man was a troglodyte. There is probably a Hollywood lesson to be learned from this, but we don’t pretend to know what it is.
The Bard gets Troma-tized. The story’s the same, but Troma adds all the toilet humor, explicit sex scenes and gratuitous gore that old Will thoughtlessly left out of his version.
Jonathan Kaplan’s badass starring vehicle for musician Isaac Hayes is simply one of the all-time greatest blaxploitation movies, which came out near the end of the cycle and never garnered the reputation it deserves. Don’t tell us John Woo never saw the crazy hospital shoot-out at the end!
John Wayne finally landed an Oscar for his role as one-eyed marshal Rooster Cogburn in Henry Hathaway’s scenic blockbuster, which charmingly retains the archaic speech patterns of the source novel. Great supporting cast.
Brian Trenchard-Smith’s 1982 actioner is an exploitation riff on 1932’s The Most Dangerous Game featuring a cast made in mondo heaven including Steve Railsback, Olivia Hussey and Michael Craig (Harryhausen’s Mysterious Island). Brian’s claims for the film as a satire can be borne out by its British release title, Blood Camp Thatcher, a back-handed salute to the…