Contemporary critics point to Rock Hunter as the apex of Tashlin’s filmmaking style and the movie that set the stage for Godard’s brightly colored blend of pop culture and political grandstanding. It’s a reasonable case; in true Godardian fashion, Rock Hunter eschews the traditional title sequence and instead opens with a series of faux-commercials skewering both mindless consumerism and the advertising age….
One of the strangest and darkest children’s films ever made, this shot-in-Bavaria adaptation of Roald Dahl’s book (he hated the movie) features what may be Gene Wilder’s greatest performance. Would make a great double bill with Dr. Seuss’s The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (which he hated as well).
The first of eight collaborations between noir specialist Anthony Mann and a newly flinty James Stewart, this psychological western exudes corrosive post-war anxiety. It also trailblazed a groundbreaking profit participation deal (engineered by Stewart’s agent Lew Wasserman) that transformed the industry. Dan Duryea shines in a classic bad guy performance that defined his career.
This spectacular documentary follows a Norwegian sailing ship on its voyage from Oslo to the east coast of the US and back. It was produced in Cinemiracle, a curved-screen process similar to Cinerama which was retired after this initial outing and bought out by Cinerama. Brian Trenchard-Smith explains the differences between the presentations and why…
Paranoia reigns supreme in William Richert’s blackly comic conspiracy theory extravaganza which connects patriarchs, technology and assassins in a potent Cold war fable that’s as crazy as it is prescient. Hardly seen during its initial release, it has since engendered a small but dedicated following on video.
“Be careful what you wish for” is the appropriate tag line for this Wes Craven-produced mix of fairy tales and slasher films, at the very least a unique twist on the horror genre. Andrew Divoff plays an evil genie let loose to terrorize antiquarian Tammy Lauren and a supporting cast of beloved B-movie stars including…
The first film in director Bruce Robinson’s (so far) four-film canon is virtually unknown in the US but a true cult item in Britain, telling the story of two down and out ’60s actors driving each other crazy at a country cottage. Unclassifiably oddball, it’s an actors’ showcase best enjoyed with a few drinks. Witty,…
Low budget but playful science fiction about an alien invasion and the small-towners who hunt them down. The real attraction isn’t the seven foot tall monster but the feisty band of geriatric vigilantes comprised of Martin Landau, Ralph Meeker, Cameron Mitchell and – the cherry on top – Jack Palance.
Billy Wilder’s trademark sardonicism lends welcome bite and wit to this twisting, turning murder mystery from Agatha Christie. As the man accused of killing a rich widow Tyrone Power is a ball of lethargy. Fortunately Wilder focuses on the terrific Charles Laughton as the barrister hired to defend Power and Elsa Lanchester (Laughton’s real-life wife) as the…
A lot of laundering had to be done to Clare Boothe Luce’s 1936 all-female play to satisfy the Hollywood production code, but the result was considered an improvement. This all-star MGM catfight is one of the gems of that fabled movie year 1939. A 1956 musical remake, The Opposite Sex, added men to the cast,…
Oliver Reed (who was once considered to replace Sean Connery as James Bond) had already played Debussy and Rossetti for director Ken Russell in a couple of his BBC biopics, and went on to topline his greatest film, The Devils. The director’s usual flamboyance is somewhat muted in his third theatrical feature, resulting in his…
Frank Capra was known for such upstanding, optimistic films (“Capra-corn” to the critics) that his lone Christmas-themed film must have come as a real shock to ticket buyers. It’s A Wonderful Life has its cheery side for sure, but it also contains moments so bleak it makes some film noirs look like Mary Poppins. A…
Frank Capra was known for such upstanding, optimistic films (“Capra-corn” to the critics) that his lone Christmas-themed film must have come as a real shock to ticket buyers. It’s a Wonderful Life has its cheery side for sure, but it also contains moments so bleak it makes some film noirs look like Mary Poppins. A…
Michael Wadleigh’s game-changing document of the 500,000 strong 1969 New York music festival exists in so many different versions it’s almost impossible to keep track of them. But all have influenced documentarians for decades as well as providing a lasting income source for Time Warner.
Mike Nichols puts a glossy 80’s spin on what is essentially the plot of a Warner Bros. potboiler from the 30’s. Melanie Griffith plays the feisty career gal who stands up to a platoon of industry ogres to get what’s rightfully hers. Sigourney Weaver, Kevin Spacey and Oliver Platt are among the corporate creeps while…
Peter Sellers is the titular self-absorbed pianist, but George Roy Hill’s charming, bittersweet‚ film belongs to the two young girls who idolize him. New York City at its most attractive is almost a character in itself, thanks to Boris Kaufman’s sparkling cinematography. Here is a 2012 New Yorker recap of the later events in the lives of the…
First of the runaway-planet-soon-to-hit-Earth movies, remade and ripped off so frequently in recent years that no less than Lars Von Trier has one coming up soon! Cecil B. DeMille considered making this for Paramount in 1935, but it wasn’t until 1951 that George Pal was able to get it up and running, albeit with a…
The most operatic of Weimar emigre Douglas Sirk’s flamboyant imitations of life, this deliberately artificial yet incisive slice of Americana documents the fall of a powerful Texas oil family and is considered by many to be the director’s masterpiece. It’s one of the great Hollywood movies, encapsulating the lurid Universal-International unreality of the 1950s.
Movies set in the near future are sometimes rendered moot by subsequent events, but Richard Brooks’ bizarrely prescient political satire makes more sense in a post 9/11 world than it did in 1982. Only nominally based on Charles McCarry’s espionage novel “The Better Angels”, this adaptation takes a comparatively minor character, newshound Patrick Hale, and…
Prescient in more ways than one, Stuart Rosenberg’s bleak melodrama stars Paul Newman as a disk jockey at WUSA, a right wing radio station whose race baiting diatribes trigger a violent uprising. Joanne Woodward, Pat Hingle, and Anthony Perkins, make up the formidable supporting cast. Mocked as over the top in 1970, Robert Stone’s cautionary screenplay was just a…
It’s not exactly The Lost Weekend, but Oscar-winner Ray Milland does pretty well for himself by this low-budget but intriguingly Promethean 1963 sci-fi outing from Roger Corman, which anticipates the alternate reality concepts of his later The Trip. Of course the trailer is more interested in the “X-ray specs” aspects of the idea, like seeing…
A radioactive blob terrorizes the Scottish highlands in this low key but suspenseful thriller. Hammer’s attempt to continue the adventures of Professor Quatermass on its own was squelched by series creator Nigel Kneale, but even with the name change the result still plays like Quatermass 1 1/2.
Peter Weir’s superb political thriller set against the upheaval of Sukarno’s Indonesia is suspenseful, smart and beautifully acted with top honors going to Linda Hunt’s gender-bending triumph as photo-journalist Billy Kwan who strikes the romantic sparks between the more conventional duo played by Mel Gibson and Sigourney Weaver. The title was Sukarno’s prophetic phrase for…
William Wellman, known for “adult” westerns like The Ox-Bow Incident, continues in that mode with an Old West fable based on Shakespeare’s The Tempest. Gregory Peck and Richard Widmark are outlaws who find sanctuary in a ghost town ruled by Anne Baxter and her prospecting grandfather. Sumptuous black and white cinematography by Joseph MacDonald who…
Only a Blue Meanie could hate George Dunning’s limited animation classic, which screwed the psychedelic cap onto the 1968 toothpaste that also included Kubrick’s 2001 and predated MTV music videos by some 12 years.
John Barry’s elegiac score and Freddie Young’s improbably beautiful photography combine to make Lewis Gilbert’s 1967 film the most glamorous of Sean Connery’s Bond outings. An action-packed travelogue set within neon-soaked Tokyo and the storybook environs of the Japanese countryside, 007 plays cat and mouse with Donald Pleasance’s Blofeld in a volcano that doubles as…