Paranoid, vengeful, with skin so thin you can see through it, The Invisible Man is the most nakedly neurotic of Universal’s classic monsters (beating out Larry Talbot by a hair). That said, this particular monster was something of a one-note character yet the diligent creators behind the subsequent sequels did their best to introduce a…
Strait-Jacket Blu ray Shout Factory 1964 / 1.85:1 / Street Date August 21, 2018 Starring Joan Crawford, Diane Baker Cinematography by Arthur Arling Directed by William Castle The planets aligned in 1964 as William Castle’s Strait-Jacket premiered in January and Susan Sontag’s Notes on Camp was published later that fall. There’s no mention of Castle’s…
The Loved One Blu-ray Warner Archives 1965 / B&W / 1:85 / / 122 min. / Street Date May 9, 2017 Starring: Robert Morse, Jonathan Winters, Anjanette Comer. Cinematography: Haskell Wexler Film Editor: Hal Ashby, Brian Smedley-Aston Written by Terry Southern, Christopher Isherwood Produced by Martin Ransohoff (uncredited), John Calley, Haskell Wexler Directed by Tony…
I Bury The Living Blu-ray Shout! Factory 1958 / B&W / 1:85 / / 76 min. / Street Date April 25, 2017 Starring: Richard Boone, Theodore Bikel. Cinematography: Frederick Gately Film Editor: Frank Sullivan Written by Louis Garfinkle Produced by Albert Band, Louis Garfinkle Directed by Albert Band I Bury the Living implicates us…
Rumble Fish Blu-ray Criterion 1940 / B&W / 1:85 / Street Date April 25, 2017 Starring: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane. Cinematography: Stephen Burum Film Editor: Barry Malkin Written by S.E. Hinton and Francis Ford Coppola Produced by Francis Ford Coppola Directed by Francis Ford Coppola Rumble Fish, Francis Ford Coppola’s Young Adult…
Chamber of Horrors Blu-ray Kino Lorber 1940 / B&W / 1:33 / Street Date March 21, 2017 Starring: Lilli Palmer, Leslie Banks. Cinematography: Alex Bryce, Ernest Palmer Film Editor: Ted Richards Written by Gilbert Gunn, Norman Lee Produced by John Argyle Directed by Norman Lee Near the turn of the century a struggling war…
After The Fox Blu-ray Kino Lorber 2017 / Color / 2.35 : 1 widescreen / Street Date March 22, 2017 Starring: Peter Sellers, Victor Mature, Martin Balsem, Akim Tamiroff. Cinematography: Leonida Barboni Film Editor: Russell Lloyd Written by Neil Simon and Cesare Zavattini Produced by John Bryan Directed by Vittorio De Sica After The…
Elle Blu-ray Sony Pictures Home Entertainment 2017 / Color / 2.40:1 widescreen / Street Date March 14, 2017 Starring: Isabelle Huppert, Laurent Lafitte, Anne Consigny, Charles Berling. Cinematography: Stéphane Fontaine Film Editor: Job Ter Burg Written by David Birke Produced by Saïd Ben Saïd and Michel Merkt Directed by Paul Verhoeven Michèle Leblanc, glamorous entrepreneur…
Multiple Maniacs Blu-ray 1970 / Black and White /96 Min. / 1:66 / Street Date March 21, 2017 Starring: Divine, David Lochary, Mary Vivian Pearce and Mink Stole. Cinematography: John Waters Film Editor: John Waters Written by John Waters Produced by John Waters Directed by John Waters Andy Warhol was nothing if not a multi-media…
We Are The Flesh (Tenemos la carne) Blu-ray 2017 / Color / 1:85 widescreen – though the aspect ratio changes at the director’s whim/110 min. / Street Date February 28, 2017 Starring: Noe Hernandez, María Evoli and Diego Gamaliel. Cinematography: Yollótl Alvarado Film Editor: Yibran Asuad and Emiliano Rocha Minter Written by Emiliano Rocha Minter…
The troubled young British director Michael Reeves was credited with only three films and then, just as his star was ascending, died at the age 25. But the James Dean comparison doesn’t end there; Reeves’ signature work, Witchfinder General (released in the US as The Conqueror Worm) is a cry for justice from an angry young rebel,…
Next week at TFH we’re featuring a modest tribute to Bela! … Lugosi, of course. The films include Invisible Ghost (helmed by Gun Crazy‘s Joseph H. Lewis), 1947’s Scared To Death, and the subject of today’s Saturday Matinee, Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. The sole reason for the existence of Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla…
Next week at TFH features a trio of trippy films gathered together under the banner “Just Say No”. They include Requiem for a Dream, The Trip, and the subject of today’s Saturday Matinee, Confessions of an Opium Eater. Producer Albert Zugsmith was a consummate exploitationist, launching his career in 1952 with the berserk red-scare screed,…
In all of Frank Tashlin’s work, there is nothing quite so boldly staged as the delirious sequence in 1961′s THE LADIES MAN, in which Jerry Lewis, the film’s director and Tashlin’s nominal pupil, deconstructs a panic attack in twenty five seconds. Framed inside an enormous set that resembles the interior of a gargantuan and painstakingly detailed dollhouse, Lewis’…
Roger Corman sat down with Conan O’Brien last week for a spirited interview (promoting his latest Sy-Fy spectacular, Sharktopus Vs. Pteracuda) turning in a charismatic performance that provoked a reaction not unlike Dennis Hopper’s besotted appraisal of Dean Stockwell’s spaced-out lounge lizard in Blue Velvet: “Suave? Goddamn, you are one suave fucker”. Suave? Yep, that’s Roger. O’Brien’s wide-ranging conversation with Corman proved that this…
A group of scientists in the Antarctic rig an atomic blast that releases a dinosaur from its icy hibernation. Only one of the explorers, Tom Nesbitt (Paul Christian, Ne, Paul Hubschmid) gets a good look at the beast and he spends thirty or so minutes of the film trying to convince everyone that he’s not…
Help!, the 1965 musical comedy directed by Richard Lester, stars Leo McKern as the venal Clang, a deranged cult leader and Victor Spinetti as the underhanded Professor Foot, a mad scientist who’s both Clang’s soulmate and adversary. Each of these crooks subscribe to different credos but they’re after the same thing, power, and they can…
The current BBC production of Sherlock starring Benedict Cumberbatch is a lifetime away from director Terence Fisher’s take on the great detective, The Hound of the Baskervilles. But no matter how transformative is the new Sherlock, Fisher’s blood and thunder interpretation felt no less transgressive in 1958. By remaking the classic Universal monster films with Curse…