The homicide detective in Pietro Germi’s classic thriller knows the score: “A crime investigation is like when you lift a stone and find worms underneath.” The murder of a beautiful woman coincides with an unsolved burglary, and every inquiry reveals another layer of sordid wrongdoing, criminal and moral. Germi plays the lead as an exemplar…
Jean-Louis Trintignant’s reluctant gambler and Roy Scheider’s professional hit man shoot it out in the streets of Los Angeles in Jacques Deray’s loopy crime-time travelogue from sunny 1971. Ann-Margret and Angie Dickinson join some old noir favorites and Georgia Engel — yes, that Gloria Engel — for a mob double cross that pits an amateur…
Fans of Brit war fare will like these mid-’50s look-backs at daring exploits in uniform, directed by Lewis Gilbert. Albert R.N. is a little-seen but rather good POW tale taken from real life. Anthony Steel, Jack Warner, Robert Beatty & William Sylvester try out a brilliant but risky escape plan, utilizing a ‘new’ prisoner in…
One of the most entertaining musicals ever, MGM’s ‘All Black’ Broadway extravaganza wins over audiences with its big heart, tuneful song list and wickedly funny comedy. The all-star cast bursts with unique talent: Ethel Waters, Eddie ‘Rochester’ Anderson, Lena Horne, for a fantastic Film Blanc morality play. Additional musical magic is provided by Duke Ellington…
Texas becomes a battleground for change: the law ‘n’ order image of the Texas Rangers, the attitudes of established immigrants, a soldier trying to instill older values and a teacher trying to inspire new ones. How do we deal with the controversial past, public and private? Director John Sayles’ vivid screenplay benefits from excellent performances…
And we thought we’d seen everything good from Christopher Lee! This rarely-seen national epic gives him a highly unusual role as Mohammed Ali Jinnah, the Father of Pakistan. The great man is sober and authoritative — and also sheds a tear. The well-made picture is a fast tour through postwar Indian history, that avoids total…
Tomorrow may only be ‘A Day Away,’ but the important thing to remember is that it is a bleak gamble. Harry Belafonte produces and stars in an angry, unsettling heist noir with little chance for a happy outcome. The heavy-duty race theme comes across well, and sparks fly between Belafonte’s desperate musician and Robert Ryan’s…
Wow, Severin’s killer 4K restoration boosts Antonio Margheriti’s bloodsucking ghost chiller nearer the apex of classic gothic Eurohorror. Barbara Steele seduces, swoons and shudders as one of several phantoms cursed to repeat their murderous crimes, and lure new victims to join them in undead Lust. The original Italian version is an uncensored knockout, and generates…
Hopefully this release is just the beginning of a new series of WAC Tarzan remasters. The original pre-Code classic has everything we want: innocent/lustful sex in the jungle, terrific work from Johnny Weissmuller & Maureen O’Sullivan, bloody savagery . . . plus race attitudes stuck in the white supremacist 19th century. The monkey acrobatics and…
A pact with Satan! A pop-eyed sea monster! The lurid artwork for this fairly obscure 1961 horror double bill looks like adult fare, with a naked she-devil riding a centaur, and a giant claw hefting a typical female victim above the briny Caribbean, 🎶 or Carribbe-an Sea! 🎶 They form an anti-blockbuster Filmgroup drive-in release, and…
The film adaptation of Mordecai Richler’s book retains the original’s richness and feeling for character, thanks to fine direction by Ted Kotcheff and spot-on supporting performances by Micheline Lanctôt, Jack Warden, Randy Quaid, Joseph Wiseman, and Denholm Elliott — and a fearless starring effort by Richard Dreyfuss. Intent on getting rich fast, the ‘pushy’ punk…
Christopher Nolan’s biography of J. Robert Oppenheimer is a welcome departure from present film trends. The story of the ‘father’ of the atom bomb prioritizes the scientist’s dilemma — the nation wants Oppie’s expertise to make a super-weapon, but won’t tolerate his opinions about the atomic future. Was there ever a 3-hour epic devoted mostly…
An eclectic stack of B&W thrillers — Island of Doomed Men, The Red Menace, The Burglar, and 13 West Street — is given [Imprint]’s deluxe packaging treatment. The organizing factor for their fifth noir box is a star associated with noir classics: Pete Lorre, Dan Duryea, Alan Ladd, Rod Steiger and . . . Commies?…
This is a Christmas movie? The 1980s began early with this high-concept, edgy-but-silly urban fantasy dreamed up by Walter Hill when an original realistic concept was rejected: ads about ‘Armies of the Night’ glamorizing street gangs worried the old folk, while the exhibition rollout was disturbed by violence in theaters. Essentially one long foot chase…
This once-obscure item has accumulated a solid cult following. Allen Baron writes, directs and stars in a gritty on-the-streets tale of a hit man having difficulties lining up his latest score. The over-achieving tiny independent feature bursts with arresting storytelling and eye-opening visuals. It’s holiday time in the Big Apple, and the camera records the…
Does it Creak? Not at all. Paul Muni brings this revered biographical drama to life, even if it’s less about Zola and more about the notorious Dreyfus Affair, the kind of subject normally too touchy for Hollywood. Warners’ prestige offering nabbed a well earned Best Picture Oscar — everything connected to the crucial trial is…
Take a full-blown soap opera and add scenery to die for . . . statehood brings changes to the islands, and a major problem for the hereditary Howland empire, all of which involve (gasp) multiracialism. Fear not, the conflicts find a traditional, Production Code- approved resolution. Charlton Heston strains to humanize a role that plays…
Peter Bogdanovich’s crowning achievement gets the 4K nod from Criterion, with additional Blu-ray extras plus the entire belated sequel Texasville — in its color theatrical version or a B&W director’s revision. The oil boom has passed, and Anarene, Texas is dying out. Its isolated, bored teenagers are eager to test the rules. Bogdanovich faithfully transfers…
It’s the one and only original Hammer Sci-fi thriller that changed the genre, inspiring good filmmakers and copycats alike. Val Guest adapts Nigel Kneale’s teleplay with Yankee Brian Donlevy as a belligerent Professor Quatermass, the rocket project director and red-tape bulldozer. The movie is prime sci-fi gold, and genuinely disturbing: Richard Wordsworth is the courageous…
A new video remaster makes us want to ring bells — ClassicFlix’s improvement over earlier eyesore discs is like night and day. We can finally see the discretion and artistry with which Thornton Wilder’s stage classic was adapted for the screen. Sam Wood elicits a score of great performances, especially from Broadway star Martha Scott….
Take a trip to Los Angeles in the late 1950s . . . but to the low-rent district of Bunker Hill, where a transient Native American population pursues an aimless lifestyle on the nighttime streets. It’s a time machine to Angels Flight, the Grand Central Market and a ‘Bukowski-land’ of skid row bars. USC grad…
Elia Kazan and Harold Pinter’s classy adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s unfinished novel looks and plays better than ever, with a fine script that refuses to ‘fix’ what Fitzgerald wrote. Robert De Niro’s excellent Monroe Stahr is surrounded by a powerhouse cast: Jack Nicholson, Robert Mitchum, Tony Curtis, Jeanne Moreau, Theresa Russell, Ingrid Boulting, Donald…
“I hate her! I hate dat qveen!” Despite being one of the most maladroit sci-fiers of the ’50s, color and ‘scope and Zsa Za Gabor’s hilarious accent make this Allied Artists offering a must-see head scratcher. Bad taste! Tacky art direction! Infantile sexist humor! The word on the street is that the Me Too movement…
How did two hot film students pass the time while waiting to become immortal as the writers of American Graffiti? Gloria Katz and Willard Huyck wrote, produced and directed this minor horror classic, that along with its zombies and ghouls delivers intelligent art-movie cinematics. Marianna Hill, Royal Dano, Michael Greer, Joy Bang, Anitra Ford and…
“Feed Me!” Female ghosts and man-eating plants! It’s another good disc of Roger Corman favorites, especially for collectors hungry for an improved presentation of Corman’s comedy classic The Little Shop of Horrors, the hilarious off-the-wall original. Also looking good is his semi-pirated ‘add-on’ entry to the Poe cycle THE TERROR, starring Boris Karloff, Jack Nicholson…
In this racy MGM pre-Code, the stock market crash dumps society playgirl Joan Crawford into the working class. She toils at a newspaper but her brother consorts with bootleggers — and both of them are targeted by gangster Clark Gable. Sparks fly in Crawford & Gable’s first screen teaming, which has a bit of everything…