Eli Roth’s Thanksgiving began as one of the parody trailers in Quentin Tarantino and Robert Rodriguez’s 2007 film, Grindhouse. Epitomizing the “grindhouse” vibe, the trailer looked and sounded low-budget and tasteless, all sex and garish kills, with a closing shot so shocking that it was literally only visible for seconds. In other words, it was…
Here I finally present It’s a Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie, Zabriskie Point, a feature-length essay film that began as an editing mashup, a bit o’ fun with found footage, and ended as a pop meditation on American iconography and mythologies, a cine-exegesis of the American desert through the prism of both culture and counterculture, and a very…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, a simian trio of films. Big screen apes, and the wines to make them more palatable. Monkey Business, the 1952 screwball comedy directed by Howard Hawks, is one of those hard-to-believe-yet-kinda-funny-in-a-way…
Three Buñuel masterpieces arrive in remastered Blu-ray presentations, accompanied by excellent new extras. The Exterminating Angel clobbers élitist complacency. The irreverent Simon of the Desert skewers the notion of blessed martyrdom. Viridiana is the shocker that gave Franco’s Spain a slap in the face — and it’s here in a much improved video transfer. Among…
It’s a seriocomic fable from the Great Depression: Ryan O’Neal’s Moses Pray runs a predatory racket hawking expensive Bibles, and the only one to see through the con is the orphan Addie Loggins, played by O’Neal’s own daughter. What could have been a big casting mistake is a sensation — Tatum O’Neal carries the movie…
The Dead Walk — and accuse! One of the best non-classic horror films of the ’30s is a polished production: Michael Curtiz and cameraman Hal Mohr give star Boris Karloff a spooky spotlight for a macabre tale of justice from beyond the grave. Karloff is brilliant as an executed convict resurrected by science, who becomes…
Barbra Streisand’s movie debut takes a slot in the Criterion Collection, and jumps to 4K Ultra HD. Opened up from Broadway and slimmed down to focus on its incandescent star, it persists as a superior musical, alternately funny and touching. Streisand showed can’t-lose intuition when it came to the big decisions: knowing that her emotional…
The Vampire/The Vampire’s Coffin Blu-ray – Import/Region Free Powerhouse 1957, 1958 / 84, 82 min Starring Germán Robles, Abel Salazar, Ariadne Welter Written by Ramón Obón Photographed by Rosalío Solano, Víctor Herrera Directed by Fernando Mendez Early American horror films usually favored human monsters over the supernatural variety, and it wasn’t till the arrival of…
Deborah Kerr shines as an emotionally troubled war widow who volunteers to do Red Cross work in the Pacific Theater of WW2. William Holden is the he-bull Marine colonel who claims her almost as a right of rank. Not a combat film, it’s nevertheless a polished production with a gallery of fine acting support —…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, a visit to the Far East for some Japanese film treasures, all directed by the great Akira Kurosawa. We also have a wine pairing for each movie. First of all, a…
Behold a ‘world cinema classic’ that needs no defending, no way, no how … a review isn’t really necessary, just see it! This new 4K remaster is a real beauty, doing additional cleanup and brighten-up work. Otherwise it’s still the same fantastic epic, with marvelous characters, a gripping storyline and spectacular battles. Toshiro Mifune’s flea-bitten…
22 is a lucky number for noir: D.A. Humphrey Bogart defies Murder Incorporated in The Enforcer. Sexpot Carol Ohmart lures Tom Tryon into a web of crime in the VistaVision The Scarlet Hour. And thieves try to slip through interstate roadblocks carrying millions in gold bullion in the fascinating Plunder Road, in Regalscope. It’s a…
Regarding Hugh Grant’s first horror film in thirty-six years (following Ken Russell’s groovily psychedelic The Lair of the White Worm), perhaps Gilbert and Sullivan put it best – “Whereas heretofore Hugh Grant has been a hail-fellow-well-met-ical, his ventures into horror fare just barely parenthetical, one wonders on reflection if he sees this as regrettable, so…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, our three films are simply killer. So are the wine pairings that go with them. From the title, we can assume that 1965’s How to Murder Your Wife is a black…
🎶 Let’s all get up and dance to a song movie that was a hit before your mother was born 🎶 … or your grandmother, maybe. Does anybody under 50 know who Bing Crosby and Danny Kaye were? 1954’s biggest hit may not be today’s current fashion, but it’s got fine music and some great choreography: Rosemary…
We think these two silent comedies are fantastic examples of Buster Keaton’s directorial genius. Seven Chances exaggerates the dilemma of a fellow who must marry on a deadline to inherit a fortune. An onslaught of women in wedding dresses becomes a (comic) nightmare horde. Sherlock Jr. can almost be described as experimental. The story involves…
The original Japanese super-dragon is back, for the first time in the USA in an improved Toho remaster that restores the awesome majesty of Ishiro Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya’s overachieving Kaiju fantasy. The 500-foot leviathan’s debut feature will be a surprise for folk expecting him to scrap with Mothra or dance a jig on the…
This fourth remake for Jack Finney’s mind-bending Sci-fi horror tale didn’t click at the box office, but our Pandemic experience has made it more relevant. Nicole Kidman and a good cast can’t be faulted, but if a powerful thriller with something big to say was intended, it didn’t come off. As a tense chase picture,…
This ’50s cult monster double bill was produced by the Corman brothers Roger and Gene. The first re-plays ideas from several Sci-fi classics on a shoestring budget, and squeaks by with a novel wrinkle of its own. Using some of the same crew and actors, the second item is even cheaper. It hasn’t a single…
Creature with the Blue Hand/Web of the Spider Blu-ray Film Masters 1967, 1971 / 87, 110 min Starring Klaus Kinski, Anthony Franciosa, Michelle Mercier Written by Herbert Reinecker, Bruno Corbucci, Giovanni Grimaldi Photographed by Sandro Mancori, Memmo Mancori Directed by Alfred Vohrer, Antonio Margheriti More ticking time-bomb than actor, Klaus Kinski was born to prowl…
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 have a trio of films to remind us that November 5th is Election Day. Vote, please. And enjoy the wine pairings for each movie. There are some places in the…
Dr. Rossiter will give you something to scream about! Sidney Hayers’ Big Top terror flick is luridly oversexed, excessively gruesome — and great fun. Mad plastic surgeon Anton Diffring creates his own harem of facially-restored women who also happen to be criminals. Circus acts provide the ‘accidents’ to remove any that become a liability. It’s…
Taken from a story by Patricia Highsmith, director Claude Autant-Lara’s murder thriller can boast an attractive cast: Maurice Ronet, Gert Fröbe, Robert Hossein, Marina Vlady and Yvonne Furneaux. The slick production, good music and committed performances can’t be faulted, but the point gets lost amid a lot of yelling. Just the same, Hossein and Fröbe…
Late October, when the weather portends the oncoming chill of winter, the night rises earlier and the day grows shorter, when the veil between this world and the next grows thin and the spirits of the dead are welcome to revisit and the most terrifying aspects of our reality are celebrated by figures in dread…
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 scare up wine pairings for three movies that fit right into Halloween week. Eye of the Devil is a British horror film from 1966 starring Deborah Kerr, David Niven, Donald…