Brooke Shields became a star and attracted mild controversy in this show, director Louis Malle’s first American production. Co-writer & producer Polly Platt and cinematographer Sven Nykvist collaborated on Malle’s fascinating look at life in a New Orleans brothel early in the 20th century. Prostitute Susan Sarandon raises two children in the upscale bawdy house,…
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 dig into a few movies featuring Peter Lorre – with wine pairings for each. Peter Lorre was an amazing actor, we don’t need to beat that horse to death. However,…
Michael Caine’s heist comedy has been rated one of the top UK movies ever. It’s a flip Swingin’ England slapstick thriller, lavishly produced and with an emphasis on fancy cars. Caine is a cockney crook with an insane scheme to steal millions in Red Chinese gold in Turin. Slick stuntwork combines with ‘Team Brit’ humor…
What a discovery . . . I’m glad this was recommended to me. Kôsaku Yamashita’s powerful 1968 drama belongs to the semi-chivalrous ‘honor and code’ yakuza tradition. Crime clan blood brothers Kôji Tsuruta and Tomisaburô Wakayama are good men caught between conflicting loyalties to family, friends, and the yakuza credo. Clashes of honor lead to…
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 pair wines with brain movies. That’s brain, not brainy. The 1958 sci-fi The Brain Eaters was produced by Ed Nelson, who also stars, and an uncredited Roger Corman. Director Bruno…
John M. Stahl’s superior melodrama is a focus point for the study of African-Americans in Hollywood. Businesswoman Claudette Colbert a housekeeper Louise Beavers raise their daughters together for a story that expresses the racial divide in simple terms. Determined to pass for white, Beavers’ daughter Fredi Washington rejects her mother outright. The tale of motherly…
We’re happy to report that this Goddard – Abrams – Reeves monster thriller holds up, when most everything else from the years of shaky-cam nausea and ‘found footage’ boredom disappoints. The ‘found’ video recording of the end of NYC is more than a gimmick, and it brings the panic for a you-are-there night of mayhem,…
The Avengers: The Emma Peel Collection (1965-1967) Blu-ray [Imprint] Television 1965-67 / 1.33: 1 / Black and White and Color Starring Diana Rigg, Patrick Macnee Written by Brian Clemens, Philip Levene Directed by Roy Ward Baker, Sidney Hayers, Charles Crichton Though remembered for its idiosyncratic humor, The Avengers made its debut in 1961 as a no-nonsense…
Hollywood finally decided to get serious about the Korean War debacle with a pro-Army, anti-politics battle epic that blames our own negotiators as much as the enemy. Director Lewis Milestone and star Gregory Peck lead a full company of favorite actors in a gritty story of ugly combat in absurd conditions: die taking territory today,…
Have a yen for the music, style and glamour of ’60s Swinging London? Edgar Wright’s hybrid time capsule / music extravaganza / horror thriller is an audiovisual delight from one end to the other. Young women from different decades seek to conquer London by different means — they meet as soul twins in a ghost…
Terry Gilliam’s grandest, most joyful fantasy is still a marvel, a fully adult adventure that will equally spark younger imaginations. Creative tricks and eye-popping Italo designs bring us a magical, satirical world of absurd wars, sultan’s hareems and a flight of fancy to the moon. John Neville’s ideal Baron is abetted by spunky Sarah Polley…
A big welcome to the new disc company Radiance! This first CineSavant Radiance review is a knockout political drama from Italy’s Elio Petri, with one of the best performances ever by Gian-Maria Volontè. Model factory machinist Lulù Massa offends his peers on the assembly line with his individualistic egotism. An injury on the job makes him…
Director John Sturges’ final feature is a handsome production that fumbles and stumbles in unexpected ways. Michael Caine and especially Donald Sutherland lead an impossible commando mission to kidnap Winston Churchill right from English soil. Tom Mankiewicz’s dialogue is witty but the tone is all over the place. We don’t know whether it’s the script,…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. This week, the wine is the color of blood as we serve up some pairings for three films concerning serial killers. In Cold Blood is a movie from 1967, based on Truman Capote’s…
Arrow swings into 2023 with a disc of a horror thriller ‘with issues’ — but appointing it with intriguing extras. Sandra Dee gets her perky nose all tangled up in an inter-dimensional conspiracy run by sneaky occultist Dean Stockwell — and we know that it’s all going to lead to a sacrificial altar. Roger Corman…
It’s New Year’s Eve once again over at Trailers From Hell, so you know what that means, fellow cineastes: it’s Val Kilmer’s birthday! As such, our Kilmer Birthday Committee (of one) will continue its annual tradition of watching one Val classic in celebration. Tonight’s entertainment: the criminally under-seen and intensely silly Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker adventure comedy Top…
This Region-Free import gives us both versions of Gillo Pontecorvo’s fictional tale of colonial misdeeds that sums up old Europe’s attitude toward the New World. Marlon Brando’s agent provocateur and freebooting soldier of fortune foments revolution against the Portuguese and then hires out to reverse everything he’s done for English interests. The big scale production…
Lee Marvin, Vera Miles and Bradford Dillman shine a military courtroom drama, a TV movie released as a theatrical feature five years later (pretty sneaky, Universal). It’s small-scale but effective, with strong performances and a reasonably credible storyline. Marvin’s Ryker is on trial for his life, with the entire U.S. Army convinced that he’s a…
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 pair wines with cinematic robots of the past. The Colossus of New York is a 1958 sci-fi which employs the old “transplanting a brain into another body” trope. Skipping the…
The ex- movie star Mai Zetterling found more satisfaction in directing. In interviews she denied that she is an intellectual, but more intelligent films about male-female emotional politics are hard to come by. Unusually frank and intense, these dramas for the 1960s art film circuit pack a visceral impact — the extreme situations and content…
A superb thriller is now better than ever on 4K. We’ve always known why it rewards viewings: it’s both thrilling and funny. When Robert Shaw, Martin Balsam and Hector Elizondo hijack a subway train, Walter Matthau must scramble to collect a ransom while trying to figure out how they’ll make their escape. Peter Stone’s dialogue…
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 movies concern L.A.’s favorite obsession – after movies, of course – cars. There is a wine pairing for each. Let’s get revved up. Gumball Rally is a 1976 laffer…
Pairing wine with movies! See the trailers and hear the fascinating commentary for these movies and many more at Trailers From Hell. There are no words for this week’s movies. They’re silent. Well, two of them are. We have corks to pop for each. The Man Who Laughs is from 1928 and was one of…
The Night of the Iguana Blu-ray Warner Archive 1964 / 1.85: 1 / 125 Min. Starring Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr Written by Anthony Veiller, John Huston Directed by John Huston T. Lawrence Shannon looks more like a dock worker than a clergyman but to the women in his congregation he’s as soulful as…
Directors interested in important, ambitious subject matter didn’t all go extinct with the rise of the Star Wars Generation. Roland Joffé’s first four features are powerful pictures that tell truths that we ought not to forget, with a couple of Award-winning gems right up front. The star power is here as well — Robert De…