Quite a few films noir approach perfection: this almost-perfect RKO production was abused by Howard Hughes, only to bounce back as one of Hollywood’s most notable ‘sleepers’ — word-of-mouth made it into a solid box office hit. Gravel-throat detective Charles McGraw is suspected of being on the mob’s payroll, a charge that is tested when…
A Shot in the Dark 1964 – 2.35:1 Kino Lorber – 4K Blu-ray Starring Peter Sellers, Herbert Lom, Elke Sommer Written by Blake Edwards, William Peter Blatty Directed by Blake Edwards If a fountain is nearby he will fall into it, if a rake is close he will step on it, if an unloaded gun…
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 toast three films dealing in fairy tales, from good, to funny, to very bad. Once upon a time there were two brothers. They are the subject of The Wonderful World…
It’s an epic seen through the eye of an artist. We know the past of Europe through great paintings, but Stanley Kubrick uses fine art as a filter to stylize a bygone era. His adaptation of the Thackeray novel uses new approaches to low-light cinematography. We are witness to a rogue’s progress through troubled times;…
Italo pioneer in Gothic horror Ernesto Gastaldi stepped up to directing with this not-bad murder thriller for the Euro exploitation market circa 1965. It’s Giancarlo Giannini’s first film, as an heir to a fortune with inconvenient psychological issues … he can’t say for certain that he isn’t a latent sex killer apt to strike any…
Trailers From Hell Guru Allan Arkush’s The Last Reel video essay series continues with its first installment of a TWO-PARTER about the great Questlove. Today’s episode includes Allan’s TFH commentary for Summer of Soul, Questlove’s band The Roots performing, Adele jamming with The Roots in The Tonight Show‘s Toy Instrument Orchestra, and part of the…
John Huston’s final work is a personal production filmed under ideal conditions, with an ideal Irish cast. Screenwriter Tony Huston adjusts the acclaimed short story for film but keeps it more or less intact — a single dinner party covers most of the running time. Anjelica Huston is James Joyce’s Gretta and Donal McCann is…
Is it a filmic disaster or just your average post-punk Riot grrrl Sci-fi epic that got lost in the margins? Lori Petty nails the title character with a stylishly manic-defiant hellraiser battling the forces of repression. Naomi Watts and Ice-T co-star, but the functioning auteurs may be production designer Catherine Hardwicke and costumer Arianne Phillips….
The new year has unexpectedly graced us with a plethora of interesting and entertaining horror films this month in theaters or on streaming sites. In the interest of not just focusing on one and ignoring the others, here are some capsule reviews. Primate – I guess the title Primate sounded more marketable than Killer Chimp,…
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 hoist a glass to a trio of films directed by Frank Tashlin. The Alphabet Murders is a British film from 1965. The story was taken from an Agatha Christie novel,…
‘Kill the Bible!’ — according to Cecil B. DeMille, that’s the agenda of Godless atheists destroying America’s youth. His beautifully directed yet jaw-droppingly exploitative ‘meller-drammer’ condemns teenagers to a hellhole reformatory, for more defiance, escapes, and a typically spectacular DeMille crisis. That’s not counting the scene where cross-shaped ‘electrocution stigmata’ are burned into the young…
As long as we’re feeling restless … we return to 1971, and a Peter Watkins political fantasy that arrived looking for trouble. The invocation of a forgotten Cold War security act motivates police to target anti-war dissidents with a murderous initiative. The premise of this grim desert ordeal always seemed farfetched, paranoid … but maybe…
Edward Yang’s sentimental family masterpiece is back, now in 4K Ultra HD. It’s New Taiwan Cinema at its best, and an ideal introduction to Asian cinema for those averse to action and fantasy. One year in the life of a home in Taipei begins with a wedding and ends with a funeral; the emotional journey…
It’s a lowly Z-grade independent monster show of the 1950s, made by Billy Wilder’s talent-challenged older brother. We can’t get enough of pictures like this: Bronson Caves subs for the wilds of the Himalayas, but desperation editing can’t compensate for the lack of real action scenes. Mister Snow Creature is not particularly memorable either. But…
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 salute the late, great Peter Sellers with a toast to each of these three films. Our title this week comes, naturally, from the 1970 British comedy, There’s a Girl in…
He was the biggest unknown-to-major-star sensation of the Golden age of Hollywood. Errol Flynn’s screen breakthrough is unique, as his ‘dashing rogue’ persona wasn’t fully formedl his Doctor Blood is no superman, and surprisingly vulnerable. The show also introduced one of the movies’ most appealing romantic couples, with the casting of the still-teenaged Olivia de…
Barbara Steele is back and Dr. Hichcock’s got her, but it’s not that Dr. Hichcock. The producers of The Horrible Dr. Hichcock return with the same director and much the same crew, with their fake anglicized names. Ms. Steele’s unfaithful and duplicitous spouse gets a full acting workout, even with a story devoid of Taboo…
Tim Burton’s debut feature elaborates on the alternate-universe world of Pee-Wee Herman, the alter-ego creation of comedian Paul Reubens. A non-conformist original with a good heart, Pee-Wee’s DNA could have come from a TV kiddie show host. He’s an infantile / streetwise child prodigy with lofty values: he believes in fair play, inclusivity and special…
Steven Spielberg’s celebration of Rod Serling’s legendary TV show delivers mind-bending fantasy and horror, and maybe slips a bit when reaching for poignant charm and moral preaching. The stories aren’t all winners, but they build to two of the best omnibus entries of all time, Joe Dante’s It’s a Good Life and George Miller’s Nightmare…
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 came down with a bad case of recidivism. Kill, kill, kill again. But take a moment to savor one of the wine pairings for these films about those who just…
Dennis Bartok and Craig Rogers’s Deaf Crocodile Films keeps coming up with surprises from Eastern Europe. This Hungarian fantasy throws us for a loop — it’s a time travel story using an actual mechanical time machine, but filmed way back in 1942, in the middle of WW2 when the country was fighting alongside the Nazis….
Watergate prompted Hollywood to launch a wave of paranoid thrillers about vast conspiracies, but Italian filmmakers long before presented the status quo as corrupt from the inside out. Director Francesco Rosi’s adaptation of a fiction novel skips the escapist thrills. Incorruptible detective Lino Ventura intuits that his superiors don’t want him to solve a series…
The best suspense TV of the 1950s has been released again, in a monster set with dozens of discs … and its just the kind of thing that collectors need when streaming options are nil. Hitchcock, Joan Harrison, and Norman Lloyd combined Hollywood experience, good taste and a wicked sense of humor to make murder…
Any 4K Hammer release gets special attention; this one has Christopher Lee as Dracula so will spike the radar of collector completists. Its reputation is not high, but it does predate the company’s woeful attempts to update the franchise in a contemporary setting. Kino & StudioCanal’s presentation can’t be faulted — the 4K remaster flatters…
Here’s the fifth and final installment of my list of the twenty-five greatest horror films from the past quarter century, starting from the bottom and gradually heading to the top. We’ve reached the Top Five, just in time to welcome the new year. Here’s a link if you missed the fourth installment: The 25 Greatest Horror…