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AKA Caesar Against the Pirates. Giulio Cesare contro i pirati.
"You should kill him now Hamar."
Julius Caesar (Gustavo Rojo) flees Rome fearing being overthrown. En route to Rhodes he and Plauzia (Abbe Lane) are captured by Hamar, the Pirate (Gordon Mitchell). How will Caesar get back to Rome now and reclaim his position?
Very loosely based on real events, this is a standard historical romp, made more entertaining by Mitchell's turn as the cruel and macho pirate.
"What do you care, it wasn't your kid."
Hard nosed and hot headed cop Jim Wilson (Robert Ryan) is sent up state to investigate a murder (and to let things cool down), after slapping around one suspect too many. He's sent to Westham Junction to uncover who murdered a young girl. With the girls father (Ward Bond) he tracks the suspect to the isolated house of Mary Malden (Ida Lupino), a blind woman who lives with her mentally deficient brother Danny (Sumner Williams), whom she is trying to protect. Forced to stay the night at Mary's house things start to get complicated and Jim starts to question his brutal methods.
An interesting film about redemption, as the cop comes up against an even more heavy handed and brutal man than he is and begins to see the error of his ways. His deliverance is facilitated by the warmth of Lupino's blind woman, who must accept the help and trust of everyone, as opposed to his single minded and untrusting loneliness.
AKA The Devils of Loudun.
"Confess you are the Devil's servant! Renounce your master!"
Father Grandier (Oliver Reed) is a priest who gets caught up in the politics of religion, when a local nunnery comes down with a series of possessions. As the hysteria rises and the nunnery's fame threatens to overwhelm the political aspirations of Cardinal Richelieu and various members of the court, Grandier becomes a pawn and eventual scape-goat at a show trial with the mother superior (Vanessa Redgrave), (who is obsessed with the priest), as star witness.
Ken Russell's controversial masterwork, developed from Aldous Huxley's novel The Devils Of Loudun. The film matches the physical decay witnessed by the victims of the plague ravaging the town, mirroring it with the morale decay of the church and royal court. This is a savage attack on the politics of religion and all involved in it. Called a "grand fiesta for sadists and perverts" by one critic, what better recommendation do you need?
AKA Out Of The Past.
"All women are wonders, because they reduce all men to the obvious."
Small town California, and the garage owner Jeff Bailey (Robert Mitchem) bumps into an old aquaintance, who orders him to meet with the powerful gangster Whit Sterling (Kirk Douglas). En route he then spills all about his old life to his new girlfriend (Virginia Huston) and in flashback we learn about how Jeff had crossed Whit by taking off with Whit's girlfriend Kathie (Jane Greer). When he arrives Jeff is surprised to find Kathie by Whit's side, and Whit offers him a way to clear his debt, but it's obviously a trap.
A wonderful film noir, with a plot that draws you in and actors up to the task of keeping your attention.
AKA Danger On My Side.
"What do you want to take me for? I had nothing to do with it!"
Lynne (Maureen Connell) sees her brother (an undercover detective) killed and is determined to find the culprits. He had been frequenting a Soho nightclub called Nicky's, so she does what any self respecting grieving sister would do, that's right she gets a job there and ends up uncovering a diamond smuggling ring.
A standard Butchers film, a bit of cut price glamour, (Courtesy of Sonya Cordeau), and some rough and ready gangsters. Routine, with no real lifer, but it passes the time entertainingly enough, just don't expect anything above the ordinary.
"You're not really listening to me."Bill Farrell (Tom Tryon) marries Marge Bradley (Gloria Talbott) and from the start he seems different to her somehow. A year into the marriage and Marge is worried that she hasn't conceived yet, but Bill doesn't want to see the doctor. Meanwhile other men of the town seem to be changing, becoming less emotional. Could it be that aliens are taking over humans one by one, and if so how does Marge get people to believe her and how does she stop them?
A classic sci-fi of the commie witch-hunt/enemy within variety so prevalent in the 50's.
aka Before I Die.
"Hardly ever missed, did I?"
The film starts with elderly horror film star Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff) announcing to his agent that he is retiring. All try to persuade him to reconsider whilst he makes one last personal appearance at a drive-in. Meanwhile a young Vietnam veteran, who looks every bit like the clean cut all American boy, Bobby (Tim O'Kelly) plans out his revenge on the world using his skills as a snipper. Both these worlds are set to collide at the drive-in.
Peter Bogdanovich's debut feature is an accomplished piece of work using the then recent Charles Whitman shootings at the University of Texas as the basis for this fiction.
"Ordinary ants of different species were doing things that ants don't do: meeting, communicating - apparently making decisions."
Dr. Ernest Hubbs (Nigel Davenport) notices that ants in the desert have started communicating, and co-operating. To observe this phenonenom closer he sets up a research station in the Arizona desert with another scientist (Michael Murphy). They try to fathom the ants motivation but too late come to realise that the ants collective mentality has become a very real threat to not only the life of other desert animals but to themselves as well.
Saul Bass concocts an intreging mix of sci-fi thriller and art house movie. It moves slowly as we follow the cat and mouse games between the scientists and the ants, but Bass maintains the film as a compelling watch. Even if I didn't fully understand the ending!
aka The Witch of Timbuctoo.
"Look at me and see what seventeen years in the grave has done to me. No, Radin, without my hatred I never could have lived to exhume myself. What swine you three are!"
Paul Lavond (Lionel Barrymore), escapes prison with a scientist. Once ensconced in their swamp hide-out the scientist unveils his research, a method of reducing living creatures in height, until they are but centremetres high. When the scientist dies, Lavond takes the methods to Paris, and soon wreaks vengeance on the three men that framed him. The men know he is coming for them, but they are on the look out for Paul Lavond, not Madame Mandelip, toy manufacturer.
A wonderful and classic early horror, where Barrymore and Browning combine to make a thrilling horror. Maureen O'Sullivan adds fire and a sub-plot as Lavond's daughter, who blames her father for her reduced circumstances.
"Lenin dreamt of having the world in his hands..."
Chris Cronyn (Peter Graves) and his wife Linda (Andrea King), are scientists who receive signals possibly from intelligent life on Mars. The messages tell of Mars as a paradise, and begin to quote biblical passages. People start to believe that they could be messages from God. This sparks a religious revival across the world. But are the messages genuine, or a way of fermenting unrest in the world by Communist insurgents?
A commie bashing propaganda film, from the cold war, which is of interest only if you want to see at first hand the paranoia of that age.
aka Rebel Streets. The Wild Side.
"Give 'em the muzak."
Evan (Bill Coyne), decides to leave home following one to many arguments with his mother. He finds himself running with a loose knit bunch of punks living in a squat on the edge of LA, as they have to contend with disinterested parents, red-neck vigilanties and the local feral dogs.
Penelope Spheeris explores the sub-culture of the LA punk scene using real punk bands, (such as TSOL), and people from the scene to give it authentisity. Not for everyone, but if you have a passing interest in the music or the punk scene of the 80's this is required viewing.
"She's been a scrubber all her life that one..."
Poor little rich girl, Polly (Suzy Kendall), swaps the good life of Chelsea for what she sees as the romance of the working class existence in Battersea. She finds friends (Maureen Lipman and Adrienne Posta), and romance (Dennis Waterman) but it comes at a price. The colourful life of the street turns out not to be all that romantic.
Based on the novel by Nell Dunn and the BBC play, this addresses some of the social issues of the day, including back street abortionists. Well scripted and played, we come to like the people involved before we get caught up in their domestic lives. This also gives a good flavour of the era.
"Your monstrous ugliness breeds monstrous hatred. Good! I can use your hate."
An eccentric neurological surgeon Dr. Vollin (Bela Lugosi), with an obsession for Edgar Allen Poe, is pursuaded to operate on a young woman Jean (Irene Ware), brain damaged in a car wreck. Vollin becomes obsessed with her and plans to kidnap her and torture her fiance and father in a dungeon a la Poe. Obviously he cannot do this himself so turns a wanted criminal (Boris Karloff) into a deformed monster to make him conform to his will and carry out his plan.
Lugosi gives a suitably malicious performance in this classic early horror. Well worth seeking out.
"Baby, I think we associate with a very unstable group."
The teens easy life on the beach is interrupted by the arrival of the English pop star The Potato Bug (played by Frankie Avalon). Dee Dee (Annette Funicello) obviously falls for the Bugs charms, which leads to the usual spiteful Avalon performance as the attempts to put the Bug down and win Dee Dee back. Meanwhile a millionaire is trying to prove that his chimp Clyde is more intelligent than the teens. Add in some Von Zipper (Harvey Lembeck) action, Big Drag (Don Rickles) and a brief appearance from Little Stevie Wonder.
Another episode in the beach franchise sees the gang taking on the British pop invasion, modern art and drag racing. An OK addition to the series, but you could see the end in sight - how Frankie has the nerve to call the Potato Bug square, whilst holding onto the greaser look is a bit pot calling the kettle black!
AKA Caesar Against the Pirates. Giulio Cesare contro i pirati.
