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aka The Hijackers.
Terry (Antony Booth) is a self-employed lorry driver. On a job he meets Shirley (Jacqueline Ellis) at a cafe and gives her a lift. Unfortunately he's held up and his shipment of whiskey is hijacked. But how did the hijackers know that he had a valuable cargo and that he was going that route? Suspicion falls onto Terry's partner, who was conveniently ill for this trip.
A rather nice little crime flick from Butchers, which boasts some great performances by Booth and Derek Francis as the gang leader with a penchant for fine cooking.
Professor Hasdane (Tony Quinn) is an absent minded inventor who works for the Ministry of Defense. He's developed a bomb housed within a pen. A bomb that is set off by the sound of bells. On his way home from a demonstration he manages to leave a suitcase in a taxi which is found by cheeky cockney wideboy Sammy (Harry Fowler). Unfortunately the suitcase has a live pen bomb in it. Sammy offloads the case to a fence, before he's approached by the professor who is trying to find the case. Sammy tries to help the prof to find it once he learns there's a reward, but in the sort of co-incidence that only happens in films, Sammy's employer is Hunter (Sydney Tafler) a dodgy club owner and who sells drugs which are hidden inside pens! No chance of a mix up happening there then is there?
A likable little film that is carried by the charm of the comical Harry Fowler as he pursues the pen through a variety of bizarre circumstances.
aka Per un pugno di dollari.
An anonymous man (Clint Eastwood) rides into a New Mexican town on a mule, and decides to stay when he finds out that it is torn in two by a gang war between the Baxter's and the Rojo's. He schemes to make money from both sides by playing them off against each other, but his plans are complicated when he gets involved with Marisol (Marianne Koch) and decides to reunite her with her husband and child, despite one of the Rojo's taking her for himself.
From the opening titles you know this is going to be a classic and served to popularise the spaghetti western genre. From the music, the script, and the cinematography, all add to make a classic western. And even though it is a thinly disguised remake of Yojimbo (1961), it takes the basics of that film and makes it all its own.
aka Sparrers Can't Sing.
Cheeky Cockney Charlie (James Booth) returns from sea after two years away, to pick up his life again. But he finds everything has changed, his old home has been demolished and he hasn't a clue as to where his wife has gone. Being the East End of London everyone knows that Maggie (Barbara Windsor) is now living with Burt (George Sewell) and has a child, but Charlie is led a merry dance by everyone as he tries to get Maggie back. And she in turn tries to prevent Charlie and Burt from finding out about each other.
Here is a film that attempts to give a true to life representation of Cockney life in the East End at the time. Its an ensemble piece with a collection of characters congregating mainly in the pub as Charlie waits for Maggie. One of those films you either love or hate. Me I like the array of characters that flit around, in and out of the story, who prove more interesting than the main plot line. A snapshot of London life that doesn't normally get shown, but one that betrays its improvised theatre origins.
aka House of Usher.
Philip Winthrop (Mark Damon) arrives at the House of Usher, to meet his fiance Madeline Usher (Myrna Fahey). On arrival he is made most unwelcome and told Madeline is ill. Her brother Roderick (Vincent Price) tells Philip that the marriage cannot take place as the Usher family is cursed and all their predecessors have descended into madness, and debauchery. He is determined that he and Madeline will be the last of the Ushers and opposes any thoughts of children. Philip's unease at Roderick, and the increasingly decrepit house, makes him desperate to take Madeline away. She agrees to leave with him, but will Roderick and the house allow her to leave?
This was the first of many Edgar Allan Poe films that Corman was to attempt. And as usual Price runs away with it, as all around him start as excentrics and rapidly descend into madness. A slow and brooding gothic horror masterpiece.
aka Ganheddo.
A post apocalyptic world in 2038, following a war between humans and computers and a smuggling team journeys into the computer complex of Kyron-5, searching for precious metals. One by one the team is killed, and those left realise that they need to destroy Kyron-5 in order to escape and save the human race. Something that is more achieveable when one finds a Gunhed combat robot.
A cyberpunk styled live-action Mecha film that makes little or no sense, but looks cool.
The American civil war is in full swing and Capt. Harding (Michael Craig) is a prisoner of war itching to escape, and escape he does, with the aid of an observation balloon. Capt Harding and a motley crew end up crashing on a deserted South Pacific island and are soon joined by two women whose ship has floundered in a storm. There they soon realise they are stranded and have to use their wits to survive. Then they spot a pirate ship and two others stumble on a submarine, the fabled Nautilus; Captain Nemo's sub that was reported sunk eight years previously.
A mix of Swiss Family Robinson with 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea and featuring some of Ray Harryhausen's best stop motion animation makes for a great little adventure.
Detective McPherson (Dana Andrews) is called to investigate the murder of the beautiful and charming Laura (Gene Tierney), found dead in her home, blasted in the face by a shotgun. McPherson builds a mental picture of the dead girl from interviews and a painting of her hanging in her apartment. He tries to piece together the mystery of who would kill such an enticing woman and finds hes falling for her himself. Could it be the vicious tongued and jealous journalist Lydecker (Clifton Webb), or her inveterate playboy cad of a fiance, Shelby Carpenter (Vincent Price). Then someone walks into the apartment, busting the case wide open. Answering some questions and posing others, and changing the focus of the investigation.
A nice whodunit with some fine acting, chock full of witty one liners. We follow the personal life of Laura in flashback and establish who and why they dunnit. in this lightly played mystery, where one watches the character sketches rather than the plot, but its still a top noir and worth a watch.
Bart Crosbie (Pat O'Brien) is a washed up drunken hack journalist, who finds himself in the middle of a murder inquiry, when his editor Brook (Ronald Adam), is murdered after trying to expose a local mobster Heinz (George Coulouris). Brook's dying breath tells Bart who did it, but Bart needs lots of money fast to pay for his son's operation. So he comes to an arrangement with Heinz. For the price of the operation Bart will confess, leaving Heinz in the clear. Only one problem remains, Jill Brook (Lois Maxwell). She's Brook's niece and the person who stumbled on Bart standing over her uncle's body, gun in hand, but even so she comes to believe he's innocent. Worse of all the police believe her and they cut him loose, leaving Heinz believing he's been double-crossed, and you don't want to cross Heinz!
The actions of a desperate man as his confession crumbles, gives a nice angle. The actors fill out their parts well, and there's even room for Freddie Mills (a British boxing legend), and Tommy Steele (rocking out as himself) to pop up. All in all it makes a solid, if not a classic film noir.
aka Bloodsuckers.Doctors Wear Scarlet. Freedom Seekers.
Richard Fountain (Patrick Mower), an authority on Greek mythology, is in Greece researching. Word reaches Britain that Richard has taken up with some unusual people and as he's the son of the foreign secretary, a potential scandal is brewing. A disparate group of Richards friends track him down, and bring him back, including his girlfriend, an investigator and Major Longboy (Patrick McNee). Much to everyone's dismay, Fountain had taken up with Chriseis (Imogen Hassal), abandoned his studies and worst of all there seem to be unexplained deaths occurring wherever Richard was on the islands. But back in college at Oxford, Richard is still under Chriseis's influence, despite her death in Greece; things can only get worse.
Packed with decent British actors, and filmed in Greece, this film still manages to look and feel like a cheap and cheerful quickie. Dashed off in a hurry, with terrible lines and a voice over to fill in the gaps. What could have been an interesting tale of Vampirism as a psycho-sexual release, ends up a confused not quite mess. You can see what they wanted to do, but didn't have the time and or money to produce. A curio rather than anything anyone must see.
We meet Paul Clifton (Stanley Baker) after a jewel robbery, as he builds a team for his next job, robbing a night mail train from Glasgow. This takes some organising and includes breaking reluctant currency expert Robinson (Frank Finlay) out of prison. Meanwhile Inspector Langley (James Booth) is hot on the trail of the jewel thieves. Then he hears whispers about an even bigger heist being planned. A cat and mouse game proceeds, with meticulous planning on one side and the police sniffing for clues on the other.
An unsensationalised, but stylish account of the 1963 Great Train Robbery, with Baker giving his usual no nonsense hard man performance. It gets bogged down in details in the middle, inevitable really after the high octane opening. An obvious influence on a number of following crime films such as The Italian Job and Yate's next film Bullitt.
aka The Hijackers.
