cult film freak

Written by James M. Tate / 4/15/2019 / No comments / action , adventure , charles bronson , clint walker , creature , cult , exploitation , jack warden , jaws-clone , seventies , stuart whitman , thriller , western , will sampson

CHARLES BRONSON JAWS-LIKE WESTERN OF 'THE WHITE BUFFALO'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson ducks for cover in The White Buffalo YEAR: 1976</u></td></tr>
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A Charles Bronson cult film that, without the hilariously dated and contrived title creature, is a surprisingly decent Western in its own right...<br>
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Haunted by nightmares of THE WHITE BUFFALO, Bronson, as a retired, inconspicuous Wild Bill Hickok, wakes up with guns blazing, all
 his own — first on a train and then inside a gold mining town's hotel run by a gracious Kim Novak...<br>
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In-between we learn of the giant beast through the frantic, personal rage 
of the most sympathetic character, Will Sampson's Crazy Horse, who must go by the name 'Worm' until he avenges his family's death and, by
 the end, a stretch of terrain that resembles a neatly cut, treeless 
landing strip provides a showdown location for the killer Buff's
 three hunters — so let's cover the main JAWS similarities through the 
main characters...<br>

action, adventure, charles bronson, clint walker, creature, cult, exploitation, jack warden, jaws-clone, seventies, stuart whitman, thriller, western, will sampson

CHARLES BRONSON JAWS-LIKE WESTERN OF 'THE WHITE BUFFALO'

Charles Bronson ducks for cover in The White Buffalo YEAR: 1976 A Charles Bronson cult film that, without the hilariously dated and cont...

JESSIE LA RIVE MAPES ON PLAYING HERSELF IN 'URBAN COWBOY'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Interview with Urban Cowboy's Jessie La Rive Mapes</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><i>"Hold my beer, Jessie," Debra Winger's character, Sissy, tells real life cowgirl Jessie La Rive Mapes, then billed as Jessie La Rive, in the  popular 1980 John Travolta feature <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2019/04/urban-cowboy.html">URBAN COWBOY</a>, in which the former disco king, trading polyester for chaps, rides a mechanical bull in the gigantic Gilley's Bar in Houston, Texas, where, on film and real life, Jessie was right at home...</i></span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;"><u>How did you first get involved with URBAN COWBOY?</u> The original story 
was written by Aaron Latham of Esquire magazine. He did a story about my
 best friend, Betty Jones, her ex-husband and myself along with my daddy, Steve Strange. Then director Jim Bridges with Paramount Pictures decided that the love triangle around the bull would make for a
 great movie.</span><br>

country music, debra winger, eighties, interview, james bridges, james gammon, jessie la rive, john travolta, love triangle, scott glenn, sport

JESSIE LA RIVE MAPES ON PLAYING HERSELF IN 'URBAN COWBOY'

Interview with Urban Cowboy's Jessie La Rive Mapes "Hold my beer, Jessie," Debra Winger's character, Sissy, tells real...

DUSTIN HOFFMAN & WARREN BEATTY FAMOUSLY BOMB IN 'ISHTAR'

action, adventure, buddy, charles grodin, comedy, dustin hoffman, eighties, elaine may, espionage, jack weston, warren beatty

DUSTIN HOFFMAN & WARREN BEATTY FAMOUSLY BOMB IN 'ISHTAR'

Year of Defeat: 1987 In one scene from the famously infamous 1987 mega-flop ISHTAR, a shy and introverted Warren Beatty admits that, i...

ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S 'FRENZY' WITH JON FINCH & BARRY FOSTER

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Opening credit sequence for FRENZY Year: 1972</u></td></tr>
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After a dry-spell with melodramas and big budget espionage films, Alfred Hitchock had an artistic comeback with FRENZY: Also serving as a grand return to England where Piccadilly Circus feels like its own busy character while the main protagonist, an antagonistic former RAF hero, gets embroiled in what Hitchcock perfected early on...<br>
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The Wrong Man theme, and it's an avalanche here, bordering on satire and with some of the coldest dark-humor sprinkled in. Yet FRENZY is no laughing matter, being perhaps the darkest and definitely most <i>modern</i> Hitchcock vehicle: and not just because people use swear words, or the nudity in one of the rape sequences: The most shocking and in-your-face involves Barbara Leigh-Hunt followed by Anna Massey's off-screen demise, in which one of Hitchcock's greatest shots makes for that <i>key signature moment</i> (the shower in PSYCHO; the umbrellas in FOREIGN CORRESPONDENT, etc.) that all his films rely on.<br>

alec mccowen, alfred hitchcock, anna massey, barbara leigh-hunt, barry foster, body count, dark comedy, exploitation, jon finch, neo noir, seventies, suspense, thriller, wrong man

ALFRED HITCHCOCK'S 'FRENZY' WITH JON FINCH & BARRY FOSTER

Opening credit sequence for FRENZY Year: 1972 After a dry-spell with melodramas and big budget espionage films, Alfred Hitchock had an a...

JOHN TRAVOLTA RIDES 'URBAN COWBOY' VERSES SCOTT GLENN

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>John Travolta in Urban Cowboy YEAR: 1980</u></td></tr>
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Another soundtrack film with John Travolta after disco and 1950's rock paid off, James Bridges' URBAN COWBOY is a character-driven, intentionally plotless melodrama with a ripped-muscular Scott Glenn as an ex-con who winds up Travolta’s rival: adding Pseudo-Sport to the genre involving a mechanical bull, bumping and grinding inside an immense Texas barroom where the title's first half derives throughout a beer-soaked, Country Music blaring, wooden-neon interior.<br>
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Before the opening credits, Travolta’s a small town guy with a nice suburban family, a cowboy hat, an unfitting beard: And thanks to his uncle, after landing a Houston-set tough guy oil rig gig and bedding down two models at the hot-spot, Gilley's, he’s quickly married to pretty barfly Debra Winger who's really more a bickering best friend, providing the two affable leads an old fashion chemistry that’s bound to fall apart at the seams... <br>

debra winger, drama, eighties, james bridges, jessie la rive, john travolta, madolyn smith, melodrama, romance, scott glenn, sport

JOHN TRAVOLTA RIDES 'URBAN COWBOY' VERSES SCOTT GLENN

John Travolta in Urban Cowboy YEAR: 1980 Another soundtrack film with John Travolta after disco and 1950's rock paid off, James Brid...

PETER O'TOOLE IN 'THE DAY THEY ROBBED THE BANK OF ENGLAND'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1960</u></td></tr>
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In this classy, turn of the Century-set British heist film, Aldo Ray plays an American joining with would-be Irish Revolutionaries to knock off the titular 
location, and the best moments occur in the planning stages as the giant Yank learns the innards of the immense, seemingly impenetrable bank-fortress from a personal tour by Peter O'Toole, playing an extremely nice lieutenant of the bank's troop of marching guards...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robbed the Bank of England SCORE: ****</u></td></tr>
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O'Toole's not the main star but has a genuine arc: his affable persona, giving away any 
and all secrets to an all-ears thief feigning style and class, sharpens as he begins to catch on during the crest of the second act, intensifying into a 
more familiar, edgy and intense character for O'Toole to embrace (and that he'd play later on).<br>
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Meanwhile, the
 pace slows during a filler romance between Ray and the only female plotter, and the 
most time's spent during the usual digging of the tunnel — the kind you 
mostly see in prison films breaking out while here they're attempting 
to break in...<br>
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The cast also includes veteran actor Albert Sharpe as a sewer dwelling bum that unknowingly provided the groundwork; Kieron Moore as the mouthiest and youngest Irishman, a thankless role and the only antagonist of sorts; and Elizabeth Sellers as the pouty (and much too old) ingenue in this semi-obscure gem directed by John Guillermin, and that famously laid the 
groundwork for O'Toole's career: After viewing one scene, David Lean knew he had his LAWRENCE OF ARABIA despite the dark features and a
 straight, hawkish nose that would soon be altered.<br>

aldo ray, caper, england, heist, john guillermin, kieron moore, peter o'toole, sixties, thriller

PETER O'TOOLE IN 'THE DAY THEY ROBBED THE BANK OF ENGLAND'

Year: 1960 In this classy, turn of the Century-set British heist film, Aldo Ray plays an American joining with would-be Irish Revolution...

JOHN CARPENTER DIRECTS TV-MOVIE 'SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME!'

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gqj-UJue0SA/XKq6JP7wSGI/AAAAAAABCbE/06rk6I-diqoOCxhLG8wRSeXlPISmIaipACLcBGAs/s1600/someone%2527s%252Bwatching%252Bme.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="465" data-original-width="612" height="302" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Gqj-UJue0SA/XKq6JP7wSGI/AAAAAAABCbE/06rk6I-diqoOCxhLG8wRSeXlPISmIaipACLcBGAs/s400/someone%2527s%252Bwatching%252Bme.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title Sequence for Someone's Watching Me YEAR: 1978</u></td></tr>
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After John Carpenter hit big with the horror film HALLOWEEN, a made-for-TV movie as the next step is a big strange, but it's not
 bad: Plot centers on a director played by Lauren Hutton who is, as the title implies, being watched 
by someone in the building across from her own... <br>
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Some of the dialogue is 
silly and the characters aren't fleshed out, but the pace keeps flowing,
 the tension mounts well, and there's that neat Carpenter steady-cam 
throughout despite the lack of spooky-synth Carpenter score. At 
times this feels like a theatrical thriller edited-for-television; other
 times it's like watching a TV movie that, with more work, could have 
made it to the big screen. All in all it's a Hitchcock homage, but looks
 more like a Brian DePalma-doing-Hitchock. Either way it's not too shabby for a small screen effort. Carpenter fans shouldn't be disappointed; just don't grade on a curve.<br>

horror, john carpenter, lauren becall, suspense, thriller, tv movie

JOHN CARPENTER DIRECTS TV-MOVIE 'SOMEONE'S WATCHING ME!'

Title Sequence for Someone's Watching Me YEAR: 1978 After John Carpenter hit big with the horror film HALLOWEEN, a made-for-TV movie...

GEORGE MONTGOMERY IN 'CANYON RIVER' W/ MARCIA HENDERSON

action, adventure, alan hale jr., fifties, george montgomery, marcia henderson, peter graves, robert wilke, romance, warner archives, western

GEORGE MONTGOMERY IN 'CANYON RIVER' W/ MARCIA HENDERSON

Year of Release: 1956 George Montgomery is perfect. So much so, his character has two first names, and both are... so damn perfect... ...

DENNIS CHRISTOPHER RIDES 'BREAKING AWAY' W/ DENNIS QUAID

daniel stern, dennis christopher, dennis quaid, hart bochner, jackie earle haley, john ashton, paul dooley, peter yates, robyn douglass, small town, sport, teen

DENNIS CHRISTOPHER RIDES 'BREAKING AWAY' W/ DENNIS QUAID

Dennis Christopher in Breaking Away YEAR: 1979 Feel good movie about teens from the poor side of the tracks but with a cool rock-diving ...

TIM BURTON & MICHAEL KEATON ORIGINAL 'BATMAN' REVIEWED

action, blockbuster, comic book, dc comics, eighties, franchise, jack nicholson, kim basinger, michael keaton, prince, robert wuhl, tim burton, tracey walter

TIM BURTON & MICHAEL KEATON ORIGINAL 'BATMAN' REVIEWED

Joker's Commercial Logo from BATMAN Year: 1989 Since the extremely dark Christopher Nolan DARK KNIGHT trilogy, the original Michael ...

EDMOND O'BRIEN WEARS A 'SHIELD FOR MURDER' W/ JOHN AGAR

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: large;"><u>Year of Capture & Release: 1954</u></span></td></tr>
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By the time this SHIELD FOR MURDER hit theaters, Edmond 
O'Brien had put on a few pounds, resembling Tyrone Power had he eaten 
Tyrone Power and with the lean, strict, tough years behind he was 
perfect as a character he'd have, a few years prior, spent an entire 
movie trying to bust... <br>
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Starting out with a MURDER 
where only one hidden witness knows the truth, O'Brien's crooked cop 
Barney might not have stooped this low... intentionally killing a 
lowlife criminal who happens to have a ton of cash from the bigwig 
mobster he ripped off... unless he felt he was above the law since he <i>was</i> the law, and Detective Barney Nolan not only has a bad temper but a reputation 
that proceeds him – the believers are a young cop he mentored since
 youth, played by <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/09/TARANTULAlland.html">TARANTULA</a> star John Agar as well as the token ingenue,
 Marla English (<a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2018/09/3-Bad-Sisters-Crime-Against-Joe.html">THREE BAD SISTERS</a>) as Patty Winters, a nice looking dame he can't trust to 
work in public yet he dreams of stowing her cozily into a tract house in
 the budding suburbs with the help of his victim, now donning empty 
pockets in the morgue and, with the exception of Emile Meyer's quick lecture, and a newspaper reporter morally hounding his 
cop friend, Barney, who got away with it.<br>

action, british film noir/melodrama, carolyn jones, cop, crime, edmond o'brien, fifties, john agar, marla english

EDMOND O'BRIEN WEARS A 'SHIELD FOR MURDER' W/ JOHN AGAR

Year of Capture & Release: 1954 By the time this SHIELD FOR MURDER hit theaters, Edmond O'Brien had put on a few pounds, resemb...

JOHN PAYNE IN PHIL KARLSON'S VISTAVISION NOIR 'HELL'S ISLAND'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Mary Murphy and John Payne in HELL ISLAND Year: 1955</u></td></tr>
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Much lighter, more efficient 
b-movie mainstream entertainment than the John Payne and director Phil Karlson's more edgy, driven and well known 99 RIVER 
STREET and especially the intentionally claustrophobic KANSAS CITY 
CONFIDENTIAL...<br>
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John Payne and Phil Karlson's HELL'S 
ISLAND borrows from the adventure genre in its set-up of a Las Vegas 
bouncer sent to the title Spanish location to find a ruby, and it's 
rather confusing since we begin with Payne's character telling his story
 (and thus the overall narration) to a cop and then, during the 
flashback of getting the assignment we go back, again, as he discusses 
two time lapses at once... or something: But things get rolling, slowly 
but in an entertaining fashion, once the mission's underway, and one 
that, despite the title, doesn't have a lot of danger in store for our 
hero, whose main problem is getting back in touch with the dark woman 
(with light hair) who had broken his heart...<br>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PCuQqLYjCKI/W5zq0vxoHsI/AAAAAAAA5XA/MdNJHCHiCR45JKHfNWao--2LSxf7pQjvwCEwYBhgL/s1600/3%2B2.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="597" data-original-width="838" height="282" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PCuQqLYjCKI/W5zq0vxoHsI/AAAAAAAA5XA/MdNJHCHiCR45JKHfNWao--2LSxf7pQjvwCEwYBhgL/s400/3%2B2.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>HELL'S RATING: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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And this is where the Noir element pours on: The 
sappy heart leading the otherwise tough guy around as he goes to various
 locations to gather clues in what becomes less of a plot and more a <i>Fog of Love</i> resulting in what's Payne and Karlson's weakest effort although...<br>
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This
 seems as intentional as a great band inserting a breezy ballad between 
two intense rockers (although this is their last collaboration 
following, in order, KANSAS CITY CONFIDENTIAL and 99 RIVER STREET). And 
the look distinguishes from the other films' black and white, which of 
course is the Film Noir usual: This color/aesthetic is enhanced from a 
wonderful technology (that ranged from 1950's Alfred Hitchcock to the 
special effects shots in 1977's STAR WARS) known as...<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>John Payne attempting some humor on (or, in) HELL'S ISLAND</u></td></tr>
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crime, film noir or melodrama, john payne, mary murphy, phil karlson, thriller, vistavision

JOHN PAYNE IN PHIL KARLSON'S VISTAVISION NOIR 'HELL'S ISLAND'

Mary Murphy and John Payne in HELL ISLAND Year: 1955 Much lighter, more efficient b-movie mainstream entertainment than the John Payne ...

JAMES GARNER IN 'SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF' W/ BRUCE DERN

action, bruce dern, comedy, harry morgan, jack elam, james garner, joan hackett, sixties, western

JAMES GARNER IN 'SUPPORT YOUR LOCAL SHERIFF' W/ BRUCE DERN

James Garner, Bruce Dern and Jack Elam YEAR: 1969 In the part of Jason McCullough, supposedly on his way to Australia where the Wild W...

CHARLES BRONSON NOIR OF 'CRIME WAVE' AKA 'THE CITY IS DARK'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson in CRIME WAVE Year: 1953</u></td></tr>
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Norman Mailer was dead wrong when, years after CRIME WAVE aka THE CITY IS DARK, he wrote TOUGH GUYS DON’T DANCE because, well, James Cagney could tear up the floorboards, as could 99 RIVER STREET John Payne...<br />
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And the buried CRIME WAVE lead... overshadowed by rigid cop Sterling Hayden, a young Charles Bronson, lead thug Ted de Corsia and a thoroughly demented Timothy Carey... is played by Gene Nelson, perhaps <i>the most </i>incredible dancer before and after, keeping cool and tough in his first ultra-serious role as Steve Lacey, an ex-convict paid a surprise visit by three of his old friends: You can put quotes on that since these guys are hardly pals. They all shared a prison stint, and the trio, after escaping, kill a cop... One gets shot and now they need a place to hole up DESPERATE HOURS style, much to Lacey’s even-keeled, slowburn chagrin. He has a great job as an airplane mechanic, and a beautiful wife in Phyllis Kirk’s Ellen, who, during the eleventh hour, has to weather Timothy Carey going so dynamically, eye-blinking wacko he’s well worth the wait.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Sterling Hayden, Gene Nelson in CRIME WAVE Rating: ****</u></td></tr>
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Especially after all the edgy build-up where Bronson’s Ben Hastings has his own narrowed, non-trusting, lethal eyes on a shifty veterinarian; de Corsia’s Doc Penny stresses an upcoming (and ultimately rushed) bank job; and Sterling Hayden in a fitfully basic, toothpick chomping role as Detective Lt. Sims, doing a low budget version of what John McIntire wanted from Hayden's  gang in ASPHALT JUNGLE: to bust ‘em all…<br />
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We go from the scantly designed, noticeable anemic budgeted police station set to the fitfully claustrophobic apartment locale, the best scenes involve flowing exterior direction by André De Toth out on the gritty streets, for real – as if the City of Angels consisted only of purgatory alleyways and dilapidated buildings: A viciously sparse canvas that the characters exist in and can’t escape from: the good guys, the bad guys, and like all true Noirs, those ambiguous unlucky souls caught desperately in-between.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Timothy Carey has his bulging eyes on Phyllis Kirk in CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Timothy Carey's signature teeth-grating smile w/ Charles Bronson in CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Timothy Carey, Gene Nelson and Sterling Hayden in CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Sterling Hayden in CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Desperate breakfast with Phyllis Kirk, Tod de Corsia, Gene Nelson and Charles Bronson, CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gene Nelson and Ted de Corsia, CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Phyllis Kirk faces Sterling Hayden in CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gene Nelson and Sterling Hayden in CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Sterling Hayden on the run in reverse in CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Example of low budget film noir set in Sterling Hayden's office in CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Timothy Carey and Phyllis Kirk in CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u> CRIME WAVE is a Noir that went out of the studio and into the streets</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gene Nelson pressured by Sterling Hayden in CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson aka </u><u>Charles Buchinsky w/ Phyllis Kirk in CRIME WAVE</u></td></tr>
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andre de toth, andré de toth, charles bronson, crime, dub taylor, fifties, film noir or melodrama, gene nelson, phyllis kirk, sterling hayden, ted decorsia, thriller, timothy carey

CHARLES BRONSON NOIR OF 'CRIME WAVE' AKA 'THE CITY IS DARK'

Charles Bronson in CRIME WAVE Year: 1953 Norman Mailer was dead wrong when, years after CRIME WAVE aka THE CITY IS DARK, he wrote TOUGH ...

Written by James M. Tate / 3/28/2019 / No comments / british film noir/melodrama , carol reed , drama , forties , IRA , james mason , robert beatty , thriller

CAROL REED'S IRISH FILM NOIR 'ODD MAN OUT' W/ JAMES MASON

british film noir/melodrama, carol reed, drama, forties, IRA, james mason, robert beatty, thriller

CAROL REED'S IRISH FILM NOIR 'ODD MAN OUT' W/ JAMES MASON

Robert Beatty bribes adorable urchin to find his mate YEAR: 1947 James Mason is always intense, even when he's playing comedy, and ...

JENNIFER SALT REBORN: THE FIRST CULT FILM FREAK INTERVIEW

brian de palma, charles durining, exploitation, interview, jennifer salt, john schlesinger, jon voight, seventies, sixties, TV, waldo salt, woody allen

JENNIFER SALT REBORN: THE FIRST CULT FILM FREAK INTERVIEW

Parking the 2007 Interview with Jennifer Salt at its new location Now an executive producer of the hit series AMERICAN HORROR STORY and ...

GREAT NOVELIZATIONS: AN INTERVIEW W/ ALAN DEAN FOSTER

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Cult Film Freak Full Interview with author Alan Dean Foster</u></td></tr>
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<i>A long time ago, in... the seventies and early eighties, it wasn’t so easy for a movie buff to own a film they’d enjoyed in theaters. DVDs and the Internet weren’t invented; and Beta/VHS tapes, which did exist, weren’t as abundant or readily available as DVDs are now or that VHS would be only a few years later.</i><br>
<i><br></i>
<i>But one thing that fans of  ALIEN, THE BLACK HOLE, THE THING, CLASH OF THE TITANS, THE LAST STARFIGHTER and many other films did have were novelizations: books (usually paperbacks) that covered the scripted story but also provided insight into back-story, character-development, and coolest of all, entire scenes/segments that didn’t make the film’s final cut. And before the novelizations began, he was the perfect candidate as ghostwriter for a young filmmaker named George Lucas, who had embarked on a risky science-fiction project titled STAR WARS. And to this day Alan Dean Foster continues writing novelizations and his own original stories as well.</i><br>

action, alan dean foster, eighties, george lucas, horror, interview, john carpenter, science-fiction, seventies, star trek, star wars, thriller, western

GREAT NOVELIZATIONS: AN INTERVIEW W/ ALAN DEAN FOSTER

Cult Film Freak Full Interview with author Alan Dean Foster A long time ago, in... the seventies and early eighties, it wasn’t so easy f...

MICHAEL MADSEN INTERVIEW & LAWRENCE TIERNEY'S NEPHEW TIM

british film noir/melodrama, fifties, forties, interview, lawrence tierney, michael madsen, nineties, quentin tarantino, scott brady

MICHAEL MADSEN INTERVIEW & LAWRENCE TIERNEY'S NEPHEW TIM

Michael Madsen as Vic Vega in Reservoir Dogs Michael Madsen has been in a large number of films dating back three decades, and is belove...

JACK H. HARRIS & IRVIN S. YEAWORTH JR. PRESENT '4D MAN'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Lansing's got mail in 4D MAN Year: 1959</u></td></tr>
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Robert Lansing can make just about anything believable. His performance in director Irvin S. Yeaworth, Jr. and producer Jack Harris's sophomore vehicle 4D MAN is slowburn, natural and patient: Like THE BLOB, the plot takes time to not only build, but to make things understandable 
since the hard-to-explain science isn't a gooey space 
alien...<br>
<br>
As close to Noir as these filmmakers got, 4D MAN is about flawed humans like Lee Meriwether and
 James Congdon as the assistant and brother of our leading man, 
Lansing's Dr. Scott Nelson: the latter busy at a corporate lab to make 
what's called "Cargonite" stronger than steel. In the acting department,
 Congdon's Dr. Tony Nelson, though high-spirited and intense, seems 
either miscast, acting more like a small town quarterback than a brilliant scientist on the 
verge of a literal breakthrough; or perhaps he's just underwhelming 
compared to Lansing, who's broodingly tortured even before it becomes literal...<br>
<br>

body count, fifties, irvin s. yeaworth jr., jack harris, jazz score, lee meriwether, patty duke, robert lansing, science-fiction, thriller

JACK H. HARRIS & IRVIN S. YEAWORTH JR. PRESENT '4D MAN'

Robert Lansing's got mail in 4D MAN Year: 1959 Robert Lansing can make just about anything believable. His performance in director I...

JOHN WAYNE PRESENTS 'RING OF FEAR' WITH JOHN BROMFIELD

action, body count, circus, exploitation, fifties, film noir or melodrama, john bromfield, john wayne, marian carr, mickey spillane, pat o'brien, sean mcclory, thriller

JOHN WAYNE PRESENTS 'RING OF FEAR' WITH JOHN BROMFIELD

Pat O'Brien, Sean McClory & Mickey Spillane YEAR: 1954 There's THE GREATEST SHOW ON EARTH, considered by some the greatest ...

A BAGFUL OF PARANTHETICAL BLAKE EDWARDS ARCHIVE REVIEWS

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Bruce Willis and Malcolm McDowell YEAR: 1991 Score: **1/2</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><u>SUNSET:</u></span> James Garner is the real life Marshall 
Wyatt Earp and Bruce Willis is cowboy actor Tom Mix portraying 
Earp in a movie, and they team-up to solve a murder in old 
Hollywoodland...<br>
<br>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
Reminiscent of those episodes of "Rockford Files" with Garner and the classier, prettier and younger Tom 
Selleck, but since there's really no clashing between the REAL cowboy 
and the FAKE one there's not much chemistry either. It's like watching 
two friends agreeing upon everything — what's the fun in that? But there
 are some decent performances and you'll have light fun watching. Meanwhile, as usual, Bruce 
Willis is passable doing his ever-charming-reaction acting style and 
James Garner keeps the ball rolling at a comfortable pace. Although in 
the end you'll forgot you've seen anything: except maybe cult icon 
Malcolm McDowell's final moments as a bizarre, classy and then monstrous
 villain as the affable comedy morphs wickedly into a chilling/thrilling Hammer Film.  <br>

blake edwards, bruce willis, comedy, eighties, fifties, jack lemmon, james garner, john ritter, lee remick, malcolm mcdowell, romantic comedy, sixties, thriller, TV, william holden

A BAGFUL OF PARANTHETICAL BLAKE EDWARDS ARCHIVE REVIEWS

Bruce Willis and Malcolm McDowell YEAR: 1991 Score: **1/2 SUNSET: James Garner is the real life Marshall Wyatt Earp and Bruce Willis i...

MEMORIAL BAGFUL OF JAN-MICHAEL VINCENT ARCHIVE REVIEWS

The best moments involve jarring situations that seem vividly real but aren't really happening (seen in Vincent's mind)... one has Mitchum destroying a pick-up-truck with a tire iron... or flashbacks viewed in present-time locations ala IN COLD BLOOD. It's a breezy character-study but without much character-development, neither Mitchum or Vincent becoming fully realized, nor their past fitfully resolved, but it's nice seeing the two steely mavericks together either way.<br>
<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Jan-Michael Vincent in Hard Country YEAR: 1981 Rates: ***</u></td></tr>
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<u>HARD COUNTRY:</u> One of those blue collar beer guzzlin' factory worker films where if you're not one of the endearingly-flawed good guys, you're a shady, sinister rich jerk... with no in-betweens: Plot centers on a disgruntled factory worker, played by Jan-Michael Vincent, who loves drinkin' and lovin' his girlfriend – in that order – and his better half, a young Kim Basinger, who wants to move to California for a better life: one that doesn't include drunken cowboys and bar fights.<br>
<br>
This movie can't get any more predictable but the two leads carry things decently enough till the end, which you'll see coming for miles. Michael Parks is Vincent's real estate mogul brother who, once he spouts a racial epitaph out loud, you know he'll eventually fall by the wayside. Tanya Tucker is Kim Basinger's famous country singin' older sis who plants the seed that Texas is a place to get out of while the gettin' out is good. Daryl Hannah is Kim's younger sister who digs Texas fine enough – just as long as there's another car to fix. And character-actor Gailard Sartain, usually cast as an uptight stuffed-shirt (the fat cop in HOLLYWOOD KNIGHTS), plays Vincent's comic relief buddy. Meanwhile, up front, Jan-Michael provides his usual slow-burn cool, and, donning a Bronson-tough mustache, is as great to watch as ever – as long as you don't mind the simplistic and forced classy envy undertone.  <br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Jan-Michael Vincent w/ Joan Goodfellow 1974 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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<u>BUSTER AND BILLIE:</u> Even in the good times, a touch of melancholy permeates the idyllic existence of Buster, played by
 Jan-Michael Vincent: Good looking and friendly, he's different 
than most cinematic popular high schoolers, hanging with town 
outcast Whitey (Robert Englund), he dates the lovely and uptight Margie 
(Pamela Sue Martin) and shoots pool, hustling young locals more envious than loyal...<br>
<br>
When Buster meets a quiet backwoods girl named Billie, who’s been 
around the block with all of Buster’s friends, the shift changes into a 
melodic, strange love story. Their scenes together, spending time in the
 plush woodsy exterior, feel like two people with nothing left on earth 
but each other; while the romance, with few words spoken, is never corny
 or melodramatic: This is one of Jan-Michael Vincent’s 
best performances: he’s intense, caring and tough at the same time. But 
it’s Joan Goodfellow’s Billie that mesmerizes not only our smitten hero,
 but with her subtle beauty and sad eyes, provides a gentle substance – 
like she's caught in a daydream. All leading to an explosive doubled-edge climax both shocking and tragic, albeit you’ll<i> </i>see it coming for miles.<br>

action, bagful, eighties, exploitation, jan-michael vincent, joan goodfellow, melodrama, post-apocalyptic, robert englund, robert mitchum, sally kirkland, science-fiction, seventies, tribute

MEMORIAL BAGFUL OF JAN-MICHAEL VINCENT ARCHIVE REVIEWS

Jan-Michael Vincent and Robert Mitchum Year: 1971 Rates: *** GOING HOME: This obscure drama, bordering on intentional page-turning melo...

cult film freak

JMT

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