cult film freak: SSSSSSS

Written by James M. Tate / 6/27/2011 / No comments / creature , dirk benedict , heather menzies , horror , reb brown , seventies , strother martin

SSSSSSS

6/27/2011 | No comment

year: 1973 cast: Strother Martin, Dirk Benedict, Heather Menzies, Reb Brown rating: ****

The title makes and breaks this picture. It's cheesy and funny and hokey and silly. Not the movie, the title: and that's the problem.

SSSSSSS is actually quite good, genuinely entertaining, with some terrific performances headlined by Strother Martin as a mad scientist who's actually down-to-earth, docile and friendly but has a sinister agenda: hence Dirk Benedict as the med-student being given supposedly standard inoculations.

Terrific side-roles by Heather Menzies ("Piranha") as the doc's faithful daughter; underrated character-actor Richard B. Schull as his droll collegiate nemesis; Reb Brown as a bully jock; Tim O'Conner as a circus owner and some real life snakes including a cobra, black mamba and boa constrictor all add up to a film that slithers with ease and perfection from one situation to the next, building to an inevitable and awarding conclusion.

Share This Post :

Tags : creature , dirk benedict , heather menzies , horror , reb brown , seventies , strother martin

James M. Tate

No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.

FAVORITES SHORTLIST

1)OTLEY 2)THE FEARMAKERS 3)CANYON PASSAGE 4)HOT CARS 5)THE CROWDED SKY 6)RAIDERS FROM BENEATH THE SEA 7)VIOLENT SATURDAY 8)JUNGLE STREET 9)THE MAN FROM LARAMIE 10)HELL IS A CITY 11))ANATOMY OF A MURDER 12)SHARKS' TREASURE 13)SWEENEY TWO 14)HARDCORE 15)FRENZY 16)THE SYSTEM 17)WHITE HEAT 18)THE SERGEANT 19)AL CAPONE 20)FALLEN ANGEL 21)ASH WEDNESDAY 22)CURSE OF THE DEMON 23)ATLANTIC CITY 24)KILLER FISH 25)AIR PATROL 26)DUEL IN THE JUNGLE 27)EASY LIVING 28)WILLIAM CONRAD'S BRAINSTORM 29)VENOM 30)THE ROARING TWENTIES 1)DANA ANDREWS 2)JAMES CAGNEY 3)JACK NICHOLSON 4)MARLON BRANDO 5)CHARLES BRONSON DAMES 1)VIRGINIA MAYO 2)SUE LYON 3)GENE TIERNEY 4)MERRY ANDERS 5)FAYE DUNAWAY DIRECTORS 1)JACQUES TOURNEUR 2)RICHARD FLEISCHER 3)STANLEY KUBRICK 4)ORSON WELLES 5)OTTO PREMINGER 6)JOHN LANDIS 7)JOHN GUILLERMAN 8)VAL GUEST 9)JOHN CARPENTER 10)MICHAEL WINNER