cult film freak: July 2017

Written by James M. Tate / 7/28/2017 / No comments / 2017 , charlize theron , cold war , genre tarantino , james mcavoy , new , thriller

REVIEW OF ATOMIC BLONDE STARRING CHARLIZE THERON

2017, charlize theron, cold war, genre tarantino, james mcavoy, new, thriller

REVIEW OF ATOMIC BLONDE STARRING CHARLIZE THERON

Year Released: July of 2017 AtomicScore: ** It seems rather uptight, and now very dated, even cliché, to use the term Gratuitous Violenc...

MICHAEL CRICHTON CREATES A REAL 'LOOKER' WITH TERRI WELLES

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year Released: 1981</u></td></tr>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: small;">Michael Crichton was a great writer and a good director with some great scripts. His style was to make just about anything not only believable but entirely mundane in whatever near-future it takes place... </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif" style="font-size: small;">This includes one of his more obscure movies, LOOKER, centering on how TV Commercials are worse than simply inconvenient... </span></span><br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>LookerScore: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">The plot takes about half the film to unveil and the other to wind-down, or when it comes to the main antagonist, wind-up: Enter Albert Finney as a cosmetic surgeon who did subtle procedures on three already-gorgeous young models, including the initial doomed Terri Welles in what's more Thriller than Action with a touch of the Noir "Wrong Man" template, causing Finney to discover, perhaps too quickly, what's going on and, most important, who killed his former patients...</span></span></span></span><br>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">The LOOKER process, learned by Finney while on a tour of the facility run by charming mogul James Coburn, is initially quite original and intriguing, having to do with electrolytes connected to commercials, leading the viewer to be able to concentrate solely on the product. But most important, LOOKER is the name of a futuristic gun that, when flashed in the target's eyes, renders him blind for a minute. Him, not her. He, not them... </span></span></span><br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Teri Welles gets the ball rolling in LOOKER</u></td></tr>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">Beside Coburn and his glamorous yet glorified assistant, Leigh Taylor-Young (perfection from the 1960's), it's Tim Rossovich, with a brawny build and a dark 80's mustache, who's the only palpable threat that our hero deals with</span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif">..</span>. </span></span></span><br>
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<span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">W</span></span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">hile trying to keep his down-to-Earth, </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">sole-surviving, flirtatious patient, played by former Partridge Susan Dey... definitely cute but far from as "perfect" while trying too hard to be a "down-to-Earth" beauty... from being the final victim. A shame since what's behind LOOKER is much more than a duck-and-cover shoot-em-up, and yet, up front it's really just that: though not too shabby for a neatly time-filling ride. Maybe that's intentional: like those commercials, we're supposed to simply relax, and submit. Enjoy.</span></span></span><br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Terri Welles as Lisa Convey in LOOKER</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Tim Rossovich as Lisa Convey in LOOKER</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Tawny Moyer from HALLOWEEN 2 in a commercial within the movie LOOKER</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Terri Welles as Lisa Convey in LOOKER</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Terri Welles as Lisa Convey in LOOKER</u></td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Terri Welles as Lisa Convey in LOOKER</u></td></tr>
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albert finney, eighties, james coburn, leigh taylor-young, michael crichton, neo noir, suspense, terri welles, thriller, tim rossovich

MICHAEL CRICHTON CREATES A REAL 'LOOKER' WITH TERRI WELLES

Year Released: 1981 Michael Crichton was a great writer and a good director with some great scripts. His style was to make just about an...

OLD VERSES THE BRAND NEW METHOD FOR 'GOING IN STYLE'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Karen Montgomery says bye to Art Carney in 19 79 version</u></td></tr>
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">For a website covering new movies while being all about old and semi old classics, the difference between two eras of filmmaking and/or storytelling can be summed up pretty quick and fairly easy, right here and now, with a single motion picture that's been remade... </span><br>
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<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">The Martin Brest 1979 laidback comedy caper GOING IN STYLE starred two celebrity icons, George Burns and Art Carney, as well as acting guru Lee Strasberg (Hyman Roth from THE GODFATHER II), and centered on three old-timers who rob a bank:</span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"> In movies back then, protagonists didn't need a reason to be angry about society in order to pull off a heist since, at the end of the 1970's Renaissance, while films were becoming less independent and more mainstream, so this movie combined both with a story catered to an audiences and a plotline and structure that only meant something for the characters within... The polar opposite of the GOING IN STYLE remake from 2017. </span><br>

2017, alan arkin, art carney, george burns, heist, karen montgomery, lee strasberg, matt dillon, michael caine, morgan freeman, new, seventies

OLD VERSES THE BRAND NEW METHOD FOR 'GOING IN STYLE'

Karen Montgomery says bye to Art Carney in 19 79 version For a website covering new movies while being all about old and semi old classi...

TOM SELLECK IN MICHAEL CRICHTON'S RUNAWAY

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<a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wDgvSBFiYM4/WXQ_y7xKRLI/AAAAAAAAyZ4/GHlk774z84MZeKUS7Odz2Hk741Un4W9ggCLcBGAs/s1600/tom%2Bselleck%2Brunaway.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="951" data-original-width="1219" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-wDgvSBFiYM4/WXQ_y7xKRLI/AAAAAAAAyZ4/GHlk774z84MZeKUS7Odz2Hk741Un4W9ggCLcBGAs/s1600/tom%2Bselleck%2Brunaway.jpg"></a></div>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Tom Selleck is a police 
officer whose niche is to take down runaways: robots who stray from 
their jobs. These particular gizmos are killing people. The best scenes have Selleck's Ramsay, an intrepid cop whose only fear is heights, taking down several rogue machines: one in particular has killed off the family it works for, making a suspenseful scene as he moves on in. This is a scene straight out of your standard cop film or TV show, only there's a robot at the end of the tunnel.</span><br>

action, cop, cynthia rhodes, eighties, gene simmons, michael crichton, robot, science-fiction, stan shaw, suspense

TOM SELLECK IN MICHAEL CRICHTON'S RUNAWAY

Tom Selleck is a police officer whose niche is to take down runaways: robots who stray from their jobs. These particular gizmos are kill...

'THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE' TRIBUTES DONNA GORDON

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Writeup for the Memorial of Donna Marie Gordon i.e. Margo Donnar</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif; font-size: small;"><i>Donna Gordon stood out in THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE. Of all the dancers at Ben Gazzara's nightclub, she was the toughest, and most blunt, honest. That was Donna in real life too. She was one of my closest friends, especially a few years back, and even took my cat, Buzz, into her care: he had a great life. And I really miss her. And here's to her life, and recent death on July 1st, 2017, this BOOKIE writeup has been reposted...</i></span><br>
<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><br></span><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;"><u>THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE (1978 DIRECTOR'S CUT)</u>: An important bridge in John Cassavete's directorial career, progressing from his usual improvisational character studies to a more structured film involving a strip club owner in debt to the mob given a seemingly impossible task as explained in the title.</span><br>

alice friedland, ben gazzara, donna gordon, indie, john cassavetes, mob, seventies, stripper, timothy carey

'THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE' TRIBUTES DONNA GORDON

Writeup for the Memorial of Donna Marie Gordon i.e. Margo Donnar Donna Gordon stood out in THE KILLING OF A CHINESE BOOKIE. Of all the d...

WEEKEND REVIEW OF CHRISTOPHER NOLAN'S DUNKIRK

action, christopher nolan, new, war, world war II

WEEKEND REVIEW OF CHRISTOPHER NOLAN'S DUNKIRK

The First/Main Viewpoint of Three YEAR RELEASED: 2017 Will hope to keep this short, and to the point. Not to avoid spoilers since DUNKIR...

BELATED REVIEW OF WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Have These Apes Reached Their Long Goodbye? YEAR: 2017</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">The good old days of the original PLANET OF THE APES, as that franchise ended with a BATTLE instead of WAR at the head of its title, things weren't so good <span style="font-family: "times";">—</span> the budget got lower with each installment so the climax was... well... very anticlimactic... </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">And now, as far as money goes, sky's the limit, and WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES, while looking terrific with tons of special effects, has hardly anything to do with the title wherein BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES simply lacked the necessary ingredients for it to matter...</span><br>

2017, action, franchise, planet of the apes, sequel, woody harrelson

BELATED REVIEW OF WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES

Have These Apes Reached Their Long Goodbye? YEAR: 2017 The good old days of the original PLANET OF THE APES, as that franchise ended wit...

MICHAEL KEATON DEVELOPS MCDONALD'S AS THE FOUNDER

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nbA8R8ISFNc/WWcmcN73NzI/AAAAAAAAyUM/tZRZ4WNYyNQB_NElLuvBB_i3Uh8PVcytgCLcBGAs/s1600/e59c1bef6457e8fc13646a57367bb4a7--steven-spielberg-close-encounters.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="541" height="221" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nbA8R8ISFNc/WWcmcN73NzI/AAAAAAAAyUM/tZRZ4WNYyNQB_NElLuvBB_i3Uh8PVcytgCLcBGAs/s400/e59c1bef6457e8fc13646a57367bb4a7--steven-spielberg-close-encounters.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>What 1970's Movie Is This From? Hint, a Boston tune plays YEAR: 2017</u></td></tr>
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The problem with Hollywood-moralizing is it makes a theme or agenda override the characters, especially when based on real folks like, for instance, young Facebook phenom Mark Zuckerberg,  torn apart in THE SOCIAL NETWORK and now it's McDonald's mogul Ray Croc's turn under the hatchet — so this review will have to fight preachy with preachy....<br>
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Michael Keaton, an actor who can make anyone if not likable then completely realistic, is a blank slate here as THE FOUNDER, with its title bathed in irony (although Croc <i>did </i>find the restaurant, and its potential, as opposed to creating it). Keaton sleepwalks through the role, in slow motion... despite displaying a ghost of his usual wired b.s. artist, starting out as a lowly milkshake salesman traveling a nowhere road from greasy spoon to spoon — rejection after rejection. This is where his persona should have been grounded — when he had nothing and was hungry, anything would be possible... Instead it's just a flash of benign conversations and doors closing, which leads to the inevitable partnership with the McDonald brothers, whose small town burger joint invented the word Fast-Food as the movie drags from one scene to the next. Ray Croc is mostly shown from other people's reaction: Dumbfounded stares from his so-called business partners and wife (a witchy Laura Dern) <i>lets us know </i>how to feel about the guy who's climbing to the top...<br>

2017, bio, drama, michael keaton, new

MICHAEL KEATON DEVELOPS MCDONALD'S AS THE FOUNDER

What 1970's Movie Is This From? Hint, a Boston tune plays YEAR: 2017 The problem with Hollywood-moralizing is it makes a theme or ag...

SUNDAY NIGHT REVIEW OF SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S_0_WwFrGNE/WWNBRtQfv5I/AAAAAAAAyRE/aBGp-Jz4I4kAmYkTVOtlwl2ro9GNNadZQCLcBGAs/s1600/yLolQbQ.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="661" data-original-width="1098" height="240" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-S_0_WwFrGNE/WWNBRtQfv5I/AAAAAAAAyRE/aBGp-Jz4I4kAmYkTVOtlwl2ro9GNNadZQCLcBGAs/s400/yLolQbQ.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Spider-Man back for a third time but a first for Marvel YEAR: 2017</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">There's a scene when Peter Parker uses one of his main gadgets as a voice box. Although it's intended to be funny through satire, SPIDER-MAN having a deep, formidable, robotic tone actually fits the costume, which is arguably the coolest, meanest and leanest superhero get-up of all time...</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Not that Tom Holland is a weak SPIDER-MAN. He's a good one. And a good actor. Sympathetic. Energetic. And while it's difficult if impossible making any high school student seem like a geek nowadays when everyone carries a personal computer/phone in their pocket, he fits the mold of an underdog who's hiding a secret while getting no credit for his accomplishments...</span><br>

2017, marvel, new, superhero

SUNDAY NIGHT REVIEW OF SPIDER-MAN: HOMECOMING

Spider-Man back for a third time but a first for Marvel YEAR: 2017 There's a scene when Peter Parker uses one of his main gadgets as...

OLD WITH NEW: DOUBLE BEGUILED & THE HOUSE

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-41KcS5RVZpU/WV880ImbWFI/AAAAAAAAyQA/NEC-Th2AN6geq3y_X_r_5gKyXV43LOtWwCLcBGAs/s1600/7aeb9f78ab8efeca3ad4ac4d4cd62eab.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="587" data-original-width="1128" height="207" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-41KcS5RVZpU/WV880ImbWFI/AAAAAAAAyQA/NEC-Th2AN6geq3y_X_r_5gKyXV43LOtWwCLcBGAs/s400/7aeb9f78ab8efeca3ad4ac4d4cd62eab.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The Clint Eastwood BEGUILED has an archive review below</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Covering two new theatrical releases, quickly, as there really isn't much out there, yet. Then again, one of them is surprisingly decent while the other is neither good, bad, or... </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Well Sofia Coppola's THE BEGUILED definitely isn't ugly. Although, unlike the original </span><a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2011/02/beguiled.html" style="font-family: verdana, sans-serif;">Don Siegel Civil War-Era Thriller</a><span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">, starring Clint Eastwood as a wounded Yankee soldier holed-up in a spooky manor run by beautiful vixens (think Castle Anthrax from MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL, without the singing), the two starlets aren't mischievous and daring enough to turn the darkly-lit Gothic location into a hybrid of male fantasy and claustrophobic nightmare...</span><br>

2017, comedy, mob, remake

OLD WITH NEW: DOUBLE BEGUILED & THE HOUSE

The Clint Eastwood BEGUILED has an archive review below Covering two new theatrical releases, quickly, as there really isn't much ou...

NEO-NOIR GANGSTER 'THE DON IS DEAD' WITH ROBERT FORSTER

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eE4JJWFcVY4/XaFP2zQXIlI/AAAAAAABI24/_2UvAQJCdI4j07bfbShBzBidbaveZWSBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/3.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="919" data-original-width="1600" height="228" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eE4JJWFcVY4/XaFP2zQXIlI/AAAAAAABI24/_2UvAQJCdI4j07bfbShBzBidbaveZWSBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/3.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Forster in THE DON IS DEAD Year: 1973</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">How could a movie starring Anthony Quinn, Robert Forster, Frederic Forrest, Al Lettieri, directed by Richard Fleischer and centering on cutthroat mobsters slightly miss the mark, or, not be an incredible masterpiece? </span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Probably because there's not much of a target to begin with, and yet, that's not such a bad thing since the breezy undertone provides a cushion of what feels like actor improvisation under the edgy, multi-plotted schemes going on... And on and on in what's an overly complicated yet extremely simplified take on the mobster legacy...</span><br>

al lettieri, anthony quinn, crime, exploitation, frederic forrest, gangster, mob, mobster, neo noir, richard fleischer, robert forster, seventies

NEO-NOIR GANGSTER 'THE DON IS DEAD' WITH ROBERT FORSTER

Robert Forster in THE DON IS DEAD Year: 1973 How could a movie starring Anthony Quinn, Robert Forster, Frederic Forrest, Al Lettieri, di...

EDGE OF GREATNESS ABOUT JAN-MICHAEL VINCENT REVIEWED

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bupjrUXy03Q/WVnDjWn1KFI/AAAAAAAAyM8/IMpuA68CDxAHT11GB58zy5Au-n3hl1jSgCLcBGAs/s1600/12367_4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="376" data-original-width="609" height="246" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-bupjrUXy03Q/WVnDjWn1KFI/AAAAAAAAyM8/IMpuA68CDxAHT11GB58zy5Au-n3hl1jSgCLcBGAs/s400/12367_4.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>From VIGILANTE FORCE, one of many so-called forgotten films</u></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">"This is not a life," David Grove writes in the final page of his book, EDGE OF GREATNESS, about the eclectic acting career of Jan-Michael Vincent. "It's obvious now that he was not born; he was invented. I thought there would be more, but this is it. He got what he deserved."</span><br>
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<span style="font-family: "verdana" , sans-serif;">Ouch! Especially coming from a talented author and film historian, bringing the reader back in time, through an endless ringer. It's lovely writing, but where's the love? There was obviously a lot "more" that Jan-Michael Vincent felt, and lived, and discovered, than could be conjured up "in your philosophy," as Shakespeare wrote of his narrow-minded Horatio. </span><br>

book review, dominique sanda, jan-michael vincent