PETER YATES DIRECTS A SLOWBURN 'THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ddyLa33l_1Q/X2g58hD2hzI/AAAAAAABYaQ/WBM_FbUUNbw-eyGB16kD5yBt4XWb7mT4gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1427/0.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1106" data-original-width="1427" height="310" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ddyLa33l_1Q/X2g58hD2hzI/AAAAAAABYaQ/WBM_FbUUNbw-eyGB16kD5yBt4XWb7mT4gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h310/0.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steven Keats in EDDIE COYLE Year: 1973 Rates: ****1/2</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The miracle of Peter Yates's Crime Thriller THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE is how interesting an entire movie full of long conversations can be, especially when the title character is played by an aged and experienced Robert Mitchum... </p><p>Turning in a natural, low key yet still tightly-wound performance as a Boston career-criminal who knows more last names than it's usual to get lost in within any Noir-style flick where a bunch of them are spouted left and right, and it takes several viewings to know exactly who's who... </p><p></p><p>While poor Eddie tries getting manipulative cop Richard Jordan to squash an approaching sentence, there's a trio of dispersed bank robberies led by a masked, business-like Alex Rocco (kidnapping vault key-holding bank managers while their families wait home at gunpoint) while hot rod driving Steven Keats as "Jackie Brown" cautiously runs guns throughout the surrounding rural landscape... and his story seems like a movie all its own. Meanwhile, the weak spot is Peter Boyle as a bartender ex-con who gets around too easily, making Mitchum's plight as useless as he himself had made all of Keats's busy-work via double-cross... then again this <i>is</i> the purpose of a group of eclectic crooks pushing each other out of a losing game (hence the irony of FRIENDS), making this Peter Yates's return to the more cerebral, existential heist template of <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/09/AR.html">ROBBERY</a> but with a groovy Dave Grusin soundtrack that blows away both that and the dated hippie-jazz BULLITT score. <br></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7K2miBVK6kU/X2fL2uLUyJI/AAAAAAABYXM/7k6Sb21FcUMf4HfX3BB876RIeLu_pzkpgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1266" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7K2miBVK6kU/X2fL2uLUyJI/AAAAAAABYXM/7k6Sb21FcUMf4HfX3BB876RIeLu_pzkpgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Mitchum in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE</u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-20KNPKl2cxM/X2fL2txVisI/AAAAAAABYXQ/GIt3zv2JE5Eg1NJ8F_vxnYRS9J2PSuyBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B1.00.10%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1089" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-20KNPKl2cxM/X2fL2txVisI/AAAAAAABYXQ/GIt3zv2JE5Eg1NJ8F_vxnYRS9J2PSuyBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B1.00.10%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steven Keats in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE</u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qO4gqcJK3Fc/X2fL3hUUEJI/AAAAAAABYXU/CA2ajrWrLsUhi2_Zy9rM-tBvAsnBXtRPQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B1.09.39%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1118" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qO4gqcJK3Fc/X2fL3hUUEJI/AAAAAAABYXU/CA2ajrWrLsUhi2_Zy9rM-tBvAsnBXtRPQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B1.09.39%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Alex Rocco in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE</u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ntwG3P1SBhI/X2fL4M472YI/AAAAAAABYXY/uCEF4qPTun4LN3JCkQbzfffe8Q_vqaIbQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B1.11.38%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1116" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ntwG3P1SBhI/X2fL4M472YI/AAAAAAABYXY/uCEF4qPTun4LN3JCkQbzfffe8Q_vqaIbQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B1.11.38%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Carolyn Pickman in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cdiTo7zLXCw/X2fL4REjD2I/AAAAAAABYXc/89yDBm1Lc1sJ1cmGWgM6NfChNZhbl8qXwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.03.32%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1029" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-cdiTo7zLXCw/X2fL4REjD2I/AAAAAAABYXc/89yDBm1Lc1sJ1cmGWgM6NfChNZhbl8qXwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.03.32%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steven Keats in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE</u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pkzg2NSbwOY/X2fL4_cWOCI/AAAAAAABYXg/YtzpZlg_CQQAtS6uglf9W1Qg1k76EAKlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.04.03%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1108" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pkzg2NSbwOY/X2fL4_cWOCI/AAAAAAABYXg/YtzpZlg_CQQAtS6uglf9W1Qg1k76EAKlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.04.03%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steven Keats in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE</u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-04lvPfIl_xY/X2fL5h85CbI/AAAAAAABYXk/s7IFJmzt8WA5Thc0PGbWd2wx_IIVWWfggCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.06.52%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1176" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-04lvPfIl_xY/X2fL5h85CbI/AAAAAAABYXk/s7IFJmzt8WA5Thc0PGbWd2wx_IIVWWfggCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.06.52%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steven Keats in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE w/ Margaret Ladd<br></u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oDPzQVqUjbM/X2fL6ZCYXhI/AAAAAAABYXo/8G7rnG7SEaEWtBQb4zYm_21IhF-BGwJDACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.08.02%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-oDPzQVqUjbM/X2fL6ZCYXhI/AAAAAAABYXo/8G7rnG7SEaEWtBQb4zYm_21IhF-BGwJDACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.08.02%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steven Keats in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE</u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_uXav-mWt3M/X2fL6zFXZdI/AAAAAAABYXs/0kRmb8VpC24IWPOgJZu5Ka8lcNgD3KRewCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.10.23%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1124" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-_uXav-mWt3M/X2fL6zFXZdI/AAAAAAABYXs/0kRmb8VpC24IWPOgJZu5Ka8lcNgD3KRewCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.10.23%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Jane House in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE</u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wwLOrpxcYR0/X2fMEUhLRmI/AAAAAAABYX0/bRaG6zO5Cd02epG4j8sQOY_gBGS3LW30ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.11.01%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1123" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wwLOrpxcYR0/X2fMEUhLRmI/AAAAAAABYX0/bRaG6zO5Cd02epG4j8sQOY_gBGS3LW30ACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.11.01%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Mitchum in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE w/ Alex Rocco<br></u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NmcZUpbX39k/X2fMEQ6dGXI/AAAAAAABYXw/MMGvTY8LnDIFM5Cm9zm7S5Hn55ULVvVggCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.12.26%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1116" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NmcZUpbX39k/X2fMEQ6dGXI/AAAAAAABYXw/MMGvTY8LnDIFM5Cm9zm7S5Hn55ULVvVggCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.12.26%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Mitchum in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE w/ Alex Rocco</u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rOcuxiiG5jw/X2fMEjzPkdI/AAAAAAABYX4/TtonyF_ESGcS-sRdKIabLY9k5JR2eCB4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.13.02%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1135" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rOcuxiiG5jw/X2fMEjzPkdI/AAAAAAABYX4/TtonyF_ESGcS-sRdKIabLY9k5JR2eCB4ACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.13.02%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Jane House in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE</u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2N2FosuUZqM/X2fMFCwGRPI/AAAAAAABYX8/JpqH79gcVpUiYZA-h9SOC9cy6rsvxrUpQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.27.00%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1119" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2N2FosuUZqM/X2fMFCwGRPI/AAAAAAABYX8/JpqH79gcVpUiYZA-h9SOC9cy6rsvxrUpQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.27.00%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steven Keats in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE</u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-POeqTlA6cR4/X2fMFrz9D6I/AAAAAAABYYA/RrOtAP7S8IAgqJzZCO3XXZNmyFgnRFizgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1974/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.28.56%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1225" data-original-width="1974" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-POeqTlA6cR4/X2fMFrz9D6I/AAAAAAABYYA/RrOtAP7S8IAgqJzZCO3XXZNmyFgnRFizgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.28.56%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Steven Keats in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE w/ Jack Kehoe<br></u></td></tr></tbody></table><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BFMRoLp8yJY/X2fMGXb1agI/AAAAAAABYYE/kONPGzOru8U-B4hHz3YtmP0My6czz5yKACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.39.54%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1139" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BFMRoLp8yJY/X2fMGXb1agI/AAAAAAABYYE/kONPGzOru8U-B4hHz3YtmP0My6czz5yKACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-10%2Bat%2B12.39.54%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Mad Men daughter lookalike in THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE</u></td></tr></tbody></table>

alex rocco, crime, heist, neo noir, peter boyle, peter yates, richard jordan, robert mitchum, seventies, steven keats

PETER YATES DIRECTS A SLOWBURN 'THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE'

Steven Keats in EDDIE COYLE Year: 1973 Rates: ****1/2 The miracle of Peter Yates's Crime Thriller THE FRIENDS OF EDDIE COYLE is how inte...

BEFORE TAKING A BULLITT PETER YATES STAGED THIS 'ROBBERY'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vguw7-G2N5E/X2iq7veqsbI/AAAAAAABYbE/pMOCwLBzjPIvZW_i24OcvYC1Xw_vvQ8yACLcBGAsYHQ/s501/00387645.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="501" data-original-width="466" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vguw7-G2N5E/X2iq7veqsbI/AAAAAAABYbE/pMOCwLBzjPIvZW_i24OcvYC1Xw_vvQ8yACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/00387645.jpeg" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>ROBBERY Year: 1967 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p> Best known as the little crime film that gave British director Peter Yates his big game-changing opportunity to make BULLITT since Steve McQueen had witnessed the rudimentary car chase from ROBBERY, an extremely sparse and intentionally uncaring English Neo Noir Heist Thriller... </p><p>And it's not just the chase that Yates carried over to the McQueen classic but the meticulous and metronomic moments leading to it...</p><p></p><p>Starring extremely square-jawed Stanley Baker but only because he's in charge, ROBBERY makes pretty much equal use of the male leads including James Booth as the trailing cop, William Marlowe as Baker's strong-silent second, Barry Forster as his strong-silent third while Frank Finlay, as a meek banker easily broken from prison, is the most sympathetic...</p><p>But there's very little sympathy for these particularly professional devils, whose only flaw is how long and tediously methodical it takes for the train heist (based on The Great Train Robbery), not always considering the audience. But, like real life crimes, and even the McQueen ultra-realistic documentary-like police-procedure about the other side of the law, Yates showcases the slowburn reality like being right there, for better or worse since it's not always extremely exciting, and that's the point. Just don't let the casting of beautiful Joanne Pettit fool you. ROBBERY cares neither about romance or the human condition. <br /></p>

action, barry foster, british neo noir, british new wave, frank finlay, heist, james booth, joanne pettit, peter yates, sixties, stanley baker, william marlowe

BEFORE TAKING A BULLITT PETER YATES STAGED THIS 'ROBBERY'

ROBBERY Year: 1967 Rating: ****  Best known as the little crime film that gave British director Peter Yates his big game-changing opportunit...

BRITISH NEO NOIR 'JUNGLE STREET' AKA 'JUNGLE STREET GIRLS'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xhXJyB_Strc/X2CIdVTI2iI/AAAAAAABYMQ/LKx3MK4jkdAAPJXqRdS1mQYYeyoFqfXlACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/0.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="964" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-xhXJyB_Strc/X2CIdVTI2iI/AAAAAAABYMQ/LKx3MK4jkdAAPJXqRdS1mQYYeyoFqfXlACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/0.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>David McCallum and Gillian Watt with Anne Scott in JUNGLE STREET aka JUNGLE STREET GIRLS Year: 1960</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> After having met and married from <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/09/HellDrivers.html">HELL DRIVERS</a>, three years later David McCallum and Jill Ireland — a twenty-something still-at-home loser who hangs around a strip joint and that joint's top stripper — headlined something more low budget but far superior, a heist thriller that takes a long road to get there with many twisty avenues...<br> <br> The second lead is freshly-sprung convict Kenneth Cope, a handsome, experienced, bitter lad with a romantic background with Ireland (one scene as he charmingly converses with McCallum's kitchen sink mother is a standout); he also wants payback from former partner McCallum, who <i>didn't</i> get caught from what got him sent inside...<br>

brian weske, british neo noir, british new wave, david mccallum, heist, jill ireland, kenneth cope, marian collins, sixties, suspense, vanda hudson

BRITISH NEO NOIR 'JUNGLE STREET' AKA 'JUNGLE STREET GIRLS'

David McCallum and Gillian Watt with Anne Scott in JUNGLE STREET aka JUNGLE STREET GIRLS Year: 1960 After having met and married from HE...

WILLIAM LUCAS MAKES 'THE BREAK' WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqkGdtorPhk/X14evWaZNNI/AAAAAAABYHI/5-TW6WJCWr8b5pKP706gRiny9ZEqt8lswCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/14.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1082" data-original-width="1600" height="270" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hqkGdtorPhk/X14evWaZNNI/AAAAAAABYHI/5-TW6WJCWr8b5pKP706gRiny9ZEqt8lswCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/14.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg and William Lucas in THE BREAK Year: 1962</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> The same year British beauty Christina Gregg played a schoolgirl told <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/08/catfone.html">DON'T TALK TO STRANGE MEN</a>, she was the twenty-something sister of a convict who made THE BREAK from a train...<br> <br> And winds up with handful of eclectic characters that... as Quentin Tarantino attempted in HATEFUL EIGHT inspired by John Carpenter's classic THE THING... are all stuck together, here within a rural hotel: all with not only different personalities and perspectives but purpose, motivation and temperaments... Meanwhile the leading man is a sophisticated type: here a blocked author and, on the upside he quickly yet slowly finds kinship with the gorgeous Christina Gregg, but he's also being surreptitiously eyed by the most intriguing and perhaps crooked person onboard in CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN tutor Robert Urquhart as a wily-charming gumshoe insurance investigator...<br>

action, british neo noir, british new wave, christina gregg, eddie byrne, lance comfort, robert urquhart, sixties, thriller, tony britton, william lucas

WILLIAM LUCAS MAKES 'THE BREAK' WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

Christina Gregg and William Lucas in THE BREAK Year: 1962 The same year British beauty Christina Gregg played a schoolgirl told DON'...

WILLIAM LUCAS RISKS ENGLAND'S BIG FREEZE IN 'CALCULATED RISK'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bHWwnY_EIqI/X19rAPfBs7I/AAAAAAABYKc/j0o93N9rQ2gAmN6fKh8S8vTyLemDEpVBACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%252BShot%252B2020-09-14%252Bat%252B1.37.35%252BAM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="895" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bHWwnY_EIqI/X19rAPfBs7I/AAAAAAABYKc/j0o93N9rQ2gAmN6fKh8S8vTyLemDEpVBACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%252BShot%252B2020-09-14%252Bat%252B1.37.35%252BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>William Lucas smokes in the real cold England for CALCULATED RISK during Big Freeze of 1963</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Continuing our wave of Noir/Crime BRITISH NEW WAVE, sadly enough, not all of them are great, especially shameful since <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/09/the-break.html">THE BREAK</a> cool baddie William Lucas stars in one of the most Noir-sounding titles, CALCULATED RISK, a hybrid of THE ASPHALT JUNGLE as a newly released old short convict has a big plan for a big heist (John Rutland doing Sam Jaffe) and LARCENY INC since they have to dig under two locations to reach the targeted goal...<br> <br> Which aren't stores but bombed-out houses from twenty-years past, leading to a lucrative bank vault while Lucas, as a sophisticated businessman who really doesn't need the bread, heads up a group of fellas about as classy and, alas, uninteresting, not seeming a fitful lot for a crime caper <i>or</i> movie...<br>

british neo noir, british new wave, caper, dilys watling, george martin, heist, john rutland, sixties, terence cooper, warren mitchell, william lucas

WILLIAM LUCAS RISKS ENGLAND'S BIG FREEZE IN 'CALCULATED RISK'

William Lucas smokes in the real cold England for CALCULATED RISK during Big Freeze of 1963 Continuing our wave of Noir/Crime BRITISH NE...

STANLEY BAKER TRUCKIN' WITH PEGGY CUMMINS IN 'HELL DRIVERS'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fWwHNYho-3E/X13h5WmMArI/AAAAAAABYGA/m9A9c8ilCCgHtz3ioYEQ_muxv1SyruOHgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%252BShot%252B2020-09-10%252Bat%252B4.59.28%252BAM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="500" height="265" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-fWwHNYho-3E/X13h5WmMArI/AAAAAAABYGA/m9A9c8ilCCgHtz3ioYEQ_muxv1SyruOHgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Screen%252BShot%252B2020-09-10%252Bat%252B4.59.28%252BAM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Stanley Baker leads THE HELL DRIVERS Year: 1957 </u></td></tr> </tbody></table> With the cheating aid of that kind of sped-up effect used long ago on Keystone Cop shorts, the work trucks for HELL DRIVERS picks up granite and races it back to the factory as quickly as possible... at breakneck speed taking neck-breaking curves... and newly hired ex con Stanley Baker catches on that he's not very wanted... That is, the boss wants him fast, but not <i>too</i> fast... <br> <br> In particular, to never beat the high score of antagonist Patrick McGoohan, looking like a severe pirate with a cocky grin behind the wheel, and this whole lot is a truly wild bunch that includes a young Sean Connery... and the only friend of Baker's square-jawed strong-silent-type is Italian romantic Herbert Lom, smitten with secretary Peggy Cummins, who's into the new guy instead.<br>

action, british film noir/melodrama, david mccallum, fifties, herbert lom, jill ireland, patrick mcgoohan, peggy cummins, sean connery, stanley baker

STANLEY BAKER TRUCKIN' WITH PEGGY CUMMINS IN 'HELL DRIVERS'

Stanley Baker leads THE HELL DRIVERS Year: 1957 With the cheating aid of that kind of sped-up effect used long ago on Keystone Cop short...

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'BLIND CORNER'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o4BFp458kaw/X1XXKFflQZI/AAAAAAABXvo/K5WNqmNc3b4RSaglOr_1c4z8NkCpJhsKACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/11111.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-o4BFp458kaw/X1XXKFflQZI/AAAAAAABXvo/K5WNqmNc3b4RSaglOr_1c4z8NkCpJhsKACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/11111.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Barbara Shelley (the cheater) and William Sylvester (the cheated) in BLIND CORNER Year: 1964</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is known for its outer space special effects, prehistoric monkeys and a nefarious computer. As for humans there are two British actors (Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood) and one American as that pair of astronauts' chief. But William Sylvester, though born in Oakland, California, is as much a British actor as they are, trained in RADA and a fixture of England's cinema since after World War II...<br> <br> Though known mostly for the Godzilla/King Kong homage GORGA (that is, before 2001), Sylvester's best performance is the main character from MAN IN THE DARK, actually titled BLIND CORNER, which sounds more like the Noir that it is, one of many low budget 1960's crime flicks from the British New Wave. <br>

british neo noir, british new wave, lance comfort, mark eden, perfect murder, sixties, thriller, william sylvester

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'BLIND CORNER'

Barbara Shelley (the cheater) and William Sylvester (the cheated) in BLIND CORNER Year: 1964 Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY...

OLIVER REED EPISODES OF THE BRITISH CLASSIC 'THE SAINT'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wog9_Cf7A24/X1AF0uZMLqI/AAAAAAABXl0/1S7jn872oGkEWVKAIdgbPLkazfqGRHN6QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/6.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="964" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wog9_Cf7A24/X1AF0uZMLqI/AAAAAAABXl0/1S7jn872oGkEWVKAIdgbPLkazfqGRHN6QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/6.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Oliver Reed on THE SAINT episode SOPHIA from the year 1963</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> In his early troubled-youth pictures THE SYSTEM and THE PARTY'S OVER, British actor Oliver Reed gave his future roles away with imitations that are, in those cases, poking fun of either Americans or the typical cinematic Gangster...<br> <br> The latter being used in the episode SOPHIA where Roger Moore's THE SAINT finds himself in rural Greece where the episode's titular character (played by a gorgeous Imogen Hassall)... the daughter of a stubborn, old-fashioned pub owner... is anticipating her supposedly rich New Yorker cousin...<br>

british, british new wave, crime, heist, imogen hassal, oliver reed, roger moore, sixties, TV, yvonne romain

OLIVER REED EPISODES OF THE BRITISH CLASSIC 'THE SAINT'

Oliver Reed on THE SAINT episode SOPHIA from the year 1963 In his early troubled-youth pictures THE SYSTEM and THE PARTY'S OVER, Bri...

CHRISTINA GREGG STALKED IN 'DON'T TALK TO STRANGE MEN'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qravcCcDyN8/X1CbLsLak6I/AAAAAAABXmo/J5aWav-PBIUB9Z5mTY3JCjZL0WXmVduqQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-03%2Bat%2B12.26.11%2BAM.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1147" data-original-width="1600" height="286" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qravcCcDyN8/X1CbLsLak6I/AAAAAAABXmo/J5aWav-PBIUB9Z5mTY3JCjZL0WXmVduqQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-09-03%2Bat%2B12.26.11%2BAM.png" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg in DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS Year: 1962</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> With shows like CATFISH it may seem somewhat new: grown men soliciting and seducing young naïve girls into their clutches, online, but in the 1961 British New Wave Thriller, it happened pretty much the same way, via payphone...<br> <br> And while a title like DON'T TALK TO STRANGE MEN sounds like a public service announcement, it's ironic that the stranger on the phone is the one advising this to his target, the maybe too pretty and perhaps slightly too old for the pathetically desperate, lonely, needy role as gorgeous girl-next-door Christina Gregg, a bybrid of two babyface starlets, Diane Baker (before) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (after): she's part of what's more a teenage crush movie than a serial killer suspense, and it's not a one way street despite her doing all the acting facially...<br>

british new wave, christina gregg, crime, janina faye, serial killer, suspense, thriller

CHRISTINA GREGG STALKED IN 'DON'T TALK TO STRANGE MEN'

Christina Gregg in DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS Year: 1962 With shows like CATFISH it may seem somewhat new: grown men soliciting and sed...

PETER VAUGHAN IN 'SMOKESCREEN' WITH YVONNE ROMAIN

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wo1iPWEJvnw/X2NcyAnoCVI/AAAAAAABYOg/-56XIQ1y63gAsAYIqPhmNtMvzO-bj_axwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/0%252B2.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1117" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wo1iPWEJvnw/X2NcyAnoCVI/AAAAAAABYOg/-56XIQ1y63gAsAYIqPhmNtMvzO-bj_axwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/0%252B2.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Peter Vaughan & Yvonne Romain in SMOKESCREEN Year: 1964</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> The biggest shame about Jim O'Connelly's quirky low-budget British post-noir SMOKESCREEN is that it was a film instead of a television series since Peter Vaughan's perpetually cautious and stingy insurance adjuster Roper had so many more adventures in him....<br> <br> His particular case involves what the audience and a young couple witness from the very beginning: a burning car driving off a cliff, and we never see a driver, which is what Roper searches for throughout the hour-long programmer, going from one person to the next in the usual investigative fashion... <br>

british neo noir, british new wave, david gregory, glynn edwards, jill curzon, jim o'connolly, john carson, peter vaughan, sixties, yvonne romain

PETER VAUGHAN IN 'SMOKESCREEN' WITH YVONNE ROMAIN

Peter Vaughan & Yvonne Romain in SMOKESCREEN Year: 1964 The biggest shame about Jim O'Connelly's quirky low-budget British p...

KATHERINE WOODVILLE & CLIFFORD DAVID IN 'THE PARTY'S OVER'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1dXVTLzzmsw/XzziI0uEthI/AAAAAAABW_4/H_boCGGea387hDt4ApVNwakRkiU6s6bowCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/0-1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="888" data-original-width="1545" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1dXVTLzzmsw/XzziI0uEthI/AAAAAAABW_4/H_boCGGea387hDt4ApVNwakRkiU6s6bowCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/0-1.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u> Katherine Woodville in THE PARTY'S OVER Year: 1965</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Executive Producer Peter O'Toole and Jack Hawkins along with director Guy Hamilton took their names off this controversial British Beatnik flick where an American girl, missing from her New York tycoon father and businessman fiance, is supposedly raped/screwed after death: so for them it wasn't controversial enough...<br> <br> Yet no actual necrophilia occurs (unless you count a quick posthumous kiss), even in the restored cut when — a day before THE PARTY'S OVER — Oliver Reed and his wayward cohorts play cat-and-mouse with Clifford David as the rich chick's arranged fiance, Carson...<br>

beatnik, british, british new wave, clifford david, counter-culture, crime, eddie albert, jazz score, katherine woodville, louise sorel, maurice browning, mystery, oliver reed, romance, sixties

KATHERINE WOODVILLE & CLIFFORD DAVID IN 'THE PARTY'S OVER'

Katherine Woodville in THE PARTY'S OVER Year: 1965 Executive Producer Peter O'Toole and Jack Hawkins along with director Guy Ha...

YOUNG BRITISH BLONDE BEAUTY GILLAN HILLS AS 'BEAT GIRL'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GkMoosrHN8o/XzqlurkG4GI/AAAAAAABWz4/WHtvny9u37MYoyBfHIS2g8i6258Lmc_IwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/222.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1066" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GkMoosrHN8o/XzqlurkG4GI/AAAAAAABWz4/WHtvny9u37MYoyBfHIS2g8i6258Lmc_IwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/222.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Groovy jazz-soaked title sequence with Gillan Hills as BEAT GIRL Year: 1960</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> BEAT GIRL is kind of like two movies in one, and both are pretty great with the insanely gorgeous Gillan Hills, a hybrid of Sue Lyon's LOLITA and Diane Lane in RUMBLE FISH: All three looking dynamic in black-and-white while <i>this</i> comparatively neglected, obscure gem centers on teens crazy about the Stateside Beatnik movement, grooving to the groovy jazz score of composer John Barry (featuring his live-jamming John Barry Seven)...<br> <br> And when these wayward/lackadaisical youngsters aren't hanging-out, the main plot centers on Gillan's Jennifer Linden, a spoiled brat of fifteen (fourteen while filming), who unfairly loathes her architect father David Farrar's new wife, a pretty twenty-something French girl — with a past...<br>

beatnik, british new wave, christopher lee, claire gordon, david farrar, delphi lawrence, exploitation, gillan hills, jazz score, melodrama, noëlle adam, oliver reed, peter mcenery, shirley anne field, sixties

YOUNG BRITISH BLONDE BEAUTY GILLAN HILLS AS 'BEAT GIRL'

Groovy jazz-soaked title sequence with Gillan Hills as BEAT GIRL Year: 1960 BEAT GIRL is kind of like two movies in one, and both are pr...

JIM O'CONNOLLY DIRECTS JACQUELINE ELLIS IN 'THE HI-JACKERS'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hBAwewN23Uc/X0T6ZjBm6bI/AAAAAAABXI8/9f0ITIzeQako7cnRgcogtpGAzA8REJ5XQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hBAwewN23Uc/X0T6ZjBm6bI/AAAAAAABXI8/9f0ITIzeQako7cnRgcogtpGAzA8REJ5XQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Opening title sequence for THE HI-JACKERS circa 1963</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Writer/director Jim O'Connolly should be well known for two films where the cult status went to someone else: In BERSERK, Joan Crawford gets credit while stop-motion guru Ray Harryhausen and his dinosaurs ruled THE VALLEY OF GWANGI. But O'Connolly's by himself in creating two neat, tight and entertaining B&W post-noir crime flicks derived from the British b-picture company, Butcher's, in the early/mid 1960's...<br> <br> The first being THE HI-JACKERS starring Anthony Booth as an independent truck/lorry driver: victim of the titular gang faking accident scenes on the rural roadside and then stealing the cargo: in his case, cases of Johnnie Walker Red...<br>

anthony booth, british, british neo noir, british new wave, crime, david gregory, derek francis, glynn edwards, jacqueline ellis, jazz score, jim o'connolly, sixties

JIM O'CONNOLLY DIRECTS JACQUELINE ELLIS IN 'THE HI-JACKERS'

Opening title sequence for THE HI-JACKERS circa 1963 Writer/director Jim O'Connolly should be well known for two films where the cul...

RACHEL ROBERTS & ANNETTE WHITELEY IN 'GIRL ON APPROVAL'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I6ZkOg-xW24/X0YdtHbQFWI/AAAAAAABXLE/VqZU4AZ25hMA-Mg_Jv03y-fYwz80MjELACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-08-26%2Bat%2B1.25.24%2BAM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="829" data-original-width="1006" height="328" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-I6ZkOg-xW24/X0YdtHbQFWI/AAAAAAABXLE/VqZU4AZ25hMA-Mg_Jv03y-fYwz80MjELACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-08-26%2Bat%2B1.25.24%2BAM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Annette Whiteley in GIRL ON APPROVAL Year: 1962</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> If you didn't know the plot going in... that fourteen-year-old Sheila is an unwanted orphan who'd gone through a string of foster parents and is now "trying out for" a couple that could be her very last chance... she'd seem like any other girl her age: Bratty. Moody. Angry. Pouting. Shouting... Favoring friendly dad over competitive mom...<br> <br> Basically, GIRL ON APPROVAL is about a normal bad girl at this age, and yet the plot (more a situation) adds enough suspense for the outcome to matter, but not only for the kid...<br> <br> Parents Rachel Roberts and James Maxwell, who'd lost their daughter and, raising two young boys, wind up at each other's throat when this bad seed makes their domestic suburban life a living hell. From cutting up furniture with scissors to smashing things on the kitchen floor, the acting of young Annette Whiteley is strong and effective if one-note-grouchy: like an owl peaking through a messy nest of hair... <br>

annette whiteley, british new wave, drama, family, james maxwell, melodrama, rachel roberts, sixties

RACHEL ROBERTS & ANNETTE WHITELEY IN 'GIRL ON APPROVAL'

Annette Whiteley in GIRL ON APPROVAL Year: 1962 If you didn't know the plot going in... that fourteen-year-old Sheila is an unwanted...

CAROL REED'S BELFAST NOIR 'ODD MAN OUT' WITH JAMES MASON

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I66lIZGOBao/XJ1Ov1MNz7I/AAAAAAABBvU/FGjsDegkb8UQPxYu1hzUohYLMKDa82TYgCLcBGAs/s1600/55865125_675646786197834_3391611282808373248_n.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="721" data-original-width="794" height="362" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-I66lIZGOBao/XJ1Ov1MNz7I/AAAAAAABBvU/FGjsDegkb8UQPxYu1hzUohYLMKDa82TYgCLcBGAs/s400/55865125_675646786197834_3391611282808373248_n.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Beatty bribes adorable urchin to find his friend YEAR: 1947</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> James Mason is always intense, even when he's playing comedy, and this is no comedy: The most riveting scenes seem initially very normal and, for this wounded Irish nationalist leader left for dead and, in darkened alleys and hidden rooms, constantly in-hiding, he seems to come across things that, at first, seem much different than they turn out being, making this ODD MAN way, way OUT there while at the same time, you feel in the desperate man's perspective...<br> <br> So the suspense relies on a fish out of water while perhaps the best moments occur for only ten or so minutes in the beginning, as we see through what's truly a semi-deranged mind to begin with: having been holed-up in prison for many years, even his own "soldiers" don't trust his instincts and capabilities to pull off a relatively otherwise in-and-out office heist that in fact, Mason's confounded and lost, intrepidly named Johnny McQueen backed by tough, assertive Robert Beatty (who is young and resembles a not yet grown Tom Courtenay); weaselly, gun-toting Cyril Cusack; timid Dan O'Herlihy; and especially the lovely, soulfully sad yet dedicated and stubborn-tough ingenue Kathleen Ryan...<br>

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

CAROL REED'S BELFAST NOIR 'ODD MAN OUT' WITH JAMES MASON

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

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

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E0TP4cRB_Ig/XKsG8IyVhYI/AAAAAAABCc4/ZUC7Xv0_K-ExKHMapFeL1Fw6ROOOppflACLcBGAs/s1600/the-day-they-robbed-the-bank-of-england-french-movie-poster.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="473" data-original-width="454" height="320" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-E0TP4cRB_Ig/XKsG8IyVhYI/AAAAAAABCc4/ZUC7Xv0_K-ExKHMapFeL1Fw6ROOOppflACLcBGAs/s320/the-day-they-robbed-the-bank-of-england-french-movie-poster.jpeg" width="307"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1960</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> 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> <br> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Txya2OmZuwM/XKrs8AqGB_I/AAAAAAABCb8/5Bvc3Tf_yYMwwrCkx78iGa45NlBz4829ACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-04-07%2Bat%2B11.22.50%2BPM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1210" data-original-width="799" height="400" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Txya2OmZuwM/XKrs8AqGB_I/AAAAAAABCb8/5Bvc3Tf_yYMwwrCkx78iGa45NlBz4829ACLcBGAs/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-04-07%2Bat%2B11.22.50%2BPM.jpeg" width="263"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robbed the Bank of England SCORE: ****</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> 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> <br> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> 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> <br> 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, british new wave, 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...

CULT ACTRESS LINDA MANZ IS GONE BUT SHE'S NOT FORGOTTEN

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZ1FLArnikQ/XzqdteW0CMI/AAAAAAABWy0/xYrxcxk_Pcoqpz-QoJsJYk5ctHUaMjVpwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%2525252BShot%2525252B2020-08-15%2525252Bat%2525252B12.18.02%2525252BPM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="883" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tZ1FLArnikQ/XzqdteW0CMI/AAAAAAABWy0/xYrxcxk_Pcoqpz-QoJsJYk5ctHUaMjVpwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%2525252BShot%2525252B2020-08-15%2525252Bat%2525252B12.18.02%2525252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Linda Manz born August 20, 1961 died August 14, 2020 here in THE WANDERERS</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Rest in Peace to one of the most unique cult actresses of all time, LINDA MANZ, who started as Richard Gere's narrating little sister in the Depression-era drama DAYS OF HEAVEN, a role that Gere himself said stole the film...<br> <br> And she starred in what's her most famous role as Dennis Hoppers troubled daughter in the EASY RIDER auteur's directorial comeback, OUT OF THE BLUE, in which Manz's character worships Elvis and Johnny Rotten; and before that, in THE WANDERERS, she's the "Pee Wee" girlfriend of giant-sized Erland van Lidth.<br> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BKknDAOm6XQ/XzhGNwci0XI/AAAAAAABWjE/-Pm8-QwJXW0uOYARsb-VH4xewdZUTs4kACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-08-15%2Bat%2B1.30.29%2BPM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="930" data-original-width="1600" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-BKknDAOm6XQ/XzhGNwci0XI/AAAAAAABWjE/-Pm8-QwJXW0uOYARsb-VH4xewdZUTs4kACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-08-15%2Bat%2B1.30.29%2BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Linda Manz in her final and most iconic roles OUT OF THE BLUE</u></td></tr> </tbody></table>

2020, linda manz, tribute

CULT ACTRESS LINDA MANZ IS GONE BUT SHE'S NOT FORGOTTEN

Linda Manz born August 20, 1961 died August 14, 2020 here in THE WANDERERS Rest in Peace to one of the most unique cult actresses of all...

WILLIAM TALMAN MAKING 'THE RACKET' WITH ROBERT MITCHUM

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qw0vTZ51QuE/XzqZLz1UFXI/AAAAAAABWyI/8X_7xVZC5kc2KWiHBvcErzoMegV0Jw9fwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-08-17%2Bat%2B7.04.34%2BAM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="809" data-original-width="1145" height="282" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qw0vTZ51QuE/XzqZLz1UFXI/AAAAAAABWyI/8X_7xVZC5kc2KWiHBvcErzoMegV0Jw9fwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/Screen%2BShot%2B2020-08-17%2Bat%2B7.04.34%2BAM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The Racket Year: 1951 stars: Robert Mitchum Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> While primarily focusing on the two leads, Robert Mitchum as a determined cop, McQuigg, and Robert Ryan as criminal kingpin Nick Scanlon (in cahoots with crooked politician Ray Collins), it's William Talman's heroic yet idealistically naïve , knee-jerk newbie police officer, ready to take on all things villainous, that really drives things along...<br> <div> <br> Bookending the literally explosive middle is an involving buildup, as nothing can touch Robert Ryan and his old-school way of running things. Then, during the last half, he realizes his particular kind of shady doesn't quite work in the world of ever-growing politics. But he's not going down easy, and it takes Mitchum's slowburn patience to wear him down. Throw in sexy Lizbeth Scott as the dame caught in the middle and you really have something kinda neat here. <br> </div>

crime, fifties, film noir or melodrama, howard hughes, robert mitchum, robert ryan, suspense, william talman

WILLIAM TALMAN MAKING 'THE RACKET' WITH ROBERT MITCHUM

The Racket Year: 1951 stars: Robert Mitchum Rating: ***1/2 While primarily focusing on the two leads, Robert Mitchum as a determined c...

DANA ANDREWS AND SUSAN HAYWARD IN 'MY FOOLISH HEART'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eJEn5eS8JRE/X03vCTBO6pI/AAAAAAABXjU/wYip8VpbsoUdNZPjt1LxZvVVqG1vkmclACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/fool.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="379" data-original-width="500" height="302" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eJEn5eS8JRE/X03vCTBO6pI/AAAAAAABXjU/wYip8VpbsoUdNZPjt1LxZvVVqG1vkmclACLcBGAsYHQ/s400/fool.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: MY FOOLISH HEART Year: 1949 Rating: ***</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> J.D. Salinger's short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" was adapted, to his chagrin; and with Dana Andrews discussing the titular rabbit getting into and out of trouble, it's contrived, cinematic symbolism for Susan Hayward, flashing back and forth from pre-War to post-War; a glib lush unhappily married to Kent Smith (hanging with her best friend and dealing with an introverted daughter) in the present while reminiscing about the nostalgic affair with Andrews...<br> <br> The best scenes occur before the before the war; that is, when Dana's dapper, handsome stranger meets our insecure college girl at a dance, defends her against a bullying deb, takes her home for a drink, and later gets her thrown out of college for kissing in the dorm elevator. And just as their romance gets interesting, the next scene Dana's wearing a baggy military uniform, about to fly overseas but before that, meet her parents...<br>

adaptation, dana andrews, drama, forties, j.d. salinger, kent smith, mark robson, melodrama, robert keith, romance, susan hayward

DANA ANDREWS AND SUSAN HAYWARD IN 'MY FOOLISH HEART'

Title: MY FOOLISH HEART Year: 1949 Rating: *** J.D. Salinger's short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" was adapted, to ...

DANA ANDREWS AND FARLEY GRANGER IN 'EDGE OF DOOM'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9JtArb1K3Jo/X03sasaNe_I/AAAAAAABXi8/1_EXfa6t390UBYClWexjNsTI-4fNs6nvACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/54178.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="931" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9JtArb1K3Jo/X03sasaNe_I/AAAAAAABXi8/1_EXfa6t390UBYClWexjNsTI-4fNs6nvACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/54178.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Adele Jergens, Mala Powers, Farley Granger & Dana Andrews in EDGE OF DOOM aka STRONGER THAN FEAR Year: 1950</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> The idea of a Catholic Film Noir isn't so strange being that the "genre" and the religion are both full of guilt, and this above-average crime melodrama in the fashion of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT stars super-guilty-looking Farley Granger (equally as ashamed of his murdering-self in Alfred Hitchock's ROPE), who kills an old cranky priest that didn't give his long-dead father last rites because he'd committed suicide instead of — like Granger's beloved mother that he wants a lavish funeral for despite their shabby apartment-dwelling reality — dying more naturally, and with dignity...<br> <br> Enter Dana Andrews... not as the doomed priest but the young, more open minded Father with the normally Jewish last name of Roth (Hollywood obviously wanted to please everyone): he's called in for Ma's last rites instead of the old man, dealing with his own pointless personal family issues.<br>

adele jergens, dana andrews, farley granger, fifties, film noir or melodrama, mala powers, mark robson, paul stewart, robert keith, thriller

DANA ANDREWS AND FARLEY GRANGER IN 'EDGE OF DOOM'

Adele Jergens, Mala Powers, Farley Granger & Dana Andrews in EDGE OF DOOM aka STRONGER THAN FEAR Year: 1950 The idea of a Catholic F...

PETER SELLERS ENDS WITH 'THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wz0UIAbynyA/XzJbCBlGqzI/AAAAAAABWY8/xD2gM1_hoYMd9wHKSyqo7Pg7DPf8PcXTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/01.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1250" data-original-width="1458" height="342" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wz0UIAbynyA/XzJbCBlGqzI/AAAAAAABWY8/xD2gM1_hoYMd9wHKSyqo7Pg7DPf8PcXTwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/01.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Artwork for THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU Year: 1980</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> What Peter Sellers' final motion picture, THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU, has in common with his most popular franchise, THE PINK PANTHER, is that both parody James Bond: Especially 1976's <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/04/StrikesAgain.html">PINK PANTHER STRIKES AGAIN</a>, so over-the-top similar to the Roger Moore outings that MANCHU feels like a homage of a homage. But there's also the Christopher Lee MANCHU b-flicks and before that, Boris Karloff...<br> <br> Sellers was obviously a fan of both as this was he and trophy wife Lynne Frederick's labor-of-love going through several directors, which shows since many overlong scenes lack any direction at all wherein, as usual, Sellers plays several roles, particularly pulp author Sax Rohmer's Tong-lord supervillain and his dogged Scotland Yard investigator Nayland Smith. In both parts, Sellers, who died not long after production wrapped, seems too old and tired to not only pull off genuinely humorous performances but to move along an already convoluted and sometimes downright confusing story (one particular scheme involving an obese guard of a British diamond is a time-wasting mess)...<br>

comedy, david tomlinson, eighties, helen mirren, lynne frederick, parody, peter sellers, sid caesar, steve franken

PETER SELLERS ENDS WITH 'THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU'

Artwork for THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU Year: 1980 What Peter Sellers' final motion picture, THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANC...

PEGGY CUMMINS & JOHN DALL IN THE NOIR CLASSIC 'GUN CRAZY'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0WzaNIdLFcg/XzC_mBvt6UI/AAAAAAABWYI/ebhB2DMeCtw72hmmZacqk7_IOZi-X9LJwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/upload-2Nikos-work_poster-gun-crazy64ssed.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="741" data-original-width="1113" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0WzaNIdLFcg/XzC_mBvt6UI/AAAAAAABWYI/ebhB2DMeCtw72hmmZacqk7_IOZi-X9LJwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/upload-2Nikos-work_poster-gun-crazy64ssed.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Poster with John Dall and Peggy Cummins dead in love for GUN CRAZY Year: 1950</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> The Femme Fatale, you know, the bad girl with the great face... the soulless dame with the fantastic body... Well she's just about everything in GUN CRAZY despite the lengthy prologue about the doomed young man as a precocious kid, initially played by Russ Tamblyn, with a penchant for guns who winds up in reform school...<br> <br> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"> And it's not long after getting out... now a twenty-something John Dall... when he and his childhood buddies go to a sideshow where Peggy Cummins' Annie Laurie Starr steals his heart — but only after he beats her at a shooting contest i.e. her very own game. The next scene, Dall's Bart Tare has a job there too, and not long after he's fired by jealous barker Berry Kroeger, smitten with the girl who gets away...</div> <table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HSx3wIG5FkY/XzDAOjsbmWI/AAAAAAABWYQ/iqL7PNibPzg-Rk-1gFlr_rMZsGSqG5vHACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/15564.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="786" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-HSx3wIG5FkY/XzDAOjsbmWI/AAAAAAABWYQ/iqL7PNibPzg-Rk-1gFlr_rMZsGSqG5vHACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/15564.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The other title for GUN CRAZY is DEADLY IS THE FEMALE Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> The second act has a lot of bombastic action up front but the usual Noirish guilt, here involving Dall's brooding Bart, not only happens much too quick but is intrusive and annoying, not allowing him (or the audience) to enjoy the rural Bonnie & Clyde town-hopping robberies: But there's no such cloying guilt from Annie...<br> <br> And with sparse, finely-tuned direction by Joseph H. Lewis... visually and rhythmically foreshadowing French New Wave cinema with a kind of naked/barren aesthetic... this is Peggy Cummins picture; and she had no backstory at all. Then again, do deadly dames (aka DEADLY IS THE FEMALE) even have a past? Usually theirs' is a quick shoot-em-up future. If only she had a less reluctant/whiny partner-in-crime. Mr. Dall needed a little of that ROPE gusto here! <br>

action, fifties, film noir or melodrama, heist, john dall, peggy cummins, road movie, russ tamblyn

PEGGY CUMMINS & JOHN DALL IN THE NOIR CLASSIC 'GUN CRAZY'

Poster with John Dall and Peggy Cummins dead in love for GUN CRAZY Year: 1950 The Femme Fatale, you know, the bad girl with the great fa...

PAUL NEWMAN DEFECTS ALFRED HITCHOCK'S 'TORN CURTAIN'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tfHLg8emqJw/Xyt1v71XW8I/AAAAAAABWXA/VopBn_MDN0M8eR6gzLwBRv-vys0B9YkIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/dd.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="1234" height="301" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-tfHLg8emqJw/Xyt1v71XW8I/AAAAAAABWXA/VopBn_MDN0M8eR6gzLwBRv-vys0B9YkIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/dd.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Paul Newman battling Wolfgang Kieling Year: 1966 Rating: ***</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> Alfred Hitchcock's Cold War Thriller TORN CURTAIN brings back the auteur's use of teaming-up a man and woman for the best use of retaliation, which includes leading man Paul Newman but not his dutiful wife Julie Andrews: instead the <i>she</i> is Carolyn Conwell as <i>Farmer's Wife</i>, who not only has more importance than her tractor-driving husband, Mort Mills, spouting exposition to Newman's American scientist, pretending to defect <i>within</i> Russia to get secret plans to take back Stateside...  <br> <br> But the good strong Russian woman helps Newman's Professor Michael Armstrong kill a seemingly impenetrable, solidly built Soviet henchman named Gromek, played by Wolfgang Kieling who, once he's out of the picture, it's all pretty much downhill, leaving the handsome, reluctant hero to deal with the film's weakest link: And in that, Julie Andrews basically stands around staring pale-eyed, hoping her husband isn't really doing what he's really not doing while she obstructs the overall suspense from its cinematic Master, only half-successfully covering new ground here (<a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/08/topaz.html">TOPAZ</a> is a slight improvement).<br>

action, adventure, alfred hitchcock, carolyn conwell, cold war, espionage, julie andrews, paul newman, russia, science, suspense, thriller, wolfgang kieling

PAUL NEWMAN DEFECTS ALFRED HITCHOCK'S 'TORN CURTAIN'

Paul Newman battling Wolfgang Kieling Year: 1966 Rating: *** Alfred Hitchcock's Cold War Thriller TORN CURTAIN brings back the auteu...

ALFRED HITCHCOCK TAKING ON COLD WAR CUBA FOR 'TOPAZ'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JJpOHxVmfrA/Xytu0tZx4OI/AAAAAAABWW0/NScbq4OHUUowcRzuFG1pF2TwiaV9P7zYACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/A1gLSHxVHbL._AC_SX679_.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="282" data-original-width="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JJpOHxVmfrA/Xytu0tZx4OI/AAAAAAABWW0/NScbq4OHUUowcRzuFG1pF2TwiaV9P7zYACLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/A1gLSHxVHbL._AC_SX679_.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Frederick Stafford & Karin Dor in TOPAZ Year: 1969 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> In Alfred Hitchcock's Cold War Thriller TOPAZ, by the time there's someone to root for in French James Bond-looking Frederick Stafford, seeking information in Castro's Cuba with the aid of scene-stealing sneak-around Roscoe Lee Browne, we've forgotten it all started with John Forsythe helping an important Russian family defect in what feels like its own suspenseful short film...<br> <br> The problem is length: After the splendid demise of beautiful Karin Dor in the only <i>moment</i> TOPAZ is linked to Hitchcock's legendary style... a dress seeming to bleed into the floor... there's a lot of talky running-out-the-clock with villain John Vernon as a Cuban General; what's really shocking is he only <i>seems </i>miscast. His input early on is actually quite effective. But it's one outdoor sequence involving two hungry seagulls (from the director of THE BIRDS no less!)... screwing up a perfectly good spying-on-the-villains-picnic... that really feels like Hitchcock's dark comedy touch. He simply needed more touches here. <br>

adventure, alfred hitchcock, cold war, espionage, frederick stafford, john forsythe, john vernon, karin dor, sixties, spy, thriller

ALFRED HITCHCOCK TAKING ON COLD WAR CUBA FOR 'TOPAZ'

Frederick Stafford & Karin Dor in TOPAZ Year: 1969 Rating: ***1/2 In Alfred Hitchcock's Cold War Thriller TOPAZ, by the time the...

WES CRAVEN'S ORIGINAL EXPLOITATION 'THE HILLS HAVE EYES'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8VA4S_0XE38/XyUkdAQBVDI/AAAAAAABWPo/PKzKWcfuzLASvMJDNEtwubjESvBb2jHJwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/525994_185015964968563_813411646_n.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="457" data-original-width="841" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-8VA4S_0XE38/XyUkdAQBVDI/AAAAAAABWPo/PKzKWcfuzLASvMJDNEtwubjESvBb2jHJwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/525994_185015964968563_813411646_n.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Not one horror film geek hasn't had a crush on Suze Lanier in THE HILLS HAVE EYES Year: 1977</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> THE HILLS HAVE EYES is generally regarded as a classic horror film. Because of the blood, guts, and killer cannibals, but especially since Wes Craven, who’d later scare us on ELM STREET and make the next generation SCREAM with delight, wrote and directed: Thus the plot has the usual horror elements: a trailer-traveling family gets derailed in the middle of nowhere and, like the title implies, they’re not alone.<br> <br> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: right;"> </div> The setting is fitfully spooky: the surrounding valley of sharp canyon cliffs where just about anything is possible, especially after the antagonists show themselves in the bright daylight — yet perhaps too bright for a movie meant to keep us on edge in a genre where darker is better. The Neanderthal hillbillies are liken to a group of mutant hippies had they wandered into the Town of Bedrock after hearing The Beatles White Album. Or something. <br>

body count, cult, dee wallace, exploitation, horror, indie, michael berryman, seventies, suze lanier, wes craven

WES CRAVEN'S ORIGINAL EXPLOITATION 'THE HILLS HAVE EYES'

Not one horror film geek hasn't had a crush on Suze Lanier in THE HILLS HAVE EYES Year: 1977 THE HILLS HAVE EYES is generally regard...

RUSHING THROUGH 'MARATHON MAN' STARRING DUSTIN HOFFMAN

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2coQaI-7PiU/Xt4LmNVPTpI/AAAAAAABUvU/eILG-5axFdQwynA_CrccUMGz8wuiLxr-gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/tumblr_msckju3KWo1qkcj94o1_1280.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="886" data-original-width="1213" height="291" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2coQaI-7PiU/Xt4LmNVPTpI/AAAAAAABUvU/eILG-5axFdQwynA_CrccUMGz8wuiLxr-gCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/tumblr_msckju3KWo1qkcj94o1_1280.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dustin Hoffman & Marthe Keller in MARATHON MAN Year: 1976</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> The epitome of a Thriller, John Schlesinger's MARATHON MAN <i>can</i> be a letdown with the teaming of two legends — one very old, the other, at that time, part of a fairly new crop of intense method actors. And we'll get the "Why don't you try acting" elephant out of the room — which was Olivier's famous quip to Hoffman as he needed to run a block before getting into character...<br> <br> Then again, Dustin <i>is </i>the title<i> </i>character, and not just standing around reciting Shakespeare — spending most of the picture completely winded/exhausted from either jogging around New York's Central Park or being chased throughout the last half when this Thriller turns into a straight-out Action flick: Which <i>isn't</i> the best part of MARATHON MAN as Roy Scheider plays Dustin's older brother "Babe" in the most suspenseful scenes: he's some kind of secret agent, eventually connecting with his passive New York collegiate sibling after being introduced in Paris, France, where director Schlesinger (reunited with MIDNIGHT COWBOY star Hoffman) evokes a fair amount of nail-biting Hitchcockesque tension as things either explode or seem just about to... <br>

action, dustin hoffman, espionage, john schlesinger, laurence olivier, marc lawrence, marthe keller, nazi, richard bright, roy scheider, seventies, thriller

RUSHING THROUGH 'MARATHON MAN' STARRING DUSTIN HOFFMAN

Dustin Hoffman & Marthe Keller in MARATHON MAN Year: 1976 The epitome of a Thriller, John Schlesinger's MARATHON MAN can be a l...