SUSAN CABOT HAS STING IN ROGER CORMAN'S 'THE WASP WOMAN'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></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/-UJKV26u8Ons/YUOGC4TlYEI/AAAAAAABmiQ/vOym7C_58TQDfmL8TYGa4bsuFGh6AXqTACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/lf.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1230" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-UJKV26u8Ons/YUOGC4TlYEI/AAAAAAABmiQ/vOym7C_58TQDfmL8TYGa4bsuFGh6AXqTACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/lf.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Misleading poster image for THE WASP WOMAN Year: 1959 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Michael Marks's beekeeper or actually wasp-keeper character Eric Winthrop has all the makings of a mad scientist, or perhaps a kind of "drone" seeking revenge against his bully bosses... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>If it weren't for the utter impatience of Susan Cabot's title character, wanting so badly to be young for her youth cream cosmetics company to keep making sense like before... when she was a true beauty... Winthrop might just have been that kind of murdering antagonist the likes of Dick Miller in another above-average Roger Corman flick that he actually directed before eventually retiring into producer, which he was much better at...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

barboura morris, cult, fifties, horror, roger corman, susan cabot, suspense, thriller

SUSAN CABOT HAS STING IN ROGER CORMAN'S 'THE WASP WOMAN'

Misleading poster image for THE WASP WOMAN Year: 1959 Rating: ***1/2 Michael Marks's beekeeper or actually wasp-keeper character Eric Wi...

IAN HENDRY & JUNE RITCHIE FLING THROUGH 'THIS IS MY STREET'

<p></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/-RWkX47I6MEM/YTuS2UdGUnI/AAAAAAABmTY/KpO2wiX9hAU3C2atTphp-eCeOr9hiIH4gCLcBGAsYHQ/s2018/0.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1362" data-original-width="2018" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RWkX47I6MEM/YTuS2UdGUnI/AAAAAAABmTY/KpO2wiX9hAU3C2atTphp-eCeOr9hiIH4gCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/0.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>June Ritchie and Ian Hendry in THIS IS MY STREET Year: 1961 Rating: ***<br></u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Ian Hendry in a role that would have better fit a more downright handsome Laurence Harvey, but he's got the right amount of scoundrel charm that's initially fully-loaded towards pretty married June Ritchie, who <i>definitely</i> has a daughter... In fact she and her mom's loose lodger Hendry consummate after both take bonding time to find the kid...<br></p><p>But while there are a fair number of scenes with June's bored, jobless husband (Mike Pratt), they really don't seem all that married... and either way there's zero chemistry between the actors...<br></p><span></span>

annette andre, british new wave, john hurt, june ritchie, melodrama, philippa gail, romance, sixties

IAN HENDRY & JUNE RITCHIE FLING THROUGH 'THIS IS MY STREET'

June Ritchie and Ian Hendry in THIS IS MY STREET Year: 1961 Rating: *** Ian Hendry in a role that would have better fit a more downright han...

SEAN CONNERY & YVONNE ROMAIN IN 'THE FRIGHTENED CITY'

<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/-vJ_b94NLDus/YTyoJl_FpuI/AAAAAAABmXc/g9D7av9OEyk1Kdg190N1ZhN59k0szT_qACLcBGAsYHQ/s1786/z0.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="882" data-original-width="1786" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vJ_b94NLDus/YTyoJl_FpuI/AAAAAAABmXc/g9D7av9OEyk1Kdg190N1ZhN59k0szT_qACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/z0.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Poster image of Yvonne Romain for THE FRIGHTENED CITY Year: 1961 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>With a terrific title like THE FRIGHTENED CITY, a British Neo Noir that actually goes the 1930's-style Classic Gangstr route, you'd think characters would be more... well... frightened... but random bursts of mobsters messing up nightclubs that don't pay for extortion happens so fast there's nothing to really fear but broken glass....</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The plot is simple and straight from the Al Capone playbook of a CITY being divided by gangsters/businessman; that's the idea given by first-billed Herbert Lom as a shady accountant, usually a side-role in these kind of action/dramas, but he was more famous than fellow HELL DRIVERS veteran Sean Connery in the muscular role... </p><p><span></span></p>

alfred marks, british neo noir, crime, gangster, herbert lom, julie shearing, melodrama, sixties

SEAN CONNERY & YVONNE ROMAIN IN 'THE FRIGHTENED CITY'

Poster image of Yvonne Romain for THE FRIGHTENED CITY Year: 1961 Rating: ** With a terrific title like THE FRIGHTENED CITY, a British Neo No...

PETER SELLERS GETS COMPLETELY VICIOUS FOR 'NEVER LET GO'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></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/-4qJ0y02oZgA/YTn2OXB_BCI/AAAAAAABmPw/rGVNkcFx1dYxHKAHg26kx2Z_NIDeEDRAQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1927/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-09-09%2Bat%2B2.00.41%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1119" data-original-width="1927" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4qJ0y02oZgA/YTn2OXB_BCI/AAAAAAABmPw/rGVNkcFx1dYxHKAHg26kx2Z_NIDeEDRAQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-09-09%2Bat%2B2.00.41%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: NEVER LET GO Year: 1960 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A British Neo Noir cross between DEATH OF A SALESMAN before and DEATH WISH after, John Guillerman made NEVER LET GO the same year as THE DAY THEY ROBBED THE BANK OF ENGLAND, only a car's worth much less than an entire country's bullion vault... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But don't tell that to desperate cosmetics salesman Richard Todd, whose old fashioned, pseudo-charming client-pressuring style goes against the company's new-fangled <i>scientific methods</i>... </p><p><span></span></p>

adam faith, british neo noir, british new wave, carol white, crime, cult, david gregory, david lodge, elizabeth sellars, john guillermin, peter sellers, revenge, richard todd, thriller

PETER SELLERS GETS COMPLETELY VICIOUS FOR 'NEVER LET GO'

Title: NEVER LET GO Year: 1960 Rating: **** A British Neo Noir cross between DEATH OF A SALESMAN before and DEATH WISH after, John Guillerma...

DAVID NIVEN & PETER SELLERS ARE BOTH BOND IN 'CASINO ROYALE'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></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/-uadWqu43WCw/YTl2RCEX09I/AAAAAAABmKw/Nm_0BLXtw5seyqRshDRG5cnDW5d53-0FgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1736/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-09-08%25252Bat%25252B8.25.48%25252BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="863" data-original-width="1736" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uadWqu43WCw/YTl2RCEX09I/AAAAAAABmKw/Nm_0BLXtw5seyqRshDRG5cnDW5d53-0FgCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-09-08%25252Bat%25252B8.25.48%25252BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>David Niven and Barbara Bouchet in CASINO ROYALE Year: 1967 Rating: *1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The infamous James Bond Spy Spoof CASINO ROYALE from the much-too-colorful 1960's could be deemed unbelievably awful but with a collection of writers and directors (including <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/val%20guest">Val Guest</a> and John Huston) desperately herding their all-star cast into what wound up resembling a high-priced TV variety show, it IS believable to have turned out so... well... unbelievably awful...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Chopped into vignettes, by far the most awkward has David Niven's retired/reserved James Bond in Scotland (some kind of homage to Sean Connery) being tempted by a castle of gorgeous "daughters" of John Huston's newly-killed M...</p><p><span></span></p>

angela scoular, barbara bouchet, british, comedy, david niven, deborah kerr, ensemble, james bond, joanna pettet, john huston, orson welles, peter sellers, spoof, spy, ursula andress, val guest, woody allen

DAVID NIVEN & PETER SELLERS ARE BOTH BOND IN 'CASINO ROYALE'

David Niven and Barbara Bouchet in CASINO ROYALE Year: 1967 Rating: *1/2 The infamous James Bond Spy Spoof CASINO ROYALE from the much-too-c...

ROGER MOORE IN THE SPACE-CRAZE ERA BOND 'MOONRAKER'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></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/-lsbf5FaNGYE/YTmpTvvDy3I/AAAAAAABmL0/iCX9hj95lIkZQEbgAVxlFB-yU3e67rHEQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2321/25.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="975" data-original-width="2321" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-lsbf5FaNGYE/YTmpTvvDy3I/AAAAAAABmL0/iCX9hj95lIkZQEbgAVxlFB-yU3e67rHEQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/25.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Roger Moore in MOONRAKER with Lois Chiles Year 1979 Rating ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>What's more ironic than the science-fiction James Bond MOONRAKER spending 90-minutes, the length of an average motion picture, on land... from England to California to Italy to Rio... before living up to its galactic promise, is that Lois Chiles' progressive ingenue demands respect for being a doctor... and her name is <i>Goodhead</i>, working for one of the more <i>non-charming from the get-go</i> heavies, Hugo Drax, played by French stage actor Michael Lonsdale... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And when we're eventually thrust into space, the movie hits a bland, awkward wall... Not that the build-up lacks inside lunar gags: the audio code to enter a laboratory is from CLOSE ENCOUNTERS and the 2001 theme also turns up...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

anne lonnberg, béatrice libert, bernard lee, corinne cléry, franchise, irka bochenko, james bond, lewis gilbert, lois chiles, michael lonsdale, richard kiel, roger moore, seventies, spy

ROGER MOORE IN THE SPACE-CRAZE ERA BOND 'MOONRAKER'

Roger Moore in MOONRAKER with Lois Chiles Year 1979 Rating **** What's more ironic than the science-fiction James Bond MOONRAKER spendi...

CANNON BLASTS LUCINDA DICKEY IN 'NINJA III: THE DOMINATION'

<p></p><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/-eSHBIjTeGFE/YTVfuHIoapI/AAAAAAABl9Y/okH-oA0sy0warpN1rcdSwKuGSLpzln1WACLcBGAsYHQ/s1245/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-09-05%2Bat%2B3.51.14%2BPM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1245" data-original-width="1124" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eSHBIjTeGFE/YTVfuHIoapI/AAAAAAABl9Y/okH-oA0sy0warpN1rcdSwKuGSLpzln1WACLcBGAsYHQ/w361-h400/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-09-05%2Bat%2B3.51.14%2BPM.jpeg" width="361"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Blu Ray of Ninja III Year: 1984 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>NINJA III: THE DOMINATION, despite being number three after The Cannon Group's previous NINJA flicks — that needn't watching to jump on board here — stands, flips, jumps, tumbles and kicks on its very own merit... </p><p>With buried lead and legit karate expert Shô Kosugi, whose eye-patched Yomada eventually travels to America to avenge the past (unseen) death of his father by the notorious Black Ninja who, after killing a golf-course playing scientist, his wife, several bodyguards and more cops than RAMBO in a bombastic/awesome land fight turned car chase introduction, telephone pole-climbing government worker Lucinda Dickey as Christie, an aerobics instructor on the side who listens to gloriously dated synth music ala Linda Hamilton in TERMINATOR, gets taken-over or <i>dominated</i> but particularly <i>possessed</i> given one scene that rips off THE EXORCIST full throttle... </p><p>Having taken the bullet-splattered dead Ninja's soul, receiving his powerful sword along with vengeful memories, Lucinda's Christie is surprisingly subdued during blackouts as she becomes a sneaky Ninja assassin targeting obnoxious cops while having an affair with a friendly helpful one: Leading to something sinister and mysterious combining the horror genre with karate with the help of Yomada, always there on the sidelines during fight scenes involving Dickey's masked Ninja: like all the complicated numbers in Cannon's BREAKIN' the same year wherein SHE ALSO headlined despite not being a titular professional, she's also noticeably stunt-doubled and yet, even despite a sporadically robotic delivery, her 1980's dream girl hotness a and physical prowess helps carry this truly entertaining, action-packed wallop that deserves more genuine cult over maligned camp status.</p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

action, cannon, cult, david chung, eighties, horror, karate, lucinda dickey, shô kosugi

CANNON BLASTS LUCINDA DICKEY IN 'NINJA III: THE DOMINATION'

Blu Ray of Ninja III Year: 1984 Rating: ***1/2 NINJA III: THE DOMINATION, despite being number three after The Cannon Group's previous N...

DARREN MCGAVIN COPS OUT 'THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN'

<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/-NNUBWNDk0_U/YTU3Ofla2uI/AAAAAAABl7Y/lMbY3qYEO08DIVls0yavTnaud41Vgq3kACLcBGAsYHQ/s1794/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-09-05%2Bat%2B2.00.37%2BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1278" data-original-width="1794" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NNUBWNDk0_U/YTU3Ofla2uI/AAAAAAABl7Y/lMbY3qYEO08DIVls0yavTnaud41Vgq3kACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-09-05%2Bat%2B2.00.37%2BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Margaret Hayes & Darren McGavin THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN Year: 1958 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>"Maybe he's queer for widows who run garages" says a drunk and jilted Margaret Hayes to square-jawed (surreptitious to her) villain Warren Stevens, and she's talking about an undercover cop she'd uncovered in married Darren McGavin, having feigned a bachelor salesman type and whose best scenes are what led to up the poor dame being so ticked-off...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And she has other problems, much deeper... Her husband, owing a bundle to bookies in which Stevens was the thuggiest, fatally crashed his truck, purposefully looking like a Double Indemnity accident and leaving her to "run" the garage near a tavern where she's a wishbone between both good and bad guy... albeit both are manipulating liars... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

action, brian g. hutton, cop, darren mcgavin, film noir or melodrama, margaret hayes, peggy mccay, robert osterloh, warren stevens

DARREN MCGAVIN COPS OUT 'THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN'

Margaret Hayes & Darren McGavin THE CASE AGAINST BROOKLYN Year: 1958 Rates: ***1/2 "Maybe he's queer for widows who run garages...

ENGLISH STARLET JOY WEBSTER CHANNELS 'STORMY CROSSING'

<p></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/-9-LPR0ksyBU/YTN9VWGY2SI/AAAAAAABl2w/ovKw_vvugkkVy1pzp-AZhsLxVzc-7EwiACLcBGAsYHQ/s1339/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-09-04%2Bat%2B5.14.23%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="696" data-original-width="1339" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9-LPR0ksyBU/YTN9VWGY2SI/AAAAAAABl2w/ovKw_vvugkkVy1pzp-AZhsLxVzc-7EwiACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-09-04%2Bat%2B5.14.23%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Joy Webster and John Ireland in BLACK TIDE/STORMY CROSSING 1958 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>It's been a joy discovering British starlet <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/joy%20webster">Joy Webster</a> who, throughout the <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/british%20new%20wave">British New Wave</a>, specialized in flirtatiously rejected skanks: twice in Hammer Films... <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/07/2F.html">THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL</a> as pimpish Oliver Reed's shunned nightclub girl while she's not even good enough for him in a <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/03/reedwolf.html">CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF</a> brothel. And in-between she's shunned in a strip joint by both Brian Weske and David McCallum in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/09/jungle.html">JUNGLE STREET</a>...</p><p></p><p></p><p>But before all that she was taken seriously, and admired... for a little while... as a fashion model turned amateur swimmer set to cross the English Channel with an American jock whose brother, played by American Import <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/03/only-the.html">John Ireland</a>... who sporadically stares onto the gorgeous Channel stock footage... has second thoughts about the entire idea...<br></p><span></span>

british film noir, fifties, john ireland, joy webster, leslie dwyer, maureen connell, perfect murder, sport, thriller

ENGLISH STARLET JOY WEBSTER CHANNELS 'STORMY CROSSING'

Joy Webster and John Ireland in BLACK TIDE/STORMY CROSSING 1958 Rates: *** It's been a joy discovering British starlet Joy Webster who,...

MATT DILLON SHOOTS CRAP IN 'THE BIG TOWN' WITH DIANE LANE

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></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/-7gO5XhxQogg/YUKd1iqgFoI/AAAAAAABmdM/YYn8G1Ek0wYv6Ie5vxlK-i7W3iUPZ7WgACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-09-15%25252Bat%25252B2.38.20%25252BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1085" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-7gO5XhxQogg/YUKd1iqgFoI/AAAAAAABmdM/YYn8G1Ek0wYv6Ie5vxlK-i7W3iUPZ7WgACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-09-15%25252Bat%25252B2.38.20%25252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Matt Dillon in THE BIG TOWN with Del Close and Don Park Year: 1987 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>With a deliberately sparse-pulpy title, THE BIG TOWN is set during the 1950's... 1957 to be exact... and Dillon really looks the part, a kind of throwback B&W-suited actor even in this neo noir's neon green and pink tinged color scheme, playing a young lucky dice player who miraculously hits the right numbers each and every time, giving the movie a sort of unintentional TWILIGHT ZONE science-fiction vibe, or something delving into fantasy... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And for a vehicle so otherwise grounded and somewhat cliche, predictable and even mainstream, that's alright since Matt's urgency (and the film's suspense) doesn't rely on winning but surviving the pool of gambling hoodlum sharks who, from Tommy Lee Jones as an underground backroom dealer to a mysterious backstory Tom Skerritt, are out to (or seem out to) stop the endless and bizarre winning streak...</p><span></span>

ben bolt, bruce dern, diane lane, drama, eighties, fifties-era, gambling, lee grant, matt dillon, neo noir, thriller, tommy lee jones

MATT DILLON SHOOTS CRAP IN 'THE BIG TOWN' WITH DIANE LANE

Matt Dillon in THE BIG TOWN with Del Close and Don Park Year: 1987 Rating: ***1/2 With a deliberately sparse-pulpy title, THE BIG TOWN is se...

JOHN DEREK PIMPING BRITISH FILM NOIR 'THE FLESH IS WEAK'

<p></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/-6sLrbVnpK3c/YTOKowOC1qI/AAAAAAABl5E/FI6vGh_oovgKHvfZ7rhPz9YUSfWW5ugPACLcBGAsYHQ/s1101/MV5BMjQ3MWQ2NWItYzI4ZS00OGU2LTk1NzctOWQxNjEyMGQ5Njc1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTA2NDc4OA%25252540%25252540._V1_.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1101" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6sLrbVnpK3c/YTOKowOC1qI/AAAAAAABl5E/FI6vGh_oovgKHvfZ7rhPz9YUSfWW5ugPACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/MV5BMjQ3MWQ2NWItYzI4ZS00OGU2LTk1NzctOWQxNjEyMGQ5Njc1XkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNTA2NDc4OA%25252540%25252540._V1_.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE FLESH IS WEAK Year: 1957 Rating: **1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Before he became a horrible director with gorgeous blonde wives, John Derek made for a fairly passable actor, and it's unfortunate that this late British Noir didn't stick with the country of origin for a shadier lead since there were plenty of great performers who wouldn't seem like they're performing like Derek often does here...</p><p></p><p></p><p>And this American plays a part Italian hood named Tony Giani, taking a heartlessly professional interest in an extremely vulnerable and victimized Milly Vitale despite initially and misleadingly treating her like a prom date dream-girl... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

british film noir, crime, exploitation, fifties, john derek, milly vitale, shirley ann field, vera day

JOHN DEREK PIMPING BRITISH FILM NOIR 'THE FLESH IS WEAK'

Title: THE FLESH IS WEAK Year: 1957 Rating: **1/2 Before he became a horrible director with gorgeous blonde wives, John Derek made for a fai...

ROBERT RYAN 'CITY BENEATH THE SEA' WITH ANTHONY QUINN

<p></p><p></p><p></p><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/-JMTU9fHKtKI/YS2pUlC-oSI/AAAAAAABluw/UEHugI7ILCsdw-xWJAUuoA7Nt85ERaz9gCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/lf.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="313" data-original-width="400" height="313" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-JMTU9fHKtKI/YS2pUlC-oSI/AAAAAAABluw/UEHugI7ILCsdw-xWJAUuoA7Nt85ERaz9gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h313/lf.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1953 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A letdown for those who love movies about treasure hunters. Unfortunately, the main character, played by a stiff Robert Ryan, is so uptight, not only does he NOT go along with more energetic and assertive partner Anthony Quinn, to find gold on a sunken ship in a literal CITY BENEATH THE SEA from a volcano explosion hundreds of years ago...<br> </p><p></p><p></p><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://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MoQVnTWb1BQ/YSzGb9jZs-I/AAAAAAABlsQ/loSo7cMT3g0IjnYeNh2GkD8nYW0D1ZTVwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1100/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-30%2Bat%2B4.47.33%2BAM.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1100" data-original-width="490" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MoQVnTWb1BQ/YSzGb9jZs-I/AAAAAAABlsQ/loSo7cMT3g0IjnYeNh2GkD8nYW0D1ZTVwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-30%2Bat%2B4.47.33%2BAM.jpeg" width="143"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Suzan Ball</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>But he moves in to snake the booty first, just to teach his partner a lesson: A lesson is also taught to the audience, who must weather this bland fine-feathered friend who's also an extremely weak central hero, keeping this movie from being edgy, or entertaining... And the two lovely ingenues are both gorgeous, and initially tough, independent and assertive, making their characters mean more than just looks and providing a built-in feeling of suspense within the anticipated romance...</p><p>One is the captain of a small boat (Mala Powers) and the other a calypso singer (Suzan Ball, Lucy O'Ball's cousin, who would of cancer die soon after)...</p><p>But without Ryan or Quinn having to do much at all, both ladies melt to their touch in such a pathetic way. The singer actually asks Quinn, "What are you thinking?" after they'd known each other ten minutes. Meanwhile, as a b-movie, the low budget is deliberate, and mostly works... including scenes of the boys trudging in heavy "Diver Dan" style underwater gear with matte painted backgrounds. The technicolor is great looking, and otherwise these are capable actors and actresses. But this oceanic thriller is devoid of thrills, and pretty much... sinks upon impact. </p><span></span>

action, adventure, anthony quinn, fifties, pulp, robert ryan, suzan ball, treasure

ROBERT RYAN 'CITY BENEATH THE SEA' WITH ANTHONY QUINN

Year: 1953 Rating: ** A letdown for those who love movies about treasure hunters. Unfortunately, the main character, played by a stiff Robe...

OTTO PREMINGER'S COUNTER-CULTURE DISASTER OF 'SKIDOO'

<div style="text-align: right;"> </div> <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/-Nb2BP8SVUH4/YSxg2l__psI/AAAAAAABloc/xPmlWBvll8IXMh727Sy5p89LTN1zzNKnwCLcBGAsYHQ/s500/aaaa.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="500" data-original-width="461" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nb2BP8SVUH4/YSxg2l__psI/AAAAAAABloc/xPmlWBvll8IXMh727Sy5p89LTN1zzNKnwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/aaaa.jpeg" width="295"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1968 Rating: *</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>For their time and in a matter of aesthetics, Otto Preminger's Film Noirs LAURA and FALLEN ANGEL (both with Dana Andrews) were "psychedelic" for their time, with a camera-gliding flow; yet there's NO flow here in the 1960's when flowing supposedly meant everything... In fact the camera's mostly stagnant, glued upon the now infamous idiocy as if SKIDOO were a two-hour Laugh-In skit...<br> <br> </p><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/-ZjbTBaNBCbM/XAnkfVZHYPI/AAAAAAAA854/1s38olaOm6Q7B3okCzbiPFfUSmrBPOoDQCLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-06%2Bat%2B7.07.06%2BPM.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="534" data-original-width="472" height="320" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-ZjbTBaNBCbM/XAnkfVZHYPI/AAAAAAAA854/1s38olaOm6Q7B3okCzbiPFfUSmrBPOoDQCLcBGAs/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2018-12-06%2Bat%2B7.07.06%2BPM.jpeg" width="280"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Alexandra Hay painted in Skidoo</u></td></tr> </tbody></table><p>There's a certain style of movie or show needed for LSD viewing; take it from yours truly, a former 1980's teenage acid head who dropped two tabs of white blotter to experience the VHS tapes of PINK FLOYD LIVE IN POMPEII (not the awful director's cut) and then, after two more hits, another collage-style experience, Bob Dylan DON'T LOOK BACK...</p><p>Dylan who Preminger, experimenting with LSD at the time, requested to score this mess about Jackie Gleason as a mafia hit-man married to an intentionally annoying Carol Channing... He's sentenced to a futuristic-looking Alcatraz who decides NOT to kill a friend/convict ratting on the chief mobster because... well... all that doesn't matter but at the same time, the plot's always being pushed at the audience, which is what NOT to do when trying to make something relevant to, or entertaining for, cinema-going Acid-Heads: But no matter the target audience, SKIDOO is just plain bad, and even worse than that, boring. <br> </p><span></span>

alexandra hay, comedy, counter-culture, groucho marx, jackie gleason, otto preminger, prison, sixties

OTTO PREMINGER'S COUNTER-CULTURE DISASTER OF 'SKIDOO'

Year: 1968 Rating: * For their time and in a matter of aesthetics, Otto Preminger's Film Noirs LAURA and FALLEN ANGEL (both with Dan...

SUSANNAH YORK IN 'THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE' W/ BERYL REID

<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/-e0dnV8FeTzs/YStV3CyqzbI/AAAAAAABllI/r4Lt43MiED0HyN3I-124-G8NM4wkK2TyACLcBGAsYHQ/s1442/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-29%2Bat%2B2.34.56%2BAM%2B2.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="579" data-original-width="1442" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e0dnV8FeTzs/YStV3CyqzbI/AAAAAAABllI/r4Lt43MiED0HyN3I-124-G8NM4wkK2TyACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-29%2Bat%2B2.34.56%2BAM%2B2.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE Year: 1968 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>After director Robert Aldrich exploded with THE DIRTY DOZEN he returned to an independent style melodrama in the fashion of WHAT EVER HAPPENED TO BABY JANE although THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE is really a hybrid of STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and DEATH OF A SALESMAN but in this case the saleswoman's an actress fearing the possible death of her fictional character from a long-running British soap, and it all sounds like Aldrich's BIG KNIFE style parody of insider's show business... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yet most of SISTER GEORGE centers on a gorgeous blonde childlike, doll-collecting Susannah York, the titular starlet's lover, and their bickering, apartment-dwelling scenes, ranging from the middle-aged has-been played by middle-aged firebrand Beryl Reid, wielding mind games, making her lover literally eat cigar tips or threatening to behead one of her beloved antique dolls... </p><p><span></span></p>

beryl reid, british, coral browne, homosexual, melodrama, robert aldrich, sixties, susannah york

SUSANNAH YORK IN 'THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE' W/ BERYL REID

Title: THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE Year: 1968 Rating: *** After director Robert Aldrich exploded with THE DIRTY DOZEN he returned to an ind...

JEAN GABIN IN 'MOONTIDE' WITH THOMAS MITCHELL & IDA LUPINO

<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/-PA0nEKor0jw/YStyRqiGR5I/AAAAAAABlmk/vI_RKEh1YeEChlDBapaORTerzMfDMrRsACLcBGAsYHQ/s1288/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-29%2Bat%2B4.16.38%2BAM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="857" data-original-width="1288" height="266" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PA0nEKor0jw/YStyRqiGR5I/AAAAAAABlmk/vI_RKEh1YeEChlDBapaORTerzMfDMrRsACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h266/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-29%2Bat%2B4.16.38%2BAM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Jean Gabin in MOONTIDE Year: 1942 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Begins with an intentionally surreal barroom scene with the headless body of pouting-lipped barfly Penny Raymond with her head speaking a few feet away as our hero Jean Gabin reaches for a beer, trying to communicate with the torso... </p><p>This during a night of blackout drinking; after which he feels falsely responsible for a murder heard about the next day, and there's a twist...<br> <br> Thomas Mitchell is Gabin's partner, keeping him on a blackmail tightrope because of a likewise strangling murder that happened years earlier... Which only randomly gets in the way of perhaps the breeziest romance in Noirish Melodrama history. After rescuing Ida Lupino from drowning, Gabin's Bo Bo takes her to the live-bait waterfront shack (a wonderfully subtle set) where he'd started work counting fish. A hollow yet optimistic existence with only a dog by side, and, throw in a bizarre, philosophizing and existential sidekick in Claude Rains, not much really happens but it's nice seeing Gabin doing just that. </p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

claude rains, film noir or melodrama, forties, helene reynolds, jean gabin, jerome cowan, robin raymond, romance, thomas mitchell

JEAN GABIN IN 'MOONTIDE' WITH THOMAS MITCHELL & IDA LUPINO

Jean Gabin in MOONTIDE Year: 1942 Rating: ***1/2 Begins with an intentionally surreal barroom scene with the headless body of pouting-lippe...

BRITISH CREATURE HORROR SUSPENSE YARN 'THE DEADLY BEES'

<p><u></u></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p><u></u></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><p><u></u></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><u><a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IaxAf7u7F3k/YSSqKjsW84I/AAAAAAABlXs/Fbu9SE9AWU8V4DKRYKXzaU2PmHF1lEEmgCLcBGAsYHQ/s947/239614982_4502498543127724_8496898340320959235_n.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="555" data-original-width="947" height="235" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IaxAf7u7F3k/YSSqKjsW84I/AAAAAAABlXs/Fbu9SE9AWU8V4DKRYKXzaU2PmHF1lEEmgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h235/239614982_4502498543127724_8496898340320959235_n.jpg" width="400"></a></u></div><p><u>title: THE DEADLY BEES year: 1966 cast: Suzanna Leigh, Frank Finlay, John Harvey, Michael Ripper director: Freddie Francis rating: ***1/2</u></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Don't mistake THE DEADLY BEES as one of those by-the-number creature-feature bug flicks where bees fly around killing people because of the ozone or military or whatever else causes "beasts" to cause havoc in other films of this type...</p><p>Despite the maligned camp status, DEADLY BEES is an intelligent British thriller centering on a beautiful singer who finds solace on an island, at the house of a professor who isn't nice to his wife, or her dog, and might just be mad enough to make bees... deadly. But with too-friendly/science-minded Frank Finlay involved, things are never quite what they seem, and this Amicus production mirroring Hammer Films (with the latter's regulars Michael Ripper, Suzanna Leigh and director Freddie Francis) is more Hitchcock than body count exploitation: building tension and mystery from start to finish. And when the bees do attack (although the effects are rather dated) it's quite a neat buzz. </p><p><span></span></p>

action, body count, british, creature, exploitation, frank finlay, horror, sixties, suspense, suzanna leigh

BRITISH CREATURE HORROR SUSPENSE YARN 'THE DEADLY BEES'

title: THE DEADLY BEES year: 1966 cast: Suzanna Leigh, Frank Finlay, John Harvey, Michael Ripper director: Freddie Francis rating: ***1/2 Do...

ROMAN POLANSKI'S 'A DAY AT THE BEACH' WITH MARK BURNS

<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/-OZIH7nHn9jU/YSdKJAcq1DI/AAAAAAABlew/wnzw96d5_fskWEKu21NuDxzoO5Hr2SuDACLcBGAsYHQ/s1994/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-08-24%252Bat%252B11.25.29%252BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1246" data-original-width="1994" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-OZIH7nHn9jU/YSdKJAcq1DI/AAAAAAABlew/wnzw96d5_fskWEKu21NuDxzoO5Hr2SuDACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-08-24%252Bat%252B11.25.29%252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Mark Burns and Beatie Edney in A DAY AT THE BEACH Year: 1970 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Ironically, while Roman Polanski was in Europe the same year The Manson Family would violently crash Sharon Tate's party, he was preparing for two movies with the word DAY in the title: scouting to direct THE DAY OF THE DOLPHIN while adapting an obscure Dutch novel for A DAY AT THE BEACH, a film so independent it feels like something more of the John Cassavates wheelhouse... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And this BEACH centers on a raving drunken British man's beeline trek through a mostly barren Danish beach tourist town during sporadic rain bursts, and instead of tourists are an abandoned lot of outdoor and indoor cafe or curio shop or liquor store or pub owners wherein he gets more intoxicated and thus more pontificating and moody along the way, mostly trying for as much drink for as little money possible: a kind of progressively-blasted human coupon... </p><span></span>

beatie edney, british new wave, drama, indie, jack macgowran, joanna dunham, mark burns, maurice roëves, peter sellers, road movie, roman polanski, seventies

ROMAN POLANSKI'S 'A DAY AT THE BEACH' WITH MARK BURNS

Mark Burns and Beatie Edney in A DAY AT THE BEACH Year: 1970 Rating: ***1/2 Ironically, while Roman Polanski was in Europe the same year The...

RIP CHARLIE WATTS DRUMS UP 'LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER'

<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/-y8ukzYIdjWE/YSW_Ql-p4bI/AAAAAAABlZ8/NJd6CwqSwQQCkc-ASoOUUrvqYngZfnhlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s2257/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-24%2Bat%2B7.38.44%2BPM%2B2.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1085" data-original-width="2257" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-y8ukzYIdjWE/YSW_Ql-p4bI/AAAAAAABlZ8/NJd6CwqSwQQCkc-ASoOUUrvqYngZfnhlwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-24%2Bat%2B7.38.44%2BPM%2B2.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charlie Watts in LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER Year: 1983 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Nearing the end of British Movie Month on Cult Film Freak we say goodbye to one of the all-time great British drummers, Charlie Watts, who, like bassist Bill Wyman, had a style of grooving under their band THE ROLLING STONES so the "weaving guitars" by Keith Richards and Brian Jones then Mick Taylor then Ron Wood could intertwine and Mick Jagger can run the show...</p><p></p><p></p><p>And while not as critically acclaimed as Martin Scorsese's Stones' concert film SHINE A LIGHT where only the band is shown on stage without any point of reference, causing an even more claustrophobic and downright dizzying effect than the fact they're giving all the money to Bill Clinton's mysterious foundation... <br></p><span></span>

concert, eighties, hal ashby, mick jagger, music, rolling stones

RIP CHARLIE WATTS DRUMS UP 'LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER'

Charlie Watts in LET'S SPEND THE NIGHT TOGETHER Year: 1983 Rating: **** Nearing the end of British Movie Month on Cult Film Freak we say...

CHEVY CHASE AND DAN AYKROYD SEEK HOPE IN 'SPIES LIKE US'

<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/-5e-blNRhKyM/YSyNtZjBQgI/AAAAAAABlpo/p0LgUhK2oRorUc21a3yuLaOWvadnSTZKACLcBGAsYHQ/s1092/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-30%2Bat%2B12.13.11%2BAM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="789" data-original-width="1092" height="289" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5e-blNRhKyM/YSyNtZjBQgI/AAAAAAABlpo/p0LgUhK2oRorUc21a3yuLaOWvadnSTZKACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h289/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-30%2Bat%2B12.13.11%2BAM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: Spies Like Us Year: 1986 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Spouting technical jargon with a computer-like brain, Dan Aykroyd could have made the perfect <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2013/08/ghostbusters.html">GHOSTBUSTERS</a> type straight man... so it's strange John Landis made him equally buffoonish as Chevy Chase within the jovial spirit of those Hope/Crosby "Road" movies of yesteryear's yesteryear: Making SPIES  LIKE US an attempt to get young viewers into the frolicking comic adventure the director (and his generation) grew up on... </p><p>The funniest scenes occur during the training camp with Bernie Casey as a tough but likeable Sgt. Hulka type while square-jawed Steve Forrest and Pentagon partner Tom Hatten feel part of a bonafide Russian vs America Cold War thriller (Steve's brother <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/07/iCURTAIN.html">Dana Andrews</a> starred in one of the first), sending our reluctant/oblivious expendables to randomly traipse from the Arab desert to<i> </i>snowy missile-hiding Russia. And along this ROAD are are some fun obstacles and decent one-liners ("What's a Dickfer?" "To pee with").... albeit dialogue that could've been uttered by any comedic actor. For unlike Landis/Aykroyd's classic BLUES BROTHERS and TRADING PLACES, the talent isn't deliberately retrofitted to the surroundings. Instead, our two SNL vets seem like guest stars in someone else's picture, and, this being a deliberate homage, perhaps that was the nostalgic director's intention all along. <br></p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, bob hope, bruce davison, chevy chase, comedy, dan aykroyd, eighties, james daughton, john landis, nuclear, political, ray harryhausen, road movie, team-up, terry gilliam, tom hatten

CHEVY CHASE AND DAN AYKROYD SEEK HOPE IN 'SPIES LIKE US'

Title: Spies Like Us Year: 1986 Rating: *** Spouting technical jargon with a computer-like brain, Dan Aykroyd could have made the perfect ...

ROBERT MORSE IN 'THE BOATNIKS' WITH STEFANIE POWERS

<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/-S3R9OBPUtWI/YSSEHZr68FI/AAAAAAABlWo/bTdE4mUxCngLb24ikVIWFsIt80_vq-0KwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1751/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-22%2Bat%2B11.52.15%2BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="973" data-original-width="1751" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-S3R9OBPUtWI/YSSEHZr68FI/AAAAAAABlWo/bTdE4mUxCngLb24ikVIWFsIt80_vq-0KwCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-22%2Bat%2B11.52.15%2BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Opening Credits for THE BOATNIKS Year: 1970 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Like THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG five-years later, Disney juggles two stories in one with wacky villains and a kindheart4ed underdog in a World War II hero's son taking over a West Coast/Coast Guard headed by strict Don Ameche bossing the short, pudgy, gap-toothed Robert Morse...</p><p></p><p>Way too quickly hooked up with gorgeous sailing instructor Stefanie Powers, who rents vessels to three bumbling jewel thieves headed by Phil Silvers flanked by a cautious Norman Fell and dimwitted Mickey Shaughnessy...</p><p></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/-LLJM66UdV9M/YSNpFoixRoI/AAAAAAABlVQ/TfWXAFYpZSgOOqqILUWAECIb8-lw4s3hACLcBGAsYHQ/s1767/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-22%2Bat%2B11.53.45%2BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="866" data-original-width="1767" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LLJM66UdV9M/YSNpFoixRoI/AAAAAAABlVQ/TfWXAFYpZSgOOqqILUWAECIb8-lw4s3hACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-22%2Bat%2B11.53.45%2BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Phil Silvers, Kelly Thorsden and Robert Morse in THE BOATNIKS</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Who take up most of the film, NOT in trying to sail to Mexico but attempting to recover the treasure where they accidentally dropped it in the bay, providing Morse a chance to prove he's isn't a flake, which is strange since, as the film's "jinxed" lead, he's really not all that clumsy or unlucky... </p><p></p><p>Meanwhile the best scenes ultimately become the slowest as the crooks keep ahead of their pursuers using a stolen mini submarine in a 100-minute comedy that should've been a sparse 80. But, overall, the most enjoyable aspect is visual as in bikinis and tan shirtless souls on yachts and sailboats under So Cal's groovy 1970's sunshine: A freedom long gone. <br></p><p><span></span></p>

action, comedy disney, denise lynn, disney, don ameche, kelly thorsden, lynn borden, mickey shaughnessy, norman fell, phil silvers, robert morse, seventies, stefanie powers, wally cox

ROBERT MORSE IN 'THE BOATNIKS' WITH STEFANIE POWERS

Opening Credits for THE BOATNIKS Year: 1970 Rating: ***1/2 Like THE APPLE DUMPLING GANG five-years later, Disney juggles two stories in one ...

CHARLES BRONSON AND JILL IRELAND AVOID 'ASSASSINATION'

<p></p><p></p><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/-uAbgv75i5sI/YSXrd1WimzI/AAAAAAABlaM/JecQcMiVQMgF_FpqkS8FawYZs14gHTx8gCLcBGAsYHQ/s399/HERE.jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="340" data-original-width="399" height="341" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uAbgv75i5sI/YSXrd1WimzI/AAAAAAABlaM/JecQcMiVQMgF_FpqkS8FawYZs14gHTx8gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h341/HERE.jpg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson & Jan Gan Boyd Year: 1988 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Jill Ireland's last collaboration after many with husband Charles Bronson gives her her biggest role as a bratty First Lady goading head of Secret Service Bronson with mind-games and media ploys, providing a NORTH BY NORTHWEST style road adventure that pays off with gun and bazooka fights, car and motorcycle chases along with exploding yachts and helicopters. </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Bronson and Ireland have good chemistry along a rural road with assassins around every bend or waiting armed inside farmhouses...</p><p>Meanwhile the young ingenue is Jan Gan Boyd, an Asian agent whose lustful one-night-stand with boss Bronson is hilariously forced... </p><p>Bronson looked a gruff-ready forty when he was really fifty in DEATH WISH (the start of his A-list career) but here resembles a graying bobcat caught in a bear-trap... But not for the hands-on fight scenes which he's still pretty decent at; his experienced character knowing what will happen next despite Ireland's tantrums to the contrary, and, while it's great seeing her proven wrong again and again, her intentionally annoying persona gets far too annoying as she continuously refuses to listen or believe... Then again it's when both know and trust each other enough that the movie works. It just should have happened a lot sooner. </p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, body count, cannon, charles bronson, eighties, exploitation, james staley, jill ireland, political, randy brooks, thriller

CHARLES BRONSON AND JILL IRELAND AVOID 'ASSASSINATION'

Charles Bronson & Jan Gan Boyd Year: 1988 Rates: ***1/2 Jill Ireland's last collaboration after many with husband Charles Bronson gi...

CHARLES BRONSON IN THE FRENCH THRILLER 'RIDER ON THE RAIN'

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDgab8OEh7Ppov7ZTRZJoyCgHO1EF3VbSm55VfTA5dpazB4bcDi7zxGAoK1QerjoesnWEIJ8ixuZHkFY7DRks8uYRn3skE02yRYNiN-tAU6NlkFZ4ugL26VtNCz58I_oO-gaZRd-UCESMB1mGAnAk6BWvIQW9EuZDvwcsGOFRjS1EV5S3dpPdIQA_iRg=s1198" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="1064" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiDgab8OEh7Ppov7ZTRZJoyCgHO1EF3VbSm55VfTA5dpazB4bcDi7zxGAoK1QerjoesnWEIJ8ixuZHkFY7DRks8uYRn3skE02yRYNiN-tAU6NlkFZ4ugL26VtNCz58I_oO-gaZRd-UCESMB1mGAnAk6BWvIQW9EuZDvwcsGOFRjS1EV5S3dpPdIQA_iRg=w355-h400" width="355"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Kino Lorber inside cover Year: 1970 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The reversible Kino Lorber Blu Ray cover(s) for RIDER ON THE RAIN has one image of a shirtless and muscular Charles Bronson torturing ingenue Marlène Jobert at gun point; on the other side they look contented, even love-struck: And while both are misleading, Bronson's Col. Harry Dobbs does play rough trying to get Jobert's victimized Mellie to explain <i>everything</i>... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p>And it's that <i>everything</i> Dobbs is after in this cat and and mouse thriller that takes a little while to get going... despite the most memorable scenes involving creepy RIDER Marc Mazza occurring early on... supposedly the inspiration for The Doors' <i>Riders on the Storm</i>, this <i>killer's brain is squirming</i> from a banal decision to... after raping the girl... remain in her and her boring French husband's basement... </p><p>The husband making Jobert and Bronson's chemistry that much better, but still far from great, which a movie about mind games needed in order for the complications to matter, on either side... Although by the end, Bronson's muscular anti-hero (from snoop to interrogator to bodyguard) makes more sense, and with Jill Ireland given a bit role as a gossipy shop-girl, anyone would have fared better opposite Bronson (even a tough prostitute in an intense 11th hour scene)... But in what's basically a French art-film there needed an artsy-looking French girl, which Jobert definitely is. Yet what she's hiding... throughout a noisy/monotonous soundtrack... feels more misplaced, and all Bronson's searching (calling her "Love Love" sounding like "Blah Blah") is in vain... Making the creative direction by René Clément the best thing about RIDER, where each shot either means something or seems meant to.</p><p><span></span></p>

charles bronson, exploitation, jill ireland, marc mazza, marlene jobert, mystery, rene clement, seventies, thriller

CHARLES BRONSON IN THE FRENCH THRILLER 'RIDER ON THE RAIN'

Kino Lorber inside cover Year: 1970 Rates: *** The reversible Kino Lorber Blu Ray cover(s) for RIDER ON THE RAIN has one image of a shirtles...

MICHAEL WINNER DIRECTS CHARLES BRONSON IN 'CHATO'S LAND'

<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/-hleVO1Xf-PQ/YRnIptP0a-I/AAAAAAABlI0/SRie_ckPZNE8AWUSXymaQM5k4usYwY-hwCLcBGAsYHQ/s547/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-15%2Bat%2B6.21.57%2BPM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="547" height="297" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-hleVO1Xf-PQ/YRnIptP0a-I/AAAAAAABlI0/SRie_ckPZNE8AWUSXymaQM5k4usYwY-hwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h297/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-08-15%2Bat%2B6.21.57%2BPM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson in CHATO'S LAND year: 1971</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The first act of CHATO'S LAND should have an alternative title, since we don't experience his land, along with his wrath, till much, much later on. Perhaps THE MOSSY POSSE would have fit being that Jack Palance, as brooding ex-Confederate Capt. Quincey Whitmore, progressively gathers up a gang to head after Charles Bronson as Pardon Chato, who, in the film's gun-blasting prelude, kills a white man and is "gonna hang for it!" But that's only after he gets caught... which doesn't seem likely...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><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://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ImpLxnqTI04/YRnFZckaICI/AAAAAAABlIU/v-70xVpvMHcbiLevEsP_HFmvlrTjIKSWACLcBGAsYHQ/s1674/11111.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1674" data-original-width="1002" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ImpLxnqTI04/YRnFZckaICI/AAAAAAABlIU/v-70xVpvMHcbiLevEsP_HFmvlrTjIKSWACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/11111.jpeg" width="192"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rating: **1/2<br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Chato knows his land, much like MR. MAJESTYK in two years, playing cat and mouse with the inferior villains; but it's really like two separate movies in one. The angry white men talk about Chato and how terrible Indians are in general, and we get to know some of them better than others, especially Richard Jordan as a young and feisty, troubled, sexed-up white trash and Simon Oakland as the polar opposite... </p><p>And yet he and several others hate Indians more than the mellow Palance, never losing his cool and playing a philosophical waiting game... And he waits, and waits...</p><p></p><p>Problem is, so do we... Way too long while never quite "walking a mile in the moccasins" of our title hero... Other than a few tricks, like splitting water bottles and stealing horses, the posse take up more screen time than Bronson, who actually does look part Mexican or Eskimo to begin with, and there's a point when this Anti-Western action flick could have actually used some action, earlier on, to see more what Chato's made of other than being Charles Bronson. Despite a few good scenes toward the end, the hunted and the hunter, and then the hunter doing the hunting, are too separate from each other to matter... or seem connected... as a whole. </p><p><span></span></p>

body count, charles bronson, exploitation, jack palance, michael winner, richard jordan, seventies, simon oakland, western

MICHAEL WINNER DIRECTS CHARLES BRONSON IN 'CHATO'S LAND'

Charles Bronson in CHATO'S LAND year: 1971 The first act of CHATO'S LAND should have an alternative title, since we don't exper...

MICHAEL WINNER DIRECTS CHARLES BRONSON IN 'DEATH WISH 3'

<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/-IpT3ek5QibA/YReyaJ_Qy9I/AAAAAAABlGE/ebxrGPS35zodk3EStrifU53Re8r9TLu8ACLcBGAsYHQ/s1567/11.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="766" data-original-width="1567" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-IpT3ek5QibA/YReyaJ_Qy9I/AAAAAAABlGE/ebxrGPS35zodk3EStrifU53Re8r9TLu8ACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/11.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson and Gavan O'Herlily foreign poster artwork Year: 1985 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>By the third DEATH WISH, a gray-haired Charles Bronson was showing his age. Although compared to a group of helpless elderly residents of an apartment building in the middle of a contained, highly dangerous urban neighborhood ruled by a vicious gang, he seems much younger. Plus, the iconic action star can still get around...</p><p></p><p></p><p>The villain is named Fraker, played by the actor who was the first basketball-bouncing Chuck Cunningham, enigmatic/pointless older brother of Ron Howard’s Richie on  HAPPY DAYS... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p></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/-sUWw20dA-Yg/YRd0P39--SI/AAAAAAABlE8/JCbsh4n1Y5IrV9WYM4JvcyGwKm-wyW8fQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1777/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-08-13%252Bat%252B9.17.02%252BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1006" data-original-width="1777" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-sUWw20dA-Yg/YRd0P39--SI/AAAAAAABlE8/JCbsh4n1Y5IrV9WYM4JvcyGwKm-wyW8fQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-08-13%252Bat%252B9.17.02%252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gavan O'Herihy as Fraker in DEATH WISH III</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Enter Gavan O’Herlihy, with a reverse Mohawk and a red stripe running down the middle of his shaved head, makes for an unlikely leader, especially one consisting of every race: from black to Hispanic to white...</p><p></p><p>But Fraker does have an effectively nasty glare that fits within the punk rock aura, displayed amongst the lot of sordid villains liken to a bunch of schoolyard goons with weapons: sneaking into old people’s apartments, stealing purses and wreaking general havoc, like brats with too much free time... </p><p></p><p></p><p></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/-RZ_mYhmuI2U/YRd0uoW6RII/AAAAAAABlFE/2oepOT3BY_AxvVnhjbkX1WpQftAus3v5QCLcBGAsYHQ/s1865/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-08-13%252Bat%252B9.17.36%252BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1171" data-original-width="1865" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-RZ_mYhmuI2U/YRd0uoW6RII/AAAAAAABlFE/2oepOT3BY_AxvVnhjbkX1WpQftAus3v5QCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-08-13%252Bat%252B9.17.36%252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Deborah Raffin in DEATH WISH 3</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>It’s Charles Bronson’s architect Paul Kersey... back in the grungy Neo Western New York City where everything began... who will send them into permanent detention...</p><p></p><p></p><p>A peripheral romance between Kersey and Deborah Raffin is useless filler, but Ed Lauter as a cut-corner and effective police captain, and Martin Balsam as the tenants’ weapon-stockpiling spokesman, serves as worthy side-characters, helping move the story and all the gratuitous cat-and-mouse action...<br> </p><p></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/-GBwe_C94Zfg/YRd2G7IQd0I/AAAAAAABlFM/jrOP2QJKuYQH5ln5a0toheKpHXVFDVOIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1738/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-08-13%252Bat%252B9.17.23%252BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1130" data-original-width="1738" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-GBwe_C94Zfg/YRd2G7IQd0I/AAAAAAABlFM/jrOP2QJKuYQH5ln5a0toheKpHXVFDVOIQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-08-13%252Bat%252B9.17.23%252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson in DEATH WISH 3</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The music, although given credit to Jimmy Page, who provided the ominously spooky guitar/synthesizer score of the second film, is actually completed by another composer, throwing in Page’s previous work with his own variations, making the soundtrack more conventional and less intriguing, foreboding... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p>And Michael Winner directs his last of three (out of five) DEATH WISH films, the camerawork full of the usual creative zoom shots in an exploitation manner, giving this mid-80’s venture a desperate and edgy early 70’s style throughout.</p><p><span></span></p>

action, alex winter, charles bronson, ed lauter, eighties, exploitation, franchise, gavan o'herlily, jimmy page, martin balsam, michael winner, revenge, sequel

MICHAEL WINNER DIRECTS CHARLES BRONSON IN 'DEATH WISH 3'

Charles Bronson and Gavan O'Herlily foreign poster artwork Year: 1985 Rating: **** By the third DEATH WISH, a gray-haired Charles Bronso...

ROBERT DOWNEY JR AND VAL KILMER IN 'KISS KISS BANG BANG'

<p></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/-Jc3KRuFsSdM/YRMV8eGh_YI/AAAAAAABk1s/7S0uLPxC2tQGerQIeDKLUbbLnSmVtnAIACLcBGAsYHQ/s2241/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-08-08%252Bat%252B4.49.27%252BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="980" data-original-width="2241" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jc3KRuFsSdM/YRMV8eGh_YI/AAAAAAABk1s/7S0uLPxC2tQGerQIeDKLUbbLnSmVtnAIACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%252BShot%252B2021-08-08%252Bat%252B4.49.27%252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Michelle Monaghan in KISS KISS BANG BANG Year: 2005 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Famous for writing the original LETHAL WEAPON, thus receiving Story Credit for the entire hit-and-miss franchise, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/05/NG.html">Shane Black</a> energetically attempts to trade mainstream action for a Quentin Tarantino style wheelhouse of humorously neurotic criminals who still do violent, desperate, horrible things... </p><p></p><p></p><p>And instead of outright ripping off the PULP FICTION auteur, Black goes back even further, basing the adapted KISS KISS BANG BANG on his love of Pulp Fiction itself: detective novels that inspired everything in the 1940's/1950's Noir lexicon, making this a mile-a-minute <i>Neo</i> Noir that runs itself ragged before the first fifteen minutes...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></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/-4TvcLmro_hs/YRD6ER62CNI/AAAAAAABkzM/qrKCyyxGaz4t2e13TtqP_koswfAzSI1_ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2314/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-08-08%25252Bat%25252B4.18.09%25252BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="2314" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4TvcLmro_hs/YRD6ER62CNI/AAAAAAABkzM/qrKCyyxGaz4t2e13TtqP_koswfAzSI1_ACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-08-08%25252Bat%25252B4.18.09%25252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Downey Jr. in KISS KISS BANG BANG</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>But the perfect lead's cast to deliberately exhaust the audience with self-aware/self-deprecating narration that will often critique the very film you're watching, ala Mel Brooks. And although looking older than he would throughout his IRON MAN tenure... cleaning up from an infamous drug habit... Robert Downey Jr. fits our rambling crook turned would-be actor caught in a murder mystery as convoluted as the kind of novels that influenced it... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In this case, a fictional gumshoe paperback series by a fictional author mentioned repeatedly and extremely important within the story itself, and that both Downey and super-gorgeous dream-girl Michelle Monaghan (and some other strategic characters) grew up reading... </p><p></p><p></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/-0fXy2glY_aw/YRMSmAsvDiI/AAAAAAABk1M/xIfXm6J3QiQFZzdBbvrIHHSP3TqIKy8ugCLcBGAsYHQ/s2323/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-08-08%25252Bat%25252B4.54.41%25252BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="2323" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0fXy2glY_aw/YRMSmAsvDiI/AAAAAAABk1M/xIfXm6J3QiQFZzdBbvrIHHSP3TqIKy8ugCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-08-08%25252Bat%25252B4.54.41%25252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Michelle Monaghan and Robert Downey Jr. in KISS KISS BANG BANG</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>So now the Middle-American-born thirty-somethings are stuck in the fast L.A. nightlife, one step away from death while their peripheral romance... the vulnerable sap still in love with the hot chick who was always too good for him... seems straight out of Judd Apatow cinema...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p>But it's Val Kilmer who glues everything together as Gay Perry, a successful and confident homosexual Hollywood-hired detective teaching Downey the ropes... and yet soon enough both get equally tangled in the twisty bedlam (you can almost hear Kilmer channel Danny Glover's famous "I'm too old for this" line)...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></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/-65qNDQNnVhg/YRDRlFMkyiI/AAAAAAABkzE/6AFGUkwf8QgeCeKVsaB4napiPOZNqcdeACLcBGAsYHQ/s2206/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-08-08%25252Bat%25252B4.22.38%25252BPM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="966" data-original-width="2206" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-65qNDQNnVhg/YRDRlFMkyiI/AAAAAAABkzE/6AFGUkwf8QgeCeKVsaB4napiPOZNqcdeACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%25252BShot%25252B2021-08-08%25252Bat%25252B4.22.38%25252BPM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Val Kilmer in KISS KISS BANG BANG</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>So KISS KISS provides the once hot method-acting madman a surprisingly subdued role he can vanish into without trying too hard (THE DOORS) whilst providing more than just his rugged handsomeness (HEAT) which, at this point, is not only aged but has extra weight added on and, randomly teasing the gay stereotypes, he becomes both a befitting target and experienced muse for Downey's incessant quips...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And there are several action-packed/high-octane moments in Black's hyperactive thriller where he's showcasing something more 1980's mainstream after all... scenes of the polar opposite partners bickering (and even fist-fighting like 48 HRS) is far more entertaining and intriguing than those Tarantino elements that can wind up downright dizzying. But, for what its worth, KISS KISS BANG BANG is pretty much a good kind of dizzy.  </p><p><span></span></p>

ariel winter, buddy, comedy, crime, dark comedy, genre tarantino, gumshoe, michelle monaghan, neo noir, robert downey jr., shane black, shannyn sossamon, stephanie pearson, val kilmer, zeroes

ROBERT DOWNEY JR AND VAL KILMER IN 'KISS KISS BANG BANG'

Michelle Monaghan in KISS KISS BANG BANG Year: 2005 Rating: **** Famous for writing the original LETHAL WEAPON, thus receiving Story Credit ...

ELVIS PRESLEY HIDES HIS STRENGTH IN 'FOLLOW THAT DREAM'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><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/-j0yaGUD5By8/YS9dA7gKycI/AAAAAAABlzg/MUu-thyt5AgocYfBAvGMxCPi968ZABskQCLcBGAsYHQ/s935/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-09-01%2Bat%2B1.59.35%2BAM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="935" height="271" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-j0yaGUD5By8/YS9dA7gKycI/AAAAAAABlzg/MUu-thyt5AgocYfBAvGMxCPi968ZABskQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h271/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-09-01%2Bat%2B1.59.35%2BAM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year of Broadcast: 1962 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Every album from any rock band or artist has that one song that glides smoother, grooves while keeping a steady hand-sweeping guitar rhythm, and it's not a sappy ballad but a kind of soft boogie, in-between; usually a forgotten track that never made the charts but glues the album together, somehow...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span>As is FOLLOW THAT DREAM in a theatrical sense, made by the highly eclectic THEM and KISS TOMORROW GOODBYE serious director Gordon Douglas who also had musical fun with SHE'S WORKING HER WAY THROUGH COLLEGE... </span></p><p><span>And Elvis was in his long decade-spanning "visual album" phase, seeming finished with the genuine Rock N' Roll </span><span>LP's</span><span>, including the incredible rudimentary Sun Records followed by immense chart toppers and then, sinking into hit/miss motion pictures he was musically replaced by The Beatles (who ironically worshiped him). And yet, in actuality, FOLLOW THAT DREAM is set RIGHT before the British and American game-changing counter-culture Invasion, and actually isn't too shabby...</span><br></p><div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div><p></p><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://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5Z-wamMm1XM/YS8zxu6pSjI/AAAAAAABlyU/dAm73cBqBQAVA24ckn9ZZ-GhAG3mIgPXACLcBGAsYHQ/s320/53110739_661215770974269_2998010678687563776_n.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="227" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5Z-wamMm1XM/YS8zxu6pSjI/AAAAAAABlyU/dAm73cBqBQAVA24ckn9ZZ-GhAG3mIgPXACLcBGAsYHQ/w227-h320/53110739_661215770974269_2998010678687563776_n.jpeg" width="227"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Anne Helm & Elvis Presley</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Basic and unpretentious, not seeming like a vehicle to sell a soundtrack or to prove his big screen presence, DREAM borders on a fable...<br> </p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"> </div> <div style="text-align: right;"> </div> <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://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x55g9S8qfD8/XHkH_cQCtCI/AAAAAAABAgQ/w4gJG_amGogOZPUMT3FFnMYOlRD5CHTHACLcBGAs/s1600/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-03-01%2Bat%2B2.19.05%2BAM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1259" data-original-width="1387" height="290" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x55g9S8qfD8/XHkH_cQCtCI/AAAAAAABAgQ/w4gJG_amGogOZPUMT3FFnMYOlRD5CHTHACLcBGAs/s320/Screen%2BShot%2B2019-03-01%2Bat%2B2.19.05%2BAM.jpeg" width="320"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Elvis Presley in Follow that Dream</u></td></tr> </tbody></table><p>The plot involving a naive clan of nomads, not related save Presley's Toby Kwimper and his Pop, played by Arthur O'Connell (the drunk lawyer-friend of James Stewart in ANATOMY OF A MURDER)...</p><p>He's the stubborn and prideful driver of his own vehicle with a surreptitious-sexy 19-year-old babysitter... of twin boys and a little girl... who'd been carried around and about since she was gawky-thirteen: that being Anne Helm as Holly Jones, one of the most genuine Elvis ingenues being that she's really not an ingenue-type for most of the film, but more of a little sister (or "kissin' cousin") who puts in the most work in the new outdoors family business...</p><span></span>

action, anne helm, arthur o'connell, elvis presley, gordon douglas, joanna moore, musical, romantic comedy, simon oakland, sixties

ELVIS PRESLEY HIDES HIS STRENGTH IN 'FOLLOW THAT DREAM'

Year of Broadcast: 1962 Rating: **** Every album from any rock band or artist has that one song that glides smoother, grooves while keepin...

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