HAMMER CONNECTED DIRECTOR & ACTRESS MAKE A 'BREAKOUT'

<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/-G-Enzxmdu-w/YECGmUPJV0I/AAAAAAABdiE/dd75To_L8uwCKzFBAukN1AS2_HJ6-rv5gCLcBGAsYHQ/s1732/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-03%2Bat%2B11.01.26%2BPM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1409" data-original-width="1732" height="325" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-G-Enzxmdu-w/YECGmUPJV0I/AAAAAAABdiE/dd75To_L8uwCKzFBAukN1AS2_HJ6-rv5gCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h325/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-03%2Bat%2B11.01.26%2BPM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Hazel Court in BREAKOUT Year: 1959 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Yet another cautious, severely unpretentious British heist flick where tight calculation and timing are everything, and, directed by Peter Graham Scott... who'd soon make Hammer's splendid NIGHT CREATURES... this is a Post Noir where the characters discuss more than they actually do while their conversations have a page-turning cadence sans the b-movie pulp... </p><p>Making BREAKOUT not very fun but there's another slowburn role for underrated English actor <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/william%20lucas">William Lucas</a> (<a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/02/gimme-a.html">THE BREAK</a>) as a cool, classy and crooked businessman... paired with a spectacle-wearing wolf, seducing the gorgeous wife of the man they're hired to BREAKOUT... <br></p><p>And that's CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN good girl Hazel Court as the token bad girl... But the key player, hired for the risk-taking dirty work, is handsome Lee Patterson, a government paper-pusher on an urgent search for the perfect "drive in and pick up" escape truck, and here director Scott wields palpable 11th hour suspense, especially since our anti-hero has the most to lose with adoring, crime-oblivious wife Billie Whitelaw at home. But other than a pint-sized Irish barfly trucker, deliberately jailed for Patterson to take the wheel, it's Hazel Court's ride: Had this been more than a sixty-minute dialog-driven programmer, she has the femme fatale potential to seduce BOTH partners (Lucas and the sweet-talking Terence Alexander) whose job's to free a husband she doesn't want or care about. Which, on its own, is NOIR defined: but in 1959 it was a year too late.</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/-2FLzaqUymE4/YD91SrBolbI/AAAAAAABddk/QLAFrzt1svMsauBu-KTTTG_gV6q8wHtHQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-03%2Bat%2B2.56.08%2BAM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1190" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-2FLzaqUymE4/YD91SrBolbI/AAAAAAABddk/QLAFrzt1svMsauBu-KTTTG_gV6q8wHtHQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-03-03%2Bat%2B2.56.08%2BAM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>William Lucas in BREAKOUT </u></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p></p><span></span>

billie whitelaw, british, british neo noir, british new wave, crime, fifties, hazel court, jail break, lee patterson, peter graham scott, terence alexander, thriller, william lucas

HAMMER CONNECTED DIRECTOR & ACTRESS MAKE A 'BREAKOUT'

Hazel Court in BREAKOUT Year: 1959 Rates: *** Yet another cautious, severely unpretentious British heist flick where tight calculation and t...

GILLIAN HILLS STARRING IN HAMMER'S 'DEMONS OF THE MIND'

<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/-NfNQD0kKV8k/YDEn_0il6hI/AAAAAAABdNk/5QH7xlVDdOI5E-lcqfWgDWumozd0V_IvQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1785/2.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1370" data-original-width="1785" height="308" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-NfNQD0kKV8k/YDEn_0il6hI/AAAAAAABdNk/5QH7xlVDdOI5E-lcqfWgDWumozd0V_IvQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h308/2.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gillian Hills in Demons of the Mind Year: 1972 Rates: **</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>It was inevitable to become a disappointing spooky-titled horror flick since DEMONS OF THE MIND means that there are none... </p><p>No demons, and for one of Hammer's last psychological thrillers, no monsters at all, unless you count a young man slaying young ladies along the countryside, not far from a Gothic castle where a manipulative father attempts keeping his children locked up, believing they're cursed...</p><p></p><p>Hammer wanted James Mason in this patriarchal role, and it would have made a huge difference since Robert Hardy seems too young and lacks magnetism in controlling his bed-ridden daughter Gillian Hills <i>and</i> especially the beastly son, who share an incestual lust between killings... </p><p>Random violence which there needed <i>much more of</i> to counter nowhere subplots and ultimately wasted side-characters (like nice guy med-student Paul Jones and his mad scientist mentor Patrick Magee), who take time away from Hills' victimized ingenue, a Hammer scream queen with very little to scream about: Damn shame since she alone, with such intense, bewildered beauty, had the most potential to really <i>possess</i> this thing!</p><span></span>

body count, gillian hills, gothic, hammer films, horror, patrick magee, seventies, shane briant, thriller, virginia wetherell

GILLIAN HILLS STARRING IN HAMMER'S 'DEMONS OF THE MIND'

Gillian Hills in Demons of the Mind Year: 1972 Rates: ** It was inevitable to become a disappointing spooky-titled horror flick since DEMONS...

VICTOR MATURE AND DIANA DORS TRUCKING IN 'THE LONG HAUL'

<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/-V-VW_VX6EqM/YCZXNPzrDTI/AAAAAAABc5s/qnxzgI0WtXQVObkMHvdvxFAPIa3UVTo6wCLcBGAsYHQ/s608/the-long-haul-poster-victor-mature-diana-dors-1957-picture-id1137200804.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="464" data-original-width="608" height="305" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-V-VW_VX6EqM/YCZXNPzrDTI/AAAAAAABc5s/qnxzgI0WtXQVObkMHvdvxFAPIa3UVTo6wCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h305/the-long-haul-poster-victor-mature-diana-dors-1957-picture-id1137200804.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE LONG HAUL Year: 1957 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>What begins as a kind of lightweight HELL DRIVERS with token yankee Victor Mature joining a breakneck trucking company, having to drive as quickly and dangerously as possible, turns into an ON THE WATERFRONT of rural British hauling... </p><p>Where a time-worn yet leathery-tough Mature... sprung from Army life and stuck in Liverpool with a wife who wants to stay put (plus a young son)... screws up company mob boss Patrick Allen's caper of robbing his own business... </p><p>Thus making both the verbal and physical altercations between Mature and Allen... equally square-jawed, stubborn and no-nonsense... fairly entertaining Noir... </p><p></p><p>But it's full-lipped Diana Dors as this film's femme fatale and vulnerable moll hybrid who makes Mature snap to life, remaining intense and narrowed even when he agrees to help the villain (her abusive lover) in a British crime/heist flick that cruises along at an intentionally slowburn pace. It's just hard figuring out what exactly the good guy and bad guy are after.. except for time spent with Dors, which is a given. </p><p></p><p></p><span></span>

british film noir/melodrama, caper, diana dors, fifties, gene anderson, patrick allen, victor mature

VICTOR MATURE AND DIANA DORS TRUCKING IN 'THE LONG HAUL'

Title: THE LONG HAUL Year: 1957 Rating: ***1/2 What begins as a kind of lightweight HELL DRIVERS with token yankee Victor Mature joining a b...

MODEL ACTRESS: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

<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/-0BVBVWlcINA/YC69YhAU11I/AAAAAAABdJc/uon-u-16T7QYXf5AEuoOIvn7Rwl__Y9BACLcBGAsYHQ/s1079/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-02-18%2Bat%2B11.14.45%2BAM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="710" data-original-width="1079" height="264" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-0BVBVWlcINA/YC69YhAU11I/AAAAAAABdJc/uon-u-16T7QYXf5AEuoOIvn7Rwl__Y9BACLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h264/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-02-18%2Bat%2B11.14.45%2BAM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>William Campbell & Christina Gregg in The Young Racers</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p><i>Christina Gregg turned up in a handful of British movies and television shows from 1959 to 1964, and was one of England's top models at the same time... And we asked some questions about those years where she juggled two trades that combined immense talent and beauty... </i></p><p><u>START IN MODELING & ACTING</u>: I won a huge beauty contest when I was 17… Miss ABC Television… I would have won Miss Great Britain as well, but they told me I was too young to win! With this prize was a film test with Robert Day, director of <i>Women</i> Magazine, leading to a theatrical coach, Flossy Freedman, who also helped train Marlon Brando, and Angela Lansbury! </p><p>I was provided with an agent, so I had film training, and films came my way afterwards. Modeling took off with the cover of <i>Women</i> magazine, a huge circulation at that time, followed by many more. But it was not an advantage to be advertising products and acting at the same time… I lost opportunities because of this; however, I needed to earn money so I continued: Did advertisement commercials for Camay soap, which cost me a big part in a film.  </p><p></p><span></span>

british, british new noir, british new wave, christina gregg, christopher plummer, crime, interview, jess conrad, lance comfort, mel ferrer, race car, robert urquhart, roger moore, sixties, william campbell

MODEL ACTRESS: AN INTERVIEW WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

William Campbell & Christina Gregg in The Young Racers Christina Gregg turned up in a handful of British movies and television shows fro...

CHRISTINA GREGG PLAYS VICTIM FOR THE 'COVER GIRL KILLER'

<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/-msplsP7O2zc/YCO07zcOIpI/AAAAAAABc0g/FT6i4Zy6ufkfLpNX_eNdUC6DvlFDt5KEACLcBGAsYHQ/s2010/1.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1386" data-original-width="2010" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-msplsP7O2zc/YCO07zcOIpI/AAAAAAABc0g/FT6i4Zy6ufkfLpNX_eNdUC6DvlFDt5KEACLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg faces death in THE COVER GIRL KILLER Year: 1959 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Any chance to see model-turned-actress Christina Gregg is worthwhile, no matter how disappointing this particular British New Wave crime thriller is despite the cool title of COVER GIRL KILLER, supposedly the inspiration for PEEPING TOM. Gregg would later play a 15-year-old virgin stalked by a psychotic phone caller, while here she's an older yet equally shy, innocent and naïve victim of a spectacle-wearing photographer who kills cover girls, as the tile implies...</p><p>Sadly, most of the film has two cops blandly discussing the murders when there could have been more British beauties taken out in a body count fashion, mixing horror within the pulpy police procedural that's not very intriguing. Although lead ingenue Felicity Young, as the girl/friend of a flaky magazine owner no one takes seriously, is also worth the watch. You'll hope she fares better than poor Christina.<br></p><p><span></span></p>

body count, british neo noir, british new wave, christina gregg, crime, julie shearing, sixties

CHRISTINA GREGG PLAYS VICTIM FOR THE 'COVER GIRL KILLER'

Christina Gregg faces death in THE COVER GIRL KILLER Year: 1959 Rating: ** Any chance to see model-turned-actress Christina Gregg is worthwh...

BRITISH STARLET CHRISTINA GREGG RUNS AWAY WITH 'RAG DOLL'

<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/-k-QWPay0MPI/YCzQQV5EC8I/AAAAAAABdHw/08jlX3SwWOEHIx0d13mT47y9yHOpgH2cQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1655/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-02-17%2Bat%2B12.10.52%2BAM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1415" data-original-width="1655" height="343" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-k-QWPay0MPI/YCzQQV5EC8I/AAAAAAABdHw/08jlX3SwWOEHIx0d13mT47y9yHOpgH2cQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h343/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-02-17%2Bat%2B12.10.52%2BAM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg in RAG DOLL Year: 1961 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A cinematic dream come true for fans of Christina Gregg — the incredibly beautiful British model and actress — in an extremely strange programmer preaching the dangers of running away from home... even when and if home has a stepfather whose intentions aren't so innocent... </p><p>Stepdad owns a countryside cafe where married customers lust after Gregg's naïve and vulnerable Carol with the nickname RAG DOLL from when she was young and awkward... </p><p></p><p>So she storms out of a lukewarm frying pan into a guarded fire in the big city, finding immediate safety with an old lady medium moonlighting as a jazz club waitress, and the owner... an older guy so nice he's hardly creepy but should be... wants to save Carol from bad boy singer Jess Conrad... </p><p>And right when things get intriguing there's a sudden tragic downturn, similar to the decade-later BADLANDS, only without all that much danger, which there was far too little of to begin with: A shame since Christina Gregg, as pitifully innocent and naïvely curious as ever, really does seem a lot more (as the alternate title reads) YOUNG, WILLING AND EAGER than her <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/09/the-break.html">THE BREAK</a> director Lance Comfort allows her to be. </p><p><span></span></p>

british neo noir, british new wave, christina gregg, crime, heist, sixties

BRITISH STARLET CHRISTINA GREGG RUNS AWAY WITH 'RAG DOLL'

Christina Gregg in RAG DOLL Year: 1961 Rates: *** A cinematic dream come true for fans of Christina Gregg — the incredibly beautiful British...

LANCE COMFORT 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" 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 & William Lucas 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, gene anderson, lance comfort, robert urquhart, sixties, thriller, tony britton, william lucas

LANCE COMFORT MAKES 'THE BREAK' WITH CHRISTINA GREGG

Christina Gregg & William Lucas THE BREAK Year: 1962 The same year British beauty Christina Gregg played a schoolgirl told DON'T...

CHRISTINA GREGG MAILING IN A STRANGE 'FATE TAKES A HAND'

<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/-ij5UKILnCco/YCW6Q4jbXVI/AAAAAAABc4g/JB7A8mx5y44P_m9ahrBscwdmKKWEJ1dLwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1590/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-02-10%2Bat%2B10.36.44%2BPM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="1590" height="328" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ij5UKILnCco/YCW6Q4jbXVI/AAAAAAABc4g/JB7A8mx5y44P_m9ahrBscwdmKKWEJ1dLwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h328/Screen%2BShot%2B2021-02-10%2Bat%2B10.36.44%2BPM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg & Ronald Howard Year: 1961 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>This British hour-long b-movie feels like a reality-TV pilot with Christina Gregg, who starred in several crime thrillers, which FATE TAKES A HAND has only a little to do with, but it's important since, fifteen-years earlier, a batch of letters were stolen in a heist — and having turned up it's now the Post Office's duty to return each to an assortment of eclectic characters...</p><p></p><p>Christina Gregg plays a reporter tagging along with mail officer Ronald Howard, meeting the would-be-recipients at home or work, each telling a flashback yarn about how bad their lives have gotten for which each letter will mend...</p><p>These tales include a love-lorn blind woman, paling to the rudimentary comic relief of a working man standing up to his boss after winning money... while the most earthy has a prisoner recollecting a little girl's kidnapping... Saving the best two for last: One about a husband being framed by a crooked wife... the only to occur before and after the letter-carrying-duo arrive: And a punchy and depressed ex-brawler who "could have been a contender" before throwing a fight... Making FATE not so much a Christina Gregg vehicle but a window seat she breezily looks out of.</p><p><span></span></p>

anthology, christina gregg, comedy, drama, jack watson, sixties

CHRISTINA GREGG MAILING IN A STRANGE 'FATE TAKES A HAND'

Christina Gregg & Ronald Howard Year: 1961 Rates: *** This British hour-long b-movie feels like a reality-TV pilot with Christina Gregg,...

JACQUELINE ELLIS IN 'ACCIDENTAL DEATH' WITH JOHN CARSON

<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/-1LlIMsFtqn4/YCNiybvMTBI/AAAAAAABcyo/EwgKtlnk6Xw_ae881R4Gv7npAaXfyMsYgCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/3.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="400" height="311" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-1LlIMsFtqn4/YCNiybvMTBI/AAAAAAABcyo/EwgKtlnk6Xw_ae881R4Gv7npAaXfyMsYgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h311/3.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>title: Accidental Death Year: 1963 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Resembling a pretty young school teacher who "doesn't look like the teachers I had," <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2019/11/hijackers.html">Jacqueline Ellis </a>is a different kind of British b-movie starlet...</p><p>And very important here as a wishbone not just between two men but three including an older rich gent who raised her; a young passive boyfriend; and a new guy in town... or actually, in the house... as flirtatious thirty-something Frenchman John Carson doesn't only have a plot to kill the old-timer for war crimes, he warns him outright so the title ACCIDENTAL DEATH fits <i>what might</i> occur...<br></p><p>Meanwhile the most fun's had between the Frenchmen (with an on/off British accent) and our gal Ellis, also from France (originally), and they have a kind of lusty windswept romance indoors, where most of the story takes place...</p><p>A polite, sophisticated DESPERATE HOURS without very much suspense, intrigue or urgency but is more a relaxing time-filling Neo Noir with a few twists and turns, including a lethal bicycle and an even more lethal swimming pool where Jacqueline Ellis almost winds up... the only character the audience, and the fellas, want protected: After all, she's got the most to lose as her bewildered heart means more than the old man's life, or the Frenchman's shifty plans to end it. <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/-h5sLPsZlf5s/YB9WwS6EDWI/AAAAAAABcwI/TKme--EXQ_4xP58xZEDlGcVmqenSjl-cQCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/0.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1461" data-original-width="2048" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h5sLPsZlf5s/YB9WwS6EDWI/AAAAAAABcwI/TKme--EXQ_4xP58xZEDlGcVmqenSjl-cQCLcBGAsYHQ/s16000/0.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>John Carson and Jacqueline Ellis in ACCIDENTAL DEATH</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><span></span></p>

british, british neo noir, british new wave, jacqueline ellis, john carson, melodrama, suspense

JACQUELINE ELLIS IN 'ACCIDENTAL DEATH' WITH JOHN CARSON

title: Accidental Death Year: 1963 Rating: ***1/2 Resembling a pretty young school teacher who "doesn't look like the teachers I ha...

BRITISH BEAUTY CHRISTINA GREGG IN 'TWO WIVES AT ONE WEDDING'

<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/-ETIR0q_qzzQ/YCtgd0NxKqI/AAAAAAABc-s/eeUgsN4GP7MYY9XhQNPz6ANn4H6mcvXBgCLcBGAsYHQ/s1398/1.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="979" data-original-width="1398" height="280" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ETIR0q_qzzQ/YCtgd0NxKqI/AAAAAAABc-s/eeUgsN4GP7MYY9XhQNPz6ANn4H6mcvXBgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h280/1.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg in Two Wives Year: 1961 Rating: **</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Watching TWO WIVES AT ONE WEDDING strictly for the presence of British model/actress Christina Gregg is a big let down... </p><p>And can be summed up in one sentence that her would-be husband, a World War II vet played by Gordon Jackson, says before facing the climatic face-off against two con artists: "Stay in the car!" </p><p></p><p>Sadly that (mostly proverbial) car includes the present time that's only half the picture, mostly taking place in flashbacks in war-torn France where he's taken into a safe house, wounded, delirious. And winds up blowing-it even worse than a few years later when he infamously utters "Good Luck" in THE GREAT ESCAPE... </p><p>The biggest let-down however is that this living-room-mystery's French-accent femme fatale, Lisa Daniely, crashing on Jackson and a passive Gregg's wedding by claiming that she married him during the war (and that flashback), never embraces or is allowed to embrace her villainy, making TWO WIVES a talky exercise in futility, and one that should have ended in a cat fight. </p><p><span></span></p>

british, british neo noir, british new wave, christina gregg, con man, drama, gordon jackson, lisa daniely, melodrama, mystery, sixties, world war II

BRITISH BEAUTY CHRISTINA GREGG IN 'TWO WIVES AT ONE WEDDING'

Christina Gregg in Two Wives Year: 1961 Rating: ** Watching TWO WIVES AT ONE WEDDING strictly for the presence of British model/actress Chri...

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER & ELLIOTT GOULD IN 'THE SILENT PARTNER'

<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/-vL1A1QmUyCc/YB4CH6Hk7qI/AAAAAAABcl8/ZW_CfoUY9aYg2U3X3CG0ut6V2E50h00xQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1714/0.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1239" data-original-width="1714" height="289" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-vL1A1QmUyCc/YB4CH6Hk7qI/AAAAAAABcl8/ZW_CfoUY9aYg2U3X3CG0ut6V2E50h00xQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h289/0.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Plummer in The Silent Partner Year: 1978</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>An almost perfect vehicle for the recently-departed legendary actor Christopher Plummer, who was always intense and scowling and very intimidating... Especially in the Canadian bank-heist thriller (made in Canada showing Canadian cash) THE SILENT PARTNER; yet he's a little <i>too</i> silent and needed to be in the picture a lot more, all but vanishing halfway through until a somewhat rushed third act...</p><p>But there are topnotch suspenseful moments along the way. Which has a creative premise where Elliott Gould's lonesome, tropical-fish collecting bank teller, after finding a discarded robbery note, figures from a particular written-letter "G" that the bank in Ontario's fancy Eaton Center Mall will be robbed by Plummer, the mall's bell-ringing Santa... </p><p>And when the heist goes down, Gould's sneaky, morally-ambiguous Cullen winds up robbing the robber: keeping a large sum reported to the media for himself while giving a small amount to Plummer... then locking it into his own secret safe deposit box, which has a nifty little side-plot all its own... </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/-VK177H2pj0w/YB4EgjRlU4I/AAAAAAABcmE/NAwkWA-vfPcsuH9Ysgv85MLdzr5wlC4QwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1874/Z.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1228" data-original-width="1874" height="263" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-VK177H2pj0w/YB4EgjRlU4I/AAAAAAABcmE/NAwkWA-vfPcsuH9Ysgv85MLdzr5wlC4QwCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h263/Z.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Plummer & Elliott Gould RATING: ***1/2</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>But the initial scenes <i>equally</i> involving both Gould and Plummer... a cat-and-mouse game where the latter becomes a scene-stealing psychopathic, woman-beating lunatic... are the most intriguing... </p><p>Which then drags into a tremendous lull after Plummer's tricked into prison, replaced by a glamorous woman (younger and prettier than bank employee/ingenue Susannah York), seducing Gould, who'd become a kind of instant celebrity from the live news footage, and that's one of the biggest problems...</p><p>As this Hitchcockian thriller's dashing Cary Grant, he's not leading mannish enough for these dames to be so crazy about (then again, blonde bombshell Gail Dahms-Bonine quickly marries John Candy). However, Gould does convey his glib <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/11/elliott-gould-sterling-hayden-in-long.html">LONG GOODBYE</a> persona during the more fun, resilient parts, but overall it's Plummer's ride, or could've been had Curtis Hanson's script wielded more urgency into the initial hole Gould dug himself into, and that he gets out of too easy, blunting the psychotic threat that needed to be more looming and formidable for him, <i>and</i> the audience.     </p><p><span></span></p>

canadian, céline lomez, christopher plummer, elliott gould, heist, john candy, seventies, susannah york, thriller

CHRISTOPHER PLUMMER & ELLIOTT GOULD IN 'THE SILENT PARTNER'

Christopher Plummer in The Silent Partner Year: 1978 An almost perfect vehicle for the recently-departed legendary actor Christopher Plummer...

STEVEN RITCH MAKES A MELANCHOLY CREATURE IN 'THE WEREWOLF'

<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/-Wnvihzu6_eI/YBrkHIGH4yI/AAAAAAABces/LRJTNnXTssEDKPyHoouMjzHsoxlLTqoUgCLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/0.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1575" data-original-width="2048" height="308" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Wnvihzu6_eI/YBrkHIGH4yI/AAAAAAABces/LRJTNnXTssEDKPyHoouMjzHsoxlLTqoUgCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h308/0.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Poster for THE WEREWOLF Year: 1956 Rating: ****</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Lon Chaney Jr. was the most famous movie werewolf, David Naughton the best, and Steven Ritch makes the most sympathetic... as a stranger who stumbles into a mountainous town (actually filmed in Big Bear) and can't remember his name, or his problem, that quickly kicks into gear while he's mugged, turning into THE WEREWOLF and eventually hunted by gentle giant sheriff Don Megowan (with deputy Harry Lauter) who's hen-pecked by fiance Joyce Holden and her pacifist doctor uncle to take him alive...<br></p><p></p><p>But the villains want only death, and are two mad scientists that add "Sci-Fi" to the "Horror" who injected Ritch's Duncan Marsh with a serum as protection for nuclear fallout, or something... <br></p><p>Until then, poor Mr. Marsh has to run amok through the freezing wilderness, without shoes. And yet his lycanthrope status is sporadic, providing a desperate, vulnerable performance for the mostly unknown Steven Ritch, who, with dark heavy brows and a rugged, swarthy exterior, always looks wolfish. So whether he transforms into what now seems dated but looks freakier and scarier than the classic Universal WOLF MAN (using the same dissolve-effect), Ritch is <i>always</i> in character... and it's <i>his </i>character that the picture is not only named after but he's both the antagonist (extremely fierce and energetic when changed) and protagonist alike.</p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, fifties, harry lauter, horror, joyce holden, rural, science-fiction, steven ritch

STEVEN RITCH MAKES A MELANCHOLY CREATURE IN 'THE WEREWOLF'

Poster for THE WEREWOLF Year: 1956 Rating: **** Lon Chaney Jr. was the most famous movie werewolf, David Naughton the best, and Steven Ritch...

RITA HAYWORTH IS 'MISS SADIE THOMPSON' W/ CHARLES BRONSON

<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/-i6sXnKh0eyc/YBiKR9zCXyI/AAAAAAABcWk/SVul1jwKWrYFzLZ1RGvJuoyA6beODcHFQCLcBGAsYHQ/s1831/1.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1312" data-original-width="1831" height="286" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-i6sXnKh0eyc/YBiKR9zCXyI/AAAAAAABcWk/SVul1jwKWrYFzLZ1RGvJuoyA6beODcHFQCLcBGAsYHQ/w400-h286/1.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson and Henry Slate Year: 1953 Rates: ***</u>1/2</td></tr></tbody></table><p>This adaptation of Somerset Maugham's sordid tale about an alluring woman who gets progressively judged and berated and then lusted upon by a Christian missionary is less about moral hypocrisy and more about Evolution since, from the moment Rita Hayworth lands on a Samoan island full of Marines, the biggest and toughest jarhead in Aldo Ray has her number, and won't let go... None of his underlings, not even a more muscular Charles Bronson, harmonica-playing Henry Slate or goofball Rudy Bond has a chance... and most of MISS SADIE THOMPSON seems like PR for the noticeably-aged Rita Hayworth to still be a relevant sex symbol... for young male audiences...<br></p><p></p><p>And she <i>does </i>look pretty great despite overacting the 'good time girl' routine, singing her lines while speaking her songs. But that older, experienced countenance neatly blends into a free-spirited yet enigmatic character that bible-belting Jose Ferrer realizes <i>could have</i> been a prostitute, forcing our marooned goddess in bright red (symbolically contrasting with the grainy-dull browns and greens for what was originally 3D) into a sudden guilty change of conscience. And this 11th hour melancholy-Hayworth, although turning in a far more subtle, natural performance, is but a means to an extremely rushed ending: Instead of building a hate/trust/lust relationship between leads Hayworth and Ferrer, the latter gradually frowns then sermonizes and then explodes, leading back to that rushed romance with Ray, an infatuation as equally empty and hollow — but on HER terms. <br></p><p><span></span></p>

aldo ray, charles bronson, drama, fifties, jose ferrer, melodrama, military, religion, rita hayworth, romance, rudy bond

RITA HAYWORTH IS 'MISS SADIE THOMPSON' W/ CHARLES BRONSON

Charles Bronson and Henry Slate Year: 1953 Rates: *** 1/2 This adaptation of Somerset Maugham's sordid tale about an alluring woman who ...