cult film freak: May 2025

Written by James M. Tate / 5/26/2025 / No comments / action , burt lancaster , heist , jeanne moreau , john frankenheimer , paul scofield , sixties , train , wolfgang preiss , world war II

BURT LANCASTER STEALING JOHN FRANKENHEIMER'S 'THE TRAIN'

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS8-mulIS3BqT10g0Ax30bCyPwQSWwVFW0nzyuXb9sR3QZqjolhVbW2IZcsvY5Ori9XZ5y33swU5QLqR5td72rZ8a5Ie6iN1EXo36BaR1S95mya74DQ8Ms1J5zrMIY82mxbQczD6mH-q6zkxmf0ct1Cr0MtEEYMqV24qzMUqfEjKeBjMLlmqZ6bUsmQP-p/s1980/Screen%20Shot%202025-12-14%20at%201.03.35%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="940" data-original-width="1980" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjS8-mulIS3BqT10g0Ax30bCyPwQSWwVFW0nzyuXb9sR3QZqjolhVbW2IZcsvY5Ori9XZ5y33swU5QLqR5td72rZ8a5Ie6iN1EXo36BaR1S95mya74DQ8Ms1J5zrMIY82mxbQczD6mH-q6zkxmf0ct1Cr0MtEEYMqV24qzMUqfEjKeBjMLlmqZ6bUsmQP-p/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-12-14%20at%201.03.35%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Burt Lancaster in THE TRAIN Year: 1964 Rating: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>Not since Jean Renior's French classic LA BÊTE HUMAINE has the rugged, grimy, grungy and grainy B&W workings of freight trains been so up-close and palpable... this an American-made war film about the French, where Burt Lancaster teams with director John Frankenheimer, an auteur inserting documentary-style camerawork into mainstream action...That's not only about particular action-packed scenes but pretty much every movement: Lancaster (doing his own stunts) and fellow train-workers saving famous classic paintings from the Nazis at the tail-end of World War II...

action, burt lancaster, heist, jeanne moreau, john frankenheimer, paul scofield, sixties, train, wolfgang preiss, world war II

BURT LANCASTER STEALING JOHN FRANKENHEIMER'S 'THE TRAIN'

Burt Lancaster in THE TRAIN Year: 1964 Rating: ***1/2 Not since Jean Renior's French classic LA BÊTE HUMAINE has the rugged, grimy, grun...

ENA HARTMAN, TOM SELLECK & MARTA KRISTEN 'TERMINAL ISLAND'

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBjl-9g4qzPfCEd_zyMpTbFeKihvuAdm0pLqSGNjmhIHU-BXOhSDwYczPxwr1nyhMKVRBfsObOPuMPvz0LVDvUbjvrJvPW5mGbSjXAmUDyPzEWJlCN_iNEli9byryTrxdA1KxHn51LYjqEp15YZUeD0xqG-EusRCqBE1kuuA9IaXulFhOZmMfBJtunVpp9/s1756/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1020" data-original-width="1756" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBjl-9g4qzPfCEd_zyMpTbFeKihvuAdm0pLqSGNjmhIHU-BXOhSDwYczPxwr1nyhMKVRBfsObOPuMPvz0LVDvUbjvrJvPW5mGbSjXAmUDyPzEWJlCN_iNEli9byryTrxdA1KxHn51LYjqEp15YZUeD0xqG-EusRCqBE1kuuA9IaXulFhOZmMfBJtunVpp9/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Marta Kristen, Don Marshall & Ena Hartman in TERMINAL ISLAND Year: 1973 Rating: **1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>For an exploitation flick that seems to make itself up as it goes, TERMINAL ISLAND begins creatively enough, much like the same years' WESTWORLD with random interviews about the title location... In this case, based on the actual California death penalty being overturned (making The Manson Family eligible for parole soon after), random people are asked what they think of the prison island alternative, like ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK after while based on the infamous Devil's Island, where murderous convicts are left to their own devices...

action, blaxploitation, don marshall, ena hartman, exploitation, marta kristen, phyllis davis, prison, roger e. mosley, science-fiction, tom selleck

ENA HARTMAN, TOM SELLECK & MARTA KRISTEN 'TERMINAL ISLAND'

Marta Kristen, Don Marshall & Ena Hartman in TERMINAL ISLAND Year: 1973 Rating: **1/2 For an exploitation flick that seems to make itsel...

ROBERT WISE NOIRISH THRILLER 'THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL'

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtntduhvcxyWweSVEc6AKwhuVItLI00urfG5fjkvLvavothk-U3PypJBLBXDQD7UJfSHgxIcGkEC9pKb609k716iOZNDQNitbeLQpggWB0kosgk5oaj8fetcKK2oFGKiEub1ydyiUi-a3hiLbaGCwTxydbNgIN9-80XDNGjRPPxRBr5exA72AFnf8LsStt/s1406/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="986" data-original-width="1406" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtntduhvcxyWweSVEc6AKwhuVItLI00urfG5fjkvLvavothk-U3PypJBLBXDQD7UJfSHgxIcGkEC9pKb609k716iOZNDQNitbeLQpggWB0kosgk5oaj8fetcKK2oFGKiEub1ydyiUi-a3hiLbaGCwTxydbNgIN9-80XDNGjRPPxRBr5exA72AFnf8LsStt/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL Year: 1951 Rating: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>If anyone but subtle Italian actress Valentina Cortese had starred in Robert Wise's THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL, it would be the kind of haunted, wispy melodrama that the wispily melodramatic, haunting posters imply... Ironically, on some artwork, American actress Fay Baker is more prominent, holding onto searing villain Richard Basehart, the great American actor who often sounds like a sophisticated British villain...

fay baker, fifties, film noir or melodrama, richard basehart, robert wise, thriller, valentina cortese, william lundigan

ROBERT WISE NOIRISH THRILLER 'THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL'

Title: THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL Year: 1951 Rating: ***1/2 If anyone but subtle Italian actress Valentina Cortese had starred in Robert Wi...

ANOTHER LATE-1950'S CRIME/NOIR EXPOSÉ 'THE TIJUANA STORY'

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XCNY2P9Yx84Sc_SrebKjxPGq3EVemVEJEINr2fK2rB-Ap1Ktzsi-Ia6qyc1iRGKqFX_hWRvQqs5uoTLg0iLv_A1xSq5GzvCKeBBloyc-z1g8XMg392tBb9hlh6FJEz10ozLa-JiBxp6cww0jejuxl_yatYGr0yrTk1-u9lw2IXwR_vIpGVfU6pbT4rji/s1144/Screen%20Shot%202025-05-08%20at%206.56.05%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="690" data-original-width="1144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4XCNY2P9Yx84Sc_SrebKjxPGq3EVemVEJEINr2fK2rB-Ap1Ktzsi-Ia6qyc1iRGKqFX_hWRvQqs5uoTLg0iLv_A1xSq5GzvCKeBBloyc-z1g8XMg392tBb9hlh6FJEz10ozLa-JiBxp6cww0jejuxl_yatYGr0yrTk1-u9lw2IXwR_vIpGVfU6pbT4rji/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-05-08%20at%206.56.05%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: THE TIJUANA STORY Year: 1957 Rating: **</td></tr></tbody></table>One of those 1950's noir/exposès that includes an actual government official's opening narration, staring into the camera and telling us that this really happened... which is hard to believe since most of the Mexican characters in the titular THE TIJUANA STORY are not only white, but not even attempting to look authentic... Yet the most intriguing are supposed to be white, Robert McQueeney and Jean Willes, as married, crooked go-betweens for a Mexican crime-boss that's keeping the marijuana-ridden bordertown at bay...

expose, fifties, film noir or melodrama, jean wiles, joy stoner, michael fox, robert blake, robert mcqueeney, rodolfo acosta

ANOTHER LATE-1950'S CRIME/NOIR EXPOSÉ 'THE TIJUANA STORY'

Title: THE TIJUANA STORY Year: 1957 Rating: ** One of those 1950's noir/exposès that includes an actual government official's openin...

RICHARD CONTE DRIVES HAMMER'S RACE VEHICLE 'MASK OF DUST'

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmko6Wix_HzMS8Atgk6U2frqkZ6RbG87g8rc-1kvaijBMlGSgkY2YIYPfnvGB9EWXGfSPi6x57U1elC4gprihy5TQNIXX2yPeNuVEJ2pNbvpXLXX8N532A5zUYToCrKWVPHvpUrQ_vCtv4DBUBb94YOsyj7eNghldsXAMM4UqRNQE5R69WXA3SkXxKgxRl/s2312/Screen%20Shot%202025-05-16%20at%204.55.03%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1476" data-original-width="2312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmko6Wix_HzMS8Atgk6U2frqkZ6RbG87g8rc-1kvaijBMlGSgkY2YIYPfnvGB9EWXGfSPi6x57U1elC4gprihy5TQNIXX2yPeNuVEJ2pNbvpXLXX8N532A5zUYToCrKWVPHvpUrQ_vCtv4DBUBb94YOsyj7eNghldsXAMM4UqRNQE5R69WXA3SkXxKgxRl/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-05-16%20at%204.55.03%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: MASK OF DUST Year: 1954 Rating: **</td></tr></tbody></table>One of the greatest titles for a race car movie, Terence Fisher's pre-horror Hammer MASK OF DUST settled stateside for the blandly retooled RACE FOR LIFE, and yet, neither really fit the actual movie...Starring American crime-genre actor Richard Conte, perhaps Interior Conversations of Exterior Driving would fare better to what's a stagey melodrama with real and/or rear-projected racing shots where Grand Prix drivers fight to survive...

british, fifties, george coulouris, hammer films, james copeland, mari aldon, melodrama, race car, terence fisher