cult film freak: fifties-era

Showing posts with label fifties-era. Show all posts

Written by James M. Tate / 10/12/2024 / No comments / action , cartoon , david proval , eighties , exploitation , fifties-era , gang , ralph bakshi , richard romanus

RALPH BAKSHI ANIMATED MEAN STREETS 'HEY GOOD LOOKIN'

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhATx_YOFWuDMTKoKM42rVd36MKiapvDylupzgRlBE7rMkQ74TMlKnIL__h0Ux3WiOebBpQubkkeasDMyxfv9qnOdqtFmvJ8u1XrFQJe__0diDTxJWAPAR_1puPxh7vgEp1m7SPqslE_xeHq9GBqoy_XQhxe62am8ym7RqOVBXLSDEBuALnbxHy9hs0V23C/s2012/Screen%20Shot%202024-10-11%20at%2010.15.34%20PM-1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1082" data-original-width="2012" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhATx_YOFWuDMTKoKM42rVd36MKiapvDylupzgRlBE7rMkQ74TMlKnIL__h0Ux3WiOebBpQubkkeasDMyxfv9qnOdqtFmvJ8u1XrFQJe__0diDTxJWAPAR_1puPxh7vgEp1m7SPqslE_xeHq9GBqoy_XQhxe62am8ym7RqOVBXLSDEBuALnbxHy9hs0V23C/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-10-11%20at%2010.15.34%20PM-1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Richard Romanus in HEY GOOD LOOKIN' Year: 1983 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Often compared to <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2013/09/grease-revisited.html">GREASE</a>, being that the main character... a suave/strutting New York City hood... resembles John Travolta, it seems animation icon Ralph Bashki's HEY GOOD LOOKIN' is more Martin Scorsese's <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2019/08/goodstreets.html">MEAN STREETS</a> as an adult-oriented cartoon, and for two good reasons...<br><br>The first is that the script and some of the artwork were created in the mid-70's, right after STREETS came out and where Bashki was to originally combine animated and live-action characters... leaving only a few genuine locations, from a dingy poolhall to Coney Island... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

action, cartoon, david proval, eighties, exploitation, fifties-era, gang, ralph bakshi, richard romanus

RALPH BAKSHI ANIMATED MEAN STREETS 'HEY GOOD LOOKIN'

Richard Romanus in HEY GOOD LOOKIN' Year: 1983 Rating: *** Often compared to GREASE , being that the main character... a suave/strutting...

BURT REYNOLDS ROLLING IN 'W.W. AND THE DIXIE DANCEKINGS'

<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/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqpb7nptvgZaaBGJHO1rLnromntsWl4ATh_6bemYoXb2UzairNYabIB-68E_dCrIWpnB0WleBYMxAW0nmFftYP_Qrp2taaboOmFlqfv6ciAxlWeiSByvvORmeLBsi-9TFlMGobt8om9Q3xoq7HR6hTc_SqOTr49Rn-klDaf6EPcppZM0vhe4NCKMDVfw/s1103/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-04%20at%209.37.22%20PM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1103" data-original-width="910" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiqpb7nptvgZaaBGJHO1rLnromntsWl4ATh_6bemYoXb2UzairNYabIB-68E_dCrIWpnB0WleBYMxAW0nmFftYP_Qrp2taaboOmFlqfv6ciAxlWeiSByvvORmeLBsi-9TFlMGobt8om9Q3xoq7HR6hTc_SqOTr49Rn-klDaf6EPcppZM0vhe4NCKMDVfw/s320/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-04%20at%209.37.22%20PM.jpeg" width="264"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Year: 1975 Rating: ***</td></tr></tbody></table>Orson Welles once stated that fame was the worst thing to happen to Burt Reynolds… And Burt liked this comment enough to place it at the forefront of his now defunct official website…<br>
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Well in 1975, it would be a few years... and a few more eclectic films... until Burt became the biggest star in the world after SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT, and the obscure W.W. AND THE DIXIE DANCEKINGS is the necessary cog in that inevitable game-changing wheel…<br>
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<div style="text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTKwwQio_FcxRw8-teUdTRb-ZxJv0sAjPffnQrDfocmnqbjUcWIPFr-4xl9KcgEyhRbiTbHd3WqIhZssC_tqrPBM5ZsvqhCXySdI4prfXOh7MqAux4tYZ2a1ERXzhfmp3DUDFnSUS1SjPHsDyzTEioAO4XK_qSmGG-7u0Qt0Zb0jbWRNimsy0bNjYiMA/s1242/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-04%20at%209.43.44%20PM.png" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1242" data-original-width="464" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTKwwQio_FcxRw8-teUdTRb-ZxJv0sAjPffnQrDfocmnqbjUcWIPFr-4xl9KcgEyhRbiTbHd3WqIhZssC_tqrPBM5ZsvqhCXySdI4prfXOh7MqAux4tYZ2a1ERXzhfmp3DUDFnSUS1SjPHsDyzTEioAO4XK_qSmGG-7u0Qt0Zb0jbWRNimsy0bNjYiMA/w150-h400/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-04%20at%209.43.44%20PM.png" width="150"></a></div>BANDIT connections include future director Hal Needham as stunt coordinator, and real life musician Jerry Reed is introduced as Wayne, an uptight guitarist for a band led by cute blond Dixie, who meets Burt's roving conman W.W. by accident – of his own making... After politely robbing two gas stations, and being tracked by a cop, the clean-shaven Reynolds doesn’t drive off for the chase like the mustached icon would in years to come – instead, Burt's chortling W.W. stealthily ducks into a cowboy bar where Dixie and company are playing an extremely low rent gig, and, using wily charm and spontaneous rambling, he pretends to be their manager, later promising the outfit a “lucrative” concert in Nashville while distancing himself from the law...<br>
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Set in the 1950’s, the main vehicle is neat looking but the action scenes are minimal. This is really about W.W. keeping up his perpetual ruse while the band, also including Burt’s LONGEST YARD buddy James Hampton, depends on this convenient stranger to keep them rolling. The only bulwark is an evangelical corporate grump named Deacon, played by Art Carney who, compared to his HONEYMOONERS crony Jackie Gleason as the future SMOKEY antagonist, isn’t much of a threat till the 11th hour. 
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art carney, burt reynolds, connie van dyke, fifties-era, heist, import, james hampton, jerry reed, john g. avildsen, ned beatty, road movie, seventies

BURT REYNOLDS ROLLING IN 'W.W. AND THE DIXIE DANCEKINGS'

Year: 1975 Rating: *** Orson Welles once stated that fame was the worst thing to happen to Burt Reynolds… And Burt liked this comment enoug...

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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBReMcayiqFtpm_2rIxEy1Ume2F6pTFYHG5Bx-8rIXmtJR654T2lfCBQqazsVIyXvcAnmcCbTGihtrXpbtenxM0goO-0wpFpFyNL0E7yLutdpcbhkAC8_er1ZCSioLGmIyY66__-gsra7FGbbGUW9fqCe91IBlb2TBfc0GPziSXgQL8y6nOAeW5SZ4kSqc/s2048/619331616_1589633489349646_2416514309147265633_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1032" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiBReMcayiqFtpm_2rIxEy1Ume2F6pTFYHG5Bx-8rIXmtJR654T2lfCBQqazsVIyXvcAnmcCbTGihtrXpbtenxM0goO-0wpFpFyNL0E7yLutdpcbhkAC8_er1ZCSioLGmIyY66__-gsra7FGbbGUW9fqCe91IBlb2TBfc0GPziSXgQL8y6nOAeW5SZ4kSqc/s16000/619331616_1589633489349646_2416514309147265633_n.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Diane Lane in THE BIG TOWN 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

Diane Lane in THE BIG TOWN Year: 1987 Rating: ***1/2 With a deliberately sparse-pulpy title, THE BIG TOWN is set during the 1950's... 19...

PT ANDERSON DRESSES-DOWN HIS 'PHANTOM THREAD'

2018, daniel day lewis, fifties-era, neo noir, new, paul thomas anderson, romance

PT ANDERSON DRESSES-DOWN HIS 'PHANTOM THREAD'

Year of Wide Release: 2018 In PHANTOM THREAD, set in the 1950's post war London, Daniel Day Lewis's lanky Reynolds Woodcock and ...

GEORGE CLOONEY DIRECTS MATT DAMON IN SUBURBICON

2017, coen brothers, crime, fifties-era, george clooney, julianne moore, matt damon, neo noir, new, oscar issac

GEORGE CLOONEY DIRECTS MATT DAMON IN SUBURBICON

YEAR OF RELEASE: 2017 It may have seemed logical before, but now there's genuine proof that a Coen Brothers movie has to be both wri...

STEVE SPIELBERG DIRECTS TOM HANKS IN 'BRIDGE OF SPIES'

<table align="center" 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/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKBtF4zPiFaNP0xZ7oOzYZJCHvJ86J1aV6FIYlLQnci9MbIcIUCEcHpLRq9fImdvkXcRf5JLUMJQQ6tsa6pBZlxtRDvmDXyqZZL1RMNHt8z8uwDn44cveNglW0YoICDHnxuJcpY-wqLqI/s1600/nefpp9ay64f6ig_2_a.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="210" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKBtF4zPiFaNP0xZ7oOzYZJCHvJ86J1aV6FIYlLQnci9MbIcIUCEcHpLRq9fImdvkXcRf5JLUMJQQ6tsa6pBZlxtRDvmDXyqZZL1RMNHt8z8uwDn44cveNglW0YoICDHnxuJcpY-wqLqI/s400/nefpp9ay64f6ig_2_a.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>year: 2015 director: Steven Spielberg Starring: Tom Hanks</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Cold War thrillers aren't always very thrilling, and mostly rely on mellow, page-turning espionage led by tons of dialogue.<br />
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Thus Steven Spielberg creatively glides through the real life story of James B. Donovan...<br />
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Who was a very reluctant insurance lawyer hired to take on an inconvenient, controversial, potentially dangerous yet legitimately lawful case in 1957, an era when most movies have American bigwigs, from the FBI to the CIA to all things Military, behaving worse than demonic mobsters.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiEc-unZ6oYyEpOBpKDOKTaxRTab3feRCj6r3Nu-kZwcaxuxKfEZzPScX2SBh4Sl4gbLhsmOwFMwOGQUne4DtMC2nsuysAegqJgFAuhiHhM_hWtZi1m_xXW1_D0fsm89CEcccK6T_onQQ/s1600/Screen+shot+2015-10-19+at+12.47.08+AM.png" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgiEc-unZ6oYyEpOBpKDOKTaxRTab3feRCj6r3Nu-kZwcaxuxKfEZzPScX2SBh4Sl4gbLhsmOwFMwOGQUne4DtMC2nsuysAegqJgFAuhiHhM_hWtZi1m_xXW1_D0fsm89CEcccK6T_onQQ/s1600/Screen+shot+2015-10-19+at+12.47.08+AM.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
This particular vehicle is really a simple tale tha<i>t, </i>despite making the accused, kindhearted, soft-spoken Russian Spy seem a bit too perfect compared to his riled-up U.S. captors, Hanks fits everything together, not playing the role like a modern progressive stuck in a one-dimensional decade while somehow reflectively "knowing better," as happens in a lot of post-WWII history flicks: he really seems (and looks) like he's from that particular era, learning while moving from one semi intriguing obstacle to the next. <br />
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If it's said that BRIDGE OF SPIES is a slow and/or boring motion picture, well, there is one scene in a fast moving car, and Spielberg gets his war-action on when a spy plane is shot down with a last-minute parachute...<br />
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And that pilot (plus an added young man, not very fleshed-out but representing "the future" educational system) is a possible trade-off for Hanks' Russian client, originally sentenced in what plays out like a dressed-up Kangaroo court, becoming a sort of older, wise mentor while sharing a Ben Kingsley/Liam Neeson SCHINDLER'S LIST style chemistry with Hanks: needing few spoken words to genuinely bond, and, eventually, when our hero goes from America to the divided Germany,  there's never a feeling of serious, impending danger. But his determined discomfort is palpable enough to drive the story of an otherwise common man hired for the last thing he wanted to be part of, and, thinking on his toes, makes for an interesting "character" in a nicely flowing Cold War flick that's perfectly lukewarm... feeling like it intentionally settles for pretty good instead of Oscar-bait greatness, and in that, succeeds.

2015, cold war, fifties-era, spy, steven spielberg, tom hanks

STEVE SPIELBERG DIRECTS TOM HANKS IN 'BRIDGE OF SPIES'

year: 2015 director: Steven Spielberg Starring: Tom Hanks Cold War thrillers aren't always very thrilling, and mostly rely on mellow...

Written by James M. Tate / 2/26/2015 / No comments / bill paxton , chicks with guns , cloris leachman , dennis quaid , dick miller , donny most , exploitation , fifties-era , gangster , harry northup , jonathan demme , road movie , roger corman , seventies

CRAZY MAMA WITH CLORIS LEACHMAN

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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cj8VhCuvPtLbSAvtq2kPRjV9DK3AKP0tHFKMVVXUy5ELHPSnWcxKoHfLLq9VaKxVjgE0jyWeELr_gK6RJp3HXIIYrACLOIRXHMLw31cfkhL_o58M21yC_ZU6PGtoIFkm9XmuS5-l_dWb/s1600/16997944_277417656020751_7838387630309119004_n+%25281%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6cj8VhCuvPtLbSAvtq2kPRjV9DK3AKP0tHFKMVVXUy5ELHPSnWcxKoHfLLq9VaKxVjgE0jyWeELr_gK6RJp3HXIIYrACLOIRXHMLw31cfkhL_o58M21yC_ZU6PGtoIFkm9XmuS5-l_dWb/s200/16997944_277417656020751_7838387630309119004_n+%25281%2529.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Bill Paxton in CRAZY MAMA </td></tr>
</tbody></table>
Not to be confused with the Roger Corman production BLOODY MAMA where Shelly Winters, with sons Robert DeNiro and Don Stroud, roll the countryside robbing banks: a depression era, sometimes heavy-handed exploitation, differing from this mellow jaunt set in the fifties with a rockin' and rollin' wall-to-wall era soundtrack.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img alt="" border="0" height="240" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5486093514926217010" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicNv4zC7eNRgbIXVmtvwU8QF4TBQWvZwGxsS7mza7C_1aARDt7av5lO_7GtZfVk2khDAHuII4Aqkuq-ZDv2piLGvRLaVXkvO1nSNSTCUaFEDHiYaKbZkbViUhmfl_ESn_Df8w7p8kVCes/s320/crazymama1.jpg" style="color: #0000ee; height: 150px; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 200px;" width="320" /></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Year: 1975 CrazyScore: ***1/2</td></tr>
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Adding to that is Donny Most, best known as "Ralph Malph" from HAPPY DAYS, as the surfer boyfriend of sexy vixen Linda Purl, the daughter of title character Cloris Leachman who, along with her chattering mother, and Purl's granny, Ann Southern, cruise around robbing just about anyone and anything and then, aided by millionaire Stuart Whitman and Leachman's real life son Bryan Englund, attempt an ingrown kidnapping plot. The ragtag bunch, despite being against the odds... cops out to kill them... have a laidback, frolicking fun time. Director Jonathan Demme keeps things moving smoothly. And keep an eye out from first-timer's Dennis Quaid, as a bellboy, and Bill Paxton, as a rookie cop.