PETER SELLERS, BRITT EKLAND & VICTOR MATURE 'AFTER THE FOX'

<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><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/AVvXsEik2yYKAeosus31RNiQfBZPjomm1z3tiMeeSDhCjGpE9pnvDoddXutx5iuNnvsaWGRdeAM25WChylhc_CsbsUw_TUivXuuMzb7r2chOqWx1SffFIcsZ1B7vH9Omj8AmCGt4RIsk-nWK4BzKdWHU95wwT9I6dsC04USv_mps2bf8i0oRRy5JazDFTBrCibjV/s1604/Screen%20Shot%202025-07-02%20at%206.25.54%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1604" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEik2yYKAeosus31RNiQfBZPjomm1z3tiMeeSDhCjGpE9pnvDoddXutx5iuNnvsaWGRdeAM25WChylhc_CsbsUw_TUivXuuMzb7r2chOqWx1SffFIcsZ1B7vH9Omj8AmCGt4RIsk-nWK4BzKdWHU95wwT9I6dsC04USv_mps2bf8i0oRRy5JazDFTBrCibjV/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-07-02%20at%206.25.54%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: AFTER THE FOX Year: 1966 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Victor Mature plays an aged, has-been actor who spends so much time bickering with agent Martin Balsam about doing or <i>not</i> doing a French existential film, you'll simply want things to narrow into what the <i>real</i> movie's about as AFTER THE FOX doesn't mean <i>what follows</i> but <i>who's followin</i>g Peter Sellers' criminal named Fox, who broke out of prison, in disguise, and there's plenty of humor but not enough laughs... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Shame since the cinematography's so gorgeous, a satire on the pretentious side of 1960's French New Wave cinema, ironically directed by 1950's minimalist BICYCLE THIEVES auteur Vittorio De Sica, not allowing either his funny guy (Sellers) or straight man (Mature) enough time together... </p><p><span></span></p>

akim tamiroff, brit ekland, british, comedy, cult, french, heist, jailbreak, maria grazia buccella, peter sellers, post-heist, satire, sixties, victor mature

PETER SELLERS, BRITT EKLAND & VICTOR MATURE 'AFTER THE FOX'

Title: AFTER THE FOX Year: 1966 Rates: *** Victor Mature plays an aged, has-been actor who spends so much time bickering with agent Martin B...

EDWARD G. ROBINSON IN 'BLACK TUESDAY' WITH PETER GRAVES

<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://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLsr2xPZRlVR6CW-WjB5o7xr8m1JZ_4Qi3N_dKEXny3hVuGVoN5ro0ZvG3aa53lMeSbFDVBDh4vvcH1ZO5zZe8m3cfkcYzOeBg8QXDs14C5hgSY5UZqquOjEykwJp6zVhsO_XNhf0353aHiakiADr-9G6d-4rf64teh3IH-mvzEY-RzKRifGacc-PgQYPr/s1684/Screen%20Shot%202025-06-08%20at%209.13.57%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="878" data-original-width="1684" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLsr2xPZRlVR6CW-WjB5o7xr8m1JZ_4Qi3N_dKEXny3hVuGVoN5ro0ZvG3aa53lMeSbFDVBDh4vvcH1ZO5zZe8m3cfkcYzOeBg8QXDs14C5hgSY5UZqquOjEykwJp6zVhsO_XNhf0353aHiakiADr-9G6d-4rf64teh3IH-mvzEY-RzKRifGacc-PgQYPr/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-06-08%20at%209.13.57%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: BLACK TUESDAY Year: 1954 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>By the 1950's, twenty years after pioneering the crime/gangster genre, Edward G. Robinson was a kind of elder statesman of the subject... although sometimes he'd play good guys, even cops...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But in BLACK TUESDAY he was back in the previous decade's KEY LARGO mode... an antagonist so vile, everyone surrounding him, here in the initial death row prison setting, is good by comparison: making this crime film very noir...</p><p><span></span></p>

edward g. robinson, fifties, film noir or melodrama, jailbreak, jean parker, kidnapping, milburn stone, peter graves, russell johnson, warren stevens

EDWARD G. ROBINSON IN 'BLACK TUESDAY' WITH PETER GRAVES

Title: BLACK TUESDAY Year: 1954 Rating: ***1/2 By the 1950's, twenty years after pioneering the crime/gangster genre, Edward G. Robinson...

OLIVER REED AND FABIO TESTI ITALIAN CRIME FLICK 'REVOLVER'

<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><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/AVvXsEgbzqe3e5SbKoh58txrGN4L0xsHCOtALR1aIYXNLU7hNapc8XK1P8W14ayo8YB7a6bOogcWpyrgG-XXpxxRb04OS7inTDGXkU-b3KNc2gSnwGGnZM3Nk6-i2GVmlpt5BPmy8HQbNuJB-f8g4uTbgxsNjr2QgAo_khMfoU8hH7OXUX7MzT90Qld4ZOmh0-Go/s1904/22.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1130" data-original-width="1904" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbzqe3e5SbKoh58txrGN4L0xsHCOtALR1aIYXNLU7hNapc8XK1P8W14ayo8YB7a6bOogcWpyrgG-XXpxxRb04OS7inTDGXkU-b3KNc2gSnwGGnZM3Nk6-i2GVmlpt5BPmy8HQbNuJB-f8g4uTbgxsNjr2QgAo_khMfoU8hH7OXUX7MzT90Qld4ZOmh0-Go/s16000/22.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: REVOLVER Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Clever premise of a prison warden in genuine tough guy and here, promoted ex-cop Oliver Reed... who surreptitiously allows a prisoner to escape before abducting him in exchange for his (own) kidnapped wife between steely, intentionally claustrophobic scenes in dingy offices harboring dingier jail sells... </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></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The best moments involves uptight lawman Reed (described as "a stray dog without a home") and co-star Fabio Testi's initially reluctant, affable criminal teamed-up on the run — in the latter's rogue territory... </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/AVvXsEh4yVlmqaOZn283UyaZ2FQuwo8kDKWoY_IEbmdXoPafZNByQ_LTg7X9oEDmkIluud2R0Fo1z5MUfrbTtPe7Q1c5QYqHe_OnlSHf9SOQKjYvv_B_UHd9pbAh28tdCndKV7h0idbLX1uNJlS6d4Sm1xJYg2oiB6Ec27dHHsAyj04gEVtvZNzxn0jJ_7p4DLdP/s2134/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-17%20at%202.13.50%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1084" data-original-width="2134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4yVlmqaOZn283UyaZ2FQuwo8kDKWoY_IEbmdXoPafZNByQ_LTg7X9oEDmkIluud2R0Fo1z5MUfrbTtPe7Q1c5QYqHe_OnlSHf9SOQKjYvv_B_UHd9pbAh28tdCndKV7h0idbLX1uNJlS6d4Sm1xJYg2oiB6Ec27dHHsAyj04gEVtvZNzxn0jJ_7p4DLdP/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-17%20at%202.13.50%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Oliver Reed in REVOLVER</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>As the petty thief teaching the strict, timid lawman to steal a car a standout, and there needed more of this kind of Film Noir-inspired ambiguity beyond a meandering subplot involving a flaky musician connected to a powerful politician — while an uncompromising Reed, with an overly-pronounced American accent he's previously used satirically, doesn't overact to show the love for his wife (an insanely gorgeous Agostina Belli), or the needed desperation to cut corners... </p><p>But if only Fabio Testi were given half his partner's infectious intensity and overall motivation instead of coolly underplaying a glib character meant to fit within the buddy-plot plot-line, REVOLVER... with a surging Ennio Morricone score and the usual dose of melodramatic vocal-dubbing... would be more a time-killer than time-filler. </p><p><span></span></p>

action, crime, ennio morricone, escape, fabio testi, frédéric de pasquale, italian, jailbreak, kidnapping, oliver reed, paola pitagora, sergio sollima, seventies, teamup, thriller, wrong man

OLIVER REED AND FABIO TESTI ITALIAN CRIME FLICK 'REVOLVER'

Title: REVOLVER Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2 Clever premise of a prison warden in genuine tough guy and here, promoted ex-cop Oliver Reed... wh...

CHARLES BRONSON & ROBERT DUVALL BAND APART FOR 'BREAKOUT'

<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/AVvXsEgEhvd0Sb_UlVtNIuL63ZQOfL81SqBuBygSDz1JTK1ukn63MWGpGT5WAnnmPIqSvDQ1tgOhFDw3GSbju3ss6EQTBxhF5xEfrc14PuDtwQm06WKkDO9wAUzNfAkYptgNHbGnYIB4hEoVULKiQxGMOZKtCfOFhyreqzWr7cOlSa3CFML6vUoewq8OST7WCw/s2182/2.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1114" data-original-width="2182" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEhvd0Sb_UlVtNIuL63ZQOfL81SqBuBygSDz1JTK1ukn63MWGpGT5WAnnmPIqSvDQ1tgOhFDw3GSbju3ss6EQTBxhF5xEfrc14PuDtwQm06WKkDO9wAUzNfAkYptgNHbGnYIB4hEoVULKiQxGMOZKtCfOFhyreqzWr7cOlSa3CFML6vUoewq8OST7WCw/s16000/2.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson in BREAKOUT Year: 1975 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The violent prologue of the 1975 Tom Gries jailbreak flick is so Sam Peckinpah you could call it BRING ME THE HEAD OF ROBERT DUVALL, and the Bloody Sam similarities include echoed gunshots under the hot Mexico sun; a white shirt soaked with gory, bright red blood; a slow-motion body falling to the ground as the opening credits appear across  paused-images as Jerry Goldsmith's score opens with soft, skeletal vibes into a Spanish groove... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And even beyond all that, BREAKOUT is a modern Spaghetti Western (released the same year as Gries/Bronson's actual Western BREAKHEART PASS) wherein action hero Charles Bronson is similar to his colorful MR. MAJESTYK character, only even more playfully cocky and wisecracking... </p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, alan vint, charles bronson, escape, jailbreak, jill ireland, john huston, mexico, prison, randy quaid, robert duvall, roy jenson, rural, seventies, sheree north, tom gries

CHARLES BRONSON & ROBERT DUVALL BAND APART FOR 'BREAKOUT'

Charles Bronson in BREAKOUT Year: 1975 Rates: ***1/2 The violent prologue of the 1975 Tom Gries jailbreak flick is so Sam Peckinpah you cou...

DOUGLAS HICKOX SHOOTING OLIVER REED FOR 'SITTING TARGET'

<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><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><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/AVvXsEg2D8ZnmOmUZdswsoA_rOofyQ6L_SgDlhI29cK3BihlqUf8uBX284hdOneuQ-asFirMUzsgTf0vCwlU_1kzp60SWUMN9xSfV2NdXIg8NXfLUt_wpYgiQiEiQGQf-z14-i9G6khcrmubnaKRjuYGJP3kY8ULZin2zxEdzCZWghxIwC1yvXh6FYfdJ-ZtMJVe/s2512/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-12%20at%2010.00.05%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1266" data-original-width="2512" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg2D8ZnmOmUZdswsoA_rOofyQ6L_SgDlhI29cK3BihlqUf8uBX284hdOneuQ-asFirMUzsgTf0vCwlU_1kzp60SWUMN9xSfV2NdXIg8NXfLUt_wpYgiQiEiQGQf-z14-i9G6khcrmubnaKRjuYGJP3kY8ULZin2zxEdzCZWghxIwC1yvXh6FYfdJ-ZtMJVe/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-12%20at%2010.00.05%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Oliver Reed in SITTING TARGET Year: 1972 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>When long-time locked-up convict Oliver Reed breaks out of prison to kill wife Jill St. John for getting pregnant without him, it seems a solo effort despite having a buddy right alongside since Ian McShane's his dead-ringer/doppelganger...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In fact, both seem like the same character, only one's younger, more shady and sexually-active while our volatile anti-hero has the kind of seething tunnel-vision liken to Michael Caine from this film's obvious muse GET CARTER, only with far less last names/red herrings and a much simpler plot i.e. almost none at all... </p><p><span></span></p>

british new wave, douglas hickox, edward woodward, exploitation, frank finley, freddie jones, ian mcshane, jailbreak, jill st. john, jill townsend, oliver reed, revenge, robert beatty, seventies, tony beckley

DOUGLAS HICKOX SHOOTING OLIVER REED FOR 'SITTING TARGET'

Oliver Reed in SITTING TARGET Year: 1972 Rating: ****1/2 When long-time locked-up convict Oliver Reed breaks out of prison to kill wife Jill...

KIRK DOUGLAS IN HIS PERSONAL FAV OF 'LONELY ARE THE BRAVE'

<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdmNoQhjY9lRlNlIV_IkaOYJZMcRrBMVpNhNpg2sWVR0XCs76TCcY8Jd2SAEZrbsXia4vdSiohPjTNHdTDreZQdqBlzeVBYPBnnvMG04zHuyExx5Buhyo4NjTfM8sBNO2dtU_lZ4DWwo1T/s1600/0.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="765" data-original-width="1180" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdmNoQhjY9lRlNlIV_IkaOYJZMcRrBMVpNhNpg2sWVR0XCs76TCcY8Jd2SAEZrbsXia4vdSiohPjTNHdTDreZQdqBlzeVBYPBnnvMG04zHuyExx5Buhyo4NjTfM8sBNO2dtU_lZ4DWwo1T/s1600/0.jpeg"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Kirk Douglas is a cowboy battling copters in LONELY ARE THE BRAVE Year: 1962</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> The late Kirk Douglas's favorite movie, that he starred in, wasn't SPARTACUS but LONELY ARE THE BRAVE, beginning like a TWILIGHT ZONE episode would end: A man seeming like a  genuine-article cowboy, from the actual 1880's genuine cowboy era, awakes in the craggy desert with his faithful horse, when something catches his eyes, and <i>our</i> ears...<br> <br> Streaks across the sky from echoing jet planes, and now the audience learns we're in modern times (an introductory misleading-device later used in Sam Peckinpah's BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA also involving planes): Something Douglas's character isn't quite used to despite having reluctantly lived it all these years...<br>

action, adventure, drama, gena rowlands, jailbreak, kirk douglas, michael kane, modern western, prison, sixties

KIRK DOUGLAS IN HIS PERSONAL FAV OF 'LONELY ARE THE BRAVE'

Kirk Douglas is a cowboy battling copters in LONELY ARE THE BRAVE Year: 1962 The late Kirk Douglas's favorite movie, that he starred...