cult film freak: August 2020

Written by James M. Tate / 8/19/2020 / No comments / british film noir/melodrama , carol reed , cyril cusack , dan o'herlihy , drama , forties , IRA , james mason , kathleen ryan , robert beatty , thriller

CAROL REED'S BELFAST NOIR 'ODD MAN OUT' WITH JAMES MASON

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Beatty bribes an urchin for help YEAR: 1947</u></td></tr>
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James Mason is always intense, even when he's 
playing comedy, and this is no comedy: The most riveting scenes seem 
initially very standard and, for this seemingly doomed, wounded Irish nationalist leader 
left for dead, staggering through darkened alleys and hidden rooms, he seems to come across things that, at first, seem much 
different than they turn out being, making this ODD MAN way, way OUT 
there while at the same time, the audience struggles within the desperate man's perspective...<br>
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So the suspense relies on a fish out of water almost drowning while perhaps the 
best moments occur in the set-up as we 
see through what's truly a semi-deranged mind to begin with: having been
 holed-up indoors, and before that prison, even his own gang don't trust 
his instincts and capabilities to pull off a relatively otherwise 
in-and-out office heist, but in fact, Mason's intrepidly lost Johnny McQueen is backed by tough, assertive Robert Beatty; weaselly, gun-toting Cyril Cusack; timid Dan O'Herlihy; and the lovely, soulfully sad yet dedicated and stubborn-tough ingenue Kathleen Ryan...<br>

british film noir/melodrama, carol reed, cyril cusack, dan o'herlihy, drama, forties, IRA, james mason, kathleen ryan, robert beatty, thriller

CAROL REED'S BELFAST NOIR 'ODD MAN OUT' WITH JAMES MASON

Robert Beatty bribes an urchin for help YEAR: 1947 James Mason is always intense, even when he's playing comedy, and this is no com...

RACHEL ROBERTS & ANNETTE WHITELEY IN 'GIRL ON APPROVAL'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Annette Whiteley in GIRL ON APPROVAL Year: 1962</u></td></tr>
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If you didn't know the plot going in... that fourteen-year-old Sheila is an unwanted orphan who'd gone through a string of foster parents and is now "trying out for" a couple that could be her very last chance... she'd seem like any other girl her age: Bratty. Moody. Angry. Pouting. Shouting... Favoring friendly dad over competitive mom...<br>
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Basically, GIRL ON APPROVAL is about a normal bad girl at this age, and yet the plot (more a situation) adds enough suspense for the outcome to matter, but not only for the kid...<br>
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Parents Rachel Roberts and James Maxwell, who'd lost their daughter and, raising two young boys, wind up at each other's throat when this bad seed makes their domestic suburban life a living hell. From cutting up furniture with scissors to smashing things on the kitchen floor, the acting of young Annette Whiteley is strong and effective if one-note-grouchy: like an owl peaking through a messy nest of hair... <br>

annette whiteley, british new wave, drama, family, james maxwell, melodrama, rachel roberts, sixties

RACHEL ROBERTS & ANNETTE WHITELEY IN 'GIRL ON APPROVAL'

Annette Whiteley in GIRL ON APPROVAL Year: 1962 If you didn't know the plot going in... that fourteen-year-old Sheila is an unwanted...

CULT ACTRESS LINDA MANZ IS GONE BUT SHE'S NOT FORGOTTEN

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Linda Manz born August 20, 1961 died August 14, 2020 here in THE WANDERERS</u></td></tr>
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Rest in Peace to one of the most unique cult actresses of all time, LINDA MANZ, who started as Richard Gere's narrating little sister in the Depression-era drama DAYS OF HEAVEN, a role that Gere himself said stole the film...<br>
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And she starred in what's her most famous role as Dennis Hoppers troubled daughter in the EASY RIDER auteur's directorial comeback, OUT OF THE BLUE, in which Manz's character worships Elvis and Johnny Rotten; and before that, in THE WANDERERS, she's the "Pee Wee" girlfriend of giant-sized Erland van Lidth.<br>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Linda Manz in her final and most iconic roles OUT OF THE BLUE</u></td></tr>
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2020, linda manz, tribute

CULT ACTRESS LINDA MANZ IS GONE BUT SHE'S NOT FORGOTTEN

Linda Manz born August 20, 1961 died August 14, 2020 here in THE WANDERERS Rest in Peace to one of the most unique cult actresses of all...

SUSAN HAYWARD AND DANA ANDREWS STIR 'MY FOOLISH HEART'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: MY FOOLISH HEART Year: 1949 Rating: ***</u></td></tr>
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J.D. Salinger's short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" was adapted, to his chagrin, and with Dana Andrews discussing the titular rabbit getting into and out of trouble, it's contrived, cinematic symbolism for Susan Hayward, flashing back and forth from pre-War to post-War... a glib lush unhappily married to Kent Smith (hanging with her best friend and dealing with an introverted daughter) in the present while reminiscing about the nostalgic affair with Andrews...<br>
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The best scenes occur before the before the war; that is, when Dana's dapper, handsome stranger meets our insecure college girl at a dance, defends her against a bullying deb, takes her home for a drink, and later gets her thrown out of college for kissing in the dorm elevator. And just as their romance gets interesting, the next scene Dana's wearing a baggy military uniform, about to fly overseas but before that, to meet her parents...<br>

adaptation, dana andrews, drama, forties, j.d. salinger, kent smith, mark robson, melodrama, robert keith, romance, susan hayward

SUSAN HAYWARD AND DANA ANDREWS STIR 'MY FOOLISH HEART'

Title: MY FOOLISH HEART Year: 1949 Rating: *** J.D. Salinger's short story "Uncle Wiggily in Connecticut" was adapted, to ...

DANA ANDREWS WITH FARLEY GRANGER IN 'EDGE OF DOOM'

<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/AVvXsEh6PzFAsx4v-EVguq04ofxZb45-RXlp9I5y7MGnhzzcs4YupXPCch-kpGElpSs9iDO0jeERi9vL9W-6oxEUKWN6llibXYSeaGlNvNvAbq5VAdmDuSsnqWguayBD5Vsc5kCVVnIldtk_iZNOz1AZ0uwwwW9rcqU4OFbTAHFVB4wyI1duWmbAMOQTZcRIL9qg/s1498/514941129_1412931453686518_8372849479591904166_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="950" data-original-width="1498" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6PzFAsx4v-EVguq04ofxZb45-RXlp9I5y7MGnhzzcs4YupXPCch-kpGElpSs9iDO0jeERi9vL9W-6oxEUKWN6llibXYSeaGlNvNvAbq5VAdmDuSsnqWguayBD5Vsc5kCVVnIldtk_iZNOz1AZ0uwwwW9rcqU4OFbTAHFVB4wyI1duWmbAMOQTZcRIL9qg/s16000/514941129_1412931453686518_8372849479591904166_n.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: EDGE OF DOOM aka STRONGER THAN FEAR Year: 1950 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The idea of a Catholic Film Noir isn't so strange being that the "genre" and the religion are both full of guilt, and this above-average crime melodrama in the fashion of CRIME AND PUNISHMENT stars super-guilty-looking Farley Granger (equally as ashamed of his murdering-self in Alfred Hitchock's ROPE), who kills an old cranky priest that didn't give his long-dead father last rites because he'd committed suicide instead of — like Granger's beloved mother that he wants a lavish funeral for despite their shabby apartment-dwelling reality — dying more naturally, and with dignity...<br>
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Enter Dana Andrews... not as the doomed priest but the young, more open minded Father with the normally Jewish last name of Roth (Hollywood obviously wanted to please everyone): he's called in for Ma's last rites instead of the old man, dealing with his own pointless personal family issues...<br>
</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>

adele jergens, dana andrews, farley granger, fifties, film noir or melodrama, mala powers, mark robson, paul stewart, robert keith, thriller

DANA ANDREWS WITH FARLEY GRANGER IN 'EDGE OF DOOM'

Title: EDGE OF DOOM aka STRONGER THAN FEAR Year: 1950 Rating: ***1/2 The idea of a Catholic Film Noir isn't so strange being that the ...

PEGGY CUMMINS & JOHN DALL IN THE NOIR ROAD FLICK 'GUN CRAZY'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Poster with John Dall and Peggy Cummins dead in love for GUN CRAZY Year: 1950</u></td></tr>
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The Femme Fatale, you know, the bad girl with the great face... the soulless dame with the fantastic body... Well she's just about everything in GUN CRAZY despite the lengthy prologue about the doomed young man as a precocious kid, initially played by Russ Tamblyn, with a penchant for guns who winds up in reform school...<br>
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And it's not long after getting out... now a twenty-something John Dall... when he and his childhood buddies go to a sideshow where Peggy Cummins' Annie Laurie Starr steals his heart — but only after he beats her at a shooting contest i.e. her very own game. The next scene, Dall's Bart Tare has a job there too, and not long after he's fired by jealous barker Berry Kroeger, smitten with the girl who gets away...</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The other title for GUN CRAZY is DEADLY IS THE FEMALE Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
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The second act has a lot of bombastic action up front but the usual Noirish guilt, here involving Dall's brooding Bart, not only happens much too quick but is intrusive and annoying, not allowing him (or the audience) to enjoy the rural Bonnie & Clyde town-hopping robberies: But there's no such cloying guilt from Annie...<br>
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And with sparse, finely-tuned direction by Joseph H. Lewis... visually and rhythmically foreshadowing French New Wave cinema with a kind of naked/barren aesthetic... this is Peggy Cummins picture; and she had no backstory at all. Then again, do deadly dames (aka DEADLY IS THE FEMALE) even have a past? Usually theirs' is a quick shoot-em-up future. If only she had a less reluctant/whiny partner-in-crime. Mr. Dall needed a little of that ROPE gusto here! <br>

action, fifties, film noir or melodrama, heist, john dall, peggy cummins, road movie, russ tamblyn

PEGGY CUMMINS & JOHN DALL IN THE NOIR ROAD FLICK 'GUN CRAZY'

Poster with John Dall and Peggy Cummins dead in love for GUN CRAZY Year: 1950 The Femme Fatale, you know, the bad girl with the great fa...

PAUL NEWMAN DEFECTS ALFRED HITCHOCK'S 'TORN CURTAIN'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Paul Newman battling Wolfgang Kieling Year: 1966 Rating: ***</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table><p>Alfred Hitchcock's Cold War Thriller TORN CURTAIN brings back the auteur's use of teaming-up a man and woman for the best use of retaliation, which includes leading man Paul Newman but not his dutiful wife Julie Andrews: instead the real <i>she</i> is Carolyn Conwell as a Russian farmer's wife... </p><p>Who not only has more importance than her tractor-driving husband, Mort Mills, spouting exposition to Newman's American scientist, pretending to defect <i>within</i> Russia to get secret plans to take back Stateside...  <br>
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But the good strong Russian woman helps Newman's Professor Michael Armstrong kill a seemingly impenetrable, solidly built Soviet henchman named Gromek, played by Wolfgang Kieling who, once he's out of the picture, it's all pretty much downhill, leaving the handsome, reluctant hero to deal with the film's weakest link: And in that, Julie Andrews basically stands around staring pale-eyed, hoping her husband isn't really doing what he's really not doing while she obstructs the overall suspense from its cinematic Master, only half-successfully covering new ground here (<a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/08/topaz.html">TOPAZ</a> is a slight improvement).<br>
</p>

action, adventure, alfred hitchcock, carolyn conwell, cold war, espionage, julie andrews, paul newman, russia, science, suspense, thriller, wolfgang kieling

PAUL NEWMAN DEFECTS ALFRED HITCHOCK'S 'TORN CURTAIN'

Paul Newman battling Wolfgang Kieling Year: 1966 Rating: *** Alfred Hitchcock's Cold War Thriller TORN CURTAIN brings back the auteur...

ALFRED HITCHCOCK TAKING ON COLD WAR CUBA FOR 'TOPAZ'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Frederick Stafford & Claude Jade 1969 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr>
</tbody></table><p>In Alfred Hitchcock's underrated Cold War Thriller TOPAZ, by the time there's someone to root for in French spy Frederick Stafford, seeking info in Castro's Cuba after scene-stealing, sneak-around Roscoe Lee Browne risked his life to lift an important briefcase (the McGuffin) in Harlem, we've forgotten it all started with John Forsythe helping an important Russian family defect in what feels like its own suspenseful short film...<br>
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The problem is length: After the splendid demise of beautiful Cuban Castro-hating Karin Dor (having had an ongoing affair with the married Frenchman) in the only <i>moment</i> TOPAZ is linked to Hitchcock's legendary style... a dress seeming to bleed into the floor... there's a lot of talky running-out-the-clock (including our French spy's worried wife Dany Robin and daughter Claude Jade getting shoved into the danger) with villain John Vernon as a bright-blue-eyed Cuban General; what's really shocking is he only <i>seems </i>miscast as his input early on is actually quite effective. But it's one outdoor sequence involving two hungry seagulls (from the director of THE BIRDS no less!)... screwing up a perfectly good spying-on-the-villains-picnic... that really feels like Hitchcock's dark comedy touch. And like his previous Cold War thriller <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/08/gromek.html">TORN CURAIN</a>, there needed a lot more touches here. <br>
</p>

adventure, alfred hitchcock, claude jade, cold war, dany robin, espionage, frederick stafford, john forsythe, john vernon, karin dor, sixties, spy, thriller

ALFRED HITCHCOCK TAKING ON COLD WAR CUBA FOR 'TOPAZ'

Frederick Stafford & Claude Jade 1969 Rating: ***1/2 In Alfred Hitchcock's underrated Cold War Thriller TOPAZ, by the time there...

JOHN SCHLESIGNER'S GLOSSY YUPPIE HORROR 'PACIFIC HEIGHTS'

<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ptX6ksaUsxAPWtzNgssW1WJj52sSAhBM1M11bQYEtBpK3Z5ke8xgkciedYkAIwpznUiifozlmC-pO9r3BWITS89_u9wmZU-VZ8yNKuUZ1b2CmVpPy1l0B9He5jP0SWXifob3d3I9DiXk/s1515/Screen+Shot+2020-09-26+at+1.02.05+PM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1183" data-original-width="1515" height="313" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9ptX6ksaUsxAPWtzNgssW1WJj52sSAhBM1M11bQYEtBpK3Z5ke8xgkciedYkAIwpznUiifozlmC-pO9r3BWITS89_u9wmZU-VZ8yNKuUZ1b2CmVpPy1l0B9He5jP0SWXifob3d3I9DiXk/w400-h313/Screen+Shot+2020-09-26+at+1.02.05+PM.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>PACIFIC HEIGHTS Year: 1990 Rates: **1/2</u><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><p>One of those Premise Thrillers: This one about a renter renting from a 
young couple who bought a San Fransisco townhouse and has rights that don't make sense,
 but are still insanely legal... </p><p>Matthew Modine and Melanie Griffith look like yuppies 
but aren't because they have little money... so that's both their sympathy <i>and</i> motivation to desperately need payment that Michael Keaton's shyster is holding back, and back and back... </p><p>Meanwhile
 he's a squatter from hell who plagues the place with roaches, hammering noises and endless mind games in an annoying neo-horror that's intentionally
 so since the villain's  purpose is to drive the protagonists <i>and</i> the audience crazy...</p><p>But
 there's not enough mix and match, and Michael Keaton has very little to
 do but sit around in dark brooding shadows looking sinister (under director John Schlesinger's modern Noir aesthetic). A 
shame since we know how hyperactive-charming Keaton can be. Imagine 
some black comedy injected throughout. After all, is this young-couple-harasser 
within a 
refurbished old home any different than Beetlejuice? Well yes, he is... 
because it's simply no fun hating him, and <i>should</i> be. Thankfully, Melanie Griffith, the stronger of the two victimized landlords, unleashes an intriguing 11th hour payback.<br /></p><p><br /></p>

horror, john schlesinger, matthew modine, melanie griffith, michael keaton, neo noir, nineties, thriller