cult film freak: September 2020

Written by James M. Tate / 9/27/2020 / No comments / british new wave , christina gregg , crime , janina faye , serial killer , suspense , thriller

CHRISTINA GREGG STALKED IN 'DON'T TALK TO STRANGE MEN'

<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/AVvXsEiG6-0oRCa_g14wUc65oCABXn4vzDVMoTxJltli9cuXYibel9t0F0sSr5DYPw_rBZG6MDnfsOwfTALH8LKxImqJ871DBzYtULX5p-QfgQQ5zTwoJwpnB6QX86nwnXX5yM-epEBCTM9_8EZQH3mJ0ft8_PGtFn346XEzAO6Uc3bj35C2Ku_CnIBHmt21wg/s1600/1.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1170" data-original-width="1600" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiG6-0oRCa_g14wUc65oCABXn4vzDVMoTxJltli9cuXYibel9t0F0sSr5DYPw_rBZG6MDnfsOwfTALH8LKxImqJ871DBzYtULX5p-QfgQQ5zTwoJwpnB6QX86nwnXX5yM-epEBCTM9_8EZQH3mJ0ft8_PGtFn346XEzAO6Uc3bj35C2Ku_CnIBHmt21wg/w400-h293/1.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Christina Gregg DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS Year: 1962</td></tr></tbody></table>With shows like CATFISH it may seem somewhat new: grown men soliciting and seducing young naïve girls into their clutches, online, but in the 1961 British New Wave Thriller, it happened pretty much the same way, via payphone... 
 
And while a title like DON'T TALK TO STRANGE MEN sounds like a public service announcement, it's ironic that the stranger on the phone is the one advising this to his target, gorgeous girl-next-door Christina Gregg, over five-years older than the character but doing a fantastic job in the vulnerable part: looking a hybrid of two babyface starlets, Diane Baker (before) and Jennifer Jason Leigh (after): she's part of what's more a teenage crush movie than a serial killer suspense, and it's not a one way street despite her doing all the acting facially...

british new wave, christina gregg, crime, janina faye, serial killer, suspense, thriller

CHRISTINA GREGG STALKED IN 'DON'T TALK TO STRANGE MEN'

Christina Gregg DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS Year: 1962 With shows like CATFISH it may seem somewhat new: grown men soliciting and seducing ...

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'BLIND CORNER'

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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barbara Shelley (the cheater) and William Sylvester (the cheated) in BLIND CORNER Year: 1964</td></tr>
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Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is known for its outer space special effects, prehistoric monkeys and a nefarious computer. As for humans there are two British actors (Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood) and one American as that pair of astronauts' chief. But William Sylvester, though born in Oakland, California, is as much a British actor as they are, trained in RADA and a fixture of England's cinema since after World War II... 
 
Though known mostly for the Godzilla/King Kong homage GORGA (that is, before 2001), Sylvester's best performance is the main character from MAN IN THE DARK, actually titled BLIND CORNER, which sounds more like the Noir that it is, one of many low budget 1960's crime flicks from the British New Wave.

alexander davion, barbara shelley, british neo noir, british new wave, elizabeth sheperd, lance comfort, mark eden, perfect murder, sixties, thriller, william sylvester

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'BLIND CORNER'

Barbara Shelley (the cheater) and William Sylvester (the cheated) in BLIND CORNER Year: 1964 Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY...

BEFORE TAKING A 'BULLITT' DIRECTOR PETER YATES SHOT 'ROBBERY'

<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/AVvXsEhKfKhLZcyw1UwwlvQ6LxzJzINHjUypaWMJja8yUtCcTZ3IEjgtgOaqP8iI596RUi9zYS9cqbO-o_1hVwcsymLCmY12Ig1v5M7eDMXvfZMQmlKioytmTB0k2t5YvfRAejvD0BvikgHmaiD2Ls5nYTtRQXq0EkVlIbENoOoUhgGxSKl4AxsCwCGvWY7jbI9n/s2566/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-01%20at%208.50.16%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1238" data-original-width="2566" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKfKhLZcyw1UwwlvQ6LxzJzINHjUypaWMJja8yUtCcTZ3IEjgtgOaqP8iI596RUi9zYS9cqbO-o_1hVwcsymLCmY12Ig1v5M7eDMXvfZMQmlKioytmTB0k2t5YvfRAejvD0BvikgHmaiD2Ls5nYTtRQXq0EkVlIbENoOoUhgGxSKl4AxsCwCGvWY7jbI9n/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-01%20at%208.50.16%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: ROBBERY Director: Peter Yates Star: Stanley Baker Year: 1967 Rating: ****1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>Best known as the obscure crime film that gave English director Peter Yates his big game-changing opportunity to make BULLITT stateside, after Steve McQueen had witnessed the rudimentary car chase sequence from ROBBERY, overall a sparse, deliberately cold/heartless British Neo-Noir Heist-Thriller... And it's not just this initial chase that Yates carried over to the Steve McQueen legendary classic, but also the strategically metronomic moments leading up...

action, barry foster, british neo noir, british new wave, frank finlay, glynn edwards, heist, james booth, joanna pettet, peter yates, sixties, stanley baker, william marlowe

BEFORE TAKING A 'BULLITT' DIRECTOR PETER YATES SHOT 'ROBBERY'

Title: ROBBERY Director: Peter Yates Star: Stanley Baker Year: 1967 Rating: ****1/2 Best known as the obscure crime film that gave English d...

ALICE FAYE AND CARMEN MIRANDA IN 'THE GANG'S ALL HERE'

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<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/AVvXsEhfQJA-YIvSbwdKoSfLJgvFuJNWBYHbi7CCsflW2FdUIX5-Gn3_Hi5_kcz28p_ou5YW5P32hqIU20aBpNNX5S7FarCpfElNYbKJYWqIWzmhVYnip_ZyfhfdzYOH-nAk_ibgeEUgbCwrbcg_w-eOzMyqj_cpzQ64A-1bWN52o0Y9r58xP_YwX4SE8Ln-SEDa/s1942/Screen%20Shot%202023-09-12%20at%203.14.07%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1478" data-original-width="1942" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfQJA-YIvSbwdKoSfLJgvFuJNWBYHbi7CCsflW2FdUIX5-Gn3_Hi5_kcz28p_ou5YW5P32hqIU20aBpNNX5S7FarCpfElNYbKJYWqIWzmhVYnip_ZyfhfdzYOH-nAk_ibgeEUgbCwrbcg_w-eOzMyqj_cpzQ64A-1bWN52o0Y9r58xP_YwX4SE8Ln-SEDa/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-09-12%20at%203.14.07%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">THE GANG'S ALL HERE Year: 1943 Rating: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>Anything featuring Carmen Miranda is 
interesting, and when it comes to this particular wartime propaganda by 
Busby Berkely titled THE GANG'S ALL HERE, it's lightly entertaining as 
well... 
 
Meanwhile, for story's sake, a bland and breezy romance encroaches upon 
the fantastical, borderline psychedelic (way before there was such a thing) first act combining a popular 
nightclub run by Phil Baker and where Benny Goodman and his band play, as a show's taking place on
 stage before a dinner theater crowd...

alice faye, aloysio de oliveira, benny goodman, carmen miranda, charlotte greenwood, forties, musical

ALICE FAYE AND CARMEN MIRANDA IN 'THE GANG'S ALL HERE'

THE GANG'S ALL HERE Year: 1943 Rating: ***1/2 Anything featuring Carmen Miranda is interesting, and when it comes to this particular...

ELLIOTT GOULD IN ROBERT ALTMAN'S NEO NOIR 'THE LONG GOODBYE'

<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/AVvXsEjfzlN60-CDD26JhjHwXuECcvqSnOjPKRnpp1l3UwDDe-kctzoVLCCP5i4JX18KxfVASSK-7gVFdyxPTnVP2f6Untb-UW861LId_xNFHiuyd0kc7pgU7iIbZm4HdCLzYrE5FLJZ7nz5cSe3RZ7HTA7LmPoUdmafk7gxXlPI0Ig-mNGCEf2MtkeuJnlhXw/s1686/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-09%20at%204.16.37%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="759" data-original-width="1686" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjfzlN60-CDD26JhjHwXuECcvqSnOjPKRnpp1l3UwDDe-kctzoVLCCP5i4JX18KxfVASSK-7gVFdyxPTnVP2f6Untb-UW861LId_xNFHiuyd0kc7pgU7iIbZm4HdCLzYrE5FLJZ7nz5cSe3RZ7HTA7LmPoUdmafk7gxXlPI0Ig-mNGCEf2MtkeuJnlhXw/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-09%20at%204.16.37%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: THE LONG GOODBYE Director: Robert Altman Year: 1973 Rating: *****</td></tr></tbody></table>Former Noir legend Sterling Hayden is technically the most important character in Robert Altman's Neo Noir THE LONG GOODBYE, based on a Raymond Chandler novel where the tough-handsome gumshoe Philip Marlowe is turned into a lazy, hippie-friendly slob in Elliott Gould, perfectly cast against type and at his very best... Particularly a scene where he and Hayden's Roger Wade... hired by Wade's mesmerizing trophy wife guarded by a grouchy doberman within a Malibu, California colony home... share an afternoon drink at the couple's Malibu beach-backyard, and it's here Wade learns that Marlowe's not such a "ding-a-ling" after all...