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Beat the Devil(1953)4/10
With Humphrey Bogart, Gina Lollobrigida, Robert Morley, Peter Lorre and Bernard Lee( briefly)
A group of people are leaving southern Europe, for North Africa, to make their fortune.
Rather disappointing. Given the good cast I was expecting more. It was rather light and fluffy, coasting along, from one scene to the next. The music was postcard Italian in style.
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MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE (1971)
Autumn is coming, and I'm beginning to itch for spooky thrillers, especially ones from that late 1960s-early 1970s era. I've been marathoning the Hammers the last couple of years, so, for some fresh "blood," I looked to American International and tried this Poe-inspired movie with Herbert Lom essentially playing the phantom of the opera again.
More times than not one ends up watching an unimaginative and very non-stylish flick in this genre, but I found Rue Morgue to be both engaging and truly atmospheric. Satisfying plot twists as well. This one earns a place on my "playlist" for this specific type of suspense film.
Below, the mysterious Michael Dunn beckons beautiful damsel-in-distress Christine Kaufmann into a carriage. (You have to imagine this scene in dreamy slow motion to get the full effect!)
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Posted: |
Sep 16, 2023 - 12:41 AM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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RETRIBUTION (2023) – 7/10
Liam Neeson’s latest thriller finds him playing “Matt Turner,” some sort of an investment fund partner in Berlin, whose fund has suffered a downturn. One morning, after placating an angry client, Turner rounds up his teenage son “Zach” (Jack Champion) and pre-teen daughter “Emily” (Lilly Aspell) to take them to school, while mom “Heather” (Embeth Davidtz) goes off to meet a friend. During the drive, Matt gets a call telling him that when he sat down in the car, he activated a bomb under the seat, which will detonate if he leaves the vehicle. Matt is also told that he is being constantly watched, that the bomb can also be set off by a cell phone signal, and that he is to keep the kids in the car as well. So begins a day of terror for the three, as Matt is ordered to drive from place to place where he watches various people being killed by bombs, without knowing who is doing this to him or why.
This is a nice, compact 90-minute suspense film, in which the audience doesn’t know any more than Matt does about what is going on. There are a number of tense moments and a few surprises. Noma Dumezweni has a good supporting role as a Berlin police official who believes that Matt is the mad bomber. RETRIBUTION is the third remake of a 2015 Spanish film of the same name. Director Nimród Antal also helmed another nice, compact crime film that I liked, 2010’s ARMORED. Harry Gregson-Williams provides a standard suspense score. The film is not destined to be one of Neeson’s big hits, and will probably top out at $15 million worldwide.
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Marshall of Heldorado(1950)4/10
With James Ellison and Russell Hayden
The two leads become Lawmen and start to clean up the town.
Light 53m B movie ( or even a C) effort. It skips along and isn't too stooopid. Some gun play n punch ups and a few horses. No Mexicans, or indeed any ethnicities.
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Posted: |
Sep 17, 2023 - 11:49 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE NAKED APE (1973) – 5/10
Desmond Morris’ best-selling 1967 book The Naked Ape: A Zoologist’s Study of the Human Animal was a world-wide success that was translated into twenty-three languages. In 1968, independent producer Harold Hecht acquired the rights to Morris’ book for $85,000 and in conjunction with Universal intended to make a humorous film with animated sequences. However, by 1972, after two drafts of a screenplay, Universal shelved the project as “impossible of screen translation.” Inquiries at Columbia concurred that the property could not be made into a movie. Ultimately, Hugh Hefner agreed to co-produce the project without having read the script. Hefner’s Playboy Productions split the $1.7 million budget with Universal.
Hecht’s instincts turned out to be the correct ones. The film, which purports to illustrate the evolution of humanity, no less, is a mess. It’s told as a flashback by “Lee” (Johnny Crawford), a soldier in Vietnam. It alternates lame sequences of Lee, on a college campus before his Army induction, pursuing coed “Cathy” (Victoria Principal), with even lamer sequences of Lee reading passages from Morris’ book relating to male genitalia, human sexual behavior, courtship, and how privacy is sought during copulation.
The animated sequences included: A montage of Indian drawings of sexual positions; the origins of clothing; man’s attempt to adjust to the rapid advance of civilization; and a montage of still photographs depicting Christian missionaries “civilizing” an Aborigine couple. All of these things follow one upon the other in no apparent order and making no apparent point.
Producer Zev Bufman hoped to persuade Leonard Bernstein to conduct the New York Philharmonic from the bottom of the Grand Canyon for the film; however, no such sequence was included. Short fragments of well-known musical pieces are used throughout the film. Some of these pieces, some original score and songs by Jimmy Webb, and some dialog was released on a Playboy Records LP. It has not been re-issued on CD. Although the film runs only 85 minutes, you’ll be checking your watch long before it’s over.
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This thread is still going?!? Jeebus.
I hope youve read every post and replied michaelWare?
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Posted: |
Sep 19, 2023 - 6:37 PM
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By: |
Bob DiMucci
(Member)
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THE NIGHT OF THE HUNTED (1980) – 7/10
Driving on a lonely French road one night, “Robert” (Vincent Gardère) picks up “Elysabeth” (Brigitte Lahaie), a scantily-clad woman who appears to be fleeing someone or something. He takes the woman back to his apartment in the city and they make love. Afterwards, he discovers that she has already forgotten where they met, and remembers little about where she has been. When Robert goes off to work the next morning, two men abduct the amnesiac woman and take her to a scientific fortress known to its inhabitants as “The Black Tower.” Here, people suffering memory and identity loss due to accidental nuclear contamination are being held and treated.
Writer-director Jean Rollin had some time between films, and his original plan was to quickly make an X-rated film with actors who were experienced in porn films. He wrote the script in a day and shot the film in two weeks. The plot devices of memory loss, and the slow and deliberate speech patterns of the denizens of The Black Tower are used to make the most of the acting limitations of the cast. As you would expect, the film includes a number of sexual encounters among the Tower inmates.
But despite the low budget and time limitations, Rollin is able to create a plausible world populated by the lost and haunted shells of formerly normal citizens. Things come to a head when Elysabeth and her friend “Véronique” (Dominique Journet) make another attempt at escape, just as Robert arrives at the facility.
Gary Sandeur (aka Philippe Bréjean) provides a mourning electronic musical score. The film did not get a U.S. theatrical release.
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