Written by James M. Tate / 12/20/2020 / No comments / bruce humberstone , dana andrews , david white , drama , eddie albert , eleanor parker , howard st. john , jeanne crain , kathleen freeman , romance , sixties , wall street
DANA ANDREWS & JEANNE CRAIN RETURN FOR 'MADISON AVENUE'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 12/20/2020
Dana Andrews & Jeanne Crain in Madison Avenue Year: 1961Based on the novel The Build-Up Boys, Dana Andrews is similar to a con artist decades earlier from FALLEN ANGEL — only with a place to sleep and worth far more than a crumpled bottom d
Written by James M. Tate / 12/18/2020 / No comments / 2021 , arsenio hall , comedy , eddie murphy , john amos , new , sequel , shari headley
EDDIE MURPHY 'COMING 2 AMERICA' (BACKPOSTED FROM 3/5/2021)
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 12/18/2020
COMING 2 AMERICA Year: 2021 Rating: *1/2The original COMING TO AMERICA was no accident. It took experienced filmmaker John Landis to pull off what he did for THE BLUES BROTHERS, which came out before working with Eddie Murphy in TRADING PLA
Written by James M. Tate / 12/09/2020 / No comments / action , beach , deborah shelton , eighties , exploitation , horror , james earl jones , jaws-clone , jose ferrer , lydia cornell , martin kove , mary-louise weller , thriller
UNEARTHING 'BLOODTIDE' AKA 'DEMON ISLAND' AKA 'BLOOD TIDE'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 12/09/2020
Title: BLOODTIDE Year: 1982 Rating: ***1/2New marrieds Martin Kove and Mary-Louise Weller visit a Greek island to find his missing sister who turns out alive but "isn't quite there..."And the mystery is what happened to her before, during a
Written by James M. Tate / 12/07/2020 / No comments / carl reindel , e.g. marshall , espionage , history , japanese , jason robards , martin balsam , richard fleischer , seventies , war , wesley addy , world war II
DECEMBER 7TH POST OF RICHARD FLEISCHER'S 'TORA! TORA! TORA!'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 12/07/2020
Title: Tora! Tora! Tora! Year: 1970 Rating: ****American director/producer Richard Fleischer mans only half of TORA! TORA! TORA! centering before and during the bombing of Pearl Harbor, leaving the rest to the equal perspective of Japanese
Written by James M. Tate / 11/25/2020 / No comments / bob newhart , comedy , dick van dyke , exploitation , jean stapleton , norman lear , parody , paul benedict , pippa scott , seventies , sixties , vincent gardenia
SERVING NORMAN LEAR'S 'COLD TURKEY' FOR THANKSGIVING
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 11/25/2020
Dick Van Dyke preaches in Norman Lear's COLD TURKEY Year: 1971 Rating: **1/2While Halloween and Christmas themes/names are easy to find, Thanksgiving is more difficult unless just happening upon the one and only feature film that TV-produci
Written by James M. Tate / 11/15/2020 / No comments / ben cross , dan curtis , franchise , horror , joanna going , joseph gordon-levitt , nineties , roy thinnes , TV , vampire
JOANNA GOING AND REBECCA STAAB IN A NEWER 'DARK SHADOWS'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 11/15/2020
Joanna Going in Dark Shadows Year: 1991 Rating: ***1/2Dan Curtis turned his daytime soap DARK SHADOWS into a nighttime soap/miniseries that holds up pretty well with a younger Barnabas Collins in Ben Cross, seeming more like a lovelorn coll
Written by James M. Tate / 11/14/2020 / No comments / anton diffring , body count , british , circus , conrad phillips , donald pleasence , erika remberg , exploitation , horror , sixties , thriller , yvonne monlaur , yvonne romain
ANTON DIFFRING WITH ERIKA REMBERG IN 'CIRCUS OF HORRORS'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 11/14/2020
title: Circus of Horrors Year: 1960 rating: ****Anton Diffring's England-exiled German plastic surgeon character Dr. Schuler is really into madly reconstructing once-beautiful women's injured/deformed faces, and winds up running a circus af
Written by James M. Tate / 11/10/2020 / No comments / bette davis , exploitation , haunted house , horror , seventies , sian barbara allen , ted bessell , tovah feldshuh , tv movie
SIAN BARBARA ALLEN IN THE TV-HORROR 'SCREAM, PRETTY PEGGY'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 11/10/2020
Year: 1973 Rates: ***1/2Sian Barbara Allen is one of those artsy-looking actresses that could only derive from the 1970's: A round-faced Jessica Harper type that a guy would hopelessly crush on after being her friend a little while, and is
Written by James M. Tate / 11/09/2020 / No comments / adrienne barbeau , eighties , george buck flower , ghost ship , horror , james canning , jamie lee curtis , janet leigh , john carpenter , john houseman , nancy loomis , thriller , tom atkins
JOHN CARPENTER'S UNDERRATED GHOST STORY OF 'THE FOG'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 11/09/2020
The Fog autographed DVD Year: 1980Depending how you look at it, John Carpenter's THE FOG is a zombie flick since the titular weather-pattern wraiths move in a slow, nightmarish pace. And within that mobile-moving, misty shroud are what you'
Written by James M. Tate / 11/08/2020 / No comments / bert i. gordon , cult , exploitation , fifties , horror , john agar , john hoyt , june kenney , ken miller , science-fiction
JOHN AGAR AND JUNE KENNEY IN 'ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 11/08/2020
Attack of the Puppet People Year: 1958 Rates: ****A better-suited title for ATTACK OF THE PUPPET PEOPLE would be A CASE OF DOLLS, and literally as dollmaker John Hoyt places real people, from strangers to former employees to, as tiny hero J
Written by James M. Tate / 11/07/2020 / No comments / action , floyd crosby , gene nelson , jerry summers , joanna barnes , kent taylor , maury dexter , russ bender , western
KENT TAYLOR & GENE NELSON IN MAURY DEXTER'S 'THE PURPLE HILLS'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 11/07/2020
The Purple Hills Year: 1961 Rating: ***1/2Another Maury Dexter Western following WALK TALL that Kent Taylor played a character that tries conniving and convincing a beautiful woman to go against the good guy, who doesn't seem all that good:
Written by James M. Tate / 11/06/2020 / No comments / alan arkin , alex rocco , comedy , drama , exploitation , harry dean stanton , mackenzie phillips , road movie , sally kellerman , seventies
MACKENZIE PHILLIPS DRIVES 'RAFFERTY AND THE GOLD DUST TWINS'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 11/06/2020
Charles Martin Smith & Mack Phillips Year: 1975 Rates: ***1/2Combine the personalities of Sally Kellerman and Mackenzie Phillips... one a mellow dreamer, the other a gun-toting schemer... and you have Kellerman's entire character from the p
Written by James M. Tate / 10/31/2020 / No comments / action , adventure , charlotte rampling , fantasy , future , john alderton , john boorman , memorial , sara kestelman , science-fiction , sean connery , tribute
SEAN CONNERY IN JOHN BOORMAN'S EXPERIMENTAL 'ZARDOZ'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 10/31/2020
Sean Connery as Zed in ZARDOZ Year: 1974 Rating: ***1/2After scoring big with DELIVERANCE, adventurous and intrepid director John Boorman wound up with the bizarre futuristic fable ZARDOZ, a picture that could never be made today...About a
Written by James M. Tate / 10/16/2020 / No comments / action , buddy , comedy , crime , frederic forrest , gangster , heist , jack starrett , neo noir , seventies , stacy keach , terrence malick
FREDERIC FORREST AND STEACH KEACH ARE 'THE DION BROTHERS'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 10/16/2020
Title: The Dion Brothers Year: 1974 Rating: *** THE DION BROTHERS, originally titled THE GRAVY TRAIN, if taken as a serious crime film, seems kinda bad at first; even, at times, embarrassing. Terrence Malick and co-writer Bill Kerby's scrip
REST IN PEACE TO RHONDA FLEMING FROM THE NOIR 'CRY DANGER'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 10/16/2020
William Powell & Rhonda Fleming 1951 Rates: ***1/2The recently-departed Queen of Technicolor Rhonda Fleming also reigned in a few B&W Film Noirs, like the famous OUT OF THE PAST... and the obscure CRY DANGER starring Dick Powell as a pardon
Written by James M. Tate / 10/07/2020 / No comments / dinah manoff , edward van halen , eighties , exploitation , fredric lehne , gambling , melodrama , michael brandon , randy brooks , TV , tv movie , valerie bertinelli
VAN HALEN'S EDDIE & VALERIE BETTING 'THE SEDUCTION OF GINA'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 10/07/2020
Valerie Bertinelli as GINA Year: 1984 Rating: ***1/2It was love and marriage that prompted Eddie Van Halen to score this 1984 TV-movie THE SEDUCTION OF GINA for wife Valerie Bertinelli; only don't expect cool beachy grooves like the same ye
RICHARD WIDMARK SCORNED IN THE FILM NOIR ROAD HOUSE
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 10/07/2020
YEAR OF RELEASE: 1948No this doesn't star Patrick Swayze... ROAD HOUSE was originally a Noir title — the third of Richard Widmark's sleazy villain roles igniting with the staircase-shoving Tommy Udo in KISS OF DEATH followed by a nervous an
Written by James M. Tate / 10/06/2020 / No comments / edward van halen , eighties , memorial , music , seventies , tribute , van halen
AND GOD RESTED: A RAMBLING FAREWELL TO EDDIE VAN HALEN
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 10/06/2020
Faded memory of two long-haired kids riding a BMX bike... The one on the handlebars holds a ghetto blaster as they're leaving the high school campus while Van Halen's Feel Your Love Tonight blares from outta those circular speakers...Well t
Written by James M. Tate / 10/04/2020 / No comments / barry stokes , british , exploitation , glory annen , horror , indie , lesbian , norman j. warren , rural , sally faulkner , science-fiction , seventies , thriller
BRITISH WEREWOLF FROM OUTER SPACE HORROR FLICK 'PREY'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 10/04/2020
Title: PREY Year: 1978 Rating: ***1/2A shape-shifting space alien takes the form of a handsome young man on Earth and, after violently doing what he was sent for (which we learn at the end), he finds two pretty lesbians holed-up in a rural
Written by James M. Tate / 10/03/2020 / No comments / ann lynn , british , cult , dionne inman , eighties , exploitation , haunted house , horror , horror anthology , kim thomson , robin baily , vincent russo
LOW BUDGET BRITISH ANTHOLOGY HORROR FLICK 'SCREAMTIME'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 10/03/2020
Dione Inman in SCREAMTIME Year: 1983 Rating: ***1/2"They're British," says New York lowlife Vincent Russo after stealing three video rentals, "I can tell by the way they talk." But it's more than that: the mellow pace and steady acting punc
Written by James M. Tate / 9/28/2020 / No comments / british neo noir , british new wave , david gregory , derek francis , glynn edwards , jill curzon , jim o'connolly , john carson , penny morrell , peter vaughan , sixties , yvonne romain
PETER VAUGHAN LEADS 'SMOKESCREEN' WITH YVONNE ROMAIN
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/28/2020
Peter Vaughan & Yvonne Romain in SMOKESCREEN Year: 1964 Rates: ****The biggest shame about Jim O'Connolly's quirky low-budget British post-noir SMOKESCREEN is that it was a film instead of a television series since Peter Vaughan's perpetual
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'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/27/2020
Christina Gregg DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS Year: 1962With 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 pre
Written by James M. Tate / 9/26/2020 / No comments / alexander davion , barbara shelley , british neo noir , british new wave , lance comfort , mark eden , perfect murder , sixties , thriller , william sylvester
LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM SYLVESTER IN 'BLIND CORNER'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/26/2020
Barbara Shelley (the cheater) and William Sylvester (the cheated) in BLIND CORNER Year: 1964 Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is known for its outer space special effects, prehistoric monkeys and a nefarious computer. As for humans
Written by James M. Tate / 9/04/2020 / No comments / 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'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/04/2020
Title: ROBBERY Director: Peter Yates Star: Stanley Baker Year: 1967 Rating: ****1/2Best known as the obscure crime film that gave English director Peter Yates his big game-changing opportunity to make BULLITT stateside, after Steve McQueen
Written by James M. Tate / 9/02/2020 / No comments / alice faye , aloysio de oliveira , benny goodman , carmen miranda , charlotte greenwood , forties , musical
ALICE FAYE AND CARMEN MIRANDA IN 'THE GANG'S ALL HERE'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/02/2020
THE GANG'S ALL HERE Year: 1943 Rating: ***1/2Anything 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... Mea
Written by James M. Tate / 9/01/2020 / No comments / arnold schwarzenegger , crime , cult , david arkin , elliott gould , gumshoe , jerry jones , mark rydell , mystery , neo noir , robert altman , seventies , thriller
ELLIOTT GOULD IN ROBERT ALTMAN'S NEO NOIR 'THE LONG GOODBYE'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/01/2020
Title: THE LONG GOODBYE Director: Robert Altman Year: 1973 Rating: *****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
Written by James M. Tate / 8/23/2020 / No comments / brian weske , british new wave , charles saunders , david mccallum , faye craig , guido coen , howard pays , jill ireland , joy webster , julie shearing , kenneth cope , marian collins , sixties , stripper , vanda hudson
DAVID MCCALLUM, BRIAN WESKE & JILL IRELAND IN 'JUNGLE STREET'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/23/2020
David McCallum and Gillian Watt with Anne Scott in JUNGLE STREET aka JUNGLE STREET GIRLS Year: 1960 After having met and married after working together in HELL DRIVERS where they were basically glorified cameos, three years later David McC
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
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/19/2020
Robert Beatty bribes an urchin for help YEAR: 1947 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 n
Written by James M. Tate / 8/18/2020 / No comments / annette whiteley , british new wave , drama , family , james maxwell , melodrama , rachel roberts , sixties
RACHEL ROBERTS & ANNETTE WHITELEY IN 'GIRL ON APPROVAL'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/18/2020
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 orphan who'd gone through a string of foster parents and is now "trying out for" a couple that could be he
Written by James M. Tate / 8/14/2020 / No comments / 2020 , linda manz , tribute
CULT ACTRESS LINDA MANZ IS GONE BUT SHE'S NOT FORGOTTEN
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/14/2020
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 time, LINDA MANZ, who started as Richard Gere's narrating little sister in the Depression-era drama DA
Written by James M. Tate / 8/13/2020 / No comments / 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'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/13/2020
Title: MY FOOLISH HEART Year: 1949 Rating: *** 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, cin
Written by James M. Tate / 8/12/2020 / No comments / adele jergens , dana andrews , farley granger , fifties , film noir or melodrama , mala powers , mark robson , paul stewart , robert keith , thriller
DANA ANDREWS AND FARLEY GRANGER IN 'EDGE OF DOOM'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/12/2020
Title: EDGE OF DOOM aka STRONGER THAN FEAR Year: 1950 Rating: ***1/2The 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 C
Written by James M. Tate / 8/11/2020 / No comments / comedy , david tomlinson , eighties , helen mirren , lynne frederick , parody , peter sellers , sid caesar , steve franken
PETER SELLERS ENDS WITH 'THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/11/2020
Artwork for THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU Year: 1980 What Peter Sellers' final motion picture, THE FIENDISH PLOT OF DR. FU MANCHU, has in common with his most popular franchise, THE PINK PANTHER, is that both parody James Bond: Especi
Written by James M. Tate / 8/09/2020 / No comments / 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'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/09/2020
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 face... the soulless dame with the fantastic body... Well she's just about everything in GUN CRAZY despit
Written by James M. Tate / 8/05/2020 / No comments / 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'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/05/2020
Paul Newman battling Wolfgang Kieling Year: 1966 Rating: *** 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 Newm
Written by James M. Tate / 8/02/2020 / No comments / ann lynn , british neo noir , british new wave , colin gordon , crime , derren nesbitt , guido coen , heist , keith faulkner , race against time , suspense
ANN LYNN, COLIN GORDON & DERREN NESBITT IN 'STRONGROOM'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/02/2020
Poster for STRONGROOM Year: 1962 Rates: ***1/2STRONGROOM is an important early-1960's British crime films as it underlines what you won't find Stateside: to be extra cautious to not harm anyone during a heist or your jail sentence lengthens
ALFRED HITCHCOCK TAKING ON COLD WAR CUBA FOR 'TOPAZ'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/02/2020
Frederick Stafford & Claude Jade 1969 Rating: ***1/2 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, sn
Written by James M. Tate / 8/01/2020 / No comments / horror , john schlesinger , matthew modine , melanie griffith , michael keaton , neo noir , nineties , thriller
JOHN SCHLESIGNER'S GLOSSY YUPPIE HORROR 'PACIFIC HEIGHTS'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/01/2020
PACIFIC HEIGHTS Year: 1990 Rates: **1/2One 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... Matthew
WES CRAVEN'S ORIGINAL EXPLOITATION 'THE HILLS HAVE EYES'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 8/01/2020
Not one horror film geek hasn't had a crush on Suze Lanier in THE HILLS HAVE EYES Year: 1977 THE HILLS HAVE EYES is generally regarded as a classic horror film. Because of the blood, guts, and killer cannibals, but especially since Wes C
Written by James M. Tate / 7/31/2020 / No comments / action , dustin hoffman , espionage , john schlesinger , laurence olivier , marc lawrence , marthe keller , nazi , richard bright , roy scheider , seventies , thriller
DUSTIN HOFFMAN & ROY SCHEIDER RUN THROUGH 'MARATHON MAN'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 7/31/2020
Title: MARATHON MAN Year: 1976 Rating: ***1/2 The epitome of a Thriller, John Schlesinger's MARATHON MAN can be a letdown with the teaming of two legends — one an old stage actor, the other a young method actor... And we'll get the "Why do
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ROBERT WISE NOIRISH THRILLER 'THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL'
Title: THE HOUSE ON TELEGRAPH HILL Year: 1951 Rating: ***1/2 If anyone but subtle Italian actress Valentina Cortese had starred in Robert Wi...
