JAMES STEWART WITH DONALD CRISP IN 'THE MAN FROM LARAMIE'

<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/AVvXsEizmRCoXCqF_tvhiH-ZKpz0UuoWe-HrEzXi9zSg_7cP2sNDtu5inH4VqyaUsFXQswoizZ0ah9qlDMM1CjNeZ04gUGmulz1KwReqeIyCEf6rAYp5FTNJF9YkQLdIluJGxiIbGP_tB59XP7C-QohBsdiRdbIqd9PmOUXe9DgXkrWeTm6Q_wBxoK_x3-Mrc_6E/s2166/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-25%20at%2011.33.19%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1212" data-original-width="2166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizmRCoXCqF_tvhiH-ZKpz0UuoWe-HrEzXi9zSg_7cP2sNDtu5inH4VqyaUsFXQswoizZ0ah9qlDMM1CjNeZ04gUGmulz1KwReqeIyCEf6rAYp5FTNJF9YkQLdIluJGxiIbGP_tB59XP7C-QohBsdiRdbIqd9PmOUXe9DgXkrWeTm6Q_wBxoK_x3-Mrc_6E/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-25%20at%2011.33.19%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE MAN FROM LARAMIE Year: 1955 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Within moments of Anthony Mann's THE MAN FROM LARAMIE, the old and new aspects of the beloved genre shift, and progress: opening with an old-fashion crooner singing about the title character and then, once we meet James Stewart's Will Lockhart, it's soon learned he's investigating the sale of repeating rifles to Apache Indians, causing his brother's death and leading to an edgy revenge plot popular in almost any Western to come...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And, although eventually revealed to be a Army officer, his agenda — having traveled from Laramie to the small town of Coronado — is like a film noir detective, making LARAMIE stand out from other Mann/Stewart Westerns along with a cerebral theme from William Shakespeare's fallen-monarch tragedy, King Lear...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, alex nicol, anthony mann, arthur kennedy, cathy o'donnell, donald crisp, jack elam, james stewart, mystery, thriller, wallace ford, western

JAMES STEWART WITH DONALD CRISP IN 'THE MAN FROM LARAMIE'

Title: THE MAN FROM LARAMIE Year: 1955 Rating: ****1/2 Within moments of Anthony Mann's THE MAN FROM LARAMIE, the old and new aspects of...

TOM SMOTHERS & ORSON WELLES IN 'GET TO KNOW YOUR RABBIT'

<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/AVvXsEhIgzzrqSHBJKt1nWyIxzg_So1m6qqh81Og1LerDhU8io6rDbtIP-5kH1rCTwIc0H1fv0MDexDxHa7vmX7bwU6PyZVpUpmr2Vjkd4RXkktudvoGGW5x6WvxusvzcBcic3wUoyHD_S3EJBCCwRabxPn7Yeo2iuZYL1oNHoQPNwGmWohnmD6TntSX0znYEzlo/s2006/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-31%20at%202.13.42%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1084" data-original-width="2006" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhIgzzrqSHBJKt1nWyIxzg_So1m6qqh81Og1LerDhU8io6rDbtIP-5kH1rCTwIc0H1fv0MDexDxHa7vmX7bwU6PyZVpUpmr2Vjkd4RXkktudvoGGW5x6WvxusvzcBcic3wUoyHD_S3EJBCCwRabxPn7Yeo2iuZYL1oNHoQPNwGmWohnmD6TntSX0znYEzlo/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-31%20at%202.13.42%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: GET TO KNOW YOUR RABBIT Year: 1972 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Ironically, Brian De Palma's GET TO KNOW YOUR RABBIT... an anti-corporate, counter-culture comedy... is a lot like the previous decade's I'LL NEVER FORGET WHAT'S'ISNAME, and both feature Orson Welles, first as a boss who doesn't want to lose his top young employee and here a magic instructor that this film's star, Tom Smothers of Smothers Brothers fame, takes lessons from after quitting his job as executive John Astin's problem-solving underling...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Welles has a total of ten-minutes screen-time, and upon graduation asks Smothers' Donald Beeman if he had been like a father to him, wherein Tommy's expression... the signature dimwitted naiveté more of an irked, stonewall glib... shakes his head, "No" which is one of several problems since this offbeat character, played by a naturally offbeat comic-actor on his own, doesn't seem game for this particularly strange and completely random road comedy...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

allen garfield, comedy, counter-culture, john astin, katharine ross, m. emmett walsh, orson welles, seventies, tom smothers

TOM SMOTHERS & ORSON WELLES IN 'GET TO KNOW YOUR RABBIT'

Title: GET TO KNOW YOUR RABBIT Year: 1972 Rating: *** Ironically, Brian De Palma's GET TO KNOW YOUR RABBIT... an anti-corporate, counter...

DICK POWELL'S PHILIP MARLOWE TACKLES 'MURDER, MY SWEET'

<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/AVvXsEgkSfS3be_G77a9WHTte2qCAwInUx2lcQXkaoZjSJ9xMPBCQyYZ4G89M6ML-7KoIgiouAAvnUxqlugZeytRKWKHLLMtmjboY2ZKFFkDrDZvczxOIG2tGcJHIhZ-3EJt6Kq5t4PhVvdWgIboFGUEzBheqVQi16cOi9vJ03AA-QhxN2u7TNJ_DHdJKqVDnSwn/s1060/first.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="698" data-original-width="1060" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSfS3be_G77a9WHTte2qCAwInUx2lcQXkaoZjSJ9xMPBCQyYZ4G89M6ML-7KoIgiouAAvnUxqlugZeytRKWKHLLMtmjboY2ZKFFkDrDZvczxOIG2tGcJHIhZ-3EJt6Kq5t4PhVvdWgIboFGUEzBheqVQi16cOi9vJ03AA-QhxN2u7TNJ_DHdJKqVDnSwn/s16000/first.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Claire Trevor with Dick Powell & Anne Shirley in MURDER, MY SWEET Year: 1944 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>"You go barging around without a clear idea of what you're doing," says MURDER MY SWEET good girl Anne Shirley to Dick Powell's loose, congenial, free-form and not particularly tough version of novelist Raymond Chandler's gumshoe private investigator, Philip Marlowe. "Everybody bats you down, smacks you over the head... fills you full of stuff... and you keep right on hitting between tackle and end..." </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And yet, while most think of strong-willed, fully-controlled, woman-loving Humphrey Bogart in Howard Hawks' THE BIG SLEEP to epitomize Chandler's literary turned cinematic snoop, Edward Dmytryk had already directed former romantic comedy song-and-dance-man Powell as Marlowe, more like a staggering kite skidding just above ground, sporadically raked by unpredictable elements in an intense yet affable manner: initially derived from a police hot-spot interrogation frame story, thinking back on the rudimentary job that ignited the nightmare... <br></p><span></span>

claire trevor, daun kennedy, dick powell, film noir or melodrama, forties, gumshoe, mike mazurski, raymond chandler, suspense, thriller

DICK POWELL'S PHILIP MARLOWE TACKLES 'MURDER, MY SWEET'

Claire Trevor with Dick Powell & Anne Shirley in MURDER, MY SWEET Year: 1944 Rating: ****1/2 "You go barging around without a clear...

INFAMOUS CRIMSON CRUSADER EPISODE FROM 'DRAGNET 1969'

<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/AVvXsEhTOjM16rbSdsfZDAmfGsiGDRZ3tmrc_rXj24Wf854AGzj_U0hoNHvdTExTurcDBxj49Rx8rms3pOhp8yG3AncGfcqgl_znDfyGkOYAqY3GqL-rtJeTYEQCn1EHZmVikVNHvIbfJy10AzPAu0tzA7u5qWkSuJD9b91lEfI67X64e4A6930C3DBk8ouYLrqw/s1414/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-23%20at%203.25.40%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="814" data-original-width="1414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTOjM16rbSdsfZDAmfGsiGDRZ3tmrc_rXj24Wf854AGzj_U0hoNHvdTExTurcDBxj49Rx8rms3pOhp8yG3AncGfcqgl_znDfyGkOYAqY3GqL-rtJeTYEQCn1EHZmVikVNHvIbfJy10AzPAu0tzA7u5qWkSuJD9b91lEfI67X64e4A6930C3DBk8ouYLrqw/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-23%20at%203.25.40%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Tittle: GOLIATH AWAITS 1981 Emma Samms, Mark Harmon, Robert Forster Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Here's proof that young people worshiping comic book movies is nothing new: from one of the silliest yet entertaining episodes of the 1950's-born DRAGNET rebooted into the late-1960's... titled DRAGNET 1968: BULGLARY: DR-31 where Jack Webb's Joe Friday and Harry Morgan as partner Bill Gannon traipse from one movie theater to another, investigating stolen/looted movie posters and lobby cards advertising a brand new comic book adaptation...<br><br>Turns out being the most bizarre and surreal of the show's villains in a pudgy, mustached, monotone twenty-something donning a cape and costume, deeming himself The Crimson Crusader played by a frumpy, drowsy, future EMERGENCY actor Tim Donnelly who, in one soft-interrogation sequence, provides a dirge-like, melancholy monologue about being fat and bullied in school, and how this drove him headlong into a fantastical world to find a safe place within it... thus making this eclectic fan-favorite episode practically all his own.</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>

comic book, cop, crime, dragnet, exploitation, harry morgan, jack webb, sixties, tv series

INFAMOUS CRIMSON CRUSADER EPISODE FROM 'DRAGNET 1969'

Tittle: GOLIATH AWAITS 1981 Emma Samms, Mark Harmon, Robert Forster Rating: ***1/2 Here's proof that young people worshiping comic book ...

LANCE HENRIKSEN & ERIC ROBERTS IN 'THE NATURE OF THE BEAST'

<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/AVvXsEj5evglfBmE6u8d2gsY1Ck7OsEvHL79pDobyMZJweBX_io0Db9QTjMTSjzNhDmSPT2hL8JSLEYrKsj6JO4xmMRbYR_XbV_LYvbe2e4EoLEs-k7wTUQSe9hFzVCHwyw2W8eHeUix_nHCRkQtJvo1ibfJxnSx9Q9nyFJUgpNReNHgi24Kcv_8mBANauG9KcAi/s900/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-21%20at%2012.31.59%20AM%202%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="538" data-original-width="900" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5evglfBmE6u8d2gsY1Ck7OsEvHL79pDobyMZJweBX_io0Db9QTjMTSjzNhDmSPT2hL8JSLEYrKsj6JO4xmMRbYR_XbV_LYvbe2e4EoLEs-k7wTUQSe9hFzVCHwyw2W8eHeUix_nHCRkQtJvo1ibfJxnSx9Q9nyFJUgpNReNHgi24Kcv_8mBANauG9KcAi/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-21%20at%2012.31.59%20AM%202%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Eric Roberts & Lance Henriksen in THE NATURE OF THE BEAST Year: 1995 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>An exploitation Oscar and Felix casts Eric Roberts as Adrian, a dirty piece of human driftwood hitchhiking the lonesome desert highway where, in random stopovers, people are massacred by a phantom called THE HATCHET MAN...<br> <br> Also, a local bank was robbed of a million bucks and uptight traveling salesman Jack, played by a subdued Lance Henriksen, reluctantly gives Adrian rides throughout the scorched purgatory... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><span></span>

ana gabriel, brion james, eric roberts, lance henriksen, neo noir, nineties, road movie, rural, serial killer, suspense

LANCE HENRIKSEN & ERIC ROBERTS IN 'THE NATURE OF THE BEAST'

Eric Roberts & Lance Henriksen in THE NATURE OF THE BEAST Year: 1995 Rates: ***1/2 An exploitation Oscar and Felix casts Eric Roberts a...

YVONNE LIME IN 'HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS' WITH SUSANNE SIDNEY

<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/AVvXsEgzhDZsVBVc8JdLU5v1Wf2vAS2yRR0KzO40S3UeLkdz7ziS85rKcro8rVH_CI5g3fePF7S3IhenJyF4N9rExPT8N0VxeEc2B5xOS0oLs18oTPoL6KfJNFTynggH-5_PxTfDdDWxvhBsakdV9GdFcr8uLO5PIZ2vElIa9YLsY83ks1civkzFYuG1PHE6AIFM/s2078/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1312" data-original-width="2078" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzhDZsVBVc8JdLU5v1Wf2vAS2yRR0KzO40S3UeLkdz7ziS85rKcro8rVH_CI5g3fePF7S3IhenJyF4N9rExPT8N0VxeEc2B5xOS0oLs18oTPoL6KfJNFTynggH-5_PxTfDdDWxvhBsakdV9GdFcr8uLO5PIZ2vElIa9YLsY83ks1civkzFYuG1PHE6AIFM/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS Year: 1958 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS seems like three movies in one, and the titular tale... about a gang of tough girl bullies playing tricks on beautiful blonde new girl Yvonne Lime... is not only the best, but should have been everything... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p>What a shame that a breezy, completely filler romance with Lime's Joyce Martin with local diner waiter Brett Halsey blandly intrudes... along with scenes involving Joyce's crummy parents... because the downright stunning yet still equally doe-eyed, girl-next-door vulnerable I WAS A TEENAGE WEREWOLF starlet is far more interesting with the female antagonists her age...</p><span></span>

brett halsley, dana lund, exploitation, fifties, gang, high school, teen, yvonne lime

YVONNE LIME IN 'HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS' WITH SUSANNE SIDNEY

Title: HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS Year: 1958 Rating: ***1/2 HIGH SCHOOL HELLCATS seems like three movies in one, and the titular tale... about a g...

MILTON BERLE & VIRGINIA MAYO IN 'ALWAYS LEAVE THEM LAUGHING'

<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/AVvXsEgRfsCmOx8TGwlg9bNsRPduYDL54o7kU4GV6jHJrtfwgr2-YvUFkUBOc9mfR_z3G6aEfgjg70q2zXAL955Q8Fh7Mtibng3jb74V-foUbIpkAl3rsQojDWWgY_ZJ7n9LSBW_qoEroITZ_kF3kQKGySwB7m5FwkoLL3O4QuEt4ZMbeBIKBzZPwxIlU61vkHUi/s960/OLD%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="621" data-original-width="960" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgRfsCmOx8TGwlg9bNsRPduYDL54o7kU4GV6jHJrtfwgr2-YvUFkUBOc9mfR_z3G6aEfgjg70q2zXAL955Q8Fh7Mtibng3jb74V-foUbIpkAl3rsQojDWWgY_ZJ7n9LSBW_qoEroITZ_kF3kQKGySwB7m5FwkoLL3O4QuEt4ZMbeBIKBzZPwxIlU61vkHUi/s16000/OLD%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: ALWAYS LEAVE THEM LAUGHING Year: 1949 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In the frame story of the first television star Milton Berle's 1949 big screen debut ALWAYS LEAVE THEM LAUGHING, a young comic watches Milton as fictional-self Kipling "Kip" Cooper filming his own successful TV-variety show... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Which is supposed to be what Berle's Kip worked so hard to perfect: a vaudeville-trained standup comedian's hyperactive struggle to reach the point of being, basically, TV's beloved Milton Berle... </p><p><span></span></p>

alan hale sr, bert lahr, comedy, forties, lloyd gough, max showalter, milton berle, ruth roman, virginia mayo, warner archives

MILTON BERLE & VIRGINIA MAYO IN 'ALWAYS LEAVE THEM LAUGHING'

Title: ALWAYS LEAVE THEM LAUGHING Year: 1949 Rating: **** In the frame story of the first television star Milton Berle's 1949 big screen...

LEE MAJORS, MARGAUX HEMINGWAY & KAREN BLACK IN 'KILLER FISH'

<span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><table align="center" 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/AVvXsEiXgP6YLTe-d2h6vgYhpJFbjTkMfpIDJQHMN3d1-9ME-cUtuw6t9KYKvA4vmlZ2dI7eDChB2ht644z9J_AIipjSbZ_O0BUxNFzKkqS8HN-OpMDCvpZj6HS8VUhpulVx5vkEVWSZHYO_FC7ymfPcOnByRjKpjxKH7MRtIgvYGe7YLGQLBdqdYY5x7aJZfA/s2035/Screen%20Shot%202022-12-11%20at%204.54.18%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1387" data-original-width="2035" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiXgP6YLTe-d2h6vgYhpJFbjTkMfpIDJQHMN3d1-9ME-cUtuw6t9KYKvA4vmlZ2dI7eDChB2ht644z9J_AIipjSbZ_O0BUxNFzKkqS8HN-OpMDCvpZj6HS8VUhpulVx5vkEVWSZHYO_FC7ymfPcOnByRjKpjxKH7MRtIgvYGe7YLGQLBdqdYY5x7aJZfA/w400-h272/Screen%20Shot%202022-12-11%20at%204.54.18%20AM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif"><u>The Naked Sun poster aka KILLER FISH Year: 1979</u></span></td></tr></tbody></table>This infamous low-budget Brazilian import isn't so bad: Centering on a group of diamond thieves in South America who, after blowing up a big outpost during the opening credits and nabbing a cache of jewels, hide the goods in a lake they don't know's inhabited by killer fish i.e. piranha...</span><br> <br> <span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">All pets of millionaire James Franciscus (or more like his weapons, so they're not the central and/or focal point like Joe Dante's PIRANHA the previous year)... Deadly insurance to weed-out any takers, and </span><span face=""verdana" , sans-serif">a couple of the thieves (including a scene-stealing Frank Pesce) are gobbled up attempting a premature recovery in the lake... Because of this, Lee Majors and Karen Black are pitted against each other in a double-crossing Film Noir fashion: Black joins with Fransiscus and beautiful Margaux Hemingway, as a model on a location-shoot, beds the Bionic Man.</span><br>

antonio margheriti, exploitation, frank pesce, heist, james francsiscus, jaws-clone, karen black, karen black interviews, lee majors, margaux hemingway, marisa berenson, neo noir, piranha, seventies

LEE MAJORS, MARGAUX HEMINGWAY & KAREN BLACK IN 'KILLER FISH'

The Naked Sun poster aka KILLER FISH Year: 1979 This infamous low-budget Brazilian import isn't so bad: Centering on a group of diamond...

BEFORE 'EASY RIDER' WAS ROGER CORMAN'S 'THE WILD ANGELS'

<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/AVvXsEhOIPPjT5bA4XIzjPkGrrYjbWRbA8pWVIeuukvG4xQdzGP6dIeoYjNk69Bve9R_4Qm5RnpTPa-wda6AXNFIbq9Vh0Z5Rt5U2JsLwAzld3RN7nNMHLpPKSIR0iJOu_w7iZYPCng14Bh75U5j6OT0Mkf6mjEgfgvAFc6nahHi5SZS0ufHmIZWyEhmRtlPMGNr/s2018/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-12%20at%207.52.07%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1046" data-original-width="2018" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOIPPjT5bA4XIzjPkGrrYjbWRbA8pWVIeuukvG4xQdzGP6dIeoYjNk69Bve9R_4Qm5RnpTPa-wda6AXNFIbq9Vh0Z5Rt5U2JsLwAzld3RN7nNMHLpPKSIR0iJOu_w7iZYPCng14Bh75U5j6OT0Mkf6mjEgfgvAFc6nahHi5SZS0ufHmIZWyEhmRtlPMGNr/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-12%20at%207.52.07%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra in THE WILD ANGELS Year: 1966 Rating: **** </u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Roger Corman's THE WILD ANGELS was the most significant precursor and overall impetus for EASY RIDER even beyond starring this film's star Peter Fonda... herein with born-to-lose <i>Loser</i> Bruce Dern foreshadowing Dennis Hopper as the faithful shaggy sidekick, and — like the 1969 cult classic that changed how studios backed avante-garde, independent directors — supped-up motorcycles were in the forefront... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p>As WILD begins with Fonda, his bike parked, aimed at the open road that, soon enough during the opening credits, he's smoothy cruising down, even before his gang — also including Michael J. Pollard, Fonda's love-interest Nancy Sinatra and Dern's scene-stealing fictional and non-fictional wife Diane Ladd — join in on the ride... but only <i>after </i>picking Dern up from a rugged rigging job that coincidentally resembles the EASY RIDER followup FIVE EASY PIECES (with Corman stock-favorite Dick Miller as a bickering boss)... </p><span></span>

action, adventure, biker, bruce dern, counter-culture, diane ladd, dick miller, drama, frank maxwell, michael j. pollard, nancy sinatra, peter fonda, sixties

BEFORE 'EASY RIDER' WAS ROGER CORMAN'S 'THE WILD ANGELS'

Peter Fonda and Nancy Sinatra in THE WILD ANGELS Year: 1966 Rating: **** Roger Corman's THE WILD ANGELS was the most significant precurs...

CHARLES BRONSON WITH JILL IRELAND IN 'BREAKHEART PASS'

<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/AVvXsEj47WLsuSa_j2WwCGqbfwrwJvmr1rz_7F2l_-hn_hQpqxYsgxA-2WuPcihuhwoY4CE7HN5VPq-GhyEo5RCwwBo-u5Zpxj7ccUmrvUMzyevDoB_grsEhb9jFmTdQ-j0HVpHPza8KyT43ugFiFXYxdUDi40dsKMpP582Ve4JYKiq250Bh4WktLQVV7fV3-Ybn/s1256/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-08%20at%208.22.21%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="586" data-original-width="1256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj47WLsuSa_j2WwCGqbfwrwJvmr1rz_7F2l_-hn_hQpqxYsgxA-2WuPcihuhwoY4CE7HN5VPq-GhyEo5RCwwBo-u5Zpxj7ccUmrvUMzyevDoB_grsEhb9jFmTdQ-j0HVpHPza8KyT43ugFiFXYxdUDi40dsKMpP582Ve4JYKiq250Bh4WktLQVV7fV3-Ybn/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-08%20at%208.22.21%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS Year: 1975 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>British actress Jill Ireland sporadically appearing in husband Charles Bronson's films was really a matter of convenience, providing the family a kind of busman's holiday that was great for them, but not always the audience since her overacting often clashed with the comparably slow-burn cadence of vehicles like THE MECHANIC or HARD TIMES: the latter making an enemy out of writer/director Walter Hill, shooting as few scenes with Ireland as possible, so he never worked with a perturbed Bronson again...</p><p></p><p>But in the case of (the same years') BREAKOUT director Tom Gries's Mystery/Western BREAKHEART PASS, Jill Ireland fit perfectly since her character... the daughter of a post-Civil War Northern General... is fitfully classy and sophisticated, making one particular opposites-attract scene really spark while helping Bronson's supposedly captured-outlaw Deakin, tied uncomfortably inside an otherwise fancy train car and... although he's the central lead, PASS is mainly an ensemble, equally balancing the other characters, all suspects...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

ben johnson, bill mckinney, charles bronson, ed lauter, jill ireland, mystery, rayford barnes, richard crenna, sally kirkland, thriller, tom gries, western

CHARLES BRONSON WITH JILL IRELAND IN 'BREAKHEART PASS'

Charles Bronson in BREAKHEART PASS Year: 1975 Rating: ****1/2 British actress Jill Ireland sporadically appearing in husband Charles Bronson...

CHARLES BRONSON'S 'MAN WITH A CAMERA' WITH YVONNE CRAIG

<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/AVvXsEiQ5WoXTFB1jWAKKvw6DmRU50GTniBnUxu3SeoO-m2Rm2nGl3UkOinxkAjGfGHSQ2FyNPhyphenhyphenYKqsPAc4p7PsSmHNXHBQdTsZ_hyBXMe1xDheFOMlH3l45fy6S3qhxZ-eXdts0tKFBQRzDV1qqPR3nZm5lrnLPucPS5qTEvD5zz6IkgLmaNwuTBcJX1Le2QU9/s2040/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1224" data-original-width="2040" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ5WoXTFB1jWAKKvw6DmRU50GTniBnUxu3SeoO-m2Rm2nGl3UkOinxkAjGfGHSQ2FyNPhyphenhyphenYKqsPAc4p7PsSmHNXHBQdTsZ_hyBXMe1xDheFOMlH3l45fy6S3qhxZ-eXdts0tKFBQRzDV1qqPR3nZm5lrnLPucPS5qTEvD5zz6IkgLmaNwuTBcJX1Le2QU9/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Yvonne Craig & Charles Bronson in Man With A Camera: Hot Ice Cream 1960 Rates: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>At the end of Lawrence Tierney's career's first stretch, of playing menacing heavies on the big screen, which includes central bad guys from DILLINGER and THE HOODLUM to tough heroes in BODYGUARD, STEP BY STEP and KILL OR BE KILLED, Tierney — resembling an older version of his original self instead of a young Joe Cabot from RESERVOIR DOGS — appeared on the TV-series MAN WITH A CAMERA starring Charles Bronson... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>In what's the best (and highest rated) episode of a nifty noirish two-season show where Bronson plays Mike Kovac, THE MAN WITH A CAMERA who’s either hired by friends or the law to solve crimes... and he even has a semi-famous crime-photographer reputation, thus providing a young fan for HOT ICE CREAM...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, charles bronson, crime, film noir or melodrama, howard mcnear, lawrence tierney, sixties, thriller, tv series, yvonne craig

CHARLES BRONSON'S 'MAN WITH A CAMERA' WITH YVONNE CRAIG

Yvonne Craig & Charles Bronson in Man With A Camera: Hot Ice Cream 1960 Rates: ****1/2 At the end of Lawrence Tierney's career's...

PARENTHETICAL ANALYSIS OF MICHAEL WINNER'S 'THE MECHANIC'

<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/AVvXsEiiQnU2bx_YCFrvPb8mMfT4TbbRkBsl_UMhyphenhyphennCbrX2YuvweEB1sIbW6B3h3HcOk92LUh45Y3udDeH_6UH2A_HF7uedKyowPojpOyvLRY5Ru9DZyQS5-yMLAzCxz2Crgi3WZsWMmQCiXBmHLbhcfbASobVLOuyo5DQinKn9zj6rWBlZSFeqJXbzrDtX9wO7K/s1939/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-02%20at%208.08.56%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1010" data-original-width="1939" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiQnU2bx_YCFrvPb8mMfT4TbbRkBsl_UMhyphenhyphennCbrX2YuvweEB1sIbW6B3h3HcOk92LUh45Y3udDeH_6UH2A_HF7uedKyowPojpOyvLRY5Ru9DZyQS5-yMLAzCxz2Crgi3WZsWMmQCiXBmHLbhcfbASobVLOuyo5DQinKn9zj6rWBlZSFeqJXbzrDtX9wO7K/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-02%20at%208.08.56%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson in THE MECHANIC from 1974 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>By the time professional hit-man Arthur Bishop, skillfully underplayed by Charles Bronson... starring in the first of the 1972-1974 unconnected crime trilogy under the creative direction of eclectic British auteur Michael Winner... meets his match in young upstart Jan-Michael Vincent, the best part of <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/05/BW2-MECH.html">THE MECHANIC</a> had already occurred...  <br></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>Centering on the titular eccentric hired-killer slumming in a shabby Los Angeles motel, strategically rented across the street from his human target's non-rented room... providing a smooth, menial, fifteen-minute killer-at-work sequence that, given his narrowed, exacting professionalism, deliberately lacks suspense while replete with Winner's signature camera movements, from dramatic zooms to quick cuts, and herein, most importantly, no dialogue...</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/AVvXsEjtfF4YXy6iB31ckrPPXZIHJBZdeOY2fN_WZSE_ljHVBc_7sfYypRbDgVy4E_Z6c4z9ZyYzFAOsZFaKMNPKWzGcq3eO3xICz2RCqX1-2kpjricHQ-iaNBwTXBDZ53y1b-XF2i-z1Rf0oU_rN6vtmS_iJ0daqeTEoG-KWly0STxq1_stBOjim_Oq3jNuS-s1/s2260/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-02%20at%208.21.08%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1116" data-original-width="2260" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtfF4YXy6iB31ckrPPXZIHJBZdeOY2fN_WZSE_ljHVBc_7sfYypRbDgVy4E_Z6c4z9ZyYzFAOsZFaKMNPKWzGcq3eO3xICz2RCqX1-2kpjricHQ-iaNBwTXBDZ53y1b-XF2i-z1Rf0oU_rN6vtmS_iJ0daqeTEoG-KWly0STxq1_stBOjim_Oq3jNuS-s1/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-02%20at%208.21.08%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Jerry Fielding credit from THE MECHANIC</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Instead filled with underrated composer Jerry Fielding's rich and cerebral, classically orchestrated yet equally jazz-induced score that also worked for Dustin Hoffman's mind-game marriage from Sam Peckpinpah's<a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2022/11/peckinpahdogs.html"> STRAW DOGS</a> (after having successfully tracked Peckinpah's blockbuster THE WILD BUNCH); Warren Oates's exhausted contemplation in the same director's BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA; or building tension for Clint Eastwood in either THE ENFORCER or <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2023/11/clintclimbs.html">THE EIGER SANCTION</a>... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>A few examples of how and where Jerry Fielding's music fits tough and paranoiac, melancholy souls suffering personal battles so that the inevitable violence remains on the verge of eruption, even during meditative downtime — providing brooding overtures <i>inside</i> as well as <i>about</i> the characters...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

action, article, charles bronson, crime, hit-man, jan-michael vincent, jerry fielding, jill ireland, michael winner, neo noir, seventies, team-up, thriller

PARENTHETICAL ANALYSIS OF MICHAEL WINNER'S 'THE MECHANIC'

Charles Bronson in THE MECHANIC from 1974 Rating: **** By the time professional hit-man Arthur Bishop, skillfully underplayed by Charles Bro...

MICHAEL WINNER REDIRECTS CHARLES BRONSON IN 'DEATH WISH II'

<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/AVvXsEijfDfMBrLwkZFwN8GLTiXp1uksU1XHj9AvRBSAlCtOnEMhpvoJ9qyYpyfxEL4DvnRjYtUzE4IkxS6bhsaNBPmPyJFFaOEAOmJnY8Gsq8vtPmcSfugRpq1RvgPv-GBSxlos0tGo6vnX53UDlcHLhKGuwfCpX3bIY34ultGOJpygbM06mIsr0A6QHvv9M4lW/s1785/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-04%20at%205.07.42%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="975" data-original-width="1785" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijfDfMBrLwkZFwN8GLTiXp1uksU1XHj9AvRBSAlCtOnEMhpvoJ9qyYpyfxEL4DvnRjYtUzE4IkxS6bhsaNBPmPyJFFaOEAOmJnY8Gsq8vtPmcSfugRpq1RvgPv-GBSxlos0tGo6vnX53UDlcHLhKGuwfCpX3bIY34ultGOJpygbM06mIsr0A6QHvv9M4lW/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-12-04%20at%205.07.42%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: DEATH WISH II Year: 1982 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Losing his wife entirely and daughter mentally to lethal hoods from the first movie had aged Charles Bronson's Paul Kersey eight-years when it's only supposed to be two.... which is how long it'd been since DEATH WISH made the already popular cult actor Charles Bronson a superstar... and now, in his last stretch at 60 years old, having joined the ranks of ambitious low-budget Cannon Films, the safest bet was a sequel... </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>Along with Bronson, cinema had also changed from the early 1970's crime exploitation into the early 1980's horror/terror element, which is what Kersey... still a successful architect but now in Los Angeles instead of New York... is up against in the form of an ultra-violent gang as opposed to, from the original, random criminals coaxed from the streets (after the initial trio, led by Jeff Goldblum, were never heard of since) or saving innocent people from them... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

body count, cannon, charles bronson, eighties, exploitation, franchise, gang, jimmy page, laurence fishburne, michael winner, sequel

MICHAEL WINNER REDIRECTS CHARLES BRONSON IN 'DEATH WISH II'

Title: DEATH WISH II Year: 1982 Rating: **** Losing his wife entirely and daughter mentally to lethal hoods from the first movie had aged Ch...

MICHAEL WINNER DIRECTS CHARLES BRONSON IN 'DEATH WISH'

<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/AVvXsEiiYbaChH4HKKV2DsEUgSfKBKg2dORohHbuqSTpqvl5hjwznWcvqAHoItyiAyBK8dJPRo4Fn7egyuhpfsSLsJ1xBT7HqL-1k-8WMxQlR7Nr4-uRb37XKk-sm23oZW_fTbYVZIYmNMypTx2QC-yE9PkZD-FxGbiRYtogbQvpehLu3kJrJcH8jh-dwyFCO4_n/s1092/later%202%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="654" data-original-width="1092" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiiYbaChH4HKKV2DsEUgSfKBKg2dORohHbuqSTpqvl5hjwznWcvqAHoItyiAyBK8dJPRo4Fn7egyuhpfsSLsJ1xBT7HqL-1k-8WMxQlR7Nr4-uRb37XKk-sm23oZW_fTbYVZIYmNMypTx2QC-yE9PkZD-FxGbiRYtogbQvpehLu3kJrJcH8jh-dwyFCO4_n/s16000/later%202%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: DEATH WISH Year: 1974 Rating: *****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Of director Michael Winner and actor Charles Bronson's crime-trilogy spanning three consecutive years from 1972 to 1974... centering on hit-men for THE MECHANIC and cops in THE STONE KILLER... the most popular was saved for last as DEATH WISH centers on a vigilante — ironically a cross between lawman and assassin... </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>It's also more skillfully directed and acted: specifically providing tough guy Charles Bronson... also a former character-actor dating back to the 1950's... a comparably grounded and vulnerable (starring) role...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, body count, charles bronson, christopher guest, death wish, edward grover, exploitation, hope lange, jeff goldblum, michael winner, seventies, steven keats, stuart margolin

MICHAEL WINNER DIRECTS CHARLES BRONSON IN 'DEATH WISH'

Title: DEATH WISH Year: 1974 Rating: ***** Of director Michael Winner and actor Charles Bronson's crime-trilogy spanning three consecuti...

JEFF HUNTER & DANA ANDREWS IN WILLIAM CONRAD'S 'BRAINSTORM'

<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/AVvXsEifJnk1uYRrv2R7CcEIl-djFMXPzYGtB6qJ-LqnnI1Mn6Lxp-aex6I19q_VWhV0ab-zaAW4Tbnx3rEPPRw027Do1x7MfKG6-fbolJBNrUynjz501BN2ZN7peKosn1JMMXSZL5Thi8CECdnhI3rHKiE97vnDZl6ny9YTC55xSs6MRbkAK7wuvYAtj6KLWWdv/s1896/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-19%20at%206.39.24%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="998" data-original-width="1896" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEifJnk1uYRrv2R7CcEIl-djFMXPzYGtB6qJ-LqnnI1Mn6Lxp-aex6I19q_VWhV0ab-zaAW4Tbnx3rEPPRw027Do1x7MfKG6-fbolJBNrUynjz501BN2ZN7peKosn1JMMXSZL5Thi8CECdnhI3rHKiE97vnDZl6ny9YTC55xSs6MRbkAK7wuvYAtj6KLWWdv/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-19%20at%206.39.24%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: BRAINSTORM Director: William Conrad Year: 1965 Rates: ****1/2 </u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In 1965, veteran actor Dana Andrews was busier acting than his BRAINSTORM director William Conrad was directing: making three movies (including <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2023/11/filldonahue.html">MY BLOOD RUNS COLD</a>) the same year that Andrews appeared in eight...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>As characters ranging from cameos to leads, heroes to heavies... in BRAINSTORM Dana's deep, smooth voice suited a corporate (space age computer) tycoon that winds-up in a love triangle after his sharpest employee saves the life of — before falling in love with — young trophy-wife Anne Francis...</p><p><span></span></p>

dana andrews, jeffrey hunter, kathie browne, neo noir, sixties, thriller, viveca lindfors, warner archives, william conrad

JEFF HUNTER & DANA ANDREWS IN WILLIAM CONRAD'S 'BRAINSTORM'

Title: BRAINSTORM Director: William Conrad Year: 1965 Rates: ****1/2 In 1965, veteran actor Dana Andrews was busier acting than his BRAINSTO...

WILLAM CONRAD REINCARNATES NOIR WITH 'MY BLOOD RUNS COLD'

<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/AVvXsEgpdZ_MgKiqEEUF1c6luN7nunit1uV-jXGdXgDbOQZIiNm85j85m6lq-AK0mkIR0nCN22W6_V3XthzfpSwBs7NsHQ7eU1reoGqhhLQC1PAoXpNn3BbSfGA2pUZgrAWNu2kYEHXVnnn0ia41NufpmFmPM81eR3gnrg-u0ak9vk_iff2qYF-boc2Jl7CTAKlv/s1082/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-17%20at%204.55.44%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="1082" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpdZ_MgKiqEEUF1c6luN7nunit1uV-jXGdXgDbOQZIiNm85j85m6lq-AK0mkIR0nCN22W6_V3XthzfpSwBs7NsHQ7eU1reoGqhhLQC1PAoXpNn3BbSfGA2pUZgrAWNu2kYEHXVnnn0ia41NufpmFmPM81eR3gnrg-u0ak9vk_iff2qYF-boc2Jl7CTAKlv/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-17%20at%204.55.44%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: MY BLOOD RUNS COLD Cast: Troy Donahue, Joey Heatherton  Year: 1965 Year: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Along with a throwaway horror flick in an extremely busy three-picture-year of 1965, the best-known-for-television actor William Conrad directed an unintentional neo-noir double-feature, BRAINSTORM and MY BLOOD RUNS COLD, both unique, creative and eclectic while the latter provided limited-rage Troy Donahue a surprisingly intense performance... with layers...</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>Albeit most of them intentionally hidden since his character is deeply enigmatic from the start, <i>and</i> desperately vulnerable — literally when he's almost killed by spoiled, fitfully gorgeous rich girl Joey Heatherton...</p><p><span></span></p>

barry sullivan, jazz-score, jeanette nolan, joey heatherton, melodrama, neo noir, nicolas coster, romance, sixties, thriller, troy donahue, william conrad

WILLAM CONRAD REINCARNATES NOIR WITH 'MY BLOOD RUNS COLD'

Title: MY BLOOD RUNS COLD Cast: Troy Donahue, Joey Heatherton  Year: 1965 Year: **** Along with a throwaway horror flick in an extremely bu...

JOI LANSING STEALS 'HOT CARS' STARRING JOHN BROMFIELD

<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/AVvXsEgh-Fhh42mH5Pixsu1SHF84aJaKA19_LFxq0Bjr38vE96NyBi0UZwNqlZbSjYWHj3dnmzAsnIhBsQ9sCARAguTH25-_1XqU19QHnHJvdr6Qz-whU-fW7bOWlWgNRNGzbKX1BvrcHemH26v2jDvk7CqOub-m8uVQX1_F25skUsUD2o_KIBngcoAurKpPAFHy/s2084/1%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1150" data-original-width="2084" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgh-Fhh42mH5Pixsu1SHF84aJaKA19_LFxq0Bjr38vE96NyBi0UZwNqlZbSjYWHj3dnmzAsnIhBsQ9sCARAguTH25-_1XqU19QHnHJvdr6Qz-whU-fW7bOWlWgNRNGzbKX1BvrcHemH26v2jDvk7CqOub-m8uVQX1_F25skUsUD2o_KIBngcoAurKpPAFHy/s16000/1%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Joi Lansing, John Bromfield, Carol Shanno & Mark Dana in HOT CARS Year: 1956 Rates: ****</u><u>*</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Despite not making any Film Noir lists, HOT CARS is the epitome of the seedy side of crime cinema led by an otherwise honest guy who, in this case, is ironically a used car salesman in John Bromfield, married to the perfect suburban wife and father of a sick child: thus needing extra money, and quick...</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>Yet the best scenes occur in the first act when Bromfield's Nick can't catch a break, mainly from bullying boss Robert Osterloh, who both sophisticated desk-set villain Ralph Clanton and handsome killer henchman Mark Dano... eventually targeting token snoopy cop Dabs Greer... are initially a nice break from...</p><p><span></span></p>

bel air productions, fifties, film noir or melodrama, jazz-score, john bromfield, joi lansing, mark dana, robert osterloh, thriller

JOI LANSING STEALS 'HOT CARS' STARRING JOHN BROMFIELD

Joi Lansing, John Bromfield, Carol Shanno & Mark Dana in HOT CARS Year: 1956 Rates: **** * Despite not making any Film Noir lists, HOT C...

LEX BARKER, MALA POWERS & LEO GORDON 'THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN'

<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/AVvXsEi8kag3IvxoGjSCD6PWefbfb766MyLBaZ7fEhSmQAPGwEMFmSBxGYZJ5it9GxujVl92gyBmk_w9T-VF-wt_Z-5L3Rab5noRadFyqFYmMGxbdq3JHZgHBv7BIdbWd6g_i-us2kPoaGNkTfj5HWC8169R3HP8dKdxH4j7yZOFjueunAtltRu4NERsQiSt8mng/s2448/1%202%202.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1460" data-original-width="2448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8kag3IvxoGjSCD6PWefbfb766MyLBaZ7fEhSmQAPGwEMFmSBxGYZJ5it9GxujVl92gyBmk_w9T-VF-wt_Z-5L3Rab5noRadFyqFYmMGxbdq3JHZgHBv7BIdbWd6g_i-us2kPoaGNkTfj5HWC8169R3HP8dKdxH4j7yZOFjueunAtltRu4NERsQiSt8mng/s16000/1%202%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Lex Barker & Leo Gordon in THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN Year: 1954 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table>Any movie about mining for gold will eventually include double-crossing con artists, and THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN starts right off with honest hero Lex Barker punching his former backstabbing friend in the office of a saloon that's the central location: until they venture into the titular mine with two different names on the claims...</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>There's the shifty fella Barker fought with in charming, unpredictable Howard Duff, with his eyes on the gorgeous daughter of unlucky lifelong gambling miner William Demarest, a kind of passive version of <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2023/11/bogartgold.html">Walter Huston</a>...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, denver pyle, fifties, howard duff, john mcintire, leo gordon, lex barker, mala powers, treasure, western, william demarest

LEX BARKER, MALA POWERS & LEO GORDON 'THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN'

Lex Barker & Leo Gordon in THE YELLOW MOUNTAIN Year: 1954 Rating: ****1/2 Any movie about mining for gold will eventually include double...

HUMPHREY BOGART STEALS 'THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE'

<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/AVvXsEiP05Q8k_mlvuts-jyov1Z6DOnr8ww2uPaRmLd5zdhsdXcp_13WWyOpr2BfDy-m3Z1qnvQ9OVKtKkcB3P9tfCLOoVuhupGTpGa3uMVyiDFKoeXpyzNUL-slTraGByf1pmuZNbPBTp5uTr_WKc40lL5Y3I5_W_iBVHy6JMDFmKJPoZKMv6w7XQSl8G193ox2/s1888/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-15%20at%204.08.19%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="931" data-original-width="1888" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP05Q8k_mlvuts-jyov1Z6DOnr8ww2uPaRmLd5zdhsdXcp_13WWyOpr2BfDy-m3Z1qnvQ9OVKtKkcB3P9tfCLOoVuhupGTpGa3uMVyiDFKoeXpyzNUL-slTraGByf1pmuZNbPBTp5uTr_WKc40lL5Y3I5_W_iBVHy6JMDFmKJPoZKMv6w7XQSl8G193ox2/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-15%20at%204.08.19%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE Year: 1948 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>By the time TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE came out, Humphrey Bogart was already a big star, having began (over a decade earlier) as unknown dressed-up dandies to successfully portraying cutthroat villains soon morphed into likeable scoundrels... and then outright heroes...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>So for MADRE it was back to the heavy... yet his Fred C. Dobbs is initially more lightweight and affable, homeless and bumming throughout the crowded purgatory of 1920's Mexico with a new friend in perfect sidekick Tim Holt, both meeting an old yet energetic, experienced, tale-spinning and much-deserved Oscar-winning Walter Huston, director John Huston's father and the reason Bogart agreed playing another dark, sinister role: so that the veteran actor could intensely perform against such formidable, uncompromising tyranny...</p><p><span></span></p>

adventure, barton maclane, bruce bennett, forties, humphrey bogart, john huston, mexico, robert blake, thriller, tim holt, treasure, walter huston

HUMPHREY BOGART STEALS 'THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE'

Title: THE TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE Year: 1948 Rating: **** By the time TREASURE OF THE SIERRA MADRE came out, Humphrey Bogart was alrea...

CLINT EASTWOOD IN 'THE EIGER SANCTION' WITH GEORGE KENNEDY

<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/AVvXsEidiwvn0rUnrwFPp06oSCfu1F5lsKVbuAHOkbMJiW_h8PwwqcYF79fEisWSvRMVRatpvsUo3X0Q9HUGVPRlYgBFrfyEf1fhLeSg05kJbAdQozKzqUExMJIUvnKeHrxa3IOaeQdGxtK4ev946LhMQ8nEzoDCSWt1Z6XnH3EQ21W0GESQ3v4b0VE-qGdu0Su3/s1602/1%203.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="728" data-original-width="1602" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidiwvn0rUnrwFPp06oSCfu1F5lsKVbuAHOkbMJiW_h8PwwqcYF79fEisWSvRMVRatpvsUo3X0Q9HUGVPRlYgBFrfyEf1fhLeSg05kJbAdQozKzqUExMJIUvnKeHrxa3IOaeQdGxtK4ev946LhMQ8nEzoDCSWt1Z6XnH3EQ21W0GESQ3v4b0VE-qGdu0Su3/s16000/1%203.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE EIGER SANCTION Year: 1975 Rating: *** Grade: C+</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Clint Eastwood's THE EIGER SANCTION foreshadows RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK having an otherwise mild-mannered, seemingly-average college professor with a dangerous side-job... </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>Only here Clint's Jonathan Hemlock is far more dangerous being a hired assassin in what plays like a James Bond vehicle including an enigmatic, monologue-spouting code-name tycoon and several gorgeous, extremely easy women (featuring gorgeous blaxploitation starlet Vonetta McGee) who turn on the central hero...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, candice rialson, clint eastwood, george kennedy, gregory walcott, hit-man, jack cassidy, neo noir, seventies, thayer david, vonetta mcgee

CLINT EASTWOOD IN 'THE EIGER SANCTION' WITH GEORGE KENNEDY

Title: THE EIGER SANCTION Year: 1975 Rating: *** Grade: C+ Clint Eastwood's THE EIGER SANCTION foreshadows RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK havin...

ALEXANDER PAYNE & PAUL GIAMATTI REUNITE FOR 'THE HOLDOVERS'

<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/AVvXsEgGek7Sz7Y0VIBHFoc-XjUJnSO-WL1PIYTjquUqUyW4SVXn3iICoPBCshEJHW2ZtsPhxMuZr62FhmrUa02Eq20K6ubCWf4RlW0CMPWoUQk_AsqM7tQRRDuNDySQEDxnt2CbC0CTpcQgDp4fsUwSCv6EedpRBd7XGtCfQAcnQLwOdwOMoCDHvSKnstMZqXQD/s1703/Screen%20Shot%202024-05-03%20at%2012.20.05%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="978" data-original-width="1703" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGek7Sz7Y0VIBHFoc-XjUJnSO-WL1PIYTjquUqUyW4SVXn3iICoPBCshEJHW2ZtsPhxMuZr62FhmrUa02Eq20K6ubCWf4RlW0CMPWoUQk_AsqM7tQRRDuNDySQEDxnt2CbC0CTpcQgDp4fsUwSCv6EedpRBd7XGtCfQAcnQLwOdwOMoCDHvSKnstMZqXQD/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-05-03%20at%2012.20.05%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE HOLDOVERS Year: 2023 Rating: ** </u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Director Alexander Payne is passive/aggressive when it comes to his previous SIDEWAYS star Paul Giamatti's character Paul Hunham, a stuffy, curmudgeon-like professor at an all-boys boarding school, who in one scene angrily lectures his students while glibly handing-out failing grades, and the next idealistically defends the institution's grieving African-American cook from one of a small-handful of HOLDOVER teens, unable to go home for Christmas and having to spend a melancholy "detention" (like THE BREAKFAST CLUB meets DEAD POET'S SOCIETY meets 1972's CHILD'S PLAY) stuck in an otherwise empty campus...</p><p>Ironically, that particular scolded brat winds up getting a last-minute Christmas vacation reprieve... a shame since he had the kind of antagonistic attitude that would inevitably transition by the end...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

2023, alexander payne, comedy, counter-culture, drama, new, paul giamatti, teen, time period

ALEXANDER PAYNE & PAUL GIAMATTI REUNITE FOR 'THE HOLDOVERS'

Title: THE HOLDOVERS Year: 2023 Rating: ** Director Alexander Payne is passive/aggressive when it comes to his previous SIDEWAYS star Paul G...

DAN AYKROYD WITH HOWARD HESSEMAN IN 'DOCTOR DETROIT'

<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/AVvXsEh_lGXDbmhA9Gy679DyKILCu2e6gyr2156Z8iYnYctyRk7gsQUSAevr8z8bEWVEF2lv2YtJsr4ZMvEQ2ESegbUgUc5AyQq5NybbbHBQT0diLAEQPCxwqsUFs46s0A7eGmAodCGhNjJMJKkWsJKzteI83NF490uRzDS2ExC5cEoTH1Env9xf39Bb-Ad5_4PI/s1474/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-08%20at%201.54.32%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="668" data-original-width="1474" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_lGXDbmhA9Gy679DyKILCu2e6gyr2156Z8iYnYctyRk7gsQUSAevr8z8bEWVEF2lv2YtJsr4ZMvEQ2ESegbUgUc5AyQq5NybbbHBQT0diLAEQPCxwqsUFs46s0A7eGmAodCGhNjJMJKkWsJKzteI83NF490uRzDS2ExC5cEoTH1Env9xf39Bb-Ad5_4PI/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-08%20at%201.54.32%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>End Credit Fake Sequel Gag from DOCTOR DETROIT Year: 1982 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>By 1982, Dan Aykroyd wasn't completely into playing a total goofball since, after four gorgeous limo-riding hookers spot his ultra-nerdy college professor Clifford Skridrow power-walking in an obviously rehearsed/notably overboard fashion, they can't quit noting how cute and even sexy he is, thus marking Dan's first stand-alone leading role following the tragic death of legendary comedy-partner John Belushi... </p><p></p><p>Basically a NUTTY PROFESSOR alter-ego theme, foreshadowing Aykroyd's forgettable THE COUCH TRIP in that an otherwise average dolt wields conveniently miraculous traits of an improvisational performer yet here, Clifford feels idealistically motivated to save those hookers (including future trophy wife Donna Dixon and mouthy Fran Drescher) from encroachment by viciously monopolizing Kate Murtaugh after their own flashy pimp Howard Hesseman, owing tons of money and driving the film's entire first act (while literally being driven by T.K. Carter), heads for the hills... </p><p><span></span></p>

andrew duggan, comedy, dan aykroyd, donna dixon, eighties, fran drescher, george furth, hank salas, howard hesseman, lynda lei, prostitute, t.k. carter

DAN AYKROYD WITH HOWARD HESSEMAN IN 'DOCTOR DETROIT'

End Credit Fake Sequel Gag from DOCTOR DETROIT Year: 1982 Rating: ***1/2 By 1982, Dan Aykroyd wasn't completely into playing a total go...

MICHAEL MADSEN AND SCOTT HAMM DUENAS IN 'FINAL WAGER'

<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/AVvXsEigdkzOqtMKw5hMN5keaNjS7UFMcosEetHRO8MVq6DaCsxMb7GD7dsbA5nBiJMTeO1XtlqLQr-dVMYVilgdDUpIBkXCpz6_93wTyfjK339p2r2KZEy9Z2bZ4ZcBkb60yl93TFfxOeMI67YTuCoAoIXOqSAHfun_mbXEx_Q0nBNemTop1kmLZZhrv1tlNbt7/s1606/Screen%20Shot%202024-04-10%20at%2011.14.23%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="822" data-original-width="1606" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigdkzOqtMKw5hMN5keaNjS7UFMcosEetHRO8MVq6DaCsxMb7GD7dsbA5nBiJMTeO1XtlqLQr-dVMYVilgdDUpIBkXCpz6_93wTyfjK339p2r2KZEy9Z2bZ4ZcBkb60yl93TFfxOeMI67YTuCoAoIXOqSAHfun_mbXEx_Q0nBNemTop1kmLZZhrv1tlNbt7/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-04-10%20at%2011.14.23%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Michael Madsen in FINAL WAGER Year: 2024</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Michael Madsen's famous tough guy voice has become even harsher with age, providing an underline crime flick edge to FINAL WAGER, an otherwise tavern-set romantic-comedy with a TWILIGHT ZONE-style twist of an unlucky gambler who realizes he cannot lose a bet on Christmas: so it's also an upbeat Holiday flick... but without getting lost in sentimentalism despite a financial assistance subplot driving our resilient, likeable lead...<br></p><p></p><p>Instead, it's his fiance, played by down-to-earth, light-up-a-room beauty Fernanda Romero... owner of the central bar... who keeps the low-budget yet impressively slick and professional-looking indie not only intriguing, but surprisingly unpredictable despite the firmly established fact this lucky-streak-gambler will <i>always</i> win — because he can possibly lose his girl, and from beginning, middle and end, their relationship is what FINAL WAGER truly relies on. <br></p><p><span></span></p>

2024, christmas, comedy, fernanda romano, gambling, michael madsen, romantic comedy, scott hamm duenas

MICHAEL MADSEN AND SCOTT HAMM DUENAS IN 'FINAL WAGER'

Michael Madsen in FINAL WAGER Year: 2024 Michael Madsen's famous tough guy voice has become even harsher with age, providing an underlin...

CHRISTINA GREGG IN ROGER CORMAN'S 'THE YOUNG RACERS'

<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/AVvXsEjBesT6guVerp3AFTeMdA_0xE35S4vImVUDq4E3KsPqVg0il0WgMWrlScytSfFSILxUXCy4hbWyNZy-B4XYqjrtV_RhpqDjfhEo6xfKZqDibC4AGva-1C0WHQX40I2hcYY-SPven0F4g3SScEnr95d66798EoGx6d59LO_e7pejMad5yNcM2m-QAoAebEOq/s1762/1%202-1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1048" data-original-width="1762" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjBesT6guVerp3AFTeMdA_0xE35S4vImVUDq4E3KsPqVg0il0WgMWrlScytSfFSILxUXCy4hbWyNZy-B4XYqjrtV_RhpqDjfhEo6xfKZqDibC4AGva-1C0WHQX40I2hcYY-SPven0F4g3SScEnr95d66798EoGx6d59LO_e7pejMad5yNcM2m-QAoAebEOq/s16000/1%202-1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christina Gregg with Mark Damon in THE YOUNG RACERS Year: 1963 Rates: ** </u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>There are bad b-movies that are still entertaining, and then there are those that simply don't work — as is the case of Roger Corman's THE YOUNG RACERS,<i> that does use</i> genuine European Monte Carlo Grand Prix racing locations that don't resemble stock footage thrown into the melodramatic romance sequences, which this has far too much of...</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>Howard Hawks fared much better (though not financially) with what this picture seems a precursor of, RED LINE 7000, following womanizing racers and their female conquests, some stronger than others, in particular Luana Anders as the central ingenue, stuck between THE YOUNG RACERS... </p><p><span></span></p>

action, christina gregg, exploitation, luana anders, mark damon, melodrama, race car, roger corman, romance, sixties, sport, william campbell, william shatner

CHRISTINA GREGG IN ROGER CORMAN'S 'THE YOUNG RACERS'

Christina Gregg with Mark Damon in THE YOUNG RACERS Year: 1963 Rates: ** There are bad b-movies that are still entertaining, and then there ...

HUMPHREY BOGART WITH LAUREN BACALL IN 'THE BIG SLEEP'

<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/AVvXsEjs4JR8kyc0_q1TlH_SucuKQDIEg7asFj0b_amfpQDYUX1Z0z0yQU9Aqd6gMngGNsAdZ4Z3IArT8REYNfWIElfnzsIwnTQ9rKMk6VNQqkO6pF1ukBUos8nowbpV6KCmDo4QW9swAfmyV5FY6BuktNu9kIrEzw9O4Vr9EEkmCSQHM2NiUIvhF-rOHqUqlwFH/s2066/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-01%20at%205.45.14%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1158" data-original-width="2066" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs4JR8kyc0_q1TlH_SucuKQDIEg7asFj0b_amfpQDYUX1Z0z0yQU9Aqd6gMngGNsAdZ4Z3IArT8REYNfWIElfnzsIwnTQ9rKMk6VNQqkO6pF1ukBUos8nowbpV6KCmDo4QW9swAfmyV5FY6BuktNu9kIrEzw9O4Vr9EEkmCSQHM2NiUIvhF-rOHqUqlwFH/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-01%20at%205.45.14%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE BIG SLEEP Year: 1946 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>One of the most important agendas director Howard Hawks had for Humphrey Bogart in THE BIG SLEEP — following his breakthrough in HIGH SIERRA followed by THE MALTESE FALCON and CASABLANCA — was to not only sustain his snowballing stardom, but to make him a ravaging sex symbol...</p><p></p><p>Because every woman here wants him... needs him, even... from a sexy librarian, a sexier bookstore employee (Dorothy Malone)... and even a hot female cab driver gets his number, literally, for a possible nighttime tryst... </p><p><span></span></p>

dorothy malone, film noir or melodrama, gumshoe, howard hawks, humphrey bogart, lauren bacall, martha vickers, mystery, raymond chandler

HUMPHREY BOGART WITH LAUREN BACALL IN 'THE BIG SLEEP'

Title: THE BIG SLEEP Year: 1946 Rating: ***1/2 One of the most important agendas director Howard Hawks had for Humphrey Bogart in THE BIG SL...

HUMPHREY BOGART & LAUREN BACALL 'TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT'

<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/AVvXsEhhZF2XwOULxq2-7vzidub8EE7pMH7cPRv6rA2x1AErUbBg3aAXikZ0CC6cuDCWzJNY7FgOmbMdWw8zszro5VMZHl2junGIwcSL0dY5Kv_72AOTMgsHwasUk7EQukbSD9sSmA0lifPcua3-KaRhof90JlzE2r2zKHrtis4JwX3Qen2QPCG8y6-y7ExBhAt2/s1086/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-02%20at%204.39.07%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="557" data-original-width="1086" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhhZF2XwOULxq2-7vzidub8EE7pMH7cPRv6rA2x1AErUbBg3aAXikZ0CC6cuDCWzJNY7FgOmbMdWw8zszro5VMZHl2junGIwcSL0dY5Kv_72AOTMgsHwasUk7EQukbSD9sSmA0lifPcua3-KaRhof90JlzE2r2zKHrtis4JwX3Qen2QPCG8y6-y7ExBhAt2/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-11-02%20at%204.39.07%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT Year: 1944 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>After Lauren Bacall, in her first feature film, says her iconic line about knowing how to whistle and leaves the room, there's a closeup on American charter boat captain Harry 'Steve' Morgan played by Humphrey Bogart, where he practically looks into the camera while doing a wolf-whistle, giving a knowing grin that seems more like a contrived promotion for the lovely newcomer than part of an action thriller, very loosely based on the novel... originally a magazine serial in pulp fiction style... by Ernest Hemingway...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>However there are a few faithful elements, like the initial fishing trip with irate customer Walter Sande and Bogart's rummy sidekick Walter Brennan, who needs a drink every minute... only this being a movie, the score <i>Mickey Mouses</i> in a dated fashion (mirroring exact character movements), especially with Brennan who, despite being a pathetic lush, is the supposed comic relief in a picture with comedy as one of the genres...</p><span></span>

action, adventure, british film noir/melodrama, ernest hemingway, forties, howard hawks, humphrey bogart, lauren bacall, walter brennan, world war II

HUMPHREY BOGART & LAUREN BACALL 'TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT'

Title: TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT Year: 1944 Rating: ***1/2 After Lauren Bacall, in her first feature film, says her iconic line about knowing how...

HUMPHREY BOGART AND ROD STEIGER IN 'THE HARDER THEY FALL'

<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/AVvXsEgqlJgbzXIQuGEIvIbtWWbx3v2_yOGzeBYuOXySAX4bSHge4wjY8Nat5ILFGCWydR4srtQF89B1ijuLzFBjNwh31YWcOMxcqUnUu5oROi_VK4pbIrpRPiGCqv4PS7gitDNfO6BqcQC43AzCVP2v2WJqSrti1vCb2l2KRR-T9uXZnBpDcgtricd9wmXqKF7t/s971/first.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="618" data-original-width="971" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqlJgbzXIQuGEIvIbtWWbx3v2_yOGzeBYuOXySAX4bSHge4wjY8Nat5ILFGCWydR4srtQF89B1ijuLzFBjNwh31YWcOMxcqUnUu5oROi_VK4pbIrpRPiGCqv4PS7gitDNfO6BqcQC43AzCVP2v2WJqSrti1vCb2l2KRR-T9uXZnBpDcgtricd9wmXqKF7t/s16000/first.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: ANTS Year: 1977 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The legendary Humphrey Bogart's last movie, during the mid-1950's when the big message could become more important than the characters, which is the opposite of ON THE WATERFRONT that Mark Robson's extremely bias boxing scandal-expose THE HARDER THEY FALL attempts the suspenseful, brawny big city edginess of... armed gangsters ruling over muscular everymen... but in a passive, mainstream fashion...</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>A shame since the boxing sequences — where has-been sports-writer Bogart and his seedy promoter boss Rod Steiger have ringside seats — are filmed with brutal realism... both men making sure the opponents of their mediocre giant upstart take the same kind of fall that could have made Marlon Brando a contender....</p><p><span></span></p>

boxing, expose, felice orlandi, fifties, humphrey bogart, jan sterling, marian carr, mark robson, melodrama, nehemiah persoff, rod steiger, sport

HUMPHREY BOGART AND ROD STEIGER IN 'THE HARDER THEY FALL'

Title: ANTS Year: 1977 Rating: **** The legendary Humphrey Bogart's last movie, during the mid-1950's when the big message could bec...

SUZANNE SOMERS, ROBERT FOXWORTH & BERNIE CASEY IN 'ANTS'

<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/AVvXsEio7mGqZnhrQCFkJHNID7_d0tPhfHTaloFc0HLrct2rbjdZ-mSI4YTtS3EtPeQcO7RFFT5PJqlP4UFjKtLcNhM5cnvNPbBil0Zb2X-Nz5fsCaOoM8T_U-Rnh1CgES7gDhMZ6NQkdw9xOIaHbAj7LdHV0yZhuDMjDnQQMJg5mtTwVMbJWVfGVF29vfRt1evv/s1708/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="916" data-original-width="1708" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEio7mGqZnhrQCFkJHNID7_d0tPhfHTaloFc0HLrct2rbjdZ-mSI4YTtS3EtPeQcO7RFFT5PJqlP4UFjKtLcNhM5cnvNPbBil0Zb2X-Nz5fsCaOoM8T_U-Rnh1CgES7gDhMZ6NQkdw9xOIaHbAj7LdHV0yZhuDMjDnQQMJg5mtTwVMbJWVfGVF29vfRt1evv/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: ANTS Year: 1977 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Television-movie originally titled IT HAPPENED AT LAKEWOOD MANOR sounded more like a ghost story than eco-horror/exploitation, so ANTS — that can either maim or kill after a few quick bites — works much better...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Initially discovered in an investigative fashion by construction foreman Robert Foxworth and worker Bernie Casey, restoring the exterior grounds of a classic hotel about to be sold from sweet Myrna Loy to crooked Gerald Gordon (like Melvyn Douglas and Kevin McCarthy in HOTEL)...</p><span></span>

ants, barry van dyke, bernie casey, brian dennehy, creature, eco horror, myrna loy, robert foxworth, seventies, steve franken, suzanne somers

SUZANNE SOMERS, ROBERT FOXWORTH & BERNIE CASEY IN 'ANTS'

Title: ANTS Year: 1977 Rating: **** Television-movie originally titled IT HAPPENED AT LAKEWOOD MANOR sounded more like a ghost story than ec...

VAL GUEST DIRECTS HAMMER'S 'THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT'

<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/AVvXsEiQ8oQqBcSN2damLUlqMlH_tKg8DvkeC97DZtrlpBx9vgwZgFdQm14HCNR0vXvWQK64g_7USrbDdlv0DdxujAORU-3VmacxSfUhGTuMLLivc2ORZNYThorkjEp7r326k8bWcYjp4cmVyRJJzMZI2jaYghxw2hmTGRndCLERdxHndEVrO26u1s8QO7N3HRkd/s1302/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-17%20at%203.03.07%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="704" data-original-width="1302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8oQqBcSN2damLUlqMlH_tKg8DvkeC97DZtrlpBx9vgwZgFdQm14HCNR0vXvWQK64g_7USrbDdlv0DdxujAORU-3VmacxSfUhGTuMLLivc2ORZNYThorkjEp7r326k8bWcYjp4cmVyRJJzMZI2jaYghxw2hmTGRndCLERdxHndEVrO26u1s8QO7N3HRkd/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-17%20at%203.03.07%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Richard Wordsworth in QUARTERMASS XPERIMENT Year: 1955 Rates: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Very much like an astronaut's return episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE four years before THE TWILIGHT ZONE, Hammer went from Noir to Sci-Fi with Val Guest's THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT before their groundbreaking Classic Monster outing THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN... </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>And, right down to a little girl (Jane Asher) befriending a surreptitiously monstrous beast close to water, this XPERIMENT is basically James Whale's FRANKENSTEIN had he returned from a rocket ship sent up prematurely by our more impatient than mad scientist in title character Quatermass, played by American import Brian Donlevy, letting all the intrigue swirl around his usual narrowed cadence... </p><p><span></span></p>

body count, brian donlevy, creature, fifties, gordon jackson, hammer films, harold lang, horror, jack warner, jane aird, jane asher, richard wordsworth, science-fiction, val guest

VAL GUEST DIRECTS HAMMER'S 'THE QUATERMASS XPERIMENT'

Richard Wordsworth in QUARTERMASS XPERIMENT Year: 1955 Rates: **** Very much like an astronaut's return episode of THE TWILIGHT ZONE fou...

VAL GUEST DIRECTS HAMMER'S 'QUATERMASS 2' WITH BRIAN DONLEVY

<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/AVvXsEioyZg0Kx1EyTtRn5bpUU8Xh6ITNHLx_qI0nhdoPrk46sD2XSytSao061EtYHGqNkRAqYiAU5Di_qOpuTlhx0xJA-x47LxqozMN7Eg4aCjvWIE9TWCTXIxJSeuP_5j58bmDP0amPjNybHt0TB9n8dGLEBu0RXiHWPqTYh5VA5Cm8nJ5OqDgo4PGeo6l3zWl/s2226/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-16%20at%205.46.55%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1184" data-original-width="2226" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioyZg0Kx1EyTtRn5bpUU8Xh6ITNHLx_qI0nhdoPrk46sD2XSytSao061EtYHGqNkRAqYiAU5Di_qOpuTlhx0xJA-x47LxqozMN7Eg4aCjvWIE9TWCTXIxJSeuP_5j58bmDP0amPjNybHt0TB9n8dGLEBu0RXiHWPqTYh5VA5Cm8nJ5OqDgo4PGeo6l3zWl/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-16%20at%205.46.55%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Original British Title: QUATERMASS 2 American: ENEMY FROM SPACE Year: 1957 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Both of Val Guest's 1950's <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/04/qmass1.html">Hammer QUATERMASS</a> vehicles rely on different science-fiction scenarios, so you don't have to watch one to enjoy the other: starting with a Frankenstein story involving the titular scientist's funded return-space-flight gone awry, and the second has aliens behind a project meant to send rockets <i>back up</i> into space (while some kind of comet dust is randomly burning people's skin)... </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>Condensed into a 90-minute programmer involving an enigmatic town, created within a power plant to supposedly make food for humans to live on a moon colony (borrowed from Quatermass's abandoned project), then engulfing one man with a tar-like substance: a horrifying image that this particular Hammer's best remembered...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, brian donlevy, bryan forbes, fifties, hammer films, john van eyssen, percy herbert, science-fiction, sequel, sidney james, thriller, val guest, vera day

VAL GUEST DIRECTS HAMMER'S 'QUATERMASS 2' WITH BRIAN DONLEVY

Original British Title: QUATERMASS 2 American: ENEMY FROM SPACE Year: 1957 Rating: **** Both of Val Guest's 1950's Hammer QUATERMASS...

MARK HARMON, EMMA SAMMS & ROBERT FORSTER 'GOLIATH AWAITS'

<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/AVvXsEgXB_9JN0FljEoL0ilk6KGFiq0ncKMdfRd3-EhTQGYFU7Utrwu_4PLLbfbAkBIOSGverKtsxqbhmG5TUvIqVfcLr8AHAYXZT3UHy7njppmchZ63YmKPiMIDrH-DzUx8wl4uhH95_Vf8P3uZmd0MAzjlgzc3XySq9ILH1co2YY4iDcstiReCGLMOdTeiXmfO/s2048/more%20yellow%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1191" data-original-width="2048" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXB_9JN0FljEoL0ilk6KGFiq0ncKMdfRd3-EhTQGYFU7Utrwu_4PLLbfbAkBIOSGverKtsxqbhmG5TUvIqVfcLr8AHAYXZT3UHy7njppmchZ63YmKPiMIDrH-DzUx8wl4uhH95_Vf8P3uZmd0MAzjlgzc3XySq9ILH1co2YY4iDcstiReCGLMOdTeiXmfO/s16000/more%20yellow%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Tittle: GOLIATH AWAITS 1981 Emma Samms, Mark Harmon, Robert Forster Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Less than two-hours into the three-plus-hour GOLIATH AWAITS there's an establishing shot of the titular sunken ship that had been torpedoed by Germans at the brink of World War II, 1939... at which point most of the sci-fi mystery-genre-suspense has passively morphed into a kind of comfortably melodramatic TV-series instead of miniseries... which centers on rescuing a group of survivors still existing in the ship after forty years...</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 reasons for their otherwise impossible survival is told in various tour-guided monologues... either by ship's savior Christopher Lee or his chaste daughter Emma Samms who has — after seeing diver Mark Harmon from a porthole — fallen in love with the salvaging American: himself spending the first forty-five minutes getting into the ship's hull with Robert Forster as a more even-keeled Navy man (also Harmon's ex Navy partner)... seeking an important document for military boss Eddie Albert, who randomly barks orders from above, mirroring a disaster flick inside the airport tower... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

christopher lee, eighties, emma samms, john carradine, mark harmon, robert forster, world war II

MARK HARMON, EMMA SAMMS & ROBERT FORSTER 'GOLIATH AWAITS'

Tittle: GOLIATH AWAITS 1981 Emma Samms, Mark Harmon, Robert Forster Rating: ***1/2 Less than two-hours into the three-plus-hour GOLIATH AWAI...

MATTHEW PERRY NEO NOIR EPISODE OF 'BEVERLY HILLS 90210'

<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/AVvXsEgKdNZUNyEl6fspRBx71fJZiySeD2n0NXKOLij-nJuK3-j6QsAJx56l227F_nfayZWSEffmm3TzQRAq6g_XswsbdxPWoiESiCzhDY-1ycucFate4PhvfSOaibH9nN3tLqE2dRHTMpvnpIFODauasQWJZgvGt3GKWDLGSeMQ2QqzuX_ZifMokAV52jXTtx8M/s1222/11.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="689" data-original-width="1222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKdNZUNyEl6fspRBx71fJZiySeD2n0NXKOLij-nJuK3-j6QsAJx56l227F_nfayZWSEffmm3TzQRAq6g_XswsbdxPWoiESiCzhDY-1ycucFate4PhvfSOaibH9nN3tLqE2dRHTMpvnpIFODauasQWJZgvGt3GKWDLGSeMQ2QqzuX_ZifMokAV52jXTtx8M/s16000/11.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Matthew Perry and Jason Priestly Beverly Hills 90210 Year: 1991 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Having caught an extremely horrific strain of COVID and suffering profusely for a week, and then sustaining for another week even after finally testing negative, the biggest blessing in disguise is that Amazon Prime has the original BEVERLY HILLS 90210 for binging, and, while it's a corny teenage melodrama meant for teenage viewers back in the glorious 1990's, there are few guilty pleasures that fill the time so perfectly... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>One particular first season episode, intensely titled APRIL IS THE CRUELEST MONTH, now has sad irony, featuring the late Matthew Perry as a rich kid tennis star whose father (Nicolas Coster) wants him to win at everything... </p><p><span></span></p>

ian ziering, jason priestley, matthew perry, memorial, neo noir, nicolas coster, nineties, tv series

MATTHEW PERRY NEO NOIR EPISODE OF 'BEVERLY HILLS 90210'

Matthew Perry and Jason Priestly Beverly Hills 90210 Year: 1991 Rates: *** Having caught an extremely horrific strain of COVID and suffering...

NOSTALGIC REVIEW OF NEW ROLLING STONES 'HACKNEY DIAMONDS'

<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/AVvXsEia0U9vhePMm3EtfokBgUJerDeCS3Cu-xbWBVQBe-uOAYysPNNE9SitndxFmhTvbGnh6_anPozVJQeJompEu3QgL58ulXaCa41lADr3Qr2k3m589j5epvbRxjA2HpmZWews524KP-8yaaOcDar9qIVuAN5UYB2Xh3_qKlEKJhFQkEn8Iy2ASJkiRg_dW590/s1500/A1fXb71fhAL._SL1500_.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="884" data-original-width="1500" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEia0U9vhePMm3EtfokBgUJerDeCS3Cu-xbWBVQBe-uOAYysPNNE9SitndxFmhTvbGnh6_anPozVJQeJompEu3QgL58ulXaCa41lADr3Qr2k3m589j5epvbRxjA2HpmZWews524KP-8yaaOcDar9qIVuAN5UYB2Xh3_qKlEKJhFQkEn8Iy2ASJkiRg_dW590/s16000/A1fXb71fhAL._SL1500_.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u> THE ROLLING STONES: HACKNEY DIAMONDS Year: 2023 Grade: A</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>After several uneventful new wave attempts of solo stardom, many forget or won't admit how good Mick Jagger's third album WANDERING SPIRIT was... leading to THE ROLLING STONES' brand new HACKNEY DIAMONDS, which sounds like a well-produced, finely-crafted progression of a Jagger album done correctly... <br></p><p></p><p>Loaded with familiar guest stars, like original bassist Bill Wyman on one track, the late Charlie Watts on two, and, well... Keith Richards and Ron Wood seem to be guesting throughout... yet without their usual gritty double-ax attack, despite Wood turning in his usual country-rock solo he puts into almost every song since joining the band (that Mick Taylor invented on STICKY FINGERS)... The best songs are as follows...</p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

2023, album, bill wyman, charlie watts, keith richards, mick jagger, mick taylor, music, rolling stones, ron wood

NOSTALGIC REVIEW OF NEW ROLLING STONES 'HACKNEY DIAMONDS'

 THE ROLLING STONES: HACKNEY DIAMONDS Year: 2023 Grade: A After several uneventful new wave attempts of solo stardom, many forget or won'...

MARCIA HENDERSON AND MARCIA HENDERSON IN 'DEADLY DUO'

<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/AVvXsEjdFgf9S5tbmNMo_lWfQPJsUUmI4GxfGil3l1D-EIRb2_MneudXgiTTmGaouSbw2C2WR9BqNyUPOnfu3Yyk2F9XPWYZf25LtLvbd79zNut1EX8UJDMrUHjPPIqFqHipy_GP_1euYntjE2sHqngC5V02YaT4Nyu7v1tYxECobrL2oGBdRCMtNBM9lbIwXahY/s1790/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="872" data-original-width="1790" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFgf9S5tbmNMo_lWfQPJsUUmI4GxfGil3l1D-EIRb2_MneudXgiTTmGaouSbw2C2WR9BqNyUPOnfu3Yyk2F9XPWYZf25LtLvbd79zNut1EX8UJDMrUHjPPIqFqHipy_GP_1euYntjE2sHqngC5V02YaT4Nyu7v1tYxECobrL2oGBdRCMtNBM9lbIwXahY/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: DEADLY DUO Year: 1962 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>From George Montgomery to Rock Hudson, actress Marcia Henderson usually played the good girl to a good man... and she's a good girl here too... widowed to a rich man without caring about anything but her son... and the titular DEADLY DUO twist is, she has an identical twin sister, also played by Henderson...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The first is brunette and sweet as pie, the other's bad and blonde and, married to a lowlife yet charming former nightclub owner, they're all being checked out by lawyer Craig Hill who, sent for the rich grandmother's custody of the son, is actually the lead character despite Marcia's double role...</p><p><span></span></p>

carlos romero, craig hill, dayton lummis, irene tedrow, marcia henderson, neo noir, robert lowery, sixties

MARCIA HENDERSON AND MARCIA HENDERSON IN 'DEADLY DUO'

Title: DEADLY DUO Year: 1962 Rating: ***1/2 From George Montgomery to Rock Hudson, actress Marcia Henderson usually played the good girl to ...

JOHN THAW IN 'THE SWEENEY: ABDUCTION" WITH STUART WILSON

<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/AVvXsEilIGKWnY8SOzb8DjrvPwtvqFOPJalpH1VbPDXejrznsm7rx1c9qXvuTYG6jKSuzv2faMm-jDZGIYYfrNjxieVlIuqDNIb-rSQhU7ewjspUgLvgbnC0vVU4n3iH50w3oGodQwAQIjoWn-72-NCtWlv54-bW8pKewnN1Flk4lv37QyOYqth9CIc2LNLGuJUq/s1395/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-11%20at%201.16.16%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="762" data-original-width="1395" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEilIGKWnY8SOzb8DjrvPwtvqFOPJalpH1VbPDXejrznsm7rx1c9qXvuTYG6jKSuzv2faMm-jDZGIYYfrNjxieVlIuqDNIb-rSQhU7ewjspUgLvgbnC0vVU4n3iH50w3oGodQwAQIjoWn-72-NCtWlv54-bW8pKewnN1Flk4lv37QyOYqth9CIc2LNLGuJUq/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-11%20at%201.16.16%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Stuart Wilson and Janet Key in THE SWEENEY: ABDUCTION Year: 1975 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>John Thaw's Inspector Regan is the kind of sex symbol that could only derive from the British 1970's... and while resembling the devil-head from the William Shatner roadside-cafe fortune-machine TWILIGHT ZONE, he's never at a loss for sexy birds, who usually simply throw themselves at him... </p><p></p><p></p><p>Yet sometimes settling for somewhat plain ones, that actually fit him aesthetically and realistically over the bombshells... so here's a middle-ground in ABDUCTION as we meet his first wife, having been divorced before the series began, and young daughter, befitting the titular plot-line of kidnapping...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

action, british, cop, dennis waterman, john thaw, kidnapping, seventies, stuart wilson, sweeney

JOHN THAW IN 'THE SWEENEY: ABDUCTION" WITH STUART WILSON

Stuart Wilson and Janet Key in THE SWEENEY: ABDUCTION Year: 1975 Rates: ***1/2 John Thaw's Inspector Regan is the kind of sex symbol tha...

JOHN THAW WITH JOHN CLIVE IN 'THE SWEENEY: BIG BROTHER'

<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/AVvXsEg8LRyZesOoHw1Nf0K7E-qwLoJ8ENdod9SOl9mIT3o51tNV2cgfcoi1gZsRD1f-J7N8mNkc5cVopS6cuWGnkQYPYtbIaxpC8mRUYFqr3jI7S1BgjFLD1C1N5kw-NzG5H9nLl66CAwmah7eQSRU4k3lHjnLb5hdJ1CX0bjmG0YWHvDrvmTdg-TN81PsQKcGT/s979/387214730_1817622472000254_9116286702101684868_n.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="979" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8LRyZesOoHw1Nf0K7E-qwLoJ8ENdod9SOl9mIT3o51tNV2cgfcoi1gZsRD1f-J7N8mNkc5cVopS6cuWGnkQYPYtbIaxpC8mRUYFqr3jI7S1BgjFLD1C1N5kw-NzG5H9nLl66CAwmah7eQSRU4k3lHjnLb5hdJ1CX0bjmG0YWHvDrvmTdg-TN81PsQKcGT/s16000/387214730_1817622472000254_9116286702101684868_n.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>John Clive in THE SWEENEY: BIG BROTHER Year: 1975 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Like the film noir WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, as an otherwise brutal cop looks extremely guilty of murder when he's innocent... THE SWEENEY episode BIG BROTHER puts John Thaw's Regan in a similar circumstance... </p><p></p><p>Only he doesn't punch a guy to accidentally kill him like Dana Andrews... instead, after a bit of manhandling witnessed by partner Dennis Waterman's Carter, alone in the interrogation room with the smug younger brother of a criminal kingpin, the kid suddenly falls to the floor and is hospitalized, in critical condition, with Regan the suspect...</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/AVvXsEj9MJoI6MtySza7cmpQW3Nypmam_FFtCtFOYG5-_ZZ1PZ3ARkFJSav73SvozEW1sYPQz8kRHsePnj03bwyas6SA51fq0ikeJEPomKk_Lpkl_NLgp2tWLtYExgwC6y4CAE6WQDbXIyB7dGYUYmArro50wSAafBAdLqeZaYzzK1j9DnzaeUBiJyVGrvpJfVTH/s1544/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-11%20at%2012.42.26%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="808" data-original-width="1544" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9MJoI6MtySza7cmpQW3Nypmam_FFtCtFOYG5-_ZZ1PZ3ARkFJSav73SvozEW1sYPQz8kRHsePnj03bwyas6SA51fq0ikeJEPomKk_Lpkl_NLgp2tWLtYExgwC6y4CAE6WQDbXIyB7dGYUYmArro50wSAafBAdLqeZaYzzK1j9DnzaeUBiJyVGrvpJfVTH/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-11%20at%2012.42.26%20AM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>John Thaw in THE SWEENEY: BIG BROTHER with David Dixon</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>As the episode juggles several genre elements: from gangster-revenge, bad cop, wrong man to blaxploitation... particularly intriguing when A CLOCKWORK ORANGE goading stage actor John Clive... always with a weaselly trick up his sleeve... plays a liberal journalist dying to turn the infamous cop into a killer...<br></p><p></p><p>Meanwhile Maurice Roëves looks dapper and partially menacing as the title character, who hires a wild card torpedo to off Regan, yet neither story-line comes to anything, really... leaving a foot chase with Regan and Carter after a black pimp backed by a funky score to close a really good episode that's almost downright incredible.</p><p><span></span></p>

action, british, cop, dennis waterman, garfield morgan, john clive, john thaw, maurice roëves, seventies, sweeney

JOHN THAW WITH JOHN CLIVE IN 'THE SWEENEY: BIG BROTHER'

John Clive in THE SWEENEY: BIG BROTHER Year: 1975 Rating: ***1/2 Like the film noir WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS, as an otherwise brutal cop look...

JOHN THAW & DENNIS WATERMAN IN 'THE SWEENEY: SUPERSNOUT'

<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/AVvXsEiQG5PCieHf1XQ1f5z3q6ExU7611Hah2R8g_SbiHd3Nes3SvphIt9nMBDKOmJB8PNx0VrcLnDuiVmjXLcLHT_ezukgKrhzHMKl1SK7mYfi9W_NjhXeOHSaRregGfj23-cJACe2teqOYGrMIBGDO6bbc46tlm8gS9WV2XLTO9pPliCmFFzZFDTeP0PyXTya0/s993/1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="589" data-original-width="993" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQG5PCieHf1XQ1f5z3q6ExU7611Hah2R8g_SbiHd3Nes3SvphIt9nMBDKOmJB8PNx0VrcLnDuiVmjXLcLHT_ezukgKrhzHMKl1SK7mYfi9W_NjhXeOHSaRregGfj23-cJACe2teqOYGrMIBGDO6bbc46tlm8gS9WV2XLTO9pPliCmFFzZFDTeP0PyXTya0/s16000/1.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>John Thaw and Dennis Waterman in THE SWEENEY: SUPERSNOUT Year: 1975 Rates: ***<br></u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Whenever THE SWEENEY writers want to get under John Thaw's independent-minded Chief Inspector Regan's skin, they either add a new partner... making a third alongside Dennis Waterman as Carter...  or in this case (and the second theatrical film SWEENEY 2) they'll add a new superintendent, who in this case is so quirky his name's actually Quirk...</p><p></p><p>Played by bald character-actor Bill Maynard, he even shakes hands funny, and, as a mediocre, unfit leader he wants to prove himself by busting a mail-thief operation that's already weeks old, inevitably pushing his neurotic personality to the sideline as SUPERSNOUT refers to an even more neurotic John Tordoff as Stickler, an inside information man for Regan, and their dialogue-driven expository scenes are more interesting than the confusing big con that, as usual, takes until the very last minute to comprehend. <br></p><p><span></span></p>

action, bill maynard, british, cop, dennis waterman, john thaw, seventies, sweeney, tv series

JOHN THAW & DENNIS WATERMAN IN 'THE SWEENEY: SUPERSNOUT'

John Thaw and Dennis Waterman in THE SWEENEY: SUPERSNOUT Year: 1975 Rates: *** Whenever THE SWEENEY writers want to get under John Thaw'...

SEAN CONNERY & YVONNE ROMAIN IN 'THE FRIGHTENED CITY'

<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/AVvXsEg4aWom-r5xT4qj3Fi1oOPi_l6oeXRoXeHBtge8kcEF2xZDzRZrv046rAV1X8k8RTJrN_FvWXZ6uQ8Ix2c4CihsfJKVkIPT6BzUFvZRnD_zbsKWuXK2iZPH0s0glkBJXZVYft4_ph9n7syALlY4qB4piayrOphj3oJIkYoTIcp74k4eX7LwB16n6Dugj8E7/s2644/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-07%20at%201.50.31%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1370" data-original-width="2644" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg4aWom-r5xT4qj3Fi1oOPi_l6oeXRoXeHBtge8kcEF2xZDzRZrv046rAV1X8k8RTJrN_FvWXZ6uQ8Ix2c4CihsfJKVkIPT6BzUFvZRnD_zbsKWuXK2iZPH0s0glkBJXZVYft4_ph9n7syALlY4qB4piayrOphj3oJIkYoTIcp74k4eX7LwB16n6Dugj8E7/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-07%20at%201.50.31%20AM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Poster image of Yvonne Romain for THE FRIGHTENED CITY Year: 1961 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>With a terrific title like THE FRIGHTENED CITY, a British Neo Noir that actually goes the 1930's-style Classic Gangstr route, you'd think characters would be more... well... frightened... but random bursts of mobsters messing up nightclubs that don't pay for extortion happens so fast there's nothing to really fear but broken glass....</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The plot is simple and straight from the Al Capone playbook of a CITY being divided by gangsters/businessman; that's the idea given by first-billed Herbert Lom as a shady accountant, usually a side-role in these kind of action/dramas, but he was more famous than fellow HELL DRIVERS veteran Sean Connery in the muscular role... </p><p><span></span></p>

alfred marks, british neo noir, crime, gangster, herbert lom, julie shearing, melodrama, sixties

SEAN CONNERY & YVONNE ROMAIN IN 'THE FRIGHTENED CITY'

Poster image of Yvonne Romain for THE FRIGHTENED CITY Year: 1961 Rating: ** With a terrific title like THE FRIGHTENED CITY, a British Neo No...

JAMES CAGNEY & HUMPHREY BOGART IN 'THE ROARING TWENTIES'

<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/AVvXsEiOyjrkzJL2si35iliFwjXaNgHLwtmynviuiHLIn2w51QKC42TQ4BbN7IKt-7ul_7SLhnwofpqUDcm5f8jnWVFqtjGsrS9_7DoR9jeL_PlaDbQAez4ZrT4kVmGGL0l2DQCiw-Wlxr9qLWBaBnIMz0X1gHhjjowQkHtlVUIjZfDZHxjZgAvKv3F-vsD-t9V3/s2166/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-09%20at%201.40.45%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1326" data-original-width="2166" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiOyjrkzJL2si35iliFwjXaNgHLwtmynviuiHLIn2w51QKC42TQ4BbN7IKt-7ul_7SLhnwofpqUDcm5f8jnWVFqtjGsrS9_7DoR9jeL_PlaDbQAez4ZrT4kVmGGL0l2DQCiw-Wlxr9qLWBaBnIMz0X1gHhjjowQkHtlVUIjZfDZHxjZgAvKv3F-vsD-t9V3/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-09%20at%201.40.45%20AM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE ROARING TWENTIES Year: 1939 Rating: *****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>At one point, only fifteen-minutes in, when James Cagney shuffles across the cheap apartment room rented with buddy Frank McHugh, saying how he's tired of being pushed around, there's been at least two short films that already played out: beginning with a war story involving Cagney alongside a shifty yet dependable Humphrey Bogart and affable Jeffrey Lynn, leaping into exploding foxholes when not picking-off nameless Germans...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And it's hardly better back home, where there are no jobs, leading to the inevitable but far from rushed progression into the life of bootlegging liquor during the infamous anti-liquor law Prohibition, that the film itself... written/produced by Mark Hellinger with Raoul Walsh directing... is even more against than the law-breaking, often murderous shortcuts to make a lot of money by getting around it...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, depression-era, frank mchugh, gangster, gladys george, humphrey bogart, james cagney, jeffrey lynn, joe sawyer, priscilla lane, raoul walsh, robert armstrong, thirties, world war I

JAMES CAGNEY & HUMPHREY BOGART IN 'THE ROARING TWENTIES'

Title: THE ROARING TWENTIES Year: 1939 Rating: ***** At one point, only fifteen-minutes in, when James Cagney shuffles across the cheap apar...

JAMES CAGNEY & JOAN BLONDELL HIDE OUT IN 'HE WAS HER MAN'

<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/AVvXsEjeNkW44YcDoEu8fcxnUF2PndULT9AdlXY6GFzb0-PTPQREuXBn4fQgh6mzqKMLHzOvdHgDg-E4_3ox-08TuFO9f_cpc2BZSKfKgWAnD1aN2h-ARCTF0CCQnDJSB2502sVffBRv4idkW1oAGmr-fk0q0GzsP0hqrUo4F7LFXoMFlKuZqk90oscSjp6s7kiu/s1846/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-06%20at%203.01.59%20AM%202.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1380" data-original-width="1846" height="239" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjeNkW44YcDoEu8fcxnUF2PndULT9AdlXY6GFzb0-PTPQREuXBn4fQgh6mzqKMLHzOvdHgDg-E4_3ox-08TuFO9f_cpc2BZSKfKgWAnD1aN2h-ARCTF0CCQnDJSB2502sVffBRv4idkW1oAGmr-fk0q0GzsP0hqrUo4F7LFXoMFlKuZqk90oscSjp6s7kiu/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-06%20at%203.01.59%20AM%202.jpeg" width="320"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Lobby Card for HE WAS HER MAN Year: 1934</u></td></tr></tbody></table>James Cagney dime-novel-style programmer has his character Flicker Hayes, newly released from prison, dangerously double-crossing the hoods who'd double-crossed him as two more goons plan to keep on his trail...<br> <br> Beginning in San Fransisco where he meets Joan Blondell, as a prostitute setting her mind on marrying a simple fisherman in a John Steinbeck Monterrey style seaside town. She has a seemingly benign passenger in Cagney's Hayes, both hiding out in completely different ways. Cagney's surprisingly soft-spoken here, but not nearly as much as dutiful Victor Jory as the fisherman who doesn't care about Blondell's past. This is merely a distraction to Cagney's story that, in itself, distracts from what the movie's leading to — with armed goons on the way, it doesn't look likely he'll survive...<br>

crime, film noir or melodrama, frank craven, james cagney, joan blondell, mob, romance, thirties, victor jory

JAMES CAGNEY & JOAN BLONDELL HIDE OUT IN 'HE WAS HER MAN'

Lobby Card for HE WAS HER MAN Year: 1934 James Cagney dime-novel-style programmer has his character Flicker Hayes, newly released from priso...

HUMPHREY BOGART & LAUREN BACALL 'TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT'

<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/AVvXsEiyv0bdkGN9c-s0gfaK8RFtd3-wKhzbexrosInBzzSVguqi4ELUkqLgjmAtYi1H2zfM1zsaOCwL2P8HTohdVykfoHscZBxJm47rO5uEOMaYWURCfz06tyg2_0ZrjDFc1s8JR_7W1h_pVeCkm-4kpOnoGVsE82UzY_ZEgYPsbBPzD2YKb5N874uW_7e-OALd/s1558/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-05%20at%206.55.14%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1160" data-original-width="1558" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiyv0bdkGN9c-s0gfaK8RFtd3-wKhzbexrosInBzzSVguqi4ELUkqLgjmAtYi1H2zfM1zsaOCwL2P8HTohdVykfoHscZBxJm47rO5uEOMaYWURCfz06tyg2_0ZrjDFc1s8JR_7W1h_pVeCkm-4kpOnoGVsE82UzY_ZEgYPsbBPzD2YKb5N874uW_7e-OALd/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-05%20at%206.55.14%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT Director: Howard Hawks Year: 1944 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Energetic, adventurous melodrama, which might evoke a great sense of CASABLANCA deja vu with the same basic premise: tough and independent Humphrey Bogart helps a group of foreign patriots for money, meeting within a smoky piano bar, and eventually comes around to the cause... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Only the characters are based on the Ernest Hemingway novel, changing the location from Cuba to France as Bogart's Harry Morgan, a boat-for-hire fishing guide, gets reluctantly involved in smuggling two important people with the help of sultry siren Lauren Bacall and his alcoholic shipmate Eddy (Walter Brennan) as most of the film eventually narrows into one setting: although this hotel has a tavern area and many rooms, each providing Bogart ample time to outwit the local authorities whilst falling for Bacall and keeping his rummy sidekick alive. </p><p><span></span></p>

adventure, film noir or melodrama, forties, howard hawks, humphrey bogart, lauren bacall, walter brennan

HUMPHREY BOGART & LAUREN BACALL 'TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT'

Title: TO HAVE AND HAVE NOT Director: Howard Hawks Year: 1944 Rating: ***1/2 Energetic, adventurous melodrama, which might evoke a great sen...

JAMES CAGNEY WITH ANN SHERIDAN IN 'CITY FOR CONQUEST'

<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/AVvXsEgkeGt2T-VIfX2vxSUJCWZUcr311wqblnoJsHSpBBLzzfwxCMFDRI3TIYD-HUyIMkpSC0_OFK68i-S5KFd1qibiJXCvuV9JhN7dc3Yqc23JbzswB0ucEhOF_wO_5Z_7QPi25UQ4eJ6scTeValrAaait_eShU79G7LhtY8nHItwzxhMB4Rqo9naLKz-eWj3k/s2326/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-01%20at%208.07.29%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1160" data-original-width="2326" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkeGt2T-VIfX2vxSUJCWZUcr311wqblnoJsHSpBBLzzfwxCMFDRI3TIYD-HUyIMkpSC0_OFK68i-S5KFd1qibiJXCvuV9JhN7dc3Yqc23JbzswB0ucEhOF_wO_5Z_7QPi25UQ4eJ6scTeValrAaait_eShU79G7LhtY8nHItwzxhMB4Rqo9naLKz-eWj3k/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-10-01%20at%208.07.29%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>James Cagney and Ann Sheridan in CITY FOR CONQUEST Year: 1940 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>James Cagney, as a talented yet reluctant boxer, in one scene... after winning an easy bout... when asked by a potential manager if he wants to continue fighting... he answers by motioning to an old guy, bumming around a locker: after which the camera deliberately pans forward as the punchy, brain-damaged has-been begins singing off-key — right on cue...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Making CITY FOR CONQUEST more of a deliberate slow-burn presentation depicting big city souls than the fast-moving types from the previous years' epic THE ROARING TWENTIES: a kind of majestic art film that, coming out in 1940, is more a peak to 1930's Cagney cinema than a beginning of the 1940's...  </p><span></span>

ann sheridan, anthony quinn, donald crisp, elia kazan, forties, james cagney, melodrama, music, romance

JAMES CAGNEY WITH ANN SHERIDAN IN 'CITY FOR CONQUEST'

James Cagney and Ann Sheridan in CITY FOR CONQUEST Year: 1940 Rates: ***1/2 James Cagney, as a talented yet reluctant boxer, in one scene......

JAMES CAGNEY REPLACES EDWARD WOODS FOR 'THE PUBLIC ENEMY'

<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/AVvXsEgzl3ruogn54WyiOHhGnSTYMrs4VMdiPAGN2hleed_MddJMiQdp3AJSOHNJchiy3-iQnpI5OQBXQLU-chkpkQbH0dyl0ESbwVBLJeDPxe858BZggI7mpcIcO9-LN6lXcY2JO2526QyY4sVkaqZXXT4_BZiXT1Iq4VxP5KVmKcvQhYogJyC1fnGcDTnVvGJo/s1972/Screen%20Shot%202023-09-30%20at%203.03.43%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1222" data-original-width="1972" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgzl3ruogn54WyiOHhGnSTYMrs4VMdiPAGN2hleed_MddJMiQdp3AJSOHNJchiy3-iQnpI5OQBXQLU-chkpkQbH0dyl0ESbwVBLJeDPxe858BZggI7mpcIcO9-LN6lXcY2JO2526QyY4sVkaqZXXT4_BZiXT1Iq4VxP5KVmKcvQhYogJyC1fnGcDTnVvGJo/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-09-30%20at%203.03.43%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE PUBLIC ENEMY Year: 1931 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>It's already known but equally confusing when THE PUBLIC ENEMY prologue introduces a tall young instigator and his much shorter sidekick breaking laws — then to grow up a tall and lanky follower of the pint-size firebrand in charge... and that's because once James Cagney was recast to lead Edward Woods, the backstory intro wasn't changed...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Which hardly really matters... once Cagney appears on screen he's as mesmerizing to the audience as he was to director William A. Wellman, who saw him in another movie's walk-on, and was convinced the days of secondary-lead... like SINNER'S HOLIDAY and BACK DOOR TO HEAVEN... were long gone...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

action, gangster, james cagney, jean harlow, joan blondell, mae clarke, melodrama, thirties

JAMES CAGNEY REPLACES EDWARD WOODS FOR 'THE PUBLIC ENEMY'

Title: THE PUBLIC ENEMY Year: 1931 Rating: **** It's already known but equally confusing when THE PUBLIC ENEMY prologue introduces a tal...

CHARLES BRONSON 'SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR' ANTHONY PERKINS

<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/AVvXsEgm3JgiBEIgCtvICYmNVFTGRcBh6ux86oJLg96TjwlOI_gSSPSkuZnlZ68L_Ndu0wXzycsIqq9Y37TSL1blrqatkkSWMWmT0XCUtm14ejdodakggACofTVwVaPXKV2xrkElqDu3Y6rsSvGnw-m2ePubJ12HArFZz70QbM0Qc4NUKg1lfz8OqkUdybD5EnIB/s1876/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1009" data-original-width="1876" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm3JgiBEIgCtvICYmNVFTGRcBh6ux86oJLg96TjwlOI_gSSPSkuZnlZ68L_Ndu0wXzycsIqq9Y37TSL1blrqatkkSWMWmT0XCUtm14ejdodakggACofTVwVaPXKV2xrkElqDu3Y6rsSvGnw-m2ePubJ12HArFZz70QbM0Qc4NUKg1lfz8OqkUdybD5EnIB/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1971 Title: SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>French shot/English speaking psychological thriller mirroring François Truffaut mirroring Alfred Hitchcock has a perfectly cast Anthony Perkins as a neurosurgeon taking an amnesiac patient to his plush home in order to (supposedly) help the nameless stranger, played by an only slightly miscast Charles Bronson, pacing taut and timid like a caged beast during his pre-fame <i>European Phase</i>... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But this is really Perkins' ride... more logical than <i>psycho</i> in a psychological thriller... providing another hiding-a-dark-secret creepy guy role... And from the mellow cadence, what could have been cat-and-mouse is more like mouse-and-mouse, or mouse and toothless cat, even during Bronson's sporadic tantrums in a noirish plot involving Jill Ireland as the doc's cheating wife (employing a cute Agathe Natanson as their maid, who'd have fit the ingenue role better)... </p><span></span>

agathe natanson, anthony perkins, charles bronson, french, jill ireland, mystery, nicolas gessner, seventies, thriller

CHARLES BRONSON 'SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR' ANTHONY PERKINS

Year: 1971 Title: SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR Rating: ***1/2 French shot/English speaking psychological thriller mirroring François Truffaut mir...

ORSON WELLES PUTS ANTHONY PERKINS THROUGH 'THE TRIAL'

<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/AVvXsEinodC0LaLgSivYr0Y9ca32QzFuHb5eOpaMabEZUIYk_mPya_MjYKRhuS1VUjX5kjsUBWxMDsCzICiq90llv7zCN-4csoQ5uzpMdgeLKUVZDcgRWh8OhuZUtLVi7sfPDJV_QeUUL-zf2OaUgZEfZdeIq06_qsoaLyB9Zdc4idiqtHWaEurbXqfjLAl-QNZG/s1134/380840362_1806949616400873_9172979606554586118_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="664" data-original-width="1134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinodC0LaLgSivYr0Y9ca32QzFuHb5eOpaMabEZUIYk_mPya_MjYKRhuS1VUjX5kjsUBWxMDsCzICiq90llv7zCN-4csoQ5uzpMdgeLKUVZDcgRWh8OhuZUtLVi7sfPDJV_QeUUL-zf2OaUgZEfZdeIq06_qsoaLyB9Zdc4idiqtHWaEurbXqfjLAl-QNZG/s16000/380840362_1806949616400873_9172979606554586118_n.jpg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Anthony Perkins in Orson Welles's THE TRIAL Year: 1962 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Before his final William Shakespeare adaptation CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT aka FALSTAFF, the legendary actor/director <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/orson%20welles">Orson Welles</a> said that, if he had to chose <i>only one</i> movie to offer for entrance into Heaven, it would be THE TRIAL — ironic since it's basically a journey into Hell...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Actually, Anthony Perkins as Joseph K (for author Kafka) wakes up there already, stuck within a frustrating perdition, in his very own apartment that, next door to local floozy Jeanne Moreau, makes him a suspect by plainclothes-detectives, who begin a somewhat subtle interrogation that progresses throughout, involving several other authority figure types...</p><p><span></span></p>

adaptation, akim tamiroff, anthony perkins, franz kafka, import, jeanne moreau, jess hahn, mystery, neo noir, orson welles, romy schneider, sixties, thriller

ORSON WELLES PUTS ANTHONY PERKINS THROUGH 'THE TRIAL'

Anthony Perkins in Orson Welles's THE TRIAL Year: 1962 Rating: ***1/2 Before his final William Shakespeare adaptation CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT...

ORSON WELLES WARTIME CRIME POTBOILER 'JOURNEY INTO FEAR'

<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/AVvXsEg7woYajgnwRLSr1xeg8XSci4kCJlsOxti46_S5Ieb5Zr1Pf9cqDUxc1PjgBsOqWc9X68COOHgLrLUY4ikOMfcth8f0yQVUufpha-j-ELGKKwqubOWVMMBTuoRENqos7IJG-l1scjS-czFRpBaER52jb-t8Kgh77fSQzy53uaF0sAXSys93mq_yvTevSQ/s1290/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-26%20at%209.10.32%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="723" data-original-width="1290" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7woYajgnwRLSr1xeg8XSci4kCJlsOxti46_S5Ieb5Zr1Pf9cqDUxc1PjgBsOqWc9X68COOHgLrLUY4ikOMfcth8f0yQVUufpha-j-ELGKKwqubOWVMMBTuoRENqos7IJG-l1scjS-czFRpBaER52jb-t8Kgh77fSQzy53uaF0sAXSys93mq_yvTevSQ/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202022-10-26%20at%209.10.32%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR Director: Norman Foster Producer: Orson Welles Year 1943 rating **** </u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>An entertaining, lightweight crime yarn about a married and very passive arms dealer... who ironically has never fired a gun... stuck on a cargo ship where there lurks a clandestine Nazi out to kill him...<br> <br> Joseph Cotten stars as the hunted pawn who, having left loyal wife Ruth Warrick ashore, is reluctantly sent aboard with dancer Dolores Del Rio and meets various passengers including a Turkish tobacco dealer, a slick gambler and a German businessman. It's not hard figuring out who the main heavy is, but it doesn't matter...</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><span></span></p>

agnes moorehead, classic, delores del rio, everette sloane, film noir or melodrama, forties, hit-man, joseph cotten, mystery, nazi, norman foster, orson welles, ruth warrick, suspense

ORSON WELLES WARTIME CRIME POTBOILER 'JOURNEY INTO FEAR'

Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR Director: Norman Foster Producer: Orson Welles Year 1943 rating **** An entertaining, lightweight crime ...

BRUCE DERN TAILING RYAN O'NEAL IN WALTER HILL'S 'THE DRIVER'

<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/AVvXsEhh0AWhdGEPBJXOfLvQraq2Ok17UOIim2ecuwOU61L8nw1hs60poMjxjLuUFqe8b1kYnPZ-kK43P1WyFagTIawmVbLi0rkUlzEIXAAfCzSG5VOc-fR-8IlQpNnQE5bjUSPNTuxnlqqwcHGPaY1zJx3J8hKFaOgwqD_xaK-E3uLTwGzvbOH8iE17RGkOI3hx/s1408/Screen%20Shot%202024-04-24%20at%205.39.53%20PM.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1384" data-original-width="1408" height="315" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh0AWhdGEPBJXOfLvQraq2Ok17UOIim2ecuwOU61L8nw1hs60poMjxjLuUFqe8b1kYnPZ-kK43P1WyFagTIawmVbLi0rkUlzEIXAAfCzSG5VOc-fR-8IlQpNnQE5bjUSPNTuxnlqqwcHGPaY1zJx3J8hKFaOgwqD_xaK-E3uLTwGzvbOH8iE17RGkOI3hx/s320/Screen%20Shot%202024-04-24%20at%205.39.53%20PM.jpeg" width="320"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE DRIVER Year: 1978 Rates: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table>An action vehicle but not entirely, Walter Hill's THE DRIVER is more a meticulous, character-driven Neo Noir than rollercoaster ride: This includes a brooding Ryan O'Neal as a getaway DRIVER sought after by a determined cop played by not only scene but<i> entire film-stealing</i> Bruce Dern as... The Detective...<br> <br> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody> <tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY46SBJnGRgqf_bvnPfwk4mgBLcNSSRPcCYbD6Xfx61io1_jG32JYm15edUke-9LHw-IYztR9olV2kPIYvmwmhB6HPj5CSQIzRqF3ZNnGIH8lnjx9WXuxhoQLvrv08Ne1WoiVUkUFr9vms/s1600/Screen+Shot+2019-04-07+at+4.39.51+AM.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1420" data-original-width="909" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiY46SBJnGRgqf_bvnPfwk4mgBLcNSSRPcCYbD6Xfx61io1_jG32JYm15edUke-9LHw-IYztR9olV2kPIYvmwmhB6HPj5CSQIzRqF3ZNnGIH8lnjx9WXuxhoQLvrv08Ne1WoiVUkUFr9vms/s320/Screen+Shot+2019-04-07+at+4.39.51+AM.jpeg" width="204"></a></td></tr> <tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>The Driver Mileage Rates: ****</u></td></tr> </tbody></table> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div> <div style="text-align: left;"> </div>As each character is sparsely named after what they are within a pulpy yet stark, slowburn template as no one means anything beyond what they're doing, who they're after or protecting, The Player in particular, Isabelle Adjani caught in-between as... speaking in monotone like everyone else except Dern... her best moments occur while listening...<br> <br> Scenes when Dern questions her or THE DRIVER or a more honest detective in Matt Clark are even better than the chase scenes: Which, of course, directed by future WARRIORS and SOUTHERN COMFORT icon Walter Hill, are topnotch suspenseful and easy to follow – either dodging police prowlers or one of the bad guys who winds up after the titular bad guy we're rooting for. And the most intense screeching tires occur as THE DRIVER shows his stuff inside a parking garage, with no one chasing behind: deliberate car-porn at its finest.<br>

action, bruce dern, car, crime, edward walsh, felice orlandi, getaway driver, isabelle adjani, matt clark, neo noir, rudy ramos, ryan o'neal, seventies, suspense, thriller, twilight time, walter hill

BRUCE DERN TAILING RYAN O'NEAL IN WALTER HILL'S 'THE DRIVER'

Title: THE DRIVER Year: 1978 Rates: **** An action vehicle but not entirely, Walter Hill's THE DRIVER is more a meticulous, character-dr...