cult film freak: April 2023

Written by James M. Tate / 4/30/2023 / No comments / anne sargent , barry fitzgerald , cop , don taylor , dorothy hart , film noir or melodrama , howard duff , john mcquade , jules dassin , kathleen freeman , ted decorsia , thriller

DON TAYLOR & HOWARD DUFF IN JULES DASSIN'S 'THE NAKED CITY'

<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/AVvXsEgOurvQoG2_Y6xuTU5c-k4TO8CRP9o5cSVC7SAK-_APXkcGCY-1X3_9o0UDVTlk9qrvwC6UuRhGEWZb2EQLqjYUN4t5auXNjK4Ujdq_HKi-k-rPIN8gdp7Diqa5yFIXFAPuMV9vwopix1MfpHft1etAoSuE3IViF5iZAFXYtf8cF7vdLNweX4GWgLDsAn3R/s2368/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-15%20at%205.30.40%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1208" data-original-width="2368" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgOurvQoG2_Y6xuTU5c-k4TO8CRP9o5cSVC7SAK-_APXkcGCY-1X3_9o0UDVTlk9qrvwC6UuRhGEWZb2EQLqjYUN4t5auXNjK4Ujdq_HKi-k-rPIN8gdp7Diqa5yFIXFAPuMV9vwopix1MfpHft1etAoSuE3IViF5iZAFXYtf8cF7vdLNweX4GWgLDsAn3R/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-02-15%20at%205.30.40%20AM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Year: 1948 Stars: Howard Duff, Barry Fitzgerald, Don Taylor Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>After producer Mark Hellinger's famous opening narration, introducing the audience to THE NAKED CITY, following authentic shots of New York City exteriors, from buildings to shipyards... interiors from noisy newspaper offices to lonely radio stations... when we eventually catch a quick glimpse of Hollywood actors Howard Duff and Dorothy Hart at a fancy nightclub, there's an awkward contrast to those grainy/gritty shots in a police procedural that resembles a documentary one second and a dressed-up melodrama the next...Centered on two detectives seeking the killer of a beautiful dame drowned in a classy apartment bathtub, they couldn't be more different: the veteran, Barry Fitzgerald, is like a wise old leprechaun while tall/lanky young Don Taylor traipses around town, searching for clues — yet it's stout every-man cop Tom Pedi who compliments the grittier images, like a dockyard silhouette of a formidable criminal, eventually revealed soon enough so NAKED trades mystery for a by-the-numbers investigation...

anne sargent, barry fitzgerald, cop, don taylor, dorothy hart, film noir or melodrama, howard duff, john mcquade, jules dassin, kathleen freeman, ted decorsia, thriller

DON TAYLOR & HOWARD DUFF IN JULES DASSIN'S 'THE NAKED CITY'

Year: 1948 Stars: Howard Duff, Barry Fitzgerald, Don Taylor Rating: **** After producer Mark Hellinger's famous opening narration, intro...

OLIVER REED IN HAMMER FILMS 'PARANOIAC' WITH JANETTE SCOTT

<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/AVvXsEh6vWBjLr6HLNf3xFljqHl-WVo5Zw5cf3FRQhm-4715QwEeuhE6cmwfQOCRhocb224e2DYp59jAveE9Rbnp2iyTocsSRRSoVYM_xuraQz4KJSPrQ-X2KuHzmxwwOufUeWNitCfBLIIlUArXmK8T729zUE0Xc862abcJcUXOfR5qauu4r7TjSnu-C9bodw/s1932/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-29%20at%207.33.54%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1390" data-original-width="1932" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh6vWBjLr6HLNf3xFljqHl-WVo5Zw5cf3FRQhm-4715QwEeuhE6cmwfQOCRhocb224e2DYp59jAveE9Rbnp2iyTocsSRRSoVYM_xuraQz4KJSPrQ-X2KuHzmxwwOufUeWNitCfBLIIlUArXmK8T729zUE0Xc862abcJcUXOfR5qauu4r7TjSnu-C9bodw/w400-h288/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-29%20at%207.33.54%20PM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Poster for PARANOIAC Year: 1963 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>If Terence Fisher was the Universal Classic Monsters version of England's HAMMER FILMS then Freddie Francis was their Hitchcock, and PARANOIAC one of Hammer's best psychological thrillers, providing stock actor Oliver Reed a grand performance, showcasing what would become his two signature traits: moody brooding and overboard intensity: He's the brother of troubled, haunted ingenue Jeanette Scott, set to inherit a bundle (strictly overseen by an aunt and family lawyer), holed up in the family's sea-cliff estate, but not if Reed (with moll Liliane Brousse) can help it...And while mostly working alone, he's not alone in agenda: The leading man is a con artist, which we learn soon enough for PARANOIAC to not quite reach Mystery-genre status: But those fifteen minutes when handsome Alexander Davion may or may not be her adored prodigal brother are the most intriguing: After which, coinciding with the kind of quick-split editing wherein everything beforehand meant only how the scene abruptly ends, Reed and his boisterous persona takes over, making this a frantic game of wits using creative camera angles within a shadowy B&W aesthetic that'd perfectly suit Film Noir... and it's only five years shy of being one — for then it'd get a lot more praise and attention beyond the lot of We the faithfully dedicated/eternal Hammerheads.

alexander davion, british new wave, hammer films, horror, janette scott, liliane brousse, oliver reed, sixties, suspense, thriller

OLIVER REED IN HAMMER FILMS 'PARANOIAC' WITH JANETTE SCOTT

Poster for PARANOIAC Year: 1963 Rating: **** If Terence Fisher was the Universal Classic Monsters version of England's HAMMER FILMS then...

HAMMER PRESENTS 'NIGHT CREATURES' WITH PETER CUSHING

<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/AVvXsEiWTz9m6RhzMPCFlFr3qO8z-6M1AeD-lb72Tzq43aRbO6EkJwm4cjsYZEIXC1_c39mBWl_3EP7RyJI9MXDAWm9k7dIJrEc7e_yIJCvzE6FQjO7XEPfV2fygkXtoL5vezZEskUVAQsHvNP5jdAY9Yyx-N1fHIhj1WXB9Nw2LiHar-hTqk_W3xTOoURyujQ/s1581/Screen%20Shot%202022-05-15%20at%208.27.42%20PM%203.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="837" data-original-width="1581" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWTz9m6RhzMPCFlFr3qO8z-6M1AeD-lb72Tzq43aRbO6EkJwm4cjsYZEIXC1_c39mBWl_3EP7RyJI9MXDAWm9k7dIJrEc7e_yIJCvzE6FQjO7XEPfV2fygkXtoL5vezZEskUVAQsHvNP5jdAY9Yyx-N1fHIhj1WXB9Nw2LiHar-hTqk_W3xTOoURyujQ/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202022-05-15%20at%208.27.42%20PM%203.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oliver Reed and Peter Cushing in Hammer's NIGHT CREATURES Year: 1962 Rating: ****1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>Hammer's decision to name this hybrid of thriller, horror and mystery CAPTAIN CLEGG proves that that last genre wasn't intended since spoiling Peter Cushing's true identity doesn't only ruin the plot's sneaky, intriguing premise, it makes Cushing's uniquely affable performance yet another fervent and intense one, not battling monsters this time but England's 1800's-era "tax man" himself... In Patrick Allen's square-jawed Captain Collier, sent with his troops to investigate what he doesn't yet realize is a tightknit, secret-latch, wine-smuggling operation run by Cushing playing local vicar Rev. Dr. Blyss, THE ONLY character that director Peter Graham Scott... until well into the second act... intends him to be...

british, david lodge, derek francis, hammer films, horror, martin benson, martin reid, michael ripper, mystery, oliver reed, patrick allen, peter cushing, peter graham scott, sixties, yvonne romain

HAMMER PRESENTS 'NIGHT CREATURES' WITH PETER CUSHING

Oliver Reed and Peter Cushing in Hammer's NIGHT CREATURES Year: 1962 Rating: ****1/2 Hammer's decision to name this hybrid of thrill...

HAMMER'S VICTORIAN HORROR 'THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF'

<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/AVvXsEg9-j7OKftPmdn4CV2OvYtY0iQZZATcHPtP2ZSe-QJRneKHI6HhbA638MSqZtX7LcoYo_lTPCgtOp38HluHTiLaJ_xrmRA0xxnEjAEd2n6jN1qP4z8FLhOHgLzPEhiM3B_6XwHetWDTfSutHToc7iuV3ZHG5uuzEo5ZEbynBdxeHHlDNsgU86tAsZ0x6g/s2250/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1057" data-original-width="2250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9-j7OKftPmdn4CV2OvYtY0iQZZATcHPtP2ZSe-QJRneKHI6HhbA638MSqZtX7LcoYo_lTPCgtOp38HluHTiLaJ_xrmRA0xxnEjAEd2n6jN1qP4z8FLhOHgLzPEhiM3B_6XwHetWDTfSutHToc7iuV3ZHG5uuzEo5ZEbynBdxeHHlDNsgU86tAsZ0x6g/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oliver Reed in THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF Year: 1961 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>A man gets bitten by a wolf and slowly turns into one… Which probably 
sounds extremely familiar but the British-run Hammer Films will have 
nothing to do with anything that simple, basic or cliche…The setup, before we even meet Oliver Reed’s Leon, is eerie and
 creative, introducing the story set during the colorfully antique 
1800’s where a beggar's thrown out of a tavern, and then ventures naively into the last place he’s wanted: a lush 
castle where an aged King has married his beautiful young bride (a nefarious, later grotesque Anthony Dawson to insanely gorgeous blonde Josephine Llewellyn)…

anthony dawson, british, hammer films, horror, joy webster, oliver reed, richard wordsworth, terence fisher, victorian, werewolf, yvonne romain

HAMMER'S VICTORIAN HORROR 'THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF'

Oliver Reed in THE CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF Year: 1961 Rating: **** A man gets bitten by a wolf and slowly turns into one… Which probably sou...

MICHAEL WINNER DIRECTS OLIVER REED IN 'HANNIBAL BROOKS'

<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/AVvXsEgNOp0MSjHb0QcrIj9pIpQdMlDxOzx46ZSDOp34n_LHmXbjmuHNkg2UCDFccQwgbeeaYgLgNLsv0FEX9pFPL3xTF43OIx9tl3pneSSqky39CDTljNbgduUN2lx9MFvW9VFBNm4vSev6d7QmbjlATrIUxEpuuK8WQoIs1o1YJWBypo_xCwjIEWZuXeuQCNsO/s1936/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-15%20at%205.22.12%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1106" data-original-width="1936" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNOp0MSjHb0QcrIj9pIpQdMlDxOzx46ZSDOp34n_LHmXbjmuHNkg2UCDFccQwgbeeaYgLgNLsv0FEX9pFPL3xTF43OIx9tl3pneSSqky39CDTljNbgduUN2lx9MFvW9VFBNm4vSev6d7QmbjlATrIUxEpuuK8WQoIs1o1YJWBypo_xCwjIEWZuXeuQCNsO/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-01-15%20at%205.22.12%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Oliver Reed in HANNIBAL BROOKS Year: 1969 Rating: ****</td></tr></tbody></table>Short, quirky, extremely offbeat Michael J. Pollard is like a novelty song of an actor, with BONNIE AND CLYDE his one big hit while in other movies — like <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/michael%20winner">Michael Winner's</a> fourth collaboration with <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/10/system.html">THE SYSTEM</a> star <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/oliver%20reed">Oliver Reed</a> titled HANNIBAL BROOKS — Pollard doesn't really fit at all... Although he's almost deliberately cast against type as a gung-ho explosives-expert leading partisans around to kill Germans, and since Reed himself hardly seems part of World War II, both work together comfortably enough in a hybrid of road movie, physical comedy and action/adventure where Reed, a POW in Germany... after conveniently working in a German zoo... takes a prized elephant across enemy lines to their long-shot goal of Switzerland...

action, adventure, comedy, helmuth lohner, james donald, john alderton, michael j. pollard, michael winner, nazi, oliver reed, pow, road movie, sixties, terence sewards, world war II

MICHAEL WINNER DIRECTS OLIVER REED IN 'HANNIBAL BROOKS'

Oliver Reed in HANNIBAL BROOKS Year: 1969 Rating: *** * Short, quirky, extremely offbeat Michael J. Pollard is like a novelty song of an act...

CAROL LYNLEY IN 'THE SHUTTERED ROOM' WITH OLIVER REED

<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/AVvXsEj9EMgCXboxY58-vdVsKrShprjoJlD0duReNMb1vD0ipBmPYPokso-hgWRbxm2Vi3pXBs1_O6KNXwTPdLMhSPG-grHBSofvYdkX6Vddt_HqcQpW8Rq7S2GiNQTh16XN58cCoaZ5GfFud09n6J8SY9nW-G2ljtk7_ISzMcX9tVpBWEmt0_d-Urubj2r8iw/s1759/0.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="834" data-original-width="1759" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9EMgCXboxY58-vdVsKrShprjoJlD0duReNMb1vD0ipBmPYPokso-hgWRbxm2Vi3pXBs1_O6KNXwTPdLMhSPG-grHBSofvYdkX6Vddt_HqcQpW8Rq7S2GiNQTh16XN58cCoaZ5GfFud09n6J8SY9nW-G2ljtk7_ISzMcX9tVpBWEmt0_d-Urubj2r8iw/s16000/0.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Title: THE SHUTTERED ROOM Year: 1967 Rating: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>A near clone of Sam Peckinpah's STRAW DOGS only five years earlier, during the psychedelic era, which is only apparent from the bare-bone jazz soundtrack orchestrating a married couple consisting of a beautiful blonde wife with an ordinary, unassuming husband returning to her small New England-based island home (yet obviously shot in the beautifully rustic exterior of England), part of an eerie Gothic mill that's its very own living/breathing character...Making the inevitable climax of who's hiding within the titular SHUTTERED ROOM not that important a surprise-twist having been teased during a surreal, horror-trope prologue by mostly TV-director David Greene...

body count, british, bully, carol lynley, david greene, drama, gig young, gothic, horror, jazz score, oliver reed, rural, sixties, thriller

CAROL LYNLEY IN 'THE SHUTTERED ROOM' WITH OLIVER REED

Title: THE SHUTTERED ROOM Year: 1967 Rating: ***1/2 A near clone of Sam Peckinpah's STRAW DOGS only five years earlier, during the psych...

DANA ANDREWS & GENE TIERNEY DEFECT IN 'THE IRON CURTAIN'

<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/AVvXsEjk65DbgXiL0JZ4LNSKfYajJoR6Jd0el67AC8NAp7cR1bCBbVMfejU8JEApwTPux6sT6VbRT7OX1NtvvdBbmS7S2zOhoCLqP55LoioLmrixPmW7muqxOQ4pMaSQPZdxe2VhziP_pgLvur7yGWH5j-TxezBfWhdxE2apT8HuQK_s7m4ST_wkui7i_GiRdUJR/s1687/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-13%20at%203.42.36%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="845" data-original-width="1687" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjk65DbgXiL0JZ4LNSKfYajJoR6Jd0el67AC8NAp7cR1bCBbVMfejU8JEApwTPux6sT6VbRT7OX1NtvvdBbmS7S2zOhoCLqP55LoioLmrixPmW7muqxOQ4pMaSQPZdxe2VhziP_pgLvur7yGWH5j-TxezBfWhdxE2apT8HuQK_s7m4ST_wkui7i_GiRdUJR/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-13%20at%203.42.36%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dana Andrews in THE IRON CURTAIN Year: 1947 Rating: ***1/2 </td></tr></tbody></table>Between the famous Otto Preminger Film Noir <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/05/Loir.html">LAURA</a> and <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/05/WTSends.html">WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS</a> and almost a decade past TOBACCO ROAD is the sublime pair-up of Dana Andrews and Gene Tierney under the direction of William A. Wellman in a Cold War Thriller at the rudimentary stages of that very thing... Taking place during and right after The Second World War, and was released only three years after the war ended, based on the "true story of Soviet cypher-clerk Igor Gouzenko, posted to the Soviet Embassy in Ottawa, Canada, 1943... to reveal the extent of Soviet espionage activities directed against Canada," where Dana Andrews takes a reverse risk since nothing's worse than an American actor badly attempting a foreign accent, especially one as thick as Russian...

berry kroeger, biopic, cold war, dana andrews, espionage, film noir or melodrama, gene tierney, june havoc, peter whitney, thriller, war

DANA ANDREWS & GENE TIERNEY DEFECT IN 'THE IRON CURTAIN'

Dana Andrews in THE IRON CURTAIN Year: 1947 Rating: ***1/2 Between the famous Otto Preminger Film Noir LAURA and WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS ...

SAM PECKINPAH'S CONTROVERSIAL BRITISH CLASSIC 'STRAW DOGS'

<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/AVvXsEhRC2SFD2e2UXfmtfZfV-Q3fC2Vs5gcUL_RChPiSHMa15qSQ0VxJmm1whiX8_cnZP8SL4QcxW3zZKF6fP84M51v0XhkzWesqXxBVxo6uWZveZ6zO-m_yMvZ4QmW5rxw3bJug57nLFDamRqIsIizdtxuvSASmEzdOSoq6e4Pg6P7Lq42b-NZCg46GLEunmgq/s1554/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-24%20at%204.57.29%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="916" data-original-width="1554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRC2SFD2e2UXfmtfZfV-Q3fC2Vs5gcUL_RChPiSHMa15qSQ0VxJmm1whiX8_cnZP8SL4QcxW3zZKF6fP84M51v0XhkzWesqXxBVxo6uWZveZ6zO-m_yMvZ4QmW5rxw3bJug57nLFDamRqIsIizdtxuvSASmEzdOSoq6e4Pg6P7Lq42b-NZCg46GLEunmgq/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-03-24%20at%204.57.29%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dustin Hoffman with Susan George & Ken Hutchison in STRAW DOGS Year: 1971 Rating: *****</td></tr></tbody></table>American director Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH is considered his peak — yet an even wilder albeit initially more subtle and ambiguous bunch exist within the British-set (and extremely British-styled) STRAW DOGS...Where nuclear scientist Dustin Hoffman attempts much needed study-time in an old stone-cobbled house with younger wife Susan George, who's more like the locals she grew up around than him...

british neo noir, colin welland, david warner, del henney, donald webster, dustin hoffman, jerry fielding, jim norton, ken hutchison, peter vaughan, sam peckinpah, seventies, susan george, t.p. mckenna

SAM PECKINPAH'S CONTROVERSIAL BRITISH CLASSIC 'STRAW DOGS'

Dustin Hoffman with Susan George & Ken Hutchison in STRAW DOGS Year: 1971 Rating: ***** American director Sam Peckinpah's THE WILD B...

STEVE MCQUEEN IN THE ORIGINAL LEGENDARY CLASSIC 'THE BLOB'

<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/AVvXsEjDsuFtjyrWUVDH7BhgL91grP10vXlJaXxuVMxP4IeDSO1TIxBtMheS6LufjkHwTCWNYIhzIhNS2XyREviZUuIYjTD5iosFimWgM5QDDy9bSgFUWUwo544ORY6gdr5VU266k40GwerMeDwmWGRliB8_dJLC_nvNodRJPAHCuTMsv6edsq-TrLKJZn_ywBUc/s1309/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-05%20at%209.31.48%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="810" data-original-width="1309" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDsuFtjyrWUVDH7BhgL91grP10vXlJaXxuVMxP4IeDSO1TIxBtMheS6LufjkHwTCWNYIhzIhNS2XyREviZUuIYjTD5iosFimWgM5QDDy9bSgFUWUwo544ORY6gdr5VU266k40GwerMeDwmWGRliB8_dJLC_nvNodRJPAHCuTMsv6edsq-TrLKJZn_ywBUc/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202023-04-05%20at%209.31.48%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steve McQueen in THE BLOB Year: 1958 Rating: ***1/2</td></tr></tbody></table>During
 the prelude of an eclectic and highly successful career, Steve McQueen,
 billed as Steven McQueen as a guy named Steve, has never played a 
character so untrusted, underrated or downright frustratingly 
unappreciated...He knows what everyone, including his best girl, has 
strong, stubborn doubts about. And we're not only supposed to believe 
that the rugged-looking, world-weary McQueen is a teenager but that he'd
 actually get taunted, goaded and borderline bullied by bunch 
of small town car-jerks who look as if they'd follow him...