Written by James M. Tate / 9/30/2023 / No comments / action , gangster , james cagney , jean harlow , joan blondell , mae clarke , melodrama , thirties
JAMES CAGNEY REPLACES EDWARD WOODS FOR 'THE PUBLIC ENEMY'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/30/2023
Title: THE PUBLIC ENEMY Year: 1931 Rating: ****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 followe
Written by James M. Tate / 9/24/2023 / No comments / agathe natanson , anthony perkins , charles bronson , french , jill ireland , mystery , nicolas gessner , seventies , thriller
CHARLES BRONSON 'SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR' ANTHONY PERKINS
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/24/2023
Title: 1971 Title: SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR Rating: ***1/2French shot/English speaking psychological thriller mirroring François Truffaut mirroring Alfred Hitchcock has a perfectly cast Anthony Perkins as a neurosurgeon taking an amnesiac pa
Written by James M. Tate / 9/23/2023 / No comments / 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'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/23/2023
Anthony Perkins in Orson Welles's THE TRIAL Year: 1962 Rating: ***1/2Before his final William Shakespeare adaptation CHIMES AT MIDNIGHT aka FALSTAFF, the legendary actor/director Orson Welles said that, if he had to chose only one movie to
Written by James M. Tate / 9/22/2023 / No comments / 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'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/22/2023
Joseph Cotten in JOURNEY INTO FEAR Director: Norman Foster Producer: Orson Welles Year 1943 rating **** An entertaining, lightweight crime yarn about a married and very passive arms dealer... who ironically has never fired a gun... stuck
Written by James M. Tate / 9/20/2023 / No comments / 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'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/20/2023
Title: THE DRIVER Year: 1978 Rates: ****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 af
Written by James M. Tate / 9/17/2023 / No comments / billie whitelaw , british neo noir , donald pleasence , geoffrey frederick , george a. cooper , hammer films , jazz score , john crawford , lois daine , sarah branch , sixties , stanley baker , val guest , vanda godsell
VAL GUEST DIRECTS STANLEY BAKER IN HAMMER'S 'HELL IS A CITY'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/17/2023
Poster Art of John Crawford & Lois Daine for HELL IS A CITY Year: 1960 Rates: *****The second and final Hammer feature with Val Guest directing his YESTERDAY'S ENEMY leading man Stanley Baker, HELL IS A CITY is not only a Noir-like Police P
Written by James M. Tate / 9/16/2023 / No comments / alexander knox , british new wave , david gregory , hammer films , james maxwell , joseph losey , kenneth cope , macdonald carey , oliver reed , shirley anne field , sixties , viveca lindfors , walter gotell
OLIVER REED REBELS THROUGH HAMMER'S 'THESE ARE THE DAMNED'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/16/2023
Title: THESE ARE THE DAMNED aka THE DAMNED Year: 1962 Rating: ****Hammer's THESE ARE THE DAMNED has a double-edged title starting with a Teddy Boy gang (young punks from England's 1950's/1960's who dressed in Victorian-era used-clothe lefto
Written by James M. Tate / 9/14/2023 / No comments / british film noir , british new wave , conrad phillips , george mikell , heist , kenneth cope , music , william lucas
WILLIAM LUCAS AND KENNETH COPE STEAL 'DATELINE DIAMONDS'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/14/2023
Title: DATELINE DIAMONDS Year: 1965 Rating: ***1/2An otherwise nifty heist caper... with an agenda to promote the British band SMALL FACES... has two fitting actors, old and young, both having starred in several crime b-pictures, beginning
Written by James M. Tate / 9/12/2023 / No comments / action , fifties , film noir or melodrama , mark stevens , martha hyer , mort mills , revenge , richard deacon , rural , skip homeier , thriller , warren douglas
MARK STEVENS IN 'CRY VENGEANCE' FEATURING SKIP HOMEIER
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/12/2023
Title: CRY VENGEANCE Year: 1954 Rating: ***1/2With the exception of a second-act move from an American big city to rural Alaska, the film noir CRY VENGEANCE is a strange, offbeat venture... and wouldn't be if strange and offbeat Skip Homeie
Written by James M. Tate / 9/08/2023 / No comments / action , body count , crime , don siegel , drugs , eli wallach , fifties , film noir or melodrama , mary laroche , richard jaekal , robert keith , TV adaptation , william leslie
DON SIEGEL'S NOIR-THRILLER 'THE LINEUP' STARRING ELI WALLACH
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/08/2023
Year: 1958 Rating: ****1/2Brazen and bizarre crime flick beginning with a police investigation of what turns out being heroin smuggled through antiques from a cruise ship before focusing on the criminals who collect the stuff: the first fif
Written by James M. Tate / 9/07/2023 / No comments / alvy moore , brian keith , ensemble , fifties , film noir or melodrama , gambling , guy madison , heist , jean willes , kathryn grant , kerwin matthews , kim novak
BRIAN KEITH AND KERWIN MATTHEWS IN '5 AGAINST THE HOUSE'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/07/2023
Title: 5 AGAINST THE HOUSE Year: 1955 Rating: **There are more snags in making 5 AGAINST THE HOUSE a decent heist-noir-thriller than the student crooks have robbing a Reno Nevada casino, and, yes, they're all too old for college but this gr
Written by James M. Tate / 9/04/2023 / No comments / crime , deforest kelley , FBI , fifties , film noir or melodrama , heist , japanese-based , robert ryan , robert stack
SAMUEL FULLER'S TOKYO-BASED FILM NOIR 'HOUSE OF BAMBOO'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/04/2023
Cameron Mitchell's the boss's thug in HOUSE OF BAMBOO Year: 1955 Rating: ****One of Sam Fuller's greatest movies is a Noir remake set in Tokyo, and the 1948 FBI-propaganda THE STREET WITH NO NAME is the best cinematic venture J. Edgar Hoove
ROBERT MITCHUM, WILLIAM TALMAN & ROBERT RYAN IN 'THE RACKET'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/04/2023
Title: THE RACKET 1951 Rating: ***1/2While primarily focusing on the two leads, Robert Mitchum as a determined cop, McQuigg, and Robert Ryan as criminal kingpin Nick Scanlon (in cahoots with crooked politician Ray Collins), it's William
Written by James M. Tate / 9/03/2023 / No comments / action , adventure , anthony quinn , fifties , pulp , robert ryan , suzan ball , treasure
ROBERT RYAN IN 'CITY BENEATH THE SEA' WITH ANTHONY QUINN
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/03/2023
Year: 1953 Rating: **A letdown for those who love movies about treasure hunters. Unfortunately, the main character, played by a stiff Robert Ryan, is so uptight, not only does he NOT go along with more energetic and assertive partner Ant
ROBERT RYAN VS RHONDA FLEMING & WILLIAM LUNDIGAN 'INFERNO'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/03/2023
Poster for Ronda Fleming INFERNO Year: 1953 Rating: *** Leading and character actor Robert Ryan is difficult to root for since he played contentedly bitter types who didn't want rooting for... but with INFERNO his rich-husband character get
Written by James M. Tate / 9/02/2023 / No comments / 2023 , biopic , bradley cooper , carey mulligan , homosexual , music
BRADLEY COOPER'S LEONARD BERNSTEIN'S BIOPIC 'MAESTRO'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/02/2023
Carey Mulligan and Bradley Cooper in MAESTRO Year: 2023 Rating: *1/2Fifty minutes into Bradley Cooper's MAESTRO, his directorial and starring-role biopic of composer Leonard Bernstein, he's discussing a possible book written about all his
FAITH DOMERGUE WITH DAVID JANSSEN IN 'CULT OF THE COBRA'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/02/2023
Poster Artwork for CULT OF THE COBRA Year: 1955 Rating: ****The kind of Horror flick epitomizing the "Body Count" aspect since, at the beginning, before a group of soldiers return from Asia to America... after breaking a no-camera rule in a
Written by James M. Tate / 9/01/2023 / No comments / al lettieri , amerigo tot , british neo noir , british new wave , cult , dark comedy , lionel stander , lizabeth scott , michael caine , mickey rooney , mike hodges , neo noir , seventies , thriller
MICHAEL CAINE & MIKE HODGES FOLLOW 'GET CARTER' WITH 'PULP'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/01/2023
Michael Caine gets fiction in PULP Year: 1972 Rates: ****Director Mike Hodges and his GET CARTER anti-hero Michael Caine found the perfect antidote in PULP, a dark comedy in which a deliberately bad "gangster fiction" novelist becomes part
PETER O'TOOLE DIRECTING STEVE RAILSBACK AS 'THE STUNT MAN'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 9/01/2023
Iconic devilish imagery of Peter O'Toole from THE STUNT MAN Year: 1980 Rating: ****It's no surprise director Richard Rush took a decade to make THE STUNT MAN since it adheres to his early creatively-maneuvered camerawork — visually making e
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
All Time Popular
Featured Post
TED KOTCHEFF DIRECTS SYLVESTER STALLONE IN 'FIRST BLOOD'
Title: FIRST BLOOD Year: 1982 Rating: ****1/2 When rural sheriff Brian Dennehy drives ragged drifter Sylvester Stallone from one side of a o...
