Written by James M. Tate / 1/27/2024 / No comments / action , adventure , dana andrews , derren nesbitt , donald pleasence , espionage , geraldine chaplin , jazz-score , pauline chamberlain , peter collinson , seventies , spy , stanley baker , sue lloyd , warren mitchell
STANLEY BAKER BONDING ESPIONAGE FOR 'INNOCENT BYSTANDERS'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/27/2024
Title: INNOCENT BYSTANDERS Cast: Stanley Baker, Darren Nesbitt 1972 Rating: ***1/2Tough, sturdy, square-jawed British actor Stanley Baker was considered for James Bond... ironically he looks like Sean Connery (or vice versa) and starred in
Written by James M. Tate / 1/26/2024 / No comments / anthony steel , british film noir , crime , fifties , lee patterson , race car , sport , stanley baker
STANLEY BAKER & ANTHONY STEEL DRIVEN THROUGH 'CHECKPOINT'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/26/2024
Title: CHECKPOINT Year: 1956 Rating: **1/2What begins with an edgy heist by square-jawed tough guy Stanley Baker as a hired thief provides CHECKPOINT the only hint of not only a criminal but being a crime film at all...Otherwise featuring c
Written by James M. Tate / 1/25/2024 / No comments / british film noir , hardy kruger , john van eyssen , joseph losey , mystery , stanley baker , thriller
STANLEY BAKER INVESTIGATES HARDY KRÜGER IN 'CHANCE MEETING'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/25/2024
Title: CHANCE MEETING Alternative: BLIND DATE Year: 1959 Rating: **1/2The first of a handful of movies directed by Joseph Losey and starring, or in this case co-starring, British actor Stanley Baker, as a cop providing pointed questions for
STANLEY BAKER AND GINGER ROGERS IN 'BEAUTIFUL STRANGER'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/25/2024
Title: BEAUTIFUL STRANGER AKA TWIST OF FATE Year: 1954 Rating: ***1/2"I stole it... I am innocent," Herbert Lom says to Stanley Baker... One's a gambling con artist and the other a rich businessman/secret criminal, both connected to central
Written by James M. Tate / 1/24/2024 / No comments / georgina ward , mai zetterling , neo noir , niall macginnis , nigel green , peter cushing , sixties , stanley baker , thriller
STANLEY BAKER & PETER CUSHING IN 'THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/24/2024
Stanley Baker on poster Year: 1963 Rating: ***1/2Not only is THE MAN WHO FINALLY DIED the second movie where Niall MacGinnis has a gun drawn on a train during the climax following CURSE OF THE DEMON, but THE THIRD MAN has been knocked-off o
Written by James M. Tate / 1/23/2024 / No comments / anna palk , christopher ellis , gothic , harry andrews , henry james , horror , marlon brando , michael winner , prequel , seventies , stephanie beacham , thriller , verna harvey
MARLON BRANDO IN MICHAEL WINNER'S 'THE NIGHTCOMERS'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/23/2024
Title: THE NIGHTCOMERS Director: Michael Winner Year: 1971 Rating: ***Marlon Brando's THE GODFATHER comeback was more of a legacy accreditation for an entire career, blending with the STREETCAR NAMED DESIRE and ON THE WATERFRONT roles as if
Written by James M. Tate / 1/22/2024 / No comments / counter culture , drama , drug culture , gary graham , george c. scott , leonard gaines , paul schrader , peter boyle , prostitute , reb brown , season hubley , seventies
GEORGE C. SCOTT IN 'HARDCORE' PETER BOYLE & SEASON HUBLEY
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/22/2024
Title: HARDCORE Year: 1979 Rating: ****1/2George C. Scott plays a straight-laced, Midwestern business-owner with an innocent daughter who, on a church trip from hometown Grand Rapids, Michigan to Southern California, goes missing and, despe
Written by James M. Tate / 1/21/2024 / No comments / action , adventure , ennio morricone , gian maria volontè , jolanda modio , sergio sollima , sixties , spaghetti western , tomas milian , western , william berger
GIAN MARIA VOLONTÉ AND TOMAS MILIAN GOING 'FACE TO FACE'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/21/2024
Sergio Sollima's FACE TO FACE Year: 1967 Rating: ****1/2In what's Italian director Sergio Sollima's equivalent to Sergio Leone's THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY also features three representational, symbolic characters with various backgroun
Written by James M. Tate / 1/20/2024 / No comments / action , charles bronson , crime , hit man , italian , jill ireland , mafia , michel constantin , neo noir , prison , sergio sollima , seventies , telly savalas , thriller , umberto orsini
CHARLES BRONSON IN 'THE FAMILY' THAT IMPROVES 'VIOLENT CITY'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/20/2024
Charles Bronson in THE FAMILY (Improved English-Only Version of VIOLENT CITY) Year: 1970 Rating: ****Sergio Sollima's Italian-crime thriller VIOLENT CITY starring Charles Bronson, Telly Savalas and Jill Ireland is a bizarre cinematic traged
Written by James M. Tate / 1/19/2024 / No comments / action , cop , crime , enzo g. castellari , exploitation , fabio testi , italian , sal borgese , seventies , stefania girolami goodwin
FABIO TESTI AND SAL BORGESE IN ITALIAN CRIME 'THE BIG RACKET'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/19/2024
Title: THE BIG RACKET Year: 1977 Rating: ***1/2While nearly all gritty 1970's crime flicks are thematically modern westerns, Italian action auteur Enzo G. Castellari's THE BIG RACKET should have been one, literally: pitting cop Fabio Testi
IAN HENDRY WITH EDWARD JUDD & VERNA HARVEY IN 'ASSASSIN'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/19/2024
Ian Hendry in ASSASSIN Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2With wide-angle lenses eerily framing massive gray-tone buildings within a nearly vacant metropolis harboring phantom warehouses and (flashback inducing) metallic hangars... along with sparsel
Written by James M. Tate / 1/18/2024 / No comments / action , clint eastwood , james wainwright , john saxon , john sturges , paul koslo , robert duvall , seventies , stella garcia , western
CLINT EASTWOOD WITH ROBERT DUVALL & PAUL KOSLO IN 'JOE KIDD'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/18/2024
Title: BEAST WITH A GUN Year: 1977 Rating: ****The best sequence in the John Sturges American-made Spaghetti-Western-knockoff starring Clint Eastwood has the titular former bounty hunter creatively debilitating a group of Anglo villains, on
Written by James M. Tate / 1/17/2024 / No comments / crime , cult , exploitation , helmut berger , italian , marisa mell , revenge , richard harrison , seventies
HELMUT BERGER IN 'BEAST WITH A GUN' AKA 'THE MAD DOG KILLER'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/17/2024
Title: BEAST WITH A GUN Year: 1977 Rating: ****The most brutal, uncompromising, intensely-violent Italian exploitation flick stars Austrian actor Helmut Berger as Nanni Vitali, who goes on a lethal crime spree with gang member cronies and,
Written by James M. Tate / 1/16/2024 / No comments / action , alan badel , angus macInnes , barbara bach , carl weathers , franco nero , guy hamilton , harrison ford , michael byrne , philip latham , richard kiel , robert shaw , sequel , world war II
HARRISON FORD AND ROBERT SHAW ‘FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE’
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/16/2024
Title: FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE Year: 1978 Rating: ****1/2It was unnecessary starting FORCE 10 FROM NAVARONE with an introduction about the original GUNS OF NAVARONE since the two have no important connections with each other, other than the
Written by James M. Tate / 1/15/2024 / No comments / andy robinson , crime , cult , don siegel , felicia farr , heist , jacqueline scott , joe don baker , john vernon , seventies , sheree north , thriller , tom tully , walter matthau
WALTER MATTHAU STEPS UP FOR DON SIEGEL'S 'CHARLEY VARRICK'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/15/2024
Title: CHARLEY VARRICK Year: 1973 Rating: ****1/2Ironically the opening credits stating A SIEGEL FILM appears beneath a full moon in an otherwise bright-lit/daytime Neo Noir, referring to director Don Siegel, best known for DIRTY HARRY and
Written by James M. Tate / 1/14/2024 / No comments / action , barbara bach , crime , enzo g. castellari , franco nero , italian , neo noir , seventies , vigilante
ENZO G. CASTELLARI DIRECTS FRANCO NERO IN 'STREET LAW'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/14/2024
Franco Nero in STREET LAW Year: 1974 Grade: C—In 1974, Italy, the same year the vigilante theme had ignited Hollywood from the result of DEATH WISH, Enzo G. Castellari's STREET LAW... unlike Michael Winner's Charles Bronson vehicle where a
Written by James M. Tate / 1/13/2024 / No comments / action , cult , gig young , isela vega , kris kristofferson , road movie , robert webber , sam peckinpah , seventies , warren oates
DIGGING SAM PECKINPAH'S 'BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/13/2024
Title: BRING ME THE HEAD OF ALFREDO GARCIA Year: 1974 Rating: ****Gritty auteur Sam Peckinpah's maligned labor-of-love exploitation has an extremely bizarre plot-line, involving American imported-in-Mexico nightclub pianist Warren Oates as
Written by James M. Tate / 1/11/2024 / No comments / action , crime , ennio morricone , escape , fabio testi , frédéric de pasquale , italian , jailbreak , kidnapping , oliver reed , paola pitagora , sergio sollima , seventies , teamup , thriller , wrong man
OLIVER REED AND FABIO TESTI ITALIAN CRIME FLICK 'REVOLVER'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/11/2024
Title: REVOLVER Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2Clever premise of a prison warden in genuine tough guy and here, promoted ex-cop Oliver Reed... who surreptitiously allows a prisoner to escape before abducting him in exchange for his (own) kidnappe
Written by James M. Tate / 1/10/2024 / No comments / action , chase , cop , crime , david hemmings , enzo g. castellari , exploitation , fabio testi , joshua sinclair , lesbian , massimo vanni , sherry buchanan , stefania girolami goodwin , wolfango soldati
FABIO TESTI AND DAVID HEMMINGS TEAM IN 'THE HEROIN BUSTERS'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/10/2024
Title: THE HEROIN BUSTERS Year: 1977 Rating: ****It's initially distracting that, in the first twenty minutes of THE HEROIN BUSTERS, extremely handsome Italian actor Fabio Testi doesn't seem the part of a grungy, emaciated drug-dealer, bus
Written by James M. Tate / 1/09/2024 / No comments / action , adventure , alan ladd , clifton webb , diving , fifties , greece , romantic comedy , sophia loren , treasure
SOPHIA LOREN AND CLIFTON WEBB SEEKING 'BOY ON A DOLPHIN'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/09/2024
Sophia Loren in BOY ON A DOLPHIN Year: 1957 Rating: ***1/2Rarely has there been a film with such uneven casting — and BOY ON A DOLPHIN was America's introduction to Italian bombshell Sophia Loren, here a tough and feisty diver/fisherman's g
Written by James M. Tate / 1/06/2024 / No comments / allen garfield , david graf , drew barrymore , eighties , hollywood satire , luana anders , road movie , romantic comedy , ryan o'neal , sam wanamaker , sharon stone , shelley long
RYAN O'NEAL & SHELLEY LONG HAVE 'IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/06/2024
Title: IRRECONCILABLE DIFFERENCES Year: 1984 Rating: ****1/2Ryan O'Neal was the original Leonardo DiCaprio, both starring in what turned out surprise hits, LOVE STORY and TITANIC respectively, after which avoiding blond sex symbol status to
Written by James M. Tate / 1/05/2024 / No comments / action , clint eastwood , cop , david soul , dirty harry , felton perry , franchise , hal holbrook , john milius , michael cimino , richard devon , robert urich , seventies , tim matheson
CLINT EASTWOOD AS DIRTY HARRY VS DAVID SOUL 'MAGNUM FORCE'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/05/2024
Clint Eastwood and David Soul in MAGNUM FORCE Year: 1973 Rating: ****1/2Director Don Siegel's DIRTY HARRY was a cultural phenomenon that gave Clint Eastwood a franchise and character for two decades while defining his persona even beyond th
Written by James M. Tate / 1/04/2024 / No comments / eighties , horror , jimmy smits , john schlesinger , martin sheen , robert loggia , suspense , thriller
MARTIN SHEEN IN JOHN SCHLESINGER'S THRILLER 'THE BELIEVERS'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/04/2024
Martin Sheen and Harley Cross in THE BELIEVERS Year: 1987 Rating: ***1/2The last time Oscar-winning director John Schlesinger put a short and intense method actor through the relatively slow-burn, thriller-genre ringer was Dustin Hoffman in
Written by James M. Tate / 1/02/2024 / No comments / action , cop , giancarlo sbragia , italian , maurizio merli , race car , seventies , stelvio cipriani , stelvio massi
ITALIAN ACTION CRIME 'HIGHWAY RACER' AKA 'POLIZIOTTO SPRINT'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/02/2024
Maurizio Merli in HIGHWAY RACER Year: 1977 Rating: ***Stelvio Massi's Italian action-crime-flick HIGHWAY RACER is built around the premise of a cop who'd rather be (and drives like) an extremely fast yet far too risky race car driver, begin
GLENN FORD RIDING 'THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE'
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/02/2024
Title: THE FOUR HORSEMEN OF THE APOCALYPSE Year: 1962 Rating: ****In Argentina, at the heels of the Second World War, lusty family patriarch Lee J. Cobb — after an all-night celebration with favorite grandson Glenn Ford — gathers his entir
Written by James M. Tate / 1/01/2024 / No comments / alan arkin , comedy , double-feature , escape , fifties , film noir or melodrama , fred f. sears , johnny desmond , meg myles , merry anders , michael granger , music , prison , richard devon , victor millan
MERRY ANDERS WITH JOHNNY DESMOND 1957 DOUBLE-FEATURE
No comment / Posted by James M. Tate / 1/01/2024
Merry Anders with villain Richard Devon in ESCAPE FROM SAN QUENTIN Year: 1957 Rating: ****1/2ESCAPE FROM SAN QUENTIN: More a legit film noir than the b-crime programmer it otherwise seems from the action-faring, plot-describing title, whi
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GENE HACKMAN COMMANDS TED KOTCHEFF'S 'UNCOMMON VALOR'
Randall Tex Cobb & Kelly Junkerman in UNCOMMON VALOR Year: 1983 Rating: **** Recently, three important people connected to 1983's UN...
