GENE HACKMAN WITH ROY SCHEIDER IN 'THE FRENCH CONNECTION'

<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/AVvXsEihzrjAM0jJjYlhtSq2bi0HXcFxFv-lbttJhKy9xgyuZj3P-OZ2TulEG-Ur8IMQhe2Rpz-YeEZ-Y0PlA0J5xXFuq0LJVI2x_lonA-xdI0HSk40q5GzxXk-c50loFrPae5-D3REhK4PkACPbyybE5AlERSazBtQuCRdquwHlAAJszYR1iZa9CO3Mul86naTt/s1624/Screen%20Shot%202025-03-03%20at%203.23.54%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="1624" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihzrjAM0jJjYlhtSq2bi0HXcFxFv-lbttJhKy9xgyuZj3P-OZ2TulEG-Ur8IMQhe2Rpz-YeEZ-Y0PlA0J5xXFuq0LJVI2x_lonA-xdI0HSk40q5GzxXk-c50loFrPae5-D3REhK4PkACPbyybE5AlERSazBtQuCRdquwHlAAJszYR1iZa9CO3Mul86naTt/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-03-03%20at%203.23.54%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE FRENCH CONNECTION Shown: Gene Hackman, Marcel Bozzuffi Year: 1971 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>After becoming a legendary yet sometimes difficult actor, Gene Hackman would put vulnerable young directors through the ringer, ranging from two of his best known films, HOSSIERS and THE ROYAL TENNENBAUMS... and years earlier, the Oscar-winning blockbuster that turned him from a recurring co-star into a bonafide movie star, THE FRENCH CONNECTION, was not much different...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p>Except that William Friedkin didn't bend to Hackman's initial reluctance to fully<i> </i>embrace the sordid, uncompromising nature of New York City cop Popeye Doyle within the pallid purgatory aesthetic... ironically encroached by classy and sophisticated French drug-smuggler Fernando Rey aka "Frog One" (with deadly henchman Marcel Bozzuffi)... </p><span></span>

alan weeks, arlene farber, bill hickman, cop, drugs, eddie egan, exploitation, fernado rey, frédéric de pasquale, gene hackman, patrick mcdermott, roy scheider, william friedkin

GENE HACKMAN WITH ROY SCHEIDER IN 'THE FRENCH CONNECTION'

Title: THE FRENCH CONNECTION Shown: Gene Hackman, Marcel Bozzuffi Year: 1971 Rating: ****1/2 After becoming a legendary yet sometimes diffic...

GENE HACKMAN RETURNING FOR 'THE FRENCH CONNECTON II'

<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/AVvXsEiTw8c1vhHV36_v2zP7lbef6uscchCk6jZIAxEcbRdBby_jf-Ra-0HJHJexFtqemS41eH_MCIiIN5TEXzCauVuGCQzJnzEUjTwtTSBzl5HxVIsL87x-q40IfFw238q_qaLDmkgBJzdrcCW_JtCnj_9IJJToi0021p_vVm7sFZW42hbFUjBfjFneE8c4LU2F/s1312/1-1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="774" data-original-width="1312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTw8c1vhHV36_v2zP7lbef6uscchCk6jZIAxEcbRdBby_jf-Ra-0HJHJexFtqemS41eH_MCIiIN5TEXzCauVuGCQzJnzEUjTwtTSBzl5HxVIsL87x-q40IfFw238q_qaLDmkgBJzdrcCW_JtCnj_9IJJToi0021p_vVm7sFZW42hbFUjBfjFneE8c4LU2F/s16000/1-1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gene Hackman in THE FRENCH CONNECTION II Year: 1975 Rating: ***</u><br></td></tr></tbody></table><p>There's a kind of guilty pleasure watching a thinned-down Gene Hackman as New York's favorite tough cop Popeye Doyle being force-fed heroin in a Euro-slum, and then kicking it cold turkey whilst squirming, vomiting, and eventually screaming about Mickey Mantle... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>We begin in France and this time remain there. Unlike his New York stomping grounds, Doyle can't get a decent whiskey buzz, this time gets beat up by a black guy, finds it impossible interrogating perps, and is without partner/anchor Roy Scheider, who, that same year, was busy hunting a Great White Shark for Steven Speilberg...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, bernard fresson, cop, drugs, ed lauter, exploitation, fernando rey, gene hackman, john frankenheimer, sequel, seventies

GENE HACKMAN RETURNING FOR 'THE FRENCH CONNECTON II'

Gene Hackman in THE FRENCH CONNECTION II Year: 1975 Rating: *** There's a kind of guilty pleasure watching a thinned-down Gene Hackman ...

GENE HACKMAN MINING THROUGH NICOLAS ROAG'S 'EUREKA'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><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/AVvXsEiCRfM7Ghj5zLUvUYIqIUKoAsAs8vExn4gmt3QfjjJP-LLP-5l9fhSRfcHcHWLIVxtHTIwSMDD2M-W0ogvEwCWZ_uBMs_J2jfGiY1nqxDHLFdeii6cASgCnaDb4mfJEhbzY53CW3JzUfqVrl99cmeulEvNCo98mHJW5pgGE096wd7ZNfqmt0JT6YBfu_E1e/s1036/Screen%20Shot%202025-03-01%20at%2010.15.14%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="558" data-original-width="1036" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiCRfM7Ghj5zLUvUYIqIUKoAsAs8vExn4gmt3QfjjJP-LLP-5l9fhSRfcHcHWLIVxtHTIwSMDD2M-W0ogvEwCWZ_uBMs_J2jfGiY1nqxDHLFdeii6cASgCnaDb4mfJEhbzY53CW3JzUfqVrl99cmeulEvNCo98mHJW5pgGE096wd7ZNfqmt0JT6YBfu_E1e/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-03-01%20at%2010.15.14%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gene Hackman in EUREKA Year: 1983 Rating: **1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Following the game-changing THE FRENCH CONNECTION turning 2nd-lead and/or villain-role character-actor Gene Hackman into a leading man/movie star, he did two independent art-films, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/02/scarecrow.html">Jerry Schatzberg's SCARECROW</a> and Francis Ford Coppola's THE CONVERSATION that, because of their underpar box office (albeit both being critically praised), he swore to only mainstream movies thereafter...<br><br>But after THE FRENCH CONNECTION sequel, a few action thrillers and two SUPERMAN blockbusters, he went back to low-budget basics with the most offbeat auteur of them all, Nicolas Roeg, for a deliberately dismal melodrama EUREKA where the best scenes exist in the relatively short-lived first act: when Gene Hackman as solitary yet formidable minor Jack McCann (when not frequenting a brothel with FIVE EASY PIECES rambling-actress Helena Kallianiotes) has put everything into one lucrative gold strike...</p><p><span></span></p>

ed lauter, eighties, gene hackman, helena kallianiotes, indie, joe pesci, mickey rourke, nicolas roeg, rutger hauer, theresa russell

GENE HACKMAN MINING THROUGH NICOLAS ROAG'S 'EUREKA'

Gene Hackman in EUREKA Year: 1983 Rating: **1/2 Following the game-changing THE FRENCH CONNECTION turning 2nd-lead and/or villain-role chara...

GENE HACKMAN MAKING AND BREAKING 'THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS'

<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/AVvXsEgVF1SaAknZPbsMooda_vzqbkObuK6hhAWqKl2gHeG8WaSKRUyAaUFLKO9_t_7xW1xnHTJBLCTZslGNhlRHFPNGBbjvrGemgGfBkdxHE2tBwqONeU08AzuyfrNLW_b81uoPw_iYctS2TA8qrtu7d4MCkj-oxKIsf2ii44mxQZiQERXeDmCEpj0Q7FH5sopA/s1918/Screen%20Shot%202025-03-03%20at%203.57.31%20AM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1026" data-original-width="1918" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVF1SaAknZPbsMooda_vzqbkObuK6hhAWqKl2gHeG8WaSKRUyAaUFLKO9_t_7xW1xnHTJBLCTZslGNhlRHFPNGBbjvrGemgGfBkdxHE2tBwqONeU08AzuyfrNLW_b81uoPw_iYctS2TA8qrtu7d4MCkj-oxKIsf2ii44mxQZiQERXeDmCEpj0Q7FH5sopA/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-03-03%20at%203.57.31%20AM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Gene Hackman in THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS Year: 2001 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>It's not so ironic that Gene Hackman was extremely (infamously) difficult to director Wes Anderson working on THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS because his character, the tremendously flawed patriarch of an eccentric New York City family, is the one person who brings the deliberately offbeat movie down to a relatably grounded level... <br><br>In Anderson's breakout indie RUSHMORE, Bill Murray did the same thing, sort of... but not so most of the characters couldn't stand him, and spend almost the entire story battling his vices that, in Hackman's case as Royal Tenenbaum, led to the family breaking up early on... opening with child prodigy's setting the stage, creatively coddled by newly single mother Angelica Huston as Etheline...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

angelica huston, article, bill murray, danny glover, dark comedy, gene hackman, gwyneth paltrow, luke wilson, memorial, owen wilson, wes anderson, zeroes

GENE HACKMAN MAKING AND BREAKING 'THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS'

Gene Hackman in THE ROYAL TENENBAUMS Year: 2001 Rating: ****1/2 It's not so ironic that Gene Hackman was extremely (infamously) difficul...

GENE HACKMAN AND AL PACINO TRAPISE THROUGH 'SCARECROW'

<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/AVvXsEii6aqKbSJ0PSdqdt4arXSjssUv6e3x8IOZaRx-kG1GhS4zF-mwGnbEhujs_F-WFYATJDdLvyeSQOLU11NpkmoehAu8lhI_5Z7RawoK6LMh3wN6jcuHUdfGK5KtGAJIztjxBKLxu791ulPMylEjMLp5rzSj6_EG1o_T0kYwP-EBvp5-4cBXx_EQPDu38AmT/s1976/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-27%20at%202.19.39%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1232" data-original-width="1976" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEii6aqKbSJ0PSdqdt4arXSjssUv6e3x8IOZaRx-kG1GhS4zF-mwGnbEhujs_F-WFYATJDdLvyeSQOLU11NpkmoehAu8lhI_5Z7RawoK6LMh3wN6jcuHUdfGK5KtGAJIztjxBKLxu791ulPMylEjMLp5rzSj6_EG1o_T0kYwP-EBvp5-4cBXx_EQPDu38AmT/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-27%20at%202.19.39%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: SCARECROW Stars: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In a roundabout way, independent director Jerry Schatzberg made Al Pacino a star by providing him a zesty role in the low-budget street-addict-drama THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK that inspired Francis Ford Coppola to cast him as Michael Corleone in THE GODFATHER... while Gene Hackman had already won an Oscar for THE FRENCH CONNECTION, leading to their combined 1973 offbeat road movie SCARECROW...<br><br>Where Hackman and Pacino seem like if Jack Kerouac had written MIDNIGHT COWBOY as the duo are already ON THE ROAD as polar-opposite tall-and-short vagabonds venturing across rural America (from traipsing feet to freight trains) where, serving as the only actual plot-line, Hackman's Max wants to open a gas station while Pacino's Lion has a child somewhere that he yearns to connect with, or something...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

al pacino, ann wedgeworth, dorothy tristan, eileen brennan, gene hackman, indie, jerry schatzberg, richard lynch, road movie, rutanya alda, seventies

GENE HACKMAN AND AL PACINO TRAPISE THROUGH 'SCARECROW'

Title: SCARECROW Stars: Gene Hackman, Al Pacino Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2 In a roundabout way, independent director Jerry Schatzberg made Al...

AL PACINO AND KITTY WINN WEATHER 'THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><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/AVvXsEg8hAmoJjOF-7rc_UvaikfjSoaNVvO6w2Wj0cpr80aXtu2aPUYftsJNzzeQBcEUXcO3gv5HSJS-At7dUoLNbqkQprr0UVIMmk_IQkHE_lsl_hV9P7L7iT0A2kVtULYpJ5OP9IAML-kFsu2m35KXVejLUQ1cZp1akwsZeiyG6mxsqAcVlP8EV627E1oMlAIU/s2230/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-24%20at%2011.42.09%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1356" data-original-width="2230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8hAmoJjOF-7rc_UvaikfjSoaNVvO6w2Wj0cpr80aXtu2aPUYftsJNzzeQBcEUXcO3gv5HSJS-At7dUoLNbqkQprr0UVIMmk_IQkHE_lsl_hV9P7L7iT0A2kVtULYpJ5OP9IAML-kFsu2m35KXVejLUQ1cZp1akwsZeiyG6mxsqAcVlP8EV627E1oMlAIU/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-24%20at%2011.42.09%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Al Pacino in THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK Year: 1971 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>There are four minutes left of independent director Jerry Schatzberg's heroin-addict expose THE PANIC AT NEEDLE PARK when Al Pacino does the kind of screaming tantrum that would become legendary...<br><br>Yet before he was the gruff-voiced screamer, Pacino had a nasally, higher-pitched tone... and his Bobby seems like the cooler, girl-getting brother of Dustin Hoffman's Ratso Rizzo from <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2018/06/git-along-little-doggie.html">MIDNIGHT COWBOY</a> (same cinematographer), which would have a similar opposites-pairing vibe in Schatzberg's subsequent indie SCARECROW starring Gene Hackman and Pacino: right after becoming famous thanks to this movie's kickstart that convinced THE GODFATHER auteur Francis Ford Coppola to gamble on the comparably normal-looking, pint-sized, scruffy-haired, method acting no-name... <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></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

al pacino, counter-culture, drugs, jerry schatzberg, joe santos, kitty winn, larry marshall, raul julia, rutanya alda, seventies, warren finnerty

AL PACINO AND KITTY WINN WEATHER 'THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK'

Al Pacino in THE PANIC IN NEEDLE PARK Year: 1971 Rating: **** There are four minutes left of independent director Jerry Schatzberg's her...

DANA ANDREWS AND GENE TIERNEY IN OTTO PREMINGER'S 'LAURA'

<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/AVvXsEimd-Hf86aZKkNUPDYRjFrE9YcsaKCFHfoEmcjk94MGlr4L5d2eNFPD_H-O6g0TFh-yHnxwQqdmgtc8jzW2W4aywHTNBKimwKjuCy6Ig0z8Wp3_IAz-O5QUH7DAaVV4ieiYCwP0oXpmlqGiRmGizGrewO2nhti3iYbN7abBfaD4FdSHpbmL9dNpP2ntJI98/s1846/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-24%20at%2010.06.02%20PM.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1364" data-original-width="1846" height="295" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimd-Hf86aZKkNUPDYRjFrE9YcsaKCFHfoEmcjk94MGlr4L5d2eNFPD_H-O6g0TFh-yHnxwQqdmgtc8jzW2W4aywHTNBKimwKjuCy6Ig0z8Wp3_IAz-O5QUH7DAaVV4ieiYCwP0oXpmlqGiRmGizGrewO2nhti3iYbN7abBfaD4FdSHpbmL9dNpP2ntJI98/w400-h295/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-24%20at%2010.06.02%20PM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1944 Rating: *****</u></td></tr></tbody></table>Dana Andrews as Det. Lt. Mark McPherson has fallen in love with a ghost, kind of, and that's not to be spoiled for anyone who hasn't seen LAURA with its particular dreamlike camera panning from a sleeping McPherson, and we get the murderous yarn, spun all over again in a different fashion and with a twist that could be something else entirely as our hero deals with two creeps connected with the ingenue: especially a cerebral "sugar daddy" in a sophisticated Clifton Webb...<br> <div style="text-align: right;"> </div> <br> Word is the producer frowned on this important casting because of... well... what's pretty apparent about the futzy fella, and he can't shake that aspect from his character of a character, Waldo Lydecker. But Webb is perfect as LAURA seems to be the only girl who can rid the sophisticated and manipulative Lydecker from his daily uptight uptown lunch, all by himself with a contented life all mapped-out...<br>

classic, clifton webb, cop, crime, dana andrews, film noir, forties, gene tierney, mystery, otto preminger, vincent price

DANA ANDREWS AND GENE TIERNEY IN OTTO PREMINGER'S 'LAURA'

Year: 1944 Rating: ***** Dana Andrews as Det. Lt. Mark McPherson has fallen in love with a ghost, kind of, and that's not to be spoile...

DANA ANDREWS & ALICE FAYE IN OTTO PREMINGER'S 'FALLEN ANGEL'

<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/AVvXsEgTWpLk2K0he59eAcyZzeXtL6cO56fog-X9GPxGlJ0xBlK70cuigd4MstArYkOdDhciSLaFjg7XMTPHZATxSXIvqkR_kgULb4xpNyuRVxN58_puPD5IR2dD5GZY-lgbH-EM-BLbVO_5CTNc01pgUgBVQAeTahU4UMWBHxX-GLYhOin4sd8EVsL5rKAyiTrR/s1372/Screen%20Shot%202024-08-06%20at%2011.49.47%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1062" data-original-width="1372" height="310" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgTWpLk2K0he59eAcyZzeXtL6cO56fog-X9GPxGlJ0xBlK70cuigd4MstArYkOdDhciSLaFjg7XMTPHZATxSXIvqkR_kgULb4xpNyuRVxN58_puPD5IR2dD5GZY-lgbH-EM-BLbVO_5CTNc01pgUgBVQAeTahU4UMWBHxX-GLYhOin4sd8EVsL5rKAyiTrR/w400-h310/Screen%20Shot%202024-08-06%20at%2011.49.47%20AM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Year: 1945 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table>If you look at the filmography of two actresses who play sisters in the Otto Preminger Film Noir FALLEN ANGEL, Alice Faye, as naive June Mills, who's mentored by an older, wiser, more cautious Ann Revere as Clara: Both had prosperous careers in that decade, the 1940's, and then their 50's resume reads like a clean slate...<br> <br> Sadly, more of a <i>Black</i>list for the NATIONAL VELVET Oscar-Winning Revere (who co-starred with Andrews in the lobster-diver drama DEEP WATERS)... But the 20th Century Fox starlet Faye basically quit acting for a long while... Ironically, till she was old enough to be a teenage girl's mother in the remake of STATE FAIR, the original co-starring Andrews... And her career's demise was all because of Otto Preminger's underrated and mostly obscure/unknown Dana Andrews (with Gene Tierney) Film Noir FALLEN ANGEL in-between classics LAURA and  WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS... <br>

alice faye, ann revere, bruce cabot, dana andrews, film noir, film noir or melodrama, forties, linda darnell, otto preminger

DANA ANDREWS & ALICE FAYE IN OTTO PREMINGER'S 'FALLEN ANGEL'

Year: 1945 Rating: ****1/2 If you look at the filmography of two actresses who play sisters in the Otto Preminger Film Noir FALLEN ANGEL, Al...

DANA ANDREWS & GENE TIERNEY IN 'WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS'

<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/AVvXsEgJhPb8JjRRH1wWt-iiX7FYG10-nzeRLO8EErcY5OVLHm6Cx7A09fIsAMDqJaGjP7rFsUpKG6V4hzwku6nWNYwKWUAjyLP5cCaXulAmaqn5QhZwvwexT3oKaoEHFX9v8ft1uGBpVPgDzMLzv_9qg9KkC0f5a9XRzOcLIkzOE3WKZVtI3oaUUeJbyFQoZFy0/s1270/Screen%20Shot%202024-08-02%20at%202.50.48%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="972" data-original-width="1270" height="306" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJhPb8JjRRH1wWt-iiX7FYG10-nzeRLO8EErcY5OVLHm6Cx7A09fIsAMDqJaGjP7rFsUpKG6V4hzwku6nWNYwKWUAjyLP5cCaXulAmaqn5QhZwvwexT3oKaoEHFX9v8ft1uGBpVPgDzMLzv_9qg9KkC0f5a9XRzOcLIkzOE3WKZVtI3oaUUeJbyFQoZFy0/w400-h306/Screen%20Shot%202024-08-02%20at%202.50.48%20AM.jpeg" width="400"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Dana and Gene a third time YEAR: 1950</u></td></tr></tbody></table>A sort of Film Noir in reverse as a downright bad and brutal cop does something accidental and pretty awful, covers it up and then, a bit later, gets half-a-heart, which is how Noir leading men usually start: this after he falls for the Falsely Accused Wrong Man's daughter in Gene Tierney's gorgeous, as usual, Morgan Taylor... Even her name is lovely...<br> <br> Dana Andrews, who resembled a hybrid Sean Connery before there was one famous enough to resemble, and Steve Martin had he been a tough and tall leading man type, stole scenes in the post World War Two classic, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/05/BYOOurLIVES.html">THE BEST YEARS OF OUR LIVES,</a> and, brother of Steve Forrest, has the same square-jaw and no-nonsense style, and is a lot more edgy and desperate than his snoopy cop in the previous, more lavish and high-budgeted crime melodrama, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/05/Loir.html">LAURA</a>, with the same director and gorgeous co-star...<br>

bert freed, british film noir/melodrama, cop, craig stevens, dana andrews, fifties, gary merrill, gene tierney, karl malden, otto preminger, suspense

DANA ANDREWS & GENE TIERNEY IN 'WHERE THE SIDEWALK ENDS'

Dana and Gene a third time YEAR: 1950 A sort of Film Noir in reverse as a downright bad and brutal cop does something accidental and pretty ...

BRIAN KELLY & LLOYD BRIDGES 'AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA'

<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/AVvXsEg86oQmLHt8QovRaAY4Bxpc4WYVTtbOqUU8CBm9X_5FhltSOa42cYKkFZM7OqJjwa4W0eidckBS4Kh7vg4dYSZcFfEm-g7slHKkzCw7DAlN4OOh3yJv1BByXKhDrwXWUAH5ByrV4kC-E5nbm6bak8N4toNlk1YJWILIGpedOsSd_F5bRBDI-fp3SZQshRGl/s1704/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1092" data-original-width="1704" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg86oQmLHt8QovRaAY4Bxpc4WYVTtbOqUU8CBm9X_5FhltSOa42cYKkFZM7OqJjwa4W0eidckBS4Kh7vg4dYSZcFfEm-g7slHKkzCw7DAlN4OOh3yJv1BByXKhDrwXWUAH5ByrV4kC-E5nbm6bak8N4toNlk1YJWILIGpedOsSd_F5bRBDI-fp3SZQshRGl/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA Year: 1966 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>It takes exactly forty-minutes before the entire crew's aboard a relatively small submarine that's to drop sonar sensors to predict earthquakes in AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>That being SEA HUNT star Lloyd Bridges, FLIPPER dad Brian Kelly, beautiful scientist Shirley Eaton, old oddball specialist Keenan Wynn, and just like he was on THE MAN FROM UNCLE has David McCallum as a Russian... with the motivation to make a terrific villain since he wants to score hefty salvage, and the fact that affable Marshall Thompson's pseudo-girlfriend Eaton used his be his own...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, brian kelly, david mccallum, gary merrill, keenan wynn, lloyd bridges, marshall thompson, science-fiction, shirley eaton, sixties, underwater

BRIAN KELLY & LLOYD BRIDGES 'AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA'

Title: AROUND THE WORLD UNDER THE SEA Year: 1966 Rating: ***1/2 It takes exactly forty-minutes before the entire crew's aboard a relativ...

CHARLES BRONSON AND JILL IRELAND IN 'FROM NOON TILL THREE'

<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/AVvXsEjTCUbsRtPiqvn4ypqvIQejiaECI5WMzysBiKX5yHIZnBYIEQfBREgWmW5sM6rKXCa39y2OfUWLvaz-fvIPMagUGZ1WXR1w3nzLIVWPVqVAA3xmuJEyri4uSgxYn-ZIlybm-k-lgZq0GuEMavjyUw61X69q4I3u8gVYX4ZGh9X47HJWz-hWGEtNN5M68tTa/s1366/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-18%20at%201.45.30%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="782" data-original-width="1366" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTCUbsRtPiqvn4ypqvIQejiaECI5WMzysBiKX5yHIZnBYIEQfBREgWmW5sM6rKXCa39y2OfUWLvaz-fvIPMagUGZ1WXR1w3nzLIVWPVqVAA3xmuJEyri4uSgxYn-ZIlybm-k-lgZq0GuEMavjyUw61X69q4I3u8gVYX4ZGh9X47HJWz-hWGEtNN5M68tTa/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-18%20at%201.45.30%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland in From Noon Till Three Year: 1976 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In another 1970's Charles Bronson vehicle that aesthetically looks more like a high-quality backlot-shot TV-movie than theatrical b-movie, Charles Bronson and wife Jill Ireland star in what seems like (and is promoted as) a comedy/western... when it's actually an offbeat fable that's ultimately <i>Meta</i>...<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>Part of a gang of the usual surly outlaws, which turns out being mostly a dream turned nightmare, Bronson eventually... while the boys hit a bank off-screen... holes up at rich sophisticated lady Jill Ireland's middle-of-nowhere-mansion... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

ann ramsey, charles bronson, comedy, dennis fowley, don red barry, frank d. gilroy, jill ireland, seventies, stan haze, western

CHARLES BRONSON AND JILL IRELAND IN 'FROM NOON TILL THREE'

Charles Bronson and Jill Ireland in From Noon Till Three Year: 1976 Rating: ***1/2 In another 1970's Charles Bronson vehicle that aesthe...

MARLON BRANDO, ROBERT REDFORD & ROBERT DUVALL 'THE CHASE'

<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/AVvXsEgJ2S1R9c0adhBwlPqAXtfNCbQebk3kXQ2OypuoC2cwhnDJ3T_40lmVyuZDjWn1Ii9tBcVCqZW26NyyuBHPDnxlRBpNiwFoBRubuhCMKQOi4327IdF9ZbX6fArpcm2zfYBMyPwx0DzsiIRBm-DAeP1ClYHAuPxp4tOOCES4csBOchyphenhyphenYcqISo1JkTyxkr014/s1116/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="744" data-original-width="1116" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgJ2S1R9c0adhBwlPqAXtfNCbQebk3kXQ2OypuoC2cwhnDJ3T_40lmVyuZDjWn1Ii9tBcVCqZW26NyyuBHPDnxlRBpNiwFoBRubuhCMKQOi4327IdF9ZbX6fArpcm2zfYBMyPwx0DzsiIRBm-DAeP1ClYHAuPxp4tOOCES4csBOchyphenhyphenYcqISo1JkTyxkr014/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Marlon Brando in THE CHASE Year: 1966 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Whether deliberate or coincidental, director Arthur Penn attempts what Richard Fleischer pulled off a decade earlier for <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2022/01/VS-take2.html">VIOLENT SATURDAY</a>, combining subtle yet eventually vicious bank robbers within a comparably predictably-conservative small town bustling with the kind of soapy Douglas Sirk-style soap-operatic characters, ironically displaying behavior as flawed as the antagonists... <br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But it doesn't work here because the Robert Redford character... the town's former bad boy/escaped convict on the run in that titular CHASE that never really happens... isn't shown enough to counter within the gossiping town anticipating his return, where mumbling sheriff Marlon Brando seems to passively watch the fancy rich folk as if he were part of the movie's audience... </p><p><span></span></p>

angie dickinson, arthur penn, drama, e.g. marshall, ensemble, james fox, janice rule, katherine walsh, marlon brando, robert redford, sixties

MARLON BRANDO, ROBERT REDFORD & ROBERT DUVALL 'THE CHASE'

Marlon Brando in THE CHASE Year: 1966 Rating: ** Whether deliberate or coincidental, director Arthur Penn attempts what Richard Fleischer pu...

JAMES ARNESS, JAMES WHITMORE AND EDMUND GWENN IN 'THEM!'

<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/AVvXsEhSn5L2SfKtN5IGuJic2rKKzr7oJtyqEDDeodGxMzSOFBXiBMstCwfKJwq7aKUY0NbF10QsNdmPOULxEjDXsUYB298saCHrSixYx1KjcV56rgGNyviQYlDRuDVMFlMp6tJn3EQ7b2PCDGjTxzyLwYzWvnljnNCLlPU8UDpEUKfWbrjRGr0M9PFg8lXRCH4O/s2058/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-06%20at%206.41.21%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1284" data-original-width="2058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhSn5L2SfKtN5IGuJic2rKKzr7oJtyqEDDeodGxMzSOFBXiBMstCwfKJwq7aKUY0NbF10QsNdmPOULxEjDXsUYB298saCHrSixYx1KjcV56rgGNyviQYlDRuDVMFlMp6tJn3EQ7b2PCDGjTxzyLwYzWvnljnNCLlPU8UDpEUKfWbrjRGr0M9PFg8lXRCH4O/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-06%20at%206.41.21%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THEM! Year: 1954 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Director Gordon Douglas's THEM could have had three different lead perspectives: the investigation of FBI agent James Arness, not used to working in the scorching desert; scientist father and daughter in extremely quirky Edmund Gwenn and pretty yet resolute Joan Weldon; and workaday, everyman local desert cop James Whitmore investigating random deaths, including his own partner, wherein the story begins...<br><br>Almost like a film noir (with many stylistic-auteur touches by the underrated Douglas)... then adding layers with the aforementioned characters developed from their occupation: Arness and Whitman acquire a government-agent-to-local-lawmen bond as Edmund Gwenn spouts the kind of scientific expository information that only he and his daughter (with a semi-attraction to Arness) understand, and that the law (and military) eventually have to defeat...</p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, booth colman, creature, edmund gwenn, FBI, fifties, gordon douglas, james arness, james whitmore, joan weldon, leonard nimoy, science-fiction, sean mcclory, thriller, william schallert

JAMES ARNESS, JAMES WHITMORE AND EDMUND GWENN IN 'THEM!'

Title: THEM! Year: 1954 Rating: **** Director Gordon Douglas's THEM could have had three different lead perspectives: the investigation ...

PRODUCER WILLIAM ALLAND PRESENTS 'THE DEADLY MANTIS'

<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/AVvXsEgye4zQbbXK4qSDkqmTIIYM0BqyqH7pE7UbGqGPRRDuz_5z16l9DxEPJqbFcb9eK8qt17VHMG2hRVYmEqmUW-Te4Hm2u1bj-S-CvNzzMoODIwJQOJe3xgUkeERgHc7FuPojruVUFX4JcI9uxyS9nUIPNoxfj7Nq92V_PGHI5D0jUyzznxGiG4-9GOfauwru/s1920/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-04%20at%208.44.58%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgye4zQbbXK4qSDkqmTIIYM0BqyqH7pE7UbGqGPRRDuz_5z16l9DxEPJqbFcb9eK8qt17VHMG2hRVYmEqmUW-Te4Hm2u1bj-S-CvNzzMoODIwJQOJe3xgUkeERgHc7FuPojruVUFX4JcI9uxyS9nUIPNoxfj7Nq92V_PGHI5D0jUyzznxGiG4-9GOfauwru/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-04%20at%208.44.58%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE DEADLY MANTIS Year: 1956 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Various military compounds are attacked by an unseen yet formidable menace — an impenetrable force of some kind, and, in that, only the title reveals the deck — the first half playing out like a mystery rather than a creature-feature, and these are the most effective scenes — TV's PERRY MASON towering gumshoe William Hopper is the only Scientist that may be able to learn the source of what's leftover from a wrecked plane: a piece of whatever had obviously caused it...<br> </p><p></p><p></p><div style="text-align: right;"> </div><p> The interior shots are effective in sparse B&W, making terrific use of scientific knowledge spouted from Hopper with confident-until-she's-terrified ingenue Alix Talton at his side — how the mysterious cause of destruction is... through pages of exposition, narrowed down into an insect feels like a rare science class that won't put you to sleep...</p><p><span></span></p>

alix talton, craig stevens, creature, cult, fifties, nathan juran, pat conway, science-fiction, william alland, william hopper

PRODUCER WILLIAM ALLAND PRESENTS 'THE DEADLY MANTIS'

Title: THE DEADLY MANTIS Year: 1956 Rating: **** Various military compounds are attacked by an unseen yet formidable menace — an impenetrab...

STEVE COCHRAN DRIVING ROBERT CUMMINGS IN 'THE CHASE'

<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/AVvXsEhMkoJJYm1_7oDh0HrN3zub7wlMlYSzYAAr7jRVcXfiXpWEdyTraVSab0nD1QFTwbaqzjkTk7YhXqPQl100BlaDOCJJdzFKExwo_q0h2GgTn1FmouwpDgZhAOxGaCR8sDbiuy_of3FtcPBz_85NhC_45BoSfkdvlDbo_4BK7x4XRLGI1h_IKSi7sSwUpp36/s1856/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-04%20at%2010.56.24%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="910" data-original-width="1856" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMkoJJYm1_7oDh0HrN3zub7wlMlYSzYAAr7jRVcXfiXpWEdyTraVSab0nD1QFTwbaqzjkTk7YhXqPQl100BlaDOCJJdzFKExwo_q0h2GgTn1FmouwpDgZhAOxGaCR8sDbiuy_of3FtcPBz_85NhC_45BoSfkdvlDbo_4BK7x4XRLGI1h_IKSi7sSwUpp36/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-02-04%20at%2010.56.24%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Robert Cummings and Michèle Morgan in THE CHASE Year: 1946 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Since  some 1940's film noirs are very surreal, it's not strange that one-third of THE CHASE is actually a dream by penniless war veteran turned mobster's chauffeur Robert Cummings suffering PTSD... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>The irony is how much weirder the real stuff is, and, literally driven by Steve Cochran with an accelerator in his limo's backseat while Cummings steers (after racing alongside) a moving train, both Cochan and henchman Peter Lorre get their kicks by cheating death... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

film noir or melodrama, forties, michèle morgan, peter lorre, robert cummings, steve cochran, wrong man

STEVE COCHRAN DRIVING ROBERT CUMMINGS IN 'THE CHASE'

Robert Cummings and Michèle Morgan in THE CHASE Year: 1946 Rating: *** Since  some 1940's film noirs are very surreal, it's not stra...

JOHN GUILLERMIN'S 'THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN' WITH BEN GAZARRA

<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/AVvXsEhGzNP0XqbXX9lYFs7JEbEOsq4bs8SI9AQuBjBkNNqkLS6N1A6zYDVmDpBXi7S_Jd4URsKbjKMzwLSXQuvhwGGD84mEAMBjtRyC9XmOZVTT6YKUqistWW-9HYrJ6AGEwsUXNmwvAFChM4X4JV7mGX3cvQDaCHDRHu10T7nf1YAs7vwFywV9TpOx_zdpyS_B/s1554/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-30%20at%2011.06.04%20PM%203%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="770" data-original-width="1554" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGzNP0XqbXX9lYFs7JEbEOsq4bs8SI9AQuBjBkNNqkLS6N1A6zYDVmDpBXi7S_Jd4URsKbjKMzwLSXQuvhwGGD84mEAMBjtRyC9XmOZVTT6YKUqistWW-9HYrJ6AGEwsUXNmwvAFChM4X4JV7mGX3cvQDaCHDRHu10T7nf1YAs7vwFywV9TpOx_zdpyS_B/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-30%20at%2011.06.04%20PM%203%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>George Segal and Ben Gazzara in The Bridge at Remagen Year: 1969 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>George Segal had already played a resilient soldier in a World War II movie, KING RAT, who scrounges off the dead and unlucky to make money from the living...<br><br>Which is Ben Gazarra's scene-stealing maverick role in British director John Guillermin's THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN as secondary-lead to Segal's authority-hating, war-weary lieutenant...</p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

anna gaël, ben gazzara, bo hopkins, bradford dillman, e.g. marshall, george segal, hans christian blech, john guillermin, matt clark, robert logan, sixties, steve sandor, world war II

JOHN GUILLERMIN'S 'THE BRIDGE AT REMAGEN' WITH BEN GAZARRA

George Segal and Ben Gazzara in The Bridge at Remagen Year: 1969 Rates: *** George Segal had already played a resilient soldier in a World W...

NEDA ARNERIC SPREADS 'VENOM' IN 'THE LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST'

<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/AVvXsEjhzanOkC1P0rZLkGQFEj_9vZPfK1AxtHmiQ0rL5_aAnr7zYtgC_hLnXLK9CZptSOGpRPMNAakzdd5iHtbJLOIzyZbth7sUqz9qHCYEtatKwmaYrdb7AxX_zkVMgFsK2sm4Dg0BER4R-U86rv8OshWcybp-MiK0r6p-RlbKHnq04AdE7onjTZWlrOLPFriI/s1042/1%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="572" data-original-width="1042" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjhzanOkC1P0rZLkGQFEj_9vZPfK1AxtHmiQ0rL5_aAnr7zYtgC_hLnXLK9CZptSOGpRPMNAakzdd5iHtbJLOIzyZbth7sUqz9qHCYEtatKwmaYrdb7AxX_zkVMgFsK2sm4Dg0BER4R-U86rv8OshWcybp-MiK0r6p-RlbKHnq04AdE7onjTZWlrOLPFriI/s16000/1%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Neda Americ in VENOM Alternate: THE LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST Year: 1971 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>After the grainy, low-budget VENOM aka THE LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST, British director Peter Sykes landed a job for legendary British horror production Hammer for <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/02/BEAT-hammer-GIRL.html">DEMONS OF THE MIND</a>, with more money, bigger names and continuing the psychological-horror sub-genre, only VENOM is a lot more affective... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Mostly set in a tree-shrouded, shade-soaked, shadow-splintered forest where lovely Neda Arneric (a combination of Sarah Miles and Mia Farrow) plays Anna, a nature-traipsing wild girl with an enigmatic spider tattoo on her shoulder, following bland/handsome journalist Simon Brent around until he winds up, seemingly safe in a local tavern where, once back in the forest, he has more problems connected to a gang of muscularly rural locals liken to the 60's British thriller <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2022/05/shuttered.html">THE SHUTTERED ROOM</a>, only these guys are no (and there really needed someone intriguing like an) Oliver Reed...</p><p><span></span></p>

british, cult, horror, neda arneric, peter sykes, rural, seventies, sheila allen, simon brent, spiders

NEDA ARNERIC SPREADS 'VENOM' IN 'THE LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST'

Neda Americ in VENOM Alternate: THE LEGEND OF SPIDER FOREST Year: 1971 Rating: *** After the grainy, low-budget VENOM aka THE LEGEND OF SPID...

RALPH BATES & MARTINE BESWICK AS 'DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE'

<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/AVvXsEiDXV6wf_o3fue_zRc_6o0PJoJHrJQGmLhzpvOcM_s_rSrZ6vs4Lm8taiyrQYFgP3Wc344bSD8kvzY4lHqHCOmvHj6v3-M0lOqw8ooBX3dKNU3z9mHB0kzhSlO39gSQWsx0ref6LIRq34oA7CK52qpqJDYGIFVMaOaGOZLiDvbbLLpnYHXtw1CcePn5TKr5/s2132/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-15%20at%206.54.25%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1300" data-original-width="2132" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDXV6wf_o3fue_zRc_6o0PJoJHrJQGmLhzpvOcM_s_rSrZ6vs4Lm8taiyrQYFgP3Wc344bSD8kvzY4lHqHCOmvHj6v3-M0lOqw8ooBX3dKNU3z9mHB0kzhSlO39gSQWsx0ref6LIRq34oA7CK52qpqJDYGIFVMaOaGOZLiDvbbLLpnYHXtw1CcePn5TKr5/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-15%20at%206.54.25%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Martine Beswick in DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Seeking a new face during the late 1960's and early 1970's, Ralph Bates was supposed to be Hammer's young resurgence of Christopher Lee and/or Peter Cushing... yet he never completely fit since he tried too hard to be the new antagonistic seducer... which made his role as the half-titular DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE his best, portraying Jekyll with a naturally grounded hybrid of blandly subtle and intensely neurotic...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>With the novelty of turning into a girl instead of his own male alter-ego... and while their new studio exteriors looks more television-based than the plush-colored Victorian big-screen splendor of their prime, HYDE surpasses most of Hammer's 1970's vehicles competing with the R-Rated exploitation era... <br></p><span></span>

gerald sim, hammer films, horror, lewis fiander, martine beswick, ralph bates, seventies, susan brodrick, thriller

RALPH BATES & MARTINE BESWICK AS 'DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE'

Martine Beswick in DR. JEKYLL & SISTER HYDE Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2 Seeking a new face during the late 1960's and early 1970's...

ERIC PORTER & ANGHARAD REES IN HAMMER'S 'HANDS OF THE RIPPER'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><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/AVvXsEiO__VF_ZKqOIsDJRswzLylcX5e5VYnvX65x51sDDcASH6iMFAvEExaJZ-pGQTq2KW0IJm_jnFEHsNmf41wugVXMbDlo0WI42LJoLBQ3dVsYJdNzL0UTzuyOfWAGIzL93E0srtg2zebxwYzHV_VS8uaz1tiA7k_bJVnsKxsuKdSYNusJPFSHgzwXdwH3Zcs/s1334/1%202%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="634" data-original-width="1334" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiO__VF_ZKqOIsDJRswzLylcX5e5VYnvX65x51sDDcASH6iMFAvEExaJZ-pGQTq2KW0IJm_jnFEHsNmf41wugVXMbDlo0WI42LJoLBQ3dVsYJdNzL0UTzuyOfWAGIzL93E0srtg2zebxwYzHV_VS8uaz1tiA7k_bJVnsKxsuKdSYNusJPFSHgzwXdwH3Zcs/s16000/1%202%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: HANDS OF THE RIPPER Year: 1971 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In 1971, Hammer Films managed to get two films centering not really on Jack the Ripper himself, but his legacy: in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/hammerhyde.html">DR. JEKYLL AND SISTER HYDE</a>, the Robert Louis Stevenson-based antagonists slay like Jack in the fog-shrouded England, while HANDS OF THE RIPPER only opens with Jack murdering his wife, witnessed by young daughter Anna, who would (after being raised by an abusive charlatan) grow into the titular RIPPER... <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></p><p></p><p></p><p>But not intentionally, since all the killings occur during hypnotic spells after a psychologist... played by stern-faced character-actor Eric Porter, bringing a more cerebral, stage-like sophistication in the absence of legendary regulars Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee... adopts the teenage Anna played by Angharad Rees, who's both girl-next-door-lovely (with <i>a touch of</i> Tuesday Weld) and intensely-enigmatic...</p><p><span></span></p>

angharad rees, april wilding, body-count, derek godfrey, eric porter, hammer films, horror, jane merrow, katya wyeth, lynda baron, seventies

ERIC PORTER & ANGHARAD REES IN HAMMER'S 'HANDS OF THE RIPPER'

Title: HANDS OF THE RIPPER Year: 1971 Rating: ****1/2 In 1971, Hammer Films managed to get two films centering not really on Jack the Ripper...

RICHARD BASEHART STANDS PAUL DOUGLAS IN 'FOURTEEN HOURS'

<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/AVvXsEiZ-IVNrm9-qXO7eflkRquYkyxJea0b4AKHfA2fSy1sJ9Asdg861TnTuWD9m2WZaJS8tt7y7q_3jLilHIrbDYuUAJs4KckJwirSuiwLRIwwzuhHP2mR_40ygCB0uRuYKJe0C0HSXP-XqJ60OuTWqKUWaRbhIRGp2gbOIgi4aInEYjW66avjY1VKdKbB88eG/s1788/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-28%20at%208.37.33%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="898" data-original-width="1788" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZ-IVNrm9-qXO7eflkRquYkyxJea0b4AKHfA2fSy1sJ9Asdg861TnTuWD9m2WZaJS8tt7y7q_3jLilHIrbDYuUAJs4KckJwirSuiwLRIwwzuhHP2mR_40ygCB0uRuYKJe0C0HSXP-XqJ60OuTWqKUWaRbhIRGp2gbOIgi4aInEYjW66avjY1VKdKbB88eG/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-28%20at%208.37.33%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Richard Basehart in FOURTEEN HOURS Year: 1951 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>The sparse poster for FOURTEEN HOURS has a rendering of Barbara Bel Geddes' screaming face looking up, surrounded by the hands of a clock, misleading in two aspects: that this intriguing film noir is a high-octane/race-against-time thriller, and that Barbara has a large role, actually only turning up in the last fifteen minutes...<br><br>Of a movie that, directed by Henry Hathaway, is more a social commentary dealing less about troubled would-be jumper Richard Basehart, standing on a hotel ledge threatening suicide, and more about affable working-man's beat cop Paul Douglas, the only person Basehart trusts to possibly talk him down while his lawman superiors (and several psychologists) are desperately meandering on the sidelines...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p>

barbara bel geddes, debra paget, fifties, film noir or melodrama, grace kelly, howard da silva, james warren, jeff corey, jeffrey hunter, john randolph, paul douglas, richard basehart, thriller

RICHARD BASEHART STANDS PAUL DOUGLAS IN 'FOURTEEN HOURS'

Richard Basehart in FOURTEEN HOURS Year: 1951 Rating: ****1/2 The sparse poster for FOURTEEN HOURS has a rendering of Barbara Bel Geddes...

WILLIAM LUCAS & JOHN RUTLAND WEATHERING 'CALCULATED RISK'

<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/AVvXsEgxOiKr5iZKVCfke243dJUBlNVeJBmqw_I4WXsNTQ8SCXgw_K1WnFMoImQIR9k9QJRZhuvs12kdYFKJqecMylAzZqXYIIVdKOLaXcqhxTVJrhNf4CCef-YHFH8bWESukDBGMUARN2WIYo-Pl2VvAIgchdPnn6R9xOG_Ba1mVtpklnfa94udDxCbxC6l3w/s2122/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%204.59.37%20AM-1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1203" data-original-width="2122" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxOiKr5iZKVCfke243dJUBlNVeJBmqw_I4WXsNTQ8SCXgw_K1WnFMoImQIR9k9QJRZhuvs12kdYFKJqecMylAzZqXYIIVdKOLaXcqhxTVJrhNf4CCef-YHFH8bWESukDBGMUARN2WIYo-Pl2VvAIgchdPnn6R9xOG_Ba1mVtpklnfa94udDxCbxC6l3w/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202022-09-27%20at%204.59.37%20AM-1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>William Lucas in CALCULATED RISK Year: 1963 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Low-budget thriller has <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/02/gimme-a.html">THE BREAK</a> baddie and overall capable <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/british%20new%20wave">British New Wave</a> actor William Lucas in CALCULATED RISK, a hybrid of THE ASPHALT JUNGLE as a newly-released older short guy has big plans for a big heist (John Rutland doing Sam Jaffe) and LARCENY INC since they must dig through a pair of locations to reach the targeted goal... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Which aren't stores but bombed-out houses from twenty-years past, leading to a lucrative bank vault while Lucas, as a sophisticated yet crooked businessman (like ASPHALT backer Louis Calhern), who really doesn't need the bread (unlike Calhern and more like shifty Marc Lawrence), heads up a group of thugs resembling dockyard barflies...<br> </p>

british neo noir, british new wave, caper, dilys watling, george martin, heist, john rutland, sixties, suspense, terence cooper, thriller, warren mitchell, william lucas

WILLIAM LUCAS & JOHN RUTLAND WEATHERING 'CALCULATED RISK'

William Lucas in CALCULATED RISK Year: 1963 Rating: ***1/2 Low-budget thriller has THE BREAK baddie and overall capable British New Wave a...

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM LUCAS IN 'TOUCH OF DEATH'

<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/AVvXsEigBh1PkLw6km1RmRjArGxlyt7LgzGfGmQrRtiOPZDNsDQUpL0OjbpSOB_qR_HDCAk7be4u7zV8W5aRVOFerExpa594MSu1Hj1vHSlvg5hVgm5-F9dL1jMwjFao7YERijvjHoCrXRKDwaWWHsIM4Cs9s7pLsZxGXIhYk4rgr32pISgLaOJoFdzs0MtkGXT0/s1920/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%2011.40.27%20PM-1%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1132" data-original-width="1920" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigBh1PkLw6km1RmRjArGxlyt7LgzGfGmQrRtiOPZDNsDQUpL0OjbpSOB_qR_HDCAk7be4u7zV8W5aRVOFerExpa594MSu1Hj1vHSlvg5hVgm5-F9dL1jMwjFao7YERijvjHoCrXRKDwaWWHsIM4Cs9s7pLsZxGXIhYk4rgr32pISgLaOJoFdzs0MtkGXT0/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%2011.40.27%20PM-1%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>William Lucas in Lance Comfort's TOUCH OF DEATH Year: 1961 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Four years after TOUCH OF DEATH, when British b-movie director directed British tough guy actor <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/02/gimme-a.html">William Lucas in THE BREAK</a>, he never reached the boat that would take him to freedom... which happens here after a somewhat rushed gas station safe heist, in which to blast the thing open, a poison's used...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Making DEATH a combination of several American film noirs (that inspired these kind of British kitchen-sink crime-fillers of the late-1950's/early-1960's), from CITY OF FEAR bringing in the poisoned crooks/race-against-time element; THE ASPHALT JUNGLE with a safe cracking heist backed by a troubled old rich man (a subplot that comes to nothing)...</p><p><span></span></p>

british neo noir, crime, david sumner, heist, jan waters, lance comfort, roberta tovey, sixties, william lucas

LANCE COMFORT DIRECTS WILLIAM LUCAS IN 'TOUCH OF DEATH'

William Lucas in Lance Comfort's TOUCH OF DEATH Year: 1961 Rating: ***1/2 Four years after TOUCH OF DEATH, when British b-movie director...

MEL BROOKS PRESENTS DAVID LYNCH'S ICONIC 'THE ELEPHANT MAN'

<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/AVvXsEhh-z-YOkkJdTZ9nmgkZ0ZrfHRN6Sqkw1b9Q0ORg2a6dkbOTunWlYiLqzZWpiO5m-Q-Erk2qAzJm3YErGniwUOhZ5gpwhebH7jnga0DzlWeNx_kF_7w8E9X-ftxLvWxtKVpu5UXHB-cP5F-J0S0lDH33YTZN0dHDz-v-c8f6Rv8pqeiQi8Q6locj4tGUxDz/s1786/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%201.37.58%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="792" data-original-width="1786" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhh-z-YOkkJdTZ9nmgkZ0ZrfHRN6Sqkw1b9Q0ORg2a6dkbOTunWlYiLqzZWpiO5m-Q-Erk2qAzJm3YErGniwUOhZ5gpwhebH7jnga0DzlWeNx_kF_7w8E9X-ftxLvWxtKVpu5UXHB-cP5F-J0S0lDH33YTZN0dHDz-v-c8f6Rv8pqeiQi8Q6locj4tGUxDz/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%201.37.58%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Anthony Hopkins in David Lynch's THE ELEPHANT MAN Year: 1980 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>After the bleak B&W, nightmarishly bizarre ERASERHEAD, otherwise comedy producer Mel Brooks hired offbeat auteur David Lynch to provide 1880's England the same kind of Industrial-doomed, smokestack-bursting aesthetic...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Yet what's expected of Lynch's signature weirdness (before and after), THE ELEPHANT MAN mostly plays out like an against-the-odds high school bully flick... <br></p><p><span></span></p>

anne bancroft, anthony hopkins, british, david lynch, eighties, freddie francis, freddie jones, frederick treves, hannah gordon, history, john geilgud, time period

MEL BROOKS PRESENTS DAVID LYNCH'S ICONIC 'THE ELEPHANT MAN'

Anthony Hopkins in David Lynch's THE ELEPHANT MAN Year: 1980 Rating: **** After the bleak B&W, nightmarishly bizarre ERASERHEAD, oth...

VILLAINOUS OLIVER REED AND KLAUS KINSKI BITING INTO 'VENOM'

<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"></span></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/AVvXsEhC8ju3yKCxQfiIQzger758e-boCfKIZi8J33q4CoTF7oLck4JK1BQhTKZW_sgugbYtMiFCBR9bw9yc1WA1yIsY96IISeM4Jr6p6tK-MC3SLMLFqO6MlhyphenhyphenXQGmRt5XD4K6fPJnI7SVEHl5zSpJU6QNpXWKBi3fk-D9W74ZhhtCESFft5kUW88ioG6dejR9w/s1454/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-20%20at%2011.51.03%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="692" data-original-width="1454" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhC8ju3yKCxQfiIQzger758e-boCfKIZi8J33q4CoTF7oLck4JK1BQhTKZW_sgugbYtMiFCBR9bw9yc1WA1yIsY96IISeM4Jr6p6tK-MC3SLMLFqO6MlhyphenhyphenXQGmRt5XD4K6fPJnI7SVEHl5zSpJU6QNpXWKBi3fk-D9W74ZhhtCESFft5kUW88ioG6dejR9w/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-20%20at%2011.51.03%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: VENOM Year: 1981 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p><span style="font-size: small;">In England, a sickly child and his grandfather are overtaken by the help in their family estate: Earlier that day, the boy picked up the wrong snake from a pet shop: A</span><span style="font-size: small;">nd now a</span><span style="font-size: small;"> deadly Black Mamba slithers around, mostly inside the vents for a snake-eye viewpoint...</span></p><p></p><p></p><p></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 style="font-size: small;">A clever enough premise for a group of otherwise shady and hardened DESPERATE HOURS-inspired characters to be paranoid and terrified while cloistered in a doubly-dangerous setting...</span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span></span></span></p>

cornelia sharpe, creature, drama, eighties, exploitation, horror, hostage, klaus kinski, nicol williamson, oliver reed, sarah miles, snake, sterling hayden, susan george, suspense, thriller

VILLAINOUS OLIVER REED AND KLAUS KINSKI BITING INTO 'VENOM'

Title: VENOM Year: 1981 Rating: **** In England, a sickly child and his grandfather are overtaken by the help in their family estate: Earli...

DARGIO ARGENTO PRESENTS LAMBERTO BAVA'S HORROR 'DEMONS'

<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/AVvXsEinlBAoPqVQMzWnRUWuhxdNVKQySWjcACMb2qq20N5UNLJLqaWs-ghe7NiTgfJIDEa7iF1ZqzCg-zo80z67vIjaj3lpvwgrfArFHLroNpf244H6d404FEYLyr4IDM2Bs7goePRhIyi3HUpC49lMB6_4_04ds9oBVEVEyhtc0TuziR62XNbZ49BkdmseTDdo/s2208/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%208.22.36%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1198" data-original-width="2208" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinlBAoPqVQMzWnRUWuhxdNVKQySWjcACMb2qq20N5UNLJLqaWs-ghe7NiTgfJIDEa7iF1ZqzCg-zo80z67vIjaj3lpvwgrfArFHLroNpf244H6d404FEYLyr4IDM2Bs7goePRhIyi3HUpC49lMB6_4_04ds9oBVEVEyhtc0TuziR62XNbZ49BkdmseTDdo/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-22%20at%208.22.36%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: DEMONS from DEMONI Year: 1985 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>It's a shame when, after thirty-minutes, when an audience watching a violent slasher-horror picture begin dying inside the theater... practically right alongside the movie playing on the screen... one of the bloody victims tells the frenzied and confused group, who were beginning to figure out this premise on their own, "It's not the movie, it's the theater..."</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Because producer Dargio Argento's DEMONS directed by fellow Italian genre-auteur Lamberto Bava goes from this highly creative meta premise into a fight-or-die DAWN OF THE DEAD retread, inside a theater instead of a mall... including a resiliently cool black dude leader...</p><p><span></span></p>

action, bettina ciampolini, bobby rhodes, body-count, dario argento, horror, italian, lamberto bava, natasha hovey, nicoletta elmi, urbano barberini, zombie

DARGIO ARGENTO PRESENTS LAMBERTO BAVA'S HORROR 'DEMONS'

Title: DEMONS from DEMONI Year: 1985 Rating: ***1/2 It's a shame when, after thirty-minutes, when an audience watching a violent slasher...

DONNA DENTON & REBECCA FERRATTI SHARING 'OUTLAW OF GOR'

<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/AVvXsEiMrcyqKNXmg2Od1hF_Q2hUAJOzIPGipiqZgSod55YWBO2AsdF6X-iSKiOovtu9VXLciPYR7_vS3G0t3w3L5beV7XRYK5sMaCZrkiG56Ab-VDO_YPPa3sWI4CbIRgE8X3JWw2iThInXY34mLkc_Or_q7cOuTIMtmmmbFS1Op6OtZY2mFvxhkXS-4OAOjEiW/s2094/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-18%20at%203.21.57%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1084" data-original-width="2094" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMrcyqKNXmg2Od1hF_Q2hUAJOzIPGipiqZgSod55YWBO2AsdF6X-iSKiOovtu9VXLciPYR7_vS3G0t3w3L5beV7XRYK5sMaCZrkiG56Ab-VDO_YPPa3sWI4CbIRgE8X3JWw2iThInXY34mLkc_Or_q7cOuTIMtmmmbFS1Op6OtZY2mFvxhkXS-4OAOjEiW/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-18%20at%203.21.57%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: OUTLAW OF GOR aka GOR II Year: 1988 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p>Cannon's fantasy exploitation GOR was more obviously leading towards a sequel than even the original STAR WARS... instead of just Darth Vader's tie-fighter flying off into space, there were several villains intentionally leading to a direct followup, played by last-minute cameo Jack Palance and the extremely beautiful Donna Denton...<br><br>Both taking the menacing mantle formerly handled by British actor Oliver Reed... but OUTLAW OF GOR has Denton in charge, here as a climbing princess turned evil queen making the once-freed barbarian-canyon village full of enslaved slave girls once again...</p><p><span></span></p>

adventure, cannon, donna denton, eighties, fantasy, jack palance, michelle clarke, nigel chipps, rebecca ferratti, science-fiction, sequel, urbano barberini

DONNA DENTON & REBECCA FERRATTI SHARING 'OUTLAW OF GOR'

Title: OUTLAW OF GOR aka GOR II Year: 1988 Rating: *** Cannon's fantasy exploitation GOR was more obviously leading towards a sequel tha...

OLIVER REED & REBECCA FERRATTI IN THE CANNON FANTASY 'GOR'

<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/AVvXsEiQ8rEQKW4rOjYoz_GJWqO3fY3yTPIn8a7o3Tlk1Fjtit8YTo2MSjCvbaNKEqDrI7DXIwGiP3U9HwoPH6UeXSK7letWJzECGRuv3its9tJp5-HtA64rdhhlbNyM4s3en3LmvskgfhrRK5ZKR9JCvmB6Tb3dsKUUgFjcbdMMLH9S4aaX-D7mpsnM5awDZ_uU/s2134/1.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1206" data-original-width="2134" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ8rEQKW4rOjYoz_GJWqO3fY3yTPIn8a7o3Tlk1Fjtit8YTo2MSjCvbaNKEqDrI7DXIwGiP3U9HwoPH6UeXSK7letWJzECGRuv3its9tJp5-HtA64rdhhlbNyM4s3en3LmvskgfhrRK5ZKR9JCvmB6Tb3dsKUUgFjcbdMMLH9S4aaX-D7mpsnM5awDZ_uU/s16000/1.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Oliver Reed in GOR Year: 1987 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Beginning with an uptight, otherwise average-looking, spectacle-wearing professor lecturing a university classroom before being thrust into an otherworld adventure, Cannon Films' infamous GOR seems equally inspired by RAIDERS OF THE LOST ARK as the more obvious CONAN similarities including scantily-clad chicks and muscular men in a barbarian world... where the professor goes from wimp to warrior, taking enough time to provide Urbano Barberini a realistically transitional performance...</p><p></p><p></p><p>Although known for having British veteran actor Oliver Reed as the spider-mask-wearing overlord, stealing what's called a home-stone for his own greed before seeking revenge on our hero for accidentally killing his son... it's brunette model/actress Rebecca Ferratti who really steals the show...<br></p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, cannon, donna denton, eighties, fantasy, jack palance, nigel chipps, oliver reed, paul l. smith, rebecca ferratti, science-fiction, urbano barberini

OLIVER REED & REBECCA FERRATTI IN THE CANNON FANTASY 'GOR'

Oliver Reed in GOR Year: 1987 Rating: ***1/2 Beginning with an uptight, otherwise average-looking, spectacle-wearing professor lecturing a u...

KATHERINE WOODVILLE & OLIVER REED 'THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR'

<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/AVvXsEhGJgdHTg9jouuDL9LWn2FDTm575jdn136A8qpd2H0YNwOG5cGoQeJgeRv4B1Ek9x0Z1bSlhRvpzBEuVUaqV7HUYxug74go32_LK6VX9yl-_fCGb1Pj5fY5GC2OrZtqNtf5rQIRLut8LsK-EVpJkVTUJr0X31qrg7RXmbX3zP4Om48UqRwSPIQnam2CUjBz/s1700/2%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="612" data-original-width="1700" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhGJgdHTg9jouuDL9LWn2FDTm575jdn136A8qpd2H0YNwOG5cGoQeJgeRv4B1Ek9x0Z1bSlhRvpzBEuVUaqV7HUYxug74go32_LK6VX9yl-_fCGb1Pj5fY5GC2OrZtqNtf5rQIRLut8LsK-EVpJkVTUJr0X31qrg7RXmbX3zP4Om48UqRwSPIQnam2CUjBz/s16000/2%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Katherine Woodville in THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR Year: 1965 Rating: **1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>With the seven Hammer Films featuring then-rising young star Oliver Reed, sometimes there's a feeling they didn't quite know how great a thing they had... even in his very own titular horror, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2020/03/reedwolf.html">CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF</a>, he doesn't appear until around forty-five-minutes (although the previous sequences are intensely entertaining)... and in <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/03/land-pirates.html">THE PIRATES OF BLOOD RIVER</a>, he dies way too soon...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Same thing happens here, since, as the leader of a band of holed-up Indian (from India) rebels who kidnap Ronald Lewis... playing a half-Caucasian/Indian treated unfairly by fellow British soldiers led by Duncan Lamont... Reed's not supposed to be the main star, billed second to Hammer's square-jawed <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/03/SOfear.html">SCREAM OF FEAR</a> and <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/11/fullT.html">STOP ME BEFORE I KILL</a> Lewis... </p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, duncan lamont, glyn houston, hammer films, katherine woodville, oliver reed, ronald lewis, sixties, yvonne romain

KATHERINE WOODVILLE & OLIVER REED 'THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR'

Katherine Woodville in THE BRIGAND OF KANDAHAR Year: 1965 Rating: **1/2 With the seven Hammer Films featuring then-rising young star Oliver ...

LIZABETH SCOTT AND PAUL HENREID IN HAMMER'S 'STOLEN FACE'

<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/AVvXsEinsujolPhpg8ZjniWjkhfmaYu1C8bciT0MQUqjeJD7jgsPEd3n0Ezert8DQ1Nur-cgD4Q7Sf_Di8coohaNtPE2hrDUubFHhyphenhyphenpLhcJQV6jNVtQQABg7V2YI9qO6j35oYsmd4lZLmtkIm7FvRfn621CT3vY-I1VVUR-GVLj7roOm4Jo18fnq_3dov6Sk3Fup/s1842/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-16%20at%204.23.51%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1258" data-original-width="1842" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinsujolPhpg8ZjniWjkhfmaYu1C8bciT0MQUqjeJD7jgsPEd3n0Ezert8DQ1Nur-cgD4Q7Sf_Di8coohaNtPE2hrDUubFHhyphenhyphenpLhcJQV6jNVtQQABg7V2YI9qO6j35oYsmd4lZLmtkIm7FvRfn621CT3vY-I1VVUR-GVLj7roOm4Jo18fnq_3dov6Sk3Fup/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-16%20at%204.23.51%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: Stolen Face Year: 1952 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Passive CASABLANCA French actor Paul Henreid's cheated on again, here in Hammer's noirish-drama STOLEN FACE, describing how Henreid, a plastic surgeon, made a badly scarred female career-criminal look exactly like the beautiful (and surreptitiously engaged) sophisticated pianist he fell for during the first half, resembling more of a Douglas Sirk melodrama than the intended crime-thriller by Hammer's future stock auteur Terence Fisher...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>Enter American import Lizabeth Scott, who turned to England what she couldn't find in America, having portrayed both good and bad girls in stateside noir films, and here she plays both... despite only the original classic pianist character baring her own famously sultry low voice, which would have fit better than dubbing the original pre-surgery Mary Mackenzie for consistency (which wouldn't matter given the initial far-fetched premise)...</p><p><span></span></p>

andre morell, fifties, hammer films, hammer noir, lizabeth scott, melodrama, paul henreid, romance, russel napier, terence fisher, thriller

LIZABETH SCOTT AND PAUL HENREID IN HAMMER'S 'STOLEN FACE'

Title: Stolen Face Year: 1952 Rating: *** Passive CASABLANCA French actor Paul Henreid's cheated on again, here in Hammer's noirish-...

TERENCE FISHER DIRECTS DIANA DORS IN HAMMER'S 'MAN BAIT'

<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/AVvXsEg1SuOytRPDlSILJhEvueNk1-I93rnyL42ebSQ4ASQlvrKC6XcXmV3Q81zgnowN9D5CTfeD5wRolR4wlF2d2CfYVthOw8MEH3jSFHzFK0QG9pwSSkNuSWt2nHLH3y1XTiUaSmym2beSzkQJhTVEyD2aIyDeo_Y8U-LJqGmf7oS5nLn8pEBQhQyQdxX_9AGd/s2138/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-15%20at%209.21.32%20PM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1238" data-original-width="2138" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg1SuOytRPDlSILJhEvueNk1-I93rnyL42ebSQ4ASQlvrKC6XcXmV3Q81zgnowN9D5CTfeD5wRolR4wlF2d2CfYVthOw8MEH3jSFHzFK0QG9pwSSkNuSWt2nHLH3y1XTiUaSmym2beSzkQJhTVEyD2aIyDeo_Y8U-LJqGmf7oS5nLn8pEBQhQyQdxX_9AGd/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-15%20at%209.21.32%20PM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: MAN BAIT aka THE LAST PAGE Year: 1952 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Following <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2019/05/BadBlonde.html">BAD BLONDE</a>, here's another Hammer British Film Noir dealing with a blonde: in this case, beautiful Diana Dors, where any expression wields not only a full-lipped pout, but a seductively vicious pout as the story, centering on blackmail at a high-end English bookstore, slowly... through chatty exposition dialogue... unfolds...<br><br>Dors plays Ruby Bruce, whose stunning appearance alone turns men into jelly. Although her rich boss, with a lucrative insurance policy, is tougher than most pawns: So Ruby teams with ex-convict con man Jeffrey Hart to collect the money as the slow, meticulous nature in which the plot pans out is intriguing... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

blackmail, british film noir, diana dors, fifties, george brent, hammer films, hammer noir, marguerite chapman, meredith edwards, peter reynolds, terence fisher

TERENCE FISHER DIRECTS DIANA DORS IN HAMMER'S 'MAN BAIT'

Title: MAN BAIT aka THE LAST PAGE Year: 1952 Rating: ***1/2 Following BAD BLONDE , here's another Hammer British Film Noir dealing with ...

CHRISTOPHER LEE STOKING HAMMER'S 'THE DEVIL RIDES OUT'

<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/AVvXsEgezbGgOAq2Z1a1EecqiOOsCMCyxXARxFhGG8_euxEFJ7rulauI6nEY9YGVP243X_cuN_4JYFrTcPIKNZ3iLDB7GKM0VGCbPEAwJoiHWDbyD49-zcXsic-BIJAWjV3HmaPsfZ6UTg5h0SeF42_PJywaCRNm-GJ98N7rILeaXT_2niq7Tcp9iB2UquGCt-g4/s1734/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-11%20at%201.00.35%20AM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="1734" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgezbGgOAq2Z1a1EecqiOOsCMCyxXARxFhGG8_euxEFJ7rulauI6nEY9YGVP243X_cuN_4JYFrTcPIKNZ3iLDB7GKM0VGCbPEAwJoiHWDbyD49-zcXsic-BIJAWjV3HmaPsfZ6UTg5h0SeF42_PJywaCRNm-GJ98N7rILeaXT_2niq7Tcp9iB2UquGCt-g4/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-11%20at%201.00.35%20AM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Lee & Nike Arrighi in The Devil Rides Out/The Devil's Bride Year: 1968 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>In two of Hammer legend Christopher Lee's favorite Hammer movies, he's a regular fella, not a monster or killer... although in the <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2021/07/2F.html">THE TWO FACES OF DR. JEKYLL</a> he's a double-crossing scoundrel, having sex with his titular best friend's wife and suffering constant gambling debts that he talks the initially vulnerable cuckold into paying... <br><br>Yet in THE DEVIL RIDES OUT, with the same director in Hammer staple Terence Fisher, he's actually the hero... and it was Lee's own persistence to bring author Dennis Wheatley's occult novel to the big screen...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

charles gray, christopher lee, hammer films, horror, nike arrighi, occult, sixties, terence fisher

CHRISTOPHER LEE STOKING HAMMER'S 'THE DEVIL RIDES OUT'

Christopher Lee & Nike Arrighi in The Devil Rides Out/The Devil's Bride Year: 1968 Rating: ** In two of Hammer legend Christopher Le...

CHRISTOPHER LEE WITH PETER CUSHING IN 'HORROR OF DRACULA'

<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/AVvXsEisSHSEEWAKGX89FRujgO2Bsg_p6jHmqdlJ3jY2ki8UUDL7dGY71phNbkrlCZRh13DH9iUwnAToArYPOg827ONDgSCJRe_YjItL3XeaCtvKNFjiI-enBQi5LphTiW7cWBK8GJPFRQdQqWKJVJ2MmyPRknmRr1h1FW0Ia6vBgXGmVH_B66cbV6KcoKptepp6/s1946/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-09%20at%2012.38.57%20AM.png" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1340" data-original-width="1946" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisSHSEEWAKGX89FRujgO2Bsg_p6jHmqdlJ3jY2ki8UUDL7dGY71phNbkrlCZRh13DH9iUwnAToArYPOg827ONDgSCJRe_YjItL3XeaCtvKNFjiI-enBQi5LphTiW7cWBK8GJPFRQdQqWKJVJ2MmyPRknmRr1h1FW0Ia6vBgXGmVH_B66cbV6KcoKptepp6/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-09%20at%2012.38.57%20AM.png"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Valerie Gaunt facing Christopher Lee's poster image for HORROR OF DRACULA/DRACULA Year: 1958 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>While Hammer's groundbreaking horror-remake <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/cushingcurse.html">THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN</a> proved that Frankenstein was a man and not the monster, their follow-up HORROR OF DRACULA was to also show the monstrous Dracula as a man...<br><br>And quite dashing and attractive he is... especially when Christopher Lee first shows himself, along with a barrage of sinister music, to solicitor Jonathan Harker, exactly what he's supposed to be... a gentleman wealthy enough to need someone to look over his books, getting his business in order...</p><p><span></span></p>

carol marsh, christopher lee, dracula, hammer films, horror, janina faye, john van eyssen, melissa stribling, michael gough, peter cushing, terence fisher, valerie gaunt

CHRISTOPHER LEE WITH PETER CUSHING IN 'HORROR OF DRACULA'

Valerie Gaunt facing Christopher Lee's poster image for HORROR OF DRACULA/DRACULA Year: 1958 Rating: ***1/2 While Hammer's groundbre...

PETER CUSHING CREATES HAMMER'S 'THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN'

<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/AVvXsEiZbtuqhdjT3ERevHxGNLuDwUCrhMM0pcV5ec6c-VVkOcl_gPRjEQLR8BRiwJX32gEyHqTBoFHz3qVTY-wPohU4n_jWammKgnbu_FToK1MjCY1BJ6sBTxxITExQimyxSQ4LDRwMjv6tp0ZD1jQNrz8BkJT-wuXJ9VQeJY7Quzm3T9hpBe49ofP6AV6oxOhN/s1262/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-08%20at%201.03.07%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="870" data-original-width="1262" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZbtuqhdjT3ERevHxGNLuDwUCrhMM0pcV5ec6c-VVkOcl_gPRjEQLR8BRiwJX32gEyHqTBoFHz3qVTY-wPohU4n_jWammKgnbu_FToK1MjCY1BJ6sBTxxITExQimyxSQ4LDRwMjv6tp0ZD1jQNrz8BkJT-wuXJ9VQeJY7Quzm3T9hpBe49ofP6AV6oxOhN/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-08%20at%201.03.07%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN Year: 1957 Rating: ****</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>What Hammer did for FRANKENSTEIN is made people know that, unlike what it seems having grown up with James Whale's otherwise brilliant Universal double-feature, is that that's not the name of the monster, whose name is basically, The Monster, but here he's constantly established as the Victorian-era scientist himself...<br><br>As classy and sophisticated phenom turned idealistic heir, with a castle all to himself, Victor Frankenstein begins as a frustrated teenager, and there's never been such aesthetically perfect casting from child to man...</p><p><span></span></p>

christopher lee, fifties, frankenstein, hammer films, hazel court, horror, peter cushing, robert urquhart, science-fiction, terence fisher, valerie gaunt

PETER CUSHING CREATES HAMMER'S 'THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN'

Title: THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN Year: 1957 Rating: **** What Hammer did for FRANKENSTEIN is made people know that, unlike what it seems hav...

PETER CUSHING IN HAMMER'S 'FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED'

<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/AVvXsEi6K30jalFBBX6nNXMrmxGhQVvwso3dWNVvu3G0Ch4iBOlSRbap2-a1jxgtWIXhk26XzmUXTMs13UwpjV8zAxelbIzRhDvp5Q-JOc188ws4t_6hfPOHkYiCSblURPyijQ7VYdwfJV4YlUHps7GxlOwtCqAQiEdTw5n2DfYoL2iGthTII9ghNeKQAAyR4sEd/s2034/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-07%20at%208.45.37%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1388" data-original-width="2034" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6K30jalFBBX6nNXMrmxGhQVvwso3dWNVvu3G0Ch4iBOlSRbap2-a1jxgtWIXhk26XzmUXTMs13UwpjV8zAxelbIzRhDvp5Q-JOc188ws4t_6hfPOHkYiCSblURPyijQ7VYdwfJV4YlUHps7GxlOwtCqAQiEdTw5n2DfYoL2iGthTII9ghNeKQAAyR4sEd/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-07%20at%208.45.37%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED Year: 1969 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Penultimate FRANKENSTEIN film for Hammer's most prolific director Terence Fisher, who made <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/cushingcurse.html">THE CURSE OF FRANKENSTEIN</a> that got the ball rolling a year before their more famous, <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/horrordrac.html">HORROR OF DRACULA</a>, which he also directed and where Peter Cushing plays intense good guy Van Helsing...<br><br>As Baron Frankenstein, he began a kind of misunderstood idealist more than the mad, mad scientist he'd turn into... but the title of <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/FMBD.html">FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED</a> suits a film in which... for Peter Cushing and blonde <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2025/01/hipsterdrac.html">DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAV</a>E bombshell Veronica Carlson... was a catastrophe because of one quick scene...</p><p><span></span></p>

frankenstein, freddie jones, hammer films, peter cushing, simon ward, sixties, terence fisher, veronica carlson

PETER CUSHING IN HAMMER'S 'FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED'

Title: FRANKENSTEIN MUST BE DESTROYED Year: 1969 Rating: ** Penultimate FRANKENSTEIN film for Hammer's most prolific director Terence Fi...

CHRISTOPHER LEE IN HAMMER'S 'DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><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/AVvXsEizPskI6uNnYJi-leEpz-xdYtKQNXQEA2mvVazd91L35iIPxuy2Ha7P1WTxyNrIiIRwj1nNLS4RuyH4tcgqxQd6U3ALRrWWUWFpGBK9C15PzfguhE2iKsFTtSe7ANzGVGJAn9w2Na6P2ykecw7fhULmE-_kkf1hM0Y-iXwaMbpibtT3VsEuUz6BWSr70oDz/s1486/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-06%20at%203.05.29%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="936" data-original-width="1486" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizPskI6uNnYJi-leEpz-xdYtKQNXQEA2mvVazd91L35iIPxuy2Ha7P1WTxyNrIiIRwj1nNLS4RuyH4tcgqxQd6U3ALRrWWUWFpGBK9C15PzfguhE2iKsFTtSe7ANzGVGJAn9w2Na6P2ykecw7fhULmE-_kkf1hM0Y-iXwaMbpibtT3VsEuUz6BWSr70oDz/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-06%20at%203.05.29%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Lee in DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS Year: 1966 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Opening with a jaundiced-eye view from the climax of the original, HORROR OF DRACULA, another suitable name for DRACULA PRINCE OF DARKNESS would be HAMMER HOTEL since the basic premise is the luring of two couples into Dracula's castle and featuring two gorgeous women: one in her cautious thirties, the other her lithe-naive-twenties... </p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>But the <i>luring</i> isn't really a temptation but rather, like most Hammer Films, tons of expository dialogue (mostly uttered by intensely bearded Andrew Kier) that, halfway through, finally gets this lost stranded foursome into the murky manor where of course, DRACULA will inevitably rise in the form of the iconic Christopher Lee...</p><p><span></span></p>

barbara shelley, body count, christopher lee, dracula, francis matthews, hammer films, horror, philip latham, sixties, suzan farmer

CHRISTOPHER LEE IN HAMMER'S 'DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS'

Christopher Lee in DRACULA: PRINCE OF DARKNESS Year: 1966 Rates: ***1/2 Opening with a jaundiced-eye view from the climax of the original, H...

CHRISTOPHER LEE & LINDA HAYDEN 'TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA'

<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/AVvXsEgNjalysZWd4PzQXbJ9S_c2SimTvEecMAHHamhoLxKS1ARLzUNSaHv4lhPnC71AdQSWz9zvzzdxNIUwtBot8WUvbaLNlNQX1gwdYvLYeAGI2ESSU2RzZyS6WJwTfrF7xn9qrNfWkHHXIiDFMR3jfUpXHi2Mq2P7ANXaXsdeIMLmFLAv1QCrTbFYkVuOl3yT/s2040/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-06%20at%201.27.20%20AM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1114" data-original-width="2040" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgNjalysZWd4PzQXbJ9S_c2SimTvEecMAHHamhoLxKS1ARLzUNSaHv4lhPnC71AdQSWz9zvzzdxNIUwtBot8WUvbaLNlNQX1gwdYvLYeAGI2ESSU2RzZyS6WJwTfrF7xn9qrNfWkHHXIiDFMR3jfUpXHi2Mq2P7ANXaXsdeIMLmFLAv1QCrTbFYkVuOl3yT/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-06%20at%201.27.20%20AM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Lee, Linda Hayden & Isla Blair Taste the Blood of Dracula Year: 1970 Rates: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Foreshadowing GHOST STORY with three older, wealthy, distinguished, sophisticated Victorian Era gentlemen who, with a curious penchant for the macabre, become involved in a strange, semi-accidental murder before being stalked and picked off one by one...</p><p></p><p></p><p>And not by Christopher Lee, returning in Hammer's TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA in which he seeks vengeance against these fathers of one young man and most importantly, two token girls/women he bites and hypnotizes... this time for a particular reason other than eternal enslavement...</p><p><span></span></p>

anthony higgins, christopher lee, dracula, geoffrey keen, hammer, hammer films, horror, isla blair, john carson, linda hayden, madeline smith, peter sallis, ralph bates, roy kinnear, seventies, vampire

CHRISTOPHER LEE & LINDA HAYDEN 'TASTE THE BLOOD OF DRACULA'

Christopher Lee, Linda Hayden & Isla Blair Taste the Blood of Dracula Year: 1970 Rates: ***1/2 Foreshadowing GHOST STORY with three olde...

CHRISTPHER LEE VAMPING 'DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE'

<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/AVvXsEg-rthS1vQ51nxcM6ueNZJeOY9fWIc3O7_zjTRz423vsVfG7Ki-_WLqIzSgc_LHgSkPcNN5aw6rA9Ggjof6k4HRJg7DDkRb81Qnf1y_cR94ssv-DBjUDt3P2Q85mv1NfUv-IGh6Ke_lDhR_iMYF0cYAjsfuz_xqwDq7qFkOUlSkUw_-BD4d7RyAXEr7KtWz/s1718/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-05%20at%2012.19.50%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="952" data-original-width="1718" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg-rthS1vQ51nxcM6ueNZJeOY9fWIc3O7_zjTRz423vsVfG7Ki-_WLqIzSgc_LHgSkPcNN5aw6rA9Ggjof6k4HRJg7DDkRb81Qnf1y_cR94ssv-DBjUDt3P2Q85mv1NfUv-IGh6Ke_lDhR_iMYF0cYAjsfuz_xqwDq7qFkOUlSkUw_-BD4d7RyAXEr7KtWz/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-05%20at%2012.19.50%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE Year: 1968 Rating: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Hammer's DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE came out in 1968, and the studio must have really needed younger viewers to relate with the hero as Barry Andrews looks far from the Victorian Era setting... </p><p></p><p></p><p>With a frizzy perm, groovy clothes and being a proud and confident Atheist scholar (for <i>what</i> it's never clear), his girlfriend... niece of the monsignor who accidentally resurrected DRACULA while exorcising a cursed church... is what GRAVE is really all about...</p><p><span></span></p>

barbara ewing, barry andrews, christopher lee, dracula, ewan hooper, franchise, freddie francis, hammer films, horror, michael ripper, sixties, veronica carlson

CHRISTPHER LEE VAMPING 'DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE'

Title: DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE Year: 1968 Rating: *** Hammer's DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE came out in 1968, and the studi...

PETER CUSHING TRACKS 'THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES'

<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/AVvXsEhiVw_Wv079ks-z9W5sruiADLjP6EKarZVqcSRKYOflGFxr-ns9kwSVQJufTIdguCjeA3zsANQAkTW0Zc17jT26CYrcT6q8oneIjHVBex2IWczxML0dVd2onm0bbkJ94Hb62sSuNEqeLQnM4EB1xupIin0LM4WuSmGuy3R9IK6Fnw6aP9S7d5fGjMInuGbT/s1956/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-04%20at%208.20.09%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="910" data-original-width="1956" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiVw_Wv079ks-z9W5sruiADLjP6EKarZVqcSRKYOflGFxr-ns9kwSVQJufTIdguCjeA3zsANQAkTW0Zc17jT26CYrcT6q8oneIjHVBex2IWczxML0dVd2onm0bbkJ94Hb62sSuNEqeLQnM4EB1xupIin0LM4WuSmGuy3R9IK6Fnw6aP9S7d5fGjMInuGbT/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-04%20at%208.20.09%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: </u><u>THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES</u><u> Year: 1973 Rates: ***</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Director Roy Ward Baker had nothing but complaints about the dank/uncomfortable sets in Hong Kong for what would bring the ENTER THE DRAGON martial arts craze into Hammer's horror, Count Dracula in particular, played by <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/vamplovers.html">THE VAMPIRE LOVERS</a> Christopher Lee surrogate John Forbes-Robinson who, during the ten-minute expository prologue, morphs into the body of roaming Satanic monk Shen Chan in order to bring together the titular LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES...<br><br>And Hammer regular Baker actually hardly used those supposedly troublesome interiors since most of GOLDEN occurs in daylight, as Cushing's college-lecturing Van Helsing ventures out with buried leads/karate-ringers David Chiang and his sister Szu Shih; Van Helsing's blandly handsome son Robin Stewart and the token Hammer blonde hottie Julie Ege...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

action, adventure, hammer films, horror, julie ege, karate, peter cushing, seventies, shen chan, szu shih, vampire

PETER CUSHING TRACKS 'THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES'

Title:  THE LEGEND OF THE 7 GOLDEN VAMPIRES Year: 1973 Rates: *** Director Roy Ward Baker had nothing but complaints about the dank/uncomfo...

INGRID PITT AS HAMMER'S 'COUNTESS DRACULA' WITH NIGEL GREEN

<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/AVvXsEgL7MD37uO-L_oJWNaEM-nhbRiYRni4NQCSTcaoafx6axk7G1EHu5SpYtAj_mmd3vXZL0FGv39_ztMP_10ImJYHl85bxY6Hgqs2YMQzdwTfnDRMuT9EsL0mv6tu49cQaVKwRZorxwTRcZTll7pgR3A05Ncilqu45VsPF3nj0Qo__cmC0BiBkZZmvF9dE_Xu/s2030/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%2010.22.52%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1222" data-original-width="2030" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL7MD37uO-L_oJWNaEM-nhbRiYRni4NQCSTcaoafx6axk7G1EHu5SpYtAj_mmd3vXZL0FGv39_ztMP_10ImJYHl85bxY6Hgqs2YMQzdwTfnDRMuT9EsL0mv6tu49cQaVKwRZorxwTRcZTll7pgR3A05Ncilqu45VsPF3nj0Qo__cmC0BiBkZZmvF9dE_Xu/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%2010.22.52%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Title: COUNTESS DRACULA Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Hammer had a new neck-sucker in Ingrid Pitt after her tour-de-force performance in THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, and the title COUNTESS DRACULA refers not to her character or Dracula but a real life countess she's based on...<br><br>Yet the plot of a haggard rich woman needing blood from virgins to make her young and beautiful... but only for relatively small periods of time as she steals love with an otherwise oblivious handsome man, hiding away after turning even older and uglier each time... borrows straight from the decade-earlier b-movie <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2016/08/LeechW.html">THE LEECH WOMAN</a>...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

andria lawrence, body count, hammer films, horror, ingrid pitt, lesley-anne down, maurice denham, nigel green, nike arrighi, peter jeffrey, sandor elès, susan brodrick

INGRID PITT AS HAMMER'S 'COUNTESS DRACULA' WITH NIGEL GREEN

Title: COUNTESS DRACULA Year: 1971 Rating: ***1/2 Hammer had a new neck-sucker in Ingrid Pitt after her tour-de-force performance in THE VAM...

HAMMER FILMS PENULTIMATE HORROR 'TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER'

<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/AVvXsEiDmBQ3R_8FA2uxX4misTdem9XiaB7CB1BGCzkkPPwTyXeg-gxNAMVSr_3ns3a8EmBk8Cf5LPy4cn7dsFx4ftBYf0aVacMQjKYiiBaEK5oUJ7pk1b6t57aqRBJmc_yvWSa0LW6l0GLc8LBCd4QllcAa530ODLD9MHls344uIQyoO65nj5g06rmMZVedCVN7/s1518/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-04%20at%202.15.02%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="906" data-original-width="1518" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDmBQ3R_8FA2uxX4misTdem9XiaB7CB1BGCzkkPPwTyXeg-gxNAMVSr_3ns3a8EmBk8Cf5LPy4cn7dsFx4ftBYf0aVacMQjKYiiBaEK5oUJ7pk1b6t57aqRBJmc_yvWSa0LW6l0GLc8LBCd4QllcAa530ODLD9MHls344uIQyoO65nj5g06rmMZVedCVN7/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-04%20at%202.15.02%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Nastassja Kinski in TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER Year: 1976 Rating: **</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Penultimate horror for one of the most famous horror studios, British's Hammer Films, has a young girl, schooled by nuns and dressed accordingly, being surreptitiously groomed into a Satanic coven care-of Hammer's biggest star Christopher Lee (who seems ready to bare fangs at any given moment) playing an ex-priest...<br><br>But the main problem with TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER... where the exploitation aspect's built right into the title, most likely to compete with THE EXORCIST... is that the novelty of a gorgeous young girl being used for Satanic/risque purposes means little since fourteen-year old Nastassja Kinski looks more like a nineteen-year-old old enough for whatever else she's being hidden from...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p><span></span></p>

christopher lee, denholm elliott, hammer films, honor blackman, horror, nastassja kinski, occult, richard widmark, seventies, thriller

HAMMER FILMS PENULTIMATE HORROR 'TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER'

Nastassja Kinski in TO THE DEVIL A DAUGHTER Year: 1976 Rating: ** Penultimate horror for one of the most famous horror studios, British'...

CUSHING/LEE RETURN IN HAMMER'S 'THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA'

<p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><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/AVvXsEgMLj6wsNMvmOObbLjC4P1KaZdU3v2CbQeM-op0_xy4s3Mb3q43cx0jF2nTEZFQBsv-B6e8JP_ZhOczoF6rX7TyWZECWL0K9xfd4zx6SK9nLVMXj8UHrjMlNPUIG6xlNrgrCcBEWEgiocPjuRC-8EzogmKi1fuRXzfHmKIsEnyY3Hw-8IJA3y4UB9HQJO5J/s1984/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%207.56.07%20PM.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1048" data-original-width="1984" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMLj6wsNMvmOObbLjC4P1KaZdU3v2CbQeM-op0_xy4s3Mb3q43cx0jF2nTEZFQBsv-B6e8JP_ZhOczoF6rX7TyWZECWL0K9xfd4zx6SK9nLVMXj8UHrjMlNPUIG6xlNrgrCcBEWEgiocPjuRC-8EzogmKi1fuRXzfHmKIsEnyY3Hw-8IJA3y4UB9HQJO5J/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202025-01-03%20at%207.56.07%20PM.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>Hammer's THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA shouldn't be considered Christopher Lee's seventh Dracula but his 2nd... after <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/2024/12/drac72.html">DRACULA A. D. 1972</a>, which brought the famous vampire from the signature Victorian-era into the 20th Century including hippies, nightclubs, night parties and one important seance...<br><br>But that was then... and now, two years later, there's a reclusive billionaire inside a spooky corporate building shot in murky wide angle lenses... actually looking more antique Gothic than Dracula's awakening church from 1972...</p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></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>

body-count, christopher lee, dracula, franchise, freddie jones, hammer films, joanna lumley, michael coles, peter cushing, thriller, vampire, william franklyn

CUSHING/LEE RETURN IN HAMMER'S 'THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA'

Christopher Lee & Peter Cushing in THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA Year: 1973 Rating: ***1/2 Hammer's THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA shou...

HAMMER'S SWINGING LONDON COMEBACK OF 'DRACULA A.D. 1972'

<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/AVvXsEjM7qOR0zD_28WY4P1xpRjVH_o6hAdjsh8XSzI5EjFQ8ha496EIdQlRlZt8g37HnKWqDb9oBnkM0EJDWKoXZ4NwtSnIlFhod9JuZBVojt1Am7mscTe-5WJO-KgXvADiptu0twbFTU24BHQg_FqjGDUdNp_VgpyJK4Oobgk0bk7fg_V_JPeZZuUv4orK2uKm/s1644/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-31%20at%204.28.15%20PM%202.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="894" data-original-width="1644" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjM7qOR0zD_28WY4P1xpRjVH_o6hAdjsh8XSzI5EjFQ8ha496EIdQlRlZt8g37HnKWqDb9oBnkM0EJDWKoXZ4NwtSnIlFhod9JuZBVojt1Am7mscTe-5WJO-KgXvADiptu0twbFTU24BHQg_FqjGDUdNp_VgpyJK4Oobgk0bk7fg_V_JPeZZuUv4orK2uKm/s16000/Screen%20Shot%202024-12-31%20at%204.28.15%20PM%202.jpeg"></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><u>Peter Cushing scolds Christopher Neame in Dracula A.D. 1972 Rating: ****1/2</u></td></tr></tbody></table><p>A year after Hammer's progressively-sexual <a href="http://www.cultfilmfreaks.com/search/label/karstein">Karstein Trilogy</a>, thrusting the classic vampire-horror into the counter-culture sensibilities while remaining in their signature Victorian Era, they finally skipped to the present, built right into the DRACULA A. D. 1972 title...<br></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p></p><p>And while Peter Cushing's college professor Van Helsing heir has several long bouts of exposition and two third-act vampire battles, Christopher Lee basically hangs around at the same gothic church where he was reawakened by a young British swinger, who's basically the main character here, or at least, technically speaking, the most important...</p><span></span>

caroline munro, christopher lee, christopher neame, dracula, exploitation, hammer films, janet key, marsha a. hunt, michael coles, peter cushing, pip miller, seventies, stephanie beacham, vampire

HAMMER'S SWINGING LONDON COMEBACK OF 'DRACULA A.D. 1972'

Peter Cushing scolds Christopher Neame in Dracula A.D. 1972 Rating: ****1/2 A year after Hammer's progressively-sexual Karstein Trilogy ...