Movie Review: Interiors (1978)

Directed by Woody Allen                                              

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Mama Eve (Geraldine Page) is an elegant, highly vaunted interior decorator who proves to be a handful for her husband Arthur (E. G. Marshall) and three adult daughters Renata (Diane Keaton), Flyn (Kristin Griffith) and Joey (Mary Beth Hurt). Maintaining an icy façade, Eve is overbearing, manipulative and controlling. One of her chief activities is staging elaborate suicide attempts in which she knows she will be rescued at the nick of time. It comes a no surprise that papa shortly declares at the dinner table that he will be leaving Eve for a trial separation. While the delusional Eve pines for reconciliation, dad shortly arrives at the family’s seaside home with his fiancée Pearl (Maureen Stapleton). The clash is immediate from the get-go; whereas the other characters dress in limpid grays, whites and browns, Pearl is first introduced in a blood-red dress (future superstar director Joel Schumacher served as the costume designer for this film, and Woody Allen gave him a prominent credit at the beginning of the film – and for good reason.) The sassy, brassy and outspoken Pearl grates upon the clan’s nerves. As Julie Kirgo points out on in the liner notes to this Twilight Time release – 3,000 copies, snap them up quick), while it is never made evident, Pearl is implied to be Jewish, and anti-Semitic sentiment seems to bubble just beneath the surface. Eve faces the fact that she and her husband will never be reunited and high tragedy ensues – but in a surprise twist, Pearl grants life to one of the daughters in the manner of the real-life Eve.

Movie Review: Audrey Rose (1977)

Directed By Robert Wise

Movie review by Greg Goodsell

Bill and Janice Templeton (John Beck and Marsha Mason) are a wealthy New York City couple who live in their sumptuous apartment with their 13-year-old daughter Ivy (Susan Swift). Things are just great until a bearded stranger (Hannibal Lechter himself, Anthony Hopkins) begins shadowing Janice and Ivy at school and on the city streets. The man comes forward to the Templetons, says his name is Elliot Hoover, and in a roundabout way says that their Ivy is in fact the reincarnation of his daughter Audrey Rose who died along with her mother in a car wreck two minutes before Ivy's birth. In lieu of taking him out on the street and giving him a sound thrashing (macho actor John Beck was in Rollerball in 1975, after all), the seed of doubt is planted in the Templeton’s minds. Ivy has suffered from a series of night terrors from a very early age that have amazing fidelity to being burned alive in a car wreck. The reappearance of her former “father” only escalates Ivy’s convulsions, and slowly but surely Janice’s confidence in the rational begins to crack. The matter winds up in a courtroom – and it all ends rather badly for Ivy/Audrey.

Movie Review: Follow That Dream (1962, Blu-ray)

Directed by Gordon Douglas

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Pop Kwimper (Arthur O’Connell), his son Toby Elvis Presley), his sort-of adopted children, 19-year-old Holly (Anne Helm) two twin boys and a little girl are motoring down on Florida interstate when they happen upon a pleasant seaside beach. They pitch camp, and decide to claim the area as their own under an obscure “homesteader” law. Within a matter of days, the family throws together a rather ritzy ranch home from castaway junk and begins to charge big bucks to the locals for the privilege of fishing on their land. Soon enough, there’s trouble in paradise: gangsters, led by Nick (Simon Oakland) take advantage of the area’s laissez-faire atmosphere to bring their gambling casino on to the premises. It falls on the King’s shoulder to drive away the gangster, rebuff a lecherous lady psychologist’s advances (Joanna Moore) and defend his patchwork family in court against all those pesky custody laws. Will he succeed? This is an Elvis Presley movie, what do you think?

Indeed, it is an Elvis Presley, albeit with a lot on its plate. An atypical Presley vehicle, Follow That Dream has only five songs, and a decent budget – in contrast to his later films that squeezed in 14 songs that were shot on blue suede shoestrings. It’s the familiar poor-but-honest rural folk against the sophisticated city slickers story, but Follow That Dream seriously examines American society. In its running time, Follow That Dream addresses property rights, self-determination, law, child custody, psychologists (director Gordon Douglas must have had a thing against lady psychologists – remember the hopelessly ineffectual one just before the little girl survivor cowers in the corner screaming “Them! Them! THEM!” in his 1954 giant ant extravaganza of the same name?) organized crime and the U.S. judicial system. The story itself is ridiculous – Presley waltzes through the whole affair with naïve aplomb, unaware of the dangers that face him, only to be acquitted time and again by his simple, honest heart. The gangsters in this film wouldn’t last very long in real life. Presley effortlessly grabs their guns out of their hands without sweat beading on his pompadour. Presley is also amazingly chaste in this film. A running gag  has Elvis reciting multiplication tables whenever he’s aroused by women.

The Corpse-Banging Classic Debuts on Blu-ray! NEKROMANTIK Coming this October from Cult Epics!

NEKROMANTIK Premieres on Blu-ray (dual-layer) and new 2-Disc Special Edition DVD

 Los Angeles, CA (September 2014.) The controversial horror film that shocked the world in 1987, when it was banned in Germany, censored in Japan and simultaneously became a huge underground hit in the US (now long out of print.) Nekromantik tells the story of Rob (Daktari Lorenz) who works at a street-cleaning Agency, and visits roadside accidents to clean up the scene. Incidentally Rob collects the body parts and shares them with his girlfriend Betty (Beatrice M.) When Rob presents a complete corpse taken out of a swamp, their undying love reaches its peak, but soon after Betty gets a more liking towards the corpse and leaves Rob, which takes him to the sick end of his destruction. Cult Epics is proud to release Jorg Buttgereit’s horror classic in High Definition and with 4 hours of extras, including Jorg’s debut short film Hot Love. First 2000 copies include original collectible artwork by Johnny Ryan & Nekrophilia photo of Beatrice M.

Movie Review: All the King’s Men (1949, Twilight Time)

Directed by Robert Rossen

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Earnest reporter and spoiled rich kid Jack Burden (John Ireland) asks later in this feature, “Doesn’t good come out of evil?” The occasion is marked by Governor Willie Stark’s (Broderick Crawford) nakedly aggressive attempts to quash his rivals during a time of extreme crisis. All the King’s Men, the Best Film of its year as dictated by the Academy Awards, offers a succinct introduction to the United States political system.

When we first meet Stark, he’s a poor but honest rube who wants to make life better for his fellow sustenance farmers. He’s not afraid to tear down idols in high places, and accuses his government of taking bribes in order to build the new school house. Running for office, he’s defeated – until a terrible tragedy at the school house brought on by faulty construction propels him back into the spotlight. He’s recruited by the local corrupt government in order to draw “the hick vote.” Ruthless political flack Sadie Burke (Mercedes McCambridge) pours liquor down the usually teetotaler Stark and is duly impressed the next day when he’s able to deliver a rousing speech on the plight of the working man. No turning back, Stark rises to the echelons of big government in his state, building roads and schools – but resorting to dishonest methods in order to do so. Do the ends justify the means?

Movie Review: Save Your Legs! (2012, Twilight Time)

Directed by Boyd Hicklin

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Lovable loser Edward “Teddy” Brown (Stephen Curry) lives for his local neighborhood cricket club and his two best friends, Rick (Brendan Cowell) and Stavros (Damon Gameau). Teddy’s world is shaken when the substance-abusing, drunken Rick announces his impending marriage to a girl he recently knocked up. In lieu of thinking there may be more to life than getting pissed on the weekend with his fellow Aussie mates, Teddy leads his “D-string” team to a tour of India. Setting up a three match tour, coupled with the chance to meet cricketing legend Sachin Tendulkar, the usual “fish-out-of-water” shenanigans take place. Rick remains a surly, drunken piece of work, Teddy samples some of the local Indian cuisine and spends the majority of finding serviceable areas in which to defecate. Unaccustomed to the chaotic civilization of modern-day India, there is lots and lots of gags surrounding cultural differences. Local lovely Anjali (Pallavi Sharda) is thrown into the mix, and gives the boy something to ogle to perhaps draw away attention from Teddy’s, uh, somewhat inappropriate fixation on Rick. The clueless Australians stumble and fall adorably, and they take up a challenge from an arrogant Bollywood star to take on his cricket team. Everything turns out alright at the end … was there any question it wouldn’t?

Visiting Hollywood’s Amoeba Records DVD section, this reviewer saw a shelf full of discs with the title, “Sports Team is led by a Caring Individual to Victory.” Save Your Legs! Is one of those, and is exceptionally plain and unremarkable in spite of the many exotic locales and unique situations. The cricket team is a bunch of middle-aged losers who spend their weekends drunk and “attempting” to play the game (it doesn’t matter if the viewer doesn’t understand cricket as it doesn’t appear that any of the characters do). Well into their thirties, they cling to youthful hopes and ambitions, but must accept the fact that “the train has left the station” at this point. The guys get into scuffles, patch up their differences, and find plenty of time to look with startled expressions at the culture of India. Save Your Legs! Is painfully predictable, and is intended solely to provide diversion on a weekend night. The closest thing it makes to a statement on the team’s “Peter Pan” syndrome is when Teddy confronts the boozing Rick on what type of father he’ll make for his forthcoming child.

Movie Review: Resurrected (1989, Twilight Time)

Directed by Paul Greengrass

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

The time in which we welcome home soldiers from victorious battles, they say, is extremely brief. Case in point: Private Kevin Deakin (David Thewlis), presumed dead in the 1982 Falklands was after the Battle of Mount Tumbledown is given a regal and dignified military funeral in his English village. His friends and family, while devastated, accept the fact that Deakin died a hero in the service of his country. The problem: A disheveled Private Deakin, shell-shocked and filthy stumbles on a Falklands sheep ranch seven weeks after the war has been declared over. Claiming to have survived by eating worms while thinking that the war was still ongoing, Deakin is sent home to Britain – to a very unenthusiastic public. Having already accepted him dead and war hero, his parents (Rita Tushingham and Tom Bell) must now accept the fact that their son is alive – and as the British gutter press makes him out to be, possibly a deserter.

Deakin's life is effectively over before it's begun. Haunted by flashbacks and shunned by his girlfriend and townspeople, Deakin returns to his military regiment. Treated coldly by everyone, who brand him as a coward, fellow soldier Slaven (Christopher Fulford) leads a brutal “kangaroo court” against Deakin – and justice is meted out in an especially brutal fashion.

Movie Review: Brannigan (Blu-ray, Twilight Time)

Reviewed By: Hal Astell

In 2006 Sylvester Stallone made Rocky Balboa and people wondered if he could still do the job at 60 years of age. In 2008 he made Rambo and the same question got asked, with only the age being different. The question will be back again very shortly with Harrison Ford who will be 66 when Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull comes out, but it isn't a new question. I'm sure people asked the same question when John Wayne made Brannigan in 1975. He was 67, in bad health and wearing a toupee but he enters the film by kicking down a door and playing hardball with a forger.

But he's still John Wayne and he's still the tough guy, even though the people behind the film are second generation: the executive producer is his eldest son, Michael Wayne, and the writer is Christopher Trumbo, son of Dalton Trumbo. The Duke only had two films left after this one, Rooster Cogburn and The Shootist, and he looked even older in both. As always he has a gun and a badge, but unlike those films he isn't in the old west, he's a Chicago cop in London.

He's there to pick up a mobster being extradited back to the States, one he's been chasing for a long time and who has put a contract on him. He's in the hands of Scotland Yard but after he's kidnapped, it's up to Brannigan and his English compatriots to find him again. Beyond the Duke, there are a number of other major names here to ensure that things are done right. Larkin the mobster is played by John Vernon, always excellent as a powerful but amoral thug, and Fields, his sleazy lawyer, is Mel Ferrer. Scotland Yard provide Richard Attenborough as Cmdr Sir Charles Swann and the always delightful Judy Geeson as Brannigan's caretaker.

Movie Review: Radio Days (1987, Twilight Time)

Reviewed By: Hal Astell

Woody Allen pretty much always wrote stories about himself, though he tweaked the truth so none are actually autobiographies. This one is about him as a young Jewish kid in Rockaway when the radio was on all day every day and all he ever wanted was a Masked Avenger ring with a secret compartment. He's played by someone you wouldn't expect on the face of it to be believable as a young Woody Allen, here called Joe, let alone appear in a Woody Allen film, but Seth Green does a solid job. He's really young here, long before Buffy the Vampire Slayer let alone Robot Chicken, but he looks exactly like a really young Seth Green.

The script is really nothing but a dramatized collection of reminiscences, and as you'd expect from such a setup some are better than others. The biggest challenge of all is to make it hold together as a single entity. It works best as a box of treats to dip into whenever we feel like it, so unlike most films, catching five minutes here and there while channel surfing roughly equates to watching it in an 85 minute stretch. You could probably even watch it backwards, scene by scene, and it would still make about as much sense.

The first reminiscence is a peach and sets the stage very nicely for all the rest. It has two crooks breaking into a house when the phone rings. They answer it to avoid waking everyone up and end up winning the grand prize on a game show called Guess That Tune. Mr and Mrs Needleman arrive home the next morning to find their home robbed but no end of goodies arriving in the place of their own stuff. It's hilarious but ludicrous at the same time, and quite a few of the other reminiscences fit the same bill. There's a sports story show that involves a baseball pitcher with heart, even though he loses a leg, an arm and his sight. There's even a radio ventriloquist.

Movie Review: Runaway Nightmare (Blu-ray, 1982)

It seems these days more than ever one of the prime go-to companies for exploitation, sexploitation and other assorted off-the-wall film oddities from the past is Vinegar Syndrome. Recently, Vinegar Syndrome has decided to handle some of their more obscure titles differently than much of their library with doing a very limited run of just 1000 total discs to be had for anyone quick enough to get their mitts on what could be a trashy collectible. Mike Cartel’s Runaway Nightmare is the most recent in the limited edition runs and I must say it really defies an explanation… but I will try my best.

A couple of dopey denim-wearing worm farmers named Ralph and Jason (Mike Cartel and Al Valletta ) witness a young woman being buried in the middle of the desert. Naturally, the two gentleman decide to jump to her aid. They dig her up and carry her back to their manor house on the worm farm where she eventually comes back into consciousness. What the fellas don’t know is that she has some friends waiting. This gaggle of sexy gals have a plan to take Ralph and Jason captive and make them their slaves.

Movie Review: The Eddy Duchin Story (1956, Twilight Time Blu-ray)

Review By: Rob Sibley

Twilight Time is becoming one of my favorite labels. They continue to release everything from Peckinpah classics to Bruce Campbell B-movie shlock fests and even the classics. "The Eddy Duchin Story" starring two legends of the silver screen, Tryone Power & Kim Novak. With such legends as the great James Whitmore in supporting roles.

I personally felt ashamed that I never saw this film because it's that good. I consider myself a huge Tyrone Power fan. Even in films with weak screenplays his performances were always top notch. He never pay-checked it even when he was in a turkey. Then we have Kim Novak another legend. A woman who starred in two of my favorite films of all time. "Man with the golden arm" the grim Sinatra classic and Hitchcock's Vertigo (My personal favorite).

Movie Review: House On Straw Hill (1976, Blu-ray/DVD combo, Severin)

Review By: Rob Sibley

Let me start off by saying I've been trying to track this film down since I was thirteen years old. I was twelve when I first saw "Blood for Dracula" which started my love for all things Udo Kier. I searched and searched for this film with no luck. Thirteen years later, finally the film sees the light of day in the U.S. on glorius Blu-ray no less from Severin. Which is a company run by fans for fans of cult cinema.

This release was easily the most anticipated release of 2013 for me. I mean waiting and searching 13 years for a film and then finally to see it announced I was nothing short of amazed. Now thirteen years is a lot of time to build up hype and expectations. Did the film live up to it's name, was it deserving the video nasty label and being banned? No, it should have been banned. Despite some violence and an abundance of excellent nudity, the film is directed with pure class by James Kenelm Clarke. Who's only film I was familiar with was "Let's get laid" starring sex kitten Fiona Richmond.

Movie Review: Pony Soldier (1952, Blu-ray)

Review By: Rob Sibley

Pony Soldier is a surprisingly entertaining little watch considering very little actually happens in the film. This 1952 Canadian Western starring Tyrone Power is beautifully photographed and moves along at a quick pace. What makes this film so interesting and refreshing is that it' one of the few Westerns of it's time to show Native Americans in a more positive & sympathetic light. This time around they were more three dimensional characters, not just peace pipe smoking killing machines as they were often portrayed.

The film is set in 1876 and deals with a Canadian Mounted Police constable Duncan MacDonald (Tyrone Power). Who has recently just be posted to Fort Walsh, Duncan is tasked with negotiating the release of two hostages.