Movie Review: Babyface (1977)

Directed by Alex de Renzy

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Skin trade auteur Alex de Renzy pushes lots of buttons with one of his most famous -- and accessible films, Babyface, given the royal treatment by the fine folks at Vinegar Syndrome.

Hulking Neanderthal with a nice haircut Dan (Dan Roberts, in a singular film performance) is tooling about his job at the seaside docks when he is propositioned by vivacious 15-year-old Priscilla (Lyn Malone). Taking advantage of the situation, their affair is less than five minutes old when Priscilla screams “rape.” Pursued and shot at by a policeman, Dan jumps in the drink to later wash up on shore, where he is later given sexual healing by two foxy mistresses. Needing a place to lay low, they suggest Dan hide out at a local male brothel that services horny housewives. The shoe on the other foot, Dan and his fellow male prostitutes (one played by longtime porn actor Joey Silvera), become the objects of the female eye … slabs of beef for feminine approval. In the meantime, Priscilla’s vindictive mom has vengeance in mind.

Movie Review: Our Man in Havana (1960, Twilight Time)

Reviewed by: Hal Astell

Set in Cuba before 'the recent revolution', it would appear from first glimpses that this just couldn't fail. Produced and directed by Carol Reed, with a screenplay by Graham Greene that was adapted from his own novel, and starring no less a Great British trio than Alec Guinness, Noel Coward and Ralph Richardson. Also credited before the title are Burl Ives, Ernie Kovacs and Maureen O'Hara, hardly minor names themselves. It's as great as it ought to be, but I was seriously surprised at the content. I thought it was a spy film, and it is, but it's also a comedy which I really wasn't expecting.

Greene introduces us to the characters through humour. Guinness is Jim Wormold, a mild mannered vacuum cleaner salesman and Coward is Hawthorne, a spymaster who comes to visit him with strange questions and an offer to meet him in the gents. What he's really doing is hiring him to work for the British secret service as the title character, part of his Caribbean network, and Wormold accepts so as to be able to finance his daughter Milly's expensive equestrian dreams. Ives is a friend of Wormold's, some sort of German doctor doing research into cheese or some such, and Kovacs is the Red Vulture, a notorious Cuban official with an interest in everything and everybody, most obviously Milly.

Movie Review: Julia (1977)

Directed by Fred Zinnemann

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Fledgling playwright Lillian Hellman (Jane Fonda) is shacked up with past-his-prime hard-boiled author Dashiell Hammett (Jason Robards) at his Martha's Vineyard beach retreat. Hellman is grinding away at her first play, the groundbreaking melodrama about repressed lesbianism at a girl's school “The Children's Hour.” While Hammett gives his criticism and praise to her initial efforts, Hellman drifts back to childhood revelries with her longtime friend Julia (Vanessa Redgrave). The two enjoyed a wealthy, rarefied childhood full of servants and castles, but Julia had an unflappable sense of social justice at an early age. Both Lillian and Julie go their separate ways come young adulthood – Lillian, to the stage and Julie to anti-fascist resistance work in pre-Hitler Europe when fate leads to a final meet up. A secretive counter agent (Maximilian Schell) approaches Lillian to help smuggle money in a hat across the border into Berlin where she will be briefly united with Julia – the usually unflappable Lillian tenuously accepts the offer and tastes fear as she walks into highly dangerous territory as a final favor for a friend ….

Julia is grand, old-time movie entertainment packed to the rafters with Hollywood's foremost old-time leftists. Fonda, Robards and the pro-PLO Redgrave – who accepted her Best Supporting Oscar in 1977 while denouncing “Zionist hoodlums” – give it their all in a story packed full of romance, humor tragedy and a heaping helping of suspense. We know that Hellman will live to see another day, but Fonda's time on the express headed for certain death remains nonetheless remains fraught with tension. In addition, the production and attention to period detail is so lavish, those accustomed to more modern, grittier fare will be sure to exclaim, “Now, this is what a movie is all about!”

Movie Review: The Panic in Needle Park (Twilight Time, 1971)

When people talk about the early part of Al Pacino's career, they mention only a handful of movies. Of course The Godfather, Serpico and Dog Day Afternoon are all considered classic parts of his career, but right before The Godfather arrived, Pacino played a heroin addict in a lesser remembered movie that centered around a group of addicts in an area of New York known as Needle Park.

Bobby (Pacino) is a charming scamp, full of energy and life. Honestly, scamp is the perfect word for him. He visits his artist friend Marco (Raul Julia), where he meets a lovely young woman named Helen (Kitty Winn). He is immediately enamored with Helen and decides to start a conversation that turns into a day long date of sorts. Throughout the day, Bobby shows his petty criminal side. He steals a television from the back of a van in order to pawn it. He interacts with his brother, who proudly declares how well he does robbing houses. He introduces Helen to several addict friends and other sketchy characters. Being the artistic type, she is fascinated with all of it.

Movie Review: 8 1/2 (1963)

Federico Fellini is a name all movie buffs are familiar with and I decided to not just be familiar with the name, but to also be familiar with his works.  I was fortunate enough to receive "8 1/2" inside of the Boxwalla Film subscription box(you can read my reviews subscription boxes at HelloSubscription.com).  

"8 1/2" follows the life of a filmmaker by the name of Guido Anselmi(Marcello Mastroianni).  Guido has an interesting life.  He is about to make a large budget movie but nobody seems to know when this film will start shooting.  Guido finds himself answerring to people at all times.  There's an amazing scene early on where the camera never stops and Guido walk through a large room answering questions and accepting comments from producers, actors and people generally interested in what he is working on.

Guido also has a thing for the ladies.  He has a hard time coping with why they can't keep focused on him, even though he himself is married.  This comes into play throughout the film as the story delves into the psyche of this troubled filmmaker and leads to a fantasy of having his own harem.

Movie Review: The Bounty (1984)

Directed by Roger Donaldson

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

In this more “historically accurate” version of the HMS Bounty incident of the late 18th Century, Commanding Lieutenant William Bligh (Anthony Hopkins) goes before court at Greenwich to face charges that he let his ship slip into mutiny. Electing his friend Fletcher Christian (a young Mel Gibson) to lead the expedition to gather breadfruits for good King George – the one who let the American colonies slip through his fingers, the Bounty sails for Tahiti. The Bounty’s mostly young crew is lacking in discipline, and Bligh is forced to resort to strict corporal discipline.

When the ship fails to navigate around Cape Horn due to inhospitable weather, the Bounty must resort to take the longer eastern route. Finally arriving in Tahiti in October of 1788, the Bounty’s crew grows dissolute drinking rum, chasing after the local Pacific Islander beauties and getting tattoos – very much like the twenty-somethings of today.

It is here that Christian fails Bligh by falling in love and conceiving a child with local orchid Mauatua (). Gathering the men for the trip back to Great Britain – after several months of luxuriating in a tropical paradise, the crew grows increasingly rebellious. Floggings and harsh disciplinary actions fail to do the trick, and when Bligh threatens to sail around Cape Horn, knowing that the harsh weather will lead to the loss of crewmate, Christian rebels and sets Bligh and his followers on a raft with minimal provisions. Aware that their actions will lead to executions back in England, the various crewmembers resort to drastic measures to cover their tracks …

Movie Review: Funny Lady (1975, Twilight Time)

Directed By Herbert Ross

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

“Here, maybe this will keep you away from strange men,” Billy Rose Jimmy Caan), the harried husband of Broadway star Fanny Brice (who else -- Barbara Streisand) says as he hands her a wad of magazines to read before he departs on a business trip. “Are there any other kind?” Brice - Streisand replies without missing a beat. This is just one of the thousands of myriad pleasures had in Funny Lady, the 1975 sequel to Funny Girl in 1968, which introduced Streisand to an eternally grateful movie-going audience.

As the title implies, Funny Lady sees vaudevillian Brice as sadder and much wiser to the ways of the world. Dumped by her no-good first husband Nick Arnstein (the recently departed Omar Sharif), left with a daughter to raise alone, Brice is on shaky ground as Flo Ziegfeld closes the curtain on his latest production at the height of the Great Depression. Brash hustler Billy Rose (Caan) offers Brice his services to mount the lavish musical “Crazy Quilt” with her in the lead. An inexperienced producer, the over-produced spectacle (which includes a live buffalo!) flops terribly – until Brice wises Caan to showmanship. They retool the show, and it’s a big hit. Wedding bells ring for Brice and Rose, but life is complicated …

Where to begin? Knockout musical production numbers, lavish costumes and sets, hilarious routines – and not a misstep found anywhere. Along with Singin’ in the Rain (1951) Funny Lady can be recommended to those who don’t necessarily like musicals.   

Movie Review: The Man from Laramie (1955; Columbia/Twilight Time)

...hypothetical question time: What makes a good western, a great western?? Is it the sweeping, spansive view of the prairie, stretching out almost endlessly across the dusty frontier?? Not necessarily; one can find that in just about any well-shot oater. How about the prerequisite conflict between the dedicated lawful, and the self-serving, greedy & corrupt...invariably culminating in the ol' cliché of meeting in the middle of town, at sun-up, for the prerequisite gun-slinging showdown?? Naw...call such things, a dime-a-dozen, in the common western film tradition. The fleeting, hero versus villain, horse-galloping pursuit, with guns a-blazin'?? The free-for-all, barroom brawl, instigated by too many aces in the deck, during a 'friendly' little game?? The grizzled ol' drunken geezer, 'teched' in the head by too much sun, and too many crazed illusions of tapping into that ever-evasive gold vein?? Same old, same old, for those who are ardently devoted to the flicker of the celluloid western film fervor...

...so what exactly makes for a superior western epic, as opposed to something more generic, routine and derivative?? Depth and complexity of character, perhaps?? Motivation of said character, hiding a much more determined, albeit underlining purpose?? Both suppressed and exposed levels of strengths, weaknesses, jealousies and insecurities?? Basically, knowing what makes such characters, tick?? 1955's "The Man from Laramie"...one of Twilight Time's most recent limited edition releases, and the fifth & final western-themed collaboration between actor James Stewert, and director Anthony Mann...brilliantly balances a more psychologically inclined study of it's varied characters, amidst the backdrop and routine staples of high western drama, culminating in a somewhat unconventional and much more compelling approach to the genre, than typically rendered...

Movie Review: Man Hunt (Blu-ray, Twilight Time)

Reviewed By: Hal Astell

I've seen a lot of Fritz Lang movies, having been stunned by M and Metropolis and so deliberately seeking out as many more as I could find. I was impressed to no small degree by films like Hangmen Also Die!, Scarlet Street and The Big Heat. I even thoroughly enjoyed 1956's Beyond a Reasonable Doubt, the most recent film of his that I've seen thus far, though the quality of his films generally decreased as time went on, other films from the fifties like The Blue Gardenia, Moonfleet and While the City Sleeps leaving me surprisingly disappointed. The problem is that while some of his films are perennials on TV, my supply of Fritz Lang movies dried up at sixteen and I've only managed to see one more since 2007: Human Desire, again not one of his best, especially now I've seen the far superior original French movie that it remade. This one thankfully is much better.

Shortly before the war, as close as late July 1939, a British hunter called Alan Thorndike is holidaying in Bavaria and there is gifted with the biggest game of them all: Adolf Hitler, right there in the sights of his Hammond & Hammond. He even shoots him dead from 550 yards, or at least would have done had he a bullet in his rifle. When he loads that bullet, he's still only doing it to play the game, because it's the thrill of the chase that drives him. If he can get close enough to a game that doesn't want him to get close enough, then he knows he can kill and so actually doing so isn't necessary. Given what we know from history it won't surprise you too much to find that Hitler lives and we'll never know if Thorndike could have made the shot or not because he's interrupted by a patrolling German soldier, this being one of the most guarded buildings in the world, after all, and he's promptly delivered into the care of George Sanders.

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:The Bamboo Saucer (1968, Olive Films)

Directed by Frank Telford

Movie Review by Greg Goodsell

Air Force pilot Hank Peters (Dan Duryea, in his final film role) is buzzed by a very poorly processed flying saucer during a mission. He’s informed that the saucer in question is being kept in a decommissioned church in a remote mountainous section of Red China. Assembling a crack team of scientists and researchers – mostly American, although they do bring along British metallurgist Dave Ephram (Bernard Fox) for some chip! Chip! Cheerio! To offset the yanks. Peters and his colleagues parachute into China, where they are led by the “nice, non-communist” Sam Archibald (James Hong) to the hidden UFO. They’re not there for 15 minutes when they run across a shoot-first-and-ask-questions later Russian team led by Dobovsky (Rico Cattani) on a similar mission to track down the saucer. Seeing as they are in hostile territory, the Russians and Americans force an uneasy truce.

Hiding out in the abandoned church, they discover that the alien spacecraft opens up whenever a crew member operates his electric shaver due to the low-level vibrations. The interior of the saucer is highly earthbound and simplistic, two steps above the one found in Plan 9 from Outer Space (1959). Said spaceship, seen inside the building in long shots, is an especially atrocious process shot – it looks like a blue-tinted child’s cutout! There are the usual capitalism-versus-communism arguments and Peters falls in love with pretty Russian scientist Anna (Lois Nettleton). When Anna prays over the body of a fallen comrade, Peters quips, “You’re not a very good Marxist, are you?” You get the idea. There are various complications, all of them stale and dated even by 1968 standards, and in an especially telling bit of agit-prop, Dobovsky convinces everyone to turn in their weapons but then pulls out a hidden, trusty revolver when things get heated. So much for disarmament, eh, comrades? The compound comes under fire by the Red Chinese and both the Americans and Russians join forces, briefly (a Cold War fantasy that some people actually hoped for way back then). Eventually Peters, Anna and Jack Garson (played by the late Bob Hastings from TV’s “McHale’s Navy”) jump aboard the spacecraft, it roars off into space – and the day is saved by pushing a couple of buttons. It all ends with a quote from U.S. President John F. Kennedy.

Movie Review: The Blue Max (Blu-ray)

Reviewed By: Mike Heenan

Years before entertaining us all on the small screen as Hannibal Smith on the A-Team, George Peppard enjoyed a great career on the big screen with additions to his resume such as the Carpetbaggers, Breakfast at Tiffany’s, and How the West was Won.   In the Blue Max, his role took his career on a different turn from the perennial pretty boy to the tough guy we’ve all come to associate him with.

Peppard plays German pilot Bruno Stachel, born into the middle class and destined for the trenches until he is inspired to greatness in the air in World War 1.  Most pilots were of a higher class and Peppard’s uncomfortableness with his upbringing is evident when questioned about his father’s background.  He emphasizes that his father ran a hotel with five rooms, but the rest of the pilots joke how he must have simply been a lowly janitor.  Stachel is on a quest to receive the Blue Max, an award given to pilots with 20 confirmed enemy downings of their aircrafts.  Several of Stachel’s early downings are questioned due to lack of witnesses and he arrogantly argues for the victory, even going so far as to go back to the scene of the crime for evidence.  Surely enough his tally of downings begins to rise as does his ego and his fellow pilots begin to become wary of him and his attitude.

Movie Review: The Day The Earth Stood Still (1951, Twentieth Century Fox)

The Day The Earth Stood Still (Twentieth Century Fox, 1951)

Directed by Robert Wise
Starring Michael Rennie, Patricia Neal and Hugh Marlowe
Run Time- 92 minunes
Rated-G

The term "Classic" gets thrown around quite a bit in the coarse of conversation, in regards to movies and film. And as any fan of film knows, the term is quite subjective. In the realm of the science fiction/alien invasion genre for instance, movies like The Thing From Another World, War of the Worlds and Invaders From Mars are almost always the first to be mentioned in this regard, and rightfully so. They are all magnificent examples of the "Cold War Era Mentality" that sci-fi film makers of the 50's were so heavily influenced by. All aliens from space were evil, they lusted for our resources, craved our blood or wanted to take over the bodies of our parents. They were to be destroyed at all cost, usually by a clever combination of military might and scientific know-how. That's just how we rolled back in the 50's. The first film to buck this trend (ironically, even before there was a trend), was Twentieth Century Fox's- The Day The Earth Stood Still.
An unknown object is discovered to be orbiting the Earth at 4000 miles per hour. Nations from around the globe are tracking it and radio stations reporting on its every movement. A quiet unease quickly turns to fear and panic as the object, a large flying disc, eventually makes its landing in a park in Washington D.C.

Movie Review: Quest For Fire (1981, Blu-ray)

Review By: Rob Sibley

I remember watching Quest For Fire when I was just about six years old. I remember staying up late one night and popping in the VHS with my older brother. The film completely captivated my imagination. So twenty years after first seeing the flick on VHS I finally got the chance to revisit it courtesy of Second Sight Pictures on glorious Blu-ray. I tackled the film with great trepidation, you know films you see as a kid and love then you watch them again years later and they lose that magic. Luckily this wasn't the case with Quest For Fire.

I found myself engrossed in the world from frame one. Think about by all means QFF should be a cheese fest. Were dealing with sabor tooth tigers, cave men, ape men and all sorts of things that are recipes for cheese. But director Jean-Jacques Annaud pulls everything off by playing it completely serious. The film is drenched in a rich atmosphere thanks to cinematographer Claude Agostini who usually worked on French comedy's. The locations and costume designs are just spot on and help draw you in. 

Movie Review: Battle of the Worlds (1961, Ultra Films/Cheezy Flicks)

...ya' know?? One really has to hand it off to cult film director Antonio Margheriti (...or, Anthony Dawson, per his domestically coined moniker), for his ever-changing versatility and his ability to smartly adapt to many film genres, adding his unique style to whatever genre he takes on, without necessarily procuring a sense of 'copycat' or 'knock-off', in whatever 'flavor-of-the-moment' genre, which happens to be 'big', at that particular time and place. Whether it's spaghetti westerns (...1968's "Vengeance", 1967's "Dynamite Joe", etc.) ...swords, sandals & sorcery (...1964's "Devil of the Desert Against the Son of Hercules", 1983's "Yor, the Hunter from the Future", etc.) ...spy thrillers (...1966's "Lightning Bolt" and "Killers are Challenged", etc.) ...edge-of-seat giallos (...1968's "Naked, You Die", 1973's "Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye", etc.) ...'Raiders'-like high adventure (...1982's "Hunters of the Golden Cobra", 1984's "Ark of the Sun God", etc.) ...mixed genres (...the 1975 blaxploitation western, "Take a Hard Ride"...the 1974 martial arts western, "The Stranger and the Gunfighter", 1973's "Hercules Against Karate", etc.) ...war flicks (...1980's "Hunter of the Apocalypse", 1983's "The Last Blood", etc.) ...cannibals, aliens, sharks & shockumentaries (...1980's "Invasion of the Flesh Hunters", 1989's "Alien from the Deep", 1979's "Killer Fish", 1964's "Mondo Inferno", etc.) ...and horror, of course (...1963's "The Virgin of Nuremberg", 1964's "The Long Hair of Death", and this viewer's favorite of Antonio's, the 1963 gothic horror/romance, "Castle of Blood", amongst others). Indeed, if Antonio is guilty of anything, it's the odd occasion where he quite literally 'rips' himself off (...for instance, with 1971's color remake of "Castle of Blood", called "Web of the Spider"). However, for the purpose of this review's study, it's Antonio's contribution to the genre of science fiction, which stands out as prominently as the other genres, which he has tackled...the films of which are as numerous and varied, including 1966's "War of the Planets", 1960's "Assignment: Outer Space", and an intelligent, tension-filled little sci-fi gem from 1961...offered to us, from the fine folks over at Cheezy Flicks...called "Battle of the Worlds"...

Movie Review: Grand Duel (1972, DVD)

Review By: Rob Sibley

How does this sound? Directed by Giancarlo Santi who was Sergio Leone's second unit director on Good, The Bad & The Ugly and Once upon a time in the west. Written by one of the most talented and prolific Italian writers Ernesto Gastaldi. Who brought us many wrote many fine Westerns such as Day of Anger and My Name is Nobody. What might interest you is Gastaldi was more well known for writing Giallo's.

Such classics as Torso, The Case Of The Scorpions Tail, All the colors of the dark and The Case of the Bloody Iris to name a few. He also wrote the hard boiled crime classic "Kidnap Syndicate" for Fernando Di Leo. Then add in the always impressive Lee Van Cleef and you have one of the best and maybe one of the most single handily underrated spaghetti Westerns of all time! Even Quentin Tarantino used Luis Enríquez Bacalov theme for the film very effectively in Kill Bill Vol 1.

Movie Review: One Touch of Venus (1948, Olive Films)

...Mr. Peabody, if you would, set the 'way-back' machine to a window of time...a span of years, from the mid-30's, to the late 40's...an uneasy and tumultuous era of progressively nation-involving conflict, culminating & peaking with World War II, and then, the post-war years...nations mourning their brave and battled dead. This was a time when whimsical escapism, fantastic flights of fantasy, and accompanying musical merriment held reign, in the cool and spectacled shrines...those movie palaces of yesteryear. 1941's "Here Comes Mr. Jordan" offered battling boxers, taken away too soon, and coming back to life, haven been given another chance...1937's "Topper" afforded us fun-loving earthbound ghosts, in search of a good deed...1947's "Down to Earth" brought down the very gods from above, solely for the purpose of inspiration...1943's "A Guy Named Joe" also had it's inspiring heavenly protagonist, though in the unlikely guise of a beloved, albeit deceased pilot...1947's "The Bishop's Wife" and 1934's "Death Takes a Holiday" had watchful heavenly angels, as well as brooding angels of death, assuming human form...1944's "Outward Bound" caught snapshot glimpses of a select few in a post-death, afterlife state of limbo, bound for otherworldly destinations...and even the goddess Venus herself, could not help but come down from the heavens, in search of true love, by way of a bumbling, albeit hopelessly lovelorn department store window dresser, in the light-hearted, musically laden, romantic fantasy/comedy fluff from 1948, "One Touch of Venus"...

Movie Review: The Song of Bernadette (Blu-ray, Twilight Time)

One really has to hand it to the early 1940's writers and filmmakers of 1943's "The Song of Bernadette", for conceiving of such a beautifully rendered and emotionally moving story, and yet, also making the film's complex and assortedly interwoven proceedings...based upon actual events, occurring and dating back to the mid-1850's France...so daring and intriguingly thought-provoking, in unveiling and expounding upon the political & religious hypocrisy and mediocrity, as evident for this specific time in history. In doing this, the film suggestively questions the concept of faith, and yet deftly turns around, and irrevocably affirms such faith, with an objectively compelling, heart and soul-affecting tale of dramatic intrigue, challenging the purest of innocence, faith and truth...with the scourges of stubborn & misguided doubt, suppression, jealousy and envy...and engaging the more tangled and provocative arenas of both religion and politics...

Bernadette Soubirous...a frail, naive and simple-minded young girl, living with her struggling and impoverished family, in the mid-18th century Lourdes, France...accompanies her sister and a friend on an errand, just outside of town. On the way, she succumbs to fatigue, as the result of an asthmatic attack, lags behind, and stops to rest, while her sister continues onward, across a small ravine, in order to collect firewood. While resting near a small alcove, near the ravine, Bernadette is drawn toward the alcove by a mysterious, albeit comforting breeze, followed by an inexplicable vision on a rock-like alter...a vision of absolute wonder and beauty, in the form of a woman, dressed in robes, enshrouded by a heavenly light, and holding a rosary in her hand. Overwhelmed by the vision, which in her mind, is merely & simply as she sees it...and nothing more, Bernadette faints before the alter. When her sister finds her and revives her, Bernadette dazingly relates the wondrous sight she has witnessed, and pleads with her sister to promise not to say anything of the incident, to anyone...

Movie Review: Experiment in Terror (1962, Blu-ray)

For a filmmaker whose name has been synonymous with classic comedies like The Pink Panther, Shot in The Dark, Breakfast at Tiffany's and The Party, Blake Edwards wasn't exactly someone you’d tag as a director for film in the thriller genre.  When you have talent like Edwards at the helm I’d like to think it would be possible but you never know. This made watching Twilight Time’s newly re-mastered Blu-ray release of Edwards’ 1962 film Experiment in Terror quite intriguing.

Kelly Sherwood (Lee Remmick, Anatomy of a Murder, The Omen) is in a bit if a bind – she’s being terrorized by a madman (Ross Martin, Wild Wild West) who wants her to steal 100,000 dollars from the bank which she works. If Kelly doesn’t listen to “Red”, her sister, Toby Sherwood (Stefanie Powers, Hart to Hart) will die.

After being told by her captor not to go to the police, she does just that and receives the help of FBI agent John Ripley (Glenn Ford, The Big Heat, and Blackboard Jungle). Red isn't stupid and catches on to the fact he’s got the authorities eyes on him. He continues to harass Sherwood and even Ripley via phone with his asthmatic voice.

Movie Review: Black Sunday (1960, Blu-ray/DVD combo)

Review By: Rob Sibley

Note: This Blu-ray from Arrow UK is Region-B locked, so you will need an all region Blu player or all region PS3 to view the film.

“Black Sunday” is the text book example for classic Italian Gothic Horror. Directed by the man who pretty much put Italian horror cinema on the map, the maverick Mario Bava. Who not only broke onto the scene with this gothic masterpiece. But also is known for creating the “Giallo” with 1962's The Girl Who Knew Too Much and 1964's Blood and Black Lace. Firmly starting a genre that Dario Argento would make name for himself with before moving onto more supernatural fare later in his career.

Bava's body of work truly speaks for itself. This wasn't a “work man” director. He put more thought and production values into films then most did at the time. Always a master of creating haunting atmospheres with little to no budget. Some say Black Sunday is his masterpiece and I'd have to agree.