Tag Archives: culture

Hard to Swallow: “Inside Deep Throat” (2005)

    Regarding sexuality in popular culture, if there’s anything more annoying (and dishonest) than priggish cultural puritanism, it’s sanctimonious moral liberalism masquerading as open-mindedness when, in fact, the canonical emphasis diverges into a campaign of ulterior agendas. With this … Continue reading

Posted in Documentaries, Film, Film Criticism, Film Reviews, History, Linda Lovelace, movie reviews, Movies, sex | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Devil’s in the Details: “The Devil in Miss Jones” (1973)

    After the release of “Deep Throat” there were a number of graphic, sexual films that met with both unexpected public enthusiam and excited media attention, that would form the basis of the temporarily fashionable trend known as “porno … Continue reading

Posted in 1970's cinema, cinema, Culture, Film Reviews, Films, grindhouse, movie reviews, Movies, Porno Chic, Reviews, sex, Sex in Cinema, women | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Red Blood, Black Heart: “Blood Feast” (1963)

    Never to be considered in the same breath with any discussion of Art, the appalling 1963 full color bloodbath “Blood Feast” is undeniably a movie (it feels inappropriate except if wearing a hazmat suite to use the appellation film) … Continue reading

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Mixed Messages: “Halls of Anger” (1970)

    Paul Bogart’s “Halls of Anger” finds a barely perceptible niche in the often inflammatory tradition of Hollywood films that claim to expose the volatile underbelly of modern urban education, with all appropriate delinquencies bubbling forth in a gladiatorial arena … Continue reading

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Sex, Drugs and TV: “The Groove Tube” (1974)

   Ken Shapiro’s “The Groove Tube” is a raggedy collection of skits satirizing television ads and programs, a not especially challenging target that is met with a lack of conceptual focus and a wildly variant acuity of wit. In fact, … Continue reading

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Shoot. Load. Repeat.: “The Enforcer” (1976)

   It begins as a Squeaky Fromme wannabe is picked up by two gas company employees who are swiftly dispatched in rather gruesome fashion by blonde haired, blue-eyed psychopath Bobby Maxwell (DeVeren Bookwalter in full drooling grimace mode). These are … Continue reading

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Shapeless: “The Blob” (1958)

    Irvin S. Yeaworth Jr.’s “The Blob” is a film with an impressive cult legacy, but one that yields few actual rewards upon viewing. This small-town teen versus space monster picture does distinguish itself from many of the grade-B (or … Continue reading

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The Brice isn’t Right: “Funny Girl” (1968)

    Film biographies have always been a tricky business. Subject to less than scrupulous adherence to the factual as opposed to an almost shameless gravitational pull toward the predictable formulaic Hollywood elements of high melodrama and low soap opera, the … Continue reading

Posted in 1960's movies, Barbra Streisand, cinema, Culture, Entertainment, Film Reviews, Films, movie reviews, Movies, Musicals, Romance | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Space Disgrace: “Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster” (1965)

   With “Frankenstein Meets the Space Monster” the Gothic trappings of Mary Shelley’s seminal work of horror literature are abandoned in the service of timely expediency in capitalizing on the then-current frenzied Space Race, with the concept of the eponymous … Continue reading

Posted in 1960's movies, drive-in cinema, Drive-In Movies, Entertainment, Films, movie reviews, Movies, science fiction films | Tagged , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The Stuff of Dreams: “Trollhunter” (2010)

    The sub-genre of the “found film” mockumentary hit the financial jackpot with the tiresome “The Blair Witch Project”, a film which benefited from a wealth of carefully manipulated anticipation by way of Internet hype, but emerged without an … Continue reading

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Headcase: “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die” (1962)

    With “The Brain That Wouldn’t Die”, no discussion would be complete without a concession to the fertile soil that is exploitation cinema, to which this film is a classical example, especially as filtered through the then popular (but still … Continue reading

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With Extreme Prejudice: “El Condor” (1970)

  John Guillerman’s “El Condor” is a noisy, violent, preposterous western of the variety that became extremely popular with studios in the Sixties (Richard Brooks’ “The Professionals” being the most accomplished example) often blending elements with the fading noir genre … Continue reading

Posted in 1970's cinema, Drive-In Movies, Jim Brown, Lee Van Cleef, movie reviews, westerns | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

Windbag: “The Hindenburg” (1975)

    The movies love a mystery, especially one based on historical fact as it affords Hollywood the opportunity to do something which it prides itself on doing better than any omnipotent deity: improving on real life. This unnatural (and … Continue reading

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Divas and Dinosaurs: “One Million Years B.C.” (1966)

     “One Million Years B.C.”, a 1966 Hammer produced remake of the 1940 Victor Mature/Carole Landis prehistoric vehicle “One Million B.C.”, is a film that defies serious criticism. After all, since it’s general knowledge that dinosaurs and cave people did not … Continue reading

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The Shadow of Her Smile: “La doppia ora” (2009)

   A guest at a hotel leaps from the balcony to her death. A woman attends a speed dating ritual. A pair of budding lovers is accosted during an art heist. A woman begins seeing the phantom images of a … Continue reading

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Russian Roue: “Love and Death” (1975)

   Woody Allen’s first overt dive into the realm of the serious (though not approached seriously) is an interesting amalgam of 19th Century Russian literature, the cinema of Eisenstein and Bergman  all seen through the eyes of his sarcastic horndog … Continue reading

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The Hole in the Head Gang: “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid” (1969)

The year 1969 was a particularly interesting one for the American Western, as the three most commercially notable examples of the genre demonstrate a grand variance in the dramatic shift into the revisionism movement which would all but consume this … Continue reading

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Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner: “The Dunwich Horror” (1970)

   Retaining only the outline of H.P. Lovecraft’s original 1928 short story and the names of a few of the main characters, Daniel Haller’s film is a useful case study in examining the challenges with the adaptive process of “classic” … Continue reading

Posted in drive-in cinema, Film Reviews, H.P. Lovecraft, horror films, Sandra Dee | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Bottom of the Class: “Mes chères études” (2010)

       Emmanuelle Bercot’s “Mes chères études” (the title translates into “My Expensive Studies” as opposed to the English title “Student Services” which is reminiscent of far too many sniggery teen sex comedies) is a filmization of the pseudonymously penned book … Continue reading

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In Space, No One Can Hear You Cringe: “The Green Slime” (1968)

   Has there ever been as humorless a cheesy SF film as “The Green Slime”? One of the first things evident is the dedicated seriousness with which the cast approaches the completely dreadful script by Tom Rowe, William Finger and … Continue reading

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THE REALM IS NOT ENOUGH

Question of the Hour: Can Elizabeth now be considered a Bond Girl?

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Grand Delusion: “EQUUS” (1977)

   It’s an unfortunate circumstance when talented film makers fortified with the best of intentions get carried away with their efforts, becoming quite pleased with themselves that unlike the majority of commercial craftsmen they are tackling important ideas, and due … Continue reading

Posted in 1970's cinema, Jenny Agutter, movie reviews, Richard Burton, Sidney Lumet | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

TUMBLE IN THE JUNGLE: “MOGAMBO” (1953)

     What is a women’s picture? In recent years this has been a more difficult concept to distinguish, being that the increased crudity of all American (in particular) cinema  has led to a blurring of cinematic behavioral gender lines. … Continue reading

Posted in 1950's movies, ava gardner, clark gable, Films, john ford films, Movies | Tagged , , , , , , | 9 Comments

A Most Peculiar Love Story: “The Abominable Dr. Phibes” (1971)

                   Robert Fuest   (September 27, 1927 – March 21, 2012)      With its roots in the serial murder giallo tradition of both Mario Bava’s“The Girl Who Knew Too Much” and “Blood and Black Lace”, … Continue reading

Posted in 1970's cinema, drive-in cinema, Entertainment, Film Reviews, Films, horror films, joseph cotten, movie reviews, Movies, vincent price | Tagged , , , , | 14 Comments

The Good, The Bad and the Baddest: “The French Connection” (1971)

     Being a narc is assuming the role of a soldier in a never-ending war with the urban streets as the battleground; the debris littered alleys and dark, smoky dive bars being the jungle in which only the criminally depraved … Continue reading

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A Report on the Desert and Its Guests: “Tarantula” (1955)

   The film opens intriguingly with a mutated figure painfully wandering the desert until fatally collapsing; buzzards ominously circling overhead. Already before the opening credits, director Jack Arnold has established the seeds of a mystery which will lay the foundation … Continue reading

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WHERE DREAMS GO BAD: “WESTWORLD” (1973)

   Novelist Michael Crichton’s directorial debut “Westworld” encompasses his usual cautionary scientific doomsday scenario while satirically taking aim at America’s love affair with diversion; whether through theme park escapism or the movie-going experience itself, and how our dreams and expectations … Continue reading

Posted in 1970's cinema, Films, movie reviews, Movies, science fiction films | Tagged , , , , | 4 Comments