Vidal Raski
1973
After finally seeing this steamy pile of sexploitation obscura I'm a bit puzzled by the uptight and overly reactionary DVD review that appeared in Fangoria Magazine a couple months ago. It's a problematic situation from the outset considering Fangoria probably doesn't have any business reviewing this sort of sleaze-fare to being with. Wicked Mom and dwarf Son run a boarding house by day and an attic Bordello of dope-slave hookers by night. A down-on-their-luck couple take up residence in the flophouse, and things get hairy when the proprietress decides she wants to add her sweet young guest to the upstairs stable. With expectedly poor production values, porno lighting, and an inevitable degree of camp, this outing is far more preoccupied with cheap thrills than disturbing it's audience on a genuinely psychological level. The rape scenes are plenty racy, but also low on intensity, further suggesting that Raski is far more interested in purveying simple smut than making any sort of comment or provocation on the horror of rape. Take any single rape (or consensual sex scene, for that matter) from a Sam Peckinpah film and it will be a thousand times more disconcerting than all the violence directed towards women in this film combined. Olaf the dwarf is pleasantly creepy, and his Mom gets to mug it up with some fun quirks, but overall the picture is pretty big on fluff, and will probably only really be enjoyed by hardcore exploitation fans. Certainly not the best or the worst I've ever seen.
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
First Man Into Space
Robert Day
1959
A nice example of Cold War horror/sci-fi on a budget, Robert Day's "First Man Into Space" taps directly into the atomic horrors unleashed on the world via science, while conveniently skirting the issue of both the Reds and nuclear arms race. In post-Sputnik pre-Gagarin America, where space is an unknown frontier, a brash Navy pilot pushes his craft beyond the atmosphere...and falls back to earth a bloodsucking fiend. The rubber-suit monster looks surprisingly good, and the filmmakers aren't afraid to show off their unwitting astronaut covered in what looks like overgrilled hotdog casing - one tortured eye peering out from a hideous deathmask. In the grand B-picture tradition the acting is expectedly terse and wooden, but it's spiced up a bit by the inclusion of the First Man's Italian love interest, initially blown off as a floozy by lead Marshall Thompson until he has to eat his first impressions upon discovering she's a government scientist. Thanks to the above-par monster and clever script Day takes what could have easily been a throwaway screener and makes it an entertaining and worthwhile effort.
1959
A nice example of Cold War horror/sci-fi on a budget, Robert Day's "First Man Into Space" taps directly into the atomic horrors unleashed on the world via science, while conveniently skirting the issue of both the Reds and nuclear arms race. In post-Sputnik pre-Gagarin America, where space is an unknown frontier, a brash Navy pilot pushes his craft beyond the atmosphere...and falls back to earth a bloodsucking fiend. The rubber-suit monster looks surprisingly good, and the filmmakers aren't afraid to show off their unwitting astronaut covered in what looks like overgrilled hotdog casing - one tortured eye peering out from a hideous deathmask. In the grand B-picture tradition the acting is expectedly terse and wooden, but it's spiced up a bit by the inclusion of the First Man's Italian love interest, initially blown off as a floozy by lead Marshall Thompson until he has to eat his first impressions upon discovering she's a government scientist. Thanks to the above-par monster and clever script Day takes what could have easily been a throwaway screener and makes it an entertaining and worthwhile effort.
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
'G' Men
William Keighley
1935
A solid Warner Bros crime flick that uses the founding of the FBI as an excuse for James Cagney to mug tough and pop off pistol rounds. Sweetened with an "I don't like you, and you don't like me" interdepartmental rivalry between Cagney and his boss, thick plumes of gunsmoke, and plenty of nefarious gangsters. "G Men" doesn't have the memorable scripting of "White Heat" (1949), or the iconic American gangster narrative of "The Public Enemy" (1931), but manages to satisfy through base masculinity and effective thrills. Most interesting is the inclusion of a wealthy reformed gangster, who had acted as Cagney's mentor and benefactor. While this one-time hoodlum gets his in the end per the era's karmic dictates, it's interesting to see a genuinely sympathetic character who was at one time on the other side of the law - unusual for a period when most screen villains were presented as nihilistic monsters or charismatic psychopaths.
1935
A solid Warner Bros crime flick that uses the founding of the FBI as an excuse for James Cagney to mug tough and pop off pistol rounds. Sweetened with an "I don't like you, and you don't like me" interdepartmental rivalry between Cagney and his boss, thick plumes of gunsmoke, and plenty of nefarious gangsters. "G Men" doesn't have the memorable scripting of "White Heat" (1949), or the iconic American gangster narrative of "The Public Enemy" (1931), but manages to satisfy through base masculinity and effective thrills. Most interesting is the inclusion of a wealthy reformed gangster, who had acted as Cagney's mentor and benefactor. While this one-time hoodlum gets his in the end per the era's karmic dictates, it's interesting to see a genuinely sympathetic character who was at one time on the other side of the law - unusual for a period when most screen villains were presented as nihilistic monsters or charismatic psychopaths.
Thursday, April 16, 2009
The Black Room
Roy William Neill
1935
This is a barely adequate b-picture that would be a total loss were it not for Boris Karloff playing the dual role of Yin and Yang twins. The Berghman family curse, in which one twin brother is destined to kill the other, leads kindly Anton (Karloff) to travel for many years before returning home at the behest of his wicked brother baron Gregor (also Karloff). The story is all Poe in it's spirit of gothic macabre, with the inclusion of Dario Argento-esque corpse-pit being a legitimately ghoulish conceit, but unfortunately there's little tension leading up to a finale that's not only predestined, but also directly spelled out midway through the picture. Karloff does just fine in his two-faced performance, and the sets and costumes are surprisingly nice, but due to the lack of any sort of tension or suspense this one's pretty much for completists only.
1935
This is a barely adequate b-picture that would be a total loss were it not for Boris Karloff playing the dual role of Yin and Yang twins. The Berghman family curse, in which one twin brother is destined to kill the other, leads kindly Anton (Karloff) to travel for many years before returning home at the behest of his wicked brother baron Gregor (also Karloff). The story is all Poe in it's spirit of gothic macabre, with the inclusion of Dario Argento-esque corpse-pit being a legitimately ghoulish conceit, but unfortunately there's little tension leading up to a finale that's not only predestined, but also directly spelled out midway through the picture. Karloff does just fine in his two-faced performance, and the sets and costumes are surprisingly nice, but due to the lack of any sort of tension or suspense this one's pretty much for completists only.
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
The Hunchback of Notre Dame
William Dieterle
1939
This rendition of the oft-filmed Victor Hugo classic boasts the great Charles Laughton as Quasimodo, and large-scale big budget production values. Focusing as equally on the drama of the malformed bell-ringer and persecuted gypsy Esmeralda as on the changing sociopolitical climate of Paris at the dawn of the enlightenment, Dieterle comes up with a film strengthened by it's contextualization. Laughton is by far the best actor I've seen as Quasimodo, better even than Lon Chaney in the silent 1923 version, and his gruesome-yet-human makeup pulls no punches as the roly-poly Brit's beefy frame cavorts about the set. The big surprise here is a young Maureen O'Hara showing a remarkable degree of sexual femininity - a far cry from the macho spitfire who sparred with John Wayne in many a John Ford film. The large crowd scenes are impressive, displaying all the ignorance and filth of the middle ages in a gently assertive way, and the final siege of Notre Dame is a spectacle worthy of the picture's scope (particularly the strange makeshift gun/cannon used by the Beggar King and Quasimodo's brutal employment of molten lead on the attackers). Surprise, surprise, another solid RKO picture.
1939
This rendition of the oft-filmed Victor Hugo classic boasts the great Charles Laughton as Quasimodo, and large-scale big budget production values. Focusing as equally on the drama of the malformed bell-ringer and persecuted gypsy Esmeralda as on the changing sociopolitical climate of Paris at the dawn of the enlightenment, Dieterle comes up with a film strengthened by it's contextualization. Laughton is by far the best actor I've seen as Quasimodo, better even than Lon Chaney in the silent 1923 version, and his gruesome-yet-human makeup pulls no punches as the roly-poly Brit's beefy frame cavorts about the set. The big surprise here is a young Maureen O'Hara showing a remarkable degree of sexual femininity - a far cry from the macho spitfire who sparred with John Wayne in many a John Ford film. The large crowd scenes are impressive, displaying all the ignorance and filth of the middle ages in a gently assertive way, and the final siege of Notre Dame is a spectacle worthy of the picture's scope (particularly the strange makeshift gun/cannon used by the Beggar King and Quasimodo's brutal employment of molten lead on the attackers). Surprise, surprise, another solid RKO picture.
Mamma Roma
Pier Paolo Pasolini
1962
While this is only the second Pasolini film I've seen (the first being the superb but inconsistent "Accatone" (1961)) it's easy to see that much of this director's cinema, and that of his contemporaries Visconti and Rosselini, is preoccupied with the social attitudes and conventions of Italian society, and the modern Italian experience. Anna Magnani plays (what else?) a reformed hooker hell-bent on making a proper life for her son Ettore. This being Pasolini religious overtones are splashed all over the place with Magnani cutting a clear Madonna/Magdalene to Ettore's sinless Jesus. There's a few cool tracking shots of Magnani walking the nighttime streets as she returns to her old profession, and her boozy associate Biancofiore is a gorgeous knockout. There's no shortage of honesty or emotion in Pasolini's gritty Roman underworld, and thankfully realism outweighs symbolism to prevent the film from being overly pretentious.
1962
While this is only the second Pasolini film I've seen (the first being the superb but inconsistent "Accatone" (1961)) it's easy to see that much of this director's cinema, and that of his contemporaries Visconti and Rosselini, is preoccupied with the social attitudes and conventions of Italian society, and the modern Italian experience. Anna Magnani plays (what else?) a reformed hooker hell-bent on making a proper life for her son Ettore. This being Pasolini religious overtones are splashed all over the place with Magnani cutting a clear Madonna/Magdalene to Ettore's sinless Jesus. There's a few cool tracking shots of Magnani walking the nighttime streets as she returns to her old profession, and her boozy associate Biancofiore is a gorgeous knockout. There's no shortage of honesty or emotion in Pasolini's gritty Roman underworld, and thankfully realism outweighs symbolism to prevent the film from being overly pretentious.
Willie Dynamite
Gilbert Moses
1974
I had a hunch after recording this one off of television that it was the same movie the Hughes brothers lifted footage from to use in their excellent documentary "American Pimp" (1999). The clips are used to show the clownish perception of the modern panderer in pop culture: a black man with a stable of tricks decked from head to toe in the absurdest threads this side of the Liberace museum. Director Gilbert Moses does an interesting thing here by giving the exploitation audiences what they want with Willie's outrageous getups, his fly ride (plush cheetah print interior), and his jive talking associates, while slyly inserting earnest social commentary. A resplendent Willie strutting away from court with his ladies may be worth a hoot, especially when it's shot in music video style, but what really sticks is the pervasiveness of heroin in the ghetto, the unbridled rage of a black muslim cop, and the feeling that pimping is the only way an ambitious young hood can make it in this white man's world. There's a strange disconnect in Roscoe Orman's performance as Willie reflected in the dual nature of the film's direction. For the most part he seems more sympathetic than not, as he's perpetually harassed by the fuzz, and spends a good portion of the film running away from a murderous cop in an extended chase sequence. The humanity Willie expresses in his rapid downfall is almost surely at odds with the cartoonish villain the studio was expecting.
1974
I had a hunch after recording this one off of television that it was the same movie the Hughes brothers lifted footage from to use in their excellent documentary "American Pimp" (1999). The clips are used to show the clownish perception of the modern panderer in pop culture: a black man with a stable of tricks decked from head to toe in the absurdest threads this side of the Liberace museum. Director Gilbert Moses does an interesting thing here by giving the exploitation audiences what they want with Willie's outrageous getups, his fly ride (plush cheetah print interior), and his jive talking associates, while slyly inserting earnest social commentary. A resplendent Willie strutting away from court with his ladies may be worth a hoot, especially when it's shot in music video style, but what really sticks is the pervasiveness of heroin in the ghetto, the unbridled rage of a black muslim cop, and the feeling that pimping is the only way an ambitious young hood can make it in this white man's world. There's a strange disconnect in Roscoe Orman's performance as Willie reflected in the dual nature of the film's direction. For the most part he seems more sympathetic than not, as he's perpetually harassed by the fuzz, and spends a good portion of the film running away from a murderous cop in an extended chase sequence. The humanity Willie expresses in his rapid downfall is almost surely at odds with the cartoonish villain the studio was expecting.
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Thieves' Highway
Jules Dassin
1949
Jules Dassin's forced blacklist exile to Europe is historically one of Hollywood's greatest losses. At the peak of his skills Dassin was in the midst of building an uncompromising (or at least minimally compromised) body of work that boldly exposed the darker aspects of the American experience. I'm not sure if "Thieves' Highway," the director's last American effort, is my favorite of Dassin's films, but it's been quite a while since I've been this impressed with a picture. Nick Garcos (note the first generation immigrant name) comes home from the navy to find his poor trucker father has been crossed and mutilated by a crooked fruit dealer (Lee J. Cobb) in San Francisco. Partly motivated by Revenge, partly by greed, Nick heads North with a truckload of the season's first Golden Delicious apple crop. Just like his father he's hustled out of his money by Mike Figlia, but won't go home without a fight. The rickety tubs Nick and his partner push up hills and careen through valleys create more tension than the explosion prone lorries of "The Wages of Fear" (1953), and with plenty of severe night photography and overlaid images Dassin perfectly creates foreboding noir atmosphere. By bringing high drama and edginess to the infrastructural elements most of us take for granted, he also cleverly injects social responsibility into a picture that could easily have the romantic gloss of a traditional gangster film. Finally, the most brilliantly subversive move in the picture, is the conclusion of Nick choosing the blue collar life and an earthy hooker for his bride instead of plastic suburbia with a gold-digging trophy wife.
1949
Jules Dassin's forced blacklist exile to Europe is historically one of Hollywood's greatest losses. At the peak of his skills Dassin was in the midst of building an uncompromising (or at least minimally compromised) body of work that boldly exposed the darker aspects of the American experience. I'm not sure if "Thieves' Highway," the director's last American effort, is my favorite of Dassin's films, but it's been quite a while since I've been this impressed with a picture. Nick Garcos (note the first generation immigrant name) comes home from the navy to find his poor trucker father has been crossed and mutilated by a crooked fruit dealer (Lee J. Cobb) in San Francisco. Partly motivated by Revenge, partly by greed, Nick heads North with a truckload of the season's first Golden Delicious apple crop. Just like his father he's hustled out of his money by Mike Figlia, but won't go home without a fight. The rickety tubs Nick and his partner push up hills and careen through valleys create more tension than the explosion prone lorries of "The Wages of Fear" (1953), and with plenty of severe night photography and overlaid images Dassin perfectly creates foreboding noir atmosphere. By bringing high drama and edginess to the infrastructural elements most of us take for granted, he also cleverly injects social responsibility into a picture that could easily have the romantic gloss of a traditional gangster film. Finally, the most brilliantly subversive move in the picture, is the conclusion of Nick choosing the blue collar life and an earthy hooker for his bride instead of plastic suburbia with a gold-digging trophy wife.
Thursday, April 09, 2009
Aliens
James Cameron
1986
A worthwhile sequel to Ridley Scott's space chiller. James Cameron widens the franchise's scope, sadly moving away from Scott's sterile sense of isolation and existential dread. Still, it's hard to argue with the showmanship Cameron brings by pitting man vs. alien in direct combat. The film's design may be less artful but there's still some amazing touches in the marines' hip mounted guns (which fire bullets instead of corny lasers), the mecha-shipping-robot, and the Giger inspired alien queen herself brought to life by the late Stan Winston. Shallow marine characterizations and a sleazy one-note Paul Reiser, are offset by Sigourney Weaver's nuanced portrayal of Ripley and the emotionally punchy inclusion of an imperiled orphan. Motherhood is the theme of the day here with Ripley having lost her daughter to time, picking up the surrogate Newt, and facing off in mortal combat against another mommy who weighs two tons and pops out slimy facehugger eggs. Fleshing out the details of the alien race is a nice treat, and the parallels drawn to the insect world are particularly delightful.
1986
A worthwhile sequel to Ridley Scott's space chiller. James Cameron widens the franchise's scope, sadly moving away from Scott's sterile sense of isolation and existential dread. Still, it's hard to argue with the showmanship Cameron brings by pitting man vs. alien in direct combat. The film's design may be less artful but there's still some amazing touches in the marines' hip mounted guns (which fire bullets instead of corny lasers), the mecha-shipping-robot, and the Giger inspired alien queen herself brought to life by the late Stan Winston. Shallow marine characterizations and a sleazy one-note Paul Reiser, are offset by Sigourney Weaver's nuanced portrayal of Ripley and the emotionally punchy inclusion of an imperiled orphan. Motherhood is the theme of the day here with Ripley having lost her daughter to time, picking up the surrogate Newt, and facing off in mortal combat against another mommy who weighs two tons and pops out slimy facehugger eggs. Fleshing out the details of the alien race is a nice treat, and the parallels drawn to the insect world are particularly delightful.
Wednesday, April 08, 2009
Pineapple Express
David Gordon Green
2008
What happened to David Gordon Green? One minute he's crafting masterpieces like "George Washington" (2000) and to a lesser extent "All The Real Girls" (2003), and now he's stuck making Cheech and Chong rehashes. "Undertow" (2004) may have been far less inspired than his first two pictures, but by general release standards it was in no way a bad picture, but while I was disappointed to miss "Snow Angels" (2007) I heard it was absolutely dreadful. I don't mean to harsh on Green too much. "Pineapple Express" is a pretty decent flick and I love it when gifted directors work in multiple genres (and this one bounces around several at once with shades of the stoner film, buddy movie, and actioner), but ultimately Judd Apatow's involvement goes a long way to damaging a good time. Green's love of 70's film is visually present with clever costumes and gorgeously saturated color photography. The picture's sense of humor is great, less present in the dopey pothead antics, than in it's absurdist tendencies. The drug-lord villain is amusingly banal, and a minor dealer receives massive amounts of punishment throughout, only to bounce back every time. Inevitably though, this lively story gets injected with unctuous doses of Apatovian male bonding. Feelings are hurt and guys blubber like sissies only to "make up" later on. It's fine to do it in one or two movies, but why does every comedy these days have to be filled to the gills with touchey-feeley man-babies?
2008
What happened to David Gordon Green? One minute he's crafting masterpieces like "George Washington" (2000) and to a lesser extent "All The Real Girls" (2003), and now he's stuck making Cheech and Chong rehashes. "Undertow" (2004) may have been far less inspired than his first two pictures, but by general release standards it was in no way a bad picture, but while I was disappointed to miss "Snow Angels" (2007) I heard it was absolutely dreadful. I don't mean to harsh on Green too much. "Pineapple Express" is a pretty decent flick and I love it when gifted directors work in multiple genres (and this one bounces around several at once with shades of the stoner film, buddy movie, and actioner), but ultimately Judd Apatow's involvement goes a long way to damaging a good time. Green's love of 70's film is visually present with clever costumes and gorgeously saturated color photography. The picture's sense of humor is great, less present in the dopey pothead antics, than in it's absurdist tendencies. The drug-lord villain is amusingly banal, and a minor dealer receives massive amounts of punishment throughout, only to bounce back every time. Inevitably though, this lively story gets injected with unctuous doses of Apatovian male bonding. Feelings are hurt and guys blubber like sissies only to "make up" later on. It's fine to do it in one or two movies, but why does every comedy these days have to be filled to the gills with touchey-feeley man-babies?
Friday, April 03, 2009
The Dark Knight
Christopher Nolan
2008
This is a real solid sequel to Nolan's reincarnation of the Batman franchise. As a guy who saw "Batman and Robin" (1997) in the theater I can honestly say that this gravely serious take on the caped crusader is a clever avenue to explore, considering the series had degenerated into A-list actors in Circe Du Soleil costumes making stupid puns on massively tacky sets. From a scripting standpoint it's clever how the Nolan brothers take outlandish and iconically established villains like the Joker and Two-Face and integrate them as realistically as possible into a world that's only marginally fantastic. I'm not saying that this grim and dour, hyper-realist batman is the best of all possible worlds, but this experiment in grounding a character whose always lived in a make-believe world is, at the very least, fascinating. Would Heath Ledger have won the Oscar if he hadn't met an untimely death? Who cares. His performance was solid and the Academy Awards kind of blow anyways. For all the creative touches, and expert filmmaking the picture's overly philosophical ending seems a little like a hollow stunt, or maybe the kind of cliffhanger Joel Schumacher would have used to get us ready for the next installment. I hear Michael Madsen is playing the Croc, and Bob Balaban's going to be the Penguin.
2008
This is a real solid sequel to Nolan's reincarnation of the Batman franchise. As a guy who saw "Batman and Robin" (1997) in the theater I can honestly say that this gravely serious take on the caped crusader is a clever avenue to explore, considering the series had degenerated into A-list actors in Circe Du Soleil costumes making stupid puns on massively tacky sets. From a scripting standpoint it's clever how the Nolan brothers take outlandish and iconically established villains like the Joker and Two-Face and integrate them as realistically as possible into a world that's only marginally fantastic. I'm not saying that this grim and dour, hyper-realist batman is the best of all possible worlds, but this experiment in grounding a character whose always lived in a make-believe world is, at the very least, fascinating. Would Heath Ledger have won the Oscar if he hadn't met an untimely death? Who cares. His performance was solid and the Academy Awards kind of blow anyways. For all the creative touches, and expert filmmaking the picture's overly philosophical ending seems a little like a hollow stunt, or maybe the kind of cliffhanger Joel Schumacher would have used to get us ready for the next installment. I hear Michael Madsen is playing the Croc, and Bob Balaban's going to be the Penguin.
Jason X
James Isaac
2001
I've seen my fair share of stinkers but this one takes the cake. "Jason X" is a sci-fi/horror mash-up that sends a cryogenically frozen Jason Voorhees into an interstellar future to inevitably thaw out and rack up a body count. So poorly executed and realized, it's puzzling as to how director James Isaac was ever an associate of David Cronenberg (the creepy Canuck even makes an onscreen cameo!). Despite the awful script, dopey acting, and near complete lack of graphic violence what really kills the picture is the complete lack of imagination in the penny-thin production values. Flat lighting on shitty sets and the most unremarkably generic "futuristic" costumes do no favors for a slasher flick with a noticeable lack of slash. The scene where the robo-chick blows classic Jason all to hell is a hoot, and the ending is actually pretty decent considering the film's generally crappy caliber, but I think I'm going to be hard pressed to find a worse installment as I navigate my way through the franchise.
2001
I've seen my fair share of stinkers but this one takes the cake. "Jason X" is a sci-fi/horror mash-up that sends a cryogenically frozen Jason Voorhees into an interstellar future to inevitably thaw out and rack up a body count. So poorly executed and realized, it's puzzling as to how director James Isaac was ever an associate of David Cronenberg (the creepy Canuck even makes an onscreen cameo!). Despite the awful script, dopey acting, and near complete lack of graphic violence what really kills the picture is the complete lack of imagination in the penny-thin production values. Flat lighting on shitty sets and the most unremarkably generic "futuristic" costumes do no favors for a slasher flick with a noticeable lack of slash. The scene where the robo-chick blows classic Jason all to hell is a hoot, and the ending is actually pretty decent considering the film's generally crappy caliber, but I think I'm going to be hard pressed to find a worse installment as I navigate my way through the franchise.
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