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Reviews
Cover Girl Killer (1959)
Where are all the Cover Girls?
One of the slowest moving B movies in recent memory - though just 61 minutes, it can seem an eternity, with cheesy sets, flat lighting, nearly non-existent cinematography (maybe an interesting shot or two at the 'climax', but I grasp at straws), long boring spates of dialogue where conversations are unnecessarily repeated and not much footage of the promised Cover Girls of the title. Nothing new here. Poor acting abounds, especially 'our hero', the aptly named Spencer Teakle, as the incredibly wooden and unlikely owner of the pin-up magazine WOW - though by way of explanation we are advised his Uncle gave him reins of the magazine to encourage a change in his nephew's square, non-sexy image. It didn't work. The plot is standard, even sub-standard. Cover girls are killed one by one by - you got it - a nut job who wants to 'free man from the lustful images that pollute his sanity', played by an unconvincing Harry H Corbett replete in a disguise that includes a Beatles wig (before the Beatles) and pebble glasses that look like the kind of joke glasses where the eyeball springs are ready to pop out at you at any minute. Wide eyed and obvious, he stands out as your typical unfriendly neighborhood pervert. Few chills or scary moments as Corbett has only two short interactions with the Cover Girls, neither one menacing. The first, in which he convinces a cover girl to pose nude, is a deadly dull scene (as there is no nudity or murder on screen - or even the suggestion of suspense)- just a quick cutaway when the killer apparently strikes. His last attack is somewhat better, in which (in the one interesting twist) Corbett convinces a theatrical agent to send an actor to Mr. Spencer Teacle's 'Kasbah' club where the police are waiting to entrap Corbett with model June who they 'talked into' appearing on the latest issue of WOW to attract the killer to come and kill her, promising her protection - right, heard that line before? The police naturally fall for this scam, leaving Cover girl/model/dancer/stripper/love interest/all around good girl, who's agreed to be the bait, in the clutches of the real killer. In an anti-climatic and quick scene (after suffering through endless exposition throughout the rest of the movie) Corbett attacks the heroine of the film and as the police close in on him and he holds them at bay with a gun, the quick-witted (for the first time in the movie) Teacle unties the rope to a catwalk where the killer is holding June, Teacle yelling "Hang on, June", and, thinking on her feet, she does, while Corbett conveniently falls to his death and Teacle and his 'dancer' friend walk away arm in arm to apparent domestic bliss. This is really a mess.
Stranded: I've Come from a Plane That Crashed on the Mountains (2007)
docudrama has interest because of survivors appearances
The story is one of the most compelling chronicles of survival I have heard about in my lifetime. I remember the headlines at the time it happened and I followed the story as it unfolded as I was a college student at the time, the same age as some of the rugby team members. I don't think this docudrama succeeds on its own steam with its structure of survivor interviews interspersed with some cheesy deliberately muted 'dramatizations.' But then the movie 'Alive!' didn't do it for me either. It was reading Piers Paul Reid's account that made the incident come alive for me - his narrative was rich in detail and suspense. This documentary was at its best when the survivors recounted the avalanche and what their near death experiences were like. Quite memorable. And it was heartwarming to see the survivors alive today and still (apparently) bonded. The best parts were the all too brief newsreel footage clips of Parrado and Canessa being interviewed and of what looks like either Carlitos Paez or Bobby Francois emotionally clutching his father. There should have been more of these and the film should have let those strong types of images speak for themselves. Strikingly missing was an explanation of how Parrado and Canessa reached safety, which Reid's book goes into detail about. Though everyone worked together as a team, as is stressed by all accounts, to be honest, it was the mental determination and athletic strength of the one man everybody put their bets on, Nando Parrado, who really saved the day. There wasn't enough footage devoted to this brave, remarkable man whose insistence on survival is still incredibly inspirational and mind-boggling at the same time.
Nightmare (1956)
One of the last great black and white noirs
Cornell Woolrich was the source of many scripts from the time he was writing in the thirties (in the last century) up until now. His books themselves are hopelessly outdated in writing style, overwritten and florid - but the plots - he was a veritable Agatha Christie when it came to cooking up noir twists and turns. One of my favorites was his novella Nightmare, here (forgive me) hypnotically brought to the screen with moody settings, bayous drenched in rain, mirrored rooms, seedy hotel rooms in New Orleans, a weird strangulated score based on the songs in the movie and great performances by ALL involved, a suspicious Edward G. Robinson who's a hard boiled cop reprising his performance in Double Indemnity with his wife's brother Kevin McCarthy as the foil instead of Fred McMurray. Only in this picture McCarthy is innocent. McCarthy, hitting his stride in, in my opinion, the best sci-fi thriller of all time, INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS. did NIGHTMARE the same year and brings believability to his role as the skittish and floundering jazz musician living in a New Orleans seedy hotel while drifting through the Bourbon Street Bar scene. In one scene he picks up a prostitute (which you feel he's done before as their bar banter is done with the greatest of ease.) Even though, of course, he has a girlfriend, and only freaks and bolts from her apartment when, in a weird shot in the mirror, the prostitute reminds him of the woman in the mirrored room of his nightmare...in which he feels he's killed someone and though there's no proof, can't get it out of his mind. Turns out McCarthy was hypnotized into believing he killed someone and why not? The plot's half noir and half giallo anyway. What is the secret of the mirrored room? Does it exist? Of course. And the murder was all very real and executed with great aplomb by the extremely creepy Gage Clarke who in a dual role moves into McCarthy's seedy hotel as presumably just another transient but in a bizarre and disquieting scene actually comes into McCarthy's room with a candle and hypnotizes him further to keep him under his control. You have to check this villain's voice out and his hypnotic structured repetitions for a real spooked out treat. McCarthy is excellent - paranoid and losing it. His girlfriend Connie Russell is the penultimate pin-up babe of the fifties, going the length for 'her man' while decked out in tight sweaters and singing some low down numbers live and in the studio, such as 'It was the last I ever saw of that man' and ' What's Your Sad Story, it can't be sadder than mine' Virginia Christine, Mrs. Olson 'It's Mountain Grown', fresh from co-starring with McCarthy in INVASION, doesn't disappoint here and rounds out a great cast as the pregnant wife of Edward G. Robinson. Pretty much a controlling hysteric type, she goes bananas during thunderstorms with great aplomb! Maxwell Shane directed this material before in FEAR IN THE NIGHT which is fairly unremarkable with a few good moments. But NIGHTMARE is great! The plot is not at all dated and has no holes but is neatly devised and carried out. In the end everything makes sense. I think this movie is vastly underrated and a strange and strong entry in the noir canon. There's something haunting about it you can't shake off.
Uno bianca (2001)
10 out of 10, without question
I was always a fan of Michele Soavi, from his days of being a fledgling director under the wing of Dario Argento to flying freely on his own with the beautiful and fanciful Dellamorte Dellamore with Rupert Everett that seemed to take on everything from being a horror film set in a cemetery based on a famous Italian comic strip to a contemplation on the nature and purpose of man's existence. Its somewhat 'nihilistic' ending puzzles me in a good way, I'm still not sure if it's about the repudiation of violence and death or an acceptance of it and planned return to it, but it is intriguing. Given that Soavi's career seemed to end there, I was surprised and delighted to discover he had finally returned to the screen showing an unsuspected facet of his cinematic talents - that of successfully becoming a director of long and extremely exciting TV movies that basically are police procedurals pitting man against a corrupt society, whether it be against a violent gang of rouge cops headed by three brothers (remember Argento's three mothers?), a man infiltrating the mafia (Raoul Bova L'infiltrato) or a cop hunting down a serial killer in a terrifying TV movie Ultima Pallattola, all of them based on real incidents in Italy. The first of these three (and Soavi did others with Roaul Bova) is the best, with Pallattola coming in a close second. Uno Bianca is a movie that begs for and could sustain a worldwide theatrical release and do more than hold its own. The synopsis has been covered well in other comments so no rehash here. The film is tight, suspenseful, never boring and though the plot could be described as a somewhat usual police procedural, the style the director achieves pushes it way up into another realm. The viewer really identifies with Kim Rossi Stuart who is superb as Valerio; we get to follow in his footsteps as he slowly discovers the impossible truth, that the 'Uno Bianca' gang is not a bunch of Romanian thugs but his own 'brothers' - cops - and we struggle with him as against all odds he takes on his higher-ups who'd rather keep him from making a name for himself than allow him to catch the gang and get any credit. It's one of the strongest 'identification with the lead character' movies I've ever seen. It's a film that succeeds on every level - thanks to imaginative direction, gorgeous camera-work and color, editing that is unique, even breathtaking, and a haunting, pulsating score, tight script and actors cast perfectly down to the smallest roles. Who could ask for anything more in a three hour movie? It leaves you totally satisfied. I've seen this many times now and never get tired of putting it on. I'm glad all of Soavi's three hour TV movies are available on DVD and I have them all. Also his noir theatrical release Arrivederci Amore, Ciao is worth catching and has a brilliant shock ending with some cool shots and great use of slow-mo. It's a pretty cruel and amoral movie though less cruel than the novel on which it is based, a fact criticized by many reviewers, but it has an anti-hero who really stays an anti-hero. The familiar style, camera work and editing of his TV movies is in evidence here. Michele Placido is in it and Soavi's style was a definite influence on his own remarkable Romanza Criminale film. I was thrilled to hear Soavi was going to return to horror with a film called Catacombs Club. Instead he came out with a war drama released theatrically Il Sangue dei Vinti. Haven't seen it but will when it's released on DVD - and hope he does do Catacombs Club as I'd like to see what he does with a horror film as a mature director. For those fans who liked Stagefright, The Church and The Sect and thought Dellamorte was the end - it was only the beginning. Soavi has been prominently directing incredibly suspenseful films full of his lyrical style, mostly for TV, since Uno Bianca, including an overlong TV bio-pic of St. Francis called Francesco which however is not without merit and stars the ever anxious to pair with Soavi Raoul Bova as the maligned Saint. But of all his films, Uno Bianca may lay claim to being his best. There's not a wrong, boring moment in this three hours; everything clicks like a precise watch and you realize it's no accident. Michele Soavi is behind the lens.
Rear Window (1954)
Through a Glass Not Darkly Enough
First let me get this out of the way. I'm a huge Hitchcock fan. But this simply is not one of my favorites. Usually movies based on noir writer Cornell Woolrich's plots work very well with his unusual twists and turns and core themes of nothing being as it 'seems' until in the end we see 'the truth' behind the facade. There's a little of that here, but just a little. It's as straightforward as possible. Yes, the set for this movie is wonderful. But the 'star' turns from Stewart, Kelly, Ritter, even Burr et. al, are a bit artificial. James Stewart, I have to admit, I've never liked in Hitchcock movies like 'Rope' or 'Man Who Knew Too Much' - his aw shucks, limited acting vocabulary doesn't stretch far. Grace Kelly - I don't believe she is in love with this man for a minute. Her accent is strange throughout and distracting and she is wooden - trying so hard to look beautiful she doesn't dare let a real expression cross her face. Her saving the day from afar is the last thing I'd expect this Patrician Figure to attempt - maybe Teresa Wright or even an Anna Massey, but not Grace. Thelma does her shtick - but does it to better effect in ALL ABOUT EVE. Burr seems a bit uncomfortable in the role of the one-note hapless villain and Judith Evelyn seems lost as sea as well in her rather thankless cameo as Ms. Lonelyhearts. She does her usual hysterical turn, but not as well as she does in THE TINGLER or FEMALE ON THE BEACH. There are some boring stretches along the way and too much artifice here - notwithstanding the interesting 'claustropobic' set, done just as well in LIFEBOAT as far as I'm concerned. The actors never seemed real people but 'stars' playing themselves. As such, they didn't provide enough interest for me as characters and helped keep the movie a bit 'flat'. The so-called climactic scene of Burr confronting Stweart was a real let-down. I can name a lot of H's movies that seemed scarier and more real, and had great photography too, such as THE BIRDS, MARNIE, and the excellently acted FRENZY. Not to mention the tension, editing and groundbreaking cinematic 'vision' seen in his early black and white pictures. But this seems to be everybody's favorite and that's fine with me, there's no right or wrong opinion. This one just doesn't grab me.
Suspiria (1977)
The best horror film I've ever seen
Well, this one's it for me. As a horror movie fan since I was a kid, and one who's seen plenty of horror films, this is probably my favorite. I remember going to the theater when this was first released and sitting there stunned and watching it twice in a row. I'd never seen anything like it. I was an Argento fan and expected this to be a giallo like BIRD and CAT, both of which I'd seen on TV and liked. I was unprepared for the fact that here the killer wasn't a suspect in the school but a witch, one of the three mothers, and that this wasn't a standard giallo, but a supernatural horror film made in a totally original style. Needless to say, it's become a classic since I first saw it, and I'm not surprised, because at the time I first saw it I recognized I was seeing something stupendous in the horror genre. The haunting tale seemed a contemporary update of Val Lewton's mysterious, ghostly films - an update with mind-bending color, operatic violence, incredible 'set pieces' and cinematic magic. Since then I've been quite an Argento fan and loved his supernatural follow-up INFERNO almost as much. The recent long anticipated end to the first two parts of his THREE MOTHERS trilogy was a terrible disappointment. If only he'd made it right after INFERNO when he was in the groove...but then we might never have had TENEBRAE, a superb giallo. Let's forget genre for a minute. This film is an intensely realized, dazzling piece of cinema that has lost none of its power over time.
Other Men's Women (1930)
A lovely rediscovered piece of American naturalism
I really liked this film a lot. It was done in a very intimate, non-hokey style and I felt I was right there living with the characters, like maybe in the house next to Mary Astor's. The dialogue was great and the characters believable; it brought back a quieter time in American history when there was dreaming, romance and guilt in the air with plenty of space and time to feel them in. The photography was really rather beautiful. The supporting roles from Cagney and Blondell were handled with aplomb and were fun. But for me the trio of Astor, her husband, Regis Toomey, and Withers really made the movie work. Mary Astor was so sensual - as usual - like she was with Clark Gable in Red Dust. It made it easy to see why she turned Clark's head away from Jean Harlow and Wither's away from Blondell. She has such a simmering passion beneath her dignified surface. And Withers is so cute and sweet, no wonder she fell for him. The scenes dealing with both of their guilt about cheating on her husband were done with grace and subtlety and seemed very real. Not many movies really pull something like that off too well. This one did.
Ultima pallottola (2003)
Beautiful on the eye, terrifying on the heart
I was bowled over by this television movie which was rich enough to have a theatrical release internationally IMHO. As an unabashed fan of director Michele Soavi's, I had high hopes he would turn out a suspenseful movie full of his bravura cinematic touches - and this didn't disappoint. All I can say, as I don't want any spoilers, is that this movie is terribly creepy as it follows the path of a serial killer who is played with unforgettable calmness and cruelty by Carlo Cecchi. The set pieces of murder and attempts at entrapment are ones Argento would envy. Everything is working hard here, the beautiful photography, rich in its constantly moving arcs and color, the editing by Anna Napoli creating a dramatic tension, the music which underscores the drama and a tight script. It is at once terrifying, sad and very real. The scenes of the killer gambling in the casino are especially remarkable. The movie is not for the faint of heart, however. Not because of any blood and guts, slasher style, but because of the carefully built suspense and the eerie and scary characterization and heartless actions of the serial killer.
Romanzo criminale (2005)
hyper-realistic style, color, photography, acting were triumphant
I confess I'm not Italian and don't really have a grasp on the historical significance of the 70's in Italy though I read Moravia's A Time of Innocence (I believe that was the English translation title) and liked it. The movie looked like it was made in contemporary times and the few references to the 70's were confusing as nobody looked like they did in that period. Given that, I loved the style, color, photography and editing and found the plot absorbing and the actors great for the parts. I haven't seen the extended version, don't know what it includes, but would like to, since I was never bored for a minute and it could have been longer as far as I was concerned. Kim Rossi Stuart was great, as were the other members of the 'band', though yes, he seemed out of his element playing a 'cold-blooded' killer. But his sensitivity and decline at the end worked for me. The other guys were great, as was Anna who played Patrizia. She was pretty stunning to look at and believable - when she was on the screen my eyes never wandered. The movie reminded me of Soavi's Uno Bianca in its hypersensitive style, which I loved, though Romanzo wasn't as tight or as suspenseful, I guess. And it wasn't scary either like Soavi's Ultima Pallottola. I don't know if it makes me shallow or what, but I liked the glossy, model feel of the movie a lot. Like I like Soavi's work. For my eyes it was a cinematic feast. Its apparent failings pointed out by other reviewers as a faithful adaptation of the material about the times didn't so much matter to me as I don't know that much about them anyway. I just enjoyed the movie as if it were taking place today and I think others like me might too.
House of Mortal Sin (1976)
''Sometimes Satan comes as a Man of Peace..."
This surprised me by its sense of urgency - the writer-director had a point to make and did - with a straight ahead drive, never straying from powering the plot along with extraneous moments. I'd have guessed its running time to be less than 104 minutes.
This is a credit to Walker who stamped his savage vision on a witch's brew of a film that is one quarter horror, one quarter suspense, one quarter giallo (the Father Cutler, Miss Brabizon, Mrs. Meldrum revelations - some dark secrets from the past are responsible for the twisted actions of the present) - and one quarter brutal social commentary.
While not as terrifying as FRIGHTMARE, a horror film with a shocking feel for family dysfunction in extremis, pitting family member against family member, until the jealousies and hatreds of the past build to a unremitting apex of cruelty, this film nonetheless makes the viewer feel as if something very dark has been learned about mankind.
Walker and McGillivray have a way with turning out a tight, creepy script. There's not a boring moment. It builds to a satisfying, and as in FRIGHTMARE, terribly cynical denouement. If FRIGHTMARE dealt with familial cruelties and WHIPCORD with sexual permissiveness, SIN deals with the discarding of free will for the rigidity of a fundamentalist belief that Walker tells us will surely destroy anyone who by nature is unable to sublimate his humanness to the point where his own earthly needs and desires for individual ideas are dsetroyed. SIN takes its place as part of a trilogy which deals, as with FRIGHTMARE and WHIPCORD, with unreasonable expectations, loss of control and ensuing madness leading to the victimization of and violence against others, especially against those who are felt to challenge or threaten the fixed ideas of the perpetrators. The least successful of the three is WHIPCORD, overlong and a bit unbelievable that the victims can't fight back against their dotty, frail captors.
The cast is excellent. Though Peter Cushing was offered the role of Father Cutler, I'm glad it was taken by a less familiar face and an actor not known for so many horror roles. More sinister than Cushing, Norman Eshley underplayed if anything, making the character's lunacy believable. The two sisters (staples of the other two films in the trilogy though used in different relationships) were well-cast. The heroine was a symbol of her day, a symbol for spunkiness, free expression and the questioning of authority. I thought it wise not to have her capitulate to the priest's sociopathic behavior "because he was a priest". In her mind he was a sick then evil man. Her sister was more given to doubts. Though in the end it didn't matter - not when they came up against a tortured mind, a disturbed psychosis, singular in its goal. Cast well to the last of the secondary characters, the sad Mrs. Davey stands out as the distraught mother of a daughter driven to suicide by the priest's hypocrisy and/or blackmail. She presents a pathetic picture in her sorrow that has nowhere to morph into except excitement at believing she is a match for the monster and can lay a trap for him.
The actual murders of the real and imagined heroine's lovers were horrific. The hospital scene where innocence collides with savagery left no doubt that the beast had won out - as he did through to the end. The death of the 'mistaken libertine' in his hospital bed had a sense of future doom.
The imposing actress Sheila Keith (happily) commands the screen whenever she is in the frame. In a role quite different from the petulant but vengeful cannibal of FRIGHTMARE, she is oddly affecting as the would-be bride of the killer priest who has waited chastely by his side all these years - though of course her affect (and that great eye patch) add sinister touches. The death throes of those who inhabit this house of mortal sin would live up to any horror or giallo fan's dreams.
If there is anything to quibble about it would be the younger priest's believing Father Cutler's every word and hurriedly renouncing the thought of not continuing in Cutler's shoes. But better than having him run to the police accusing Cutler. There is now the implication that evil will grow in his own church garden.
The shock ending shot of the priest pulling on his glove to kill the only "normal" human being left in the film illustrates his psychotic obsession left to flourish, because he has carte-blanche to carry out his murders hidden by the sanctity of the church. Great, unexpected last shot. The themes of Walker's trilogy seems to be there are unknown houses of horrors set amongst the everyday world of those trying to go about their own lives, who don't know they are viewed as sinners by unknown psychotics and don't even realize they are standing in some psychotic's path, viewed as an adversary to be dealt with. It makes you think - there are houses like that in every city - you could pass one unknowingly. Walker is a director not given anything like his full due. Just the quiet shot of the parishioners in SIN sitting joylessly and gullibly on the pews in the dank church are as disturbing as the shots of bloodshed. The film seemed real and menacing and I loved it.