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Director Dario Argento’s body of work is not unlike that of horror-rockabilly icons The Cramps, who’d been performing minor variations of the same song since 1982. If you own one Cramps album, you essentially own them all. Ditto for Argento’s films, which, more often that not, revolve around the witness to some horrific crime who spends the entire movie trying to recall one crucial piece of evidence before falling victim to a black-gloved killer. After 1970’s The Bird With The Crystal Plumage, it would be easy to write Argento off as a one-shot auteur (which defies the very definition of the word), but like The Cramps, there is a certain genius in the minute variations; as if the creators are perfecting their craft, chipping away at a masterpiece that is as yet unfinished. The Stendhal Syndrome is not that masterpiece. But it is the director’s most mature and professional work in the modern era (I’m talking anything post-Opera), anchored by a challenging performance from his own daught...

Japanese culture is complicated enough on its own. So when a movie starts lifting elements of Hollywood genres and pop culture iconography, it can be flat-out frustrating to try and make sense out of who's stealing what from whom! Luckily, a film like Doberman Cop (1977) doesn't require a whole lot of critical analysis. Sonny Chiba stars as Kano, a backwards island cop on loan to the Tokyo police force to help identify a dead body. Initially dismissed as a country bumpkin, Kano soon steals the show in pursuit of a serial killer whose next target looks to be the rising star of a national singing competition. While his Battles Without Honor and Humanity series was a huge hit, director Kinji Fukasaku was sweating out the demise of the yakuza genre along with several other studios whose endless series of sequels seemed to have finally played out. Doberman Cop is an obvious franchise attempt - based on a popular manga - that never got off the ground. But even as a one-off...

The expression "find a need then fill it" is a reliable business model for anyone looking to begin a career. And the most successful ideas actually create a need that wasn't there in the first place. Case in point, movie producers were desperate to fill the financial and creative void left after the death of Bruce Lee, parading a dozen or so candidates under ridiculously convenient pseudonyms (Bruce Lei? Really?!) in an attempt to keep the money flowing. One of those suitors to the kung fu crown was Jackie Chan, who actually worked with Lee on small roles in The Chinese Connection and Enter the Dragon . Despite his physical skills, Chan wound up as just another also-ran, a square peg in the round hole left by Lee's irreplaceable charisma. But 1978's Snake in the Eagle's Shadow and Drunken Master showcased Chan's abilities not just as a fighter, but as a gifted physical comedian whose goal was to get a laugh...not just crush a larynx. Kung f...

There's no shortage of larger than life figures involved in the production of Hell and High Water (1954), a submarine movie that ticks off all the boxes one might expect in a Cold War thriller and adds a few new items not usually on the menu. Producer Daryl F. Zanuck recruited director Samuel Fuller, who brought along regular collaborator Richard Widmark, to make a Cinemascope spectacle out of a script that took place almost entirely in the cramped quarters of a refitted Japanese sub. And if that wasn't challenge enough, Zanuck insisted that his mistress, Bella Darvi, be cast as the female lead. The film opens with a mushroom cloud and ominous narration describing a mysterious nuclear explosion near the Arctic Circle. The circumstances surrounding that blast - and the foreign plot to frame the United States for starting WW3 - revolve around Captain Adam Jones (Widmark) who's been hired by a clandestine group of private citizens to chaperone two scientists to a sus...

The giallo didn’t begin with Dario Argento, but his directorial debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, is a signpost most critics and fans recognize as the defining moment which inspired the Italian film industry to flood the market with copycat productions featuring black-gloved killers, vapid victims and ridiculously obtuse titles. Argento himself participated in the process, considerably upping the gore and downsizing the plot with each new entry. But in 1970, Bird served as his calling card to the international film industry, and as such the director crafted a film much more reserved and “professional” than his later work, which suffered glorious highs (Deep Red, Suspiria) and embarrassing lows (Trauma, Phantom of the Opera). Bird is a roadmap to the genre before it became muddied with the footprints of countless producers looking for a quick buck. And while it may lack the visceral punch it once had, it retains the cinematic integrity lacking in most of the films it inspired. S...

THE FLICK: The giallo didn’t begin with Dario Argento, but his directorial debut, The Bird with the Crystal Plumage, is a signpost most critics and fans recognize as the defining moment which inspired the Italian film industry to flood the market with copycat productions featuring black-gloved killers, vapid victims and ridiculously obtuse titles. Argento himself participated in the process, considerably upping the gore and downsizing the plot with each new entry. But in 1970, Bird served as his calling card to the international film industry, and as such the director crafted a film much more reserved and “professional” than his later work, which suffered glorious highs (Deep Red, Suspiria) and embarrassing lows (Trauma, Phantom of the Opera). Bird is a roadmap to the genre before it became muddied with the footprints of countless producers looking for a quick buck. And while it may lack the visceral punch it once had, it retains the cinematic integrity lacking in most of the films it ...

British comedians always seem to have a leg up on their international counterparts. Perhaps because there's always a hint of their dramatic heritage lurking right underneath the surface, masking something a bit more serious and sad underneath. That's certainly the case with Peter Sellers who was able to stretch his legs in more demanding roles like Clare Quilty in Lolita and Chance the gardener in Being There . But the actor found his greatest success emulating physical comedians like Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin as Inspector Clouseau in director Blake Edwards' series of increasingly outlandish Pink Panther films, now gathered in on complete set for the first time on Blu-ray. The original Panther (1963) was actually built around star David Niven as Sir Charles Lytton, a devil-may-care playboy moonlighting as the "Phantom," an international jewel thief whose latest acquisition (the titular diamond) is being pursued by Clouseau, a bumbling French insp...

A successful international exploitation artist, Ovidio G. Assonitis never met a movie he couldn't make a quick buck off of...especially if there was an even more successful movie to use as a springboard. As a producer / director he crafted his own take on The Exorcist (1974's Beyond the Door ), Jaws (1977's Tentacles ) and even an unofficial sequel to Piranha (1981's Piranha 2: The Spawning ) on which he hired then fired director James Cameron. Probably the least notable is Madhouse , produced the same year, which is a bit of a kitchen sink giallo with elements of The Shining and a decade worth of slasher movies rolled into one. But of all the films mentioned, it's probably the most slick and cohesive of the bunch, lifting disparate batch of second-hand horror clichés - devil dogs, deformed siblings and family curses - into an often confounding but gleefully entertaining watch. Julia (Trish Everly) and her emotionally abuse identical twin, Helen, haven...

In the 1960s, the Japanese film industry pumped out product at a record pace. Movies were sequelized and serialized like popular mangas of the time, creating multiple ongoing franchises for each studio. Brutal Tales of Chivalry (1965) was the first in a string of yakuza stories set during the Showa era (in this case a ruined post-war suburb of Tokyo) where society struggled to rebuild itself in a new image, one that balanced the inherent temptations of capitalism with the traditional rules of honor ingrained in Japanese culture. Shinji (Ken Takakura), a member of the Kozu family, returns home from the war to a community in crisis. His old boss, struggling to keep the peace between rival yakuza gangs who control good and services supplied to the locals, is murdered for his efforts, passing on the leadership role to Shinji with a nearly untenable caveat that he not retaliate for any wrongs committed against them. Meanwhile the Shinsei gang moves forward with building a new marketpl...

Joe Dellesandro was a perfect fit for the Warhol factory's foray into feature films. His androgynous looks and junkie physique were embodied the glam-rock era mixed with a seedy street-level authenticity you just couldn't fake. After a moderate success with Paul Morrissey's back-to-back horror films Flesh for Frankenstein and Blood for Dracula , Dellesandro was "farmed out" so to speak for other European producers looking to take advantage of his American underground cache. The Climber is a rather traditional Italian gangster story of an ambitious young thug, Aldo (Dellesandro), with dreams of toppling the local bosses and starting an organization of his own. Of course, as a foreigner in a country where "family" means everything, the odds are against his success. But Aldo pushes his way into the local clubs and restaurants, demanding protection payments and horning in on drug trade. Eventually, he and his upstart band of followers intimidate th...

Released at the tail end of the '70s, Who'll Stop the Rain is wrapped up in the iconography of the era: Vietnam, drugs, and the slow, sad demise of the peace & love generation. But the plot itself pushes a much more straightforward action movie agenda. Working off the novel Dog Soldiers by Robert Stone, Nick Nolte gets his first real slam dunk role as Ray Hicks, an ex-marine whose return to the land of the free leaves him feeling more trapped than ever before. With the war winding down, photographer John Converse (Michael Moriarty) sees an opportunity in the drug trade, graduating from grass to smack and asking his old buddy Ray to smuggle it back to the U.S. where his wife, Marge (Tuesday Weld) will be waiting with payment. Unfortunately, Marge is saddled with a habit of her own and is completely taken by surprise at her husband's new business plan. So when a dirty cop plans to take the shipment for himself, Ray and Marge hit the road to try and unload the dru...

Just about every modern review of 1991's The Man in the Moon will begin with mentioning the acting debut of Reese Witherspoon. And they should. As much talent as the rest of the cast and crew bring to the table, it's Witherspoon who runs away with the film, making her coming-of-age performance seem effortlessly honest, charming and bittersweet. But now that the actress has proven she has what it takes for the long haul, we can focus on the other elements of director Robert Mulligan's film that put her in a position to succeed. A tomboy caught at that precarious age of 14, Dani Trant (Witherspoon) admires all the attention her pretty older sister, Maureen, attracts from the boys...but is still enjoying all the innocent fun to be had in 1957 rural Louisiana. Her priorities change when the older boy next door, Court (Jason London), sparks an immediate romantic connection. Unfortunately, it's a bit one-sided, as Court refuses to commit to a relationship with someo...

Even a legend has his off days. And William Goldman's long, long gestating original script for Year of the Comet (1992), ostensibly an action-packed, globe-trotting romance when written, aged into a derivative, sexist mess by the time it was given a greenlight. Certainly some of the blame lies in the casting of Tim Daly, a competent TV actor when being a TV actor wasn't cool. But most of the fault lies in Goldman's sitcom-style romantic suspense between Daly and co-star Penelope Ann Miller, a mousey sommelier who gets swept off her feet by a dashing troubleshooter as they protect a priceless bottle of wine. On her first assignment for her father's auction house, Margaret Harwood (Miller) stumbles upon an oversized bottle of unique vintage in the basement of a rented castle. Unfortunately, the castle is being rented by a trio of evil genetic researchers (led by actor Louis Jourdan) whose secret formula for eternal youth is hidden in the crate in which Margaret...

Director Georges Franju's Eyes Without a Face (1960) might be one of the most iconic and imitated horror films you've never heard of. His follow-up, Spotlight on a Murderer (1961) seems less influential on the surface; but this quirky murder / mystery winds up right in the thick of a gothic renaissance that spread through Italy and Germany, leading up to the more explicit gialli cycle of black-gloved killers. Here we have a much more typical, but playfully clever, whodunit built around a cast of familial suspects bickering over a delayed inheritance. Upon his death, Count Herve de Keraudren crawls inside a secret room in his sprawling castle, thereby depriving his heirs of an official corpse and delaying the transfer of his assets five years. Gathered together in frustration, the surviving family members come up with a plan to pay for the immense costs of running the estate while they wait: put on a show built around the legend of a doomed love triangle that occurred ri...

Charles Bronson made 25 movies over the course of one decade - 1970 to 1980 - cementing his status as one of the premiere tough guys in cinematic history. While he often patrolled the same city streets and dusty cow towns as rival star Clint Eastwood , whose Dirty Harry installments served as a template for the post-Western action film genre, Bronson was even more of a minimalist when it came to his onscreen performances. To his critics (then and now) the actor was sleepwalking through undemanding roles. But to his fans, each laconic line delivery and squinty stare spoke volumes. The Stone Killer (1973), Bronson’s third consecutive collaboration with director Michael Winner (they'd finally hit pay dirt the next year with Death Wish) is far from either man's best work. A seemingly random concoction of ingredients pulled from popular hits like The Godfather and Dirty Harry - although it's based on a British novel - the film leaves a trail of stranded characters ...

Let's be honest, most 3D movies from the original '50s boom would be worthless without the gimmick of monsters, explosions or curvy space babes coming out of the screen. That's not to denigrate their entertainment value; but taken as a whole, the films were designed to take advantage of the latest fad, not to stand the test of time. There are certainly exceptions to the rule, and Inferno (1953) is one of them. Starring Robert Ryan as a spoiled millionaire left for dead in the desert by his cheating wife and her lover, the film is just as tense and exciting in two-dimensions as it is in three. The script cuts right to the chase - or getaway in this case - as Geraldine Carson (Rhonda Fleming) covers her tracks with help from new beau, Joseph Duncan (William Lundigan), erasing all signs of their path down the mountain where her husband, Donald Whitley Carson III (Ryan), has been left with a broken leg. As the duo arrive back in town, blaming Carson's disappearanc...

If you think American politics are a mess, just try and make sense of the chaos that took place in Italy in the '70s and '80s. Corruption, collusion and power struggles resulted in the high profile assassinations of judges, many of whom were the sole line of defense in a burgeoning war against terrorism and the Mafia, men who gave up their lives as a surrogate for the weak political will of their country. OK, history lesson over...but it's an essential part of appreciating director Francesco Rosi's Three Brothers (1981), a film based on the work of Russian novelist Andrei Platonov, but predominantly concerned with Italian politics of the day. The death of their mother brings Raffaele, Rocco and Nicola back together to their small farming village in southern Italy, where their father, Donato, is planning the funeral. Out of touch with each other and the simple lives they left behind, each man brings along their fair share of emotional baggage. Nicola is frustrate...

Considering he shot 23 yakuza-action movies between the years 1972 and 1978, it's a wonder director Kinji Fukasaku could keep the characters, stunts and scripts from spilling over into each new production. In actuality, there's a good bit of recycling going on in Cops versus Thugs , with familiar actors from the Battles Without Honor and Humanity films (recently released as a box set by Arrow Video) shuffled into new roles and familiar scenarios given a fresh twist. Here, it's an unlikely friendship between Detective Kuno (Bunta Sugawara) and up-and-coming yakuza Kenji Hirotani (Hiroki Masukata) that sets the stage for an almost Shakespearean family tragedy. The title, Cops versus Thugs is more than a bit of a misnomer as the script (by BWH&H screenwriter Kazuo Kasahara) is primarily focused on the blurred lines on both sides of the law. Det. Kuno and the cops at his local precinct aren't exactly on the take, but their method for keeping the peace involves ma...

The digital age has ushered in an overabundance of film appreciation over film criticism. But a movie like How t o Steal a Million (1966) is almost completely immune to a critical dissertation of its pros and cons. It exists simply to entertain, matching up two beautiful people (Audrey Hepburn and Peter O'Toole) in a beautiful city (a modern but picturesque Paris) surrounded by beautiful things (artwork from masters like Renoir and Van Gogh)....one particular item of which they plot to steal from under the noses of several security guards, the Paris police force and an unbeatable electronic security system. This should be fun! And it most assuredly is. Director William Wyler ( The Big Country ) was a bit late to the heist film game. Two Pink Panther movies had already come and gone before he enlisted the writer of Peter Sellers' last installment ( A Shot in the Dark ) to adapt the long-gestating project as a vehicle for Hepburn, a star he'd helped to create in ...

The first comedic pairing of Jack Lemon and Walter Matthau got off to an auspicious start with 1966's The Fortune Cookie , a satirical riff on the double-dealing, penny pinching insurance industry and the ambulance-chasing attorneys who fight just as dirty to make a quick buck. Under the directorial guidance of Billy Wilder ( Some Like It Hot ), the actors bookend each other almost effortlessly, setting the stage for even more comfortable collaborations to come. But it's here, in a script overstuffed with quirky supporting characters, that Lemon and Matthau found their groove as mismatched brothers-in-law Harry Hinkle and Willie Gingrich. A sideline cameraman for CBS, Harry (Lemon) gets walloped by "Boom Boom" Jackson, the Cleveland Browns' star punt returner, on a broken play. Although there's no real damage done, Willie (Matthau) quickly hatches a scheme to sue everyone involved, passing off an old back injury of Harry's - along with plenty of i...

In the films of Elio Petri, not all crimes are created equal. In fact, the director often argues that murder is less despicable than a general lack of ethics and morality. It's a socio-political theme that began almost fully-formed with his debut feature, The Assassin (1961), a clever character study disguised as a police procedural starring Marcello Mastroianni as an unscrupulous antiques dealer accused of killing his older, wealthy lover. Brought in for questioning, Alfredo Martelli (Mastroianni) is confronted with the rather serious fact that he was the last person to see Adalgisa De Matteis alive. And as the history behind their relationship is revealed - Martelli seduced her away from a close friend and counted on her for financial support - the chief investigator, Palumbo (Salvo Randone) becomes less and less sympathetic to Alfredo's pleas of innocence. As does the audience. Petri uses a series of flashbacks prompted by each new bit of evidence, scenes which cast ...

More of Woody Allen's adventures in Bergmanland , Another Woman (1988) draws most of its inspiration from Wild Strawberries , Bergman's dreamy meditation on the regrets that come with a life unlived. In this case, that life belongs to Marion (Gena Rowlands), an accomplished professor of philosophy, amateur artist, appreciator of poetry, theater, fine wine and all around successful 50-something woman who suffers a shocking epiphany that the rest of the world finds her to be a prissy, judgmental hypocrite. Allen excels in writing just that sort of self-centered, elitist snob....but he rarely camouflages them so well. On sabbatical to prepare for a new book, Marion subleases a small second apartment away from her stiff but successful husband, Ken (Ian Holm), in order to work in peace. But by some acoustical fluke, the private conversations from the psychiatrist office next door provide an even more irresistible distraction. Marion finds herself drawn into the depressing conf...

Despite the lurid titles and campy artwork adorning VHS classics like Basket Case and Frankenhooker , the films of Frank Henenlotter were always a cut above the usual home video cash-ins. There was obvious affection for the genre, of course, but matched with an ambition to do something more than compete with the typical slashers and creature features. Henelotter's work had wit and panache (at least as much as he could afford) along with the practical gore effects '80s fans demanded. Brain Damage (1988) is all that and more, unraveling like a hallucinatory blend of David Cronenberg and Jim Henson as it introduces the world to Elmer, a brain-eating parasite who provides his host with a heroine-like "juice" in exchange for a regular supply of his favorite food. The film opens with an elderly couple frantically searching their New York apartment for (what we assume to be) their missing pet. But when they wind up on the floor foaming at the mouth from withdrawal s...

Pity those poor Sonny Chiba completionists. While Bruce Lee had a tragically shortened career, Chiba has 188 credits -highlighted by his forceful turn in the Streetfighter films of the '70s - stretching from his more lighthearted appearances in the early '60s right up to his role in Tarantino's Kill Bill movies and beyond. And only a very small percentage of them have ever made it onto Region 1 home video, let alone Blu-ray. So consider the release of Wolf Guy: Enraged Lycanthrope (1975) a drop in a very big bucket. Based on a popular manga series, the Toei produced film cuts so many corners it barely qualifies as a proper adaptation but works overtime to hold its audience interest. Chiba stars as Akira Inugami, the sole survivor of a clan of shapeshifters who is pulled into the investigation surrounding a series of deadly maulings, the victims torn to shreds by some invisible force. Caught between a yakuza plot, tragic romance and his own supernatural lineage, I...

Although its theme of women in the workplace is still a hot topic, Baby Boom (1987) probably won't inspire much serious discussion. Maybe that's because its main character, J.C Wiatt, is an honest-to-goodness one-percenter, thriving at the top of the executive pay scale. Or maybe it's just that writer Nancy Meyers, who specializes in crowd-pleasing, demographically targeted, feel-good fluff, isn't interested in starting a serious dialogue to begin with. Baby Boom is perfectly fine with being a workingwoman chick-flick fairy tale, thank you very much. And, to be honest, it's kind of refreshing not to have to carry all that extra weight. The self-described "Tiger Lady" of a Manhattan marketing firm, J.C. (Diane Keaton) is all business; she wears her 80 hour work week and unmarried-but-successfully-cohabitating status like a badge of honor. But an unlikely inheritance from a cousin overseas results in her being named guardian of Elizabeth, a Gerber...

Caltiki, The Immortal Monster (1959) is one of the holy grails of '50s science fiction. Marking the uncredited directing debut of Mario Bava ( Blood and Black Lace ), the film has been almost impossible to find on home video outside of imports or grey market dubs. But now Arrow Video has stepped up to the plate with a Blu-ray / DVD combo that blows away any previous presentation and adds a pair of audio commentaries to explain what all the fuss what about. In actuality, Caltiki is a bit of a bore. But then again, so are most of the Sputnik-era monster movies it's emulating. Modeled after the success of Hammer Films' The Quatermass Xperiment , here we have a team of scientists on an archeological dig in Mexico who awaken a flesh-eating, radioactive blob. It turns out this same blob was responsible for the mysterious disappearance of the entire Mayan civilization. And it's got its eyes (or sensory organs of some sort) set on Rome next! Director Riccardo Freda ...

Anyone with even a passing interest in Spaghetti Westerns has certainly run across Django. The character, introduced in Sergio Corbucci's 1966 film and played by Franco Nero, was co-opted by countless producers for completely unrelated projects simply for name recognition. There was only one official sequel, but 1968's Django, Prepare a Coffin is almost as legit, with the same writer, cinematographer and newcomer Terence Hill as a near-perfect stand in for Franco titular tragic hero. The film begins with a Django (Hill) coming to the aid of an aspiring politician, David Barry, (Horst Frank) but turning down the job offer of "enforcer" in the new administration. Miffed at the refusal, Barry orders his men - led by the merciless Lucas (George Eastman) to hijack a cargo of gold Django is charged with delivering, murder his wife and leave the gunslinger for dead. Fast forward five years. Django is alive and working as a hangman, all part of an elaborate plan for ...

One of the progenitors of Italian Neorealism, director Luchino Visconti often found his pendulum swinging in a more melodramatic direction. And that's certainly the case with Ludwig (1973) an overstuffed buffet of royal politics, sexual repression and a hint of madness. Helmut Berger inhabits the role of "Mad" King Ludwig II of Bavaria, whose artistic obsessions and homosexual tendencies pushed him into a life of paranoid isolation. At nearly four hours in length (the TV version adds another 17-minutes), Visconti certainly had the freedom to leave no stone unturned. But his emphasis lies with the underlying cause of Ludwig's fragile mental state, caused by thwarted passions and a government that coddled his eccentricities in exchange for a free hand. Ludwig's legacy, after being deposed and driven to suicide, are the extravagant castles that remain a huge tourist attraction in what is now Germany. Inheriting the throne at the age of 18, Ludwig (Berger) h...

Providing a shaky bridge between modern horror classics like Night of the Living Dead and The Exorcist , Willard (1971) was a surprise hit in 1971, dropping the traditional supernatural scares and kickstarting the "animal attack" genre that would run rampant throughout the decade. But it's the film's soft-sell approach that helped it go mainstream, substituting honest-to-gosh emotions in place of grindhouse-style gore. Willard (played to perfection by a young Bruce Davison) is a bit of a pushover, allowing his boss, Mr. Martin (Ernest Borgnine) to work him all hours and his mother (Elsa Lanchester) to smother him with nagging affection. After running across a nest of rats in the backyard, Willard develops a close relationship with the cuddly rodents, particularly a black and white pair he names Ben and Socrates respectively. His new friends are quick learners and big eaters. With tax payments looming and his job on the line, Willard soon realizes that his rat...

It's safe to say that pandering to '80s nostalgia has gone mainstream. Everything from TV shows ( The Goldbergs ) to streaming events ( Stranger Things ) to pizza commercials (Ferris Buehler lived in Chicago, people, he would never order from Dominos!) is coated with day-glo residue of pop culture references and one-hit wonders. Released in 2001, well before the retro resurgence was even due to arrive, Donnie Darko uses the '80s as a colorful backdrop for its story of a troubled teen on the edge of full-blown paranoid schizophrenia...who also holds the fate of the world in his hands. Or not. The beauty of director Richard Kelly's film is that it doesn't hand out easy answers for its interconnected theories of time travel, spiritual plans, invisible friends and intangible jellyfish sprouting out of everyone's chest. It's a sort of sci-fi-afterschool-special that manages to treat mental illness with some real emotional weight and also get a laug...