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While it’s no fan favorite, The Cat O' Nine Tails (1971) is undoubtedly director Dario Argento's most accessible and Americanized production amongst an oeuvre that only become more and more outré. Fast-tracked to follow-up to his successful The Bird with the Crystal Plumage , Argento, still glowing with his new moniker as the "Italian Hitchcock," plunges ahead with his most straight-forward thriller, adding in some signature visual touches but restraining from the usual giallo excess that would become the genre's signature. The film begins with yet another accidental eyewitness to a crime - or in this case an ear- witness. Franco Anro (Karl Malden) is a blind ex-newspaperman who spends his retirement years solving crossword puzzles with the help of his 8-year-old niece, Lori. One night, the pair overhears a suspicious conversation that pulls them into a string of murders at a nearby research clinic. Reporter Carlo Giordani (James Franciscus) takes advant...

Writers often take comfort in the old adage "It's not the story, but how you tell it." Meaning even if an idea isn't all that original, one's unique storytelling style can still win the day. Director Yoji Yamada's The Yellow Handkerchief (1977) is adapted from a story by New York Post columnist Pete Hamill, later reprinted in Readers Digest, turned into a short film starring James Earl Jones and (according to IMDB) no less than three other theatrical and TV versions. But the story behind the story of a newly released ex-con who travels across the country to be reunited with his wife had been passed down in some way, shape or form for decades before, even inspiring the hit Tony Orlando and Dawn song Tie a Yellow Ribbon . Yamada's take combines the best elements of a traditional road movie, lighthearted comedy and serious drama. And even though there's a roadmap of material to work with, the film is pleasantly unpredictable, taking its chara...

Despite being the actor of his generation (or maybe because of it), Marlon Brando was responsible for more than a few instances of cinematic sabotage. His antics during the latter part of his career are well documented (with his pasty-faced performance in The Island of Dr. Moreau being the most high profile), but even early on the actor was forcing his decidedly off-beat creative choices on films that would have otherwise walked the straight-and-narrow. Sayonara (1957), based on James A. Michener's novel, is part Japanese travelogue, part social justice film; its beautiful scenery and edgy interracial romance playing out with predictable old Hollywood class. And then there's Brando. With his makeshift southern drawl, ad-libbed lines and mumbled delivery, the actor exists in a world apart from the rest of the film. It's a poor fit...but it's a hoot to watch him swagger through a big-budget, widescreen production with all the chutzpah of an Actor's Studio ...

Despite winning Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay at the 1960 Oscar ceremony, popping up on countless Greatest Films of All Time lists and being added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1994, Billy Wilder's dark romantic comedy The Apartment seems to have drifted out of the public eye. All the more ironic considering the film's plot is centered about workplace infidelity, gender inequality and upward mobility. As a follow-up to his crowd-pleaser Some Like It Hot , Wilder takes wonderful chances here with a much more mature approach - leaning heavily on Shirley MacLaine's second Oscar nominated performance - that results in career best for almost everyone involved. C.C. Baxter (Jack Lemmon) is a low-level employee in one of the nation's largest insurance companies, almost invisible amongst the thousands of desks inside the high-rise office building. But Baxter has been getting glowing reviews thanks to several sleazy exe...

A favorite from the early pay-cable days, Hell Night (1981) is a slasher on training wheels, keeping the sex and gore to a minimum while still providing some predictable jump scares in a gorgeous gothic environment. Linda Blair is likely the click bait for modern audiences, but the tone of the film is a far cry from her turn in The Exorcist . Here she leads a likable cast through a formulaic monster film that feels almost family friendly...in an R-rated sort of way. All prospective pledges from Alpha Sigma Rho are forced to spend one night in Garth Mansion; a sprawling but decrepit estate where 12 years earlier the owner murdered his deformed family then hung himself. Marti (Blair) and her three fellow pledges are prepared for pranks - recorded screams and phony skeletons all prearranged to scare them into embarrassment. But soon people begin dying for real , and Marti must take on the surviving residents of Garth Mansion if she ever expects to survive Hell Night! Some films succ...

As caveman movies go, 1966's One Million Years B.C. has had the top spot locked in for over 50 years. Shot on the primordial Canary Islands, the film combined Ray Harryhausen's singular stop-motion dinosaurs with Raquel Welch's now-iconic fur bikini. Produced by Hammer Films - and spawning a few lesser but still entertaining sequels - it was a match made in fantasy fan heaven. But Tumak and Loana's prehistoric adventures actually began nearly 30 years earlier in the 1940 version of One Million Years B.C. , starring Victor Mature and Carole Landis in the lead roles...and a terrarium full of lizards standing in for the carnivorous (and admittedly unconvincing) dinos. Directed by Hal Roach, whose copious work in the silent film era ironically made him a perfect match for the dialogue-free material, rumors suggest the assistance of none other than D.W. Griffith behind the camera. But whoever gets the credit, there's a lot of praise to be passed around. From t...

Michael Caine took quite a bit of heat for his appearance in 1987's Jaws: The Revenge which was admittedly nothing more than a paycheck for the Oscar winner (his actual quote regarding the film: "I have never seen it, but by all accounts it is terrible. However, I have seen the house that it built, and it is terrific!" ) But the real lesson learned here is that Caine brings a certain level of class to almost any production, no matter how muddled the script or how messy the execution. 1972's Pulp , which reunited the actor with director Mike Hodges, is a bit sloppy itself, revolving around the convoluted story of a ghostwriter who finds himself in jeopardy after agreeing to pen the memoirs of an expatriate Hollywood actor whose mafia ties run dangerously deep. Caine provides just enough smarmy charm - and an equally authentic film noir narration - to make this offbeat satire a serious cinephile conversation piece. Mickey King (Caine) is a crime writer, tossing ...

There's no denying that Woody Allen films are an acquired taste. But working at a pace of almost one movie every year for the past four decades, even the most particular cineaste will find something that suits their taste. More often than not, Allen's most effusive praise is reserved for his mid-70s oeuvre like Annie Hall and Manhattan , but his straight-up sketch comedies, predating his Oscar success, are not without their rabid fans too. Bananas (1971) is the director's third feature, and despite a timely plot centered around third-world dictators (do they ever really go out of style?), the film relies mostly on physical comedy routines straight out of the silent era. Fielding Mellish, another neurotic New Yorker played by Allen himself, is distraught after being dumped by Nancy (Louise Lasser), a die-hard political activist who finds him indescribably lacking. Ticket in hand, Mellish decides to go through with a planned trip to San Marcos, a fictional South Ame...

With a visual palette that predates the colorfully cluttered imaginations of Terry Gilliam and Wes Anderson, Doctor Dolittle (1967) should probably be referenced more often as an influential piece of fantasy filmmaking. Only there are so many dull moments in this otherwise picturesque family adventure that it doesn't linger long in temporal lobe. After taking home Oscars for original song and special effects, director Richard Fleischer's overloaded musical quickly drifted out of a pop culture more interested in mature films like The Graduate and Bonnie and Clyde . Now released on a limited edition Blu-ray from Twilight Time, the flaws are still there...but so is much of its forgotten charm. Fed up with being a "people" doctor, John Dolittle narrows his practice to the study of the veterinary arts after getting quick lesson in animal grammar from his pet parrot. A short stint in a traveling circus provides an infusion of cash necessary for his next project: th...

Watching Gidget (1959) in the modern era of women's rights issue and hourly sexual harassment scandals is a genuinely harrowing experience. What was most certainly an enjoyably empowering adventure about a 16-year-old tomboy blossoming into womanhood is now inescapably creepy. Male viewers will almost feel compelled to cover their eyes on the off chance they're held complicit with the film's multiple sexual predators competing for the affection of an obviously underage girl. Seriously. Of course any film produced in 1959 is bound to have its share of anachronisms. But this comic coming-of-age story, based on a string of popular books that also hit the small screen starring Sally Field, has incredibly bad timing, premiering on a 3000-copy limited edition blu-ray just when society has reached the breaking point when it comes to inappropriate, unwanted male-female relationships. And Gidget is full of them! Young Francie Lawrence (Sandra Dee) would much rather surf...

Horror, as a genre, is both timely and timeless. The shock tactics, as any fan will admit, are pleasantly predictable, but resource-challenged filmmakers tend to populate them with a fresh batch of pop culture references and trendy character quirks. In English? Horror movies make the most of the era in which they were made. Better Watch Out (2017) is no exception, starting with a done-to-death "home invasion" scenario then cleverly covering it tracks to attempt something fresh and new...relatively speaking. For her final babysitting job before leaving for college, Ashley (Olivia DeJonge) takes on her regular gig at the Lerner's with their son Luke (Levi Miller), a quiet 13-year-old she's been watching for years. Expertly fending off his misguided romantic advances, Ashley winds up fighting for both their lives when a stranger with a shotgun hunts them from room to room. But when the identity of the intruder is revealed, an innocent prank quickly escalates in...

Every bit as chilling, powerful and culturally relevant as better-known horror films like Night of the Living Dead and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre , 1974's Deathdream is an overlooked masterpiece in a genre that tosses the word around far too casually. But director Bob Clark ( A Christmas Story ) and writer Alan Ormsby deliver a legitimate shocker that also serves as a not-so-subtle commentary on the post-Vietnam experience. Anxious for word about their son, Andy, the Brooks family has dinner interrupted by a telegram announcing his death. Unwilling to accept the truth, Mrs. Brooks prays for his safe return; and her wish is granted, with terrible consequences. Andy's late-night arrival coincides with the brutal murder of a truck driver, and their son's behavior is nothing short of sociopathic. After Andy murders the family dog, Mr. Brooks calls on the local doctor for advice who quickly connects all the dots. Andy is actually "undead," injecting himsel...

A possession story that skews closer to Jekyll and Hyde than The Exorcist , 1976's J.D.'s Revenge is certainly an outlier amidst the usual action-oriented blaxploitation releases of the day. Lead actor Glynn Turman modeled his terrific performance after Spencer Tracey's turn as the tortured doctor in the 1941 adaptation of Robert Louis Stevenson's story. Here, a hardworking law student / taxi driver finds his personality overtaken by the soul of a 1940s numbers racketeer out for revenge against those who done him wrong. After participating in an onstage hypnotism act, Isaac (Turman) is tortured by flashbacks of memories that aren't his own. Inexplicably, the spirit of J.D. Walker, who was set up for the murder of his own sister, has been reborn, forcing Isaac to commit brutal acts against those he loves and hunt down the people responsible for his death 30 years ago. One of those people is Reverend Elija Bliss (Louis Gossett, Jr.), a former fighter turned evang...

While Hammer Films is known primarily as the "House of Horror" thanks to its long-running series of Dracula, Frankenstein and assorted monster films throughout the sixties and seventies, the studio actually branched out into other genres quite a bit during its history. 1962's The Pirates of Blood River is one of a few swashbucklers - including Captain Clegg and Night Creatures - that offered audiences a reprieve the onslaught of the undead. Here, Captain LaRoche (Hammer stalwart Christopher Lee) leads his motley crew through a deadly swamp in search of treasure hidden somewhere on a Huguenot farming settlement; treasure that even the settler's themselves claim doesn't exist! The film's genesis begins with producer Anthony Nelson Keys requesting a script from staff writer Jimmy Sangster, the man responsible for most of Hammer's early success. But the one big caveat? There's no money for an actual pirate ship . So The Pirates of Blood River...

No one plays cowboy better than Jeff Bridges. In fact, he's gotten so good a pulling off the toothless, beer-bellied, past-his-prime gunhand (see True Grit or Hell or High Water ) that it's getting difficult to picture him as anything else. Ironic for a California kid whose early roles were mostly freewheeling hippies with an infectious grin. And, although he'd dabbled in the Old West before, 1995's Wild Bill is one of the signposts for the second half of his career, directed with a sort of ruthless poetry by western aficionado and action specialist Walter ( The Warriors ) Hill. Hill's screenplay pulls material from several sources to create its own slideshow of the life of Wild Bill Hickok, a legendary figure of the American West whose exploits grow in stature with each telling of the tale. After stints as a soldier, a buffalo hunter, a lawman and a performer, Bill's legend finally comes to rest in the town of Deadwood, a pop-up gold rush community t...

The oft-repeated quote "Dying is easy... Comedy is hard" never really sinks in until you watch something that perfectly illustrates how difficult the genre can be to pull off. Whiskey Galore! (2016) is a remake of the 1949 British comedy from Ealing Studios that related the story (based on actual events) of a conspiracy among the thirsty population of an isolated Scottish Isle to pilfer the precious alcoholic cargo of a freighter stuck on the rocks just offshore. While the original managed to pull off a breezy bit of rebellious wit with a likable cast of characters, director Gillies MacKinnon only makes a passing attempt to do the same. Instead, his version feels very much like a stab at serious drama that doesn't deserve the exclamation point at the end of its title. Built around the actual wreck of the SS Politician, which ran aground during WWII off the north coast of Eriskay carrying 22,000 cases of whiskey - 7,000 of which the locals managed to swipe before it s...

Anti-war films weren't invented simply to accommodate the Vietnam experience. A quick perusal of cinematic history will find each major conflict (and plenty of minor ones) have been used as a backdrop for stories full of the horrors and hypocrisy of warfare. In fact this negative spin is a lot more common than the relatively short-lived, government-mandated patriotism of Hollywood's golden years. But 1967's The Dirty Dozen proved you could still have a good time doing it and paved the way for dozens of like-minded imitators. Play Dirty (1969) followed two years later with a title that made the connection embarrassingly obvious. But the production ran into problems even before it hit theaters. Richard Harris was the first to jump ship - reportedly due conflicts with co-star Michael Caine - then original director Rene Clement was fired and replaced by Andre De Toth who hadn't been behind a camera for six years. Yet despite the plagiaristic plot and shuffled cast...

It's easy to forget after the rise of Spielberg, Scorsese, and Coppola, but during Hollywood's golden years it was the producer who was king. The studio system didn't leave much room for individual artistic expression; the recipe for success was mustering the machinery's best resources in service of story that would put all that effort on the screen. And few did it better than Darryl F. Zanuck. Take for example Captain from Castile (1947), a frenetically paced, historical epic that jumps from the horrors of the Spanish Inquisition to the new-world adventures Cortez and his gold-crazy Conquistadores. As a accurate portrayal of actual events, things get a bit whitewashed, but as Hollywood spectacle it's practically a "how-to" demo reel of production savvy from the first frame to the last. The son of a famous ex-soldier, Pedro De Vargas (Tyrone Power) is stunned when he and his family are accused of heresy and thrown into prison. But he soon real...

Part of a wave of satanic-inspired films that began with Rosemary's Baby and continued to possess cinema screens throughout the rest of the '70s, The Devil's Rain (1975) is the most narratively-challenged film of the bunch. But viewed from a distance of several decades, director Robert Fuest's cast of old Hollywood pros (Ernest Borgnine, Ida Lupino, Eddie Albert, William Shatner), new faces (Tom Skerritt, John Travolta) and a highlight reel of hallucinogenic special effects makes for a bizarrely effective collage of stream-of-consciousness horror. Investigating the disappearance of his family, Tom Preston (Skerritt) and his ESP-enhanced wife (Joan Prather) wind up cornered by a cult of Satan worshippers who've taken over a desert ghost town. Led by Corbis (Borgnine), the reincarnation of a Salem-era warlock, his eyeless hordes are intent on recovering a sacred book that the Preston family has kept hidden for hundreds of years, thereby preventing him from sa...

Like many directors now indelibly linked with the horror genre, the late George Romero spent most of his early years trying to dodge the label slapped on him after the success of Night of the Living Dead . Understandable, considering it’s not a genre that commands the sort of professional respect (or golden statuettes) that come to those working in costume dramas, quirky independents or even the odd romantic comedy. When you work in horror, as far as the industry is concerned you’re only good for one thing…making more horror films. But there’s an upside. Horror fans are some of the most enthusiastic folks you’ll ever meet and will typically give almost anything by their favorite contributors to the genre a shot. Case in point, Arrow Video's new box set, Between Night and Dawn , which gathers three Romero films made after NOTLD 's breakout success and before his resurgence on the scene with Dawn of the Dead . While none of them follow the gory template set by the aforeme...

It's been fashionable of late to liberally lift the style and atmosphere of John Carpenter. Despite releasing his last movie in 2010, the director's influence has remained pretty much a constant on the horror genre since Halloween . But Dutch filmmaker Dick Maas got a big head start on everyone back in 1983 with his Carpenter inspired "killer elevator" movie - The Lift - the very same year Christine hit theaters. Called in to investigate a close call involving several passengers who were almost asphyxiated during a ride from the top floor, elevator mechanic Felix Adelaar (Huub Stapel) suspects there's something fundamentally wrong with the system despite finding no technical explanation. And he's proved right when the equipment continues to malfunction, almost seeming to have a mind of its own as it decapitates a security guard and lures more unsuspecting victims into the empty shaft. Joining forces with a pushy journalist (Willeke van Ammelrooy),...

Despite the promise of instant gratification by streaming services, there are thousands of films that will probably never show up on your Roku, bumped to the back of the line by the latest original content and data fillers. Those few companies still involved in the distribution of "physical media" are keenly aware of their audience: collector's who feel the need to own a piece of history and are willing to pay more for a respectable presentation. Beneath the 12 Mile Reef (1953), the second - or possibly third - cinemascope movie ever released is a niche title at best, showcasing the technical merits of a new technology that was still working out the narrative kinks. But it's a perfect example of the reasoning behind Twilight Time's 3000-copy limited edition release business plan, offering the casual, the curious and the die-hard collector a chance to put some Hollywood history on their shelf...even if it doesn't come back down all that often. With a padd...

For those who enjoy the work of Dario Argento but sometimes long for a little more logic, clarity and (let's be kind) narrative cohesion, Sergio Martino might just be the director for you. With sixty-six films to his credit, Martino has made a prolific career of emulating other's artistry, whipping out knock-offs of everything from Jaws (1979's The Great Alligator ) to The Road Warrior (1983's After the Fall of New York ) to Dirty Harry (1973's The Violent Professionals ). But his early work in the Italian giallo is probably his most memorable, using Argento's The Bird with the Crystal Plumage as a template for a series of violent, sexy thrillers that delivered the exploitation goods with no artistic aspirations to weigh them down. Yet, Martino's rough and ready style has its own appeal and offers up as much (or more ) "accidental" artistry as any other genre filmmaker working at the time. Case in point, The Suspicious Death of a Min...

At first glance, Night School (1981) seems to be an elitist slasher film, the sort that attempts to dodge any association with summer camps and spooky holidays, casting 30-somethings instead of 20-somethings and cloaking it all under the guise of a police procedural. Director Ken Hughes, whose last hit was the family-friendly Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in 1968, avoids showing a drop of blood and only chaste amounts of nudity despite being saddled with a story involving a string of decapitations at an all-girls college. Now that's some trick! But what's really amazing is that, upon closer inspection, Night School is even more twisted that most of the slasher franchises earning critical outrage at the time. We're talking not one but two predatory professors, male and female, a kinky tribal body paint shower scene, peeping toms, lesbian seduction and a ruthless leather-clad biker claiming people's heads with a sacrificial blade. When all it said and done, the movi...

You'd be hard pressed to find a more exciting opening scene in any movie from the '80s than The Hidden (1987). And, yes, that includes The Terminator , a film which was quite obviously the inspiration for director Jack Sholder's sci-fi / action hybrid about two aliens hunting each other amidst the teased hair, synthesized tunes and neon-soaked landscape of Los Angeles. From the creepy security camera footage under the opening credits to the ultraviolent car chase that follows, this is a film fueled by burnt rubber and latex monsters, a combination never executed so successfully before... or after! Kyle MacLachlan stars as FBI agent Lloyd Gallagher (three years before taking on the same job description in Twin Peaks ) who recruits reluctant L.A. cop Tom Beck (Michael Nouri) to help him put a stop to a deadly crime spree that kicks off the film. But Beck suspects Gallagher knows more than he lets on, particularly when a new suspect seems to pop up every time they tak...

It goes without saying that for a genre like the western, which pumped out title after title from the silent era through early '70s, the vast majority of its films are just...well, average . Even the studios were looking for an edge to separate themselves from the cinematic herd. And when 3D came into fashion, even the old-fashioned western wasn't immune to cashing in on a quick gimmick. Gun Fury (1953), directed by Raoul Walsh whose eye patch ironically prevented him from experiencing the optical process himself, takes advantage of the more obvious 3D clichés early on...then settles into a sort of classy middle-of-the-road revenge yarn that fits the bill for a lazy Sunday afternoon. Ben and Jennifer (Rock Hudson and Donna Reed) are an exuberantly engaged couple on their way to their quiet California ranch. Traveling via stagecoach with a trio of other passengers. one of the men is revealed to be notorious outlaw Frank Slayton (Philip Carey) who hijacks the stage, kidna...

It's not surprising that the story of the shootout at the OK coral has been told so many times in movies spanning almost every decade. What is surprising is that it's usually told so well . The feud between the Earps and Clantons is a cinematic goldmine of raw mythmaking material that bends to the will of each particular filmmaker, from John Ford's elegiac My Darling Clementine to George P. Cosmatos' action opus Tombstone . Each adaptation adds a few more details, real or imagined, that build upon one of the most oft-repeated tales in western history. But John Sturges' Hour of the Gun (1967) does them all one better, using the shootout as background noise for the opening credits then starting the story proper with the event's aftermath. It's a risky move, relegating the most famous gunfight in history to a cursory preamble. But Sturges had already done a straight version of the story 10 years earlier with Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster, Gunf...