Movieline Online

Science (and the porn industry) has proven conclusively that visual stimulation is a powerful part of male arousal. And for those with an obsessive nature, sex can be as addictive as any drug. Writer / director Paul Schrader specializes in characters with just those sort of psychological fixations, making him a good match for Auto Focus (2002), the dramatized biography of Bob Crane, star of TV's Hogan's Heroes whose murder seven years after the show wrapped remains unsolved to this day. Schrader's film, however, is more interested in the career-killing spiral of compulsive sexual activity that put Crane on this tragic path in the first place. A successful radio DJ reticent to star in a comedy about the Holocaust, Crane (played with creepy sincerity by Greg Kinnear) is a charming and likable family man who uses his overnight success to seduce every woman he meets, recording his conquests on videotape with the help of his techie wingman (Willem Dafoe). But as word of...

A film doesn't have a responsibility to be timeless . In fact, as an art form, cinema works best as a reflection of the era in which it was made. But sometimes art reveals how little we've actually changed as a culture, for better or worse, as in the case of two new releases from Twilight Time, starting with No Down Payment (1957), an early canary-in-coal mine criticism of America's post-war obsession with capitalism that is still accurate enough to give anyone the shivers - Republican or Democrat! Ensconced in a perfectly landscaped neighborhood full of houses no one can quite afford, a gaggle of upwardly mobile residents are introduced to the newest members of the club: newlyweds David & Jean Martin who are quickly co-opted into a parade of marital problems including alcoholism, overspending, thwarted ambition, overt racism and rape. Sly subverting the old adage, "If you lived here, you'd be home by now!" director Martin Ritt elevates the melo...

Hammer Films may have kickstarted the Euro-horror scene with 1958's Horror of Dracula , but its influence traveled far and wide, eventually circling the globe to inspire a series of Japanese vampire films produced under the Toho banner gathered here as The Bloodthirsty Trilogy . 1970's The Vampire Doll is the flat-out creepiest of the bunch, although the title is a bit of a misnomer. Lifting its major plot twist from Poe's The Fact in the Case of M. Valdemar (and Roger Corman's film adaptation in Tales of Terror ), vampirism never comes into play, but director Michio Yamamoto creates a Gothic-funhouse atmosphere just the same. With reflective cat eyes, long black hair and a goosebump-inducing grin, his "ghost-girl" antagonist is a tragically terrifying figure. The subsequent sequels, Lake of Dracula (1971) and Evil of Dracula (1974) steal more liberally from the Hammer horror model, going so far as to cast a "head vampire" in full Christo...

When it comes to the giallo genre, fans can be just as obsessive in their pursuit of obscure titles as the hyper-violent, sexually deviant killers that feature in them so prominently. Death Smiles on a Murderer (1973) actually straddles the line between a typical over-the-top giallo mystery and a supernatural story straight out of the Italian Gothic tradition. Arriving with no memory at the home of a pair of wealthy landowners, Greta (Ewa Aulin) seems content to bounce between affairs with both husband and wife, covering her mysterious backstory with a trail of dead bodies, including an overly curious doctor (Klaus Kinski) convinced she holds the key to his scientific research. Directed by sleaze-maestro Joe D'Amato (using his real name for the first time) the film is a kitchen-sink conglomeration of incest, murder, sex and super-science crafted with a sloppy sort of style. The period setting makes the film feel like a better-made cousin to some of Jess Franco's output...

After the death of the slasher genre in the late '80s (and before its rebirth as a series of self-aware inside jokes in the late '90s) the horror genre found a comfortable groove on home video. All that was required was a splashy title and eye-catching artwork to lure in the 2 for 1 rental audience. But, quite often, the freedom afforded filmmakers at this level produced some legitimate classics. Killer Klowns from Outer Space (1988) isn't one of them. But it is a well-meaning tribute to classic sci-fi schlock like The Blob and Invaders from Mars that is far cleverer that its title suggests. Setting up camp under their extraterrestrial big top, a clown-car full of pasty-faced antagonists hunt down the residents of a small town, imprisoning them in cotton candy cocoons and drinking their blood through crazy straws. Written and directed by the Chiodo brothers, who pitched in on the Critters series among others, there's certainly no lack of effort expended o...

As captured on film, 1970-something New York City has an almost tactile quality: gritty, grey and dangerous. It's the perfect backdrop for a movie like The Seven Ups (1973), a crime drama with several ties to The French Connection , including star Roy Scheider, technical advisor Sonny Grosso and stunt coordinator Bill Hickman who stages a mid-film thrill ride through crowded city streets that deserves to be on the all-time car chase top ten list! Heading up an elite unit of supercops who specialize in crimes worth at least a seven-year sentence (hence the title), Buddy Manucci (Scheider) has been getting inside information on the local bad guys from his childhood pal, Vito (Tony Lo Bianco). But Vito has been playing both sides, and now a string on mafia kidnappings throws suspicion on Buddy's team as dirty cops. The Seven Ups has so many things going for it - including a passionate performance from Scheider, an ominously epic musical score and the aforementioned chase ...

The follow-up release to Arrow Video's voluminous collection of early films from Japanese genre director Seijun Suzuki is actually more entertaining and approachable than the first installment. Once again, the set contains five films that have never even premiered on DVD in their native country, let alone Blu-ray, marking Suzuki's transition into gangster / thriller program films designed to support higher-profile releases. Two titles - The Sleeping Be a st Within and Smashing the O-Line - feature a pair of journalists determined to expose the drug and human trafficking business. Eight Hours of Terror uses a disaster-film story structure as bank robbers hijack a bus full of eclectic passengers. The Man with a Shotgun transposes the Hollywood western scenario with a remote logging camp as a lone wolf seeking his fiancée’s killers winds up hired as the local sheriff. While Tokyo Knights brings up the rear as the most unusual film of the lot, turning the story of a young...

Hailed as a pioneering piece of sci-fi television or dismissed as a monster-of-the-week rip-off of The Twilight Zone , depending on who you ask, The Outer Limits , which premiered on ABC in 1963 is still a veritable goldmine of outré ideas and low budget execution. Built around an hour-long format, the stories often focused on alien intelligences, sometimes benign and misunderstood, other times intent on mankind's destruction. While it doesn't have the cache of Rod Serling's creation, the series, which ran for two seasons, nevertheless lodged in an entire generation's subconscious with a string of episodes attempting things never before seen on network television, introducing some of the most outrageous costumed creations outside of a Roger Corman film along with a parade of soon-to-be high profile guest stars like Robert Culp, Martin Sheen, Leonard Nimoy and Bruce Dern. Kino Lorber's box set packages the entire first in high-definition for the very first tim...

With the release of his fifth feature film, Deep Red (1975), Dario Argento was probably starting to believe his own hype. As the “Italian Hitchcock,” he’d proven himself a bankable director of international thrillers (and one obscure Western) who’d inspired hundreds of imitators in his own country and abroad. The competition was getting fierce. So Argento fired off one last salvo into the crowded giallo genre that would end the debates and put him firmly back on top. Deep Red is one of those films that catch a director working at the top of his game working with deceptive ease. David Hemmings, in a variation of his role in Blow Up , is the witness to a brutal crime who believes he saw a vital clue to the killer’s identity…but can’t quite recall the evidence of his own eyes. With the help of a nosy reporter (possible killer #1) and a fellow musician (possible killer #2), Hemmings stays one step ahead of a string of vicious murders that target anyone involved in the crime. Unl...

Inspired by the "bystander effect" documented after the 1964 rape and murder of Kitty Genovese where 37 witness allegedly did nothing to stop the attack, The Incident (1967) is constructed like a modern-day disaster film, introducing a eclectic cast of subway passengers who find themselves tormented by a pair of loose cannons (played to the hilt by Tony Musante and Martin Sheen) on a late-night ride to Times Square. As the duo pokes and prods for weak spots, no one bothers to lift a finger, content to allow the verbal and physical abuse to continue until someone else intervenes. It's a shameful game of chicken amongst strangers who count on anonymity as their only precarious protection. Shot in authentically urban black and white, but actually filmed on a clever subway set, The Incident does a wonderful job setting the stage for its stop-start morality play. Nicholas Baehr's script takes its time arranging each passenger's personal baggage then lets its a...

Much like the early work of Tim Burton, the films of director Frank Henenlotter exist in their own twisted universe. Only instead of a gothic suburban fairyland, Basket Case (1982) puts down stakes in a seedy Times Square hotel populated by an endearingly colorful collection of hookers, thieves and pimps. The newest tenant is Duane Bradley (Kevin Van Hentenryck), a naive upstate import whose most defining characteristic is the large wicker basket he carries under his arm. What's in the basket? Why, his separated Siamese twin, Belial, who looks more like a stumpy octopus, on a mission of revenge against the doctors who performed their illegal operation and "broke up the band," so to speak. Inheriting the "Midnight Movie" mantle from Rocky Horror (it had a two year run at one famous NYC theater), Basket Case wormed its way into the horror genre like a venereal disease. But Henenlotter's film has a DIY aesthetic that's charming even when it's...

Just a year after releasing Shadows and Fog - a film ensconced in the fog of 1920's German Expressionism - Woody Allen went and made the most modern film of his career. Husband and Wives (1992) is populated with the director's familiar group of urban elitists second-guessing their suspiciously shallow lives, but told with a hip visual style full of jump cuts, handheld shots and documentary confessionals. It's a refreshing change of pace that has an angry edge lacking in the rest of Allen's work. After their surprise separation announcement, Jack and Sally (Sydney Pollack and Judy Davis) bounce between rebound relationships and shallow sexual fulfillment. But their situation has an unintended effect on Gabe and Judy (Allen and Mia Farrow), who find their own previously stable relationship now falling apart. Allen doesn't rely on comic relief to ease the pressure; Husbands and Wives is a brutal parade of petty arguments and passive-aggressive bickering. An...

Having established himself as the premiere purveyor of the rather grungy and depressing British Kitchen-Sink movement with A Taste of Honey and The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner , director Tony Richardson spun about 180-degrees with 1963's joyful adaptation of Tom Jones , a giddy romp through 17th century England following the amorous adventures of a well-to-do bastard who was, by all accounts, "born to hang." While the rampant sexism may be as humorously out-of-date as the early Bond films, Albert Finney could charm the pants off 99% of the #MeToo movement with his star-making turn as the chivalrous but weak-willed hero desperately trying elevate his station and earn the love of his beloved Sophie Western (Susannah York). Raised as foundling by a wealthy landowner, Tom is blessed with dashing good looks and a heart of gold. Unfortunately, he's also a bit naive about the rules and regulations involved with aristocratic life. Framed for a pregnancy he d...

Now that streaming has become the de facto source of entertainment for most people under thirty, the doors have opened for courageous niche companies to take a chance on new material that hasn't been repurposed, repackaged and resold for the umpteenth time. Case in point, Arrow's limited edition box set Seijun Suzuki: The Early Years Volume 1 , which gathers five of the director's "youth" movies that have never seen the light of day outside Japan. Suzuki, probably best known for his stylish yakuza films like Branded to Kill that irked studio superiors, proves here he can work elegantly within the studio system, injecting some creative inspiration into otherwise cut-and-paste formulaic fare. Releasing films at a ridiculous pace to take advantage of passing fads, Nikkatsu Studios latched onto the burgeoning youth culture - most likely inspired by James Dean's iconic performance in Rebel Without A Cause - showcasing their own pantheon of juvenile delinqu...

The opening credits of The L-Shaped Room (1962), in which our main character tours the seedier side of London in search of an affordable flat, visually places the film comfortably within the "Kitchen Sink" category: a creative movement that shifted the spotlight to working-class protagonists struggling against social forces beyond their control. From domestic drama to controversial political issues to the mundane workings of every day life, the glamorized escapism of Hollywood was eschewed in favor of the harsh realities of British life. But director Bryan Forbes, despite ticking all the necessary boxes, manages to keep a toe in more traditional waters. While the film certainly has its share of "angry young men," there's an underlying message of acceptance and forgiveness that softens the blow. Pregnant and alone, Jane Fosset (Leslie Caron) rents a room in the only boarding house she can afford, populated by an odd - but not entirely off-putting - cast of ch...

At first glance Forever Amber (1947) could easily be mistaken for yet another sprawling piece of escapist filmmaking tied to a scandalous best-selling novel full of racy material that slipped past the production code under the guise of a seventeenth-century royal romance. Point in fact, that's exactly what Otto Preminger's film is; but the director makes so little attempt to camouflage the seedier elements of the plot that Forever Amber winds up feeling a bit more modern for its honest portrayal of a scheming social climber who sleeps her way to a title...but still loses the man she loves. Orphaned at birth and raised among a quiet farming community, Amber St. Clair (Linda Darnell) jumps at the chance to escape her fate as a housewife by tagging along with an idealistic soldier, Bruce Carlton (Cornel Wilde), who hopes to secure his own future with a commission from the newly crowned King Charles II (George Sanders). Despite being in love with her own ambitions, Amber fal...

The work of Paddy Chayefsky speaks for itself...yet somehow manages to give you plenty to talk about. And while Marty and Network figure most prominently in his Hollywood oeuvre, almost all of his work is designed to push your buttons. With 1971's The Hospital , a razor-sharp condemnation of institutionalized medicine, the writer jumps frenetically between scathing satire and middle-age emotional angst, challenging the audience to keep up with his unpredictable shifts in tone and disarmingly insightful dialogue. The Hospital 's rule-breaking Rube Goldberg script structure earned itself an Oscar and still feels as if it's pulling off something cinematically illegal...or at the very least entertainingly subversive. Dr. Herbert Bock (George C. Scott) is Chief of Medicine at one of the top hospitals in Manhattan, a facility that's bitten off more than it can chew, with patients herded like cattle through the administrative process while the board of directors plot ...

American International Pictures tackling an adaption of Wuthering Heights is about as likely as McDonalds adding filet mignon to the dollar menu. And yet in 1970, horror-exploitation specialists James H. Nicholson and Samuel Z. Arkoff put their names behind a no-bullshit adaptation of Emily Bronte's Gothic Romance classic starring relative unknowns Anna Calder-Marshall and Timothy Dalton as tortured lovers Cathy and Heathcliff. And while it's given a contemporary look by former Avengers director Robert Fuest, there's very little shock tactics on display here. This is a straight-faced, serious attempt at respectability by the same company who produced movies like Bloody Mama and Dr. Goldfoot and the Girl Bombs . Who'd have guessed? Actually, the success of Franco Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet two years earlier was probably the inspiration behind AIP's short-lived come-to-Jesus moment. But the film stands up quite well no matter what the financial ...

An Italian omnibus film produced by Dino De Laurentiis as a showcase for his wife - and former Miss Rome - Silvana Mangano, The Witches (1967), despite its supernatural title, follows the same dramatic formula as better-known '60s anthologies: pairing several exportable directors (De Sica, Visconti, etc) with a variety of short subjects. The scattershot approach is intentional, spreading audience interest between the tragic, comedic, romantic and just plain cinematic. Only in this case, Mangano serves as an anchor for each story, playing a different role in the five separate short films. Things begin with Luchino Visconti's "The Witch Burned Alive," a slow-to-develop critique of celebrity status and the personal sacrifices necessary to succeed in the film and fashion industry. Gloria (Mangano) attempts to escape her fame at a party hosted at a mountaintop cabin. But even amongst friends she's faced with petty jealousy, vicious comments, and sexual advance...

It was a testament to Tracey Wolfson's unflappable nature that she didn't blink an eye at the 4-foot tall rainbow-scaled alien on her doorstep. Of course, partial credit should go to the splash or two of Vodka she added to her V8 juice a moment earlier, but it was still a remarkably subdued reaction, certainly one of the calmest Jorsynx Yyl had ever seen. He made a quick mental note on his bio-recorder and launched into his standard spiel. "Groha-hi simxi egahh?" Tracey winced at the strange high-pitched noises emerging from the fish man's mouth and gill slits. Jorsynx realized his error immediately and, embarrassed at the interplanetary faux paus, activated his translator. "Mrs. Wolfson? I'm with GERI...the Gaia Experimental Research Institute. Could I have a few minutes of your time?" Tracey's eyes flicked left and right, checking for any potential eyewitnesses to her diminutive visitor then waived him inside. Jorsynx made a...

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...