Return To Blogging

Can't believe I have been away for 8 months. Hopefully I will be more frequent. It has been interesting looking back at some of the old posts (and I do plan to edit the atrocious typos!) What I have noticed is how some of my views on certain films have already altered a bit e.g I'm a bit more kindly disposed to Strip Nude For Killer than I was when I originally wrote about it. But changing opinions are good. I am constantly learning more about film and certain viewpoints are bound to change from time to time and if I find myself horrified at what I wrote last year I may review the film again. My film watching has a tendency to move in waves and I'll go through a giallo phase to a silent comedy phase to a Paul Naschy phase and so on. It is a routing that means I can now tell when a change is going to take place which is kind of weird. External influences also play a hand in this, as at this moment Mrs Cinegator has had enough of low budget flicks and is desiring some classic movies to redress the balance, but we'll see what happens. Not that I'm agaisnt the classics, far from it but I get the feeling it won't be long before we're back to gratuitous sex and violence. I have an ace up my sleeve for tonights flick which I'm hoping to be the third part of Dallamano's schoolgirl in peril trilogy Rings of Fear; I have an ace up my sleeve, a secret weapon - that fine Italian actor Fabio Testi is the lead and Mrs Cinegator likes him.... a lot!

The Brute Man (1946)

The Brute Man has long been considered one of the lowest points of Universal's cycle of horror films, and this view rests soully on the use of Rondo Hatton as the films 'star'. Hatton was a handsome, college football hero who, according to most sources, after being gassed in WWI developed the disfiguring disease Acromalgy which cause slow, but relentless , abnormal growth giving him overly pronounced features. The man, it's fair to say was no beauty.




Because of these abnormailities he was billed as the monster that needs no make-up! Not very nice, more akin to something you hear at a carnival side show. He had made films before coming under contract from Universal but it was Universal who shamlessly brought him to the fore. The best known film he appeared in was the Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes pic, The Pearl Of Death where he played the Hoxton Creeper, a character he would reprise in The House and Horror and The Brute Man, although subtley different each time. Quite what Hatton's thoughts were about these roles is up for conjecture. He was apparently a religious man who, through his beliefs, he probably came to terms with his condition, but being billed as The Monster Who Needs No Make-up must have hurt a bit. The Brute Man came out after Hatton had passed away following a heart attach, a direct result of his condition.

But what of The Brute Man? Well as you can probably imagine it's a low budget affair although directed with some flair by Jean Yarborough. Hatton plays Hal Moffett a former handsome, college football hero (art imitating life?) who through an accident in the science lab while he is in detention, gets disfigured and goes into hiding. He reappears years later bumping off all the people he blames for his being in detention in the first place, including his old best friend Clifford and Clifford's wife, Virginia who he fancied himself back at college. As he gets chased around the city he meets a blind pianist, who, in shades of Bride Of Frankenstein, does not cower in repulsion and he becomes sweet on her. A pretty straightforward plot and unfortunately Hatton isn't much of an actor, unable to draw both the menace and the pathos from his performance. In all fairness to the man it must be quite difficult to act when you have very little movent to your face, although Karloff had shown 15 years previously exactly how to do just that. In essence the film exists purely to showcase the disfigured Hatton which leaves a bad taste in the mouth.

The film does thow up a few interesting nuggets, such as the place where Moffat/The Creeper lives.



It's like a wharf version of railway arches where mechanics like to ply their trade. In the piuc you can even make out that it has a house number, The Creeper lives at number 23. Rather prone to a bit of flooding I would have thought. I wonder if people did let these places out for living or whether the producer just thought it was a good location, no doubt cheap also.

Happily Rondo Hatton's name lives on, most notably in The Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards. Also, in Disney's The Rocketeer there is a character clearly based on The Creeper and I'm happy to say that the actor, Tiny Ron Taylor, had to use prosethetics.

Saturday Top Ten: Edwige Fenech

Has there ever been a more delightful lady to grace a cinema/tv screen? I think not. Though her numerous appearances in Italian comedies and giallo films Edwige has been a towering presence. Never looking less than an angel fallen from heaven she has provided me (and countless others) of hours of rapt attention. So without further ado, here's my Top Ten of of Ms Fenech:

1. La Pretora - a highly welcome double dose of Edwige here as she plays both a prudish magistrate and her twin, fun loving sister. Directed by Lucio Fulci this has immense charm, actual comedy (sometimes rare in Italian comedies) and copious opportunities for Edwige to lose her clothes. A delight which should have nabbed her an Oscar - and I jest not.
2. Top Sensation - aka The Seducers. A sleazy thriller that is helped enormously by having another Italian goddess on board - Rosalba Neri. If the the film had been those two having a cup of tea for 90 minutes I would still have been happy! Watch out for the unforgettable scene with Edwige and a goat. Really!
3. The Case Of The Bloody Iris - A cracking giallo with her sometimes co-star George Hilton.
4. All the Colours Of The Dark - A deliscious mix of giallo and supernatural thriller./
5. The Strange Vice of Mrs Wardh - Yet another top notch giallo
6. Ubalda, All Naked and Warm - A period romp set in the times of the crusades. Genuinely funny and has an extended scene of of Edwige running topless through a field. 'nuff said.
7. Your Vice Is A Locked Room And Only I Have The Key - An excellent title (actually a line from number 5) and reminiscent of Poe's The Black Cat.
8. Grazie Nonna - Comedy with Edwige playing a young man's grandma to whom he loses his virginity. Really.
9. Five Dolls For An August Moon - A film that many see as Bava's worst (including the great man himself), but I like it - even if Edwige isn't featured heavily.
10. Secrets Of A Call Girl - This is the film I would point unbel;ievers to if they say that Edwige coasts throughb her roles without acting.

Viva Fenech!

Barb Wire Dolls (1975)

It seems fitting (if not a legal imperative) to renew this blog with a classic exploitationer from the leading exponent of explotation films - Jess Franco. Uncle Jess has been churning them out an at alarming rate for over 40 years, and though he has slowed down a lot (and to be fair, he's 80) he is still making them.

Barb Wire Dolls is one of the many Women In Prison films that he made and, for me, one of his best. I do have a preference for 99 Women, but that does have Herbert Lom, Maria Rohm and especially Rosalba Neri to help it along. Anyhoo, the plot of Barb Wire Dolls is that Lina Romay has been banged up for killing her father, and apart from an 'out of left field' plot twist that's about it. But when has the sparcity of plot held our man back? Never, that's when. So without having to think about the plot too much, Jess gives us the lesbian warden, the lebian trysts, the gynaelogical zoom shots (often), the torture scenes and the ultimate escape. And he manages to make it fun and keep the viewer (me) tuned to the screen. Sleaze can oh so easily become boring after a while and it's to Franco's credit that he manages to keep things rolling along quite nicely. The actors fit there roles competently with a special nod to Monica Swinn as the sadistic, masochistic, hotpants wearing warden who keeps a monocle firmly embedded in her eye, unless she is asking one of her charges to slap her about making it fly off.

As is most usually the case, you kind of need to already be a Franco fan to enjoy this, but luckily I am.

Death Steps In The Dark (1977)

After the electricity is cut, a train enters a tunnel and a women in a compartment is killed, and one of the other five in the compartment must be the killer, but who? And what lengths will the killer go to to remain free?
A late entry in the giallo boom, this is a very workmanlike entry with very little to recommend it. Director Maurizio Pradeaux sleepwalks his way through the proceedings and brings nothing memorable to entice the viewer to recommend it to anyone. If you have ever seen a giallo before there is no need to see this one. There are signs that the director himself knew this as he has added some off the wall humour that comes across as being totally out of place.
It's a shame really as the initial premise could have been put to much better use.

The Comeback (1978)

One of Pete Walker’s last films (only Home Before midnight and House of Long Shadows were to follow) The Comeback follows the tale of a singer (Jack Jones) attempting to record his comebcak album after a period of retirement when he got married. Newly divorced, he rents a large house and sets to work. Someone, however, doesn’t seem to want him to make his comebcak, or is he going insane?
While easily not up to the standard of his best work (which includes Frightmare and The House of Mortal Sin) there is much to be enjoyed in what is basicaly a fairly ludicrous story. The ludicrousness is highlighted to the nth degree by an absolutely farcical twist ending that is, however, delivered in such a convincing way that you are prepared to forgive.
What is notably absent from the film is Walker’s usual demaniacally twisted authority figure that give his earlier films that bit of metaphorical bite and the film is more of a straightforward flick than his usual offerings as a result. If it sounds like I’m giving a bad impression, then I don’t mean to; as I said earlier there is much to enjoy in the film, not least yet another performance of gold from Walker regular, Sheila Keith. No actress has ever chewed the scenery quite like Ms Keith and she remains one of the most under-rated horror icons in Britain in my humble opinion. Another stand out moment is the first murder, which may be the most effective Walker-flmed shock moments ever. Had the rest of the film been as top notch as this then we would be discussing an all-time classic here. It’s not, but it’s still a fun flick and a definite for any Walker fan.

Deadlier Than The Male/Some Girls Do

I was watching the 1960’s Bulldog Drummond revivals over the weekend and found myself heartily enjoying them which, as I thought while reflecting afterwards, is a bit surprising really as there are a few reasons why I shouldn’t like them whatsoever. First off, they are clearly James Bond rip-offs. Not that I have anything against rip-offs (quite the contrary really) but I’ve never been a fan of James Bond. Secondly, I am a Bulldog Drummond fan – both the books and the early films starring various suave actors in the role like Ray Milland and John Howard – and this version, made flesh by Richard Johnson, is nothing like the famous jut-jawed adventurer and is Hugh Drummond in name only (The word ‘Bulldog’ is not even mentioned) and I tend to dislike anything that travesties anything that I hold dear . Also both films (especially the second, Some Girls Do) are frequently silly, along the making you cringe lines. Silliness can be great, but it’s a fine line that you tread and the silliness on offer in these two flicks should have obvious to everybody involved as being the wrong type of silliness. In effect, these are pretty bad films.

But………….

Films are all about entertainment and these two deliver on that point. I’m not even going to explain the plots, because I probably couldn’t, suffice to say they’re about scientists, secret weapons, world domination etc and so on and so forth.
The music is as what you expect or hope for. A suitably sixties soundtrack with a theme song belted out at the beginning and end.
The films up the girl-ante of the James Bond series with the sheer amount of beautiful ladies that get paraded by the camera lens and in this type of film this must be considered a decided bonus, especially when one of them is Yutte Stensgaard (hooray!!). I will rather shame-facedly admit that both films score rather high on the ‘Exploitation of Women Scale’ and it’s not too difficult to discern some rather callous streaks of misogyny here and there that makes one raise an eyebrow, Roger Moore-style. But, c’mon, it’s the sixties!

Anyway, the locations are great, direction is adequate and production costs seem to be better than most similar romps. At the end of the day they are just two mindless, fun, tongue-in-cheek capers that aren’t meant to be taken seriously whatsoever, so don’t and you might just enjoy them. The first one, Deadlier Than The Male, is easily the better of the two with a particularly notable Carl Peterson as played by Nigel Greene. In the second, Peterson is played by James Villiers and he plays it more camp, which makes the character less effective. Bizarrely the second is not just content to rip-off James Bond, it also seems to be taking the mickey out of DTTM! God knows what third one would have looked like. But I bet it would have been fun.

Paul Naschy 1934 - 2009

I have just heard about the sad passing of the great Spanish horror icon, Paul Naschy. Paul was more than a giant in his particular field, he was the field. He will probably be most remembered for his many films featuring the tortured lycanthrope Waldemar Daninsky but he leaves behind a vast legacy which encompasses every single one of the classic film monsters/villains, even Dr Fu Manchu! While it has to be agreed that all of his movies were not of the same calibre, very often they would transcend budgetary constraints and produce something very special.
A few personal Naschy faves are Horror Rises From The Tomb, Curse of the Devil, Werewolf Shadow and Blue Eyes Of A Broken Doll, but even his lesser films entertained – Dr Jekyll vs the Werewolf is a prime example – and kept you riveted throughout. Many of his films were penned by himself under his real name Jacinta Molina, and he would sometimes make as many as 8 films in one year. His last film, The Waldemar Inheritance comes out in January.

RIP Paul.

Deadly Strangers (1974)

While browsing through the dvds the other night looking for something to watch we hit on a stalemate not being able to choose something that we both wanted to watch. Then we discovered the dvd for ‘Deadly Strangers’ which I had to admit to not being able to remember a damn thing about it. I knew I hadn’t seen it but couldn’t remember what it was about, who was in it or even what precise genre it was. But given that I must have it for a reason we decided to give it a go and hope for the best. Now, I’m not too sure what benefits this can have when watching a film. Obviously we would have no preconceptions about the flick, no expectations etc so it would be difficult to be disappointed, but also, conversely, if it was good would we over-rate it because it came out of the blue.

Anyway, it was a psychological thriller. Hayley Mills misses her train and is forced to hitch a lift. After a narrow escape from a scumbag trucker she is picked up by Simon Ward. It soon becomes clear that one of them is the escaped psychopath that the police are out in force trying to track down and the rest of the film charts their relationship while we try and work out which of them is the nutter.

Full of red herrings, this cross breed of road movies and psycho thriller is nicely crafted and never once gives an apt opportunity to get the kettle on. Mills is adequate in the role (and evidently still doing her best to shed her Pollyanna image by shedding her clothes) but Ward steals the show and is admirably ambiguous. Special mention must go to Sterling Hayden, whose eccentric character is worthy of a film series of his own and completely overshadows the superfluous-ness of his presence. We did guess the identity of the loony but have to admit at getting sidestepped a couple of times, so respect for that.

Of course, as with many of these type of thrillers, a lot of the fun is accidental. The British locations, the old cars and the basic 70s ‘feel’ to the movie add a great deal to the overall ambience of the flick.

While not an undiscovered masterpiece this was a pleasant surprise and a genuinely enjoyable film thatI would heartily recommend it to anyone.

Killer's Moon

Killer’s Moon on the face of it had everything going for it. A busload of schoolgirls break down in the middle of nowhere and are forced to hole up in an old hotel. Meanwhile 4 lunatics have escaped from a nearby hospital. They have been used as guinea pigs in a new therapy and believe they are actually dreaming what is happening, so they don’t care about killing/raping/maiming anybody (although given their pedigrees as lunatics, they wouldn’t care anyway!) and they happen to come across the hotel. A couple of lads who are camping nearby have a go at playing the hero and try and rescue the girls. It was made in the 70s (quite a plus in my book), had dialogue written by the acclaimed author Fay Weldon and had a fair amount of sleaze involved. Sounds like an out and out winner, right? Well no. Not quite. In fact it misfires on most counts which is a real shame. Not that the flick isn’t watchable, it most certainly is, but you get the overall feeling of a missed opportunity.

I do like the general plot point of the lunatics believing themselves to be in a dream and the murders etc just figments of their imagination. But making them lunatics wasn’t the right path to go down. Or multiple antagonists either. It should have been 1 ‘normal’ chap who is the guinea pig, somebody who wouldn’t normally kill, but because it’s only a dream………..

Anyhow, I didn’t make it, Alan Birkenshaw did, and all the faults are his. The highly erratic continuity when it comes to day time and night time stops being amusing after the nth time as it becomes clear that consistency just isn’t cared about. Also, at the lads’ campsite it suddenly switches to woefully obvious studio set with a backdrop of a large lake, which is fine as the location is the Lake District but alas earlier shots prove that there was no lake there at all. This film just keeps falling into Ed Wood territory, and given the fact that it can be quite nasty , it doesn’t have a hope of having the charm of a Wood flick.

This all sounds a bit negative. There are some positives: its heart is in the right place, it really isn’t far away from being a minor cult classic; some of the mood shots also hint at what could have been; there’s a three-legged dog and again, the story isn’t half bad. Oh, and it’s nice to see the British Board Of Certification shot at the beginning branding the film an ‘X’.

The Strange Affair

The Strange Affair is an aptly named film from 1968, although the double meaning irony hits home when you find the main protagonist’s name is Strange.

When we first meet Strange it becomes clear he is a disgraced policeman, and the film quickly falls into flashback, to his first day on the force and catalogues how this idealistic young copper ended up going down for a stretch.
But there’s more stories that weave themselves around the hapless Strange. One of his colleagues is embittered Detective Sergeant Pierce, hell-bent on bringing down the Quince family, a family no-good drug-dealers and all-round bad eggs, headed up by ex policeman Jack Watson.
On his off-duty Strange gets involved with the free-spirited and young Fred (Susan George) who introduces him to her uninhibited life and bizarre Aunt and Uncle. It transpires that the Aunt and Uncle like to film their niece in the throes of passion and then sell the film on the black market. Fred is seemingly unaware of this side to her family. This has a disastrous effect when DS Pierce finds photos of Strange and Fred in flagrante and uses this to bully and blackmail Strange into planting drugs on Quince in a desperate attempt to get him locked up.

Written down it seems like a straightforward tale but the director manages to film it as a series of bizarre events that crash into a man’s life leaving him bewildered as to what is actually happening to him. Of course, reflecting on it, it is basically the bad choices and decisions that Strange made that lead to his downfall, not helped by the on-the-edge-of-sanity DS Pierce’s bullying ways.
The copy I watched wasn’t the most wonderful copy (this is a film that has basically disappeared and to my knowledge has never been released on Video and definitely not on DVD) but it still looked good enough to capture the gritty streets of 1960’s London in realistic detail – no sunny, swinging sixties kitsch was involved in the making of this film. The best way I can describe this drama is ‘off-kilter’ , in a good way and with a dose of 60’s realism that you don’t see all that often.

Night Child (1972)

Night Child (or Night Hair Child or What The Peeper Saw or Diabolicas Malicia or Child of The Night)is a 1972 British thriller starring Mark Lester (he of Oliver) and Britt Ekland (she of The Wicker Man [apart from her arse, which wasn’t in that]. Elise (Ekland) is married to widower Hardy Kruger, who has a 12 year son, Marcus. Marcus seems to be very sexually interested in Elise and Elsie slowly starts to think that Marcus is suffering mentally because of his mother’s death. But then, what of his mother’s death? Was it an accident? Is her own life in danger? A power struggle begins between step-mother and step-son, but how far will they take it?

Pretty far as it happens. I would suggest that out of all the films Mark Lester made this was probably his favourite to make. He was about 14 when he made it but gets to snog Britt Ekland, watch her slowly strip bare and even share a naked passionate embrace when she climbs (naked again) into his bed (this part I should mention is part of a drug fuelled hallucinatory dream. Even this film has some boundaries). How can a 14 year old not like that.

Unfortunately a good premise quickly gives way to dodgy film-making and on reflection I think the main reason for this is the miscasting of both Lester and Ekland who constantly prove themselves to be not able to provide their roles with the necessary depth and realism. Ekland is particularly at sea and even occasionally seems to miss her cues, which either of the two directors (two directors – rarely a good thing) seem to care about either.

The music, while enjoyable as a separate entity, more often than not seems at odds with the underlying menace. Of course it could have meant to be ironic but who knows.

I will say that I liked the twist at the end and that it caught me off-guard for a moment (I really should have seen it coming) and at least made the journey to the end worthwhile. As so often with these type of films, worth a watch once but not a lot there to tempt you back for a second viewing.

Satan's Slave (1976)

I was really looking forward to Satan’s Slave. I had read it was about the best of the Norman J Warren horrors, it was written by Pete Walker’s collaborator, David McGillivray, starred that bundle of cute that is 7os moppet Candace Glendenning and , like, you know, it’s called Satan’s Slave!
However, I was destined to be disappointed. The whole film is unfortunately a disjointed mess. Practically any 5 or ten minutes could be cut from the film altering it not one jot. Michael Gough simply walks through his role and I would be surprised if he was more than 1 day on set. The look of the film varies wildly, no doubt down to the fact that there are four cinematographers credited. The script asks you to take for too much for granted and in the end the sheer amount of stupid implausibilities ruin it. For example, 2 minutes after her parent’s were killed, Michael Gough tells Candace that she go and get some sleep to which she calmly acquiesces. No trauma at all about the sudden and very violent death of her beloved parents then? No. Right. This is what we are looking at here. Forget plausible, whatever is needed to move the film on is what goes, regardless of how stupid it may be. Once or twice can be forgiven in this type of film, but come on.

But, it took no effort to stick with it and I didn’t switch it off before the end, and Candace was looking rather nice and the locations were very nice. I didn’t exactly waste my 90 minutes, I just didn’t want my expectations dashed that badly.

Baffled

Another of my recent 'watching films that I first saw as a teenager' viewings, this didn't hold up to my intial impressions, but remains an enjoyably naff 9o or so minutes.
A man has visions of wrong doings andf is persuaded to go and help out the damsel in distress in the visions. An American tv movie that was certainly meant as a pilot to a series it is easy to see why it never evolved. The star is Leonard Nimoy and while he was good as playing the unemotional Spock, he was truly at sea at playing a human. His playing of the character of Tom Kovak, racing driver and medium, is wholly beyond his capabilities. His supposed witty repartee is delivered in such a wooden way that it deadens his chemistry with Susan Hampshire, who rises well to the occasion. Mostly shot with back projection and studio sets, it's easy to see what could have been, but in the end it just fails. It's a shame because you can see what could have been. Watchable nonetheless.

Sleepless

I was eager to watch this film as it apparently geralded Dario Argento's return to form after a critically bad 90s. Here he was back in familiar territory with a straightforward giallo. While this is a good thing, you do get a feeling of a director just giving people what they want in order to keep his profile up there. While that may be slightly unfair, it is fair to say that Argento brings nothing new to the giallo genre, and from a director like Argento, you are always wanting that little bit more than the norm. However it is decidedly worthwhile watch and it doesn't break your attention whatsoever. I did mange to solve the puzzle very early, but whather that's because of a poor story or just because I'm in tune with giallos in general is open to debate. Regardles this tale of a returned serial killer after a break of 17 years delivers, from the outrageous red herrings, black gloved killer, POV shots etc. I fact it's like Argento was asked to make a textbook giallo. Although I never spied the J&B!

Requiem For A Vampire

I have to admit to being a huge Jean Rollin fan. His 'horror' films are unlike anything else in the genre and are always a personal journey. Compared to other auteur directors he is a man whose personal visions are imprinted on his work like no other. This does make his films rather cliquey, but if you get 'it', he is most rewarding. Requiem.... is a curious one in that his trademark highly stylish visuals are mostly absent, but regardless of this it is a most hypnotic movie that takes you in from the first frame and leaves you thoroughly satisfied as the last frame dissolves into its final disappearing circle.

The film opens during a chase where two girls, dressed as clowns, are being chased in their car, driven by an unknown bloke, whilst shooting at their chasers. Bloke killed, they abandon their car and go on the run, eventually ending up at a chateau where live the last vampire. They learn that this vampire is trying to sire some new vampires in order to keep the bloodline going. As they are both virgins (in this film you must be a virgin to made into a vampire, otherwise you are just food) they are given the chance to become vampires, but first they must help lure victims to feed the vampire and his horde of vampire wannabes. One girl fancies it, the other doesn't and they are eventually forced to choose between the love that they share and a new life as a vampire. One is deadset against it and through shared love manages to change the mind of the other girl. The last vampire reckons this is ok as he thinks it is about time the vampires die out anyway. He is an alright dude, like. So at the end the girls are allowed to go free while the vampire, and his nearly chnaged minion, get locked in a mauseleum to end their days.

This isn't one of Rollin's most stylish offerings, and it is a great compliment to the great director that it still retains a power to enthral. Mostly devoid of speech, it is hard to say why this works like it does. But it does. It's a dreamy, surreal slice of Rollin whimsy that works on every level.

Inglorious Bastards

With Tarantino remaking this film I felt the urge to catch the original before the remake. Although having watched it and reading the plotline of QT's effiort it seems like QT is homaging rather then remaking, which is probably a good idea. Straight remakes suffer from comparison regardless of quality.
Anyway the original turns out to be a fine WW2 adventure that readily encompasses that retrospective b-movie quality that becomes more populist daily.
A group of army criminals on their way to incarceration or the firing squad managhe to escape during a Nazi air attack and try and make their way to Switzerland. They inadvertantly wipe out a crack force that has been sent to carry out an 'important raid' and end up doing the task themselves. It's a suicide mission but regardless of their 'criminal' ways they haven't forgotten the reason for the war and readily accept the task; obviously with a full pardon as their reward.

Director Enzo Castellari yet again proves himself as a top notch Euroaction director and gives us tight direction and generally exciting battle sequences. I have a feeling that even with a huge budget behind him he would still produce B movies, but I say that not to knock him. He had his field, he knows it and delivers wqhat he is good at. He manges to gain the audience sympathy for what is basically a group of self-serving sociopaths incredibly well. During the air raid half the criminals get shot by thier own army while trying to run for cover - point well taken Enzo, and we now want them to succeed. There is a strange love subplot that rattles a bit as the Bastard involved is one of the least likeable of the bunch and he is the only one to escape pretty much unscathed. One hopes he finds redemption after the cameras stop rolling and returns yeas after year to honour his fallen comrades.

Refgardless opf minor quibbles Inglorious Bastards is a highly enjoyable Dirty Dozen rip-off that (I'm guessing) can be returnd to time after time. And I haven't even mentioned the skinny dipping German women with machine guns!!

Cut And Run (1985)

At the moment I seem to be going down nostalgia alley by watching films that I first saw in the 70s and 80s. I first saw Cut And Run in (roughly) 1986 and me and my friends were mainly attracted to it by the front cover of a vicious looking Michael Berryman. Unfortunately I can't remember a whole heap from that first viewing which surprised me after re-watching it as it has a lot in it for a teenage kid to remember.

Directed by Ruggero Deodato, it is another of his films to be set in a jungle. In fact Deodato is on record saying that it was as close to a sequel to his infamous Cannibal Holocaust as he was ever going to get - although don't be expecting much cannibal behaviour; the link is more the barbarity of the civilised world.

After a pre-credits sequence of a tribal attack on a jungle drug factory, we cut to Fran and Mark, a reporter and her cameraman, who are staking out a house in the city where they are sure drugs are being sold. After entering the house they find the occupants butchered, tribal fashion. Fran steals a photo and recgnises one of the people in the photo as being the son of her boss, who quickly sends her and Mark into the jungle to cover the story (it's all linked with Jim Jones and the Jonestown massacre) and track down his son, who, it turns out, is being held captive in the jungle to help the drug runners.

Though there are some half-baked ideas in the film, what really sets it apart from some of the Euro Action movies is the tight direction by Deodato. He has a firm hand on the proceedings and keeps the pacing at a perfect level. And if this isn't enough, there's enough gore and action to keep all genre fans happy, including an especially gory, if ridiculous, ripping apart of a man from a jungle booby trap. Although the version I saw suffered from being dubbed back into it's original English, apart from a few Italian segments, the acting generally above acceptable, with the odd notable exception. And it's still a pleasure to see Berryman in anything. His first appearance here, as he leaps out of the water and grabs one of the workers and disappears with him underwater unnoticed by the others is a highly memorable moment - the first of many in the film.

Starstruck

A very eighties antipodean musical. Jackie has dreams of making it big as a singer and her young cousin Angus is determined to be her manager to help her make it.

In spite of its eighties-ness and some ill-constructed set pieces this remains a highly enjoyable romp purely because of the exuberance of the two leads, Jo Kennedy and Ross O'Donovan.




Although some of the songs don't work, the ones that stand out are memorable and you will find yourself humming the tunes for days afterwards.



It is, admittedley, a slight film. It is ragged around the edges but this is part of the charm. The choreography is not pinpoint perfect, but again that helps add a touch of realism that is normally not present in musicals. Good fun.

Brother Orchid

It was a delight to see this film again. I last (and first) saw this roughly 28 years ago and it managed to stay within my psyche. Unlike other films watched so many years ago, Brother Orchid remains as I first saw it - a charmer of a gangster movie. To call it a gangster movie is a little unfair. Rather it is a human interest film with a gangster backdrop.

Edward G Robinson ("see") is 'Little' Johnny Sarto, a crime boss who runs a protection racket. He has delusions of grandeur and resigns his operation, letting Humphrey Bogart take over the reins of the racket, and goes to Europe to gain 'class'. He fails and after 5 years returns to resume his position. But Bogey won't have this (quite understandably really) and suddenly a war starts up. Edward G is shot and is rescued and taken in by a monastery where he realises he is in the perfect place to hide out, recuperate and plan his return. But he slowly learns that the monks' life of no material possessions, charity and quiet contemplation has more 'class' than anything that he ever aspired to before.

While today we can look at this film and easily predict how it will end, this somewhat forgotten film fully engages the viewer and delights on many levels. As with most pre-Casablanca movies, Bogart is the bad guy, but is not given much to do, although the fight between him and Edward G at the end is surpringly well realised. A perfunctory film perhaps, but one that draws you in and leaves you satisfied.