The original Halloween was and still is my most terrifying experience in a cinema, for reasons that only partly relate to the film itself. True, John Carpenter’s 1978 original is a masterpiece of horror cinema. He practically invented the whole slasher genre, and unwittingly ushered in a slew of inferior imitations. I saw Halloween…
The Misfits
The Misfits, Marilyn Monroe’s final film, was written for her by her (ex) husband, the great American playwright Arthur Miller. Monroe stars alongside fellow greats Clark Gable and Montgomery Clift, and the movie has a poignant sadness about it seeing movie stars past their prime playing characters past theirs, and knowing it too. Gable died…
The Breakfast Club
I saw The Breakfast Club with low expectations when reviewing movies for my student newspaper. It turned out to be one of the classic teen movies of the 80s. It is my favourite from the late director John Hughes, who also gave us teen classics Ferris Bueller and Pretty In Pink, amongst many more. These…
Gloria / The Killing Of A Chinese Bookie
I must admit I was never much of a fan of John Cassavetes’ movies. These, however, are two of his more commercial efforts. Cassavetes made his living as a character actor (in The Dirty Dozen and Rosemary’s Baby amongst others), but his passion was directing. HIs movies were usually low budget and partially self-financed. They have…
One Million Years BC
One Million Years BC is one of the better-loved non-horror movies that Hammer Films produced in the 60s, and with good reason. It has two main selling points: Ray Harryhausen’s fabulous stop-motion dinosaurs (state-of-the-art in the days before CGI), and Raquel Welch in a fur bikini! In the light of those, who cares that the…
North Sea Hijack
Roger Moore made North Sea Hijack immediately after Moonraker, and this poster very knowingly apes the classic “Bond with gun” pose. This is somewhat ironic, as Moore very much plays against type here – portraying a bearded, eccentric cat-loving anti-terrorism expert, who goes by the name of Rufus Excalibur ffolkes! From memory, I think the character…