This cult classic from John Carpenter gave the world the iconic character of Snake Plissken (what a name!). After working together on the TV movie Elvis, Escape From New York was the first theatrical release for the Carpenter/Kurt Russell partnership. Together, they made several more movies, including the classic The Thing plus, regrettably, the lamentable…
Picturegoer Film Weekly
I have no idea how this vintage movie magazine came to be in my possession. Picturegoer was a UK movie magazine which ran from 1911 to 1960, mostly as a weekly publication. It was sold at cinemas and regularly featured some of the biggest stars of the era. At its peak in the 1940s, it…
The KIllers
Ernest Hemingway’s 1927 short story has been filmed several times, including a 1946 version with Burt Lancaster. Don Siegel’s 1964 version stars Lee Marvin as one of the titular killers, and also features Ronald Reagan (as a baddie) in his final acting role before turning to politics. It was originally shot to be a made-for-tv…
For A Few Dollars More
I have collected or nearly collected various posters over the years for Sergio Leone’s follow up to A Fistful Of Dollars. Once upon a time I owned the UK quad, but sold it (which I now regret), although I don’t think its the greatest design. I have been tempted to buy the French grande, which…
Scanners
David Cronenberg is one of those directors whom I find perennially interesting, yet I find it hard to love most of his films. My favourites of his are The Dead Zone and Videodrome, with The Fly and A History Of Violence not far behind. Scanners pre-dates all of those, but shares his icy Canadian sensibility,…
M*A*S*H
I have a hard time remembering Robert Altman’s 1970 movie M*A*S*H as the subsequent very long-running TV series sticks in my memory more powerfully. I do remember seeing the movie after the TV show had been around for years, and I had difficulty adjusting to its much harder edge, and Altman’s signature episodic style. Donald…
The Conversation
“He’d kill US if he had the chance….” This I remember was the pivotal line in Francis Ford Coppola’s 1974 paranoid procedural thriller The Conversation. Inspired by Antonioni’s earlier arthouse thriller Blowup, Coppola cast Gene Hackman as a lonely, obsessive bugging expert, whose recordings indicate a potential murder. But it’s when he plays the tape…
Pennies From Heaven
This is a French version of the poster, with great artwork by the prolific American artist Bob Peak. I must admit, I’ve never seen the Americanised movie version, starring Steve Martin. Pennies From Heaven started life as a BBC series, written by the provocative British playwright Dennis Potter, and was an early lead role that…
The Right Stuff
I remember I saw The Right Stuff on a late night press screening while reviewing movies for my university magazine, and I found it hugely impressive. Writer/director Philip Kaufman does a fine job weaving a coherent narrative out of the true story of early NASA test pilots leading up to John Glenn being the first…
The Cotton Club
Here’s a shout-out for Francis Ford Coppola’s OTHER great gangster movie, 1984’s Harlem-set The Cotton Club. Coppola took the job because he needed the money, having bankrupted himself making One From The Heart. Its production was an expensive shambles, spread over 5 years, it lost a ton of money, and one of its financial backers…