I remember I saw this loony concept monster movie from schlock producer Larry Cohen (Its Alive and others) in the lecture theatre at university. It was a lot of fun, I recall. The plot sees an ancient giant flying lizard god make a nest at the top of the Chrysler building’s art-deco spire. From there…
Rear Window
Rear Window is one of Hitchcock’s greatest movies, indeed one of the greatest movies ever. Hitchcock ingeniously makes full use of the single location set to explore one of his favourite themes: voyeurism. James Stewart plays a photographer with a broken leg, driven to distraction by boredom cooped up in his apartment, who amuses himself…
The Wild Geese
In 1978, when it was released, a movie where white mercenaries kill a bunch of black soldiers and (almost) rescue a black resistance leader was nothing more than a cracking adventure. Now, its ‘white saviour’ theme is rather uncomfortable, notwithstanding some token attempts in the script to address racism head-on. (The movie also invited controversy…
Barbarella
I honestly do not know what to make of Barbarella. I only have vague memories of having seen it once on TV and I recall it was very campy, silly and not particularly funny. Yet it has a status now as something of an influential cult classic, so maybe I was just too young to…
Round Midnight
Here is an Oscar-winning soundtrack from a movie I must admit I do not remember at all well. I cannot claim to be much of a jazz connoisseur either, but I do like the imagery of late nights in smoky 50s clubs, with fragile or frazzled talents bringing magic onstage. Round Midnight casts one of…
Peplums
Here are some examples of a peculiar sub-genre. “Peplums” are a term for low-budget Italian-made ‘sword and sandal’ historical epics. The peak “peplum” period was the 60s, when hundreds of such movies featuring Biblical stories and/or Greco-Roman mythical heroes were made. These attempted to copy the success of Hollywood epics such as Ben Hur or…
Castle Of Frankenstein
Here some copies of a vintage American horror magazine that I picked up recently very cheaply in France, of all places. Castle Of Frankenstein ran for 25 issues between 1962 and 1975. It was at the time the only nationally distributed magazine which covered B-movies seriously, in addition to both classic and current horror movies….
Touch Of Evil
1958’s Touch of Evil is one of the greatest Film Noirs of all time. It also contains one of the most famous long take tracking shots in history, courtesy of the great Orson Welles. Star Charlton Heston brought Welles onboard to both direct and star as the villain of the piece – a bloated, corrupt…
Film Review / Photoplay
I used to collect both of these UK movie magazines back in the 70s. I may be wrong, but my vague recollection is these were for sale both in newsagents and in cinema lobbies. In the pre-internet days, these were the best way of keeping track of upcoming releases and figuring out which movies I…
Love in the afternoon
Who doesn’t love Audrey Hepburn? My wife certainly does, which is why we have ended up with various pieces of Audrey memorabilia around our house. This is a Japanese ‘chirashi’ flyer for Billy Wilder’s 1957 romantic comedy Love In The Afternoon. I must admit, i like the flyer rather more than I liked the movie. …