“What we have here is a failure to communicate….” These are the last words spoken by Paul Newman’s Luke, a fiercely disruptive convict, whom the authorities are determined to crush in 1967’s classic prison drama. Unbroken to the last, he parodies the exact words spoken to him by the warden before being shot. Cool Hand…
The Final Conflict
The Final Conflict was the concluding chapter in The Omen trilogy (well, it was until someone had the bright idea to flog a dead horse with Omen IV…) I always found it a poor fit with the previous two movies, the basic premise being that the Devil’s son Damien is now a grown adult, intent…
The Italian Job
The Italian Job has so many great moments, its one of the most memorable British films of the 60s, I reckon. Who doesn’t love the endlessly quotable dialogue (“You’re only supposed to blow the bloody doors off!”), or cheeky thief Michael Caine and his gang’s escape from a gridlocked Turin in a fleet of Mini…
Man Of 1000 Faces
Lon Chaney was one of the greats of silent cinema. A master of disguise, he would go to extreme (and – for him – extremely painful) lengths to transform himself into The Hunchback Of Notre Dame and The Phantom Of The Opera, amongst other horror movie icons. Still, he was perhaps an unusual subject for…
Forbidden Planet
Memorabilia from Forbidden Planet makes for some of the most collectible movie items out here. If I had an original release US poster I would be a rich man. But I have to make do with this rather less valuable 60s re-release Spanish herald (plus my Australian poster for The Invisible Boy – not a sequel…
Frenzy
Frenzy, Alfred Hitchcock’s penultimate film, is somewhat divisive. Hitchcock returned to the UK after many years in Hollywood to deliver undoubtedly the nastiest (and arguably most misogynistic) of his movies. Hitch takes advantage of relaxing censorship to deliver some very graphic, brutal murder set-pieces. Its something of a return to form, however, after the very boring…
Scum
Scum remains one of the toughest and most disturbing watches of all British movies of the 70s. A harsh look at the brutal life inside borstals, it was originally planned for TV, but it got banned and was subsequently remade to be released in cinemas. I still remember the scene where a pre-fame Ray Winstone…
Invasion Of The Body Snatchers
Philip Kaufman’s 1978 version of Invasion Of The Body Snatchers is one of those rare instances where the remake is arguably better than the original movie. Don Siegel’s version is a deserved classic of 50s paranoia sci-fi, justly remembered in particular for its ending, as the hero stands on a freeway shouting to no avail…
To Trap A Spy
i used to watch The Man from UNCLE TV series regularly as a kid. It was an unashamed American James Bond knock-off, featuring spies Robert Vaughn and David McCallum in a new adventure each week. Cheaply made, and largely forgettable plot-wise, it had some decent chemistry between the leads, some fun gadgets and a few…
The Big Heat
Fritz Lang’s 1953 crime thriller is now considered one of the classic film noirs. The movie stars Glenn Ford as a homicide cop. Plus, there’s an early role for Lee Marvin as a heavy who, in the movie’s most famous scene, throws a pot of boiling coffee in his moll Gloria Grahame’s face, badly scarring…