What classics did you see last week ? (19 Apr - 25Apr 2020)

Cross of Iron - Quality!

War is Peckinpah's survival hell. 

Out on the Eastern Front 1943, battered by the war itself, a war they are losing, a platoon of German soldiers must also cope with a new aristocratic commander who deeply covets the Cross Of Iron, Germany's highest medal of honour.

Universally hated and panned by the critics upon release, Cross Of Iron now stands up as one of director Sam Peckinpah's finest works. On first glance it would seem to have been a strange film (genre) for Peckinpah to tackle, but scratch away at the scabs left by Peckinpah's trademark violence, and you see underneath that it sits comfortably with his character driven Western fables. 

Adapting from the much lauded novel by Willi Heinrich, Peckinpah is bleakly telling of men in combat, men who are not here for heroics, they are merely trying to survive, the realities of war draining their last bit of strength by the day. Then it's at the mid point when you realise that Peckinpah (possibly chuckling away into his stein of beer) has neatly led us into sympathy for the enemy of the good old war film, the German soldier. All cloaked by death dealer Peckinpah himself, with slow-mo blood baths and poetic like harshness emphasising the story unfolding. Men, true to the director's form, are defined by what they do above all else, regardless of the consequences. Men perfectly portrayed by James Coburn (never better) as Feldwebel Rolf Steiner and Maximilian Schell as Hauptmann Stransky, giving us men from different spectrum's who have differing ideals in life. 

Also evident is a classic Peckinpah theme of establishment superiors trying to stamp down on the "real" men, the irony of such being that this was yet another Peckinpah film beset with interference outside of his control. Cut and tampered with, it's only now that we can see Pekinpah's actual uncut version of the film - so accept nothing that runs under 130 minutes on Home Formats. From the opening montage of WWII footage, played out as German children sing a haunting little ditty, to the climatic, almost surreal finale as Coburn maniacally laughs into the end credits (be sure to watch these to the end for Bertolt Brecht's bitter quote closure), this is no ordinary war film. It's all shot expertly by cinematographer John Coquillon. So with the ugly themes of moral corruption and the shattering of youthful innocence, this is one unpleasant, even insane picture. In short, Cross Of Iron "is", as Orson Welles was known to say, one of the greatest anti-war films ever made. 9/10

The Wind and the Lion - Caught it myself recently - www.imdb.com/review/rw5383078/?ref_=tt_urv

Not seen Dr. Syn but I can recommend the remake Captain Clegg (1962)  - www.imdb.com/title/tt0056277/reference - www.imdb.com/review/rw2503831/?ref_=tt_urv 

Highway Pick-Up - Great to see a quality French film noir from the 60s crop up. I love it and I know mdf loves it as well and he will be chuffed to see it get a mention as well. There's only 8 reviews for it on IMDb, and 3 of those are mine mdf's and the great guy who introduced us to it, melvelvit.

The Locksmith Killer. 

Daniel Boisett (Robert Hossein) and his friend Paul Genest (Jean Sorel) are disturbed by the home owner during an attempted safe-cracking. In the ensuing mêlée, Paul accidentally kills the home owner and both men flee the scene in panic. Paul manages to escape but Daniel is shot and wounded by police and is promptly sentenced to a lengthy stint in prison.

Fourteen months later Daniel manages to escape and while out walking on the road he meets up with Thomas (Georges Wilson), who after the pair quickly become friends, offers him a job at the Mountain Relay Station he owns. Daniel adopts a new alias and accepts the offer, but once there he meets Thomas' sexy young gold digging wife, Maria (Catherine Rouvel), and nothing will ever be the same from here on in... 

Directed by Julien Duvivier (Pépé le Moko), who also co-adapts the screenplay with René Barjavel from the novel "Come Easy--Go Easy" written by James Hadley Chase, Chair de poule (AKA: Highway Pick-Up) is French film noir excellence. A picture that carries all the hallmarks of the 40s and 50s classic film noir cycle, and proudly wears this fact as a badge of honour. 

Comparisons have inevitably been drawn to The Postman Always Rings Twice (Tay Garnett 1946), which in itself is no bad thing at all, but this is still very much its own animal. Duvivier never lets the story sit still as a standard formulaic plot, there's always some new twisty addition to the story coming around the corner, unstable characters entering the fray to keep the bleak noirish stew bubbling away.

A fascinating feature of the picture is that our main protagonist, Daniel Boisett, is actually a good guy. Sure he was a safe-cracker, but he's not murderous, and as it turns out fate conspires against him to make him seem like a multiple killer, when he clearly is not. He took the fall for his mate, escapes jail and tries desperately to start afresh with honesty and virtue. But once Maria comes into his life fate has already dealt its deadly trump card. 

Women always pay with the same currency... 

Maria is an absolute sex bomb, a sizzling siren of sexuality, but as Daniel tells her, it's a pity she's so rotten, because she is, and very much so. Yes, there's a back story to her that stings her emotional fortitude, but she's a bad egg for sure. Things quickly spiral out of control, where even though Daniel knows that Maria is a femme fatale of the highest order, he's caught in a trap, a trap from which himself and the other male players in the piece can't possibly escape. 

Visually it's an intriguing picture as most of it is set in daylight up at a picturesque location. It begins in classic noir territory in the pouring rain as the men begin the safe-cracking job, and then during the escape, Duvivier and his cinematographer Léonce-Henri Burel produce a magnificent shot of a cop's giant silhouette felling the fleeing Daniel. After this we are predominantly in high light terms, but never once does the sense of claustrophobia dissipate, the atmosphere is consistently hot and sticky. 

Impressively performed and directed, Chair de poule is cynical, bleak and like a coiled spring waiting to explode. From that bleak rainy beginning to the explosively ironic finale, this is, basically, an essential viewing for film noir aficionados. 9/10


Roadblock - Inspite of your indifference, have added it to my list since McGraw is enough to entice me.

Your next summary doen't have a picture or the title of the film, but I know it's Dark Command (1940)    Review > www.imdb.com/review/rw2095353/?ref_=tt_urv

Uncle Harry

The last of the Quincey's. 

Robert Siodmak directs this psychological film noir that is based on the Broadway play Uncle Harry by Thomas Job. It stars George Sanders, Ella Raines, Geraldine Fitzgerald & Moyna MacGill. The story follows Harry Quincey (Sanders) a shy clothes designer in small town New England. He lives with his two sisters, the pretty but manipulative Lettie (Fitzgerald) and the more scatty and care free Hester (MacGill). Into his life comes the gorgeous Deborah Brown (Raines) who quickly brings colour to his otherwise dull existence. But Lettie is far from impressed and sets about doing all she can to stop the couple getting married and living together. Her actions will have dire consequences for all of the Quincey family.

Though falling some way short of the noir standards of Siodmak's best genre efforts ("The Killers"/"Criss Cross"), this none the less is a dandy piece dealing in various forms of obsession. Finding that it's produced by Joan Harrison gives weight to the notion that this is more a "Hitchcockian" small town thriller than an overtly film noir piece. Harrison of course wrote a number of screenplays for "Hitchcock", and sure enough as the film unfolds one feels like we are involved in something the big director would have revelled in. Quite what "Hitch" would have made of the palaver surrounding the ending of the film, one can only imagine, but yet again a nifty 40s thriller is saddled with an ending that has caused division across the decades.

Because of the Hays Code, five different endings were tested for the film, with the one chosen vastly different to the one in the play. So while I personally find the existing ending quirky, and certainly not film destroying, it's sad that the incestuous elements of the source have been jettisoned and therefore taking away a crucial dark edge to the turn of events in the last quarter of the film. Harrison was incensed and promptly quit Universal Pictures in protest. With hindsight now, they could have ended the film about ten minutes earlier and it would have worked better. But cest la vie and all that.

Sanders is superb, very touching as the shy, naive designer pushed to his limit by sibling suffocation. Fitzgerald is glamorous and nails the devious side of her character with much conviction. While Raines, a touch underused due to the story, has a hard quality that puts one in mind of a certain Lauren Bacall, and that to my mind is very much a good thing. Some food for thought though, I couldn't help wonder about if the roles had been reversed. Raines playing manipulative bitch and Fitzgerald the love interest definitely cries out as a winner me thinks.

It's a conventional story, but one that has depth and boasts a director capable of crafting the right sort of itchy mood. There's no technical trickery exactly, but attention to detail exists and between them the makers have produced an intelligent and gripping film, that, in spite of some foregoing of dark emotional undercurrents, is very recommended to noir and "Hitchcockian" supporters. 7.5/10

Yeah, you have to get past the historical bumph, but although you liked it more than myself, I liked it well enough.

Errol, Ronnie and Olivia, directed by Curtiz.


This is based around the story of one Jeb Stuart, a Southern born gent who would go on to become one of the South's greatest cavalrymen during the American Civil War. We follow his romance with sweetheart Kit Carson Holliday, his friendship with George Armstrong Custer, and onto his battles with abolitionist John Brown.



Though it's mostly agreed these days that Santa Fe Trail has no great historical worth, it is however still a decent movie that boasts great drama, a sweet romance, and no little amount of action. Knowingly directed by the astute Michael Curtiz and featuring the acting of Errol Flynn (dashing as Stuart), Olivia de Havilland (gutsy as Carson), Ronald Reagan (solid as Custer), and Raymond Massey (acting overdrive as Brown), the picture certainly holds up well on the technical front.



However, the relatively low rating on internet movie sites is of much interest to me, for being as I'm British I have no sort of conflict of interest with the actual story. Patriotic fervour booms out from the screen, but this appears to be at odds with the John Brown arc, the character's ambitions are nearly accepted as noble, creating a sort of odd coupling. I could of course be way off, but I wonder if the story doesn't sit well with some of our American friends?. Still the picture is never less than enjoyable, the great music from Max Steiner adds to the occasion and the finale is high reward for the viewers patience. 6.5/10

hitchcockthelegend

About the ending of Crashout: I just thought that after the speed with which the movie had been moving up to that time,

This sequence doesn’t really doesn’t subtract that much from the overall value of the film but it bothered me a little coming right at the end. So that’s my excuse for calling it anti-climactic – my ADD symptoms.

“The Circus”   Distributed by United Artists, 70 Minutes, Released January 06, 1928, Not Rated:

It’s been said that every modern movie has one of seven basic plotlines...and all seven of them originate in the twelve “perfect” movies made by the great silent film comic Charlie Chaplin during his two years with the Mutual Film Corporation in 1916 and 1917.

But if you’ve ever laughed at a Bugs Bunny cartoon and found yourself wondering how the animators at Warner Bros.’ famed Termite Terrace ever came up with such ingenious gags, look no further than “The Circus,” Chaplin’s 1928 picture for United Artists, his last great film from the silent era. While the pathos and melancholy of “The Gold Rush” from 1925 and “City Lights” from 1931 usually result in the films being acclaimed as the comic’s twin masterpieces, “The Circus” returns the great silent clown to his comedy roots, and results in his most consistently funny picture since leaving Mack Sennett’s Keystone laugh factory in 1914.

In “The Circus,” Chaplin’s familiar character the Little Tramp is on the run from police, who mistake him for a notorious pickpocket. While making a narrow escape from the law, the Tramp inadvertently stumbles into the center ring of a traveling circus. Surprisingly, his antics are a hit with the audience. Charlie’s hired on the spot by the circus manager, and eventually becomes the show’s star attraction. The problem: He’s only funny through his natural clumsiness and bad luck--when he attempts to deliberately generate laughter, his routines fall flat.

Ironically, “The Circus” was produced during an especially turbulent time in Chaplin’s life. The comic was in the middle of a scandalous divorce, under siege by the IRS, and mourning the death of his emotionally troubled mother...and all were being breathlessly reported in the nation’s newspapers. The film was also beset with technical delays, including a studio fire which required that the elaborate sets be rebuilt from scratch. For those reasons, film scholars wonder if the film isn’t Charlie Chaplin’s most intensely personal work--a rumination on his public image, and his relationship with his audience.

Among the highlights of this genuinely delightful little picture: Charlie eluding the police by impersonating a mechanical figure in a life-sized clockwork, the Tramp accidentally locking himself in a lion’s cage and attracting the interest of the curious lion, and the picture’s finale, with Charlie finding himself walking the circus tightrope without a net...while being bedevilled by a barrelful of playful monkeys.

“The Circus” was an enormous worldwide hit for Chaplin, and played in movie theaters for years. At the very first Academy Awards ceremony in 1929, the picture was nominated for four awards, with Chaplin earning one “for writing, acting, directing, and producing ‘The Circus.’” Charlie characteristically skipped the ceremony, and in fact never attended an Academy Award presentation until 1972, when he returned to the United States from European exile to accept an honorary award “for the incalculable effect he has had on making motion pictures the art form of the century.” When Charlie appeared onstage, he received a ten-minute standing ovation, the longest in Academy Award history.

“The Circus” is not rated by the MPAA, but is wonderful viewing for the entire family. 



“The Mark of Zorro”   Distributed by United Artists, 90 Minutes, Released November 27 1920, Not Rated:

There’s a scene in the 1920 silent screen version of “The Mark of Zorro” in which the picture’s villain Captain Juan Ramon, the henchman of the corrupt and despotic Governor Alvarado, is menacing heroine Lolita Pulido with nefarious intent...specifically, an act which ninety-nine years before the genesis of the #MeToo movement was referred to as “a fate worse than death.” A title card displays Ramon’s line of dialogue, “The daughter of a man so out of favor with the governor should be more...friendly to the governor’s friend.” And you know what that means.

Just in the nick of time, as the corrupt captain approaches the terrified woman, Zorro arrives, literally dropping into the scene from the ceiling overhead to stand between the predator and his victim. Zorro swiftly engages Captain Ramon in a swordfight over the honor of the fair maiden. And after an outrageously spectacular duel with their razor-sharp rapiers, our masked hero prevails over the evil captain. The triumphant Zorro holds a sword to the vanquished man’s throat, and gestures toward the cowering Lolita.

We see Zorro’s lips move, and presume the black-cloaked hero is pronouncing sentence on the man, perhaps detailing the slow and agonizing method of his execution. The audience waits with breathless anticipation for the title card to appear, to learn the captain’s fate. And when Zorro’s pronouncement is revealed a moment later, the intertitle contains only one word: “Apologize!”

Once upon a time, Douglas Fairbanks was the undisputed King of Hollywood, the star of a succession of enormously popular action adventure movies which showcased his considerable athletic abilities. Many of his pictures were elaborate costume dramas which eventually became known as “swashbucklers”--films such as “The Three Musketeers” in 1921, “Robin Hood” in 1922, and “The Thief of Baghdad” in 1924.

The genius of the Fairbanks adaptations of the literary classics is that despite their elaborate sets and extensive casts of characters, the pictures contain a vivid, childlike simplicity, a naivety reminiscent of adolescence. The Fairbanks productions depict images suggestive of a certain innocence--images which might be imagined by a child reading the stories for the first time...or having them read aloud at bedtime by a loving parent. In Fairbanks’ version of “The Three Musketeers,” for example, our heroes Athos, Porthos, and Aramis sleep at night in one enormous bed, which has an elaborately carved headboard bearing the legend, “Un Pour Tous Et Tous Pour Un” (One For All, And All For One).

Produced at a time when the character of Zorro had just been introduced in author Johnston McCulley’s novel (and serialized in the pulp fiction magazine All-Story Weekly) and set in early 19th century California during the days of Mexican rule, “The Mark of Zorro” depicts the adventures of Senor Zorro. The alter ego of the wealthy, cultured and educated Don Diego Vega, Zorro rides at night, cloaked in a black cape and cowl, to defend the lives and rights of poor farmers and peasants against crime, subjugation, and the corruption of their government’s leaders.

Possibly the best of Fairbanks’ swashbucklers, “The Mark of Zorro” moves like the wind at a sleek 90 minutes, has no slow or tedious passages...and incidentally contains all the hallmarks of the superhero tradition of modern times: The cape, the cowl, the secret identity, the underground lair, and the flashy transportation are all on display here, particularly impressive since the picture was filmed a full eighteen years before the first comic book appearance of Batman in 1938. And the title character’s delightfully spectacular stuntwork in the picture, mostly performed by Fairbanks himself, is a show unto itself.

Cleaned up by film preservationists, restored to its original vivid appearance, and including several sequences tinted in primary colors to enhance the scenes’ intended moods, “The Mark of Zorro” is not rated, but is PG in nature.



“The Phantom of the Opera”   Distributed by Universal Pictures, 107 Minutes (Original Version, 93 Minutes (1930 Sound Reissue), Released November 25 1925, Not Rated:

Movie fans who believe Universal Pictures’ legendary cycle of classic horror movies began in 1931 with the release of “Dracula” and “Frankenstein” are advised to take a look at “The Phantom of the Opera” from 1925, the first motion picture adaptation of French writer Gaston Leroux’ 1910 novel Le Fantome de l’Opera. While Universal was releasing pictures tinged with the supernatural almost since the studio’s beginnings in 1912, the studio’s production of horror movies really began to swing into high gear with the success of the 1925 movie.

Thanks to the long-running London and Broadway musical adapted from the novel and movie, the elemental plot of “The Phantom of the Opera” is already familiar to most people in western civilization: A mad, disfigured composer seeks love from a gifted young opera soprano, and attempts to earn it by kidnapping and transporting her to his vast subterranean lair beneath the Paris Opera for a sort of compulsive musical tutoring.

And thanks to a vivid and empathic performance by the legendary silent screen star Lon Chaney in the title role of 1925 film, “The Phantom of the Opera” has achieved a near-mythological status among connoisseurs of horror pictures...which is even more of a reason to wish it were a better picture.

Lon Chaney was born in 1883 to parents who were both hearing-impaired, and the pantomime required of silent film acting was an elemental part of the actor’s life from his childhood forward. An intensely private man who told close friends, “Between films, there is no Lon Chaney,” the celebrated actor took enormous pride in his craft, and created unique makeups for most film roles which often rendered him unrecognizable from movie to movie--hence the nickname “the Man of a Thousand Faces.” Unfairly classified as a horror star, Lon Chaney actually was a prolific character actor, among the highest-paid motion picture performers of the 1920s.

Chaney is customarily brilliant in “The Phantom of the Opera,” with his iconic--and horrific--makeup still holding up nearly a full century after the film’s November 1925 premiere (Chaney’s physical appearance in the role was a closely guarded secret, with his image excluded from the studio’s advertisements for the picture). While most horror fans are able to recognize the actor’s actual features through even his most elaborate disguises in other films, his performance as the Phantom is the solitary role into which the actor seems to vanish without a trace. The infamous unmasking scene, which occurs at about 45 minutes into the picture, still packs a wallop today.

The rest of the picture...eh, not so much. There are long sequences of non-Phantom exposition, too much of the romantic subplot between Mary Philbin’s Christine and Norman Kerry’s Raoul, and a smattering of unwelcome comic relief courtesy of actor Snitz Edwards (he also plays the innkeeper in “The Mark of Zorro”). For these reasons, the re-edited and truncated 93-minute 1930 version of the picture, with synchronized sound effects and a re-recorded music score, are recommended for viewers unaccustomed to the intricacies of silent melodrama. Most prints of either version of the film contain the 17 minutes of startling two-tone Technicolor photography during selected sequences.

But it’s the brilliant and terrifying performance of the great Lon Chaney in the title role that makes “The Phantom of the Opera” worthwhile and keeps horror fans coming back again and again nearly a full century later. The picture is not rated by the MPAA, but is PG in nature.  

Wow. I am got half-way through that Twelfth Night video yesterday evening when my Upstate New York son called and we talked for quite a long time so I won't be able to finish it until tonight. It is quite wonderful. Thanks for thinking of me with that alert. 

Hi all,I hope everyone is having a good weekend,and last week,for the first time in year,I actually watched the complete season of a series: Creepshow (2019-). Much less schlock than the original film, each ep has two 20 minute brisk tales. One thing I found funny,is that out of the 6 episodes, the best story was the second one in 5 of those eps, due to them each using their time to nicely dial up the tension. Not having seen her since Battlestar (one of my favourite shows) Tricia Helfer gave the stand-out performance,in a story where she spends most of the time alone in a lift (the series of exclusive to Shudder.) I give the series 8/10.

I also did a unintended J-Horror run,but before that:

Nordic cinema: Week 3:



Thriller: A Cruel Picture (1973) 7

Stating later that the only reason he made this after his first movie flopped to recover losses by doing "A commercial-as-hell crap-film" (that's the spirit!) and putting a clause in the cast contract to not reveal his real name, writer/director "Alex Fridolinski" (real name: Bo Arne Vibenius) & cinematographer Andreas Bellis poke Frigga at full force in the eye with a scuzz Grindhouse atmosphere, of sleazy, violent sex, eyefuls of skin on show,a real human corpse (!), and the Grindhouse classics: cars randomly blowing up and goons falling into empty cardboard boxes at a warehouse.

Holding the drug-addled Frigga hostage in a cheap set of Tony's pad, all shot in one medium-shot and drab lighting, (clearly all filmed in one day) Vibenius thankfully unleashes Frigga (the name of Odin's wife) into the wild to get revenge on Tony and his clients who abused her, who each get hit with the super cool trench-coat wearing Frigga unleashing her revenge in the surprisingly artful use of slow-motion, which Vibenius uses to turn each high kick and point blank head-shot into a ballet move for this black swan.

Rolling her sleeves up so much that the producers took a out a huge life insurance policy due to the two months of pre-production martial arts and gun training leading to real ammo being used, fittie Christina Lindberg gives a no holds barred Turn, performing each deadly revenge attack with swift procession. Injecting saline solution as Frigga sinks into a heroin addiction, and saying hardly any word of dialogue for the majority of the film, Lindberg beautifully brings out in her washed out, withdrawn face the horror Tony has inflicted, which Lindberg gradually toughens up into a deadly gaze towards a cruel picture.



The Monitor/Baby Call (2011) 9

For what is currently the last film he has made, writer/director Pal Sletaune reunites with cinematographer John Andreas Andersen, and builds upon the visual stylisation they had started in Next Door (2005-also reviewed.)

Keeping Anna and Anders behind closed doors, Sletaune and Anderson house the duo in a claustrophobic, nerve- shredding Thriller atmosphere, pulled up in long,cornered-off takes pushing Anna and Anders sanity to the corner of the room. When allowing a guest in, Sletaune monitors them increasing the anxiety on Anna and the viewer, via a delicate framing of each person crossing Anna's personal space in up-tight close-shots.

Continuing on the unsettling ambiguous turn taken with the Next Door (2005),the screenplay by Sletaune grips the fragile mental state of Anna and Anders by closing them in with conversations on what horrors they have tried to escape from by moving to the flat. Whilst the coda has a odd up-beat note, Sletaune twists it into a tragic note, thanks to the screams Anna picks up on her baby monitor, striking at the mixed signals Anna sends out on what is reality.

Spending most of the film with just one other person, Vetle Qvenild Werring gives a terrific turn as Anders, whose bratty side Werring cuts down to fear over his mum sinking deeper into the flat. After her Millennium trilogy co-star Michael Nyqvist had worked with Sletaune on Next Door, Noomi Rapace locks the door and gives a nail-biting performance as Anna, whose bruised mental state Rapace casts across her face with a on-edge fear over losing everything, pinned by Rapace with a curiosity for Anna to learn what the sounds are coming from the monitor.




Thale (2012) 6

Placing the telling of this tale in a isolated setting mostly with just three people, writer/cinematographer/ director Aleksander Nordaas (who filmed all the interior scenes in his basement) brushes away the chance to lay the foundation for a enchanting atmosphere, by having Leo vomit all over the opening credits. Instead of going into Elvis's battle with cancer through the dialogue or keeping it to one vomiting scene which fully captures the horrific agony , Nordaas instead tries to express it visually, via Elvis and Leo regularly vomiting, which becomes a barrier to the character drama. Playing snippets of old tapes from the main setting, Nordaas records a enticing mysterious Horror atmosphere from stylishly splintered over saturated glimpses into the origins of Thale.

Based upon the Nordic folklore Hulder creatures, the screenplay by Nordaas wonderfully artefacts from the crime scene where Thale is found to bring the mythical creatures into a modern setting, as Elvis and Leo unearth Sci-Fi government conspiracy-style old recordings, notes and rusting machinery. Not saying one line of dialogue, Silje Reinamo gives a magical turn in the title role, via expressing in her closed-off body language anxiety over trusting Elvis and Leo,which Reinamo gradually shakes off with her tail, to turn the page on the tale of Thale.



Shudder Exclusives: Week 3:



One Cut of the Dead (2017) 10
Highly recommended to Lebowskidoo 🦞 & manfromplanetx there is a twist 40 minutes in (I made sure not mention it in review) which made my jaw hit the floor. I've found out today that along with it streaming on Amazon US, Third Windows Films have put a DVD out: www.amazon.co.uk/One-Cut-Dead-Shinichiro-Ueda/dp/B07KLCY91S

Taking two days and six takes to film perfection, the opening one take 37 minute opening shot from writer/director Shin'ichiro Ueda & cinematographer Takeshi Sone runs in with a breathless atmosphere of the hand held (but not shaky) camera swaying the viewer straight into the zombie onslaught. Making the one cut after the 37 minute mark, Ueda brilliantly makes a stark contrast by taking the crumbly colours of the opening zombie run,into crystallised, crisp digital.

Made as part of a acting and directing workshop called ENBU Seminar, (the cast actually paid to be in the movie!) Ueda's adaptation of Ryoichi Wada's play takes the film far beyond these humble beginnings with a incredible, humorous inventiveness, mocking ego-driven directors,as a film maker (played with a unhinged madness by Takayuki Hamatsu) attempts to direct a unfolding zombie apocalypse. Swinging a end to the zombies, Ueda cuts the opening 37 minutes one-shot with a incredible twist,which reveals the shared love of movie making the cast and crew have, visible in each cut of the dead.



0.0 Mhz (2019) 3

Going behind the camera for the first time after writing the script for Musudan (2016), writer/director Sun-Dong Yoo & cinematographer Taek Gyun Cha take a group of teens down to a Korean Horror cabin, entirely made of J-Horror dead wood. Bringing the ghost to life in a prologue, Sun-Dong knocks down any chance of fear or mystery building, by drenching the flick in a terrible jump-scare score, where in moments when silence and a lingering camera could have created a decent scene, Sun-Dong slaps the dull boo-jump score on, and elbows the camera in for plodding hump-scare whip-pans.

Minded from the comic by Jak Jang, the adaptation by Sun-Dong borrows from the worst aspects of the Slasher genre, by making each of the teens in the cabin who cause the ghost to be awakened, be utterly interchangeable from each other,due to Sun-Dong finding no wood to build any distinct characters or personalities. Bringing the J-Horror styled long black haired female ghost out of the woodwork, Sun-Dong tramples on any spooky potential the ghost has, by wrapping her in terrifyingly shoddy CGI, leading to mind-numbing, dull cabin fever.



Sadako vs. Kayako (2016) 7

Bringing the two icons of J-Horror together, writer/director Koji Shiraishi works closely with sound effects editor Sakura Katsumata on a joyfully errie sound design, free of loud music jump-scares, in order to scale the soundtrack to one creaking ghostly timber ringing in the ears of the next victim. Subverting the expectations suggested by the pulpy title, Shiraishi rings out a icy J-Horror atmosphere of icy winding camera moves circling the next victim counting down the time they have left, and a wise use of smoky mysterious Gothic shadows keeping the CGI used to create the title characters, away from the cold light of day.

Hyped as a match between icons, the screenplay by Shiraishi surprisingly gives little time to Kayako and openly shows a bias towards Sadako, by making the addition of The Grudge legend be a last-minute arrival given little chance to become fully entwined into Sadako's main plot line hauntings.

Whilst the miss-judged open ending stumbles in a fight which does not live up to the build-up due to the two ladies being given less than 5 minutes to fight it out, Shiraishi balancing treating the fear of The Ring seriously, with a playful comedic zest from urban legends fan Morishige (played by a wonderfully deadpan Masahiro Komoto) who is dying to find out if Sadako is actually real,as Kayako and Sadako step into the ringu.

%0's J-Horror duo:



The Mother Tree (1958) 8

Flickering the burning need for revenge from beyond the grave as two burning balls of fire flies hanging above the head of the killer, director Goro Kadono & cinematographer Hiroshi Suzuki superbly brush J-Horror with the long shadowed stylisation of German Expressionism, expressed in the death face mask of the returning dead, refined minimalist, side shots of the painters family falling into the arms of the killer, and a wonderful dip into a painted surreal final.

Taking the brush from Encho San'yutei's novel, the adaptation by Torao Tanabe takes a J-Horror revenge outline, and divides it with welcomed quirks,from the mum saying she can no longer give breast milk, to the growing number of former servants joining forces with the avenging dead husband. Whilst serving up sharp revenge, Tanabe refreshingly puts that brush down, to instead draw a final flight of fantasy message of personal fulfilment from eyes drawn on the mother tree.



Seven Mysteries (1957) 6

Enticing the audience with a eye-catching opening 4 minutes overlapping montage of ghosts from J-Horror folk legends setting the stage for a anthology film, director Goro Kadono & cinematographer Hiroshi Suzuki instead take a step back, in order to lean in a more Fantasy direction, with the un- credited jaunty score emphasizing the fantastical,and giving the final ghostly melle a oddly comedic tone. Taking on Akira Sugawa's short story Seven Wonders of Honjo,the adaptation by Otoya Hayashi and Nagayoshi Akasada (none credited on IMDb) never quiet blends the Fantasy and the samurai tale fully together,with the magical " Tanuki" coming off as a mere add on to the samurai family drama wandering on.

Other flicks:



Audition (1999)10

Continuing to build on a occasional collaboration that began with the thrilling Fudoh: The New Generation, (1996-also reviewed) auteur director Takashi Miike & cinematographer Hideo Yamamoto make the opening audition process be one which marks where Miike began,and where he finished the decade,as Shigeharu's auditions cut between film, and a first person view of a rolling video camera (the format Miike started his career on.)

Seeping the bad blood that is soon to reach the surface in their relationship down the wall, Yamamoto and Miike wire a white-hot tense atmosphere by hanging on flat, understated, wide-shots,which are pinned on a descent of Asami's starry eyes and Shigeharu's original casual gaze at the relationship. Reuniting with his regular editor of the era Yasushi Shimamura,Miike takes the lingering in the air breakdown of Asami and Shigeharu relationship, and jabs it with gloriously extreme violence on body mutilation (a recurring Miike motif.)

Slicing it away from being a mere gore fest, Miike and Shimamura bring psychological meaning to the violence, via the inter-cutting flashbacks to the childhood memories (a major recurring theme of Miike's) of Asami, whose haunted memories of the abuse she suffered that continued into adulthood, injects her as a avenging angels to all the men who exploited her.

Hired to adapt Ryu Murakami's novel by the studio as they looked for a project to get the Ringu (1998) crowd in, the screenplay by Daisuke Tengan brilliantly surges from Comedy to J-Horror with a razor-sharp skill. Murakami holds Shigeharu's jokey "auditions" for a new partner,with having a underlying creepiness, from the dismissive way he treats all the woman auditioning, which comes to haunt him, in the excellent, elusive dialogue Tengan gives Asami, which threads Shigeharu to playing a investigation into her past.

Encouraged by his son to do these auditions after he has become a widow, Ryo Ishibashi gives a refine, considered turn as Shigeharu, whose grief Ishibashi has weighs heavy on him, bringing out pure fear when Shigeharu eyes the different state Asami sees their relationship in. In only her second credit, former model Eihi Shiina gives a hypnotic turn as Asami, thanks to Shiina getting under the fragile outer appearance of Asami, to unveil a fiery hole that needs to be filled with vengeance, that lands Asami a audition.



At Any Cost (2000) 6

At first acting as if he is one of the band, Glenn Quinn gives a stand-out performance as manager Ben, whose initial warmth with the band over a shared ambition to make it to the top, is used by Quinn to grow Ben's ego into being bigger than the band itself. In what was his 7th credited film/TV role, James Franco gives a very good turn as band member Mike, who Franco wisely holds at the other end of Ben, with Franco having each rise in fame grind Mike down. Made for VH1 Films (!),future Rocky Balboa/ Creed 1 and 2 producer Charles Winkler takes on directing a tune with cinematographer Robert Steadman,and surprisingly turns away from the glossy style of MTV Films.

Winkler instead hits a more thoughtful note, played in wonderful wide-shots at the front of the stage catching the close bond between fans and band, which Winkler downplays backstage in close-ups on the faces of each band mate struggling with the highs and lows in attempting to build a career on the road.

Whilst the ending is hilariously silly, the screenplay by future The Brave One (2007) co-writers Robert Steadman & Bruce A. Taylor keep the rest of the flick in tune, by crossing the early wide-eyed ambitions of the band,with the hard realities of becoming a big band which confront Ben, who decides to get the band to the top,at any cost.



Tayna vechnoy nochi (1956) 6

For having a underwater Sci-Fi final, the screenplay by Igor Lukovskiy is sadly fairly dry,where aside from a coda saying all the Soviet scientists work will be spread "Among the people", Lukovskiy keeps things straight-lace,with the scientists staying stoic even when finding radio-activity underwater, as they sail out on the eternal night.

Diving deep into the waters of Atlantis, directors Dmitriy Vasilev & Abram Room bring a hard Sci-Fi to land, in Atlantis not being filled with underwater people, but instead being a hub for brightly coloured, radioactive new species of plants and regular-sized fish. Wiping the screen clean at each new discovery, the directors stand back in dour wide-shots giving the scientists plenty of room to display their expert sight.

Hi Spike,with Detour,was it the Criterion Blu from last year you saw it on? If so, how is the upgrade? 

I forgot to comment on THE INVISIBLE WOMAN. Seems like it is overlooked a fair bit since it is not what you would consider a Universal Horror. As a comedy it is quite good.