What classics did you see last week ? (14 Jul - 20 Jul 2019)

To the Ends of the Earth (1948) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0040887/reference

Utterly polished piece of adult crime drama film making. 
 
To The Ends of the Earth is directed by Robert Stevenson and written by Jay Richard Kennedy. It stars Dick Powell, Signe Hasso, Maylia, Ludwig Donath and Vladimir Sokoloff. Music is by George Duning and cinematography by Burnett Guffey.

Dick Powell stars as Treasury Agent Commissioner Michael Barrows, who after witnessing a terrible incident at sea goes on the trail of a major narcotics ring. Part docu-noir, part straight out crime drama, Stevenson's film is a pic that demands your full attention. Such are the intricacies of a plot involving a global narcotics operation, and the number of characters involved as Barrows literally country hops, it may even be a picture that improves because of a "needed" second viewing. Not to say that is a requisite, the structure and pace of the piece simply may not be your thing, but I'd like to put it on record that it seems an improver and definitely one to watch and listen to carefully. Helps, also, that there is much narration to aid the complexity of the case.

It begins in shocking fashion, with an event that has the ability to take you aback, and with your attention grabbed we are then on a jaunt with Barrows, getting up close and personal with either shifty persons or loyal international people willing to help the intrepid agent. He has dry wit and a cunning knowing, a guy we basically like to be around, with Powell (not for the first time in such a role) splendidly in character. There was a large budget afforded the production, so the near documentary approach doesn't look cheap (helps having Guffey on photography duties), while the MPA eased their "drugs in film" regulations to let the pic breath an air of much needed realism.

With the evils of narcotic smuggling given intelligent filmic substance - we learn much about the manufacture of opium and how it is hidden and retrieved etc - and some very drastic scenes involving murder and suicides, this is mature film making. Not all the cast leave lasting impressions (apart from Powell they were largely unknown at the time), and some of the speech sections are a little clunky, but this is an utterly polished piece of adult crime drama film making. 7.5/10


Oklahoma Territory (1960) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0054138/reference

Houston We Have A Temple!
 
Oklahoma Territory is directed by Edward L. Cahn and written by Orville H. Hampton. It stars Bill Williams, Gloria Talbott, Ted de Corsia and Grant Richards. Music is by Albert Glasser and cinematography by Walter Strenge.

Temple Houston was a most interesting real life character, one who is very much worth reading up on. This picture is not based on any real facts, but the essence of the real man is very much evident. Clocking in at under 70 minutes, Cahn's movie is devoid of pointless filler and extraneous wastage.

The story is intelligent as it tells of the persecution of a Cherokee Chief because shifty factions are operating behind the scenes for their own ends. The legal aspects are intriguing as well, as Houston -as the DA for the territory - has to first prosecute Buffalo Horn for murder, only to then be forced into being his defence council - with not exactly legal methods wonderfully brought into play.

In truth it's all a bit fanciful and nutty, but consider the low budget and you find a smart screenplay surrounded by a nice looking film (Calif locales), with the wily Cahn keeping it all together rather handsomely. 6.5/10


Bloodsport (1988) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0092675/reference

You told me to use any tactic that works, never to commit yourself to one style, to keep an open mind! 
 
Bloodsport is directed by Newt Arnold and written by Christopher Cosby, Mel Friedman and Sheldon Lettich. It stars Jean-Claude Van Damme, Donald Gibb, Leah Ayres, Norman Burton, Forest Whitaker and Bolo Yeung. Music is by Paul Hertzog and cinematography by David Worth.

One of the earlier films that made Van Damme into a star, Bloodsport finds Van Damme as real life martial artist Frank Dux. Dux enters into the famed Kumite, a no nonsense tournament in Hong Kong and must overcome various hurdles to hopefully achieve his goals.

As is the norm for a Van Damme action movie, particularly where his late 80s and early 90s output is concerned, one has to be prepared for some at best average acting and a flimsy plot. Plot follows a familiar Van Damme trajectory, his character will yearn to overcome adversity, go through a strenuous training programme, meet and make friends and enemies, produce some outstanding martial artistry, and end up in a winner takes all fight for justice, revenge, honour...

Away from the seriously great fighting skills showcased by Van Damme and the other martial artists he comes up against, there's not a lot of artistic film making craft on show. But as fans of this sort of stuff will tell you, and I'm one of that number, it matters not, for they deliver exactly what we expect. Great fight choreography, a super Kumite montage, a vile villain who needs his ass kicked, and of course lots of Van Damage as we hurtle towards what we hope will be a triumphant finale. Hooray!

Though supposedly based on facts in Frank Dux's life, this has been called into question over the years, so best to just observe it as an energised martial arts film rather than a part biography piece. 7/10


The Relic (1997) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0120004/reference

Pot's a misdemeanour. Decapitation seems a bit severe. 

The Relic is directed by Peter Hyams (also cinematographer) and based on the best-selling novel written by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The film stars Tom Sizemore, Penelope Ann Miller, James Whitmore and Linda Hunt. The music score is composed by John Debney.

The Museum of Natural History in Chicago takes delivery of some crates from South America. Sent by an employee, John Whitney, one of the crates appears to be just full of leaves. However, just as the museum prepares to launch a major exhibition, where all the city's top brass will be present, a security guard is horrifically killed. Can superstitious cop Lt. Vincent D'Agosta (Sizemore) and evolutionary biologist Dr. Margo Green (Miller) get to the bottom of the mystery before it's too late?

From the bunch of creature feature movies that surfaced in the 1990s, The Relic may not win prizes for originality of plotting, but it scores high for tension and gloopy fun. Though the decent budget is evident ($70,000,000), the film has all the old fashioned values to make a creature feature work. Rank and file staples come thick and fast; boo jump moments, characters refusing to accept the un-normal, silly kids, silly coppers, a potential hero and heroine, possible romance, some sci-fi babble, a curse, and of course the creature itself - a big hybrid of god knows what! with the "Kothoga" being a snarling, slimy monstrosity that goes about the museum lopping heads off some inept human beings with carefree abandon. What's not to like there?

Though Hyams is no genius director, he is, as his CV suggests, more than capable at crafting a polished movie. Such is the case here, where the "B" movie story is given good technical treatment. The lighting (you may have to adjust your settings here) and editing serve the atmosphere well, while the sound work is of the required horror requisitional standard. More importantly, though, Hyams is aware of building up the tension by not unleashing the creature far too soon. We know it's the killer, and we get little snippets of it here and there, but it's not until all hell breaks loose at the big museum event that we get to see the monster, and it's not a let down. Part animatronic/part computer effect, the "Kothoga" is original and it is scarily great fun. So much so it (thankfully) steers the viewers away from the pedestrian performances of the cast. Not bad exactly, but just doing grizzled and spunky beauty (Sizemore & Miller respectively) doesn't really grab the attention. The best actor on show is Whitmore (tracing a lovely creature feature line from Them! in 1954 to here), but he is badly under written and under used.

Still, the minor acting issues matters not, for this is ready made for a Saturday night in with the beer and some snacks, so give it a go and you may just enjoy yourself. 7/10


Deep Rising (1998) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0118956/reference

If the cash is there we do not care! What kind of life philosophy is that?

A gang of modern day pirates board a luxurious ocean liner intent on looting it of everything. However, once on board the liner appears to be deserted, all traces of human life seemingly vanished into thin air. Apparently some strange sea creatures have run amok and the pirates themselves are now next on the menu!

Deep Rising doesn't have any delusion about what it wants to be, it was marketed as a raging "B" movie man versus beast gun fest, and that is exactly what it is - with tongue firmly in its bloody cheek. When the tag line reads "Full Scream Ahead" then you get the impression it's not a film to be remotely taken seriously.

Written and directed by Stephen Sommers (The Mummy), Deep Rising is a blend of Alien, Poseidon Adventure and Under Siege, all built around the Ten Little Indians structure. Blood spurts and quips are dealt, and the film isn't found wanting in the good old "it's behind you" department. The cast give it the full gusto histrionics, Treat Williams, the sumptuous Famke Jansen (holding her own surrounded by hundreds of pounds of testosterone), Anthony Heald, Kevin J O'Connor, Wes Studi, Djimon Hounsou and, erm, Jason Flemyng also star.

It's a mini riot out at sea, great great fun. 7/10


Law Abiding Citizen (2009) - www.imdb.com/title/tt1197624/reference

You can't fight fate. Right?

Gerard Butler stars as Clyde Shelton, a man forced to not only watch his wife and daughter be raped and murdered in his own home, but to also have to sit there and watch the justice system fail him. So he wages a one man war against pretty much everyone involved.

Hoo-Hah! The big hitting critics hated it, with comments ranging from it being sub-normal, preposterous, ugly and morally corrupt, to it being a comic book film of moral hectoring! Naturally, as the critics were at pains to point out that it would, it made a pot load at the box office and is generally well liked by a good portion of the action/revenge/thriller loving populace.

There's always a big grey area with revenge/vigilante movies that really brings out the debate crowd, but what rarely gets said is that through the actions of these cinematic waste layers is the chance for many, many, folk to live vicariously. Yes! 99% of the common man and woman do indeed sit back and trust our respective legal systems to do what's right and just, but oh how we feel that given similar circumstances we would want to vent spleen with furious anger.

Law Abiding Citizen is a riot, at its heart it does have something to say, even asking some pertinent questions. Do these social smarts come bursting through the bloody haze to make a point? No, they get submerged in a whirl of kinetic fury and socko violence, but they are there, caustically so. But hey! For shocks, twists and outrageous set-pieces, this picture rocks the big one. Vicarious living through cinema - Wonderful. 8/10


TV - The Outer Limits - Soldier (1964) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0667824/reference 

Quarlo Quandaries...

Soldier is directed by Gerd Oswald and written by Harlan Ellison and Leslie Stevens. It stars Lloyd Nolan, Michael Ansara, Tim O'Connor, Ralp Hart and Jill Hill. Music is by Harry Lubin and cinematography by Kenneth Peach.

Season 2 - Episode 1

A soldier named from the far future Quarlo (Ansara), conditioned from birth to be a killing machine, is teleported back to present day 1964. Psychiatric linguist Tom Kagan (Nolan) is assigned the near impossible task of getting to the bottom of who Qarlo is, and where has he come from? As some headway is made and things begin to unravel, another soldier from the future arrives to kill his enemy, Quarlo.

Written by expert science fiction writer Harlan Ellison, Soldier became famous for being the episode that saw Ellison charge James Cameron with plagiarism when he wrote the screenplay for The Terminator. The subsequent legal battle saw Ellison receive a writing credit on later prints of The Terminator. Regardless of that, what we have here is superb start to series 2, a smart thought out sci-fi story with tense sequences and spiffy sci-fi visuals to aid the viewing experience. 8.5/10


Done!

The Beach Bum (2018) 6/10

Airport '79...The Concorde (1979) 4/10

Law Abiding Citizen (2009) 3/10

Designing Woman (1957) 5/10

Love at Large (1990) 6/10

Death Defying Acts (2007) 4/10

The Wings of Eagles (1957) 6/10

A Kiss before Dying (1956) 7/10

The Damned (1969) 5/10

This Land is Mine (1943) 8/10

It's a Wonderful World (1939) 7/10

3:10 To Yuma (1957) 5/10

Another Thin Man (1939) 6/10

3 Days to Kill (2014) 6/10

Firewall (2006) 3/10

wmcclain


Thanks for all reviews you have posted.

Two movies catched my interest, The Killer is Loose and Never Take Sweets from a Stranger

Are they worth seaching out, since they sound interesting

The Man Who Wouldn’t Die / Herbert I. Leeds (1942). Twentieth Century Fox. The fifth of seven films in which Lloyd Nolan played private eye Michael Shayne. At the end of the Fox run, the series moved to the Poverty Row studio PRC where Hugh Beaumont continued the Michael Shayne adventures for another five films, all released in 1946. This one opens with three men carrying a body from a house, placing it in a wood-paneled station wagon (Lordy, remember Woodies?), driving into the woods and hastily burying it. As they are doing this, Kay Wolff (Marjorie Weaver who was cast in two other Shayne films as different characters), prodigal daughter of a rich businessman, returns to the stately manor of her father to tell him that she has got married, causing much consternation. That night, a mysterious figure enters Kay’s bedroom and fires a shot at her. Everyone believes that she what dreaming. What to do but call her friend, the laid-back devil-may-care private investigator Michael Shayne. Nolan is way too antic and tends to get on one’s nerves but as mystery puzzles go, this is one of the better of the Shayne series.




Dark Mountain / William Berke (1944). Producer’s Releasing Corp (PRC). Pretty poor crime drama even though it gets off to a fast start with our Forest Ranger hero Don Bradley (Robert Lowery, 1949 cliffhanger serial “Batman and Robin” and “Circus Boy” TV series 1956-7) rushing to fight a forest fire. He disobeys orders by running into the fire to save Susie and Joey who turn out to be horses. But then we settle into a crime story that could not have happened if only one character had a lick common sense. Unfortunately, none do. Bradley goes to town to propose to the Girl He Left Behind only to discover that she is already married. Tough break. However, his ex, Kay (Ellen Drew), learns quickly that her new hubby is a racketeer and murderer. She accidentally gets involved in one of his killings so goes on the run, falling back on Ranger Bradley for a hideout. Elisha Cook, Jr. makes an all too brief appearance. Regis Toomey is the sinister spouse.




Affair In Trinidad / Vincent Sherman (1952). The Beckworth Corp / Columbia Pictures. This was the fourth of five pictures in which Glenn Ford and Rita Hayworth co-starred. The first was “Gilda” and “Affair in Trinidad” is very much modeled on that previous film. Hayworth (who was just returning to Hollywood after her marriage to Aly Khan) is even introduced singing in a nightclub dressed in a similar gown to what she wore for the song “Put The Blame On Mama” in “Gilda” and she even does the close-up with the hair flip that was her first appearance in “Gilda.” In the second half, she does a sexy dance to infuriate Ford who slaps her just like in…well, you know by now. As for plot, Hayworth plays Chris Emery whose husband has just been found murdered. Chris is closely questioned by police because her name had been linked with rich guy Max Fabian (Alexander Scourby) who the cops have their eyes on. That’s when the husband’s brother Steve (Ford) shows up unaware that his brother is dead. When he learns the news, he goes on an angry rampage but finds himself drawn to Chris. The story is more than a little by-the-numbers and the ending is pat and abrupt, but with Ford and Hayworth on board the trip to Trinidad is a pleasant one. Also with Juanita Moore and Torin Thatcher.




The Turning Point / William Dieterle (1952). Paramount Pictures. What could have been a routine early 1950s black and white crime picture becomes something special through great direction from veteran Dieterle, set design, and fine performances up and down the cast, especially the three leads. The setting is a midwestern U.S. city riddled with organized crime headed by Neil Eichelberger (Ed Begley). A new commission has been formed to investigate and break Eichelberger’s syndicate. It is to be led by a crusading lawyer named John Conroy (Edmond O’Brien). Amanda Waycross (Alexis Smith), his Girl Friday, is also his fiancé. Among the reporters covering the Conroy Commission is the cynical Jerry McKibbon (William Holden), a boyhood friend of Conroy’s. McKibbon tries to discourage Conroy from his task because he knows a secret: Conroy’s cop father (Tom Tully), who is an investigator for the Commission, is the person who has been leaking Commission plans to Eichelberger. To further complicate matters, Jerry and Amanda find themselves attracted to one another. In two exciting set-pieces, Conroy holds hearings that are broadcast on television as were the real life Kefauver Hearings just a year or so earlier. Carolyn Jones has about a one minute unbilled cameo that is not to be missed. Also with noir stalwart Ted de Corsia and Neville Brand doing his psycho killer thing as only he could do it.



Du Rififi Chez Les Hommes (Rififi) / Jules Dassin (1955). France. A seminal and very influential film, one of several from about the same time from around the world that gave us the sub-genre of the “caper” film, viz. a plan for a complicated robbery/burglary/hold-up that requires putting together a team of experts, e.g. a safecracker, a sharpshooter, a driver, etc. It is hard to say which film was the first, probably John Huston’s “The Asphalt Jungle” (1950). The year after “Rififi” came Melville’s “Bob Le Flambeur” and Stanley Kubrick’s “The Killing” and the formula was set – and is still going strong. Witness “Ocean’s 8” and Steve McQueen’s “Widows” – both from 2018. If you want to stretch the definition a little bit, we might also include Kurosawa’s “The Seven Samurai” (1954). Tony le Stéphanois (Jean Servais) is just out of the slammer, broke, and aimless. When a friend offers him a part in a planned smash ‘n grab robbery at a major Paris jewelry store, Tony decides they should go in at night and take away everything. All they have to do is to defeat the most modern security devices that money can by. The actual caper is a tour-de-force of a set-piece. It runs a full 30 minutes without soundtrack music or dialogue, just four men doing a job with admirable professionalism. It goes perfectly…but one of the men makes a small mistake which puts rival thieves on their trail with deadly consequences. This is an almost perfect film and a real trend setter. NOTE: Director Jules Dassin (who had fled to Europe from the U.S. to avoid HUAC) played the suave Italian safecracker when the original actor dropped out at the last minute.




Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation / Christopher McQuarrie (2015). Paramount Pictures. I have never been a fan of the Mission: Impossible movie franchise. I hated the second half of the first one, every minute of the second, and skipped the third. After a five year gap, the semi-reboot “Ghost Protocol” was high on adventure and stunt work but the story just made the heroes look incompetent. My review was Worst. Secret. Agents. Ever. In fact, “Rogue Nation” opens with a secret governing committee saying the same thing as they dissolve the IMF. I was convinced to give this film a try by my Number Two Son who likes the franchise very much and I have to admit that “Rogue Nation” is a marked improvement over its predecessor. The aforementioned IMF dissolution comes mainly after the hostile testimony from the CIA head, Hunley (Alec Baldwin). But because Ethan Hunt (Tom Cruise) is hot on the trail of a terrorist organization known as The Syndicate, he and his friends refuse to report in so become wanted men. Not a bad action thriller, all told. Also with Rebecca Ferguson as an operative who may (or may not) be an infiltrator into The Syndicate. Sean Harris is the mysterious Lane, the head of The Syndicate. NOTE: Calling the bad guys The Syndicate is cool because it is a nod to the original classic TV series. Also, it is a rather obscure reference that only people who watched M:I on a regular basis throughout its seven seasons would get. I liked that because I got it.

You watched some awesome pics last week mate. Though not Jennifer's Body...


The Killer Is Loose. I'll stick that on my list, that's a nice line up from the directors chair to the cast, with Ballard the draw card for me.

Never Take Sweets from a Stranger. Even now it's still amazingly under seen.

I don't know who's more dangerous, you or your father? 

Never Take Sweets from a Stranger is directed by Cyril Frankel and written by John Hunter who adapts from the play Pony Cart written by Roger Garis. It stars Patrick Allen, Gwen Watford, Janina Faye, Felix Aylmer, Michael Gwynn, Alison Leggatt and Niall MacGinnis. Music is by Elisabeth Lutyns and John Hollingsworth and Megascope cinematography by Freddie Francis.

British family the Carter's have emigrated to small town Canada and are rocked when it is revealed that 9 year old Jean (Faye), and her friend Lucille (Frances Green), were asked to dance naked for candy at the home of elderly Clarence Olderberry Senior. Filing an official complaint, parents Peter (Allen) & Sally (Watford) are astounded to find the town's denizens are reluctant to believe the Carter's take on things. It becomes apparent that the Olderberry family were instrumental in the building of the town and the family has much power within it. With the town closing ranks on the British outsiders, there's a real chance that a suspected paedophile will go unpunished and maybe strike again?

Thought provoking and intelligent handling of sensitive material, Hammer's Never Take Sweets from a Stranger has finally garnered the credit it deserves. Back on release the taboo subject of the plot ensured the film was mostly shunned, with bad marketing also proving to be a hindrance. However, it is ahead of its time in many ways, Frankel's (School for Scoundrels) picture manages to gnaw away at the senses with its calm and measured approach work. Francis' (The Innocents) black and white photography a clinical ally to the realism wrung out by Frankel.

The alienation of the Carter family is steadily built up, the small town mentality to strangers in their little world unspools calmly by way of credible acting and believable passages of dialogue. By the time the last third arrives, the frustration of the Carter's is shared by the viewers, things get legal and gripping, and then it's the uncoiling of the spring to unleash the denouement. Point made, a message movie of some standing, monsters in our midst indeed. Not merely the predators preying on our children, but also the guilty around them, ignorance most definitely isn't bliss. 8.5/10

The Damned - Quality!

I live with one fact. A power has been released that will melt these stones. We must be ready when the time comes. 

The Damned (AKA: These Are The Damned) is directed by Joseph Losey and adapted to screenplay by Evan Jones from the novel The Children of Light written by H.L. Lawrence. It stars Macdonald Carey, Shirley Anne Field, Oliver Reed, Alexander Knox, Viveca Lindfors and Walter Gotell. Music is by James Bernard and cinematography by Arthur Grant.

The South Coast of England, and a middle aged American tourist, a Teddy Boy gang leader and his troubled sister are thrust together into a deadly scenario deep below the cliffs of Weymouth...

Blacklisted by Hollywood, Joseph Losey moved to Britain to continue his artistic leanings. 1963 saw the release of two Losey movies, the much lauded The Servant and also The Damned, the latter of which was finished in 1961 but held back for reasons that are not exactly clear. As it transpires, The Damned is something of an under seen gem, a unique picture that defies genre classification, one of Hammer Films' oddest productions but all the more brilliant for it.

From the off it should be stated that this is not a film for those wishing to be cheered up, from a brutal mugging at the start to a finale that will haunt your dreams, pessimism and bleakness pervades the narrative. This is in the vein of The Quatermass series of films, tinged with a touch of John Wyndham's Midwich Cuckoos, yet for the fist part of the film there's no clue as to where the narrative will take you. 

The back drop is a sunny and vibrant seaside town (Weymouth one of my favourite British resorts), an irritatingly catchy tune (Black Leather Rock) is being sung as we follow the meeting of the principal characters. From here you think this is a film about teenage angst, a Black Rebel Motorcycle Club themed picture, where the perils of gang youth is born and the divide between the young and the old is caustically dissected. Yet this is not the case at all, this is merely a cataclysmic meeting of integrity and troubled souls that's going somewhere terribly sad, the vagaries of fate dealing its deadly hand.

Losey then instills the picture with potent characterisations and striking imagery as we head towards what will be a fascinating and clinically cruel last third of the film. The brother and sister relationship between King and Joan is drip fed with smart dialogue, we don't need it spelled out, but we know that from King's side of things it's badly unhealthy. In the middle is Simon, trying to build a relationship with Joan under trying circumstances. At first it's hard to accept a "clearly too old" Simon as a romantic partner for a sultry Joan, but as back stories are dangled it's not inconceivable that Joan would seek solace in the arms of an older man.

The Children of Light.

On the outer edges, for a while, are Bernard (Knox) and Freya (Lindfors), he's a scientist, she's a sculptress, they themselves are part of a weird relationship. He's mysterious and soon to become the focal point of a terrible secret, she's eccentric and spends her time at her cliff top studio crafting weird sculptures, the latter of which Losey gleefully enjoys framing to keep the atmosphere edgy, the images are lasting and used to great impact as The Damned reveals its hand, and what a hand it is. Enter the science fiction, enter the government and their shifty dalliances, enter the children, the children of light...

It's a socko final third of cinema, both narratively and in viewing Losey's skill at creating striking compositions (while he garners impressive performances from his cast as well, especially Lindfors). It becomes thrilling yet deeply profound as it spins towards its bleak finale. It can be argued that its core sentiment (message) is heavily handled, and that Carey is a touch unsuitable as an all action hero type, but the film rises above these minor issues. For once the camera pulls away from the cliffs to reveal a swanky seaside town, the cries of children still ringing in our ears, you know you have watched something pretty special. 9/10

One of Hammer's unsung classics, The Damned can be found on The Icons of Suspense Hammer Collection. Region 1, it appears with five other films, two of which - Cash On Demand/Never Take Sweets from A Stranger - are also little gems waiting to be discovered. Great transfers for viewing pleasure, I can't recommend this collection highly enough. 

Pretty Poison - Splendidly odd!

The Pitt and the Poison. 

Pretty Poison is directed by Noel Black and adapted to screenplay by Lorenzo Semple Junior from the novel "She Let Him Continue" written by Stephen Geller. It stars Anthony Perkins, Tuesday Weld, Beverly Garland, John Randolph and Dick O'Neill. Music is by Johnny Mandel and cinematography by David Quaid.

Pure definition of a culter movie? Probably Pretty Poison. A wonderfully odd neo-noir that's as cunning as a fox, Noel Black's movie flummoxed many upon release but the underground swell of the cult enthusiasts has ensured this particular poison is still around to be swallowed.

Plot finds Perkins as troubled Dennis Pitt, an arsonist as a youth and fantasist as an adult, he's just been released from a mental health facility, in spite of his parole officer's reservations. Beginning his employment at a chemical factory, Dennis comes into contact with young high school drum majorette, Sue Anne Stepanek (Weld), and lets her believe he is a secret agent. Little does he know, but Sue is only too happy to indulge his fantasies, since she herself is harbouring some unhealthy desires.

Much like the brilliant film noir movie Gun Crazy (1950), Pretty Poison upturns the standard boy and girl crime spree formula by having the girl be the one doing the damage. Dennis Pitt has absolutely no idea how not in control of the relationship he is, he's beguiled by Sue, thinking he has finally found a soul mate to share in his fantasies, but she's pulling all the strings, luring him into a web of chaos from which he is completely incapable of escaping from.

With the characterisations firmly in place, where both Weld and Perkins are on top form, Black and his tech team pump discoloured blood through the picture's veins. Pic actually breathes as a black comedy, for the first third the makers are toying with us the audience, making us unsure as to if we should be laughing? Or feeling edgy? Maybe even daring us to walk out? Yes! The film "is" that off-kilter with its tonal flows. Then the light dawns on us, but not the hapless Dennis of course, that we are in a deceptively menacing Americana, one that's even strangely sexy, and cynical into the bargain.

Subversive, intelligent and utterly compelling, Pretty Poison deserves to be better known. 8/10


Jennifer's Body - www.imdb.com/review/rw2689827/?ref_=tt_urv

Murder on the Orient Express - was the classic at my local cinema last week - having seen it on the big screen back in the day, and many times since, I wasn't overly keen but my wife insisted. Still the best big screen Christie.

I do have Patriots Day recorded along with Deepwater Horizon, so there will be a Marky Mark double bill at some point.

I'd argue that Canyon Passage is a classic and is directed by a master of the classic era 

www.imdb.com/review/rw2203741/?ref_=tt_urv - 9/10

I have added my support of Never Take Sweets from a Stranger in my reply to Bill's post. Let me forward another one for your consideration that also stars young Janina Faye from NTSFAS - Don't Talk to Strange Men (1962) - www.imdb.com/title/tt0206692/reference 

You are adorable Samantha.

Released as the support feature to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner, Don't Talk to Strange Men is a very effective creeper that is worthy of a larger audience. Clocking in at just over an hour in running time, film thrives on tension building and mood without having to spill a drop of blood. Story effectively is about a teenage girl called Jean (Christina Gregg), who whilst waiting for her bus on a secluded country lane, answers the phone ringing at the phone box situated by the stop. The voice on the phone is a charming and well spoken man, he strikes up a conversation with the intrigued girl and it's not long before the two of them are arranging to speak to each other at the same time tomorrow, and the next day Jean begins fantasising about the man, conjuring up images of the perfect male. They are destined to meet up, does she not know these are dangerous times? Where young ladies fall prey to predatory monsters.

The settings are perfect, Jean and her family live in some idyllic country village, the phone box and bus stop that houses the verbal "grooming" is at the junction of two pretty country lanes, and even the pub where Jean goes to help out is the kind of petite "off the beaten track" variety. It's these locations that give off a false sense of security, a normality of easy going life where nothing can go wrong, But as we know all too well these days, nowhere is safe and parents constantly live in fear for their children. With that, Don't Talk to Strange Men is something of a film ahead of its time, substitute naive Jean's phone box "relationship" with that of today's Internet groomers of youngsters, and, well, you get my point I'm sure.

Neatly directed by Pat Jackson (The Feminine Touch), the film is structured in such a way that we the audience get fretful as each day, and each phone conversation, passes. Where once was this attractive young lady framed by countryside and the old fashioned value of the red phone box, now is replaced by surroundings that are too quiet and a big red beacon of impending doom! It's an astute turning of the table, a testament to good writing and excellent directional pacing. And how nice to report that the ending, too, has something up its sleeve to reveal. The cast is minimal but very effective, with Gregg doing well to convince us of her love yearning naivety, Dandy Nicholls (Hue & Cry) memorable (wasn't she always?) as the wise bus conductor and Janina Faye (The Horror of Dracula) stealing the film as Jean's younger, politico activist in waiting, sister.

A lesson in how to get the maximum unease from such a simple premise, Don't Talk to Strange Men comes highly recommended. 8/10