Trailers From Hell

John Landis on "Atlantis, The Lost Continent"

Fri, 10 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0800

Expense was clearly spared in every department of George Pal's mystifyingly cheesy follow up to his 1960 hit The Time Machine. Pal had wanted to film Gerald Hargreaves' fantasy play for years, but MGM only greenlit the project because of the international success of the Italian Hercules movies, and insisted on keeping the budget down. A sequence with Da Vinci-like flying machines was cut because there was no money to properly finish it. Paul Frees narrates the trailer and the movie as well as dubbing two of the supporting roles.

Joe Dante on "Valley of the Dragons"

Wed, 08 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0800

During the 50s and 60s the boxoffice success of such big budget Jules Verne adaptations as 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth led to a number of low rent Verne ripoffs, few more impoverished than this ridiculous quickie from the Columbia Pictures B-unit, an early pioneer in recycling. Sets, props, costumes and stock footage from other movies mark it as one of the least original sci fi pics of the era. In Monstascope!

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "At the Earth's Core"

Mon, 06 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0800

After hitting pay dirt with The Land That Time Forgot, Britain's Amicus Productions returned to Edgar Rice Burroughs for another lost world adventure, this time inspired by his public domain hollow-earth Pellucidar novels. Victorian scientist Peter Cushing's ornate drilling machine penetrates the center of the earth and lands Doug McClure and himself in a prehistoric labyrinth. If you like telepathic Pterodactyls this one's for you!

Mark Goldblatt on "Performance"

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0800

Despite its nightmarish production history this innovative 1968 collaboration between Donald Cammell and Nicolas Roeg has emerged as one of the most influential movies of its era. Years of midnight screenings have turned around the critical consensus from "worthless" (Richard Schickel) to "a sophisticated visual and aural knockout" (Glenn Erickson). Jack Nitzsche's score was one of the first to utilize the Moog synthesizer. Mick Jagger's "Memo from Turner" segment is widely considered the first rock video.

Bernard Rose on "Bad Timing"

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 00:00:01 +0800

AKA: Bad Timing: A Sensual Obsession. Nicolas Roeg followed The Man Who Fell to Earth with this challenging, equally non-linear study of psychosexual compulsion, which begins in the middle, jumps to the end and then back to a prologue, all in the first five minutes. Great use of music by Tom Waits, the Who, Billie Holiday and more. Disowned by its British distributor as "sick", the US version was originally rated X but toned down somewhat for an R.

Larry Karaszewski on "Walkabout"

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

Celebrated cinematographer Nicolas Roeg's solo directorial debut is a haunting, transfixing tone poem about two children lost in the Australian outback and their relationship with a young aborigine on his coming-of-age "walkabout". Roeg improvised much of the film from Edward Bond's 14-page screenplay, based on a popular young adult novel. The first screen role of Aboriginal actor David Gulpilil, who went on to become a pillar of the Aussie acting community. A unique achievement, beautifully shot by Roeg himself.

John Landis on "The Philadelphia Story"

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

Another great Cary Grant performance was overshadowed somewhat by the Oscar win of co-star James Stewart, which was widely viewed as a consolation prize for his losing the award for Mr. Smith Goes to Washington. Grant and Katharine Hepburn had previously teamed in author Philip Barry and director George Cukor's earlier Holiday, a sort of dry run for this immensely amusing comedy of manners.

Dan Ireland on "An Affair To Remember"

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

One of the then-rare examples of a director remaking his own film, Leo McCarey's 1957 remake of his 1939 Love Affair casts Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr as lovers for the second time, in parts originated by Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. This all-time champion weepie gained a new fan base when it was excerpted in the 1993 Tom Hanks-Meg Ryan hit Sleepless in Seattle.

Allan Arkush on "Only Angels Have Wings"

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

Calling Baranca! Calling Baranca! Cary Grant followed up his successful role in Gunga Din with another signature performance, his edgiest to date, in one of the finest entries in the magical movie year of 1939. It was the second of five films he would make with director Howard Hawks. Famous as the supposed origin of the oft-quoted Cary Grant impersonation line "Judy, Judy, Judy", one of the best-known lines never actually spoken in a movie.

John Landis on "Auntie Mame"

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

Patrick Dennis' witty 1955 best-seller about a boy and his larger-than- life socialite aunt became a Broadway smash when adapted by Jerome Roberts and Robert E. Lee with Rosalind Russell in the lead. Its director, Morton da Costa, made the leap to Hollywood when the play was filmed in 1958 and became the highest-grosser of 1959. A musical version with Angela Lansbury opened on Broadway in 1966, which was filmed in 1974 with Lucille Ball in the lead.

Stuart Gordon on "Calamity Jane"

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

The success of Annie Get Your Gun prompted Warner Bros. to follow up with another musical western based on the popular stage show about Wild Bill Hickock and Calamity Jane. Paul Francis Webster and Sammy Fain's Oscar-winning song Secret Love became one of star Doris Day's signature hits. Ms. Day, who retired from films, is still busy with her animal charity and just released a new album, My Heart, at 89 years of age! She's also been honored by the LA Film Critics with a Lifetime Achievement Award.

Allan Arkush on "The Women"

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

A lot of laundering had to be done to Clare Boothe Luce's 1936 all-female play to satisfy the Hollywood production code, but the result was considered an improvement. This all-star MGM catfight is one of the gems of that fabled movie year 1939. A 1956 musical remake, The Opposite Sex, added men to the cast, but the updated 2008 remake took them back out again.

Joe Dante on "The Black Scorpion"

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

"The management reserves the right to put up the lights any time the audience becomes too emotionally disturbed!" crowed the poster for this Mexico-set monster rally, which also urged to crowd "not to panic or bolt from your seats". It's doubtful the lights went on anywhere, but there may have been some snoring during the lulls between Willis O'Brien's diverting stop-motion monster attacks.

Josh Olson on "Hair"

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

It took the Age of Aquarius at least a decade to make it to the screen. The creators of the popular 1968 Broadway musical were not pleased with Milos Forman's 1979 adaptation, which jettisons numerous songs and a lot of the peace movement politics, reshaping the characters and story to avoid datedness. But the reviews were enthusiastic, many of them considering it an improvement on the original.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "Never Take Candy From A Stranger"

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

Controversial and little seen in its day, this well done social problem drama made for an uncharacteristic and correspondingly uncommercial project for Hammer Films, which tried to sell it as a maniac-on-the- loose movie. British critics labeled it sordid and tasteless, but in fact it was ahead of its time in its consideration of child sexual abuse, and although there are suspense elements the subject is tastefully handled. Nervous US distributor Columbia released it through a subsidiary, but Sony recently brought it back from obscurity for its 3-disc DVD Icons of Suspense.

John Landis on "The Bed Sitting Room"

Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

"I think man has no option but to continue his own stupidity" said co-author Spike Milligan of his post-apocalyptic 1962 play, filmed by Richard Lester in 1969. Underappreciated in its day, one critic pronounced it to be "like Samuel Beckett, but with better jokes". The distinguished cast of this existential Goon Show is billed "in order of height".

David DeCoteau on "Rituals"

Wed, 04 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

Dismissed in some circles as a poor man's Deliverance, the reputation of this Canadian survivalist slasher movie has risen over the years. The original US release was a bowdlerized 89 minute cutdown but the stronger 100 minute original is now available on DVD. Also released under the title The Creeper.

Sam Hamm on "All Night Long"

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 00:00:01 +0800

No, not the 1982 Barbra Streisand movie (which come to think of it might be equally unfamiliar), but Basil Dearden's sadly obscure 1962 British drama which received a barely noticeable US release a year later from the tiny Colorama Features. A mouth-wateringly rare assembly of jazz greats is on display jamming it up behind the histrionics in this unusual jazzploitation update of Othello.

To be decided on "The Little Match Girl"

Mon, 26 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0800

In today's economic climate we thought that Hans Christian Andersen's morbid fable about a homeless child freezing to death on Christmas Eve was just the cheery ticket for the last week of a troubled year. This minimalist 1952 French short was bought two years later by US home movie distributor Castle Films and was seen by most Americans as an 8mm silent. No credits were provided, but the director was Jean-Benoit Levy.

To be decided on "Vincent Price's Christmas Carol"

Mon, 19 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0800

In 1949 Vincent Price hosted a half-hour compressed adaptation of the Dickens classic for tv syndication. It's pretty cheap and isn't going to erase any memories of the superlative 1951 Alastair Sim version (or even the 1954 tv special with music by Bernard Herrmann), but it's a seldom-seen curiosity and this is the season for it. Price looks like he's in makeup for The Baron of Arizona. Look for Jill St. John as one of the Cratchet children under the name Jill Oppenheim. Coproducer Mike Stokey later created the popular tv shows Pantomime Quiz and Stump the Stars.

John Sayles on "Ride Lonesome"

Fri, 16 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0800

James Coburn made his film debut as a naive gunslinger in one the finest of Budd Boetticher's laconic series of sparsely stylish low-budget Randolph Scott Westerns, shot mostly in and around Lone Pine, California. Burt Kennedy's ironic script has Scott playing another vengeful loner, this time a bounty hunter trying to take Lee Van Cleef's outlaw brother James Best to face justice in Santa Cruz. The Ranown series, as it's called, was little noted in its day, but over time has come to represent the apex of the B western.

Stuart Gordon on "Ride The High Country"

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Director Sam Peckinpah was furious when the studio cavalierly pulled the plug on his Colorado location shoot, forcing him to build a mining town full of fake snow in Bronson Canyon. Nevertheless he was able to regroup and the resulting movie, an elegiac valedictory for western icons Joel McCrea and Randolph Scott, set the tone for a dynamic if erratic career. McCrea made a few more films, but Scott never made another.

John Badham on "Stagecoach"

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0800

John Ford's enduring milestone (his first sound western) was the film that Orson Welles studied over and over before embarking on Citizen Kane. Dudley Nichols' adaptation of Ernest Haycox's Collier's magazine story "Stage to Lordsburg" was the first of many Ford films shot in Monument Valley, then one of the least accessible locations in the southwest. By 1970 the original negative had been lost but John Wayne, who played the star-making role of Ringo, donated his personal 35mm print which has become the basis of all subsequent releases.

Mick Garris on "Trog"

Fri, 09 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0800

"From the boiling rage of a world hurled back one million years comes...." Joan Crawford's last movie. The indefatigable icon co-starred with filmdom's biggest names but in the end her leading man was a troglodyte. There is probably a Hollywood lesson to be learned from this, but we don't pretend to know what it is.

Mick Garris on "Flesh Gordon"

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Only the anything-goes era of the 1970s could have produced this porno spoof of the '30s Buster Crabbe serials. Obviously made on a shoestring, but the special fx are surprisingly clever--the people who made this clearly love the originals. It's odd to see legit actor John Hoyt among the veteran porn cast.

Mick Garris on "The Return of Count Yorga"

Mon, 05 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0800

You can't keep a good man down. Despite being killed off in the original, the natty LA vampire's on the loose again in a somewhat more elaborate but still chintzy sequel. The last screen appearance of longtime movie villain George Macready, whose son produced. A planned sequel with Yorga creating a zombie army in underground sewers never materialized.

Ed Neumeier on "All Quiet on the Western Front"

Fri, 02 Dec 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Riots erupted in Germany when when this anti-war classic debuted in cinemas. Lewis Milestone (who took home a directing Oscar along with the Best Picture award) imported tons of WW I German and French military equipment in his quest for authenticity. DP Karl Freund suggested the indelible concluding butterfly sequence. Star Lew Ayres, a genuine pacifist whose career suffered a decade later, served selflessly in WW II in noncombat positions. Banned in France until 1962.

John Landis on "The Longest Day"

Wed, 30 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Although three directors are credited, veteran producer Darryl F. Zanuck was the true auteur behind this elaborate all-star multi-national recreation of the battle of D-Day, shot mostly on the actual locations (hundreds of live land mines had to be cleared from various beaches before filming). At the time 20th Century-Fox was overspending on Cleopatra and there was a lot of pressure to scuttle "Zanuck's folly", but Zanuck rammed through what was then a monumental physical undertaking, and at $10 million the most expensive black-and-white movie ever made. Gerd Oswald, Zanuck and John Wayne directed sequences uncredited.

Josh Olson on "Go Tell The Spartans"

Mon, 28 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

In 1964 America's role in Vietnam was still "advisory", and this bracing, straightforward account of one Major's battlefied disillusionment is in no way as well known as later titles like Platoon, Apocalypse Now and The Deer Hunter, but its relative obscurity is undeserved, as Josh Olson explains.

Roger Corman on "The St. Valentine's Day Massacre"

Fri, 25 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Roger Corman takes us behind the scenes on one of his rare big studio projects, a detailed and largely accurate account of the 1929 mass murder of Bugs Moran's Northside Gang in a Chicago garage. Paul Frees narrates as the voice of doom, chronicling the dark fates of various luckless pawns played by seemingly every character actor in town. TV writer and former Amazing Stories editor Howard Browne expanded this from his 1958 Playhouse 90 broadcast "Seven Against the Wall".

Ernest Dickerson on "The Godfather"

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

One of the great American films, despite its chaotic production. Producer Al Ruddy agreed with mob leader Anthony Columbo not to use the words Mafia or Cosa Nostra in exchange for permission to shoot in New York. Burt Reynolds wanted the role of Sonny but Marlon Brando (who beat out no less than Laurence Olivier for the Godfather role) nixed him in favor of James Caan. Likewise Al Pacino won the role of Michael over the much older Rod Steiger. Oscars went to Brando for best actor, Mario Puzo and Francis Coppola for adapted screenplay and Ruddy for best picture.

Katt Shea on "Scarface"

Mon, 21 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Brian de Palma and Oliver Stone's ultra-violent, over the top remake of the 1932 Howard Hawks classic moves the action to 1980s Miami and provoked a wave of negative reaction to its boisterous excesses. It had to be submitted three times to the MPAA before being cut to qualify for an R rating. Yet today it's one of the most fervently admired of cult classics, particularly in hip hop circles. The network tv version removed 32 minutes of sex, violence and profanity, but added a number of scenes from the cutting room floor, many of which are included in the recent Blu-ray dvd release.

Sam Hamm on "Pickup On South Street"

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

FBI director J Edgar Hoover personally told director Sam Fuller how much he hated his films, especially this one, in which pickpocket Richard Widmark exhibits no particular patriotism while dealing with vicious Communist spies. Nevertheless his brutal noir classic has survived to become one of the director's most revered films. Fox contractee Thelma Ritter was nominated as best supporting actress for the role of a lifetime, which she should have won.

Larry Karaszewski on "The Last of the Secret Agents?"

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

To the roster of forgotten comedy teams (Wheeler and Woolsey, Brown and Carney, Mitchell and Petrillo, etc.) can be added tv/nightclub comics Allen and Rossi, whose brief moment in the sun produced only a single feature film. This laboriously zany spy spoof features the charisma-challenged duo as inept would-be James Bonds with Hitchcock regular John Williams as their long-suffering boss.

Mark Goldblatt on "On Her Majesty's Secret Service"

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Generally dismissed in its time because of poor reaction to commercial pitchman George Lazenby's only turn as James Bond, Peter Hunt's spectacular and unexpectedly dramatic take on the 1963 Ian Fleming novel has aged like fine wine and is now considered one of the major entries in the Bond franchise. Later Bond Timothy Dalton was considered for this one but his 007 time was yet to come.

Josh Olson on "The Outlaw Josey Wales"

Fri, 11 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

This troubled production was considered by Clint Eastwood to be one of his best films. Audiences and critics agreed. Producer Eastwood was annoyed by director Philip Kaufman's meticulous attention to detail and had him replaced by himself, leading to a Directors Guild of America fine and the installation of The Eastwood Rule, designed to discourage producers from taking over directorial reins on a film.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "Where Eagles Dare"

Wed, 09 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

World War II meets James Bond. Elliot Kastner's action-packed, enduringly popular superproduction was filmed on various impressive Austrian locations and features a top cast including Clint Eastwood, who distributor MGM didn't really want. The $21 million boxoffice take changed their minds.

Josh Olson on "High Plains Drifter"

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Every so often a TFH Guru comes along and requests to redo a title that someone else has already done. So it is that Josh Olson follows in Edgar Wright's footsteps to give us his own take on Clint Eastwood's supernatural western homage to Leone and Siegel, but without the man-crush.

Katt Shea on "Devil Doll"

Fri, 04 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The old chestnut of the the crazed ventriloquist possessed by his dummy dates back at least to the early talkie The Great Gabbo, and probably reached its apogee in the Michael Redgrave episode of Dead of Night. But director Lindsay Shonteff's underrated (partly because it was lampooned on MST3K) chiller has merits of its own, and throws a few clever twists into the expected stew. Original director Sidney Furie is said to have kept an eye on the production after departing for greener pastures. Star Bryant Haliday was one of the founders of pioneering art film distrib Janus Films in 1956.

David DeCoteau on "Humongous"

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Director Paul Lynch followed his hit Prom Night with this teens-vs.-slasher item, poorly received in its day but now undergoing a sort of rehabilitation. One of the last of the Canadian horror pickups released in the early 80s by Avco Embassy in their bid to compete with New World. Soon after, the studio was sold to TV mogul Norman Lear, who discontinued horror films.

Bernard Rose on "The Phantom Of The Opera"

Mon, 31 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

This is the oldest title we've ever featured on this site, mainly because it's not easy to come up with silent-era trailers. Justly celebrated for Lon Chaney's amazing performance and makeup, the film itself is a tattered amalgam of rewrites, reshoots and recuts, further complicated by more shooting for a sound-on-disc reissue. Originally all the opera scenes were in two-color Technicolor, but only the masked ball scene survives in color. Although named to the National Film Registry, no definitive version exists.

Sam Hamm on "Burn, Witch, Burn"

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Originally shot as Night of the Eagle, this clever supernatural thriller is the second adaptation of Fritz Leiber's 1943 occult novel Conjure Wife, filmed again in 1980 as Witches' Brew. Although the screenplay is credited to vet sci fi scribes Richard Matheson and Charles Beaumont, British writer George Baxt has long claimed he was responsible for an underground rewrite. US distributor AIP added a silly but fun prologue with Paul Frees intoning various warnings about witchery.

Joe Dante on "The Undead"

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Filmed under the title The Trance of Diana Love, this period time travel fantasy is one of Roger Corman's most distinctive AIP cheapies, wackily conceived and almost absurdly ambitious, but resourcefully shot on a shoestring. Probably the sexiest showcase the statuesque Allison Hayes ever had. We get witches, imps, reincarnated courtesans and the Devil himself, played outrageously by Corman regular Richard Devon. Lots of fun.

Sam Hamm on "Bell, Book and Candle"

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

This charmingly spooky romantic comedy has successfully resisted decades of attempts to remake it, in part because its cast could not be bettered. A beautifully mounted studio picture, it's also an indelible Christmas movie reuniting Vertigo stars Kim Novak (replacing a pregnant Vera Miles) and James Stewart (in the role Rex Harrison originated in the 1950 play). An obvious inspiration for the popular tv series Bewitched.

Eli Roth on "Goodbye Uncle Tom"

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Those Mondo Cane guys are back with an astoundingly non-P.C. farrago purporting to expose the history of black subjugation in pre-Civil War America. Gorgeously mounted but stunningly exploitative, it was rated X when first released in the States in a considerably reworked version.

Larry Cohen on "Bone"

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Of all the various titles this subversive satire has sported, our favorite is Dial R for Rat! Larry Cohen, whose first directorial effort this was, tells us as much as he can about one of his best movies in a speedy sixty seconds.

David DeCoteau on "Chatterbox"

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Although this low budget musical fantasy is, amazingly, not the only talking vagina movie (Pussy Talk, anyone?), it's certainly the only one fronted by the literally bouncy Candice Rialson, who squeezes as much charm out of the silly proceedings as possible.

Roger Corman on "Gunslinger"

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Sexy B-movie icons Beverly Garland and Allison Hayes enthusiastically enact a Johnny Guitar-like enmity in Roger Corman's offbeat feminist western-cum-Greek tragedy. The climax is a sort of a mini-budget Duel in the Sun.

Josh Olson on "Fuzz"

Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Brian De Palma was set to direct this cop caper but ankled (as they say in Variety) over casting issues. Evan Hunter wrote it, based on one of the 87th Precinct novels he published under the name Ed McBain. Relocated from Manhattan to Boston, it's an ensemble dramedy which was accused of engendering copycat behavior when several actual crimes mimicked a scene in which a homeless person is set on fire. Stars Burt Reynolds and Raquel Welch have zero chemistry as they feuded throughout.

Larry Cohen on "How Green Was My Valley"

Mon, 10 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

John Ford replaced William Wyler as director of this multi-Oscar nominated saga about a turn of the century Welsh coal mining family which walked home with five awards and beat out The Maltese Falcon, Sergeant York, Suspicion, and Citizen Kane for Best Picture. Nathan Juran's reconstruction of a Wesh mining town built in the Malibu hills still stands as one of the greatest set constructions in film history. This chopped-up reissue trailer doesn't do the film justice.

Josh Olson on "Mandingo"

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

In recent years Richard Fleischer's critically derided adaptation of Kye Onstott's steamy novel has been revalued as a progressive portrait of a racist era, but Josh Olson begs to differ. Even in its day this anti-Gone With the Wind effusion was considered beyond the pale, but it was successful enough on the exploitation circuit to inspire an equally lurid sequel, Drum. James Mason deals with it like a trouper.

John Landis on "A Star is Born"

Wed, 05 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Cary Grant was originally entreated by co-star Judy Garland to play fading star Norman Maine in this remake of the 1937 original, but when he stepped out James Mason took over to provide one of his most iconic performances. Director George Cukor had filmed the first version of the story, What Price Hollywood?, but was outraged when the studio dropped 47 minutes from the general release version. He refused to watch the film again until until the painstakingly restored 1983 release, but died before he could see it

Dan Ireland on "Bigger Than Life"

Mon, 03 Oct 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Nicholas Ray's corruscating portrait of suburban American family hell even outdoes Douglas Sirk, with the addition of drug addiction. Naturally it flopped, but producer-co-writer-star James Mason's passionate belief in the project is evidenced in this trailer, which he presents. Based on a 1955 New Yorker article, this is one of the essential movies of the period, full of telling markers of the era in both detail and behavior.

Joe Dante on "Bride of the Gorilla"

Fri, 30 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

"A blonde beauty and a savage beast alone in the jungle! Her clothes torn away screaming in terror! Her marriage vows were more than fulfilled!" Get the picture? Intentions were initially somewhat higher for this ten-day jungle potboiler from the producer of Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla. A pretty good cast (including a very young and awkward Woody Strode) tries its best to overcome the lurid title and quickie production values and almost succeeds.

Katt Shea on "Altered States"

Wed, 28 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

William Hurt, in his screen debut, experiments with that nostalgic 80s pastime, sensory deprivation, which culminates in biological devolution. Writer Paddy Chayefsky, credited onscreen as Sidney Aaron despite writing the novel his screenplay was based on, disowned Ken Russell's wacko hallucinatory approach, which plays more like a remake of Return of the Ape Man. Original director Arthur Penn and fx maven John Dyksytra also resigned after disputes with Chayefsky, whose last picture this was.Darren Aronofsky revisited this territory in The Fountain, to equally mixed results.

David DeCoteau on "Monster On The Campus"

Mon, 26 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

A late entry in the 1950s Universal International monster gallery, this is mostly composed of leftover ideas and props from the glory days. Still, there's a level of studio professionalism that its indie competitors could never match. Perennially affordable sci-fi leading man Arthur Franz, infected with the blood of a prehistoric fish, turns into a Neanderthal who chases pretty coeds and comes to (natch) a bad end out on the backlot.

Josh Olson on "The Baby"

Fri, 23 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Further proof the 1970s were (was?) the wildest decade in film history. "Special needs" have never been so special as in this weirdo melodrama about a trio of women bringing up a fully grown man as a baby in diapers and a crib. Mainstream director Ted Post seems a little miscast as the ringmaster of this staidly-shot but crazy movie that never got much theatrical or tv play but has just been put out on dvd by Severin Films.

Larry Karaszewski on "Girly"

Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

This dark British psycho drama didn't get much attention in the states, or really much of anywhere else. It's a kind of off-broadway conceit with a dysfunctional "family" of deranged people who play murderous "games" with luckless outsiders in an old manor house. Not quite a horror film or really a black comedy, it fell between markets and was pretty much considered lost until its recent dvd resurrection.

Allan Arkush on "From Headquarters"

Mon, 19 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Thanks to the good folks at Warner Archive, pre-code movies unavailable for decades are being dusted off and put back into circulation on dvd and on Turner Classic Movies. This forgotten item has an audacious trailer that engages the audience in finding the killer. Allan Arkush puts it in perspective as an early stab at a continuingly popular entertainment staple, the Police Procedural.

Rod Lurie on "Straw Dogs"

Fri, 16 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Sam Peckinpah's controversial bloodbath, his most commercially successful to that point, has been remade in 2011 by TFH Guru Rod Lurie, who explains the how and why behind his decision to reinterpret the original movie (based on the novel The Siege of Trencher's Farm) for today's audiences. When Pauline Kael criticized Peckinpah's version for being "fascist", Peckinpah wrote that she was "cracking walnuts in her ass". He considered the Dustin Hoffman and Susan George characters as "the heavies", not the heroes.

Josh Olson on "Cross of Iron"

Wed, 14 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Compromised by a dwindling budget and production Euro-chaos, Peckinpah was not completely satisfied with this WW II story of a German unit at the Russian front in 1943. The climax was literally improvised by James Coburn and Maximillian Schell when the money ran out. But Peckinpah once claimed that "I had a telegram from Orson Welles and he said he thought it was the best anti-war film since All Quiet on the Western Front."

Joe Dante on "The Ballad of Cable Hogue"

Mon, 12 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

"He found water where it wasn't". Hardly seen even in its day, this is yet another troubled Sam Peckinpah project which nonetheless emerged as a lyrical, deeply personal western love story that stands with the very best of his work. Its failure led the director to consider abandoning westerns once and for all. Although she and Peckinpah fought throughout, it features Stella Stevens' finest performance, which she had hoped would lead to stardom.

Katt Shea on "The Fly"

Fri, 09 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Cronenberg's tragicomic gross-out remake of the 1958 Vincent Price original goes to extremes unusual for a major studio release. Jeff Goldblum plays the charmingly off-kilter scientist Seth Brundle whose experiment backfires, turning him into a six foot, four inch insect; "Brundlefly". Goldblum's low key humor and close-to-the-vest performance, along with the empathetic screenplay (echoing the mordant comedy of Kafka's Metamorphosis), anchors the film in the workaday world, even as the movie becomes increasingly, almost absurdly, repulsive. The brilliantly icky make-up effects, by Cronenberg's partner-in-slime, Chris Walas, took the Academy Award.

Josh Olson on "The Brood"

Wed, 07 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

This one states the theme for much of Cronenberg's output in the eighties: what's bred in the bone will out in the flesh (and there's nothing we can do about it). Psychotherapist Oliver Reed enables his patients to physically mutate in response to their own repressed rage. Samantha Eggar is the unlucky mom who spawns the titular monsters: dwarf-like creatures who do the murderous bidding of mom's subconscious impulses (akin to Professor Morbius' Id Monster in Forbidden Planet). Apparently inspired by his then-recent divorce and child custody battle, Cronenberg reportedly considers this study of marital rage to be his Kramer vs. Kramer.

Mick Garris on "The Dead Zone"

Mon, 05 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Screenwriter Jeff Boam's adaptation of Stephen King's 1979 novel is one of the best: a multi-layered psychic/political thriller with an end-of-the-world subplot. King's crowd-pleasing theatrics help leaven the director's clinical approach, resulting in one of Cronenberg's most accessible (and financially successful) films. Christopher Walken is the doomstruck psychic who can foretell the future, supported by a solid cast including the great Herbert Lom and Martin Sheen (whose venal, two-faced politician seems to have anticipated several subsequent real-life candidates).

Stuart Gordon on "Cannibal Holocaust"

Fri, 02 Sep 2011 00:00:01 +0800

One of the most brutal and controversial horror films of all time, Ruggero Deodato's fake snuff movie is heavily influenced by the makers of Mondo Cane. Banned in many countries due to inexcusable animal cruelty and all-too-realistic-looking gore scenes, it has been hailed as an anti-imperialist media expose and condemned as racist torture porn. Shot on location in the Amazon with a "found footage" format, it presages both The Blair Witch Project and that most terrifying of modern horrors, The Reality Show.

NOTE: We inadvertently listed the wrong links to buy the poster and dvd for this picture. The correct link takes you to the official website of Grindhouse Releasing where many cool things await. We apologize to Grindhouse for the error.

David DeCoteau on "Beyond The Door"

Wed, 31 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Ovidio Assonitis (credited as Oliver Hellman) directed this popular Exorcist rip-off, which inspired an unsuccessful lawsuit from Warner Bros. An open season of further Exorcist copies followed at home and abroad, but this was the trailblazer. Pregnant Juliet Mills alarms hubby Richard Johnson when she's possessed by a projectile-vomiting demon. It was successful enough to inspire distributors to give otherwise unrelated films release titles like Beyond the Door II and Beyond the Door III--although the original Italian title was Chi Sei? (Who Are You?).

Mark Goldblatt on "City of the Living Dead"

Mon, 29 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Also known as The Gates of Hell (among other titles), this gruesome entry is the first of a loose Lucio Fulci trilogy including The Beyond and The House By the Cemetery. When the Gates of Hell are opened, hordes of ravenous levitating zombies are unleashed and reporter Christopher George has to travel to Lovecraft's Dunwich to close the portal before All Saint's Day. Ace editor and sometimes director Mark Goldblatt makes his Trailer from Hell debut.

Chris Wilkinson on "The Fortune Cookie"

Fri, 26 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Walter Matthau and Jack Lemmon first met on this film, the beginning of a beautiful friendship. A seven-week hiatus ensued between the scene of Matthau racing up the stairs to Lemmon's apartment, check in hand, and his opening the door, as Matthau suffered a near-fatal heart attack at the top of the stairs. When he finally returned, forty pounds lighter, Billy Wilder directed him to "act heavier". He followed those instructions and landed an Oscar as best supporting actor. UK title: Meet Whiplash Willie.

Josh Olson on "Bedazzled"

Wed, 24 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The New Yorker called Stanley Donen's Python-esque take on the Faust story "the intellectual's Hellzapoppin'". Of course that was back when people were actually familiar with Olsen & Johnson's brilliantly Brechtian, now sadly obscure comedy. Boldly funny, dryly understated and defiantly offbeat, it's rumored that this was remade in 2000 but no one we've contacted seems to remember seeing it.

John Landis on "Lord Love a Duck"

Mon, 22 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

George Axelrod's unclassifiable satire is one of the oddest Hollywood movies, which over the years has engendered passionate support and derision. For some it's an incisively bizarre portrait of sixties America, for others it's a sloppily made, undisciplined mess (with more boom mikes visible in full frame than even Play It Again Sam). However, nothing can dim the luster of the incredibly perverse scene where Tuesday Weld's horny dad (Max Showalter) practically ejaculates while watching his sexy daughter try on sweaters.

Darren Bousman on "Mother's Day"

Fri, 19 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Talk about pedigree: this controversial cult horror film was directed by Lloyd Kaufman's brother and was remade this year by THF Guru Darren Bousman--who decodes the original and why he wanted to reimagine it. Criticized in 1980 for its misogyny and violence, writer-director Charles Kaufman claimed it was satirical, but subsequent reissues were shorn of some of the most egregious scenes of rape and mayhem.

Josh Olson on "The Longest Yard"

Wed, 17 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Along with Roger Corman, Robert Aldrich seems to be the director most represented on Trailers from Hell. This prison-set anti-authoritarian football movie has similarities to The Loneliness of the Long Distance Runner. Burt Reynolds, who also appeared in the 2005 Adam Sandler(!) remake, plays a violent anti-hero who makes us root for him against the corrupt establishment anyway, but Sandler in the remake is pretty much of a wimp. Remade in England as Mean Machine in 2001.

Mick Garris on "The Legend of Hell House"

Mon, 15 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Former AIP head James Nicholson formed Academy Pictures to produce his own projects and this one, of only two released after his death, validates the difference between former partner Sam Arkoff's aesthetic and his own. Richard Matheson's popular haunted house novel, transposed to England, receives a classy production with A-level promotion, although the sexuality is a bit toned down.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "How the West Was Won"

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The second dramatic film shot in three-panel Cinerama, this sprawling all-star western epic came too late to save the process, which was being replaced by a simpler single-lens system. Many action sequences were shot normally and converted to three-panel. By the time the brand-new Cinerama Dome in Hollywood opened in 1963 its initial "Cinerama" attraction, It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World, had been made entirely without the three-panel process the theater was built to showcase. Great score by Alfred Newman.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "Windjammer"

Wed, 10 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

This spectacular documentary follows a Norwegian sailing ship on its voyage from Oslo to the east coast of the US and back. It was produced in Cinemiracle, a curved-screen process similar to Cinerama which was retired after this initial outing and bought out by Cinerama. Brian Trenchard-Smith explains the differences between the presentations and why many thought Cinemiracle an improvement over Cinerama.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "This Is Cinerama"

Mon, 08 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Back in the days when moviegoing was an event, the Roadshow Attraction was a special audience-pleaser designed to run for months in the same theater with reserved seating and, naturally, increased ticket prices. Of all the big-screen processes designed to lure audiences out of their living rooms and away from the dreaded picture tube, Cinerama was the most elaborate, requiring three projectors, a huge curved screen and multiple soundtracks to "put you in the picture". Numerous popular Cinerama productions followed, mostly travelogs, until the format was replaced by Ultra Panavision in the early sixties.

John Landis on "The Ladies Man"

Fri, 05 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The spirit of Frank Tashlin hovers over Jerry Lewis's first auteurist triumph which came at the height of his power at Paramount, allowing him to construct a huge set, add video tape (which he'd been using since The Bellboy) and fill the stage with a large number of microphones a decade before Altman did the same. Mel Brooks contributed a number of gags, but his original script wasn't used.

John Landis on "Have Rocket Will Travel"

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

This cheap but popular sci fi spoof was the first Columbia feature for the Stooges, who had contemplated retirement until the galvanic response to the release of the Stooges shorts on nationwide tv in 1958 brought them back into the limelight. The boys accidentally travel to Venus and encounter a giant fire-belching spider and a talkative unicorn. Moe retired the eye-poking after this one, averting a blindness epidemic on the playground. This was the first Stooge appearance by Curly Joe DeRita (replacing Joe Besser, who replaced Shemp, who replaced Curly)as the third Stooge.

John Landis on "A Chump At Oxford"

Mon, 01 Aug 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Like Saps at Sea, this Hal Roach Laurel & Hardy vehicle was originally conceived as a four-reeler, but was bumped up to 63 minutes to compete in the feature market. These were arguably their last substantial feature releases before a contract with 20th Century Fox reduced them to formula B-pictures. It's a cultural crime that today's kids know nothing of Stan and Ollie, but that's their loss. John McCabe's 1961 biography "Mr. Laurel & Mr. Hardy" remains the definitive word on the duo.

Mark Pellington on "The Last Picture Show"

Fri, 29 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The ghosts of Howard Hawks and John Ford hover over film buff/historian Peter Bogdanovich's first studio movie after the impressive indie Targets. Orson Welles persuaded him to insist on shooting his Oscar winning adaptation of Larry McMurtry's semi-autobiographical novel in black and white, unusual for the period. He followed it in 1990 with a sequel, Texasville, featuring many of the same cast. In 1992 Bogdanovich issued a "director's cut" adding seven minutes of material deleted by Columbia, which had insisted on a two hour running time.

Joe Dante on "The Last Man On Earth"

Wed, 27 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

It's Vincent Price vs. plague-ridden zombie/vampires in what is in retrospect a surprisingly influential US-Italian coproduction. Despite falling into the public domain in the US it's now available on video from multiple sources in a good quality TotalScope transfer pirated from the 1980s laserdisc release, although the MGM dvd version remains the preferred option.

Dan Ireland on "Suddenly Last Summer"

Mon, 25 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Katharine Hepburn wants niece Elizabeth Taylor to get a lobotomy to protect the reputation of her dead son. A troubled production denounced by screenwriter Gore Vidal and author of the original one-act play Tennessee Williams, Joseph L. Mankiewicz's baroque Southern Gothic was a surprisingly potent boxoffice attraction due to the stars and a somewhat salacious ad campaign. Working with the production code, the Catholic Church gave a surprising pass to inferences of homosexuality.isted on a two hour running time.

Allan Arkush on "The Last Waltz"

Fri, 22 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Martin Scorsese's incandescent celebration of The Band's last performance was the first rock documentary to be shot in 35mm. It's rock concert as art film. And very few rock concerts had the good fortune to be photographed by the likes of Michael Chapman, Vilmos Zsigmond and Laszlo Kovacs.

Adam Rifkin on "A Star Is Born '76"

Wed, 20 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Barbra Streisand steps into the Judy Garland role in this big-scale musical remake that works pretty well on its own terms, but would have benefitted from the original casting choice for leading man, the superstar....well, we'll let Adam Rifkin tell you about it.

Jesus Trevino on "Rock, Rock, Rock!"

Mon, 18 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Before producers Max J. Rosenberg and Milton Subotsky hit upon their popular series of Amicus horror films they made a number of mainstream programmers through their own Vanguard Productions. This was the first. This minimalist excuse for a bunch of hot rock acts to do their stuff was Tuesday Weld's film debut. Some say she spoofed this role in Lord Love a Duck, especially in the notorious department store scene.

Larry Karaszewski on "After The Fox"

Fri, 15 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Neil Simon, a first-time screenwriter with three hits running on Broadway, wanted Marcello Mastroianni to play the lead in this movie-biz caper comedy, but got Peter Sellers instead, who had always wanted to work with Vittorio De Sica. De Sica brought on his writer pal Cesare Zavattini. He and Simon wrote together through interpreters, but in the end Simon worried that De Sica's Italian editors were killing the jokes. Pretty much ignored when released, it's now a moderately popular cult item.

Bernard Rose on "The Decameron"

Wed, 13 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Nine 14th-century scatological stories from Boccaccio's Decameron form the basis of the first entry in Pier Paolo Pasolini's "Trilogy of Life", followed by The Canterbury Tales and Arabian Nights. Trailers from Hell welcomes filmmaker Bernard Rose to its guru ranks with his thoughts about this typically eye catching Alberto Grimaldi production, complete with Morricone score.

John Landis on "La Strada"

Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The film that put Federico Fellini on the map internationally, with his wife Giuliana Masina's indelible performance as the waif mistreated by brutish strongman Anthony Quinn. Richard Basehart provides further US name value although he doesn't dub himself in the English version. Winner of the first Academy Award for foreign language film in 1956.

Allan Arkush on "His Girl Friday"

Fri, 08 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

One of the greatest newspaper pictures ever (can there be many more in our future?), Howard Hawks' gender-bending remake of The Front Page stands as a comedy classic. Its improvisational-sounding overlapping dialog still impresses as modernistic. Such stars as Ginger Rogers, Jean Arthur, Irene Dunne, Carole Lombard and Claudette Colbert turned down Rosalind Russell's revamped Hildy Parks role. Cary Grant's surprised reaction to one of Russell's unexpected ad-libs was directed directly to Hawks: "Is she going to do that?". And it's in the movie. Unfortunately all we could find was a textless trailer on this one.

Mick Garris on "The Palm Beach Story"

Wed, 06 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The original title of this influential screwball comedy was Is Marriage Necessary?, but even though writer-director Preston Sturges was on a roll, he couldn't get that one past the Hays Office. This was Joel McCrea's second Sturges lead after the fabulous Sullivan's Travels and the seventh of ten Sturges-written movies in which William Demarest appeared. The Wienie King and The Ale and Quail Club have become iconic comic touchstones for fans the world over.

John Landis on "Heaven Can Wait"

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

No, it's not the Warren Beatty remake of Here Comes Mr. Jordan, but the sublime Ernst Lubitsch comedy fantasy, his biggest commercial hit and generally considered the last of his films to exemplify the inimitable "Lubitsch touch". Feckless womanizer Don Ameche recounts his love life to urbane devil Laird Cregar at the gates of Hell in a sparking rumination on life, death and the importance of the common man.

Josh Olson on "Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)"

Fri, 01 Jul 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Generally considered at least the equal or maybe (!) the better of Don Siegel's influential 1956 classic, Phil Kaufman's 1978 update transposes Jack Finney's paranoid original to a new age San Francisco setting. Some have pointed out that a story based on people becoming suspicious of their neighbors' unusual behavior might be better set somewhere other than San Francisco, but it's pretty widely accepted that this is the best of the remakes (1992, 1997).

Joe Dante on "Invisible Invaders"

Wed, 29 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

"Earth Given 24 Hours to Surrender!" It's those darned aliens again! This time they're reanimating dead people that they killed in the first place. Luckily for us, sci fi stalwart John Agar is on the job. But a lot of years have passed and who knows how many of these unseen creatures are currently running our world! Watch the skies, or at least the cemeteries!

Larry Karaszewski on "Get to Know Your Rabbit"

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

One of Brian dePalma's more obscure credits, this unappreciated attempt to turn Tommy Smothers into a movie star fizzled out. Filmed in 1970 after Hi Mom and before Sisters, it fell victim to a regime change at Warner Bros. and wasn't released until 1972. But it's still an offbeat anti-establishment spoof that's now finally available on dvd through Warner Archive.

Larry Cohen on "The Ten Commandments"

Fri, 24 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Our 600th trailer is Epic in every way. Larry manages to find 10 MINUTES of stuff to say about this extended promo for C.B. DeMille's last religious spectacle-- which isn't really so much about the Bible as it is about Anne Baxter's breasts. Seems like every ten minutes somebody's wailing "Oh Moses, Moses, Moses..."! Paramount's fabulous new Blu-ray captures the textures and colors of this enduring blockbuster better than anything since its original VistaVision release.

Josh Olson on "3 On A Match"

Wed, 22 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The largely forgotten Ann Dvorak sizzles in this snappy 63 minute pre-code Warner Bros. melange of booze, drugs and gambling. Scarface star Dvorak still has a cult following, which has gotten a modern boost from recent dvd releases of her films by Warner Archive. As a result, Turner Classic Movies has scheduled a Summer Under the Stars 24 hour tribute, coming up on August 24. Here's a website devoted to her: http://www.anndvorak.com/cms/

Allan Arkush on "Two Weeks In Another Town"

Mon, 20 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Director Vincente Minnelli and star Kirk Douglas reunited for this operatic non-sequel followup to their caustic 1952 Hollywood saga The Bad and the Beautiful, now set ten years later in the La Dolce Vita movie world of Rome and based on a novel by Irwin Shaw. Some claim its protagonists are thinly veiled representations of Tyrone Power, Linda Christian and Darryl Zanuck. Extensively recut by the studio, it's still a delirious fantasy about Eternal City filmmaking with some memorable sequences and a terrific cast.

Josh Olson on "The Hills Have Eyes"

Fri, 17 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Wes Craven's version of Lawrence of Arabia? Ok, maybe not, but this is one of the best latter day uses of the metaphoric desert setting so familiar from 50s sci fi movies. The fan base it engendered resulted in a sequel and a 2006 remake which itself spawned a sequel. Originally rated X but cut to secure an R, there are various versions of the original in circulation. The Anchor Bay dvd release is the most complete.

John Landis on "Our Man In Havana"

Wed, 15 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Director Carol Reed filmed his extremely well-cast adaptation of Grahame Greene's spy novel on location in Havana only three months after Fidel Castro's January 1959 revolution, and completed it just before Cuba aligned itself with the Soviet Union. Alberto Cavalcanti had explored the idea of directing this in the late '40s (but set in Estonia) and Alfred Hitchcock was also interested, but former film critic Greene nixed him.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "From Russia With Love"

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The success of Dr. No proved to be no fluke when its more adventurous followup became one of the biggest international boxoffice hits of the decade and set in motion a worldwide avalanche of 007 imitations. John F. Kennedy's favorite spy went on to spearhead the longest lasting movie franchise in history, though Kennedy didn't live to see the next installment, Goldfinger.

Mick Garris on "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea"

Fri, 10 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Fans who saw this as children count this elaborate Jules Verne adaptation as one of their greatest movie experiences. Walt Disney's first all-live-action production was a considerable gamble for his studio but became a huge hit and won Oscars for art direction and special effects. Disney won an Emmy for the hour-long making-of ABC tv special promoting the movie, probably the first time an extended commercial won such an award. Disney got former competitor Max Fleischer's ok before hiring son Richard to direct.

Joe Dante on "The Monster of Piedras Blancas"

Wed, 08 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Low rent but affectionately made by professional monster movie fans, this modest Creature imitation didn't garner many theatrical playdates but had a long afterlife on tv Double Chiller programs. The well constructed Monster is considerably less sympathetic than his Black Lagoon compatriot. The producers missed a bet by not hiring their lead actor, radio star Les Tremayne, to narrate the trailer.

Howard Rodman on "The Creature From The Black Lagoon"

Mon, 06 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Last of the great Universal monsters, sporting a brilliant man-in-suit design that can't be beat and has resisted years of attempted remakes and redesigns. The most iconic of the now-classic Jack Arnold/William Alland sci-fi pix and probably the most famous of sci-fi fan Richard Carlson's numerous genre starring turns. Ditto for co-stars Richard Denning and the still-stunning Julia Adams. One of the greatest 3-D movies of the '50s. Even Marilyn Monroe was moved by the Gill Man's doomed beauty-and-the-beast plight.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "Battle of the Bulge"

Fri, 03 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The flat plains of Spain make a visually inaccurate backdrop for this sprawling but none too accurate recreation of one of the major operations of World War II, which took place across the forests of Germany, Belgium and Luxembourg. It's a nearly three hour Roadshow spectacle with the usual all star cast, efficiently showcased by director Ken Annakin.

Joe Dante on "Verboten"

Wed, 01 Jun 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Once again Samuel Fuller uses the skimpiest of budgets as a tool to contrast reality with artifice. A long cherished project for the director, this German-set postwar drama was the last RKO picture, and has been out of circulation for years until its recent Warner Archive dvd release.

Ed Neumeier on "The Dirty Dozen"

Mon, 30 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The biggest boxoffice hit of 1967 led to scores of imitations, remakes and sequels. Robert Aldrich's brutal action film was highly criticized at the time for its excessive violence and general air of nihilism, but has remained an audience favorite through the decades. Yet Roger Corman got there first with a more modest version of the same story, The Secret Invasion (1964).

Joe Dante on "The Big Clock"

Fri, 27 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Ray Milland is the fall guy in Charles Laughton and George Macready's murder coverup.Told in the back-to-front flashback style unique to film noir, John Farrow's ingenious, criminally undervalued mystery thriller sometimes skirts the edge of screwball comedy. This highly entertaining thriller has some intriguing plot similarities to both Welles' Mr. Arkadin and Alain Corneau's Police Python 357.

John Sayles on "Border Incident"

Wed, 25 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

MGM head Dore Schary essentially co-opted one of Anthony Mann's Eagle-Lion projects, hiring Mann, writer John Higgins and the great cinematographer John Alton away from the low budget factory and giving them more money to work with. As in their earlier T-Men, government agents infiltrate a crime ring, this time one exploiting migrant farm workers. Surprisingly violent for Metro, this is one of the greatest looking black-and-white movies.

Jonathan Kaplan on "The Prowler"

Mon, 23 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The American Dream gets drop kicked in Joseph Losey's existential thriller about a psycho cop's obsession with a lonely housewife whose hubby he plots to kill. The sisyphusian ending takes place in the ghost town of Calico, since refurbished as a tourist attraction. Out of circulation for many years, this major noir was recently restored through the efforts of the Film Noir Foundation. Robert Aldrich and Don Weis were the assistant directors.

Michael Peyser on "The Hill"

Fri, 20 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Michael Peyser is a little cooler than we are to Sidney Lumet's ultra-cinematic adaptation of Ray Rigby's adaptation of his play set in a brutal British military prison in the Libyan desert. Sean Connery was thrilled to land this serious role after feeling marginalized by his identification with James Bond. He's terrific in this, as is the entire distinguished cast. Lumet's 1995 career memoir/handbook Making Movies is one of the best resources for would-be directors.

Josh Olson on "The Man Who Would Be King"

Wed, 18 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

A long-cherished project of director John Huston, this memorable Rudyard Kipling adaptation finally came together with Sean Connery and Michael Caine on location in Morocco and Marrakech. Christopher Plummer, playing Kipling, immersed himself in every recording and picture of the novelist he could find. In the end Connery and Caine had to sue the overextended major-studio-wannabe Allied Artists for their percentages. A long-awaited Blu-ray is on its way from Warner Home Video.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "Dr. No"

Mon, 16 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The first entry in the greatest tentpole series of all time, seven of which starred Sean Connery in the role that made him an international star. Amazingly, author Ian Fleming wanted composer-actor Hoagy Carmichael to play his licensed-to-kill Agent 007. The then-groundbreaking amorality of the concept led Patrick McGoohan to turn down the role, as did Richard Johnson (who later played in two Bond-like Bulldog Drummond films) and Roger Moore, who later replaced Connery as Bond.

Allan Arkush on "American Graffiti"

Fri, 13 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

George Lucas was originally slated to direct Apocalypse Now for Warner Bros. but the deal fell though. Despite its shoestring budget and little support from Universal, his next project was a mythic ode to his high school years in Modesto, California that became a sleeper hit, grossing over $55 million and jump-starting numerous careers both behind and in front of the cameras. Interestingly, the innovative end title wrap-up describing the fates of its characters did not include any of the females. A disappointing multi-screen-ratio sequel followed in 1979.

Larry Karaszewski on "The World of Henry Orient"

Wed, 11 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Peter Sellers is the titular self-absorbed pianist, but George Roy Hill's charming, bittersweet film belongs to the two young girls who idolize him. New York City at its most attractive is almost a character in itself, thanks to Boris Kaufman's sparkling cinematography.

Karyn Kusama on "Foxes"

Mon, 09 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Coming of age via sex and drugs in the San Fernando Valley as observed by British director Adrian Lyne in his feature debut. Not exactly a boxoffice bombshell, but it has come to be considered one of the most realistic portraits of teen life during the era despite the overuse of atmospheric smoke that sometimes makes the high school look like it's on fire.

Josh Olson on "Apocalypse Now"

Fri, 06 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

One of the most troubled productions ever, and one of the most acclaimed. Although he considered shooting in Australia, Francis Coppola decided on the Philippines because production coordinator Fred Roos had contacts there from shooting two back-to-back Monte Hellman films. Some of the eventually $30 million budget went into the pockets of Ferdinand Marcos's local officials. Shooting began in 1976 but after nearly two years in post production it finally met the public in 1979. Reissued in 2001 as Apocalypse Now Redux with 49 minutes of extended material.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "The Last Wave"

Wed, 04 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

A hypnotic achievement from Peter Weir's Australian mystical period. He claimed got the idea when he asked himself, “What if someone with a very pragmatic approach to life experienced a premonition?” Richard Chamberlain gives one of his best performances as a lawyer whose bad dreams lead to his representing the great Aboriginal actor David Gulpalil in a case that unleashes a spiritual tsunami to drench the world.

Jesus Trevino on "When Worlds Collide"

Mon, 02 May 2011 00:00:01 +0800

First of the runaway-planet-soon-to-hit-Earth movies, remade and ripped off so frequently in recent years that no less than Lars Von Trier has one coming up soon! Cecil B. DeMille considered making this for Paramount in 1935, but it wasn't until 1951 that George Pal was able to get it up and running, albeit with a DeMille-like introductory narration to start it off. Budget-challenged but spectacular in its day. Pal always dreamt of doing a sequel, but it never panned out. Vet heavy John Hoyt scores as the wheelchair-bound billionaire.

Larry Karaszewski on "Who's Minding The Mint?"

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The dulcet tones of veteran actor Les Tremayne transport us to the US Mint where Jim Hutton and a motley crew of tv and movie comics are trying to replace a missing $50K lost in a garbage disposal. Another fun movie that got lost in the shuffle, it has yet to appear on DVD.

Joe Dante on "A Boy Ten Feet Tall"

Wed, 27 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

One of Alexander Mackendrick's lesser known efforts, this hard-luck family movie shot in Africa under the title Sammy Going South existed in several versions. The original 129 minute cut is seemingly lost, but a 119 minute one has surfaced on British dvd. The trailer is for Paramount's extensively reworked US release, which has several points in its favor but is not likely to resurface as the rights have reverted to Warner Bros.

Josh Olson on "Cutter's Way"

Mon, 25 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Caught in a studio regime change, Ivan Passer's offbeat filmization of Newton Thornberg's novel Cutter and Bone was unceremoniously dumped into several Gotham theaters with little fanfare or ad budget. Rave notices in Time and Newsweek convinced United Artists to book it in a number of festivals, where it was warmly received, but it remains a fairly obscure title today.

Karyn Kusama on "The Parallax View"

Fri, 22 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

A corporation devoted to political assassinations?! What seemed pretty far out to some critics in 1974 doesn't look quite so unlikely nearly 40 years later. The second entry in what has been called Alan Pakula's political paranoia trilogy (following Klute and preceding All the President's Men) benefits from striking Gordon Willis camerawork and a sharp script co-written by an uncredited Robert Towne.

Larry Karaszewski on "All Fall Down"

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Live television director John Frankenheimer's third theatrical feature is based on James Leo Herlihy's dysfunctional family novel. This led directly into Frankenheimer's amazing run of five consecutive '60s masterpieces beginning with Birdman of Alcatraz and ending with Seconds. Warren Beatty, only five roles away from Bonnie and Clyde, makes a strong impression.

Joe Dante on "Mickey One"

Mon, 18 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Warren Beatty is one movie star who constantly took chances on offbeat projects, and his first collaboration with Arthur Penn is perhaps the oddest. Dismissed for years as an impenetrable misfire, this intriguing Kafka-esque nightmare about a stand-up comic on the run (from himself?) is finally beginning to be appreciated as the cinematic jazz spiritual it really is.

Josh Olson on "Brute Force"

Fri, 15 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The great supporting cast alone (Sam Levene, Jeff Corey,Jay C. Flippen, Sir Lancelot and the first of many pairings of John Hoyt and Whit Bissell) would make Jules Dassin's prison pic a keeper, but as written by Richard Brooks it's a tough, incisive and influential genre piece. Hume Cronyn's career highlight as the sadistic Warden Munsey, who plays Wagner records loudly to hide the sound of beatings. (Picture quality on this trailer is not up to our usual standard.)

Josh Olson on "Double Indemnity"

Wed, 13 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

James M. Cain's 1935 Liberty Magazine novella was based on the celebrated 1927 Ruth Snyder murder case that Sam Fuller always wanted to make a movie about. Billy Wilder's 1944 hit is the quintessential LA noir, and many of its locations can still be visited today. Nominated for seven Academy Awards but won none. At 16 min, 12 seconds in, the only known footage of cowriter Raymond Chandler appears, looking up at Fred MacMurray walking past him. Remade for tv in 1973.

Josh Olson on "Kiss Me Deadly"

Mon, 11 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Producer Victor Saville made movies out of three hardboiled Mike Hammer novels by Mickey Spillane, but this is the only one, thanks to director Robert Aldrich, that transcended its potboiler origins. Spillane hated it, and told screenwriter A.I. Bezerrides so. Ralph Meeker plays Hammer as a nihilistic, blackmailing sadist--and he's the hero. Cold war atomic paranoia at its finest. This trailer (which is unfortunately textless, without title cards) features numerous shots of the apocalyptic ending that was only recently restored to prints.

John Landis on "The Mark Of The Vampire"

Fri, 08 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Tod Browning's remake of London After Midnight is about as close as we'll get to seeing how his lost Lon Chaney silent might have played. Beautifully mounted, but MGM took the scissors to it before its release and there are only 61 minutes left. Some cool stuff nevertheless, until you get to the controversial twist ending. Bela Lugosi hosts this special trailer, with more dialog than he has in the movie!

Joe Dante on "The Wasp Woman"

Wed, 06 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

"A beautiful woman by day. A lusting queen wasp by night!" If that doesn't sound good to you, you're on the wrong website. Roger Corman's revamp of The Fly is a fun quickie with a great poster which completely misrepresents the film, but that's part of the charm after all.

Darren Bousman on "The Stuff"

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

A gooey new wrinkle in monsters: Yogurt that eats you! Larry Cohen utilizes techniques from movies as varied as The Blob and Royal Wedding in this clever horror satire on consumerism, addiction, the ad biz and junk food. The final film of actor/voiceover star Alexander Scourby.

Joe Dante on "The Blood On Satan's Claw"

Fri, 01 Apr 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Lush, brooding and somewhat perverse, this highly atmospheric 17th century British horror film made few ripples on original release, but has come to be regarded as nearly the equal of the better-known Witchfinder General, another example of devilish superstition leading to tragedy. Disjointed at times, but high on the list of superior fright films of the 70s.

Don Coscarelli on "The Beast With 5 Fingers"

Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Robert Florey directed and Curt Siodmak wrote it, but Luis Bunuel's fingerprints (heh, heh) are allegedly all over the concept for this earliest and best of the crawling hand movies. Dreamlike and intensely creepy, with a thundering Steiner score and Peter Lorre at his pop-eyed best in a role intended for Paul Henried. In any case, a crawling hand turns up in Bunuel's later Exterminating Angel.

Luca Guadagnino on "The Entity"

Mon, 28 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Barbara Hershey is raped and ravaged by an invisible force in Sidney Furie's allegedly "true" shocker. Filmed in 1981 but not released until two years later. As with The Exorcist, unexplainable events reportedly occurred off camera during production. Martin Scorsese put this one on his list of 11 scariest horror films.

Joe Dante on "Valerie and Her Week of Wonders"

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Jaromil Jires' ethereal Czechslovakian combo fairy tale/medieval horror fantasy makes up in ravishing imagery what it lacks in story. A surreal amalgam of vampires, incest, polysexual eroticism, anti-clerical jibes and dreams within dreams. Not for everyone, but unique and mesmerising, with a growing cult following.

Joe Dante on "Dime With a Halo"

Wed, 23 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

An offbeat B-picture that slipped through the cracks. This Tijuana-set street urchin saga was the debut feature of prolific TV director Boris Sagal. After several Dr. Kildare episodes, MGM assigned him to this as a test run before handing him the bigger budget Richard Chamberlain vehicle Twilight of Honor.

Joe Dante on "Daughter of Horror"

Mon, 21 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Filmmaker "John Parker" has only a single (grubby) credit: this bizarre hour-long dream sequence that took years to see the light of a projector--and played only one theater in its original form under the title Dementia. A hint as to who was really responsible for this mind-altering, one-of-a-kind movie is in the photo at right.

Lloyd Kaufman on "Squeeze Play"

Fri, 18 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The irrepressible (and who would try?) Lloyd Kaufman gives us the lowdown on the Troma Team's first big hit, a "world series of laughs" in which disgruntled girlfriends form an all-girl softball team to challenge their macho boyfriends' team. Notable for what is probably the pre-eminent cinematic depiction of a softball being caught between a pair of butt cheeks.

John Badham on "Whose Life is it Anyway?"

Wed, 16 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

John Badham explores the difficulties in adapting a hit play to the screen whose protagonist, paralyzed from the neck down, is bedridden for the entire story, fighting his doctors for the right to die. Richard Dreyfuss stars, in a role Ian McShane played in a 1972 telefilm and which both Tom Conti and Mary Tyler Moore(!) played on Broadway.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on " BMX Bandits"

Mon, 14 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Brian Trenchard-Smith expounds on his direction of one of the most beloved teenpix of the 1980s, a kind of Aussie pre-vis of The Goonies-- introducing an almost unrecognizably nubile Nicole Kidman, wearing Art Garfunkle's hair. Genre specialist Severin Films is releasing a restored widescreen version on DVD and Blu ray on March 15. Some coincidence, huh?

John Sayles on "War Hunt"

Fri, 11 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Although it played mostly second feature dates, this acclaimed Korean war indie by the Sanders brothers (who began as second-unit directors on The Night of the Hunter) took home many kudos from international fim festivals.John Saxon is memorable in the lead as a soldier turned serial killer. This marked the beginning of a fruitful relationship between co-star Robert Redford and soon-to-be director Sydney Pollack, who has a supporting role.

Josh Olson on "The Hot Rock"

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

First of five comic Donald E. Westlake adaptations featuring the character of Dortmunder, ex-con and master thief (sort of), played here by Robert Redford. Westlake, who wrote under no less than 15 pseudonyms (some of whom turned up as character names in his work), was nominated for an Oscar for his screenplay for The Grifters.

Larry Karaszewski on "Little Fauss and Big Halsy"

Mon, 07 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Robert Redford reputedly dismisses this particular vehicle in which he plays an unsympathetic motorcycle racer, but it's actually sort of his version of The Hustler Meets Hud. Great soundtrack includes contributions from Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins and Bob Dylan.

Josh Olson on "Blue Collar"

Fri, 04 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Paul Schrader's post-Taxi Driver rust belt auto worker directorial debut was shot in Kalamazoo, Michigan with three lead actors who hated each other and sometimes resorted to on-set fist fights. Nonetheless, each provides brilliant moments, none more so than Richard Pryor in what may be his greatest performance.

Dan Ireland on "Putney Swope"

Wed, 02 Mar 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Before Robert Downey Jr. there was ... Robert Downey Sr. (A Prince)! This was his first widely released "underground" indie (filmed for $120,00) and his most popular, but we here at TFH have a soft spot for Chafed Elbows. Arnold Johnson, as the token black employee put in charge of a NY ad agency, is entirely dubbed by Downey.

Bill Duke on "A Raisin In The Sun"

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

In this specially filmed trailer producer David Suskind explains why it's okay for white folks to like his expanded filmization of Lorraine Hansberry's acclaimed one-set play about the struggles of a modern black family. In 1989 Bill Duke himself helmed an acclaimed tv remake (featuring character actor John Fiedler in the same role he played in the movie) and still another followed in 2008.

John Landis on "Battle For The Planet Of The Apes"

Fri, 25 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Last and least of the Apes series tries to bring the story full circle but suffers from tv-style production values and haphazard last-minute re-cutting to reduce the violence and secure a PG rating. The uncut version is now available on Blu-Ray.

John Landis on "Beneath The Planet Of The Apes"

Wed, 23 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

This surprisingly downbeat first of four sequels remains the most profitable of the Apes series, primarily due to its comparatively low budget. None-too-subtle anti-Vietnam war undertones waft through writer Paul Dehn's subterranean rehash of the original, enhanced with the addition of nuclear warhead-worshipping mutant heavies.

John Landis on "Planet Of The Apes"

Mon, 21 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

One of the major science fiction pictures of its era. J. Lee Thompson was originally to direct, but was busy with McKenna's Gold. Franklin Schaffner was recommended to replace him by star Charlton Heston. Author Pierre Boulle objected to the famous ending provided by Rod Serling (rewritten by Michael Wilson), but later came to accept it as better than the one in his novel. Followed by four sequels, a short lived network tv series, a Saturday morning cartoon series and a 2001 remake.

Josh Olson on "The African Queen"

Fri, 18 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

C.S. Forester's novel was originally bought by Columbia for Charles Laughton and Elsa Lanchester, then sold to Warners for Errol Flynn and Bette Davis. John Huston found it years later at Fox. He encouraged Katherine Hepburn, who suffered from dysentery through most of the shoot, to play her role like Eleanor Roosevelt. Screenwriter James Agee, sidelined by a heart attack, disliked the happy ending provided by Huston and writer Peter Vertiel.

Michael Peyser on "Jules And Jim"

Wed, 16 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Francois Truffaut's poignant portrait of a twenty year menage a trois outraged US censors. The cineaste director's self-described "perfect hymn to love, and perhaps even to life" made him an international sensation and remains star Jeanne Moreau's favorite of her films.

Dan Ireland on "The Apartment"

Mon, 14 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

One of the great romantic movies and one of Billy Wilder's biggest hits. Fred MacMurray, who was genuinely startled by Jack Lemmon's improvs with his nose spray, stepped into his role on two weeks' notice after first choice Paul Douglas died suddenly. The Lemmon-Shirley MacLaine gin game was added because MacLaine was constantly playing cards on set.

Josh Olson on "Frenzy"

Fri, 11 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Hitchcock's first London-based production since Stage Fright is also one of his most surprisingly modern. A recent screening in Hollywood as part of Edgar Wright's "The Wright Stuff" film series delighted a packed house of 20-somethings who had never been exposed to it before. The dinner scenes between Vivien Merchant and chief inspector Alec McCowan killed.

Darren Bousman on "Rope"

Wed, 09 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Filmed plays don't get much more interesting than this. For years Hitchcock's legendary long-take experiment was a hard film to see, but it's become more available in recent years. This was the first time the studio was contractually obligated to bill one of his films with the "Alfred Hitchcock's" possessory credit.

Guillermo del Toro on "I Confess"

Mon, 07 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Compromised from the outset by the studio (they even replaced his leading lady Anita Bjork with Anne Baxter), this has never been considered one of Hitchcock's most effective films. However, Hitchcockian themes of Catholic guilt and his moody use of the Quebec locations still make it required viewing for his fans and it's full of impressive filmmaking.

John Landis on "Pretty Maids All In A Row"

Fri, 04 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Reeling from his divorce from Jane Fonda, French director Roger Vadim made his first American movie for MGM. Unlikely as it seems today, the scuttlebutt at the time was that Rock Hudson's love scenes with the numerous high school nymphets went All The Way! The buzz helped turn this gently smutty black-comic mystery into a substantial hit, although now it plays like a time-warp precursor to Skins.

Larry Karaszewski on "Vixen"

Wed, 02 Feb 2011 00:00:01 +0800

70 minutes of prime Meyer madness--sort of Russ's version of Shock Corridor-- tackling sex, race, the war in Vietnam, etc. Its towering $6 million profit on a $76,000 investment landed him a studio deal with 20th Century-Fox which resulted in the trash classic Beyond the Valley of the Dolls and petered out with the barely released (but still interesting) The Seven Minutes.

Roger Corman on "Apache Woman"

Mon, 31 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Roger Corman tells us the story behind his second ten-day western, a pro-Indian melodrama in the Broken Arrow mold. Dick Miller, originally hired to play an Indian, was called upon to fill in several other roles as well, all of whom bite the dust.

Rod Lurie on "Runaway Train"

Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

2010's Unstoppable had a decades-earlier precedent. Andre Konchalovski's dynamic thriller took a long time to make it to the screen, but when it did (under the auspesis of Cannon Releasing, no less) it rocked. Rod Lurie explains its surprising origins.

Josh Olson on "Emperor of the North Pole"

Wed, 26 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The ghost of Jack London hovers over Robert Aldrich's gutsy evocation of depression-era hobo gangs riding the rails and being targeted by sadistic railroad bulls. Keith Carradine's character name, Cigaret, was the one used by London when he was on the road.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "The Man from Hong Kong"

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Brian Trenchard-Smith's fourth directorial effort is a kinetic, over the top smashathon. Released in the US as The Dragon Flies, this Aussie/Hong Kong effort to turn Jimmy Wang Yu (The One-Armed Boxer) into a new Bruce Lee has spawned its own hard core cult following, although it remains undeservedly obscure to general audiences.

John Sayles on "A High Wind in Jamaica"

Fri, 21 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Director Alexander Mackendrick was unhappy with studio changes to his work, but this unsentimental critical and boxoffice failure remains a compelling adaptation of Richard Hughes' disturbing Lord of the Flies-like novel about hapless pirates undone by their juvenile captives. Harmonica virtuoso Larry Adler's symphonic score is first rate. Note James Coburn's positioning in this trailer as a hot young star-to-be. Look for acclaimed author Martin Amis as the kid who falls from the brothel window.

Josh Olson on "Hard Times"

Wed, 19 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Bare-knuckle boxing in 1933 New Orleans with a buff Charles Bronson in the ring and James Coburn as his sleazy (what else?) promoter. Writer Walter Hill's directing debut is gritty, brutal and riveting. Great support from the always reliable Strother Martin. At some point this film was recut from an R rating to a PG.

Larry Karaszewski on "The President's Analyst"

Mon, 17 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

One of most charming and clever political satires of the '60s almost didn't make it to the screen intact. Director Theodore J. Flicker's background in improv comedy provides cohesion to a wild scenario that pissed off everybody from the CIA to the FBI. James Coburn spoofs his Our Man Flint image as a paranoid psychiatrist who ends up battling Our Real Enemy - The Phone Company.

Joe Dante on "A Midsummer Nights Dream '35"

Fri, 14 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

An unlikely pairing of Shakespeare and Warner Bros. with an all-star cast and dazzling production values. You'll notice that nowhere in this trailer do you hear a single word of that high-falutin' Bardspeak!

Lloyd Kaufman on "Tromeo and Juliet"

Wed, 12 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

The Bard gets Troma-tized. The story's the same, but Troma adds all the toilet humor, explicit sex scenes and gratuitous gore that old Will thoughtlessly left out of his version.

John Badham on "West Side Story"

Mon, 10 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

When you're a Jet you're a Jet! Ten Academy Awards went to Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins' enduringly popular screen version of the Romeo & Juliet-derived Broadway smash. New York City delayed the razing of several blocks in West Manhattan to provide tenement backgrounds for dance numbers. That area is now Lincoln Center. John Astin makes his film debut as Glad Hand the social worker.

Karyn Kusama on "The Hustler"

Fri, 07 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

This gritty, downbeat adaptation of the Walter Tevis novel was director Robert Rossen's favorite of his films, and one of Paul Newman's as well. He reprised his role as pool shark Fast Eddie Felson in Martin Scorsese's 1986 The Color of Money and won the Oscar that eluded him here. Pool pro Willie Moscone coached Newman and served as hand double for the close-up shots. The supporting cast is Aces.

Larry Karaszewski on "Little Murders"

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Village Voice cartoonist Jules Feiffer's black comic look at dysfunctional 1970s New Yorkers was a bit too much for audiences at the time, but today it looks like a documentary. A Broadway flop, it was well received in London as a Royal Shakespeare Company production, then director Alan Arkin successfully revived it Off-Broadway, winning Feiffer an Obie award. Elliot Gould bought the film rights and it was shot with many of the theatrical cast.

Mark Pellington on "The French Connection"

Mon, 03 Jan 2011 00:00:01 +0800

Five Oscars went to William Friedkin's dynamic NYPD saga based on the exploits of detective Eddie Egan, who envisioned himself being played by Rod Taylor. Instead, Gene Hackman leapt to stardom in the role. The Department, annoyed by scripter Ernest Tidyman's portrayal of the force, canned Egan seven hours before he was to sign his retirement papers!

Darren Bousman on "Blade Runner"

Fri, 31 Dec 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Audiences didn't "get it" at the time, but Ridley Scott's dystopian neo-noir sci-fi extravaganza has gone on to become a classic, distributed over the years in so many different cuts we can't list them all. But each version shares the same mesmerising ambience of a dehumanizing future society we're finally beginning to recognize as our own.

Josh Olson on "The Late Show"

Wed, 29 Dec 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Art Carney is a cantankerous over-the-hill gumshoe in Robert Benton's sadly obscure comedy noir that pairs him with Lily Tomlin and recalls the Raymond Chandler mysteries of the 1940s.

Ernest Dickerson on "Chinatown"

Mon, 27 Dec 2010 00:00:01 +0800

One of the greatest of all film noirs came at the very end of the cycle. A troubled production whose cinematographer and composer were replaced at the last minute (Jerry Goldsmith had only ten days to write and record his classic score). Writer Robert Towne (who won an Oscar) initially envisioned this as the first of three films, but only a sequel, The Two Jakes, was produced. He and director Roman Polanski disagreed about the ending, with the director writing the final scene the night before he shot it.

Adam Rifkin on "Bananas"

Fri, 17 Dec 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Woody Allen's third directorial effort is one of his "early funny ones". And a huge improvement over Take the Money and Run. As this specially crafted trailer attests, he was already beginning to assert control over his films and the promotion of same.

Joe Dante on "The Patsy"

Wed, 15 Dec 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Jerry Lewis writes, directs, produces and stars and probably does the craft service on this showbiz comedy made toward the end of his Paramount contract. It plays today somewhat like an early version of Entourage and may well be revealing of Jerry's view of his own place in the Hollywood firmament.

Michael Peyser on "The 3 Stooges Meet Hercules"

Mon, 13 Dec 2010 00:00:01 +0800

This threadbare but well received vehicle has the boys (with Joe DeRita replacing Shemp, Joe Besser and Curly) going back in time to goof on Hercules, newly popularized by the onslought of spear-and-sandal imports that followed the late '50s commercial smash of the Steve Reeves original.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "The 7th Voyage Of Sinbad"

Fri, 10 Dec 2010 00:00:01 +0800

A generation of baby boomers were forever enchanted by a passel of fabulous monsters in this now-classic fantasy hit. After years of working on Sam Katzman B pictures, FX genius Ray Harryhausen and his producer Charles Schneer moved up the ladder with a comparatively larger budget but still economical Arabian Nights adventure whose sleeper success spawned another two decades of Harryhausen magic. An enthusiastic Art Gilmore hawks the spectacle in this pre-release promo reel, almost a short subject in itself. Oddly, when this was reissued in 1975, Dynamation became Dynarama!

Mick Garris on "Humanoids from the Deep"

Wed, 08 Dec 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Something fishy for sure! Human/salmon hybrid aquatic monsters are on the loose, menacing unclad buxom girls in a Pacific Northwest fishing community (most of whom were paid scale, get it?). New World Pictures' popular follow up to Piranha was gorier and scuzzier and elevated 20 year-old Rob Bottin to the post of chief monster maker.

John Sayles on "Beginning of the End"

Mon, 06 Dec 2010 00:00:01 +0800

TFH welcomes John Sayles to the ranks of Grindhouse Gurus. This nervy 1957 trailer acts like Bert I. Gordon's shoestring ripoff of previous giant bug movies is some kind of innovative breakthrough! It does boast two '50s sci fi icons in the cast (Morris Ankrum and Tom Browne Henry) in their signature roles as tough minded military officers, and became a major component of Joe Dante and Jon Davison's The Movie Orgy.

Larry Karaszewski on "Nashville"

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Shot again mostly in sequence with entirely on-set sound recording, this free-form metaphor for American society circa 1975 is one of Robert Altman's most acclaimed and yet controversial projects. Susan Anspach was originally cast in the Ronee Blakeley role and Robert Duvall turned down the country star role that Henry Gibson played--the jury is out on whether Duvall could have written his own songs as Gibson did. Keenan Wynn was the only cast member who adhered to the script as written.

Josh Olson on "McCabe and Mrs. Miller"

Wed, 01 Dec 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Filmed under the unlikely title The Presbyterian Church Wager, this opium-fueled anti-western was shot in sequence on frigid Vancouver locations. Director Altman and star Warren Beatty (in a role the studio wanted George C. Scott to play) collaborated on script revisions throughout. The mesmerising result, strikingly shot by Vilmos Zsigmond, plays somewhat like a Leonard Cohen music video.

Larry Karaszewski on "Brewster McCloud"

Mon, 29 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Robert Altman followed up the sleeper success of M*A*S*H with an off-kilter avian fantasy set inside the Houston Astrodome by the writer of Skiddoo! It's a nascent gathering of many of the principal talents who would populate Altman's triumphs and tragedies over the next decades. Shelley Duvall's post-barfing kissing scene is a highlight.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "The Mummy"

Fri, 26 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

When Hammer signed their deal with Universal they seemed prepared to enthusiastically slog their way through every horror property in the studio vault. This one combines all five Universal mummy pix into one, and it works pretty darn well--although it would work less well once the inevitable sequels ensued. Christopher Lee is a remarkably expressive mummy.

Joe Dante on "The Nanny"

Wed, 24 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Middle-aged leading ladies from prior decades found new starring opportunities during the sixties in lurid horror followups to the successful Davis/Crawford vehicle Whatever Happened to Baby Jane?. One of the best of these was this well-received Hammer suspense thriller starring Bette Davis in one of her most sinister yet touching late career roles.

Mick Garris on "The Hound of the Baskervilles"

Mon, 22 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Hammer's necessarily more horrific take on the oft-filmed Conan Doyle classic features Peter Cushing and Andre Morell as one of the best Holmes/Watson pairings, despite the fact that the story keeps Holmes offscreen for a large portion of the action. Christopher Lee gets to play opposite a tarantula.

George Hickenlooper on "The Third Man"

Fri, 19 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

This was the final commentary recorded for us by George Hickenlooper. Carol Reed's endlessly watchable post-war thriller, the fourth pairing of Joseph Cotten and Orson Welles, is generally considered one of the greats. Tensions between producers Alexander Korda and David O. Selznick resulted in two separate cuts of the film. Robert Krasker won an Oscar for his stylized cinematography. This is a surprisingly dunderheaded trailer, though.

George Hickenlooper on "Vanishing Point"

Wed, 17 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Dodge Challenger sales spiked when this existential road trip hit the screen in 1971. Symbolism abounds but there's a gonzo rebel tone that makes this car chase extravaganza one of the cooler pix of the era, and one that defines the term Cult Classic. Charlotte Rampling's cameo as an Angel of Death was cut before release but exists in the British version, an extra on the dvd.

George Hickenlooper on "Yellow Submarine"

Mon, 15 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Only a Blue Meanie could hate George Dunning's limited animation classic, which screwed the pyschedelic cap onto the 1968 toothpaste that also included Kubrick's 2001 and predated MTV music videos by some 12 years.

Joe Dante on "Little Shop of Horrors"

Fri, 12 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The little picture that could. Emerging from initial mini-budget obscurity to full fledged mainstream fame, this may be Roger Corman's best known movie, despite the fact that most of the ostensible audience has probably never seen it. Subsequent incarnations have turned this wacky cult item into an unlikely piece of Americana.

Mick Garris on "Not Of This Earth"

Wed, 10 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Roger must have liked this one, since he's remade it twice over several decades. Apparently star Paul Birch had a rather physical disagreement with Corman on the front lawn of the Hollywood location and Birch, who had made several pictures with Roger, walked off the picture. His remaining scenes were completed with a double.

Roger Corman on "Naked Paradise"

Mon, 08 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Roger's 1956 trip to Hawaii resulted in two movies (naturally) and this one was so well plotted by Chuck Griffith and Mark Hanna that he remade it several times under different titles and in different locations. Look for later leads Dick Miller and Jonathan Haze in supporting henchmen roles. Then- girlfriend Beverly Garland stars in the fourth of five pictures for Roger.

Karyn Kusama on "Smile"

Fri, 05 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The bromide is that satire is what closes on Saturday night, and the boxoffice reception to Michael Richie's expose of small town beauty pageants certainly bears that out. The American Dream comes in for a drubbing, but Richie and screenwriter Jerry Belson have such affection for their characters that it's uplifting rather than a downer. Bruce Dern and Barbara Feldon are terrific. Film debuts of Annette O'Toole, Colleen Camp and Melanie Griffith.

Joe Dante on "Family Plot"

Wed, 03 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Although Alfred Hitchcock was working with Ernest Lehmann on the script for a project titled The Short Night at the time of his death, this light-hearted suspense thriller proved to be his final outing. In retrospect it's not viewed as equal to his best efforts, but he was 77 when he made it and it's actually a bit hipper than the preceding Topaz and Torn Curtain.

Josh Olson on "The Cowboys"

Mon, 01 Nov 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The always-idiosyncratic Bruce Dern achieves a new level of screen villainy as the stringy-haired cattle-thief psychopath in Mark Rydell's out-of-the-ordinary John Wayne vehicle. Controversial in its day, it's one of Wayne's best latter-day projects, seemingly designed as a kind of swan song-- but that actually came several years later with The Shootist. Followed by a short-lived tv series.

Joe Dante on "Blood And Black Lace"

Fri, 29 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Mario Bava's influential and fabulously stylish murder parade, one of the great horror films of all time, was ill-served in its previous Trailers from Hell incarnation, which frankly looked really crummy. So Joe has revisited it in a better looking transfer, but the movie itself still remains woefully unappreciated.

Josh Olson on "Blacula"

Wed, 27 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

AIP's vampiric contribution to the prevailing blaxploitation avalanche of the 1970s benefits from the casting of stentorian Shakespearian actor William Marshall, who manages to retain his dignity in some very tacky situations. Successful enough to spawn a sequel, Scream Blacula Scream.

Amy Jones on "Slumber Party Massacre"

Mon, 25 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Former editor Amy Holden Jones reveals a saga that could only have taken place in the bygone world of Roger Corman's New World Pictures, and resulted in her first directorial assignment-- a girls-in-jeopardy horror picture that led to a career as a successful Hollywood screenwriter. Sequels ensued.

John Landis on "The Purple Heart"

Fri, 22 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

One of the premiere WW II propaganda movies comes ironically from the director of the grand daddy of all anti-war movies, All Quiet on the Western Front. A doomed bomber crew captured on the first Doolittle raid over Japan is tortured and put on display in a mock show trial. It still provokes anger today. Fascinating as a social document and a well-made movie on its own terms even considering the inescapeable jingoism of the period.

Ed Neumeier on "They Were Expendable"

Wed, 20 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Often cited as one of the finest movies about WW II, John Ford's first film after his Navy discharge is a powerful study of the PT boat squadron in the Phillipines. Ford, who made the film at the behest of the government, broke a leg on the picture and star Robert Montgomery filled in as director for the last two weeks.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "Hell To Eternity"

Mon, 18 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Allied Artists, the scruffy B-picture studio which sprang from the lowly origins of Monogram, made a short-lived bid for major studio status during the 1960s with movies like this large scale 132 minute WW II epic based on an unlikely but inspiring true story.

Mick Garris on "Eaten Alive"

Fri, 15 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Under any of its myriad reissue titles, Tobe Hooper's undeservedly obscure followup to his groundbreaking independent Texas Chainsaw Massacre is an intensely bleak, studio-bound Hollywood B-movie concoction. But it's still bizarre and crazy and Neville Brand is on some other performance planet as the mad killer.

Joe Dante on "The Alligator People"

Wed, 13 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

A drugged, amnesiac Beverly Garland confides in two psychiatrists about her terrible repressed experiences with the Alligator People and they decide in the end not to tell her about it! Swampy fifties fun with a good supporting cast.

Karyn Kusama on "Alligator"

Mon, 11 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

John Sayles wrote the witty script, mostly on airplanes, at the same time he was writing The Howling, and Joe Dante remains convinced that the dream sequence in the latter was really meant for the former, and vice versa. A cast of great character actors classes up Lewis Teague's manful efforts to get the most out of Not Very Much Money.

Josh Olson on "Thunder Road"

Fri, 08 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Robert Mitchum stars (and sings!) as an Appalachian moonshiner out to bamboozle the Feds. Little noted at the time, this proved to be a hotrod classic over time. Filmed on location in Asheville North Carolina. This trailer is a textless one created for overseas use.

Larry Karaszewski on "Going Places"

Wed, 06 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Two louts commit various acts of black comedy mayhem in the kind of edgy material that exemplifies how unique a period the 1970s were culturally. French director Bertrand Blier was once better known Stateside in an era when "foreign films" were routinely imported and shown instead of bought and remade.

Dan Ireland on "Two For The Road"

Mon, 04 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Well, Emma Thompson may not like Audrey Hepburn but we sure do. Here she is with Albert Finney in one of her best pictures, Stanley Donen's time-shifting, audaciously fast-cut dramedy about the beginning and end of a marriage told through a series of car trips around France.

Jonathan Kaplan on "Key Largo"

Fri, 01 Oct 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Edward G Robinson was reluctant to play another gangster but John Huston talked him into it. In Maxwell Anderson's 1939 play the gangsters are Mexican banditos, the war is the Spanish Civil War and the Humphrey Bogart character is a tortured deserter who gets killed in the end. Claire Trevor's Oscar-winning gun moll role was modeled on Lucky Luciano's mistress. The hurricane sequences come from the as yet unreleased Warner melodrama Night Unto Night.

John Landis on "The Maltese Falcon"

Wed, 29 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

In today's remake-crazed atmosphere it's worth noting that this was the second remake of Dashiell Hammett's Sam Spade detective novel. John Huston got his first directing assignment in exchange for scripting Raoul Walsh's High Sierra. In one of many bad career decisions, George Raft turned down the lead role that consolidated Humphrey Bogart's star status.

Larry Cohen on "The Big Sleep"

Mon, 27 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The famous example of the whodunit where none of the prestigeous writers, including Raymond Chandler, William Faulkner and Howard Hawks, could ever really account for who did what to whom. A year after the film wrapped the studio added two new sequences to expand the presence of Lauren Bacall, by then Bogart's inamorata, which entailed dropping some explanatory sequences. Both versions are now available on video.

Josh Olson on "Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!"

Fri, 24 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Busty broads on motorcycles pummel every guy they encounter in an indelible example of female empowerment, grindhouse style. A trash classic from the mammary-fixated Russ Meyer, former king of the nudies turned sultan of sleaze.

Larry Karaszewski on "Pretty Poison"

Wed, 22 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

A ravishing Tuesday Weld is the sexy psychopath whose nihilistic behavior shocks even mentally disturbed Tony Perkins in this instant cult classic which has been simmering below the radar for 30 years. B-movie queen Beverly Garland has one of her best roles as Tuesday's doomed mother.

Dan Ireland on "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane"

Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

One of the most influential movies of the 1960s, Robert Aldrich's celebrated Hollywood Gothic was the first movie to open widely in "Flagship Theaters" instead of playing initial dates in top urban houses and changed distributor release patterns forever more. It didn't exactly hurt the late careers of Bette Davis and Joan Crawford either.

Guillermo del Toro on "Zombie"

Fri, 17 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Originally promoted as a sequel to Dawn of the Dead, this is also known as Zombie 2(!), Zombie Flesh Eaters and numerous other titles. It's sort of a Trailers from Hell milestone--our first Lucio Fuci trailer! And who better to dissect it than the director of Hellboy?

Jack Hill on "The Swinging Cheerleaders"

Wed, 15 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Jack Hill tells us the story behind his fast and funky drive-in perennial, a sort-of follow-up to the 1973 hit The Cheerleaders. The fact that the trailer reuses the same cheerleading shot several times is an indication of how far the budget had to be stretched.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "Revolt Of The Slaves"

Mon, 13 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Regrettably, we haven't paid much attention here at TFH to the flood of Euro sword-and-sandal coproductions that followed the international success of the Steve Reeves Hercules films. Brian Trenchard-Smith remedies this oversight with his analysis of one of the most typical examples of the peplum genre that clogged cinemas throughout the early 60s.

Larry Karaszewski on "Zabriskie Point"

Thu, 09 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Michelangelo Antonioni's first English language film, Blow-Up, was a surprise worldwide hit for MGM, which permitted him to follow it up with a big-scale X-rated art film set in America. In production for over two years, it tanked big time, grossing less an $1 million on a $7 million investment and drawing withering reviews. Time for a reassessment....

Allison Anders on "Blue Denim"

Wed, 08 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

50's teens get in Trouble in this scandalous-for-its-day adaptation of James Leo Herlihy's Broadway play. Good casting and sensitive acting keeps it from playing like a sitcom today, but this cautious trailer indicates the studio felt it needed to neutralize The Abortion Issue with a big star endorsement.

Josh Olson on "Over The Edge"

Mon, 06 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Although it didn't make much of a boxoffice dent when new, TFH guru Jonathan Kaplan's bleak portrait of rootless suburban kids in an '80s "model community" still packs a punch. Benefits from naturalistic and starkly credible performances from a charismatic teenage cast, several of whom went on to stardom. Co-written by TFH guru Tim Hunter.

Joe Dante on "The Phantom from 10,000 Leagues"

Fri, 03 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Radioactivity is not our friend: that's the message '50s sci fi tykes would have taken away from this if they 'd been able to stay awake. Nothing in this undernourished cheapie makes much sense, but that's never been a drawback for this sort of thing, which is essentially a poster in search of a movie.

Ernest Dickerson on "Moby Dick"

Wed, 01 Sep 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Although star Gregory Peck felt director John Huston should have played Ahab himself, Huston had hoped his father Walter Huston would live to take the role. This third film version of Melville's classic is beautifully shot and produced, but Huston and writer Ray Bradbury had a rocky relationship, which Bradbury dramatized in his novel "Green Shadows, White Whale" and the short story "Banshee".

Jon Davison on "Piranha"

Mon, 30 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The arrival of Piranha 3-D has focused a lot of attention on Roger Corman's 1978 Texas-shot Jaws ripoff. Although made three years after the fact, it hit the exploitation jackpot internationally, especially in South America. Part '50s sci-fi spoof and part underwater gorefest, this vaguely subversive Joe Dante-John Sayles collaboration has proved amazingly durable over the years.

John Badham on "Let's Kill Uncle"

Fri, 27 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The great Nigel Green brings a delicious patina of sardonic menace to one of his few lead roles as the cheerful would-be assassin of his newly rich nephew. One of William Castle's later efforts, it's gimmick-less and shot pretty much like a tv show, but its uneasy mix of fun and child murder has a pleasingly unwholesome tone.

Joe Dante on "Macabre"

Wed, 25 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The movie that began the William Castle legend is a modest affair with a terrific ad campaign that surprised everyone by becoming a sleeper hit. Do you know anyone who died of fright while watching? No, neither do we, darn it!

Larry Karaszewski on "I Saw What You Did"

Mon, 23 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

"WARNING! This motion picture depicts UXORICIDE!" (look it up). A phone prank gets two teen girls in big trouble with the murderer next door. The seat-belt gimmick depicted in this trailer is pretty half hearted; William Castle would soon give up on these adornments altogether.

Larry Karaszewski on "Cold Turkey"

Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Nicotine addicted residents of a midwestern town try to give up smoking for a cash prize.This forgotten comic gem was TV titan Norman Lear's only directorial effort. Shot in 1969, it went unreleased until 1971, when it proved to be a surprise hit. One of the darkest, most despairing social satires of the Nixon era, with a fabulous cast of tv comedy favorites. This is a mostly textless trailer made for foreign use.

Katt Shea on "The Man With The Golden Arm"

Wed, 18 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Notorious envelope-pusher Otto Preminger was the first to produce an adult movie about drug addiction, based on Nelson Algren's novel about a heroin addict's desperation to kick the habit. Released without an MPAA seal, it helped liberate subsequent films from the rigid strictures of the production code. Elmer Bernstein's jazz score and Saul Bass's title graphics were similarly groundbreaking.

Mark Pellington on "The Lost Weekend"

Mon, 16 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Release was delayed for a year while Paramount mulled an offer by the liquor industry to shelve the picture. Well-deserved Oscars went to Ray Milland, Charles Brackett and Billy Wilder for a movie that was only made because the studio owed Wilder a picture of his choosing. Critic James Agee bemoaned the dropping of the novel's explanation for the hero's drinking: a homosexual affair in college. Frank Faylen is unforgettable as Bim, the creepy male nurse at the Bellevue alcoholic ward.

Karyn Kusama on "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre"

Fri, 13 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Gritty, visceral and intensely disturbing, Tobe Hooper's Nixon-era magnum opus achieves almost all its power through suggestion and indirection. Nevertheless it was banned and censored throughout the world. Art director Robert Burns practically earns auteur status himself for his all-encompassing graveyard atmosphere. Followed by three remakes and a sequel, videogame and comic books.

Adam Rifkin on "Deranged"

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Mother-fixated serial killer Ed Gein, who inspired Psycho and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, is the subject of this grungy low-budget Canadian horror about a crazy old coot who stuffs his mom and eviscerates any woman unlucky enough to come near him. Also known as Confessions of a Necrophile. Bob Clark produced under a pseudonym.

Darren Bousman on "Maniac"

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Shot quickly and cheaply in New York on super 16mm, William Lustig's sleazoid gorefest was banned in numerous countries and heavily cut in others. Tom Savini's gruesome makeup fx set the corpuscular standard for years to come. Caroline Munro replaced Daria Nicolodi at the last minute.

Lloyd Kaufman on "Poultrygeist"

Fri, 06 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Subtitled Night of the Chicken Dead, this gross "fromage to Takashi Miike" continues the tradition of Troma-tizing other movies, this time under the guise of a fast-food horror musical. "Humans: the other white meat... Unless you're black, then it's dark meat...", etc.

Larry Cohen on "Q"

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Larry Cohen gives us as much info as he can squeeze in about his guerilla monster movie about the flying serpent Quetzelcoatl, especially considering this teaser runs only 30 seconds! Stop-motion animator David Allen had to rise to the occasion, as none of the background plates Larry shot were made in the traditional manner.

Joe Dante on "The Giant Claw"

Mon, 02 Aug 2010 00:00:01 +0800

"Winged Monster from 12,000,000 B.C.!" Sounds good, huh? Well, it might have been at least ok except for one small miscalculation, and you're looking at it. Not Sam Katzman's finest hour.

John Landis on "When Comedy Was King"

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Second in the series of theatrical pastiches assembled by producer and film buff Robert Youngson that popularized forgotten giants of silent cinema. Moviegoers welcomed these hilarious glimpses into the past, even though Youngson framed them in such a nostalgic glow that some audiences left in sniffles.

Mick Garris on "The Comic"

Wed, 28 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Comedy buffs Carl Reiner and Dick Van Dyke reteamed for this tribute to silent comedy centering on an egotistical star named Billy Bright. The plot juggles episodes culled from the careers of Langdon, Chaplin and Van Dyke's friend Stan Laurel, but it actually hews closer to the life of Keaton than The Buster Keaton Story did! Some last-minute studio cutting didn't help, and it failed at the boxoffice. Mickey Rooney shines as a Ben Turpin-like sidekick with non-PC eyeball issues.

Josh Olson on "The King of Comedy"

Mon, 26 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Ok, it's not really such a comedy, unless you consider the comedy of embarrassment, humiliation and pain. Scorsese and DeNiro followed Raging Bull with this unexpected gem, a bracingly offbeat portrait of a wannabe comic who'll do just about anything to impress his idol, a jaded talk show host played (brilliantly) by Jerry Lewis. Audiences didn't get it in 1982, but it's come to be recognized as one of the director's finest, sort of a skewed reimagining of Taxi Driver.

Roger Corman on "Tales of Terror"

Fri, 23 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Roger Corman takes us behind the scenes of his fourth Edgar Allan Poe adaptation, a three-story omnibus written by Richard Matheson. Vincent Price, Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone seem to be having a swell time.

Darren Bousman on "Corridors of Blood"

Wed, 21 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Boris Karloff pairs with Christopher Lee and a top cast for an atmospheric period piece whose seriousness belies its lurid title. made in 1958 back-to-back with The Haunted Strangler, but unreleased until 1962. Originally titled The Doctor of Seven Dials. Trailer narrator Art Gilmore is very excited about it.

Guillermo del Toro on "Dead and Buried"

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

TFH welcomes Guillermo del Toro to the Guru ranks to talk about one of his favorite horror movies. Mendocino, Ca. stands in for Potter's Bluff, New England, another small-town-with-a-deadly-secret in Gary Sherman's stylish cult horror classic. Jack Albertson, in his final role, is memorable as the music-loving town mortician and d.p. Steven Poster supplies some chilling images. Ripe for rediscovery.

Brian Trenchard-Smith on "Land Raiders"

Fri, 16 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Like some other gurus, Brian Trenchard-Smith got his start in the movie biz by cutting trailers. Here he wryly dissects his own work on the jazzed-up trailer for a middling Euro Western sporting arguably the greatest action score by Morricone collaborator Bruno Nicolai.

Karyn Kusama on "Sorry, Wrong Number"

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Jennifer's Body director Karyn Kusama takes us through the 1948 film version of Lucille Fletcher's 1943 radio play, one of the most successful and popular programs ever. It was reprised seven times through 1960, each time starring Agnes Moorehead in the tour-de-force lead as a bedridden woman who overhears a murder being plotted. After being "opened up" for the movie it was remade three more times for television.

Lloyd Kaufman on "The Toxic Avenger"

Mon, 12 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Like Little Shop of Horrors, this modest exploitation film engendered an avalanche of mainstream success. Initially unnoticed, it became a hit at midnight screenings and was followed by three sequels, a tv cartoon, comic books, merchandise and at least three stage musicals. It brought good fortune to the House of Troma, whose majordomo Lloyd Kaufman continues to flood the world with movies, books, seemingly unstoppable personal appearances, and now-- TFH commentaries!

Joe Dante on "Viva Las Vegas"

Fri, 09 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Viva Elvis! Viva Ann Margret! That's all there is to this one, but it's been enough to sustain it as a fan favorite for nearly 50 years!

Allison Anders on "Lisztomania"

Wed, 07 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Was Franz Liszt the first rock star? Is the Pope an ex-Beatle? You bet! Many regard this as the movie during which director Ken Russell left this planet, never to return. It's certainly original. A sort of deranged sequel to Tommy with enough mad imagery to raise vulgarity to something approaching high art.

Allan Arkush on "Help!"

Mon, 05 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

This trailer for the Beatles' fantasy follow-up to A Hard Day's Night takes pains to remind us that, unlike that transgressive black-and-white anomaly, this one's in COLOR!

John Landis on "First Men In The Moon"

Fri, 02 Jul 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Victorian astronauts find Ray Harryhausen-animated life on the moon in this charming semi-spoof adaptation of the H.G. Wells novel, which adds a key ingredient Wells left out: love interest Martha Hyer. Set visitor Peter Finch appears in a cameo that came about when a minor player didn't show up.

Mick Garris on "The Valley Of Gwangi"

Wed, 30 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Ray Harryhausen makes good on a concept conceived decades earlier by his mentor Willis O'Brien, the genius behind Kong. Echoes of Mighty Joe Young hover over this shot-in-Spain cowboys vs. dinosaurs extravaganza which, despite a spirited ad campaign, failed to catch on at the boxoffice. Stirring music score by Jerome Maross.

Darren Bousman on "The Beast From 20000 Fathoms"

Mon, 28 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

FX maestro Ray Harryhausen's first solo gig is a modestly budgeted indie that made a huge splash when picked up by Warner Bros. Director Eugene Lourie essentially remade this film twice, once as The Giant Behemoth, and again as Gorgo. This zippy trailer is very heavy on atomic paranoia. Look for Merv Griffin and Vera Miles in bits.

Larry Karaszewski on "Heavy Traffic"

Fri, 25 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Life and hard times on the streets of '70s Brooklyn from proudly non-P.C. multimedia animator Ralph Bakshi. Semi-autographical and reputedly Bakshi's favorite among his films. The Chuck Berry "Maybelline" sequence, animated by Mark Kausler, is a highlight. Originally rated X.

Josh Olson on "The Friends of Eddie Coyle"

Wed, 23 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

A late career triumph for sleepy-eyed noir favorite Robert Mitchum, who excels as a two-time loser trying to avoid more jail time in 1973 Boston. Gritty, realistic and at times shockingly violent, Peter Yates' crime drama never found the audience it deserves.

Jonathan Kaplan on "The Big Heat"

Mon, 21 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Homicide cop Glenn Ford visits destruction on every woman he meets while avenging the murder of this wife. Fritz Lang's noirish classic is tough, cynical and operates from the premise that most big cities are run by crime syndicates, a popular theme in contemporary thrillers like The Enforcer, The Big Combo and The Phenix City Story.

Allan Arkush on "O Lucky Man!"

Fri, 18 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Lindsay Anderson's monumentally ambitious musical pastiche plays like a mammoth music video. Themes from Anderson's previous film, if..., abound in David Sherwin's audacious screenplay, and the rock soundtrack is tops. There are a number of different versions of this film, none of which the director was ever really satisfied with.

Josh Olson on "The Wanderers"

Wed, 16 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Is there a more overlooked coming of age movie than this little-seen Bronx-set drama from novelist Richard Price and director Phil Kaufman? Much like The Wild Bunch, these 1963 gang members find themselves on the road to oblivion in a changing society. Josh Olson brings this one back out into the sunlight.

Larry Cohen on "East Of Eden"

Mon, 14 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

By the time he was nominated for Best Actor in Elia Kazan's adaptation of the second half of John Steinbeck's novel, James Dean was dead and buried. This was the only one of his starring vehicles to be released while he was alive. Reportedly Steinbeck felt the movie was as good or better than the book. Great use of early CinemaScope.

Ib Melchior on "The Time Travelers"

Fri, 11 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Any movie with a giant amoeba in it is ok with us! Astronauts lay waste to the flora and fauna of Mars and suffer the consequences. Legions of kids grew up with this low-budget favorite on tv Creature Feature programs.

Mick Garris on "Robinson Crusoe On Mars"

Wed, 09 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Often misidentified as a George Pal production, this popular sci fi thriller recycles space ships from War of the Worlds and space suits from Destination Moon in the service of a clever updating of Daniel Defoe's original survivalist classic. Sadly, co-star Mona the Wooley Monkey seems to have retired after her screen debut.

Joe Dante on "The Angry Red Planet"

Mon, 07 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Any movie with a giant amoeba in it is ok with us, so we're beginning our week-long tribute to Ib Melchior with his first movie as writer-director. Astronauts lay waste to the flora and fauna of Mars and suffer the consequences. Legions of kids grew up with this low-budget favorite on tv Creature Feature programs.

Darren Bousman on "The Candy Snatchers"

Fri, 04 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

For decades this forgotten drive-in gem languished in obscurity only to be grandly resurrected last year on DVD. A kidnapping goes awry in one of the bleaker portraits of father-daughter relationships. Grindhouse sleaze at its best, with the fabulous Tiffany Bolling in fine form.

John Landis on "The Naked Prey"

Wed, 02 Jun 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Cornel Wilde directs and stars in this landmark survivalist thriller based on a historical incident originally involving a trapper being chased across country by Blackfoot Indians. Transposed to South African locations, it became one of the most popular films of its era, and was hilariously referenced in Carl Reiner's Where's Poppa?.

Allan Arkush on "Deathsport"

Mon, 31 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Well, they can't all be blockbusters. Allan chronicles his efforts to rescue the troubled futuristic follow up to Death Race 2000 from movie oblivion. Which is pretty much where it ended up anyway.

Adam Rifkin on "Serpico"

Fri, 28 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Considering the iconic status of the finished product, it's hard to believe that Lumet replaced director John Avildsen just before filming commenced. His detail-oriented approach yielded a cop classic. Al Pacino, in one of his most memorable performances, plays real life NYPD detective Frank Serpico, who uncovered widespread police corruption and suffered the consequences.

Joe Dante on "Fail Safe"

Wed, 26 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Lumet's minimalist adaptation of the doomsday best seller is one of the director's most unappreciated works, overshadowed then and now by the comically apocalyptic Dr. Strangelove. Lumet creates an atmosphere of claustrophobic dread that intensified the jitters of its anxious post-Cuban Missile Crisis audience.

Chris Wilkinson on "Network"

Mon, 24 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

One of the most prescient and corrosive satires ever filmed, Paddy Chayefsky's Oscar-winning screenplay is brilliantly realized by Lumet, with an exceptional cast at its collective best. Stunningly transgressive in 1976, today it plays like a documentary and the bizarre programming on the fictional UBS Network looks positively classical compared to what we're assaulted with now.

Larry Cohen on "Charade"

Fri, 21 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Cary, Audrey, a clever Peter Stone script, sparkling direction by Stanley Donen on fabulous Paris locations, a memorable Mancini score and a breakout supporting cast--what more do you want? Often called the best Hitchcock movie that Hitchcock never made. Remade to no particular effect as The Truth About Charlie in 2002.

Josh Olson on "The Killers"

Wed, 19 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Universal's made-for-tv remake of the Hemingway-inspired 1946 original was deemed too violent for telecast and was diverted to theatrical double bills. Action specialist Don Siegel turns it into a tough, economical B picture whose tv origins are obvious, but Lee Marvin and Clu Gulager ( in his greatest role) make as memorable a pair of hit men as Travolta and Jackson in Pulp Fiction.

Jonathan Kaplan on "Mr. Billion"

Mon, 17 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Jonathan Kaplan gives us a brutally honest chronicle of his ill-fated attempt to transform spaghetti western star Terence Hill (Mario Girotti) into a Hollywood action hero. The movie is underrated, but it withered at the boxoffice and is pretty obscure today.

Jack Hill on "Switchblade Sisters"

Fri, 14 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Quentin Tarantino personally resurrected the street cred of Jack Hill's teen gang deb quickie to the point of an unheard-of 2005 theatrical reissue. Jack kinda sorta thinks of it as his version of Othello!

Dan Ireland on "Reflections In A Golden Eye"

Wed, 12 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Burt Lancaster and Montgomery Clift both wanted to play the lead in John Huston's adaptation of Carson McCullers' Southern Gothic novel. But after Clift's death Huston chose Brando to play the US army major whose obsession with serviceman Robert Forster leads to disaster. Brian Keith is especially good in support. Imagine this being made by a major studio today!

Josh Olson on "Dirty Harry"

Mon, 10 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

"Do ya feel lucky, punk? Well? Do ya?" Clint Eastwood's superstar-making role was abandoned by Frank Sinatra (what a different movie that would have been). Director Don Siegel brings his characteristic muscular ambivalence to an angry post-French Connection cop thriller that eventually proved much more influential. Eastwood reprised his role as Detective Harry Callahan in Magnum Force, The Enforcer, Sudden Impact and The Dead Pool.

John Landis on "Schlock!/The Banana Monster"

Fri, 07 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

John Landis spills on what he thinks (not much) of the ridiculous reissue trailer for his first movie, Schlock! ---which, as John has reminded us over and over on Trailers from Hell, has to be Great because it stars a guy (John!) in a (Rick Baker!) gorilla suit! Nuff said!

George Hickenlooper on "The Day Of The Triffids"

Wed, 05 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

This first screen treatment of John Wyndham's gripping science fiction novel took many liberties with the original, but the innate power of the concept of alien invaders blinding Earth's populace has turned a troubled production into a semi-classic. Out of circulation for years, it's been painstakingly restored by longtime Triffids fan Michael Hyatt, whose refurbished version was unveiled recently at the Turner Classic Film Festival in LA. Remade as two British television mini-series in 1981 and 1997.

Joe Dante on "Invasion Of The Body Snatchers"

Mon, 03 May 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The filmmakers were hoping for a classier title (Sleep No More), but under any moniker it's proved to be one of the most influential of all science fiction movies. Remade in 1978, 1993 and 2007, not counting the various ripoffs throughout the years. Each has its points, but Don Siegel's spare, psychological original remains a haunting, noirish expression of modern paranoia which has defied categorical interpretation to this day.

Adam Rifkin on "Werewolves on Wheels"

Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

One of the great titles.

One of the great posters.

One of the worst biker movies.

Ever.

John Landis on "Angels With Dirty Faces"

Wed, 28 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

"C'mon out, Rocky. You haven't got a chance!" 70 years of parodies haven't dimmed the luster of this much-beloved Warners gangster saga that pretty much defined the crime movie as we knew it for a generation. Followed by a sequel, Angels Wash Their Faces, and countless programmers featuring the Dead End Kids as The East Side Kids, The Little Tough Guys and The Bowery Boys-- 89 movies for three different studios!

Roger Corman on "The Wild Angels"

Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The counterculture goes mainstream in this emblematic Vietnam-era classic. There would have been no Easy Rider without Roger Corman's controversial but popular Hell's Angels movie, which set the trend for a plethora of drive-in biker pictures over the following decade. Peter Bogdanovich contributed some second unit direction as well as tinkering with Chuck Griffith's screenplay.

Darren Bousman on "The Last House On The Left"

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

"Keep repeating, It's Only a Movie...." Wes Craven's notoriously nasty, some say degrading Vietnam-era reworking of The Virgin Spring expanded the envelope for shocking depictions of depravity onscreen. Shot for peanuts in 16mm and originally relegated to grindhouses and drive-ins, it has since emerged as something of a classic and was remade in 2009.

Larry Karaszewski on "Salo"

Wed, 21 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The feel-bad movie of all time. Director Pier Paolo Pasolini updated the Marquis deSade's scandalous The 120 Days of Sodom from 18th century France to Fascist-era Italy, where the degradation of a group of teenagers serves as a political metaphor. Banned for years throughout the world, it calls into question the entire concept of violent entertainment, and anyone looking for titillation had better look to their Russ Meyer collection.

Neil Labute on "Deliverance"

Mon, 19 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

James Dickey's acclaimed Southern gothic novel becomes a landmark experience in suspense with John Boorman's resonant, disturbing picturization of a river rafting trip that ends in horror and disaster. As desolate a slice of Americana as has ever been put onscreen.

Ed Neumeier on "Westworld"

Fri, 16 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Medical student-turned-novelist Michael Crichton's directorial debut was the first of his cautionary futuristic-theme-park-gone-crazy thrillers (the second was Jurassic Park). The last picture produced by MGM before it stopped distributing movies became a huge popular hit and might have cut down somewhat on 1973 Disneyland admissions. This is a pan-and-scan trailer.

Josh Olson on "Sorcerer"

Wed, 14 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

This elaborate second remake of the French classic Wages of Fear (following Violent Road, a 1958 Howard W. Koch B-picture starring Brian Keith) suffered at the boxoffice from its supernatural-sounding title (especially coming from the director of The Exorcist), which obscured its origins as a nail-biting suspense classic. Two tough, grueling hours that grab you by the throat and won't let go.

John Badham on "To Kill A Mockingbird"

Mon, 12 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Director Robert Mulligan and writer Horton Foote turned Harper Lee's only published novel into one of the most popular movies of all time, with the role of a lifetime for Gregory Peck and perhaps Elmer Bernstein's greatest music score. Set in 1933 Alabama, it was shot entirely on the Universal backlot in 1962. John Badham was there.

Joe Dante on "Bela Lugosi Meets A Brooklyn Gorilla"

Fri, 09 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

After dutifully playing straight man for The East Side Kids, Abbott & Costello, The Ritz Brothers and Old Mother Riley, Bela faces his greatest challenge, stooging for the flash-in-the-pan duo of Mitchell and Petrillo. At least there's a guy in a gorilla suit.

Adam Rifkin on "Dr. Phibes Rises Again"

Wed, 07 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Like many sequels, Robert Fuest's campy followup to one of Vincent Price's biggest hits is oft maligned but in fact only lacks the surprise factor of the original. Cleverly staged murders are again the order of the day, clearing the way for later decades of Final Destination/Saw decapitation parades.

Mick Garris on "Black Sabbath"

Mon, 05 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

When Mario Bava's Black Sunday paid off in the USA for AIP, they commissioned this gorgeously shot color followup starring Boris Karloff. Multi-story films were all the rage in Italy in the early 60s and uneven as they usually were, this one is two-thirds swell. The dubbed and reworked AIP version, owned now by MGM, is a lot harder to see today than the subtitled Italian original, I tre volti della paura (Three Faces of Fear).

Adam Rifkin on "Play Misty For Me"

Fri, 02 Apr 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Clint Eastwood's taut directorial debut prefigures Fatal Attraction in its obsessed stalker plotline, and has risen to the upper echelons of the psycho-girlfriend thriller genre. Attractively shot in Carmel, CA, where Eastwood was later elected mayor.

Katt Shea on "Shock Corridor"

Wed, 31 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

1963 America is a madhouse. Sam Fuller's lurid tabloid classic plays like a brilliantly subversive combination of Krafft-Ebing and The National Enquirer. Ingeniously designed on a shoestring by Eugene Lourie and starkly shot by the great Stanley Cortez. One of the best B pictures ever, whose profundity lies in its answer to the existential question, "Who killed Sloan in the kitchen?"

Rod Lurie on "Cape Fear"

Mon, 29 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Robert Mitchum plays one of his scariest, most fascinating villains in this surprisingly tough suspense thriller from John D. MacDonald's novel. Bernard Herrmann's score is so good Martin Scorsese recycled it for his 1991 remake, re-orchestrated by Elmer Bernstein.

Joe Dante on "Abbott and Costello Meet The Mummy"

Fri, 26 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Bud and Lou meet their last monster in this well-worn but still amusing finale to their long stint at Universal. The frequently at-odds duo were to break up for good a year later after their last pairing, a lamentable indie project titled after a pop song, Dance with Me Henry.

Larry Karaszewski on "The Mechanic"

Wed, 24 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Jan-Michael Vincent learns how to be a hit man from -who better?- Charles Bronson! Before they teamed on the mega-hit Death Wish, Bronson and director Michael Winner combined to pummel this well-regarded thriller into one of the the key action films of the '70s. The dialog-free opening 15 minutes play like pure cinema.

Larry Cohen on "In the Navy"

Mon, 22 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Bud and Lou's second WW II service comedy was another huge hit, but ran afoul of wartime censors because of a scene where Lou takes command of a destroyer and crashes it. The sequence was finally allowed but only after a reshoot transformed it into a dream sequence.

John Landis on "Destroy All Monsters"

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

An all-star monster rally featuring a planetload of Toho monsters from previous films, many of whom were virtually unrecognizable to worldwide audiences who hadn't followed these movies religiously. The 1969 AIP US release sported a superior English dub by Titra Sound which has since been supplanted by an inferior export version.

Adam Rifkin on "Gammera the Invincible"

Wed, 17 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

This is a pan-and-scan version of the original US trailer for this 1965 Godzilla imitation, released in the US in 1966 with the usual added scenes with American character actors who explain the plot, such as it is. This version, produced by Jack H. Harris, appears to be out of circulation.

Don Coscarelli on "Godzilla"

Mon, 15 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Inoshiro Honda's 1954 classic spawned a virtual industry of Japanese monster movies when it was released overseas in 1956 in a reworked English version with added scenes featuring Raymond Burr as a US reporter. Even this tampering (more carefully done than subsequent efforts) couldn't erase the bleak atomic age metaphor that makes both incarnations the most somber and funereal of all apocalyptic movies. Great score by Akira Ifukube.

Michael Lehmann on "The Killing"

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

A racetrack robbery goes awry in this pivotal noir. This was Kubrick's first real Hollywood movie, populated by a cast of iconic character actors and presented in an intricate, almost experimental non-linear style. Written by noir novelist Jim Thompson, who was held over to cowrite Kubrick's next, Paths of Glory. Famous trailer voice Art Gilmore narrates the film uncredited, although the trailer itself has no narration.

George Hickenlooper on "Paths Of Glory"

Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Based on an actual incident, Kubrick's powerful anti-war classic is his first masterpiece, featuring an unforgettable ensemble of Hollywood actors at the top of their game. Bavaria stands in for WWI France and the trench warfare scenes are the most harrowing ever. With one of the great endings of all time. If you don't tear up, you're made of stone.

Larry Karaszewski on "Lolita"

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

"How did they ever make a movie of Lolita?" asked the ads. Well, it wasn't easy, but Stanley Kubrick managed to pull off a brilliant take on Nabokov's "unfilmable" novel that passed the finicky 1962 censors. For years they said, if only he'd waited a few more years for the screen to loosen up - and then Adrian Lyne's remake came out and Stanley's version started looking a lot better.

Allan Arkush on "A Hard Day's Night"

Fri, 05 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

In 1964 the widespread teenage lament was, "what?! the Beatles movie is in black & white?!" But this was no fly-by-night Sam Katzman musical quickie, -- this was a bona fide cultural event. Richard Lester brings his new-wave Goon Show stylistics to the greatest rock&roll vehicle of all time and helps drag the fab fifties kicking and screaming into the swinging sixties .

John Landis on "Citizen Kane"

Tue, 02 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

For years Orson Welles had to deal with the perception of failure when none of his subsequent works had equivalent cultural impact, but let's face it, the legacy of Kane is the legacy of movies. Despite brilliant later work, Welles remained indelibly defined by his monumental debut-- perhaps ultimately not a bad thing considering it's been ranked for nearly eight decades as arguably the greatest movie of all time.

Josh Olson on "Ace In The Hole"

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Audiences in 1951 rejected Billy Wilder's acerbic, jet-black satire, based on a real life incident, as cynical and depressing--and that it is, in spades. But today it looks positively prescient in its unrelenting portrait of a callous and sensationalistic media and a gullible, easily manipulated public. One of Wilder's best, least appreciated movies.

Jon Davison on "The Student Teachers"

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Sexy nurses having proved popular with the '70s exploitation crowd, New World branched out into a new three-girl-formula featuring oversexed "students" trying to make it with their provocatively-clad (or more often unclad) teachers. It yielded one official followup (Summer School Teachers) and a number of lower-rent imitations.

Allison Anders on "Nashville Girl"

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:01 +0800

It's a rough road to country music stardom for a briefly virginal Loretta Lynn wannabe in this fast-paced rags-to-riches "hicksploitation" saga, New World style.

Jonathan Kaplan on "Night Call Nurses"

Sun, 21 Feb 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Jonathan Kaplan relives his frenetic directorial debut on the third of New World's five low-budget nubile-nurses-in-trouble movies. More overtly comic than previous entries, this was also Julie Corman's first outing as producer.

John Landis on "The Fabulous World of Jules Verne"

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The imaginative films of Czech animator/director Karel Zeman were poorly served in the West, usually presented if at all in heavily Americanized recuts. This brilliantly designed 1957 gem wasn't released in the US until four years later and in the wrong screen ratio (the trailer obviously cuts off the top and bottom of the 1:33 frame). Zeman needs rediscovery.

Joe Dante on "Space Children"

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:01 +0800

This last in the Jack Arnold/William Alland series of '50s sci-fi classics is a low key (and lower budget) plea for galactic peace and hasn't been generally available for decades.

Dan Ireland on "Robocop"

Sun, 14 Feb 2010 00:00:01 +0800

It's hard to fathom the concept that there's a remake of this in the works, as Paul Verhoeven's now-classic original is one of the great science fiction movies of all time, and hardly dated at all. Followed by two inferior sequels.

Adam Rifkin on "One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest"

Thu, 11 Feb 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Dale Wasserman's powerful play set in a mental institution was a Broadway hit with Kirk Douglas, but after many years of false starts finally ended up as a Milos Forman movie produced by Kirk's son Michael, and starring Jack Nicholson in one of his most memorable performances.

Bill Duke on "Sweet Sweetbacks Baadasssss Song"

Tue, 09 Feb 2010 00:00:01 +0800

"Rated X by an all-white jury" was the tagline for Melvin Van Peebles' incendiary, groundbreaking 1971 indie. It grossed $15 million on a 150k budget and spurred a blaxploitation craze that lasted throughout the 70s. Dedicated to "all the Brothers and Sisters who are tired of being held down by the Man," it spoke indelibly to audiences who had for years longed for movies that reflected their own experience.

Joe Dante on "Giant From The Unknown"

Sun, 07 Feb 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Hapless supporting players flee from yet another B-picture monster on the loose. The only real legacy of this fairly obscure 1958 drive-in staple was forged by numerous tv showings as part of various regional Creature Feature programs.

Larry Cohen on "Foreign Correspondent"

Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Hitchcock's second American movie is an up-to-the-minute, brilliantly designed (Wm Cameron Menzies) international espionage thriller, a prototype for his subsequent Hollywood career. Full of memorable setpieces and sporting a snappy script by Charles Bennett, Joan Harrison, James Hilton and Robert Benchley! Released days before the blitz of Britain, the final scene is stirring even today.

Josh Olson on "Written On The Wind"

Wed, 03 Feb 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The most operatic of Weimar emigre Douglas Sirk's flamboyant imitations of life, this deliberately artificial yet incisive slice of Americana documents the fall of a powerful Texas oil family and is considered by many to be the director's masterpiece. It's one of the great Hollywood movies, encapsulating the lurid Universal-International unreality of the 1950s.

Jonathan Kaplan on "El Dorado"

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The second entry in Howard Hawks' Rio Bravo trilogy is a virtual remake, ostensibly more playful and less a riposte to High Noon than the (better, let's face it) original. Still a fun ride with Wayne and Mitchum having an obviously swell time in their only screen pairing.

Josh Olson on "The Warriors"

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Walter Hill's surreal NYC gang flick was way ahead of its time and richly deserves its cult status. The later "director's cut" DVD re-edit has sparked some controversy, which makes a fit subject for one of Josh Olson's celebrated rants. "Can you dig it?!"

Mick Garris on "Woodstock"

Tue, 26 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Michael Wadleigh's game-changing document of the 500,000 strong 1969 New York music festival exists in so many different versions it's almost impossible to keep track of them. But all have influenced documentarians for decades as well as providing a lasting income source for Time Warner.

Dan Ireland on "The Private Life Of Sherlock Holmes"

Sun, 24 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Billy Wilder's elegant take on Conan Doyle's enduring sleuth never reached theaters in its intended 3-hour Roadshow form, but still ranks as one of the most memorable Holmes outings. It's fairly obscure these days, but perhaps the boxoffice success of the recent Robert Downey vehicle will lead viewers back to sample the remains of what was certainly one of Wilder's best pictures.

Larry Cohen on "Hell Up In Harlem"

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Larry Cohen details the typically unorthodox story behind the hurry-up production of the sequel to his sleeper hit Black Caesar. Fred Williamson's Black Godfather is resurrected from his semi-death to avenge himself on the Mafia. James Brown's music was dumped by Larry in favor of Edwin Starr, and ended up on Brown's album "The Payback".

Jack Hill on "Spider Baby"

Tue, 19 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Once likened to a sitcom directed by Luis Bunuel, Jack Hill's bizarre mini-budget debut feature was barely seen until the video revolution. This one-of-a-kind jet-black comedy casts Lon Chaney as the harried caretaker of an inbred family of homicidal maniacs. Weird, dark and funny, with standout performances by Chaney, Sid Haig and the mesmerising Jill Banner, who died in a car accident at 39.

Roger Corman on "Bloody Mama"

Sun, 17 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

TFH welcomes movie legend Roger Corman to the Guru ranks with his 1970 fantasia on the Depression-era Barker crime family. AIP wanted him to shoot it on the Warner Bros. backlot, but he convinced them to shoot on Arkansas locations, which made all the difference. A no-holds-barred Shelley Winters is the definitive Ma Barker.

Larry Karaszewski on "All Through The Night"

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Released soon after Pearl Harbor, audiences in 1941 didn't find this Runyonesque comic melodrama in which familiar Warner gangsters unite to fight Nazis all that funny. But years of tv exposure has built up the following it deserves. It's no To Be Or Not To Be, but Vincent Sherman's second time directing Bogart (and a terrific cast) is fast, funny and patriotic in the best sense.

Joe Dante on "The Return of Doctor X"

Tue, 12 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

A studio contract player has to accept what he's assigned to, which explains Bogart's presence in this 1939 horror sequel from the Warner B unit. Hardly his finest hour, but Bogart doesn't phone it in.

John Landis on "Casablanca"

Sun, 10 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The movie that cemented Bogart's star status remains a miracle of studio filmmaking over 50 years later. Troubled behind the scenes, yet every element coalesced into a stirring, satisfying entertainment that still merits its status as one of the top Hollywood pictures ever. We can only imagine the impact it had on wartime audiences.

Mick Garris on "Will Success Spoil Rock Hunter?"

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

The Fourth Wall is broken early and often in Frank Tashlin's wacked-out followup to The Girl Can't Help It, which bears little resemblance to the Broadway play it's based on but is still a heck of a lot of fun. 1950s "culture" is skewered mercilessly, especially television--at times it looks like this was produced directly by The National Association of Theater Owners. Jayne Mansfield's career highlight.

Allison Anders on "Reform School Girl"

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

Stooges and Bowery Boys director Edward Bernds brings his budget-savvy aesthetic to one of AIP's profitable drive-in delinquency teen exploitation pics. (Great poster, btw) Bernds was accidentally nominated for an Oscar a year earlier, when the Academy confused his Bowery Boys vehicle High Society with the Bing Crosby-Grace Kelly musical. Jonathan Kaplan remade this in 1994 for cable.

Darren Bousman on "Lady In A Cage"

Sun, 03 Jan 2010 00:00:01 +0800

A surprisingly dark and vicious entry in the middle-aged-actress horror boom of the period. What was shocking and melodramatic in 1964 still holds up today as an almost comically bleak social satire with monstrous mother Olivia deHavilland trapped in her private elevator while her world collapses around her. Banned in England for 36 years!

Larry Cohen on "Black Caesar"

Thu, 17 Dec 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Harlem gangster Fred "the Hammer" Williamson takes on the Mafia and crooked cops in Larry Cohen's own version of The Godfather saga, which spilled over into a sequel (Hell Up in Harlem), released only 8 months later. Larry takes us behind the scenes of one of his biggest hits. Songs by The Godfather of Soul, James Brown.

Jack Hill on "Coffy"

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Sexy Pam Grier poses as a hooker to wipe out some druglords and in the process becomes a full-fledged superstar in one of the most popular blaxploitation titles of the '70s. Writer-director Jack Hill explains how it went down.

Josh Olson on "Welcome Home Brother Charles"

Sun, 13 Dec 2009 00:00:01 +0800

A bitter ex-con employs a most, er, unusual weapon to knock off his enemies. Jamaa Fanaka's UCLA student project is one of the rare such films to receive wide theatrical distribution (from drive-in kings Crown-International Pictures). Avoid the heavily cut reissue version titled Soul Vengeance.

Neil Labute on "Day For Night"

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 00:00:01 +0800

"Shooting a movie is like a stagecoach trip. At first you hope for a nice ride. Then you just hope to reach your destination." Francois Truffaut's warm, funny and knowing dramedy is one of the greatest movies about movies and the act of making them. The project in question, "Meet Pamela", is obviously a potboiler, but the complex relations between cast and crew mirror every movie large or small. Another great George Delerue score is the cherry on top.

Katt Shea on "Klute"

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 00:00:01 +0800

From the bygone days (1971) when studios routinely made the kind of adult material now found mainly in indies. Jane Fonda pulled down a well-deserved Oscar for her portrayal of the call girl without a heart of gold who gets wrapped up in a murder investigation. Brilliantly shot by Gordon Willis.

Larry Karaszewski on "The Loved One"

Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Tony Richardson's take on the veddy British Evelyn Waugh's skewing of Hollywood culture and the death business wasn't very popular with audiences in 1965, but has become one of the key films of the era. Shot largely on the grounds of LA's Doheny Mansion, the upscale location equivalent of Bronson Canyon.

Don Coscarelli on "3 Days Of The Condor"

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 00:00:01 +0800

For years studio development execs have tried to use Sydney Pollack's classic conspiracy thriller as a template for would-be blockbusters, but hardly any of the various subsequent attempts have equalled it. A model of plot construction and cleverly built tension.

Josh Olson on "A Boy and His Dog"

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Harlan Ellison's Nebula-winning post-WW IV sci-fi novella is transferred to the the screen by longtime character player-turned-director L.Q. Jones, who never directed another film despite its instant-cult hit status. It's hard to imagine this one getting produced in any era but the 1970s.

John Badham on "Anatomy Of A Murder"

Sun, 29 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Otto Preminger learned a lot from Hitchcock, publicity-wise. The autocratic Viennese director basically stars in this trailer for one of his biggest hits, based on a real murder case and shot on the actual locations in Michigan. Once again Preminger baited the censors with provocative material and got away with it, opening the doors to franker screen treatments.

Mick Garris on "The Phantom Planet"

Sun, 22 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0800

We're giving the gurus a week off for the holiday, but to tide you over here's a beloved bargain-basement gobbler that impressed little Micky Garris in 1961. It's an amusing riff on Gulliver's Travels with lots of ambition and little resource. Co-star Coleen Gray must have been wondering how she got from Kubrick's The Killing to this in only five years!

John Badham on "The Bingo Long Traveling All-Stars & Motor Kings"

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Unique and memorable, this period recreation of the last days of what was then called baseball's Negro League is an unsung classic with a terrific cast. John Badham was there, directing his first feature (a guy named Spielberg decided to make Close Encounters instead).

Allison Anders on "The Big T.N.T. Show"

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0800

AIP's 1966 followup to the smash rock concert hit The T.A.M.I. Show is fun but had less cultural impact. The lineup is stellar but producer Phil Spector didn't hit the jackpot this time out.

Katt Shea on "The Pom Pom Girls"

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Even in 1976 Joe Ruben's drive-in sexploitation hit was considered a cut above the usual, so its relative obscurity today can only be ascribed to its long unavailablity.

Larry Karaszewski on "Cool Hand Luke"

Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Paul Newman's signature role has been a bit overshadowed by the ubiquity of Florida prison camp commandant Strother Martin's much quoted and parodied line, "What we got here is failure to communicate". George Kennedy won a best supporting actor Oscar as Newman's antagonist-turned-buddy.

Josh Olson on "Blow Out"

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Brian DePalma's intriguing amalgam of Blow Up, The Conversation and The Parallax View casts John Travolta as a movie sound technician who records more than he bargained for. Top tech contributions from cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond and composer Pino Donaggio distinguish a boxoffice disappointment that has gained in stature over the years.

David DeCoteau on "The Anniversary"

Sun, 08 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Bette Davis must have enjoyed making The Nanny, as she returned for a second Hammer Films project, this one a black comedy written by studio workhorse Jimmy Sangster. She's another monstrous mom who torments her dysfunctional brood. We at TFH like this one a lot more than David Decoteau does.

Joe Dante on "Five"

Thu, 05 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Survivors of an atomic blast fight for survival in a bleak, irradiated world. Radio pioneer Arch Oboler was the first filmmaker to seriously approach the concept of a post apocalyptic society. It's an earnest, arty low budget indie that occasionally skirts pretentiousness, but it's passionately sincere and progressive for the period.

Mick Garris on "The Lost World"

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Irwin Allen's 1960 big studio remake of the 1925 classic boasts a stellar cast and big sets, many appropriated from the previous year's Journey to the Center of the Earth. An after-school favorite for decades, but it has more in common with One Million BC than Arthur Conan Doyle.

Josh Olson on "Alien"

Sun, 01 Nov 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The monster in Ridley Scott's influential sci fi classic was played by a 7'2 Nigerian design student and set some kind of record for coating with K-Y Jelly, not to mention the shredded condoms standing in for its yucky jaw tendons. A huge success, it spawned three sequels.

Adam Rifkin on "Halloween"

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The sleeper of the century and the first of the modern horror franchises. John Carpenter's low budget suburban slasher movie lurched out of nowhere to become one of the most infuential pictures of all time, changing the face of the genre for decades. Followed by seven sequels and Rob Zombie's remakes.

Josh Olson on "The Howling"

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

1981 turned out to be the Year of the Werewolf, enticing horror fans with American Werewolf, Full Moon High, Wolfen, and the first out of the gate, Joe Dante's buff-oriented mixture of lupine chills and hip chuckles. An unexpected hit, it spawned six sequels but no remake--yet.

Eli Roth on "I Dismember Mama"

Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of the classic gimmick trailers, entirely staged with only a few short glimpses of the combo program it's pitching (The Blood Spattered Bride and a retitled reissue of Poor Albert and Little Annie). They don't make trailers like this anymore, more's the pity.

Neil Labute on "Black Narcissus"

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Jack Cardiff's breathtaking cinematography for Powell-Pressburger's spectral saga of madness and Himalayan nunnery is one of the greatest uses of Technicolor ever. One of a kind, essential viewing for anyone interested in cinema.

John Landis on "Dr. Renault's Secret"

Tue, 20 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Mad doctor George Zucco is at it again, this time turning an ape into a (very unhappy) J. Carrol Naish. This forgotten Fox B-picture is as good-looking as any of their A's and at a brisk 58 minutes it's a lot of lurid fun. The final film of intermittently stylish director Harry Lachman.

Larry Cohen on "The Americanization Of Emily"

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Paddy Chayefsky's thoughtful, witty adaptation of William Bradford Huie's anti-war novel is one of the more unusual WW II movies, tackling themes of courage and morality in a sardonic manner that seems daring even today. James Garner is said to consider this his favorite performance.

Larry Karaszewski on "The Last of Sheila"

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Stephen Sondheim and Anthony Perkins deservedly won the mystery writers' Edgar Award for their witty screenplay to this clever 1973 puzzler based on a series of actual real-life scavenger hunts they organized for their friends. An all-star cast plays an amusing assortment of sybaritic showbiz types whose dark sides get darker as the whodunit progresses.

John Landis on "Circus of Horrors"

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

German actor Anton Diffring, who specialized in playing Nazis and sinister aristocrats, is the psychotic plastic surgeon who takes over a French circus and populates it with disfigured criminals whose faces he reconstructs. Director Sidney Hayers topped this a year later with "Burn Witch Burn". The theme song "Look for a Star" became an unexpected pop hit in the Summer of 1960.

John Badham on "What's Up Tiger Lily?"

Sun, 11 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Woody Allen's first stab at moviemaking is still one of his funniest. "Key of Keys", a low budget Japanese spy movie, is recut and entirely redubbed into a free-form comedy in which the Macguffin is the world's greatest egg salad recipe. A huge favorite on college campuses in the late sixties, this exists in several versions. Beware one that runs on TCM, which has "politically corrected" all the funniest material.

Larry Karaszewski on "Pink Angels"

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

This forgotten grindhouse concoction pits a flamboyantly gay biker gang against the straights. Further proof, as if any was needed, that the world of '70s cinema was light-years from our own. Priscilla Queen of the Desert it's not!

Bill Duke on "The Spook Who Sat By The Door"

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

"Spook" being both a racial slur and slang for CIA agent, Ivan Dixon's filmization of Sam Greenelee's 1969 novel is one of the most astonishing Hollywood films of the Nixon era. Not merely subversive but a genuinely revolutionary call to arms, it's not exactly polished but it is passionate. Original distributor UA pulled it from circulation for years.

Neil Labute on "Leave Her To Heaven"

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Leon Shamroy's lush, Oscar-winning Technicolor photography has caused some to question the Noir status of John Stahl's classic melodrama. The missing link between Stahl's '30s domestic melodramas and Douglas Sirk's '50s remakes. Fox's top-grossing film of the 1940s.

Larry Karaszewski on "Myra Breckinridge"

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Any movie that begins with John Carradine slicing off Rex Reed's penis can't be all bad... but this legendary disaster comes pretty close. One of the most bizarre major studio pictures ever.

Josh Olson on "Freebie and the Bean"

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Richard Rush's buddy/cop action comedy made hardly a ripple in its theatrical release (although there was a short-lived 1980 tv series), but over the years it's developed a cadre of hard-core followers, not least of which is Mr. Olson. This pan-and-scan trailer is one of the dullest and least representative we've ever run here at TFH.

Adam Rifkin on "Mondo Cane"

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

It's hard to imagine today the impact this tawdry but fascinating Italian "shockumentary" had on the world in 1962, when the bizarre customs of people in other lands seemed both exotic and horrifying to Western eyes. Its smash success spawned a whole genre of mostly phony Mondo movies, each outdoing the other for pure sleaze, which lasted into the 80s and paved the way for something much more upsetting: Reality TV.

John Landis on "The Vikings"

Thu, 24 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of the best historical spectacles of the period, this 1958 adventure provided the template for every subsequent Norse saga. Lots of violent fun, ripe acting and striking location shooting makes this Richard Fleischer epic one of the most popular Viking movies ever.

Mick Garris on "House Of Wax"

Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The slickest and most iconic of the 1950s major studio 3D movies is a period-set remake of the grittier, contemporary 1933 Mystery of the Wax Museum.This trailer is so intent on selling the new Natural Vision 3D process that it includes no scenes from the movie.

Larry Karaszewski on "Valley of the Dolls"

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Jacqueline Susann's mega-best-seller became a popular kitchfest in the hands of director Mark Robson and writer Helen Deutsch. Pill-popping, bed-hopping starlets meet various gloomy tinseltown fates in one of the enduring camp classics of the late sixties. Uncredited among the screenwriters is the one who did the initial adaptation, Harlan Ellison!

Larry Cohen on "Drums Along the Mohawk"

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

We apologize for this monochrome trailer, which accompanied the 1947 black and white re-issue of the John Ford classic, his first in vibrant Technicolor! To replace a battle he didn't have time to shoot, Ford put Henry Fonda against a wall, peppered him with questions about what took place as the actor improvised the battle scenario. This take, with Ford's voice removed, took the place of the action scene.

Josh Olson on "The Hired Hand"

Tue, 15 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Peter Fonda's directorial debut is a leisurely, naturalistic western offset by ace cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond's dreamy slow-dissolve images. Too quiet for mainstream success, it has garnered a strong following over the years. Bruce Langhorne's score is memorable.

John Landis on "The Professionals"

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

A quintessential piece of Hollywood craftsmanship, Richard Brooks' post-Mexican revolutionary western is star-studded, action packed and completely satisfying.

Adam Rifkin on "Born Losers"

Thu, 10 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Tom Laughlin's dry run for his indie smash Billy Jack introduces the character as a part-Native American Vietnam vet who cleans out a townful of psychotic bikers. Raping, pillaging and karate moves ensue. Costar Elizabeth James wrote the screenplay.

Larry Karaszewski on "Joe"

Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

A pre-Rocky John Avildsen directed this grungy NY indie that was conceived as an exploitation film but evolved into something more immediate and disturbing. Peter Boyle, in his breakthrough role as a hippie-hating hardhat, teams up with ad exec Dennis Patrick, who has just accidentally killed his daughter's drug-dealer boyfriend. Boyle and Patrick are terrific but the picture is not well known today.

Joe Dante on "Portrait Of Jennie"

Sun, 06 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Obsessive producer David O. Selznick fussed over this metaphysical celebration of wife Jennifer Jones for years before finally releasing it in 1948 to dismal boxoffice returns. One of the most haunting love stories ever to come from Hollywood, it improves on the poetic Robert Nathan novella it's based on. Beautifully shot and scored, it won an Oscar for its special effects. A unique and spiritual movie.

Josh Olson on "The Long Goodbye"

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Robert Altman and Leigh Brackett, cowriter of the screenplay for The Big Sleep, turn Raymond Chandler's LA gumshoe into a figure of '70s angst in what many consider Altman's masterpiece and Elliott Gould's finest hour. Bonanza star Dan Blocker was to have played Sterling Hayden's role, but passed away before filming began. John Williams' witty score is almost entirely variations on one theme.

Bill Duke on "Shaft"

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Gordon Parks and Ernest Tidyman transformed the action film with this charismatic, Chandleresque Brooklyn private eye played by Richard Roundtree, the spiritual father to Foxy Brown, Cotton, The Hammer and many others. One of the first and slickest of the "blaxploitation" films, it was followed by two sequels, a tv series and a recent remake starring Samuel L. Jackson. Isaac Hayes' title song won the Oscar.

Mick Garris on "Lady In The Lake"

Sun, 30 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Robert Montgomery stars and directs himself, sort of, as detective Philip Marlowe in an ususual, "experimental" studio picture. Told entirely from Marlowe's point of view, the subjective camera sees everything as he would see it, including fleeting glimpses of the actor himself in mirrored reflections. This was a lot harder to accomplish in 1946 than it would be today, and the picture has a small but devoted fan following.

Josh Olson on "Batman '66"

Thu, 27 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Although the wacky tv show was a national craze, this 1966 feature version didn't do much business, since audiences could see the same thing for free in their living rooms. Probably not what Bob Kane had in mind, but it sure put Batman back on the map and led to the later megahit movies.

Larry Cohen on "Buck Privates"

Tue, 25 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The peacetime draft in pre-Pearl Harbor America forms the background for Abbott & Costello's breakthrough movie, full of their best vaudeville material flawlessly perfomed. Its blockbuster success paved the way for Bud and Lou to reign as film and radio's top funnymen throughout the war years. They ended up competing with themselves when their earlier movies were reissued by Realart in the 1950s while they were still making new movies for Universal.

Mick Garris on "The Three Stooges Go Around The World In A Daze"

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The Stooges' next to last feature after their early 60s resurgence is a low-budget Jules Verne knockoff. The Boys, though elderly, are as antisocial as ever.

Eli Roth on "The House With The Laughing Windows"

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Unreleased theatrically in America, this is the undubbed Italian trailer for Pupi Avati's atmospheric pseudo-giallo set in a small Southern Italian village. Only a fraction of these films were seen outside Europe, but the advent of dvd has opened up a whole new appreciation for such influential but generally unheralded genre films.

John Landis on "Zulu"

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Producer Stanley Baker stars in Cy Endfield's epic recreation of the 1879 Battle of Rorke's Drift, in which 1000 stiff-upper-lip British soldiers gave a good account of themselves in a battle with 4000 Zulu warriors. Not scrupulously accurate, but rousing and excitingly staged, with a great John Barry score.

Larry Cohen on "Hondo"

Sun, 16 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

John Wayne's contemporaneous version of Shane, directed on Mexican locations by the underrated John Farrow from a Louis L'Amour novel. One of The Duke's most archetypical performances, and in 3D yet!

Josh Olson on "The Conqueror Worm/ Witchfinder General"

Thu, 13 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Although it stirred little notice on its US release in 1968, the late Michael Reeves' final film (of three and a half) has attained deservedly classic status as one of the darkest, most bleak historical treatments of human ignorance and misery on film. Price plays a true historical character, although the real one was much younger. We prefer the faux-Poe US version only for the devastating poem Price reads at the end: "The play is the tragedy, Man. And its hero, The Conqueror Worm." Get out the sleeping pills!

Mick Garris on "Scream and Scream Again"

Tue, 11 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Reputedly a favorite of Fritz Lang, this is an oddly structured sci-fi horror spy movie that anticipates a number of later horror trends. Fans tend to either love it or hate it, but it does provide a welcome break from the increasingly formulaic genre films of the period. Peter Cushing is misidentified in this trailer. Didn't the promo people watch these things?

Adam Rifkin on "The Abominable Dr. Phibes"

Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Designer/director Robert Fuest and art director Brian Eatwell created a unique and popular art deco period horror film for Price which gave his career a boost with it's Love Story parody ad campaign. Wronged by doctors, Phibes murders them in the manner of biblical plagues. Followed by a sequel, it sets the stage for one of Price's triumphs, Theater of Blood.

Joe Dante on "House of Dracula"

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Cut-rate climax to the "straight" Universal Frankenstein series gives us two Lon Chaneys for the price of one. In addition to playing the Wolf Man he's seen here burning up again as the Monster in stock shots from Ghost of Frankenstein-- inadvertently fulfilling the dropped idea of having him play both roles in Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man. Here at TFH we're especially partial to these music-driven, title-card-filled studio trailers.

Josh Olson on "It's Alive"

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Although not a hit when released in 1974, the 1977 reissue with the tagline "There is only one thing wrong with the Davis baby. It's Alive!" hit the boxoffice jackpot, leading to two sequels. Larry Cohen's killer baby movie gives us very limited footage of Rick Baker's infant monster, and the trailer affords no glimpses at all. Ok, so it's not a vampire! But we bet It wanted to be!

Mick Garris on "Count Yorga, Vampire"

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Originally intended as a soft-core sex picture, this popular 1970 indie was picked up by AIP, which re-submitted it several times to the MPAA to get its initial X/R rating reduced to PG. The late Robert Quarry made his mark as the bloodsucking Count, reprising the role in the bigger-budgeted sequel/remake, The Return of Count Yorga.

Edgar Wright on "Thunderbolt and Lightfoot"

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Clint Eastwood teams up with Jeff Bridges for something more than a male version of Thelma and Louise from director Michael Cimino before he became controversial. A buddy picture that transcends all sexual readings, this is an overlooked gem. Some great character bits by Bill McKinney and Dub Taylor, and the great George Kennedy is once again the villainous spine holding this heist/bonding picture together.

Larry Karaszewski on "The Getaway"

Tue, 28 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Steve McQueen romances Ali MacGraw out from underneath b.f. Robert Evans' watchful eye. We at TFH aren't against remakes--some of our favorite movies are remakes-- but the 1992 redo of Walter Hill's screenplay from a Jim Thompson novel found it hard to top this 1972 original. One of director Sam Peckinpah's smoothest (and some say most impersonal) productions, this is still a darn good thriller.

John Badham on "Julius Caesar"

Sun, 26 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of Marlon Brando's greatest performances. Joe Mankiewicz's 1953 prestige MGM version of the classic is still one of the best film treatments of Shakespeare and saw a lot of 16mm classroom use during the 60s and 70s. It's still a lot of fun seeing familiar character pros like John Hoyt and Douglas Dumbrille spouting dialogue by The Bard.

Josh Olson on "Slap Shot"

Thu, 23 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

In the great tradition of hockey comedies--wait, is there a tradition of hockey comedies? Anyway, this one was seriously undervalued in 1977 and is viewed today as a landmark in cynical sports humor as well as wall-to-wall profanity. Full of quotable dialog. A locker room favorite.

Larry Karaszewski on "The Love God?"

Tue, 21 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Most offbeat (and therefore least popular) of Don Knott's series of Universal comedy vehicles, this one takes a more adult tone, spoofing the Playboy ethos. Audiences didn't respond, but it plays pretty well --when you can find it. Co-star Edmond O'Brien is misidentified in this trailer.

Adam Rifkin on "Broadway Danny Rose"

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of Woody Allen's most endearing projects, full of affection for broken-down vaudevillians and dead-end-career comics, not to mention nostalgia for a lost world of New York show biz. Perhaps Mia Farrow's most charming performance. The framing device with the table full of real life comedians at the Carnegie Deli is inspired.

Josh Olson on "Black Christmas"

Thu, 16 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

"If this movie doesn't make your skin crawl...it's on too tight!" Bob Clark's Canadian precursor to Halloween (also released as Silent Night, Evil Night) has become comparatively obscure but rates as one of the most influential of "slasher" movies. Surprisingly,it was not a boxoffice hit, and played on cable tv under the title Stranger in the House.

Joe Dante on "Blood And Black Lace"

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Mario Bava's trend-setting murder parade played only grindhouses and drive-ins in its day, but has since become recognized as one of the major influences in the giallo genre as well as one of the greatest Technicolor extravaganzas since The Red Shoes.

Allan Arkush on "Blackboard Jungle"

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

A turning point for rock and roll. Bill Haley and the Comets provide the groundbreaking context as former teacher turned crime writer Evan Hunter's novel becomes, in the hands of director Richard Brooks, primarily an expose of the corruption of urban school systems. Uncharacteristically realistic for the period, this set the tone for another half decade of juvenile delinquency exploitation films.

Josh Olson on "Shogun Assassin"

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Blood-spattered amalgam of two different samurai entries in the 6-part "Lone Wolf/Baby Cart" series, cobbled together with an '80s techno-music score by American producers for the drive-in trade. Voice dubbers include Sandra Bernhardt and Mark Lindsay of Paul Revere and the Raiders. Has a remarkably avid following considering the superiority of the originals.

David DeCoteau on "Strait Jacket"

Tue, 07 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

"WARNING! This picture vividly depicts AXE MURDERS!" Well, not all that vividly. Not as crappy as 13 Frightened Girls, but certainly one more step in director William Castle's mid-sixties decline. Star Joan Crawford had Anne Helm fired as her daughter and replaced by Diane Baker, whose performance she undercut in the editing room. Our favorite moment is the kitchen scene with the six-pack of Pepsi so prominently displayed.

Larry Karaszewski on "Sweet Sugar"

Sun, 05 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

"The searing sting of the whip burned the brand of hate into her heart!" Narrator Paul Frees (at his sleaziest) hawks the dubious charms of this sub-New World imitation chicks-in-chains nudity-fest from Dimension, the Avis of drive-in suppliers. It's hard to believe anything could look cheaper than the Doll House movies that inspired this, but check out the shameless cardboard gateway to the prison camp in this one. AKA Chaingang Girls and She-Devils in Chains.

Rod Lurie on "Patton"

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 00:00:01 +0800

George C. Scott declined the Oscar he won for his towering portrayal of General George S. Patton, warrior out of time, but the film garnered seven other Academy Awards in most of the major categories. Epic in scope, photographed in 65mm Dimension 150, and sporting another brilliant Goldsmith score, this is the war movie for people who hate war movies.

Joe Dante on "The Bravados"

Tue, 30 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Gregory Peck tracks down the gang of varmints who murdered his wife in Henry King's tough-minded western morality play. It's no Ox-Bow Incident, but it's well cast and produced, with only Fox contractee Joan Collins seeming a bit out of place.

John Landis on "Tora! Tora! Tora!"

Sun, 28 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of a kind co-production between 20th Century Fox and Japan's Toei Studios depicts the fateful (mostly wrong) decisions leading up to the world-shaking events of December 7, 1941, depicted with semi-documentary accuracy. The fiery spectacle is real, not computer-generated, and some of the stunts herein have never been topped. No love interest, a non-star cast of memorable character actors and a powerful Jerry Goldsmith score sets this one apart from the later CGI-fest, Pearl Harbor.

Eli Roth on "The Mole People"

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of the less beloved Universal sci-fi horrors of the '50s, this monster-laden lost civilization potboiler still has its fans. If Howard Hawks had trouble figuring out how a Pharoah talked, imagine how hard it was for writer Laszlo Gorog (Gorog spelled backwards) to approximate the speech patterns of Ancient Sumerians!

John Landis on "All The Kings Men"

Tue, 23 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Rumor has it there was a recent remake of this Best Picture Oscar-winner, but nobody seems to remember seeing it. Broderick Crawford and Mercedes McCambridge also won deserved Oscars, but John Ireland, in his best role ever, didn't. Neville Brand played the lead in a two-part 1958 Kraft Theater TV version directed by Sidney Lumet.

Allan Arkush on "Where The Boys Are"

Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Spring break in Fort Lauderdale got a huge publicity boost from this 1960 MGM musical, notable as the film debut of the fabulous Paula Prentiss. It's a proto-New World Picture, a four-girl adventure with a healthy emphasis (bold for the times) on S-E-X, or what Preston Sturges used to refer to as "Topic A".

Ernest Dickerson on "Jason And The Argonauts"

Thu, 18 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

It all comes together memorably in this, the Jewel in the Crown of the Ray Harryhausen/Charles Schneer mythological adventures. An uncommonly literate and intelligent script (by Jan Reed and Beverley Cross) and brisk direction by Don Chaffey that showcases Ray's fx brilliance make this an enduring classic. Bernard Herrmann's music score is one of his finest.

Allan Arkush and Joe Dante on "Grand Theft Auto"

Tue, 16 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Ron Howard's smashing, crashing directorial debut is a family affair with relatives, friends and co-workers pitching in to provide producer Roger Corman with one of his most successful car crash drive-in movies ever. Allan and Joe worked behind the camera on this one, along with a lot of other New World regulars both on and offscreen.

Josh Olson on "Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze"

Sun, 14 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The tentpole that wasn't. A late-career stumble for producer George Pal, this hopelessly square and underfunded adaptation of Kenneth Robeson's pulp novel series was intended to inaugurate a Bond-like series, but it sank without a trace. Spielberg and Lucas re-energized the pulp movie six years later with Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Josh Olson on "Race With The Devil"

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Enraged devil-worshippers give chase to a winnebago full of infidels who witnessed their human sacrifice in a wild chase movie from the unjustly forgotten action director Jack Starrett (The Losers). Part '70s conspiracy film, part Deliverance, and all drive-in movie energy, it's apparent that the makers of From Dusk Til Dawn liked this one.

Joe Dante on "Hold That Ghost"

Thu, 11 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Ok, so there's no ghost--but this is one of the best Abbott & Costello movies, with the boys mixed up with gangsters, haunted houses and stolen loot. Besides, what could be scarier than the Andrews Sisters?

John Landis on "Arsenic And Old Lace"

Tue, 09 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

After a run of 1,444 performances on Broadway, Frank Capra's 1941 filmization of the blockbuster play was finally allowed to be released--in 1944. Dismissed even by its star Cary Grant, who disliked his manic (but hilarious) performance, it has since become one of Capra's most beloved movies.

Adam Rifkin on "The Ghost and Mr Chicken"

Sun, 07 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

A baby-boomer favorite from the mid-60's Universal Studios assembly line. Fidgety small town typesetter Don Knotts spends the night in a haunted house and hilarity ensues. First in the series of comedies Knotts made for the big screen following his Emmy-winning role as Deputy Barney Fife of Mayberry. Vic Mizzy's organ music score is a keeper.

Joe Dante on "The Abominable Snowman"

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The Yeti. Eerie. Mysterious. Does it exist? Sure does, according to this unsung Hammer classic from Nigel Kneale and Val Guest which was tossed off on double bills in America with an especially obtuse ad campaign. The question it asks is, who is the monster, it-- or us? By now it appears we all know the answer...

Adam Rifkin on "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory"

Sun, 31 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of the strangest and darkest children's films ever made, this shot-in-Bavaria adaptation of Roald Dahl's book (he hated the movie) features what may be Gene Wilder's greatest performance. Would make a great double bill with Dr. Seuss's The 5000 Fingers of Dr. T (which he hated as well).

Mick Garris on "Knightriders"

Thu, 28 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

A most atypical George Romero picture about a troupe of traveling motorcycle jousters which pretty much fell through the cracks in theatrical release. Naturalistic, epic-length and altogether unexpected, with nary a vampire or zombie in sight.

Katt Shea on "Dog Day Afternoon"

Tue, 26 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Pacino Unleashed! Sidney Lumet's riveting true-life recreation of an amateur bank heist gone tragically yet comically wrong balances character study with powerful drama and suspense. The kind of intelligent, engrossing major studio movie they just don't make anymore. The trailer, like the movie, has no musical score. "Attica! Attica!

Adam Rifkin on "Monty Python and the Holy Grail"

Sun, 24 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The immortal BBC phenomenon Monty Python's Flying Circus went memorably cinematic with their first genre spoof (following an early feature debut consisting of recycled tv sketches). Memorable moments abound, including the killer rabbit, the Knights who say Nee!, the dismemberment duel, and on and on. To many comedy buffs this is The Holy Grail.

Larry Karaszewski on "Real Life"

Thu, 21 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Get out your 3-D glasses....then put them away, as director/writer/comic Albert Brooks personally hawks his debut feature in a special Hitchcockian trailer (with no footage from the actual movie) presented entirely in 3-D -- Not. This is Brooks in his post-Saturday Night Live period, a funny warm up for his masterpiece, Modern Romance. One of the great trailers of our time.

Josh Olson on "Kentucky Fried Movie"

Tue, 19 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Before Broken Lizard and the Farrelly Brothers there was/were The Zuckers (plus Abraham) to burst the bounds of taste and political correctness with this often-imitated smorgasboard of skits, parodies and general silliness. Samuel L. Bronkowitz's valedictory triumph was directed by TFH Guru John Landis.

Joe Dante on "Son of Dracula"

Sun, 17 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The most underrated of the wartime Universal horror films is steeped in atmosphere and situations that anticipate later vampire pictures. Lon Chaney is Count Alucard (the first time that now-wheezy monicker was employed) who materializes at a Southern mansion looking for new blood, and finds it.

Eli Roth on "Star Crash"

Thu, 14 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Italian fan-turned-director Luigi Cozzi (as "Lewis Coates") specialized in energetic mini-budget spectacles inspired by his favorite movies, from Harryhausen to Hercules to Star Wars. This comic-book space opera is loaded with ambitious home-made special effects, but somehow the spectacle of ray gun-toting Caroline Munro strutting around in her leather bikini outdoes them all.

David DeCoteau on "Crazy Mama"

Tue, 12 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

"Oscar-winner Cloris Leachman" falls face first into a wedding cake in this zippy trailer for Jonathan Demme's second directorial outing about a 1950s family crime spree. Believe it or not, this was originally conceived as a time-travel sequel to Big Bad Mama with Shirley Clarke directing!

Allan Arkush on "Eat My Dust"

Sun, 10 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

First in the New World smashathon car chase series, made economically to say the least by vet Corman scribe Chuck Griffith. The ensuing wave of drive-in car crash pictures filled LA's junkyards to overflowing with twisted metal. Allan lets us in on the secrets of New World trailerizing.

Josh Olson on "Masters Of The Universe"

Thu, 07 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

TV cartoon characters Skeletor, He-Man, Beast Man and Evil-lyn spring to live action life in a broken tentpole from the pinchpennies at The Cannon Group. Josh Olson was there and gives us a breathtaking on-set report.

Mick Garris on "Videodrome"

Tue, 05 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Is nothing sacred? The just-announced remake of David Cronenberg's bizarre and prescient sci-fi classic is unlikely to recapture the innovative impact of the original despite the technological update. A uniquely creepy and thought-provoking movie, the making of which is chronicled in Tim Lucas's book Videodrome from Centipede Press. Long Live the New Flesh!

Joe Dante on "X - The Unknown"

Sun, 03 May 2009 00:00:01 +0800

A radioactive blob terrorizes the Scottish highlands in this low key but suspenseful thriller. Hammer's attempt to continue the adventures of Professor Quatermass on its own was squelched by series creator Nigel Kneale, but even with the name change the result still plays like Quatermass 1 1/2.

John Landis on "Vera Cruz"

Thu, 30 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The seeds of many a Euro Western were sown by this Robert Aldrich classic. Produced by co-star Burt Lancaster, who's seen here in all his most blinding toothiness. Plenty of well-staged action and a great supporting cast make this one a fan favorite.

Tim Hunter on "7 Men From Now"

Tue, 28 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

This first in a series of unique Randolph Scott/Budd Boetticher collaborations defines the phrase "adult western" which was primarily used to describe tv shows of the late 50s. This is a textless version of the trailer, made for foreign use, with backgrounds devoid of title cards.

Howard Rodman on "Warlock"

Sun, 26 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of Sergio Leone's favorites, with Henry Fonda in a virtual dress rehearsal for his triumphant cold-blooded killer role in Once Upon a Time in the West. Fonda introduces the trailer for Edward Dmytryk's unjustly neglected existential western, based on a novel drawn from the career of Wyatt Earp.

Josh Olson on "The Day The Earth Caught Fire"

Thu, 23 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Global warming in 1961! Is it a newspaper picture, or a disaster picture, or a political picture, or...well, it's all of these and more. Former journalists Val Guest and Wolf Mankowitz bring a bracingly realistic slant to their persuasive end-of-the-world scenario through the use of real Fleet Street newspapermen, including non-actor Arthur Christiansen, editor of The Daily Express. Tossed off as an exploitation picture in the US, it's one of the great unsung science fiction pictures, and a must-see.

Joe Dante on "Children Of The Damned"

Tue, 21 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Underrated sequel-cum-remake of Village of the Damned didn't get much attention in 1963, but it's a gripping and well-made movie with plenty to say politically and allegorically. One of the better British films of a fertile period.

John Landis on "The Green Slime"

Sun, 19 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Perhaps to save on dubbing costs, this tacky Japanese-produced space opera features an entirely non-Asian cast (it certainly wasn't Occidental). Most of the background players are US military personnel. Opinions on its not-very-slimy jello monsters vary, but one thing everybody agrees on: the funky title song is Outta This World! G-R-E-E-E-E-N-S-L-I-I-I-I-I-M-E!!!!!!!

Jon Davison on "White Dog"

Thu, 16 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

A milestone---the first TFH trailer for a movie that never had a trailer! Sam Fuller's final Hollywood picture, whose non-release at the hands of gutless studio execs drove him to Europe for the rest of his career, didn't merit a finished trailer or even a poster. This is the never-seen rough cut for the unfinished trailer, a fuzzy black-and-white dupe with narration. Producer Jon Davison explains the inexplicable.

Ernest Dickerson on "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly"

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Last and biggest of Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy, this Euro western classic dazzles with gorgeous imagery and sheer scope. Filled with memorable setpieces, none more grand than Eli Wallach's delirious graveyard run to the pounding strains of Ennio Morricone's "Ecstasy of Gold". The term "horse opera" was never so apt.

Josh Olson on "Where The Sidewalk Ends"

Sun, 12 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Quintessential forties leading man Dana Andrews excels in perhaps his finest performance as another brutal cop who can't control himself (shades of Robert Ryan and Kirk Douglas!) in Otto Preminger's gripping, corrosive noir classic--the flip side of the sensitive cop Andrews played for him in Laura.

Don Coscarelli on "King Creole"

Thu, 09 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Reputedly Elvis's own favorite performance and certainly one of his best movies, much of it shot on New Orleans' Beale Street locations by the great Michael Curtiz. Based on a Harold Robbins novel. The current dvd version replaces the hit "Hard Headed Woman" with a previously cut stripper scene with a different song.

John Landis on "The Bandwagon"

Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Vincente Minnelli, Arthur Freed and Comden & Greene's timeless classic is the musical for people who don't like musicals: so clever, so witty and so brilliantly executed that the usual objections to musical numbers "stopping the story" don't apply. The music is the story, a sophisticated backstage Broadway trifle steeped in artifice but fabulously entertaining. After all, "That's Entertainment"!

Chris Wilkinson on "Gimme Shelter"

Sun, 05 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The Dark Side of Woodstock? The death knell of '60s counterculture? The End of peace and love? Pretty much. Maysles-Zwerin's now-classic documentary about the 1969 Rolling Stones American concert tour inadvertently captures the darkest side of the American psyche as a murder takes place during a free performance at Altamont Raceway, CA. Essential, but let's face it, a bummer

Larry Karaszewski on "The Human Tornado"

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 00:00:01 +0800

"What you call dirty words, I call ghetto expression", said in-your-face underground standup comic and R&B singer Rudy Ray Moore, who passed away last year at 81. This is the sequel to his first vehicle, Dolemite, which he based on a trash-talking wino who frequented an LA record shop Moore managed. Although his mainstream profile was minimal, Moore was well-known in the counterculture and influenced many comics and hip-hop artists.

Ernest Dickerson on "Truck Turner"

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Jonathan Kaplan's badass starring vehicle for musician Isaac Hayes is simply one of the all-time greatest blaxploitation movies, which came out near the end of the cycle and never garnered the reputation it deserves. Don't tell us John Woo never saw the crazy hospital shoot-out at the end!

Josh Olson on "Boss Nigger"

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Popular 70's star Fred "The Hammer" Williamson teamed up again with director Jack Arnold for this horseback follow up to their earlier Black Eye-- which plays remarkably like Blazing Saddles without the jokes. As politically incorrect as the title is today, back in 1975 it rated no more than a PG.

Joe Dante on "Madmen Of Mandoras"

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Mostly nobody saw this in its limited 1963 second feature run, but a decade later it was transformed into one of the most notorious syndicated tv titles of the era. Suffice it to say that even the author of Mein Kampf would probably find this one a pretty dire experience.

Mick Garris on "Tormented"

Tue, 24 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

FX-driven director Bert I. Gordon eschews his usual giant monsters for a more intimate ghost story set in a haunted lighthouse. Genre vet Richard Carlson returns to his noirish roots (Behind Locked Doors, The Amazing Mr.X) and distinguished d.p. Ernest Laszlo apparently shuttled between this second feature cheapie and the classy Inherit the Wind.

Josh Olson on "Galaxy Of Terror"

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of the more popular of the later New World Pictures, this gory "worst fears" extravaganza builds on footage from previous Corman space operas and has engendered quite a cult following over the years. In fact, as much as director Bruce Clark's movie has been accused of ripping off Alien, the later Event Horizon seems to have stolen even more stuff from this one! Future King of the World Jim Cameron provided the unforgettable insectoid sexual assault sequence.

Larry Karaszewski on "Dr. Black And Mr. Hyde"

Thu, 19 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Director William Crain followed his popular Blacula with another switched-race horror film, not quite as successfully. Ghetto doctor Bernie Casey turns his new dual personality to activities Robert Louis Stevenson probably never conceived of, like ridding the world of prostitutes.

Michael Lehmann on "The Hospital"

Tue, 17 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

A pre-Network Paddy Chayefsky wrote this dark, trenchant medical satire, outrageous in its time, that now plays like a semi-documentary! George C. Scott and Diana Rigg are sensational. And beware The Paraclete of Kaborka!

Joe Dante on "Candy Stripe Nurses"

Sun, 15 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of the most popular of the New World "nubile nurses" series and the only one to star the late Candice Rialson, who passed away seemingly unaware of her near-Bettie Page-like cult following. Brainless, breathless and taste-free in the late, lamented New World drive-in fodder fashion.

Josh Olson on "Bring Me The Head Of Alfredo Garcia"

Thu, 12 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

After Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid was mutilated by MGM, Sam Peckinpah regrouped with this raw, violent and blackly comic compendium of all the director's familiar themes. Possibly Warren Oates' best performance, and arguably Peckinpah's most personal --and bizarre--project. A must-see.

Larry Karaszewski on "Baby Doll"

Tue, 10 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Today it's difficult to conceive just how scandalous Elia Kazan's steamy adaptation of two Tennessee Williams playlets really was in 1956. Condemned from church pulpits and picketed by (naturally) people who'd never seen it, this saga of a child bride in rural Mississippi was actually withdrawn from numerous theaters before its opening day.

Joe Dante on "The Hideous Sun Demon"

Sun, 08 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Not widely distributed (more kids saw the photos in Famous Monsters of Filmland than ever saw the movie), actor-turned-producer/director Robert Clarke's home-made vehicle is remembered fondly today primarily for one of the cooler monster masks of the '50s.

Chris Wilkinson on "Monterey Pop"

Thu, 05 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

D.A. Pennebaker's groundbreaking 16mm record of the one and only 1967 Monterey music fest is really the first concert film as we know it. The acts comprise a who's who of the rock world during the Summer of Love.

Joe Dante on "Monster A-Go Go"

Tue, 03 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Is it possible? Could this be the Worst Movie Ever? Another unfinished amateur production gets the minimum attention required to make it fit for the Southern drive-in circuit. "Go Monster Go!"

John Landis on "Death Race 2000"

Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The recent big-budget "re-imagining" of Paul Bartel's tacky but wacky original lost all the subversive wit and cartoonish outrageousness that made the property a drive-in cult classic in the first place. He's not in the trailer, but The Real Don Steele steals it as a crazed sportscaster.

John Landis on "The Court Jester"

Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

For many people today comic Danny Kaye is an acquired taste, but love him or hate him, this elaborate costume spoof is his funniest movie. One of the cleverest comedy scripts of the period excels in witty dialog and hilarious situations, very little of which seems to have made it into this conventionally bland trailer.

Howard Rodman on "The Man In The White Suit"

Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Capital and labor work together to suppress a great invention in this essential Ealing comedy. Alec Guinness invents an indestructible cloth that threatens to destroy the textile industry. Dry, witty and subversive satire from the versatile Alexander Mackendrick.

Michael Lehmann on "My Man Godfrey"

Sun, 22 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The quintessential screwball comedy, Gregory LaCava's wacky 1936 classic features Oscar-nominated Carole Lombard and real-life ex-hubby William Powell as a spoiled rich girl and her forgotten-man-turned butler. The ensemble cast is fabulous and the economic milieu is becoming all too recognizable.

Rod Lurie on "All The President's Men"

Thu, 19 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of the great newspaper movies. Even though today we know the identity of "Deep Throat", Alan Pakula and William Goldman's tense reconstruction of Woodward & Bernstein's Watergate investigation still grips and surprises. Impeccably cast. Another movie that lost the Best Picture Oscar to...Rocky.

Josh Olson on "The Taking Of Pelham One Two Three"

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

There was a remake of Joe Sargent and Peter Stone's quintessential New York subway heist movie, but it was hard-pressed to match the economy, ambience and wit of the original. Every role, down to the smallest bit, is perfectly cast.

Eli Roth on "Superfuzz"

Sun, 15 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Although not widely distributed theatrically, Sergio Corbucci's little-known Italian-Spanish superhero comedy has a tremendous fan base of kids who saw it on HBO in the early 80s. Terence Hill (Mario Girotti), who usually made comic westerns with partner Bud Spencer (Carlo Pedersoli), is Dave Speed, telekinetic flying supercop, who makes life tough for his bewildered partner Ernest Borgnine.

Edgar Wright on "Corruption"

Thu, 12 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

In the tradition of The Corpse Vanishes and Eyes Without a Face, this sleazoid classic casts Peter Cushing as a mad Swinging Sixties London surgeon who dismembers screaming women for their pituitary glands to restore the beauty of his disfigured fiancee. Despite the sordid surroundings Cushing gives his usual all-out performance. A longer, even scuzzier Continental version exists under the title The Laser Killer.

Joe Dante on "The Curse Of Frankenstein"

Tue, 10 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The international sleeper hit of 1957. Terence Fisher's then-gorily shocking re-imagining of Mary Shelley's novel jump-started Hammer Films into becoming the major supplier of genre fare for the next decade--and introduced Peter Cushing as the definitive Dr. Frankenstein as well as Christopher Lee in his first monster role. Followed by six sequels.

Jesus Trevino on "Dr. Cyclops"

Sun, 08 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Crazy near-blind jungle scientist Albert Dekker shrinks unwanted visitors with his miniaturization ray. This Paramount B-picture, in dazzling Technicolor from the makers of King Kong, has "A" production values and Oscar nominated special effects.

Chris Wilkinson on "Boxcar Bertha"

Thu, 05 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Martin Scorsese's first Hollywood movie, for Roger Corman and AIP, was maligned by curmudgeons like the star of Devil's Angels, but it already shows some of the dynamic style he would bring to his next breakthrough picture, Mean Streets. The blood-soaked climax is vintage Scorsese.

George Hickenlooper on "Paper Moon"

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Peter Bogdanovich followed the success of Last Picture Show with this deliberately retro thirties-style portrait of a depression-era con man and the little girl he may be passing off as his daughter. Ryan O'Neal has the Adolphe Menjou part and his daughter Tatum plays the Shirley Temple role.

John Landis on "To Catch A Thief"

Sun, 01 Feb 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The mid-50s French Riviera provides an attractive backdrop to one of Hitchcock's lightest thrillers, with reformed cat burglar Cary Grant romancing a dazzling Grace Kelly, a spoiled rich girl whose Edith Head-designed clothes budget could bankroll several small countries for a year. Pure escapism. Won Robert Burks a best cinematography Oscar.

Chris Wilkinson on "Don't Look Back"

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The great D.A. Pennebaker documents Bob Dylan's controversial transition from acoustic to electric on his 1965 English tour in a seminal documentary about one of the 20th century's leading artists. A classic.

Joe Dante on "Scared to Death"

Tue, 27 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

The sinister presence of Bela Lugosi at his skulkiest (though he's hardly in this trailer) adds the only layer of distinction to this disjointed poverty row "mystery" which at times seems like an unfinished feature stitched together in editing. Still has some delirious moments for die-hard fan

Larry Karaszewski on "Color Me Blood Red"

Sun, 25 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Last and least of the notorious Blood Trilogy from "Godfather of Gore" H.G. Lewis. This sleaze favorite rips off the plot of Corman's A Bucket of Blood, only this time the crazy artist needs more blood to paint his corpuscular canvases.

Joe Dante on "Horror Island"

Thu, 22 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Fast-paced B-movie fun in the Old Dark Castle mode. Treasure hunters on a pirate island are knocked off one by one by....? A throwaway assembly line dualler, as amiable and entertaining in its way as the classically generic trailer that promotes it.

John Landis on "Mighty Joe Young"

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

A fan favorite from 50 years of tv broadcasts, this family-oriented amalgam of Kong and Son of Kong is a girl-and-her-giant-ape saga with a cheery, breezy tone. Terrific fx work by Willis O'Brien and devoted fan/assistant Ray Harryhausen gives Joe Young a more complex personality than most of his stop-motion predecessors.

Larry Karaszewski on "The Chinese Connection"

Sun, 18 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

(AKA: Fist of Fury) The amazing Bruce Lee's second Hong Kong starring vehicle is a bigger-budget step up from his first, The Big Boss. There's a lot of title confusion over the various global releases of this Raymond Chow production, but not enough to keep it from being widely considered a martial arts classic. This is the Chinese export trailer.

Rod Lurie on "Taxi Driver"

Thu, 15 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Bernard Herrmann's pulsating final score propels one of the great New York movies, which brilliantly captures a time and place that has largely disappeared. But the dark corners of Paul Schrader's disturbing screenplay are illuminated by Martin Scorsese's intensely affecting collaboration with star Robert De Niro in perhaps his greatest role. This lost the Best Picture Oscar to...Rocky.

John Landis on "Ben-Hur"

Tue, 13 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

One of the most successful remakes in Hollywood history, William Wyler's eye-popping take on Fred Niblo's 1925 spectacle Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ (itself a remake of a 1907 short version) won 11 Oscars. The climactic chariot race ranks among the greatest action sequences in movie history. That's Les Tremayne extolling the high-minded hyperbole on the soundtrack.

Larry Karaszewski on "Skidoo"

Sun, 11 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Otto Preminger's legendary disaster was also Groucho Marx's last movie, and he's awful in it. The director's characteristic browbeating probably didn't help him much. Like Roger Corman, Preminger experimented with LSD to make this movie, but a few screenings of this hopelessly clueless effort could fund another ten years of "Just Say NO" propaganda. As usual for this point in Otto's career. a great, if bizarre, cast is wasted.

Josh Olson on "The Wild Bunch"

Thu, 08 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Sam Peckinpah's blood-flecked classic was a boxoffice disaster in its Vietnam-era day, but has come to be recognized as one of the all-time greats, a brilliant portrait of the end of an era of tough S.O.Bs made by...well, a tough S.O.B. This pan-and-scan trailer is identical to the ones supplied to theaters in 1969.

Ernest Dickerson on "For A Few Dollars More"

Tue, 06 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

Sergio Leone's more elaborate followup to A Fistful of Dollars became one of the seminal Euro westerns, turning the Man with No Name series into a Bond-like tentpole for distributor United Artists and cementing Clint Eastwood's international stardom. That unforgettable Ennio Morricone score ain't bad either!

Jesus Trevino on "The Magnificent Seven"

Sun, 04 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

John Sturges' Mexico-set remake of The Seven Samurai was one of the biggest hits of its era and inspired three not-as-good sequels and a tv series. Elmer Bernstein's indelible music score became best-known as the theme for Marlboro cigarette ads throughout the '60s.

Joe Dante on "The Tingler"

Thu, 01 Jan 2009 00:00:01 +0800

William Castle's craziest and most famous ballyhoo extravaganza unfolds in "PERCEPTO - Newest and most startling gimmick on the screen!" Also one of the most complicated to install in theaters, although in recent years many revival bookings have duplicated the seat-buzzing thrills that made this a late-blooming classic.

Mick Garris on "Wicked Wicked"

Tue, 30 Dec 2008 00:00:01 +0800

"MGM introduces a New Film Experience: DUO-VISION ! No glasses--All you need is your eyes!" Despite the breathless promise of "Twice the tension! Twice the terror!", this proved the only outing for this split-screen gimmick, which bears the signs of a conventional project tricked up in the editing.

Stuart Gordon on "Mr. Sardonicus"

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 00:00:01 +0800

The last big gimmick of William Castle's Golden Era was The Punishment Poll, where the audience ostensibly decided the fate of the rictus-faced heavy. It's cheap, lurid and sensationalistic all the way, but Ray Russell's source novel was a step up from the usual Castle material and the picture has remained a fan favorite.

John Landis on "Private Parts"

Thu, 18 Dec 2008 00:00:01 +0800

Too Out There for producer MGM, which released it through a subsidiary company, this wild and wooly multiple-murder perversity is director Paul Bartel's most fully realized movie, a zonked-out psychosexual thriller beautifully shot by future director Andrew Davis. Lucille Benson is a memorable Aunt Martha in one of the great cult movies.

George Hickenlooper on "Gaslight"

Tue, 16 Dec 2008 00:00:01 +0800

This enduring model for the cads-driving-women-crazy genre is a classy Hollywood remake of the 1940 British version of Patrick Hamilton's "Angel Street", which was buried for decades by MGM. Ingrid Bergman is the unfortunate victim of oily hubby Charles Boyer's homicidal scheming, and won an Oscar for her justifiably paranoid ravings.

Howard Rodman on "Freud: The Secret Passion"

Sun, 14 Dec 2008 00:00:01 +0800

The Secret Passion was added when John Huston's pseudo-biopic flopped in 1962, but the little-seen film has its adherents, and some consider it one of Huston's best pictures. Susannah York is the composite patient who exhibits all the relevant symptoms to illustrate Freud's theories.

Joe Dante on "Them"

Thu, 11 Dec 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Nine years after Hiroshima the atomic chicken has come home to roost in the shape of giant ants, soon to be followed by jumbo mutant radioactive lizards, locusts, scorpions, etc. The near-biblical template for the dozens of nuclear monster movies that followed it, this is one of the most influential movies ever.

Ernest Dickerson on "Caltiki, The Immortal Monster"

Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Described in ads as a "Slimy Glob of Doom", this large economy-size micro-organism found in a Mayan temple out-slithers The Blob. Directed by Italy's Riccardo Freda, in collaboration with d.p.-turned-first time director Mario Bava. Formerly a staple of late-nite tv Creature Features, this one has been hard to see in recent years.

Jesus Trevino on "The Fly '58"

Sun, 07 Dec 2008 00:00:01 +0800
"Once it was human, even as you and I!" Initiated by Fox's Lippert B-unit but bumped up to A-status, this 1958 baby-boomer classic spawned two sequels and David Cronenberg's 1986 remake, which he recently turned into an opera. Vet director Kurt Neumann never lived to see his last film become one of the studio's most unexpected hits. He passed away a week before its general release.

Eli Roth on "Africa Blood and Guts"

Thu, 04 Dec 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The Italian creators of the worldwide '60s smash Mondo Cane, initiators of the popular "shockumentary" genre, set their sights on the troubled Dark Continent with predictably lurid results. WARNING: contains images of human and animal violence which many may find offensive.

Josh Olson on "Ms. 45"

Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Director Abel Ferrara followed up his debut film, The Driller Killer, with this mini-budget cult classic. A gritty urban nightmare set in a hellish New York where a mute seamstress obsessively avenges her rapists in a series of gruesome tableaus that Charles Bronson could only envy.

Mick Garris on "Dirty Duck"

Sun, 30 Nov 2008 00:00:01 +0800
A satirical labor of love from animator Charles Swenson that ended up vying with "Fritz the Cat" for X-rated grindhouse playing time. There's a lot of wit and imagination on view, but hardly anyone ever saw the picture.

Ernest Dickerson on "It Came From Beneath The Sea"

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The top half of one of the seminal 50's Saturday matinee double features (co-feature: Creature with the Atom Brain), Sam Katzman's sci-fi monsterfest petrified a pre-Jaws generation of kids into avoiding the ocean altogether. Atomic subs, on-location San Francisco photography and giant tentacles courtesy of Ray Harryhausen make this one a memorable part of any baby-boomer's childhood.

Jesus Trevino on "It! The Terror from Beyond Space"

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Marooned Mars expedition survivor Marshall Thompson is blamed for the murder of his entire crew, but the real culprit, stalking the shadowy spaceship, is ....IT! Economical to say the least, Edward L. Cahn's mini-budget cheapie has entertained fans for decades, including, it seems, Ridley Scott!

Joe Dante on "It Conquered the World"

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 00:00:01 +0800
One of Roger Corman's most beloved 1950s drive-in double-bill quickies. A pointy-headed alien from Venus moves into a cave in Bronson Canyon and mind-controls nearby scientists in time-honored fashion. Sci fi stalwarts Peter Graves and Beverly Garland risk their lives for us all.

Josh Olson on "The Three Musketeers"

Thu, 13 Nov 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Boisterous, rollicking, side-splitting-- adjectives that are usually promo hype-- but applied to Richard Lester's comic masterpiece they're totally accurate. By far the wittiest, cleverest and most atmospheric retelling of Dumas' classic, with a cast to die for.

Chris Wilkinson on "Demetrius and the Gladiators"

Tue, 11 Nov 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Less pompously reverent than its predecessor (the history-making first CinemaScope production The Robe), Delmer Daves' expansive sequel is an action-packed gladiator spectacle, anticipating DeMille's upcoming Ten Commandments as well as years of Euro sword-and-sandal offshoots.

Ernest Dickerson on "The Thief Of Bagdad '40"

Sun, 09 Nov 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Often imitated and remade but never equalled, this multi-Oscar- winner is the greatest Arabian adventure fantasy of all time, made over a period of years during WW II on several continents with numerous directors, including the producers (uncredited). Screen magic.

Joe Dante on "Circus of Fear"

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 00:00:01 +0800
One of numerous entertaining coproductions based on the voluminous writings of British mystery writer Edgar Wallace, this was released in Germany and the US only in black-and-white, the latter in a heavily cut version and the former because the German coproducers wanted to promote another film, Phantom of Soho, as the first color Edgar Wallace film.

Josh Olson on "Winter Kills"

Tue, 04 Nov 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Paranoia reigns supreme in William Richert's blackly comic conspiracy theory extravaganza which connects patriarchs, technology and assassins in a potent Cold war fable that's as crazy as it is prescient. Hardly seen during its initial release, it has since engendered a small but dedicated following on video.

Michael Lehmann on "Mr. Smith Goes to Washington"

Sun, 02 Nov 2008 00:00:01 +0800
This most beloved of all political movie classics has influenced generations of politicos and filmmakers, but Michael Lehmann has a surprisingly darker take on it in light of current events.

Joe Dante on "The Ghost Of Frankenstein"

Thu, 30 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The third sequel continuing Universal's Frankenstein saga firmly descends into B-picture territory, but it's still a lot of fun and remarkably well produced with a classic cast. A fan favorite that set the tone for the next four sequels.

Mick Garris on "Rabid"

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Canadian writer-director David Cronenberg, the Tod Browning of the 70s, tapped porn star Marilyn Chambers to topline his second commercial feature, another meditation on the corruption and eventual dessication of the human body. A viral plague of vampirism manifests itself as a blood-sucking carnivore in Ms. Chambers' armpit!

Edgar Wright on "The Sentinel"

Sun, 26 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Jeffrey Konvitz's best-selling horror novel was brought to the screen by Michael Winner, considered in some circles one of cinema's great vulgarians. With the aid of a top-notch cast Winner threw any notion of good taste to the winds, resulting in one of the most non-p.c. studio movies ever.

Katt Shea on "I Walked With A Zombie"

Thu, 23 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Hoping to horn in on Universal's wartime horror windfall, RKO saddled Val Lewton with titles like this one, but the producer, incapable of making dumb movies, turned it into one of his greatest achievements. Dark, moody, poetic and altogether memorable despite its meager budget.

Joe Dante on "Curse Of The Cat People"

Tue, 21 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
One of the strangest sequels ever, this offbeat psychological fantasy employs characters from the original Cat People but heads off in a completely unexpected direction. The lurid ads sold it as a horror film, but it's more of an art film, unique and magical.

Mick Garris on "Cat People"

Sun, 19 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The celebrated RKO B-picture that started producer Val Lewton's five year run of poetic competition to Universal's more earthbound '40s horror pix. Clever use of the power of suggestion allowed audiences to transfer their own internal fears to the characters onscreen, a technique too seldom used today.

John Landis on "Bonnie and Clyde"

Thu, 16 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Although it flopped in its first release in 1967, this landmark New Hollywood gangster saga from Warren Beatty and Arthur Penn was rediscovered by some of the same critics who had savaged it and went on to become a blockbuster hit, influencing fashion, culture and filmmaking techniques for decades.

Joe Dante on "You Can't Cheat An Honest Man"

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
As traveling con man Larson E. Whipsnade, W.C. Fields battles with radio sensation Edgar Bergen and his acerbic wooden pal Charlie McCarthy in this jumbled but funny hodgepodge of vaudeville and circus gags which would forever redefine the Fields image, much to his dismay.

Josh Olson and Howard Rodman on "Charley Varrick"

Sun, 12 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
This taut, underrated Don Siegel thriller stars Walter Matthau in one his greatest roles as a small time crook in trouble with the mob, although Matthau inexplicably bad-mouthed the movie after making it. So good it takes two Grindhouse Gurus to do it justice!

Josh Olson on "Straw Dogs"

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Sam Peckinpah, banished from Warner Bros. after the commercial failures of The Wild Bunch and Ballad of Cable Hogue, headed for England and outraged his critics anew with this violent, highly controversial study in homicidal rage. Bookish mathematician Dustin Hoffman finds his inner Rambo when Cornish toughs assault his sexy wife, leading to a Shakespeareanly high body count.

Howard Rodman on "The Ipcress File"

Tue, 07 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Len Deighton's nameless working class spy becomes Harry Palmer, "the thinking man's Bond" in the first of three downsized Harry Saltzman productions (star Michael Caine revisted the character in two '90s entries). Many personnel from the Bond films contributed, but it's director Sidney Furie's off-center compositions and clever use of Techniscope that makes this one fly.

George Hickenlooper on "The Towering Inferno"

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Irwin Allen followed up The Poseidon Adventure with another big budget disaster spectacle that gives the hotfoot to some of Hollywood's biggest stars. Hardly Paul Newman's greatest achievement, but he approaches it with the same powerful presence he brought to all his films, and teams up effectively with fellow superstar Steve McQueen.

Edgar Wright on "The Black Hole"

Fri, 03 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Disney's first PG-rated release tries to combine Star Wars and 2001 into one expensive but rather muddled package that doesn't quite know which one it wants to be. Still, a seminal experience for many 1979 kids which has a dedicated cult following despite its mix of childishness and attempted profundity.

Eli Roth on "Rolling Thunder"

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 00:00:01 +0800
John Flynn (The Outfit) was the director, but writer Paul Schrader's Taxi Driver sensibilities seem to dominate this unjustifiably obscure, violent entry in the betrayed-Vietnam-vet sweepstakes, which is not on DVD and deserves to be better known.

John Landis on "Tarzan And His Mate"

Mon, 29 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Generally regarded as the pinnacle of MGM's Tarzan series, this pre-code entry is the second in the 12-picture Weissmuller series, spectacularly produced and unexpectedly violent considering the kid-friendly tone of later episodes. Though credited to veteran art director Cedric Gibbons, most of the film was directed by Jack Conway and James C. McKay.

Joe Dante on "The Cosmic Man"

Fri, 26 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
For decades this small-scale programmer, like the title character, was hard to see. Then a few years ago it turned up on video and pretty much put everybody to sleep. John Carradine plays yet another misunderstood alien who turns out to be a good guy after all. Narrator Paul Frees seems to find it all pretty exciting, tho.

Jesus Trevino on "The Thing From Another World"

Wed, 24 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The quintessential cold war alien movie. Howard Hawks' trend setting, character-driven classic remains snappy and scary even after the elaborate 1982 remake. Dmitri Tiomkin's music and the largely unbilled cast of character actors are terrific. "Watch the skies! Keep watching the skies!"

George Hickenlooper on "The Blob"

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
That goopy, gelatinous glob of muck turns 50(!) this month! Maybe it's only a few notches up from an industrial film, but this Valley Forge, Pa., indie has outlasted its sequel and remake. Newcomer "Steven" McQueen leads the pack of elderly "teen" hot-rodders who save the blockhead adult authority figures from the malevolent space goo.

Josh Olson on "The Apple"

Fri, 19 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Still playing midnight shows at theaters across the country after 28 years, this astounding futuristic relic from those wacky guys at Cannon Films has become one of the most popular, even beloved stinkaroos of all time, the guiltiest of guilty pleasures. There really are no words, but Josh Olson gives it a shot anyway.

Joe Dante on "Conquest of Space"

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Star-gazer George Pal's infatuation with scientifically accurate depictions of our interplanetary future came to an end with this ill-starred venture which ended up playing second feature bookings. It's ambitious and full of spectacle, but dramatically it's pretty primitive.

Jesus Trevino on "Things To Come"

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Fascinating, contradictory amalgam of H.G. Wells' Utopian liberal-fascist politics and William Cameron Menzies' brilliant production design. One of a kind epic accurately predicts World War II and offers up some amazingly cool retro-futuristic imagery. The first reel, especially, is killer.

Joe Dante on "College Confidential"

Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Noted moralist Al Zugsmith takes the directorial reins on this smutty followup to High School Confidential that pushes the envelope about as far as a 1960 studio picture could go, and emerges as pretty entertaining for mostly the wrong reasons. Steve Allen (!) is the crusading sex researcher who seems to find Mamie Van Doren a suitable target-- for study of course.

Tim Hunter on "Champagne Murders"

Wed, 10 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
At the tail end of his "commercial period" France's Claude Chabrol tried one those international coproductions with a US studio, only to see the result land with a resounding thud. From then on it was one acclaimed arthouse hit after another and this one remains an interesting footnote in a distinguished career.

John Landis on "The Alamo"

Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
"Republic. I like the sound of the word." No, it's not John Wayne talking about his former studio employers, but his directorial debut, the 70mm roadshow epic portrayal of the battle for Texas independence. Wayne lost a fortune on the picture, which was hacked into several shorter, less coherent general release versions, but it's been belatedly restored to its original 192 minute version. Beware shorter cuts.

Joe Dante on "The Sadist"

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Grinning lunatic Arch Hall Jr. terrorizes three teachers in a desert junk yard for 94 real-time minutes in this little-seen but powerfully intense mini-budget drive-in classic. Hall even resembles Charles Starkweather, whose real-life teenage killing spree also inspired Badlands a decade later.

Katt Shea on "The Egg and I"

Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:00:01 +0800
As big a hit as it was, this progenitor of Green Acres probably wouldn't have been rereleased if supporting characters Ma and Pa Kettle hadn't broken out and spawned nine more popular barnyard comedies.

Allison Anders on "Wild Guitar"

Sun, 31 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Designed for the bottom of drive-in double-bills, this rags-to-rocker saga stars Arch Hall Jr. as a pompadoured rube who becomes an instant sensation on a low-rent American Bandstand knockoff and heartbreak, naturally, ensues. Grunge auteur Ray Dennis Steckler directs and costars (as "Cash Flagg").

Joe Dante on "Blast of Silence"

Thu, 28 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Finally retrieved from undeserved obscurity, Allen Baron's 1961 shoestring feature debut is one of the seminal New York City movies. A dead-eyed mob hit man reaches the end of the line at Christmastime. Bleak, pessimistic and gritty, with similarities to Irving Lerner's Murder by Contract.

Katt Shea on "Where Danger Lives"

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Introducing Howard Hughes' latest discovery, Faith Domergue, as a wacko femme fatale who hooks fall guy doctor Robert Mitchum in her web. The underrated John Farrow provides his usual smooth direction including an amazing seven minute take. Mitchum sure is mean to Claude Rains in this trailer.

John Landis on "Point Blank"

Sun, 24 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
John Boorman's dreamily stylized adaptation of a Donald E. Westlake novel was way ahead of its time, adapting New Wave techniques to produce a deliberately alienating effect that confused and annoyed the brass at MGM, and might even be a moment-of-death flashback. Lee Marvin's greatest role. Remade more conventionally as Payback in 1999.

Eli Roth on "Rock 'N Roll High School"

Thu, 21 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Probably the most sheer fun New World Picture ever, Allan Arkush's classic would probably never have attained its legendary status without its most brilliant component -- the casting of The Ramones, the band your parents warned you about even though they didn't know they existed!

Howard Rodman on "Caged Heat"

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Having produced several biker and Filipino women-in-cages pix for Roger Corman, Jonathan Demme got his chance to direct with this sleazy 1974 drive-in special replete with socially-committed prison-abuse trappings, costarring Russ Meyer starlet Erica Gavin and the indelible Barbara Steele. Joe Dante's first (overlong and way too expensive) trailer for New World.

Jack Hill on "The Big Doll House"

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Jack Hill recalls the making of his mega-hit, the Roger Corman/Cirio Santiago jungle prison flick that started the avalanche of busty-broads-behind-bars pix that packed the drive-ins throughout the 70s.

Joe Dante on "The Satanic Rites of Dracula"

Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Last of the Hammer Draculas. A barely seen swan song, general neglect has relegated this one to the fuzzy world of the public domain, where it can be had most anywhere for 99 cents as well as part of various cheapo "100 Horror Classics" DVD boxes.

Mark Pellington on "To Sir, With Love"

Tue, 12 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Sidney Poitier is indelible in one of his signature roles. A very popular model of the selfless-teacher-inspires-disaffected-highschoolers genre that has flourished ever since. Writer-director James Clavell avoids sentimentality to a surprising (but not entirely absent) degree and the film remains an audience favorite 40 years later.

Edgar Wright on "High Plains Drifter"

Sun, 10 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
As close to a horror film as Clint Eastwood ever made. The Man With No Name returns, sort of, in director Eastwood's first western. Dedicated to Don Siegel and Sergio Leone. A bit of a dry run for the later Pale Rider. Not in the forefront of progressive portraits of women onscreen.

Joe Dante on "The Skull"

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Probably the most accomplished of the non-omnibus Amicus horror pix. Dedicated occult collector Peter Cushing scores a coup - the skull of the Marquis deSade. But it doesn't make him --or anyone else--very happy!

Mark Pellington on "The Courtship of Eddie's Father"

Tue, 05 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Mark Pellington has a very personal take on this bracingly unschmaltzy Vincente Minnelli domestic drama which is both more realistic and more emotional than the popular tv series it spawned.

Mick Garris on "Martin"

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Wrapping up our George Romero tribute in conjunction with the Melbourne Film Festival, here is one of his least heralded independent productions, which plays fast and loose with many horror traditions. John Amplas is the titular serial-killer-vampire -- or is he?

Eli Roth on "Creepshow"

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
With a slightly heftier budget and his first big-name cast, George Romero teams up with Stephen King for a quintet of E.C.-like comic book chillers that Really Do Look Like Comic Books!

Edgar Wright on "Day of the Dead"

Tue, 29 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
By this time the Dead have triumphed and human beings are on the run. Coolly received at the time of its spotty unrated release in 1985, this third Dead movie has been staging something of a critical comeback in recent years.

John Landis on "Dawn of the Dead"

Mon, 28 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Some call this first Living Dead sequel Romero's masterpiece. Social satire alternates with gut-ripping gore to the strain's of Goblin's Argento-infuenced soundtrack. Exists in at least five different international versions. Currently being converted for reissue in 3-D .

Joe Dante on "The Giant Gila Monster"

Thu, 24 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Not all 50s monster pix came from Hollywood--some were regionally produced on miniscule budgets, like this minor entry in the enlarged varmint sweepstakes, slavishly following the misunderstood teens vs.clueless adult authority formula pioneered at AIP. The monster blows up real good, though.

John Landis on "King Solomon's Mines"

Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
"Actually filmed in the wilds of the Dark Continent!" H. Rider Haggard's adventure classic gets the MGM treatment with spectacular location shooting that provided years of stock footage for cheaper jungle pictures.

Mark Pellington on "Dial M for Murder"

Sun, 20 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Hitchcock's only 3-D film is a sturdy and cleverly cast adaptation of a popular stage play which came at the tail end of the craze and played virtually all its bookings in 2-D.

Edgar Wright on "The Fury"

Fri, 18 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
After the exploding head in Scanners everybody thought, okay, there's nothing more we can do to the human body --WRONG! What Brian dePalma does to John Cassavetes in this picture, Hitler did to Poland!

Michael Lehmann on "The Man Who Fell To Earth"

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
This (British) trailer goes out of its way to sell David Bowie (the best-cast alien since Michael Rennie in Day The Earth Stood Still) as The Second Coming, but Nic Roeg and Paul Mayersberg's adaptation of Walter Tevis' novel is one of the finest sci-fi pix ever made. Brutally cut for its initial US release, it's since been restored and is a must-see.

Howard Rodman on "The 10th Victim"

Sun, 13 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Ursula Andress's bullet-spraying bra was the talk of the nation when Elio Petri's 1965 pop-sci fi spoof hit the screen. In the 21st century, violence is legally channeled into televised "hunts" for the public's amusement, an outlandish idea then--but dangerously close to reality (TV) today! Unforgettable jazz-lounge score by Piero Piccioni.

Katt Shea on "They Call Her One-Eye"

Fri, 11 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Distributed under several titles including Thriller: A Cruel Picture and Hooker's Revenge, this violent 1974 Swedish female revenge fantasy included hardcore inserts in some versions, but AIP's R-rated cut got the most play. Star Christina Lindberg is mute throughout.

George Hickenlooper on "The Last Voyage"

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Another semi-documentary style thriller from Andrew Stone, who stressed real locations in his movies. This time he sinks an actual ocean liner for your viewing pleasure. Irwin Allen must have blanched with envy.

Edgar Wright on "Venom"

Tue, 08 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Notable for its great cast of functioning alcoholics, this British-made kidnap thriller deserves a better rep than it's got. Plenty of suspense and some swell shocks make it well worth checking out.

Eli Roth on "The Birds"

Fri, 04 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Another marathon Hitchcock cult-of-personality trailer with not a single shot from the actual movie. Drolly scripted by Hitch's tv series intro-writer James Allardice.

Allison Anders on "Forty Guns"

Wed, 02 Jul 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Not Sam Fuller's greatest western, but still stylish, ballsy and memorable if only for this exchange-- Barbara Stanwyck to Barry Sullivan about his gun: "Can I touch it?" - "It might go off in your face."

Mark Pellington on "Rosemary's Baby"

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
William Castle's greatest movie-- because it was directed by Roman Polanski! May be the finest book to film adaptation ever, brilliant in every detail. Naturally, it's slated to be remade--but we dunno who'd be foolish enough to try and improve on it

Allison Anders on "Jailhouse Rock"

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
It helps to be an Elvis fan, but this 1957 deliquency drama (his third acting role) is still one of The King's better movies, from the "serious" period before The Colonel pimped him out to Sam Katzman.

Mark Pellington on "Mr. Blandings Builds His Dream House"

Wed, 25 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Even today, 60 years later, the money-pit jokes in this picture still resonate. Cary Grant's attempt to build a house in the country leads to predictable disaster. Remade as The MONEY PIT and ARE WE DONE YET?, but this one's the best.

John Landis on "The Errand Boy"

Sun, 22 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
In his third outing as star and director, Jerry Lewis wrecks a movie studio that looks a lot like Paramount did in 1961. Mostly a series of backlot gags, this prefigures in some ways his most Pirandellian project, The Patsy, made three years later.

Jack Hill on "Foxy Brown"

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
"Don't mess aroun' with Foxy Brown!" Writer-director Jack Hill made blaxploitation history with Coffy, then followed it up with another Pam Grier vehicle that mines the same AIP formula of sex and sensationalism . Watch out for those razor blades in her Afro!

John Landis on "The Defiant Ones"

Wed, 18 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Stanley Kramer's once controversial saga of two chain gang escapees on the run seems in retrospect pretty gutsy for its era. This trailer, like the feature itself, has no musical score.

Stuart Gordon on "The Thing With Two Heads"

Sun, 15 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
"They transplanted a WHITE BIGOT'S HEAD on to a SOUL BROTHER'S BODY! And now with the Fights, the Fuzz, the Chicks and the Choppers...Man, they're in really deeeeep trouble!" That about covers it... but Rick Baker's 2-headed gorilla doesn't even make it into the trailer!

Howard Rodman on "Touch Of Evil"

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
When top-billed Charlton Heston pushed for co-star Orson Welles to direct this late noir nobody imagined it would emerge as one of the key works in the Welles canon despite being recut and partially reshot by Universal. His last Hollywood studio project has become arguably Welles' most popular picture, although in 1958 it was dumped into theaters as a second feature.

Stuart Gordon on "Nightmare Alley"

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
One of the darkest major studio movies of the post-war period, this bleakly cynical melodrama anticipates the most nihilistic upcoming noirs despite its classy auspices. A movie Tom Cruise needs to remake.

Edgar Wright on "Asylum"

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Another terrific cast in one of the best of the Amicus multi-story horrors, set in a madhouse. Reissued as "House of Crazies".

Rick Baker on "Mad Love"

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Peter Lorre's Hollywood debut is one of the weirder pix ever to come from MGM, or maybe anywhere else. One of ace cinematographer Karl Freund's rare forays into directing, and his last. Gregg Toland photographed it, and years later Pauline Kael would claim he stole a lot of shots from this to use in Citizen Kane!

Michael Lehmann on "The Asphalt Jungle"

Tue, 10 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The King of Noirs. John Huston's powerful adaptation of W.R. Burnett's heist novel benefits from top-notch performances by a perfectly cast ensemble and Ben Maddow's terrific adaptation. You can bet Kubrick saw this several times before making "The Killing".

Michael Lehmann on "Repulsion"

Mon, 02 Jun 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Roman Polanski's first English-language film is one of his best, a a brilliant study of a young French girl's descent into madness. Catherine Deneuve's most iconic performance, with one of the great closing shots ever.

John Landis on "The Curse Of The Werewolf"

Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Oliver Reed scores in one of his early lead roles as the tormented hero of Hammer Films' only foray into lycanthropy, set in 18th century Spain. Anthony Dawson is great as the depraved, syphilitic Marques Siniestro who sets the plot in motion.

Michael Lehmann on "Johnny Guitar"

Wed, 28 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Nick Ray's wild "revisionist" western must be the most critically dissected Republic Picture ever. Pure fifties hysteria with Mercedes McCambridge at her most terrifyingly overwrought. Great cast and terrific score by Victor Young.

Allison Anders on "The Fastest Guitar Alive"

Mon, 26 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The great Roy Orbison's movie career goes down in a blaze of bullets in this ill-advised wild west stinkaroo, his first and last "acting" appearance. Roy doesn't even get a single line reading into this trailer, which is probably for the best. But he did just fine without the movies, thank you very much!

Edgar Wright on "Phantom Of The Paradise"

Thu, 22 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Brian De Palma and Paul Williams' satirical glam-rock-opera takeoff on the Lon Chaney classic is the very definition of a midnight movie: bizarre, stylish and totally out there in that unique anything-goes 70s mode that looks positively classical today.

Joe Dante on "Frankenstein 1970"

Wed, 21 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Well, it seemed pretty futuristic in 1958! At least there's a new-fangled atomic reactor in the Baron's basement. Boris Karloff returns to the property that made him famous, but this time it's 6' 8" wrestler Mike Lane playing the monster.

John Landis on "In Society"

Sun, 18 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Wartime phenomena Bud and Lou at the height of their fame in one of their better-received vehicles, which happens to incorporate one of their best vaudeville reclaimations, the "Floogle Street" routine, here rechristened "Bagel Street", but given short shrift in the trailer.

John Landis on "The Shootist"

Fri, 16 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The Duke rides into the the sunset forever with a moving performance as a dying gunfighter in his final film, surrounded by a top-notch cast and crew.

Allan Arkush on "The Horse Soldiers"

Tue, 13 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
For some reason, this late John Ford cavalry picture has been relegated to the also-ran section, but it's one of his most accomplished works. Plus it's the one where Constance Towers leans her decollatage toward Wayne and Holden and purrs, "Would you like a leg or a breast?"

Stuart Gordon on "True Grit"

Mon, 12 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
John Wayne finally landed an Oscar for his role as one-eyed marshal Rooster Cogburn in Henry Hathaway's scenic blockbuster, which charmingly retains the archaic speech patterns of the source novel. Great supporting cast.

Michael Lehmann on "The Party"

Fri, 09 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Blake Edwards and Peter Sellers approach silent-movie purity in this non-stop, quintessentially '60s gagfest set at the kind of Hollywood party that Fatty Arbuckle wishes he'd lived to see.

John Landis on "Kind Hearts And Coronets"

Tue, 06 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Perhaps the greatest of the Ealing comedies, this blackly humorous multiple murder farce is best known for Alec Guinness's eight roles as all the D'ascoyne family victims, but it's really murderous lead Dennis Price who walks away with the acting honors.

Mick Garris on "Sullivan's Travels"

Sun, 04 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
You couldn't tell from this trailer, which completely obscures the plot, or the obfuscating ad campaign ("Veronica Lake is on the take"(!)), but Preston Sturges' brilliant Hollywood satire, which inspired the Coen Bros. "Oh Brother Where Art Thou" and has been the target of decades of aborted remake attempts, is one of the finest movies about the movies ever made.

Joe Dante on "Earth vs. the Flying Saucers"

Fri, 02 May 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The second of Ray Harryhausen's low budget Columbia series improves on It Came from Beneath the Sea thanks to a better screenplay by blacklisted Bernard Gordon and straightforward direction by the ever-employed Fred F. Sears. Unfortunately that tinny music is carried over, but it's still a classic of 50s sci fi.

George Hickenlooper on "Five Million Years To Earth / Quatermass and the Pit"

Tue, 29 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Third of Nigel Kneale's visionary Quatermass features adapted from his groundbreaking BBC serials, this one dispenses with Hammer's '50s reliance on transplanted US stars and took a decade to make it into production. Although somewhat cribbed from ideas in Arthur C Clarke's "Childhood's End", it's still one of the most challenging and intelligent sci-fi movies ever. This is the original British trailer.

Rick Baker on "Fiend Without a Face"

Mon, 28 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Renowned for the flying brains and sputtering gore of its final reel, this British sci-fi set in Canada has maintained semi-classic status over the decades despite the fact that it's actually pretty uneventful.

John Landis on "This Is Spinal Tap"

Thu, 24 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0800
This classic mockumentary about The World's Loudest Heavy Metal Band was largely improvised before unsuspecting patrons of various LA rock emporiums, who accepted Spinal Tap as a real band. May be the best film of its type ever.

Jon Davison on "Hollywood Blvd"

Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Producer Jon Davison takes us through the hurry-up production of one of the last of Roger Corman's "three girls" drive-in exploitation pictures in which nubile nurses, teachers or in this case starlets have semi-clothed adventures around LA for 80 minutes or so. Enthusiastically narrated, to say the least, by The Real Don Steele.

Eli Roth on "Forbidden Planet"

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Dr. Morbius. His daughter Altaira. Robby the Robot. The Monster from the Id. Did we mention Altaira? (!) All are cultural icons introduced in the best-loved space opera of the nifty fifties, based on The Bard and bolstered by memorable fx by Disney's Josh Meador as well as a famous free ticket promo gimmick from Quaker Oats. "Welcome to Altair 4, gentlemen."

Joe Dante on "This Island Earth"

Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0800
One of the bigger interplanetary spectacles of the 50s, and one of the last films shot in 3-strip Technicolor, Universal's "Supreme Excitement of Our Time" brought out the sense of wonder in a generation of cold war tykes while scaring them half to death with the unlikely but cool "Mutants": "similar to the insect life on your own planet, but larger of course."

Edgar Wright on "Silent Running"

Mon, 14 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Stephen Bochco and Michael Cimino were among the writers of fx wizard Doug Trumbull's melancholy 1971 space odyssey, which has taken on belated luster in our globally steam-heated present. One of Bruce Dern's finest hours.

Jon Davison on "Cockfighter / Born To Kill"

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Producer Roger Corman was certain Monte Hellman's down home redneck version of The Hustler would be popular south of the Mason-Dixon line without realizing that cockfighting was a general market embarrassment by 1974. Here we have both the original trailer plus a somewhat desperate attempt to re-release it sans its basic gimmick.

Joe Dante on "The 5,000 Fingers of Dr. T. "

Wed, 09 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Columbia Pictures chief Harry Cohn never forgave producer Stanley Kramer for this early Dr. Suess fantasy that was supposed to be another Wizard of Oz but turned out more like Willie Wonka as directed by Liberace. One of the stranger major studio "family" films, with subtexts you just don't wanna know about. Seuss once claimed that Kramer actually directed most of the picture after director Roy Rowland fell ill.

Eli Roth on "Exorcist II"

Mon, 07 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Eli Roth loves the trailer, hates the movie-- altho some of us at TFH regard John Boorman's ill-fated sequel as one of the most prodigiously imaginative and intellectually audacious, if dramatically inert, studio movies of the decade. Mangled after its disastrous opening, it's since been restored on dvd.

Allan Arkush on "Rebel Without a Cause"

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 00:00:01 +0800
It's pretty much a bromide that if James Dean had not died at his peak he might have ended up like Troy Donahue, but in this emblematic Nick Ray film, released after Dean's death in a 1955 auto accident, he continues to electrify new generations with his raw emotion.

Michael Lehmann on "Easy Rider"

Mon, 31 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Dennis Hopper's counterculture classic started out as one more drive-in biker flick but morphed into something deeper, the right picture at the right time to sum up the 1960s and question the American Dream. A kick in the pants to the Hollywood establishment that jump-started the indie movement of the '70s.

George Hickenlooper on "Night Of The Living Dead"

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
One-time industrial filmmaker George Romero's seminal Pittsburgh indie (an unauthorized re-imagining of "I Am Legend") changed the face of horror films and redefined the word "zombie" for a generation. It spawned a flood of imitations, but a copyright snafu sent Romero's signature work into the public domain and he had to remake it in color to reclaim rights to what became a popular series.

Joe Dante on "The Four Skulls of Jonathan Drake"

Wed, 26 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The kind of dual-bill programmer they stopped making in the early 60s, this combines tv-level production values with mildly horrific elements and a slumming cast of aging veterans. It does have lotsa skulls, though.

Eli Roth on "Squirm"

Mon, 24 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Worms Gone Wild! The debut film of underrated director Jeff Lieberman is another entry in the popular 1970s nature-strikes-back genre, filmed on location in Georgia and a slimy drive-in staple for the next decade.

Eli Roth on "Three On A Meathook"

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The vanished grindhouse era of gory, misogynist Ed-Gein-inspired Psycho knockoffs lives again, at least for the three minutes it takes Eli Roth to guide us through this frustratingly misguided trailer.

Joe Dante on "Blood of the Man Devil/House of the Black Death"

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
When is a movie not even a movie? When it's just a patchwork of senseless footage cobbled together to make an unfinished project marginally releasable. Even the trailer for this is a mess.

Mick Garris on "Horrors Of The Black Museum"

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Dr Emile Franchel, then-star of LA channel 13's "Adventures in Hypnotism" program, introduces you to "Hypno-Vista" ("You can't resist it--it actually puts YOU in the picture!") as crazed crime writer Michael Gough dispatches victims with inventive torture devices. AIP's ad campaign is one of their best, even if the picture isn't.

John Landis on "The Beguiled"

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Don Siegel and Clint Eastwood used their combined boxoffice clout to get Universal to make this arty, Ambrose Bierce-like civil war gothic melodrama full of not-so-repressed psychosexuality. This trailer sells it like a Gone with the Wind soap opera. It flopped, but it's a unique and creepy movie.

Joe Dante on "Invasion, U.S.A."

Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Lest America become overrun with Commie hordes, this urgent warning from Al Zugsmith in the form of a mass hallucination of stock footage destruction puts us on the right path to stockpiling armaments. It's actually lots of fun and it features both Lois Lanes from the tv Superman series in small roles.

Mick Garris on "The House That Screamed"

Mon, 10 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
One of the year's big hits in its original Spanish 70mm version, but in America it was just another drive-in horror dualler for AIP. Even in its GP-rated cut there's a lot of creepy eroticism on view, and the girls' school setting provides lots of pulchritude, if not much nudity.

Michael Lehmann on "Seconds"

Fri, 07 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
John Frankenheimer's chilling adaptation of David Ely's sci fi novel is one of the last classic works of his prolific 60s period before a dry spell and comeback in the 90s. A great score by Jerry Goldsmith and probably Rock Hudson's best performance.

Joe Dante on "Lord of the Flies"

Tue, 04 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Author William Golding turned down numerous entreaties for movie adaptations of his provocative novel, finally accepting Peter Brook's concept of taking 30 or so boys to a tropical island and semi-improvising a feature film. The result, surprisingly, was one of the most faithful movie versions of a novel to date.

John Landis on "Don't Look Now"

Mon, 03 Mar 2008 00:00:01 +0800
For his third outing as a director, cinematographer Nicolas Roeg came up with this sublimely creepy adaptation of a Daphne Du Maurier story shot on location in Venice. The simultaneous release of "The Exorcist" took some of the wind out of its sails in the US, but it's now considered a horror classic.

Joe Dante on "Blood And Roses"

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Even with a trailer tracked with library music from Teenagers from Outer Space, Roger Vadim's gorgeous and sexy pre-Bava Euro-horror is one of the coolest, most unjustly neglected vampire pix of all time, mostly because it's been unseeable for years. Come on, Paramount, where's the DVD?

Michael Lehmann on "Beyond The Valley Of The Dolls"

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
It seemed like a good idea at the time-- give the sequel to one of Fox's soap opera hits to skinflick auteur Russ Meyer in the heady days of X-rated prosperity. Ok, it didn't work out so well at the boxoffice, but it did give us a touchstone for big studio psychotronic insanity that has yet to be matched. This trailer is mainly a staged photo shoot selling Russ-as-auteur.

John Landis on "The Brain That Wouldn't Die"

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Shot near Tarrytown, New York as "The Head That Wouldn't Die", this sleazy little gem sat unreleased for two years until AIP picked it up in 1962. Their numerous censor cuts for reasons of "good taste" (as if!) have been since restored and the whole sordid farrago is now available pretty much everywhere in its full, fuzzy public domain gory, er, glory.

Joe Dante on "No Name On The Bullet"

Fri, 22 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Sci fi specialist Jack Arnold's best Western casts Audie Murphy against type -or is he?- as a cold-blooded hit man who just might be Death personified and brings fear to a town full of guilty people. An underrated gem.

Allan Arkush on "Winchester '73"

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The first of eight collaborations between noir specialist Anthony Mann and a newly flinty James Stewart, this psychological western exudes corrosive post-war anxiety. It also trailblazed a groundbreaking profit participation deal (engineered by Stewart's agent Lew Wasserman) that transformed the industry. Dan Duryea shines in a classic bad guy performance that defined his career.

John Landis on "Ulzana's Raid"

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Robert Aldrich's brutal Cavalry vs Indians western is a Vietnam allegory that pulls no punches when it comes to violence. However, there seems to be no definitive version, since Aldrich and star Burt Lancaster each prepared different cuts of the film which were released domestically and abroad, and then recut again, often to eliminate horse falls. Various video releases add and drop scenes, dialog and alter the music score.

Joe Dante on "Creature From The Haunted Sea"

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Roger Corman's goofiest movie didn't play many theaters in 1961 but found its audience during the following decade on late nite TV Creature Features. More off-kilter fun from writer Chuck Griffith. The third lead, billed as Edward Wain, is Chinatown screenwriter Robert Towne!

Allan Arkush on "A Night At The Opera"

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Although some bemoan Irving Thalberg's civilizing influence on the Marx Brothers when they moved to MGM, this is probably their most popular picture. And seen with an audience, one of their all-time funniest.

Mick Garris on "The Magic Christian"

Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Long before Gordon Gekko told us "greed is good", Sir Guy Grand (Peter Sellers) embarked on a mad quest to prove that everyone has their price. Terry Southern transforms his cynical novel into a nihilistic lark full of celebrity cameos and Monty Python-esque gags, some contributed by actual soon-to-be Python members.

Dan Ireland on "The Girl Can't Help It"

Thu, 07 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Former animator Frank Tashlin sums up the 1950s in this hilarious live-action cartoon, a Mad Magazine parody come to life. The first major studio picture to showcase breakout rock&roll stars.

Joe Dante on "Mesa of Lost Women"

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
"Have you ever been kissed by a woman like this?" There are no words to describe this one, but Joe comes up with a few anyway.

Allan Arkush on "Queen Of Outer Space"

Mon, 04 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
"Howdya like to drag that one to the High School Prom?" leers a horny astronaut while ogling the shapely acolytes of Queen Yllana, leader of the all-girl Venusian population. "I hate zat qveen", grumbles Chief Scientist Zsa Zsa Gabor, who doesn't appear to be in on the joke. Silly, spoofy and cheerfully chauvinistic, this one has many fans, some of them straight.

Michael Lehmann on "Strangers on a Train"

Fri, 01 Feb 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Memorable setpieces and brilliant visuals abound in Hitchcock's return to major studio filmmaking after several uneven independent ventures. Robert Walker's finest hour.

Joe Dante on "Target Earth"

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Before Robby and The Terminator, movie robots tended toward the bulky and box-like. One such vacuum-hosed menace stands in for offscreen hordes in this cheap but fun alien invasion saga, circa 1954.

Rick Baker on "The Man of a Thousand Faces"

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
For their 1957 "Silver Jubilee", Universal offered this occasionally accurate biopic of its biggest silent star, Lon Chaney, as portrayed by the always reliable James Cagney.

Joe Dante on "Confessions of an Opium Eater"

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Albert Zugsmith's shining moment in an amiably disreputable career that nonetheless included producing pix by Sirk, Welles and Jack Arnold. Only Fu Manchu is missing from this hypnotically retrograde yellow peril hallucination starring Vincent Price and half the Asian actors in Hollywood. Amazingly, in 1959 William Castle was originally set to shoot this in color with Miiko Taka, star of Sayonara--in Tokyo!

Allan Arkush on "The Trip"

Wed, 23 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Writer Jack Nicholson and star Peter Fonda told Roger Corman he couldn't make a movie about LSD without trying it at least once. So Roger took a caravan of pals to Big Sur, where he dutifully dropped acid and communed with the elements. Out of it all came his most personal and revealing film, a pop art time capsule that was banned in Britain for nearly a decade.

Dan Ireland on "The Haunting"

Mon, 21 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The subtle terror techniques that Robert Wise learned from his mentor Val Lewton are on uncanny display in the creepiest haunted house movie of them all. (The trailer's not too subtle, though.) Compare the original to the lamentable remake to see the difference between art and CGI junk.

Joe Dante on "The Beast of Yucca Flats"

Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
By the time Swedish wrestler and best-selling Halloween mask Tor Johnson made this, his all-time worst picture, his career was behind him and the days of Ed Wood must have looked like Eden. The longest 54 minutes in movies.

Allison Anders on "Peeping Tom"

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The first Video Nasty came not only before video but from the esteemed Michael Powell, whose career was sidetracked into shorts for The Childrens' Film Foundation by this much maligned and misunderstood rumination on the dark powers of cinema. In the US it was relegated to skinflick houses and grindhouse second features.

Jack Hill on "Blood Bath"

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Footage from several different movies has been cannibalized for this sleazy AIP favorite, which exists in alternate versions with various titles. Jack Hill, one of the co-conspirators, gives his side of the story for film scholars to pull out their hair over.

Rick Baker on "How to Make a Monster"

Thu, 10 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Remarkably self-reflexive drive-in monster rally set at American International Studios, whose execs are being murdered by actors in monster makeups. Unofficial sequel to both Teenage Werewolf and Teenage Frankenstein.

Dan Ireland on "Imitation of Life"

Wed, 09 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Fannie Hurst's four-hankie bestseller had been filmed before in 1934, but Douglas Sirk's 1959 remake, his last Hollywood film, is the one to remember. Derided at the time by critics and audiences, it has come to sum up Sirk's serial attack on the hypocritical institutions of family and motherhood as practiced in '50s America.

Edgar Wright on "Twitch of the Death Nerve"

Mon, 07 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
The US trailer for Mario Bava's ecological killing field tries to talk us out of seeing the movie!

John Landis on "Once Upon A Time in the West"

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Sergio Leone's 1968 masterpiece gives the lie to the term "spaghetti western". In a hastily shortened version it was a box-office disappointment in the U.S.but it played in the same theater in Paris for years.

Joe Dante on "Horror of Dracula"

Tue, 01 Jan 2008 00:00:01 +0800
Terence Fisher's seminal vampire triumph pits Cushing against Lee in their greatest Hammer pairing and sets the pace for the next two decades of movie horror. This is the original Universal theatrical trailer, not the video reconstruction that appears on the Warner dvd.

Edgar Wright on "Carnage"

Mon, 31 Dec 2007 00:00:01 +0800
This is the international export trailer for Mario Bava's trend-setting 1971 murder spree, presented entirely in solarized images. This film has had so many titles over the years that we don't have room to list them, but the one that stuck was the brilliant US reissue title "Twitch of the Death Nerve".

Dan Ireland on "Bad Day At Black Rock"

Fri, 28 Dec 2007 00:00:01 +0800
John Sturges' formalist masterpiece is also a progressive studio movie confronting post-WW2 racism. Andre Previn's possibly career-best music score turns up again in, of all places, the "Forbidden Planet" trailer!

Rick Baker on "The War of the Worlds"

Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:00:01 +0800
George Pal's pioneering H.G. Wells adaptation updates the action to 1953 Los Angeles, with Oscar-winning state-of-the-art visual fx and sound effects so great they're still in use today.

Rick Baker on "I Was a Teenage Werewolf"

Fri, 14 Dec 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Lightning in a bottle: AIP's penchant for making bargain- basement movies based on title and poster research paid off in spades with this hugely influential amalgam of juvenile delinquent and monster genres. The surprise hit of 1957.

Jack Hill on "The Black Swan"

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 00:00:01 +0800
A great cast swashbuckles its way through Henry King's piratical spectacular with an assist from Leon Shamroy's Oscar-winning Technicolor cinematography. Splendid hokum in the overstuffed Darryl Zanuck tradition.

John Landis on "International House"

Sun, 09 Dec 2007 00:00:01 +0800
The long-vanished 1930s tradition of feature-length parades of vaudeville and radio acts reaches its zenith with this racy pre-code vehicle for performers both famous and forgotten. What we wanna know is, where can we find more of Colonel Stoopnagle and Budd??!

Rick Baker on "The Time Machine"

Fri, 07 Dec 2007 00:00:01 +0800
George Pal's greatest work finds the humanity in H.G. Wells' classic, ably served by Oscar-winning fx, Russ Garcia's memorable score and Rod Taylor and Alan Young's warm performances. A touchstone for a generation. Paul Frees seems quite enthusiastic about it!

Jack Hill on "White Heat"

Wed, 05 Dec 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Raoul Walsh's most muscular gangster pic with an all-time great James Cagney as Cody Jarrett, the psychotic killer that only a mother could love. She's the underappreciated Margaret Wycherly, brilliant as the most monstrous mom since Agrippina. But she doesn't get much attention in the trailer.

Dan Ireland on "Experiment in Terror"

Mon, 03 Dec 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Comic director Blake Edwards revisits his noir roots in this 1962 suspense classic cannily filmed on San Francisco locations. One of the biggest hits of the early 60s. And one of the most unusual trailers.

Edgar Wright on "Raw Meat"

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
A rather inelegant retitling of Gary Sherman's British thriller "Deathline", originally pitched to the grindhouse crowd but eventually rediscovered by critics and audiences on tv and video. One of Donald Pleasance's finest hours.

Joe Dante on "The Black Sleep"

Wed, 28 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Basil Rathbone's coldly obsessed Dr. Cadman looks like a dry run for Peter Cushing's Baron Frankenstein in this florid period monster rally with scary makeups by Gordon Bau. Akim Tamiroff's role was intended for Peter Lorre.

John Landis on "The Bride and the Beast"

Mon, 26 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
An angora-loving gorilla sets his sights on the curvy heroine in this bizarre Ed Wood jungle concoction that's evaded the Golden Turkey brigade only because he didn't direct it. They don't make 'em like this anymore, and anyway, they hardly ever did.

Allison Anders on "Psych-Out"

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Dick Clark produced Richard Rush's ode to the Haight-Ashbury scene, filmed on location by Laszlo Kovacs in Psychedelic Color. Remember, as Dean Stockwell tells us, "all the games gotta go, or else it's just a plastic hassle"!

Allan Arkush on "Wild in the Streets"

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
AIP toppers were floored by the unexpectedly positive reviews this lightning-in-a-bottle satire garnered in the volatile political world of 1968. The right movie at the right moment, it captured the mood of a country in crisis and propelled star Christopher Jones into a short-lived mainstream career that included a starring role in David Lean's "Ryan's Daughter".

Allison Anders on "Privilege"

Mon, 19 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Anticipating punk rock, Peter Watkins' semi-documentary study of a future society using music to enslave the masses appropriates some unauthorized reenactments from the National Film Board of Canada's groundbreaking Paul Anka docu "Lonely Boy". How Universal ended up distributing this is a mystery even they couldn't solve.

John Landis on "Sweet Smell of Success"

Fri, 16 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Clifford Odets and Ernest Lehman's corrosive look at Power in America as typified by an unscrupulous and possibly insane Broadway columnist modeled on Ed Sullivan and Walter Winchell. Brilliantly directed by the underrated Alexander Mackendrick. A must-see.

Joe Dante on "Mr. Arkadin"

Wed, 14 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Orson Welles' most mysterious film has him playing a sinister international tycoon who, like Charles Foster Kane, is obsessed with his past, which he can't remember -- or can he? A motley assortment of the director's pals fill out the various roles, including then-wife Paola Mori.

Allison Anders on "The Naked Spur"

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Art Gilmore's breathless narration propels us through this classic trailer for the third collaboration between James Stewart and Anthony Mann, a rugged five-character psychological western with a great cast and gorgeous Rocky Mountain locations.

Joe Dante on "Tarantula"

Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Universal was the leader in slickly produced 50s genre pix, and here's another eerie desert-set chiller from Jack Arnold with good special fx and creepy makeups. Leo G. Carroll, one of Hitchcock's favorite actors, classes up the joint as the scientist whose serum results in big buggery.

Mick Garris on "Dementia 13"

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Take the "D-13 Test" to find out if you're too crazy to see this shot-in-Ireland axe murder thriller from fledgling director Francis Ford Coppola. The gorgeous Luana Anders has one of her infrequent leads here, and Ronald Stein's score is one of his best.

Edgar Wright on "Suspiria"

Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Edgar has his own thoughts on the very different American trailer that accompanied the US release of Argento's classic.

Mick Garris on "White Zombie"

Fri, 02 Nov 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Sure it's creaky, but this early talkie from poverty row was the first zombie movie and visually it's still pretty cool. Bela Lugosi is the indelibly named Murder Legendre, head zombie master on a Haitian plantation where the dead don't charge for their labor. First takes seem to be the rule, as there are a number of flubbed lines and missed camera moves. This is the 1952 reissue trailer.

John Landis on "Abbott and Costello Meet Frankenstein"

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
After "Young Frankenstein", this is probably the best-loved horror comedy of all time and is more elaborately produced than the previous two serious Frankenstein films. Bela Lugosi's final turn as Dracula, and his last major studio picture. Great music score by Frank Skinner turned up in numerous subsequent A&C monster rallies.

Edgar Wright on "Suspiria - International Version"

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Taking up the lurid mantel of Mario Bava, former film critic Dario Argento rocketed to international prominence with this highly influential giallo which spawned countless imitations. This is the international trailer made for export.

Allan Arkush on "The Knack"

Fri, 26 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Philadelphia-born Director Richard Lester sandwiched this wacky paeon to Swinging '60s London between "A Hard Day's Night" and "Help!". Based on Ann Jellicoe's play and notable as the fleeting screen debuts of Jacqueline Bissett, Jane Birkin and Charlotte Rampling.

John Landis on "It's A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"

Wed, 24 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Although one wag said of director Stanley Kramer's all-star Cinerama extravaganza, "it shows what happens when a man who doesn't understand drama tries to do comedy", the years have been kind to it. Nostalgia for the once-in-a-lifetime ensemble cast alone would get it by, but the extravagant stunt work that seemed so unwhimsical in 1963 is now commonplace in movie comedy.

Mick Garris on "Kiss Me Stupid"

Mon, 22 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Billy Wilder took a lotta brickbats for this "vulgar", "tasteless" and "crude" sex comedy set in Climax, Nevada, which was roundly condemned from pulpits and lecterns countrywide in 1964. Its sleazy reputation has been somewhat rehabilitated over the years as pop culture has raced to embrace such concepts as DNA hair gel and carnal relations with baked goods.

Joe Dante on "Daughter of Dr. Jekyll"

Fri, 19 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Low-budget auteur Edgar G. Ulmer, who gave us "Detour" and "Man from Planet X" proves you can't win 'em all with this derivative and nonsensical second-feature set in the 1800s, but shot in a Hancock Park mansion through whose windows 1957 cars can be seen driving by.

Allison Anders on "All That Heaven Allows"

Wed, 17 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Another lacerating depiction of the values of post-war middle-class Americans from Douglas Sirk, who Universal seemed to regard merely as their house soap-opera specialist. Once again a long-suffering spouse is put through the ringer; here it's widow Jane Wyman taking flak from the country club set as well as her selfish kids for her affair with much younger free spirit Rock Hudson.

Allan Arkush on "House of Bamboo"

Mon, 15 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Former tabloid reporter Sam Fuller's dynamic movies have been called crude and primitive, but at their best they play like a punch in the jaw. Fox's Darryl F. Zanuck believed in him and afforded the indie-oriented Fuller his most mainstream commercial opportunities in the 50s. This is the most exotic of the group.

Joe Dante on "From Hell It Came"

Fri, 12 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
An indication of the attention to detail that distinguishes this 1957 triumph of concept over execution is that the walking tree monster Tobonga (who terrorizes the tropical island of Griffith Park) is identified as Baranga in this trailer!

John Landis on "Sunset Boulevard"

Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Billy Wilder royally p.o.'d most of the Hollywood establishment with this devastatingly dark yet moving take on the tragic decline of silent movie queen Norma Desmond (an unforgettable Gloria Swanson), pushed aside by an unfeeling industry. One of the all-time greats. "I AM big! It's the PICTURES that got small!"

Sam Hamm on "The Intruder"

Sun, 07 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
In 1961 Roger Corman took a flyer from his exploitation roots and made one from the heart, from Charles Beaumont's angry novel inspired by the rabble-rousing exploits of Southern racist John Kasper. When exhibitors refused to book it, Corman returned to Edgar Allan Poe and the movie disappeared into grindhouse hell under titles like Shame and I Hate Your Guts. William Shatner stars, but Corman's first choice was...Tony Randall!

Mick Garris on "Son of Kong"

Fri, 05 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Everybody's favorite director Carl Denham (Robert Armstrong) is dodging bill collectors who want him to pay for King Kong's Big Apple antics and finds himself back on Skull Island with the lovely Helen Mack in this hastily-produced sequel. A family tragedy during production resulted in fx genius Willis O'Brien entrusting some of the animation to assistants.

Larry Cohen on "Marnie"

Wed, 03 Oct 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Another elaborate personalized Hitchcock trailer. His "sex mystery" followup to The Birds has its adherents, but Larry Cohen isn't one of them. Nice Bernard Herrmann score though, and the star of Family Plot has a supporting role.

Allan Arkush on "Bucket of Blood"

Sun, 30 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
"Life is an obscure hobo, bumming a ride on the omnibus of art." The wit and wisdom of writer Charles B. Griffith, Roger Corman's hipper-than-thou alter-ego, is in even fuller flower here than in his classic followup, "Little Shop of Horrors", aided immeasurably by Dick Miller's indelible performance as psychotic busboy Walter Paisley. Update: Chuck passed away the week of 9/26/07 at the age of 77, leaving a legacy of brilliantly off-center, if unjustly underappreciated, satirical comedy.

Joe Dante on "The Revenge of Frankenstein"

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Terence Fisher returns to direct the first (and best?) of six sequels to the groundbreaking Curse of Frankenstein, bringing new complexity and plenty of gallows humor to the character of Baron Frankenstein, the alternately malevolent and admirable protagonist whose grand experiments just never seem to work out.

Allan Arkush on "Rio Bravo"

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Howard Hawks' riposte to the likes of "High Noon" and "3:10 to Yuma" is one of the great Movie Star Westerns, cannily targeted at every demographic available.

John Landis on "Psycho"

Mon, 24 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
A most unusual trailer (almost a short subject at nearly 7 minutes long) from 1960, when Hitchcock had merchandised himself a la Walt Disney into one of the most recognizable movie directors on earth. WARNING! MR. LANDIS REQUESTS YOU WATCH THIS TRAILER FIRST WITHOUT HIS VOICEOVER TO ENJOY MR. HITCHCOCK'S NARRATION.

Sam Hamm on "20 Million Miles to Earth"

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
The dino-like Ymir is one of Ray Harryhausen's most personable stop-motion creations and the last to benefit from his brilliant black-and-white lighting. Currently available in a lamentably colorized video version which shows Ray's work to its least advantage.

Mary Lambert on "The Masque of the Red Death"

Wed, 19 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
This time the Corman/Poe series moves to England for what is generally considered the best film in the series. Tabloid news was made circa 1964 when costar Jane Asher's boyfriend visted the set: Paul McCartney.

Joe Dante on "The Innocents"

Mon, 17 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Jack Clayton's masterpiece, one of the greatest cinematic ghost stories, is ill-served by this lowbrow trailer that sells it like a cheap Eurotrash import. Film debut of the lovely and talented Pamela Frankin.

Mick Garris on "The Raven"

Fri, 14 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Having added some comedy to his earlier Poe trilogy "Tales of Terror", Roger Corman went all out for humor in this popular 1963 entry, which was nevertheless sold basically as a straight horror film. But the image of Peter Lorre in a bird costume was kind of a tipoff...

Sam Hamm on "Scream of Fear"

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
"Psycho" spawned a cottage industry of twist-ending killer-thrillers, and this modest Hammer entry is one of the best. Psycho's unconventional ad campaign also led to gambits like this one, pretending the movie was just too scary to show any actual footage in the trailer!

Larry Cohen on "God Told Me To A.K.A. Demon"

Sun, 09 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
We know, we've already posted a commentary about this one, but it seemed like once we got its director, Larry Cohen, in the Trailers from Hell chair we'd be remiss if we didn't ask him to talk about it as well... so here's the first TFH commentary by the Director of the actual movie!

Larry Cohen on "El Cid"

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Another enormous Samuel L. Bronston historical spectacle with big stars and epochal Euro production values, directed by the perennially underrated Anthony Mann, fresh from his being fired from Spartacus.

Mary Lambert on "Carnival of Souls"

Wed, 05 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Kansas industrial filmmaker Herk Harvey's barely-distributed 1962 ghost story languished in obscurity for years, but has now taken its place as one of the most influential indie productions of the sixties.

Edgar Wright on "Dr. Terror's House of Horrors"

Mon, 03 Sep 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Hammer competitor Amicus Films found their mojo with this 1964 multi-story horror omnibus, which led to countless iterations of the same formula, including their biggest hit "Tales from the Crypt". The genius of the portmanteau system was that the actors were often needed for only a few days, which allowed for casts that were almost ridiculously classy.

Larry Cohen on "Black Sunday AKA-Mask of the Demon"

Fri, 31 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
The worldwide success of Mario Bava's official directorial debut spurred the brilliant cinematographer on to a new career and made an international star of the entrancing Barbara Steele. U.S.distributor AIP changed the title and claimed it was too scary for anyone under the age of...well, 12.

Sam Hamm on "13 Ghosts"

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Aiming squarely at the allowances of moppet readers of Famous Monsters of Filmland, William Castle followed "Percepto" with a new gimmick in 1960, "Illusion-O". Paul Frees' scary narration probably got him the job as the voice of the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.

Joe Dante on "She Demons"

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Castaways on a tropical island run by Nazi fugitives who turn native girls into monsters! If that sounds appealing to you, then this threadbare 1958 drive-in cheapie is up your alley!

Joe Dante on "The Cyclops"

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Giant monster specialist Bert I. Gordon's only somewhat improved followup to "King Dinosaur" was shot in 1955 but didn't make it to theaters til 1957, on a double bill with Ulmer's "Daughter of Dr. Jekyll", satisfying only the fans of pert starlet Gloria Talbott, who starred in both.

Mary Lambert on "The Pit and the Pendulum"

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Probably the best known of the AIP Corman/Poe series, circa 1961. Writer Richard Matheson had to concoct an almost entirely new story incorporating Poe's central situation. The great Paul Frees narrates the trailer.

Larry Cohen on "Invaders From Mars"

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
His 1935 "Things to Come" is more prestigious, but famed production designer Wm. Cameron Menzies reached his directorial zenith with this deliberately unreal "B" that has creeped out several generations of kids. The great Art Gilmore narrates a classic trailer for a seminal movie. In SuperCineColor!

Mary Lambert on "Village of the Damned"

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
A "sleeper" is a boxoffice success that comes out of nowhere. And no one expected this modest 1960 British import, based on John Wyndham's "The Midwich Cuckoos", to catch the attention of a worldwide audience and inspire its own (some think even better) sequel.

Joe Dante on "These Are The Damned"

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Fascinating mixture of science fiction and social comment from Hammer Films circa 1961. This bleak but moving atomic parable still packs a punch and was finally released uncut on DVD over 40 years after its truncated theatrical release. Oliver Reed's role was reputedly one of the inspirations for Anthony Burgess to write A Clockwork Orange.

Sam Hamm on "Kronos"

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Jack Rabin and Irving Block were a couple of indie FX mavens whose works ranged from Night of the Hunter to Robot Monster. But one of their most offbeat creations was the giant alien robot Kronos, who wanted not Our Women but Our Energy. On its own terms it's a pretty nifty little picture, with an emblematic 50s sci-fi cast.

Mick Garris on "God Told Me To A.K.A. Demon"

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Shot guerilla-style all over New York City by celebrated maverick and TFH contributor Larry Cohen, this is one crazy movie! A homicide spree hits town and the perps have only one thing in common: they all say "God told me to!" Apocalyptic to say the least!

Larry Cohen on "Spartacus"

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Credited to Stanley Kubrick, taking over from Anthony Mann (whose casting choices appear in abundance), this troubled epic from revered Lefties Dalton Trumbo and Howard Fast has become a touchstone of 60s cinema and for good reason -- it's less pious and more honestly moving than the comparatively overblown Ben-Hur.

Joe Dante on "Attack of the 50 Foot Woman"

Wed, 15 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
When it was released on a 1958 double bill with "War of the Satellites", no one could have predicted that this mini-budget exploitation film would become one of the most famous titles in movie history.

Mary Lambert on "House of Usher"

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
First in Roger Corman's profitable series of Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, this 1960 excursion into quality from AIP spawned an entire series based on the idea that high school kids could watch them and then do book reports without reading the originals!

Joe Dante on "Monster From Mars A.K.A. Robot Monster"

Fri, 03 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
This much maligned and conversely beloved 1953 cheapie, one of the most bizarre and notorious "bad movies" ever, sports some surprisingly imaginative use of 3-D. Sold to tv only a few months after its theatrical release, it provided a surreal video jolt for fifties tykes with its lurid end of the world scenario. With a cool music score by the then-blacklisted Elmer Bernstein.

John Landis on "Colossus: The Forbin Project"

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Made in 1968 and shelved for nearly two years, this is one of the most intelligent science fiction pictures of its decade, but it failed to find an audience. An updated remake has recently been announced. Could we really be worse off with a computer running everything?

Sam Hamm on "Journey to the Lost City"

Mon, 30 Jul 2007 00:00:01 +0800
An exploitation picture staple was the cutdown feature version of the 12-chapter serial, but they were seldom directed by filmmakers as distinguished as Fritz Lang, who fled Hitler to become a Hollywood success. But in 1960 AIP bought two elaborate 1957 German-made Lang adventures and combined them into one hectic movie.

Mick Garris on "The Vampire Lovers"

Fri, 27 Jul 2007 00:00:01 +0800
The first coproduction between England's Hammer Films and American International Pictures is an appropriately lurid affair, with many heaving bosoms showing the telltale marks of Carmilla, the lesbian vampire. Not as arty as Roger Vadim's superior "Blood and Roses", this was a big enough hit in 1970 to spawn two pulchritudinous follow-ups, "Lust for a Vampire" and "Twins of Evil".

Mick Garris on "X - The Man with the X-Ray Eyes"

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:00:01 +0800
It's not exactly "The Lost Weekend", but Oscar-winner Ray Milland does pretty well for himself by this low-budget but intriguingly Promethean 1963 sci-fi outing from Roger Corman, which anticipates the alternate reality concepts of his later "The Trip". Of course the trailer is more interested in the "X-ray specs" aspects of the idea, like seeing through women's clothes!

Joe Dante on "The Fiendish Ghouls"

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:00:01 +0800
The truncated third US release (after earlier tries as "Mania'", then "The Psycho Killers'") of John Gilling's 1960 retelling of the Burke and Hare story that formed the basis for Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Body Snatcher". Cut by a reel and a half and aimed at the lowest of brows, this version ends with Donald Pleasence getting a torch in his face.

John Landis on "The Fall of the Roman Empire"

Wed, 25 Jul 2007 00:00:01 +0800
They don't make 'em like this anymore: those huge sets and cast of thousands aren't computer-generated but absolutely real, and those 1964-era actors are a darn sight more interesting than a lot of those we have on hand today.

Edgar Wright on "Danger Diabolik"

Mon, 16 Jul 2007 00:00:01 +0800
One of the great comic book movies of all time from the brilliant Italian director Mario Bava, whose visual dexterity was never widely appreciated during his lifetime.

An uncharacteristically elaborate 1967 pop art production for which Bava nonetheless employed his usual lovingly hand-made in-camera tricks.

Joe Dante on "The Incredible Petrified World"

Sun, 15 Jul 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Petrified is right! 30 percent new movie plus 70 percent stock footage equals one of the more outrageous excuses for a feature film since, well, since the previous Jerry Warren picture! But you gotta hand it to Jerry -- he made Ed Wood look like Bernardo Bertolucci, but he got these things made and people paid to see 'em!

Joe Dante on "The Unearthly"

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 00:00:01 +0800
If you want monsters, this last gasp (circa 1957) of the old-fashioned mad doctor movie delivers in spades. Made for a division of ABC television.

Joe Dante on "The Terror"

Fri, 22 Jun 2007 00:00:01 +0800
This 1963 offshoot of Roger Corman's popular Edgar Allan Poe series has slipped into the public domain and is available on countless video labels, usually in crummy looking prints... this is from an original 35mm Technicolor print.

Mick Garris on "House on Haunted Hill"

Mon, 11 Jun 2007 00:00:01 +0800
William Castle followed up "Macabre" with this trend-setting, darkly comic quintessential B-picture whose 1959 success cemented Vincent Price as a horror icon for the next two decades.

John Landis on "The T.A.M.I. Show"

Mon, 21 May 2007 00:00:01 +0800
Most of the archival footage you've seen of seminal rock acts comes from this groundbreaking musical documentary, shot In "Electronovision" and a huge hit for AIP in 1964.