The Story of Temple Drake (1933)

Director: Stephen Roberts

Writers: Oliver H.P. Garrett, William Faulkner, Maurine Dallas Watkins

Composers: Karl Hajos, Bernhard Kaun

Starring: Miriam Hopkins, William Gargan, Jack La Rue, Forence Eldridge, Guy Standing, Irving Pichel, Jobyna Howland, William Collier Jr.

More info: IMDb

Tagline: You won't even tell your husband the story-but you'll never-never forget it

Plot: Temple Drake is a Southern belle who leads men on with her sexuality but usually leaves them wanting. She's loved by lawyer Stephen Benbow, whom she likes but doesn't love. While out carousing with one of her beaus, she finds herself stranded with a gang of bootleggers, one of whom, Trigger, rapes her and makes her his sex slave. When another man is accused of a murder Trigger committed, Stephen defends him and sets out to find Trigger. But he isn't prepared for whom he finds with Trigger, or what she's become.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I can see how this would've been shocking back in the day.  It has one of the earliest and most effective (especially for its time) rape scenes I've seen, as far as 1930s rapes go, that is.  The lights go out and there's a horrific scream.  Trigger (La Rue) does the deed.  Jack La Rue sometimes comes across as menacing and at others, macho silly.  In other words he took the role a little too seriously and took it over the top.  There was a nice moment when he's going to harass Temple (wonderfully played by Miriam Hopkins) again and his face takes up the entire screen making it even more effective.  After Temple leaves the posh party with a drunken guy who wants to get her liquored up so he can get into her pants.  He crashes the car.  She's thrown from the vehicle and the scene feels a little strange but in a good way.  A couple of strange men show up in the shadows.  At first I thought that Temple and her man are dead and that Death has come to collect them.  It really seemed that way for almost the entire sequence but then she's taken to a cabin in the woods and that theory goes by the wayside.  At this point the picture goes into a different direction for a while and then another in the final act after Temple herself has committed a crime and has to face the music.  Say, speaking of music, until the final fifteen minutes, this flick has way too much music.  It's unusual for me to say that but it's true.  The score is almost constant.  Sometimes I thought that maybe it was source music (music from the radio, live band, etc.) but that was only the case some of the time.  It was distracting as there were a few scenes that would've benefited from less or even no music at all.  It's a quick picture at about 71 minutes and it is an interesting artifact of its time. 

The Avon Barksdale Story: Legends of the Unwired (2010)

Directors: Drew Berry, Bruce Brown, Kenny Jackson

Writers: Drew Berry, Kenny Jackson

Starring: Troy May, Nathan Avon Barksdale, Wood Harris, Emma Barksdale Grier, Oscar "bunk" Requer, Dante Barksdale, Aaron Rasheed, Victor Smith, Marvin McDowell, Larry Middleton

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Based on a true story

Plot: The HBO series "The Wire" was based on the lives of real people from Baltimore. This documentary exposes those real lives, the real people that the characters of The Wire is based upon. In this DVD, the real Avon "Bodie" Barksdale, talks to his on screen character's actor, Wood Harris. Bodie reveals stories about drugs, sex, violence and death.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This documentary is probably most enjoyed by those who know Avon 'Brodie' Barksdale (and just like 'Bugsy' Siegel, don't call him Avon). Yeah, it's not all that professionally made but that's part of the fun of the moments that are so bad it's good.  Remember that scene in BLACK DYNAMITE (2009) when Black Dynamite says, "I'm declaring war on anyone who sells drugs to the community." and Chocolate Giddy-Up immediately replies, "But Black Dynamite! I sell drugs to the community."?  The repetition from the narrator behaves like this sometimes and it's unintentionally hilarious.  Look, these three filmmakers either have this as their sole movie credit or a couple others and that's it.  I didn't know what to expect going into this but I think they did a decent job considering.  I haven't seen THE WIRE (2002-2008) but I've heard nothing but great things about it.  Am I more encouraged to see the show after watching this?  Nope, but I will get around to it someday.  The filmmakers & Barksdale seem like they want to get down and dirty with Barksdale's exploits but they hold back a lot, presumably because it would incriminate him in crimes he didn't do time for which is too bad.  A hardcore, let's show the warts and all and really ratchet this up to exploitation territory would've been a lot more interesting and entertaining. 

Preacherman (1971)

Director: Albert T. Viola

Writers: Harvey Flaxman, Albert T. Viola

Composers: Roland Pope, W. Henry Smith

Starring: Albert T. Viola, Ilene Kristen, Adam Hesse, Marian Brown, Esty F. Davis Jr., W. Henry Smith, Bill Simpson, Garland Atkins, Colleen McGee

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Lock Up Your Women...Hide Your Money and Booze...Preacherman is Coming to Town!

Plot: Phony backwoods preacher Amos T. Huxley stays in a small North Carolina town long enough to fleece his congregation, swindle the profits from a moonshine still, and seduce dumb blonde Mary Lou. Mary Lou's ex-boyfriend becomes suspicious of the preacher and gets the local police to investigate his actions.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  No, but I will check out the sequel, PREACHERMAN MEETS WIDDERWOMAN (1973).

This looked bad and it almost is.  Viola, who also wrote, produced and directed this fine film, does a decent job as the titular character.  There's a little bit of nudity, but what's there, courtesy of the voluptuous Ilene Kristen, is great.  Sadly the boobs only show up in the first half.  There was plenty of opportunity for more but Viola robbed us of them.  The characters are Southern cartoon stereotypes and the accents are even worse.  Viola's is pretty good but then he had more time to work on it.  The last twenty minutes showcases his talent for preaching but that sequence goes on far too long.  I started having flashbacks to when I was a kid, forced to sit through those bullshit sermons when my mom made us kids give up our Sunday mornings for a load of claptrap.  A few shots of bourbon later and I was OK (now, not as a kid...looking back I wish I had some bourbon then).  The new Troma release poster/DVD cover shows some crashing cars but don't expect any SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT (1977) type of action here.  Now if they'd put the Preacherman behind the wheel with Jesus riding shotgun outrunning the law, I'd fire up the simultinis and watch that one!

Ruggles of Red Gap (1935)

Director: Leo McCarey

Writers: Harry Leon Wilson, Walter DeLeon, Harlan Thompson, Humphrey Pearson

Starring: Charles Laughton, Mary Boland, Charles Ruggles, Zasu Pitts, Roland Young, Leila Hyams, Maude Eburne, Lucien Littlefield, Leota Lorraine, James Burke, Dell Henderson, Clarence Wilson

More info: IMDb

Plot:  An English valet brought to the American west assimilates into the American way of life.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

I get a kick out of watching movies that deliver something different.  On the surface, it's the kind of picture that almost writes itself but it's in the execution that delivers the unexpected.  I thought I had this one figured out in the first ten minutes but the story kept going in directions I didn't see coming.  For starters we spend a lot of time in the beginning with the set-up with Ruggles (Laughton) and Egbert (Ruggles) paling around with Ruggles' futile attempts at trying to get Egbert to be less garish and become more of a cultured gentleman and the opposite with Egbert getting Ruggles to lighten up, ditch that ridiculous class mentality and learn that they are equals.  Finally we get to Washington State and the small rural town of Red Gap where Ruggles continues his education in learning what it means to be unbound by silly formalities and comes into his own.  There are some pretty good laughs along the way but late in the film Ruggles begins to recite Lincoln's Gettysburg Address when no one else in the saloon remembers any of it.  I wept I was so moved.  I didn't see this coming.  It's a pivotal moment for the character and it was utterly astonishing.  The movie does play along with conventional story cliches but there are lots of scenes that go on longer than they should as far as movie the story along is concerned.  They play that way strictly for the laughs.  The antagonists do their job at trying to retain the status quo and the ending is typically happy and uplifting but along the way there are some funny gags and fun performances, the best of which belongs to Laughton.  That man's acting is a marvel to watch.

Stigma (1972)

Director: David E. Durston

Writer: David E. Durston

Composer: Jacques Urbont

Starring: Philip Michael Thomas, Harlan Cary Poe, Josie Johnson, Peter Clune, William Magerman, Connie Van Ess, 'Cousin Brucie' Morrow, Richard Geisman, Raina Barrett, Kevin Andre

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The curse that begins with a kiss.

Plot: A knowledgeable- doctor, Calvin Crosse (Philip Michael Thomas) moves to a secluded community and soon discovers a deadly virus affecting the young town's people. What is more disturbing, is the conspiracy to protect this epidemic when he tries to cure those infected.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Maybe.

Watch the trailer before going further.  It's worth it (the trailer, not what drivel I've got to spew).  Wasn't that awesome?  The movie doesn't live up to how great that trailer is but it's definitely worth a watch.  At times it's utterly hilarious at how seriously it takes itself.  There's a little nudity sprinkled in here and there.  The trailer plays like a horror movie and, like a virus, the movie carries a little bit of that vibe.  At first it feels like it's going to be a blaxploitationer.  After a while the doctor starts to uncover what his recently deceased mentor discovered.  Then it shifts from racism in a small town, although the racism is there until the end, to dealing with an outbreak of syphilis.  That's when the picture kicks into a classic scare/horror flick.  There's a fucking side-splitting moment near the end when Calvin (Thomas) is running down the beach to get away from the sheriff who's out to get him and he jumps over a sand dune and tumbles right in the midst of a bunch of teenagers making out.  And BAM!  Just like that Calvin sits up, hands them pamphlets on the dangers of syphilis and talks them about the disease, complete with the teens asking generic questions, just like one of those 50s/60s classroom scare films.  Jesus, the more I talk about this the more I think I might watch it again after all.  Ultimately the movie is a drama with elements of Blaxploitation (without really fulfilling any of that genre's requirements), social commentary and good ole exploitation.  I'd say check this one out.  I think it would play better with friends and liquor sauce so plan your special evening accordingly.

Tip Not Included (1966)

Original title: Die Rechnung - Eiskalt Serviert

Director: Helmuth Ashley

Writer: George Hurdalek

Composer: Peter Thomas

Starring: George Nader, Yvonne Monlaur, Horst Tappert, Heinz Weiss, Ullrich Haupt, Walter Rilla, Helga Schlack, Christian Doermer, Birke Bruck

More info: IMDb

Plot: A delivery truck is hijacked from the U.S. Mint with over $10M in diamonds and it's up to G-Man Jerry Cotton to crack the case and bring the bad guys to justice.

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

This is the third of eight Jerry Cotton pictures George Nader made from '65 to '69 and it ain't pretty.  It's probably best to go into this one looking for cheese because that's what you'll get.  It's easy to look at a movie from that long ago and pick apart a movie for the special effects (although a bunch hold up very well) but this one is low hanging fruit because it wasn't good to being with.  The story is OK and, compared to the Bond pictures, it's akin to a gas station stick up.  It's nothing more than a high dollar robbery and the FBI man that solves the case.  It's not clever in any way.  The B&W photography isn't used in a way that gives it style but it only adds to the cheapness.  The rear projection is laughably bad.  Nader, the good looking bastard that he was, does as good of a job as you can with the material and the rest of the cast does as well.  But it's not without a brief moment of eye candy...

It's not a good picture by any stretch but there is the rare moment where a smile showed up.  I think DEATH AND DIAMONDS (1968) is the only other Cotton picture I've seen.  It was better and I recommend that one over this one, easily.

The Way to the Stars (1945)

AKA: Johnny in the Clouds

Director: Anthony Asquith

Writers: Terence Rattigan, Anatole de Grunwald, Richard Sherman

Composers: Nicholas Brodszky, Charles Williams

Starring: Michael Redgrave, John Mills, Rosamund John, Douglass Montgomery, Renee Asherson, Stanley Holloway, Basil Radford, Felix Aylmer, Bonar Colleano, Joyce Carey, Trevor Howard, Jean Simmons, Anthony Dawson

More info: IMDb

Tagline: THRILLS IN THE SKY!  And romance below...

Plot: Life on a British bomber base, and the surrounding towns, from the opening days of the Battle of Britain, to the arrival of the Americans, who join in the bomber offensive. The film centres around Pilot Officer Peter Penrose, fresh out of a training unit, who joins the squadron, and quickly discovers about life during war time. He falls for Iris, a young girl who lives at the local hotel, but he becomes disillusioned about marriage, when the squadron commander dies in a raid, and leaves his wife, the hotel manageress, with a young son to bring up. As the war progresses, Penross comes to terms that he has survived, while others have been killed.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

If you like your WWII pictures on the romance-y, dramatic side then maybe you'll dig this one more than I did.  It's OK I guess but I couldn't get into it.  The performances are good and the pacing moves along moderately.  It's never really boring but it never seemed to get interesting or exciting.  Keep looking if you were wanting any kind of war action.  There's nothing and that hurts a little as this is all about the RAF and bombing raids.  I can't remember even seeing the inside of a plane.  I can easily see forgetting everything about this film in less than a week because it was that bland, which is weird because it's a well-shot and made film.