Northville Cemetery Massacre (1976)

Directors: William Dear, Thomas Van Dyke

Writers: William Dear, Thomas Van Dyke, Jim Pappas

Composer: Michael Nesmith

Starring: David Hyry, J. Craig Collicut, Carson Jackson, Jan Sisk, Herb Sharples, Len Speck, Beatrice Endahl, Harry Endahl, Brook Evens, Jill Biggers

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The day that law and order went beserk...

Plot: Mayhem starts when a gang of bikers is accused of a sadistic rape in a small town.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

When you go into movies like this you don't expect much, at least I don't.  So when one turns out to actually be pretty good, it takes me by surprise and I like pleasant surprises.  The acting is all over the place but that's to be expected since a lot of these folks aren't actors and most belong to an actual motorcycle gang/club and that only adds to the authenticity of the picture.  Hell, some of those cats do a better job acting that some working actors I've seen.  The laid back attitude the film takes with letting us get to know these kids helps establish them as largely sympathetic.  They might be breaking the law sometime but it's almost always for something relatively innocent.  Once the picture turns to the dark side and people start dying (and a lot of people die...it's one of those rare times where an exploitation movie's title rings true) it gets even better and the film gets very focused.  The only thing I didn't like at all was the over-the-top, flamboyancy of the gun dealer.  This flick didn't need that kind of cartoon humor and it would've been best served with something a lot more subtle.  It sucked the momentum dry.  Once we're done with that guy then it's all in for the final showdown.  It's a bloody film which is unusual for a biker picture.  You expect a little gunshot blood but not as much as this picture delivers.  In that regard, it's great. There's a little skin but only in one scene.  Biker films are an odd bunch in that it's the independent low/no budget ones that tend to be better than their Hollywood counterparts.  It makes sense why that is given the nature of the subject matter.

Mystery Street (1950)

Director: John Sturges

Writers: Sydney Boehm, Richard Brooks, Leonard Spigelgass

Composer: Rudolph G. Kopp

Starring:  Ricardo Montalban, Sally Forrest, Bruce Bennett, Elsa Lanchester, Marshall Thompson, Jan Sterling, Edmon Ryan, Betsy Blair, Wally Maher, Ralph Dumke

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Anything can happen!

Plot: A small town policeman is assisted by a Harvard professor when the skeletal remains of a pregnant prostitute turn up on a Massachusetts beach.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Nah.

Well here's a nifty little gem that came out of nowhere.  First of all, it's great seeing Ricardo Montalban in a leading role and from so long ago.  He's great and Sturges does a great job directing it.  The story and how it progresses is great.  Then you've got the subject matter of forensics helping piece together something for the detectives to work with.  A woman is murdered, her body stripped of everything material, dumped in a different location than the murder and isn't discovered for many months...long enough for the body to have completely decomposed to the point of leaving nothing visible but bones.  The Harvard medical school helps with giving the particulars of the body the bones belonged to and then it's good old fashioned police work to do the rest.  It's not something you'd think would've been made 67 years ago.  The ending is satisfying, too, and the picture doesn't suffer much from the detective picture tropes of the day.  It's very good.

The Outside Man (1972)

Original title: Un Homme est Mort

Director: Jacques Deray

Writers: Jean-Claude Carriere, Jacques Deray, Ian McLellan Hunter

Composer: Michel Legrand

Starring: Jean-Louis Trintignant, Ann-Margret, Roy Scheider, Angie Dickinson, Georgia Engel, Felice Orlandi, Carlo De Mejo, Michel Constantin, Umberto Orsini, Carmen Argenziano, Jackie Earle Haley, John Hillerman, Alex Rocco, Talia Shire

More info: IMDb

Tagline: If you kill the most powerful man in organized crime, they've got the rest of your life to get you.

Plot: French assassin Lucien Bellon is hired to kill an L.A. mob boss. After the job is done it seems someone has been hired to erase him and he's suddenly left stranded in the U.S. without a passport and with very few friends.  Bellon is forced to fight back.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

OMFG what a great flick!

Have you ever wanted to see:

Roy Scheider play a cold, ruthless, man of few words killer?

Angie Dickinson really tan?

OK, how about Ann-Margret really tan?  I thought so.

Los Angeles from an outsider's point of view as filthy, run down town except for where the super rich live?

I just watched this and I'm tickled to death at how much I loved it.  It's pictures like this one that get me excited about watching movies.  You go through a lot of bad and mediocre films and then out of nowhere something like this pops up and restores your faith in the industry.  The cast is great except for Umberto Orsini who plays Alex, the son of the murdered mob boss.  Now it could be that he was dubbed and the voice actor was having a bad day but the scene between him and the detective, who has pretty much pieced together what's really been going on, is pretty bad.  But that's the only moment in the entire picture that suffers.  It's got a European flair to it so it's easy to forgive.  Plus the rest of the picture is top drawer gritty crime stuff.  Roy Scheider is friggin' awesome.  Hell, the cast is great almost all around (except for Orsini's moment of excess).  There's lots of action, tension, intrigue and the ending is really cool and 70s cynical.

The Naked Spur (1953)

Director: Anthony Mann

Writers: Sam Rolfe, Harold Jack Bloom

Composer: Bronislau Kaper

Starring: James Stewart, Janet Leigh, Robert Ryan, Ralph Meeker, Millard Mitchell

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Packed with Technicolor Thrills!

Plot: A man trying to bring a murderer to justice is forced to accept the help of two less-than-trustworthy strangers.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

FRONTIER SPOILERS AHEAD!!!  YARRRRRRRR!!!

When you get into Westerns of the 1950s you start to see a transition from simple to complex films with mature themes, emotions, acting and so on.  This isn't one of those shoot-em-ups and there's more going on here than the average Western at the time but let's not give this picture too much credit.  The Colorado scenery is GORGEOUS!  The cast does a relatively fine job.  I liked Mitchell (as the old prospector, Jesse Tate) the best.  He was fun but without over doing it.  Ralph Meeker (who I swore was just a young Vic Morrow) acts all over the place from good to over the top but I liked how you couldn't trust the guy all the way to the end.  Leigh is fine as is Stewart (and I liked his motivation) but I'd swear in all of the pictures Robert Ryan made combined, I've never seen him smile and laugh as much as he did in this one.  He played a unique bad guy and I liked him quite a bit to the point of wanting him to get away with it.  Naturally his true colors are eventually exposed and 1950s Hollywood wouldn't allow him to get away with it.  The action is good and there's some great suspense.  The Indian gunfight was a great tense moment.  I do have one bone of contention and that's the "love story" plot thread.  It's REALLY weak and the scene where Howard (Stewart) and Lina (Leigh) embrace is laughable.  Oh, yeah, and the score, which is mostly good, gets downright stupid when at least three times we hear the song, "Beautiful Dreamer", when the characters are talking about their life dreams/goals or when Howard is talking in his sleep while Lina comforts him.  It's truly horrible to hear.  I expect that in a cartoon but not in a Western such as this that's trying, and succeeding at being something more than Saturday matinee fluff.  Still, though, there's a lot to like here and it shouldn't go unseen by fans of the genre.

Son of Frankenstein (1939)

Director: Rowland V. Lee

Writer: Wyllis Cooper

Composer: Frank Skinner

Starring: Basil Rathbone, Boris Karloff, Bela Lugosi, Lionel Atwill, Josephine Hutchinson, Donnie Dunagan, Emma Dunn, Edgar Norton, Perry Ivins, Lawrence Grant, Lionel Belmore

More info: IMDb

Tagline: The black shadows of the past bred this half-man . . . half-demon! . . . creating a new and terrible juggernaut of destruction!

Plot: One of the sons of Frankenstein finds his father's monster in a coma and revives him, only to find out he is controlled by Ygor who is bent on revenge.

My rating: 7/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably.

The great Frankenstein series continues with this third Universal entry and it's fun.  The cast is great, really.  Lugosi has moments of genius.  There's one scene early in where he's just staring at the Baron (Rathbone) and his look is layered with curiosity, amusement and contempt.  It's brilliant.  Sure, Lugosi is playing the deformed Ygor and you could make the case that he's over the top but he's also the most interesting and sinister character in the show.  Fans of YOUNG FRANKENSTEIN (1974) will get a kick out of Inspector Krogh with his wooden arm and darts marksmanship.  Frankenstein's castle is very sparse with decor.  The walls are barren and there's very little furniture.  At first this was a turnoff as the picture could've used something more elaborate and appealing for the eyes but then I started thinking about it and it suddenly made sense why they made this choice.  The elder, now dead, Frankenstein probably ran through his fortune over the years as he wasn't actively working in the public sector, instead spending all of his money on maintaining the castle and his experiments so by the time his son got the joint, it was pretty bare and bleak.  It also gives the place a more stark, shadow-filled, angular look akin to the German expressionist pictures of that decade.  If I could add one thing to this film it would be adding a couple of more locations for shooting to mix it up a bit.  It's still a fine film and a good part of the Universal franchise.  So far, of the original Universal monster franchises, Frankenstein is consistently the best of the lot.  

Mr. Lucky (1943)

Director: H.C. Potter

Writers: Milton Holmes, Adrian Scott

Composer: Roy Webb

Starring: Cary Grant, Laraine Day, Charles Bickford, Gladys Cooper, Alan Carney, Henry Stephenson, Paul Stewart, Kay Johnson, Erford Gage, Walter Kingsford, Florence Bates

Tagline: Cary at his grandest in the story he chose himself - plus lovely Laraine in the role that makes her great!

Plot: A gambler has plans to swindle money from a charity program, but starts to have second thoughts when he falls for a rich society girl.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

For much of the film this is a straight up romantic comedy with the emphasis on the funny.  Grant is one smooth cat and it's easy to see why he was such a big star.  He's got charisma in spades. As he gets deeper into Dorothy (Day) and the shit gets closer to hitting the fan, things get more serious and this picture goes into dark territory.  The priest interpreting the letter (written in Greek) for Joe (Grant) is powerful stuff and you can see a complete transformation in Joe's character in Grant's face as the letter is read.  By the time the letter is finished, you're looking at a different Joe and he's now a man with a mission and there's no time for quips.  It's a remarkable picture to give this kind of dynamic, change tone and work so solidly.  The ending is really nice, too.  There was a part of me that wanted something a little different but I was very pleased at how it was handled.  The picture runs longer than your standard comedy of this period would (at an hour and forty minutes) and there are some bits here and there that could be trimmed that wouldn't hurt the narrative but they would rob you of some fun bits with the actors who all do a fine job.  I highly recommend this one. 

31 (2016)

Director: Rob Zombie

Writer: Rob Zombie

Composers: Chris Harris, John 5, Bob Marlette, Rob Zombie

Starring: Sheri Moon Zombie, Jeff Daniel Phillips, Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs, Meg Foster, Kevin Jackson, Malcolm McDowell, Jane Carr, Judy Geeson, Richard Brake, Pancho Moler, David Ury, Lew Temple, Torsten Voges, Elizabeth Daily, Michael 'Red Bone' Alcott, Esperanza America, Andrea Dora, Tracey Walter, Ginger Lynn

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Welcome To Hell

Plot: In 1976, on the eve of Halloween, an itinerant troupe is forced to stop their truck and attacked by strangers. Charly, Venus Virgo, Panda Thomas, Levon Wally and Roscoe Pepper survive. They are forced to participate in a sadistic game called "31" for 12 hours, and whoever survives will be released.

My rating: 6/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

I've seen most of Zombie's movies and I really dig this guy's work for the most part.  The lower budget on this one shows a little but he does get a lot of mileage out of what's there.  This picture was crowd funded but to what degree I don't know.  I mostly LOVE the cast...mostly.  If Sheri wasn't married to Zombie then I'd be less inclined to find fault in her taking center stage except that it's nice when that rare pick-'em-off'-one-by-one horror movie comes along that does something different with the lone survivor being the obvious chick you can pick out at the beginning of the picture.  Phillips and Brake are fantastic, especially Brake.  He's fantastic.  I really like how Zombie casts his pictures with maybe the exception of Sheri who often seems like she's trying to hard to 'act'.  Sometimes she does really well but others...  There is a lot of gore and the bad guys are fun.  And there's some nudity (yah!).  The biggest issue I have, though, is with the camerawork and fast editing during the fight scenes.  Zombie stays in close for all of the action/horror stuff, always moving the camera and cutting it quick so all you get are frenetic scenes without an opportunity to soak anything in.  It was really frustrating and I should probably lower my score by another half point just for that.  Since this is his latest film, I hope that this being crowd funded doesn't mean he's having a hard time getting backing for his movies.  I don't mind the lower budget nature of this one but I don't want to see his movie career on the downward slope to where he can't get much made the way he wants it.  I like his horror voice and I want more.  His movies are distinctively his and they're usually a lot of fun.