Verboten! (1959)

Director: Samuel Fuller

Writer: Samuel Fuller

Composer: Harry Sukman

Starring: James Best, Susan Cummings, Tom Pitman, Paul Dubov, Harold Daye, Dick Kallman, Stuart Randall, Steven Geray, Anna Hope, Robert Boon, Sasha Harden, Paul Busch, Neyle Morrow, Joe Turkel

More info: IMDb

Tagline: A MAD GENERATION... Spawned In Lust... Consumed By Hate!

Plot: A young American serviceman, stationed in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich, jeopardizes his position with the Marshall Plan relief effort by breaking the non-fraternization rule and falling in love with a young German woman. He uses his position to obtain food and luxuries for her that are in short supply, and all seems to be going well for the couple. What he doesn't realize is that the Werewolves, the Nazi guerrilla movement, have plans in which he features heavily.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

I'm on a Samuel Fuller kick as of late and I'm loving it.  James Best gives another powerful performance and is the standout in this picture.  If this wasn't filmed in some bombed out city in Europe then kudos to the set designers.  The opening scenes look fantastic, especially on what I presume to be a small budget.  I like the way Fuller's cameras move along with the action.  Were there many films that dealt with the U.S. occupation of Germany after the second World War?  I've seen very few, which is by no means an accurate measure, but it's probably not a subject audiences were clamouring for.  I suspect that once the war was over Americans were ready to get back to being normal, although they were dealing with a new normal.  They probably didn't care or weren't concerned with post-war Germany until the Rooskies started stirring shit up.  I'm really impressed with Fuller's pictures and I'm going to keep going to that well to discover more of his pictures.  I think I'm ready for one of his Westerns now.  Paul Anka sings the theme tune for this one.  The kids of today won't be tappin' their toes to it.
 

Primer (2004)

Director: Shane Carruth

Writer: Shane Carruth

Composer: Shane Carruth

Starring: Shane Carruth, David Sullivan, Casey Gooden, Anand Upadhyaya, Carrie Crawford, Jay Butler, John Carruth, Juan Tapia, Ashley Warren, Samantha Thomson, Chip Carruth

More info: IMDb

Tagline: If you always want what you can't have, what do you want when you can have anything?

Plot: Four friends/fledgling entrepreneurs, knowing that there's something bigger and more innovative than the different error-checking devices they've built, wrestle over their new invention.

My rating: 7.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Yes.

Now I'd heard for years that this is often considered one of the best, thinking man's time travel movies out there.  I finally saw it.  I gave it my full attention and even that wasn't enough.  For the most part I was with it the entire way.  It's pretty easy to follow at first until the time traveling begins and then there's a lot of non-linear stuff going on that almost has you putting a puzzle together where a lot of the pieces look similar but only fit in a specific way.  I had questions at the end and two choices - either watch the movie again, right then and there (or I'd easily forget something if I waited a few days, weeks or months) or see what the Internet says.  I'm lazy and impatient so the Internet won.  Once I read enough of what others had figured out it made more sense.  I've already forgotten (yay, shitty memory) so I'll just have to re-read the explanation just before I watch it again to gain a further appreciation.  It's a good film despite its simple complexity.  The performances are strong as is the music and writing.  PRIMER is heady stuff and I can see how someone would be easily turned off by it.  It's not sexy and it's dry, but it's very good nonetheless.  The New Line DVD looks great and the only extras are two commentary tracks, one from Carruth and another from the cast and crew.  Someday I'll have to hit those

The Passage (1979)

Director: J. Lee Thompson

Writer: Bruce Nicolaysen

Composer: Michael J. Lewis

Starring: Anthony Quinn, James Mason, Malcolm McDowell, Patricia Neal, Kay Lenz, Christopher Lee, Paul Clemens, Robert Rhys, Marcel Bozzuffi, Michael Lonsdale, Peter Arne, Neville Jason, Robert Brown, Rose Alba, Jim Broadbent, Frederick Jaeger, Terence Maidment, Terry Yorke

More info: IMDb

Tagline: An ice-swept escape route in front of them. A cold-blooded killer behind them. The only way out is up.

Plot: During WW 2, a Basque shepherd is approached by the underground, who wants him to lead a scientist and his family across the Pyrenees. While being pursued by a sadistic German.

My rating: 6.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Probably not.

At times this movie feels like it was made for TV and even though there were some high quality TV movies in the 70s, this isn't meant as a compliment.  Sometimes the direction and editing feel weaker than they should be and sometimes it's Micheal J. Lewis' score that feels thin.  The music could be the fault of the mixing but there's an airy quality (heavy on the high strings with little to bring any mid range or bottom).  It could also be in the recording of the score or the budget wasn't there to have a larger, fuller orchestra.  The point is, there are a few little things that add up enough to weaken the overall look and sound of the movie.  The likeliest culprit could be the budget.  Now that I've beaten that damn horse, let's move on.  The dialogue has moments of either cliche or typical Hollywood-ness to it but the actors are good enough to help move it along.  For the most part this is an OK WWII thriller with some big time stars and except for one particular thing, it's largely forgettable.  Malcolm McDowell delivers a delightfully bonkers performance as Capt. Von Berkow, the mustache (if he had one, that is) twirling evil Nazi.  He reminded me a little of Hans Landa (Christoph Waltz) from INGLOURIOUS BASTERDS (2009).  He's evil, sadistic and playful.  Berkow (as well as McDowell) in his role as one of Hitler's elite force, the SS.  At first McDowell's choice to play Berkow this way is a little odd because it doesn't fit with the rest of the film, like he's working on a different picture.  But somewhere along the way I just went along with it and embraced it.  That's when I saw the comedy and laughed out loud.

That scene is the apex of the picture's humor.  When he tortures a man (I'm not going to spoil it with who the victim is) in the kitchen, it's absurd and horrific.  The victim sells the shit out of it while McDowell gleefully serves it up.  Then there's the scene where he's wearing a swastika-ed jockstrap.  Once you get past the shock of his out of place performance, he's fun to watch.  The ending is wild as shit, too.  The rumor is they filmed three scenarios for the finale and used all three.  No spoilers again but you need to see this to believe it.  It's fucking glorious.  I absolutely LOVED the ending.  This is an unusual film, for sure, but it's also enjoyable in a peculiar way.  Lower your expectations and have some fun.

The Picture of Dorian Gray (1945)

Director: Albert Lewin

Writers: Oscar Wilde, Albert Lewin

Composer: Herbert Stothart

Starring: George Sanders, Hurd Hatfield, Donna Reed, Angela Lansbury, Peter Lawford, Lowell Gilmore, Richard Fraser, Douglas Walton, Morton Lowry, Miles Mander, Lydia Bilbrook, Cedric Hardwicke

More info: IMDb

Tagline: His life was a muddy morass into which he dragged all who knew him! Such was Dorian Gray, the man who wanted eternal youth, and bartered his soul to get it!

Plot: A corrupt young man somehow keeps his youthful beauty, but a special painting gradually reveals his inner ugliness to all.

My rating:  7.5/10

Will I watch it again? Probably.

With solid performances, set/costume design, pacing, story, etc., this picture delivers.  Sanders has the best lines and does them justice.  He's so good at playing cads that you'd think he was one offscreen, too.  I'd like to think he wasn't, but he sells it so well.  Hatfield does a fine job, too.  At least I think he did.  I say that because he plays the role with such a lack of feeling and presents Gray as a man who had little emotion who tips the scale and grows even colder and callous with age.  I liked his performance but I'm curious to see how others have done it.  I wonder if this has ever been made as a straight up horror movie.  Dorian Gray is technically a serial killer after all.  This was his second feature and first in a starring role.  He does play it rather cold, so much that Sanders (as Lord Wotton) brings exuberant life to every scene he's in.  The paintings are magnificent, especially the ugly one as the years take their toll.  It's great seeing Angela Lansbury in an early role (her third feature) and she's quite good.  It's a good looking and intriguing film.  The large sets of the mansion are bigger than life and provide a beautiful and lush backdrop.  They almost swallow the players.  My favorite scene is the murder of a certain someone.  It reminded me of PSYCHO (1960) when the hanging light is bumped in the scuffle and it plays out the next few moments swaying back and forth, giving shade to the murderer.  In this case we have the added satisfaction of also seeing the silhouette of the victim appear and disappear.  It was brilliantly shot.  I'm a horror fan so if I were to change anything it would be to amp up the suspense and shock.  That wouldn't drastically alter the film but it would emphasize that take on the story.   

 

Pig (2010)

Director: Adam Mason

Writers: Andrew Howard, Adam Mason

Composers: Phil Bloomberg, Tim Polecat

Starring: Andrew Howard, Guy Burnet, Lorry O'Toole, Molly Black, Juliet Quintin-Archard

More info: IMDb

Tagline:  He does all the things you dare not even think!

Plot: A deranged psychotic spends his summer day deciding how to deal with the three captives he has chained up on his land. With only his own troubled mind and his dim-witted companion available to guide him and the fate of his victims, the disturbed man makes violent choice after violent choice.

My rating: 5/10

Will I watch it again?  No.

Even horror fans might not dig this one but it does have some things going for it even if it didn't work for me.  It's shot in a way that looks like it's one long take but if you're paying attention to it then you'll probably catch some of the hidden edits.  That alone is impressive.  The psycho (I don't think he's ever given a name) has one partner in crime (a very pregnant mentally ill woman he calls, "Retard") who is annoying as fuck.  In addition to her mental speech (she talks as if she's deaf, which she isn't, using only the middle/back of her tongue to speak) she's almost constantly squeezing a dog squeaky toy.  It's an assault on the ears.  They have three victims that we see tortured and killed.  There's blood and some gore but it's not as gruesome as you'd think considering the filming technique and the brutality of the psycho.  The almost constant music helps the pacing and watchability.  It is repetitive but it serves the film better than you'd think.  There is no nudity except for the psycho.  He gives you full frontal and backal.  I literally knew nothing about this film and I watched it cold when a friend asked, "what's this about?".  93 minutes later we made it to the end.  The final few minutes, while putting an interesting spin on who the psycho is, hardly makes up for the sometimes dull and annoying rest of the film.  It starts off good and interesting and ends that way but what's in between has a lot of filler and a neat filming technique.  If this sounds intriguing, you should seek it out and give it a whirl for better or worse.  Even though this isn't much of a recommend, hardcore horror fans should take a chance.  At least it's different. 

Room 43 (1958)

Original title: Passport to Shame

Director: Alvin Rakoff

Writer: Patrick Alexander

Composer: Ken Jones

Starring: Diana Dors, Herbert Lom, Eddie Constantine, Odile Versois, Brenda de Banzie, Robert Brown, Elwyn Brook-Jones

More info: IMDb

Tagline: For those who think they've seen everything!

Plot: A cabdriver falls for French girl mixed up with a prostitution ring and he helps to liberate her.

My rating: 8/10

Will I watch it again?  YES!!!

Where do I start?  The performances are very good.  Herbert Lom plays a great gangster who knows how to get shit done and Eddie Constantine is charismatic yet rough around the edges.  I really dig this guy.  His pal, Mike (played by Robert Brown who many years later would play important roles in several Bond pictures and someone I'm ashamed I didn't recognize) is great and he's got a few scenes to shine.  And then there's Diana Dors.  Hubba fuckin' hubba!  She looks so familiar but I've only seen a couple of her pictures, none of which I remember her from.  She did a fine job, too.  Yowza!

I really dug the score, too, but it didn't take long before I realized why...it sounds very similar to Elmer Bernstein's main theme from THE MAN WITH THE GOLDEN ARM (1955).  Listen to the theme from the opening credits above and then listen to this...

Pretty darn close.  The story is a lot of fun but it was the direction and cinematography that grabbed me by the short and curlies.  This picture is loaded with great shots and camera angles.  It's beautiful at times.  There were many moments that literally made me smile.  Hell, even a buddy of mine was impressed (without me saying a word to point stuff out) and he doesn't normally notice things like that.  Considering the subject and whatnot, this film is much better than you would expect it to be.  I cannot find a weak spot in the film.  It's that good.  I'm thoroughly impressed and I'm almost bummed out that I hadn't seen or even heard of this before.  Seek it out.  You won't be disappointed.  There was one quick moment when the camera shows a small gathering at a wedding ceremony and there's this one face that was there for a flash but looked very familiar.  I thought how neat would it be if that were Michael Caine.  Then I read the IMDb page and it sure as hell was.  Supposedly Jackie Collins is an extra somewhere, too.  I'd sure love to have a widescreen print of this on DVD.

Danland (2012)

Director: Alexandra Berger

Composer: Michael Montes

Starring: Dan Lear (AKA Porno Dan)

More info: IMDb

Tagline: Looking for love...in a kinky place.

Plot: Amateur porn producer Dan Leal, aka 'Porno Dan', searches for commitment and intimacy in spite of his industry and himself.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again?  Nope.

If this were a movie, the actor would do himself a service to find something that would connect the audience to him.  It's hard to enjoy something if you don't care about the characters.  I didn't like this guy.  He comes across as a 14 year old man child.  Sure, he's got some peoples' idea of a dream gig, starring in and directing porn, hangin' around hot broads all the live long day but he also comes across as someone who says he wants depth but behaves and lives in a shallow world that he created for himself.  You could say his juvenile personality is well suited for the porn industry but I would say that it's not if you're looking for professionalism.  If you see the video of his wedding then you'll get an idea of the extent of his lifestyle.  It suits him but then he says he's looking for love.  It doesn't look like he'll ever have his cake and eat it, too...that is unless that icing is spread out all thick and creamy all over the inside of her perfectly tan thighs and it's time to clear the runway for oncoming payload from a B-52 bomber.   Nevermind.