BY LEE PFEIFFER

Vinegar Syndrome has released another double bill of vintage erotica. "Three Ripening Cherries" is a 1979 production that centers on three high school girls with a cougar mom who sits them down for a frank discussion about sex. It's clear the young women are eager to enter this aspect of their adult lives so mamma decides to give them some blunt "dos and don'ts". Sitting around the kitchen table, mom dispenses some cautionary tales based on her own experiences. Seems she was once lured to the home of a trusted middle-aged man who drugged and seduced her. Mom explains that the experience was terrible and advises her daughters to save themselves for the right man. Fine up to now. However, she then almost gleefully recounts an abundance of other sexual experiences throughout her life, all of which were seemingly far more exciting and satisfying. By the time she is through, her daughters are so worked up that they retire to bed early and can't contain themselves. Since this is a movie made by males for males, the anticipated cliches are in abundance beginning with the sexually frustrated girls engaging in a lesbian threesome. Ultimately they attempt to get some male lovers but find their frustrations only increase. Some of the hunks they approach turn out to be gay. Another guy can't perform and a third potential lover ends up being an S&M addict who ties one of the sisters to a bed and whips her. If there is a moral aspect to the kinky tale it's that the sisters learn that mamma was right and they should wait patiently for the right man to come along. The film, directed by Carlos Tobalina, has a good deal of humor but the sex scenes are played for maximum erotic impact, as Tobalina shuns the slapstick elements that defined many porn films of the era. The film's female leads are Misty, Mary Ryan and Dorothy LeMay, all of whom are refreshing in the sense that they are not gorgeous goddesses but really do look like "the girl next door". I confess to never having heard of any of them but the trailer for the film (included on the DVD) plays up their teaming like it is an Irwin Allen all-star production. None of the actresses can actually act but that's academic in a movie like this. 

The second half of the double bill is "Sensual Fire", another Carlos Tobalina production with the director working under the nom de plum of Troy Benny. The story finds the ubiquitous porn presence of the era, Elliott Gould look-a-like Jamie Gillis, as Roy, a self-employed businessman who is happily living with his gorgeous girlfriend, a young widow named Laura (Jessica St. James), who seems to have no other daily activity other than luring Roy into bed. Things go awry when- in a tweak on the "Lolita" story line- Laura's teenage daughter Teena (Dorothy LeMay) returns from school to live with them. Roy is instantly obsessed with the young girl, especially when he spies on her through a secret peephole in her bedroom wall,  in true Norman Bates style. This being a porn flick, what he observes isn't Teena studiously poring over textbooks in anticipation of exams. Instead, she prances around stark naked and constantly pleasures herself. At various other times Roy endures the frustration watching her get it on with male lovers. His mind becomes so tormented that he seeks counsel from a psychiatrist (John Seeman) who advises him to satiate his desires by going to a bordello and seeking out a girl who looks like Teena. The ploy works- but only temporarily. Before long, Roy can't concentrate on his work and his love life with Laura is also suffering, as he constantly fantasizes about Teena. Determined to make love to the teenager, he devises a plot whereby he says he has to leave town on a business trip, knowing that Laura and Teena have been invited to a kinky costume party. He turns up at the party dressed as Zorro (!) and in one of the film's more amusing scenes, neither mother or daughter recognize him as he calculates how to use the disguise as a vehicle for seducing Teena. "Sensual Fire" is an above average porn flick for the era, as it boasts a fairly engrossing story line and production values and the sex scenes are fairly erotic. Director Tobalina turns up in a small part playing a hip priest who counsels Roy on his sex problems. An original trailer that is included that features scenes not in the final cut.  The transfer is quite good, as is generally the case with Vinegar Syndrome releases.  

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By Lee Pfeiffer

The Warner Archive has released the 1962 feature film Hitler as a burn-to-order DVD and it is also now available on the Warner Archive streaming service. The film was perhaps the first cinematic attempt to present Adolf Hitler's story in a dramatic biographical format. However, the project was sabotaged by the fact that it was produced by Allied Artists, then a "B" movie factory. The resulting budget appears to be somewhat less than that afforded by home movies of the day. The B&W film also suffers from a ridiculously curtailed screenplay that attempts to do justice to all aspects of one of the most dramatic lives in history. The production's running time of 107 minutes undermines any serious attempt to do justice to Hitler's remarkable, history-changing life. The film does boast a reasonably effective performance by Richard Basehart in the titular role- no small achievement, as most cinematic impersonations of Der Fuhrer tend to inspire giggles. (It is not without irony that Hitler's trademark mustache was shared by the most iconic comedic figure of his era, Charles Chaplin.) The story opens with Hitler dictating Mein Kampf from his jail cell in 1923, having failed to seize power in Germany via a violent coup. In a blink of an eye, we see him perched to take power as Chancellor when the aging Von  Hinderburg dies. The screenplay dispenses with the historical context of all this in order to concentrate on the real reason for the movie's existence, which is Hollywood's long-time fascination with mingling sex and Naziism. Thus, a good deal of the movie is spent watching Adolf fawn over his niece Geli (Cordula Trantow). If you believe the story, their relationship remained chaste, which indeed it may have. Historians have long pondered over Hitler's sex life, or lack thereof, without finding any evidence that he did not die a virgin. He loved the company of attractive women and did indeed have a rather scandalous relationship with Geli, even sharing an apartment with her during his early rise to power. The film introduces the first of some outlandish historical "facts" when Geli is murdered in a staged suicide, under orders from Hitler. In fact, there has never been any concrete evidence that Hitler was responsible for her death. 

The next fraulein in the Fuhrer's sphere of influence is Eva Braun (Maria Emo), a young girl with a bombshell body who willingly devotes her life to being Hitler's arm candy. Here again, the script deviates from what we know about Braun, presenting her as a strong-willed woman of impressive intelligence. In fact, Braun was an apolitical airhead, as evidenced by Hitler's real life musing that men of great power should only be involved with stupid women so their careers are not interfered with. The movie blazes through historical events with blinding speed (documentary footage is unconvincingly interwoven in an attempt to give the claustrophobic production some scope.) The movie accurately presents Hitler's deadly betrayal of his old friend,  SA chief Ernst Rohm and even overtly acknowledges the fact that Rohm and his men were engaging in widespread homosexual activity during a weekend retreat, something that repelled Hitler,who ordered mass executions. The film is obsessed with the sexual aspects of Hitler's life but, as stated previously, this area remains a mystery to historians and biographers. Even after Hitler and Eva Braun were living under the same roof at the Fuhrer's Bavarian retreat, they kept separate bedrooms. The house staff was so titillated by the prospect of investigating Hitler's love life that they routinely inspected the bedding for evidence of any sexual interaction. None was ever found. Nevertheless, the screenplay takes bold liberties in presenting speculation as fact. It assumes Hitler was impotent and that this was attributed to latent homosexuality. This is another myth that historians have dismissed.  Hitler once shared an apartment, and possibly the same bed, with another impoverished young man in his early days, but this was probably due to economic necessity and was not at all unusual at the time. Indeed, Hitler's disdain for homosexuals put them on his hate list along with Jews and political dissidents. In Nazi Germany, being gay meant the concentration camp. Whether the screen writer actually believed this theory is not known but there is certainly the possibility that this plot point was included simply to be provocative. Another historical incident is depicted, albeit inaccurately, with the July 1944 assassination attempt on Hitler by his generals. The ring leader of the plot, Col. von Stauffenberg is shown being hanged along with his confederates. In reality, he was shot by a firing squad.

One has to have some admiration for Richard Basehart, whose performance rises above the mediocrities that surround him. He makes for a mesmerizing Hitler and never overplays the more hysterical aspects of the Fuhrer's personality that so often inspire actors to go "over the top." The pedestrian direction by Stuart Heisler doesn't provide much inspiration for him. Nevertheless, Hitler is a odd little film that bares viewing if only for the wrong reasons.

Click here to view clip and to order from Warner Archive

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Among the tidal wave of DVDs and Blu-rays sent to Cinema Retro every month by video labels requesting reviews are some very quirky titles, not all of which make it onto these pages or into our magazine's review section. That's because some are completely outside the mainstream of our reader's interests. For example, we shy away from most blood-splattered "dead teenage" movies unless they have a unique status among retro movie lovers. Additionally, we get inundated with erotic titles, some of which we do routinely cover primarily if they are also from the distant past. One exception to this is "The Clair Sinclair Show", released on the Cult Epics label. I'll freely admit I was baffled upon looking over the packaging of the screener DVD. A buxom, attractive young woman adorns that box and that's generally enough to at least temporarily get my interest. What intrigued me most, however, was the name of Bunny Yeager on the box and an indication that the DVD contained her final interview. First things first. Who the hell is Clair Sinclair? I confess I  had not a clue. Turns out she came out of obscurity as an 18 year-old and in short order caught the eye of Hugh Hefner. Before she was in her twenties, she proved to be so popular in her Playboy photo layout that she earned the exalted status of Playmate of the Year. The DVD features a bizarre gimmick: Ms. Sinclair arrives at a studio where she is interviewed by....herself. Her doppleganger is dressed in a retro Bettie Page look (more about that later) and the two Claire's get along fabulously, as you might imagine. It's a blatant, self-serving tactic that is little more than a video calling card for Sinclair, who makes it clear that she hopes to maximize her moment in the spotlight. Claire assures Claire that she adores the by-gone era of traditional pin-up models, especially Bettie Page, who posed mischievously in some now classic images in the 1950s and 1960s. They were provocative in the day, with Page working with photographer Irving Klaw in scenarios that generally found her bound and gagged in photos that were often lesbian-themed. This was hot stuff back in the era of repressed sexuality but Ms. Page never indulged in anything hardcore or overtly distasteful. It's a standard that Claire Sinclair obviously follows.

Now on to the second question: who is Bunny Yeager? She was a groundbreaking female photographer who specialized in shooting female pin-up models, including Bettie Page. Yeager was pin-up material herself, a former model in the 1950s who was not adverse to posing for cheesecake photos. She was also known for her photographs of exotic locations and in 1967 published a well-received book titled "Camera in Jamaica", which included fascinating photos she took on the set of the first James Bond movie, "Dr. No" in 1962. Yeager appears in a segment of the DVD in which Claire Sinclair conducts a respectful and enlightening interview with her that explores her early days as an erotic photographer when such work for a woman was almost unheard of. Sinclair scores a coup but in a bittersweet way: this turns out to be the final interview Yeager gave, as she passed away shortly thereafter.

The DVD features Yeager conducting her last photographic session as she and her crew photograph Sinclair, who is in full Bettie Page mode, as she poses scantily clad and completely starkers. The director of the documentaries, credited as "Nico B", also had the good sense to keep the retro atmosphere going by filming some of the session in Super 8, which provides the welcome look of the old grindhouse film days. This is a low-budget production shot in conjunction with "The Erotica Channel", a web-based network that provides, well, video erotica.  As with Yeager's vintage photos, the nudity depicted is never more than a bit naughty and actually looks downright wholesome by today's standards. As for Claire Sinclair, the former Playmate of the Year comes across as engaging, likable and possessing a "girl next door" quality even if virtually none of us ever had a girl next door who actually looked like her. 

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

In her excellent analysis of the 1962 Elvis Presley film "Follow That Dream"- which is included in the limited edition Twilight Time Blu-ray release- film historian Julie Kirgo concisely but thoroughly explores the one aspect of The King's career that brought him more frustration than satisfaction: his stature as an international movie star. When Elvis first exploded on the international music scene in the 1950s, Hollywood came calling immediately. Presley, under the guidance of his Svengali-like manager Colonel Tom Parker, found himself starring in films that were primarily designed to promote his music but which afforded him intelligent story lines and the opportunity to showcase his considerable charms as a leading man. The word on Presley was that, given the proper nurturing from established screenwriters and directors, he could become an acclaimed actor in his own right. Then Uncle Sam intruded and Presley was drafted. Elvis' two-year stint in the U.S. Army became the stuff of pop culture legend. Without any fuss or any attempt to dodge the draft, he did his duty and was honorably discharged. When he re-entered civilian life, however, the Colonel had a different vision for his star's big screen career. Instead of holding out for roles that would have allowed Elvis to progress as an accomplished actor, the Colonel signed him to a long contract with legendary producer Hal Wallis, who agreed with the Colonel that the main objective would be to quickly crank out low budget flicks that would be highly profitable. If that offended Elvis' sensibilities, too bad. They pointed out that on the few occasions where Elvis had been allowed to play mature characters in intelligent films, the boxoffice receipts lagged behind his upbeat, teen-oriented musicals. Thus, the King found himself not in control of his own destiny, at least when it came to the silver screen. Before long, he was churning out indistinguishable lightweight fare that served as little more than an extended music videos to sell the accompanying soundtrack albums. The ploy worked, financially, at least, but left Elvis feeling frustrated and betrayed by the two mentors he had entrusted to guide him to a long, satisfying movie career. 

One of Elvis' more accomplished and satisfying films was the aforementioned "Follow That Dream". The story was based on a humorous novel titled "Pioneer, Go Home!' by Richard Powell, who also authored the source novel for the fine 1959 Paul Newman film "The Young Philadelphians". It's an amusing, whimsical yarn that finds Elvis as Toby Kwimper, a hunky young man who is traveling through Florida with his father, known as Pop (Arthur O'Connell) and a comely teenage companion, Holly Jones (Anne Helm), who- for all intents and purposes- is his adopted sister. Also in tow are two young twin toddlers. Seems like Pop has a soft spot for caring for orphans and inviting them into his home. His motive, however, isn't entirely based on compassion. In the case of the twins, he has been getting child welfare payments from the state. Pop is adverse to doing an honest day's work and is systematically exploiting "The System" itself, figuring out how to maximize government handouts that are designed to help the genuinely poor. Pop and Toby are poor, alright- but it's by choice. They live a spartan, nomadic existence and learn to do without materialistic things. All the while, Pop prides himself on maintaining a staunch conservative political viewpoint- that big government is bad and corrupt and that everyone should fend for themselves. As Julie Kirgo points out in her liner notes, he is not unlike some hypocrites today who denounce all aspects of the government but seem to be first in line for any payouts when it comes to exploiting government programs. Pop's car breaks down on a patch of remote government land in central Florida. With the car immobile, Pop announces that the group will simply make this their home. Before long, he and Toby have constructed a ramshackle home complete with outhouse.   When a local official tries to evict him, the wily Pop discovers that the precise land he is squatting on falls under an archaic law that allows him a loophole to claim it as his own. Much of the film is dedicated to Pop using his guile to outfox the city slickers who want him to move on. Meanwhile, he finds it beneficial to declare his one room shack a legal "community", which necessitates the appointment of a sheriff. Toby reluctantly accepts the job. The young man is more honest than his father but is naive in the ways of the world. Like the Clampetts of "The Beverly Hillbillies", Toby is more innocent than stupid and somehow finds a way to get the upper hand in every attempt made by others to undermine his family's homestead. Before long, he and Pop have built a successful fishing business that begins to thrive and deliver some legitimately-earned cash into their coffers.

The film is a bit off-kilter when it comes to explaining why Toby is so adverse to getting involved with girls. The explanation is shallow especially when one considers how hormones rage at that age. Joanna Moore is a social worker who attempts to seduce him but he turns her down. This sets in motion a major plot device in which she attempts to use loopholes in the law to take the twins away from the household unless they agree to leave the state. Meanwhile, "Sheriff" Toby has another problem: two big city gamblers (Simon Oakland and Jack Kruschen) have opened a adjoining all-night gambling den next to the Kwimper household. The two men pretend they want to be friends with the naive Toby, who they actually exploit to their benefit. The film climaxes in Toby taking on both the threat of the gamblers as well as the local officials, the latter in an amusing courtroom sequence.

"Follow That Dream" has Elvis croon a relatively light load of only five songs. They are of varying quality and, frankly are presented in ridiculous fashion. Elvis will be laying on the grass staring dreamily into the sky and when he begins singing, the sound of a band appears out of  nowhere as he unconvincingly lip-synchs the lyrics. Nevertheless, the paucity of songs does allow Elvis to emote and he gives a fine, low-key and self-assured performance. He is helped by the fact that there are so many good character actors in the film and that the entire production is under the hand of an accomplished (if criminally underrated) director, Gordon Douglas. The screenplay is by another respected screen veteran, Charles Lederer. 

 

The film does end on a relatively uncomfortable note, with Toby and Holly becoming a romantic couple. They might not be blood relatives but they have been living in a brother/sister relationship, which gives this aspect of the story a bit of a disturbing aspect, much as similar relationship did in John Huston's "The Unforgiven" in which Audrey Hepburn seemed to have the hots for her adopted big brother Burt Lancaster. Still, "Follow That Dream" is one of Elvis' more impressive movies and illustrates the potential he would have had if he continued to be nurtured as an actor by seasoned professionals in the industry. What isn't explored in the Twilight Time liner notes are the specific missed opportunities. He had been offered a key role in "The Rainmaker" but the Colonel insisted that Elvis get top-billing in any motion picture- an absurdity considering this production wasn't a musical and top-lined two screen legends, Burt Lancaster and Katharine Hepburn. Years later, Hal Wallis did consider him for the second male lead in his 1969 production of "True Grit" but the Colonel would have none of it because Elvis wouldn't get top billing over John Wayne. The part went to Glen Campbell and the film was internationally hailed as a classic western. Frustrated, Elvis finally put his foot down and did his own western, a production called "Charro!" that was inspired by the Italian westerns made famous by Clint Eastwood and Sergio Leone. It wasn't half bad and Elvis acquitted himself well enough but by then his boxoffice appeal had dwindled. He would make only two more feature films, although he was the subject of two other acclaimed documentaries about his concert performances in the 1970s. The legendary performer had managed to salvage his musical career by ignoring the Colonel and getting back to basics with his sensational 1968 comeback TV special. Sadly, the same fate did not await him in the film industry and we are left to ponder what could have been. 

The Twilight Time release of "Follow That Dream"  is right up to the company's  usual high standards. In addition to an illustrated collector's booklet, there is an isolated score track and an original trailer. 

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BY FRED BLOSSER

Learning that a nuclear attack is imminent as international tensions escalate past the tipping point, James (voiced by John Mills) and Hilda (voiced by Peggy Ashcroft) prepare for the worst.  From their nostalgic memories of the World War II Blitz, the elderly English working-class husband and wife anticipate that “the worst” will be inconvenient but survivable. Consulting the government’s civil preparedness brochures, James constructs a lean-to shelter inside their cottage and lays in a supply of tea, crackers, and tinned food. When the bomb falls, the lean-to protects the couple from the immediate heat and concussion of the blast, but the house is in a shambles, the power is out, the taps have gone dry, and the toilet doesn’t work anymore. Gamely enduring, the couple settles down to wait for “the powers that be” to bring relief that never comes as the insidious effects of radiation sickness set in.

“When the Wind Blows,” an animated feature by Jimmy T. Murakami, faithfully reproduces the deceptively simple visual look of the 1981 graphic novel by Raymond Briggs on which it was based. As the story progresses, the bright, cozy tones of the early scenes give way to the darker, grayer shades of James and Hilda’s post-blast environment, and the texture of the images becomes richer and grittier. The story is poignant and its quietly angry message still resonates, even if we’ve swapped the Soviet bogeyman of the movie’s Reagan-Thatcher era for a new array of heebie-jeebies on the 6 o‘clock news. Remember, not so long ago, Homeland Security reassured us that we had nothing to fear if terrorists were to attack the U.S. with biological weapons: just stock up on dust masks and put duct tape around the windows.

Twilight Time’s new Blu-ray release packages a windowboxed, 1.33:1 transfer of the movie in 1080p hi-def with a wealth of supplementary materials, notably a making-of featurette, a 2010 documentary about animator/director Murakami, an interview with author Briggs, isolated music and effects tracks, audio commentary by First Assistant Editor Joe Fordham and film historian Nick Redman, and a handsome souvenir booklet by Julie Kirgo. The Blu-ray, which is limited to 3,000 units, can be ordered HERE.

BY DOUG OSWALD

The DVD cover art for “The Accursed!” states that the story is “from the files of the world’s most fabulous secret society: 1958’s sensational spy shocker!” The movie has the look of a low budget thriller from Hammer studios and features several alumni of that studio.

Eight members of a German underground resistance group meet annually on the anniversary of their leader’s death. Colonel Price, played by Donald Wolfit, became their new leader during the war and years later receives a call from his contact in Germany informing him that one of their members is a traitor and responsible for their former leader’s death. The man making the call says he wants to deliver the name of the traitor in person at Colonel Price’s home in England where the resistance group is also gathered. The man arrives, but dies after being stabbed before he reveals the name of the traitor.

“The Accursed!” features Wolfit, Robert Bray, Jane Griffiths, Anton Diffring and Christopher Lee in a post-WWII suspense thriller that’s mostly armchair mystery,as most of the movie takes place in one room of Colonel Price’s mansion. Among the members of the resistance group are Vicky, played by Griffiths, Joseph, played by Diffring and Doctor Neumann, played by Lee. Joseph is a pianist working on his next concerto and was in love with Vicki.

Shortly after the murder, American intelligence officer Major Shane, played by Robert Bray, arrives along with his British aid and proceeds to try and unravel the mystery and uncover a traitor. It turns out he knows the members of the group and it’s more than a coincidence that his car breaks down near the home of Colonel Price.

The movie moves at a brisk 74 minutes and the mystery is solved in a satisfactory manner. The film, directed by Michael McCarthy, includes a fine score featuring the piano solo “Prelude Without a Name” composed by Jackie Brown and played by Dennis Wilson. Wolfit and the rest of the cast are entertaining and the resolution is very enjoyable.

“The Accursed!” was completed in June 1956 and originally titled “The Traitor” when released in the UK in March 1957. It didn’t receive an American release until July 1958 via Allied Artists along with a title change. The title change is curious because the original title better connects to the story while “The Accursed!” reminds one more of a title for a horror movie.

There are a few scratches and artifacts found throughout the movie and a couple scenes go almost black, but overall this black and white movie looks pretty good. “The Accursed!” is a burn to order DVD released as part of the WB Archive Collection and there are no extras on the disc. The movie is presented in a widescreen format preserving the original aspect ratio of the movie. This is a good rainy day movie and a welcome addition for any fan of British murder mysteries.

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Out of This World: Little Lost Robot

DVD release from British Film Institute

Review by Adrian Smith

(This review pertains to the UK Region 2 DVD release)  

Alongside the recent BFI release of the BBC television series Out of the Unknown comes this oddity; the only completely surviving episode of Out of This World, a science fiction series produced in the early 1960s by independent television channel ABC. The series was created by Irene Shubick and produced by Leonard White, who would achieve lasting fame through his co-creating The Avengers. Like other anthology shows before it such as Armchair Theatre, this was conceived as an opportunity to present a variety of quality writing to mainstream audiences. It was Shubick's belief that science fiction contained some of the 'most original and philosophical ideas' in modern fiction.

Boris Karloff was employed as the presenter for the show. By this time he was seventy-five but was still regularly working in both the US and the UK despite deteriorating health. He was no stranger to the anthology format, having previously hosted the shows The Veil (1958) and Thriller (1960-1962), the latter running to sixty-seven episodes. Out of This World itself only ran to thirteen episodes, despite being a success at the time. Irene Shubick was poached by the BBC where she was able to spend the next several years working on her love for science fiction by producing the aforementioned Out of the Unknown, that time not using a presenter.

Sadly, due to budgetary constraints, it was common for television recordings to be erased after broadcasts, so only one episode of Out of This World remains, an adaptation of Isaac Asimov's Little Lost Robot. As with all of Asimov's robotic tales, the story deals with the problems that arise when the rules governing robot behaviour are tampered with. When an irritated engineer tells a highly-sophisticated robot to, "Get lost!" this is exactly what it does. Obeying every instruction, it proceeds to blend in with a hanger full of identical robots. However, as this robot had its rule to not allow harm to come to humans revoked, this poses something of a problem for those in charge. Dr Susan Calvin, a robot psychologist, is called in to devise a series of tests which will allow her to flush out the real lost robot in order that the whole batch need not be destroyed. Despite the small sets and slightly laughable robot costumes, it is an intriguing tale.

Fragments of other episodes have survived, and in attempt to be the most complete release possible the BFI have included them here: an audio recording of Cold Equations, starring Peter Wyngarde and Jane Asher, and an incomplete audio recording of Imposter, an adaptation of a Philip K. Dick story which would later become a Hollywood movie in 2001. Also included is the shooting script for Dumb Martian, adapted from John Wyndham, and a brand new audio commentary with the series producer Leonard White. White, now aged 98, is on remarkable form and has an excellent memory for his work in British television. Rounding out the DVD package is a booklet containing a full history of Out of This World including plot details for each episode.

 

This latest BFI release is the last in their current "Sci-Fi: Days of Fear and Wonder" season and is a must for completists and genre fans, and demonstrates that TV science fiction in the 1960s could be more than just Doctor Who.

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Cinema Retro has received the following press release:

ON THE EVE OF THIS YEAR’S SUNDANCE FILM FESTIVAL,

PAST GRAND JURY PRIZE NOMINEE, HOLY ROLLERS, STARRING NOMINEE JESSE EISENBERG, MAKES ITS FREE VOD DEBUT EXCLUSIVELY ON SNAGFILMS

Available Beginning January 20^th, this Ripped-from-the-Headlines Crime Drama,

Directed by Award-Winning Filmmaker Kevin Asch (Affluenza), Co-Stars Justin Bartha

(The Hangover), Ari Graynor (TV’s “Bad Teacher”), Danny A. Abeckaser (The Wolf of Wall Street), Q-Tip and Hallie Kate Eisenberg (Paulie); it Will Be Available to View Online

at SnagFilms.com, and All Supported Devices, Including Their Multi-Platform App

NEW YORK, NY (January XX, 2015) – Inspired by actual events in the late ‘90s in which Hasidic Jews were recruited as drug mules, HOLY ROLLERS was a Gotham Award winner and Sundance Film Festival Grand Jury Prize nominee in 2010. On the eve of Sundance 2015, the crime drama, starring Oscar® nominee Jesse Eisenberg (The Social Network, Now You See Me) makes its free VOD debut on January 20, exclusively on SnagFilms, the award-winning social video-viewing platform and 2014 Webby® nominee. It will be available to view online at SnagFilms.com, and all supported devices, including their multi award-winning app.

In HOLY ROLLERS, directed by award-winning indie filmmaker Kevin Asch (Affluenza), mild-mannered Sam Gold (Eisenberg) is a young Rabbinical student from an ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Borough Park, Brooklyn. Looking to make some extra money, Sam and his best friend Leon (Jason Fuchs, Ice Age: Continental Drift) accept a job from Leon’s brother Yosef (Justin Bartha, The Hangover) to retrieve a suitcase in Amsterdam and walk it through customs in New York. Yosef has ties to an Israeli drug cartel, the mysterious cargo turns out to be pure MDMA (ecstasy), and the promise of easy cash lures Sam into becoming a smuggler and dealer. The film co-stars Ari Graynor (Celeste and Jesse Forever), Danny A. Abeckaser (The Wolf of Wall Street), Q-Tip (Cadillac Records), and Hallie Kate Eisenberg (The Insider)

About SnagFilms

SnagFilms’ award-winning streaming video platform offers entertainment lovers an extensive library of over 5,000 free movies, TV series and web originals on demand. The platform provides members the tools to discover, watch and recommend a wide range of professional online video content. The SnagFilms viewing experience is available everywhere, enabling audiences to watch movies on the web (including thousands of affiliate sites) as well as on sector-leading applications that are available on mobile, set-top box and home entertainment devices.

SnagFilms, Inc., also owns Indiewire, the independent film industry’s leading news service and blog network, twice named top entertainment site by the Webby Awards. Founded by Ted Leonsis, SnagFilms, Inc. was named as one of Red Herring’s 2013 Top-100 Technology Companies in North America. Snagfilms.com was a Webby finalist as 2014’s top entertainment site and a 2013 Webby Honoree. SnagFilms, Inc. is headquartered in Washington, DC with offices in New York and Los Angeles. For further information, visit snagfilms.com.

BY FRED BLOSSER 

Producer Robert Stigwood ended the 1970s with three major musicals in a row, “Saturday Night Fever,” “Grease,” and “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Band,” and then stumbled in 1980 with “Moment by Moment,” a dumb romantic melodrama with Lily Tomlin and John Travolta. “The Fan” (1981) was expected to revive his winning streak, headlining Lauren Bacall and James Garner in a suspense thriller about a Broadway star (Bacall) stalked by the deranged title character, played in fine creepy fashion by newcomer Michael Biehn. But “The Fan” also did mediocre box office. Some observers believed the timing was bad. Three real-life tragedies involving stalkers were still uncomfortably fresh in peoples’ minds -- the murders of John Lennon and actress/centerfold Dorothy Stratten, and the attempted assassination of President Reagan. Other critics blamed the studio’s marketing of the production as a “Bacall and Garner movie.” The two stars drew an older fan base that perhaps expected a sedate show-biz suspense drama, and instead were surprised and turned off by scenes of slasher violence and homosexuality.

Despite co-billing with Bacall, Garner has hardly more than a walk-on role as Jake, the ex-husband of Bacall’s character, Sally Rice. He doesn’t even show up in the denouement when Sally has her big confrontation with knife-wielding Douglas Breen (Biehn) in an empty theater. Garner’s absence from this key scene must have confounded his followers. Surely Jake would pull a Jim Rockford and show up in the nick of time to rescue Sally.

Thirty-plus years on, viewers who come to “The Fan” by way of its new release as a Warner Archive Collection DVD may find it far more interesting than moviegoers in 1981 did. This was director Edward Bianchi’s first feature film (he’s since gone on to a prolific career directing TV dramas), and instead of investing the movie with his own style, he clearly borrows from Brian de Palma for the stalker scenes and from Bob Fosse for the backstage rehearsal scenes and Sally’s big number for opening night. It isn’t that Bianchi doesn’t borrow well, with the debt to de Palma underlined by the fact that the movie is scored by de Palma’s resident composer, Pino Donaggio. It’s that the jarring slasher scenes seem to belong to a different movie than the slinky, “All That Jazz”-flavored song-and-dance routines. Adding to the tutti-frutti mix, Bacall’s spotlight number, “Hearts, Not Diamonds,” sounds like a Saturday Night Live parody of a 1981-era Marvin Hamlisch/Tim Rice show tune. In fact, it actually is a Hamlisch/Rice composition.

Where the 1981 audience may have been disappointed by this scrambled omelet of over-the-top moments, it’s a lot more entertaining than the predictable, star-driven suspense movies that followed later in the ‘80s, such as “Still of the Night,” “Jagged Edge,” and “Suspect.” Younger viewers now may get a kick out of the movie’s vanished world of land-line rotary phones, typewriters, and people smoking in hospital waiting rooms. Pay attention and you’ll see Griffin Dunne, Dana Delaney, and Dwight Schultz in minor roles. A scene of Douglas cruising a gay bar, with unfortunate results for a young man he picks up, has chilling implications on a symbolic level that would not have been apparent to audiences when the movie opened in May 1981; the first reports of a real-life scourge stalking the gay community, AIDS, had not yet surfaced.

The Warner Archive Collection edition of “The Fan” is a manufactured-on-demand DVD. It has a scene-selection menu and English captions for the hearing-impaired, but no other extras. The image is a little soft, which may be unavoidable for older source material, and it’s only a drawback in the “Hearts, Not Diamonds” number where a crisper image would add to the fun.

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BY JOHN M. WHALEN

Violence in American football has been a big issue during the last year. After former Baltimore Ravens running back Ray Rice was videotaped knocking his girlfriend unconscious in an elevator and other players were reportedly involved in incidents of domestic abuse, the National Football League issued a Code of Conduct for players. Violation of the code can result in a player being suspended or kicked out of the sport altogether. In Great Britain, however, it’s not the players who are guilty of off-the-field violence, it’s the fans. “Football hooliganism” as it is known, is and has been a problem for years. Nick Love’s 2008 film, “The Firm” tells a story set in the midst of this violent world.

For those who don’t know, football hooliganism refers to the organized gangs of young soccer fans, almost all young men, who meet one another when the mood strikes them to have a go at bashing each other’s heads in. These organized groups, sometimes consisting of 100 or 200 young men, are known as “firms.” According to Nick Love’s film, however, football has little to do with the violent encounters these groups instigate. In fact, there was not a single frame of film shot at a soccer stadium during a game.

“The Firm” was originally a television play broadcast in the 1980’s and featured Gary Oldman as Bex, the leader of one of the firms. Reviews indicate it was told from Bex’s point of view. Love’s adaptation keeps the time frame, but changes the point of view and makes it more of a coming of age story. In this version, the viewpoint character is Dom, a boy in his teens who still lives with his parents, and encounters Bex and immediately succumbs to a kind of hero worship.

Paul Anderson plays Bex in this version, and Calum MacNab is Dom. Both give very good, very real performances. And the shifting point of view between the two main characters provides an interesting contrast between the two characters’ lifestyles. By day Bex wears a suit and tie and sells real estate. At night, he wears Adidas and bright-colored jogging suits. He hangs out at a local pub with members of his “firm,” and sets strategy for the next coming fight.

Dom, on the other hand, lives in an “estate,” an ugly housing project. and works with his father in a construction business. Dom’s parents are shown to be mindless cogs in the lower class of society. A chance encounter in a pub brings Dom and Bex together, and the younger boy is impressed with the older man’s ferocity and ruthlessness. When he’s invited to join Bex’s firm he jumps at the chance. He immediately goes out and begs for money from his dad to buy the kind of clothes Bex wears. He leaves his former best friend in the dust, and begins using hooligan slang, that his parents don’t understand.

But it is this emulation of Bex that leads to the beginning of Dom’s disenchantment with his idol. The turning point comes in a scene where Dom shows up at a firm meeting wearing the same exact red jogging suit and shoes that Bex is wearing. When the rest of the firm ridicules Dom for this faux pas Bex simply shrugs his shoulders and lets them rag on him until they’ve had enough. When he finally tells the others to leave him alone, you can see the disappointment in Dom’s eyes.

As the story progresses, Dom begins to see the man he thought was so cool is actually some kind of psychotic, a man full of violent rage. He leads his firm in several clashes with another group, the Setis, with the violence escalating with each encounter. Dom watches as Bex’s lieutenants try to reason with him, but to no avail. He seems determined to lead his gang and himself into suicidal disaster.

“The Firm” is an interesting film, and keeps you glued to the screen to see how it finally turns out. And unlike so many films today, it’s about something real, not spaceships and superheroes. I give Love credit for carrying on a long tradition of realism in British films that dates back to the days of Tony Richardson, John Osborne and Alan Sillitoe. Love is not as good a writer as any of those three. This film contains none of the indicting dialogue of England’s so-called “Angry Young Men” characters who were so prevalent in films of the 1960s.

Love tells his story visually. Dialogue is minimal and what there is of it can barely be understood because of the characters’ heavy accents. It’s all surface level action. That combined with the loud soundtrack full of music from the ‘80s results in an accurate portrait of the England of Margaret Thatcher, but it does not go very deep into what really motivates men like Bex and Dom.

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Still, it’s a film well worth watching. The Twilight Time limited edition Blu-ray transfer is first rate. The disc contains extras, including the usual deleted scenes and “making of” featurettes. Another on how the gang fights were choreographed also was of interest. A booklet containing notes by Julie Kirgo i also illuminating. The disc also has an isolated soundtrack score. All in all, a nice package.

This release is limited to only 3,000 units. Click here to order. 

(John M. Whalen is the author of "Hunting Monsters is My Business: The Mordecai Slate Stories" . Click here to order the book from Amazon) 

In a major coup, Amazon Prime's video streaming service has signed Woody Allen to write and direct a full season of half-hour programming. The new series has not been titled nor has a concept even been finalized. Allen- presumably in jest- said that his lack of vision for the project may make Amazon regret its decision. That seems unlikely. Allen is one of the most prolific filmmakers in the world and has a track record that is unrivaled: he has released at least one major film every year since he made his directorial debut with "Take the Money and Run" in 1969. Allen is also arguably at the pinnacle of his career, with some of his recent films earning major awards and kudos from critics.

Amazon Prime is going toe-to-toe with Netflix in terms of dominating the video streaming business.  Polls show that viewers are rapidly defecting from watching traditional TV broadcasts in favor of utilizing streaming, which allows them to watch what they want whenever they want on TVs and mobile devices. The signing of Allen gives a boost in prestige to Amazon. For more click here.

BY ROD BARNETT

The Warner Archive continues to serve film fans very well by remastering and releasing a continual stream of little-known and under-appreciated movies from their huge vault. Terror on a Train (1953) (titled Time Bomb for its UK release) certainly fits the “little-known” category and once it's seen by more people I think it will be quite well appreciated by fans of tight B cinema.

The film takes place in England where a sharp-eyed police officer catches a man skulking about a train yard at night. The fellow assaults the cop and runs off leaving behind a bag with the components of a bomb. Quickly the police realize that the escaped man must have planted a bomb on the munitions train he was seen near. Looking over the train's schedule they surmise the bomb must be on a timer and would probably be set to explode when the train reached the most populous spot on its trip - the Royal Navy Yard in Portsmouth.

Inquirers for a demolitions expert lead the authorities to Canadian national Peter Lyncort (Glenn Ford) who was trained in World War II as a explosives defuser and his help is enlisted even though he tells the government men he is not at his best, as his wife Has just walked out on him minutes before! The railway authorities divert the train onto a line in a residential area and the people nearby are evacuated as Lyncort tries to find and disassemble the explosives hidden among the dozens of large mines before the time bomb will explode. At the same time, the cop who was assaulted by the saboteur is allowed to play a hunch that the bomber might want to observe his handiwork. He goes to the train station in Portsmouth in the hopes of spotting the man and possibly getting more information out of him about the bomb's location. Will Lyncort succeed or will all his marital problems be solved in a loud ka-boom?

This is a short, sharp thriller that moves along very quickly and maintains interest throughout its 72 minute runtime. Although the film has a pretty good score it is used very sparingly until the end. The tension of the film is built through good editing and direction (by Ted Tetzlaff) instead of musical stings and the movie is the better for it. Many films are undercut by layering the score over every scene but here the natural, ambient sounds of the hunt for both the bomb and the saboteur are used to make things more realistic. It could be argued that the martial discord story element is superfluous but I enjoyed the tension it added to the ending as Mrs. Lyncort realizes that it is her husband that is risking his life to defuse the explosives. The film was shot on location and that adds verisimilitude to the proceedings as does the inclusion of several nice eccentric characters who seem to mainstays of British cinema from this era.

The Warner Archive DVD presents the film in its original aspect ratio looking and sounding crisp and clean. The only extra offered is the trailer which might best be skipped until the feature has been enjoyed so that spoilers are avoided.

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By Don Stradley

The final image of Arthur Penn’s “Night Moves” certainly gets the movie pundits in a lather. The scene consists of Gene Hackman as private eye Harry Moseby, shot to pieces but still trying to steer his motor boat to shore. Bleeding badly from his wounds, he’s unable to reach the gears; he ends up setting the boat in a circling motion. From above, we see Harry’s boat circling aimlessly in the Gulf Stream. This scene, which brings the film to a finish, has been described as a metaphor for many things, including America’s lost identity after the Watergate era, to Moseby’s own fruitless search for the truth, to Penn’s own floundering career. To me, it always looks like the boat is going down a drain (or a toilet). It’s the sort of ending that leaves a viewer wondering if you’ve missed something, and leaves critics tripping over their tongues trying to explain it. It’s a bummer, that’s for sure.

But don’t let your aversion to despair prevent you from watching “Night Moves”. I think it actually trumps the self-conscious “Chinatown” as an example of neo-noir, mostly because it doesn’t dress itself up in period garb; instead, it settles into its own time period, 1975, with Moseby being as much a man of the ‘70s as he is of the noir tradition. Moseby isn’t above roughing a guy up for some information, and he certainly beds down his share of women, but he also deals with such modern ‘70s elements as a cheating wife, an estranged father, and his share of shattered dreams. Poor Harry is not only a failed football player, but he’s even failing in his second career, that of a private investigator. What actor from noir’s golden era could play Moseby? Bogart was too self-assured. Alan Ladd was too much the tortured angel figure. Widmark? Maybe. Mitchum? Never. Hackman, raw-boned but intelligent and slightly melancholy, was born to play Moseby. He’s just about in his prime here, on the heels of those great performances in “The French Connection”, “The Conversation”, and “Scarecrow”. As Moseby, he’s the private eye as working class mug. He’s too good for the work he’s in, but not too good to mingle with the people he’s investigating.

The screenplay, by Brit novelist turned Hollywood writer Alan Sharp, borrows all of the right elements from the noir cannon: A faded actress hires Moseby to locate her missing daughter, Delly. The search brings Moseby to Florida where he finds Delly with her step-father Tom, a charter pilot who seems to be part of a smuggling operation. It’s all a bit vague and confusing, but it’s so beautifully played by Hackman and company that you won’t mind not getting it all. When you get to the end, don’t try to figure out what just happened, because the movie wasn’t designed to be understood. Just absorb it and walk away.

The supporting cast is up to the challenge of keeping up with Hackman, especially a young James Woods as a slippery mechanic who knows more than he lets on, and a 17-year-old Melanie Griffith as the sinfully attractive Delly (short for Delilah). John Crawford plays Tom as a blubbery middle-aged doofus, but his climactic fight scene with Hackman is splendid, one of the unsung fight scenes of the ‘70s, right up there with Ernest Borgnine attacking Lee Marvin with a hammer in “Emperor of the North”. Jennifer Warren is Tom’s girlfriend Paula, a slightly faded hippie chick whose resume includes such varied jobs as teaching, stripping, and hooking. Warren is one of those actresses who didn’t act in many movies, but looks familiar because she did so much TV work. Either that, or it’s because she resembles that other faded hippie chick, Susan Anspach.

The shoot took place during the second half of 1973 in Los Angeles as well as at Sanibel and Captiva Islands in Florida. It was a troubled production. Hackman, a sullen sort to begin with, was enduring some personal problems; Sharp was unhappy with the handling of his script, and later complained about Penn’s “indecisiveness”; and Penn was in a dark mood due to the darkness of the material, which he described as being about “a country gone boundless.” The director cut scenes that slowed the action, assuming the audience could figure out what was happening. This is what gives the film its quick pace, but may also add to the sense that we’re losing something. Penn also admitted that halfway through the shoot he stopped caring so much about creating a detective story, and became more interested in revealing Harry Moseby’s inner-self.

“We didn’t pay that much attention to plot,” Penn said at the time of the movie’s premiere in 1975. “We thought that plot was not going to be achievable, that there was never going to be way of saying ‘Ah-ha!’ in the last reel when you find out that so-and-so did so-and-so. And my only excuse or explanation for that is that we’re part of a generation which knows there are no solutions.”

Ironically, nine days after the release of “Night Moves” came the release of “Jaws”, a movie that set records at the box office and forever changed the way movies were made and distributed. Steven Spielberg’s shark may as well have eaten every print of “Night Moves”, for the arrival of “Jaws” more or less marked the end of contemplative stories like the one about Harry Moseby. There was nothing vague about the ending of “Jaws”, that’s for sure. The good guys killed the shark, and that was that. There were certainly no conversations as you left the theater about whether the shark really died or not. The era of introspective characters and vague endings was over. No solutions? Just blow it up, Jack.

In the years since “Night Moves” first hit theaters, its supporters have praised it as an underappreciated gem, and I agree. There are some great lines here, like when Moseby’s wife walks in as he’s watching a football game. She asks, “Whose winning?”

“Nobody,” he says. “One team is just losing more slowly.”

Little nuggets like that one keep the movie afloat, even as the story becomes harder to follow.

“Night Moves” is available on the Warner Bros streaming service. 

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

When one considers the films of the late, great French director Louis Malle, soul-searching dramas such as "Au Revoir, Les Enfants", "Lacombe, Lucien", "Pretty Baby" and "Murmur of the Heart" come to mind. Malle also had a whimsical side and was not adverse to inserting a good deal of wit and humor into some of his films such as the remarkable "My Dinner With Andre", which consists almost entirely of a conversation between two old friends presented in real time. Then there is Malle's masterpiece "Atlantic City", a witty and moving look at aging with dignity set within the world of petty criminals in the dilapidated New Jersey resort town. One genre you would not associate with Malle is action/adventure. Yet, in 1965, Malle improbably delved directly into that genre with "Viva, Maria!", an expensive production that top-lined two of France's most popular home-grown national treasures, Brigitte Bardot and Jeanne Moreau. The film is a weird entry in Malle's body of work but it is nonetheless a great deal of fun and Kino Lorber has, thankfully, just released a stunning transfer of the film on Blu-ray.

The film opens in Europe in 1907 where we find a little girl named Maria shamelessly exploited by her Irish terrorist father, who utilizes her innocent persona to help him carry out deadly attacks against the British government. It's a sordid relationship that extends over many years, as Maria comes of age but remains devoted to her father's cause. The pair's war against government oppression ultimately leads them to the fictitious Central American nation of San Miguel. Here, the duo wreaks havoc on the corrupt government, which is controlled by a brutal dictator named Rodriguez (Carlos Lopez Moctezuma). Eventually one of their plots goes wrong and the father is killed in a shootout with government forces. Maria (Bardot), now a stunning beauty in her twenties, makes a narrow escape and finds refuge inside the wagon of a traveling circus. Here, she holds one of the performers, also named Maria (Moreau), at gunpoint while she gorges herself on food and drink. Despite the hostage-taking scenario, the two women bond in friendship. Bardot Maria is unsophisticated but courageous and self-reliant. Moreau Maria recognizes her as a diamond in the rough and sees elements of her own personality in her. Both are single women trying to survive in a world dominated by men. Knowing that Bardot is wanted by the law and the subject of a nationwide manhunt, Moreau convinces the owners of the circus to bring her on board as a partner for Moreau in her dance act. They perform their relative benign act in  wild barrooms  in front of sex-starved men who shoot each other at the drop of a hat. When a minor wardrobe malfunction reveals more skin than anticipated, the audience goes wild. The two Marias decide to incorporate this accidental bit of  bawdiness into their act. Before long, they become a sensation with their mild striptease act. The entire nation has heard about them, even if the majority of peasants will never get to see their act. The Marias prove to be lucrative for the circus and both women are content. Bardot Maria looks enviously on Moreau Maria's active love life as the traveling show attracts hunky guys in every town. Soon, the virginal Bardot decides to give men a try. She is instantly hooked and outdoes her mentor in the boudoir. (This is another unusual aspect of the film for its day: the notion of women enjoying fulfilling sex lives without any shame or guilt).  

The blissful lives of the two Marias come to a crashing halt when the circus troupe is arrested by goons who work for Rodriguez after the women interfere with the ransacking of a village during which numerous innocent people are murdered and enslaved. The circus performers are imprisoned, presumably to await certain execution. While in jail, Maria Moreau meets a prominent revolutionary, Flores (George Hamilton, somewhat out of place in the proceedings.) Although tied to a cross and in terrible pain, he is not immune to Maria's charms- especially when she - shall we say- alleviates him from some of his stress. Before long, both Marias are influenced by Flores to join the revolution. They help the circus performers orchestrate an escape that is amusingly staged, as each performer utilizes his or her unique talents in order to overcome the guards. Before long, the two Marias are national icons for the peasant class, who mobilize an army behind them. The final act of this bizarre "western" finds the Marias boldly leading their new army into battle against the forces of Rodriguez.

"Viva Maria!" (the Blu-ray sleeve omits the exclamation point) is wacko concept grandly executed by Malle. Both Bardot and Moreau seem to be having a grand time playing out the proceedings and foreshadowing the Women's Lib movement by portraying kick-ass action heroes. In the latter stages of the film, Malle goes for comic book heroics and blatant cartoon-like scenarios, but it all works very well indeed. Some of the battle sequences take on an almost epic feel but never overshadow the unique wit and style of the basic story line. I was surprised at how impressed I was by this film and the Kino Lorber transfer is most welcome.

The original trailer is included as a bonus extra. 

Highly recommended.  

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Vinegar Syndrome has released yet another retro erotica double feature on one DVD. Both flicks are from the big hair era of the 1980s and both features center on similar themes: a frustrated young woman whose workaholic lifestyle leaves virtually no time for their love life. "Purely Physical" (1982) is the more impressive feature, largely because it has some production values and a reasonably intelligent plot, coupled with relatively accomplished actors and actresses. Laura Lazare plays Kathy, a young, overworked college girl who needs extra income. She applies for and gets  a job as the night clerk at a local motel. It doesn't take long for the outwardly prim and proper Kathy to observe that the place's primary source of income is as a "hot sheet" destination for people who want to carry out their sexual fantasies. She keeps a poker face even when confronted with the obvious intentions of her clients. There is a nervous young teenage boy who has barely cobbled together the $32 room fee in order to finally consummate his love for his cute girlfriend. There is a dorky, chunky guy who believes the hot number who picked him up in a bar really just wants to sit around the motel room and indulge in his passion for movie trivia. (She turns out to be a conniving hooker.) There is the frustrated traveling saleswoman (Juliet Anderson as "Aunt Peg", the original screen cougar) who finds she has no time for lovers so has to take sexual matters into her own hands. Finally, there is an exhausted businessman whose friend sends up two hookers to please him. He rejects their offer but when they inform him that they are actually lovers, he relents and let's them indulge. Predictably, his exhaustion fades pretty quickly and he gets in on the action. Then there's the attractive and wealthy young woman who want to indulge in her fantasies by renting a room and bringing in her two male tennis instructors. Faced with this sexual tidal wave on her doorstep every night, Kathy finally succumbs to make her own fantasies come true.  "Purely Physical" was apparently filmed, at least in part, at a sizable motel, though one wonders if the owners who consented knew exactly what kind of movie was being made on their premises. The opening credits are actually rather impressive, with some good photography of Kathy bicycling through busy city streets. Lazare, who appeared in numerous porn films throughout the 1980s, overcomes the bad hairstyles of the day and gives a fairly accomplished performance. The film only disappoints on one level: the much-hinted-at match-up between Kathy and Aunt Peg never occurs, beyond some mild flirting. Still, "Purely Physical" is one of the better porn efforts of the era.

"Cathouse Fever" (1984), on the other hand, is a lazy "quickie" feature with Becky Savage as a young L.A. secretary whose work hours deprive her of any romantic relationships. She makes the bold decision to join a bordello in Las Vegas. Aside from some "B" roll footage of Vegas in the era, the rest of the film is shot in one-room settings with the exception of a few beach scenes in which Becky is seen walking on the beach. Once at the bordello, Kathy enthusiastically embraces her work, bedding and pleasing an oddball selection of guys, some of whom probably mirror the real life experience of hookers in that they are decidedly unattractive. The movie stresses comedy, with some slapstick sequences inserted into the action. The routine script includes the usual standard sequences involving lesbians and group sex but most of it plays out in mundane fashion.

Both features boast excellent transfers and include the original trailers.

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BY LEE PFEIFFER

Those delightfully perverted souls at Vinegar Syndrome have delved back into the well to resurrect another interesting artifact relating to retro erotica. "Prisoner of Paradise" has to be one of the most ambitious porn feature films ever made. Released in 1980, it actually had a fairly exotic location and a semi-respectable budget, at least compared to the grindhouse fare that was being churned out back in the day. The film is attributable to one Gail Palmer, who became a bit of sensation for her status as one of the few female directors of porn movies. Here, she is credited with co-directing the film with porn legend Bob Chinn. (It has since been alleged that, in fact, she only served as a front for her then-boyfriend, who was said to be the actual  director of the films that bore her name.) "Prisoner of Paradise" presents a bizarre scenario that starts out as a straight adventure film. The ubiquitous porn presence, John Holmes (aka Long Johnny Wadd) stars as an American sailor in WWII. When we first see him, he's washed up on a tropical island. (Yes, the film seems to have actually been shot somewhere more exotic than a bedroom above an L.A. taco restaurant.) Seems Holmes' character, Joe Murrey, is the only survivor of a Japanese submarine attack on his vessel. The film actually plays out as a legitimate survival story for a while, with Holmes' Joe  exploring the island, trying to build shelter and identify ways to hunt and find fresh water. In fact, the film moves at such a deliberate pace that it takes a full eleven minutes until the script allows Holmes to reveal his legendary appendage. This is done through the use of flashbacks. We see him interacting with the love of his life, a Chinese girl in an unnamed city, presumably in China. Prior to shipping out to sea, they have an emotional goodbye, as seen in a tastefully directed lovemaking sequence. Minutes later, however, a bombing raid occurs and the girl is killed, leaving Joe emotionally devastated. Now he is apparently the only inhabitant of this remote island and the memories of his love haunt him even further...that is until he comes across the shocking sight of two stunningly beautiful  women bathing in a nearby waterfall. Joe follows them and makes an even more shocking discovery: they are part of a tiny Nazi/Japanese encampment. The women are Ilsa and Greta (played respectively by platinum-haired porn icon Seka and Sue Carol.) Turns out that they are Nazi soldiers who have been assigned to this secret outpost along with their commandant, Hans (screen credited as Heinz Mueller. Real name: Elmo Lavino!). Joe observes the goings-on at the camp, which consists only of a hut and small storage shack. The only other inhabitant is a Japanese guard (Jade Wong). The wacky premise is based on the fact that Germany and Japan were allies during the war, but the real reason seems to be a set-up for some inter-racial sexual romps. 

Joe is startled to see two captive American nurses (Nicki Anderson and Brenda Vargo) taken at gun-point into the shack where they are sexually abused by the commandant and his two female adjutants, who conveniently turn out to be lesbian dominatrixes. Joe makes a daring attempt to rescue the nurses but they are captured by Suke, the Japanese guard. Brought before the commandant, the trio is subjected to both verbal and sexual abuse- well, at least the women are. Joe's "punishment" is having one of the nurses perform...er, let's call it oral surgery- on him. There are also the prerequisite lesbian sequences. The commandant is total nutcase who is so over-the-top that he makes Werner Klemperer's Col. Klink look like a model of comedic restraint. The commandant toasts pictures of Hitler, even as he condemns him for banishing him to this remote outpost. (Would he really rather have been on the Russian front than on a tropical island with sex-starved women?)  Suke makes her predictable intentions known by performing more...er, oral surgery- on Joe, who is tied to a post. During the course of his confinement, he sees the kind of action you used to have to go to Plato's Retreat to experience, yet he is intent on breaking loose. The finale of the film finds Joe successfully freeing the nurses and killing his Axis enemies in a fiery explosion.

What sets "Prisoner of Paradise" apart from most of the porn drivel of this era is the better-than-average direction coupled with a relatively lavish budget. There are some impressive special effects in the finale and the directors even manage to squeeze in an original love song, which isn't as bad as those old lemons by Bread that used to chart in Billboard in the 70s. The battle sequences are shown in flashback and consist of genuine newsreel footage combined with footage from "Tora! Tora! Tora!". 

They used to call James Brown "the hardest working man in show business." With all due respect to the Godfather of Soul, I don't think he could hold a candle compared to John Holmes, who was said to have gotten it on with literally thousands of women, all under hot kleig lights in front of a camera crew. "Prisoner of Paradise" at least offered him a change of scenery. The film is rather entertaining in its own bizarre way and the Vinegar Syndrome DVD is impressive. It boasts a fine transfer as well as the original trailer and a gallery of other retro porn coming attractions.  

RETRO-ACTIVE: THE BEST FROM CINEMA RETRO'S ARCHIVES

By Lee Pfeiffer

Paramount has released a 2 disc special edition of the 1968 comedy classic The Odd Couple as part of the studio's Centennial Collection. The film retains all of its initial appeal, despite the fact that virtually every baby boomer has committed the scenes and dialogue to memory. Although most people regard this as the first historic pairing of Jack Lemmon and Walter Matthau, in fact, that occurred with Billy Wilder's 1965 gem The Fortune Cookie which saw Matthau winning the Oscar for supporting actor. The genius behind the story, of course, is Neil Simon, who adapted his smash hit Broadway play for the film. The part of Felix Unger was originally played on Broadway by the great Art Carney, but Lemmon was a much hotter box-office property and got the role in the feature film. The film is creative in the ways it opens up beyond the confines of a Broadway play, and affords some great views of New York City in the late 1960s. The DVD release boasts a widescreen edition of the film that is glorious to behold. In addition to a commentary track by the star's sons, actor Chris Lemmon and director Charlie Matthau, there is a full disc devoted to extras. Much of this consists primarily of talking head shots of various individuals extolling the virtues of the story as well as Lemmon and Matthau, who were regarded as all-around great guys to work with. Among those interviewed are the film's director Gene Saks, Carole Shelley (who played one of the Pigeon sisters), David Sheiner (who played the poker buddy Roy), actor Brad Garrett and even Larry King, who makes a poignant case for his belief that this is The Great American Comedy. Robert Evans, who ran Paramount during that era, is also interviewed and says that Lemmon's salary of $1 million equaled the cost of the rest of the budget. The extras are broken down into mini featurettes that cover most aspects of the film, but concentrate primarily on the Lemmon/Matthau relationship, as the two were best friends throughout most of their careers. (Almost poetically, they died within a year of each other). The segments in which Chris Lemmon and Charlie Matthau express their adoration of their fathers is quite touching and often amusing.  

By Don Stradley

Charles Bronson was 55 at the time of “St Ives” (1976). He was just a couple years past his star-making turn in “Death Wish”, and was enjoying a surprising run of success. I say surprising because Bronson had, after all, been little more than a craggy second banana for most of his career. Now, inexplicably, he had box office clout as a leading man. In fact, Bronson reigned unchallenged for a few years as the most popular male actor in international markets. Yes, even bigger than Eastwood, Newman, Reynolds, Redford, or any other 1970s star you can name. Many of Bronson’s movies were partly financed by foreign investors, for even if his movies didn’t score stateside, they still drew buckets of money in Prague or Madrid. Some have suggested that his popularity on foreign screens was due to how little he said in his movies (there was never much dubbing required in a Bronson flick). I tend to think international audiences simply liked what Bronson was selling: straight forward toughness. Because he was much older than his peers, he didn’t play up the counter cultural smugness or cynicism. No, Bronson was a shear, undiluted bad-ass. And that sells anywhere.

So what, I wonder, did the global movie goer think of “St. Ives”? It was a change of pace for old Charlie, for he talks more here than in “Mr. Majestyk,” “The Stone Killer” and “Hard Times” combined. He’s also not blowing his enemies away, or beating them senseless in an alley fight. Even the veins in his neck seem relatively docile in this movie. He plays Raymond St. Ives, a former L.A. newspaper columnist who lives in a fleabag hotel. He sleeps late, gambles what little money he makes on football, and is supposedly working on a novel. We never see him writing, but every time someone greets him they say, “Hey, how’s the novel going?” That’s how we know. (The adverts for the movie also showed Bronson smoking a pipe, yet he doesn’t smoke a pipe in the movie. Since he spends a lot of time at a deli, a more accurate poster would have shown him eating a pastrami sandwich.)

When he’s not being a lovable slacker, St. Ives occasionally “helps” people, ala Travis McGee. The connections he made during his years as an ambulance chaser now assist him when he needs help tracking down a shady character. When he’s hired by a wealthy old windbag to retrieve some stolen documents, he soon finds himself knee deep in dead bodies, and crooked cops. John Houseman plays Abner Procane, the aforementioned windbag. Procane sits in his mansion, weeping over old King Vidor movies, while a mysterious coterie of people bustles around him, including a personal psychiatrist who massages his back. He’s mum about the contents of the documents, but he’s willing to pay a lot of dough to get them back. Since St. Ives is not close to finishing his novel, he takes the gig. As the movie’s tagline read: “He's clean. He's mean. He's the go-between.”

The screenplay by Barry Beckerman was based on a novel by Ross Thomas, and it tries hard to ape the old Raymond Chandler style. Unfortunately, it’s neither tough enough to be “hard-boiled,” nor dark enough to be “noir.” It’s simply the sort of convoluted “who done it” that was rampant as the mid-1970s went nutty with detectives. Not only was every TV network saturated with investigators of every ilk, but the big screen was hit with dozens of features, including “The Long Goodbye” (1973), “Chinatown” (1974) remakes of “Farewell My Lovely” (1975), and “The Big Sleep” (1978), plus lighter versions of the genre such as “The Late Show” (1977) and “The Big Fix” (1978). “St. Ives” fits into the list somewhere, if only because it was probably made to catch the wave created by “Chinatown.” It’s not nearly as good, but it has many fine moments and is more watchable than you might think.

First of all, the film looks great. Cinematographer Lucian Ballard, who worked with the likes of Stanley Kubrick and Sam Peckinpah, finds the right tone for an LA where it’s always just past sundown, a low rent LA of crowded diners, crappy motels, and garages where cars are outfitted with armor plating. Also, J. Lee Thompson, a versatile and underrated director (“Guns of Navarone” “Cape Fear”) moves the story along at a brisk step. There’s a great scene early on where Bronson is thrown down a freight elevator shaft and has to scramble his way to safety before he’s crushed; it’s as intense as anything Thompson directed in his long career.

The cast features a pleasing collection of journeymen and fringe contenders, including the likes of Houseman, Maximillian Schell, Elisha Cook Jr., Michael Lerner, Harris Yulan, Harry Guardino, Daniel J. Travanti, and Dana Elcar. You’ll even see Jeff Goldbloom and Robert Englund as hoodlums who learn that one shouldn’t mess with Charles Bronson, even when he’s not in vigilante mode. Jacqueline Bisset is here, too, for movies of this sort require a femme fatale. She doesn’t quite cut it – she’s too urbane - but her wet t-shirt scene in “The Deep” was coming up soon and all would be forgiven.

“St. Ives” loses steam during a second half mired in car chases and dreary detective work. Lalo Shifrin’s scratchy guitar and bongo soundtrack fails, too, sounding more appropriate for an episode of ‘Baretta’. There’s a decent shootout at the end, and a couple of twists that we don’t see coming, but nothing in the film’s second half lives up to the promise of the first, when Bronson was discovering bodies stuffed into dryers, and Houseman was huffing and puffing like Sidney Greenstreet.

The movie flopped when it was originally released in the late summer of 1976. Audiences and critics alike couldn’t quite accept Bronson as a thinking, methodical character. One newspaper headline roared, “Is Bronson Going Soft?” Bronson couldn’t win. His violent movies were criticized for playing to the rabble, but when he tried to change, reviewers seemed indifferent, or in some cases, downright disappointed. “Bronson,” wrote a Pittsfield MA critic, “should be ashamed of himself.”

Bronson appeared in a few movies during this period that seemed to be a conscious break from his usual fare. There was “Breakheart Pass”, an interesting murder mystery set aboard a train in the 1800s, and a comedy western called “From Noon Till Three.” But as usually happens when a well-known star tries something different, these movies were a hard sell. LA critic Charles Champlin called “St. Ives” “competent but uninspired,” and said that Bronson, “continues to be a strong and attractive figure, even when he has as little to do as stroll through this charade.”

Was Bronson disillusioned by the cold reception given to “St. Ives”? If the movie had been a success, would he have considered playing more characters like Ray St. Ives, a fellow described in The New York Times as “….the kind of private-eye role that Humphrey Bogart used to do." I’d like to think that if this film had been a success, Bronson might have continued to evolve as an actor, rather than spending his later years grinding out the “Death Wish” sequels.

What I like best about “St. Ives” is that Bronson seems to be having fun. And he’s not half-bad. He was certainly not a Neanderthal who couldn’t handle dialog. He speaks the one liners and wisecracks with a surprising dryness, such as when some thugs rob him of 50 bucks and complain that he doesn’t have more money on him. "It only took you five minutes to get it," Bronson says. "That's $600 an hour..." Good stuff. Bronson may not deliver it the way Richard Dreyfuss would have, but Dreyfuss probably couldn’t climb out of an elevator shaft.

Still, there’s a telling moment late in the movie when Bronson pulls a gun. His eyes turn black and the gun seems an extension of his arm. While watching this scene I was reminded of something I once read about Buffalo Bill Cody – that his popularity was largely due to his looking better on horseback than any other man. And Bronson, too, I could argue, simply looked better with a gun in his hand than any other actor. And he didn’t need the comically huge hardware of Eastwood’s Dirty Harry, either. Bronson looked dangerous even with a small pistol. Perhaps it was inevitable that he would resume making violent pictures and leave the more subtle characters behind. But in “St. Ives”, he was compelling without leaving the streets awash in blood. Bronson was better than anyone knew.

“St. Ives” is available as part of the Warner Archives streaming service. Click here to access the site.

"St. Ives" and "Telefon" are available as a Bronson double feature DVD from Warner Home Video. Both titles contain original trailer and there is a vintage production featurette for "St. Ives".  Click here to order from Amazon.  

BY ROD BARNETT

As anyone with any knowledge of the history of film could tell you, Bruce Lee is an icon of both the worlds of martial arts and action cinema. He was a dynamic and exciting performer who seemed born to be on the big screen. His untimely death -just as his career was poised to become bigger than any previous Asian film actor- is only one element of his legendary status. Lee was an astonishing onscreen presence whose athletic abilities and kinetic style made him the center of attention whenever he was present. Until he was afforded the chance to star in his own movies, his bit roles such as a violent thug in Marlowe (1969) showed how thrilling he was to watch. His role in the short-lived TV series The Green Hornet cast him as the sidekick but it was Lee who provided the most memorable element in every one of those twenty six episodes. Once you've watched him onscreen his natural charisma is evident and it is no surprise that pictures of him often adorn the same walls as other 'gone too soon' icons as Marilyn Monroe and James Dean. Like those screen legends, Lee died in his prime with much promise laid out for the future and- like them- his loss will be felt by his fans forever.

Sadly, Bruce Lee's short film legacy is mostly unseen these days by martial arts movie fans. Other than his last completed film, Enter The Dragon (1973), his film history seems to have disappeared from the minds of most action fans. It almost as if Lee's contribution to martial arts cinema began and ended with that one excellent movie. Luckily, the fine folks at Shout! Factory have produced a fantastic, affordable Blu-Ray set that presents Lee's earlier films in nearly perfect transfers- and they have even included a few hours of extras to provide some context for modern viewers.

First up is 1971's The Big Boss which in many ways is the standard template for an entire sub-set of Chinese martial arts adventures. Lee plays Cheng, a young man from the countryside who is traveling to a bigger village to get a job (a common fate for males living in rural China). He intends to work hard and send money back home to his mother, who has extracted from him a promise not to utilize his considerable skills as a street fighter in the big city.. Cheng's uncle gets him a job in the local ice making factory but in just a few days our hero discovers that the business owner is using the industrial-sized blocks of ice to transport heroin. Cheng confronts the boss's henchmen and things get violent quickly- and become even worse when his his co-workers turn up murdered. Soon Cheng's (almost) girlfriend is kidnapped for the depraved boss' lustful attentions and it is time for wrongs to be righted in vengeful style.

The Big Boss was a huge financial success worldwide and made Lee's stardom concrete. In many ways it is typical of the type of action film being produced at the time in Hong Kong. The story is set in contemporary times and used the usual plotline of drug smuggling as the story's engine. There were at least a few dozen similar movies made in the 1970s what sets this production apart is the presence of Bruce Lee. His experience in American television and film is evident in his careful and fairly nuanced performance. Indeed, his more natural style often contrasts sharply with some of his co-stars as they mug their way across the screen like thy were projecting to the cheap seats. Lee's amazing physical skills are shown well here, too, even if I cringe at the silly trampoline work used to enhance the fights. The stunts are impressive and the action well choreographed with the only real complaint being that the film's pace is often leisurely to the point of irritation. The film clocks in at nearly two hours and could have been a good deal shorter.

Next up is 1972's Fist of Fury which is a period piece set in the early 1900's in Shanghai with Lee playing Chen Zhen. In many ways this is very much a typical martial arts film of the time with a plot seen often. Chen has returned to his old school to marry his beloved but learns upon his arrival that his martial arts master has died from what appears to have been natural causes. Chen is incredibly upset and angry about this and doesn't believe his master's death was natural. At the funeral students from a rival Japanese school insult Cheng even going so far as too slap him repeatedly. Cheng refuses to disgrace his master's funeral but he later goes to the rival school to challenge his harassers. In an impressive display of ability, he defeats the entire Japanese school including the master. This sets up an ongoing series of attacks and retaliations of various kinds that culminates in much mayhem, death and vengeance leading to a surprisingly downbeat ending. No one really wins in this terrible war.

As a modern viewer it is interesting to see how strong a statement this film makes about the horrors of racism. The war between these rival schools is based mostly on ethnicity and is ginned up by wounded pride and the inability to let old wounds heal. The emotions on display can feel over the top at times but they seem to reflect the blind hatreds of these groups as rational thought is ignored in the rush to inflict pain on rivals. Of course, this somewhat depressing takeaway doesn't alter the fact that the action scenes are incredible as a showcase for Lee, who demonstrates some amazing skills.. My favorite fight scene in Fist of Fury has to be the excellent dojo battle wherein Lee takes on an entire room of opponents and walks away unscathed. (The scene is marred only by the distraction of flying dummies and bad wigs.)

The year 1972 saw Lee taking control of his film career in a new way by writing and directing his next screen role. Way of the Dragon was released in the United States as Return of the Dragon but no matter what the title, it is a fascinating film. In Rome a Chinese restaurant owner is having trouble with the local crime bosses. Help from home is requested but when only one person appears in response to their plea, the victims despair. Luckily for them this one person is Bruce Lee as Tang Lung. Tang insists he is capable and even shows his open mindedness by stating that any fighting style is good and can be incorporated into your own form. Soon the mobsters are causing trouble, demanding payment and harassing the restaurant owners in any way they can. After a missed opportunity because of a poorly timed bathroom trip, Tang establishes his skills and warns the mafia bosses that these people and their establishment are under his protection. Even though a death threat on Tang is issued, he refuses to leave and ultimately is forced to take on his would-be assassins. Seeing that the local killers are not up to the task, a Japanese and an American martial arts experts are hired to finally take Tang out and it is in these confrontations that the conflict will be resolved.