A perfect Sunday afternoon film for me, a famous 1964 comedy directed by Blake Edwards. This is the second of the Pink Panther films, and the one where they established most of the characters that would turn up for the later Peter Sellers’ Pink Panther films of the ’70s. Co-starring Elke Sommer.
Not many are fans of the third Pink Panther film “Inspector Closeau” from 1968, starring Alan Arkin, but I dig that one as well.
A hysterical, low budget, shot on 16 mm, Canadian film directed by Lee Demarbre. The movie is from 2001, but the score will give you flashbacks to the video ’80s, the funky ’70s and the samba ’60s. Jesus is fighting vampires who have been preying on lesbians. He starts out strong, then gets his ass kicked, and finally comes back hard in the second half after teaming up with Mexican wrestler El Santo!
Produced and directed by William “Cannon” Conrad in 1965. I can’t understand why this House on the Haunted Hill-type film is insanely obscure, it is well made and stars Connie Stevens, Caser Romero, Dean Jones and a host of great character actors.
The plot revolves around a magician who leaves his castle to his daughter who has to stay for seven days. It is filled with great LA area location scenes including Benedict Castle, Palisades Park, and a go-go club with girls dancing in cages (but not the Whisky, maybe Pandora’s Box?). It’s a great film and deserves to be remembered better!
This 1964 film is usually considered the first giallo, an Italian genre of gory murder-mystery films. Director Mario Bava is a master of filling the screen with incredible colorful imagery. Last time I saw this film was in the VHS days, and that particular print was missing many key scenes, as used to be the case in those days with Italian horror and giallos. This film starred Eva Bartok and Cameron Mitchell, the token US actor.
While not usually mentioned in the same breath as other more famous Italian western-directing Sergios, Sergio Sollima, Corbucci or Leone, this 1969 film by Sergio Garrone is outstanding. The direction, the framing of shots and overall tone makes this one of the top twenty spaghetti westerns, for me anyway.
The plot is not related to other Django films. In this one Django is a ghost come back to avenge his own death. The incongruous overdubbing of his voice only adds to his creepiness.
Just watched this British horror/sci-fi from 1958, directed by a Quentin Lawrence, whoever that is. Featuring token U.S. actor Forrest Tucker (later of F-Troop). Radioactive clouds, homicidal undead, telepathic weirdness, and of course, crawling eyeballs with tentacles.
A bulletfest from an Italian police/crime genre called poliziotteschi, by director Enzo Castellari from 1976. Castellari is famous now for directing the original Inglorious Bastards, which is only vaguely related to the Tarantino film.
It stars Fabio Testi as a cop trying to bust up a protection racket. He gets fired, then assembles a hit squad to put an end to the gangsters for good. This was as fun as Bastards, I will have to watch it again.
A deranged Italian western from 1967 by director Giulio Questi.
Tomas Milian, my favorite spaghetti western actor, plays “The Stranger” and starts the film by crawling out of a grave!
It is not really part of the Django series as the name Django never appears anywhere except the US film title. The plot has similarities to the classic Yojimbo/Fistfull of Dollars plotline where The Stranger is stuck inbetween various factions. In this film they are all angling to get their hands on some stolen gold. There are almost no innocent characters in this film, everyone is greedy and corrupt.
The film is filled with stunning visuals, gruesome violence, incredible editing and an outstanding ending.
I haven’t watched this 1979 film by Don Coscarelli in a long time. It has a bizarre dreamlike quality to it, probably enhanced by the groan-inducing acting and limited budget, but the Tall Man character and the flying silver sphere are now classic icons of horror.
I happened to watch the extended version, which seems to indicate that they originally removed some scenes where the older brother gets his younger underaged brother drunk and they “rampage” through an ice cream store!