A trifecta of sixties films were the major picks this month.
James Landis' The Sadist was easily my favourite film. Its producer, Arch Hall Sr. also had a cameo and ghost produced another choice pick in Ray Dennis Steckler's surprisingly well made, The Thrill Killers.
Fast travel to Japan, and I was wowed by Yosuzô Masumura's psycho-sexual drama Blind Beast. Kudos for not going how I predicted it.
Film:
The Outlaw (Howard Hughes & Howard Hawks•, 1943)*
She Shoulda Said No! AKA Wild Weed (Sherman Scott AKA Sam Newfield, 1949)*
I'm All Right Jack (John Boulting, 1959)
The Sadist (James Landis, 1963)*
The Thrill Killers (Ray Dennis Steckler, 1964)*
Lady Morgan’s Vengeance (Massimo Pupillo, 1965)*
The Snake Girl and the Silver-Haired Witch (Noriaki Yuasa, 1968)*
A Woman Kills (Jean-Denis Bonan, 1968)*
Blind Beast (Yosuzô Masumura, 1969)*
Help Me… I’m Possessed (Charles Nizet, 1974)*
Hotel Fear (Francesco Barilli, 1978)*
Alley Cat (Victor M. Ordoñez, Edward Victor & Al Valletta, 1984)*
Hell Comes to Frogtown (Donald G. Jackson & R. J. Keizer, 1988)
Helter Skelter (Mika Ninagawa, 2012)*
Black Bear (Lawrence Michael Levine, 2020)*
The Menu (Mark Mylod, 2022)*
Babylon (Damien Chazelle, 2022 / 2023)*
Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg, 2023)*
Television:
The Day of the Triffids Season 1 - Episodes 1 - 6 (Ken Hannam,1981)
Neighbours - Episode 1 (Reg Watson, 1985 / 1986)*
The Day of the Triffids Season 1 - Episodes 1 & 2 (Nick Copus, 2009)
Mastermind Episodes 20 - 23 (Bill Wright, 2022 / 2023)*
*First time viewings.
• Uncredited.
Dada Debaser Notes:
- Instead of the adult film industry, imagine if Boogie Nights was about various figures during Hollywood’s transition from the silent movie era to the talkies and beyond. Now imagine it’s written and directed by a Criterion loving millennial in urgent need of Ritalin. That's Babylon!
- Couldn't help wondering if Laura Benedict in The Thrill Killers might be Aubrey Plaza's nan since she looked striking similar to her.
- Speaking of Aubrey Plaza, Black Bear was all right, but the meta film-making concept was way more creative and less exhausting in One Cut of the Dead (2017).
- Crazy how I'm All Right Jack, a British comedy from the 1950s, can still feel relevant decades later with its on point satire of working trade unions.
- Vincent D'Onofrio's performance in Chained was superb. Too bad the film was completely undermined by a terrible plot twist and a predictably ambiguous final scene.
- It wasn't until my appreciation post for Roy Budd's soundtracks did I realise he also scored both Steptoe & Son films.
- From Dr. Dre having the "bubblies" to Snoop & Truth Hurts having a quickie, the only redeemable part about The Wash was the end titles featuring the Bad Intentions music video.
- Still in two minds over Son of Cronenberg's new film. First hour was great, but afterwards... it kind of lost its way. Will return to it again soon, though.
- Tried watching that recent BFI Spike Lee Q&A, but kept being reminded of the Joker's art museum scene from Batman (1989).
- R.I.P to the bikini goddess Raquel Welch!
10 comments:
Hadn't seen that bad dream sequence intro bit to the first Neighbours episode before 👀
Bubba Sparxxx's Bubba Talk is the best song on The Wash OST, but I have no idea if it's featured in the movie and it's kinda disqualified because it was also on Bubba's first album.
Movies:
The Gamma People
The Vagrant
People Just Do Nothing: Big In Japan
TV:
The Twilight Zone (series 1)
People Just Do Nothing (series 1 - 5)
Only Connect
That nightmare intro was bonkers. Didn't realise Scott Robinson was played by a different actor initially.
Third from the Sun is probably my favourite episode from the first season of The Twilight Zone.
Was The Vagrant on TV, or something? Being dying to catch the Bill Paxton flick, if that's the one you listed.
My mate posted about The Vagrant on Instagram. Watched it on YouTube and liked it so much I copped the DVD. Can't front - I'd never heard of it before.
That's a great episode. Other series 1 faves:
Time Enough At Last
Nightmares As A Child
The Hitch-Hiker
Walking Distance
The Monsters Are Due On Maple Street
The Big Tall Wish
What You Need
I copped the whole series during the first lockdown and binged through it until around the mid-point of season 3.
Season 1 highlights:
Third from the Sun
The Lonely
Time Enough at Last
What You Need
I Shot an Arrow into the Air
The Last Flight
The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street
People Are Alike All Over
A Nice Place to Visit
The After Hours
How could I forget A Nice Place To Visit and I Shot An Arrow Into The Air 🤦♂️
The beauty of A Nice Place to Visit is even though the twist is blindingly obvious, it's still a lot of fun getting to that point.
I concur.
Just seen that Dance Craze is getting a cinema release in tandem with the DVD release. Definitely gonna go see that on the big screen.
Wish they would do the same for The Haunting of Julia AKA Full Circle.
It's like nearly £30 to cop it on the upcoming 4K/BR.
I've never bothered buying a Blu-ray player. Regular DVDs will do me 😄
Depends on the film, imo. A film as gorgeous as Suspiria would be worth the upgrade, I think. Whereas a movie like Nekromantik is hardly worth it.
Physical media is definitely becoming more and more important these days, that's for sure. Couldn't even find either BBC adaptation of Day of the Triffids on iPlayer last month.
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