Viewings: August 2023

Feel like I struck out this month as it’s mostly been a dour lot; the only notable film discovery was François Truffaut's The Bride Wore Black.

Film:

Anatomy of a Psycho (Boris Petroff, 1961)*

For a Few Dollars More (Sergio Leone, 1965)

The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism AKA The Blood Demon (Harald Reinl, 1967)

The Bride Wore Black (François Truffaut, 1968)*

Something Evil (Steven Spielberg, 1972)*

Kidnap Syndicate (Fernando Di Leo, 1975)*

Cat Murkil and the Silks AKA Cruisin’ High (John A. Bushelman, 1976)*

Blue Sunshine (Jeff Lieberman, 1977)

Arrebato AKA Rapture (Iván Zulueta, 1979)*

Tourist Trap (David Schmoeller, 1979)

Harlequin (Simon Wincer, 1980)

The Deadly Camp (Bowie Lau, 1999)*

Erotic Nightmare (Wai-Man Cheng, 1999)*

Television:

The Avengers (random episodes) (Sydney Newman, 1961 - 1969)* 

"New" Alfred Hitchcock Presents - Season 1, Episodes 0 - 4 (Christopher Crowe, Jon Slan & Michael Sloan, 1985)

Mastermind (random repeats) 

The Chase (random repeats)

 

* First time viewings.

 

Dada Debaser Notes:

• Blaming the Handover of Hong Kong on the decline of quality Cat. III films as the ones I watched this month were poor. There's a fine art to making exploitation, and The Deadly Camp and Erotic Nightmare lack any creatively OTT finesse.
• Arrebato isn’t the lost seventies masterpiece revisionist hipsters make it out to be. It’s an incoherent and boring mess themed around drugs and film making with a predictable climax.
• Although it’s a bit of a dud, Spielberg’s TV movie has some distinguishable elements that are later reused and improved in Poltergeist (1982); adding more credibility to the rumour he might have ghost directed it.
• Kidnap Syndicate was decent, but a real chore to sit through at times. Would have been more enjoyable without all the heavy-handed social commentary on classism weighing it down.
  
• Expected Anatomy of a Psycho to be another maniac film capitalising off the success of Psycho (1960). The reality is it's a dull juvenile deliquent movie.
  
• Revisiting Blue Sunshine and I've come to the conclusion it's basically a David Cronenberg film helmed by Larry Cohen instead. 
• Adding the Silks from Cat Murkil and the Silks in the same league as the Hi-Hats from The Warriors (1979) and the boat punters in Baby Love (1969) as lamest looking gang in a film. Surprisingly dark and twisted in places. Bloke who played Cat Murkil also briefly appeared in the intro to Halloween (1978) as Judith Myers's boyfriend. 
  
• While Christopher Lee might have top billing and is hardly in it, The Torture Chamber of Dr. Sadism is a gorgeous gothic euro horror. Because of this, I can't believe it's a German production and not an Italian or Spanish one. Also, Karin Dor is unrecognisable in it as a raven-haired brunette. Looked totally different when she played the S.P.E.C.T.R.E woman fed to the piranhas.

Other media related stuff I enjoyed while avoiding the Womens' World Cup: The Martorialist's songs that bring him joy; both volumes in Rob Hill's Alien knock-off films video essay; and the Emlyn Hughes of film criticism having a go at another movie I really like.

At Midnight I'll Take Your Wallet

Arrow Films is experiencing something of a redemption arc in 2023: from its lavish Bruce Lee 4K box set to its ode to eighties video store shelf fillers. For your host, its most attractive release was announced recently with the upcoming curation of Brazilian horror film maker José Mojica Marins - Inside the Mind of Coffin Joe.

Can't say I've seen every Coffin Joe film ever released, but this set includes far more titles than the one on my old 2009 DVD set with poor picture quality. What makes the creepy and thoroughly misanthropic undertaker's films so appealing to me are how they blend gothic horror with Jodorowsky levels of surrealism. The last Coffin Joe film I watched was the spectacularly bloody Embodiment of Evil (2008) and didn't lose any of the insanity of its predecessors.

Hyped for this set as I've been craving more vintage Latin American film oddities since discovering The Curious Dr. Humpp (1969) during the Covid lockdowns, but this is a rather pricey release. Of course, waiting for it to eventually go on sale runs the risk of it going out of stock and leaving me kicking myself for delaying it. FOMO's a bitch (and then you die)!

This Night I'll Possess Your Corpse (Original Trailer)

José Mojica Marins, 1967 

Hitchcock/True Foe

The Bride Wore Black (François Truffaut, 1968)

François Truffaut might very well be known to cinephilles for being part of the Nouvelle Vague, potentially pornographic sounding movies like Jules et Jim (1962) and The 400 Blows (1959), he's probably more likely to be known to sci-fi heads for his adaptation of Ray Bradbury's Farenheit 451, and for playing the French bloke in Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977). Truffaut also happend to write a book about the portly master of the macabre Alfred Hitchcock's films and craftmanship; subsequently, it followed with him helming the revenge thriller The Bride Wore Black (1968) a couple of years later. The Hitchcockian influence is abundantly evident.

Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned and in the case of Jeanne Moreau's newly wedded bride, her joyous day is instantly ruined as her other-half is shot dead while they're both exiting the church. With the love of her life gone, she's left feeling suicidal and comes up with a new set of vows: to eliminate those responsible for her husband's dead. Truffaut's film focuses on our vengeful bride's determination to hunt down her husband's killer(s); travelling all over the country, befriending or seducing her prey and then killing them. As a result, The Bride Wore Black plays out like a series of chapters focusing on the last days or hours of  her enemies.

Based on Cornell Woolrich's 1940 pulp novel (who also penned Hitchcock's seminal Rear Window (1954) and Mississipi Mermaid (1969), another Hitchcockian style film by Truffaut), the film adaptation entirely omits the on-going police investigation, as well as the protagonist's unhinged mental state resulting with the murdering of innocent men, à la Ms .45 (1981). Therefore, the film can leave the viewer perplexed with just how Moreau is able to track down the persons on her hit list, along with how freely she is able to operate in achieving her goals.

There's a lot to like about The Bride Wore Black: it's well shot and breezily paced above all else. The modern architectural shots and sixties decor remind me of a Jess Franco film without all the unnecessary hairy muff, but, much like Red Sun (1970), the German New Wave film covered here recently, it's another film where its unintentional comedy has me drawn to it like a moth to a flame. The fact that her victims are completely trusting brainlets is a major example of this. The first one hilariously climbs over a high-rise penthouse balcony to retrieve her scarf before he's predictably dispatched. Another ends up being locked under the stairs and is suffocated. Also, beauty might proverbially be in the eye of the beholder, but in the case of our victims, they definitely should have gone to Specsavers. A short, doughy, middle aged looking woman doesn't exactly pose in the head cannon of a French femme fatale, like say Brigitte Bardot or Catherine Deneuve. This especially rings true when she poses as an artist's model and has to dress up as Diana, the Roman goddess of hunting and looks completely ridiculous. However, what's beyond criticism for me is Moreau's actual performance, it's legitimately great as her immense bottled rage feels so tangible on screen.

Veteran composer and Hitchcock collaborator, Bernard Herrmann provides the score for Truffaut's film and it's laced with all his typical idiosyncracies. Worth stating that he also provided the score for another Hitchcockian thriller during the same year with the Boulting brothers' Twisted Nerve. I much prefer the latter film's score, but Herrmann composing any thriller is a win, in my opinion.

Finally, I can't really sign off without the obligatory comparisons to Quentin Tarantino's Kill Bill (2003 - 2004) duology being evidenet. The bride's revenge plot line is the obvious one, of course, but there are also the scenes where the bride crosses out the names of her victims that are notable, too. Let's be honest, The Bride Wore Black isn't exacty the only film to inspire Tarantino's work, particularly one that serves as a massive geek-out for genre film fanatics.

There's a She Wolf in the Drawer

Always puts a smile on my face whenever a 4K release of a trashy exploitation film is announced. The likelihood of it potentially riling up some pretentious cinephille, deeming it undeserving and all the while soporifc tosh like some Andrei Tarkovsky film still isn't available, is an additional bonus. The latest examples are the notorious Ilsa films.

The most infamous in the Ilsa series, and best of the lot by my estimation, happens to be the first entry - Ilsa She Wolf of the SS (1975). It shares the rare honour of being the only film in the utterly depraved and thoroughly reprehensible naziexploitation subgenre to receive repeated viewings from me. Maybe it's because its buxom star Dyanne Thorne plays the villainous Ilsa with a surprising degree of conviction, or, perhaps it's due to it being a Canadian production and thus avoiding the usual cheap and dull eurotrash like The Beast in Heat (1977) or The Gestapo's Last Orgy (1977). Whatever the reason, it's an exploitation classic and its sequels are worthwhile too (except maybe the unofficial fourth one, which really isn't an Ilsa film, in my opinion).

This is a good opportunity to show-off one of the few movie themed (and in all honesty, highly problematic) T-shirts I still own, since it's now it's all hot and sunny again. Big fan of Alexandros Pyromallis's illustrations and owning a T-shirt of one of my favourite female villains is very necessary.

The Moment I Feared: Part 7

A recurring question I often ask myself when I zone out of reality is "what's the G.O.A.T horror anthology?" I'm often torn over a bunch of Amicus's classic portmanteaus, with From Beyond the Grave (1974) being my personal top choice. But then there's George A. Romero and Steven King's collabarotive return to the old school effort, Creepshow (1982). The legendary comic book publishing company EC Comics plays a major hand in both films as one was sourced and the other clearly inspired by the defunct publisher's tales of terror.

Creepshow achieved the impossible by turning Ted Danson into a frightening zombie in the short story Something To Tide You Over; who, along with his lover played by Dawn of the Dead's Gaylen Ross, seek revenge upon their murderer played by Leslie Nielsen. Along with Danson's gargled dialogue and the terrifying sight of him shuffling in all that zombie makeup, it would continue to instil fear upon me whenever I caught sight of him on an episide of Cheers (1982 - 1992). Kind of funny that one of the most frightening moments from a film to leave a permanent mark on me - especially one that includes: cockroaches bursting out of E.G. Marshall's corpse; the oncoming doom of an alien weed taking over the world; a severed head for a cake; and of course Fluffy - it's the one with Ted Danson and Leslie Nielsen in it.

Creepshow (Beach Zombies Scene)

George A. Romero, 1982

 

Dada Debaser Bonus Feature:

Didn't realise until writing that Martin (1978) review earlier this year that John Amplas played the zombie Nathan Gratham in the Father's Day segment.

Picks of 1983

It wasn't until I started compiling this list that I realised how many heavy hitters or cult films were out in 1983. Initially thought of it as a transitional period for films cementing their mark upon pop culture.

1983 was a great year for the vigilante film (10 to Midnight, Angel, Sudden Impact and Vigilante); the last hurrah for the golden age of the slasher sub-genre (before Wes Craven changed the game); two of the superior Stephen King adaptations via John Carpenter and David Cronenberg; and the time when Tom Cruise was tolerable.

10 to Midnight (J. Lee Thompson)

Angel (Robert Vince O'Neil)

Angst (Gerald Kargl)

Brainstorm (Douglas Trumball)

Breathless (Jim McBride)

Christine (John Carpenter)

Curtains (Richard Ciupka)

The Dead Zone (David Cronenberg) 

The Deadly Spawn (Douglas McKeown)

Fire and Ice (Ralph Bakshi) 

House of the Long Shadows (Pete Walker)

The Hunger (Tony Scott)

The Man With Two Brains (Carl Reiner)

Monty Python's The Meaning of Life (Terry Jones)

National Lampoon's Vacation (Harold Ramis)

One Deadly Summer (Jean Becker)

The Outsiders (Francis Ford Coppola)

Psycho II (Richard Franklin)

Risky Business (Paul Brickman)

Scarface (Brian De Palma)

Sleepaway Camp (Robert Hiltzik)

Star Wars: Return of the Jedi (Richard Marquand)

Sudden Impact (Clint Eastwood)

Trading Places (John Landis)

Twilight Zone: The Movie (John Landis, Steven Spielberg, Joe Dante & George Miller)

Vigilante (William Lustig)

Videodrome (David Cronenberg)

Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (Tsui Hark)

Films I liked from 1983, but not revisited in ages:

Amityville 3D, A Blade in the Dark, BMX Bandits, The Final Terror, Julie Darling, Krull, Mountaintop Motel Massacre, One Dark Night, Revenge of the Ninja, Rumble Fish, Style Wars, Uncommon Valor, Wild Style and Zelig.

Films from 1983 I shamelessly haven't seen:

A Christmas Story, Bloodbath at the House of Death, Easy Money, Eyes of Fire, The Fourth Man, Liquid Sky, Olivia, Private School, The Right Stuff, Sledgehammer, Spasms, and Star 80.

Dada Debaser Bonus Feature:

Anyone including N.G. Mount's inept Gallic slasher Ogroff: The Mad Mutilator as one of their film picks from 1983 would probably be trolling, but its surreal entertainment value is undeniable:

Ogroff: The Mad Mutilator AKA Ogroff

N.G. Mount, 1983

"I Don't Give a Flying F*ck Into a Rolling Donut About What Al Pacino Thinks!"

William Friedkin Interview

Youtube

Don't usually create dedicated obiturary posts, but in the case of the recent passing of William Friedkin, this is a notable exception to the rule. 

Amongst the New Hollywood era collective, William Friedkin was one of the few film makers who didn't sell out or lose all of his mojo during their career. Friedkin taught us how to make money and how to kill in his films. That's more educational than anything I ever learnt at school.

His anecdotal tales were always entertaining, and most of all, he always threw caution to the wind and didn't pull his words. This element, and more importantly, an oeuvre which would leave most of today's film makers green with envy, made him a truly based individual.

Obviously, he will always be associated as the man who gave us the horror classic The Exorcist (1973), but The French Connection (1971) was my first Friedkin film and it's etched itself way more onto my brain. The chase sequence with Gene Hackman's Popeye Doyle pursuing a hijacked train through the grimy and busy streets of NYC is one of my fave chase sequences of all time. More recentlly, the film entered the limelight again when that great bastion of refined cinema known as Criterion Films censored it on its subscription channel. Another example why physical media is still important today.

The French Connection (Chase Scene)

William Friedkin, 1971 

Despite it being a musical, I've tried to catch one of Friedkin's earliest and hard to find films, The Night They Raided Minsky's (1968). The reason why I've always wanted to check it is the late British comedian Norman Wisdom in it. Knowing there's a film out there helmed by Friedkin which features Albania's adopted son in it makes me want to see it, regardless of quality. Not many directors out there make me want to do that, which made Friedkin such a special film maker, in my opinion.

R.I.P. William Friedkin.

Ed and Breakfast

Spend enough time taking notes of upcoming boutique blu-ray releases and you get an overall impression of certain trends occurring. More recently, my hope of New French Extremity films getting the lavish home format treatment seems to be becoming a reality with Calvaire (2004) (technically Belgian, though) and Frontier(s) (2007) having been released this year. However, I would be lying if I told you I knew about alternative British comedy getting the same kind of love. Following on from the BBC's blu-ray collection of the anarchic sitcom The Young Ones (1982 - 1984) from last year, Severin films released the complete collection of The Comic Strip Presents... this year, and now Vinegar Syndrome have announced Guest House Paradiso (1999) as one of their upcoming releases.

Confession time: your host hasn't actually seen Guest House Paradiso, but I'm guessing it'll be more my cup o' tea than Cinema Paradiso (1988), though. Despite being a fan of the slapstick sitcom Bottom (1991 - 1995); the feature film always kind of evaded me, even whenever it was on TV. Both Rik Mayall and Adrian Edmonson were the shining lights of the alternative comedy scene during the adolescent years for your host, so seeing Rik Mayall's turn at serious acting in that one episode of The Bill, or Adrian Edmonson's cameo in that God awful Star Wars film that pretentious cinephilles pretend to like, was completely surreal to me. If Guest House Paradiso is the last hurrah for the comedic duo that went together like salt and vinegar, then this release might well be a considered blind buy if it ever goes on sale.

Guest House Paradiso (Vinegar Syndrome Trailer)

Adrian Edmonson, 1999