Thursday, November 21, 2024

Picks of 1974

Pick of the best films released in the year The Wombles should have been number one; the classic British sitcom Porridge debuted on our screens; and Col. Steve Austin became better, stronger, faster:

Almost Human AKA The Death Dealer (Umberto Lenzi)

Black Christmas (Bob Clark)

Blazing Saddles (Mel Brooks)

Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (Brian Clemens)

Carry On Dick (Gerald Thomas)

Chinatown (Roman Polanski) 

The Conversation (Francis Ford Coppola)

Dark Star (John Carpenter)

Death Wish (Michael Winner)

Foxy Brown (Jack Hill)

Frightmare (Pete Walker)

From Beyond the Grave (Kevin Connor)

The Godfather Part II (Francis Ford Coppola)

The Golden Voyage of Sinbad (Gordon Hessler)

House of Whipcord (Pete Walker)

The Legend of the 7 Golden Vampires (Roy Ward Baker)

Let Sleeping Corpse Lie AKA The Living Dead at the Manchester Morgue (Jorge Grau)

The Man with the Golden Gun (Guy Hamilton)

The Mean Machine AKA The Longest Yard (Robert Aldrich)

The Night Porter (Liliana Cavani)

The Parallax View (Alan J. Pakula)

Spasmo (Umberto Lenzi)

The Street Fighter (Shigehiro Ozawa) 

The Taking of Pelham One Two Three (Joseph Sargent)

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (Tobe Hooper)

Vampyres (José Ramón Larraz)

Young Frankenstein (Mel Brooks)

Not only was 1974 an impressive year for film, but some soundtracks were particularly just as on par with their respective films, in some cases being better. These were the crème de la crème:

David Shire - Main Theme (The Taking of Pelham One Two Three)

Willie Hutch - Give Me Some Of That Good Old Love

Roy Budd - Jazz It Up (MC/M4)

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson - Flashbulbs

Bernard "Pretty" Purdie - Lialeh

The Impressions - Mister Keyes

Terrible Tom - Boss Ni**er

Isaac Hayes - Hung Up On My Baby

The Love Unlimited Orchestra - Theme From Together Brothers

Martha Reeves - Keep On Movin' On

Dennis Coffey And Luchi De Jesus ‎- Main Theme (Black Belt Jones)

Ennio Morricone - Bambole

Franco Micalizzi - Bargain With the Devil

Douglas Gamley - The Beast Must Die 

Toshiaki Tsushima - The Street Fighter

Lalo Schifrin - Ape Shuffle (Theme from Planet of the Apes)

* technically not from a specific 1974 film, but from a single which was released at the time. Sounds nothing like Jerry Goldsmith's original theme, but a great tune, regardless.

Monday, November 18, 2024

Boardwalk Emperor

Absolutely loathed Matt Reeves's The Batman (2022); an unnecessary and bloated reboot with a dreadfully miscast Robert Patterson as the titular caped crusader; pitted against Paul Dano's gimp looking Riddler and his army of incels. The only redeemable element about it was Colin Farrell's small part as the waddling master of foul play. A TV spin-off series on the Penguin, conjured preconceptions of typical Disney +/CW style slop and dissuaded my interest in the show. Glad to admit HBO's The Penguin (2024) has defied these notions, as the show is outstanding.

The decision to adapt one of Batman's arch villains into a Machiavellian mob drama, laden with shocking twists and revelations, rather than curse it with the stale millennial writing cringe of other comic book related serials, is ingeniously refreshing and one the show's greatest assets. The writing lands somewhere in between the rise-to-power bent of Scarface (1983) and the multi-layered character stylings of The Sopranos (1999-2007). The end result is a uniquely compelling offering which rises well above the rest of its ilk. Witnessing Oswald Cobb (shortened from Cobblepot) scheme his way through an ensemble of predicaments, is incredibly entertaining. It's also fascinating to learn about his strange relationship with his mother which leads to a deeply disturbing finale. My favourite side to Oswald is his mentoring of Victor Aguilar (Renzy Feliz), an orphaned street urchin taken under his wing, displaying an unseen side to the villain.

The Penguin's success can also be attributed to Colin Farrell's glorious performance as the duplicitous and grotesque villain. Not only is Farrell completely unrecognisable under all the make up and prosthetics, but he also sounds completely different; not one trace of his original accent and vocal range gives him away. Farrell isn't the only star of the show, however. Cristin Milioti is equally as great as Sofia Falcone, the unhinged black sheep of her crime family. Make no mistake: these are villains. None of that current day trend of humanising them and turning them into misunderstood anti-heroes. These are dangerous villains and remain that way.

Perhaps the most enjoyable bingewatch of a contemporary show I've had since Cobra Kai: Season One (2018) and Squid Game (2021). Completely hooked from the very first episode. Hopefully future seasons maintain the same level of high quality. Also praying its creators wisely steer away from including overexposed characters like Batman and the Joker etc, as the success of The Penguin is easily attributed to it organically working as a crime drama first and foremost, and its comic book source material is of lesser importance.

Friday, November 15, 2024

Megaflopolis

Huge admiration for anyone able to turn their dreams into reality. Not only did Francis Ford Coppola realise his life long passion project, Megalopolis, but he also invested vast sums of his own money into it after selling his winery.

One would think Megalopolis would be a perfect considering it's gestated for decades in Coppola's mind; along with having full creative control over it. Alas, the film is a horrendous failure in every conceivable way. The auteur ought to be checked for any signs of dementia. So spectacular in its floundering, that it's still a tediously exhausting and disconnected viewing experience even when treated as a hatewatch.

My brain officially checked out after around the twenty minute mark; the worst part was having to endure another two hours of this pretentious shite.

Megalopolis is not only a sure thing for worst film this year, but it's possibly the worst of the decade. Awful.

Wednesday, November 13, 2024

Toys Are Not for Children

Adults buying toys for their inner child rather than their actual child is newsworthy, according to the BBC.

It's a genuine surprise to discover an action figure of the iconic traffic warden from the nightmarish drama Threads (1984) being available. What possessed someone to produce a toy from such a depressingly disturbing film I'll never know, but I do appreciate the attention to detail; even the box art is from a vintage BBC Radio Times cover.

Sadly, it's beyond my price range, but I applaud seeing it along with all the other figures available, as they are completely on my wavelength; especially the British Horror themed products. Big fan of Peter Cushing's antiques shop owner from the classic Amicus horror anthology From Beyond the Grave (1974):

Favourite toys owned back in the day: Palitoy Star Wars X-Wing Fighter; CGL Galaxy Invader 1000; Ideal Toys Evel Knievel Super Jet Cycle; Idea Alligator Game; and Kenner Denys Fisher Toys Stretch Armstrong.

Friday, November 8, 2024

The Most Dangerous Gamin

Dementia (John Parker, 1953/1955)

Your host serendipitously discovered the wonders of John Parker's experimental thriller Dementia (1953/1955) accidentally confusing it with Francis Ford Coppola's Dementia 13 (1963). An unforgivable error to Coppola's stans, but a rewarding fluke for anyone with an appreciation for vintage psychotronic film, regardless. A bizarre, psychological thriller free of any dialogue  peppered with horror elements, and shot like a stylish film noir. Visually, many parts of it reminded me of Orson Welles' Touch of Evil (1958).

After waking from a nightmare, The Gamin (Adrienne Barrett), a mentally disturbed woman and the film's heroine, wanders around skid row experiencing various surreal encounters with distinguishable nighthawks: The Evil One (Richard Barron), a sleazy pimp introduced multiple times; The Rich Man (Bruno VeSota), the Orson Welles looking sugar daddy; and The Law Enforcer (Ben Roseman), a cop on her trail, who later reappears as her father. These run-ins serve as vignettes showing off the obvious Luis Buñuel's levels of surrealism inherent in the film. A fascinating anomaly in cinema, as despite being such an outlier, its influence is profoundly evident in more celebrated films with a deeply psychological bent. Herk Harvey's Carnival of Souls (1962) and Roman Polanski's Repulsion (1965) share obvious DNA with this lesser seen horror noir.

Despite the absence of any dialogue, Dementia manages to incorporate sound and music in a creatively playful fashion. An eerie score, which would have perfectly complimented the popular science fiction flicks of its era, features a wailing female vocal courtesy of Marnie Nixon that is otherworldly. The result lends to the film's hauntingly, dreamlike atmosphere and surreal visuals. Another highlight in sound is how Shorty Rangers and his Giants' music uniquely syncs into the film. You hear the band's music playing off-screen, and then witness them playing it when The Gamin stumbles upon them in a jazzy night club. Like something the Zucker Brothers might have written for one of their spoof comedies.

The basic gist of the film was the brainchild of Parker's secretary, Adrienne Barrett, relaying an actual dream she had to the director. Not only did it spawn the film, it also managed to get Barrett, an untrained actress, into being cast in the lead role. Incidentally, despite Parker's name being credited as the film's director, according to numerous sources VeSota, alleges to have also co-directed the film (uncredited, however). Dementia was intended to be a short film, but additional scenes kept on being filmed during its production, with the finished version clocking in at just under an hour. Still a short film, regardless.

Symbolism plays heavily in Dementia. A traumatic event from our protagonist's past unfolds via a surreal graveyard scene (easily one of the major highlights from the film). In it, we our heroine's parents; her father feeling frisky, but the mother being unreceptive to his advances. The discarded cigar in an ashtray nearby, representing an adulterous incident and the subsequent ramifications of it, is hugely important to The Gamin's backstory. In a later scene, The Rich Man's stogie becomes a triggering catalyst to events in the present. This is all somewhat of a revelation for a film from the fifties. Granted, dark themes in films from this era were hardly new, just look at Charles Laughton's The Night of the Hunter (1955) for example, but they also had the advantage of smart and nuanced dialogue to get away with various details which might have been deemed inappropriate for its time.

Another fascinating element is William C. Thompson being the cinematographer for the film. The same individual who photographed numerous Edward D. Wood Jr. films also did this. You wouldn't know it, however, as the film looks astonishingly more artistically stylish compared to the B-movie fare he would make before and after (and professional, for that matter). Hence, the visual comparison to Welles' striking aforementioned noir. Amusingly, Dementia was the film Thompson worked on before The Violent Years (1956) a personal favourite in the canon of juvenile delinquency films.

Although completed in 1953, Dementia languished in limbo for a couple of years, until Parker managed to secure an incredibly limited theatrical release. It would prove to be the one and only film he would make. However, it was later re-released with the alternative title Daughter of Horror (1957); with American TV celebrity, Ed McMahon narrating over it and addressing the lack of dialogue in the original. It's this version of the film where footage of it is playing during the cinema scene from Irvin Yeaworth and Russell Doughton's famous monster flick The Blob (1958); starring the legendary actor, Steve McQueen.

A curious oddity from the 1950s. Dementia's production history is just as strangely fascinating as the contents of the film. A weird anomaly which ought to be recognised by both film historians and genre heads as genuinely being ahead of its time. Although not quite on the same tier as the movies that it inspired, Dementia is unquestionably a remarkable effort given the talents involved, along with it being such a mind blowing discovery. It's an anachronistic film which should appeal to armchair shrinks and anyone interested in surrealist films or vintage B-movies.

Saturday, November 2, 2024

The Discreet Hypocrisy of the Bourgeoisie

Nothing defines Champagne Socialist so exemplary than a successful multi-millionaire actor, surrounded by overpriced blu-ray discs, and moaning about capitalism

While in the Criterion closet, Andrew Garfield ought to have protested about inequality instead of filling his totes bag; like the range of Criterion UK releases being absolutely pitiful compared to its corporate big brother across the pond, and why the latest 40% off discount sale in HMV has as much choice as an Eastern Bloc supermarket.

Here is a selection of UK Criterion titles which ought to have been part of the sale:

Double Indemnity (Billy Wilder, 1944)
Repulsion (Roman Polanski, 1965)
Happiness (Todd Solondz, 1988)
Do the Right Thing (Spike Lee, 1989)
Menace II Society (Allen Hughes, Albert Hughes, 1993)
The Irishman (Martin Scorsese, 2019)

Severin’s cellar will always outshine the Criterion closet. Always. All the lucky folk invited into the hallowed basement appear more enthusiastic there than Cate Blanchett and Todd Field being poncey and boring like their film Tár (2022). The cellar has director Sean Baker geek out on giallo films and gushing over Laura Gemser  that's way more relatable to me. Pick of the lot is seeing Gaspar Noe going Supermarket Sweep.