What was the last movie you saw?

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Short Night of Glass Dolls (La Corta notte delle bambole di vetro, 1971)

Tense Italian thriller that feels like a giallo mixed with elements of the supernatural and a bit of Cold War drama. Begins with the discovery of what seems to be a dead man, but it's actually our protagonist, fully conscious but in a death-like state. He winds up in the morgue, but his physician friend tries desperately to revive him, even though his heart hasn't been beating for several hours. The suspense as to whether he'll be revived or not lasts until the very end.

(You may be skeptical at this point about the film's medical accuracy. Fully conscious but no heartbeat for hours? The touch of the supernatural, also not revealed until near the end, may explain his weird condition.)

Alternating with these scenes are flashbacks as to how this fellow got into this situation. He's an American journalist in Prague, ready to help his Czech girlfriend (Bond girl Barbara Bach) out of the country. She vanishes without a trace, so he begins his own investigation. Some of this seems like spy movie stuff; meeting an informant in the middle of the night who is killed before he can talk, etc. Our hero finds out that young women have disappeared several times over the years. It all leads up to a place called Klub 99, where older folks listen to classical music; but much more is going on.

The film lacks the gore and sex of the typical giallo, and even the bright colors associated with the genre. It takes the time to build suspense rather than offering shocks. I'm not sure I fully understood all the implications of the climax, but it continues to haunt me. Recommended.

 

[KGeo777]

Shorty

Short Night of Glass Dolls (La Corta notte delle bambole di vetro, 1971)

It does stick in the memory.
Good location too.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Psychotronic Man (1979)

A hard-drinking Chicago barber goes for a drive way out in the country, takes a nap in his car, and wakes up to find it's floating in the air surrounded by glowing blue smoke. He goes home and visits a doctor for headaches. On another trip out on Old Orchard Road, he runs into an old codger who tells him that weird things have been going on around there. In the old guy's cabin, he offers the barber some coffee, to which the barber responds angrily, revealing his telekinetic ability to kill the old fellow with his mind. The old guy uses his shot gun on the barber, but just leaves powder burns.

The doctor reads a newspaper story about the killing and realizes that the barber told him about being on Old Orchard Road. Apparently this is enough to make the doctor call the cops. Before they show up, the barber visits him to treat the powder burns. Chalk up our next victim.

What follows is an extended car and foot chase, ending with the barber shot down from the top a building, but disappearing, apparently teleporting elsewhere unharmed.

Lots of questions. Did the blue smoke cause the psychic powers, or was it the result of them? Are the psychic powers the causes or the result of heavy drinking and headaches? What are the "weird things" the old guy mentioned?

It's an odd film, more of a police story than an ESP yarn. Made on a modest budget, with location shooting in Chicago done without a permit. Time is filled up with the married barber's girlfriend smooching on him. There's a government agent hanging around who says that the barber is vital to national defense. There's an expert on parapsychology who tells the Irish-accented police detective what the word "psychotronic" means. There are long driving scenes with the barber listening to country music on the radio, in contrast to disco dancing in another scene.

A modest effort, not particularly good or bad.

 

[alexvss]

Akira (1988) for the thousandth time. It's amazing how it just keeps better and better after every rewatch.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Robot Monster - MST3K - with Number One Son. There were giggles. "I am surrounded by idiots of my own creation!"

 

[Dave Vicks]

DOC HOLLYWOOD.

 

[Zach777]

Akira (1988) for the thousandth time. It's amazing how it just keeps better and better after every rewatch.

I've really wanted to watch this after seeing a couple videos on YouTube about it. Sounds and looks pretty interesting.

Last movie I saw was Princess Mononoke. It's such a great movie.

 

[Randy M.]

Schizoid (1980)

An advice columnist for a newspaper gets anonymous letters threatening her life. Meanwhile, some of the women in her therapy group get murdered with scissors. Could the two events be related? Tons of suspects and red herrings abound. In particular, there's Klaus Kinski as the leader of the therapy group, who seems to be having affairs with most of his female patients. For one thing, he's Klaus Kinski. For another, he has a very uneasy relationship with his teenage daughter, who is seriously disturbed by the death of her mother some time ago. The best scene in the film is when she puts on her mother's clothing, jewelry, and makeup as her father has a dinner date with the advice columnist. Most of the rest of the movie is forgettable. Notable for a really lousy synthesizer soundtrack.

Couldn't recall if I'd written this up after watching it a while back. But look! I don't have to!

The only things I'd add are the relationship between Kinski's therapist and his daughter is ... not sure I have a word for it. Creepy? Yes, but worse. Squicky? Severely unpleasant? Deeply indicative of familial dysfunction? Yeah. All that. And communicated mostly through disjointed conversations and challenging gazes.

Also, this movie has a pre-Taxi appearance by Christopher Lloyd. I suspect he doesn't highlight this one on his resume.

 

[CupofJoe]

The Miseducation of Cameron Post [2018 - based on the 2012 novel of the same name]
This is a film about young people dealing with their sexuality and identity in all it's forms.
It is a deliberately slow and [I felt] ambiguous film.
A young woman [Cameron Post] is sent to a "Conversion Camp". There she meets others who are all like her in some ways and yet very different on their own. Each deal with their personal situation in their own way. Some thrive and adapt. Others do not. The story unwinds slowly as you get to know those around through Cameron's eyes.
It isn't an easy watch at times, just actors making the most of their roles. And they are very believable.
You can leave the film thinking that some people are right in their actions but I can't say I thought there was anyone bad, let alone evil. It is just their reality/beliefs are different from those around them. For me it was more about hypocrisy and difference.
The ending is a bit of an anti-climax. The film sort of peters out. There is no grand face-off or active conflict. There is hope in the future but the events that put them at the camp haven't changed. There are still challengers facing them.

 

[Jeffbert]

Planet of Dinosaurs (1977)

A toy spaceship blows up, and a handful of survivors escape on a shuttlecraft, only to crash land on the PLANET OF DINOSAURS. Besides the crew, we've got an obnoxious business executive and his secretary. Given that she wears a low-cut tank top and pants that are slit on both sides and worn far below her belly button, I suspect her duties involve more than typing and dictation. The crew are a pretty bland bunch. Most memorable are a muscular guy who remains shirtless throughout the film, the only female crewmember who wears a Star Trek style minidress instead of pants, and a big guy with a heavy black beard. The latter is our no-nonsense survivalist character, arguing with the captain as to whether they should remain in a place of relative safety or go out and hunt down the dinosaurs.

Oh, yes, the dinosaurs. They're done through really excellent stop-motion animation, and are by far the best thing in the film. They make the rest of the movie look even worse than it is. The plot is pretty much the people wandering around, alternating with dinosaur attacks. The only suspense is which person is going to be killed next. Besides this, there's stuff like the drinking of "fermented berry juice" followed by the singing of "Auld Lang Syne" and the secretary doing a belly dancing routine she calls the Dance of Desire.

A brief end scene, set some years later -- the big guy now has a gray beard, and there's a toddler running around -- reveals that the folks who didn't get eaten by dinosaurs have settled into their new home.

Cheaply made, badly scripted, and poorly acted, only the fine stop-motion animation (which, the story goes, took almost all the modest budget) makes it worth a look.

Hmm, seems like something I might like.


THE THIEF OF BAGDAD (1940) What a villain Veidt makes!
Grand Visier Jaffar convinces the young naive Sultan Ahmad (John Justin) to disguise himself and go among his people to see what their lives are really like. Soon after the two are among the masses, Jaffar betrays Ahmad, and has him thrown into the dungeon. Now Jaffer is master of Baghdad, but he has just started his villainy.

Arabian Nights did have this element several times, but I do not recall the Vizier betraying the Sultan. I have read two translations, & always enjoyed it.

A wild ride, and thoroughly enjoyable!

 

[Toby Frost]

Has there ever been a grand vizier who wasn't up to something?

 

[Stephen Palmer]

Disney's Tomorrowland
- a bit of a mess, but not bad.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Password: Kill Agent Gordon (Password: Uccidete agente Gordon, 1966)

I hope you like the opening song for this Italian/Spanish Eurospy flick, because you'll be hearing variations on the melody throughout much of the film. Sung by a nightclub performer, played on the piano in a cocktail lounge, or just heard on the soundtrack, the catchy little number is likely to stay with you, right from the start, when it's blasted out in Shirley Bassey singing "Goldfinger" fashion.

Play to win!
Whatever game you play!
You play to win!
No man, no woman will stand in your way!

The confusing plot has something to do with European arms being smuggled to the Viet Cong and a cigarette lighter containing microfilm with details of the plan. In typical globe-hopping fashion, Agent Gordon follows the trail from Paris to Tripoli to Madrid. The smugglers use a dance company as their cover story.

Our hero gets information from one of the sexy dancers (exploitation movie favorite Rosalba Neri, best known to me for playing the title role in Lady Frankenstein) by tying her up and tickling her feet. The following dialogue ensues.

You don't know anything about anything!

Well, I'm only a woman, after all.

She falls for him, of course, spying on the Evil Choreographer and getting stabbed to death (off screen) in the bathtub, giallo style, for her help.

What we have here are a whole bunch of fistfights, as if this were a Republic serial, along with car chases, gunfights, etc. Notable among the spy gadgets are a walking stick with a radio, an umbrella that acts as a spear gun, and a lipstick case that shoots out a laser beam. (Hilariously, this is depicted as a series of little white dashes drawn on the film.) There's a sexy Soviet agent who seems to be working for the bad guys but who joins forces with Agent Gordon for some reason. The main villain is a woman in a wheelchair, who not only doesn't need it, but who turns out to be a man in drag.

All in all, not a particularly distinguished example of the genre.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Daughters of Darkness (1971)

If Stanley Kubrick had made a lesbian vampire movie, it would have looked a lot like this Belgian art film, I believe. Every shot is gorgeous to look at, with striking use of light and color.

A newlywed couple is stuck at a fancy seaside hotel. (The groom is played by John Karlen, best known to me as the servant of vampire Barnabas Collins in the soap opera Dark Shadows, adding a touch of irony.) He's very reluctant to have his new bride meet his mother, for a reason we'll find out about an hour into the film, adding an interesting and unexpected twist to his character. he also displays an unhealthy interest in a series of murders of young women not too far away, their bodies drained of blood.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory (claiming to be the descendent of the infamous woman of the same name) arrives with her secretary (better described as lover/slave.) They seem to have stepped right out of the late 1920's/early 1930's. (In fact, it's said that their appearances are deliberately based on Marlene Dietrich and Louise Brooks.) The manager of the hotel remembers the Countess from forty years ago, and she hasn't changed a bit . . .

I won't say anything else about the plot, except to note that you won't see fangs or bats or any of the usual vampire stuff. Delphine Seyrig is absolutely fascinating as the Countess (not to mention her stunning outfits.) Highly recommended.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Daughters of Darkness (1971)

If Stanley Kubrick had made a lesbian vampire movie,

There are alternate universes where I'm sure he did nothing but. (In the same universe Jess Franco made Full Metal Jacket in a car park in Rio de Janeiro and shot 2001 in his spare bedroom.)

 

[Randy M.]

Daughters of Darkness (1971)
...
(The groom is played by John Karlen, best known to me as the servant of vampire Barnabas Collins in the soap opera Dark Shadows, adding a touch of irony.)

Funny, I best remember him as Lacey's husband in Cagney & Lacey.


SKYFALL (2012; dir. Sam Mendes; starring Daniel Craig, Javier Bardem, Judi Dench, Naomi Harris, Ralph Fiennes)

Probably the best cast ever stuffed into one Bond movie, given a better than average Bond story, and allowed to cut loose with the grand emotions the larger-than-life characters and action call for.

Haven't seen the latest Bond yet, but I was reminded why I liked Craig. He offers a street-smart quality mixed with a sort of skewed moral code that doesn't preclude killing, but also doesn't necessarily allow for whole-sale slaughter of innocents; that's usually the province of his opponents. As with the best Bonds, the cinematography takes in stunning scenery, and this one adds a sort of elegiac tone that fits the ending. The other thing is whether it's the bantering with Harris, dickering with Dench, one-upsmanship with Ben Whishaw (the new Q) or exchanges with Bardem, Craig's chemistry with each is electric. There's hardly a false step in the movie and Bardem's Silva is maybe the best Bond villain since Gert Frobe's Goldfinger, certainly since Mads Mikkelsen' Le Chiffre.

 

[KGeo777]

Daughters of Darkness (1971)


A newlywed couple is stuck at a fancy seaside hotel. (The groom is played by John Karlen, best known to me as the servant of vampire Barnabas Collins in the soap opera Dark Shadows, adding a touch of irony.) He's very reluctant to have his new bride meet his mother, for a reason we'll find out about an hour into the film, adding an interesting and unexpected twist to his character.

There is a story that the director slapped one of the actresses and Karlen got furious and punched him.
I am wondering if the twist in the story was done as revenge against Karlen because there is nothing in his performance to suggest that twist was coming. It was more comical in tone than the rest of the movie. Did Karlen know that was the twist when he signed up? I don't think so.

 

[Jeffbert]

PITFALL (1948) John Forbes (Dick Powell), a husband and father who works in the insurance business becomes bored with it all, and has an affair with a woman Mona Stevens (Lizabeth Scott) he met when her boyfriend (Byron Barr) had given her things he had bought with embezzled money.

Complicating things, the private investigator MacDonald (Raymond Burr), who had worked on the case, also has eyes for her. A further complication is that her boyfriend Bill Smiley will soon be released from prison, and MacDonald had been manipulating him by visiting him and filling him with lies about Forbes and Stevens, who had long ago, ended their relationship.

NOIR ALLEY's reliable coverage once again gives the story behind the film, and it is almost as interesting as the film itself.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Daughters of Darkness (1971)

If Stanley Kubrick had made a lesbian vampire movie, it would have looked a lot like this Belgian art film, I believe. Every shot is gorgeous to look at, with striking use of light and color.

A newlywed couple is stuck at a fancy seaside hotel. (The groom is played by John Karlen, best known to me as the servant of vampire Barnabas Collins in the soap opera Dark Shadows, adding a touch of irony.) He's very reluctant to have his new bride meet his mother, for a reason we'll find out about an hour into the film, adding an interesting and unexpected twist to his character. he also displays an unhealthy interest in a series of murders of young women not too far away, their bodies drained of blood.

Countess Elizabeth Bathory (claiming to be the descendent of the infamous woman of the same name) arrives with her secretary (better described as lover/slave.) They seem to have stepped right out of the late 1920's/early 1930's. (In fact, it's said that their appearances are deliberately based on Marlene Dietrich and Louise Brooks.) The manager of the hotel remembers the Countess from forty years ago, and she hasn't changed a bit . . .

I won't say anything else about the plot, except to note that you won't see fangs or bats or any of the usual vampire stuff. Delphine Seyrig is absolutely fascinating as the Countess (not to mention her stunning outfits.) Highly recommended.

@Victoria Silverwolf THANK YOU! I just watched this and was bowled over. It's what Jess Franco and Jean Rollin and all those other trash eurotica directors thought they were doing - but got right. It is wonderful. As you said every shot is gorgeous and some of the editing is stunning. The music is great and you are so right, Delphine Seyrig is absolutely fascinating as the Countess. Her girlfriend isn't bad either. Thank you so much.

 

[KGeo777]

The first time I watched it, I thought of a certain 80s vampire movie which seemed to have the same plot (and ending).

I didn't recognize Seyrig but then remembered she was in The Day of the Jackal.

"I am enthralled by carbine harvesters. In fact, I yearn to have one as a pet."