What was the last movie you saw?

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Fallguy (1962)

Crime film obviously made on a microscopic budget by folks who were not experienced in the art form. Young guy witnesses a car crash, tries to help the victim, but gets mixed up in an attempted murder that turns into a real one. He winds up running from both the cops and the crooks. So amateurishly made it should be without merit, and yet it manages to create some tension. A curiosity more than anything else.

 

[Jeffbert]

The Black Godfather (1974)

Blaxploitation flick. If you can't tell by the title, then dialogue like "Right on brother, we can dig it" should clue you in. Two black guys try to rob a white crime boss, one gets killed during the botched attempt. The other is wounded and gets taken in by black crime boss who admires his courage (rather than disdaining his stupidity.) After the credits with our hero's funky theme song, we find out he's now a big crime boss himself. No clue how this happened. He wants to force the white crime boss to stop pushing heroin in the black part of town. It all leads up to the hero and his activist allies stealing a huge delivery of heroin and the white crime boss kidnapping our hero's girlfriend (the daughter of the guy who helped him at the start) in an attempt to get it back. (The leader of the activists gets his own funky theme song.) Big gun battle at the end. Pretty standard stuff, if rather sedate at times. Only odd scene is when a black woman we've never seen before kills one of the white crooks with a blow dart (!) then kills his girlfriend with martial arts.

I saw this some years ago, when I was watching BLAXPLOITATION films, probably on NF DVDs.

Anyone ever see Black Gestapo?

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Black Godfather (1974)

I saw this some years ago, when I was watching BLAXPLOITATION films, probably on NF DVDs.

Anyone ever see Black Gestapo?

Yes, indeed. My review from some years ago.

The Black Gestapo (1975)

Despite the shocking title, for the first half or so this is a fairly typical, if rather cheaply made, blaxploitation flick of the fight-back-against-the-white-criminals subgenre. The hero is a guy who leads the People's Army, a group of do-gooders in khaki uniforms and red berets. Despite the military trappings, they seem to do nothing but charity work; they even get grants from the (white) government. When the crooks start attacking folks, the leader reluctantly allows his second-in-command to start a small group of armed soldiers, strictly for defense only. Of course, after a while this gets out of hand. The second-in-command takes over the criminal activities instead of stopping them, and builds his private army into a large force, trading the more-or-less benign uniforms for black ones that look a lot like Nazi outfits, even including the infamous death's head symbol of the SS. It all builds up to the hero invading the bad guy's headquarters in a one-man commando raid. Violent and sleazy, yet fairly dull for the most part, although the final attack sequence isn't bad.

 

[KGeo777]

Yeah I have seen the Black Godfather

and Black Caesar

and the Black Gestapo

speaking of Gestapo

I watched HELL COMMANDOS 1969. Guy Madison has a team of expert soldiers that has to go undercover to find a scientist. I suspected the makers of this had a warped sense of humor because it starts with them watching some footage of a German military post and the narrator says "and he is being watched by the Gestapo's number one bloodhound." As he says this, on screen, to one side is a German colonel, but in the middle of the shot, staring into the camera, is a German shepherd. He meant the colonel but it comes out funny. And later, my suspicions about the comedy were confirmed---they have to take in the daughter of the scientist--so Madison disguises her as a young male soldier. Her helmet falls off when she is in view of the colonel--her hair cut short--and Madison makes a nervous excuse to the colonel: "these young boy soldiers..."
And the colonel replies with a smile, "they are not good shots, but they have their uses, don't they?"

And then later on--Madison is in the bedroom with the girl--and then the colonel comes in unexpectedly, and Madison hastily jumps up while the girl covers herself up to her eyes with a blanket in dread--thinking they are in big trouble.
No worries--because the colonel only sees her head, and so he just makes a wisecrack to Madison about what he said earlier on the subject of boy soldiers--and leaves them alone.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Rollerball (1975)

One of the great dystopian movies, and a great and believable representation of an ultraviolent future sport. And themes that are just as relevant - if not moreso - than they were when the movie was made.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Every now and then I like to recalibrate my critical faculties by scraping round the corners of the crud barrel at Junkmonkey Mansions and watching something irredeemably bad. Something so awful that it's not even enjoyable in a 'So bad it's funny', Ed Woodian way. Something so bad it's MST3K proof. Something that is just... crud. I don't know why I have this compelling need to flagellate myself like this but it does make anything I watch for months afterwards look a LOT better. 1970s British Sex Comedies are my usual go to genre when I need something to reset my jaded pallet. For months afterwards, halfway through some godawful 1980s Italian Mad Max clone, I will find myself thinking, "Christ! this is dreadful!... but it's still better than Confessions of a Dental Hygienist's Mate!"

Last night the crud bucket was spectacularly empty of British Sex 'Comedies' (the word sex there should be in heavy sarcasm marks too but it just looks silly). Not a one. But there was a DVD of a film called Son in Law starring someone called Pauly Shore. I had no idea who Pauly Shore was but I had a vague idea that I once heard some really awful film being described as being 'only slightly better than a Pauly Shore movie'. I shoved it in the player.

I lasted less than 40 minutes. (If you had asked I would have said I had been sat there for at least an hour). It was painful! Like having teeth pulled. In the end I just couldn't take any more.

I think the next time I find myself needing to do this reset thing and I end up watching some Bawdy Adventures of a Traffic Warden type unfunny, unsexy (but definitely British) piece of sh*t , I will find myself thinking "Christ! this is dreadful!... but it's still better than a Pauly Shore movie."

 

[JunkMonkey]

Rollerball (1975)

One of the great dystopian movies, and a great and believable representation of an ultraviolent future sport. And themes that are just as relevant - if not moreso - than they were when the movie was made.

Saw it in the cinema at the time. A quintessentially 70s movie for me. The 'remake' is awful.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

The Man From Planet X (1951)

Said to be the first alien invasion film. A new planet approaches Earth. A reporter, tipped off on the story by an astronomer pal, goes to a remote Scottish island where a scientist is waiting for it to reach its nearest point. In residence is the scientist's daughter, for romance, and our film's antagonist, played by ubiquitous character actor William Schallert. He's got some kind of back story where he went to jail for a while, and the reporter says he should have spent twenty years behind bars. They find a weird little object, and figure out it's stronger than steel but much lighter. Then the daughter runs into the Man From Planet X and his odd-looking spaceship. The good guys just want to communicate with it, but Schallert wants to know how to make the super-alloy so he can be rich. His method is to torture the Man From Planet X by controlling the knob on the gizmo that supplies the gas he needs to breathe in his space helmet. Too bad for our villain that the Man From Planet X can put people into a trance-like state, leading to a rather tragic ending.

Corny sci-fi stuff, but cult director Edgar G. Ulmer treats it like a Universal horror film. Tons of fog, spooky lighting, etc. It's obviously done on a very low budget, but it's not a bad film at all. Sort of like an early 1920's Amazing Stories yarn come to life.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Streetwalkin' (1985)

High school girl and her slightly younger brother run away from home from what is obviously an abusive stepfather. In a heartbreaking scene, the girl calls her mother, asking if they can come home. Just hearing one side of the conversation, you can tell there's no chance of that. Smooth-talking guy comes up to the girl and starts speaking to her kindly.

Because you can tell what's going to happen next, the movie doesn't waste your time. During the opening credits and the funky title song, she's transformed from an ordinary schoolgirl to glitzy prostitute. At first, she doesn't seem to mind; she even tells her pimp that she loves him. That all changes when the guy savagely beats up another of his women. Our protagonist tries to switch to another pimp who might treat her better. Let's just say that doesn't work out well, and a lot of deaths follow.

Yes, it's a sleazy exploitation film. But it's also a surprisingly effective drama. The depiction of prostitutes and pimps is more convincing than in most films of its kind, and the acting is very good. (I understand that the young woman playing the lead role went on to win an Oscar years later.) It's even got Julie Newmar as a slightly older, wiser, and more cynical prostitute, walking the streets wearing only a scarlet teddy and stockings.

Maybe the reason this film is better than I expected is because it was directed and co-written by a woman. That doesn't mean it's a serious feminist sociological study. It earns its R rating with plenty of nudity, sexual situations, profanity, and violence.

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Tonight for Sure (1962)

Two mismatched guys -- one looking like he's from the Old West, even riding a horse, and the other a city dude -- come to a Las Vegas showroom and plant a device in the electrical system, set to go off at midnight. As they watch the strippers on stage, they discuss their experiences, Western guy tells of another cowboy who kept hallucinating that he was seeing naked women. City guy tells how he spied upon a place taking pinup pictures. Device goes off at midnight, just turning the lights off briefly, and a bunch of sign-wielding anti-nudity protesters stomp into the place, attacking the two guys as well.

Yes, it's a nudie-cutie, with some of the footage obviously added in from another, incomplete feature. Notable only for being directed by a young guy named Francis Ford Coppola.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Saw it in the cinema at the time. A quintessentially 70s movie for me. The 'remake' is awful.

Yes the remake was unnecessary and poor. Whilst the original was unmistakably 70s, I think the themes involved, the growing influence of corporations over governments and people, are still relevant today.

 

[paranoid marvin]

Elvis

Watched the first half of this movie, and what a visual and aural feast for the senses this film is. Moving along (at times) at lightning pace, this movie is not Bohemian Rhapsody or Rocketman, but it is an experience to behold.

 

[Bick]

The Lady Vanishes (1938), directed by Hitchcock, and starring Margaret Lockwood, Michael Redgrave and Dame May Whitty. Top stuff.

 

[Harpo]

I’m currently watching Earth Vs The Flying Saucers. After this I might watch Groundhog Day again, and this evening a double Bill of Asylum films that I haven’t seen before:
Asteroid-A-Geddon and Mega Piranha.
I love that stuff.

 

[JunkMonkey]

Yes the remake was unnecessary and poor. Whilst the original was unmistakably 70s, I think the themes involved, the growing influence of corporations over governments and people, are still relevant today.

Oh yeah, no argument about that.

 

[JunkMonkey]

I’m currently watching Earth Vs The Flying Saucers. After this I might watch Groundhog Day again, and this evening a double Bill of Asylum films that I haven’t seen before:
Asteroid-A-Geddon and Mega Piranha.
I love that stuff.

Why would anyone willingly watch an Asylum movie? I can imagine watching one by accident but why would you deliberately sit down and watch two of the buggers back to back?

 

[Jeffbert]

Earth Vs. [anything] as a 1950s film is my kind of thing! I think MARS ATTACKS was a direct parody of Earth Vs The Flying Saucers. Enjoyed both immensely!

 

[Harpo]

Why would anyone willingly watch an Asylum movie? I can imagine watching one by accident but why would you deliberately sit down and watch two of the buggers back to back?

People are fans of many kinds of silliness.

 

[NurAL]

I watched Antman 2 with my family Does that count? Not very impressive, but that was entertaining. I rarely watch movies alone, I saved my books for that. Come to think of it, I'd like to watch the movie Free Guy again, for its fresh idea. I'm writing YA fantasy so I'm determined to set aside time to watch Shadow & Bone season 2. Just consider it as a homework <sigh>
What I really want to watch right now? Anything from Alfred Hitchcock. Perhaps I should try a new genre...

 

[Victoria Silverwolf]

Very Different Versions of the Same Legendary Ancient Queen in Italian Sword-and-Sandal Films Double Feature:

(Introduction: Semiramis is a much-mythologized version of the real ruler of Assyria Shammuramat [various spellings] during the ninth century BC. Little is known for sure about her, but that didn't stop folks throughout history from making up stories about her, including twentieth century film makers.)

The Queen of Babylon (La cortigiana di Babilonia "The courtesan of Babylon," 1954)

Short review: Semiramis as Good Girl.

Ricardo Montalban, of all people, plays a leader of Chaldeans, who have just been conquered by the Assyrians. After an Assyrian soldier shoots an arrow into one of his companions, an older guy who wanted to give a couple of defeated compatriots hanging from a tree decent burials, he refuses to submit to the conqueror. He soon gets shot himself, but, in an amazingly macho move, he pulls the arrow out of his chest and kills one of his attackers with it, using it like a dagger. Badly wounded, he is taken in by sweet, innocent goatherder Semiramis, played by redhaired Hollywood star Rhonda Fleming Love blooms. They're about to go off together, but she gets captured. He gets captured a little later. Her dazzling beauty entrances the Assyrian king, of course. The traditional evil advisor to the king keeps Montalban alive just so he can force Semiramis to marry the king, then get blamed for poisoning him when he actually does it so he can claim the throne.

Much is made of the love story, and Montalban gets to do a lot of Douglas Fairbanks/Errol Flynn swashbuckling. The color on the version I watched was badly faded, but Fleming, famed for her flaming red hair and alabaster skin, still looks fine performing a ritual dance in what can only be described as a bikini. It's an OK pseudohistorical epic.

Slave Queen of Babylon (Io Semiramide "I am Semiramis," 1963)

Short review: Semiramis as Bad Girl.

As we begin, raven-haired Semiramis is already the much older king's favorite, although he already openly describes her as ambitious and treacherous. One of the rulers of a people conquered by the Assyrians catches her eye. Meanwhile, she's already been smooching on an Assyrian general who's plotting to overthrow the king. There's also our traditional evil advisor, who has plots of his own. It gets pretty complicated, but it boils down to Semiramis thinking the conquered leader is dead and agreeing to help the advisor overthrow the king and blame it on the general. Semiramis becomes queen, as regent for the preteen heir to the throne. (Apparently the evil advisor is content to have her be the ruler because she has a more aggressive foreign policy than the war-weary dead king.) Then the conquered leader shows up alive, complicating matters. They're in love, but she wants him as her consort and he wants to become the king with her as his consort. This lovers' spat causes her to poison him and for somebody (maybe working for the disgraced general?) to shoot her with an arrow, the boy inheriting the throne.

A lot goes on, as you can see. It's very handsomely filmed. and Semiramis (played by French actress Yvonne Furneaux, who was in everything from La Dolce Vita to Frankenstein's Great Aunt Tillie [in the title role!]) dominates the screen.