What was the last movie you saw?

Proving 1970s made-for-TV movies could be good, two examples:

Brian's Song (1971) dir. Buzz Kulik; starring James Caan, Billy Dee Williams, Jack Warden

Bio of football player Brian Piccolo (Caan) focusing on his friendship with fellow player Gale Sayers (Williams), how the friendship was made and developed, and the impact on his team and family when Piccolo was diagnosed with cancer and died at age 26. Well-made and acted, good direction and editing; fine supporting cast including Jack Warden, Judy Pace, David Huddleston, Bernie Casey and Shelley Fabares (who, between about 1965 and 1990, by my rough count, was in every freakin' TV show at least once). If you're interested in producing/directing a tearjerker, use this as inspiration.


The Night Stalker (1972) dir. John Llewellyn Moxie; starring Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Carol Lynley; script by Richard Matheson.

Blood-draining deaths of young women in Las Vegas baffle the authorities, and only our intrepid reporter, Carl Kolchak, is willing to use the word, "vampire". Holds up pretty well for all that it screams 1970s!!!!!!! from the cars, to the music, to the film stock; location shooting, so it's additional fun to note some of the signs outside the casinos and who was playing in them. An amazingly accomplished supporting cast: Ralph Meeker (Kiss Me Deadly), Elisha Cook Jr. (The Big Sleep), Claude Akins (Inherit the Wind), Charles McGraw (The Narrow Margin), Kent Smith (The Cat People), and of course McGavin, Oakland and Lynley, all of whom had decent resumes in feature film.


And a feature film that ... well ... eh ...

Witchtrap (1989) dir. Kevin Tenney; starring ... really doesn't matter

One of my favorite horror tropes, a group of experts try to determine if a house is haunted and unhaunt it. But maybe Richard Matheson could have sued for copyright infringement since it plays out very similarly to Hell House. Opens with a man scared to death in the house, the owner contacts a parapsychologist, who assembles her crew, including a media specialist to film the proceedings, and two mediums, one a mental medium (her husband) and the other a physical medium, and a security crew of three to make sure no criminal hanky-panky intrudes. There's even a nifty hand-held device for capturing the spirit. James Quinn is the lead actor, his character a gruff, snarky former cop now a security guard, and he's okay. Linnea Quigley shows up to offer a nude scene; nothing against Quigley, but while her presence sometimes indicates a fun movie, it rarely indicates a good one. Tenney also directed The Night of the Demons (meh) and Witchboard (not awful), but the script for this one doesn't really hold up well.
 
Gifted (2017) --- This might have been the best movie I've seen in years. This is a story of an extremely gifted 7 year-old, who is "suddenly" discovered when her uncle decides she needs friends her age so she needs more than homeschooling. Her grandmother, who up until then has been largely absent in her life, decides she needs custody.

I loved all the characters in this movie. There are no "bad" people there are only people who think that they know what's best for the girl and the conflict arises from that. All of the people in the movie are flawed in one way or the other, but they are all trying to do the best thing. If you only see one movie this year make it this one.

*I saw it on Amazon Prime

Avoid --- Not Recommended --- Flawed --- Okay --- Good --- Recommended --- Shouldn’t be Missed
 
Victoria Silverwolf said:
The Flesh and the Fiends (1960)

Based on the infamous body snatchers and murderers Burke and Hare. Peter Cushing is Doctor Knox, who receives the cadavers. Donald Pleasence is Hare A handsome, well-acted production. There's some comment on social class as well, with the contrast between a young medical student and the lower class woman he loves. Recommended.
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I remember there was a brief nude scene in the version I watched--I guess Europe didn't have the censorship over it compared to North America.
 
Randy M. said:
The Night Stalker (1972) dir. John Llewellyn Moxie; starring Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Carol Lynley; script by Richard Matheson.

Blood-draining deaths of young women in Las Vegas baffle the authorities, and only our intrepid reporter, Carl Kolchak, is willing to use the word, "vampire". Holds up pretty well for all that it screams 1970s!!!!!!! from the cars, to the music, to the film stock; location shooting, so it's additional fun to note some of the signs outside the casinos and who was playing in them. An amazingly accomplished supporting cast: Ralph Meeker (Kiss Me Deadly), Elisha Cook Jr. (The Big Sleep), Claude Akins (Inherit the Wind), Charles McGraw (The Narrow Margin), Kent Smith (The Cat People), and of course McGavin, Oakland and Lynley, all of whom had decent resumes in feature film.
Click to expand...
What's interesting is that this was just one of many tv-movies the cast and crew did. Darren McGavin in particular did a lot before and after.
The movie dialogue is also incredibly faithful to the shooting script (Matheson did not like changes to his dialogue)--there is only one snippet of dialogue added where Kolchak makes a joke about a victim and a cop tell him to be respectful as the mother is there.

Victoria Silverwolf said:
The latter (which I've seen on TV as Monster From the Surf as part of a double feature with the similarly themed The Horror of Party Beach) is a romp. I note in particular the ventriloquist with a lion puppet who sings the (alternate) title song.
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I have seen the Horror of Party Beach but for some reason this sticks more in the memory.
One thing about that stands out is that the son seems a lot older than a college student--and when they ask him to sing a song--I was expecting something like the Beach Boys but it sounds more like a ballad out of a 1930s western.

Also--why did Mark the sculptor know there was a sea monster mask in the house???
It seemed like he knew something was in that locked door.

I hated when he wrecked the Vicki portrait.
It was pretty good.
 
Lost of rewatches this month

THE GHOST GALLEON - 1974 - Blind Dead on a ship. The FX and ship set are very atmospheric. In English the characters and dialogue are not much to speak about--but you don't usually watch these for that.
 
NIGHT OF THE WITCHES - 1971 - Cheap quasi-comedy something or other about a lecherous preacher who goes to a castle populated by witches killing people based on astrology. Can't call it an exploitation film since there is no nudity or gore and not really a horror film (more like a horrible film). More of an actor's vanity project by the looks of it since the star is also the writer and director. Not incompetently made(they have on set sound!) or acted just rather pointless.
 
Robinson Crusoe (1954)

Director Luis Bunuel’s version of the famous novel. Pretty straightforward version of the story, with only a few tiny touches that suggest Bunuel; a hallucination in which Crusoe sees his father, close-ups of insects, etc. A good film.
 
Dune 2. I tried to watch this on a 14h plane flight. Pretty good except that I slept through the second half.
Reminder: if watching a film I should get some sleep in the preceding week and should not be extremely jetlagged.
 
Invaders From Mars (1953/ USA version) Young David MacLean (Jimmy Hunt), a 10-year old, has an interest in astronomy, & his very own telescope. One dark night, he awakens before dawn looks out his window, & sees a flying saucer in the distance, apparently landing just on the other side of a hill. Neither daddy George MacLean (Leif Erickson) nor mommy Mary MacLean (Hillary Brooke) are accepting of his story as anything but a bad dream. But it is no dream! Or is it? :unsure: [Evil laugh of your choice goes here!]:devilish:

This film aged very well! 8/10!

It could be a bit much for the kids, as David experiences adults, including both parents undergo drastic personality changes. One scene has daddy so angry that he slaps David right off his feet! The very bad, & totally naughty Martians have been implanting devices in their victims' necks, protruding out of the back of their necks, just enough, for David to notice them.

A striking inconsistency occurs when the two police officers, having been controlled by the Martians, are captured by the authorities. The Martians, remotely kill them both. Later, David's parents are in a similar situation, but not killed, and recover fully

Until reading the Wiki page, I had no idea that there were two, count 'em, 2 versions of this film. Having not seen the European one, I can only wonder if it might be better.
 
The ending was supposed to be too scary for kids so they made a light version which is what came on TV in the 60s.
 
INVADERS FROM MARS - 1953 - This movie has aged really well, especially when compared to some others like The Thing From Another World and The War of the Worlds. Nothing in the way of goofy irrelevant or dated dialogue and considering there is a woman doctor--with some authority--that was fascinating, especially compared to horrible "science student" in the George Pal film. Also, the military were refreshingly not skeptical. I remembered Barbara Billingsly was in this for a half a minute but didn't remember Bert Freed was the police chief. Hillary Brooks I knew from the Abbott and Costello tv show. Leif Erickson looked a lot like an older Charlton Heston in the 1970s.
This film must have been hugely influential on other sci-fi. It has a unique visual style--a nightmarish Norman Rockwell painting. The girl who gets taken was creepy. Think of the ideas that come out of it--the brain implant that explodes, the weird-bubble-like caverns that are a precursor to ALIEN, and the weird choral music and zombie mutants made me think of the Borg.
I took a look at the UK version. The inserts---not good.
The US version is better.
 
Yeah it's a class assignment!


VAMPYRES 1974 -- Was expecting this to be a Spanish film heavy on lesbo vampire exploitation and not much else. Surprised it was UK-based and how artfully made it was--the acting was good, and the cinematography very atmospheric and dream-like at times. This had a strong gothic feeling to it. Early on I thought it was going to be a remake of Daughters of Darkness 1971--the elderly hotel clerk recognizing the man guest made me wonder if the latter was a vampire along the lines of that film but it went in a different direction (I am assuming that one inspired this to some extent though). The lead vampiress managed to be very sinister with and without clothes on.
And one of the very few vampire movies I have seen that use real bats in a castle.
 
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Fistful of Dollars (1964) I had intended to watch just the 1st 10 & final 10 minutes, but as I was running a full scan on my PC, I watched the whole thing on the DVR. As though anyone reading this does not already know the story, Sergio Leone, literally made a Western version of Yojimbo, and was sued by Kurosawa & Toho because of it. Anyway, the lone Ronin/gunfighter enters a town torn apart by two, count 'em 2 rival families, & sells his talents to each, playing both sides against the middle.

8/10; one of the few films I could watch repeatedly. I suppose If I could be a fictional character. The Man with no name would be my #1 choice!

BTW, another film, Last Man Standing, is a 1920s era remake.

BTW, TCM will run the other two in the Dollars Trilogy in the next two weeks on Saturdays at 1:45 & 2 PM, respectively.



Ennio (2021) documentary about the man who composed the music for the Eastwood Spaghetti Westerns, as well as many other films. I knew only the three Spaghetti Westerns in regards to Ennio Morricone's music.

Difficult to read the subtitles while also reading the names of the foreign-language people interviewed here. Really needed to make the clips a bit longer, pause helps, but I did not bother with it. Several English-speaking directors such as Quentin Tarantino, were also interviewed.

I think I will re-watch the parts about the #2 & #3, Eastwood Westerns after watching those films. Though very little time was spent on #2 & #3.

Morricone himself, detailed the composing of these as well as several other films.

9/10
 
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