What Films Have You Seen Recently?

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

The Big Heat (1953)

A brilliant crime drama from director Fritz Lang which sees Glenn Ford's honest cop Dave Bannion investigating the apparent suicide of a long serving fellow officer. Despite being ordered to cease the investigation Bannion soon links it to corrupt city official Mike Lagana (A very slimy Alexander Scourby) and his vicious henchman Vince Stone (Lee Marvin).

There's some outstanding screen writing on offer here from Sydney Boehm. Between him and Lang they introduce groups of characters and give them fully rounded personalities in seconds. Whether it's Bannion and his near idyllic home life or not even secondary characters in it for a single scene such as the former soldiers guarding Bannion's daughter. Pretty much a single line each yet you know she'll be safe in their care and no mob enforcers would get through.

The main characters are all beautifully written, with Gloria Grahame almost getting two introductory scenes. The first bullied by the despicable Marvin and the second in a group scene with politicians and criminals alike. "And now it's my turn. Jump Debbie, jump Debbie, jump Debbie" A sequence of genuine fun in a brutal and gripping portrayal of organised crime.

Another on the 'must upgrade to Blu-ray' list. Highly recommended.

[Susan Foreman]

Originally Posted by nicholasrope

Boxing Helena

Julian Sands is a Surgeon who is obsessed with Sherilyn Fenn and after she is involved in an accident at his secluded house, he amputates her arms and legs. Again this was first time watch and this caused some controversy back in 1993 and after watching it, I'm not really sure why

Like 'Child's Play 3' and the majority of the video nasties it was a case of 'wrong film, wrong place, wrong time' - it was released in the same era as 'Res Dogs', 'Man Bites Dog', 'Bad Lieutenant' etc and was caught up in the controversy surrounding those titles

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Tales from the Darkside: The Movie (1990)

Alas, despite having a fine cast including Christian Slater, Steve Buscemi, Debbie Harry and Julianne Moore the film doesn't really cut it compared to the more celebrated likes of Creepshow and the many Amicus anthologies of the 70's.

It begins well with the excellent killer mummy on the loose, first segment, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Lot 249, with it's glorious cast of Slater, Buscemi and Moore and it does deliver with it's dusty chills but the other two tales are lacking a little.

The main thing i took from second story The Cat From Hell is how it must have persuaded Tim Burton to cast William Hickey as Doctor Finkelstein, the wheelchair bound mad scientist in A Nightmare Before Christmas because it's exactly how he is here. Wheelchair bound and cackling.

The third segment Lover's Vow stars James Remar as a struggling artist who unwittingly falls for a girl he meets in a back alleyway, as played by the always decent Rae Dawn Chong, who turns out to be a demon.

The wrap-a-round story starring Debbie Harry is ****ing tragic.

There are some pretty cool late 80's style gore FX courtesy of the ever reliable guys that had just formed the fledgling KNB EFX Group but the majority of the film lacks that sprinkle of magic that the best anthologies have.

I do admit i'd probably have rated this higher had my dvd from Prism Leisure not looked so dark and crap.

[SymbioticFunction]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

The main thing i took from second story The Cat From Hell is how it must have persuaded Tim Burton to cast William Hickey as Doctor Finkelstein, the wheelchair bound mad scientist in A Nightmare Before Christmas because it's exactly how he is here. Wheelchair bound and cackling.

You may well know this already but this story was originally supposed to be in Creepshow 2. They decided to exclude it and just focus on three stories only (on Creepshow 2) because of the low budget of that sequel. It's actually my favourite story from Tales From The Darkside.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Originally Posted by SymbioticFunction

You may well know this already but this story was originally supposed to be in Creepshow 2. They decided to exclude it and just focus on three stories only (on Creepshow 2) because of the low budget of that sequel. It's actually my favourite story from Tales From The Darkside.

No i didn't know that. Thanks.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Zoltan Hound of Dracula (1978)

Wow, i'd forgotten much of what takes place here. A film that is so staggeringly offbeat. Only it's opening scenes where Zoltan revives his master by pulling a stake out of him and together they go off searching for the last descendant of Dracula bare any resemblance to anything approaching a Dracula movie.

The remainder of the the film, as in the next hour and fifteen minutes involves Zoltan and his master (Reggie Nalder) in what can only be described as a backwoods action film where campers are attacked by dogs. I should add that it's also a hell of a lot of fun. Think The Hills Have Eyes but with dogs and that's pretty much the entire movie.

I should mention Zoltan himself who is a Dobermann with false fangs stuck on the side of his mouth and in truth never looks like a killer dog. At one point i did think there was a rather sadistic scene where Zoltan kills a puppy for no reason but thankfully that wasn't the case as he turned the puppy which in turn gave us the brilliantly original sequence with a vampire puppy bursting out of the ground. What's equally brilliant is that Zoltan has his own doggy coffin to sleep in. That's just awesome.

Zoltan Hound of Dracula is silly but great fun and i hope StudioCanal release it as part of their Cult Classics line with a tacky slip cover, art cards and a commentary by Kim Newman. Seriously, just take my money, it's yours.

[SymbioticFunction]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

No i didn't know that. Thanks.

It would probably be an interesting experiment to swap discs and watch Cat From Hell as a part of Creepshow 2. I'm guessing that it would have come after The Raft and before The Hitch-hiker. btw I have the Darkside movie on a Scandinavian dvd and that also looks terrible!

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Reap the Wild Wind (1942)

If after the first hour of this romantic melodrama featuring socialite tea parties, a couple of bland fist fights and Ray Milland's ventriloquism act with his dog you'd said that the second half would see the entire cast charged with wrecking ships, piracy and murder before John Wayne gets killed by a giant squid in the hull of a wrecked ship then i'd have thought you were crazy.

So there you go.

I'd only seen this once previously and it was so long ago i'd forgotten all about it, especially that dramatic final third. A fine cast of Wayne, Milland, Paulette Goddard (Absolutely everything that happens in this film is her fault), Robert Preston, Susan Hayward and Raymond Massey keep the lengthy talky early scenes more than watchable.

Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, the legend behind the camera of Cleopatra, Samson and Delilah and The Ten Commandments, this is a Technicolor epic even if it isn't quite in the same league as those three.

This definitely needs me to upgrade to Blu-ray.

[Demdike@Cult Labs]

Touch of Death (1988)

I'm sure the opening scene got the same reaction from me last night as it did the first time. "Mmm. That steak looks good"

An underrated comedic gem from Lucio Fulci.

[Justin101]

Originally Posted by Demdike@Cult Labs

Touch of Death (1988)

I'm sure the opening scene got the same reaction from me last night as it did the first time. "Mmm. That steak looks good"

An underrated comedic gem from Lucio Fulci.

I really like Touch of Death