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Devil Girl from Mars (1954)
Forget WAR OF THE WORLDS
And after all, that's a good thing for this movie to be totally different from the Hollywood style. It is definitely British and remains British in the style of directing. No red scare here, just a very brilliant and intelligent movie, directed by a non specialist of science-fiction. The plot is totally crazy, unbelievable but so exciting. I am not sure that now, in 2024, this story where it is question of men and women, sex war, would be accepted. Anyway, I repeat, the scheme is totally new for this period: early fifties. The main character is here a female villainess, so unusual. It deserves to be seen whatever you are a science fiction film lover or not.
Dark Places (1974)
DARK PLACES
As far as I know, director Don Sharp, from the same genetation as Terence Fisher, Freddie Francis, Val Guest and Sidney Hayers, did not direct any horror films, except KISS OF THE VAMPIRE, CURSE OF THE FLY, and this one, an haunted mansion scheme film, his first. Don Sharp was a damn good and efficient film maker, very professional, and he had no proper style. He also made some AVENGERS series episodes, as John Hough, who also made a good haunted mansion mystery yarrn: LEGEND OF HELL, same year as this one. Nothing to do, concerning this one - DARK PLACES - with the today THE CONJURING or SINISTER US films series. It remains British but so efficient without being really horrific. It remains more a psychological drama than a pure horror film.
Bushwick (2017)
Dave Bautista's best for me.
I fell in love with this cheap actioner when I first saw it six years ago. I crave for the directing, screenplay and above all the Dave Bautista's character. Far from being a super hero, he belongs to the category of leads that reminds me Paul Newman in HOMBRE or Samuel Le Bihan in TOTAL WESTERN. The main character whom you feel empathy for because you know in advance that he won't make it. I still love this movie after the thrid watching; only the surprise is not herre any more. Excellent camera work very fast paced and in the good way. Those two directorrs are really gifted, and maybe the small budgets also help them to be more free, more inventive.
Les brigades du Tigre: Les princes de la nuit (1983)
Cocaine in Montparnasse
As usual this TV series explores some true facts typical of the roaring twenties. Here, it is question of artists, painting artists living in Montparnasse - Paris - district. And everyone knows that those folks were usual to alcohol and drugs of all kinds. Why? I don't know, but it remains a true fact. So in this uninteresting story, our cops leads investigate. Maurice Barrier as a painting artist is as convincing as John Wayne would have been as an Opera dancer. Besides this point, consider this episode as a semi documentary about artists of Montparnasse of this period. That's all. Forget the rest.
Les brigades du Tigre: Le complot (1982)
Stock market pirates
This episode begins in a very strange way, and I was afraid about what I was about to deal with. But it rapidly proceeds in the good way and my interest suddenly rose when I got where this plot drove to. Terrasson character is here the lead character, because he is used as an undercover agent to infiltrate a group of terrorists. Interesting. Better than I first expected. Good suspense too. This is not the worst of the show and not the best either. It emphasizes of political business, swindle at a big scale and all the means used to achieve evil purposes. Daring subject taking place during the 1920's.... And that's the first - aand also only - episode where homosexuality is just "evoked", suggested.... But not clearly though.
Dragstrip Girl (1957)
Wild youth
The late fifties was definitely the period of juvenile delinquency fashion, that Nicholas Ray was the launcher of with REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE. After this movie, this kind of film was nearly everywhere, but especially in the B movies, not major, big budgets ones. The films destined to teen audiences were mostly shown in drive in, saturday matinees and evening shows. This one makes no exception, I can't imagine adults watching this movie when it was released. Even director John Brahm made such a film with HOT RODS TO HELL, his last movie. He who gave us THE LODGER and THE LOCKET...Here, Edward L Cahn seemd to be very comfortable for such a feature. But Edwward L Cahn was not John Brahm.
La Run (2011)
Please don't miss the last 15 minutes
I had nearly two hours to waste, so I tried this small Canadian crime thriller. It is unknown, not reviewed yet on imdb - and now I understand why - so I said to myself that this small movie deserved to be watched. There is no ambition here or an ambition braked by a serious, severe lack of money to produce. Of course, it is cheap but it is also unfortunately lousy, especially for someone like me who is not interested by this story of losers, those punks who have nothing to do with tough high rank professionals. Now, I must admit that it is certainly close to reality and true life characters. Try it if you dare.... Especially the last gruesome and also awesome brutal, unbearable minutes. It nearly saves the whole.
The Hallow (2015)
Nothing really new but efficient....
This kind of topic reveals nothing really new, but it remains efficient, and the director seems to have been totaly dedicated to this story. It is question of horror and ecology, with a spice of movie references: STRAW DOGS and Ray Harryhausen's cinema too. For the rest, it is a quite good horror yarn, set in Ireland and that makes it interesting. But I was not that amazed, because I had already seen too many movies of this kind. It would be a smooth but less fun EVIL DEAD too. I am dead sure the diirector Hardy also watched Sam Raimi's first movie many times. There will be more of this kind of stuff, I guess forever....
Les brigades du Tigre: Le réseau Brutus (1982)
Against the Italian facists
This story takes place just after the access of Mussolini to power. Some of his opponents have gone to France to take shelter and our cops leads are in charge to take care of them. As usual, this TV show follows the historical lines of this period; here, 1925. No real mystery or investigation here, no criminal case. The plot is more political, intelligence oriented. The problem with this episode is that some supporting characters speak Italian and there is no subtitles for French audiences. Long dialogues...That's the first time in my long life movie buff that I see such a thing. Interesting ending though.
Destination Moon (1950)
Destination sleep
Is that really science fiction? I guess not. Because if it is really science fiction that's the most terrible and especially boring science fiction film ever made for me. But if you watch it as a fiction documentary, that's different. As the TV show SCIENCE FICTION THEATER,, in the fifties...For those who are fond of rockets and spaceships jouneys, I can admit that may be worth the watch, but director Irving Pichel was more inspired by dramas or westerns than with this movie. Definitely. I saw this DESTINATIONN MOON thirty years ago, I was deceived and watched it again with the same feeling. I am afraid that will be the last time I will see it.
Les derniers hommes (2023)
The best Pierre Schoendoerffer or Werner Herzog's tribute
Maybe not as powerful as DIEN BIEN PHU or LA 317éme SECTION, this war in Indochina war movie is more than welcome, in 2023, to remind to young audiences what that fierce conflict was about. I know, you already had Guillaume Nicloux' CONFINS DU MONDE, in 2018, again speaking of the Indochina war. The director here made in 2015: LOIN DES HOMMES, this time about war in Algeria. Between the two features, he directed FRERES ENNEMIS, a terrific French crime drama. So, this very one which I review today in unavoidable for those who crave for historry facts concerning this period. The unknown actors even add power, conviction to this story. We also may feel the influence, inspiration of AGUIRRE...
Un jeune homme seul (1974)
Forgotten gem that Costa Gavras or Yves Boisset could also have made.
An untold story which will please to anyone interested in WW2 in France, occupied France. It is maybe not as exciting as LACOMBE LUCIEN nor MONSIEUR KLEIN, but it remains a very interesting story, realistic, accurate to what really happened in France, under Nazi tyranny. I am not sure many folks know or remember this TV movie from 1974. The main character is the most important and unusual element for this feature, about which you can not foresee what will happen. I am so happy to have discovered it. A painful France history sequence, when heroes were not that galore.... A very sensitive scheme to speak about. Even decades later.
Les brigades du Tigre: Made in USA (1982)
Closer than ever to THE UNTOUCHABLES TV show
The link between LES BRIGADES DU TIIGRE and THE UNTOUCHABLES has never been closer one to the other, because this plots concerns American gangsters from Chicago in Paris. And our lead cop character Valentin talks by phone with Elliot Ness in the beginning. And Ness doesn't understand Valentin's name - he thinks he is named Valentine; a tribute to St Valentine's Day massacre, in Chicago, when Capone slaughtered his enemies. This episode is amusing,, exciting, surprising, with Eddie Constantine excellent in a mobster role. And in a sequence when we hear the voice of a radio broadcast program speaker, is the same as in the French dubbed version of THE UNTOUCHABLES.
5 è il numero perfetto (2019)
Revenge of the old timer
This is a rather fascinating Italian crime drama, about which the production design and camera work is absolutely stunning. This old fashoned story is perfect for me and I doubt this film made a gross, because it is not destined to large audiences, only confidential ones. We don't see this kind of films anymore, since several decades. An old gangster or mafia killer seeks who killed his son. Nothing exceptional in this plot but it's gripping, cute and full of bitter charm and talent. Such a shame that it was not better known and recognized. I am so gled to have discovered this little pure gem from Italy.
The Price of Fear (1956)
Excellent thriller
I am usually rapidly bored and annoyed, upset by all those topics where an innocent man tries to prove his innocence. But here, the plot is very brilliant, surprising riveting, tense, and Merle Oberon - not used to this kind of suspense thriller - is the main shining element in this story. I would have never expected her in such a role. And the best of the best in the movie is of course the ending, that no one can ever foresee nor forget. Yes, this is not a kind of film that you can see often, in terms of story. You can't foresee what will happen in the next scene, but you can guess, expect, that's all. And the direction you'll think it will take, it is finally not !!! That's what I love in this film.
Devil's Canyon (1953)
As efficient as forgettable
As I have already said many times before, director Alfred Werker provided several good westerns by the end of his career, rather grade B westerns, the same kind of material that Universal made in the fifties, starring Audie Murphy fo instance. Here, Stephen McNally is the villain and nearly steals the show, compared to a bland Dale Robertson,, who was made for TV westerns shows, instead of this kind of westerns. That's my own opinion. But this is a good solid little yarn, don't misunderstand me, it is worth the view but not as unpredictable as a Budd Boetticcher's western written by Burt Kennedy and with Randolph Scott as the lead.
The Fall of the House of Usher (1960)
House of Corman
This very movie is in the perfect continuity of the other films directed by Roger Corman and all adapted from Edgar Allan Poe or Lovecraft's novels. Same atmospheres of insanity and terror, creepy characters and untold mysteries, cursed mansions and doomed fates. Vincent Price was the head master of all those films; without him, I doubt they would have existed. HOUSE OF USHER is the perfect example of this movie series. Cheap masterpieces that traumatized generations of audiences. I did not discover them when I was a boy, but an adult. If you still don't know Roger Corman's most known stuff, please, please, try this one, and the other movies will rapidly follow....
Blood for Dust (2023)
Good atmosphere but not dark enough
Such a plot, story, should have been more gloomy, bleak, dark, brutal. Instead, we have a slow paced story - which I can accept, precisely because of this deep America atmosphere - but where something is missing, I don't know exactly what.... But the worst in this movie is the ending, I don't understand nor accept it at all. And for me, it's a true deception. It is not the first and it won't be the last for this kind of films, more or less inspired by FARGO spirit. OK; some good violent and bloody gunfights, but, unfortunately, the last minutes arre so unbearable for me, unbereable. Such a waste.
Les brigades du Tigre: Le vampire des Karpates (1982)
Vampire hunters
This plot is in the pure tradition of LES BRIGADES DU TIGRE spirit. It is an investigation evoking, once more, the social and cultural atmosphere of this late twenties period; I mean the rise of the taklies films...Anyway, during all this historical, period thriller and crime drama, any element related to historical, political, cultural, social problems were spoken about, and from this, some plots were written, with more or less success. This story is just OK, no great surprise, just made to fill up the blanks and provide another episode to "feed" the show. This scheme of silent era actors getting berserk when the talkies rose has been evoked many times before, the same with war veterans after the conflict ended. Even in the AVENGERS TV show, this scheme was also used.
The Cat Creature (1973)
I prefered SHADOW OF THE CAT, from John Gilling
Curtis Harrington was really a pretty interesting film maker, whose films deserve to be seen again, shown in festivals and in Movie institutes. It was another kind of William Castle, and without all the gimmicks. Thriller and horror in the same time. For me, Curtis Harrington was a heir of both Alfred Hitchcock and William Castle. This very movie: CAT CREATURE is not the film which I will rremind the most from him, but it remains very efficient, brilliant, and permits you to have an idea of what Curtis Harrington was able of. He had the sense of suspense, the story telling, maybe too much in the TV industry style. A director to discover at all costs.
Pillow Talk (1959)
Pillow means sleep when I watch this film
I am not a specialist for this kind of junk, but I guess this is a milestone in the history of such comedy and romantic films from the late fifties and early sixties. I admit it is full of charm and fantasy. The split screen helps a lot to entertain the audiences. But it is so lousy, silly, stupid, and I am sure it helped Doris day to become famous, precisely because of this film, produced by Ross Hunter, the Douglas Sirk's movies producer - most of them melodramas - but here a sex romantic comedy. Doris Day's image became prisoner of such kind of characters for the rest of her career. And Rock Hudson doesn't take great advantage from his performance here, an excellent performance indeed, but for a lousy film. I guess that Douglas Sirk did not dar directing such a material.
Les brigades du Tigre: Le temps des garçonnes (1982)
Roaring twenties
This episode drives us to the twenties atmosphere: Coco Chanel and Charleston music.... And in this episode, there a several peculiar elements. First, our lead cops appear very late, at some point where I first wondered if I would see them...Second, the villains are invisible, except some beautiful women.... As in another episode: LES DEMOISELLES DU VESINET, but in this one, it was question of old women. And there is also a third element very weird. Some additional cop characters are here, characters who were, for me, midcasted, because one of them doesn't look at all like a cop, but a peasant instead. Not believable at all. But it's funny. And after all, a cop who doesn't look like a cop makes things easier to tail a hoodlum, doesn't it?
Deathtrap (1982)
Anthony Shafer or Ira Levin, who cares?
Any movie buff will recognize SLEUTH stem cell in this story, adapted from an Ira Levin's material. I am dead sure that Ira Levin was himself under influence of Anthony Shafer's work when he wrote DEATHTRAP. But that doesn't remove anything from this tense, riveting, outstanding piece of work. I also guess it was genuinely a stage play. Michael Caine vs Christopher Reeves in DEATHTRAP matches with Lawrence Olivier vs Michael Caine in SLEUTH. Here, Caine has the Larry Olivier's place. You are literally glued to this outstanding Sidney Lumet's movie. The DOG DAY AFTERNOON director seems very comfortable here. Just enjoy.
Crash Landing (1958)
Mayday Mayday, Sam Katzman produces this movie....
This CRASH LANDING feature lives up to its title. The only fate for this movie is to crash, with Sam Katzman as producer and Fred Sears as director. Both men gave us acceptable film noirs and science fiction- CHICAGO SYNDICATE, INSIDE DETROIT, MIAMI EXPOSE, MIAMI STORY, EARTH VS FLYING SAUCERS.... But here, you already know what will happen, and if you already know AIRPORT movies made fifteen years later, I can advise you to do something else than to lose your time with this waste. However, if you are a Fred Sears hard boiled fan, OK, try it. However, I doubt there are plenty of Fred Sears' fans in the world. The latest's best stuff are the movies evoked above and CELL 2455 DEATH ROW. Forget the rest.
La cravate (2020)
Very interesting, but for French audiences only
The scheme reminds me some documentaries from the sixties, except it was then in black and white. There is an off voice, very monotonous, boring, but the result is definitely not. The diary of a young man, activist for an extreme right wing French party - Front National. But not a shaved head, neo nazi like violent punk member, as it was in the movie UN FRANCAIS, just a quiet but convinced militant for this party. It is quite realistic, engrossing, riveting, it seems so true, authentic. It shows the backstage, the behind the curtain elements which we never hear about. A documentary, but outstanding, for those who crave for political matters.