ANGEL (1984)

  This is a sentimental favorite from back in the VHS rental days. I think the thing I like most about it is that it mixes a few different genres together slasher movie/revenge flick/teen drama and it wallows in a great 80s Los Angeles sleazy environment. In addition to this all the characters here are bonkers. Comedian Dick Shawn in drag as Angel's fairy godmother, the always wacky Susan Tyrell as his mate/insult-trading partner, Rory Calhoun as a lost-in-time cowboy and a killer(John Diehl) who is a literal egg-sucking hooker-killing nutjob. Our main character played by Donna Wilkes is supposed to be a 15-year old prostitute but clearly is not and that's probably a good thing. 

 There were 3 sequels to this. I've only see 2 of them and just found out about the 4th one where our Angel has become a blond. Sadly Wilkes never returned to the series and Angel is played by a different actress in each subsequent movie. 

VENGEANCE IS MINE (1974)

  Ernest Borgnine stars here as a very religious farmer who runs afoul of some homicidal scumbag bank robbers. The worst of which is played by character actor Michael J. Pollard who you might know best from BONNIE AND CLYDE. His granddaughter, Hollis McLaren, who's a bit of a hippie because this made in 1974, makes some dumb decisions which lead to some tense moments. Not a terrible little drama. Originally released rated PG as SUNDAY IN THE COUNTRY then reedited and rereleased as VENGEANCE IS MINE with an R-rating. Released on video as BLOOD FOR BLOOD

                 This British poster makes Borgnine look pretty hunky!:

  

Sweet British double feature, rated X of course!:

BEST FRIENDS (1975)

 Richard Hatch, who was Apollo in the old BATTLESTAR GALACTICA TV show, stars in this drama about a couple of pals driving around in an RV with their chicks. Very leisurely paced film where not a lot happens for long stretches. It does get a bit more intense during the big finale and then forgets to actually have an ending. Some of the posters make this out to be some kinda American Indian revenge exploitation flick but that's only dealt with in a very minor scene. The majority of the film is a more introspective look at growing up and touches on some possibly homo-erotic bromance between our main 2 characters. Not a bad film to put on if you want to take a nap.

LADY STREET FIGHTER (1977)

  Not to be confused with the Japanese SISTER STREET FIGHTER film this is an American action flick filmed in either 1977 or 1975 depending on what website you choose to believe but allegedly not released until 1980. The story involves a hitwoman(writer/producer Renee Harmon) who gets targeted by a gang of assassins who kill her twin sister. From there it's a revenge-o-rama which also shoehorns in a love story, a weird orgy scene where some celery gets fellated and lots of bad dubbing. There's not a whole lot of martial arts and this is one of those movies that becomes very entertaining in its awfulness. Highlights include a full grown woman playing a 5-year old girl, a man flipping the bird while being burned alive and Liz Renay(of John Waters' DESPERATE LIVING fame among other things) doing a striptease. A real gem of crap cinema!

 There was a sequel made in 1990, but not released until 2018, titled REVENGE OF LADY STREET FIGHTER but from what I read that was comprised of a whole lot of the original movie with only about 10 minutes of new footage inserted. Does not sound like essential viewing.

HOME BEFORE MIDNIGHT (1979)

  I've enjoyed pretty much all of the Pete Walker horror films I've seen up to this point so I figured I would check out his attempt to break out of the horror genre with this movie about a rock song writer(James Aubrey) who falls in love with a gal(Alison Elliot) who turns out, unbeknownst to him, to be underage. It's certainly something different for Mr. Walker and apparently it didn't work out so well because his next, and last, film(the all-star extravaganza HOUSE OF THE LONG SHADOWS) was back in the horror realm. It's an interesting film with plenty of nudity on show but least favorite of Walker's output. 

 The band Jigsaw appear, and provide the soundtrack, as the fictional band Bad Accident.

                               Jigsaw's big hit!:

THE GIRL IN LOVER'S LANE (1960)

Great character actor Jack Elam is once again great in this playing(as he normally did) the big creepy heavy who keeps creeping on a local innocent waitress(Joyce Meadows, who is not related to Audrey Meadows of THE HONEYMOONERS as I had initially suspected). Sadly most of the movie does not focus on our googly-eyed villain but is basically a love story about a couple of drifters(one of which is Brett Halsey who would go on to be in a bunch of spaghetti-westerns among other Italian flicks) who end up in a crappy little town where they lynch people on some very flimsy evidence. I've only seen this on MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATRE 3000 and I think that's good enough.

 

A WORLD WITHOUT THIEVES (2004)

  Judging by the DVD cover that has 2 guys fighting on top of a speeding train I had assumed this was more of a martial arts/action movie than what it actually is. While there is a smattering of fighting and a little action here and there(and that train scene does sorta happen) overall this thing plays out more as a drama about a couple who are facing some moral quandries about being thieves. Andy Lau plays the main thief, among many, and wears a wig for some unknown reason throughout most of the movie. Can't say I'd reccomend this to anyone but it did have excellent cinematography and looked well shot for what that's worth.

STOP ME BEFORE I KILL! (1960)

  So this newlywed couple get into a car crash before the title even pops up, from there our husband character(Ronald Lewis) develops an uncontrollable urge to kill his wife. In steps one weirdo psychiatrist(Claude Daphin, who you might recall as the president of Earth in BARBARELLA) and then there's a bunch of psychological mumbo-jumbo and maybe a love triangle developing? This one is pretty different from your usual Hammer studios horror film and plays out more like a thriller/drama. The main characters, besides Diane Cilento who is pretty easy to look at, come off as pretty unlikeable which makes for a long haul. The plot itself is interesting enough and does build suspense towards the end just try and disregard the ridiculous psychiatry on display. Also, at 109 minutes, this was Hammer's longest film up until this date and it sure feels it.

         AKA THE FULL TREATMENT, which was also the name of the book this was based on:

SOMEONE BEHIND THE DOOR (1971)

 This is one of the weirder Charles Bronson films, yes possibly even stranger than that one where he marries a 16 year old in England, and also probably my least favorite. Bronson does get a chance to actually do some acting in this since it is quite the atypical role for him. The plot deals with Anthony "Norman Bates" Perkins as a doctor who wants to get revenge on his cheating wife so he convinces his patient(Bronson), who has amnesia, to do so for him. This might be better if the movie didn't drag so much and the ending wasn't a cop out.


                                         

He's not really the bad guy, he's more of a pawn, but he does do some bad things:

BOXCAR BERTHA (1972)

 This seems to be one of those Martin Scorsese-directed films that doesn't get brought up much when people talk about his career. That's kind of a shame because, even though it's not my favorite of his filmography(TAXI DRIVER? MEAN STREETS?), it's still a pretty amazing film for being so early in his career. Made for producer Roger Corman's AIP studios to obviously cash-in on the success of  BONNIE AND CLYDE from a  couple of years earlier, this definitely has the Corman-feel to it throughout most of it's run time up until it pulls out all stops and gives us a super bloody ending scene which includes multiple gory shotgun wounds and even a crucifixion! This ending wallop foreshadows the one in TAXI DRIVER though things seem even bleaker here under the depression-era circumstances. Worth checking out instead of any of that more current junk Mr. Martin has put out. Also as a bonus you get to see Barbara Hershey very nude if that's your thing and in what I'm thinking is a rare occurrence David and his dad John Carradine get to act opposite each other in at least one scene.




                                        Known in Italy as AMERICA 1929:

and in Germany as THE FIST OF THE REBELS?: 

THE LEGEND OF LIZZIE BORDEN (1975)

 Elizabeth Montgomery is, of course, best remembered as the witchy star of the BEWITCHED program but after that series ended she starred in a bunch of made-for-TV movies where she got to show off her acting abilities outside of the comedic box she was typecast into. Although I haven't seen many of these this one was a memorable highlight from her foray into drama that I do recall playing when I was a stupid little kid and probably didn't appreciate it because there were no giant monsters in it. What you do get here  though is the very well-known story of a young lady who took an axe and whacked away at her parents. While technically it is a courtroom drama which is usually a terrible subgenre this one fills it with enough flashbacks and interesting bits that things never become as boring or drawn out as they might be. Also if you can get a hold of the European-theatrical release of this you get a little blood and a quick glimpse at some Montgomery boob plus some creepy molesting scenes. A good example of back when TV wasn't solely a brainwashing tool but actually a medium that made an attempt to entertain people on some level.

                                    Still playing on TV into the dread 90s!:

 

THE BEATNIKS (1960)

 Since I don't think you could really consider anyone in this movie a beatnik of any sort the title is a just a tad misleading. The plot actually deals with a group of street hoodlums/petty thieves who, after robbing a convenience store, happen to run into a talent agent who offers the gang leader(Tony Travis) a shot at becoming a pop star. The film is pretty clunky(like for example; why does this producer guy offer this piece of shit hoodlum anything after he just smashed into his car?) but moves along at a brisk enough pace that it still works as an entertaining look at 50s juvenile delinquents. My favorite character, who only appears briefly, is the old lady owner of a craphole diner named "Mama" who possesses the most cartoonish accent I've possibly ever heard. The original working title was SIDEBURNS AND SYMPATHY which is a lot more accurate. Give it a watch for some old-timey knife fights, Sinatra-esque crooning, and various 50s hooligan shenanigans. The director of this "raging teenagers in their 30s" epic was Paul Frees who is most well known for being a voice actor in tons of animated stuff and maybe most importantly on THE BANANA SPLITS program. This would be his only directing job which is kind of a shame because he certainly had that exploitation movie feel down.

"Revealing as it holds the answers to the beatnik questions all America is asking!":



 

THE BEGUILED (1971)

 In my seemingly never ending quest to watch everything that Clint Eastwood was in during the 60s and 70s I came across this. It's not something I would typically be into from ol' Clint since it's not a western or action flick in any sense. What you get is basically a drama about a Northern Civil War soldier who gets injured and winds up in a Southern all-gals school. While this seems like it might be the perfect set-up for an 80s sex-comedy that's exactly the opposite route this film takes. It's all really  heavy and  also quite pervy as Eastwood either hits on or is hit upon by pretty much everyone regardless of their age and that goes down to a 12-year-old. There's also one slightly jarring dismemberment scene which I was not expecting. All in all a really well done film for what it is which is not surprising since the director is Don Siegel who, of course, is know for the original INVASION OF THE BODY SNATCHERS and working a bunch with Eastwood including the great DIRTY HARRY which came out right after this and made everyone forget it existed.
 At the time this was released it flopped since people wanted tough-guy action star Clint and not creepy kid-kissing, romantic guy but for something different it's worth a look.
 There was a 2017 remake of this with Nicole Kidman that looks way too glitzy and polished and I never want to be subjected to it.

This trailer makes it seem like we're getting a way more exploitative experience than you actually get!:

ACROSS 110th STREET (1972)

 Great soundtrack(including the classic title tune that was reused in JACKIE BROWN amongst other places), great dialogue and a cool plot about some gangsters getting ripped off and murdered and all hell breaking loose in Harlem as a result. It's like if you took a classy mobster flick and added a helping of blaxploitation and mixed it all up into a standout 70s epic. All the actors here, including Anthony Quinn, Yaphet Kotto and Anthony Franciosa are perfect in their respective roles. My personal favorite Antonio "Huggy Bear" Fargas dons some sweet vines before the shit starts to get really heavy. We get an offscreen castration, lots of gun-fu and a bunch of 70s-style racism. A great example of why the 70s were the high-point of cinema and even a seemingly simple crime-drama can be a thought-provoking(besides the obvious racial questions raised there are ponderings on age and suicide brought up) piece of art.




This version of the theme song, that's on the soundtrack, is actually different, and better, than the one that's actually played in the opening of the film:

Italian style!:

and Japanese style!:

SOUTH BRONX HEROES (1985)

   

                                                     "Climb a fence ya faggit!"

 I have this movie on DVD as part of a blaxploitation box set and even though it features Mario Van Peebles(and his sister Megan) in featured parts it isn't a blaxploitation film at all. It's actually more of a drama with some action bits tossed in. That's not to say it doesn't have some very exploitative elements. In fact the film starts out with a little boy being forced to participate in the making of a kiddie-porn-shoot, which is one hell of a memorable way to kick off your movie!! From there we follow the adventures of a couple of white foster-kids(with super-thick New Yawk accents!) as they run-away from their extremely pervy and physically-abusive step-dad and end up in the 1980's Bronx. From here we get roaming gangs of interracial hooligans looking for trouble to pad things out until we get to the big unlikely sting-operation of a climax. This film is bizarre enough, thanks to it's horrific villainous character, break-dancing interlude and a talking? ferret that I've had to re-watch it a couple of times now just to make sure I actually saw what I thought I did. The only big minus is that most of the music in this thing is headache-inducingly awful with lyrics that tell the story as they ramble along. The break-dancing rap(which sounded very Grandmaster Flash-like) is the only tune that's at all listenable. If your ears can overlook this you're in for a very strange trip through 80's New York. AKA REVENGE OF THE INNOCENTS

FLESH AND BULLETS (1985)

 So this is a sorta-remake of Alfred Hitchcock's STRANGERS ON A TRAIN where two guys each make a deal to kill the others wife. Except it's like a late-night Cinemax version of that movie if it was directed by a fellow who usually directs porno's. A few porn stars do show up along with some very brief appearances by stars in their twilight years like Yvonne "Lily Munster" DeCarlo and Cesar "The Joker" Romero. Also Maniac Cop himself, Robert Z'Dar plays a rapist tough guy in one of his earliest appearances, so that's something. This one has a couple of chuckles, a strange homosexual rape scenario that plays out and real cop-out of an ending. It also has a few dream/fantasy sequences to try and fool the audience and I hate those! Overall the payoff makes this one probably not worth the effort of watching it.
 There's a different cut of this film on the DVD I have titled THE WIFE CONTRACT but I'm not sure if I want to sit through this thing again to see if it's possibly any better. I believe the only difference is that the celebrity cameos are not in this version which at least might make it slightly shorter.

                       One of our main "heroes" has quite the Magnum P.I. look going on:

SINGLE ROOM FURNISHED (1966)

 This was billed as Jayne Mansfield's last movie(though technically there were a couple released after this, she did die before completing this) and that's a pretty big shame because it's so terrible. The whole thing seems like it could be a play with every character droning on endlessly about stupid crap while performing their mandatory monologue about how they feel about life. There's really no plot, just little stories about people in relationships. Most of the acting is laughable, though I guess Miss Mansfield was not actually famous for being a great actress. There's one part where she tries to pull off a Brooklyn accent which is particularly cringe-inducing. Probably the highlight of this was when Jayne calls a fellow with a shitty haircut "monkey" a bunch of times. While perhaps in 1966 some of the topics discussed might have been considered risque, i.e. abortion, prostitution, being a generally slutty lady etc., this being 2015 it doesn't pack much in the way of shock value anymore. The only other Mansfield films I've seen, so far, are THE WILD, WILD WORLD OF JAYNE MANSFIELD and FEMALE JUNGLE and those were only mildly amusing from what I recall. One of these days I should probably watch THE GIRL CAN'T HELP IT since that seems to be the film she's best remembered for.