Wonderwall (1968)

Compton-Cameo Films (UK)
Directed by Joe Massot
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

An absent-minded professor discovers a hole in his wall through which he watches the psychedelic life of fashion model Jane Birkin. His voyeurism leads to fantasies of the two of them getting married, despite a large difference in ages and incompatible lifestyles. Jane, whose character is named Penny Lane, gets pregnant by one of her many lovers. This leads to a suicide attempt, but the professor, who is hiding in her apartment by this point, saves her, fulfilling his fantasies. The music by George Harrison is the main appeal, a combination of Indian classical and electronics, which may drive the typical listener crazy but I quite like it. The set design, credited to The Fool, who were Dutch designers associated with the British psychedelic scene (see the inner sleeve of Sgt Pepper's), is also quite good. Just don't expect much in the way of plot or character development.

She Waits (1972)

CBS
Directed by Delbert Mann
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Newlyweds Patty Duke and David McCallum visit his mother in a spooky old house. Mom is seeing ghosts, and soon so is Patty. It turns out his ex-wife died there, but exactly how is part of the mystery. Patty eventually becomes "possessed" by the ex-wife, who wants revenge, or maybe just a chance to rest in peace. Well-made, if predictable, 70s horror TV-fare from a bunch of old pros both behind and in front of the camera. Patty is a good screamer.

Blind Man (1971)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Ferdinando Baldi
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Blind "gringo" has a contract to deliver 50 women to miners in Texas. However, the women are in Mexico, having been sold to Mexican bandits. He heads to Mexico where he tangles with the bandits in an attempt to get the women. Ringo Starr is one of the leaders of the bandit gang, with a pretty girlfriend he wants to keep but who seems more interested in the gringo. He is eventually killed, but his funeral turns out to be the impetus for the Big Action Finale. Stylish widescreen photography of the Spanish landscape by Riccardo Pallottini, but otherwise this is one big bore, with Ringo badly dubbed or even worse, speaking Italian. Imitation Morricone soundtrack by Stelvio Cipriani.

The Burglars (1971)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Henri Verneuil
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Superb heist flick with numerous memorable sequences. Right from the start, there is an extended robbery and safe cracking scene that takes place with little if any dialogue. Jean-Paul Belmondo is the charismatic leader of the group which includes his girlfriend and two others. However, their planned escape via cargo ship falls through, and they split up. Omar Sharif is the razor-sharp police detective on their trail, including a memorable car chase through the streets, and stairs, of Athens. Perhaps the best scene involves Sharif and some target practice. Dyan Cannon makes an appearance, but she could have easily been cut and the film would have lost nothing. The icing on the cake: Ennio Morricone's soundtrack.

Villain (1971)

MGM-EMI
Directed by Michael Tuchner
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Richard Burton is the vicious leader of a London gang who keeps them in check with frequent violence. A disgruntled factory worker gives him information on a payroll delivery which he plans to target for a robbery. After too much internal bickering, they finally pull the heist, but it does not go smoothly. The post-robbery split becomes a debacle leading to more bickering and violence. It is stylishly photographed on location in some of the seedier London neighborhoods. Unfortunately, the script tends to ramble and characters are underdeveloped.

Who Is Harry Kellerman and Why Is He Saying Those Terrible Things About Me? (1971)

National General Pictures
Directed by Ulu Grosbard
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Dustin Hoffman, a successful songwriter, is entering middle age and having a nervous breakdown. He lives alone in a penthouse apartment in NYC. Girls come and go in his life but a mysterious man, Harry Kellerman, sabotages the relationships before they can start. Flashbacks reveal a troubled previous marriage marred by infidelity. Hoffman starts hallucinating, his psychiatrist breaks out in song in the middle of a session, then becomes suicidal. It has its awkward moments, most of the scenes with the psychiatrist for example, but from the moment Barbara Harris appears at an audition the remainder of the film is pure cinematic bliss.

Moon of the Wolf (1972)

ABC
Directed by Daniel Petrie
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Sheriff David Janssen investigates the death of a local girl in the Louisiana bayou. First wild dogs are suspected, but the autopsy reveals it was murder. Janssen spends most of the running time tracking down clues and interviewing suspects. It's all rather routine with stereotyped country hicks and cliched Louisiana settings. It gets marginally more interesting towards the end when the werewolf is revealed, but there is no transformation scene, just a hairy guy running around wearing normal clothes. I never knew that "blessed bullets" were fatal to werewolves.

The Strangers in 7A (1972)

CBS
Directed by Paul Wendkos
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Andy Griffith is a superintendent in a run down New York City apartment building. Approaching middle age and distant from his wife Ida Lupino, he makes nightly visits to the local bar. The young and beautiful Susanne Hildur tries to pick him up. Amazed at his luck, he takes her to the apartment building where she supposedly needs a place to sleep. Her Army wacko friends barge in and announce their plans to rob the bank next door. The rest of the film unfolds with a typical heist and hostage plot. The main interest here is the cast, with Andy in his made-for-TV movie period, Ida aging but still believable and even Michael Brandon fine as the "pretty boy" leader of the group.

The Triple Echo (1972)

Hemdale Film (UK)
Directed by Michael Apted
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Farmer Glenda Jackson discovers a young soldier walking in her field one day. She invites him in for a cup of tea, but he stays much longer. He gets the old tractor running, is good at chores, and ends some of the loneliness she feels with her husband away at the war. After a few months, they disguise him as her sister so the neighbors and grocer won't be suspicious. At first it's a joke, but soon he is wearing dresses, makeup and a stuffed bra all the time. Oliver Reed is an obnoxious and presumptuous officer who won't take no for an answer when he asks the two "sisters" to the Christmas dance. He corners the "girl" alone and he agrees to go. The entire movie is a set up for the dance with Oliver Reed and an attempted rape of a transvestite. I just didn't buy into any of the characters: not the girl, not Reed's officer, not even Glenda Jackson as a farmer.

Baby Love (1968)

AVCO Embassy
Directed by Alastair Reid
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Teenager Linda Hayden comes home from school to find mum dead in the bathtub from a suicide. An old boyfriend takes her into his wealthy home, where she proceeds to seduce every member of the family. She has recurring nightmares of discovering the body and has a phobia of water. As family life gradually deteriorates, you have to wonder why they didn't send her to a psychiatrist. It would be too easy to write this off as exploitative melodrama, as there does seem to be more at work here: the dreams, the underlying psychosis, the fractured family dynamics; it's not Hitchcock, but it shares similar themes.

Toomorrow (1970)

Rank Film (UK)
Directed by Val Guest
My rating:1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Olivia Newton-John and her swinging London friends at an art school are in a pop group called Toomorrow, as in "too much", you dig? They use a "tonalyzer" in the group, a primitive synthesizer, which gives them a unique sound and attracts the attention of aliens. Yes, aliens, who abduct them and want to bring them back to their planet to make groovy sounds, which they find soothing. Unfortunately, I found their sounds anything but soothing. Anyway, the same day they are abducted they were to appear at a big Pop Festival, and they convince the aliens to send them back to Earth so they can perform. The last scene is of the entire Pop Festival being transported into outer space. It's not as much fun as it sounds.

All the Right Noises (1971)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Gerry O'Hara
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Tom Bell is an electrician on films and plays. He has a pretty wife and a couple of kids. One day he meets  young Olivia Hussey on the set of a play and they go out for drinks together. One things leads to another and they are soon embarked on an affair. She reveals that her age is 15 although she looks and acts older. Tom should have turned around and walked away at that point, but instead takes her home when his wife is away on business. This could turn out only a couple of ways: they get caught or she gets pregnant, and basically the rest of the film revolves around those two possibilities. Interesting mainly for a glimpse at the daily life of middle class British and young actors in the early 70s, otherwise morally ambiguous, especially given the fact that Tom essentially gets off unpunished.

Open Season (1974)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Peter Collinson
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A group of sadistic hunters, all ex-military, kidnap a couple on a remote mountain highway. They take them by river to their hunting lodge. The girl, pretty Cornelia Sharpe, is chained and ordered to clean the oven, while the guy is forced to chew gum. Later, things get more serious when they get her drunk and rape her. The next day she starts exhibiting the "Stockholm syndrome" and sympathizing with her captors, specifically Peter Fonda. However, when they turn both loose with the intent of hunting them down in cold blood she changes her mind.

Sundays and Cybele (1962)

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Serge Bourguignon
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A German pilot struggling to recover his memory after a crash is living with his nurse turned girlfriend near Paris. One day he meets a little girl by accident, who ends up being abandoned by her father at the local nun's convent. He convinces the nuns he is her father and begins to visit her one day a week. They strike up an odd friendship: he is reliving a childhood he can't remember while she is living in a fantasy world with him at the center of it. They seem happy, in a pure and innocent way, but others around them start to become suspicious of the relationship. He has fits of violence which are particularly worrisome. The police finally get involved, leading to tragedy. Wonderful widescreen black and white photography by Henri Decae, but the characters are difficult to get to know, in particular Hardy Kruger's Pierre, who rarely shows any kind of emotion.

Angel in My Pocket (1969)

Universal Pictures
Directed by  Alan Rafkin
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

This is basically a rehash of post-Barney Fife, color seasons of The Andy Griffith Show, with Andy a preacher instead of the sheriff. Jack Dodson (Howard Sprague) even has a minor role, and he's just as lifeless here. A small Kansas town is plagued by a decades-old feud between two families, which spreads to the politics and the church. Andy deals with that mess, as well as trying to fix up the church and buy a new organ. A subplot involving ghosts in the local cemetery has potential, but it's not developed. It all takes place on the familiar Universal back lot.

Alice in the Cities (1974)

Filmverlag der Autoren (West Germany)
Directed by Wim Wenders
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

German writer Rudiger Vogler is driving around America in search of a story for his publisher. He takes polaroid pictures and attacks his TV in a run down motel room. He meets a woman at the airport on the way back to Germany, who leaves him with her nine-year-old daughter and promises to meet up in Amsterdam, but never shows. Vogler and the girl, played to perfection by Yella Rottlander, drive around Amsterdam then head to Germany to find her grandmother. This film is all about the journey, not the destination. Wenders is not afraid to let the camera linger on the landscape, city streets or people, and America and Germany share a common bleakness. The relationship between Vogler and Rottlander is slow to develop, and lacking in conversation, but his actions speak louder than words.

Just Imagine (1930)

Fox Film Corporation
Directed by David Butler
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

It starts out as a kitschy look at fifty years in the future, which reveals more about 1930 than 1980. The future residents of NYC get around mostly by airplane, but frequently break out into songs, including crooning with a ukelele or big synchronized dance numbers. El Brendel is a dumb resident of 1930 revived in 1980, who gets hooked on alcohol pills and performs vaudeville comedy routines. Things take a turn for the worse when John Garrick and friends take a rocketship to Mars. They find scantily clad dancing girls and big men in caveman outfits. Did I mention the dancing Martian monkeys?

The Last Chance (1945)

MGM
Directed by Leopold Lindtberg
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Two Allied prisoners being transported across Italy by train escape during an attack. The young American and British soldiers decide to try to make it to freedom in Switzerland. The seek refuge in a Catholic church near the border, along with Jews and other soldiers. The final stretch is a harrowing mountain crossing on foot. The Germans are rarely seen, which adds to the tension. The dialogue is in numerous languages, which might add authenticity, but the subtitles are lacking and give the film a talky feel. Characters are too often stereotypes based on their nationality.

Three Tough Guys (1974)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Duccio Tessari
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Filmed in Chicago by Italians, it's the story of a priest who teams up with a disgraced cop to find the people responsible for the murder of a friend and the theft of a million dollars. Lino Ventura is the priest, and he's no Father O'Malley! He can fight, he uses threats and intimidation, but he won't resort to killing. Isaac Hayes mumbles his way through his role, too laid back to make much of an impact. Fred Williams, the third "tough guy", is better but does not get much screen time. Other than Chicago locations, it's all rather routine and boring.

The Soul of Nigger Charley (1973)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Larry G. Spangler
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Fred Williamson and his sidekick D'Urville Martin, the only survivors from the first film, are back to free more slaves. This time they take along a kid who survives a massacre, lady friend Denise Nicholas and whole lot of Mexicans. They rob a train full of gold and plan to use it to buy back the slaves. Slightly better than the first film, this one has more stylish photography of the desert landscape, a more complex plot and better defined characters. However, it's still overlong, due mostly to the uninteresting romance between Williamson and Nicholas, and suffers from a contrived downbeat ending.

The Legend of Nigger Charley (1972)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Martin Goldman
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A dying plantation owner in Virginia gives him his freedom, but he is pursued across the country into the old west. Along with fellow ex-slaves, they take up residence in a small dusty town, but the residents are just as racist as back in Virginia. After a shootout in a bar, they decide to help a poor farmer and his half-breed wife defend themselves against a gang led by a preacher. One of only a handful of examples of the western blaxploitation genre.

Sign of the Gladiator (1959)

Glomer Film (Italy)
Directed by Guido Brignone
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Boring peplum about a Roman gladiator who is defeated in Syria and becomes a slave. The Syrian queen, the ravishing blonde bombshell Anita Ekberg, takes pity on him and then falls in love with him. Soon she entrusts him with her army to defeat the Romans who have come to take back the country. Very little action until the end, which consists of flaming catapults and some nasty horse falls, otherwise a dressed-up soap opera. Michelangelo Antonioni was one of three uncredited directors, but you won't find any trace of his style here.

The Magic Garden of Stanley Sweetheart (1970)

MGM
Directed by Leonard Horn
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Aimless college student Don Johnson drifts into the underground psychedelic scene of NYC. He starts out as a rather obnoxious "pretty boy" who spends most of his energy trying to seduce girls. Pretty Diane Hull catches his eye, but he has to put on an act to win her over. This works for a while, but when he starts sleeping with her roommate things get complicated. He meets Michael Greer one night in a bar, who brings him to an underground party with psychedelic lights, a live band, free drugs and naked girls. He starts up a new relationship, this time as a threesome with a couple of hippie chicks. More drugs, more sex, more parties, and soon he has completely dropped out of the real world. It all comes crashing down one night during a bad trip. An interesting glimpse into the East coast scene and how it differs from the more laid back West coast, but it is hard to like Johnson's narcissistic character.

The Stranger (1967)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Luchino Visconti
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Visconti's adaptation of the classic existential novel by Albert Camus is a moody, cerebral affair. Marcello Mastroianni is perfectly cast as the indifferent Meursault, who floats through life with no emotions or attachments. He buries his mother with little fanfare, raising the suspicions of the local Arabs. His girlfriend, the lovely Anna Karina, occasionally asks if he loves her, to which he always answers: "It doesn't matter, but I suppose not." He pals around with a known pimp, who is followed one day during their trip to the beach. Coincidence, and maybe a touch of the sun, leads to a shooting. On trial for his life, his indifference, especially to his mother's funeral, seems to be the most important consideration, rather than the facts of the shooting. The final conversation with a priest while awaiting execution is riveting. This film will probably never get a proper release due to suppression by the estate of Albert Camus, which is a shame, for I thought it did justice to the largely unfilmable novel.

Unman, Wittering and Zigo (1971)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by John Mackenzie
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

David Hemmings takes a new job as a replacement teacher at a typical English boarding school for boys. On his first day his students admit to killing the previous teacher. At first he doesn't believe them, but when the evidence mounts he is helpless to do anything about it. The students use their overwhelming numbers to intimidate him, and soon they have him completely in their control. After they attempt to gang rape his pretty wife, he begins to fight back. Nicely photographed at a real school on the English seaside, the plot unfolds gradually if somewhat predictably, a few more twists would have elevated this even more.

Vaghe stelle dell'Orsa... Sandra (1965)

Vides Film (Italy)
Directed by Luchino Visconti
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Visconti turns incest into grand melodrama when Claudia Cardinale returns to her childhood home. She brings along her new husband to meet the family, including her brother, who smothers her with kisses. Mom is staying in some kind of hospital, apparently slowly losing her mind. Her stepdad pops up and starts many heated arguments. It all takes place in a large provincial mansion surrounded by works of art and set to classical piano music by Cesar Franck. The melodrama occasionally gets out of hand, but it is an effective and haunting portrait of suppressed and forbidden desires.

Negatives (1968)

Crispin Films (UK)
Directed by Peter Medak
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Vivien and Theo spice up their sex life with role playing. He becomes the notorious British killer Dr. Crippen by donning a suit and glasses, while she becomes his compliant wife or mistress. When not in their roles, they bicker and argue constantly. One day a German woman walks into his furniture store. She proclaims he looks exactly like German WWI flying ace Baron von Richthofen. She forces her way into their lives by renting a spare bedroom and taking photographs of their role playing. When she convinces Theo to take on a new role, that of the flying ace, things start to crumble. The acting is top notch, particularly Glenda Jackson as Vivien, and the characters, while unsympathetic, are not uninteresting.

Perfect Friday (1970)

London Screen (UK)
Directed by Peter Hall
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

A bored bank manager plans an elaborate heist, but he needs the help of two strangers. Ursula Andress is a customer who propositions and eventually seduces him. Her oddball husband completes the trio needed for the robbery. However, the plot wastes too much time on their boring romantic triangle. Eventually, the heist takes place and the film's pace picks up considerably. All three of them are planning a double cross to take the money afterwards, but you won't know which one gets away with it until the very end. It's far from perfect, but very entertaining.

From the Life of the Marionettes (1980)

Associated Film Distribution
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Ingmar Bergman's clinical dissection of a dysfunctional marriage which leads to murder was made for German TV. The unhappy couple are alcoholics, pill poppers, have an "open sexual relationship" with multiple partners... and they wonder why their marriage is failing? All of this is revealed and rehashed in depth by their psychiatrist. The husband loses it one night while visiting a prostitute and strangles her in the opening prolog, shot in color, while the rest of the film is in black and white, until the epilog which is also in color. There is a trademark Bergman dream sequence with the nude couple in a white room with no doors or windows. The film is laced with nudity, sex and explicit language, despite being a TV movie. In the end, I felt nothing for the characters: immoral and living solely for their own pleasure. Perhaps that was Bergman's intent, but it sure wasn't much fun to watch.

The 13 Chairs (1969)

Avco Embassy Pictures
Directed by Nicolas Gessner
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Vittorio Gassman is a NYC barber who inherits money from a long lost relative in the UK. However, the money has been hidden in a chair, which he unloaded at an antique store the previous day. The rest of the movie is his episodic search for the chair. Sharon Tate, in her last role, is the antique store girl who blackmails him into letter her help in the search. Orson Welles appears in heavy makeup and wig performing Dr. Jekyll on stage in one of the segments. It's never funny and badly dated, the only interest is to goggle Sharon and wonder what happened.

Whistle Down the Wind (1961)

Pathe-America
Directed by Bryan Forbes
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Hayley Mills is a gullible teenager who discovers a man passed out in her barn. He wakes up and is startled to see her standing over him, uttering "Jesus Christ" and then passing out again. She takes his exclamation literally and begins bringing him food: bread and wine. She easily convinces her younger siblings that he is Jesus, and the word soon spreads among all of the children in the countryside. The bewildered man, actually a murderer on the run, eventually figures out what is happening. Forbes and producer Richard Attenborough take a ludicrous premise and extend it to a feature length film, basically a gimmick. The only real insight comes at the end, when the man is changed by the unconditional love of the children, not the other way around.

Moonrunners (1975)

United Artists
Directed by Gy Waldron
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Beer-guzzlin', gun-totin' good ole boys in Georgia fight each other for control of the local moonshine business. They occasionally stop to romance a girl and have brushes with the law. I thought for a minute that Robert Mitchum was slumming, but it turned out to be none other than James Mitchum, a dead ringer for his dad! It's episodic and very boring, even the car chases fail to add any life. However, it was apparently good enough to spawn the immensely successful Dukes of Hazzard TV series, and influenced the numerous redneck car chase movies that followed for the next 5 years before oversaturation killed the genre.

The Deadly Trap (1971)

National General Pictures
Directed by Rene Clement
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Frank Langella and his wife Faye Dunaway are Americans living in Paris. His old employers show up and attempt to blackmail him into becoming an industrial spy. They torment his wife by making her think she is going crazy, then kidnap his kids.  The entire film is a sort of slow burn, there is no big action scene and the ending is anticlimactic, but it is not without its rewards for the patient viewer. The cinematography by Andreas Winding is atmospheric and makes the most of its Paris locations. Dunaway has a difficult role as an emotionally fragile wife, but for the most part pulls it off convincingly. Very little information is given about the kidnappers, the story is mostly from the point of view of the parents, and that does keep us in the dark about their motivations and hurts the film.

All This and World War II (1976)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Susan Winslow
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Old Fox Movietone newsreels and clips from Fox movies are edited together, then given a soundtrack of Beatles covers by popular 1970s artists. Improbably, it works. Who knew the Beatles were writing their songs about war? "Here Comes the Sun King" is actually a reference to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. "Come Together" is a rallying cry to defeat the Axis. And so on. It somehow succeeds in making one feel nostalgic for war, a sort of wispy-eyed longing for a common cause, though at the risk of forgetting the awful human price to be paid. This is not to be taken as a serious documentary, but more like a midnight movie escape, after all there is Adolf Hitler goose-stepping to the Bee Gees.

The Touch (1971)

Cinerama Releasing
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Bibi Andersson is a bored Swedish housewife who starts an affair with visiting American archaeologist Elliott Gould. After a rocky start, they are soon meeting regularly in his dingy apartment. They try to break it off, but find they cannot live without each other. It is a complex relationship filled with real characters. Andersson is plagued by indecision while Gould is subject to fits of anger and violence. Her husband, played by Max von Sydow, tries to be sympathetic, even after he discovers their affair. The final scene between Gould and Andersson in a park on a cold, autumn day is emotionally wrenching. Beautifully photographed by Sven Nykvist.

One Is a Lonely Number (1972)

MGM
Directed by Mel Stuart
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Trish Van Devere is going through a divorce in San Francisco. At first, she is helpless, with no job, no money and a liberal arts degree. She gets a job as a lifeguard, but only with the help of an employee at an agency who expects a date in return. She meets a well-dressed computer analyst and they eventually sleep together, but he turns out to be married. Her only real friend is elderly grocer Melvyn Douglas. It's an amiable, if predictable, look at the trials and tribulations of a single woman, though Van Devere's occasional crying fits are unconvincing. Retitled "Two Is a Happy Number", which is funnier than anything in the movie.

Cyborg 2087 (1966)

Directed by Franklin Adreon
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Michael Rennie, who will forever be remembered as Klaatu, this time arrives from the Earth of the future to find a scientist whose discovery will lead to political enslavement for the entire population. The scientist is conducting experiments with telepathy on a chimp. Klaatu, I mean Garth A7, first convinces his pretty scientist assistant that he really is from the future by letting her read his mind. Unfortunately he's part cyborg and has rejected all emotions. "Tracers" from the future arrive to try to stop him, in a plot line The Terminator would later borrow. They follow Klaatu and friends to a power plant then the "Old Town", really an old western set. Cheap, predictable and static.

T.R. Baskin (1971)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Herbert Ross
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Candice Bergen gets a job as a typist in a Chicago corporation, her desk a tiny speck in endless rows. She does not fit in with most of the other employees, her very dry sense of humor usually going completely over their heads. She makes friends with one girl, who sets her up on a blind date with a smug, rich, married man, during which she calls him a "schmuck". Other men in her life include Peter Boyle, a middle aged, married, tire salesman, with which she has a running conversation in bed the entire movie. Then there is James Caan, seemingly a perfect fit for her, but he turns out to be a jerk after their one night stand. There are plenty of insights about the impersonal big city and modern society. However, Bergen seems to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, as evidenced by a phone call to her parents, and it makes you wonder why she just doesn't leave. I believe Boyle asked that very question, but the answer, something to the effect that she would be bored, was unsatisfactory.

The Monitors (1969)

Commonwealth United
Directed by Jack Shea
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Aliens dressed in suits and black hats keep peace in the world by standing on street corners and peacefully arresting people who break the law. Their biggest weapon is "indefinite detention". Members of an underground resistance movement try to stop them by sneaking an "implosion bomb" into their headquarters. It's a dated look at the counterculture movement of the 1960s, complete with cliched psychedelic film techniques and awful songs by Odetta.

Deadhead Miles (1973)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Vernon Zimmerman
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Terrence Malick wrote this meandering story of trucker Alan Arkin. He steals a rig and picks up hitchhiker Paul Benedict. Together they criss cross America in search of loads to haul. Arkin's performance as Cooper is a love or hate affair: his strong southern drawl comes across as forced and comical. His philosophical ramblings hint at deeper truths that seem beyond his otherwise impulsive personality. He obviously dislikes the hitchhiker, but keeps him around anyway. They meet a variety of odd characters on the road, with numerous cameos. Overall, it's disjointed, unfocused and slightly pretentious, even for Malick.

One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich (1970)

Cinerama Releasing
Directed by Caspar Wrede
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(YouTube)

Solzhenitsyn's classic novel makes an uneasy transition to the screen. Tom Courtenay, a Brit with a heavy accent, is the easy going, likeable Denisovich, in his 8th year at a remote Russian prison camp in Siberia. As the title indicates, we spend one day with him, from the predawn hours until going to sleep that night. In between, he makes deals for food and tobacco, lays cinder blocks, tries to stay warm and avoid the prying eyes of the soldiers who watch over them. Unfortunately, all of this is rather boring to watch, and the only tense moment in the story is when he sneaks a shiv past a guard. Which is a shame, since Sven Nykvist provides a spectacular landscape on which next to nothing actually happens.

All These Women (1964)

Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
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Apparently Bergman was upset with the critical response to his recently completed dark trilogy, so he made this "comedy" in which he rakes a critic over the coals. A famous cellist, representing artists everywhere and presumably Bergman himself, lives in a country mansion surrounded by wealth and women. A critic arrives to write his biography, but becomes involved with the various women. The critic is a bumbling fool: unable to control his basest instincts, obviously putting himself above the artist he is writing about. Bergman makes his contempt plainly obvious in a scene where the critic is hit with bird droppings. The cellist, never seen, remains aloof. I'm not so sure Bergman is mocking artists as well. It's all rather cerebral, beautifully filmed in color by Sven Nykvist, in particular a set piece involving fireworks.

The Devil's Eye (1960)

Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
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Bergman returns to the supernatural setting he used for his masterpiece The Seventh Seal, but whereas that film was deadly serious, this one is considerably lighter in tone. The Devil, a dapper fellow who is perpetually gazing at himself in a mirror, is irritated by a sty in his eye, the result of a chaste young woman on Earth. He sends none other than Don Juan to seduce her. Don, along with his manservant and sidekick Palbo, spend the night in the home of the woman's father, a pastor, giving them plenty of opportunity for their mischief. Pablo seduces the pastor's wife, a bored housewife who reads romance novels to escape her humdrum life. However, her night of infidelity rejuvenates their marriage. Don Juan meets initial resistance from his conquest, but she too gives in, out of pity rather than love. Don Juan is moved and can't go through with it, returning to Hell in disgrace. It's all a bit silly at times, but there are some interesting conversations about human relationships.

Brink of Life (1958)

Nordisk Tonefilm (Sweden)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
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A bleak Swedish maternity ward is the setting for three  pregnant women. Ingrid Thulin is brought there by her husband, where she promptly miscarries. She recovers in the ward and befriends the other two residents. Eva Dahlbeck is the young mother-to-be who is enthusiastically anticipating her child and life in a country cottage with her husband. Finally, there is Bibi Andersson, in the ward after attempting to give herself an abortion and contemplating another. The women spend a lot of time talking about their anxieties, their relationships with the fathers, their hopes and dreams. Dahlbeck's delivery room scene is a harrowing experience. It's talky, but it's real, with fine acting by all of the actresses.

A Lesson in Love (1954)

Svensk Filmindustri
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
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A married couple contemplating divorce remember their relationship while on a train to meet her lover. Flashbacks tell how they met, some family life with their daughter and grandparents and how their love went astray. Back in real time, the final scenes in a Copenhagen harbor bar have them getting back together in an unexpected way. Bergman calls this an "adult comedy", but the comedy is light and unobtrusive. Eva Dahlbeck can be shrill we she gets all fired up, and is unconvincing as a teenager, but Gunnar Bjornstrand is outstanding as usual.

Waiting Women (1952)

Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
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A group of women in a remote country home spin stories of their past while waiting for their husbands and boyfriends to return home. The film is structured with a brief framing story at the house with three stories told in flashback. In the first story, a bored wife has an affair with an old lover then matter-of-factly tells her husband. He overreacts and threatens to kill himself, but is talked out of it. In the second, a pregnant girl remembers her love affairs in Paris. There are some vivid scenes in a cabaret, but the flashback within a flashback is awkward. In the final scene, a husband and wife become trapped in an elevator. They use the opportunity to confront each other over their unfaithfulness, and then have sex. It's all a little tiresome and over the top, even for Bergman, but he continues to grow as a director: the black and white photography, the framing of the scenes, the editing, all display a master's touch.

This Can't Happen Here (1950)

Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
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This confusing political drama is a change of pace for Bergman. The fictitious country of "Liquidatzia", standing in for Nazi Germany, sends a secret agent to Sweden to root out spies and force repatriation of refugees. He uses his wife, a refugee herself, to infiltrate the ring. She apparently kills him one night, but he pops up alive much later in the film. A friendly policeman, and former lover, gets involved for the hunt of the missing man. It's got a few Bergman touches: some brief scenes in a theater and it's told mostly from a woman's point of view, but really doesn't "feel" like a Bergman movie.

Outrage (1973)

Directed by Richard T. Heffron
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
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Robert Culp and family live in an upscale gated community in southern California. They are harassed by beer guzlling local teenagers who drive fast cars. Culp tries but fails to get help from the police and the home owner's group. The harassment escalates to killing his dog and wounding his maid, so he takes things into his own hands. This is familiar territory, and the TV movie restrictions on violence make it too tame to be of more than passing interest.

Souls for Sale (1962)

Allied Artists
Directed by Albert Zugsmith
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
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Vincent Price is a sailor in San Francisco's Chinatown who tries to save young women being sold as slaves. He is an expert in Chinese philosophy, rolling off quotes from Confucius faster than Charlie Chan. He falls in love with one of the slave traders, but she is more interested in money and power. He gets captured, is put in a cage and befriends a Chinese midget. There is excessive dancing during the slave auction. He visits an opium den and the next ten minutes of the film are in slow motion and silence.