Dog Day Afternoon (1975)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Sidney Lumet
My rating: 4 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Warner Bros.)

Al Pacino and John Cazale are inept bank robbers who find themselves surrounded by police when something goes wrong. Using the employees as hostages, Pacino negotiates with the police while the whole thing plays out on television. Crowds gather on the streets and cheer him on as he shouts "Attica", a reference to the 1971 prison riot that played out in a similar manner and resulted in innocent deaths. In a bizarre twist, Pacino admits he did it to pay for the sex change operation of his lover. As the night wears on, the police give in to their demands for a bus to the airport for a waiting jet. Pacino is a live wire, a phenomenal performance that is both believable and sympathetic. One of my favorite scenes is when Sonny is showing one of the hostages how to handle his rifle in a military drill, they show complete trust in each other. Watch how the crowd outside changes when it is revealed he is a homosexual, or the slurs hurled at the bus by a motorist on the way to the airport. And what about Sonny's silent complicity with the FBI to target his partner? What about the complicity of the police, and especially the media, in their crime? The film has withstood the test of time, and multiple viewings, because it is much more than just a bank robbery gone wrong.

Blade (1973)

Joseph Green Pictures
Directed by Ernest Pintoff
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Code Red)

John Marley, who will forever be remember for waking up with a horse's head in The Godfather, here plays a cigar-chomping detective on the New York police force approaching retirement. On perhaps his last case, a woman is viciously beaten and murdered in her apartment entrance way. Her black boyfriend, and drug pusher, is arrested but adamantly proclaims his innocence. The real killer strikes again and Marley follows up the few clues he's got which get him into trouble with a powerful politician. Shot in a shaky, hand held style that gives it an amateurish quality, although it does make good use of NYC locations. Some interesting early career appearances by Morgan Freeman, Rue McClanahan, Ted Lange and even Barney Miller's Steve Landesberg directing a "blue movie".

Black Oak Conspiracy (1977)

New World Pictures
Directed by Bob Kelljan
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Shout! Factory)

A Hollywood stunt man returns to his small home town when he finds out his mother is in a nursing home. He uncovers a plot that is lining the pockets of the community's most respected citizens. The town has a corrupt sheriff who wants him dead and a doctor who lies to him about his mom's medication. He gets in several fist fights with the yokels and tries to make up with his old girlfriend. The final showdown takes place in a huge strip mine and features a car crashing down into it while he fights with the sheriff. The plot takes its time and lets us get to know the characters, but can't quite escape its exploitation roots with unnecessary sex and nudity. Nonetheless, it is a well-done and entertaining southern melodrama of the type that used to dominate drive-ins in the 1970s.

Naked Angels (1969)

Favorite Films
Directed by Bruce Clark
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Shout! Factory)

A biker gang from LA goes to Las Vegas to get revenge on the rival gang that beat up their leader and sent him to the hospital. "Mother" hasn't been the same since being released: he beats up his girlfriend, orders the gang members around and drinks too much. They get a tip that the gang is hiding out in a desert mine and set off on a long, strange trip to find them. They fight amongst themselves, run out of gas and kick Mother out of the gang. He walks into the desert, starts hallucinating and ends up in a shack with an old man. Meanwhile, the gang is rescued by a tanker truck full of gasoline that appears out of nowhere. Mother reunites with them briefly for the final showdown with the Vegas bikers. It's all set to an acid rock soundtrack by Jeff Simmons, a future member of Frank Zappa's Mothers of Invention. In the world of late 60s biker flicks, you can't ask for much more.

Who? (1973)

Allied Artists
Directed by Jack Gold
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Scorpion Releasing)

An American spy in Russia gets in a car accident and has his face, arm and some internal organs replaced with metal parts. When he is returned to America, FBI agent Elliot Gould is skeptical of his identity and intentions. He is relentlessly questioned and constantly followed to try to determine if he is actually the same person before being allowed back to work on a top secret scientific project. This is an unusual film, more sci fi than spy, though it has elements of both. The narrative weaves past and present events, utilizes first person perspective with the camera and has an unpredictable plot. The make up work is not particularly convincing, the "robot man" looks more like the "tin man" from the Wizard of Oz, but once you get past that shortcoming it is a very entertaining and unpredictable film.

Bonnie's Kids (1973)

General Film Corporation
Directed by Arthur Marks
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Dark Sky Films)

Abused teens Tiffany Bolling and Robin Mattson murder their stepdad then go on the lam to LA where they move in with their wealthy uncle. However, uncle is just as sleazy as their old stepdad and soon they are involved in one of his criminal deals involving a briefcase full of cash. Tiffany jumps at the opportunity to take all of the loot for the sisters, but she has to get past a couple of hitmen hired to recover it. Meanwhile, Robin is being seduced by her new stepmom and the gardener. The plot could use some trimming down and there is too much talk, not enough action... even Tiffany keeps her clothes on.

Django (1966)

Directed by Sergio Corbucci
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Blue Underground)

Franco Nero is the blue-eyed Italian in the old west of the USA. He drags a coffin into a sleepy, muddy town near the Mexican border after rescuing a local whorehouse girl from being raped. The mystery of the coffin is revealed when he has a shootout with the surviving members of the gang on the main street. Fiercely independent, Django appears to side with the Mexican revolutionaries only to later steal their stash of gold which he helped take from the Army. However, his real motivations lie in his past, in the cemetery in tombstone and a personal vendetta. Extremely influential spaghetti western that opened the door to countless imitators.

Assassination in Rome (1965)

Directed by Silvio Amadio
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Dark Sky Films)

When a body turns up at the famous Trevi Fountain in Rome, the police have few if any clues on the identity of the victim or the killer. A wealthy American woman's husband goes missing on the same day and she turns to an old friend and local newspaper reporter for help. He makes the connection between the body and the missing person case. The clues lead to narcotics, blackmail and international military secrets. A talky thriller that does, however, incorporate some elements of the emerging giallo genre in Italy and certainly worth a look for fans.

Sudden Death (1977)

Topar Films
Directed by Eddie Romero
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Inception Media Group)

More Philippino junk from Eddie Romero. This time Robert Conrad is a government agent/hit man living the good life with his native wife and teenage daughter, played by his real life daughter Nancy Conrad. When the family of a local sugar company owner is murdered, he reluctantly decides to investigate. He gets help from his friend and karate expert Felton Perry. The trail leads to a group of wealthy international investors, who hire their own hit man Don Stroud to take care of Conrad. They have a fight and shootout in an ice house. There is a downbeat ending.

Damnation Alley (1977)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Jack Smight
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Shout! Factory)

Military survivors of WWIII trek cross-country in supervans towards Albany, NY, where radio transmissions are originating. They encounter giant scorpions in the desert, pick up a pretty girl in Vegas and a teenage boy near the Rockies, find Salt Lake City overrun by cockroaches and then encounter a giant tidal wave in Detroit. The special effects are generally unconvincing, except for the ever-present psychedelic light show in the sky. The group of survivors have no chemistry, and aren't very smart either, nonchalantly getting out of their armored vehicles without even checking around first. The Stand, a TV mini series released years later, did a much better job depicting a post-nuclear America.

Espionage in Tangiers (1965)

Directed by Gregg Tallas
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Dark Sky Films)

Special Agent Mike Murphy is sent to retrieve a metal plate, the essential part of a ray gun that disintegrates matter. The scientists that invented it are murdered and the trail leads first to Tangiers. He spends most of his time seducing women, the rest of it getting into fist fights in bars, hotels or just about anywhere. Next, he goes to Nice where more of the same happens. He finally catches up with the plate and gets another demonstration of the ray gun, which is used to disintegrate a fireplace, hardly proof that it could potentially destroy the universe as claimed.

Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Fox)

A nuclear war has destroyed civilization some time after the events in Conquest. Caesar is the leader of a group of apes and humans who survived in the country. One day he decides to visit the radioactive city in search of his past but instead finds mutant humans who follow him and try to destroy their village. Meanwhile, he must deal with a threat to his power from a renegade gorilla who has broken their most sacred law by murdering his son. The scene where the apes surround him and chant "ape has killed ape" is chillingly effective. A wraparound narrative, centuries in the future, with John Huston as "the Lawgiver", is distracting and unnecessary. The last Planet of the Apes film until 2001, when Tim Burton made his horrible reboot.

Superargo and the Faceless Giants (1968)

Fanfare Films
Directed by Paolo Bianchini
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Saturn Productions)

A former wrestler turned superhero tangles with a mad scientist who has turned the world's greatest athletes into robots he commands by remote control. Superargo's mystic Indian sidekick teaches him to use his mind to control others, read minds from a far distance and break a vase. In one scene, they levitate to the ceiling of a room filled with deadly gas to save themselves. The daughter of the mad scientist eventually leads them to his castle, where they fight the robots with electric guns.

Wacky Taxi (1972)

Avco Embassy Pictures
Directed by Alexander Grasshoff and John Astin
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Saturn Productions)

John Astin from The Addams Family plays a poor factory worker in San Diego who quits his job to drive his own taxi. He buys a beat up Cadillac, gives it a homemade paint job with lettering and hits the streets. It's not nearly as easy as he thinks and he soon finds himself hustling sailors for cheap fares. Eventually the taxi is stolen and he starts drinking and contemplating returning to the factory. His kids help him find it and he becomes a successful businessman in the ludicrous ending. Bicycle Thieves it's not.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Fox)

Baby Milo from Escape is now 20 years old and calls himself Caesar, after a king. His mentor and handler Ricardo Montalban commits suicide rather than give away his identity, so Caesar becomes one of the thousands of ape slaves that serve their human masters. He is captured but survives an attempt on his life with the help of a sympathetic black man. He gradually organizes a revolution by stockpiling arms and ammunition, encouraging disobedience and infiltrating the command center. The revolution finally arrives with a night of non-stop violence. The "unrated" version of the film which has been available for some time now is the definitive one, with Caesar's speech at the end releasing his pent up hatred for mankind and revealing his plan for the future. The original theatrical version pales in comparison. Roddy McDowall gives a brilliant, nearly silent performance, substituting grunts and facial expressions under heavy makeup, until he finally is allowed to speak in the climax.

The Fox Affair (1978)

Ace Films
Directed by Fereidun G. Jorjani
My rating: BOMB
IMDb
(DVD, Saturn Productions)

Two con men in NYC use an upscale clothing store to recruit young women for their latest scheme. In exchange for stock tips from a wealthy middle-aged German man, they provide him with girls they meet on the street or at discos. They've got money to burn thanks to a recent drug deal in Hong Kong in which they sent chocolate instead of opium. However, a hit man is after them to get back the money. A poorly paced drama that spends too much time disco dancing and not enough on the action. Filmed entirely on location around the city.

Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Don Taylor
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Fox)

The setting of the original movie is ingeniously flipped on its head: Zira and Cornelius find themselves on the planet of the humans, befriended by veterinarians and feared by a scientist who wants to preserve the human, not ape, race, just like Dr. Zaius. The two apes are essentially the Adam and Eve of the future talking apes who will make humans their slaves. Dr. Hasslein realizes that and wants them, and Zira's newborn child, killed to prevent it. Zira resorts to a bit of trickery, and amazing foresight, to save it, leaving the door open for the next sequel, a sketch of which is given at one point by Cornelius. Escape tends to emphasize the melodrama rather than the science fiction and feels dated, but it is probably the key film to understanding the Apes universe in its entirety.

Deliver Us from Evil (1977)

Dimension Pictures
Directed by Horace Jackson
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Saturn Productions)

Renny Roker is a black man in LA who is hassled by his probation officer, his boss, his landlord and just about every other white person he encounters. Drug dealers are trying to take over the local playground by intimidating their "coach", a black woman. He gives her a ride home one day after she is attacked and develops a crush on her best friend. The drug dealers continue to cause problems and he helps fight them. It ends with Roker breaking the fourth wall and pleading with the audience to stop the violence in our neighborhoods. The phrase "When will it end?" appears instead of the usual "The End" for the final credit. Unfortunately, over 35 years later it hasn't ended, in fact it's worse. This is actually an anti-blaxploitation film, as it specifically mentions the glorification of violence in movies as part of the problem. Nonetheless, it incorporates elements of the genre, drug dealers, some tame violence, albeit with a "message". It is filmed almost entirely on location around LA.

Hell's Bloody Devils (1970)

Independent-International Pictures
Directed by Al Adamson
My rating: BOMB
IMDb
(DVD, Media Blasters)

Al Adamson certainly ranks among the worst of directors, and this film does nothing to change that distinction. Advertised as a biker flick, it is actually a terrible spy drama centered around John Gabriel, a Bond-ish FBI agent and playboy. He is assigned to track down Nazi counterfeiters who are using the syndicate and the bikers to do their dirty work. The once great Broderick Crawford is reduced to acting behind a desk or barking out commands over a telephone, a career low point. The production is inept, with several boom spottings and canned music repeated over and over. John Carradine appears in one scene as a pet store owner, talking to twin girls about the sex problems of their love birds; it bears no relation to the rest of the film.

Teenage Mother (1967)

Cinemation Industries
Directed by Jerry Gross
My rating: BOMB
IMDb
(DVD, Saturn Productions)

High school drama, with acting to match, about a girl who coerces her boyfriend to "go all the way", fakes a pregnancy to get attention, then runs away from home and meets up with the campus drug dealer and his gang. Meanwhile, the new Swedish sex education teacher tries to convince the town council that showing films depicting a real human birth is good for the community, and to prove it screens it for them (and us). This notorious exploitation classic was a staple at drive-ins during the late 60s.

Teenage Graffiti (1977)

Allied Artists
Directed by Christopher G. Casler
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Saturn Productions)

Josh and his friends, just graduated from high school, spend their time drinking, skinny dipping in the river and driving around in his new car. His step brothers get jealous because their real dad did not give them a car. They hate him even more for hanging out with the rich folks down the road who own the mortgage. They try to murder Josh by forcing him off the highway and then drowning him in the river. He survives, reunites with his girlfriend and they hitchhike in to the sunset. Not bad for a low budget, regionally produced film.

Jailbait Babysitter (1977)

Directed by John Hayes
My rating: BOMB
IMDb
(DVD, Saturn Productions)

Despite the lurid title, this is a relatively tame drama about a teenage girl who refuses to give in to the demands of her boyfriend. One night she is attacked by one of his drunk friends and hits him over the head with a poker. He chases her into the street, but she is saved by a friendly woman with a hand gun. The woman takes her to her groovy, shag carpeted pad and lets her stay for awhile. It turns out she is a high priced hooker, and when one of her customers shows up unannounced the girl surprisingly tries to get him to sleep with her afterwards. He finds out her age and takes off running. Later, she meets up with her old boyfriend at the tennis club and they make up, then make out in his new custom van. Take out some of the nudity and language and this could almost be an after school special.

Murph the Surf (1975)

American International Pictures
Directed by Marvin Chomsky
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Inception Media Group)

Robert Conrad is a "beach boy" in Miami, doing chores for wealthy tourists, but it is only a cover for his real job as a jewel thief. He gets his surfing buddy Don Stroud involved, and together they make a killing selling the loot to a local fence. An anonymous buyer sets his sights on the "Star of India", a large stone in a museum, and the two of them pull of the heist in spectacular fashion. However, the plot gets bogged down in their boring post-heist lives where they cheat on their girlfriends and spend time in discos. The police eventually catch up to them for a rather anti-climactic ending.

Home Before Dark (1958)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Mervyn LeRoy
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Jean Simmons leaves a state mental hospital after one year, only to find herself right back in the situation that put here there. She is trapped in a marriage with a man that not only does not love her, but won't admit he is actually in love with her step sister that lives in the same house. Jean tries to compensate by going on an extravagant spending spree, only to end up looking like her step sister and embarrassing everyone in a restaurant with her dress falling off. She finally comes to her senses and tells everyone off, but it takes nearly 2 hours into the film to get there. This may have been great in the hands of say, Hitchcock, but LeRoy is too afraid to take chances and as a result there is too much melodrama and not enough psychology.

13 Worms (1970)

Directed by Cheng Hou
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Crash Cinema)

A man wins a chess match and as his prize the men on the losing team promise to do whatever he asks. He sends them on a mission to protect an important, though unnamed, person. So they trek across the countryside becoming involved in a series of escapades. The action occasionally breaks for comedy and even a few songs. The best scene takes place at a dilapidated hotel where the staff consists of handicapped people and the meals include bread stuffed with human fingers. Later, it turns out they are escorting a princess in search of buried treasure. A good fight scene towards the end between a "beggar", disguised as a man most of the film although it is obvious she is a girl, and a large number of hapless participants. A bizarre but always entertaining Taiwanese martial arts film.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)

Twentieth Century-Fox Film
Directed by Ted Post
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Fox)

James Franciscus is an astronaut sent to rescue Charleston Heston from the first movie. He meets Nova and they get captured by the apes. Strange visions in the "forbidden zone" have caused the gorillas to declare war on humans and they march into the desert in search of a lost civilization. Franciscus and Nova have find it first, consisting of human mutations who communicate telepathically and worship a functional atom bomb. However, it's not just any bomb but a "doomsday" bomb capable of destroying the planet. They meet Heston in a prison cell and are forced to fight each other by the mutants. They manage to escape, but have to try to stop the apes from setting off the bomb. Chuck gets there first, supposedly agreeing to the role only if the world was destroyed and there were no more sequels. He failed, as 3 more followed in the next few years, and the series is still going strong today after 7 films and counting...

Port of Call (1948)

Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

An early Bergman effort set in the dockyards of Gothenburg. In the opening scene, a girl walks off the docks into the sea in a suicide attempt. She is an unhappy teenager trapped in the home of her overbearing parents who are contemplating divorce. She writes "lonely" on her bathroom mirror and falls into the arms of any willing man. After a series of failed relationships, she is sent to a reform school where she hangs out with the wrong crowd. She finally meets a caring man, a 29-year-old retired sailor, and they fall in love. However, he has trouble dealing with her past and they meet resistance from a social worker, her old "friends" and a lecherous boss at work. An old reform school friend shows up pregnant and wanting an abortion, leading to tragedy. Bergman strikes an uneasy balance between realism and melodrama.

Inland Empire (2006)

Absurda
Directed by David Lynch
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Absurda/Ryko)

The first hour and a half has a plot that, relatively speaking, is easy to follow: an actress is hired for a film, she goes to the set and rehearses with her leading man, filming begins. At some point the actress, played by Laura Dern, walks into a room on the set and becomes the character in her film. For the next hour and a half, dream logic takes over, the past, present and future are blurred, even the camera's point-of-view is challenged. The film (not Inland Empire) is a remake of an old Polish movie, left unfinished because the two lead actors were murdered, an act destined to be repeated. There is one scene where the camera seamlessly pans from a Hollywood street to a snowy one in Poland. Later, after a dramatic murder, the camera pulls back to reveal another camera filming the scene we just watched. Dern walks into a movie theater and watches herself on the big screen. For the final scene, we watch a television screen, in it a woman is watching a television screen, and so on....  Disorienting, exhausting, but exhilarating: a work of pure cinema.

Supervan (1977)

New World Pictures
Directed by Lamar Card
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Saturn Productions)

Yet another iteration of the CB radio/truckers craze of the 70s. Clint leaves his gas station job and hits the road in his custom van. He saves a girl from being raped by bikers but his van is destroyed. Luckily he's got a friend who works as a researcher for a giant car corporation. He takes a job delivering a new solar powered supervan, named "Vandora", to a vanner's gathering called Freak Out "76" in St. Joseph, MO. They have contests like driving their vans up a muddy hill and around pylons, but mostly goof off drinking Falstaff beer and having wet t-shirt contests. Clint's girlfriend's father, who owns the corporation, eventually catches up to them, but with a little help from their vanner friends they get away. This is simply oozing 70s atmosphere: a country-tinged, feel-good soundtrack (the lyrics to the theme song are "riding high in my supervan", played over and over), a manic radio dj with echoed sound effects, shag-carpeted vans, etc; this should be a stoner classic. Oh yeah, the supervan shoots laser beams. Team this up with The Big Bus, and you've got the perfect double feature.

Black Mama, White Mama (1973)

American International Pictures
Directed by Eddie Romero
My rating: 1.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM)

Utilizing a plot device that goes at least as far back as The Defiant Ones, two escaped women convicts are chained together and on the run across a Philippine island. One of them is a revolutionary whose guerrilla friends try to find them before the cops, bounty hunters and drug dealers. Pam Grier is the ex-hooker whose former pimp wants her dead. Sid Haig has the best role as a cowboy bounty hunter. The title used on the voice over for the trailer is probably more descriptive: Women in Chains.

Innocent Bystanders (1972)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Peter Collinson
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Olive Films)

Unmemorable international yarn about an aging British special agent, the great Stanley Baker, who has to prove himself useful or retire as a pencil sharpener. His mission sends him to New York, Turkey and Cyprus, hunting for a Russian Jew who escaped years earlier from a prison camp. The man is wanted by the British, Americans and Russians, apparently a scientist with important work, though it is never specified. Baker kidnaps Geraldine Chaplin, then starts a relationship with her, providing the film's best scenes. There are the usual shootouts, torture scenes, double crosses and whatnot, but nothing to separate it from the cluttered Bond-inspired spy genre.

Rulers of the City (1976)

Directed by Fernando Di Leo
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Raro Video)

Tony is a small-time money collector for one of Rome's gangsters. He tries to impress his boss by scamming a rival gang leader out of a lot of money, secretly taking a cut for himself in the process. When the other gang leader finds out what happens, he comes after not only Tony, but his friends and most members of the gang. Tony, along with his new blond-haired actor friend and a middle-aged effeminate gangster, not only manage to avoid getting shot but wipe out all of their rivals. The action consists mostly of fist fights and some poor karate moves, although there is some of the bloody violence usually found in these cheap Italian mafia movies.

The Boss (1973)

Directed by Fernando Di Leo
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Raro Video)

Talky mob drama punctuated with violence and a very high body count. Henry Silva is a hit man ordered by his boss to rescue the daughter of a mafia member kidnapped by a rival mafia family. Instead, he kills the girl's father and takes the ransom money, and the girl, for himself. He keeps it all under wraps until he is ordered to assassinate the rival mafia leader with the help of another young hit man. More violence follows, with an unsurprising twist ending. The violence on display is almost comical, with obvious dummies used for some of the scenes. There are virtually no sympathetic characters, perhaps only Silva, but even he showed no loyalty to his friends or family.

Leo the Last (1970)

United Artists
Directed by John Boorman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM Limited Edition Collection)

Marcello Mastroianni is a recluse living in a mansion he recently inherited from his father. He obsessively spies on his black neighbors who live in depressing row houses on a London street. He sees sickness, rape, attempted murder, hunger and other problems of the poor. He decides to help them, first anonymously, but later leaving his mansion and living among them. He leads them to anarchy and an attempt to take back his own mansion from his armed and defiant family members and employees. Well-intentioned but dated, filmed in a stream-of-consciousness style that is at times almost experimental, and a soundtrack by Fred Myrow and the Swingle Singers that suffers from similar shortcomings. However, this signaled the start of John Boorman's most interesting period, next up were Deliverance, Zardoz and the under appreciated Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Crisis (1946)

Svensk Filmindustri (Sweden)
Directed by Ingmar Bergman
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

Ingmar Bergman's directorial debut is a moody, depressing look at the emotions bubbling under a small Swedish town. Inga Landgre plays Nelly, a teenager living with her aging adopted mother, who is tired of small town life and eager to see the rest of the world. She falls for Jack, a free-spirited actor who breaks out a jazz band at the stuffy town social then seduces her by a lake. When Jack turns out to be the boyfriend of none other than her real mother, she hardly blinks an eye, but instead moves in with them in the big city. Predictably, heartache and tragedy follow. These themes are explored less melodramatically in later Bergman films, but the master's touch is undeniably present. He uses light, shadow, the theater and music all to great effect, just as in his later films.

Capricorn One (1977)

Warner Bros.
Directed by Peter Hyams
My rating: 3.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, ITV Video)

The first manned flight to Mars has a defective life support system, but instead of scrubbing the mission the head of the program decides to fake the landing rather than risk losing political support. The astronauts are secretly rushed to a remote, abandoned military base where they are unwilling participants in the elaborate hoax. However, when the mission ends they realize they are expendable and attempt to escape. They steal a jet and crash land it in the desert. They split up and try to walk out, all the while pursued by military helicopters. Spectacularly entertaining story that plays like a collaboration between Hitchcock and Spielberg.

Busting (1974)

United Artists
Directed by Peter Hyams
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, MGM Limited Edition Collection)

Elliott Gould and Robert Blake are vice officers working the streets of LA. Most of the time they bust prostitutes and pimps, but when someone in the police hierarchy starts tampering with evidence and trials they get suspicious. A massage parlor bust uncovers drugs and leads to a chase through a crowded produce market. After their efforts get them demoted, they set their sights on the corrupt police brass responsible. One of the best "buddy cop" films to come out of the 70s: Gould and Blake have terrific chemistry. Peter Hyams is one of the more underrated directors, this being his feature film debut after a couple of TV movies, who went on to make Capricorn One, probably his best film and also starring Gould, as well as 2010, the sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Planet of the Apes (1968)

Twentieth Century-Fox Films
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
My rating: 4 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Fox)

Charlton Heston is the leader of a group of astronauts whose spaceship crashes on an unknown planet in the future. After a trek through the desert, they stumble upon a tribe of primitive humans, but are soon captured by the real rulers of the planet, apes. Heston finds himself at the center of a controversial theory by one of their leading scientists: that apes evolved from man. The intellectual orangutans, who apparently control both religion and science, try to suppress the theory, while the pure scientists, chimps, are accused of heresy. Rod Serling and Michael Wilson's screenplay brilliantly turns the evolution debate on its head to expose its fallacies. They also manage to work in an anti-nuclear message in one of the best endings of all time. Incredibly, both topics are still as relevant today as they were in 1968 and the film has not aged at all.

The Five Man Army (1969)

MGM
Directed by Don Taylor
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Warner Archive Collection)

Formulaic but nonetheless entertaining heist flick with a spaghetti western flavor. Peter Graves seeks out some of his old Army and criminal pals to pull off one more heist in their middle age. He promises them a thousand dollars each to help rob a train of a million dollars, with the rest of the money intended for Mexican revolutionaries. Once together, they make a short journey to the train, getting captured by the military along the way but eventually escaping. The centerpiece of the film is the train heist that makes up most of the final act. Characters are well-written, with an early credit to Dario Argento, and the location shooting in Italy and Spain stands in nicely for Mexico.

Monte Carlo (1930)

Paramount Pictures
Directed by Ernst Lubitsch
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Criterion Eclipse)

Lubitsch romantic nonsense about a runaway bride in Monte Carlo who falls in love with a count disguised as her hairdresser. Jeanette MacDonald flutters her eyes and wears low cut gowns to woo her unsuspecting employee, despite her second thoughts due to his social position. He finally reveals his true identity at an opera where the plot mirrors their own predicament. Incorporating songs into their ordinary conversation was a novelty at the time, but unfortunately are monotonous today.

The Road to Corinth (1967)

CCFC (France)
Directed by Claude Chabrol
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Pathfinder)

Limp thriller from the usually reliable Chabrol. French actors play American undercover security agents in Greece who discover a plot to jam government radars with "black boxes" hidden inside marble statues. One of them is killed early on, but his wife, the lovely Jean Seberg, takes up the investigation. She gets in a series of predicaments, but always escapes using nothing more than her charm and good looks. There is a wry undercurrent to the proceedings, but Seberg is just too much of a lightweight to carry this film.

Gatling Gun (1968)

Directed by Paolo Bianchini
My rating: 2.5 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, Dorado Films)

A man condemned for treason during the Civil War gets released in exchange for hunting down the kidnappers of Richard Gatling, the inventor of the famous machine gun. He goes to the sleepy western town of Las Cruces where he gets in a series of fights and shootouts with John Ireland and his gang. Ireland, who is almost unrecognizable under a beard and eye makeup, plays the bad guy with gusto, never missing an opportunity to kill or maim an opponent. I can't remember a better role for the usually reserved actor. Robert Woods plays the gunslinger with multiple names, which can get confusing and belies an over-plotted story, but nonetheless an entertaining escape for fans of the genre.

The Invisible Boy (1957)

MGM
Directed by Herman Hoffman
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Warner Bros.)

It is revealed that the scientist that invented Robby the Robot in Forbidden Planet had a time machine and visited the future. He made it back to Earth with the robot, which sits in pieces in a forgotten lab. An annoying kid gets hypnotized by a super computer and puts Robby back together again. Robby is reprogrammed and becomes evil Robby, a pawn in the super computer's plan to annihilate all living things. The invisible angle is both juvenile and unnecessary, just a gimmick to throw in scenes of the boy spying on his parents or getting revenge on a bully. They take away screen time from the far more interesting computer taking over the world story, which unfortunately is left underdeveloped.

Forbidden Planet (1956)

MGM
Directed by Fred M. Wilcox
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(Blu-ray, Warner Bros.)

Highly entertaining sci-fi story of Leslie Nielsen and crew traveling to distant planet to investigate a previously lost expedition. They find Walter Pidgeon, his daughter Anne Francis and Robby the Robot as the only survivors. Nielsen and crew are distracted by naive Francis and her short skirts, but Pidgeon is the real danger. He leads them on a tour of a giant underground complex built by the planet's extinct race. Meanwhile their waiting flying saucer is terrorized by an invisible monster whose origin is connected to Pidgeon in a mysterious way. The special effects, electronic soundtrack and even Robby were like nothing ever seen on screen before, influencing everything from Star Trek, 2001 and especially Star Wars, but it is dragged down by dumb comedy relief and juvenile romancing of Francis.

The Pied Piper of Hamelin (1986)

Ustredni Pujcovna Filmu (Czechoslovakia)
Directed by Jiri Barta
My rating: 3 stars out of 4
IMDb
(DVD, KimStim/Kino Video)

Jiri Barta's dark take on the classic tale is set in an expressionistic village overrun by greed and rats. The common folk barter over pennies turning them into hideous monsters while the fat merchants gorge themselves on wine and meat. The latter group hires a piper to rid the town of rats and agree to pay him a large sum of money. After he leads the rats to mass suicide over a castle wall, the merchants refuse to pay him. The piper returns to get his revenge in an ironic yet appropriate way. Barta chooses to fabricate his fairytale mostly out of wood: the sets and the puppets are intricate carvings brought to life. However, he loses some fluidity in this medium which leads to a somewhat choppy animation style. Still, there is no denying his immense talent and imagination.