ONE WAY WAHINE (1965) -- Movie Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 5/21/21

 

Currently watching: bouncy blonde beach goddess of the 1960s, Joy Harmon, in the incredibly obscure beach flick ONE WAY WAHINE (1965).

If you're a fan of the divine Joy Harmon, chances are you've already watched her magnum opus, VILLAGE OF THE GIANTS (also from 1965) numerous times. You'll also have fond memories of her legendary car-washing scene in COOL HAND LUKE two years later.

And vintage TV fans will even recall her charming appearances with an eyebrow-waggling Groucho Marx on his classic 1950s-era shows "You Bet Your Life" and "Tell It To Groucho" under the name "Patty Harmon."

 

Joy popped up in several other movies and TV episodes during her career, which spanned from 1956 to 1973, but her only starring role seems to be in the little-known ONE WAY WAHINE. ("It rhymes with bikini!" the poster tells us.)

Shot on a miniscule budget by a long-forgotten production company, this odd little film features Joy as Kit, an impossibly tanned beach bunny who, when not drawing the attention of every man in sight sunbathing on a Hawaiian beach, likes to wander from party to party while making a meager living doing whatever she can to get by.

We first see her stretched out on a beach towel looking almost as dark as "Tan Mom" but without the use of a tanning booth. She's being ogled via binoculars by a couple of fugitives from a Chicago bank robbery, Charley and Hugo (character actors Lee Kreiger and Ken Meyer, familiar faces from such films as THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN and LITTLE BIG MAN), as they lounge on the balcony of their Hawaiian getaway pad.

 

 

When Kit's friend Lou (David Whorf) delivers some hooch to the crooked pair and deduces that they're sitting on a bundle of stolen cash, he enlists his roommate Chick (Anthony Eisley) to help cook up a plan to steal the stolen loot themselves by setting up Kit and Chick's girlfriend Brandy (Adele Claire) as call girls who will seduce the bank robbers and then slip a Mickey into their drinks.

From the plot description, one can easily surmise that this is anything but the usual "beach party" teen movie. In fact, it's hard to figure out just who the filmmakers were aiming this pleasantly odd diversion at besides Joy Harmon fans hoping to catch her in and out of her clothes while basking in her bubbly dumb-blonde (but not that dumb) persona. (Her energetic dance to the film's theme song is a highlight.)

And unlike the standard beach movies, there's no surfing, romantic complications, zany supporting characters (unless one counts a bearded, unrecognizable Edgar Bergen as aging beach bum Sweeney and "Green Acres" icon Alvy Moore as Kit's amorous landlord), or big-name rock 'n' roll stars. 

 

 

In fact, most of the people in this movie are well past even pretending to be teenagers. (Pretty Adele Claire could even be described as a "milf.")

Despite various attempts at lightheartedness, the plan that our two main couples are hatching has an air of real danger about it (especially after we see bank robber Charley cleaning his automatic weapon which he always keeps at the ready).

When a dolled-up Kit and Brandy finally show up at Charley and Hugo's pad with knockout pills ready to slip into their drinks, the preliminary partying leads to one bad break after another for the girls until, to our dismay, fists start flying and the attempts at sex become wildly non-consensual. And the situation actually escalates from there.

 

 

While the first half of the film drags a bit and gives no indication that it will ever actually become more than a somewhat endearingly cheap novelty, the second half got my movie-watching juices flowing nicely. And the Hawaiian backdrop is a big improvement over the dreary beaches where Frankie and Annette used to hang out.

The cast is made up mainly of recognizable old pros (Eisley, Kreiger, Meyer, Bergen) who help us get past the film's low budget and its bland "point and shoot" directing style. (I won't comment on the image and color quality, sound, etc. since the copy I watched was anything but optimum.)

And of course there's the divine Joy, who provides fans with some delectable eye candy while fully displaying her sparkling personality. She's the main reason for spending time on a mildly diverting but otherwise wholly unexceptional obscurity like ONE WAY WAHINE, and it's to her credit that the time, for me anyway, felt not so badly spent.

ONE WAY WAHINE (1965) -- Movie Review by Porfle

AWAKE -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 2/27/08

 

Hayden Christensen's character, multi-millionaire business tycoon Clay Beresford, Jr., dies on the operating table in AWAKE (2007). That may sound like a greviously inconsiderate spoiler on my part, but it happens about a minute into the movie. After that, the story is told in flashback by his surgeon and best friend, Dr. Jack Harper (Terrence Howard, CRASH, HART'S WAR).

[digression] You wanna talk spoilers? I just watched the trailer that comes with the DVD, and it contains one of THE major surprises of the whole story. The damn thing should have one of those *SPOILER ALERT!* warnings that people post on forums before they spill the beans about something. It's almost as bad as seeing a trailer for THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK that has Darth Vader saying...well, you know. So whatever you do, don't watch the trailer before you see the movie! [/digression]

Anyway, Clay seems to have it all--millions of dollars, a wildly successful business that he inherited from his late father, and a lovely young fiancee' named Samantha (Jessica Alba) who's dying to marry him. Only two things keep him from achieving total bliss. One, his domineering, overprotective mother, Lilith (Lena Olin, ROMEO IS BLEEDING, "Alias") who suspects Samantha to be a golddigger and is vehemently against the wedding. Two, the fact that Clay has a bad ticker and is about to undergo a heart transplant.

Oh, and last but not least, three--Clay is that lucky one in 700 patients who experiences "anesthetic awareness", which means that he's wide awake during the surgery even though he can't move. This would have to be a pretty horrific ordeal for someone undergoing a heart transplant, and we suffer with him through every harrowing detail from the first incision to the application of the rib-spreader and beyond. Through it all, we hear Clay's agonized thoughts as he tries to separate himself from the pain and find solace in his memories of Samantha. But before it's over, something totally unexpected happens (I repeat...do NOT watch the trailer first!) which puts an entirely different, disturbingly sinister spin on the whole procedure and turns AWAKE into a corker of a psychological thriller.

You may be one of those people with an uncanny knack for figuring out what happens next, but I didn't see this one coming at all. It's a doozy of a twist, and it won't be the last. For the rest of the movie, we see Clay's disembodied spirit (or astral projection, perhaps) roaming the halls of the hospital, trying to somehow communicate his dire predicament to anyone who might help. We also see him passing through various memories as a spectator and trying to glean information from them that might make sense of what's going on.

Scriptwriter and first-time director Joby Harold fills the early part of the movie with a succession of formal, almost Kubrick-like compositions--at times you can almost see the proscenium arch--that are obviously intended to represent Clay's ordered, structured world. I was pretty sure that this would be contrasted later on with a more free-flowing, off-kilter style as things began to spin out of control, which is exactly what Harold does to good effect. His direction is low-key but visually interesting, serving the story well without drawing attention to itself.

Harold has a fine cast to work with, including old pros like Lena Olin, Arliss "Tough Break For Hand Job" Howard (FULL METAL JACKET) as the much more experienced surgeon whom Clay's mother would prefer to perform the operation ("My hands have been inside presidents," he tells Clay at one point), and familiar face Christopher McDonald as the last-minute replacement gas-passer Dr. Lupin, who's a bit too tipsy to notice that crimp in the tube as he's administering the anesthetic injection. Jessica Alba acquits herself well as Samantha, and Hayden Christensen, unhampered here by George Lucas' awkward dialogue, is allowed to give a more natural performance than as the future Darth Vader. (Even a line as potentially sappy as "You think my new heart will love you as much as my old one?" comes off well.) Terrence Howard is, as always, a solid presence, as is another familiar face, co-producer Fisher Stevens, as Dr. Harper's somewhat hinky surgical assistant.

The DVD's bonus features include a director's commentary, the infamous "trailer that you shouldn't watch first", deleted scenes, a storyboard-to-film comparison that I skipped because I couldn't care less about storyboard-to-film comparisons, and a "making of" featurette. Presented in letterboxed widescreen format with Dolby Digital sound, the movie looks and sounds dandy to me.

The basic premise of a man remaining conscious during a heart transplant was intriguing enough to draw me into this story, and the doubletake-inducing plot twists that popped up unexpectedly along the way really had me going. It's a pretty original story idea that's fully explored and filled with drama and suspense all the way to the exciting conclusion. My typical-movie-reviewer assessment: (Joel Siegel voice) "You're sure to stay AWAKE during this operation!" Just don't watch that trailer first.

 

AWAKE -- DVD Review by Porfle

CARJACKED -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/10/11

 

Having just watched CARJACKED (2011), I must admit feeling a little confused.  I can't decide if the filmmakers were actually trying to make a serious thriller, or if they were aware that they were making one of the dumbest movies I've seen in quite a while.  Either way, it isn't much fun until it decides to go full-out goofy in the second half.

The story opens with divorced mom Lorraine (Maria Bello, THE MUMMY: TOMB OF THE DRAGON EMPEROR, PAYBACK) attending a touchy-feely women's group therapy session.  Dumped by her husband Gary and facing a losing custody battle over their son Chad, Lorraine is too much of a simpy doormat to fight back or get angry about it as her brassy session mate Betty (Joanna Cassidy in an ultra-brief role) urges her to do.  When she relates how she earned the nickname "Klutzy" by accidentally shooting her dad's friend in the ass at the gun range, her counselor asks, "How did that make you feel?"  Yikes.

Already an emotional wreck, all she needs is for her and Chad to be carjacked by an escaped bank robber named Roy (Steven Dorff, BLADE, PUBLIC ENEMIES) on their way home, which of course is what happens.  Forced to drive Roy to a rendezvous 350 miles away, Lorraine somehow makes a connection with the chatty criminal and shares her feelings with him instead of being totally terrified like a normal person would.  Thus, we're not really all that scared for her and apart from a couple of halfhearted escape attempts, little suspense is generated by her ordeal.  At one point she even seems to consider running off to Mexico with Roy and his money.



Maria Bello, whom I've always considered a pretty good actress, is pretty awful as Lorraine.  Never convincing as a kidnap victim, she plays the role with a series of weird expressions and nervous tics, occasionally getting a comically peeved look when Roy says something threatening or offensive.  We expect Lorraine to eventually turn the tables on Roy, which will be just the thing to boost her confidence and assertiveness, but she's remarkably stupid--during an attempt to call 911 on her cellphone while in the bathroom, she gets 411 instead and can't understand why the operator keeps asking, "What city, please?" 

At first, Dorff plays Roy as the most patient and non-threatening carjacker in movie history, reducing his character's menace during the film's first half and even coming off as sympathetic while talking with Lorraine--for awhile there, it seemed this was going to turn into a road trip movie.  It's only later that we find he enjoys lulling his victims into a false sense of security before doing something horrible to them, as Lorraine discovers when they finally reach the rendezvous. 

At that point, it looked as though CARJACKED was finally going to turn into a tense thriller, but instead it seems to morph into a black comedy designed to have us thinking "WTF?"  In addition to some comical rednecks at a truckstop (the kind played by actors who have never actually seen a real one), we get a car chase that looks like something out of a Hal Needham movie followed by some highly improbable hijinks in a deserted warehouse.  With believability well and truly thrown out the window, all that remains is for the film to end with a wrap-up scene that seems to have been written under the influence of laughing gas.



John Bonito's direction is okay if somewhat self-indulgent at times, although that thing where the camera does those little zoopy zoom-ins on a character's face while they're driving doesn't even look good when Michael Bay and Paul W.S. Anderson do it.  Acting-wise, Dorff is okay while Cassidy isn't in the film long enough to make an impression.  Bello is hard to figure out--she seems aware that the film is going to turn into a semi-comedy in the second half, but since we don't know that, her performance seems curiously flaky throughout.  I kept thinking, "I hope she's in better form taking over Helen Mirren's role in PRIME SUSPECT."

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen with English 5.1 and Spanish mono sound.  Subtitles are in English and Spanish.  The sole extra is a very brief behind-the-scenes short.

After a so-so start, the last twenty minutes or so of CARJACKED are so unexpectedly nutty that I actually began to enjoy it on that level.  But I still can't figure out if the filmmakers were trying to make a serious thriller and failed, or if they were just messing with my head the whole time.

CARJACKED -- DVD Review by Porfle

CATCH .44 -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 12/9/11

 

Ever since PULP FICTION came out, various talky, quirky crime flicks have been described as Tarantino rip-offs.  Or, more generously put, "Tarantino-esque."  Despite all the bad things I've heard about it, I feel generous toward the talky, quirky--and fairly entertaining--crime flick CATCH .44 (2011) so I'll use the latter term.  Besides, people were making movies sorta like this before QT came along, but there just wasn't as convenient a way of describing them.

Not surprisingly, the movie takes the timeline of its not-all-that-complicated story and reshuffles it all over the place just for fun.  Most of the action occurs in an out-of-the-way Louisiana diner at 3:00 a.m., where three girls--Tes (Malik Akerman, WATCHMEN), Dawn (Deborah Ann Woll), and Kara (Nikki Reed, CHAIN LETTER, TWILIGHT)--are on an assignment for local drug kingpin Mel (Bruce Willis) and waiting for something to happen.  When it does, people start getting blown away, including one of the girls. 



We'll keep returning to the diner, with intermittent flashbacks bringing us up to speed a little at a time (a la RESERVOIR DOGS), until everything and everyone comes together at the end.  Meanwhile, we rewind to the dead girl and her two cohorts getting stopped by this really weird highway cop.  Only he isn't really a cop, because we just saw him shoot the real cop in the head during a routine pull-over.  Ronny (Forest Whitaker in another interesting performance) is a scary and enigmatic guy whose intentions are as yet unknown, but we're pretty sure he's going to end up at that diner, too.

Writer-director Aaron Harvey manages to keep things zipping along even when he's imitating Tarantino's chatty dialogue style with long, talky scenes that have their own modest rewards while never quite bagging the elusive Royale With Cheese.  A three-way Mexican standoff inside the diner (also a la RESERVOIR DOGS) after the initial shootout is nicely handled, prolonging the tension with various revelations and teasing us as to what certain characters' motivations are.  Whitaker is especially good here, with Shea Whigham doing a nice turn as a twitchy fry cook with a pump shotgun.  (Lovable oddball Brad Dourif also shows up for a couple of scenes as, of all things, a cop.)

Harvey's directorial style is a pleasing amalgam of lesser you-know-who mixed with a little Robert Rodriguez, making CATCH .44 easy to look at.  It amazed me to discover that Harvey's only other directing credit is the absolutely wretched 2007 slasher flick THE EVIL WOODS, which is without question one of the worst pieces of dreck ever made.  The difference between the two films is stunning--if nothing else, Harvey deserves some kind of an award for "most improved filmmaker."



Lurking in the background, getting talked about a lot, and popping into view for a few key scenes is Bruce Willis' "Mel" character.  The PULP FICTION co-star lends his formidable presence to the film without really breaking a sweat, but by now just being Bruce Willis is enough to elevate a small film such as this to another level.  We see him being a rich, cool drug lord manipulating his unsuspecting employees (such as Tes, Dawn, and Kara) like pawns, and finally emerging for a long, talky final scene with Whitaker that manages a faint hint of the Bill and Beatrix exchange at the end of KILL BILL VOL. 2.  Barely a whiff of that Royale With Cheese, though. 

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 2.40:1 anamorphic widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound.  Subtitles are in English and Spanish.  A long, talky commentary track with Harvey and editor Richard Byard is the sole extra.

CATCH .44 doles out tantalizing scraps of story to us until the pieces fall into place, and once that's done, the final scene plays out in a way that resolves all the pent-up suspense in rather predictable ways.  There's no ironic twist or "gotcha" to fully justify so much story fiddling, and we realize that it was all done just to tell a very simple tale in a more interesting way.  Which is okay, since it does.  

CATCH .44 -- DVD Review by Porfle

DIAMOND HEIST -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 3/17/15

 

Imagine sitting down to watch a movie with Michael Madsen and Vinnie Jones called DIAMOND HEIST (2012)--thinking, quite understandably, that it's going to be about a diamond heist--and then finding out that it's a dreary, unfunny crime comedy about two Hungarian schlubs mistaken for a pair of popular male strippers known as "The Magic Boys." (Which, incidentally, was the film's original title.)

Even if you think that sounds like comedy gold, chances are you're going to find this mess disappointing. It's one of those bad direct-to-DVD flicks that guys like Michael Madsen and Vinnie Jones lend their names and faces to for an easy paycheck and then mug their way through like it was a home video. (Which I think would be a cool way to make a living and would totally do myself if I could.)

The story opens with Madsen--in the role of Terence, an eccentric strip-club tycoon and diamond smuggler--smashing a yogurt buffet in the restaurant of the posh London hotel where he lives because he's lactose intolerant and his special goat's milk yogurt is nowhere to be seen. I wasn't sure if this was in the script, or if they'd just secretly filmed him at the craft services table between shots.

There's a lot of crosscutting while the film throws a passel of new characters at us along with some really annoying music and visuals. The best I could decipher it, two male strippers ("The Magic Boys") disappear from one of Michael Madsen's clubs and he sends his mousey assistant "Bad News" to Hungary to find two more. As fate would have it, the two Hungarian schlubs, David and Zoli, are on the run after witnessing Vinnie knocking off a guy, and they end up posing as the missing Magic Boys for free passage to London.

David and Zoli are like a cross between "Dumb and Dumber" and the two "Wild and Crazy Guys" from SNL, when they hit town and are situated in their luxury suite. Bad comedy ensues when they take the stage at Madsen's club and reveal their incompetence while big Mike makes faces and groans.

He later gets the two on their knees at gunpoint in his office and does the whole "I'm the last guy you want to f*** with!" routine, which is always great for a few laughs. Then, inexplicably, he decides that the act will be improved if he forces his right-hand man Splendid Ben (an understandably embarrassed-looking Tamer Hassan, KICK-ASS, FREERUNNER, THE DOUBLE) to join it. You can almost hear "Seinfeld"s Kenny Banya bleating "It's gold, Jerry! Gold!" when the three next appear onstage in full drag. It's as though my sense of humor has been injected with novocaine.

(Meanwhile, elsewhere in London, the REAL Magic Boys also end up on the wrong stage and find themselves getting raped by a hairy, leather-bound gay behemoth. It's fun for the whole family!)

The movie tries to get cute and charming here and there, with one of the Hungarian guys getting cutely chummy with the cute black lady (singer Jamelia as "Cherry Valentine") who works for Mikey as a diamond smuggler but is really not what she seems and zzzzzzzz. As an example of the film's cliched dialogue, the following exchange takes place when he asks about her past:

"That's a bit of a long story."
"I have time."

We find that Cherry's past is actually key to the whole thing, and the lovestruck Hungarian guy decides he must help her in her mission against Mike and/or Vinnie, which is complicated when Vinnie suddenly shows up in London. Things finally perk up when Cherry makes her move during a lavish birthday bash Mike holds for himself, but the whole male stripper angle continues to dumb thing up when the real and fake Magic Boys clash-dance onstage during a lame imitation of the opera scene from THE FIFTH ELEMENT.

The DVD from Random Media is in letterboxed widescreen with Dolby 5.1 sound. No subtitles, but closed-captions are available. No extras.

However lacking it is in other areas, the most disappointing thing about DIAMOND HEIST is that there's no diamond heist. That's like calling a movie GONE WITH THE WIND and not having anything actually blow away. Or changing the name of GONE WITH THE WIND to DIAMOND HEIST.

DIAMOND HEIST -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE KILLING JAR -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 2/19/11

 

Stay away from out-of-the-way diners after dark, THE KILLING JAR (2010) seems to be telling us, since you never know what kind of desperate character may come walking in.  And if he looks like Michael Madsen, you know you should've skipped the pecan pie and skedaddled five minutes ago.

This tense thriller by writer-director Mark Young (SOUTHERN GOTHIC) is one of those single-location movies that could easily be performed as a stage play, which means that the focus is on character and dialogue.  Neither are very deep here, but they get the job done pretty well, mainly due to a capable cast. 

Amber Benson (BUFFY THE VAMPIRE SLAYER) plays weary waitress Noreen, who dreams of getting out of Silver Lake (where the tourists don't go anymore since the lake dried up) but works in a dingy diner for ill-tempered cook Jimmy (Danny "MACHETE" Trejo).  It's almost closing time on a hot night when news comes over the radio of four grisly murders not far away, with the ill-fated family's killer still at large. 

A likely suspect enters as Noreen is chatting with a mild-mannered traveling salesman named John Dixon (Harold Perrineau, "Link" of MATRIX: RELOADED and REVOLUTIONS) on his way through town.  The stranger is foulmouthed and surly, prompting local deputy Lonnie (Lew Temple, THE DEVIL'S REJECTS) to start Barney Fife-ing him.  This proves to be a bad move, and before long "Doe" is threatening his seven terrified captives with a pump shotgun and getting crazier by the minute.



Michael Madsen does a lot of glorified cameo roles these days, so it's good to see him sink his teeth into a part that's not all that different from the kill-crazy Mr. Blonde of RESERVOIR DOGS, only without the mordant sense of humor.  His "Doe" is scary dangerous in a wary, calculated way and when he goes off and gets violent, the character is coldblooded and unpredictable. 

Young, whose direction is efficient without drawing attention to itself, throws a few curves at us to keep the story moving.  These include the arrival of Mr. Greene (Jake Busey), a shady businessman who's there to meet a Mr. Smith, whom he's never seen before.  Is it Doe, or is Mr. Smith someone else in the diner?  It might even be trucker Hank (the always-fine Kevin Gage of HEAT and LAID TO REST). 

Young builds a fair amount of suspense as Doe singles out his captives one at a time to terrorize and interrogate them, and people do get killed badly.  Still, much of the drama is psychological, so don't expect a gorefest--aside from a couple of grisly shots here and there, you'll have to use your DVD players' frame-advance to see an exploding head or two.  While none of this is unbearably nailbiting and the major plot twists are fairly predictable, the finale is nicely played and ends the movie on a satisfying note.



The DVD from Image Entertainment is in 1.78:1 widescreen with Dolby Digital 5.1 surround sound.  A trailer is the sole extra.

THE KILLING JAR probably won't sear itself into your movie memory banks or have you swooning in cinematic ecstasy, but it's a solid little suspense thriller with some good performances and an absorbing story.  Best of all, it's a chance to see an aging Mr. Blonde at the end of his rope, going mental and getting trigger-happy one last time.  

THE KILLING JAR -- DVD Review by Porfle

THE BOYS NEXT DOOR -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/19/19

 

Penelope Spheeris may be best known for her comedies, but she gave us one of the hairiest, scariest thrill-killer flicks of the 80s when she directed THE BOYS NEXT DOOR (Severin Films, 1985).

Maxwell Caulfield (GREASE 2, "Dynasty") and Charlie Sheen (YOUNG GUNS, HOT SHOTS!) play high school misfits Roy and Bo, just graduated but faced with the dull prospect of going to work in a local factory for the rest of their lives.

These kids are filled with aggression and frustration and are just itching to take it out on the world, starting with their classmates whom they terrorize at one of those graduation parties held by someone whose well-to-do parents are out of town.

But that's not enough to quell the fire in their bellies, so they head for Los Angeles, where cruising Sunset Strip is just the beginning of a weekend of wild abandon that will quickly escalate into violent crime and, eventually, murder.

THE BOYS NEXT DOOR makes a halfhearted effort to "say something" about violence in society, serial killers, etc., but it pretty much boils down to total exploitation with some slasher-horror elements. (Which, of course, is a good thing.)

It's actually not all that scary--it never gets as intense, horrific, or graphic as, say, HENRY: PORTRAIT OF A SERIAL KILLER. It's more like an edgy adrenaline rush that gets the blood going while leaving a sour taste in your mouth.

Caulfield is so much better here than in his pretty-boy, nighttime soap opera-type roles, never overplaying but giving us just enough "crazy" bubbling up beneath the sweaty surface.

His sociopathic young "monster-in-progress" character is always wire-taut and on the lookout for people he can violently take out his impotent frustrations on, channeling his pent-up sexual aggression into narcissistic rage.

While his friend Bo is constantly on the prowl for girls, especially ones that remind him of his unobtainable blond heartthrob from school, Roy seems so sexually paralyzed as to be violently asexual.

We wonder if his biggest problem is impotence with girls or a fear that he's actually gay, one which he acts out by attacking an innocent homosexual who invites them back to his apartment after meeting them in a gay bar.

Sheen gives an equally strong performance as an impressionable, easily-led type who tries to maintain a cool fascade while his own deep-seated emotional problems are coaxed into action by the stronger personality. 

We wonder if he would be capable of such antisocial behavior on his own, and, like so many serial killer duos, the two disturbed youths combine into one very dangerously psychotic entity that thrives on acts of swift, senseless violence and murder.

Iconic 70s-80s actress Patti D'Arbanville (BILITIS) plays Angie, a sophisticated Hollywood girl who unwisely lets herself be picked up by these two very bad eggs.

The film  also follows the progress of two dogged, world-weary police detectives (familiar faces Christopher McDonald and Hank Garrett) who are on the killers' trail.

Each murder sequence builds inexorably as the unsuspecting victims are dispatched in quick, jarring bursts of rage that come seemingly from out of nowhere, mostly at the hands of the ever-unstable Roy as Bo either looks on in shock or is compelled to join in.

Spheeris (WAYNE'S WORLD, BLACK SHEEP) directs it all in taut, crisp fashion, giving us plenty of action (including a couple of exciting chase scenes) as Roy and Bo head nonstop for the inevitable bad ending. 

The Blu-ray from Severin Films looks and sounds great, and comes with a well-stocked bonus menu which includes a commentary track with Spheeris and Caulfield, several interviews and featurettes, alternate titles and extended scenes, and the film's trailer.

Watching THE BOYS NEXT DOOR is like watching a driver speed down the wrong way on a freeway and knowing he's eventually going to crash, taking out a number of innocent people along with him and doing it just for sick, suicidal thrills. 


Buy it at Severin Films

Special Features:
    Audio Commentary with Director Penelope Spheeris and Actor Maxwell Caulfield
    Blind Rage: Interview with Stephen Thrower, Author of Nightmare USA
    Both Sides of the Law: Interview with Actors Maxwell Caulfield and Christopher McDonald
    Give Us Your Money: Interviews with Street Band Performers Texacala Jones and Tequila Mockingbird
    Caveman Day: Cinemaniacs Interview with Director Penelope Spheeris and Actor Maxwell Caulfield
    Tales from the End Zone: Interview with Actor Kenneth Cortland
    The Psychotronic Tourist – The Boys Next Door
    Alternate Opening Title Sequence & Extended Scenes (Silent)
    Trailer

THE BOYS NEXT DOOR -- Blu-ray Review by Porfle

VENICE UNDERGROUND -- Movie Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/20/11

 

The first thing I thought after watching VENICE UNDERGROUND (2005) for a couple of minutes was, "This looks like an episode of a TV series."  But after awhile I began to realize that if this were indeed the pilot for a series, no network executive in his right mind would pick it up.  In fact, if your dad had followed you around with a movie camera when you were a kid and filmed you and your friends playing cops and robbers, he would probably accidentally make a better movie than this one.

A prologue takes us to the office of police captain John Sullivan (veteran character actor Ed Lauter) as the mayor chews him out over the phone because of the ongoing carnage caused by two Venice Beach gangs, the Northside Surf Crew and the Southside Crips, who are waging an ongoing battle to control the local drug trade.  It seems like a hopeless situation until one of his underlings, an ambitious young sergeant named Frank Mills (Randall Batinkoff), waltzes in with a peach of a idea -- they will pluck a group of raw but attractive cadets out of the police academy, set them up in a beach house, and have them go undercover! 

That, of course, will be a lot better than putting experienced cops on the case, because, as Mills explains:  "The kids are all instinct and street smarts.  They know no boundaries."  Visions of "The Mod Squad" and "21 Jump Street" begin to dance around in Capt. Sullivan's head, with a little "Charlie's Angels" and "Baywatch Nights" thrown in for good measure.  What a great idea!

With their origin story out of the way even before the day-glo main titles have hippity-hopped their way across the screen, we are thrust right into the non-action as we join the J.N.F. (Junior Narc Force) keeping tabs on various gang members and trying to fathom their nefarious activities.  But they must deal with their own raging hormones as well, as Agent Tyler (Jodi Lyn O'Keefe) jealously observes her heartthrob, Agent Gary (a not-looking-too-good-these-days Edward Furlong), cavorting with a bikini babe.  It's all part of his cover, of course, but darn it, he just seems to be enjoying it a little too much.



Meanwhile, Agent Samantha (Nichole Hiltz) just failed her home pregnancy test, and isn't quite sure whether the father is Agent Danny (Eric Mabius), who wants to marry her, or good ol' Sergeant Mills, who just can't seem to keep his own member away from certain other members of the task force. 

These romantic entanglements play like a bad script from "Beverly Hills, 90210" performed by a grade school theater group, and the scenes of actual detective work that we witness from time to time seem to have been inspired by random episodes of "Scooby-Doo."  They even have their own mystery-mobile, a candy-apple red, mid-60s Mustang convertible, in which they all sit in broad daylight brandishing their guns as if to announce to any passing bad guys, "Yes, we are undercover narcs." 

Amazingly, though, no one ever figures this out, except for a mysterious figure who seems to anticipate their every move as he secretly watches them through blurry POV-shots like a stalker in a slasher flick, and, early in the story, actually kills one of them with his gold-plated revolver.  Who is this unknown enemy?  You're not supposed to know until the end, so try to act surprised.  Here's a hint:  it isn't the old caretaker at the haunted amusement park.

Director Eric DelaBarre is your basic point-and-shoot man but tries to "hip" things up with shaky camerawork, scattershot editing, and various other effects cribbed from music videos.  The acting, except from old pro Ed Lauter and Robert Rodriguez stock player Danny Trejo, is hopelessly amateurish, and the dialogue they're forced to recite is frequently laughable. 

This film resembles the kind of cheap exploitation flick they used to show on USA's "Up All Night" -- you know, the ones with all the good R-rated nudity and violence cut out and just the boring junk left in, although a few bare boobies make a cameo appearance about halfway through.  Soon after that we see a brief fistfight, and then later there's a small shootout, and at the end the mystery bad guy gets shot and a car blows up.  Actionwise, that's about it. 

I kept thinking about what Andy Sidaris, the guy responsible for all those great low-budget sex-and-violence thrillers like PICASSO TRIGGER and SAVAGE BEACH, could've done with a premise like this.  He wasn't a great filmmaker, but at least he gave us something fun to look at. VENICE UNDERGROUND barely even makes an effort.

 

VENICE UNDERGROUND -- Movie Review by Porfle

DOLEMITE -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 4/26/16

 

If the 70s were heroin, DOLEMITE (1975) would be an O.D.  This is one of the quintessential Blaxploitation flicks of the decade, and it revels in the era's day-glo tackiness with an avalanche of pure kitsch.

Rudy Ray Moore takes his popular comedy act to the screen with the character of super bad-ass pimp Dolemite, serving a bum rap in prison but released in order to redeem himself by bringing the real criminals terrorizing his neighborhood to justice.

This includes current pimp lord Willie Green (D'Urville Martin, ROSEMARY'S BABY, GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER, SHEBA BABY, BLACK CAESAR), who framed Dolemite and took over his nightclub, The Total Experience.  When Dolemite and Willie go at it head to head, the whole hood erupts in intermittent bursts of shooting, pummeling, extreme profanity ("You rat-soup-eatin' mutha****er!"), and really unconvincing martial arts choreography.

The film is chockful of gloriously bad acting, with the occasional good performance (Hy Pyke, who played "Taffey Lewis" in 1982's BLADE RUNNER is a crooked mayor) standing out like a sore thumb.  Moore and his co-star Lady Reed as madam Queen Bee are unpolished to say the least, but thoroughly earnest and into their roles. 

Along with the standard black crime boss come the requisite bad honkeys, who are, unsurprisingly, crooked cops representing The Man.  They're led by another capable actor, John Kerry (no, not THAT John Kerry), as the vile Detective Mitchell.  Scripter Jerry Jones is good black cop Blakely, while Vainus Rackstraw steals his scenes as a drug-addled informant known as "The Hamburger Pimp."

The script veers easily from drama to comedy and back.  After we hear the tragic story of how Dolemite's nephew was gunned down in the street and the whole neighborhood's going to hell, Dolemite's "ladies" bring him his colorful pimp clothes at the prison gate and he changes into them while the guards and inmates look on with mouths agape.

Minutes later he cheerfully ventilates some bad guys who were tailing his car with a machine gun, making the last one dance ("Girls, this muthaf***er's got rhythm, hasn't he!") before blowing him away.

Of course, Moore gets to perform some of his rhyming comedy routines during the film, as when he reopens his nightclub with a big event that quickly degenerates into all-out war with Dolemite and his kung-fu ho's (they've been studying martial arts while he was away) taking on Willie Green's pistol-packing thugs.

The film is loaded with vulgar sexuality and plenty of violence, although we're spared the sight of what appears to be Dolemite plunging his hand into someone's chest by a crude edit.  Production values are conspicuously low.  First-time director D'Urville Martin reportedly didn't take the project very seriously and it shows.  The overall look of the film is delightfully garish, with Moore himself credited as set designer.

The Blu-ray/DVD set from Vinegar Syndrome offers the feature film, which is restored from a newly-discovered 35mm negative, in both 1.85:1 matted widescreen and unmatted full screen (called the "Boom Mike" version for obvious reasons). An informative commentary by Rudy Ray Moore biographer Mark Jason Murray also includes comments from Moore and actor-writer Jerry Jones. 

Extras also include the making-of doc "I, Dolemite", raw footage from an interview with Lady Reed, a "Locations: Then & Now" featurette, and trailers for this and the sequel, "The Human Tornado." The DVD's cover artwork is reversible.

Back before home video and cable made such things commonplace even for kids, an "R" rating before a movie made us feel like we were really going to see something.  In achingly, blazingly 70s style, the unabashedly irreverent DOLEMITE delivers on that promise.

DOLEMITE -- Blu-ray/DVD Review by Porfle

THE KILLER -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 3/24/10

 

I wasn't that impressed with THE KILLER (1989) the first time I saw it back in the 90s. Then again, I was watching a choppy pan-and-scan VHS copy that was badly-dubbed and looked awful. Plus, I'd just been blown away by HARD BOILED (still my favorite John Woo film), and THE KILLER seemed rather tame in comparison with that insanely action-packed epic. But with the new 2-disc Ultimate Edition of THE KILLER on the Dragon Dynasty label, I'm finally getting to see it in all its uncut pictorial glory and appreciate it as one of the finest action films ever made.

I think it was an episode of the great TV series "The Incredibly Strange Film Show" that first got me interested in the films of John Woo, Tsui Hark, and other hot Hong Kong directors. I found the innovative and extremely rapid-fire editing in the film clips to be a new and exhilarating visual experience. Just as the Beatles interpreted American rock 'n' roll and rhythm and blues and played it back to us in exciting new ways, Hong Kong cinema was assimilating the methods of Sam Peckinpah and others and using this as a starting point for creating a super-charged cinematic style that would, in turn, have an overwhelming effect on the future of American action cinema.

Woo himself credits many influences, among them French director Jean-Pierre Melville, certain Japanese films, and classical American cinema. Unsurprisingly, Sam Peckinpah and Martin Scorcese are key figures in the development of his film style, in addition to the old Hollywood musicals. Woo calls THE KILLER an "action-musical", and it's easy to see how his shoot-em-up sequences are often inspired by the spirit of that genre's more dazzling and dynamic production numbers. (I'm guessing Woo is an admirer of Gene Kelly and films such as SINGIN' IN THE RAIN and ON THE TOWN.)


There's even a little bit of Charlie Chaplin's CITY LIGHTS, I think, in the relationship between ace hitman Ah Jong (the great Chow Yun-Fat) and Jennie (Sally Yeh), the pretty young cabaret singer who was blinded during one of his hits. The guilt-ridden Ah Jong befriends Jennie with the hope of helping her regain her eyesight with a cornea transplant, but to pay for the operation he will have to postpone his plans to retire and perform one last hit. Complicating matters is the fact that the evil Triad boss for whom he works has just put out the order for Ah Jong himself to be eliminated.

Meanwhile, Inspector Li Ying (Danny Lee), a renegade cop who has the same "hate-hate" relationship with his boss as countless other renegade cops before him, is hot on Ah Jong's trail and has traced him to Jennie. In a strange turn of events, cop and hitman become grudging allies as Li Ying sympathizes with Ah Jong's desire to help Jennie and decides to back him up when the Triad kill squad comes a-callin'. This leads to a blazing shoot-out in a church with the fate of our unlikely heroes in the balance.

Unlike the usual stoic, repressed action figure, Chow Yun Fat's character is a man of deep feelings whose code of killing only bad guys is compromised not only by Jennie's injury but by the shooting of a little girl during an exciting escape from the police. Ah Jong risks his freedom to race the girl to a hospital, where he and Li Ying have one of many Mexican standoffs (Woo really loves these) just a few feet away from where doctors are struggling to save the girl's life.

Here, and in Ah Jong's scenes with Jennie, Woo's penchant for melodrama and sentimentality come to the fore. Such unrestrained romanticism may be off-putting to more hardcore action fans who prefer their mayhem untainted by mush. Although it gets a little thick at times, I think this gives an interesting added dimension to Woo's passages of gun-blazing carnage, as does the underlying religious tone (Woo describes himself as a Christian) which makes Ah Jong such a conflicted character seeking redemption.


Also interesting is the fact that Li Ying begins to identify with and even admire him for his honorable qualities--Woo points out their similarities in a nice parallel-image sequence--as their mutual concern for Jennie has them pretending to be and eventually becoming friends. Woo's humor comes to the fore when they initially hold each other at gunpoint while assuring the blind Jenny that all is well, even giving each other affectionate nicknames "Small B" and "Shrimp Head" (or "Mickey Mouse" and "Dumbo" in the English dub). By the end of the movie, they're as close as brothers and willing to die for each other.

More than anything else, however, THE KILLER is a feast for action connoisseurs as Woo stages one astounding shoot-out after another. His trademarks are all here, from the rapid-fire two-gun approach (his heroes never seem to run out of bullets) which has since been adopted by, well, everybody, to the sliding-backward-on-the-floor-while firing method, to everything else in-between. Innovations abound, with Woo's distinctive use of slow-motion and freeze-frames mixed with the regular action as his artistic sensibility sees fit, all creatively edited into a barrage of explosive images that bombard the viewer in waves of kinetic visual sensation.

Some of the action borders on the surreal, with scores of bad guys swarming non-stop into the line of fire only to be mowed down in twisting, jerking, blood-spewing (yet strangely balletic) death throes. Echoes of the famous shoot-outs from Peckinpah's THE WILD BUNCH pervade the climactic battle in the church, while the melodrama of the story weaves its way through the hail of bullets and fiery explosions toward a starkly emotional conclusion. It bears noting that Woo improvised much of the story and dialogue on-set, shooting from a treatment rather than a finished script, yet considers this to be one of his most "complete" films.


The Dragon Dynasty DVD is in the original widescreen with Dolby Digital sound. Languages are Cantonese and dubbed English, both mono, with English and Spanish subtitles. The second disc includes an intimate interview with John Woo, two audience Q & A's with Woo which accompanied screenings of THE KILLER and HARD BOILED, a look at the locations of THE KILLER then and now, and a John Woo trailer gallery. Missing in action is a commentary track.

Whether you're a long-time fan or just seeing it for the first time, Dragon Dynasty's Ultimate Edition of THE KILLER is a great way to experience this dazzling Hong Kong action classic.

THE KILLER -- DVD Review by Porfle

APPOINTMENT WITH CRIME -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 6/18/16

 

If you like those lean, tough gangster pics that guys like James Cagney and George Raft used to churn out in the 30s and 40s, then APPOINTMENT WITH CRIME (1946) should be right up your dark alley.

The scrappy, bantamweight main character Leo Martin (William Hartnell, THE MOUSE THAT ROARED) even reminds me of a cross between the two actors only with a rough veneer of British street smarts. 

The plot is a foretaste of such later films as POINT BLANK and its remake PAYBACK, with its story of a wronged criminal returning to exact merciless revenge against the underworld organization that betrayed him and using a "fast" woman as his accomplice.

Here, Leo gets double-crossed by low-level crime boss Loman (Raymond Lovell) and ends up with crushed wrists and a stiff prison sentence.  Upon his release, he goes after not only Loman but the real brains behind the outfit, a smugly sophisticated art dealer played by the young Herbert Lom (later to gain fame as Chief Inspector Dreyfus in the "Pink Panther" series among other distingished roles). 

Leo's sort of an anti-protagonist here, being that he's still a mean, ruthless little bastard even though we're pulling for him to get the best of the even badder bad guys.  The film's real hero is a Canadian detective on loan to the British police, played by Robert Beatty (who would go on to roles in such high profile films as WHERE EAGLES DARE and 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY).

Beatty's Detective Inspector Rogers is stalwart without being full of himself, and in fact has a wry sense of humor which makes his scenes with Leo punchy and rife with stinging dialogue.  Where some stories such as this make the main cop unlikable, here we're conflicted about who to root for since we're so invested in both his and Leo's concerns. 

 

Also making the most of her scenes with Hartnell is Joyce Howard as melancholy dancehall girl Carol Dane (nicknamed "Chastity Anne"), whose performance as the girl Leo uses as his alibi in murder by stringing her along with romantic promises and playing on her sympathies just gets better as the story goes along.

Two interesting things I noted while watching are (1) British films could pretty much say "damn" and "hell" to their hearts' content back in 1946, and (2) the fact that characters Gregory Lang (Herbert Lom) and his criminal associate Noel Penn (Alan Wheatley) are unabashedly gay is wonderfully obvious.

Writer-director John Harlow keeps his script zinging along with cracking dialogue and lots of hardboiled conflict between rival thugs and the short-fused Leo--who's equally tough whether slapping someone around or getting tortured for information.

 

Harlow's directing style brings all this to life with creative camera angles, editing, and montages which keep the film visually interesting.  The production itself has a lovely vintage appeal enhanced by a singularly British flavor and the no-nonsense economy of film noir.

The DVD from Olive Films is in the original 1.37:1 aspect ratio (full screen) with mono sound.  Subtitles are in English.  No extras.

Those who appreciate the beauty of old black-and-white cinema should find themselves easily drawn into this visually compelling film.  For modern audiences in general,  APPOINTMENT WITH CRIME offers good performances in a sharply-written crime story that never lets up until the end. 

Release date: June 21, 2016

APPOINTMENT WITH CRIME -- DVD Review by Porfle

GANGSTER'S PARADISE: JERUSALEMA -- DVD Review by Porfle

 

Originally posted on 9/30/10

 

With Rapulana Seiphemo giving a deftly controlled performance in the lead role of South African crime lord Lucky Kunene, the fact-based GANGSTER'S PARADISE: JERUSALEMA (2008) isn't the sadistically violent crime thriller I was expecting.  Instead of killing his way to success, university dropout Lucky gets there by using his keen business acumen against South Africa's crooked slumlords.

Not to say that the film isn't violent, because everyday life in Lucky's world can be deadly.  We join him and his best friend Zakes as kids under the unsavory influence of their hood-hero Nazareth (Jeffrey Zekele), who teaches them, among other things, how to carjack for a living.  These early scenes--some of which, unlike the rest of the film, are quite funny--reveal Lucky as a sensitive boy who cares for his family and wants to better himself by earning his way through college.  But the lure of easy money is too strong, and before long he and Zakes buy guns and are stealing cars and robbing stores. 

When Nazareth watches Michael Mann's HEAT on television one day, he gets the idea to duplicate that film's armored car robbery in the first overtly violent sequence, with the two shocked boys witnessing senseless death firsthand.  Later, their criminal mentor stages a "smash-and-grab" store robbery that results in a bullet-riddled bloodbath when scores of cops and security guards show up with guns blazing.  As in later action scenes, this shootout isn't designed as a flamboyantly cinematic setpiece like the ones in HEAT or SCARFACE, but is staged in a matter-of-fact style that makes it seem more realistic.

 
Lucky flees Soweto to crime-infested "Jo'burg" as a hunted fugitive, where we rejoin him ten years later driving a cab.  When he's almost killed by rival cabbies whose territory he's encroached on, Lucky decides to use his brains to get ahead.  That's when he hatches a scheme to force local slumlords out of their own buildings along with the drug dealers and hookers infesting them, and start collecting all that rent money himself.  Pretending to side with the tenants, he's hailed as a Robin Hood by the public while the police, led by Detective Swart (Robert Hobbs), make it their business to bring him down in any way necessary.  Lucky also makes an enemy in local drug kingpin Ngu, who turns one of Lucky's inside men against him and sets him up for the kill. 

The narrative style is lean and uncluttered as is the direction by Ralph Ziman (HEARTS AND MINDS, THE ZOOKEEPER), who also scripted.  When death comes, it's messy but quick--Ziman doesn't linger over scenes of sadism for its own sake.  Lucky himself would rather scheme his way out of dicey situations and rarely takes the violent route, trying instead to bend the law to his own uses while flaunting his saintly image in the eyes of his tenants.  Still, his ongoing clash with drug dealer Ngu inevitably leads to all-out warfare with a blazing shootout in a nightclub coming as one of the film's action highlights.
 

Seiphemo is impressive as Lucky Kunene, whom we tend to side with since he lacks the cold-hearted cruelty of the usual screen criminal.  Jeffrey Zekele's Nazareth exudes cool efficiency as a killer who does Lucky's dirty work, whether pushing unwanted tenants through windows when they refuse to leave by the door, or impulsively executing an ousted slumlord and his lawyer for mouthing off to Lucky.  Other performances of note include Ronnie Nyakale as loyal friend Zakes, Robert Hobbs as the dogged Detective Swart, and the lovely Shelley Meskin as Leah, a wealthy white woman who becomes Lucky's lover after he helps her out of a jam. 

The DVD from Anchor Bay is in 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen and Dolby Digital 5.1 sound with English subtitles.  Extras include a commentary track with director Ziman, composer Alan Lazar, and actor Jaffa Mamabolo (young Lucky), plus deleted scenes and a trailer. 

While containing much of the same visceral excitement of other crime flicks, GANGSTER'S PARADISE: JERUSALEMA is more interesting as a solid and suspenseful character piece than a lurid bullet ballet--somehow, it manages to avoid being anywhere near as sordid and downbeat as it could've turned out.  But even if you demand your gangster films dripping with gooey GOODFELLAS goodness, you should find plenty to like here.

GANGSTER'S PARADISE: JERUSALEMA -- DVD Review by Porfle

POIROT: THE MOVIE COLLECTION SET 6 -- DVD review by porfle

Originally posted on 7/31/11

 

When not treading the boards spouting Shakespeare or playing Middle Eastern terrorists as he did in 1996's EXECUTIVE DECISION, David Suchet spends much of his time portraying Agatha Christie's immortal Belgian detective Hercule Poirot on British television.  Since 1989 he has appeared in dozens of such adaptations, and we get to see three of the latest ones in the DVD collection POIROT: THE MOVIE COLLECTION SET 6.

Suchet's portly Poirot is a fussy, fastidious, and very proper little Belgian gentleman with a meticulously waxed moustache and impeccable taste.  He patiently suffers the crudeness of those around him with a pained look or a clipped remark, but as soon as his deductive skills have pinpointed a killer in their midst his manner becomes sharp and accusatory. 

Murder, to this obsessive-compulsive perfectionist, disrupts the proper order of things, which he must set right just as he is compelled to rearrange random objects around him in a more orderly fashion.  Suchet is a delight in the role and it's a treat to watch him inhabit Agatha Christie's classic character with such understated finesse.
 


"Hallowe'en Party" begins at a costume party during which a little girl boasts that she once witnessed a murder.  When she ends up drowned in the apple-bobbing tub, Hercule Poirot is summoned to discern which of the party guests is a killer covering up a past crime.  Delving into the village's recent unsolved murders, he finds there are three to choose from.  This one is spooky fun with some pitch-black humor--a shot of the bee-costumed victim dunked in the tub includes a closeup of her dripping antennae dangling over the side--and a wealth of suspects, motives, and eccentric characters.  Zoë Wanamaker guest-stars as Poirot's friend, pulp mystery writer Ariadne Oliver, in a screenplay by Mark Gatiss ("Sherlock").

In "The Clocks", Jaime Winstone plays Sheila Webb, a temp secretary who arrives at the address to which she's been summoned only to stumble over a dead body and become a murder suspect.  Although this occurs at three o'clock, there are four clocks in the room which all read 4:13 for some unknown reason.  When Poirot is asked to look into the matter by young MI6 agent Lt. Colin Race (Tom Burke), who has taken an interest in Miss Webb, he finds that the murder is linked to the theft of secret government documents that may aid Hitler in his upcoming invasion of England.  But settling that case leaves yet another equally perplexing one still unsolved.



As usual, Poirot's interrogation of various witnesses and suspects uncovers even more questions.  Yet he calmly collects and processes the information until it's time for him to sit down and think it all through.  The more convoluted the plot, the more fun it is to watch Poirot methodically sort it all out, often chiding himself for not seeing the solution sooner.  His odd methods are often rebuffed at first by the local constabulary, who end up humbly seeking his help after their feeble efforts reach a dead end.

Each case reaches its climax with the formal revelation scene, with all suspects present and Poirot theatrically explaining his cogitations of the facts in the case which point him to the guilty party.  This, of course, is one of the hoariest murder-mystery cliches ever, but when done right it can be exquisite fun.  And the more tangled the mystery, the more pleasure we get from Poirot neatly sorting it all out in the end.

"Three Act Tragedy" ends, literally, on a theater stage with Poirot presiding over the indictment of a murderer who has poisoned three people at three different social gatherings, all with the same cast of characters.  Martin Shaw ("George Gently") is Poirot's actor friend Sir Charles Cartwright, who plays a detective onstage and fancies himself one in real life as he joins Poirot in his investigation.  Art Malik and Jane Asher also guest in this intriguing mystery.



There's a deliberately old-fashioned air to these pre-WWII tales that gives them a feeling of authenticity.  A bit dry at times, each of the three feature-length stories is finely-rendered and atmospheric, with rich period detail and the look of faded old color photographs or picture postcards.  Clever directorial touches help keep the exposition-heavy scenes interesting as the plots slowly unfold.
 
The three-disc boxed set from Acorn Media is in 16:9 widescreen with Dolby Digital 2.0 sound and English subtitles.  Each disc comes in its own slimline case.  There are no extras.

Viewers unaccustomed to such slow-paced fare may find themselves growing restless during Poirot's painstaking investigations.  But if you're willing to settle in and immerse yourself in these lush, absorbing murder mysteries, you should find POIROT: THE MOVIE COLLECTION SET 6 to be quite rewarding.
 
 

Other "Poirot" DVD reviews from HK and Cult Film News:
POIROT AND MARPLE FAN FAVORITES
POIROT: SET 1 and SET 2
POIROT: THE MOVIE COLLECTION SET 6
POIROT: SERIES 5
POIROT: SERIES 6 
POIROT: SERIES 7 & 8

POIROT: THE MOVIE COLLECTION SET 6 -- DVD review by porfle

DEADLINE -- DVD Review by Porfle

Originally posted on 11/17/19

 

One thing 50s and 60s television did so well, and which seems to have been lost these days, was the powerful half-hour drama. This is especially true of the better written and produced anthology shows of the time, including the hardboiled, often riveting journalism drama "Deadline."

Film Chest's new 3-disc, 39-episode DVD collection DEADLINE ("When Reporters Were Heroes") contains the entire run of the show (which aired sporadically from 1959 to 1961), with each episode covering various true-life news stories and the dogged reporters who unearthed them, often putting their lives in jeopardy to do so.

Paul Stewart (CITIZEN KANE) lends the show a distinguished air as the gravel-voiced host who, while sitting in a busy newsroom amidst diligent reporters and other workers, introduces each front-page story and the journalist who broke it.

Most of the stories are crime-related, as the reporters often work alongside police detectives on cases involving murder, robbery, arson, kidnapping, extortion, prison riots, mad bombers, juvenile delinquency, shoplifting, and political corruption.

The reporters track down leads and confront bad guys like hardnosed cops, sometimes giving the show the feel of a "Dragnet" episode.  The low budget and abundance of location shooting in the heart of the city also give it a gritty, realistic look. (Listen for some familiar "Plan 9 From Outer Space" library music within the show's score.)

Some stories are particularly powerful, as when a man (actor/director Mark Rydell) is accused of planting a bomb in his mother's suitcase and killing an entire planeload of people for her insurance money.  In another, a college student's thesis on how to commit the perfect murder is tested with the cold-blooded killings of two innocent men.

In addition to these subjects are the ones more related to human interest and social justice, with the reporters often being portrayed as crusading angels and pillars of moral virtue. Indeed, the series goes to great lengths to dispel any popular notions regarding the profession which are anything but positive.

Here we witness stories of amateur spelunkers being rescued from a cave (a very young Christopher Walken is billed as "Ronnie"), a pair of Burmese nurses being saved from deportation by a reporter (Frank Sutton, "Gomer Pyle, U.S.M.C.")  whose life they once saved in a makeshift army hospital, and another reporter going undercover to expose the exploitation of illegal immigrants on the U.S.-Mexico border.  There's even a heart-tugging Christmas episode.

The stories are lean, terse, and to the point. They're also somewhat addictive, making them good binge-watching material for those so inclined. Like many anthology shows of the time, "Deadline" was a place for writers and actors to hone their talents, often doing work that is inspired.

The film quality of these black and white episodes is generally pristine save for occasional rough spots, which I think only add to their character. According to the promo information, these films were lost and forgotten in a garage in New Jersey for over 50 years before rediscovery.

Stewart himself plays the lead in many of the episodes. Other familiar faces include Telly Savalas, Peter Falk, Simon Oakland, Malachi ("Mal") Throne, Diane Ladd, Joanne Linville, Robert Lansing, George Maharis, Sydney ("Sidney") Pollack, Bibi Osterwald, Frank Overton, Lee Bergere, Jan Miner, Bob Hastings, Walter Brooke, Dana Elcar, Lonny Chapman, Jason ("Herb") Evers, Micheal Conrad, and Alfred Ryder.

As mentioned, the show glorifies the reporter's role as a crusader for justice and defender of all that is good, vowing (also quoting the promo info) to "uphold everything that our civil society stands for."

The text material found in the enclosed episode-guide booklet stresses how tarnished the reporter's image has become in recent years, blaming this not on any failing on the part of today's mainstream media but on its being undermined by alleged "fake news" being spread by the internet and other independent sources.

I find this either willfully naive or intentionally misleading, considering the fact that, in recent years, major print and television news sources seem to have relinquished a great deal of their former integrity while much of the actual truth one is able to glean these days does, in fact, come from the internet. 

Not only that, but the booklet's text as well as a DVD interview with a noted broadcast journalism professor seem to be just as politically biased as is much of today's mainstream media.

Putting such gripes aside, however, DEADLINE is a rich source of entertainment for vintage TV lovers, and Film Chest has done a fine job of preserving and presenting these exciting episodes that are such a valuable part of television history.



BONUS FEATURES
Episode Synopses • Photo Gallery • Trailer •
Trivia • Extended Synopsis: Journalism Past and
Present Overview • Interview with Broadcast
Journalism Professor Joe Alicastro


SKU: FC-647
UPC: 874757064796
SRP: $19.98
Street Date: 11/19/2019
Pre-Book: 11/5/2019
Discs: 3
Box Lot: 30
Production: Arnold Perl
Run Time: 1,006 Mins
Format: DVD
Color/B&W: B&W
Aspect ratio: 4x3
Year Prod: 1959 - 1961
Sound: Mono
Studio: Film Chest
Rating: Not rated
Genre: Television, Crime, Drama
Actor(s): Paul Stewart (narrator), Peter Falk,
Diane Ladd, George Maharis, Robert Lansing
and many more.               
Director(s): Various

DEADLINE -- DVD Review by Porfle