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Rumble Fish

Blu-ray

Criterion

1940 / B&W / 1:85 / Street Date April 25, 2017

Starring: Matt Dillon, Mickey Rourke, Diane Lane.

Cinematography: Stephen Burum

Film Editor: Barry Malkin

Written by S.E. Hinton and Francis Ford Coppola

Produced by Francis Ford Coppola

Directed by Francis Ford Coppola

Rumble Fish, Francis Ford Coppola’s Young Adult tone poem, unspools in a black and white never-never land of sullen teens, pool tables and pompadours. It may take a moment for the audience to suss out that we’re not in the Eisenhower era with Chuck Berry, Marilyn Monroe and the Cold War but squarely in Reagan’s domain of MTV, Madonna and the Cold War.

Set in a destitute Oklahoma town with the ghost of The Last Picture Show whistling through its empty streets, Matt Dillon plays Rusty, an inveterate gang-banger growing up in the shadow of his older brother played by Mickey Rourke, a reformed juvenile...

Massimo Dallamano may be best known to some as the cinematographer of Sergio Leone’s A Fistful of Dollars (1964) and For a Few Dollars More (1965), credited under the pseudonym Jack Dalmas. Following his collaborations with Leone, Dallamano would only serve as cinematographer twice more (his last credit being French director Michel Deville’s 1966 comedy The Mona Lisa Has Been Stolen starring George Chakiris and Marina Vlady). The explosive popularity of the spaghetti western would allow Dallamano to begin his own career as a director, with 1967 debut Bandidos (credited under another pseudonym, Max Dillman), but he’d soon after turn to the bread and butter of more exploitative genre fare. The director of eleven features, up until his death in 1976, Dallamano’s enduring, fascinating masterpiece stands as the 1972 title What Have You Done to Solange? Credited as a giallo staple, Dallamano’s film is more of a hybrid of subgenres, a mixed giallo and poliziotteschi film.

Here’s an exciting bit o’ news: the trailer for the upcomin’ splatter-fest The Mildew From Planet Xonader (featuring the dulcet tones of yours cruelly in a dual role!) just went live! Here, feast your eerie eyeballs on this lil’ slice of putrid pie!

Now, head right here to pre-order the flick today!

Next, I want to share a real slice of holiday fear with ya—the latest short by all around awesome dude and Coffin Club member Henrique Couto.

In the spirit now, creeps? It’s reviewin’ time!

What Have You Done To Solange

• Release Date: Available on Blu-ray/DVD Combo Pack December 15th

• Written By: Bruno Di Geronimo, Massimo Dallamano

• Directed By: Massimo Dallamano

• Starring: Fabio Testi, Cristina Galbó, Karin Baal, Camille Keaton

To kick things off, here’s a review of one that you are no doubt familiar with if you are a fan of the...

Stars: Fabio Testi, Cristina Galbó, Karin Baal, Joachim Fuchsberger, Günther Stoll, Claudia Butenuth, Camille Keaton, Maria Monti, Giancarlo Badessi, Pilar Castel, Giovanna Di Bernardo, Vittorio Fanfoni, Marco Mariani | Written by Massimo Dallamano, Bruno Di Geronimo | Directed by Massimo Dallamano

Movies that are described as “giallo” normally tend to depend on certain hallmarks, with the black-gloved killer killing their victims with a sharp knife. We as the audience follow the detective on their mission to hunt down this killer, with the inevitable big shocking finale. With What Have You Done To Solange? we get a film that does stick to these tropes quite heavily, but also subverts this very expectation to make the movie more memorable than most other films of this type.

When a sadistic killer is preying on girls at a Catholic school for girls the eyes of suspicion fall on a handsome teacher who is having an affair with one of the students.

Directed by Michael Winner

Screenplay by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais; original story by Michael Winner and Tom Wright

Featuring Oliver Reed, Michael J. Pollard, Helmut Lohner, Wolfgang Preiss, Peter Carsten, Karin Baal

Just one look at the poster for Hannibal Brooks tells you United Artists didn’t know what to do with the film.

The promotional material focuses on the action, and the fact that Pollard is the action hero and not Reed, while ignoring the script’s attempt to portray warfare in shades of gray rather than stark black and white. But while the film has the best intentions, the script falters at the end, injecting a moralistic tone at odds with earlier scenes.

The film opens as Stephen Brooks (Reed), a British soldier in World War II, is captured by German troops. Brooks isn’t upset that he’ll spend the rest of the war as...