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Kirk Douglas and Rock Hudson can’t quite bring this all-star western fully to life, even with Robert Aldrich at the helm and a storyline that toys with (then) lurid, adult subject matter. Screen-written by Dalton Trumbo and filmed in Mexico, it perhaps packs too much edgy psychodrama into a simple cowboys & six-guns saga. Dorothy Malone and Carol Lynley give fine support and the locations are nice, as is Ernest Laszlo’s cinematography.

The Last Sunset

Blu-ray

Kl Studio Classics

1961 / Color / 1:85 widescreen / 112 min. / Street Date October 12, 2021 / available through Kino Lorber / 24.95

Starring: Rock Hudson, Kirk Douglas, Dorothy Malone, Joseph Cotten, Carol Lynley, Neville Brand, Regis Toomey, Rad Fulton (James Westmoreland), Adam Williams, Jack Elam, John Shay, José Torvay.

Cinematography: Ernest Laszlo

Art Directors: Alexander Golitzen, Alfred Sweeney

Film Editor: Michael Luciano

Original Music: Ernest Gold

Written by Dalton Trumbo from the novel Sundown at Crazy Horse by Howard Rigsby

Produced by Eugene Frenke,...

By Chris Wright, MoreHorror.com

“Don’t Answer the Phone!” (1980) Film Review

Directed By: Robert Hammer

Written By: Michael D. Castle & Robert Hammer

Starring: James Westmoreland (Lieutenant Chris McCabe), Ben Frank (Sergeant Hatcher), Flo Lawrence (Doctor Lindsay Gale), Nicholas Worth (Kirk Smith),

I honestly didn’t know what to expect by watching another movie that has the infamous “Don’t [do this]” in the title. I was pleasantly surprised; despite its imperfections, it was better than I thought it was going to be. I tend to be a lover of these type movies so I can certainly understand the dislike. The movie was first released on VHS by Media Home Entertainment and released several years ago on DVD. Don't Answer the Phone! reminded me of another movie that came out the same year: “Maniac.”

The plot revolves around an ex-Vietnam vet and current photographer who goes around strangling women. The killer Kirk...

You know, if I was a famous French film critic I would be in a position to use big fancy words to describe why a film like The Undertaker And His Pals should be reconsidered as an American classic. Why it should be considered a not-so-subtle satire on our obsessions with food and death, and how it breathes new life into the hardboiled detective genre. Of course no one would read it for say 20 years, and by then I would have found some other obscure gem to rave over.

Fortunately I have a different platform from which I can shout my views, and one of them, for better or worse, is The Undertaker And His Pals should be viewed by anyone who seriously is interested in dark satire or who has a interest in the “cannibal cuisine” movies that carve up victims and then serve them to their customers or guests.