One of the less well-known films from Hammer Horror, “The Gorgon” pairs Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee in a muddled version of the gorgon of Greek mythology, transported to a European village. I say muddled because Megara, the gorgon of the title, was not a gorgon at all, but a fury. The gorgon Medusa could…
“Violent Night” stars David Harbour, John Leguizamo, and Beverly D’Angelo. It’s a weird mixture of one of those kitschy family-friendly Christmas movies where love is rekindled and the characters discover the real meaning of Christmas, and a violent action flick. It’s great fun. David Harbour is the real Santa Claus, who has become so disillusioned…
I need to start this with a disclaimer. What is generally considered to be Vincent Price’s best movie (“Witchfinder General”) will not be appearing on this list, because I haven’t seen it. (It’s on my ‘to watch’ list, along with a million other movies.) You would be forgiven for thinking that Price only starred in…
Back in 1959 the original version of “House on Haunted Hill” was a very B-grade, cheap movie, with only two aspects of it worth watching. One is Vincent Price, and the second is the relationship of the couple, where their hatred of each other has vitriol positively dripping off the screen. As such, the remake…
I’ve seen a lot of Hollywood epics of this era and liked many of them. This three-hour long slog is not one. “El Cid” deals with eleventh century Spain, where Rodrigo de Vivar (Charlton Helston) gets into trouble for being nice to some Moorish princes he had taken prisoner in a battle. He has them…
Between 1930 and 1969 Warner Brothers produced Looney Tunes and Merrie Melodies cartoons, during what is regarded as the golden age of American animation. During this time some of the funniest cartoons in animation were made, and the characters have remained popular until today. Directors such as Chuck Jones and voice artists such as the…
It’s a famous example of Japanese anime that is still cited as one of the greatest in the genre 35 years later. “Akira” tells the story of a new Tokyo having rebuilt from the cataclysm of a third world war, leading to a dystopia of an increasing social inequality, injustice, police brutality and government corruption.…
“Yangtse Incident” is a depiction of an event that occurred in 1949, during the Chinese civil war. A British warship, the Amethyst, was on the Yangtse when it came under fire from Chinese communist batteries on the bank. The ship was taken unawares, running aground on a sandbank. On the whole this film appears to…
Vincent Price leads an impressive cast in this ‘horror-comedy’ “Theatre of Blood”. The plot is a standard one – a second-rate actor who is obsessed with Shakespeare, is also convinced he is a genius. Despite every critic in a ‘critic’s circle’ having given him a bad review for his plays, he thinks he will get…
Based on a novel by Stephen King, “Needful Things” describes the opening of an antique shop in a small town, called ‘Needful Things’. The proprietor, Leland Gaunt (Max Von Sydow) always seems to have the very item stocked that a person needs, that touches some deep desire or fills some hole in their hearts. The…
Eclectic Assemblage 