When I was 12 (well over 25 years ago), AMC showed Hammer’s Horror of Dracula one October evening. I had just read the Stoker novel for the first time, and was originally taken back by the divergence from the source material (Yes, I was that much of a nerd), and then Christopher Lee came onto…
Guns for San Sebastian Blu-ray review
Guns for San Sebastian is a spaghetti Western starring the late great legendary star Anthony Quinn, the iconic Charles Bronson and directed by French film director Henri Verneuil. This movie is based on the novel A Wall for San Sebastian and is noted for being an Italian film that was shot in Mexico. Taking place…
Blu-ray Review – The Stylist – Arrow Video
Claire (Najarra Townsend) isn’t your average stylist. She’s exceptionally good at her job and once in a while, she drugs her clientele and scalps them so that she can become them. No biggie. When Olivia (Brea Grant), one of her regular clients, enlists her help to give her the perfect wedding look, Claire believes that…
There Was a Crooked Man…Blu-ray review
There Was a Crooked Man is a 1970 Western directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, which wound up being the only film he directed in this genre. The film stars Henry Fonda and Kirk Douglas, a pair of screen icons. The story is about Paris Pittman, Jr. (Kirk Douglas, Out of the Past) a criminal that…
Ziegfeld Follies Blu-ray review
Ziegfeld Follies is a musical comedy from 1945 with an all-star cast and a great ensemble of directors. The story is about the late, great impresario Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. (William Powell, The Thin Man), who is looking down from the Heavens, wishing he could have one last follies. He knows who he would use and…
Blu-ray Review – Irezumi – Arrow Video
Knowing that their families won’t approve of their relationship, Otsuya (Ayako Wakao) and her lover Shinsuke (Akio Hasegawa) elope one wintry night. While waiting for a blessing -and some cash- from her father, Otsuya is kidnapped and sold to a geisha house and her beau is nearly murdered by a goon hired by the man…
Hanger (2009) Blu-ray review
Hanger is a supremely gory Canadian film from 2009 and is a ghastly tale about bloody vengeance. And yes, I do mean bloody with a capital B! The story of Hanger is nothing all that complicated. Rose Pedals (Debbie Rochon) is killed while having a forced abortion in an alley by sadistic Leroy Washington(Ronald Patrick…
It Happened at the World’s Fair Blu-ray review
In my lifetime, I have seen thousands of films, but It Happened at the World’s Fair is the very first movie that I have seen the iconic musician Elvis Presley act in which sounds crazy, but I am not a die-hard musical fan outside of the immortal classic The Wizard of Oz and a few…
Chain Lightning Blu-ray review
Chain Lightning is a drama film from 1950 starring Humphrey Bogart which was to be his last film that he did for Warner Brothers. In this film he spends much of the picture in the air as a pilot in the aviation race! The focus of Chain Lightning is on World War II flying ace…
Blu-ray Review Years of Lead – Five Classic Italian Crime Thrillers 1973-1977 (Arrow Video
OK, so this is a contender for favorite box set release of 2021, but there are a crazy bunch of them right now, so admittedly this is kind of hard. But this one has the advantage of containing 5 poliziotteschi from the golden era of the genre 1973-1977. The set consists of 3 discs 2…