Down on his luck manager and hustler, Johnny Jackson (Laurence Harvey) is always looking for the next hit. It seems like everyone in Soho knows him. But they can’t wait for him to pay up or leave. His would-be singer and stripper girlfriend Maisie (Sylvia Syms) waits patiently for him to make her a star,…
Blu-ray Review: Dancing with Crime & The Green Cockatoo
Cohen Media packages together two early British film noirs. As counterpoints to their American films, these films offer unique British favored crime stories. Of the two, Dancing with Crime (1947) is the more interesting post-war thriller. There is plenty of sleaze and repressed anger under the surface. The Green Cockatoo is in rough condition considering…
After The Thin Man (Warner Archives) Blu-ray Review
After the events of The Thin Man, Nick and Nora Charles (William Powell and Myrna Loy) arrive in San Francisco just in time for New Years’. After solving a murder on Christmas and dealing with the endless publicity (and drinks), Nick is ready for a rest. But nothing stays calm for too long in The…
Curse of Frankenstein, The (Warner Archives) Blu-ray Review
Curse of Frankenstein is one of the great masterworks of horror cinema. It established Hammer Horror as a brand and made the screen light up bright red. It’s also a daunting film to write about. What can I possibly add to the discussion that hasn’t been said a thousand times before? Can I do it…
Mondo Balordo (Severin/ Something Weird) Blu-ray review
The Mondo subgenre is one of the more unusual sides of exploitation filmmaking. It became popular after the surprise success of 1962’s Mondo Cane. The films are usually “documentaries” of strange things around the world with the aim of being shocking. Most of these films happen to be fake with less than conviving dramatized footage….
The Severed Arm (Vinegar Syndrome) Blu-ray review
A group of friends plans the perfect camping trip for a relaxing vacation. They stumble across a hidden cave and decide to explore it. But the unstable walls crash and trap them deep inside. After being stuck for days, the group starts to become desperate and hungry. They come up with a plan to eat…
Best Friends (1975) (Vinegar Syndrome) Blu-ray review
Long time friends Jesse and Pat (Richard Hatch and Doug Chapin) have finally made it home after a tour of duty in Vietnam. To celebrate their newfound freedom, the guys decide to go on one last road trip with their girlfriends before they settle down and get married. The trip starts innocently enough, but it…
Doctor Who: The Tenth Planet (BBC Video) DVD Review
It is that time in the world of Doctor Who again, in roughly 7 weeks from now, on Christmas Day Matt Smith, the 11th Doctor will regenerate into the 12th Doctor played by the Thick of It’s Peter Capaldi. It is a concept we take for granted these days. It seems as soon as we…
Gundala (Well Go USA) Blu-ray review
Sancaka (Muxakki Ramdhaan)’s life is thrown upside down when his father is murdered during an Indonesian factory worker’s protest. After moving to a new apartment, his mother leaves him to find work. But work doesn’t come and it seems like Sancaka is left to be on his own. He grows up homeless in the rough…
Old Dracula (Vinegar Syndrome) Blu-ray Review
Count Dracula (David Niven) is laying low in the modern-day. He enjoys his quiet time but finds the rest of the world to be a weird and alienating place. He grows more and more lonesome without his wife, Vampira, at his side. His castle is now a tourist attraction and vampires are “hip”. So hip…