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American International Pictures or AIP as they were generally known was probably the most influential distribution company in American movie history. Over the course of a quarter century (1954-1979) they released over 450 movies and launched the careers of such notable directors as James Cameron & Martin Scorsese and performers Bruce Dern & Jack Nicholson.Continue reading “AIP TITLES: 4 From The 1950s Through The 1970s”

Oliver Reed once said that “Hammer gave me my start, (Michael) Winner gave me my craft, and (Ken) Russell gave me my art.” Well in 1963’s THE SCARLET / CRIMSON BLADE you can see the arrival of the Oliver Reed we all know 5 years before his international success in OLIVER!. Here he crystallizes hisContinue reading “THE CRIMSON BLADE Marks The Arrival Of Oliver Reed”

Whenever a classic film gets remade, there are always those who say that’s it not as good as the original and that is certainly the case here. However, taking that into consideration, this reworking of James Whale’s 1932 version is better than I remember it being. I had seen it years ago (in black &Continue reading “THE OLD DARK HOUSE (1963) : Not Good But Not As Bad As I Remembered”

ike another reviewer, I first became familiar with Rex Ingram’s THE MAGICIAN through Carlos Clarens’ book AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THE HORROR FILM back in the late 1960s. A few years later it was one of the films/stories selected by Peter Haining in his fascinating 1971 collection THE GHOULS which featured the source material thatContinue reading “THE MAGICIAN (1926): Great To Have It At Last”

I am grateful for this Warner Archive release of the Turner Classic Movies version of this rare Tod Browning film. Up until now I only had it on a VHS tape which was dubbed from a PAL released in the U.K. The picture quality was OK but the transfer was a little too fast (typicalContinue reading “THE BLACKBIRD: Not Tod Browning & Lon Chaney’s Best But Still Worthwhile”

There was a time not that long ago that when Tod Browning was remembered, it was for either directing the Bela Lugosi DRACULA (1931) – (to which all the credit was given to Lugosi) or as the man responsible for FREAKS (1932) a horror film that featured real deformed carnival performers and was a notoriousContinue reading “THE SHOW (1927): Tod Browning’s Macabre Gem”

I first saw JAVA HEAT at a local action movie festival back in May of 2013. I had never heard of it and went to see it to help support the festival and raise money for a local charity. I wasn’t expecting much as most of the movies in this festival had been no greatContinue reading “JAVA HEAT: Exotic Indonesian B Movie Kept Me Engaged”

This cinematic oddity from 1969 is actually interesting in many ways. It was one of the last movies to be filmed in Cinerama (a widescreen process similar to today’s IMAX) and one of the first to use stereo Surroundsound. It’s also a precursor to the many Irwin Allen disaster flicks of the 1970s such asContinue reading “KRAKATOA – EAST OF JAVA (1969): Krakatoa Is Actually West Of Java”

…but that’s highly unlikely at this point in time. Chances are this 2003 release from Kino won’t get an upgrade unless they decide to put it on Blu-Ray along with the other American Film Theatre titles which, like the original series, have no commercial potential. That’s really too bad for just like Shakespeare or anyContinue reading “AFT’s THE ICEMAN COMETH (1973): Superb Adaptation Could Use Some Subtitles…”

…even on DVD. There will never be a movie quite like CLEOPATRA again when you consider when it was made. While James Cameron has given us TITANIC and AVATAR which surpassed CLEOPATRA in expense and certainly in box office and Peter Jackson has mined the works of J.R.R. Tolkein with great success, CLEOPATRA was theContinue reading “CLEOPATRA (1964): Much Maligned Epic Shines Brightly After 50 Years”