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Reviews
Secret Paris (2000)
These girls play nice!
This, like most of Andrew Blake, is pure fantasy. It has a potent sense of sexuality about it, but is not meat and potatoes porn. There is one boy/girl segment, but it's mostly lesbian erotica. The rapid dissolves of slow motion sequences can be an acquired taste, but I guess I've acquired it. Blake's movies feature the most naturally beautiful women in adult films today. Some engage in pretty hardcore scenarios, but some merely flash the camera. His work consists of some of the only adult films worth watching as films currently being made-- though they are pretty plotless. To some, this sense of unrelieved erotic tension will seem dull and pretentious. But if you're like me, it will be intoxicating and hypnotic. Even the light B&D scenes are worshipful of the women, and slowly draw you in rather than hitting you over the head. Andrew Blake's vision is pure fantasy, and not meant as a substitute for sex.
Body of the Prey (1967)
Enter the wacky, tacky world of Ed Wood!
James T Craig plays the hotheaded rocket scientest/madman who mixes a venus flytrap with a carnivorous undersea plant only to create a man in a rubber suit with green dreadlocks in this goofy throw-back to the fifties! With nudity so gratuitous it borders on dadaism!
Wood himself was directing Rick Lutz and Rene Bond in pornos at the time, making this a special treat. More than any other movie not directed by him, this production seems guided by his hand. One wonders if the use jarring library music and lots of stock footage was written into the script. A must!
(AKA: Venus Flytrap)
Screaming Mimi (1958)
Read the book first! (if you can find it)
When I first read Fredric Brown's 1948 novel, I was mesmerized. I have read it a few times since and have no intention of stopping-- it's really one of those forgotten classics of the hardboiled genre. Also being a Fellini fan, I have long been curious to see the film, Anita Ekberg's first starring role, (La Dolce Vita was two years later.) I know that Fellini was a pretty big fan of Brown-- at one point he planned to adapt his sci-fi novel What Mad Universe-- so I'm pretty sure he discovered Ekberg in this film.
Though I think the above reviewer was kind of harsh on Oswald and the cast-- especially Harry Townes, who understates the creepy obsessiveness of Doc Greene very well-- the fact is the movie falls short of the book by a considerable margin. I would put most of the blame on screenwriter Robert Blees, who had previously scripted the giant monster movie The Black Scorpion. But for all its faults (unfortunately, the ending is one of the things they botched) the film has its charms. Not only the cinematography but the music performed by Red Norvo captures the mood of the novel very well. And there are scenes that they actually get right. So I guess it's a love/hate thing for me.
Before I go, one last sidelight. Gypsy Rose Lee, who's featured in Mimi, was an exotic dancer in the forties and wrote one novel, The G-String Murders-- also about a killer who stalks strippers-- which was adapted as Lady of Burlesque, with Barbara Stanwyck.
Stingray (1964)
The Discreet Charm of Stingray
Stingray is my favorite Supermarionation show by far! The themes are often strangely adult, we're shown Troy Tempest's dreams in some of the episodes, and there's a lot of unrequited desire between the puppets. Not surprisingly, the puppets drink pretty often.
This is not to dismiss the technical aspects of the show usually harped on. The look of the show is amazing, representing a larger, color version of the outlandish production design of the nifty Fireball XL-5. The Stingray itself is as mod-looking as the Batmobile. In fact, I'd say Stingray had to have been a major influence of the TV incarnation of Batman (1966.) (Kids could watch it for the action, adults could watch it for the humor and weird sexual tension.) And the music of Barry Gray is excellent as always.
I'm 35 and never saw Stingray as a child. But, despite the lack of a personal nostalgia factor, I must make room for it among my all-time favorite shows. It's pure escapism, but with a caricatured sense of human nature. For me, Thunderbirds and the other Anderson shows just became increasingly flat, with the puppets looking more and more like mannequins.
When it comes to marionettes, I get my kicks under water!
Superstarlet A.D. (2000)
When man turns to ape, woman turns to woman...
Once again, J Michael McCarthy has delivered a funny, titillating, strangely poignant cinematic comic book vision of the apocalypse. For JMM, this happened in about 1966, and I tend to agree. Superstarlet A.D. is set in Femmephis, where men have reverted to Neanderthals, and the only clothes that were strong enough to survive the apocalypse are vintage womens' undergarments. There are three beauty cults: redheads, blonds, and brunettes who are constantly in a petty, backstabbing war of gossip, snide insults and occasional murder. Except for the Superstarlets, whose members consist of all hair colors. Their mission is to seek out their ancestral stag reels of their grandmothers in the many decaying movie theaters. Everybody hates them, but they love each other.
Even if you don't usually go in for this kind of high-brow sci-fi kind of stuff, Superstarlet's worth it for it's views on American culture. Most of the dialog is actually voice-overs by the Superstarlets. These consist of esoteric essays which philosophize poetically on things that made America great when it was. These internal monologs are way to funny to ever come across as didactic, though. And the sight of beautiful women in vintage bras, panties, stockings, and high heels, carrying machine guns while they explore broken down movie theaters provides more than enough eye candy.
Troma's DVD packaging itself rates about two and a half stars. The movie is presented full frame instead of the slight letterboxing the 16mm footage deserves. There are, however, a short interview from what looks like a public access show, and a news piece on JMM. There are also a photo gallery and a couple of other cast and crew interviews, and a director commentary, where JMM expounds on his motto of : Never get permission, shoot until they make you stop, and deny everything later. Unless it's an easter egg I didn't find, the original teaser film advertised on the package is nowhere to be found, though.
But if you're into truly independent filmmaking, vintage Americana, or hot looking babes, I strongly advise you to check this flick out!
I Woke Up Early the Day I Died (1998)
Slapstick expressionism & Ed Wood
I've been disappointed, if not surprised, at the lack of appreciation this film has received. Once again, Billy Zane proves he's more than just a Hollywood pretty boy in a silent performance that combines spastic slapstick with understated pathos. Calling this a silent film is inaccurate, as there's a lot of music and sound. It has a manic pace and is full of the goofy inventiveness that Ed Wood is finally beginning to be appreciated for. Look at the cast listing, and realize that everyone shines. No one is there just to show their face. I believe they're all in the movie to show their appreciation of Wood, and to do a broad, physical kind of acting not seen much these days.
But, today, reviewers try to guess what's going to become a hit much more than they show any kind of esthetic appreciation for a movie. And IWUETDID has no discernable target audience. It was made mostly out of love for Wood's script. Even after his death, the trendy social parasites have dealt him another serious blow, and deprived the world of a minor classic. This is a highly entertaining and a genuinely experimental film that really deserves to live, at least on DVD.
This World, Then the Fireworks (1997)
PERFECT COMBINATION OF DEADPAN CAMP AND STYLIZED VIOLENCE
Billy Zane is perfect as the sociopathic Marty, and his voice-over narration IS the Jim Thompson novella. This World is simultaniously an overblown parody and a loving homage to not only Thompson, but fifties hardboiled thrillers in general. Gritty touches of realism mix with a nostalgiac 50s pastiche and stylized performances and camera work. Sure to be over the heads of most modern viewers (see above review) but if you love film noir, and especially the pulp novels that helped spawn it, this film is beautiful, hillarious, and genuinely misanthropic. All the performances are very accurate to the way the characters acted in the novella. Shot like a combination of a moving Edward Hopper painting and an Italian Giallo thriller. HIGHLY recommended!
I vampiri (1957)
A REDISCOVERED CLASSIC!
This movie is absolutely stunning! It combines Freda's knack for perverse plotting with Bava's excellent, atmospheric cinematography to produce a story about the parasitic sickness of love more than anything else. I've read a few whiny 'goth' teenagers complaining about the film's lack of 'real vampiric moments.' What idiots! An aging scientist keeps the Duchess Du Grand young, although she can't stand his touch. To acquire young women needed for his serum, he keeps a junkie locked up and strung out. Meanwhile, the Duchess is in love with Pierre, a young reporter investigating a series of mysterious murders in which young women are being drained of their blood. Ah, love... The mood of the film perfectly balances neorealism with fantasy to create an expressionist fairy tale. The antagonistic relationship between the reporter and the police investigator and the above-mentioned junkie make this an influence on the giallo as well as the revival of gothic horror in Italy. Ignore DVD (Idiot) Savant and the Ann Rice geeks. The rediscovery of this movie ranks up there with Whale's Old Dark House. It is an absolute classic, and the print is excellent!