Keoma (1976)

I remember seeing a scene from Keoma (1976), a Franco Nero spaghetti western, on SBS Cult Movies a long time ago and hearing some of its discordant, strange soundtrack, and never forgetting it. Scored by Guido and Maurizo De Angelis (who had already made a lasting impression on me recently with their weird theme to […]

Sometimes A Great Notion (1971)

My mother had a couple of books about Paul Newman that I would leaf through growing up, so a lot of his movies would intrigue me and I’d remember the titles of. Sometimes A Great Notion (1971) was one I was keen to track down since Newman directed it himself and it was based on […]

Remember My Name (1978)

I am a fan of director Alan Rudolph, the Robert Altman protege who carved out his own singular style with several noir-ish romances, my all time favourite being Choose Me. I always love how Rudolph will pick a singer as the ‘voice’ of his movie – such as Teddy Pendergrass for Choose Me, or Tom […]

The Boss (1973)

Henry Silva made a career out of playing heavies and gangsters over many decades. Alongside Jack Palance, their distinctive features didn’t necessarily make them the matinee idol hero leading man type. In the world of American actors working in Italy throughout the 1960s and 1970s, however, they could be tough guy main characters, the leading […]

Mannaja (1977)

I was sold by the first few minutes of the spaghetti western, Mannaja (1977) aka A Man Called Blade, when a fugitive runs through a foggy, misty forrest and is attacked by a silhouetted bounty hunter – Blade (Maurizio Merli) – whose whole thing is that he uses hatchets as a weapon. However, I think […]