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 […]

Rancho Deluxe (1975)

Rancho Deluxe (1975) is a hang-out movie but also a wavelength. Whether you enjoy it or not is dependent on your taste for something plotless, loose and low-key. Plus if you find a young Jeff Bridges and a young Sam Waterson to be a charismatic pair of actors to hang out with (though you will […]

Rituals (1977)

Pure Cinema Podcast talked about Rituals (1977) aka The Creeper so many times across different episodes that I just had to finally watch it. It’s basically a Deliverance knock-off shot in Ontario, Canada with the late, great Hal Holbrook in the lead; apparently he was paid one sixth of the movie’s budget and he’s worth […]

Report To The Commissioner (1975)

There’s so much location footage of old Times Square New York in Report To The Commissioner (1975), that it IS its own character, a document of a New York from long ago, crowded streets witnessing a spectacular filmed foot chase or extras interacting with method actors playing cops. This movie is like a lost Sidney […]