Four Flies On Grey Velvet (1971)

Before 2018 ended, I finished Dario Argento’s ‘animal’ trilogy with Four Flies On Grey Velvet (1971). This is a giallo thriller about a drummer in a rock band (Michael Brandon) who is blackmailed by a masked stranger for an inadvertent murder he may or may not have committed against someone following him. The hero here […]

Spirits Of The Dead (1968)

Following Lewis Rice O’Donnell’s recommendation, I watched Spirits Of The Dead (1968; Italian: Tre passi nel delirio, French: Histoires extraordinaires), a omnibus film of three stories based on the work of Edgar Allan Poe by different directors. The first starring Jane Fonda and directed by her then-husband Roger Vadim is about a debauched countess who becomes obsessed […]

Mandy (2018)

I was really primed with anticipation for Mandy (2028) and yeah, no surprises, but I loved it. Definitely a case of style over substance or that style is the substance here, but I fully bought into director Panos Cosmatos’ desire to create a “1983 A.D.” where lumberjacks, religious cults, biker gangs were all subsumed in […]

The Cat ‘O Nine Tails (1971)

Acquainting myself slowly with Dario Argento’s ‘animal’ giallo trilogy (because of the animals named in the title) and I had heard The Cat ‘O Nine Tails (1971; Il gatto a nove code) wasn’t as good as the first of the trilogy, The Bird With The Crystal Plumage. This may be true, and apparently it is […]

Thief Of Hearts (1984)

If a movie could only be judged on its Harold Faltermeyer soundtrack and its opening typeface, Thief Of Hearts (1984) would be a classic. However it is one Bruckheimer/Simpson production that isn’t really remembered, maybe because it is a soapy and trashy (wait, what Bruckheimer/Simpson production isn’t?). It’s about a hunky thief played by Scarface’s […]