The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970)

The Bird With The Crystal Plumage (1970; L’uccello dalle piume di cristallo) is Dario Argento’s first film as a director and one of the first examples of the giallo genre (if the info on the back of the Blu-Ray box is correct). This was an entertaining mystery thriller with Hitchcock and Blow Up as clear […]

A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin (1971)

Exploring further the world of giallo – 1970s-era Italian thrillers with plenty of eroticism, style and violence – I watched Lucio Fulci’s A Lizard In A Woman’s Skin (1971; Una lucertola con la pelle di donna), a title that is more of a metaphor than a creature feature thing. Bored glamorous Carol (Florinda Bolkan) is […]

Death Rides A Horse (1967)

The spaghetti western, Death Rides A Horse (1967; Da uomo a uomo), starts off with a gold-robbing gang who brutalises and murders a whole family. Except for the sole surviving boy who grows up to be John Phillip Law out for revenge. His path crosses with cowboy Lee Van Cleef, recently released from prison with […]

Le Marginal (1982)

I discovered Ennio Morricone’s main theme for Le Marginal (1982) recently on a Best Of – that piece of music is awesome, with its disco-bass and dramatic strings. So I thought I’d track down and watch the movie it belonged to, a French super-cop crime thriller in the tradition of Bullitt, Dirty Harry, every cop […]

The Mercenary (1968)

In my never ending quest to watch movies scored by Ennio Morricone (particularly as popularised and used by Tarantino – ‘L’Arena’ from this film was used in Kill Bill Vol. 2 when she busts out of the grave), I watched The Mercenary (1968 – Il mercenario), another spaghetti western. A smooth Polish mercenary with a […]