American Harmony (2009)

As a documentary about barbershop quartet competitions, you can file American Harmony (2009) under the sub-genre of “I can’t believe it’s not a Christopher Guest movie!” I can’t say barbershop quartet is my favourite type of music, but you get all the different people devoted to the ole timey stylings, from the fans to the […]

Scarlet Street (1945)

When a movie is in the public domain and is available everywhere, I often think that makes people less likely to check it out, particularly when there are some shocking versions in poor quality or if its a black-and-white movie that’s been colourised. Scarlet Street (1945) is in the public domain and I was also […]

The Iron Rose (1973)

The Iron Rose (1973; La Rose de Fer) is the third film I’ve seen from French director Jean Rollin, and along with Spanish filmmaker Jess Franco, their names represent a quintessential arty Euro-horror milieu. Rollin is known for low-budget genre flicks, usually concerning vampires, where there’s nudity and blood, and actors wandering around castles and […]

Un Flic (1972)

Grey buildings standing imposingly on a French coastline. An incoming storm whips the ocean and rain washes over deserted streets. A car moves slowly with four men in trench-coats and hats. They stop on a street corner and through the mist is a bank with its lights on, just about to close for the day, […]

Too Late For Tears (1949)

A bag filled with money is a classic object and inciting incident in film noir, never an opportunity but a source of fatalistic consequences. So it goes in Too Late For Tears (1949) when a married couple (Lizabeth Scott and Arthur Kennedy) are driving down a lonely stretch of road when another car throws in […]