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Russ Meyer’s 1965 FASTER, PUSSYCAT! KILL! KILL! Is a wild exploitation film. Three go go girls cause trouble in the desert. As typical of Meyer the main women have huge breasts though there is no nudity nor explicit sex. There is a fair amount of violence. Hard to imagine that the director took any of this seriously—bad acting, bad dialog, and weird situations almost seem intentionally funny. ...

It has been a decade since I last watched Charles Vidor's GILDA (1946). It is generally remembered as the peak of Rita Hayworth's career, especially due to her sultry "Put the Blame on Mame" number. There is a lot of kinky stuff going just under the surface which could not be directly depicted at this time of heavy censorship and the viewer’s imagination is given free rein to fill in the gaps. Th...

I am reading Scott Eyman’s excellent biography of John Ford. I decided to watch Ford’s 1940 film of Steinbeck’s GRAPES OF WRATH. As usual with directors who started their career in the silent era a lot of storytelling is done visually. Few scenes are as moving as the one where Ma Joad (Jane Darwell) burns old letters and cards and looks in the mirror with a pair of ear bobs as she prepares to b...

Ernst Lubitsch considered his 1932 comedy TROUBLE IN PARADISE to be his most perfect creation. That is impossible to argue. This is a masterpiece of construction, comic timing, and sly wicked innuendo. None of the cast was ever better. Han Drier’s elegant art deco settings enhance the proceedings. I have seen this several times over the years and it never fails to delight me. Required viewing...

Claude LeLouche’s 1966 A MAN AND A WOMAN is a simple story about a widow (Anouk Aimée) and a widower (Jean-Louis Trintignant) who fall in love. While the plot and characters are not in and of themselves that profound the two charming and extremely photogenic leads shot in gorgeous settings is more than enough. There is a lot of music and songs including a fine samba sung by Pierre Barouh. Fran...

In Gore Verbinski’s GOOD LUCK HAVE FUN DON’T DIE a man from the future (Sam Rockwell) arrives at a diner in Los Angeles where he must recruit the precise combination of disgruntled patrons to join him on a one-night quest to save humanity. This truly unhinged sci fi satire is overlong and far from flawless but gets lots of points for originality. Along the way we get some odd takes of the casu...

Edward Sutherland’s 1933 INTERNATIONAL HOUSE is 68 minutes of sublime silliness. The plot involves a variety of people descending on Wu Hu, China to bid on a television device. W.C.Fields and Franklin Panghorn have some memorable exchanges. George Burns and Gracie Allen bend logic and the English language. Cab Calloway sings “The Reefer Man” and there are also songs by Rudy Vallee and Baby Rose ...

John Boorman’s 1981 EXCALIBUR is an impassioned almost operatic version of the story of King Arthur. Visually lush throughout and with a cast of very talented actors (some near the beginning of their careers) this may be the best film of the famous legend. Boorman could sometimes go far off the rails with his films (ZARDOZ, EXORCIST II: THE HERETIC) but the tale warrants a somewhat over the top ...

John Ford’s 1946 MY DARLING CLEMENTINE is a decidedly fictionalized version of Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and the OK Corral. It is also one of the greatest westerns ever made. Henry Fonda gives one of his best performances as Earp with subtle character touches and his iconic moment balancing on a chair. Shot mostly in spectacular Monument Valley, the preferred location for Ford, the poetic visua...

Brian DePalma’s 1970 HI MOM follows a Viet Nam vet (a very young Robert DeNiro) who gets involved with filmmaking and revolutionary theater. At the time this was seen as a brilliant satire but it now just seems tedious. Many of the scenes appear improvised and go on too long. There is an endless sequence shot in black and white and hand held of a confrontational black theatre group assaulting a...