Change Your Image
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Served as Chairman, New York Film Critics Circle: 1993/94.
Favorite interviews were with: Michael Douglas, Sophia Loren, DeForest Kelley, Joan Chen, Joe Henderson, Ismail Merchant, Klaus Kinski, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Spike Lee, Malcolm McDowell, Zoe Lund, Melvin Van Peebles, Ultra Violet, Wolfgang Petersen, Claudia Cardinale, Serge Silberman, Margarethe von Trotta, Alec Guinness, Leonard Nimoy, Susan George, Joseph Losey, Gale Anne Hurd, Dennis Hopper, Peter Greenaway, Katt Shea, Ken Russell, Maggie Greenwald, Jim Jarmusch, Peter Brook, Jurgen Prochnow, Andy Warhol, Judy Davis, Chuck Vincent, Fred Zinnemann, Wim Wenders, Max Von Sydow, Michael Moore, Terry Gilliam, Rita Jenrette, Karen Lynn Gorney, Bruce Beresford, Jack Thompson, Russ Meyer, Sam Raimi, Abel Ferrara, John Sayles, William Greaves, Nino Manfredi, Lee Van Cleef, Michael Cuscuna, Bille August, Jewel Shepard, Andy Sidaris, Michel Deville, Claude Sautet, Claude Lelouch, Alfonso Arau, Alan Parker, Reinhard Hauff, Traci Lords, Jim Jarmusch, Martha Coolidge, Candida Royalle, Giuseppe Tornatore, Edward James Olmos, Paul Hogan, John Mackenzie, Peter Hyams, Jennifer Beals,, Adrian Lyne, Samuel Fuller, Dario Argento, James Toback, Lasse Hallstrom, Fred Williamson, Gabriel Axel, Joe Bastianich, Aaron Sanchez, Danny Meyer, Steve Hanson, Matthew Kenney, Douglas Rodriguez, Simon Oren, Stanley Donen, Lindsay Anderson, Helena Bonham Carter, Edward Pressman, Harold Becker, Larry Cohen, James Ivory, Jack O'Connell, Michael Phillips, Kevin McClory, Jackie Mason, Joan O'Brien, Stanley Donen, Joseph B. Vasquez, Don Bluth, William Lustig, Al Goldstein, Simon Wincer, Valeria Cavalli, Dave Fishelson, Lizzie Borden, Roberta Findlay, Rob Cohen, Doris Wishman, Robert Tapert, Bruce Campbell, Bill Cosby, Pasquale Squitieri, Menahem Golan, Yoram Globus, Tim Kincaid, Joel M. Reed, Gregory Dark, T.L. Lankford, Fred Olen Ray, Gregory Dark, Victoria Paige Meyerink, Lawrence D. Foldes, Rick Marx & Ted V. Mikels
Reviews
Through My Window (2023)
Gotta loves these ladies in their 30s!
Jessica Ryan stars as a lusting neighbor who has the hots for the lady next door (Penny Barber) but that lady is married to Serene Siren. With three of Adult Cinema's best actresses at work, this triangle makes for hot stuff.
Released via Missa X's Allherluv (lesbian content) label, I was surprised that the two-part feature instantly stirred controversy among the fans. It seems folks enjoy MILF action and are addicted to the new, young starlets of the week, but casting three actresses in their mid-30s together somehow became an issue. I guess when I wasn't paying attention, rigid indoctrination on what you're supposed to like and even think (worthy of a fascist state run by Il Duce DeSantis) has even infected the porn audience.
Be that as it may, I found the dramatics and romantic action among the fab threesome irresisitible, including a voyeuse kink signalled by the title.
Licensed to Love and Kill (1979)
Chintzy Bond spoof
My review was written in September 1983 after watching the movie on a Catalina video cassette.
"The Man from S. E. X." is a failed British imitation of the James Bond films, lensed in 1978 and marginally released in America before its current video cassette availability. Pic, a sequel to the 1976 "No. One of the Secret Service", was originally titled "Licensed to Love and Kill" and circulated under the alternate moniker "Undercover Lover".
Indie filmmaker Lindsay Shonteff, best known Stateside for his 1964 classic "Devil Doll", is actually lampooning his own work here, particularly the 1965 Bond imitation "The Second Best Secret Agent in the Whole Wide World", which starred Tom Adams as agent Charles Vine.
In "S. E. X.", Gareth Hunt portrays Charle Bind, a well-tailored British agen sent out by his boss, Stockwell (Geoffrey Keen, who coincidentally has had similar roles in recent Bond pics) to fetch Lord Dangerfield (Noel Johnson) from the U. S., presumed missing.
The enemy is Sen. Lucifer Orchid (a naturalized U. S. citizen born in England, played by Gary Hope), bent on taking power in America by substituting doubles for the U. S. veep, agent Bind and others. Working from an Atlantic island base, he hires a mercenary Jensen Fury (Nick Tate) to carry out his dirty work.
Shonteff errs in stretching the Bond formula tongue-in-cheek sex and violence beyond the breaking point, adopting a live-action comic strip style familiar from his more successful 1973 picture, "Big Zapper". People blow up in a puff of smoke at will, fight scenes are likely to have fists crashing through solid walls, and the requisite special effects gimmicks are similarly hokey. Shot in England, the half of the film set in America is unconvincing, as are several lame attempts at American accents.
As Jensen nicknames him in the film, Gareth Hunt as Bind is indeed "Stiff", whether playing this role or the interchangeable double. Rest of the cast is rouine, with various pretty girls (including Ingmar Bergman's daughter Anna) delivering occasional nude shots but falling wide fo the mark expected in an R-rated (and thereby more liberated) Bonder.
Thought there are some outlandish scenes, Shonteff doesn' deliver the sci-fi overtones of his similarly plotted "Second Best..." 1965 picture. Tech credits reflect a low budget.
Sangraal, la spada di fuoco (1982)
Novelty nil, special effects weak, chances slim
My review was written in September 1983 after a Times Square screening.
"The Sword of the Barbarians" is a chintzy Italian imitation of "Conan the Barbarian", one of dozens of pasta fantasies ground out recently. Cannon pickup (released independently, not part of the MGM-UA distribution deal) is minus the novelty of fantastic special effects which could earn it much of a following theatrically.
Story has Sangral (Peter MacCoy), son of Ator, uniting his tribe of peaceful plains people in prehistoric times with Belem's tribe, alfter saving Belem's foxy daughter Aki from an attack by nasties belonging to evil Naluk's tribe, Naluk is protected by the Golden Goddess, Rani (Sabrina Siani), to whom he makes human sacrifices, officiated by his set of hunchbacked priests. Rani, who periodically appears via cheap special effects behind the altar fire, has declared war upon Sangral, and in one skirmish Naluk's men kill Sangral's beautiful, platinum blonde wife Leni.
Strictly copying the format of the "Conan" film, Sangral vows to bring his wife back to life, and accompanied by Aki and an oriental friend Lee Wa Twan, he treks to visit a black magician Rudak to obtain the secret of rebirth. Rudak can't help but sends him instead on a mission to the Ark of the Templars, from which Sangral extracts a laughably oversize crossbow which shoots three arrows at once. Dull climax has Sangral dutifully wiping out Naluk and even the goddess.
Director credited as Michael E. Lemick tries to stretch his minimal budget with over-use of low-angle and wide angle shots but to no avail. Underpopulated picture features beasts that are actors in cheapest makeup imaginable and virtually none of the promised sorcery. It's just hand-to-hand battle nonsense in the vein of the Hercules and Maciste films of over 20 years ago. Peter MacCoy has the right muscleman build for the lead role and has appeared in several other local items including two "Gunan" features. Judging from the opening narration, his character here is apparently a descendant of the Miles O'Keeffe "Ato", though no family tree of prehistoric Italian schlock heroes has yet been charted. As the evil goddess, Sabrina Siani, also a vet of many of these pics, is an alluring personage, resembling the young Claudia Cardinale.
Last Night at the Alamo (1983)
Earnest but claustrophobic regional slice-of-life
My review was written in October 1983 after a screening at the New York Film Festival.
"Last Night at the Alamo" is a low-budget Texas film that boasts a lot of actors' energy but lacks the cinematic style to let it escape from he specialized category. With nearly all the action set in a small Houston bar, pic perilously recalls a Southern-fried "Iceman Cometh".
Filmmakers Eagle Pennell and Kim Henkel (latter a co-scripter of Tobe Hooper's "The Texas Chainsaw Massacre") are fans of "The Wild Bunch", but what they have taken from that film is not its style or themes but rather the folksy, vibrant dialog of Walon Green and Sam Peckinpah. This gives "Alamo" considerable verbal texture, as characters carry on in local argot or cha about clothing bought at the "Monkey Ward's" department store.
Opening reel is so densely packed with four-letter expletives that the initially disarming device becomes tiresome. So, too, do the players, declaiming endlessly in the pipe dreams and complaints manner of barflies. Ichabod (Steve Matilla) is a scrawny young man, shooting pool, picking fights and trying to scoot his gal Mary (Tina-Bess Hubbard) off to the nearest hot-sheets motel. Claude (Louis Perryman) is a loud and foul-mouthed guy with wife trouble, constantly (and tediously) on the phone at the Alamo bar.
A late arrival is made by Cowboy Regan (Sonny Carl Davis), a smug, egocentric guy who believes he can "save" the Alamo, which has been sold by its owner and is due for immediate demolition to make way for high-rise buildings, appealing by phone to his old college roommate and now a state representative. Though he beats up an old high school rival Steve (J. Michael Hammond) who dares to doubt this claim, the effort to save the bar is, of course, just another pipe dream.
Director Pennell errs in shooting his film in a style reminiscent of live tv drama in the 1950s: low-key (for high contrast) lighting in black and white and claustrophobic framing (such as a foreground head, typically Claude's on the phone, dominating mid-ground action). Cumulative effect is oppressive. His actors are on too long a leash, with Louis Perryman's initially entertaining explosive swearing routine ending up sounding like a Steve Landesburg stand-up parody of a "good ole boy" dialect.
Lead player Davis, a balding young actor resembling Robert Duvall and Robert Stack, carries much of the picture by underplaying compared to the rest of the cast. Steven Matilla as "don't call me Ichabod" is quite funny in small doses and scripter Henkel has written himself in a cute John Sayles-esque deadpan role as Lionel, so laconic a critter that everyone else has to tell his personal anecdotes for him. The women's roles are seriously underwritten.
Tech credits are acceptable, though he direct sound recorded dialect gets a bit thick during some of the shouting matches.
Burroughs: The Movie (1983)
Overlong portrait of the author as cutup
My review was written in October 1983 after a screening at the New York Film Festival.
"Burroughs" is a feature-length examination of William S. Burroughs, the influential novelist who is now doubling as an entertaining reader of excerpts of his work at night club gigs for young audiences who weren't around during his trailblazing days in the 1950s and 1960s. Debuting director Howard Brookner, who expanded this work from a short student film begun five years ago, mixes documentary material with exhibitionist footage of Burroughs the myth maker, pruning of some scenes advisable. In its present form, picture deserves non-theatrical, college campus bookings and ultimately public tv usage.
With his verite cameras trailing Burroughs from his current N. Y. "Bunker" flat to his St. Louis, London and Moroccan former stomping grounds, Brookner fleshes out the man's life with recollections by many of his pals and colleagues. Their talking heads' testimony is suspect, however, as when poet Allen Ginsberg turns unconvincing apologist, blaming Burroughs' wife Joan for "egging him on" to a 1951 fatal William Tell-style shooting incident. Burroughs admits to killing his wife and seems honestly remorseful about it.
Interspersed throughout the film are evocative vintage b&w underground scenes of Burroughs, filmed by British helmer Antony Balch (who has the 1973 film "Horror Hospital" to his credit and tried to launch a film version of "Naked Lunch" in 1971). Also highlighting the docu are excerpts from his works such as "Naked Lunch" and "Nova Express", in a droll, highly amusing manner, Misguided efforts include a staged grand guignol performance for the camera of Burroughs, as Dr. Benway, aided by nurse Jackie Curtis in cutting up a patient with gory special effects one associates with recent horror films.
Low point of the picture consists of interviews with Burroughs' self-styled amanuensis James Grauerholz, a pompous young man who admits to having slept with Burroughs and feeling more like a son to the writer than was the late William S. Burroughs Junior. Brookner also includes morbid footage of Junior, called by one interviewee "the last beatnik" and bent on self-destruction through drugs, liquor, etc.
After a funny start, the film becomes rather dull in the second half with too much footage of Burroughs, obviously enjoying the spotlight. At feature length, this picture could more efficiently covered his whole circle, including Jack Kerouac, who is relegated to a couple of still photos and allusions. Brookner even indulges his subject with a lengthy scene showing the iconoclast demonstrating his gallery of weapons (ranging from a blowgun to a vicious-looking knife) ready for use against intruders. This silly scene is almost identical in content to one of Dennis Hopper showing off his guns (and willingness to use them) in a 1971 portrait-docu "The American Dreamer", and in both cases represents straying from the subject into audience-baiting.
Testament (1983)
Moving depiction of people coping with Nuclear Holocaust
My review was written in October 1983 after viewing at a Columbus Circle screening room.
"Testament" is an exceptionally powerful film dealing with the survivors of a nuclear war. Debuting director Lynne Littman, who has numerous honors for her tv work, brings an original approach to the grim material, presenting Paramount with the marketing challenge of attracting an audience to this serious, rewarding picture. Film was backed by public tv's American Playhouse series, where it will be broadcast after its theatrical exposure.
The segment of science fiction films devoted to W. W. III and its irradiated aftermath began in 1951 with Arch Oboler's "Five" in which William Phipps and Susan Douglas set out to start over after the Nuclear Holocaust. The genre peaked a decade later with such films as "The World, the Flesh and the Devil", "On the Beach" and Ray Milland's classic of survival "Panic in Year Zero". The next films dealt with the paranoia of nuclear war's approach, rather than its effects: "This Is Not a Test", "Dr. Strangelove" and "Fail-Safe", with Peter Watkins in 1965 producing the ultimate in realism in his documentary-style "The War Game".
Base on Carol Amen's magazine story "The Last Testament", Littman's "Testament" avoids the sensationalism of earlier films to focus on the probable consequences of nuclear war on the average family. Set in the small California town of Hamlin, film's opening reel depicts a normal, complacent community. In the Wetherly family7, dad Tom (William Devane) is preoccupied with concerns of the moment, such as his bike-riding, while mom Carol (Jane Alexander) takes a longer view, worrying over son Brad (Ross Harris) becoming eligible for the draft in five years.
The town's clam is shattered when a tv newscast announces that nuclear devices have exploded in New York on the east coast, with the film proper suddenly going to yellow and whiteout, indicating blasts on the west coast as well. Ham radio operator Henry Abhart (Leon Ames) becomes Hamlin's communication link to the outside world, receiving conflicting reports as to who started W. W. III. He cant raise anything east of Keokuk, Iowa on his radio or any major city. Isolated Hamlin's residents attempt to survive on canned food and community activities, but within a month over 1,000 people have died from radiation sickness. A young couple (Rebecca DeMornay and Kevin Costner), whose baby has died, drive off in search of "a safe place", but the Wetherlys and orphaned kids they have taken in remain at home trying to cope with the inevitable.
Littman's skill and restraint with this increasingly morbid storyline are exemplary. There are no on-camera death scenes, only the increasing sense of loss in the faces of the survivors as each protagonist succumbs. Holding it all together as a tower of strength is actress Jane Alexander, coping with the deaths of her family and friends in truly heroic fashion via an understated performance that deserves Academy Award consideration.
The supporting cast is particularly strong, with a warm, affectionate turn by William Devane as the husband, deeply felt portrayals by Leon Ames and music teacher Lilia Skala as elders passing on the baton to the youngsters, and a moving portrait of a young mother by Rebecca DeMornay (in a versatile stretch from her sexy lead role in "Risky Business"). Littman demonstrates a sure hand with kids, ranging from bit players acting in the pertinent, allegorical school play-within-the-film ("The Pied Piper of Hamelin") to the leading roles ot the Wetherly children Ross Harris as the eldest, Roxana Zal and particularly newcomer Lukas Haas create young people, he concern over whose fate will elicit a tremendous emotional response from any audience.
The musical score by James Horner is spare and to the point, with a sustained siren-like wail injected in the opening theme and use of ethereal choral effects to underscore Alexander's sensitive monolog to her daughter, Zal, explaining the closeness two people experience making love, something she'll never grow up to find out for herself. Other credits are adequate, reflecting the project's tv-movie budget constraints.
Renewed public awareness of nuclear peril is reflected on the screen with this summer's "Fail-Safe" update "WarGames", tv's "The Day After", which will be shown two weeks after "Testament" debuts, and a projected tv miniseries remake of "On the Beach". Still timely, producers might consider fillming at long last the classic sci-fi novels in the genre: "Earth Abides", "Alas, Babylon" and "A Canticle for Leibowitz".
Méliès et ses contemporaires (1983)
Documenting pioneering Silver Screen shorts
My review was written in October 1983 after a screening at Manhattan's MoMA.
"Melies and His Contemporaries" is a valuable compilation film comprising 36 short motion pictures produced between 1896 and 1909. Prepared in 1981 under the supervision of Franz Schmitt af the French film archive in Bois d'Arcy, feature presents the films in their complete form and is of definite interest to students and buffs.
It is almost a truism in film history that fantasy films have a lasting impact while realistic pictures become dated. Certainly, supernatural, horror, science fiction and fantasy films produced in every era are continuously being revived and treasured by fans of these genres, while most contemporary-themed (and lacking fantasy elements) films, even those winning awards and great initial popularity, are considered pass by succeeding generations. One has only to look at the youth-oriented pictures of slightly over a decade ago (e.g., "Easy Rider"), which are rarely shown or requested today.
The trick films of pioneer Georges Melies and his peers that are compiled here further bolster this notion, as their highly-accomplished special effects and editing gimmickry are still fascinating after 80 years. By contrast, more realistic shorts in the compilation are mainly of interest due to preserving the look of an earlier locale or era, rather than for content.
The 15 Melies pictures included here number among them his 1902 "A Trip to the Moon", probably the most widely-seen (today) of that era's product. It is fascinating to then compare, projected immediately afterwards, the 1903 imitation bearing the same title, directed by Ferdinand Zecca and Lucien Nonguet. Copying Melies' shots and ideas almost frame-for-frame (including the man-in-the-moon live face), the followup film is even more effective, and sports beautiful color tinting. Director Nonguet also contributes an excellent (and lengthy) 1907 film of "The Dreyfus Affair", which dramatically ourtshines Melies' static and stilted 1899 pic of the same title.
Elsewhere, Melies' well-matched trick editing, which causes people and objects to appear and disappear at will, his composite photography and other innovations are preserved in funny shorts such as "The Man with the Rubber Head" (1902), "An Impossible Voyage" (1904) and "Extraordinary Dislocation" (1900) featuring clown Andre Deed. A very early example of the nudie-cutie is Melies' "After the Ball... the Tub" (1897) featuring Jehanne D'Arcy stripping for a nude-derriere bath. As a useful historical device, the compilation follows this film with a similar pic by Zecca, "Through the Keyhole" (1902).
Preservation quality of the films on view varies considerably, though several are in beautiful 35mm condition. Many tinted and hand-colored pictures (featuring multiple colors in every shot) are quite arresting, particularly Albert Capellani's 1907 pic for Pathe-Freres, "The Sheep's Hoof". This colorful fantasy combines pageantry, the frenzied movement in the frame one rather associates with Melies and numerous fantasy effects (including riding on a huge snail), set in motion when a forest goddess gives the hero a magical sheep's hoof.
Absence of a musical track makes this two-hour silent film more of interest to college campus exhibition rather than general audiences, as evidenced by the restive reaction when unspooled at the Museum of Modern Art to a mainly old folks crowd.
Aux sources de la coleur, de son et de l'animation (1983)
Weak survey of French cinematic innovations
My review was written in October 1983 after a screening at Manhattan's MoMA.
"The Beginnings of Color, Sound and Film Animation" is a diffuse compilation film which, unlike the excellent Bois d'Arcy archive presentations dealing with Melies and the Lumiere Brothers, tackles too many subjects. Pic does offer 24 complete early films plus a 1958-produced short survey of early sound experiments.
Highlight of the film is the final selection, Ladislas Starevitch's 1925 two-reeler "The Eyes of the Dragon". Beautifully tinted, this stop-motion animation tale of a legendary Chinese fantasy world boasts beautiful, meticulously crafted miniatures and stop-motion effects that defy the usual constraints on the medium. For example, Starevitch's dancing insects include a mosquito of such thin proportions that conventional use of an armature for the repositioning process to animate the figure could be ruled out. This short film should be made available on its own, with a soundtrack added.
Another wonderful segment is a French travelog filmed on the U. S. West Coast, "En suivant le soleil sur l'ouest" (Following the Sun into the West), undated but apparently shot in the 1920s. Besides its recording of arresting period locales, short is a classic example of professional tinting, with many scenes combining subtle multi colors that fool the eye into believing that color film stock ws used in lensing rather than monochrome, tinted later.
The remainder of the film lacks focus. Color is demonstrated by various tinted films made before 1910 by the Lumiere brothers, Pathe's "Le Moulin Maudit" (The Mill), a 1909 short which demonstrates subtle use of tinting. Some of the color effects are crude, particularly in Georges Melies' "Paris-Monte Carlo Race in Two Hours" (1905), in which the automobile has a red smear applied in quick-and-dirty fashion.
Early sound experiments are covered perfunctorily, with Roger Goupillieres' 1958 compilation short "Le cinema parlant en 1900" (The Sound Film in 1900) included. It incorporates excerpts of films synchronized with sound recorded on cylinders for playback in theatres. On view is Coquelin as "Cyrano de Bergerac", Mairette Sully singing in "La poupee" and a comedy short, "Big Boots", featuring synchronized sound effects. Beyond this quickie survey, sound is represented in the form of a musical track for an 18-minute film "L'assassination du Duc de Guise" (1908) by Andre Calmettes. This static film set in the era of King Henry III sports nice tinting but is too lengthy (it should be shown alone) and creates a dead patch in the middle of the film.
Animation emphasizes the work of Emile Cohl, Emile Reynaud and others in dated material of mainly academic interest. The Starevitch beauty at the end serves as a welcome antidote to some rather dull material.
Thighs & Whispers (1983)
Extremely timid approach to eroticism
My review was written in October 1983 after watching the show on a Karl Video cassette.
"Thighs & Whispers" is a brief, ineffective made-for home video item that presents a survey of women's lingerie. Though attractively packaged (with an inaccurately listed running time of 45 minutes -which actually clocks in at under 40), videotape does not deliver.
After a tongue-in-cheek opening warning the viewer not to overexert himself (spoofing the mandatory health warning of exercise tapes), program unfold as a fashion show lensed at a nightclub, embellished with studio footage, asinine folks-on-street interview responses and "hot" still montages.
Unashamedly aimed at voyeurs, tape is a letdown in that the main footage is tame enough (almost) for network tv use, as the attractive models are covered up to the same degree as beauty contestants in a televised pageant. To spice things up, frequent still photos featuring semi-nude models or women in see-through lingerie (their faces never visible) are inserted.
Attempts at humor here are poor, with the audience surrogate hero (played by Abraham Levon) imagining all the women he meets (bartender, check-in girl) at the club transformed from normal clothing into lingerie, via a hoary throwback to the original "Immoral Mr. Teas" nudies.
Famous T & A (1982)
Okay assortment of nudie footage
My review was written in October 1983 after watching a Cultvideo video cassette.
Lurking behind its lurid title of "Famous T & A" is a valid home video concept, introducing outtakes and alternate takes of feature films into the collectibles market. Many of the film titles currently in home video circulation are domestically unreleased films (of interest to specialized audiences), and the logical extension is previously unavailable "cutting room floor" material from the vaults and labs.
This compilation program by Ken Dixon focuses on nude scenes of famous actresses, mainly culled from their less famous films. In addition, Phyllis Elizabeth Davis (costar of the "Vegas tv series) is featured in numerous alternate takes from "Terminal Island" and "Sweet Sugar", while Barbara Leigh is also seen in "Terminal Island" outtakes.
Quality of material on view varies considerably, with one highlight being a lengthy segment of young Italo star Ornella Muti in "Summer Affair", an obscure 1971 picture by Giorgio Stegani Casorati originally titled "Il sole nella pelle". Also of interest is an excerpt of Ursula Andress in Sergio Martino's 1978 "Slave of the Cannibal Gods", in which she is ceremonially painted by native girls in the same manner as ex-husband John Derek had wife Bo done upin his 1981 "Tarzan, the Ape Man".
Padding out the running time are silly segments featuring a nude California motorcyclist, a fashion model and even a music video (to the Yardbirds' 1965 hit "For Your Love") peopled by busty models. These depart from the film clips format and seem extraneous.
Sybil Danning (taped rather than filmed) hosts, rather coyly avoiding the full nudity of her many films. Reading the cue cards, her stint is diappointing, and she oddly dresses and moves in live-action imitation of the lead femme warrior animated character in Columbia's "Heavy Metal".
Library music score is effective, including repeated (uncredited) excerpts from Ennio Morricone's "One Night at Dinner" soundtrack LP. Packaging incorrectly promotes footage of Nastassja Kinski (who doesn't appear) and displays an R rating even though the compilation was not submitted to the MPAA.
Sandahl Bergman's Body (1983)
Dance-oriented fitness routines
My review was written in October 1983 after viewing the Family Home Entertainment/Monterey video cassette.
With the major success of "Jane Fonda's Workout" in the home video field, it is inevitable that other thesps and celebrities should produce exercise vidtapes. "Sandahl Bergman's Body" is a particularly effective entry, in that the photogenic actress (seen in "All That Jazz" and "Conan the Barbarian") has adapted the exercise format to her own area of expertise, dance.
Obviously aimed at the advanced physical fitness enthusiast with its rigorous, fast-paced program, tape features a dozen routines of about five minutes duration each. Bergman alternates solo spots with lightly synchronized moves accompanied by two male dancers. With middle-of-the-road music backing, she voices over exercise instructions to the viewer, plus encouragement. Though few watchers can conceivably match her flexibility or terping sophistication, the dance format avoids the monotony of the usual (and simpler) taped athletic workout.
Beyond the familiar stretching and aerobics aimed at strengthening and toning specific body parts, tape is highlighted by several dance numbers: a free-style ballet workout and a Bob Fosse-influenced bit of choreography using a chair as prop. Lighting and three camera video direction are fine. "Sandahl Bergman's Body" should give the health and figure-conscious female audience a formidable goal to stirve after.
Hospital Massacre (1981)
Horror trash with a famous Playboy Playmate
My review was written in October 1983 after watching the film on an MGM-UA video cassette.
"Hospital Massacre" is a slowly paced terror film which has had minor theatrical release (primarily in England) ahead of its current availability on video cassette as part of Cannon Films' distribution deal with MGM-UA. Other than an escalating mood of hospital-related paranoia and some alluring skin footage of diminutive actress Barbi Benton, pic has little to offer fright fans.
Picture had a vey curious production history. It was filmed in December 1980 as"Be My Valentine, or Else...", but lost the race to debut as off-season "holiday" fare in February 1981, to an eaa=rlier Canadian pic, "My Bloody Valentine". (Perhaps Cannon's Israeli toppers should go after such untapped Jewish holidays as Purim for horror tie-ins.)
The film then adopted, appropriately given its content, the title and ad campaign of a Cannon project for Jill St. John entitled "X-Ray", but though completed in time fo Cannes' 1981 market, it was not released and missed out on the business 20th Century Fox earned in early 1982 with a similar Canadian pickup ("The Fright") retitled "Visiting Hours".
Finally retitled "Hospital Massacrer", pic concerns a psychotic killer named Harold, who 19 years ago (illustrated by another corny childhood opening) had his valentine card laughed at by Susan (Barbi Benton when full-grown) and her brother. He kills the brother right away but allows the resentment against Susan to fester for 19 years.
We meet Susan again the week before Valentine's Day, visiting an L. A. hospital to pick up test results stemming from a routine check up relating to her job promotion. Mad Harold (clad in doctor's getup and surgical mask) kills Sue's femme doctor and switches her X-rays;.
When a substitute medico Dr. Saxon (John Warner Williams) sees these phony X-rays, he concludes that Sue is desperately ill and orders she be kept in hospital for observation and possible surgery. Harold is on the loose meanwhile, building up an impressive body count with gory murders of staff and patients.
Though this hospital is unnaturally and unconvincingly underpopulated as the one holding Jamie Lee Curtis in "Halloween II", director Boaz Davidson preys upon the viewer's natural fear of helplessness in such an institution to create an increasing mood of paranoia.
Star Barbi Benton, with her perpetual toothy grin, does not express the requisite fear, but oh what a body the former pinup displays! It is on view during a lengthy closeup examination scene which, probably unwittingly, comments on the current trend away from fantasy toward the strictly clinical (and explicit) in both the horror and sex film genres.
Virus (1980)
Theft of intellectual property, where is thy sting?
My review was written in October 1983 after a Times Square screening.
"Apocalipsis Canibal", also known as "Hell of the Living Dead", is a haphazardly constructed European horror film lensed in 1980 in the wake of George A. Romero's international hit "Dawn of the Dead". Its American release title "Night of the Zombies" avoids confusion with Romero's fiercely protected "Dead" moniker, but unfortunately duplicates exactly the 1981 release title of Joel M. Reed's "Night of the Zombies" American film in the undead genre. Horror fans, used to endless title changes, will sort out the confusion in due course.
Picture is aimed at the gore market, attempting to gross out young viewers rather than offer edification. (It's being released with the increasingly common "No one under 17 admitted" ad come-on rather than an MPAA rating.)
Story is set mainly in Papua & New Guinea, where a so-called "Hope Centre" scientific installation has had a deadly leak, emitting green smoke which turns technicians and nearby natives into zombies with a hankering for human flesh. Terrorists occupy an American consulate in an unidentified Spanish city, demanding that the Hope Centres worldwide be destroyed; but the local authorities destroy the terrorists instead.
Visiting Papua to investigate native disturbances are two of the dumbest aggregations imaginable: an Italian tv news crew led by pretty newshen Lea (Margi Evelyn Newton) and a squad of soldiers on a search & destroy mission. Eventually teaming up, these protagonists are endlessly beset by hungry zombies throughout the film, but much to the delight of an audience, they never seem to take matters seriously. Quickly discovering that the way to kill a zombie is to shoot it in the head ("Apocalipsis", as do most other imitative European pics, steals Georger Romero's premise without explanation), the heroes keep forgetting this in later scenes, wasting hundreds of bullets aimed at zombie torsos.
The zombies bear a varied set of cheap makeup jobs, tending towards sepulchral grey, and amusingly shamble about in imitation of singer Joe Cocker heading for his microphone. Also funny here is the dubbed dialog, which resurrects surefire B movie cliches ranging from "I don't like the sound of those drum beats" to the more appropriate: "Something eatin' ya?".
Three scenes vying for the silliest moment award: Lea's cameraman approaching the undead after numerous killings and asking them to "Hold still" for a photo; Lea suddenly (early on) declaring: "I've got to meet them and meet them alone", stripping to the waist and marching off covered with body paint for an encounter with grainy stock-footage natives; and memorably a soldier yelling "Let go of her" rather than shooting from the hip when the ghouls grab Lea late in the proceedings.
Alas, the Continental filmmakers, including the pseudonym-named director Vincent Dawn" (Bruno Mattei) have erected formidable barriers to anyone enjoying this film's camp value. First and foremost are the closeups of extras munching on red meat in cannibal fashion, as well as other types of butcher-shop effects including a rat emerging from a woman's abdomen and natives feeding on maggots in corpses.
Escalating sensationalism and an easing up on international censorship have made such scenes all too common.
Beyond its tiresome gross-outs, "Apocalipsis" is a mishmash of random footage, integrating endless stock footage filler of flora, fauna and natives into the unmatching new scenes. Color processing is relentlessly ugly and variable in terms of grain, timing, etc.
Only pro credit is a rhythmic musical score by the Italian rock group Goblin, but it can't save this nihilistic mess.
A Time to Die (1982)
Dull period action revenger
My review was written in September 1983 after watching the film on Vestron video cassette.
Lensed in 1979 under the title "Valentine", "Separate Ways" is a small-scale romantic film released in 1981 and currently a pay-tv and home video title,
Karen Black toplines as Valentine, an unfulfilled housewife married to former racing car driver (now running an inherited car dealership into the ground) Ken Colby (Tony Lo Bianco). Studying art at a local college, Valentine takes up romantically with a young student (David Naughton) after she sees her husband having an affair on family's boat, named after her (and film's original romantic title).
Ultimately she splits, getting a waitress job at a low-down night club run by Jack Carter. The Colbys finally reconcile, with a lightweight climax of hubby winning a racing trophy.
Husband-and-wife filmmakers Marlene Schmidt and Howard Avedis (latter an Iraqi emigre director formerly billed as Hikmet Avedis) have fashioned a romantic drama in the vein of Claude Lelouch's hit "A Man and a Woman" that is attractively lensed (by since-graduate to major pics Dean Cundey) but lacks bite. Acting by a big cast is okay and should help in attracting an audience in eventual tv broadcast slottings. Appearing in a small role as couple's young son is Noah Hathaway, currently toplining in the German fantasy epic "The Never-Ending Story" but not making much of an impression here.
Separate Ways (1981)
Minor romantic opus
My review was written in September 1983 after watching the film on Vestron video cassette.
Lensed in 1979 under the title "Valentine", "Separate Ways" is a small-scale romantic film released in 1981 and currently a pay-tv and home video title,
Karen Black toplines as Valentine, an unfulfilled housewife married to former racing car driver (now running an inherited car dealership into the ground) Ken Colby (Tony Lo Bianco). Studying art at a local college, Valentine takes up romantically with a young student (David Naughton) after she sees her husband having an affair on family's boat, named after her (and film's original romantic title).
Ultimately she splits, getting a waitress job at a low-down night club run by Jack Carter. The Colbys finally reconcile, with a lightweight climax of hubby winning a racing trophy.
Husband-and-wife filmmakers Marlene Schmidt and Howard Avedis (latter an Iraqi emigre director formerly billed as Hikmet Avedis) have fashioned a romantic drama in the vein of Claude Lelouch's hit "A Man and a Woman" that is attractively lensed (by since-graduate to major pics Dean Cundey) but lacks bite. Acting by a big cast is okay and should help in attracting an audience in eventual tv broadcast slottings. Appearing in a small role as couple's young son is Noah Hathaway, currently toplining in the German fantasy epic "The Never-Ending Story" but not making much of an impression here.
Stryker (1983)
Clutzy Mad Max ripoff
My review was written in September 1983 after a Midtown Manhattan screening.
Cannon's "Revenge of the Ninja" is an entertaining martial arts actioner, following up company's "Enter the Ninja" but lacking that film's name players and Far East locale. Designed as a bread and butter (or more precisely matzoh-and-butter) picture, film is weak in the story and acting areas, but makes up for these failings in solid action sequences spotlighting Japanese topliner Sho Kosugi. There is a third film in the series already in preparation, but distrib MGM-UA is unlikely to add another hit series t its James Bond, Pink Panther and Rocky Balboa legacy from United Artists.
After a brief intro set in Japan, where Cho Osaki (Sho Kosugi) witnesses most of his family wiped out by black-clad ninjas, action shifts to an unidentified American locale (filmed in Salt Lake City) six years later. Osaki, with his surviving child and its grandma, runs a gallery featuring imported Japanese dolls, which unbeknownst to him is a front for heroin smuggling (inside the dolls) run by his pal Braden (Arthur Robers) Braden is involved with an unscrupulous American mobster Caifano (Mario Gallo), and having trained as a ninja for many years in Japan, dons the black garb and a mask go to on a rampage of bloodletting against Caifano's men to convince their boss to play ball with him.
Revenge occurs when Braden kills grannie, kidnaps the child Kane (Kane Kosugi) and later kills Osaki's best friend, martial arts expert Dave Hatcher (Keith Vitali). After numerous battles, pic climaxes in a photogenic, rooftop ninja versus ninja free-for-all.
Fien fight choreography by Kosugi, including fat and often funny moves by him, keeps the film cooking. When Israeli-born director Sam Firstenberg stops for a dramatic scene, however, he delivers truly awful acting by all the leads. Gallo and Frye overact while Vitali and Roberts are stiff and give monotone readings. Ashley Ferrare adds pulchritude but is unconvincing in an ambiguous role. Kosugi is best in action, with his precocious son Kane a physically agile, scene-stealing little performer.
Tech credits are okay, with an overbearing synthesizer-plus-percussion score.
Revenge of the Ninja (1983)
Strong on action, weak on acting.
My review was written in September 1983 after a Midtown Manhattan screening.
Cannon's "Revenge of the Ninja" is an entertaining martial arts actioner, following up company's "Enter the Ninja" but lacking that film's name players and Far East locale. Designed as a bread and butter (or more precisely matzoh-and-butter) picture, film is weak in the story and acting areas, but makes up for these failings in solid action sequences spotlighting Japanese topliner Sho Kosugi. There is a third film in the series already in preparation, but distrib MGM-UA is unlikely to add another hit series t its James Bond, Pink Panther and Rocky Balboa legacy from United Artists.
After a brief intro set in Japan, where Cho Osaki (Sho Kosugi) witnesses most of his family wiped out by black-clad ninjas, action shifts to an unidentified American locale (filmed in Salt Lake City) six years later. Osaki, with his surviving child and its grandma, runs a gallery featuring imported Japanese dolls, which unbeknownst to him is a front for heroin smuggling (inside the dolls) run by his pal Braden (Arthur Robers) Braden is involved with an unscrupulous American mobster Caifano (Mario Gallo), and having trained as a ninja for many years in Japan, dons the black garb and a mask go to on a rampage of bloodletting against Caifano's men to convince their boss to play ball with him.
Revenge occurs when Braden kills grannie, kidnaps the child Kane (Kane Kosugi) and later kills Osaki's best friend, martial arts expert Dave Hatcher (Keith Vitali). After numerous battles, pic climaxes in a photogenic, rooftop ninja versus ninja free-for-all.
Fien fight choreography by Kosugi, including fat and often funny moves by him, keeps the film cooking. When Israeli-born director Sam Firstenberg stops for a dramatic scene, however, he delivers truly awful acting by all the leads. Gallo and Frye overact while Vitali and Roberts are stiff and give monotone readings. Ashley Ferrare adds pulchritude but is unconvincing in an ambiguous role. Kosugi is best in action, with his precocious son Kane a physically agile, scene-stealing little performer.
Tech credits are okay, with an overbearing synthesizer-plus-percussion score.
Frightmare (1983)
Weak horror spoof includes gore
My review was written in September 1983 after watching the film on a Vestron video cassette.
"Lensed in 1981" with the more appropriate title "The Horror Star", "Frightmare is an off-putting combination of homage, satire and shocks. Pic is already available in the home video market ahead of its theatrical release, at which time its new moniker is bound to create confusion with Pete Walker's 1974 unrelated British feature "Frightmare".
A very well-cast Ferdinand Mayne (better known in his billing in earlier films as Ferdy Mayne, e.g., Roman Polanski's nemesis in "Fearless Vampire Killers") toplines as Conrad, a classic horror film star modeled after Bela Lugosi, Christopher Lee and others.
Idolized by the college film society led by students Saint (Luca Bercovici) and Meg (Jennifer Starrett), Conrad starts the picture off in a promising vein reminiscent of the Vincent Price black comedy "Theatre of Blood", as he kills two of his directors, announcing "Take 19...take 20", a riposte to their demands upon him as an actor.
Screenwriter Norman Thaddeus Vane (adding a director's cap on this one) quickly loses his way with an uncomfortable mixture of mockery and the standard gore saturate "teens in jeopardy" horror format. Giving an explicit credit to the Errol Flynn-John Barrymore incident, the film society teens steal Conrad's corpse from his mausoleum after he has died of a heart attack. Conrad's widow, Etta (Barbara Pilavin), brings him supernaturally back to life through the aid of a spiritual medium, Mrs. Rohmer (Nita Talbot), and Conrad follows her wishes to destroy the body snatchers. Quite improbably, the surviving teens remain rooted in a spooky mansion with Conrad, even though they are aware that their peers are being brutally killed right and left.
Vane encourages eye-popping overacting, ensuring that his film will be taken as black humor rather than straight horror, but it is as unfunny as any of the numerous flop spoofs of the genre made in recent years.
Though there are some marketable extreme gore effects on display (kid beheaded or having a tongue torn out by Conrad), tech credits are subpar, with smeared, whited-out window and sky shots and annoying, almost nonstop use of thunderstorm sound effects.
Contamination (1980)
Imitative Italian sci-fi/horror
My review was written in July 1983 after watching the movie on a Paragon video cassette.
"Alien Contamination" is a poorly-written horror cheapie shot in 1980 and released by Cannon domestically in 1981 with no New York exposure. Currently circulating in the home video marke, picture's anglicized credits (plus some New York location shots) do not hide its Italian origins, with the usual poor dubbing of (articulated in English) silly English dialog another giveaway.
Using "Alien", "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" and other sci-fi horror hits as his inspiration, Italian fimmaker Luigi Cozzi (who has subsequently directed two "Hercules" films for Cannon) has concocted a routine tale. A monster from Mars (called a cyclops because of its single, light-radiating eye) has arrived on Earth, with astronaut Hamilton, who encountered it on a space mission to Mars two years back, acting as its stooge by running a coffee factory in South America that ships the monsters' eggs around the world.
When a deserted ship arrives in the port of New York harbor with its crew dead and the hold filled with eggs in coffee cartons, an unlikely team is assembled to track down and destroy their source: Col. Holmes (an Italian actress credited as "Louise Monroe"), a U. S. govenment security officer; astronaut Hubbart (British thesp Ian McCulloch), who was on the Mars mission with Hamilton; and Brooklyn cop Tony Aris (Martin Mase), who found the eggs in the ship's hold.
Science fiction elemens are minor here, with the antiquated Martian threat running counter to space missions' data that has pegged the planet as lifeless. Cozzi's actors are also lifeless, stuck with asinine dialog such as "She's married to a test tube and a whip", or an early nod to "Alien"'s spaceship named after a Joseph Conrad novel, when they board he deserted ship, one searcher says "It's right out of Conrad", and the response is "It's like something out of a movie".
Gore effects are of the butcher shop variety and the cyclops, wisely photographed in semi-darkness, is an unimpressive latex mound. Other tech credits are okay, with a rhythmic keyboards score by the Italian rock group Goblin.
Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker (1981)
Horror opus boasting an outstanding Susan Tyrrell turn
My review was written in September 1983 after watching the movie on a Thorn EMI video cassette.
Filmed in 1980 under the title "Thrilled to Death". And marginally released theatrically, "Night Warning" is a fine psychological horror film currently available in home video format. As the maniacally possessive aunt and guardian of a 17-year-old boy, Susan Tyrrell gives a tour-de-force performance which represents the genre's best acting since the "Baby Jane" mature femme roles of the 1960s.
Picture has gone through several other title changes, also known as "Butcher, Baker, Nightmare Maker" and the too dead-on "Mamma's Boy". Despite production headaches, which saw William Asher replace Michael Miller in the director's chair, Robbie Greenberg replace lenser Jan De Bont an co-scripter Richard Natale missing from the final credits, film turned out well.
Story conforms to the over-familiar horror format relating to holidays, anniversaries and coming of age. Billy (Jimmy McNichol) is a 17-year-old basketball players at high school who has been brought up by his aunt Cheryl (Susan Tyrrell) after his parents died in a car crash (great stunt footage) 14 years ago. An old maid, Cheryl is over-protective, opposing Billy's desire to to to college in Denver on a hoped-for athletic scholarship to be with his girlfriend.
In a subplot reminiscent of Francois Truffaut's "The Green Room", Cheryl maintains a candlelit memorial to an old boyfriend in the basement. The film's horror content begins (replete with slow-motion violence and plenty of blood) when she kills a a young tv repairman after failing to seduce him. Cop on the case Detective Carlson (Bo Svenson bulling his way through the film a la his prior Buford Pusser role) is very closed-minded, ignoring the facts and insisting on linking the crime to a homosexual basketball coach, making Billy the prime suspect instead of his aunt.
Becoming increasingly unbalanced, Cheryl takes to spiking Billy's milk to keep him ill and staying at home with her, as well as sabotaging his big game (for college scouts). Final reels greatly increase the film's body count and include a nice identity revelation.
Elevating "Night Warning" out of the routine is the pleasurable levity injected into the proceedings, which does not destroy the narrative (as is common with spoofs). In particular, Tyrrell brings that larger-than-life theatrical manner (recently shown in her legit perf in "Coupla White Chicks...") to her role, not decreasing its menace bu adding a tongue-in-cheek layer. It's a one-of-a kind portrayal, and makes this picture memorable.
Mil gritos tiene la noche (1982)
Insulting gore junker
My review was written in September 1983 after a Times Square screening.
Filmed in 1982 in Madrid and Boston by Italian-based producer Dick Randall, "Pieces" (originally titled "1000 Cries Has the Night") is an insulting, poorly made gore film.
Randall, who 15 years ago produced the tasteless "Wild, Wild World of Jayne Mansfield" (which mixed travelog footge of the late star with a simulation of her fatal car crash and beheading), is still cranking out sleaze.
Domestic distrib Film Ventures has adopted the cornball ploy of advertising "Absolutely no one under 17 admitted", but this drivel will quickly exhaust the fringe audience seeking thrills.
Teaser opening has a young boy beheading his nasty mom in Boston, 1942, after she nastily bawls him out for putting together a nude jigsaw puzzle. (Tacky production features closeups of a push-button phone supposedly extant in 1942!).
Forty years later, the kid's a grownup maniac, stalking pretty girls on a college campus and using a chainsaw to gather body parts in a full-scale version of putting together a jigsaw puzzle.
Christopher George (who's been in an awful lot of these low-grade horror films lately) portrays the dimwitted cop on the case, sending his real-life wife Lynda Day George (portraying a former tennis star named Riggs) undercover on the case.
Identity of the killer is telegraphed midway through the film, leaving the audience to wait through tedious stalking footage and periodic outbursts of gouts of blood spurting amidst dismemberments. Spanish helmer Juan Piquer Simon (known previously for his low-budget Jules Verne adaptations and other sci-fi films) slavishly imitates Italian horror maestro Dario Argento even including a keyboards and bass musical score by a group called CAM that copies Argento's favorite group Goblin.
The inane dialog is poorly dubbed, with slack editing leaving all of Chris George's post-synched stops-and-starts intact. Wife Lynda has one show-stopping howler of a scene when she starts screaming in anger, while Paul Smith (Bluto in "Popeye") wins the ham award her by making silly faces as the sinister gardener. Young student cast gives away the film's European origins -they look very continental.
After a busy finale, pic ends on a shock-element sight gag that exposes the filmmakers' utter contempt for their audience.
Interdit aux moins de 13 ans (1982)
Offbeat French film noir
My review was written in February 1983 after a screening at Manhattan's MoMA.
Jean-Louis Bertuccelli, best known in the U. S. for his 1970 "Ramparts of Clay", and more recently the Annie Girardot-starrer "No TIme for Breakfast" (originally titled "Dr. Francoise Gailland") is back with an offbeat realistic drama "Lucie sur Seine". Though lacking European star names, picture could find a niche on the arty circuit via its unusual look at a side of Paris (its suburban slum areas) omitted from most Gallic filmers' itineraries.
Styled as a film noir in the vein of Marcel Carne's classics, "Lucie" concerns a young towel deliveryman Louis (Patrick Depeyrat), unhappily married to Chantal (Maryline Even). To escape his routine, he robs the store where Chantal works, killing two people in the process.
A pretty girl working there, Lucie (Sandra Montaigu) sees the crime but instead of turning Louis in teams up with him as the film segues into the American type of "They Live by Night" and "You Only Live Once" genre. A key subplot deals with Lucie's precocious half-brother Nonoeil (of Arab extraction), who with the other local street urchins arranges for strip shows and other porno acts for underage youngsters' viewing. (Film's 1982 French release title "Interdit aux Moins de 13 Ans" refers to this, translating as "Forbidden to Those Under 13 Years Old".)
Strong on atmostphre (particularly the night visuals of Paris), "Lucie" is burdened with an unconvincing climax in which the inevitable police confrontation with the anti-hero doesn't play well.
Depeyrat is inexpressive in the lead role, but Sandra Montaigu (who also collaborated in the script writing) is an attractive heroine. Gabriel Yared (who also scored "Invitation au Voyage") has provided hypnotic musical background.
The Last Fight (1983)
Minor boxing picture showcases talent from the Salsa music biz
My review was written in August 1983 after a Times Square screening.
"The Last Fight" is a low-budge boxing picture that showcases Panamanian-born Salsa recording star Ruben Blades as a singer-turned-fighter. After working with several of the same crew members and cast as exec producer of "Vigilante", Fania Records owne Jerry Masucci has conceived and produced an unexciting little film, which will have its greatest apeal to music fans rather than the action-pic trade.
Blades, who projects a handsome and empathetic screen presence resembling a Latino Bobby Darin, portrays Andy "Kid" Clave, a successful recording star aiming at the junior lightweight boxing title. Prone to running up big gambling debts, he is strong-armed into boxing for New York City nightclub owner Joaquin Vargas (Willie Colon), who provides Clave with the services of his girl friend Sally (Darlene Fluegel) as part of the deal.
Taking a nod from the films noirs of he 1940s, writer-director Fred Williamson has created a doomed atmosphere for the lead players, including Clave's pretty girl friend Nancy (Nereida Mercado), leading up to Clave risking his life (blood clo on his brain from a bar accident) in a title bout. Williamson, however, portrays his familiar "Dirty Harry"-like screen persona, ex-cop Jesse Crowder (seen in seveal earlier films such as "No Way Back"), so there's no quesiion of him surviving to return another day. As an actor, his smooh manner, tongue-in-cheek dialog and action ability brighten up the film.
Picture is dedicated to the late featherweight champion Salvador Sanchez (killed in an auto accident shortly after lensing wrapped in early 1982), who knocks the daylights out of Clave in the title bout. Promoter Don King is fun in a cameo role, but most of the cast (particularly the female leads) is under-directed by Williamson in his seventh outing as a feature helmer. Boxing footage is lensed from cameras outside the ring and overall the film remains too static (and with too many closeups) to energize action fans.
Biggest disappointment of "The Last Fight" is the absence of a positive role model for the Hispanic audience. In films of late, Puerto Ricans and Chicanos have become the stock baddies, with Willie Colon again a hissable villain as in "Vigilante". The musical talent, as evidenced here by Blades' pleasant vocals, needs to be harnessed with an upbeat story, not the flawed, doomed fighter saga conveyed in this picture.
BrainWaves (1982)
Engrossing medical science-fiction thriller
My review was written in August 1983 after watching the film on an Embassy Home Entertainment video cassette.
"BrainWaves" is a briskly-told, engaging 1982 psychological thriller dealing with he sci-fi concept of transferring thought processes and memories electronically between different people (similar territory to Douglas Trumbull's upcoming big-budget "Brainstorm"). Representing German emigre filmmaker Ulli Lommel's best U. S. work to date, picture lacks the shock effects and hardware prevalent in today's sci-fi and horror market, probably accounting for the release in home video form (via Embassy) prior to theatrical release by distrib MPM.
Suzanna Love (Mrs. Lommel off-screen) toplines as Kaylie Bedford, a young San Francisco housewife who suffers a severe brain trauma (leaving her in a coma-like trance) in an auto accident. Her husband, Julian (Keir Dullea), and mother (Vera Miles) agree to an experimental medical procedure for he masterminded by Dr. Clavius (Tony Curtis), unaware that it has not yet been tested on humans.
Designed to transfer corrective patterns to the victim's damaged brain areas, process goes awry when the donor turns out to be a murdered girl (Corinne Alphen). Kaylie is physically and mentally rehabilitate, but plagued with traumatic first-person memories of the murder. Worse yet, the murderer is now after her, to forestal exposure regarding a death previously classified by police as an accident.
Well-edited by Richard Brummer, picture zips along with admirable verisimilitude. Dullea as the husband and father of a young boy (Ryan Seitz) is very sympathetic, with solid suspense generated as he piecest together clues to the killer's identity. Suzanna Love handles the lead character's shifts adroitly, and the trick-casting of her real brother (who resembles her), Nicholas Love, as the killer pays off. Name players in the supporting cast (particularly a glum-looking Tony Curtis) have little to do.
Director Lommel has kept his usual homages to Alfred Hitchcock to a minimum here ("Vertigo", etc.) with good results. Tech credits are pro.
Nightmares (1983)
Weak 4-part horror film diverted from TV to theaters
My review was written in September 1983 after a screening on Manhattan's UES.
"Nightmares" is an adequately scary but overly-predictable four-part horror omnibus, aimed at the "Twilight Zone -The Movie" audience but actually close in spirit to the successful British Amicus productions of a decade ago. Originally paid for by NBC as a two-hour pilot telefilm, picture has been released to theatres first by Universal, where it should easily cover its modes $2,000,000 or so production nut.
Writer-producer Chrisopher Crowe (and cowriter Jeffrey Bloom) have failed to provide enough plot twists to make nightmares fully satisfying, but director Joseph Sargent expertly eliminates flab with solidly realistic direction. The four segs split between psychological and supernatural horror, with the film at its best in exploring credible, everyday fears.
Top material is upfront, leading off with Cristina Raines in "Terror in Topanga", portraying a young woman in jeopardy. Foolishly driving out one night to get a pack to satisfy her cigarette habit, she's at the mercy of a well-publicized, knife-wielding Canyon killer. Segment boasts the film's best twist, and is aided by solid casting of two sinister actors Anthony James and William Sadnerson (latter unfortunately omitted from the credits).
Emilio Estevez toplines in "Bishop of Battle", an animated effects -aden episode about a videogames arcade champ who meets his match in a supernatural game. Good effects and direction are limited here by a telegraphed conclusion.
Lance Henriksen limns the role of a priest who's lost his faith in "The Benediction". Giving up his vocation and driving off down the highway, he is absurdly brought back in line by a demonic black minivan in a story lifted fro Universal's earlier features "The Car" and "Duel". Nice 180-degree car stunts and a car bursting out of the ground (a la Chuck Norris in "Lone Wolf McQuade") are the best moments in a silly segment.
Finale written by Jeffrey Bloom puts Veronica Cartwright back in familiar territory (remember "Alien") hunting for her kitty-cat and expressing wide-eyed terror when a man-sized rat attacks her house. As her hubby, Richard Masur is stuck with the unplayable role of a macho guy so sure of himself that even a mosnster in the woodwork is just another minor daily problem. This silly finale betrays the film's absence of a sizable budget; instead of the usual Universal display of scary monsters by a Rob Bottin or Rick Baker master, there are fake-looking composite shots using a real rat.
Tech credits throughout are modest. The R-rating for "Nightmares" is probably due to a gory scene that precedes the initial segment.