posted
Invasion: UFO (1974) starring Ed Bishop, George Sewell, Gabrielle Drake and Wanda Ventham.
Although released in the US in 1980, this feature-length covered the plot of the first three episodes of the ITC / Gerry Anderson seventies sci-fi series UFO. It tells the story of SHADO, a secret agency charged with the protection of the Earth against an alien invasion force, who abduct humans for involuntary organ transplants. The show ran for a single 26-episode season, and a planned second season evolved into the far better known Space:1999. Plenty of evidence of Gerry Anderson here, this plays like a live action Thunderbirds or Captain Scarlet clone...
Posts: 3646 | From: Shermer, IL - where else? | Registered: Mar 2001 | Site Updates: 37
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Ghosts of Berkeley Square (1947) starring Robert Morley and Felix Aylmer.
Two army officers, desperate to prevent the war they see as inevitable, plan to kidnap the Duke of Marlborough and hold him ransom until the threat passes. Unfortunately, whilst testing the trap they set, they manage to kill themselves in a very stupid manner. As punishment for their idiocy, they are condemned to haunt their house in Berkeley Square until such time as a British monarch crosses the threshold.
The film traces the story of the two ghosts, as they try to prevent undesirable tenants, fall out with each other (causing a rift that leads them not to talk for 66 years) and, reconciled at last, contrive to orchestrate the royal visit so that they can at last ascend to the afterlife. But tenant after tenant somehow slip through their schemes.
The story is a good one, and the leads are OK (especially Morley) but the worthiness in this film is the different segments, as we travel through nearly 200 years of history and see the way different tenants turn the old house into a bordello, a circus freak-house, and a WW1 hospital. Each age brings its own story and characters to life.
A good old-fashioned movie for a rainy sunday afternoon.
Posts: 3646 | From: Shermer, IL - where else? | Registered: Mar 2001 | Site Updates: 37
| IP: Logged |
aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
Watched Ilsa The Tigress of Siberia (1977), the final film from the original trilogy.
I have to say that i enjoyed this one too although it´s not as good as the first two. The year is 1953 and the place prison camp (gulag) 14 in Siberia. Ilsa is working for Stalin and leads the camp with an iron fist. We can see few clever torture cadgets and the work is hard but Ilsa and the cossacks sure know how to relax when evening comes I was surprised that the story jumped to present time in the middle of the film. Ilsa has now captured the Montreal criminal underworld but once again makes one fatal mistake and loses everything.
Fun stuff with lots of nudity (much more Dyanne Thorne this time) and some nasty kill scenes. Ilsa rules! Posts: 7054 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
| IP: Logged |
posted
Those Ilsa films are not only entertaining, but they make you think about how you evaluate movies. If you take the formal academic approach to film criticism, you just cast them aside as exploitation gutter trash, pandering to the lowest-common-denominator grindhouse crowd with sex, violence, and perversion, of no merit whatsoever and a blight on filmmaking and human decency in general. But I don't think that you can dismiss them that easily. If you take a realist approach to film criticism, you recognize that they are very well-made exploitation films, amazingly so in many ways, contain a good deal of wit, and are ultimately quite entertaining. They completely accomplish what they set out to achieve. Isn't that really the measure of whether a film is successful? In other words, they prove that any subject matter, no matter how tawdry or distasteful to many, can have value if it's done the right way. The Ilsa films are like that. Not that I would recommend them to anyone but adventurous film buffs.... - Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Crash: pandering to the lowest-common-denominator grindhouse crowd with sex, violence, and perversion
Sex,violence and perversion.
Sounds good to me!
Talking of violence - Animal violence that is -
I've never seen the 1978 animated adventure Watership Down before but it caused a bit of a stir here at the weekend when it was aired on Easter Sunday afternoon on the British television network channel - Channel 5
with a lot of angry parents stating that it had left there kids traumatised!
I have seen bit and pieces of it over the years but do remember very little from it apart from the ace Simon And Garfunkel theme song - https://youtu.be/cGyQmH9NZcw - Bright Eyes.
I know My 9 year old son really enjoys it and he does have the DVD.
Anyone out there seen this or the similarly themed The Plague Dogs and if so what are your thoughts on them,do you think that they are suitable for young kids or not?
[ 31. March 2016, 15:24: Message edited by: the young warrior ]
Posts: 3243 | From: canterbury united kingdom | Registered: Mar 2011 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
Helen_S
Hiding behind the shower curtain.....
Member # 5804
posted
I watched Watership Down again the other day. You must watch!! It was fine for me as a young kid but that's not really a good example I used to think it was depressing until I seen Plague Dogs which was Logan's fault. Great film too though.
Posts: 4057 | From: uk | Registered: May 2007 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
Crash, you are so right about the Ilsa films. Very well made exploitation.
warrior, you made me want to rewatch Watership Down and i´ve never even heard of The Plague Dogs, i want it! Posts: 7054 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
| IP: Logged |
posted
Barbarella (1968) starring Jane Fonda, Anita Pallenberg, John Phillip Law, Milo O'Shea, Marcel Marceau.
Another film that could only have been made in the one decade, it's a delightful trip through the 41st Century, as Fonda's Barbarella (as close to a secret agent as the 41st Century seems to have) travels to Tau Ceti to locate a missing professor and prevent his newly invented weapon falling into the hands of someone who might use it.
Cue skimpy costumes that seem to fall off at a whim, the rediscovery of sex the old-fashioned way, and some spot-on imagery and music that firmly sets this in a sixties vision of the future.
It's not notable for acting, script, plot or surprises, but as an experience, it's groovy...
Posts: 3646 | From: Shermer, IL - where else? | Registered: Mar 2001 | Site Updates: 37
| IP: Logged |
aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
Barbarella is indeed groovy and fun film, Jane Fonda is very sexy. The film was ahead of it´s time, i think that the early 80s sci-fi films still copied the scenery and the "sci-fi chicks" still looked the same
Posts: 7054 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
| IP: Logged |
Spacerocket X-7 from 1958 had elements of War Of The Worlds about it, when space spores collected on a NASA mission begin to grow and threaten the planet. The authorities keeping it under control are searching for an unidentified woman who came into contact with the spores before the scientist studying them was killed. However the woman, the scientists secret mistress, thinks it's a murder hunt and so goes on the run. An ok filmhandled well,but the victory over the spores was somehow missed off.
Destination Moon is a 1950 George Pal film about the first moon mission. Again it has elements of later films, both Gravity and Apollo 13. Very 50s in style, substance and wooden acting.
Posts: 3646 | From: Shermer, IL - where else? | Registered: Mar 2001 | Site Updates: 37
| IP: Logged |
Helen_S
Hiding behind the shower curtain.....
Member # 5804
posted
Any UK people who haven't seen The Anniversary yet, you must! It is on the TalkingPictures channel Monday and Tuesday. Probably my fave Bette Davis performance.
Good little channel, but there doesn't seem to be any inbetween with the films they show on there. They're either fantastic or truly abysmal.
Posts: 4057 | From: uk | Registered: May 2007 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
posted
I remember hardly anything about The Legacy but bought the R1 dvd couple of years back and need to rewatch the film.
Posts: 7054 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
| IP: Logged |
posted
I've seen The Legacy also and thought it to be pretty decent!
Went over the in laws last night and they put on the completely bonkers but fun 1972 Vincent Price horror Dr. Phibes Rises Again!,never actually watched the original 1971 The Abominable Dr. Phibes also with Price in the lead role but I enjoyed this sequel and found it to be pretty good fun!
posted
I really like both Phibes films a lot. They are beautifully produced, very stylish, and funny. I used to think that the sequel was even better than the first one until a couple of years ago when I saw both of them back to back at the drive-in dusk-to-dawn show. Now I think that the original is slightly better, if only because the killings are a little more motivated and systematic, based on the plagues of Egypt. It is a real tragedy that AIP, Price, and director Fuest couldn't get things together to do the third film, The Brides of Dr. Phibes.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
I definitely need to check out The Abominable Dr. Phibes,what about the following years Theatre Of Blood,never seen it but read some really favourable reviews for it!
https://youtu.be/lGcT8gFzH14 - looks loads of fun from the trailer and i'd imagine considered quite grisly on its release in 73.
Posts: 3243 | From: canterbury united kingdom | Registered: Mar 2011 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
posted
Theatre of Blood is one of Vincent Price's greatest films. It's a true masterpiece that is both funny and poignant, as well as literate. (All the superstar UK actors agreed to act as victims as a tribute to Price.) In fact, if horror films had been taken more seriously back in the day--instead of being part of a shabby, disreputable genre--Price's performance should have gotten him an Oscar nomination. Theatre of Blood and the two Phibes films were extremely influential. The screenwriter of David Fincher's brilliant Seven admitted that they were a huge influence.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
Helen_S
Hiding behind the shower curtain.....
Member # 5804
posted
I found Phibes Rises Again a letdown after the amazing first film!
Posts: 4057 | From: uk | Registered: May 2007 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
posted
A little bit of a letdown, still very well done. As I said, I used to think that the sequel was better--probably because I found it funnier and more over the top--but upon reflection, it's not quite as good. The original is amazing.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
quote:Any UK people who haven't seen The Anniversary yet, you must! It is on the TalkingPictures channel Monday and Tuesday. Probably my fave Bette Davis performance.
And I see this on Wednesday...
Posts: 3383 | From: England | Registered: May 2003 | Site Updates: 21
| IP: Logged |
posted
Yeah, I haven't seen The Anniversary since I was a teenager, but I remember that Davis is great, and for one of those Hammer psychological thrillers, it's a lot of fun.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
aTomiK
.... has green eyes as well....
Member # 6575
Watched this Ilsa wannabe film Greta -Haus ohne Männer (1977) aka Ilsa the Wicked Warden aka Ilsa the Mad Butcher aka Wanda...
"Ilsa, now a vicious warden, runs a mental-hospital for young women. A girl deliberately "checks" in to the hospital to find out what has happened to her sister who stayed there. Meanwhile Ilsa and one of the guards are forcing the inmates to have sex with male prisoners, filming them and selling it as pornoflicks." (IMDb)
Basically it´s pure Ilsa madness but with a smaller budget and its also less imaginative. Jess Franco directed this one and i´m a real novice when it comes to Franco films so it was a bit of a shock first. We can see women in a shower and you can hear voices but no one really talks. Next scene and you can hear a coversation but again, no one talks I know that all these films are dubbed but it just looked so fake.
It got better later on, we can see few torture scenes and lots of nudity. That usual WIP stuff. Franco´s partner in crime Lina Romay looks great and I guess it´s ok for a low budget effort but nowhere near the real Ilsa trilogy.
Posts: 7054 | From: Finland | Registered: Feb 2008 | Site Updates: 7
| IP: Logged |
posted
Jess Franco, the enfant terrible of exploitation cinema. Man, the guy directed 100's of films in his lifetime, sometimes five or six a year. Almost all of them are absolutely terrible, many don't even exhibit the most rudimentary basics of filmmaking--shots are out of focus, the camera is bumped by the actors and wobbles--and Franco uses the take, Franco simulates slow motion by having his actors move really slowly (You have to see that to believe that shot in Barb Wire Dolls.) His films actually got worse as he went on in his career. But he did have a couple of really good ones, mostly early on. Knowing all this, every time I see a new Franco streaming on line, I sit down and hope for discovery of a new "good one." And time after time, very shortly in, I hurl the remote control at the TV as Franco regales me with yet another piece of abject crap. I'm mystified there are folks who will go on and on about how Franco makes wonderful artistic choices, such as having camera and mike-boom shadows on the wall in his film Count Dracula. To those cinema smart-alecks, I call, "Shenanigans." That kind of stuff has no business being called anything other than incompetence.
As for Greta/Wanda/Ilsa, the Mad Butcher, it's actually one of the better later Franco films. (That's really faint praise.) And as you can see, aTomiK, Franco loves to go for shock value. He has all those softcore zooms into body parts, sleazy scenes of perversion, and no sense of film narrative whatsoever. I actually like The Tigress better, and that's a really watered-down, boring Ilsa film.
Posts: 2008 | From: Dixieland | Registered: Oct 2008 | Site Updates: 0
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
I used to think it was depressing until I seen Plague Dogs which was Logan's fault. Great film too though.
