What cult movies have you been watching lately?, Here are a few of my recent viewings

I think that may have been the home video title. Somewhere, I have a trailer for one of the Joe Dancer VHS releases that was stuck onto the end of another tape--you guys know how that goes. I'm pretty sure it's for this movie, because I seem to recall clips from that helicopter chase in it.

SUNSET COVE (1978)—Directed by Al Adamson. Stars Jay B. Larson, John Durren, Burr Schmidt, John Carradine. This may be the most competent Adamson movie I’ve seen yet. It’s pointless, but that isn’t unusual for this genre. A group of high school students react to the news that a 41-floor condominium is being built on their beach by fighting back, not by petitions, but by stripping the corrupt mayor of his underpants and taking pictures of him nakedly chasing two sexy topless girls across the beach. Much beer-drinking and sex ensue, though SUNSET COVE is warmer and less mean-spirited than many teen comedies. The kids pull pranks, but no one is really hurt. Interestingly, the fat kid is seen stuffing his face with food all the time, but all the kids like him and treat him like an equal. Crown International’s MALIBU BEACH, released the same year, was also seen as SUNSET COVE, and that film is better. Carradine shows up briefly at the end to straighten the plot out in court.

This is a good movie. Actually, all three Lundgren-directed films are good, but I think MISSIONARY MAN is his best. It ain't exactly innovative; it takes its plot from half the westerns ever made--mysterious stranger rides into town and rescues it (nearly) singlehandedly from the evil rich man (and his thugs) who run it. I saw this plot in two WALKING TALL sequels last year...heck, it's ROAD HOUSE, for chrissakes. I think Dolph has a good eye for shooting action and doesn't get too carried away with boring camera gimmicks (he does like slo-mo though). I'm not fond of the washed-out flavor MISSIONARY MAN's director of photography chose, but at least he didn't pump the colors way up.

What I haven't noticed anyone yet mention about MISSIONARY MAN is how much it cribs from BILLY JACK, right down to the scene where Dolph tells his foe he's gonna take this knee and break that nose and there's not a damn thing you're gonna be able to do about it. It also has a touch of HIGH PLAINS DRIFTER; it's suggested that Lundgren's character is the reincarnation of a man killed years previously by a biker (who's played by the actor you get when Daniel Baldwin is too stoned to work).

D'OH! That was the Eastwood flick I meant when I called it THE OUTLAW DOLPH-Y WALES. I got them mixed up. I actually liked John Enos III as the biker leader. He looked like a tougher Jeff Fahey.

HIGH PLAINS DRAGO. You're welcome.

TOUGH AND DEADLY (1995) - Following an assassination attempt, a CIA Agent (Billy Blanks) ends up in a hospital with amnesia. Sensing an opportunity on a possible bounty, skip tracer Elmo Freech (Roddy Piper) tries to get the mystery man's fingerprints, but ends up stopping a second murder attempt instead. Freech then takes the in the dark agent under his wing and dubs him "John Portland." One brief training session later, John is back to kicking ass, which is helpful as a group of assassins (led by Richard Norton) are still out to get him while the head of the CIA (James Karen) wonders what happened to his top secret agent.

This is an enjoyable mid-90s action vehicle. Blanks may not be much of an actor, but he makes up for it with his skillful martial arts. The highlight of the film is a midway showdown with Norton, a man as equally talented in the fight game. It is a shame Blanks never got bigger exposure from the 8 or so DTV films he did, but I'm sure Tae-Bo has compensated him well. What is really interesting is the great chemistry between Blanks and Piper. This was their second feature together (following 1994's BACK IN ACTION) and the two have a great rapport.

Tough and Deadly. Blanks and Piper. So who plays Tough, and who plays Deadly?

I would say Piper is Tough and Blanks is Deadly. The box art seems to agree.

I'm afraid not!

DEATH GAME (1977)

One stormy night, when his wife and child are away, a middle-aged man (Seymour Cassel) allows 2 young girls (Colleen Camp and Sondra Locke...this was shot prior to, but released a year later than THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES) into his house to take shelter after they claim they got lost on their way to a party. They repay him with a threesome in the hot tub, but the next morning the duo's table manners begins to make them less-than-welcome guests.

This isn't a good film by any stretch of the imagination. There seems to be absolutely no point to it; it doesn't say anything, it doesn't go anywhere, and while it's around it's not fun, sexy or scary. Jack Fisk (just check his other credits on the IMDb) designed it, and his wife is credited as set dresser...oh, she happens to be Sissy Spacek, so you can't help but wonder if she was originally slated to play the Locke role. Unfortunately the quality of the DVD is so bad it's impossible to tell if the film does have any visual elan. Both Locke (whose autobiography I currently happen to be reading though not, I confess, because I have any real interest in her) and Cassel were Oscar nominees in 1968 but neither performer is given much chance to shine here - Cassel's dialogue was actually looped by the cameraman as he quit as soon as soon as the apparently unhappy shoot was completed - while Camp is required to do little more than take her clothes off and go ape. As for people being shockingly run over by cars, well, that would be spoiling things, though ultimately, especially given the low-grade presentation, there's little here on offer to anyone except maybe trash movie afficiandos.


This post has been edited by Marty McKee on Feb 2 2008, 08:00 PM

Fisk, after nearly forty years in Hollywood, just received his first Academy Award nomination for his production design on THERE WILL BE BLOOD. I think it would be great if he won.

There's a film that's quite similar to DEATH GAME/THE SEDUCERS, but is much better, IMHO. The film is called LITTLE MISS INNOCENCE, and it was photographed by Ray Dennis Steckler. It was out on VHS in the late eighties/early nineties from Active Home Video, and stars adult flick vet Sandy Dempsey. I have heard that it was later reissued (don't know if that occured on VHS or DVD) as TEENAGE INNOCENCE.

COPS AND ROBBERS (1973) - Disillusioned NYC cops Joe (Joseph Bologna) and Tommy (Cliff Gorman) decide their meager weekly salary isn't worth getting killed over and plan a big score. Tommy contacts Mafia kingpin Pasquale "Patsy" Aniello (John P. Ryan) after observing him being booked. In disguise, Tommy finds out that Patsy would pay handsomely for $10 million in bonds. So together the two cops plan to rob a local Wall Street firm during a big parade for the Apollo 11 astronauts.

One review on the IMDb leads off with the line, "A Real Find" and I couldn't agree more. This 70s cop thriller captures both the working man's embitterment with the system and the sleazy side of NYC. Both of the leads are good in their roles and they get fine support from Ryan (has he always been middle aged?), whose lead henchman is played by Joe Spinell. Director Aram Avakian didn't make many films (5 total), but he has a great eye for realism and even a bit of the absurd like the mob using guys on ten speeds during the final chase in Central Park. Filmed entirely in New York City, this really captures the feel of the 70s station house with the green, cracking walls.

THE KILLING OF SISTER GEORGE (1968)

Growing up, I always had Beryl Reid pegged as the kind old lady so it was a novelty when I got to see her worryied about the killer locked in her basement in The Beast in the Cellar. It seems that I must have spent my childhood watching her in all the wrong films and TV programmes then, because I seem to have misjudged her completely.

Even on top of the aforementioned film, I don't think I've ever seen her in anything as wildly enjoyable as this movie, in which she plays a sadistic, potty-mouthed washed-up soap actress with an alcohol problem and a live-in lesbian lover (Susannah York).

The film's probably most famous for the lesbian angle, but obviously nowadays it's a little less shocking. Nevertheless it's an entertaining oddity from Aldrich which, although it loses its way slightly in places, is always watchable due to Reid's central performance (she certainly out-acts everyone else in the film) and is given a lift in places through a wonderful Gerald Freid score - especially effective in the opening titles. Despite the titles scene simply being Beryl Reid wandering the streets, the music works a treat - never has an old woman roaming the back alleys looked quite so purposeful and menacing.

I actually got to see this at the '06 Turin Film Festival, with a ton of other Aldrich films. Didn't mean to end up at the festival, it just sorta happened.

GEORGE is awesome, my favorite first-timer there.

Unfortunately, this is not a very good movie. Clearly a vanity project for Blake (who receives the lone Created By credit, even though he hasn't really created anything interesting or unusual), THE BIG BLACK PILL really suffers from Michael Butler's awful teleplay, particularly the clumsy dialogue, emptyheaded narration, and loose plotting. Well, gee, I guess that's about everything. JoBeth Williams is beautiful and a good actress, but certainly no femme fatale, and the rest of the supporting cast shows up only for one or two scenes, not long enough to learn much about them or their involvement in the mystery. I did like Veronica Cartwright as an enthusiastic nun, though.

You better watch out. If Blake hears what you wrote, he'll kill you!

LIES (1983) - Here is a nifty little thriller from brother directors Jim & Ken Wheat (AFTER MIDNIGHT). Struggling actress Robyn (Ann Dusenberry) answers an open casting call and is shocked when she is immediately offered the part by Jessica (Gail Strickland). Jessica, who is producing a film about a rich heiress who died in a mental ward after seeing her parents killed, wants to start rehearsing right away. Stewart (Bruce Davidison), the dead girl's brother, has other plans and shows up at Robyn's house to tell her that his sister is still alive. He tells her she has been lied to so his Uncle can uses Robyn's video taped rehearsals as grounds to have the girl committed for life in an effort to gain her fortune. Together, the duo of Robyn and Stewart map out a plan to foil this scheme.

The previous text comprises only about the first half hour of the film. There are many twists and turns and to ruin them all would be no fun. The Wheats definitely want to live up to their title and, even though a lot happens, it is all logical. At one point a character asks someone why they didn't just kill their target and they actually have a thoughtful answer for it (although this clearly adheres to the "talky villain" code). The film sports an all-star supporting cast including Clu Gulager, Terence Knox, Bert Remsen, and Stacy Keach Sr. Even Dick Miller shows up as a sleazy horror film producer (I believe it was a law in California at the time that he had to be in everything). It is curious as to why the Wheats never did more than this, the anthology AFTER MIDNIGHT and EWOKS: THE BATTLE FOR ENDOR as directors.

EDIT: I should amend my review below and note that the Severin DVD is a cut down version but with more sex. Michael Mackenzie has done an excellent job of comparing the different version at this link for anyone interested:

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=64246

MAJOR SPOILERS for PERVERSION STORY!!!


PERVERSION STORY (1969) - Dr. George Dumurrier (Jean Sorel) finds himself the main suspect after his wife Susan (Marisa Mell) dies mysteriously and leaves him a $2 million insurance policy. George was certainly cheating on his ill wife, but he claims he knew nothing of the policy. Things get weirder when George is summoned to a strip club where he meets Monica Weston (Mell in a dual role), a dead ringer for his wife who seems to have some connection to the murder.

This kinky thriller from Lucio Fulci is one of his better mysteries and a perfect companion piece for his next film, the trippy A LIZARD IN A WOMAN'S SKIN. In fact, they share the same male lead in Sorel. Shot in San Francisco, New York and Paris, this film certainly betrays its Italian roots and could easily be consider a US film. Fulci really sets up some great shots and doesn't mind exploiting the free love sentiment of the era with lots of hippie nudity. The mystery isn't very surprising (Susan faked her death to get her husband on death row) and forces you to think 60s cops wouldn't ever notice if someone they were interrogating was wearing a wig. But if you can swallow that, it is fun with a nice ending that gives you a little bonus twist. It is also interesting watching a police procedural that occurs before DNA.

This post has been edited by William S. Wilson on Feb 6 2008, 12:41 PM

HIT MAN (1972)—Directed by George Armitage. Stars Bernie Casey, Pam Grier, Don Diamond. Producer Gene Corman lured away the writer of three drive-in movies for his brother Roger’s New World Pictures to write and direct this entertaining blaxploitation flick. If it all looks familiar, it’s a remake of GET CARTER, which MGM had just released the year before. Okay, so Casey is no Michael Caine, and Armitage’s direction is a bit punchy, but HIT MAN is still a good action movie that’s sadly MIA on DVD. Tyrone Tackett (Casey) comes to L.A. from Oakland for his brother’s funeral, and ends up dipping his toes into pornography and murder within the Mafia. He doesn’t play drunk very well, but otherwise Casey (a former Ram) is very believable as a badass who wants answers and isn’t slow to start hitting when he doesn’t get them fast enough. He’s tough and funny, depending upon whether he’s trading barbs with street punks or sexy ladies, including Marilyn Joi as his main squeeze in Oakland, Lisa Moore as a hot-to-trot motel proprietress and Grier (whose second billing belies her brief screen time) as a porn actress who meets a hairy end. Also with Roger E. Mosley, Sam Laws, Christipher Joy, Bhetty Waldron, Candy All, John Lupton and Paul Gleason, who was also in Armitage’s PRIVATE DUTY NURSES. Music by H.B. Barnum.

Wait - Ron Jeremy is in this?!

GUN STREET (1961)—Directed by Edward L. Cahn. Stars James Brown, John Clarke, John Pickard, Peggy Stewart. If you sit around waiting for something exciting to happen in this 67-minute United Artists western, don’t blame me when you’re eventually disappointed. I wonder if DRAGNET was an influence on the non-ending, which probably drove theater-goers to riot, if there ever were any. Sheriff Chuck Morton (Brown) and his young deputy Sam (Clarke) go into (non-)action when they receive word that killer Gary Wells has busted out of prison and may be headed towards town to enact vengeance against the man who testified against him, the jury, and his former wife (Stewart), who’s now married to the town doctor (Pickard). One fistfight and not a single gun battle make you wonder for whom Cahn and writer Sam Freedle were making this film. Shot flatly in Cahn’s usual style, GUN STREET (whatever that means) has little to offer, including its C-level cast, whose biggest name, Brown, was overshadowed by his co-star on the hit TV series THE ADVENTURES OF RIN TIN TIN. You may recognize Warren Kemmerling in the cast. Music by Richard LaSalle.


THE MONKEY MISSION (1981)—Directed by Burt Brinckerhoff. Stars Robert Blake, John Fiedler, Keenan Wynn, Mitchell Ryan. Blake returns as private eye Joe Dancer in this TV sequel to THE BIG BLACK PILL. It’s better, taking the form of a caper movie, as Dancer is hired to break into a museum and snatch a $3 million vase, while dodging suspicious insurance investigator Keyes (Ryan). Unfortunately, writer Robert Crais appears to have been a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE fan, as his caper bears resemblance to several episodes, including the use of a small animal (here, a monkey named Gregor) to avoid security traps. Brinckerhoff is not a good enough director to build suspense, but the film’s light tone and good use of old pros Fiedler and Wynn provide entertainment. Also with Sondra Blake, Clive Revill, Andy Woods, Pepe Serna and Alan Napier in his final film. Music by George Romanis. Blake made one more Joe Dancer movie, which NBC kept on the shelf until 1983.


THE GIRL ON THE LATE, LATE SHOW (1974)—Directed by Gary Nelson. Stars Don Murray, Gloria Grahame. David Gerber (POLICE STORY) produced this effective TV mystery starring Murray as the producer of an early-morning talk show based in New York. He flies to Los Angeles to find an old-time movie starlet named Carolyn Parker (played by Grahame in old clips), so he can book her on the show. She dropped out of acting nearly twenty years earlier, and nobody claims to know where to find her. Murray’s problem is that somebody doesn’t want him to find her, as his investigation leads to several attempts on his life and the murders of Parker’s old acquaintances. This love letter to old Hollywood features some great veteran stars, such as Cameron Mitchell, Ralph Meeker, Van Johnson, Yvonne DeCarlo, John Ireland, and Walter Pidgeon, as well as contemporary performers Bert Convy, Laraine Stephens, Sherry Jackson, Candice Rialson, Mary Ann Mobley, and Joe Santos. The mystery is a pretty good one, but you’ll want to watch this for the stars and its sun-drenched portrayal of L.A.