Snowbound – Rediscovering ‘You’ll Like My Mother’ (US 1972 – 92 mins)

Rediscover ‐ ‐ December 04, 2017
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Snowbound – Rediscovering ‘You’ll Like My Mother’ (US 1972 – 92 mins)

It must feel immensely unnerving to be an isolated outsider in an isolated environment. That’s how heavily pregnant Patty Duke’s character must have felt, after arriving on the doorstep of her dead husband’s unwelcoming family, in the forgotten 1972 thriller ‘You’ll Like My Mother’.

After her husband is killed in Vietnam, heavily pregnant Francesca Kinsolving decides to pay a surprise visit to his family in a remote part of Minnesota. When her mother-in-law (Rosemary Murphy) tells Francesca she wants nothing to do with her or her unborn baby, Francesca makes for a quick exit, only to be held up by a …

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A Man Possessed – Rediscovering ‘Beast with a Gun’ / ‘La Belva Col Mitra’ – (Italy 1977 – 91 mins)

Rediscover ‐ ‐ November 25, 2017
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A Man Possessed – Rediscovering ‘Beast with a Gun’ / ‘La Belva Col Mitra’ – (Italy 1977 – 91 mins)

Giving one of the meanest performances in exploitation cinema, euro favourite Helmut Berger let loose in the savage crime picture ‘Beast With a Gun’. An entertaining ‘prisoner-on-the-run’ flick, it manages to cover just about every trick in the exploitation handbook, making it a favourite for many cult movie buffs.

The plot could not be simpler: After blasting his way out of prison, sadistic killer Nanni “Mad Dog” Vitali (Helmut Berger) embarks on a spree that takes in murder, rape and robbery, while dogged police inspector Giulio Santini (Richard Harrison) will stop at nothing to recapture the fiend.

Also known as ‘Mad …

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“Take the Stairs” – Rediscovering ‘The Lift’ (Netherlands 1983 – 99 mins)

Rediscover ‐ ‐ November 07, 2017
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“Take the Stairs” – Rediscovering ‘The Lift’ (Netherlands 1983 – 99 mins)

A pleasant surprise, the multi-genre Dutch movie ‘The Lift’ starts off like some mild adult comedy but soon takes a creepy turn, from where things then get more mysterious and sometimes even horrific. But all the while it keeps you entertained and intrigued as to how this neat “Man versus Machine” movie will end.

Following the freak deaths in an office building elevator of a blind man and a nightwatchman, repairman Felix (Huub Stapel) and sexy journalist Mieke (Willeke van Ammelrooy) take it upon themselves to investigate the mysterious lift, which appears to have a deadly life of its own.

While there …

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Perfectly Pompous – Cecil Parker (1897–1971)

Rewind ‐ ‐ November 05, 2017
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Perfectly Pompous – Cecil Parker (1897–1971)

Notable for playing dedicated manservants and overbearing authority figures, Cecil Parker was also adept at making these characters rather likable, in spite of their stuffiness. A familiar face in British cinema for four decades, he left an indelible impression in a great number of memorable dramas as well as some of cinema’s finest comedies.

Born Cecil Schwabe, in Hastings, England on September 3rd 1897, Parker first trod the London stage in 1922 and made his movie debut a decade later in 1933. After appearing in a handful of farces, his first notable role came in Hitchcock’s excellent mystery ‘The Lady Vanishes’ …

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Licence to Thrill – Rediscovering ‘My Chauffeur’ (US 1986 – 97 mins)

Rediscover ‐ ‐ October 31, 2017
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Licence to Thrill – Rediscovering ‘My Chauffeur’ (US 1986 – 97 mins)

A patchy, though likable romantic comedy, ‘My Chauffeur’ has aquired quite a cult following. This, I think, is due mainly to the enthusiastic performance from its wonderfully energetic lead; Deborah Foreman, whose star should have burned longer than it did.

When happy-go-lucky dishwasher Casey Meadows (Deborah Foreman) receives a job offer as a chauffeur for a luxury Limousine Service, the all male staff are suitably shocked. It doesn’t take long however before her cheerful presence wins over the other drivers, much to the annoyance of the company manager, Charles McBride (Howard Hesseman), whose assignments to Casey are given in the hope …

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Spains Sensitive Starlet – Remembering Emma Cohen (1946 – 2016)

Remember ‐ ‐ October 01, 2017
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Spains Sensitive Starlet – Remembering Emma Cohen (1946 – 2016)

A lovely, talented and daring Spanish actress, Emma Cohen was a popular Euro-starlet in the Seventies, working with such notable directors as Eloy de la Iglesia, León Klimovsky and Joaquín Luis Romero Marchent. Flitting between comedy, drama and thriller, it would be a handful of cult horror pictures however, that she would be mostly remembered for.

Born Emmanuela Beltrán Rahola in Barcelona on November 21st 1946, Emma made her debut in Jorge Grau’s 1968 musical ‘Tuset Street’, before playing a vampire in Jess Franco’s strangely popular ‘Count Dracula’ in 1970. After a small role as a farmer’s daughter in the …

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The Pom Pom Girls – Rediscovering ‘The Cheerleaders’ – (US 1973 – 82 mins)

Rediscover ‐ ‐ August 19, 2017
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The Pom Pom Girls – Rediscovering ‘The Cheerleaders’ – (US 1973 – 82 mins)

The popular Cheerleading sub-genre churned out numerous features in the 1970’s, but the one that stands out above all the rest is the once-controversial sex comedy ‘The Cheerleaders’. It’s a fun and fast-moving exploiter with plenty of raunchy moments and gratuitous nudity from an attractive (if sometimes wooden) cast who were barely heard of again!

In spite of her strict parents, pretty virgin Jeannie (Stephanie Fondue) finally fulfills her dream of joining the Amorosa High school cheerleading squad. An over-dedicated bunch, the hormone-heavy girls hatch a plot to seduce the opposing football team the night before the big game, thus wearing …

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Heroes, Horses & Harpoons – Rediscovering ‘Terror in a Texas Town’ (US 1958 – 80 mins)

Rediscover ‐ ‐ July 23, 2017
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Heroes, Horses & Harpoons – Rediscovering ‘Terror in a Texas Town’ (US 1958 – 80 mins)

An uneven movie that’s become something of a cult oddity, the low-budget western ‘Terror in a Texas Town’ is an interesting revenge piece which is noted mainly for its unique (if over-too-soon) showdown.

Returning from years of being at sea, Swedish whaler George Hanson (Sterling Hayden) finds that his father, a local
farmer, has been killed by hired gunman Johnny Crale (Ned Young), and that the corrupt sheriff has done nothing about it. It transpires that a no-good land baron (Sebastian Cabot) is forcing the locals to sell him their land at a low price, and when Hanson learns that there’s oil …

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The Ruling Class – Rediscovering ‘Unman, Wittering and Zigo’ – (UK 1971 – 102 mins)

Rediscover ‐ ‐ June 25, 2017
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The Ruling Class – Rediscovering ‘Unman, Wittering and Zigo’ – (UK 1971 – 102 mins)

Based on a 1958 radio play by Giles Cooper, the eerie obscurity ‘Unman, Wittering and Zigo’ is a cult sleeper that’s been strangely unavailable for decades. An intriguing psycho-thriller about a class of posh boys lording it over their teacher, it makes the troublesome teens of ‘To Sir With Love’ seem like pussycats.

Soon after arriving at “Chantry Boys Boarding School”, new teacher John Ebony (David Hemmings) is quietly informed by his polite pupils that they have killed John’s Predecessor after he gave them detention. Disbelieving this, Ebony slowly comes to realize that the boys may in fact be telling …

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A Tale of Two Sisters – Rediscovering ‘Cruel Passion’ – (UK 1977 – 99 mins)

Rediscover ‐ ‐ June 04, 2017
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A Tale of Two Sisters – Rediscovering ‘Cruel Passion’ – (UK 1977 – 99 mins)

Better than its reputation suggests, the atmospheric ‘Cruel Passion’ is a pretty good period drama which mixed eroticism with human suffering, creating an interesting, if rather depressing, tale of two rather different sisters.

18th Century England, and orphaned teenage sisters Justine (Koo Stark) and Juliette (Lydia Lisle) are expelled from their strict orphanage and thrown into the murky world of prostitution, which Juliette enthusiastically accepts. Justine however, wants no part of this sordid world and decides to run away and find her own virtuous way of living. Unfortunately for her though, this decision leads to a series of misadventures, and ultimately, …

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