Change Your Image
lor_
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, Victoria Paige Meyerink, Lawrence D. Foldes, Rick Marx & Ted V. Mikels
Reviews
Mom Comes First: Skin Care Treatment (2023)
An extraordinary MILF
40-year-old Kat Marie is the most perfect new mature performer on the porn scene, showing off her talents in this first-person gonzo scene humping her stepson Alex Adams.
Whispering in a soothing voice, she does more than apply lotion, and displaying her extra-large breasts and naturally big body. Her facial resemblance to Julianne Moore is a treat, and her sexual prowess is top-notch. I had seen her in a lengthy, near-classic scene taking care of stepson Jimmy Michaels, and this segment for the "Mom Comes First" (self-explanatory title) series is almost as good.
It would be terrific if Adult filmmakers of the story/character tradition would give Kat a shot, but so far fans have to enjoy her work in gonzo action like this.
No Time to Be Young (1957)
Too much soap
It's fun to see Robert Vaughn, his smug, hissable screen persona so fully formed early in his career, starring in the mixed-up soap opera/generation gap/crime drama suffering from a horrible screenplay. But getting to the end of the show is quite a chore given the phony-baloney situations and characters of writer John McPartland's screenplay.
Best performance is not by the leads but by perhaps the least famous of the prinicpal players: Doris Dexter who is Vaughn's sympathetic college porfessor and an early example of what is now termed a MILF. The mother fixation of Vaughn is one of the worst elements of the half-baked story, that devolves into stupid melodrama.
One personal sidelight: McPartland, who like the co-lead Tom Pittman died young the next year (making the title of this movie pay off) wrote the Adult soap opera "No Down Payment", also shot in 1957. I saw the movie in a unique fashion: at my Junior High School they would screen fairly recent feature films at lunch time, one reel a day for 4 cents admission. Most were from 20th Century-Fox and science fiction ("The Fly", "Kronos" and "Spacemaster X-7" for example), but this one proved to be too steamy for us kids (no time to be young, I guess). It was my first encounter with censorship: the final reels were cancelled by the school, as the film was deemed not suitable for us to watch!
113 Cherry Lane (1995)
Minor real estate porn
Sandy Beach shows folks around her new home and they have sex in this uneventful porn video by Frank Marino. It helps define the word "pointless", which covers the majority of VHS porn.
Jonathan Morgan originally built the house, and his nostalgia visit includes flashbacks of old times, including his life as newlyweds with wife Melissa Monet (who is incorrectly listed as Heaher Lee in the credits).
Beautiful Barbara Doll visits and has a couple of sex scenes, and the boring excuse for a story has Sandy's real estate agent also making the rounds. Even Morgan doesn't have a chance to provide any humor, as the content is basically equivalent to an all-sex movie.
Transfixed: Her First Trans Attraction (2024)
Solid teaming
Jim Powers has been directing the Boy porn segments of Bree Mills' "Transfixed" series, but here has been assigned the label's prime content of trans-lesbian porn. He does a good job, thanks to the casting.
Kenzie Taylor's acting ability helps, as she plays a model whose knowledge of the trans community is minimal and is surprised at being teamed on a photo shoot with a beautiful trans-female, Brittney Kade (who is wearing a long black wig, not her usual blonde persona).
Unlike previous vignettes, but just like the immediately previous episode "His First Trans Attraction", the set-up scene is quite long, lasting 15 minutes instead of under 5. The two ladies model clothed and then in the nude (cheesecake shots) for photographer Yaya Gingersnatch (a redhead currently working in boy/girl porn), before having sex after she leaves. Kenzie convincingly has been won over by the intimacy of the work, and is enthusiastic for their XXX coupling.
Deadly Duo (1962)
A wig and a prayer; or The bland leading the bland
It's quite obvious that Deadly Dull is the proper title for this United Artists release, which IMDb informs us played on many a double bill from the same studio's hit in Britain, "Dr. No". That fact reminds me of how B-movies also served as so-called chasers - designed to help empty theatres (as patrons like me would sit through show after show) in the days when double features flourished. After watching the magnetic Sean Connery dominate the screen as Bond, it must have been hard to adjust to staring at the permanent nonentity Craig Hill walking through his role in such an uneventful co-feature.
Over 60 years later, it was distracting to watch the "actress playing twins" gimmick - looking for any mismatching in the shots processed to have lead Marcia Henderson on screen twice at once, or the obvious double seen from the back of the head in other easier to shoot and process shots. Two wigs to differentiate the sisters are glaringly fake.
The plodding story is relentlessly uninteresting, leading to a busier (but way too late) final reel of contrived and unconvincing plot twists leading to a fake wholesome happy ending.
Both Hill and Henderson represent poor casting -neither capable of arousing or sustaining an audience's interest for an entire movie. And even more obvious, the rented T-Bird Craig drives in the fake Acapulco setting constantly upstages our yawn of a hero, quickly becoming the actual star of the picture.
She's on Top (2024)
A correction
Just two weeks after Adult Time issued a VOD titled "Ass Play" with a wrong vignette included by mistake comes this new VOD attemping to correct the error.
"Girlsway's Newest Director" is the segment in question. Previously issued in 2018 on the DVD titled "Girlsway Crew", Bree takes over center stage herself (and overstays her welcome, IMHO) as a parody of herself, barking out ridiculously detailed market-research-driven orders concerning desired content to neophyte director April O'Neil. April tries to carry out the silly approach to giving members what the want (Bree is definitely tongue-in-cheek when pretending to kowtow to her web subscribers' every wish), and of course the talent balks at this nonsense. Again, predictably O'Neil saves the day by humping her star Lana Rhoades herself, unfortunately leaving guest star Dillion Harper, who was supposed to service Lana in the scene, high and dry.
This is far, far from the "realistic sex" that Bree verbally emphasizes in character, but the campy approach is entertaining when performed by such skilled actresses. Hint that Bree is aiming for laughs is when she points out to April that "all women can squirt", perhaps an admonition that all it takes is a handy turkey baster and a bottle of Poland Spring.
The other scene is a classic, "The Revelation": All hail the dynamite teaming of Brit icons Jasmine Jae and Stella Cox as mother and daughter in this Mommy's Girl sub-label release through Girlfriends Films. Segment is titled "The Revelation", in which Jae gets a phone call indicating her baby was switched at birth by a midwife. So daughter Stella is not hers. She goes to visit the dying midwife (NonSex cameo by Lynn Vega, who way overdoes the cough-cough deathbed throes) and finds out her birth daughter has died in a car accident, also killing Stella's birth mother.
Stella is shocked at the news, but this being porn, she jumps at the chance to hump Jae who she has always been attracted to, now that she's not related to her by blood. Their Sapphic session is notable for the contrast of big fake tits (JJ) with the superb naturals of Cox. Both actresses are terrific in the thesping department too.
Mommy's Girl: The Revelation (2017)
UK talent showcased
All hail the dynamite teaming of Brit icons Jasmine Jae and Stella Cox as mother and daughter in this Mommy's Girl segment. Jae gets a phone call indicating her baby was switched at birth by a midwife. So daughter Stella is not hers. She goes to visit the dying midwife (NonSex cameo by Lynn Vega, who way overdoes the cough-cough deathbed throes) and finds out her birth daughter has died in a car accident, also killing Stella's birth mother.
Stella is shocked at the news, but this being porn, she jumps at the chance to hump Jae who she has always been attracted to, now that she's not related to her by blood. Their Sapphic session is notable for the contrast of big fake tits (JJ) with the superb naturals of Cox. Both actresses are terrific in the thesping department too.
Fingers (1994)
Poor shaggy-dog story
The crime caper movie has long bothered me as to its rigid format. Most genres have some (or a lot of) flexibility, but the caper nearly always involves: repetitive recruitment of the crew, one by one, then the planning phase and finally the execution of the caper. Ultimately, some clever twist is required before the end.
This porn caper movie by Stuart Canterbury was missing from IMDb for 30 years until I added it today. It's lousy.
Jon Dough has just been released from prison on parole and he's anxious to get back to his criminal activities, aided by his right-hand man Tony Tedeschi. His specialty is theft, ranging from pickpocketing on up, stealing valuables from malls (sounds like 2020s!) or hotels. He needs pretty girls who can distract the marks while he's making off with the goods.
So we watch him and Tony interview ladies to hire the best. These ladies have sex to impress the boys, but most are rejected, including Keisha and Euro star Deborah Wells. Lucky hires are P. J. Sparxx, newcomer to porn China Doll and another Euro beauty, Beatrice Valle.
The movie plods along, with XXX action stressing lesbian action, until an anticlimactic finale. Writer-director Stuart Canterbury has a real off day: no caper, just the selection of the crew is presented in "Fingers". Canterbury and most of the cast made another feature "Miss Nude International" the same year.
Cop Hater (1958)
Make the audience wait for it
Director William Berke's movies are dull, including this one. I was extremely impatient for him to pick up the pace and deliver; instead, some very fine, later famous actors, were trapped trying to breathe a tiny bit of life into lame material (from an 87th Precinct novel, but who cares when it's this dull?). The cameraman Contner shot early "Naked City" episodes and gives the show its realistic look, while Berke includes plenty of sanitized sleaze content -one supposes a release from a major company, in this case United Artists which opened biggies that year like "The Defiant Ones", "Witness for the Prosecution", "The Vikings" "I Want to Live!" and "Separate Tables", couldn't deliver down and dirty entertainment like an indie might.
Centerfold Strippers (1994)
Porn docu not quite up to Ken Burns' level
Mark Stone, who made innumerable boring BTS shoots, delivers an extremely poor porn documentary. It has 3 sex vignettes, portraits of 3 forgotten strippers doing hardcore sex with the usual porn studs.
Stephanie Adams was a Penthouse Pet in 1988 and is very poorly lit in her lengthy scene with Alex Sanders, preceded by Alex telling us about strip clubs in gee-whiz fashion (he's especially impressed with the brand-new phenomenon, the lap-dance!).
Busty blonde Diamond is up next and she f*cks Steven St. Croix in a bar. Finally, a complete non-starter in porn named Crystal Deveraux is a real sourpuss: a big-tits beauty with zero personality. She's stuck with Ron Jeremy and somehow gets him to cum.
You would think that stripteasing would be included here with the sex and boring interviews, but it's not.
Chasey Loves Rocco (1996)
Uneventful
Toni English's Vivid vehicle for Chasey Lain is a low-intensity feature, hardly worth the powder to blow it to hell. I watched the edited for DVD version, which emphasizes the sex only.
Rocco Siffredi's acting is poor -no wonder he decided to emphasize gonzo once he started making his own movies. He plays a guy arriving in Hollywood who wants to make movies, and gets a referral from a loquacious cab driver (Anthony Crane, unbilled and trying out a Indian/Pakistani type accent), that leads him to B-movie director Marc Wallice. Wallice is under the gun from mobster type Tony D. (played by the familiar crew member J. B., with Dic Tracy as his brawny henchman), but gets his producer lady Chasey Lain to give Rocco's project a whirl. It becomes a hit movie starring J. B.
The sex scenes are totally arbitrary here, wasting top talent like Chasey, Jeanna Fine and Roxanne Hall, with rubbers versus bareback sex randomly assigned. A Euro starlet billed as Carole der Bis is cute (but her career went nowhere) in an extraneous XXX scene with Bobby Vitale.
I had to fix very obvious credit errors in IMDb, misidentifying both Roxanne Hall and Dic Tracy.
For the Money Part Two (1993)
Disputed inheritance
This sequel trots out a very corny storyline: widow Shayla LaVeaux and daughter Serenity battling over a $46,000,000 inheritance. Pornographer Paul Norman can't resist throwing in a dumb gimmick: Shayla keeps hearing (in voiceover) her dead husband chatting with her from beyond the grave.
Serenity has a lesbian lover Alex Jordan, but the will precludes her from sex with a woman if she wants to inherit. Alex suggests that Serenity should marry a gay man, with her friend Jake Ryder the candidate. Jake indicates he's never slept with a woman, so Alex gives him a whirl (to educate him) but he fails to deliver (a cum shot). Ultimately, Serenity makes a deal to split 50/50 with her rival Shayla but Shayla tricks her by seduction, and now has proof to disinherit Serenity.
It's a bland version of this sort of rivalry, with the sexy leading ladies the saving grace of the video.
The Big Bluff (1955)
Best-laid plans
Written by Fred Freiberger (a decade before he made history producing the original "Star Trek" TV series) and produced/directed by B-movie talent W. Lee Wilder, "The Big Bluff" is an unusual drama that especially impressed me with its structure.
The first third (or act in a 3-act play traditional movie format) is placid, with the main characters firmly established, very well-acted by Martha Vickers as the "Ali McGraw" damsel dying of heart disease, but never showing outward signs of decline -in fact that adds to the plot development, her companion Eve Miller - a go-getter always looking out for Martha's interests, and as a fiery dancer/femme fatale Rosemary Bowe (the future Rosemarie Stack re: The Untouchables star) as the Other Woman. John Bromfield is smooth as a real anti-hero, a gigolo type who is alwasy studly and just as avaricious and deadly.
It's pure escapism as they live the high life, the many hints and clues to darkness ahead never interfering with the glamour and easy-going atmosphere.
The second act becomes dramatic as Bromfield's plotting to get rid of Vickers after marrying her for her fortune, and then Wilder steps on the gas for Act III, finally adopting the scary, dark tension and visuals of film noir leading to splendid plot twists coming fast and furious at finale time.
It's quite a sleeper, and has me re-evaluating Wilder's work: it's the tenth movie of his I've seen after enjoying his sci-fi, but never taking him seriously at all, certainly not in the league of brother Billy -I shouldn't have been so hasty.
A Family That's Stuck Together, Stays Together (2024)
One fresh scene, two recycled
"Mommy's Girl" episodes go for quantity this time, delivering two lesbian threesomes and one foursome.
The title scene goes the way of a new porn fetish, that I first noticed in many a Brazzers vignette. It's a rear-end fixation of what might be termed Getting Stuck: a girl gets caught in a window, or clothes dryer or couch with upper torso or arm stuck, and the good samaritan takes advantage of the shapely bum sticking out for uninvited sex. This being porn, none dare call it rape.
In this case the mom/stepdaughter team of Rachael Cavalli and Athena Faris both get caught in their couch searching for mom's missing wedding ring. Mom phones the neighbors, Jamie Michelle and her stepkid Kylie Rocket, who arrive, assess the sitution and hump them. A foursome on the couch results to everybody's enjoyment.
In Brazzers world it's generally a one-on-one shtick, so here we get double. Instead of slapstick, this is played straight, though of course the fetish situation (of taking advantage) is more like a stag movie than romance.
The other two vignettes were already released on VOD. "Driven into Hiding" is a hot gonzo threesome, after an awkward setup in which stepmom Lauren Phillips grills her kids Madi Collins and Scarlett Fae about their traffic accident. They reluctantly confess that they were fooling around sexually in the car and mom relents, wishing they were more open with her.
She is so understanding with the stepkids that they reward her with a strong session on the couch, worshipping Lauren's larger-than-life body. Vignette covers familiar territory but at least the trio are enthusiastic in earning their Adult Time checks.
Only drawback is Lauren has let herself go - some regular trips to the gym might help. Scene was issued in October 2023 on the VOD titled "Driven Lesbians".
Remaining segment was inexplicably reissued almost immediately by Adult Time. It was released on the VOD titled "Stepmom's Game" just two weeks before the current VOD, a confusing approach for the consumer. Scene itself is titled "Stepmom's Mind Games". Bridgette B lets out her inner hambone in this almost farcical "Mommy's Girl" episode taking a vastly (and porno-fied) look at the Generation Gap.
She's introduced as an old-fashioned mama, asking her daughter Melody Marks to try the healthy practice of playing outside, just like we all did as kids in those distant, pre-digital revolution times. Melody and her best friend (a mis-matched Charlotte Sins, who looks much older on screen than the scene's star Melody) are addicted to playing video games competing with other anonymous gamers on-line.
The rather silly storyline is quite predictable, as we see the pair of youngsters constantly defeated in their games. Just like the viewer, Sins wonders if something underhanded is afoot, and when she visits Bridgette's room, there is the mature mama with headphones on merrily playing video games herself -she turns out to be the adversary who is winning all the mock video battles.
Bridgette's attempts to explain herself are lame, and Sins uses sexual blackmail to get her to have sex in exchange for not finking to her stepdaughter. But Melody catches them in the act, and soon all are happily having a threesome together.
Porn's answer to a family living amicably together tends to be absurd in this incest-oriented series, but it's silly enough to be fun. My favorite moment is when Charlotte calls her co-star "Ms. B", not confusing Bridgette with Beyonce, but perhaps an intentional mocking of porn stars' oddball choices for their stage names.
Mommy's Girl: A Family That's Stuck Together, Stays Together (2022)
Contrived new fetish
"Mommy's Girl' goes the way of a new porn fetish, that I first noticed in many a Brazzers vignette. It's a rear-end fixation of what might be termed Getting Stuck: a girl gets caught in a window, or clothes dryer or couch with upper torso or arm stuck, and the good samaritan takes advantage of the shapely bum sticking out for uninvited sex. This being porn, none dare call it rape.
In this case the mom/stepdaughter team of Rachael Cavalli and Athena Faris both get caught in their couch searching for mom's missing wedding ring. Mom phones the neighbors, Jamie Michelle and her stepkid Kylie Rocket, who arrive, assess the sitution and hump them. A foursome on the couch results to everybody's enjoyment.
In Brazzers world it's generally a one-on-one shtick, so here we get double. Instead of slapstick, this is played straight, though of course the fetish situation (of taking advantage) is more like a stag movie than romance.
Step Family (2024)
Incest returns!
From the vaults, Adult Time brings back a couple of lesbian variations on incest.
"Posing for Mom" is pure porn, as larger than life Natasha Nice (whose body has expanded nicely over the years) is an artist stood up by her model, so she recruits her beautiful kid Gianna Dior to sub. Soon the sub is having orgasms. It was issued in 2020 on the DVD titled "My Stepdaughter's Secret Diary".
The other scene is corny but entertaining, as Carter Cruise sneaks into her sister's bedroom window late one night after not coming home on time after a date. Her date was a girl, so her curious little sister Lily Rader inquires about the niceties of lesbian sex, and Carter is all too ready to teach her. Titled "Sneaky Sisters", it was issued on the 2018 DVD titled "Teach Me to Twerk", and later appeared in 2023 on the VOD titled "Stepsister's Situation".
Oral Obsession (1994)
Aural sex movie is a mess
It's not clear what PT had in mind for this odd movie about phone sex -yes, oral means aural here.
Star Janine becomes obsessed once she's turned on by an obscene phone call, and masturbates a lot as well as indulging in lesbian sex. An even more emphasized plotline is confusing, as we observe Leena and a pre-Wicked (working for competitor Vivid) Brad Armstrong as cops apparently with the vice unit, listening/taping obscene callers. Brad rightfully objects to this waste of police resources but Leena is gung ho. He turns out to be the caller Janine is obsessed with.
A very lengthy scene has many cops having sex on the stairs and hallway at police headquarters, evidently just an erotic fantasy by Brad. Casting is pretty weird, as Max Hardcore plays a cop having anal sex with Vixxxen. In addition, Janine's insistence on not doing boy/girl porn scenes when this was made screws up the plot once she meets Brad in person.
Transfixed: His First Trans Attraction (2024)
Effective new variation for the series
Three years ago Jade Venus and Michael DelRay co-starred together in "His First Trans Encounter" for Devil's Film, a label later bought by Gamma Entertainment and inherited by the Adult Time platform. Now, they return in "His First Trans Attraction", made by Gamma & Adult Time's Transfixed label, and it's a winner.
Quite lengthy compared to the usual 1/2-hour Transfixed vignette, it is done in a refreshingly realistic manner, as the duo's characters meet at the Immoral Proposal mansion for a photo shoot run by Aidra Allure, who is quite convincing as the still photographer putting them through their poses. At first it's rather tame, but she gradually convinces them to pose more and more erotically, little suspecting that when she's finished they will make love.
These are seasoned performers, but their acting is convincing in conveying a sort of first-time initiation. Transfixed is still primarily devoted to presenting trans-lesbian content, but this is it's best dallying into more traditional transsexual content. With the trans-female as bottom and a Gay Porn star as top.
NCIS: Naval Criminal Investigative Service: The Stories We Leave Behind (2024)
Touching farewell, plus old friends
Co-written by and starring Brian Dietzen, this tribute episode to the late David McCallum is a bittersweet triumph for NCIS fans. I was deeply moved by the nostalgia and also enjoyed the new case story included.
Given the fans' reactions over the years as cast members departed (going on to other projects) it was a nice way to not only pay homage to the fine actor who many of us have loved going back to his Ilya Kuryakin stardom or his British films early in his career, but also to see Gibbs and others in poignant scenes with him.
Without becoming maudlin, Dietzen was able to convey the true affection between the characters, as well as tangible connections and sense of loss between the actual actors. The surprise at the end was especially rewarding.
Appointment with a Shadow (1957)
A quality sleeper
Richard Carlson, trying his hand at directing, does a fine job with "Appointment with a Shadow", a neo-noir from Universal in glorious black & white CinemaScope.
George Nader is quite empathetic as a down & out alcoholic news scribe, given one last chance by his selfless girlfriend, Joanna Moore with an alluring pixie hairdo. Aided by her brother, tough-guy cop Brian Keith, she's got all the research ready for George to hand in a scoop, the capture of wanted hoodlum Frank de Kova, delivered on a silver platter, and guaranteed to revive Nader's newspaper career, That's if things go as planned.
A terrific plot twist at the movie's halfway mark sets in motion a quite suspenseful test of our hero's commitment to sobriety and his resourseulness, leading to a solid climax and denouement.
Rooting for an underdog is a classic Hollywood staple, and is engaging escapism heightened by this familiar B-movie cast (of couse Keith becoming quite the TV star later on).
White Woman (1933)
Laughton reigns supreme
Sensibilities have changed in 90 years that it's difficult to get into the swim with "White Woman", a well-shot and acted Paramount feature rooted in Colonialism but saved by the usual tour de force performance by Charles Laughton. It's hard to imagine another actor in his role.
Opening reel seems to be a familiar tale of prejudice and ostracism: star Carole Lombard looking fabulous and even singing (direct sound) a couple of torch songs as a cafe singer down on her luck in some Far East British colony (likely set in Straits Settlements). Her husband committed suicide, and folks look down on her working in a cafe frequented by locals.
But soon she's married Laughton, self-proclaimed King of the RIver, who from humble beginnings has bought up most of the island. With a unique walrus moustache, he's a very odd fellow, full of sarcasm and even some self-deprecatory humor as he lords it over all and sundry. A couple fo studs understandably lust after Lombard, with the sjurprise of Charles Bickford, young and overconfident, even taking a shower and having an unlikely beefcake role.
When Laughton literally spits in the faces of a couple of higher-rank natives, things look glum for the white folks, as a rebellion begins. Chuck has a couple of impressive machine guns with plenty of ammo for just such an occasion, but he's thwarted byt the white guys he keeps under his thumb working for him, leading to a truly memorable climax, in which violence is tastefully delivered off-screen.
Naked City: The Deadly Guinea Pig (1961)
Convoluted melodrama
Veteran screenwriter (of movies including "Laura") Jay Dratler concocted a complicated melodrama for this episode about Nazis and their concentration camp victims still warring over 16 years later in Manhattan.
A wealth of foreign talent brings the show to life, starting with Leonie Leontovich and Viveca Lindfors who seem exotic femme fatales, except they are the good guy. Barry Morse, pre-"The Fugitive", is subtle as the Nazi doctor who experimented on Lindfors at Dachau, and George Voskovec is also involved, with the guessing game as to which side each one is one left for McMahon and Burke to discover.
It's all extremely contrived, right down to Morse wearing an SS-belt buckle that shoots bullets like something out of Q's workshop in the yet-to-be-made James Bond films.
The Curse of the Cat People (1944)
Required viewing
One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Robert Wise and Gunther von Fritsch; Produced by Val Lewton for RKO Radio Pictures release. Screenplay by DeWitt Bodeen; Photography by Nicholas Musuraca; Edited by J. R. Whittredge; Music by Roy Webb. Starring Simone Simon, Kent Smith, Jane Randolph, Ann Carter, Eve March, Elizabeth Russell, Julia Dean and Sir Lancelot.
Val Lewton's charming and subtle tale of psychological fantasy and terror, as we encounter the reality and horror of childhood through the eyes of a "strange" (outsider) young girl. The mood and atmosphere of this unpretentious movie are built up brilliantly, and the result is a unique little surprise package of goodies.
The Curse of the Living Corpse (1964)
A future star
One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed and Produced by Del Tenney; Released by 20th Century-Fox. Screenplay by Del Tenney; Dialogue by Alan Bodian; Photography and Production Design by Richard Hilliard; Edited by Jack Hirschfeld and Gary Youngman; Edited by George Burt and Bill Holcomb. Starring Roy Scheider, Helen Waren, Margot Hartman, Robert Milli, Linda Donovan, Hugh Franklin and Candace Hilligoss.
A 1960s costume horror flick concerning the systematic decimation of the beneficiaries of a millionaire's will by the presumably still-living stiff. Cheaply executed b good, wasted performances by a cast of unknowns (of whom Roy Scheider would achieve stardom a decade later), but the premise remains a dead one, overused many moons ago. Surprisingly interesting photography, and notable for the meticulous use of just over the borderline nudity.
Conquest of Space (1955)
George Pal looking ahead
One of my sci-fi/horror/fantasy reviews written 50 years ago: Directed by Byron Haskin; Produced by George Pal for Paramount Pictures release. Screenplay by James O'Hanlon, Philip Yordan, Barre Lyndon and George Worthing Yates; Photography by Lionel Lindon; Edited by Everett Douglas; Music by Van Cleave; Astronomical Art by Chesley Bonestell. Starring: Eric Fleming, William Hopper, Ross Martin, Walter Brooke, Joan Shawlee, William Redfield, Phil Foster, Mickey Shaughnessy and Benson Fong.
This George Pal biggie is a straight science fiction adventure stressing the perils of manned space flight. History proved this film to be rather unimaginative in terms of predicting the wonders to come in the following decade.