Gold (1934) Brigitte Helm speaks! For ten minutes, she vamps in a science fiction film about corporate espionage made during the early Nazi period and directed by Karl Hartl. The ghost of the UFA’s great Metropolis lurks everywhere. John Wills (Michael Bohnen) is the villain, a British billionaire driven by greed to control world … More GOLD (1934)
Agantuk [The Stranger] (1991) Based on his children’s story, “The Guest,” Satyajit Ray directs Utpal Dutt, “known for his decades of work in Bengali theater,” as Manomohan Mitra, who claims to be a long lost uncle, requesting hospitality from a middle class couple in Kolkata. Although skeptical, they let him into their home. This … More Agantuk [The Stranger] (1991)
Green Slime (1968) Director’s Kinji Fukasaku’s pop art interiors and space ships are filled not only with grade-B actors, but also with monsters that reproduce wildly into “an army of rubbery-looking goblins.” Their resemblance to R2-D2 remains uncanny. Ivan Reiner wrote and produced this story about a space station, Gamma 3, infected by these alien … More Green Slime (1968)
Frida (2002) “In the aftermath of the Mexican Revolution, the country’s artists forged a new painterly vocabulary, which fused European modernism with local folkloric traditions, and became a global phenomenon.” After years of problems getting this screenplay produced, Julie Taymor was hired to direct this biopic based on a biography of Frida Kahlo. Selma Hayek … More Frida (2002)
The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972) Luis Buñuel collaborates with screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière to define ‘haute bourgeoisie‘ as the inability to finish a meal without being interrupted. Minor characters recount dreams and memories; the bourgeoisie deal cocaine, commit adultery, and invite terrorism; what’s real all depends on who is dreaming whom. Propriety and its … More The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie (1972)
Sugar Cane Alley (1983) Euzhan Palcy directed this adaptation of Joseph Zobel’s novel Black Shack Alley that takes place in rural Martinique during the 1930’s. The film centers on a young boy, José, and his grandmother. Ma’Tine, as they struggle to rise in the world. The actress, Darling Légitimus, 76 years old, won multiple … More Sugar Cane Alley (1983)
Myra Breckinridge (1970) Granted full control over this adaptation of Gore Vidal’s vicious satire, Michael Sarne made a “degradation” film, a 70s genre where famous actors degrade themselves by playing the parts assigned. Caught between the resurrected body of Mae West and the sexy Raquel Welsh, Sarne lost control. Rex Reed said afterwards, “This was … More Myra Breckinridge (1970)
The Manchurian Candidate (1962) John Frankenheimer, using documentary techniques from live television, created this classic of paranoid cinema, starring Frank Sinatra as the Major, Lawrence Harvey as the war hero, and Angela Lansbury as his mother, the Red Queen. It addressed unfounded public fears that soldiers captured by North Korea had been returned brainwashed … More The Manchurian Candidate (1962)
The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958) 69 Min. Black and White. Will Cowan produced and directed David Duncan’s clever screenplay that uses elements from Frankenstein, zombie movies, and psychic horror to create this “accursèd chest” buried by command of Sir Francis Drake. The subplot involves a teen crush and a night at the prom. … More The Thing That Couldn’t Die (1958)
Toby Dammit (1968) c. 30 Min. Color. In the third episode of the film anthology Spirits of the Dead, Fellini freely improvised on Bernardino Zapponi’s gothic screenplay of Edgar Allen Poe’s “Never Bet Your Head on the Devil,” keeping only the ending from the original. Fame spreads its miasmic glow, Airport to airport, yellowing … More Toby Dammit (1968)
