Rock All Night (1957)
This quickie from AIP is basically two films rolled into one but fans of Corman and his cast of characters will probably find themselves entertained. The first half of the movie is a “rock and roll” picture as we countless…
Quentin Tarantino declares ‘death of cinema’
Director Quentin Tarantino declares the death of cinema as we know it during a news conference at the 67th international film festival, Cannes, southern France, Friday, May 23, 2014. The outspoken U.S. director, at Cannes to celebrate the 20th anniversary…
B Movies For Memorial Day
With Memorial Day rapidly encroaching upon us this weekend, Olive Films has seen fit to reissue a dandy double-feature of semi-classic World War II films that bravely straddle the line between unironically jingoistic and brutally self-aware, both creating a strange,…
Americans’ Love Affair With B Movies Goes Digital
On an October morning in 2008, a truck loaded with VHS cassettes pulled away from Distribution Video Audio’s warehouse in Palm Harbor, Fla.—and made history: It was the last major shipment of movies on VHS bound for retail stores….
Butt-Sucking Lampreys
If you’ve ever had an irrational fear that something could attack you from the toilet bowl, this clip is not for you. But If you think this sounds incredibly funny in a trashy, campy, B-movie kind of way, you’re in…
Yog: Monster from Space (1970)
For some reason, I remembered this flick more than many other kaiju eiga (giant monster movies) from the same period. In fact, I even have an original “Yog” poster on my wall right next to one for “The Green Slime”….
The Cry Baby Killer (1958)
Recently, this viewer happened to watch, for the first time, the 1950 film “The Men,” historically important today as the screen debut of 26-year-old Marlon Brando. And by some strange coincidence, my next film, also seen for the first time,…
The Return of Mr. Moto
I’m not one of the reviewers who apparently lined up to bash this movie; I think that 20th Century-Fox guaranteed it a hostile reception by inviting comparison with the fondly-remembered Peter Lorre series of thirty years before. On its own…
Looking Forward In Cinema
The history of cinema started in 1952. Specifically, it started in March, when Cahiers du Cinéma, in its second year and tenth issue, ran the twenty-one-year-old Jean-Luc Godard’s encomium to Alfred Hitchcock’s recently released “Strangers on a Train.” The article…
Anaconda
Growing up in the 50’s gave me the privilege of being one the last generations of filmgoers to enjoy the Saturday afternoon double-feature matinee experience at the neighborhood theatre. These double-features were primarily low budget sci-fi/horror epics with slender threads…
Black Shampoo
“Black Shampoo” is one of the lousiest blacksploitation films I’ve seen, and if you’re familiar with the genre, you know thats saying a lot. In terms of technical quality, this makes “Dolemite” look like “Do the Right Thing”. Fortunately, its…
Arthur P. Jacobs
Arthur P. Jacobs was an American film producer based out of Los Angeles, California. Jacobs had always loved watching movies, and he made them with the same devotion and enthusiasm. Born in LA, after losing his father – Arthur –…
The Earth Dies Screaming (1964)
A crack space pilot returns to earth to find the planet has been devastated by some unknown forces. There are a few survivors, so he organizes them in a plan to ward off control by a group of killer robots….
Homefront
I am admittedly a sucker for Jason Statham action movies. The actor – perhaps best known for his role in “The Transporter” series – has starred in a number of B-movie action films. He looks believably dangerous in hand-to-hand fight…
Demon Keeper
A phony clairvoyant accidentally unleashes a killer spirit on his clients in this budget horror effort from the King of the B-Movie himself, Roger Corman. This opens with a bizarre sequence in which robed dudes tie up a witch for…
Monster from the Ocean Floor (1954)
“Monster from the Ocean Floor” is historically important as the very first film produced by a young Roger Corman, so it’s a shame it’s not more entertaining than it is. It does have some schlocky charm, but owing to an…
The Great Texas Dynamite Chase,
For my 18th birthday, my uncle, to whom I owe much of my love for movies, gave me Danny Peary’s classic 1981 book Cult Movies: The Classics, the Sleepers, the Weird, and the Wonderful. In that book (the first in a…
Blood Lake: Attack of the Killer Lampreys
Network seasons may be ending, but on Animal Planet, “Monster Week” has just begun. This Shark Week knockoff offers viewers plenty of chances to catch freshwater oddities featured on “River Monsters” (7 p.m. to 10 p.m. Sunday, TV-PG). The frights…
The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)
Before a little British company called Hammer became famous for Dracula and Frankenstein, there were the adventures of Professor Bernard Quatermass. Based on the live BBC serial from 1953, The Quatermass Xperiment put Hammer on the film world map. How…
A Brief History of Evil Movie Computers
In 1818, around the time British “Luddites” retaliated against the textile industry’s increasing use of power looms, Marry Shelley published the first edition of Frankenstein, her horror parable spun from the 19th century’s plentiful scientific breakthroughs. A little under 200 years…