Bandolero! (1968) + 100 Rifles (1969) and au revoir to Twilight Time
Reviews of two Raquel Welch westerns – BANDOLERO! (1968) + 100 RIFLES (1969), and Twilight Time bids farewell!
Tag: Jerry Goldsmith
BR: Bandolero! (1968)
Twilight Time’s stellar Blu-ray features one of the heaviest fact-filled commentary tracks by Cinema Retro’s Lee Pfeiffer, historian Paul Scrabo, and Dean Martin biographer Tony Latino…
BR: 100 Rifles (1969)
This may not be the greatest western produced near the end of the decade, but it’s an important marker of several transition points – of the western being re-embraced by studios…
Unleashing Michael Mann’s THE KEEP (1983)
Review of Michael Mann’s THE KEEP (1983), the maligned, misunderstood & messy supernatural thriller making its legit DVD release from Australia’s Via Vision.
BR: Chairman, The / Most Dangerous Man in the World, The (1969)
The premise of this pulpy, more-than-slightly tongue-in-cheek thriller is ludicrous: a retired geneticist agrees to a potential one-way trip to Maoist China and retrieve the secret formula that enables growing any kind of food in any temperate zone…
BR: Hour of the Gun (1967)
In between the sprawling super-productions of The Hallelujah Trail (1965) and Ice Station Zebra (1968), in 1967 John Sturges switched to a smaller intimate project that was ostensibly about the stubborn friendship between two men of differing moral character bonded by an unwavering loyalty…
The Russia House and the Anti-Bond
Review of John le Carre’s spy thriller and romance The Russia House, released on Blu by Twilight Time, and a fascinating time capsule of glasnost Soviet Russia circa 1990 + some random thoughts on visiting East Berlin in 1989.
BR: Russia House, The (1990)
It’s worth pondering whether this particular adaptation of John le Carré’s novel would’ve been produced today, given there is no gunfire, no a single foot chase, car chase, murder, any act of violence, and the hero’s a sixtysomething heavy drinker who describes himself as ‘a disappointment’…
BR: Cassandra Crossing, The (1976)
Deliberately peppered with a star-studded international cast for global appeal, The Cassandra Crossing is a ludicrously implausible disaster film / virus thriller that nevertheless manages to entertain and transcended some standout boneheaded scripting and continuity gaffes…
DVD: Matinee (1993)
Nestled between Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and Small Soldiers (1998) is Matinee, director Joe Dante’s surprisingly reverent tribute to B-movie showmanship, and that other master of suspense, director William Castle. Castle’s forte wasn’t directing but creating escapism built on a hook, and giving thrills through gimmicks, be they ‘ghosts’ gliding over audiences…
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