Early work from Mike Hodges — the film that got him the gig of directing GET CARTER. A gritty, docu-style conspiracy drama reeking of London 70s grime and atmos.

Superior TV drama, 4 April 2009
Author: Mozjoukine from Australia
The remarkably adept paranoia thriller actually had the qualities which were proclaimed for British TV at the time – often without justification.

Using the small scale production resources of TV, Mike Hodges puts together the account of the over confidant lead, who underestimates the powerful group that gets his car into the back of a semi. A brief coda with kids and the tape recorder in a city dump is an unlikely note of hope in the grim proceedings.

The small cast do well, with a large part of the ending a two hander. The choice of angles, pacing and interpretation are an indicator of Hodges substantial career to come in feature films. The mood foreshadows his GET CARTER and the feeble I’LL SLEEP WHEN I’M DEAD.

Director: Mike Hodges
Writers: Mike Hodges
Cast: Michael Coles,Ronald Clarke,Mary Baxter
Producer: Mike Hodges, Lloyd Shirley
Cinematography: Dusty Miller
Production Company: Thames Television
Country: United Kingdom
Language: English
Runtime: 1h 25mn

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https://nitro.download/view/B026CF697E64B31/rumour.avi

Language(s):English
Subtitles:none

The post Mike Hodges – ITV Playhouse: Rumour (1970) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Mind control. Advances of modern science have removed it from the realm of the mystical into the all too probable. What happens when science loses control is the subject of The Terminal Man, based on a novel by Michael Crichton and written for the screen and directed by Mike Hodges. Computer scientist Harry Benson has experimental brain surgery to end his potentially dangerous seizures. Electrodes are attached with 40 terminals to his brain to counteract his violent impulses. But there’s no escaping his own mind. The experiment backfires and the seizures return … with a terminal vengeance. Hooking into this visionary tale will unnerve you. But the truth behind its hallucinatory horrors will fascinate and stimulate you.

Terrence Malick, the director of Badlands, wrote to Hodges expressing how much he loved watching The Terminal Man, saying “Your images make me understand what an image is.”

The.Terminal.Man.1974.BDRIP.576p.x264.AAC.KJNU.mkv

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https://nitro.download/view/701934E20AFD64E/The.Terminal.Man.1974.BDRIP.576p.x264.AAC.KJNU.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:English SDH

The post Mike Hodges – The Terminal Man (1974) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

A private detective has to deal with an unpleasant memory, a near-insoluble mystery, and a pursuing murderer inflicted with drugs and political corruption. The detective narrated throughout in this novel-based story by Karl Alexander.

1.75GB | 1h 36m | 720×480 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/0973BB980AF733D/Missing_Pieces_(1983).mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Mike Hodges – Missing Pieces (1983) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Mike Hodges (Flash Gordon, Get Carter) wrote and directed this supernatural chiller as a meditation on the human race s ability to destroy the world, a gothic tale of suspense and the occult, guaranteed to send shivers down your spine. Martha Travis (Rosanna Arquette, Pulp Fiction, Crash) is a travelling clairvoyant on the road with her sceptic father (Jason Robards, Once Upon a Time in the West, Magnolia). During a séance Martha communicates a message from a dead man to his wife in the audience. Shocked the wife insists her husband is still alive. Later that evening the husband is killed by a ruthless assassin. As Martha foresees more and more tragic events journalist Gary Wallace (Tom Hulce, Amadeus, Animal House) follows the pair in pursuit of a hot story with catastrophically eerie results. Sent direct-to-video by its struggling distributor on initial release, Black Rainbow unfairly never got the exposure it deserved, newly restored from the original negative audiences can now discover the darkness at the end of the rainbow, as never before.

2.77GB | 1h 443m | 1024×552 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/C5DBE614F2E6DEE/Mike_Hodges_-_(1989)_Black_Rainbow.mkv

Language:English
Subtitles:English

The post Mike Hodges – Black Rainbow (1989) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Synopsis:
A vicious London gangster, Jack Carter, travels to Newcastle for his brother’s funeral. He begins to suspect that his brother’s death was not an accident and sets out to follow a complex trail of lies, deceit, cover-ups and backhanders through Newcastle’s underworld, leading, he hopes, to the man who ordered his brother killed. Because of his ruthlessness, Carter exhibits all the unstopability of the cyborg in The Terminator (1984), or Walker in Point Blank (1967), and he and the other characters in this movie are prone to sudden, brutal acts of violence.

2.50GB | 1h 51mn | 1024×576 | mkv

https://nitro.download/view/2BFBDB14AD7A884/Get.Carter.1971.576p.BDRip.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language(s):English+commentary
Subtitles:English, French, Spanish (muxed)

The post Mike Hodges – Get Carter (1971) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

As the result of a head injury, brilliant computer scientist Harry Benson begins to experience violent seizures. In an attempt to control the seizures, Benson undergoes a new surgical procedure in which a microcomputer is inserted into his brain. The procedure is not entirely successful.

Terrence Malick, the director of Badlands, wrote to Hodges expressing how much he loved watching The Terminal Man, saying “Your images make me understand what an image is.”

http://nitroflare.com/view/683D3DAA8C74677/The.Terminal.Man.1974.DVDRip.x264-HANDJOB.mkv

Language(s):English
Subtitles:None

The post Mike Hodges – The Terminal Man (1974) first appeared on Cinema of the World.

Quote:
Jack Manfred is the antithesis of a garret-starving artist. He hasn’t a romantic bone in his body. He’s an unpublished novelist, with a cynical view of the world, coming to terms with having an ex-policewoman girlfriend (Gina McKee), who loves the idea of being-with-a-writer, while suffering the depressive side-effects of self-absorption. Right now, he has a cash flow problem.

Directed by Mike (Get Carter) Hodges and written by Paul Mayersberg, this is a first person movie. Clive Owen is Jack. The voice-over commentary covers his thoughts, a technique that can be dangerously indulgent. Not here. Mayersberg’s script has the clarity of an open wound.

To pay the bills and overcome his writer’s block, he takes a job in a casino. He has had experience in Sun City, South Africa. He knows how croupiers behave – at speed, with respect and from a distance. There can be no interaction with customers and no cheating.

Despite the girlfriend, who talks of love at depths he could never reach, Jack is a loner. At the casino, he is master of his domain, incorruptible, in control and hating the undercurrents of sleaze. Quite soon, he is hooked again ”watching people lose”.

Although essentially a thriller, the film is really about Jack. He builds barriers around himself to ward off intimacy. He won’t gamble, he hates cheats. He hates most things. Jani (Alex Kingston) gets through to him, possibly because she’s South African and understands how to behave in a casino. Later, when they know each other better, she makes him an offer he cannot refuse.

The egocentric nature of the film cleverly disguises what else is going on outside Jack’s head. You see glimpses, make assumptions and realise that the world according to Jack is narrow and dark, while on the streets, with the rats and the criminals, plans are afoot.

Owen is mesmerizing. He locks into Jack with an intensity that singes flannel. He assumes a cool image, low on emotion. Hodges keeps the atmosphere tense, ready for those surprises, when they come.

Irony has seldom tasted so bitter

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The post Mike Hodges – Croupier (1998) first appeared on Cinema of the World.