USA

AMG Overview:
by Hal Erickson
MGM’s Ricardo Montalban and Cyd Charisse were loaned to Universal for the Technicolor period piece Mark of the Renegade. Set in 19th-century California, the film stars Montalban as Marcos, in league with a band of pirates. Marcos falls into the hands of Don Pedro Garcia (Gilbert Roland), a despot who hopes to become dictator of California. Planning to force the cooperation of benevolent politico Jose De Vasquez (Antonio Moreno), Garcia orders Marcos to court De Vasquez’ comely daughter Anita (Cyd Charisse). It soon develops that Marcos is not the criminal he appears to be, and that he is dedicated to the vanquishing of the evil Garcia. Somehow, Mark of the Renegade finds an excuse for Cyd Charisse to perform a bewitching dance number.Read More »

April has just graduated from an exclusive Southern college. She’s just returned home to her family mansion to prepare for her semi-arranged marriage to “the right man”, a man approved by April’s father, a Senator. During a trip to the local fair, April meets Perry, the kind of man she always wanted but never knew. Her parents are aghast, as Perry is exactly the kind of man they don’t want her associating with. April must reconcile the expectations of her family and her fiancée with the passion she feels for Perry.Read More »

Synopsis:
John and his girlfriend Shirley go in search of a cemetary in order to inspire John for writing his next horror story. After they crash the car, they wander into the graveyard and encounter the dancing dead, a full moon spectacle overseen by the Ruler of the Dark. Before long the couple is spotted and taken prisoner. Tied to stakes and forced to watch the dancing, they await their fate.Read More »

From imdb:
Starts out as if this is going to be one of Findlay’s better efforts and certainly the performances are bright enough and the voice over/lip sync works well enough, this just loses it about two thirds through. I don’t know whether it was the umpteenth use of whipped cream or the over enthusiastic use of corn on the cob, but after being fairly well paced and well shot with decent sexy action, this treads water as if everyone had run out of ideas or possibly a certain someone had a penchant for the aforementioned activities and wanted nothing else. It’s a shame because the first use of the cream being spurted over the nude psychedelic dancers is most effective as was the initial dealings with the phallic vegetable. Lots of oddities and some really good moments just spoiled by the over indulgent final quarter or so.Read More »

One day in 1966, the Maysles brothers filmed Marlon Brando as he did what we would now call a junket, where the idea is to let scores of television reporters meet the star in order to sell his latest movie, Morituri. Brando however, had other plans: declaring that he hates being ‘a hawker’ he turns the situation upside down, interviewing the interviewers, mocking the vacuousness of the set-up and flat-out refusing to promote Morituri. “Don’t you have ANYTHING to say about the film?” asks an exasperated journalist, to which Brando replies: “Bernie Wicky smokes the worst cigars I’ve ever known!”. With a lesser personality, this might be perceived as the arrogant posturing of a spoiled movie-star, but the mischievous twinkle in Brando’s eyes, combined with the fierce intelligence and wit of his answers, make it a joy to behold. The documentary does not get us any closer to Brando the actor, but in its half hour it does offer an insightful glimpse into the mind of a man who was too smart to go with the flow, too independent to compromise and who, throughout his life, refused to play by the rules.Read More »

Synopsis
Welcome to Riotsville, a fictional town built by the US military. Using all archival footage, the film explores the militarization of the police and creates a counter-narrative to the nation’s reaction to the uprisings of the late ’60s.Read More »

Quote:
Untitled (2008), 16mm film performance; technical specifications: double 16mm film projection, electric humidifiers; glass, mixed media; original score by Olivia Block. A minimalist monochromatic film frame is projected through a glass pane fogged via a humidification system.Read More »

A US rocket returning from Venus crash lands off the Italian coast, bringing back with it a strange creature that quickly begins to grow to terrifying proportions…

Clearly indebted to King Kong, and employing that film’s empathetic approach to its ‘monster’ (a trope that Harryhausen would continue to employ throughout his career), 20 Million Miles to Earth is a terrific slice of fifties sci-fi. It boasts some of Harryhausen’s finest work of the period, as well one of his most beloved and enduring creature creations.Read More »

Adaptation of Shakespeare’s play. Prospera, the female form of the male role in the original story, is banished from Milan by her brother. She finds herself stranded on an island with her four-year-old daughter and the beast Caliban. After 12 years of isolation, she gets the chance to take her revenge on her sibling, by causing a storm that wrecks his ship and strands those on board. Show lessRead More »