Janice Rule

IMDB Synopsis
A notorious outlaw being escorted to prison by a homesteader and his wife turns
out to have satanic powers. He uses them on the man’s wife to try to possess her
and help him escape.
TV version of “3:10 to Yuma” except the arch villain seems to have Svengali-like
powers, and his gang are Native Americans. Nice cast of actors filmed in real
locations, but demon-wannabe Gene Barry looks more like a 70’s pimp with his
bad-ass medallion and leather suit. The movie just doesn’t possess the necessary
outright deviltry as found in, for example, the TV Satan-western “Black Noon”
made the same year. Might raise more chuckles than hackles.Read More »

One of the few bona fide counter-cultural films to be produced by a major studio, The Swimmer is a sun-scorched and surreal suburban satire that boasts a fine performance from Burt Lancaster (Castle Keep, Buffalo Bill and the Indians) as Ned Merrill, the all-American man who one day determines to swim home to his Connecticut mansion via a series of pools in his neighbourhood.

Directed by Frank Perry (Diary of a Mad Housewife) imbues Eleanor Perry’s (David and Lisa, Ladybug Ladybug) adaptation of John Cheever’s short story with stunning expressionistic flourishes, creating a true masterpiece of cinema.Read More »

David Kehr, Chicago Reader wrote:
Robert Altman’s would-be American art film (1977) is murky, snide, and sloppy, but the director’s off the hook because he dreamed it all. Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall are two Texas girls who meet while working in a California sanatorium (courtesy of 81/2) and exchange identities while Altman struggles with feminism and the American dream. As usual, the director plainly despises his characters but offers no alternative to their pettiness, although his sneaky jokes at their expense give the film its only glimmer of style.Read More »