*contains spoilers In 1969, Larry had a bit part in the Peter Sellers and Ringo Starr vehicle The Magic Christian. A film which poses the question that people will do anything for money, it is extremely over the top and quite funny. Set in England, Larry plays a Shakespearian actor doing Hamlet, who is bribed…
Read more The Cult of Laurence Harvey Forever a Dandy in Aspic (Part Two)
*contains spoilers He was an AC/DC (no, not the band) playboy whose persona would swing between jaunty cynicism to debonair gloom. This together with his modern flamboyancy didn’t really endear him to audiences with great popularity. But enter his gallery of movies, especially towards the end, and there are some minor classics. He is Laurence…
Read more The Cult of Laurence Harvey Forever a Dandy in Aspic (Part One)
*contains spoilers The second movie made by Lee is the far more atrocious, yet in some ways more fun, Killers from Space. According to Myles Wilder, who told Tom Weaver, the film was shot in six days using his father’s money and actual office for the office scenes as well as other cheap locations –…
Read more W. Lee Wilder’s Terrible Trilogy that Wouldn’t Die! (Part Two)
*contains spoilers Pity director Billy Wilder’s (born Samuel 1906-2002 pneumonia) older brother, whose name was William but was known as W. Lee Wilder (1904-82). Long estranged from each another, while Billy was receiving Oscar nominations and scoring wins, his brother, who Billy jokingly called “a dull son of a bitch”, was making some of the…
Read more W. Lee Wilder’s Terrible Trilogy that Wouldn’t Die! (Part One)
*contains spoilers This is an article about madness and the supernatural. It is about dolls in passing. The main doll, which helps frame this article, is Hugo from the ventriloquist segment of the excellent Dead of Night (1945). Yes we also mention Annabelle and Chucky. But Dead of Night is the timeless classic of the…
Christopher Doyle (1952-) is an Australian born cinematographer who left Australia as a teenager and after working odd jobs throughout the world became a student of Chinese culture and a photographer. Cinematography followed and he made his first movie in Taiwan in the early 80s. Since then he has worked on over 50 movies in…
Read more Cinematographer Christopher Doyle on Chinese Cinema and the Psycho remake
*contains spoilers Had a bad day? Did someone let you down? Did several people let you down? In fact, did you get the feeling that nobody cares? You get the idea that if you took a couple of handfuls of tablets you wouldn’t be missed at all? Then everything seems to have gone to hell.…
Read more The Anthony Waller Out of Water Into Hell Trilogy!
*contains spoilers Then came a pair of films in England where public interest was piqued by the scandal. The films were released by what would become Hammer Studios and were the sci-fi themed Four Sided Triangle (1953), which obviously used the ménage a trois angle of Barbara’s real life and Bad Blonde (1953), where she…
*contains spoilers She was a beautiful free spirit with crystal blue eyes. She achieved stardom in Hollywood before instantly nose-diving into a life of alcoholism, sex addiction and degradation hastened by mental illness. Barbara Payton is all the Hollywood Dream can be and how it can turn completely and utterly upside-down and out. From a…
*contains spoilers The Lonely Lady is a much better prospect, both as a movie and performance by Pia. The script is by far an improvement on Fake-Out despite its reputation. Incidentally, Matt Cimber was first attached to the project but he was replaced. Based on the Harold Robbins bestseller (1976), The Lonely Lady has long…
Cult Film Alley 