1970’s

[6] Dame Judith Anderson (Rebecca, Edge of Darkness) headlines this genre-blender from writer/director Terry Bourke (Night of Fear). Inn of the Damned is an Australian western mixed with a horror mystery, about an American bounty hunter (Airwolf‘s Alex Cord) pursuing a wanted murderer in the 1890s. The chase ultimately leads to a remote inn where an old couple (Anderson and Joseph Furst) never let their …

[6] Producer Irwin Allen continued his string of successful disaster films (The Towering Inferno, The Poseidon Adventure) with this TV movie that aired the month Star Wars was unleashed upon the world. Oscar-winner Ernest Borgnine (Marty) headlines the ensemble this time around, trying to rescue his girlfriend (Psycho‘s Vera Miles) and a bunch of children trapped at a mountain lodge during a rapidly growing forest …

[7] Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry produced and wrote the adapted screenplay for this supremely odd but beguiling movie directed by Roger Vadim (Barbarella). Rock Hudson headlines as a high school football coach and guidance counselor who gets intimate with the students and faculty behind closed doors. One of his students, played by newcomer John David Carson (Creature from Black Lake), comes to him with …

[6] A woman wrecks her car on a rural, dead end road where she’s stalked by a scary hermit (Norman Yemm) and his pet rat in this Australian film from writer/director Terry Bourke (Inn of the Damned, Noon Sunday). Night of Fear is an exercise in tension and dread that undoubtedly inspired The Texas Chain Saw Massacre a year later. You’ll find similarities between the …

[3] In this TV movie from producer Irwin Allen (The Poseidon Adventure, The Towering Inferno), several inhabitants of a small fishing town debate whether or not their dam is about to break after several weeks of rain. The mayor refuses to believe the town is in danger until the flood waters are upon them. In typical Irwin Allen fashion, we get an all-star (B-level, since …

[7] Clint Eastwood gives us his take on James Bond with The Eiger Sanction, the story of a retired hit man who is coerced back into action by a secretive government organization to ‘sanction’ (kill) a member of a mountain climbing party in the Swiss Alps. The Bond-like elements are some of the film’s most memorable, including the secretive group’s albino boss man (Thayer David) …

[7] Maybe I crave Bigfoot movies and the innocence of the 1970s so much that I give half-way decent ‘Squatch flicks more credit than I should, but I was impressed with Creature from Black Lake, a low-budget film with production values that exceeded my expectations. John David Carson and Dennis Fimple star as a pair of Chicago college students traveling to rural Arkansas to investigate …

[6] A bisexual hustler (Joed Adair) hitchhikes around the Pacific Southwest looking to trade sex for room and board — and maybe a deeper connection with someone? Drifter is an early offering in the history of gay cinema, a non-explicit 16mm film produced by a gay porn company (Jaguar) hoping for a mainstream crossover. Drifter never found that kind of success, of course. In fact, …

[7] Paul Newman stars as an aging ice hockey coach and player who tries to salvage his team’s careers by leaning into on-ice violence and wrestling-like theatrics, what the players call ‘goonery’. The effort works, leading to a winning streak, publicity, and huge crowds. But when the team’s owner still decides to fold the team for a tax write-off, spirits dive and the championship is …

[5] Sophia Loren stars in the final film from director Vittorio de Sica, about an Italian woman despondently searching for her soldier husband (Marcello Mastroianni) in the fallout of World War II. Unable to learn from the government whether he’s even dead or alive, she sets out to the battlefront once the war is over. And what can I say without giving away the second …

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