odd, obscure + dusty
some of these movies are good, some are bad, some are weird. some of them are kind of off the beaten-path and worth a look, some might as well be left unseen.
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- DirectorClarence BrownStarsJoan CrawfordRobert MontgomeryNils AstherA socialite begins a shipboard romance with a wealthy man, but is blackmailed by a former lover.Joan Crawford runs the gamut in perhaps her best role, with some of the best costumes. Grade: A-
- DirectorMervyn LeRoyStarsJoan BlondellAnn DvorakBette DavisAlthough Vivian Revere is seemingly the most successful of a trio of reunited schoolmates, she throws it away by descending into a life of debauchery and drugs.A group of female friends face the various ups and downs of life, some better than others. Great salacious pre-code sudser has some great acting and an energy that was wiped out by the Hayes Code a few years later. Grade: A
- DirectorWilliam J. CowenStarsWalter HustonLupe VelezConrad NagelThis remake of West of Zanzibar (1928) made four years later tries to outdo the Lon Chaney original in morbidity. From a wheelchair a handicapped white man rules an area of Africa as a living god. He rules the local natives through superstition and stage magic and he rules the few white people through sadism, keeping them virtual prisoners. He lives for the day he can avenge himself horribly on the man who stole his wife and crushed his spine. Strong and macabre stuff in a nearly forgotten horror film.A very strange, dated, racist potboiler set in deepest darkest Africa. Grade: C+
- DirectorGeorge ArchainbaudStarsIrene DunneRicardo CortezJill EsmondA young woman plots astrological revenge on schoolgirls from her past.Myrna Loy plays a Eurasian with a grudge who offs racist sorority sisters by means of supernatural powers. Grade: B
- DirectorVictor HalperinStarsCarole LombardRandolph ScottAlan DinehartA serial black widow murderess returns to life in the body of a young woman to exact revenge on a former lover, a phony spiritualist who betrayed her.Weird, convoluted, wacky tale of Carole Lombard possessed by a female serial killer. Grade: B-
- DirectorGeorge CukorStarsJoan CrawfordMelvyn DouglasConrad VeidtA female blackmailer with a disfiguring facial scar meets a plastic surgeon who offers her the possibility of looking like a normal woman.Joan Crawford is great as a badly-scarred criminal. Grade: B+
- DirectorHarry L. FraserStarsViolet HiltonDaisy HiltonMario LavalA Siamese twin kills the husband who left her. The courts have to decide if she is convicted of murder, how can they punish her sister, who had nothing to do with the crime?Real-life conjoined twins play singers in a lousy vaudeville show. They fall in love with two men, then grow resentful of one another, and contemplate a dangerous operation that will separate them forever. This is a contender for worst movie ever made, with cheap sets, a terrible script, and horrendous acting. Grade: F
- DirectorEwald André DupontStarsHelen WalkerRoss ElliottSusan MorrowReform school for rich girls behaving badly, is a good cover for the misbehaving adults in charge.Bratty rich girls get put through the ringer in a reform school prison paid for by mother and father. Grade: C+
- DirectorVincente MinnelliStarsRichard WidmarkLauren BacallCharles BoyerAt a private psychiatric clinic, the daily dramas and interactions between the doctors, nurses, administrators, benefactors and patients are accentuated by the personal and family crises of these individuals.Gloria Grahame wants to redecorate a room in an insane asylum, and things go down-hill from there. Grade: A-
- DirectorBryan ForbesStarsEdith EvansNanette NewmanHarry BairdElderly Mrs. Ross lives alone in her meager flat, scraping by on government assistance even as she claims to have great wealth. After finding stolen money she is victimized, making it necessary to find her support in her declining years.An old woman's bleak life in Manchester is made worse by paranoid delusions and unscrupulous neighbors. Grade: B+
- DirectorRobert AldrichStarsKim NovakPeter FinchErnest BorgnineA dictatorial film director (Peter Finch) hires an unknown actress (Kim Novak) to play the lead role in a planned movie biography of a late, great Hollywood star.Bitchy, campy, and borderline nonsensical. Kim Novak (Vertigo) once again plays dual roles. Everyone chews the scenery, no wonder there's no bannister on the stairs. Grade: B
- DirectorRoy Ward BakerAlvin RakoffStarsBette DavisSheila HancockJack HedleyThree sons who work in the family construction business help their overbearing mother celebrate her anniversary to her late husband.Bette Davis plays a rich bitch with an eye patch. Grade: B-
- DirectorBruce KesslerStarsKevin CoughlinBrooke BundyLawrence P. CaseyDanny and Elliot avoid military service by pretending to be gay, but they have to act the part when the recruiting officer doesn't buy it.Pre-DODT and it's eventual repeal, during the Vietnam War, men could fake being gay to avoid going to fight and/or die. This is a comedy about that. Grade: F
- DirectorArmando BoStarsIsabel SarliArmando BoAlba MúgicaA nymphomaniac can't get satisfaction from any single man or woman.Argentinian melodrama with lots of sex and threats. Grade: B+
- DirectorFreddie FrancisStarsJoan CrawfordMichael GoughBernard KayA sympathetic anthropologist uses drugs and surgery to try to communicate with a primitive troglodyte who is found living in a local cave.Joan Crawford discovers the missing link living in a cave in England. Grade: F
- DirectorStephanie RothmanStarsElaine GiftosKaren CarlsonBrioni FarrellSexy young nurses apply special therapy in their daily rounds.Don't judge a book by it's cover. A great low budget exploration of being young and female in Los Angeles in 1970. Grade: B+
- DirectorGualtiero JacopettiFranco ProsperiStarsStefano SibaldiSusan HampshireDick GregoryTwo documentary filmmakers go back in time to the pre-Civil War American South, to film the slave trade.This ugly, but also realistic, film depicts the transatlantic slave trade with vidid, salacious detail thru the eyes of a time-traveling documentary crew. It doesn't hold back in it's judgement of whites, but also seems to get off on the humiliation aspects of slavery. Grade: C
- DirectorTed KotcheffStarsDonald PleasenceGary BondChips RaffertyAfter a bad gambling bet, a schoolteacher is marooned in a town full of crazy, drunk, violent men who threaten to make him just as crazy, drunk, and violent.A tense, disturbing journey through the sweltering hot Australian, Outback. Grade: A-
- DirectorRichard BlackburnStarsLesley TaplinCheryl SmithWilliam WhittonA young girl who returns to her hometown to see her dying father finds herself being drawn into a web of vampirism and witchcraft.A foggy, atmospheric, southern gothic supernatural dream. Grade: A-
- DirectorJames B. HarrisStarsZalman KingCarol WhiteTisa FarrowA woman who's been asleep for years is part of a carnival that sells her kisses for a buck. A lonely jazz musician buys her. Once awake, the two of them and his two girlfriends hook up. But sometimes, dreams are better than reality.I call it boring. Grade. D
- DirectorWilliam A. LeveyStarsJohn HartIvory StoneJoe De SueEddie is a Vietnam war veteran who loses both his arms and his legs when he steps on a land mine. A brilliant surgeon is able to attach new limbs, but his assistant switches the DNA injections, transforming him into a huge hulking monster.This was terrible. This shouldn't ever be mentioned when discussing Blacula and and Blaxploitation films in general, because that might lead people to mistake Blackenstein for an actual film, and not the pile of garbage it is. Grade: F
- DirectorPaul WendkosStarsElizabeth MontgomeryFionnula FlanaganEd FlandersIn 1893 Massachusetts, Lizzie Andrew Borden is put on trial for murdering her father and stepmother with an axe.Bewitched she ain't. Elizabeth Montgomery plays the legendary axe murderer. With a bigger budget and a theatrical release she may have won an Oscar (or at least a Golden Globe.) Grade: A-
- DirectorNick MillardStarsPriscilla AldenMichael FloodJane LambertAn obese woman recently released from an insane asylum kills anyone who attempts to get her to stop eating.A fat lady doesn't want to stop eating, and kills anyone who tries to take her food away. Grade: D+
- DirectorSidney J. FurieStarsJeannie BerlinRoy ScheiderRebecca Dianna SmithThe traumas confronting a young Jewish girl in search of life, happiness and a husband in the big city.
- DirectorRichard LesterStarsJack WestonRita MorenoJerry StillerEvading a mob contract on his life, a heterosexual man winds up hiding out at a homosexual bathhouse.Weird and dated. A fast-paced gay comedy where all the main characters are straight. It's still an interesting time capsule with a fun performance from Rita Moreno. Grade: C