Last and definitely not least in my yearlong look at cult films from the 1950s to the 1970s is Billy Wilder’s award winning film noir drama Sunset Boulevard. While on the run from repossession men seeking his car, down on his luck screenwriter Joe Gillis (William Holden) stumbles into the mansion of faded silent film star Norma Desmond…
I’m a week bit late with my (technically) November blindspot selection, in which I watched Jean-Luc Godard’s 1964 film Bande à part, known in North America as Band of Outsiders. Franz (Sami Frey) and Arthur (Claude Brasseur) are two friends who come up with a plan to steal a large stash of money at a villa in Joinville, outside of…
This month I watched John De Bello’s 1978 B-movie satire Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. Genetically modified tomatoes unexpectedly become sentient and begin killing people around the United States. While the President’s press secretary Jim Richardson (George Wilson) wants to ensure the public that there is no real threat, the President (Ernie Meyers) decides to form a task…
This month I watched Michelangelo Antonioni’s 1966 English language debut Blow-Up. Thomas (David Hemmings) is a highly successful London photographer, who one day begins taking pictures of a loving couple in a park. When, the woman lover, Jane (Vanessa Redgrave) discovers this she is infuriated and demands that Thomas give her the film. With his curiosity peaked,…
I move from cars to motorcycles this month with 1969’s Easy Rider. Wyatt (Peter Fonda) and Billy (Dennis Hopper) are two freewheeling bikers, who have just completed a cocaine drug deal. With the money stashed away in the gas tank of Wyatt’s chopper, the two go set off from Los Angeles to New Orleans, hoping to arrive…
This month I watched the 1971 car chase movie Vanishing Point. Kowalski (Barry Newman) is a former race car driver, now working as a car delivery man, who is tasked with delivering a white 1970 Dodge Challenger R/T 440 Magnum from Denver, Colorado to San Francisco. While scoring Benzedrine pills to stay awake for the trip, Kowalski makes a bet with…
This month I watched this African-American retelling of The Wizard of Oz. Dorothy (Diana Ross) is a 24 year old Harlem schoolteacher, who chases her dog Toto out into a snowstorm and ends up being carried away by a whirlwind into the magical land of Oz. Accidentally killing Evermean, the Wicked Witch of the East, Dorothy is given…
This month I watched Ken Russell’s 1975 film based on the rock opera by The Who. Tommy (Roger Daltrey) has been supposedly death, dumb, and blind since witnessing as a kid his stepfather Frank (Oliver Reed) kill Tommy’s father, who was thought to have been killed in war. Frank and Tommy’s mother Nora (Ann-Margret) try in…
This month I delve into the film that immortalized James Dean. Jim Stark (Dean) is a rebellious and angst-ridden teen, whose family just moved into town. Jim befriends fellow outsider John ‘Plato’ Crawford (Sal Mineo) and feels an attraction to local girl Judy (Natalie Wood). However, Jim is targeted by a local gang, whose leader Buzz (Corey Allen)…
This month I watched a debut studio effort by sexploitation king Russ Meyer with Beyond the Valley of the Dolls. Kelly MacNamara (Dolly Read), Casey Anderson (Cynthia Myers), and Petronella “Pet” Danforth (Marcia McBroom) are members of an all-female rock band, who travel along with Kelly’s manager boyfriend Harris Allsworth (David Gurian) to Los Angeles to seek…
