Shameless Self Expression

The ship of the title is a WWII ship, now repurposed sometime after the war into a vessel for smuggling activities carried out by the very same ex-servicemen who used it during the war. George Baker tragically loses his wife and finds it tough to get work after returning home from the war. So when his sleazy ex-comrade Richard Attenborough to help smuggle some goods (booze, chocolate, etc), he somewhat reluctantly accepts. They also recruit fellow ex-serviceman Bill Owen. However, they eventually acquire a partner in smuggler Roland Culver, and that’s where the operation turns a bit more sinister. Bernard Lee plays a cynical customs officer who knows they’re up to something but hasn’t quite been able to catch them in the act yet. Virginia McKenna appears briefly as Baker’s wife.   Dreadful title, but this solid 1955 Ealing Studios crime-caper has an even worse alternate title in “PT Raiders” . At least this title is less generic and does pertain to the plot, silly as it sounds....

Set thousands of years into a post-apocalyptic future, Richard Lynch plays an evil warlord who captures our heroes David Carradine and Claudia Jennings. He forces them to engage in a gladiatorial deathsport fighting against motorcycle-riding goons. David McLean plays Lynch’s predecessor, whom the latter overthrows.   Paul Bartel’s original 1975 film “Death Race 2000” was a violently funny precursor to “Carmageddon” and the like, basically “The Running Man” with cars and a black sense of humour. It’s a hoot if you’re demonically inclined. Legendary B-movie producer (and occasional director) Roger Corman eventually decided to do a quasi-sequel with this 1978 film from director Nicholas Niciphor (an occasional writer in his only stint behind the camera) and his co-writer Donald Stewart ( “Jackson County Jail” , “Missing” , “Patriot Games” ). It’s an unmitigated cheapo disaster of colossal disappointment, and was a rather troubled production as well from what I understand. Direc...

A CIA agent named Fassett (John Hurt) brings some new intel to his boss Danforth (Burt Lancaster) concerning a spy ring called the Omega network. Upon reading the intel, Danforth tasks Fassett himself with convincing controversial TV host John Tanner (Rutger Hauer) that three of his most trusted friends (Craig T. Nelson, Chris Sarandon, and Dennis Hopper) are really Soviet spies. Ultra right-wing Lancaster wants Tanner – who frequently criticises the government – to turn at least one of the three Soviet agents of the Omega network. Tanner will do this at their annual get together at Tanner’s remote family home for the weekend. Fassett will set up camp somewhere on the estate grounds out of sight of the other guests but watching through several surveillance cameras he has set up all over the place. Occasionally he’ll pop in when no one else is around to give the very reluctant Tanner a pep talk. Let the games and manipulation begin. Cassie Yates, Helen Shaver, and Meg Foster play the sp...

Macho, somewhat brutish border sheriff Harry (Charles Napier) is also an occasional marijuana smuggler. His girlfriend is English-accented nurse Cherry (Linda Ashton), whilst the Raquel of the title (Larissa Ely) is a blonde hooker acquaintance of Harry’s who is doing unmentionable things with drug baron Mr. Franklin (Frank Bolger) when we first meet him. Mr. Franklin has a new job for Harry, one which will take him away from Cherry for a bit. That’s OK though, ‘coz Cherry is about to get acquainted with Raquel. Real closely acquainted. Uschi Digard appears in flash-cut flashbacks in a Native American headdress that eventually ties into the plot. Sort of. In reality, it was mere padding to make up for the fact that one of Meyer’s lead actresses got fed up being in a ‘dirty movie’ and left (Napier’s re-telling of this in the wonderful documentary “Hollywood Rated R” is hilariously non-PC).   Although it’s not one of the better-known or better-loved sex comedies from breast-obse...