Shameless Self Expression

Frankenstein (Peter Cushing) and assistant Hans (Sandor Eles) return to Karlstad to move back into the former’s now decrepit old abode and laboratory. He also seeks out, finds, and thaws his ‘creature’ which has been frozen in ice. He revives the creature (played by Kiwi Kingston) but finds that it no longer obeys his commands. What to do? Well there’s this shonky carny hypnotist in town named Zoltan (played by a bland Peter Woodthorpe), and it gives Frankenstein an idea. Katy Wild is a mute beggar girl, Duncan Lamont plays the chief of police.   Director Freddie Francis ( “Dracula Has Risen From the Grave” , “Dr. Terror’s House of Horrors” , “Tales From the Crypt” , “The Creeping Flesh” ) and screenwriter Anthony Hinds ( “Dracula Has Risen From the Grave” , “Taste the Blood of Dracula” , “Scars of Dracula” ) really drop the ball in this 1964 Hammer horror sequel. After the terrific previous entry “The Revenge of Frankenstein” , we’re given something lame and clunky despite the...

Dr. Watson (Sir Ben Kingsley) has always been the real master of deduction, writing of his real-life crime-solving exploits but attributing them to fictional master sleuth Sherlock Holmes, so as to not get in the way with his image as a medical professional. To help with the ruse, Watson hires an idiot fourth-rate stage ham named Reginald Kincaid (an hilariously preening, pompous Sir Michael Caine) to play the ‘part’ of Sherlock Holmes. Kincaid as Holmes is required to spout off a few written and fed lines Watson has prepared for him, whilst he goes about the real crime-solving. Eventually Watson and Kincaid have one falling out too many, and go their separate ways. Unfortunately, no one seems to want Dr. Watson solving their crimes, authorities refusing to collaborate with him on anything. So when some printing plates go missing, Watson is forced to retrieve Kincaid from the pub and join forces yet again. Lysette Anthony plays the beautiful daughter of a missing man, Paul Freeman turn...

Teenager Blu Hunt plays the lone survivor of an attack on her Native American family by some kind of fantastical creature. She’s institutionalised and put in the care of Dr. Reyes (Alice Braga) who specialises in youngsters with seemingly mutant powers/abilities. She and the other patients are forced to band together when they start being stalked by creatures playing into their deepest, darkest fears. Anya Taylor-Joy and a Scottish-accented Maisie Williams play two of the other patients.   I’m all for freshening up a genre/subgenre, but this 2020 “X-Men” spin-off ain’t it, chief. Dreary, deeply unpleasant, and incredibly slow-paced it just doesn’t come off. Director Josh Boone ( “The Fault in Our Stars” ) and his co-writer Knate Lee seem to be going for a mixture of “Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” and “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest” which is…uh, pretty different I guess for this type of thing (though “Glass” did touch on some of this sort of stuff in its weakest scenes). I...

Three WWII soldiers return to civilian life and face various problems in re-integrating into their home situations. Fredric March plays an Army Sergeant of fairly decent wealth who seems hesitant to re-join his loving wife (Myrna Loy) and his two kids, including daughter Teresa Wright. Back in his old job at the bank he finds himself being forced to deny loans to his fellow ex-servicemen, feeling guilt that he’s in a better financial situation than they are. Harold Russell plays a sailor and double amputee who has to deal with a loving but now overly sensitive and smothering family, including young wife Cathy O’Donnell. Dana Andrews rounds out the trio as a flyboy who got married just days before shipping out and comes home to find that the wife he hardly knows (Virginia Mayo) is a bit of a floozy with not much interest in him. Hoagy Carmichael plays Russell’s piano-playing buddy, and Roman Bohnen plays Andrews’ stoic father.   Directed by William Wyler ( “The Little Foxes” , “...

A WWII film set in occupied France, our protagonists are five Allied soldiers with sullied reputations for various reasons (Peter Hooten, Fred Williamson, Bo Svenson, Jackie Basehart, and Michael Pergolani). The transport they’re being shipped in while under military arrest is attacked by Nazis, and our dirty five decide to make a run for it. Later, a sticky situation sees them inadvertently stumble upon a deadly undercover mission masterminded by American officer Ian Bannen (!). They decide to take it upon themselves to carry out the mission instead. A suicide mission at that.   B-move loving filmmaker Quentin Tarantino took the title and basic rag-tag military platoon theme from this 1978 war-action pic for his terrific “Inglourious Basterds” (so-titled because of a misspelling of this film’s title), so don’t go looking for too many similarities here. This flick from director Enzo G. Castellari ( “The New Barbarians” , “Street Law” ) is basically a moderately budgeted Italia...