Shameless Self Expression

After the death of his parents, a 1960s Alabama kid (Jahzir Bruno) is taken in by his grandmother (Octavia Spencer), who tells him all kinds of stories about witches. Witches who hate children, no less. When the twosome check into a hotel, the boy uncovers a meeting for the ladies of the Society for Prevention to Children. However, these ladies turn out not to be mere ladies. They are foul witches, led by the imperious Grand High Witch (played by a camp Anne Hathaway) who announces a plan to turn the world’s children into mice by poisoning confectionary! Stanley Tucci plays the slimy hotel manager.   Back in 1990, director Nicolas Roeg mostly delivered the nasty goods with his film version of the Roald Dahl grotesquely amusing classic. In 2020, American filmmaker Robert Zemeckis ( “Romancing the Stone” , “Who Framed Roger Rabbit?” , “Forrest Gump” ) and his co-screenwriters Kenya Barris (creator of TV’s “Black-ish” ) and Guillermo Del Toro (director of “Hellboy” and “The Shap...

Kirk Douglas plays Einar, the Viking prince son of King Ragnar (Ernest Borgnine, actually slightly younger than Douglas in real-life). On one of their typical Viking raids, Einar captures Welsh princess Morgana (Janet Leigh), who is to be wed to the sinister, imperious English King Aella (Frank Thring). Morgana has no interest in either men, in fact she would rather be with slave Eric (Tony Curtis), whom Einar has a great distaste for. James Donald plays the aptly named Egbert, an English Nobleman with no love for his King, and who has been providing intel for the Vikings in secret. Alexander Knox plays Father Godwin, who knows a secret about Eric that will also impact Einar (A secret that Egbert is also aware of).   One of the shortest but best classic Hollywood historical epics, this 1958 adventure flick from eclectic director Richard Fleischer ( “Fantastic Voyage” , “Mandingo” , “Red Sonja” ) is just about the manliest movie ever. It’s even narrated by Orson Welles for cryin...

The story concerns American President Lyndon B. Johnson (Michael Gambon) and his administration’s role in the poor decisions made in the early stages of the Vietnam War. Alec Baldwin is the hawkish Defence Secretary Robert McNamara who argues in favour of more American involvement in Vietnam, instead of focussing on civil rights and the War on Poverty programs that had been promised. McNamara’s main rival for the President’s ear is Under-Secretary of State George Ball (Bruce McGill), who thinks Vietnam involvement is a mistake and money is better spent on the social programs instead. Donald Sutherland plays LBJ’s loyal friend and advisor Clark Clifford, who is initially against McNamara’s gung-ho attitude towards (increased) military intervention. In smaller roles we have Felicity Huffman and Sarah Paulson as Lady Bird Johnson and daughter Luci Baines Johnson, whilst Frederic Forrest and Tom Skerritt play the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Gen. William Westmoreland, respecti...

Diabolical master criminal Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) has kidnapped the daughters of several prominent industrialists in order to blackmail their parents into constructing a deadly weapon. It’s up to Sir Dennis Nayland-Smith (Douglas Wilmer) and co to stop him before it’s too late. Rupert Davies is one of the scientists with Carole Gray his kidnapped daughter. Tsai Chin is back as Fu Manchu’s loyal daughter, with Burt Kwouk and Ric Young as a couple of his henchmen. Howard Marion Crawford plays Nayland-Smith’s colleague Dr. Petrie. Joseph Furst and Marie Versini play a scientist father and kidnapped daughter respectively, with Heinz Drache as Versini’s fiancé.   A perfectly cast Douglas Wilmer takes over from Nigel Green in this superior 1966 sequel from Aussie director Don Sharp ( “The Face of Fu Manchu” , “Rasputin – The Mad Monk” ) and writer/producer Harry Alan Towers ( “The Face of Fu Manchu” , “The Bloody Judge” , “Eugenie…The Story of Her Journey into Perversion” ). The...

Ben Harper (Peter Graves) robs a bank to try to feed his wife (Shelley Winters) and children (Billy Chapin, Sally Jane Bruce) and ends up in prison for shooting two people in the process. In prison he blabs about the robbery to fellow con Harry Powell (Robert Mitchum) a psychopath who sees himself as a preacher. Although he doesn’t know where Harper hid the money, Powell nonetheless ventures to the now executed man’s town. He romances Harper’s lonely and gullible widow, and although young Bruce seems to like him, Chapin becomes suspicious of the supposed preacher with ‘love’ and ‘hate’ tattooed on his knuckles. When tragedy strikes, the kids must venture on their own with the dangerous Rev. Harry Powell in pursuit of them. Lillian Gish plays Rachel Cooper, a Christian woman who takes in stray children.   This beguiling and unusual blend of biblically-tinged fable and crime/thriller from 1955 was the first, last, and only directorial effort from actor Charles Laughton. That’s a ...