Shameless Self Expression

Set at a small country hospital during WWII, a local postman dies on the operating table under mysterious circumstances. Doctor Trevor Howard seems to be the prime suspect, having had another patient die under similar circumstances. Meanwhile, smug womanising doctor Leo Genn gets caught kissing nurse Sally Gray by another jealous nurse who claims the postman’s death was actually murder. Then the accusing nurse herself winds up dead. Enter Scotland Yard Inspector Alastair Sim, set to get to the bottom of things, albeit like a bull in a china shop. Megs Jenkins plays one of the other nurses.   Although the guilty party tries just a tad too much to be noticed, this 1946 mystery-thriller from director Sidney Gilliat (screenwriter of Hitchcock’s classic “The Lady Vanishes” ) and co-writer Claud Gurney (his second and final screen credit, having died the same year at just 49 years of age) is an enjoyable experience. I actually rather preferred the early moments that merely focussed on th

Maria Bello stars as a mystery novel author who attends a speaking engagement in Chicopee, Massachusetts. The friendly host of the event (Ann Dowd – never a trustworthy presence these days) suggests a quicker route home for Bello, even programming it into her GPS. When Bello has a blow-out in the middle of nowhere, she happens upon the title big, burly pick-up driver (Will Harris) who offers to help her. Instead he kidnaps her, rapes her, and eventually leaves her for dead. Bello is not dead however, and once she has her strength back she plots her revenge. Olympia Dukakis plays one of Bello’s fictional characters (!), and Joan Jett plays a sympathetic bar owner.   If this 2014 TV movie from director Mikael Salomon (who became a TV journeyman after the disappointing action-thriller “Hard Rain” ) is any indication, author Stephen King has pretty much nothing new or interesting to say. Adapted by Richard Christian Matheson (the dreadful “Loose Cannons” , as well as “Happy Face Killer

Years after his father died in an horrific car crash, Alan Scarfe moves his wife (Beverly Murray) and daughter Cathy (Randi Allen) into his late father’s home. Cathy quickly becomes possessed with the evil spirit of her dead Aunt (who also died in the car crash).   Bargain basement junk from Canada, this 1977 snoozer directed by Frenchman Eddy Matalon ( “Blackout” , with Robert Carradine and Ray Milland) film rips off both “Carrie” and “The Exorcist” . Easily one of the worst films I’ve seen in my 41 years on this planet, it might even rival the same year’s “Exorcist II: The Heretic” for sheer ineptitude. Although Beverly Murray and especially Alan Scarfe have gone on to other things in the years since, you wouldn’t know it based on the “Troll II” -level performances everyone gives here. Except “Troll II” had the benefit of being (unintentionally) funny. Poor Ms. Murray is especially bad here, swinging wildly between stilted and horribly overwrought, occasionally within the same

  Richard Todd plays a P.I. sent to Venice to track down an Italian freedom fighter to be rewarded for his efforts during WWII. Everyone keeps telling Todd that the man died in an air raid. Todd is convinced there’s more to it, and the increasing amount of dead people who turn up during his investigation only furthers his suspicion. Eva Bartok plays an art restorer, Walter Rilla plays Bartok’s suspicious employer, Sid James is an Italian undertaker (!), Margot Grahame is an old acquaintance of Todd’s, and George Coulouris is a local cop.   Also given the rather drab title of  “The Assassin” , this 1952 British mystery-thriller is a little similar to the well-regarded  “The Third Man” . I actually think it’s about on par with that Carol Reed film, but bear in mind I find  “The Third Man”  slightly overrated, whereas this might be a tad  under rated. Directed by Ralph Thomas (who did a very fine job on 1958’s  “A Tale of Two Cities” ), this is a solid film, though I might suggest it’

An Earthquake charting 7 on the Richter scale hits L.A. as we follow several of its eclectic inhabitants before and during the catastrophe. Charlton Heston plays an engineer (and former gridiron player) in the midst of an affair with an actress (Genevieve Bujold) whilst unhappily married to shrill Ava Gardner. Lorne Greene plays Gardner’s father (!) and Heston’s boss, Marjoe Gortner plays a bullied grocery store manager and National Guard NCO who has an unhealthy interest in pretty Victoria Principal. Richard Roundtree turns up as a stunt motorbike rider, and George Kennedy plays a grouchy but heroic cop. Lloyd Nolan plays a doctor, Barry Sullivan a seismologist. Walter Matthau has a recurring cameo as a sloppy drunk, credited here under what was supposed to be his real last name but turned out to be a dumb joke (It’s really Walter ‘Matthow’, not ‘Matthau’ and certainly not ‘Matuchanskayasky’ as credited here).   There weren’t too many films in the 70s all-star disaster movie genr