Shameless Self Expression

Secret agent Richard Wyler hooks up with fetching spy Maria Rohm to take on a gangster (George Sanders) and a powerful and ruthless leader (Shirley Eaton) of Amazonian women planning on ruling the entire world!   Spanish-born sleaze filmmaker Jesus Franco ( “Count Dracula” , “Vampyros Lesbos” , “Eugenie” , “The Bloody Judge” ) has quite possibly the largest filmography of any director I can think of, and he made more than just sleazy horror films and women’s prison flicks. This outlandish outing from 1969 sees the prolific filmmaker showing off his Swinging 60s vibe for a mixture of outlandish comic strip (think “Barbarella” meets Christopher Lee’s “Fu Manchu” films, with “Fu Manchu” creator Sax Rohmer having created the characters here too) and James Bond knock-off. It’s actually a fun little film, so long as you’re not expecting anything remotely close to his more sex-and-blood-obsessed films.   Scripted by Harry Alan Towers (Franco’s “The Bloody Judge” and “Eugenie” ) un

The sullen thirteen year-old title character (played by 14 year-old Lulu Wilson) is picked up by her dad (Joel McHale) to go on a trip to their family cabin some 12 months after the death of Becky’s beloved mother. She’s not enthused and is even less so when dad’s new girlfriend (Amanda Brugel) and her son show up. Things are…uh, tense as the new girlfriend’s attempts to ingratiate herself are met with eye-rolls and all-round bitchiness from young Becky. However, shit’s about to get really bad for the family once they’re at the cabin. The family are confronted by four escaped criminals, led by hulking neo-Nazi Dominick (Kevin James), who isn’t thrilled to see an interracial couple. He has other business to attend to however, as there’s a certain hidden key somewhere in or around the cabin that Dominick very much wants. And he’ll do whatever it takes to get it. He’s never met someone like Becky before though. Becky proves to be quite resourceful and frankly extremely violent for her or

Doctor Giacomo Rossi-Stuart arrives in a small village on business and is greeted by a town full of superstitious, frightened villagers who believe they are cursed by the murderous ghost of a young girl. Erika Blanc plays one of the townsfolk.   In my estimation the finest film from director Mario Bava ( “Black Sunday” , “Black Sabbath” , “Hatchet for the Honeymoon” ), he co-wrote this ghostly mini-masterpiece from 1966 with Romano Migliorini ( “The Inglorious Bastards” with Bo Svenson and Fred Williamson) and Roberto Natale ( “Vengeance is My Forgiveness” with Tab Hunter and Erika Blanc). Fans of Hammer Horror and the Roger Corman cycle of Edgar Allen Poe films are advised to check this one out because this is of a similar vein, whilst having its own vibe and atmosphere. Oh the atmosphere! It’s thick and foreboding from start to finish, and the colour cinematography by Antonio Rinaldi (Bava’s underrated “Five Dolls for an August Moon” ) and an uncredited Bava himself is to die f

Do yourselves a favour and read this review only after seeing the film. I’m not going to reveal very much information here, but that’s still too much information, so you’re better off – as always if you ask me – reading after viewing. Anyway, on with the plot synopsis and review.   Set in 2009, aging con artist Sir Ian McKellen meets wealthy widow Dame Helen Mirren online and arranges for a dinner date for their first face-to-face encounter. He takes Mirren for a sucker, and sees big dollar signs. As he sets about ingratiating himself into her life in the hopes of swindling her (even moving in with her), Mirren’s protective grandson Russell Tovey seems to have McKellen pegged for a shifty bastard from the get-go. Mirren doesn’t seem to be as keen for a romantic/sexual relationship as the rather more randy McKellen, but is nonetheless unable to see him for the crook he truly is. Jim Carter (in solid form) plays McKellen’s criminal partner who pops up from time to time to help conduc