Fancy a noirgasm? Here you will have mutliple ones with The Brothers Rico (1957)
And in this very late noir effort directed by Phil Karlson (Kansas City Confidential)
Richard Conte leads the pack as brother Eddie Rico, who would really
like outta da business, but y'see he's gotta think about the famiglia,
and his brothers are depending on his loyalty at the moment.
Conte is no shrinking little violet, as a matter of fact, he was one of Paramount's
choices as well as Laurence Olivier and Eddie G Robinson and even Andy Griffith for the role that inevitably went to Mr Brando in that certain
Coppola masterpiece ( I cant believe I said anything nice about
Francis, but that's another story) Anyroad, this one is the business
and one of my favourite blacklistees is on board in the pen department-
Dalton Trumbo
The Krimi Kafe is open for business once again, so macht schnell - it's Der Unheimliche Monch from 1965 - and why yes wouldn't you know it, it's another Edgar Wallace adventure, they broke the krimi mold with Wallace's wonderful works. And they were old hands at it by now, as there were twenty-three entries of the series before this one.
When at home - it's The Sinister Monk, and trust me - you really don't want to sleep on a monk, they tell you - they are baking bread in the temple kitchen all day - but lo and behold........
Let's take a trip over to Czechoslovakia for this evening's Melting Pot Cinema, and here we have 1958's The Fabulous World of Jules Verne, directed by Karel Zeman that features some innovative superimposition and special animation that brings forth the works of
Verne interspersed in a disparate story, a most unusual narrative device for its day.
Here's one from 1998 - but its set four decades prior to those modern times and not long before the formidably frightening yet fun Paulie Walnuts, Tony Cirico, starred in the HBO hit The Sopranos he starred as a bad boy with a bum ticker in this Brooklyn story a paean to gangster tales of yore, (its lobby card says it all really ) with an obvious twist. Jon Canoy directs, whattayagonnado?Mob Queen
The kettle's on but you may need a cheeky dose of absinthe instead. This one is rarer
than an accolade from Donald Trump. And The Who may have made their claims, but the
kids. they definitely are not alright. Meet Leo and Mike, a pair of pre-teen pariahs with too much time on their hands. Why didn't they just go to their 4H Club meetings?
Bloody Kids - that's the title I swear,
Directed by Stephen Frears. From 1979.
A retrospect of the canon of Mr Samuel Fuller
The Naked Kiss (1964)
And this was aeons ahead of itself in the subject matter department,
like most of Samuel Fuller's catalogue. An inherent sociologist, his was a crusade that hoped
to spread awareness on various issues ranging from racial discrimination
to sexism et al. He had a voice when all else was mute - and his
films have an affinity to cause discomfort, painful as they are they
edify upon examining them. This is no different, starring Constance Towers
as a gal from the wrong side of the tracks that desperately wants
to get it right somehow.
Judgment in Berlin (1988) And this one was a family affair, with Leo Penn the proud(ish) papa of Sean, who co-created this with the film's producer, Joshua Sinclair who went on to direct a handful of features subsequently. This film is a faithful adaptation of Herbert J Stern's eponymous work - now the author was actually the American judge for Berlin in 1979, and since they say write what ya know - well who's Bob's nephew then? Martin Sheen shines as per.
