Von Richthofen & Brown
by Roger Corman
from MGM (Video & DVD)
The incredibly prolific exploitation film producer and director, Roger Corman, tries his hand at a war film with Von Richthofen and Brown, about WWI air battles between German icon Baron Manfred Von Richtofen (John Phillip Law), and his alleged captor, Canadian Lt. Roy Brown (Don Stroud). With a slowly unfolding plot that may be tedious to anyone but war buffs trolling for historical accuracy, the film is mostly about its flight sequences, as it should be. Von Richthofen and Brown shows The Red Baron's rise to glory and his noble downfall, while building sympathy for the opposing forces who plan revenge on his unbeatable German team. Interpretive scenes during which he snidely paints his squadron's planes, including his own conspicuous red, and later depicting his controversial death, during which he is shot mid-air but somehow lands his plane, are the most arresting to those not aircraft-obsessed. Tension built between Von Richthofen and Brown is half-baked, making further argument for the film's battle-scene priority. War aficionados will appreciate this film, while Corman fans will yearn for more sex, gore, melodrama, and classic Corman action. --Trinie Dalton
The Secret Invasion
by Roger Corman
from United Artists
The story of British Intelligence using criminals to work behind enemy lines in Yugoslavia during World War II.System Requirements:Running Time: 95 minutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA/CLASSICS Rating: NR UPC: 883904106418 Manufacturer No: M110641
The Fall of the House of Usher /The Pit and the Pendulum
by Roger Corman
from American International Pictures (AIP)
The Fall of the House of UsherLegendary scare-masters Vincent Price and Roger Corman serve up a diabolical nightmare from screenwriter Richard Matheson that drips with "brooding evil and sinister suspense" (The Film Daily)! Based on Edgar Allan Poe's chilling tale about a family driven to savage bloodlust by a power beyond their wildest fears this terrifying story of "murder madness and necrophilia" (Cue) proves that there's no place like home for horror!Running Time 70 MinThe Pit and the PendulumHappily-ever-after goes under the knife in this "eerie [and] excellent" (The Hollywood Reporter) saga of murder madness and forbidden desire. Starring Vincent Price as a man teetering on the brink of insanity (while his wife plots to push him over it) this "spine-tingling thriller" (Redbook) is a "lush elegant and bloody" (Cue) tale of razor-sharp terror!Running Time 70 MinSystem Requirements: Running Time 140 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: NR UPC: 027616910875 Manufacturer No: 1006946
The Masque of the Red Death / The Premature Burial
by Roger Corman
from MGM (Video & DVD)
The Masque of the Red Death (1964) is Roger Corman's, and most people's, choice as the best of the Edgar Allan Poe pictures. Masque offers the expected creepy atmosphere and violence against peasants, plus metaphysical ponderings and pointed satanic cruelty. (Corman was operating as much under the influence of Ingmar Bergman as of Edgar Allan Poe.) Nicolas Roeg's color cinematography and Daniel Haller's elaborate production design would be stellar in any Hollywood A-movie; the mono-colored rooms of the prince's castle are a startling effect. Vincent Price is in fine fettle as Prince Prospero, the devil-worshipping sadist who throws lavish parties while the countryside is ravaged by the plague.
The Premature Burial (1962) substitutes Ray Milland in the usual Price role. He's a snarky landowner (with a sideline in art--dig those mod paintings) haunted by the fear of being buried alive. This single-minded focus limits the film, but it also adds to the smothering sense of anxiety that prevails throughout its unhealthy scenario. Luscious Hazel Court is Milland's new missus, and old-school cameraman Floyd Crosby proves his facility for photographing women in a classical style. Lots of cobwebs-on-candelabra in the customary Corman-Poe manner, with special emphasis on Milland's crypt, with its supposedly foolproof exit schemes. --Robert Horton
The Masque of the Red Death: Death and Debauchery reign in the castle of Prince Prospero (Vincent Price), and when it reigns... it pours! Prospero has only once excuse for his diabolical deeds--the devil made him do it! But when a mysterious, uninvited guest crashes his pad during a masquerade ball, there'll be hell to pay as the party atmosphere turns into a danse macabre!
The Premature Burial: Talk about a tortured artist! Oscar winner Ray Milland is Guy, a medical student and painter whose obsessive fear of being buried alive compels him to build himself a tomb with a view, equipped with everything he can think of to escape death. But it's when his long-suffering wife convinces him to destroy the tomb that he finds himself in the gravest danger!
The Haunted Palace / The Tower of London
by Roger Corman
from MGM (Video & DVD)
THE HAUNTED PALACE TOWER OF LONDON
X - The Man with the X-Ray Eyes
by Roger Corman
from MGM (Video & DVD)
"Only the gods see everything," cautions one scientist as Dr. James Xavier (Ray Milland) experiments with a formula that will allow the human eye to see beyond the wavelength of visible light. "I am closing in on the gods," he responds with the hubris that is doomed to destroy his overreaching ambition. A mix of Greek tragedy and sci-fi potboiler, Roger Corman's X: The Man with the X-Ray Eyes (simply identified as X in the eerie, odd opening credits) is a familiar tale of a scientist who risks everything to explore the unknown and is finally driven mad by, literally, seeing too much. Peeping through the clothes of comely women is all good adolescent fun until the gift becomes a nightmare as his sight rages out of control. The possibilities suggested in the hints of addiction and inconsistent bouts of megalomania remain tantalizingly unexplored in the unfocused script, and Corman's cut-rate special effects are often more hokey than haunting (the "city dissolved in an acid of light" that Xavier poetically describes becomes fuzzy photography through a series of color filters). Don Rickles offers a venal turn as a scheming carnival barker turned blackmailing con man, and Diana Van der Vlis is understanding as a sympathetic scientist who tries to rescue Xavier from his spiral into tortured madness, but in the tradition of Greek tragedy, he is doomed to be destroyed by the very gifts he desires.
MGM's widescreen disc also features commentary by director-producer Corman. --Sean Axmaker
The Wild Angels
by Roger Corman
from MGM (Video & DVD)
Embittered by his experience working with 20th Century Fox on The St. Valentine's Day Massacre (1967), and weary of the Poe films for American International Pictures, Roger Corman was in dire need of inspiration for his next production. He found it in Life magazine, which featured a photo of the funeral of Mother Miles, head of the Sacramento, California, Hell's Angels. From this picture came both The Wild Angels and the biker-movie genre itself. Peter Fonda, who replaced George Chakiris, stars as brooding Angels chieftain Heavenly Blues. When his pal Loser (Bruce Dern) is shot by police, Blues attempts to bury him in a small town, but the locals resist, and a brawl ensues. Audiences and critics were alternately appalled and thrilled by the extensive drug use and violence, but beneath Angels' leathery hide beats the heart of a Western, especially in its ruminations on personal freedom. Charles Griffith's script (cowritten by Peter Bogdanovich, who also cameos in the film) helped make Angels the sole U.S. entry for the 1966 Venice Film Festival, which irked the State Department enough to try and revoke the honor. Corman's direction, freed from AIP's period pieces, is lean and exuberantly active, aided by Monte Hellman's editing. The film helped give Fonda the counterculture clout to later make Easy Rider, and boosted the careers of Dern and then-wife Diane Ladd; Nancy Sinatra, however, renounced the picture, fearful of its effect on her image. Mike Curb's score features Davie Allan and the Arrows' fuzz-tone-soaked hit "Blues' Theme." --Paul Gaita
The St. Valentine's Day Massacre
by Roger Corman
from 20th Century Fox
Jason Robards as Scarface teams with George Segal (in a rare bad-guy role) to battle the Feds. The 1929 massacre is bloody indeed.System Requirements:Features: Widescreen Feature Theatrical Trailers Fox Flix: Compulsion and Murder Inc. Running Time: 109 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: DRAMA Rating: NR UPC: 024543238669 Manufacturer No: 2233866
The Wild Angels/Hell's Belles
by Maury Dexter
from MGM (Video & DVD)
The Wild AngelsGrab your chick hop on your Harley and fly with this sociological shocker [from the] cut-rate master of the macabre (Time) Roger Corman! Violent [and] savage (The Hollywood Reporter) this souped-up sexy flick about a psycho biker on the trail of a stolen chopper made high-octane stars out of Peter Fonda Nancy Sinatra Bruce Dern and Diane Ladd!Running Time 96 MinHell's Belles Delivering all the action and excitement that today s youth could want (Boxoffice) this freewheeling adventure follows a motorcycle racer hot on the trail of the low-down low-riders who stole his bike. But when he finds himself saddled with a sullen and sexy chopper chick his lust for vengeance ignites something far more dangerous and this well acted bike-rama jumps to life (Variety)!Running Time 86 MinSystem Requirements: Running Time 182 MinFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: NR UPC: 027616910837 Manufacturer No: 1006942
Tales of Terror/Twice Told Tales (Midnite Movies Double Feature)
by Sidney Salkow
from MGM (Video & DVD)
When you've got Vincent Price, Basil Rathbone, and Peter Lorre all in the same movie, how can you go wrong? Tales of Terror is a trio of Edgar Allen Poe stories, starring three of horror's greats and produced and directed by the immortal Roger Corman. The first story, "Morella," involves a girl (Debra Paget) who returns to her isolated, spooky family home to see her estranged father (Price) for the first time in 26 years. He's let the housekeeping slide a bit--cobwebs abound and, oh, yes, his dead wife is still upstairs. Peter Lorre joins the fun for "The Black Cat," a piece with comic flavor that allows Price to show his rarely seen silly side, and then it's Basil Rathbone's turn to be creepy in "The Case of M. Valdemar," the tale of a mesmerist who decides to experiment with the unknown (bad idea). The movie is well paced, and makes good use of comedy without undercutting its chills. It's a rare treat to see this many masters of the genre working together and so clearly enjoying themselves. Don't miss it. --Ali Davis
After the horror-triptych format proved a box-office winner in Tales of Terror, Twice Told Tales repeated the idea… this time not with Edgar Allan Poe stories, but the work of Nathaniel Hawthorne. Good idea, as Hawthorne delivered some eerie stories in his time, but the execution here is less than scintillating. The first story, "Dr. Heidegger's Experiment," is the most entertaining of the bunch, in part because Vincent Price (the star of all three stories, natch) and Sebastian Cabot appear to be enjoying the premise: two old friends discover a Fountain of Youth elixir. This will come in handy in erasing their own wrinkles and gray hair, as well as reviving the corpse of Cabot's long-dead bride… but be careful what you wish for. The second is "Rappaccini's Daughter," with Price as an overly protective father with a novel way to keep his daughter from the sins of the flesh. It is fatally dull, and the final segment, a severe condensation of Hawthorne's novel "The House of the Seven Gables," is even more annoying, although at least it moves along a bit. The story does offer foxy scream queen Beverly Garland in her prime. Journeyman director Sidney Salkow is responsible for the deadly pace, which leaves only Vincent Price as the reason to watch the proceedings. He's just dandy, but the Roger Corman films of the same era are the ones to see. --Robert Horton
TALES OF TERROR: This triple treat of terror is a three-episode treat dripping with murder necrophilia dementia live burials zombies and the terrifying performances of some of horror s greatest spooks Vincent Price Peter Lorre and Basil Rathbone resulting in nothing less than "juicy entertainment" and "spine-chilling cinema" (Cue)!TWICE TOLD TALES: It's spine-tingling terror in triplicate! "Virtuoso of horror" (Los Angeles Times) Vincent Price dials up the depravity in this spellbinding trilogy of Nathaniel Hawthorne's "all-chiller" (LA Herald-Examiner) classics! Featuring "a demented genius! Poisonous plants! Oozing blood! [And] a corpse in a wedding gown" (The Film Daily) Twice Told Tales spins three diabolical nightmares of madness mayhem and murder most foul!System Requirements:Running Time: 209 Min.Format: DVD MOVIE Genre: HORROR Rating: NR UPC: 027616920720 Manufacturer No: 1008028
+++
