Seeking answers in art, my microcosm is ensconced in the fiction of lyrics, literature and celluloid. Reality forcibly enters my sanctuary and proceeds to disembowel my soul.
Cinema can save my life.
The bizarre, twisted and morbid fascinate me. The strange, peculiar and unique attract me. Mysteries, truth and individuality entice me. Cinema, Music, literature and art delight me Political correctness, organized religion and corporate rule disgust me. Love, understanding and compassion enlighten me. The things that revolt, nauseate and repulse you, stimulate my cerebrum. And the things that offend, dismay and shock you, make me smile.
The Gritty NYC Streets go Boom and Broom with Prestigious Connections
The Seven Ups DVD
Director: Phillip DAntonio Writers: Alex Ruben & Alexander Jacobs Starring: Roy Scheider, Tony Lo Bianco, Larry Haines, Victor Arnold, Jerry Leon, Ken Kercheval
Look at my hands. I've been here before, so do what you gotta do. I didn't talk then, and I won't talk now. - Toredano
When the lists for best cop films come around this neglected scrap of bottled intensity is often wrongfully absent. Perhaps the distinction between The French Connection and this blur in the memory due to the presence of most of the same production team. Maybe its the similar cinematic style or because the Director channels the same procedural tone and complex plotting. It is after all based on a story by Sonny Grosso who was the inspiration for Roy Scheiders character in the earlier film. Regardless, JD does not know for certain but is here to tell you this film warrants attention.
Roy uses some gentle persuasion.
The Seven-Up's are a specialized branch of the New York police department that only investigate crimes worthy of seven years or more in lock up. They arent after the low end street hustlers, they are after the suppliers, runners, cop killers and traffickers.
Headed by the field hardened Buddy (Roy Scheider) this crew of ruthless blood hound detectives is made up of Baralli (Victor Arnold), Mingo (Jerry Leon) and Ansel. (Ken Kercheval)
As the film opens we witness them at work, staking out an antique store that could serve as a way station for treasured stolen merchandise. We see that they work with confidence, precision and an innate knowledge of the anatomy of the criminal mind.
The job is always risky for these underpaid tough guy enforcers and when one of their own is killed their violent nature means brutal vengeance will follow even if it means throwing down against the Mob.
There's something going on the boys downtown never told us about. Have you heard rumors of Mob kidnappings? Inspector Gilson
What do you mean you have seen me somewhere before?
John Doe says:
As mentioned earlier The Seven-Ups is very similar to The French Connection in style and substance. Its a gritty, disenchanting portrait of police life with all its painful ambiguities and long stretches of anticipation included. When the sporadic action comes its startling, swift and ugly.
One time Director Phillip DAntonio obviously paid attention to the artists around him when he produced for others. He utilizes over lapping dialogue and ambient sounds from the urban background to illicit a feeling of realism.
The pace is always in the moment and the cinematography by Urs Furrer (Shaft) brings its own sense of impending urgency. Completing the immersion is another striking score from Don Ellis. (The French Connection)
Roy gets ready to film THAT chase
The highlight of the film is arguably as with The French Connection and Bullitt, the epic car chase that comes in the middle of the film. Employing Bill Hickman, the same stunt driver/actor that was used in the previous two movies, this is a visceral actual high speed pursuit with steel bent out of shape and edge of the wire velocity and choreography. The buffs like John Doe may notice an anomaly in the fact that the sound of Roy Scheiders Pontiac Ventura is over dubbed with the FX from the Steve McQueen GTO Mustang in Bullitt.
There is a feeling of improvisation with both the chase and the actors performances, which is testament to Alex Ruben (Kojak) and Alexander Jacobs (Hell in the Pacific, Point Plank) palpable script and the focused filmmaking.
All the cast resemble on location extras and benefit from the films dramatic pathos. Roy Scheider (Sorcerer, The French Connection, All That Jazz) is in fine form here, looking as at-home on the New York streets as John Doe is in a cinema. His chiseled physicality and mangled appearance belong in the violent, high tension environment which the film occupies.
Real Life tough guy and Golden Gloves boxing winner Tony Lo Bianco (Nixon, Serpico, The French Connection) is in his element too and brings a duplicity to the part of informant Vito Lucia.
Rather than single out one standout it is safe to say all the actors in the cast, even those with dialogue free moments inhabit their characters.
Rereading what JD wrote in the first paragraph it seems the answer to the question of this films being ignored is the inherit comparisons to William Friedkins masterpiece. (How many times did he mention The French Connection in this review anyway?) When put side by side this may lack that indefinable something that makes it monumental cinema, but still contains so much brilliance that the pissing contest is unwarranted. The Seven-Ups is quality that should sit on the shelf right beside the best in the genre.
Watch the original trailer for The Seven-Ups
Here it is, the classic chase that can cross the finsih line with the best of the best
Director: Otto Preminger Writers: John & Penelope Mortimer, Starring: Laurence Olivier, Noel Coward, Carol Lynley, Keir Dullea
Bunny Lake is Missing is an unusual title for a very curious film. Coming near the end of Otto Premingers illustrious career there is a vitality to his creative manipulations that along with John Frankenheimer's Seconds predate the arthouse surrealism of David Lynch and other contemporaries.
Based on the mystery novel by Evelyn Piper, this is an ethereal atmosphere soaked and unnerving excursion into degrading sanity.
Laurence Olivier questions Carol Lynley
Doting mummy Ann Lake (Carol Lynley) and her 4 year old daughter Bunny, have just recently moved to Britain from America and it is the first day at a new school for the little one. After dropping off her tike Ann goes about her day until it is time to retrieve her.
The problem is that upon arrival she soon discovers Bunny is nowhere to be found. There is no record of her existence. The school records reveal nothing and soon the police led by Superintendent Newhouse (Laurence Olivier) are called in on the suspected missing person.
Is Bunny lake missing? Is she just a figment of Anns imagination? John Doe is not revealing anything!
Welcome to the Dollhouse Ann
John Doe says:
Right from the unforgettable Saul Bass opening credits (up there with his best) you know you are in for something that has taken care and consideration to create. Visually compelling and speckled with wry humor the film does dissolve with a leap of logic finale but that does not make what preceded contain any less cinematic brilliance.
There are elements of the Jodie Foster film Flightplan here, but it is Otto Premingers (Anatomy of a Murder, Advise and Consent, Laura) dedication to sustained suspense that refuses to yield the riddles answer until the final moments. The composition in certain shots is breathtaking in their subconscious menace, there is something daringly Hitchcockian to much of the films style. The musical score effectively illicits tension with subdued haunting tones and then restrained screeches of madness.
The script adaptation by John and Penelope Miller does not remain faithful to its source but instead uses it as a template to raise some very risqué concepts for the year 1965. There is a raw, matter of factness to many of the smaller revelations that unfold throughout the story and the characters are all given a subtext that is embraced by the cast.
As Ann, Carol Lynley (The Poseidon Adventure, The Night Stalker) plays on tragic fragility mixed with idyllic strength to draw us into her very personal crisis.
Laurence Olivier (Marathon Man, Slueth) makes holding the screen appear simple as the understanding detective handed a big question mark.
Keir Dullea (2001: A Space Odyssey, The Fox) plays Anns brother Steven with authority that convinces he is her rock, a safety net to all that might harm her.
Noel Coward kidnaps the screen
Noel Coward (The Italian Job, Our Man in Havana) is nefariously lascivious as a Anns sexual predator neighbor and testament to his skills he can still make us laugh with his lude presence.
Martita Hunt (Great Expectations, The Unsinkable Molly Brown) is also memorable as the eccentric Mrs Ford.
John Doe only recently discovered this occasionally flawed but intriguing work of a master. There was an acute awareness of the films daring against convention attitude and almost experimental delivery. For those interested in the evolution of modern cinema this is an essential stepping stone that warrants cross examination.
NB* Joe Carnahan (Narc, Smokin Aces) is scheduled to release a remake in 2012.
Here is the original trailer for Bunny lake Is Missing care of TCM
Watch the first 10 minutes of Bunny Lake is Missing including the superb opening Credits with deliberate postbox framing.
Director: Allen Barron Writer: Allen Barron and Waldo Salt Starring: Allen Barron, Larry Tucker, Molly Mccarthy
"Remembering out of the black silence, you were born in pain." - Narrator
The hitman genre has a tendency to focus on the best in the business, the guy with a reputation for almost super human stealth and economical execution. (Leon: The Professional, Le Samourai, The Killer, The Mechanic) Never garnering the attention it deserves, the low budget, indie noir A Blast of Silence takes an alternate route with its character driven narrative.
Allen Barron on target.
Fatalistic and bleak in its excursion into a soul consumed by hatred and societal detachment, the film bleeds dark atmosphere and unfiltered realism.
They all hate the gun they hire. When people look at you, baby boy Frankie Bono, they see death. Death across the counter. - Narrator
Following the deadly but non-distinct hired assassin named Frank Bono (Allen Barron) through every scene, the story begins with our spiteful thug returning to his hometown of New York City on assignment to whack an inept rival mobster. Before the job is done faces from his youth trigger a self awareness that forces the focused professional to examine the internalized damage of his career path.
You don't have to know a man to live with him. But you have to know a man like a brother to kill him. - Narrator
Allen Barron makes noise in Blast of Silence
John Doe Says:
Made long before there was such a thing as the low budget indie genre, this shot on location gem captures New Yorks urban ennui of the time. Sparse on character dialogue, the inner machinations of Bono are revealed through a third person vile voice of god narration written by Waldo Salt (Midnight Cowboy, Serpico, The Day of the Locust).
Salts contribution is important but it is Screenwriter/Director and Star Allen Barron that is responsible for the engrossing complexities where this work dwells. Labeled the new Orson Welles at the time of the films lackluster release, the promise shown here was ignored by the studios. Though his next film Terror in the City was equally impressive artistically it also failed, instead Barron went onto a successful 40 year career as a television Director. Shows like Night Gallery, The Night Stalker and Charlies Angels being a few of his credits.
The Director is armed for any guerilla conflict on the streets.
On Blast of Silence his Direction is disciplined in style and organic in capturing performance, their is a precursor to Scorsese's Mean Streets that permeates. The brutality is unflinching and sudden, the occasional action scenes carry power and drive plot. The stripped back-to-basics economy and black and white cinematography enhances the morose mood. Executed with the raw naturalism of Cassavettes, the performances from all the cast are filled with meaningful eccentricities that embrace their parts dissolving morality.
As Frank Bono the actor Allen Barron implies menace in every gesture while somehow carrying an incognito nature.
Molly McCarthy (The Flamingo Kid) as the representation of innocence lost and the object of Franks regretful unfulfilled desire is unhampered by any idealism. Playing Big Ralph, Larry Tucker (Shock Corridor) is a freak show reflection of the hedonistic desperation and duplicity of the disconnected modern world that our lead inhabits.
Few films reach the level of insight this one does and for John Doe it ranks as a noir masterpiece. Staggering like a gunshot to the belly, giving us time to live each step of the process of a paid killer. Blast of Silence is an early example of how quality cinema need not cost millions or need a name brand actor in order to resonate through decades, possibly even centuries.
Blast of Silence Trailer.
Watch the first 10 minutes of this cold, calculated thesis called Blast of Silence.
My expectations were very high for this series and though some episodes fell short of those demands for perfection, on rewatching they really do stand up as worthy contributions to horror on TV. In fact many of them when looked at objectively ranked alongside the best of Tales from The Crypt or The Darkside.
Looks like Jeff is using Kris Kristoffessen for inspiration here. I like the poster and Bridges is always worth admission price, still the plot sounds like a TV movie.
Fun fake trailer this one, saw it a while ago and it made me laugh....as for a jaws remake, or another sequel I think there are many more killer shark tales that could be told without the brand name..."Open water" was fun and the new horror film "The Reef" also looks like it may be a terrifying exploitation of the finned killers.
The Zombies are a band that was meant to be huge and this was a film that gave them exposure. They are a little Animalsesque (As in Eric Burdon & and there music features in the movie...obviously they only went on to become a cult band with a small following instead of a massive success.
I liked Lucky McKee's Sick Girl as well, ever since may i have been a huge fan. Argento's was also cool but the two i listed were just so satisfying for different reasons they stand above the rest.
The Landis one wioth George Wendt is indeed hilarious and that ending had me giggling for a long time with the last lind.
Comments (2)
Add Comments
Read More
Comment by JohnDoe
on Let The Right One In - Låt den Rätte Komma In (2008)
Film & TV on DVD