Barbara Steele was FINE. "Bride of the Devil" or no, she was FINE.
The Premise: Two travelers wake a slumbering vampire on their way through scenic Moldavia.
Overall: Another horror classic from Mario Bava. This movie has more atmosphere than most horror movies today, and could easily serve as a template for how to make a great scary film with a limited number of sets, costumes and other resources. The Italians, at the height of their powers, contributed a lot to the genre.
Fun Fact: This movie was Bava's directorial debut. It was in many ways a direct response to Hammer Films' 1958 movie Dracula, though I think Black Sunday is the better film of the two.
Ah, the late 60s. So many battle of the sexes-type movies.
The Premise: A man and a woman come to terms after a one night stand.
Overall: The voiceovers were completely unnecessary, but Dustin Hoffman and Mia Farrow are great together. A little too much like a play for my taste, but charming regardless.
Peter Yates, it should be said, not only directed 1968's Bullitt but also went on to direct several notable movies during the 70s. The Friends of Eddie Coyle, Mother, Juggs & Speed, The Deep and Breaking Away are all worth a look.
The Premise: Three passengers aboard a plane are confronted with the consequences of future decisions.
Overall: A very schlocky attempt at science fiction that doesn't make much sense.
The Premise: Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor chew their way through a Tennessee Williams play, this particular Tennessee Williams play being about a rich, reclusive woman living on an island.
Overall: I'm guessing a lot of alcohol (and a lot of whatever else was available) was consumed by both stars in the course of filming. It's weird enough to be interesting, but to call this film a vanity project would be an understatement.
Fun Fact: John Waters is a big fan of this movie. Makes sense to me!
Speaking of Elizabeth Taylor, Julie Christie was among the crop of newer, younger actresses that eclipsed Taylor as the 60s wore on. In my opinion she never appeared in anything half as interesting as Taylor's better movies, but she was very beautiful and the public is always fickle.
The Premise: A young Scotsman tries to impress a girl by buying a Bentley he's unable to drive.
Overall: It's not a movie you're likely to remember, and its zany brand of humor hasn't aged well, but it passes by pleasantly enough.
"Track tramps!" They're a problem!
And is it fair to call Fabian "Elvis Lite?" I could be wrong, but I feel like just a few years earlier Elvis would have starred in this movie. Same look, same breezy charm. The script would have been a little risqué for The King, but of course The Colonel could have demanded rewrites.
The Premise: A NASCAR driver accused of recklessness finds redemption in the stock car circuit.
Overall: Annette Funicello is super cute, and Fabian is an engaging lead. The surprising thing about this movie (if you'll excuse the pun) is how racy some of the scenes are. That party seems to be headed toward orgy town, and some of interactions between male and female characters were definitely pushing boundaries.
Susan Hayward was in a lot of good movies. Was she in any bad movies? Maybe, but I haven't seen any of them... yet.
The Premise: A doctor becomes romantically involved with a terminally ill patient.
Overall: The ending is... abrupt, but aside from that it's a good movie. My one complaint is the score, which sometimes overwhelms what's happening onscreen.
Ironic Fact: Susan Hayward herself died under similar circumstances. Would that be dramatic irony or literal irony? I'll let you be the judge.
The Premise: The Prime Minister's incompetent grandson goes to work for a newspaper.
Overall: Agonizingly unfunny British comedy. This one has aged even worse than The Fast Lady above.
This one hits completely differently in 2025. Trump, the discussions of the Constitution, conspiracies... it's hard not to reflect on how far short we've fallen (in some respects at least) of the ideals expressed by various characters in this film.
The Premise: Kirk Douglas uncovers a conspiracy which threatens to unseat an unpopular President.
Overall: One of the best political thrillers I've ever seen. Kirk Douglas and Burt Lancaster deliver fantastic performances, and director John Frankenheimer manages to juggle a lot of plot points within the film's two hour run time. The military jargon used in the opening scenes may test some viewers' patience, but after that point this movie hits the ground running.
Hats off to Rod Serling's screenplay. That in itself was a major accomplishment.
Fun Fact 1: This film is, to some extent at least, science fiction. The videoconferencing technology seen in the film wasn't used in the White House at the time, and there are indications in the movie that it could be set as late as 1986.
Fun Fact 2: John F. Kennedy, who was assassinated halfway through the production of this film, to some extent facilitating filming of the White House. He was a big fan of the book upon which Seven Days in May was based.
I often get Connie Stevens and Debbie Reynolds confused. It doesn't help that one of them was Carrie Fisher's actual mother while the other was her stepmother.
The Premise: A young woman spends a week in her magician father's house in accordance with his will.
Overall: This movie doesn't know what it wants to be. At times it feels like a love story, at other times it feels like a horror picture. Connie Stevens and Dean Jones had mountains of chemistry, but the more interesting scenes they share are overshadowed by repetitious horror cliches punctuated by Stevens' incessant screaming.
It feels like they had the ending worked out before they really had a story to get them there.
The Premise: Four astronauts crash land on Mars.
Overall: An incredibly dull movie with one of the most head scratching endings ever. According to Wikipedia it was based on The Wizard of Oz, but... why?
The Premise: Three comrades at arms find themselves at odds over the future of colonial Malaysia.
Overall: A good movie. The love triangle subplot reminded me a bit of Graham Greene's novel The Quiet American.
Fun Fact: There are some Bond connections here. Maurice Binder also created the iconic title sequences for the early 007 films, director Lewis Gilbert also directed You Only Live Twice, The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker, and Tetsuro Tanaka played "Tiger Tanaka" in You Only Live Twice.
Shades of T2, and I'm not the first to make the comparison. In times past I've pointed out the uncomfortable similarities between James Cameron's Avatar and the novel The Jesus Incident. In this case, however, I think the similarities are coincidental.
The Premise: A cyborg is sent back to the year 1966 to warn a scientist about the ultimate outcome of his "radio telepathy" invention.
Overall: The budget was small and they were in a big hurry. So bad it's actually pretty good.
Fun Fact: Actor Michael Rennie also played "Klaatu" in the original The Day the Earth Stood Still.
14. The Old Dark House (1963)
The Premise: An American car salesman living in England is entangled in his deceased friend's family drama.
Overall: Humor is a very generational thing, and I won't judge this movie too harshly in terms of whether it is or isn't funny. The lead, Tom Postman, might be recognizable from his many, many TV appearances.
The Premise: A criminal organization steals a death ray.
Overall: Fans of Danger: Diabolik will be all over this one. Italian-made, 007-style espionage cartoonishness.
The Premise: A woman encounters supernatural beings following a car accident.
Overall: Well directed and well acted. A very surprising movie, in that I was expecting run of the mill horror. As it turns out there's an inventive side to this film that I really enjoyed.
The Premise: A German boat captain rescues a group of nurses taken hostage in South America.
Overall: By turns comedic, by turns lewd, by turns dramatic, this one's very... German I suppose? I haven't seen many "lighter" German movies, but I'm guessing this one falls into that bracket. It's actually not bad, though it'll have you scratching your head at times.
Fun Fact: Curt (Curd) Jurgens, the star of this movie, also played the villain in 1977's The Spy Who Loved Me.
Martin Ritt directed a lot of good movies. He was nominated for many awards and directed many of Hollywood's biggest stars. My favorite of his films is probably Norma Rae.
The Premise: Two jazz musicians fall in love with two tourists in Paris.
Overall: It's an undeniably good film, but it could have done without the drug addiction subplot. I get that they thought it would make Paul Newman's character more sympathetic, but the movie really didn't need that.
Besides this minor flaw it's a lot of fun to see Paul Newman and Sidney Poitier in a film together. They're both great in their respective roles, with Newman exerting an arrogant charm and Poitier playing a man at odds with his country.
Fun Fact: In the original draft of the screenplay Newman ended up with Diahann Carroll's character, while Poitier ended up with Joanne Woodward. The studio feared this interracial aspect of the story would cause controversy, and demanded script changes at the last minute.
Sharon Tate's last movie before her murder at the hands of the Manson Family the same year.
The Premise: An Italian immigrant and an American woman living in the UK search for a chair in which a vast fortune is hidden.
Overall: A truly bad movie, and not enjoyably so. The whole thing feels very random, as if they made up certain scenes on the spot and didn't bother to think about a larger continuity.
The Premise: It's 1944. Ski troop(s), attack!
Overall: This one's a Roger Corman picture, so you probably know what time it is: low budget, filmed in a very short time frame, etc., etc., etc. And no, none of the people in the cast or crew went on to become famous.
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*The release dates for this one vary. Some say 1966, others say 1968, others say 1971. A lot of it is composed of archival footage, so the release date is debatable.
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