Only now does it occur to me... COMPANY OF KILLERS

Only now does it occur to me...  that while COMPANY OF KILLERS is a fairly dull, run-of-the-mill 70s TV police procedural, amid depressed Ray Milland,

I feel your pain, Ray

a sleepy Fritz Weaver,

I know it ain't CREEPSHOW, but run it up the flagpole, man!

and a hardboiled but bland John Saxon (doing a weird, sorta old-country accent),

He plays– no joke– an assassin named... "Poohler"

is an incredibly likable Clu Gulager performance as "Frank Quinn," a persistent and wacky newspaper reporter who cracks wise and offers people the opportunity to pull out his tonsils.

He's always chewing on things and messing around with unexpected bits of acting business, as is his way.  You get the idea he's actually having some fun in the middle of all this crap, which is more than can be said for anyone else.  Good goin', Clu!

(And for those who are not acquainted, you can read more about my love of all things Gulager here, and a little more about the saga of his artistic family here.)

Film Review: X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES (1963, Roger Corman)

Stars: 4.5 of 5.

Running Time: 79 minutes.

Tag-line: "Suddenly, he could see through clothes, flesh, and walls!"

Notable Cast or Crew:  Ray Milland (DIAL M FOR MURDER, FROGS), Diana Van der Vlis (THE SWIMMER, THE INCIDENT), Harold J. Stone (SPARTACUS, THE WRONG MAN), John Hoyt (SPARTACUS, BLACKBOARD JUNGLE), Don Rickles (CASINO, TOY STORY), Dick Miller (THE TERMINATOR, GREMLINS).  Written by Ray Russell (William Castle's ZOTZ! and MR. SARDONICUS) and Robert Dillon (PRIME CUT, 99 AND 44/100% DEAD, Castle's 13 FRIGHTENED GIRLS!).  Produced by Corman, Samuel Z. Arkoff, and James H. Nicholson.

Best One-liner:  "The city... as if it were unborn. Rising into the sky with fingers of metal, limbs without flesh, girders without stone. Signs hanging without support. Wires dipping and swaying without poles. A city unborn. Flesh dissolved in an acid of light. A city of the dead."

A Corman B-Movie with a William Castle pedigree, Lovecraftian sensibilites, and TWILIGHT ZONE-y aspirations...  and it works!   This is legitimately a good movie.  Visually imaginative, incredibly ambitious, and bleakly existential, it fulfills every aspect of a successful lower budget Sci-Fi/Horror flick.  With this small bankroll (and a headlining Ray Milland!) you can't sate those A-List appetites, but, by God, you can show them something different.  And that's precisely what X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES ("X," for short) sets forth to do.  

Pictured: something different.

Much of X's power lies in its ability to surprise, if not shock; therefore, I'd prefer not to spell out or spoil  the wonderful enigmas in its plotting, or even the full dimension of what "X-Ray eyes" means in the context of this film.   Instead, I will share with you my five favorite elements of the picture:

#1. 1960s Doctors Being 1960s Doctors.

MAD MEN– eat yer heart out.  These 60s professionals are chain smoking in the lab (amid volatile chemicals)

and using syringes to measure out 10ccs of dry vermouth while mixing the perfect martini.

This is clearly fantastic.

#2.  Ray Milland Dance Mania.

Ray Milland is as stiff as his starched collars; he's the apotheosis of a "square."  I love this about him.  His character is a Serious man who does Serious things.  He'd wear a suit to the beach.  Is there any doubt that this character voted for Nixon in the '60 election?  None at all.  This is all very well highlighted by his attempts at dancing The Frug during a wild staff party.

I think even Tricky Dick let his hair down a little more convincingly during his appearance on LAUGH-IN.  I wholeheartedly approve.

#3.  When It Becomes a Carny Movie.

I won't divulge the circumstances, but X briefly transforms into a "Carny Movie" about mid-way through, though it doesn't last.  It does, however, grace us with Ray Milland-silk-Zodiac-kimono action:

and nobody can ever take that away from us.  Nobody.

We also have Don Rickles as a shady carnival barker in a non-comedic role:

Don Rickles' face: Huggable or slappable?  You decide.

#4.  Dick Miller.

There can apparently never be enough Dick Miller.  The man pops up everywhere.  Here, he's an uncredited "heckler" and he gives the bit part a little more depth than you'd expect.  He's a three-dimensional heckler, if you will.  His heckling is rooted in lost love and self-hatred and fear.  He's a heckler with a backstory, dammit.

#5.  The bold imagery.

I love these 60s colors, the trippy effects, the madness, the sadness, the kaleidoscope of beauty and pain and forbidden knowledge.  It's a dark and cosmic film, and I stand by it.  Four and a half stars.

–Sean Gill

2014 HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN– OVERFLOW!

1.  FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2: TEXAS BLOOD MONEY (1999, Scott Spiegel)

2.  MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935, Tod Browning)

3.  FULL MOON HIGH (1981, Larry Cohen)

4.  EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS (2002, Ellory Elkayem)

5.  MASTERS OF HORROR: WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM (2007, Tom Holland)

6.  STEPHEN KING ON SONS OF ANARCHY (2010, Bill Gierhart)

7.  THE INITIATION (1984, Larry Stewart)

8.  MUTANTS (2008, Amir Valinia)

9.  JAWS 2 (1978, Jeannot Szwarc)

10.  THE PREMATURE BURIAL (1962, Roger Corman)

11.  DRACULA 3D (2012, Dario Argento)

12.  HALLOWEEN (1978, John Carpenter)

13. ...

Only now does it occur to me... THE PREMATURE BURIAL

Only now does it occur to me... that while the clear centerpiece of Roger Corman's THE PREMATURE BURIAL is the ridiculous scene where the gleefully nutty Ray Milland shows off his custom-made precautions against being buried alive in his extensively pimped-out tomb:

The 'ole "tools in the collapsible coffin."


The 'ole "hidden foodstuffs and secret passsageways."


The 'ole "surprise rope ladder and self-congratulatory raised eyebrow."

the hidden gem of the film is a small bit whereupon Milland imagines that a gravedigger, played by a young Dick Miller, has come to bury him alive!

Somehow, young Dick Miller looks exactly like old Dick Miller.

As someone who grew up watching Miller in stuff like THE TERMINATOR, EERIE INDIANA, GREMLINS, and every other Joe Dante movie under the sun, it's a joy to return to his Roger Corman roots and see the 'ole back catalogue.  

As for the movie– it's decent.  Not nearly as good as the other (Vincent Price)/Edgar Allan Poe films that came out of American International, but a fine spooky time.  I do, however, highly recommend the Milland/Corman collaboration X: THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES, which will hopefully be the subject of a forthcoming review!

2014 HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN

1.  FROM DUSK TILL DAWN 2: TEXAS BLOOD MONEY (1999, Scott Spiegel)

2.  MARK OF THE VAMPIRE (1935, Tod Browning)

3.  FULL MOON HIGH (1981, Larry Cohen)

4.  EIGHT-LEGGED FREAKS (2002, Ellory Elkayem)

5.  MASTERS OF HORROR: WE ALL SCREAM FOR ICE CREAM (2007, Tom Holland)

6.  STEPHEN KING ON SONS OF ANARCHY (2010, Bill Gierhart)

7.  THE INITIATION (1984, Larry Stewart)
8.  MUTANTS (2008, Amir Valinia)
9.  JAWS 2 (1978, Jeannot Szwarc)
10. ...

Film Review: FROGS (1972, George McCowan)

Stars: 4 of 5.
Running Time: 91 minutes.
Notable Cast or Crew: Ray Milland, Sam Elliott, Joan van Ark.
Tag-lines: "Cold green skin against soft warm flesh...a croak...a scream."
Best one-liner: "I still believe man is master of the world!"

FROGS is a grand ole time of a movie from some filmmakers who thought they were making something in the same league as THE BIRDS [with fleeting touches of REAR WINDOW and GUESS WHO'S COMING TO DINNER? (!)] Hitchcockian aspirations aside, it's almost as if an ecologically-minded after-school special was co-directed by Arch Hall, Sr. and Werner Herzog. In short, the makers lack a rudimentary knowledge of the language of cinema, yet are devoted to the message that "the common character of the universe is not harmony, but chaos, hostility, and murder." Nearly every scene in the film is book-ended by ominous shots of slowly advancing frogs.

Each death scene is lethargically paced and punctuated with atonal music. Frogs attack windows. A frog jumps on a record player. A man shoots himself in the foot, then is pinned down by moss, and tarantulas walk all over him until he's dead.

A frog leaps on a cake made in the shape of the American flag. All variety of animals commit murder. Apparently the frogs pull the strings. All of these events are sort of tied together by an Everglade party thrown by wheelchair-using Ray Milland, who maintains a "show must go on" attitude in the midst of a high body count.

Milland, ostensibly the villain, brings a lot of class and commitment to his role. I guess he uses too much pesticide and shoots a snake off of his chandelier (then says "What's everybody standing around for- let's eat!"), but other than that, I see no real reason why the frogs ought to seek revenge. It's not like he sticks frog heads on pikes on his lawn.

I guess his general bad attitude was enough motive for the frogs. Sam Elliot (sans moustache) is our poor man's ecologist and croc-blasting hero.

Now, many have complained that the poster is dishonest- it depicts a frog eating a human hand- a scene they say is not depicted in the movie. To them, I say, stick around till after the end credits: there may be a juicy surprise in store.

-Sean Gill