Thursday, July 17 – 7:30 PM
Double Feature:
DEEP RED (PROFONDO ROSSO), 1975, 106 min. Dir. Dario Argento. From the opening with a child slashing someone and a bloody knife dropping to the floor, we’re plunged into an ever-deepening pool of repressed terrors. David Hemmings is a pianist sucked into an undertow of escalating homicide after he witnesses the murder of psychic Macha Meril. One of Argento’s most justly-famous gialli, where something as simple as a lizard writhing on the floor could represent a child’s wounded psyche, bound some day to erupt in spectacular fits of murder. With Daria Nicolodi. More on this movie!
THE SECRET OF DORIAN GRAY (IL DIO CHIAMATO DORIAN), 1970, 93 min. Massimo Dallamano (WHAT HAVE THEY DONE TO SOLANGE?) directs this Mod, super-trashy update on Oscar Wilde’s classic. Narcissistic youth Dorian (Helmut Berger) has his portrait painted by his artist friend Basil (Richard Todd). As time passes and he falls into an ever-more-decadent lifestyle, he remains perpetually young. However, his painting registers every bit of his depravity, drawing him deeper into an inescapable nightmare, culminating in murder. With Herbert Lom, Marie Liljedahl, Margaret Lee. NOT ON DVD More on this movie!
Friday, July 18 – 7:30 PM
Tomas Milian/Umberto Lenzi Crime Triple Feature:
ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON (ROMA A MANO ARMATA), 1976, Grindhouse Releasing, 80 min. Director Umberto Lenzi (SPASMO) turns out one of the most gonzo, over-the-top Euro crime films you’ll ever see, a picture that compares favorably in pace and impact to Kinji Fukasaku’s 1970s yakuza thrillers. Maurizio Merli is the hot-tempered cop on the trail of wisecracking hunchback “Il Gobbo” (charismatic Tomas Milian), a psycho thief who occasionally enjoys machine- gunning innocent bystanders just for the hell of it! With Arthur Kennedy, Ivan Rassimov. NOT ON DVD
ALMOST HUMAN (MILANO ODIA: LA POLIZIA NON PUO SPARERE), 1974, 90 min. Umberto Lenzi’s “I-can’t-believe-what-I’m-seeing-on-screen” epic. Big-mouth sociopath Tomas Milian convinces his crime partners to kidnap the teen daughter of a wealthy businessman. But things go wrong, spurring resentful Milian to massacre an astounding number of people who cross his path at the wrong moment. Refusing to render a happy ending for anyone, including hardboiled cop Henry Silva, and set to a throbbing score by Ennio Morricone, this is a shocking 1970s pulp classic. More on this movie!
THE CYNIC, THE RAT AND THE FIST (IL CINICO, L’INFAME, IL VIOLENTO), 1977, 100 min. Dir. Umberto Lenzi. Maurizio Merli reprises his role as the apoplectic cop from ASSAULT WITH A DEADLY WEAPON. This time he’s going after small-time crime boss Tomas Milian, who is allied with big-shot New York mobster John Saxon. But shrewd Milian (“The Cynic”) is maneuvering to play lawman Merli (“The Fist”) and Saxon (“The Rat”) off against each other. ASSAULT composer Franco Micalizzi supplies another pulse-pounding score. (Screened from a digital video source.) NOT ON DVD
Saturday, July 19 – 7:30 PM
Super-Rare Tinto Brass Double Feature:
DEADLY SWEET (COL CUORE IN GOLA), 1967, Cult Epics, 107 min. A psychedelic giallo by Tinto Brass, starring Ewa Aulin (CANDY) and Jean-Louis Trintignant. After finding his business contact murdered, a French actor protects the young woman he discovers at the scene and decides to hunt the killers himself. A mind-bending series of Pop Art visuals follows as he plunges into the London underworld, created by renowned erotic cartoonist Guido Crepax (Valentina). Unseen since its initial release, the film’s two leads went on to co-star in the legendary DEATH LAID AN EGG the very next year. In Italian with English subtitles. (Screened from a digital video source.) NOT ON DVD More on this movie!
THE HOWL (L’URLO), 1970, Cult Epics, 93 min. A surrealist classic by Tinto Brass, filled with eye-shattering imagery, visual jokes, impossible characters, riotous comedy and punk rock well before its time. A bride escapes her wedding with a stranger, and together they trek though increasingly bizarre lands. They come across talking animals, mournful exhibitionists and a psychedelic hotel, instigate a prison riot, escape from cannibals and battle a wind-up midget dictator! Featuring Tina Aumont and Italy’s great clown Luigi Proietti, cavorting in the anarchist spirit of the 1960s. In Italian with English subtitles. (Screened from a digital video source.) NOT ON DVD More on this movie.
Sunday, July 20 – 7:30 PM
Sergio Corbucci Spaghetti Western Double Feature:
New 35mm Print: THE MERCENARY (IL MERCENARIO), 1968, MGM Repertory, 105 min. Franco Nero is a Polish dandy-cum-mercenary who becomes uneasy allies with Mexican revolutionary Tony Musante in this action-packed, very entertaining and often very funny spaghetti western. Jack Palance is in rare form as their nemesis, a prissy bounty hunter with a sadistic sense of humor. Quentin Tarantino reused Ennio Morricone’s “L’Arena” piece from the soundtrack to stirring effect in KILL BILL: VOL. II. Director Sergio Corbucci went on to reprise the same general storyline with Nero, Palance and Tomas Milian with COMPAÑEROS in 1971. NOT ON DVD. More on this movie!
New 35mm Print: NAVAJO JOE, 1966, MGM Repertory, 93 min. Dir. Sergio Corbucci (THE GREAT SILENCE). Burt Reynolds (himself part Indian) is Joe, the lone-wolf Navajo, in one of his first lead movie roles. When his wife is butchered by scalphunters led by the ultra-cruel Aldo Sambrell, Joe agrees to help the neighboring town recover its gold shipment that was stolen by the lawless bunch. Ennio Morricone (under pseudonym Leo Nichols) contributes a score that ranks alongside THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY as one of his most exhilarating (Tarantino again reprised a piece from this soundtrack in KILL BILL: VOL. II.) More on this movie!
Again…more to come (thanks to the limits of the forum’s posting ability)