USA

  • Simon Nuchtern – The Girl Grabbers (1968)

    1961-1970CrimeExploitationSimon NuchternUSA
    The Girl Grabbers (1968)
    The Girl Grabbers (1968)

    Nick (JOHN SPENCE) is a suave denim-wearing young pimp who worries a lot about his hair. Louie (STEFAN PETERS) is a monosyllabic knife-wielding goof of undetermined sexuality (with his most noticeable physical feature being red, greasy, slug-like lips). Together they are The Girl Grabbers.

    As the opening titles roll, these two smirking hellions are wandering the streets of 1960’s Greenwich Village, knocking groceries out of the arms of women with big hairdos, and molesting butts — as Girl Grabbers everywhere are wont to do. Unsatisfied with such simple pranks, they hold the brazen midday robbery of Tania (LUDMILLA TCHOR), a very average-looking redhead with an awkward Euro-accent. Nick stuffing her panties in her mouth, then rolling around on top of her fully clothed while giggling like a retarded infant.Read More »

  • Cy Endfield – Try and Get Me AKA The Sound of Fury (1950)

    Cy Endfield1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsCrimeFilm NoirUSA

    Todd Wiener writes:
    In 1947, novelist and B-movie screenwriter Jo Pagano published his third novel titled The Condemned. The novel was based upon the 1933 kidnapping and murder of Brooke Hart in San Jose, California, and the subsequent lynching of two suspects by a hysterical mob fueled by a frenzied media. Considered the only public lynching covered with such media scrutiny, The New York Times stated the event “was an outburst characterized by hysteria and ribaldry.” Pagano would adapt his novel into the screenplay The Sound of Fury (Fritz Lang’s film Fury (1936) is based on the same shocking event).Read More »

  • Robert Siodmak – Phantom Lady (1944)

    Robert Siodmak1941-1950250 Quintessential Film NoirsDramaFilm NoirUSA

    Quote:
    Phantom Lady (1944) is one of the high points of ’40s film noir, the title alone evoking a potent mythology of this era. At the center of its narrative is the seemingly hopeless search for the title character who potentially serves as the only reliable witness in the murder trial for Scott Henderson (Alan Curtis), falsely accused of killing his wife. But the search is frustrated by Henderson’s inability to remember any details about the woman outside of a flamboyant hat she wore during the night they spent together, an unlikely memory lapse that only intensifies his apparent guilt. Furthermore, no one else who saw Henderson and the woman together will admit to the police that they had seen her.Read More »

  • Trinh T. Minh-ha – Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989)

    Trinh T. Minh-ha1981-1990DocumentaryEthnographic CinemaExperimentalUSA
    Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989)
    Surname Viet Given Name Nam (1989)

    Vietnamese-born Trinh T. Minh-ha’s profoundly personal documentary explores the role of Vietnamese women historically and in contemporary society. Using dance, printed texts, folk poetry and the words and experiences of Vietnamese women in Vietnam—from both North and South—and the United States, Trinh’s film challenges official culture with the voices of women. A theoretically and formally complex work, Surname Viet Given Name Nam explores the difficulty of translation, and themes of dislocation and exile, critiquing both traditional society and life since the war.Read More »

  • Gordon Parks Jr. – Thomasine & Bushrod (1974)

    Gordon Parks Jr.1971-1980BlaxploitationDramaUSA
    Thomasine & Bushrod (1974)
    Thomasine & Bushrod (1974)

    A rare blaxploitation classic starring Vonette McGee & Max Julien, Thomasine & Bushrod was intended as a counterpart to Bonnie and Clyde. This pair of thieves, who operate in the American south between 1911 and 1915, pattern themselves after Robin Hood and hold the White Establishment as (a ‘modern-day’) Sheriff of Nottingham. Thomasine and Bushrod steal from rich, white capitalists, then give to Mexicans, Native Americans and poor whites.Read More »

  • Denman Hatch – Annie’s Lamp (2021)

    2021-2030Denman HatchShort FilmThrillerUSA
    Annie's Lamp (2021)
    Annie’s Lamp (2021)

    Annie’s Lamp is a short psychological thriller about a woman, her lamp, and all the horrible memories that come with it. This violent and gripping short story examines Annie’s traumatic, reoccurring nightmare.Read More »

  • Benjamin Hess – Symptoms May Include Shortness of Breath (2021)

    2021-2030Benjamin HessShort FilmThrillerUSA
    Symptoms May Include Shortness of Breath (2021)
    Symptoms May Include Shortness of Breath (2021)

    A business traveler and a girl with a secret meet in a lavish hotel bar one night. The decisions they make in that brief moment will change their lives forever, leaving them wonder where it all went wrong.Read More »

  • Charles Matton – Spermula (1976)

    Charles Matton1971-1980EroticaFantasyUSA
    Spermula (1976)
    Spermula (1976)

    A notorious secret society known as Spermula plans to return from the future and conquer Earth by neutering the male population.Read More »

  • Jack H. Harris – Unkissed Bride (1966)

    1961-1970ComedyJack H. HarrisUSA
    Unkissed Bride (1966)
    Unkissed Bride (1966)

    A young couple’s honeymoon is disrupted by the groom’s childhood obsession with Mother Goose. Unable to consummate the marriage, they head off to the psychiatrist, where the fun really begins (LSD as a treatment!?!).Read More »

Back to top button