Something Wild (1961)

On her way home from choir practice, a teenage girl (Carroll Baker) is dragged into the bushes and raped. Thus begins her psychological breakdown and withdrawal. She leaves home without telling her mother (Mildred Dunnock) and takes a job at a 5&10 store while living in a seedy one room apartment. That's the first act. The second act begins when after a failed suicide attempt, an emotionally disturbed garage mechanic (Ralph Meeker) takes her home and keeps her a prisoner (not unlike THE COLLECTOR). This is one freaky movie! Directed by Jack Garfein whose only other feature film was the equally weird THE STRANGE ONE, one is never quite sure what Garfein (who co-wrote the screenplay with Alex Karmel based on Karmel's novel MARY ANN) is trying to say. Are we supposed to buy that idea that two unhealthy lost souls, both deeply in need of therapy, can heal each other through love? The first portion of the film is very cinematic what with Saul Bass's wonderful main title and Aaron Copland's kinetic underscore and Eugen Schufftan's excellent lensing of the New York backdrop. But the second half is like watching a stage play as the action never leaves Meeker's one room apartment. I'm not sure how I feel about it but the acting is excellent and it's never boring, I'll give you that. With Doris Roberts, Jean Stapleton, Clifton James and Martin Kosleck.

Superdad (1973)

A Southern California attorney (Bob Crane, HOGAN'S HEROES) is unhappy with the direction his teen aged daughter's (Kathleen Cody) life is taking. She seems more intent on hanging out at the beach goofing off with her friends than preparing for her future. So he sends her to a college in the San Francisco Bay Area to improve her prospects. This rather reactionary Walt Disney comedy seems aimed at the teen market and their parents rather than the usual 12 and under demographics. Since this is a Disney movie, all the teens are squeaky clean and their worst offence is "borrowing" an ambulance to take them to the beach! But when the wholesome blonde daughter goes off to a Bay Area college, the horror! ..... she falls in with hippies and goes on protest marches! Of course, dad and mom (lovely Barbara Rush) march off to Frisco in indignation. I had to laugh out loud when Crane goes to visit his daughter's hippie artist boyfriend (Joby Baker), the music gets all dark and ominous as he walks through a string of stoned dark and dirty hippies. Not to worry, as I said it's a Disney movie so everything ends happily with a teenage weeding with Cody married to squeaky clean Kurt Russell. Directed by Vincent McEveety (HERBIE GOES TO MONTE CARLO). With Bruno Kirby, Joe Flynn, Dick Van Patten, Ed Begley Jr., Steve Dunne, Naomi Stevens and as a beer guzzling, pool playing landlady, Judith Lowry.

Cabin In The Sky (1943)

A shiftless gambler by the name of Little Joe (Eddie "Rochester" Anderson) is shot during a card game and as he lies dying, the agents of Heaven (Kenneth Spencer) and Hell (Rex Ingram, THE THIEF OF BAGDAD) fight for his soul. A deal is brokered whereupon Little Joe is given another six months of life to redeem himself or literally, go to Hell. This rather grim synopsis disguises the fact that this is one of the great delights of the 1940s Hollywood musical. A whimsical fantasy bolstered by Vincente Minnelli's expert direction (amazingly, this was his first film) and terrific performances. When you hear Ethel Waters crooning Happiness Is A Thing Called Joe, you know the definition of sublime. But then there's John William Sublett strutting his stuff to Shine, Lena Horne crooning Honey In The Honeycomb, Duke Ellington's swing music and Archie Savage's choreography to sweeten the pot. Curiously, instead of feeling "dated", there's a timeless quality to this cinematic fable, most likely because it is an illusion. The songs are by Harold Arlen & E.Y. Harburg and Vernon Duke & John La Touche. With Louis Armstrong, Butterfly McQueen, Mantan Moreland, Ruby Dandridge and Willie Best.

The Full Treatment (aka Stop Me Before I Kill) (1960)

On his wedding day, a racing car driver (Ronald Lewis) and his Italian wife (Diane Cilento) are in a fatal car crash which kills the other driver. After recuperating for many months at a hospital, he and his wife go to the South of France for a holiday. But he is plagued with unreasonable bouts of suspicion and violence as well as a homicidal urge to kill his wife. The Hammer thriller is far fetched and convoluted to the point of silliness. Nothing makes sense and even the so called "sane" characters behave illogically. Based on the novel by Ronald Scott Thom, one hopes the book read better than it plays out here. After a tedious first hour, the film is overlong for such a slight conceit, it goes into high gear but so predictable that it feels a cheat. The handsome black and white cinematography is by Gilbert Taylor (A HARD DAY'S NIGHT) who really knows how to format for the (MegaScope) wide screen. Directed by Val Guest (THE DAY THE EARTH CAUGHT FIRE), who's done better. With Claude Dauphin and Francoise Rosay, who's terribly wasted.

Outlaw Women (1952)

A town called Las Mujeres is run by women led by a tough broad called Iron Mae (Marie Windsor, who else?) who runs the town with an iron fist. But when two different men, one an outlaw (Richard Avonde) and the other an ex-boyfriend (Richard Rober) challenge her autonomy, something's got to give. Inspired by the Greek myth of the Amazon women, this "B" western gets by on its less than modest poverty row intentions. Filmed in an inferior color process called Cinecolor and with a hideously inappropriate score by Walter Greene (the main title sounds like circus music and a robbery sequence sounds like a Broadway musical's overture), the film is more enjoyable than it has a right to be. At times, it seems a satire in spite of itself. This being 1952 however, Windsor's character is treated like a freak and inevitably, she sees the light that it's a man's world though the film's last shot indicates a twinkle in that concept. Directed by Sam Newfield. With Jackie Coogan and Maria Hart, quite amusing as an attractive yet butch lady bouncer who lights matches by striking them across her teeth.

Baby Boom (1987)

Climbing the corporate ladder, a successful career woman (Diane Keaton) has no plans for marriage or children. But when a cousin is killed in an accident, as the only living relative, she is the recipient of the cousin's infant daughter (Kristina and Michelle Kennedy). Not only does it throw a monkey wrench into her career plans but her live in boyfriend (Harold Ramis) doesn't want children in his life. This rather sweet and endearing comedy is nothing special and it pretty much follows a predictable pattern. But Diane Keaton elevates it into something almost special. There's a reason she (along with Goldie Hawn) was the premiere comedienne in the 70s and 80s and she demonstrates why here. As an actress, she can take the most mundane of lines and chew on it, shake it around and bat it out with the expertise of a Joe DiMaggio. Her work here almost won her the 1987 National Society of Film Critics best actress award (she ran second to Emily Lloyd). Directed by Charles Shyer (1991's FATHER OF THE BRIDE). William Fraker (BULLITT) is responsible for the cinematography and the melodic score is by Bill Conti (THE RIGHT STUFF). With Sam Shepard as the veterinarian who romances Keaton, James Spader, Pat Hingle, Sam Wanamaker, Chris Noth, Annie Golden, Victoria Jackson and Robin Bartlett.

Who's Minding The Store? (1963)

When a wealthy department store heiress (Agnes Moorehead) discovers to her horror that her daughter (Jill St. John) is in love with a dog walker (Jerry Lewis), she plots to discredit him by hiring him for her department store and giving him the worst jobs possible. Right after directing and starring in his masterful THE NUTTY PROFESSOR, Lewis turned the directorial reins back to Frank Tashlin and the result is this infectious piece of silliness that ranks with the best of Lewis and Tashlin. Plot wise, the idea of having Lewis working in various departments of the store allows for all sorts of hilarious mayhem whether it's fitting shoes on a lady wrestler, selling an elephant gun to a great white hunter (Nancy Kulp), eating toasted ants in the gourmet shop or a vacuum cleaner running amok and sucking up everything from wigs off heads to Chihuahuas! It's Lewis' show all the way but a glam looking Moorehead is quite amusing doing a Bette Davis act. With Ray Walston, John McGiver, Isobel Elsom, Kathleen Freeman, Richard Deacon and Francesca Bellini.

Affair In Trinidad (1952)

After her husband is mysteriously killed, a nightclub performer (Rita Hayworth) in Trinidad is asked by the police to assist them in getting information concerning a family friend (Alexander Scourby) who is the chief suspect in the murder. For Hayworth's first film in four years (she had "retired" when she married Prince Aly Khan), Columbia attempted to recreate another GILDA for her by reuniting her for the fourth time with her GILDA co-star Glenn Ford. It didn't work for several reasons. Most obviously, the screenplay simply isn't as good but Hayworth, no longer the love goddess of GILDA, was starting to look a little rough around the edges. In an attempt to revive the image, they've even given her a number, I've Been Kissed Before that is a carbon copy of Put The Blame On Mame but the magic just isn't there this time. It's still enjoyable in a minor 1950s Caribbean potboiler kind of way. Directed by Vincent Sherman (MR. SKEFFINGTON) and Hayworth's Oscar nominated gowns are by Jean Louis. With Torin Thatcher, Juanita Moore, George Voskovec, Steven Geray, Mort Mills and Valerie Bettis, who also choreographed Hayworth's dance numbers.

Rio Conchos (1964)

A disparate assortment of characters: an Apache hating ex-Confederate soldier (Richard Boone), an Army captain (Stuart Whitman), a Mexican outlaw (Anthony Franciosa), a black Buffalo soldier (Jim Brown in his film debut) and an Apache woman (Wende Wagner, ROSEMARY'S BABY) find themselves thrown together in a perilous journey to Mexico. Their ultimate goal is to find the camp of a renegade former Confederate (an unconvincing Edmond O'Brien) who is selling repeating rifles to the Apaches. This tough and unsentimental western delivers the goods. There's no depth to it but it's a splendid diversion. It's surprisingly brutal, foreshadowing the path the western would soon take with Leone and Peckinpah on the horizon and the inferno climax doesn't leave you cheering but slightly disheartened. The stereotypical portrayal of the Mexican characters varies from offensive (Franciosa's sneaky opportunistic con man) to hilarious (Timothy Carey miscast as a Mexican) to amusing (Vito Scotti channeling J. Carrol Naish). The score, one of the very best written for a western, is by Jerry Goldsmith. Directed by Gordon Douglas and with Warner Anderson, Barry Kelley and Rodolfo Acosta.

La Mort En Ce Jardin (aka Death In The Garden) (1956)

In an unidentified South American country, the corrupt government confiscates all diamond mines from private ownership which causes a revolution. A small band of fugitives: an adventurer (Georges Marchal), a prostitute (Simone Signoret), a priest (Michel Piccoli), a miner (Charles Vanel) and his deaf mute daughter (Michele Girardon) escape down the river and into the jungle where they struggle to survive. One of the least seen and discussed of Luis Bunuel's films, it's easy to see why. Not that it's bad, quite the contrary, it's very good but it doesn't fit easily into the Bunuel canon. On the surface, it's a colorful (shot in Eastman color) jungle adventure seemingly not all that different from its Hollywood brethren. Quite different from the irreverently playful Bunuel that would dominate the 1960s art houses. But it's characters are all highly flawed, some physically and some morally and some psychologically. Bunuel's bleak ending and possible symbolism (I'm not sure but Piccoli's priest seems to be some kind of Christ figure) separate it from the glossy jungle adventures Hollywood was grinding out in the 1950s. A warning: there's actual animal cruelty (not simulated) in the film so be prepared.