Elvis Presley's seventh film was the first of his "Hawaii trilogy" (a group completed by Girls! Girls! Girls! and Paradise, Hawaiian Style). While its story is daft--the King has just been released from his army-posting in Italy and returned to the islands, where he's trying to avoid working in his father's fruit business--the music, including "Blue Hawaii," "Almost Always True" and the beautiful "Can't Help Falling in Love", is not. Angela Lansbury plays Elvis's mother, who can't seem to get through to him. The film is directed by Elvis's frequent collaborator, Norman Taurog. --Tom Keogh
Frontiersman Lin McAdam (Stewart) is attempting to track down both his father's murderer and his one-of-a-kind rifle the Winchester '73 as it passes among a diverse group of desperate characters including a crazed highwayman (Dan Duryea) an immoral gunrunner (John McIntire) a savage young Indian chief (Rock Hudson) and McAdam's own murderous brother (Stephen McNally)...
An atomic bomb tested in the Arctic frees a gigantic dinosaur from the icy tomb that has encased it for 100 million years. An ice fall kills all witnesses except one Professor Tom Nesbitt (Paul Hubschmid) who returns to New York with the fantastic story. No one will believe his tale but the truth is revealed when the beast emerges from the ocean and lays waste to Manhattan! Can the Professor come up with a plan to save the city before it's too late?
The Elvis formula was well in place by the time of 1964's Roustabout, a concoction of undistinguished songs (anyone remember "Poison Ivy League"?), pretty girls, tight pants, a colourful setting and a little bit of karate to prove that Elvis really had been studying his martial arts. With that understood, Roustabout is a better-than-average work-out for the King--not as peppy as Viva Las Vegas, but a good deal livelier than the sleepwalking It Happened at the World's Fair. Elvis plays a bad-boy singer roaming the highways on his Japanese motorcycle; laid up after an accident, he joins a carnival owned by the feisty Barbara Stanwyck. ("This is not a circus, it's a carnival. There's a big difference.") The cast goes from high to low: both giant-sized future James Bond villain Richard Kiel and tiny Billy Barty are carny regulars, and Raquel Welch has a small role in the opening scene. Teri Garr is one of the carnival dancers behind Elvis. The legendary costume designer Edith Head puts Elvis in a series of snappy windbreakers, but thank goodness he's also in black leather a lot. As if that weren't enough to recommend it, the movie has a sequence involving Elvis riding a cycle inside the "Wall of Death", a huge wooden cylinder with high walls. This bit actually inspired an entire Irish film in 1986, Eat the Peach, in which friends build a similar contraption after they watch Roustabout on tape. --Robert Horton
Lew Ayres stars in Felix Feist's adaptation of the 1942 novel by Curt Siodmak. After an horrific plane crash, despised millionaire Tom Donovan (Michael Colgan) is declared dead. Dr. Patrick Cory (Ayres) has ideas beyond his station however when he decides to operate on the corpse and retrieve the brain for research purposes. When Dr. Cory finds himself committing violent acts against his will he starts to believe that the brain of Tom Donovan, now stored in a tank, is controlling his actions.
Bank robber Will Sabre (George Montgomery) is looking to leave his life of crime behind in favor of marrying his sweetheart, Judy (Ann Robinson). But Sabre's gang, led by Dunsten (Steve Brodie), has no intention of letting go of such a skilled shooter. When he rejects the demands to rejoin their ranks, these cruel crooks promptly use their next heist to frame the innocent Sabre. To save his reputation and future, he must set out to capture his former cohorts -- with the law in hot pursuit.
Creeping!...Crawling!...Crushing! As the title suggests Giant Spiders have come to invade the earth and only two NASA employees Dr Jenny Langer and Dr. Vace can save the day!
Zane Grey (1872-1939) was one of the most popular authors of western fiction ever, and 60 years after his death many of his 78 books, such as Riders of the Purple Sage, are still in print. In the silent era Hollywood filmed many of his stories with stars such as Tom Mix and Jack Holt. Grey knew the west well, particularly the deserts of Arizona and Utah, and demanded accurate locations for the films. Later, however, many of these films were remade, sometimes two or three times, without Grey's involvement, and the relation between novels and films grew much looser. The films are quintessential B-moveis: black and white, just over an hour, featuring minor stars and formulaic plots with some music and comedy thrown in. Committed fans of the western genre will not be disappointed, and others will derive pleasure from the delightful Jane Greer in Sunset Pass and Tim Holt, son of Jack, in the other three films. The location shooting, mostly in the Lone Pine area of California, has an authentic feel. Titles are: Under the Tonto Rim (1947); Thunder Mountain (1947); Sunset Pass (1946); Wild Horse Mesa(1947). On the DVD: This box set contains two DVDs, each of which include two movies deriving from Zane Grey novels. Print quality and sound is generally acceptable, though Under the Tonto Rim has poor definition and is a bit scratchy. Aspect ratio is 14:9. The DVDs contain no extras of any kind. --Ed Buscombe
Please wait. Loading...
This site uses cookies.
More details in our privacy policy