The Films of 2024: The Courier (dir by Daniel Calparsoro)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

The year is 2002 and countries across Europe are giving up their old currencies and making the transition to the Euro.  The future looks bright, especially for Ivan (Aron Piper), a young man from Spain who has gotten a job as a courier.  He drives around Europe, often at lighting-fast speeds.  He takes money across the continent so that it can safely be hidden away in Switzerland.  Along with his lover and boss, Leticia (Maria Pedraza), Ivan quickly rises through the ranks of an international cartel.  Helping others stay wealthy leads to Ivan becoming wealthy as well.  Soon, he has fast cars, fast friends, a cocaine habit, and a mustache that makes him look like a 1990s NASCAR driver.

With its constantly moving camera and its voice-over narration, this Spanish film owes more than a little to the films of Martin Scorsese,  Ivan’s descent into drugs will be familiar to anyone who has seen The Wolf of Wall Street or Goodfellas.  Unfortunately, Ivan is never quite as interesting a character as either Jordan Belfort or Henry Hill, largely because Aron Piper is not as charismatic an actor as either Leonardo DiCaprio or Ray Liotta.  Ivan comes across as just being a punk who wandered into something that temporarily made him rich and his narration often descends into shallow psychobabble.  As a character, Ivan would never have the confidence to throw hundred dollar bills off of his boat.  He also wouldn’t have the creativity to pull off the Lufthansa heist.  He’s boring and all the cocaine in the world isn’t going to change that.

Interestingly enough, the film also borrows from Adam McKay, with an ending that highlights a lengthy list of consequences of Ivan’s money laundering operation.  Much as with the films of McKay, The Courier makes the mistake of assuming that everyone watching shares its dreary Marxist outlook and is going to be outraged.  The truth of the matter is that most people would probably love to hide their money from the government because only weirdos enjoy paying taxes.  The film assumes that the audience will be demanding revolution whereas the majority will probably be saying, “Hey, money laundering seems like a good idea and you get a nice car out of it!  How do I get in on that?”

(Scorsese, at the very least, understands and admits that most people would rather be Jordan Belfort on a yacht than the FBI agent on a subway.  Most people would rather be Henry Hill living in New York as opposed to being Henry Hill living in the suburbs of Indianapolis and being an ordinary schnook.)

The Courier does have its moments.  Maria Pedraza gives a good performance as Leticia, though you do have to wonder why she should would ever waste her time with someone as boring as Aron Piper’s Ivan.  Carlos Jean’s score is wonderfully propulsive and provides them film with a needed rush of adrenaline.  In the end, though, The Courier never really escapes the shadow of the films that came before it.

Trail to Laredo (1948, directed by Ray Nazarro)

Posted on by Jedadiah Leland

On the frontier, everyone has gold fever.  People are trying to find gold and steal gold and it falls to brave Treasury agents like Steve Ellison (Charles Starrett) and Smiley Burnette (played by Smiley Burnette) to keep things safe.  When Steve needs to find out who is trying steal gold, he puts on his mask and assumes the identity of The Durango Kid.

Near Laredo, a shipment of government gold has been stolen.  Dan Parks (Jim Bannon) is arrested after the gold is found in his wagon but Steve knows that the Durango Kid earlier warned Dan about traveling with gold.  Durango and Smiley set out to prove that Dan was set up by his business partner, Fenton (Hugh Prosser).

This yet another Durango Kid movie where Steve gets a job working for the bad guy while Durango works to thwart his plans.  (Remarkably, no one ever puts two and two together and notices that Steve, Smiley, and Durango always seem to show up in town at the same time.)  Fenton is just one of a long line of corrupt businessmen and land barons that Durango has had to deal with.  Fenton is not above threatening Dan’s young son (Tommy Ivo) to get Dan to do what he wants.  Given that Dan is just trying to make a good life for his family in a rough world, it’s satisfying when Fenton gets his comeuppance.

Almost every Durango Kid film featured at least one good fight scene.  In Trail to Laredo, the big fight takes place in a saloon and it’s pretty exciting.  Not only does the saloon get trashed but there’s a moment where one of the bad guys actually seem to fly through the air.  Even Virginia Maxey, playing Classy the saloon singer, gets in on it.

Both Virginia Maxey and Smiley Burnette get to sing a few songs.  As always, there enough gunfights and horse chases to keep fans of the genre happy.  Charles Starrett was a great cowboy.

Retro Television Review: Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night (dir by Allen Reisner)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Sundays, I will be reviewing the made-for-television movies that used to be a primetime mainstay.  Today’s film is 1977’s Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night!  It  can be viewed on YouTube.

Damn.

I mean, seriously!  I have seen some depressing films before but nothing could have quite prepared me for Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night.

Susan Dey stars as Rowena, a young single mother whose 3 year-old daughter, Mary Jane Harper (Natasha Ryan), is taken to the hospital with a broken arm.  Dr. Angela Buccieri (Tricia O’Neil) doesn’t believe Rowena’s claim that Mary Jane is just accident prone and when she discovers what appears to be cigarette burns on the little girl, Dr. Buccieri goes to the head of pediatrics (played by veteran screen villain John Vernon) and requests a full set of X-rays to see if there are any previously healed injuries.  Buccieri’s request is denied.  It turns out that Rowena comes from a wealthy family and her father (Kevin McCarthy) is a trustee of the hospital.  Even after Dr. Buccieri opens up about her own experiences as an abused child, she is told to drop the matter.

She doesn’t drop it.  Instead, she goes to a social worker named Dave Williams (Bernie Casey).  Dave does his own investigation but none of Rowena’s neighbors want to talk about all of the crying and the screaming that they hear coming from Rowena’s apartment.  Rowena presents herself as being a stressed but loving mother.  Dave suggests a support group that she can attend.  When Rowena goes to the group, she opens up a little about how overwhelmed she feels.  Unfortunately, she leaves Mary Jane in the apartment alone and, when a fire breaks out, Mary Jane is lucky to survive.

As intense as all of that is, it’s also only the first half of the movie.  The second half is even more intense and emotionally draining and it all leads up to one of the most devastating final lines ever uttered in a movie.  Throughout the film, the system fails both Rowena and Mary Jane.  Mary Jane is failed when all of the evidence of the abuse that she has suffered is either ignored or shrugged away by the same people who are supposed to be looking out for her.  Rowena is failed when no one pays attention to her obvious emotional instability.  When she finally does have a breakthrough during a therapy session, her psychiatrist (played by James Karen) curtly tells her that they’ll have to talk about it next week because their hour is up.

Rowena is a character who I both hated and pitied.  Like many abusers, she herself was a victim of abuse.  Even when Rowena tries to get support, no one wants to admit that a mother is capable of abusing their own child.  That said, Mary Jane Harper is at the center of the film. She’s a little girl who is desperate to be loved by a woman who often terrifies her.  She is continually failed by the people who should be looking after her and it’s just devastating to watch.  I’m sure I’m not the only person who was moved to tears by this film.

What a sad film.  At the same time, it’s also an important one.  If the film takes place at a time when no one wanted to admit to the abuse happening before their eyes, we now live in a time when people toss around allegations of abuse so casually that it’s led to a certain cynicism about the whole thing.  Even when seen today, Mary Jane Harper Cried Last Night works as a powerful plea to watch out and care for one another.

12 Roger Corman Trailers

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Roger Corman in The Godfather Part II

Today we pay tribute to the legacy of Roger Corman with a special edition of Lisa Marie’s Favorite Grindhouse and Exploitation Film Trailers.

  1. Five Guns West (1955)

This western was the first film that Roger Corman was credited with directing.

2. The Day The World Ended (1955)

Though Corman worked in almost every type of film genre imaginable, he’s probably best remembered for his science fiction and horror films.  This was one of the first of them.

3. Not of this Earth (1957)

Not of this Earth was not only one of Corman’s better sci-fi films but this also the first film in which Corman really took full advantage of character actor Dick Miller.  (Miller, a longtime friend of Corman’s, largely improvised his role as a hip vacuum cleaner salesman.)

4. Machine Gun Kelly (1958)

Along with westerns and sci-fi films, Corman also directed several gangster classics.  Machine Gun Kelly is remembered as one of his best.

5. Bucket of Blood (1959)

In Bucket of Blood, Roger Corman gave Dick Miller a starring role and also mixed comedy and horror in a way that influence many future horror directors.

6. Little Shop of Horrors (1960)

Roger Corman famously shot Little Shop of Horrors in just two days.  The end result was a mix of comedy and horror that continues to be influential to this day.  The musical is very good but I still prefer the cheerful low-budget aesthetic of the Corman original.

7. The Intruder (1962)

Corman was an exploitation filmmaker with a conscience.  At a time when other films were avoiding social issues, Corman dove right in with challenging films like The Intruder.

8. The Terror (1963)

Corman was famous for his ability to spot new talent.  His 1963 film The Terror starred a then unknown actor named Jack Nicholson.

9. The Masque of the Red Death (1964)

In the 60s, Corman was also well-known for his Edgar Allan Poe adaptations, the majority of which starred Vincent Price.  With these colorful and flamboyant films, Corman showed himself to be a pop artist at heart.

10. The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre (1967)

The St. Valentine’s Day Massacre featured Corman directing a film for a big studio.  The film recreated the gang war between Al Capone and George Moran while also finding room for Corman regulars like Jack Nicholson, Dick Miller, and Jonathan Haze.

11. The Trip (1967)

Roger Corman was always sympathetic to the counter-culture, which led to the remarkably nonjudgmental nature of The Trip, a film in which Peter Fonda drops acid under the guidance of Bruce Dern and Dennis Hopper.  Jack Nicholson wrote the script.

12. Frankenstein Unbound (1990)

In the 1970s, Corman retired from directing and instead focused on producing and distributing movies.  In 1990, he briefly came out of retirement and directed his final film, Frankenstein Unbound.

Scenes That I Love: Katharine Hepburn and James Stewart in The Philadelphia Story

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

On this date, 117 years ago, Katharine Hepburn was born in Hartford, Connecticut.  She would go one to become a cultural icon, a performer who survived being labeled box office to poison to eventually become one of our most acclaimed actresses.  Hepburn was a total of four acting Oscars over the course of her career, a record that has yet to be topped.

Today’s scene that I love comes from 1940’s The Philadelphia Story and it features Katharine Hepburn acting opposite another one of my favorite performers, the great James Stewart.

4 Shots From 4 Films: Special Jess Franco Edition

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

4 Shots From 4 Films is just what it says it is, 4 shots from 4 of our favorite films. As opposed to the reviews and recaps that we usually post, 4 Shots From 4 Films lets the visuals do the talking!

Today is the 94th anniversary of the birth of Jesus Franco!  One of the most prolific filmmakers of all time, Franco made movies that …. well, they’re not easy to describe.  Jess Franco was responsible for some of the most visually striking and narratively incoherent films ever made.  He made films that you either loved or you hated but there was no mistaking his work for being the work of someone else.

Today, in honor of his birthday, here are….

4 Shots From 4 Films

The Awful Dr. Orloff (1962, dir by Jess Franco, DP: Godofredo Pacheco)

Count Dracula (1970, dir by Jess Franco, DPs: Manuel Merino and Luciano Trasatti)

Vampyros Lesbos (1970, dir by Jess Franco, DP: Manuel Merino)

Female Vampire (1973, dir by Jess Franco, DP: Jess Franco)

May Positivity: Divine Will (dir by Ken Jones)

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

First released in 2017, Divine Will is a short film but it’s also a rather odd film.

Dave Blessing (Brent Reed) used to be the lead singer of Isolation, a band that was apparently the hottest in the world in the 90s.  His son, Will (Lee Roessler), is the result of a marriage that only lasted for two weeks.  When Will’s mother dies, he moves to Chicago and lives with Dave and Dave’s quirky sister, Jenny (Kat Moser).

We are told (but we do not see) that Will had trouble in Chicago and that he spent a few nights in jail.  Wanting to raise his son in a better environment, Dave accepts an offer to become the music minister for a church in small town Kentucky.

So, Dave, Will, Jenny, and the always silent ghost of Will’s mother move to Kentucky.  At first, everyone is skeptical about a rock star becoming a choir leader but then all of the women in town see how handsome Dave is and they all suddenly remember that they were once huge fans of Isolation.  While Dave tries to avoid all of the women that now want to marry him, Aunt Jenny gets a job as an art teacher.  Jenny’s quirky methods go against the staid traditions of the school.

As for Will, he falls for Casey Buckner (Kathryn Boswell), who lives next door and who is still coming to terms with the death of her brother.  Will should be able to help both her and several other people in town because he has the power to bring people a feeling of peace just by touching them.  It’s a power that he’s had ever since the passing of his mother.  Did I mention that the silent ghost of his mother keeps popping up at random moments?

Oh!  And did I also mention that the movie is a musical?  Will breaks into song while walking around the countryside.  Later, he and Casey share a duet.

As I said, it’s an odd film.  I’m a little bit hesitant about reviewing it because the imdb lists the film as having a 114 minute run-time while the version on Tubi was only 74 minutes long.  Either the imdb is incorrect or the version of Tubi was heavily edited.  Either way, the version I saw did feel as if it was missing a few scenes.  It crammed a lot of plot into just 74 minutes and the film was not always easy to follow.  The version I saw leaned very heavily on Will’s narration, especially during the first few scenes.

But you know what?  It’s a likably goofy film and it’s earnest enough that it feels somewhat churlish to be too critical of it.  If nothing else, it definitely captures the feel of living in the country.  There’s a scene set in a barn that has so many bales of hay that I immediately felt like I was back on my grandmother’s farm and suffering from allergies.  Much like the country that it portrays, the film was odd but the scenery was lovely.

Late Night Retro Television Review: Check It Out! 2.6 “The Bear Facts”

Posted on by Lisa Marie Bowman

Welcome to Late Night Retro Television Reviews, a feature where we review some of our favorite and least favorite shows of the past!  On Saturdays, I will be reviewing the Canadian sitcom, Check it Out, which ran in syndication from 1985 to 1988.  The entire show is currently streaming on Tubi!

This week, Howard helps Murray master the bush.

Episode 2.6 “The Bear Facts”

(Dir by Alan Erlich, originally aired on November 7th, 1986)

Murray, the teenage stockboy played by Simon Reynolds, has a problem.

He’s in the Scouts.  He promised his father that he would not leave the Scouts until he earned all of the badges.  He only has one badge left …. the *snicker* Bushmaster Badge.  In order to get *cough* Bushmaster Badge, he has to go camping with his father.  However, Murray’s father is in the Merchant Marine and is far from home.  Hey — maybe Howard could go camping with Murray and help him become a *chortle* Bushmaster!

Since Howard is actually being a nice guy in this episode, he agrees.  (As I’ve mentioned many times in the past, this show is incredibly inconsistent when it comes to how Howard is portrayed.  Sometimes, he’s a saint.  Sometimes, he’s the boss from Hell.)  Howard even puts on a scout uniform.  While camping, Murray talks about how his parents split up 12 years ago but that he still hopes that they’ll get back together.  (Awwww!)  Howard admits that he has never asked Edna to marry him because he worries that it would end in divorce.  Howard and Murray bond and you know what?  It’s actually kind of sweet.  Simon Reynolds is actually rather touching as the naive Murray while Don Adams, in the role of Howard, actually stops yelling long enough for us to see that Howard is a sensitive guy underneath all the bluster….

Of course, then a bear shows up and eats Murray.

Or maybe not.  Howard sees the bear and he runs away, just to later realize that Murray didn’t run away with him.  Howard assumes that Murray has been eaten.  Instead of calling the police or Murray’s mother, Howard goes back to the store and tells Edna, Christian, and Leslie about what happened.  No one seems to be that upset about Murray being devoured and that’s kind of sad.

Suddenly, Murray’s scoutmaster (Diane Douglass) shows up and says that she personally wants to give Murray his *ahem* Bushmaster Badge.  Howard explains that Murray was possibly eaten by a bear.  The scoutmaster is about to form a search party when suddenly, Murray shows up.  It turns out he wasn’t eaten after all.  The bear was really nice and Murray was not only able to escape but also make it through the untrimmed wilderness on his own.  Everyone agrees that Murray has truly proven himself to be a master of the bush.  Murray gets his final badge and, as a result, he can finally stop wearing his uniform.  Yay!

This was a weird episode.  It started out as very sincere and heartfelt and then it suddenly devolved into a bunch of jokes about a lonely teenage boy being eaten by a bear.  I have to admit that I kind of dug this episode, precisely because it was so odd.  The best episodes of Check It Out! are usually the ones where the show gets unapologetically weird and this one did just that.

Hopefully, next week will be even stranger.