I’ll be the first to admit I’m no expert on Spaghetti Westerns. I’ve probably seen more than the average filmgoer though, and have learned to appreciate them  over the years. If I were to make a Top Ten favorite film list, Sergio Leone’s THE GOOD THE BAD AND THE UGLY would definitely make the grade. Recently I watched THE BIG GUNDOWN for the first time, and while it doesn’t quite measure up to classic status, it does serve as a good example of what the genre’s all about.

Lee Van Cleef was fresh off his success in two Leone/Clint Eastwood Spaghettis (FOR A FEW DOLLARS MORE and the aforementioned film) when he was cast in this Sergio Sollima saga. Van Cleef, who struggled for years as a villainous second banana in Hollywood, was now an international star, and THE BIG GUNDOWN was his first leading role. He plays the steely-eyed, steel nerved Jonathan…

Critics weren’t kind to JAMAICA INN when it first appeared in 1939, and the film is still unappreciated today. Many consider this Alfred Hitchcock’s worst movie, and those scoundrels the Medved brothers included it in their book “The Fifty Worst Films of All Time”. I take a different view, and though it may not be top-notch Hitchcock, it still has The Master’s touch, along with an entertainingly over-the-top performance by Charles Laughton, and a star-making turn by the late Maureen O’Hara. I can think of hundreds of worst ways to spend your cinematic time than giving JAMAICA INN another look. In fact, I can think of far worse Hitchcock (anyone out there remember MARNIE or FAMILY PLOT?)

Young Mary Yellen (O’Hara) arrives in the coastal town of Cornwall in 1819 to live with her aunt after the recent death of her mother. The coach carrying her refuses to stop near…

The cult of the Three Stooges is as strong as ever. The Marx Brothers are studied in universities as artists. Laurel & Hardy’s “Sons of the Desert” fan club grows daily. Yet the modern world ignores the Ritz Brothers, and that’s a downright shame. Harry, Jimmy, and Al Ritz were multi-talented comic anarchists who  influenced a generation of funnymen from Mel Brooks to Jerry Lewis. Signed to a 20th Century-Fox contract in 1936, they lent support to big budget musicals like ONE IN A MILLION and ON THE AVENUE before being cast in a series of starring comedy vehicles highlighting their rapid-fire banter, madcap musical routines, and slapstick humor. They’re at their best in THE THREE MUSKETEERS, a musical comedy take on the Alexandre Dumas classic with Don Ameche as the dashing D’Artagnon.

The Ritzes are three dumb clucks who we meet plucking chickens at the Coq D’Or Tavern in Paris. Brash…

Australian Errol Flynn made a splashy Hollywood debut in 1935’s CAPTAIN BLOOD, a big, sprawling epic about pirates of the Caribbean. But this captain’s no Jack Sparrow, he’s a virile man of action who leads his crew from slavery to salvation and wins the hand of beautiful Olivia de Haviland in the process. Director Michael Curtiz was given an almost million dollar budget for this one, and he pulled out all the stops, with large-scale battle scenes and the proverbial cast of thousands.

It’s the year 1685, and England is going through a rebellion to depose tyrannical King James II. Doctor Peter Blood is summoned by his friend Jeremy Pitt to help some men wounded in battle. They’re interrupted by the King’s men, who arrest and charge them with high treason. The rebels are held for three months under brutal conditions before being sentenced to hang. But King James has a more dastardly idea…

The eclectic David Bowie passed away last night, two days after his 69th birthday. He’d just released Blackstar , his 25th album, as cutting edge now as he was when The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars blew our minds in 1972. The British Bowie, along with American counterpart Alice Cooper, changed the landscape of rock concerts forever. It wasn’t just about the music anymore, it was rock-as-theater, with elaborate costumes and stage sets. David Bowie’s visual style was as important as the music,  incorporating dance and art to create a unique experience for the audience.

Bowie gained some success in his native England with Space Oddity, The Man Who Sold the World, and Hunky Dory before Ziggy Stardust became a phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic. His androgynous alter ego shocked parents and knocked the laid-back folk-rockers off the charts, ushering in…

Many Blaxploitation films of the 70’s feature super-bad ass-kickers like Shaft, Superfly, or Cleopatra Jones, but the heroes of TOGETHER BROTHERS are a motley crew of street punks in this unheralded but well done film. Shot in Galveston, Texas, and featuring a cast of unknowns as the gang, TOGETHER BROTHERS is a gritty urban thriller about some boys in the hood on the hunt for a psycho cop killer. The movie gives a realistic look at ghetto life and street culture that’s as relevant today as it was forty years ago.

Black patrol cop “Mr. Kool” is respected around the ghetto for being fair with its denizens, including young HJ and his posse. When he’s brutally shot to death by a mysterious assailant, HJ’s little brother Tommy witnesses the killing, and is so traumatized he’s rendered mute. HJ and the others (Mau Mau, AP, Monk) feel “the street owes Mr. Kool”, and begin…

1932’s Make Me a Star

MAKE ME A STAR is an odd Pre Code film unsure what it wants to be. It starts off as a comedy about a movie-mad country bumpkin named Merton (Stuart Erwin) in the small town of Simsbury who dreams of becoming a cowboy star like his idol, Buck Benson (George Templeton). He’s even studying to become a thespian by listening to recordings from the National Correspondence Academy of Acting. Town busybody Mrs. Scudder (Zasu Pitts)  complains about Merton’s absent-mindedness to his boss, general store owner Gashwiler (Charles Sellon). Merton has a supportive friend, Tessie (Helen Jerome Eddy) who helps him set up a photo-shoot. But things go awry when Merton, dressed in full cowboy regalia, loses control of Gashwiler’s horse, causing a ruckus in the town square. Gashwiler fires Merton, and the starry-eyed yokel takes a train to Hollywood.

The film veers off into drama from here…

“The blues had a baby”, sang Muddy Waters, “and they called it rock’n’roll”. One of rock’s many parents was the legendary Texas country bluesman Sam “Lightnin'” Hopkins. Lightnin’s phenomenal guitar wizardry is heard echoing in everything from The Animals to Led Zeppelin and beyond, and it’s given a fine showcase in this 45 minute documentary by filmmaker Les Blank. Blank gives us an amazing time capsule of life in 1960’s Centerville, Texas, a predominately black rural community midway between Dallas and Houston. We follow Lightnin’, with his ever-present shades and hip flask of whiskey, as he visits his hometown, jamming with friends like Mance Lipscomb, greeting relatives, attending a rodeo, and playing at a BBQ party. This short, cinema verite film lets the man himself tell the story through his music and tales of a life in the blues.

Les Blank began as an industrial filmmaker before deciding to follow his own…

Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977)

Not many people have gone from working with Grade-Z hacks like Al Adamson to A-list directors like Steven Spielberg. In fact, I can only think of one…cinematographer Vilmos Zsigmond, who passed away New Years Day at age 85. “Ziggy” was born in Hungary, and emigrated to America with his friend and fellow cameraman Laszlo Kovacs after the Hungarian Revolution in 1956. The pair travelled to Hollywood, and Zsigmond found work as a cinematographer and camera operator in the world of low-budget moviemaking. He lensed epics for independent auteurs such as Arch Hall (WILD GUITAR, THE NASTY RABBIT, DEADWOOD ’76), Ray Dennis Steckler (THE INCREDIBLY STRANGE CREATURES WHO STOPPED LIVING AND BECAME MIXED-UP ZOMBIES), and the aforementioned Adamson (BLOOD OF GHASTLY HORROR, SATAN’S SADISTS, HORROR OF THE BLOOD MONSTERS).

The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies (1964)

His big break…