Japanese New Wave cinema of the 60s and 70s was a rebellion against established styles of filmmaking. Major Japanese film studios began to promote young assistant directors to helm their own features- about young people and aimed at the youth market. These directors would deliver a kick of creative revitalisation into Japanese cinema. They would tackle challenging themes- sexuality, political radicalism, social inequality- all against the background of Japan’s postwar identity struggle.
Category: Retro Reviews
Architect Doug (Paul Newman) tries to save one of the Tower's young residents (Mike Lookinland). (Twentieth Century Fox/Warner Bros.)
The Towering Inferno (1974)
“One these days, they’re going to kill 10,000 in one of these fire traps. And I’m gonna keep eating smoke and bringing out bodies. ’Til somebody asks us how to build em.” Chief O’Hallorhan (Steve McQueen), The Towering Inferno.
The Seventies was a decade where disaster movies, such as The Poseidon Adventure (1972) and Earthquake (1974), thrilled audiences with dramatic stories and special effects. Recent events in London, however, remind us that such dreadful disasters do happen in real life. The Towering Inferno (1974), the story of a 138 storey building beleaguered with deadly safety issues, has sadly never been more relevant.
Strange Report (1969)
……from Professor Spool’s archive.
In the late sixties Sir Lew Grade’s British based ITC company brought us the many cases that fell to war veteran and ex policeman turned criminologist Dr Adam Strange to solve. The plots of Strange Report were varied and some of them still feel very relevant today.
The series was mostly filmed and located in and around sixties London. Indeed, Strange’s preferred mode of transport is his own self driven old black London taxi cab. Each of the sixteen one hour episodes is given a case reference number ranging from ‘Report 0649 to Report 8944’. The eponymous title character is portrayed by Anthony Quayle. This was his first television series – Quayle was previously well known for his theatre work (particularly with the Royal Shakespeare Company) and major films such as Ice Cold in Alex, The Guns of Navarone and Lawrence of Arabia. Read more about Strange Report (1969) …
Tony Curtis and Roger Moore, vividly introduced during the opening titles of The Persuaders! (ITC/Network)
The Persuaders! (1971) – An Anglo American Alliance!
As soon as that distinctive theme tune commences… you know you’re in for an hour of enjoyable escapist entertainment!
……from Professor Spool’s archive
Towards the end of the 1960s, Roger Moore was hanging up his halo as Simon Templar, making a lightweight British cinema thriller Crossplot (1969) with his ‘The Saint’ (1962-1969) TV series producer Robert S. Baker – and he was being touted as the next James Bond. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic, Hollywood matinee idol Tony Curtis had been receiving critical acclaim for playing against type as the real life serial killer Albert DeSalvo in The Boston Strangler (1968). Little did either actor probably know at this time that media mogul Lew Grade had plans that would bring them both together in The Persuaders! It would be, in the early seventies, one of the most expensive British TV series.
Read more about The Persuaders! (1971) – An Anglo American Alliance! …
What You Can’t See Can Hurt You!
Introducing four of the best British psychological horror films from the early 60s- The Innocents, The Haunting, 80,000 Suspects and Repulsion.
……from Professor Spool’s archive
At Halloween most television and cinema schedules will be dominated by the usual ‘scary suspects’ – Dracula, Frankenstein’s monster, werewolves, Freddie, Jason and maybe even a Mummy. Such horror creations are so readily visible on the screen whether they are steeped in folklore like vampires or based on real life Jack the Ripper type serial killers.
In concentrating on these overt, bloody and often very gruesome depictions, schedulers frequently overlook the primal basis of all horror – fear itself. The very fear that lurks deep in our psyche and that can manifest itself in so many different ways. One such manifestation is that which is unseen – you may be able to sense danger, your sub-conscious may play tricks on you, the sounds you hear may add to the dread and foreboding that occupy your thoughts. What you can’t see can hurt you – it can produce irrational behaviour, questions our very sanity and understanding of what is real or a figment of our fevered imagination.
Let me now recommend four fine celluloid examples that are immersed in the very atmospheric fear I have just described. This quartet of black and white ‘mind-chillers’ were all made in Britain in the early sixties.
Department S (1969, UK)
Why do all the passengers from an airline go missing mid-flight? How does a food critic wind up in the middle of a desert after a night at the opera? Why has the ground floor of a stately home, found to contain a mentally handicapped young man and the dead body of a woman, been constructed inside an old warehouse? These are just some of the unsolved mysteries- ranging from the believable to the outright bizarre that British 1960s TV series Department S throws at you in its gripping opening title sequences.
Black Lizard (1968, Japan)
An effortlessly stylish, twisty and entertaining gothic suspense. This kitsch avant-garde masterpiece from Japanese auteur Kinji Fukasaku, starring female impersonator Akihiro Miwa, has to be seen to be believed!