Paleo-Cinema Podcast

This time around I'm looking at five movies made by Robert Aldrich between 1954 and 1956. They are Apache starring blue eyed Burt Lancaster as Massai, the last Apache warrior, Vera Cruz where Lancaster buddies up with Gary Cooper... for a while, Kiss Me Deadly which merges private eye film noir with Atomic Era McCarthy paranoia, The Big Knife which shows the disintegration of a movie star and Attack! which takes a raw look at the politics of war on a small scale.

In this annual Newtonmas podcast I look at three musicals. The Gang's All Here from 1943, Kismet from 1955 and One Touch of Venus from 1949. Happy holidays people, and happy movie viewing.

In this podcast we first look at THIRST, the 1979 Ozploitation vampire movie starring Chantal Contouri, David Hemmings, Henry Silva, Shirley Cameron, Rod Mullinar and Max Phipps.

From there we wind back the clock forty four years and go to a lost kingdom (or should that be queendom?) in the Arctic with the 1935 version of H. Rider Haggard's SHE, starring Randolph Scott and Helen Gahaghan.

Then forward again two years to Frank Capra's three million dollar utopian epic, LOST HORIZON based on James Hilton's novel. This is the good version, not the one where Bobby Van tapdances into a lake to amuse small children.

And finally, THE OSCAR which was as far from winning the award it is named after as I am from winning Miss World. A bad movie, with features of interest.

Back again. In this podcast I look at Mark Hartley's documentary Not Quite Hollywood, begin the Paleo-Cinema Ozploitation Festival with 1978's Patrick the best killer-in-a-coma movie ever, explain why Charles Laughton stole the 1949 film noir, The Bribe and have fun with love and death at the carnival in Rio in the Oscar winning Foreign Language movie Black Orpheus.

In this podcast I check out the Monkees' movie, partly written by Jack Nicholson, Head, a rev head car-based action flick that influenced Quentin Tarantino in a big way - Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry and a film from 1957 that has a lot to say about politics and the media right now, A Face In The Crowd.

In this podcast I give a brief history of the very, very early days of science fiction cinema... and by very early days I mean from 1895 to the early 20th Century. We are talking deeply paleo-cinema this time. All the important questions are answered. What were the first movies ever to be pirated, plagiarised and remade? What is the first science fiction film ever madeand what do pigs have to do with it? From there I move on to a checklist of pre-Star Wars science fiction movies that are either must-sees or must-owns. (Not a complete list, the podcast doesn't have a 6000 minute running time.) And finally, I look at a science fiction movie from 1967 which is sadly overlooked, Peter Watkins' Privilege, which during the summer of love took a darker look at pop music, celebrity and the relationship between popular culture and politics.

In this podcast I talk about three manly adventure movies from the 60s and 70s. Charles Bronson's hitman opus "The Mechanic" from 1972, and two films about survival in the savage regions of Africa - 1965's Sands of the Kalahari and 1966's classic The Naked Prey. I also complete the Alternative Magnificent 7.

In Podcast 17 I (with the assistance of a co-reviewer - Sal) look at one of the coolest thrillers of 1967, the Terence Young directed Wait Until Dark starring Audrey Hepburn and Alan Arkin. And a proto-post modern look at Hollywood scriptwriting, alcoholism, stealing the Eiffel Tower, movie producers and why Frankenstein and My Fair Lady are the same thing, 1963's Paris When It Sizzles starring William Holden, Audrey Hepburn and Tony Curtis. I also do a brief look at the movie Quentin Tarantino's about to remake, Inglorious Bastards. Link to the Creative Commons License for the Podcast

In this podcast I look at the classic Ozploitation movie The Man From Hong Kong, one of the stars of which has become notorious in Taiwainese triads, and Shaft, the 1971 classic blaxploitation movie. I also look at great books about movies and a few other bits and pieces.

In podcast 15 I take a look at the seminal gonzo surrealist Olsen and Johnson comedy from 1941 Hellzapoppin', the first Disney movie to combine animation and live action and arguably the last decent flick they made - The Three Caballeros and to end things on an up-beat, I take a look at the other end of the World movie from 1959, Ranald McDougall's The World, The Flesh and the Devil - starring Harry Belafonte, Mel Ferrer and Inger Stevens.