Felice Reviews

How to Get Ahead in Advertising (1989) Rated R, 90 Minutes

Next up in this cult series is the perfect 80's black comedy, How to Get Ahead in Advertising. It's a name you can't forget and while it's not as easy to rent as it once was (I first saw it in the mid-90's) - it's not impossible to locate. I found a DVD copy at my local library.

As you know I am working my way through two books on cult films and a box set of 52 cult drive-in movies. Well, this film is in NONE of those. But sometimes the selection in the book or in the box set leads me to another place and I just had to bring How to Get Ahead in Advertising to your attention. Have you seen it?

It's about a successful ad man who is stuck on a pimple cream ad campaign. He can't sleep and chain smokes and eventually grows a boil himself. The boil then grows a face and begins to speak to him. It's wildly funny and that's what I remembered about the movie. How funny the boil was. I did not remember the cutting remarks on modern society's need to be told what to buy and why they need it nor did I remember the way the film seemed to loath the 80's descent into consumerism.

In some ways the main character of this film reminded me of Don Draper from Mad Men (if Don Draper had been allowed to go outright nuts). Richard E. Grant plays the lead - I haven't seen him in a movie where I didn't like his character. I mean even in this one he is rather detestable at times but lovable also. His wife is played by Rachel Ward of 80's cinema fame (Against All Odds). And it's just sweet to see her be the straight man in this farcical bit of insanity.

I want to mention the writer/director Bruce Robinson. We haven't seen him do too much lately - but what he did in the 80's was pretty great. He wrote The Killing Fields and was nominated for an Oscar for it. The Killing Fields was one of the first R rated movies I saw in the theater without an adult. We thought we were so cool buying our tickets like we were getting away with something. 'Ha!', we thought, 'we must look so mature'. Only to find out it's a war movie and terribly sad. But I'll never forget it! He also wrote and directed Richard E. Grant in Withnail & I which has been on my watch list for a bit. I think Robinson had a good eye and was one of those artists who just couldn't tolerate the film industry and so didn't make a lot of movies.

Which leads me back around to the film that was next in line in the book '100 Cult Films' that I decided NOT to blog about. That film is Brazil. I watched it. I watched it twice actually - once with the director's commentary on and once with it off. And I can only tell you that I didn't enjoy the movie enough to include it on my list of cult film classics. I didn't find enough to relate to or hope for in the movie. It wasn't bad but not my cup of tea. But why I am mentioning it at all is that Terry Gilliam directed and wrote Brazil which was rather his magnum opus and Gilliam was another bloke who did not suffer the film industry well.

So there you have it. Sometimes we get real artists who want to make movies and they don't care whether we like them or not.

I'm Gonna Git You Sucka (1988) 88 Minutes, Rated R

I never would have watched this and it was funny! That's why this blog still suits me - although not that many people read what I have to say about these many many movies I watch - I still enjoy watching them and sharing them with you.

I was a huge In Living Color fan and wanted to be a fly girl - this movie came out before In Living Color. Oh and it's a hoot - and a love letter to Blaxploitation movies. Keenan Ivory Wayans loved them so much he put a lot of the actors from the Blaxploitation era in this movie. And Keenan's mom is played by the incomparable Ja'Net DuBois (Good Times). She's fantastic.

The story goes that people in Keenan's community are overdosing on gold, O.G.ing. And when one body turns up - covered head to toe in gold chains - the question that everyone asks is, "How'd he go to the bathroom?"

Blue Sunshine (1977) 94 Minutes, Rated R

Here's a new-to-me fun one. A group of people who purchased LSD 10 years earlier - all begin to lose their hair and go psycho. Super-human strength and everything. And who did they all buy the acid from? The local congressional candidate.

Jeff Lieberman (Squirm) wrote and directed. It's not too gory and it's not too funny. But it was fun and worth a mention. I got Shudder free for 7 days to watch it. It's not too hard to find.

Silent Running (1972) 89 Minutes, Rated G

Gotta give this one a shout out and a brief explanation of how I found it. The book '100 Cult Films' has Blade Runner listed at about this point. I don't care for Blade Runner. Oh sure I liked it just fine when it came out and expected to still like it but I watched it a few years back and realized it's boring.

So I did some googling on sci-fi cult films and found Silent Running. I never heard of it, don't know why it's called Silent Running but I liked it. Maybe the visual look of the film could have been better but this is some of the first space housing and drones to be in a movie - I think they made a good go of it.

Bruce Dern is on a space station with a crew of guys. They maintain the only remaining forests inside space stations since the Earth cannot sustain the forests. They get the order to nuke the whole operation and go home, where ever that may be. The crew wants to go home and wants to follow orders but Bruce Dern says no man. And he stands up to the crew and reprograms the drones and the redirects the ship and figures out how to save his little patch of forest. It's an interesting narrative. I liked it and Bruce Dern does a good job.

Here are some movies that copied. The Martian, Star Wars, and Battlestar Gallactica. Probably more but I'm no expert.

Douglas Trumbull directed. He only directed one other feature length film, the Natalie Wood / Christopher Walken movie, Brainstorm. Otherwise Trumbull spent his extensive career in the visual effects department pioneering the look of films like Blade Runner and Star Trek. He knew what he was doing - I'm glad he got a chance to direct this film.

Friday Foster (1975) 90 minutes, Rated R

I loved this one. For many reasons. The main reason being Pam Grier is so likable and wonderful and confident and in charge. No victim mentality here. She's up for it and engaged in her life choices and owning the screen.

I don't know who is paying attention but I'll remind readers that I am working my way through 2 books on cult films and one box set of 52 cult movies. None of the box set selections have made it to the blog yet. The book '100 Cult Films' is a good guide through what should be mentioned in the genre. Meaning I have substituted film after film - watching the selection in the book then watching and blogging about the selection I find more appropriate. But the 'TCM Underground' book - well - it's just got more class, more Va Va Va Voom, and less sexual violence. And, of course, I am listening to the TCM podcast this season which just so happens to be on Pam Grier.

So I was ready for Friday Foster, expecting more grit and violence but there was no revenge drama here. Just a professional photographer living her life who witnesses an assassination attempt and has to solve the mystery by stealing a milk truck and a hearse (loved those scenes).

And Pam is her usual and wonderful self but you know who else is tops? Yaphet Kotto! He is her friend and a private investigator and he is so dang funny! Considering the last time he was in a movie on this blog it was a very serious role I was tickled at how much I laughed at every scene he was in. One scene, he's chasing the bad guy, played by Carl Weathers, and he ducks down for cover and then says out loud, 'What am I doing here?' Like - really? Why are you chasing down a bad guy with a gun? Really good comedy - in the moment - laughing at himself.

Of course Friday has her two lovers - one a senator and one the 'black Howard Hughes'. She enjoys herself both times - seems happy and sexy. She fends off the neighborhood pimp who is constantly showering her with gifts to get her to work for him declaring that his girls are 'covered under a health plan'. (They seem happy too - the prostitutes I mean).

Scatman Crothers plays a minister, Eartha Kitt is a fashion designer, it's just a wonderful display of black culture at that time in history.

Have to mention Friday's little brother played by Tierre Turner. I had trouble finding his name on the IMDB page but that's it. Turns out Tierre is still working as a stuntman and actor - way to go. He was 15 when he made the movie but he looked younger. And he collects gifts for Friday and then re-sells them. Someone says, 'so you're a hustler' and he says, 'no - black capitalism'. Or something like that. He's just taking care of business is all. He was an underdeveloped character - like why is Friday living there with him and no parents? When does he go to school? Bla bla. But Friday Foster is a blaxploitation movie (said with all the admiration for the genre one can emote) - and that genre didn't always have all the ends tied together. Such is life.

I thought about substituting Friday Foster for Foxy Brown or Coffy but no - I'll leave this one in the cult series. It's a solid movie bringing in all the tropes of blaxploitation plus comedy. Really enjoyable.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (1970) 109 minutes, Rated X

This movie was grand in the best way. Pretty boys and girls, crazy people, a big reveal at the end with some of the ultra violence. If I had to guess why I never thought to watch this before it would be because I always found Valley of the Dolls kind of sad and sometimes I hate sequels. But Beyond the Valley of the Dolls is not a sequel, it's not sad, and it's so zany that I watched it two times in a row.

Beyond the Valley of the Dolls shows up in both of my cult movie books that I have been working through - '100 Cult Films' and 'TCM Underground'. Also, John Waters does an interview on the Criterion release blu-ray that is full of accolades for the director and producer, Russ Meyer. He even gives a nod to the writer saying 'this is the best thing that Roger Ebert ever did'. I looked back at Ebert's film credits and yes - for sure - there's nothing better in Ebert's filmography than Beyond the Valley of the Dolls.

The story is about a chick rock band and their manager and what happens to them when they decide to come to Hollywood. They meet my absolute favourite character in any of these cult films so far, Z-Man, Ronnie Barzell, played by John Lazar. For real, Johnny Lazar could have just left his name alone - but I loved Z-Man and his Shakespearean dialog, lavish parties, succubus friends, and bold choices of evening wear.

The girls gain some success as musicians. The music is actually great in this picture. I'd love to have the soundtrack. The success brings changes and lovers and drama. There are two separate scenes where two different pairs of lovers run through a grassy meadow. I wondered, how come they are not falling? Oh - John Waters showed how he copied one of those running in the grass scenes with Divine and Tab Hunter in Polyester. It's a tribute more than a copy. He loved Russ Meyer movies.

All in all - I loved this picture and I think it's time you watched or re-watched it. Oh - don't ask me why it's rated X. John Waters' guess was the reveal at the end - which I won't give away. Roger Ebert said it was because in the early days of the rating system an X rating did not discredit a movie. It was a rating given to movies for adults and not relegated to hardcore pornography like it morphed into. There are plenty of homosexual and heterosexual sexy scenarios, there is plenty of drug use, and there is some good violence but an X rating? Nah.

Please watch it and tell me what you think. I don't want to be the only one humming 'Find It' at work tomorrow.

La Bella et la Bete (1946) 93 minutes, Unrated

You can watch this on HBO Max and I recommend you do. Whether or not you enjoy foreign films, the Beauty and the Beast story should be familiar to you. I found this version to be funny and trippy and sweet.

Don't ask me why it's in the book '100 Cult Films'. That live action version of Alice in Wonderland is more my cult style. (Not the Johnny Depp version but the one I saw on TV when I was a kid where the baby turns into a pig while she's holding it).

But I wanted to get La Belle et la Bete posted in this cult series because I wouldn't have watched it if not for the nod from the book and I really enjoyed it. Really - lovely - film.

I Saw What You Did (1965) 82 minutes, Unrated

Joan Crawford attracts a certain kind of person to her movies. Sort of an underground hard-luck type person. Then her scheming and her necklaces don't seem so odd but rather bring admiration about how ballsy she is in her pictures.

I Saw What You Did belongs in this cult series because it highlights a cult icon in her swan-song-hey-day. Never one to say "I'm too old to be his love interest" - Joan is all over her neighbor John Ireland, just waiting for his wife to leave. Don't worry - she leaves, in a body bag.

Meanwhile some innocent girls are prank calling everyone and get a hold of Ireland and tell him, 'I saw what you did and I know who you are.' Which makes Ireland a smidge mad so he tries to find the girls and kill them too.

OK? Kinda wonderful but also dumb. But the weirdest thing about this movie is that the opening and closing music belong on The Brady Bunch while what goes on in the middle is a deadly series of encounters with a murderer. A murderer who surprised me with an almost perfect butcher knife throw. Missed it by that much.

And the ending - well - the ending is one for the ages.

But for a minute - let me go back to Joan Crawford. She made her 'comeback' in 1962 with Baby Jane. It was wildly successful but her rivalry with Bette Davis kept her from making any more pictures with her. So she went on and found her own way to stay in pictures in the 60's. After Baby Jane she made Strait Jacket, I Saw What You Did, and Berserk. She did some TV too but these are really her last pictures. Her final picture, the notoriously bad Trog, is still kind of wonderful because of Joan's devotion to the picture. It makes me sad that she ended up in all these schlock movies because she only ever wanted to be a star - then again - she is a star in I Saw What You Did. She is the star who brings the teens and the murderer into the same frame while never mussing her up-do or hitching up her skirt. She's a real class act.

Across 110th Street (1972) 112 minutes, Rated R

I loved this film.  It is the first movie featured in ‘TCM Underground’ and while the authors of that book encourage us to watch the movies out of order, that’s not how my brain works. 

For certain, I didn’t expect to like the movie as much as I did.  I am generally not an Anthony Quinn fan and expected to dislike this movie because he is the star.  It’s so good to be wrong sometimes.  I feel refreshed from having watched this gritty, new-to-me, neo-noir and have not stopped talking about since I watched it on Thursday.

I was excited to see Burt Young in the opening scene.  Young is a classic Italian character actor who I instantly recognized but he was gunned down before he says a word.  Two black ‘cops’ who we quickly find out are not cops - rob the mob for $300,000 - and kill two actual cops.

The whole movie takes place in Harlem - real Harlem with real people - real buildings - real sound - real desperation and poverty.  Quinn is the seasoned detective and Yaphett Koto is the educated superior officer.  The two clash over methods and neither is very successful at solving the case.

In one scene - the mob lets on to the new superior officer that they have been paying Quinn off for many years.  The new guy doesn’t flinch but Quinn does - he worries for his pension and his future and what would happen to him if someone were to rat him out.  He makes excuses - and tries to minimize what he’s done.

Oh my - and another favourite scene was when the mob boss’ son-in-law goes into Harlem to see the bad-guy-in-charge there about what happened to his father-in-law’s money.  The bad-guy-in-charge, played by Richard Ward, is so good.  His gravelly voice is menacing as he yells at the son-in-law and says, “you ain’t never gonna make it - what are you 40-45 - you were a punk errand boy when you married the boss’ daughter and you’re still a punk errand boy”.  Freaking classic mental torture - I really loved it.

Across 110th Street is unexpected and refreshing.  It makes me a little sad that this movie came out in the same year as The Godfather but 110th Street is never discussed as the same class of film.  To me it is better than The Godfather because everything in the movie happens to real people.  And the ending - the ENDING!  An entire movie can be ruined by a stupid ending.  Across 110th Street has a fantastic ending.

I read on IMDB that Quinn wanted the trifecta - Sammy Davis, Jr., Harry Belafonte, and Sidney Poitier in the lead roles.  But Harlem said no - those are Hollywood names.  I’m not saying it would have been bad - but it would have been a different movie - sort of white washed and sanitized rather than the dirty crime thriller this turned out to be.

Dirty 70′s crime drama is my 3rd favorite film genre. 

Dead Alive (aka Braindead) (1992) 104 minutes, Rated R

The third selection in my cult series (want to join my cult?) is Dead Alive.  Or, if you are reading this anywhere but the United States, Braindead.

I don’t say this very often and, yes, I have watched less movies this year than in other years but Dead Alive is my favourite movie of 2022.

Can you believe a 30-year-old movie is my favourite - fucking loved this movie so much.

A Sumatran rat monkey is transported to a New Zealand zoo.  A shy boy and a local girl go on a date to said zoo.  His overbearing Norman Bates type mother follows them on their date and gets bitten by the monkey - after which she steps on its head and squishes it like a bloody melon.

OK so - the date was cut short and her son takes her home and gets a nurse to mend her wound.  Everything seems to be OK until the next day the bite is much worse but she tries to act normal and have lunch with some town people.  Only she is not normal - so abnormal that her ear falls off into her custard and she spoons it up and eats it!  She eats her own ear!

So much more fun stuff happens as the Mother gets more and more sick and starts biting people and turning them into whatever she is.  It’s really fantastic.

One more fantastic thing Dead Alive gives us is ‘the most blood used in any movie’ (according to IMDB).  There was a lot of blood and gore and flesh eating and bodies ripping apart and dismembered body parts attacking and shh (a baby in a blender).  Freaking loved this movie.

Gotta mention the director, Peter Jackson.  Let me rephrase that, Sir Peter Jackson, who I had never heard of before The Lord of the Rings series.  To be honest, I really lost interest in his movies, didn’t care for The Hobbit at all.  So I never would have given him another thought - I didn’t even know he made horror movies!  But I found Peter Jackson’s movie Bad Taste in a book on cult films.  Bad Taste is renown for its gore and it’s a movie about aliens who come to Earth to harvest human meat.  Never knew Jackson had it in him!  Bad Taste led me to Dead Alive and it is the clear winner.  Yes - Bad Taste was good but Dead Alive was great.

The Driller Killer (1979) 96 Minutes, Unrated

The second selection in my Cult Series (want to join my cult?) is The Driller Killer.

I read about an Abel Ferrara movie called Angel of Vengeance (aka Ms .45) in a book on Cult films.  The movie is about a mute girl who gets raped and snaps and shoots a bunch of men.  In the final scene she is dressed as a sexy nun.  The movie is good but I don’t think it’s a cult classic.  It’s not memorable enough.

Somehow, I felt a Ferrara movie belonged on a list of cult classic films so I thought I’d try Bad Lieutenant.  I had heard of it but never seen it and, based on the story line and Harvey Keitel in the lead, I figured I would love it.  And it was good.  There are a couple of really fucked up scenes and a great ending.  A good portion of the narrative takes place inside a Catholic Church - a Ferrara theme perhaps?  Still - a cult classic - no - it didn’t send me over the edge like I expect a cult film to do.

Since I had yet to be gobsmacked by a Ferrara film, I thought I’d try one more.  The Driller Killer.  I liked the name, it’s available to stream on Kanopy, and Ferrara writes, directs, and stars in it.  It don’t get much more Ferrara than that.

Well - this one did it for me.  It opens in, you guessed it, a Catholic Church.  I don’t know what the pair was doing in the church but Abel and his pretty roommate leave in a hurry, make out in a cab, and go home to their beautiful New York apartment and their second beautiful roommate.  Now, the apartment is not Woody Allen beautiful - but it’s a sweet pad.

All through that first scene the film cuts to footage of a punk rock band who we later learn are The Roosters.  New York old school punk rock does a cult classic make.  Well, punk rock and an unstable protagonist driven to murder with a power tool.  Two thumbs up.

BTW, in 1979 there are no cordless drills.  So he has to buy a battery belt from a home shopping channel so he can take his murder weapon out into the streets and kill derelicts.  Very resourceful!

The Driller Killer is a punk rock story about artists working in New York and one of them goes off the deep end.  I liked this one.  Give it a whirl.  (see what i did there?)

Flesh Gordon (1974) 90 Minutes, Unrated

To kick off this Cult Series (want to join my cult?) I decided to start with Flesh Gordon.

I watched this movie many, many times and always enjoyed it but never thought of it as a work of cinema or anything that could be written about - but now I get to - first of all re-watch this motion picture that I haven’t seen since the early 90’s - and 2nd of all - see it as a satire rather than an adult film.

First of all - according to IMDB a lot of the shots are directly from the Flash Gordon serial comic.  I wouldn’t know - but I know I like this movie.  I’m team Flesh!

Flesh Gordon is a million times better than 2001, A Space Odyssey, which I find to be one of the most boring things I’ve ever watched.  Flesh is actually hilarious and has a story where plot points happen and, yes, there is a sex ray and when you get hit with it everyone goes crazy with sex madness.

Flesh and his friends have to try to stop Emperor Wang - a maniacal botanist whose organ was devoured by a crazed penis flytrap - from carrying out his evil plans.

I mean really - this movie has everything, penisauruses, penisauri (sp?) - claymation!  Power Pasties, super gay Robin Hood character, the Martian from that Twilight Zone episode (John Hoyt), and stupidly funny dialog and puns to go with the potty humor and 70′s eau naturelle nudity, and so much more.  To top it off, the movie ends with a battle between a giant clay monster that really could have been the end of Clash of the Titans if that monster had a sense of humor.  I mean, when they wake the beast up he says ‘Oh boy I just love murder’.

A Season of James Mason

The Seventh Veil (1945)

Is it saying anything that James Mason would have to wait 8 years to land the role that made him a bankable star?  Oh he was in plenty of movies - even a couple that sounded worth watching i.e. I Met A Murderer or even A Place of One’s Own.  I watched one of James’ early films, Fire Over England from 1937.  James was only in the movie for a couple of scenes and he wasn’t very good in those.  One of the scenes he yells the astoundingly original line, ‘You’ll never take me alive!’.  Classic.  I didn’t want to start the Season of James Mason with a bad review so I kept moving through his repertoire until I found a film that was available to watch and had the potential for a good performance.

The Seventh Veil brought James into the public consciousness as a handsome and wicked villain.  

In the film, a doctor recommends narco hypnotherapy as a way to cure a mute mental patient.  The doctor explains the seven veils - Veils of reserve, shyness, fear - the human mind is like Salome with the seven veils - you can drop 5 or 6 veils for a lover - but ONLY this treatment will permit someone to drop the seventh veil.

Miss Cunningham (Ann Todd) is the mute mental patient.  She looks lovely although she has recently attempted suicide and the film needs a restoration  - there are vertical squiggly lines right through.  The narrative takes us through a flashback to Miss Cunningham getting caned before she is to perform.  The scene was so ridiculous it made me angry.  She’s supposed to be getting caned - her hands are supposed to be being beaten with a cane - and her facial expression does not change.  Still she misses her music scholarship and is sent to live with her non-uncle.

Non-uncle Nicholas (James Mason) is sitting there with his cat.  He declares his bachelor pad and she promises to be quiet.  ‘Would you like to stroke him?’ Mason asks Miss Cunningham (about the cat) ‘No’, she says - she hates cats.

He is not particularly wicked and doesn’t really do anything bad for a while.  He makes sure Miss Cunningham gets famous.  He keeps her from being with a man she thinks she loves.  The movie continues to follow the wooden Ann Todd for a while.  Until Miss Cunningham falls in love again and tells Nicholas (Mason).

Non-uncle Nicholas gets hysterical and beats the piano keys with his cane - that was real hitting - not the caning we saw earlier with no reaction.  Ann Todd jumped.  Piano keys banged.  James Mason grimaced as he beat his cane near her hands on the piano.  It was a shock especially since the film had heretofore been droll.

But that scene - that piano scene.  That’s where we see some life in the old boy.

The rest of the movie continues in its ridiculousness - ending with the mental patient being cured and staying with her guardian, James Mason.  Really dumb stuff.

Despite The Seventh Veil’s less-than-ordinary qualities this film set James on a path of playing villains.  British movie-goers loved him in that role.

Some twerks to know about James Mason.  First, he hated the British film industry and frequently published essays about their ineptness and substandard contribution to cinema.  Second, he was a pacifist and refused to fight in WWII.  His waiver was not granted, however, and he ended up having to serve in a clerical capacity after a hearing and what-not.

So he was available to work during WWII when there were not a lot of leading men available - but no one liked him or wanted to work with him.  He had himself in a pickle.

I’ll be blogging about James all season.  You’ll have to stay tuned to find out if he ever gets himself quite un-pickled.

The Last American Virgin (1982)

It’s a pretty terrible movie.  BUT part of my abortion series so I’m telling you about it.  Rotten Tomatoes calls it ‘barely tolerable’.  Melissa called it ‘bonkers’.  There’s some boobs and some sex and some parents - oh - and an unplanned pregnancy.

And a choice to have an abortion.  A choice.

Because if the guy you thought you liked ends up being a real jerk why in the world should you be forced to have his kid?  Why does that jerk get to be someone’s dad?  And why does she have to stop her life and raise a kid by herself - limiting her potential to find a good mate in the future, have a career, a solid future?

How many guys have we liked that ended up being real jerks?  How many did we have unprotected sex with?  Do we think the world would be better if those men were fathers?  NO!  No we do not.