Category: 1970s

Vincent Price is a successful horror movie actor whose young wife is murdered and he may be the murderer. More murdering ensues in this fairly by-the-book horror flick with the twists and turns being projected a mile away. But it has Vincent Price and his over-the-top look of horror whenever he discovers a body is worth the watch. It’s very similar to his turn on The Snoop Sisters and like that episode, there’s a bit of his older film footage to be seen interspersed in this film. 

This really feels like a vanity project for Sean Connery playing a police harboring his own dark predilections who brutally attacks a suspected child molester under his watch. It’s a very bare bones production, set almost entirely in an interrogation room, and relies wholly on Connery’s performance. It’s very dark and difficult to watch. It’s also rather talky, as many stage adaptations are, which makes it a little less riveting than I’d hope, but Connery does give his all in his portrayal with a depth that isn’t seen in many of his later films.

I didn’t have a lot of expectations for this, thinking that Walter Matthau couldn’t possibly lead in a worthwhile thriller about a subway train hijacking, but I was completely wrong. Robert Shaw, Hector Elizondo, Earl Hindman, and Martin Balsam are fantastic as the diverse hijackers, strangers who come together to perform the job very reminiscent of Reservoir Dogs, color names included. The movie doesn’t bother getting bogged into the details of how or why these gentlemen got together, just that they have a job to do and they intend to succeed. Matthau is a member of the Transit Police whose day is ruined by their activities. He seems mostly annoyed that unlike his normal day, he’s required to use his smarts to thwart their plans. There’s also James Broderick, Jerry Stiller, and Dick O’Neill in fabulous supporting roles. The story is tight and not flashy, totally relying on the excitement and danger inherent to the crime itself.

Jeff Bridges is the recently orphaned heir of a prominent Alabama family. Ostensibly as part of a shady real estate deal, he’s drawn to a body building gym in Birmingham, filled with an array of odd characters: Arnold Schwarzenegger in one of his earliest roles, super adorable Sally Field, and Robert Englund as someone who is not Freddy Krueger. The tone is all over the place as Bridges tries to balance his two lives: the ritzy country club crowd and his quirky new gym friends. There is a side plot regarding the Mr. Universe pageant, which makes this. if nothing else. a nice companion piece to Pumping Iron.

While I’ve never read the book this is adapted from, I did watch the 2019 miniseries within the last year, so I was already familiar with this story revolving around a squadron based in the Mediterranean during World War II. Compared to that longer version, this film is much more nonlinear and chaotic in nature. There isn’t as much time for character development, so the first hour jumps from episodes introducing one over the top character to the next. Alan Arkin’s Yossarian starts neurotic and there’s only brief glimpses as to what led him to the breaking point. The rest of the cast are all played by a slew of well-known actors including the extremely young looking Martin Sheen, Charles Grodin, Bob Newhart, and Bob Balaban . The whole film has the feeling of a crazier and darker version of MASH. Without having seen the miniseries, I would have had a difficult time following the thread of events.