S.F.W. (1994)
In tribute to Kurt Cobain: February 20, 1967 – April 5, 1994 First, there was Rick Van Ryan, the malcontent, social injustice warrior VJ of Incident at Channel Q. Then, when the metal ’80s buckled to the grungy ’90s, the Catcher In the Rye-styled, disenfranchised Generation X’ers of America needed a new hero: they got […]
You Only Live Twice (1967)
The fifth James Bond film, You Only Live Twice is the first Bond directed by Lewis Gilbert, who would go on to make The Spy Who Loved Me and Moonraker. And, perhaps most importantly, it seemed like it would be the last Bond film for Sean Connery. On Her Majesty’s Secret Service was to be the […]
Lightning Bolt (1966)
Whether it’s Yor Hunter from the Future, Death Rage, Castle of Blood, And God Said to Cain, Cannibal Apocalypse or the Rick Dalton-starring Operation Dyn-O-Mite, Antonio Margheriti never disappoints. Originally known as Operation Goldman, this Eurospy feature was bought by the Wooler Brothers — they brought Blood and Black Lace and Hercules In the Haunted World to America — and double-billed with the West German/Italian […]
Top Secret (1984)
Val Kilmer picked the right debut. This ZAZ — Jim Abrahams, David Zucker and Jerry Zucker — feature packs in takes on Elvis films, spy movies and World WAR II movies all in one huge package of rapid fire jokes, allowing the star to sing, dance and pretty much act like a maniac. It’s perfect. He […]
What’s Up, Tiger Lily? (1966)
International Secret Police: Key of Keys is the fourth of five James Bond parody movies in Japan known as Kokusai Hhimitsu Keisatsu. Yet once Woody Allen got hold of it — it’s his directorial debut — the story turned into a battle for the world’s best egg salad recipe. Originally intended to be just an hour-long made for […]
REPOST: Madame Sin (1972)
AUTHOR’S NOTE: This James Bond-influenced made for TV movie/pilot features Bette Davis and is totally worth watching. We originally posted it on December 4, 2018 and have edited it in this post and added new links so that you can stream it for free. Originally broadcast on January 15, 1972, this film emerged at the […]
Wicca Book (2020)
In the late ‘90s, Robert Altman (M.A.S.H, Nashville, Quintet) transitioned into television with an innovative approach to the anthology-narrative format: Gun, which aired on the ABC-TV network. Each unrelated episode—with new plots and characters for each story—followed a .45 semi-automatic pistol on its travels from person to person. In Wicca Book, writer-director Vahagn Karapetyan’s seventh […]
Thunderball (1965)
Here’s where things get messy. Thunderball would have been the first Bond film, if not for all the lawsuits. Yes — back in 1958, Ian Fleming was already planning a James Bond movie. Fleming and a young writer and director named Kevin McClory wrote a script that had many working titles — SPECTRE, James Bond of […]
Some Girls Do (1969)
You wouldn’t know it from the title, but Bulldog Drummond is back again after Deadlier than the Male. Richard Johnson, Terence Young’s original choice of 007, returned as well. Of never playing Bond, Johnson said to Cinema Retro magazine, “Eventually they offered it to Sean Connery, who was completely wrong for the part. But in getting […]
Deadlier Than the Male (1967)
Bulldog Drummond predates James Bond by four decades or so. Yet in the late 1960’s, his adventures somehow suggested to producers that he’d be the perfect Bondian analogue. This would be the 23rd movie with Bulldog in it, but his name was featured nowhere in the title. Instead, it refers to Rudyard Kipling’s poem “The […]
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