The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire (1971)
Other than The Ghost, I hadn’t seen many Riccardo Freda films before, only really knowing him from not finishing both I Vampiri and Caltiki – The Immortal Monster, films which Mario Bava took to completion. After The Bird with the Crystal Plumage made giallo into a box office success, Freda decided to try his hand at the form. While […]
Daughters of Darkness (1971)
Daughters of Darkness is a good title, but its French nom de plume, Les Lèvres Rouges, is so much better. Look — if you’re going to have a 1970’s vampire movie, it should probably be a lesbian vampire movie while you’re at it. This one is Belgian. And director Harry Kumel claims that he based […]
The Champions of Justice (1971)
What do Blue Demon, Mil Mascaras, El Medico Asesino, La Sombra Vengadora, Tinieblas and Black Shadow do in their downtime when they’re not wrestling? They ride motorcycles. And when they’re not doing that, what do they do? They fight terrorists, mad scientists and monsters. As you do. If you’re not prepared for the world of […]
Simon King of the Witches (1971)
Andrew Prine is an exploitation superstar. Just look at a few of his films: Grizzly, a bonkers ripoff of Jaws with a bear instead; The Town That Dreaded Sundown, a movie that can’t decide if it wants to be a comedy or a brutal slasher and ends up being both while being awesome; Amityville II: The Possession, the […]
The Brotherhood of Satan (1971)
I mentioned some time back how many movies I learn about because they’re sampled by My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult. In their song “Rivers of Blood, Years of Darkness” from Confessions of a Knife, the words “Blood! Blood!” and “Drown our useless age in blood!” come from the film. I’ve always loved the […]
The Abominable Dr. Phibes (1971)
Church of Satan founder Anton Szandor LaVey claimed that the main character in this Vincent Price film was based on him. Well, his name is Dr. Anton Phibes and he’s an organist, researcher, medical doctor, biblical scholar and ex-vaudevillian who has created a clockwork band of robot musicians to play old standards at his whim. Seeing as […]
Short Night of Glass Dolls (1971)
Gregory Moore (Jean Sorel, Perversion Story) has a problem. His body has been found in a park in Prague, but the American journalist is anything but dead. His heart is still beating and his mind is still able to replay the sinister events of the last few days, a story that started with the disappearance of […]
Four Flies On Grey Velvet (1971)
After The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and The Cat o’Nine Tails, Argento had one more movie left in his “Animal Trilogy.” Luigi Cozzi (Starcrash) would both write and assistant direct the film and the results are…interesting. It’s a lot funnier than his other giallo and was considered his swan song to the genre until his movie The […]
The Cat o’Nine Tails (1971)
The second in Dario Argento’s “Animal Trilogy” with The Bird with the Crystal Plumage and Four Flies on Grey Velvet, this film isn’t one of the director’s favorites and it failed to follow up on the success of the first film in the United States, although it was very popular in Italy. It’s filled with a lot […]
Stray Cat Rock: Beat ’71 (1971)
Toshiya Fujita comes back to finish off the Stray Cat Rock series with one last tale. In this one, Meiko Kaji also returns to play Furiko, a girl in love with Ryumei. They want to live together as hippies, but his politician father Mayor Araki wants him to be a businessman. So he does what any […]
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