Film Rarities

Vincent Van Der Lyn, a Dutch freedom fighter in World War II, is forced to neutral Lisbon to escape the Germans. There he meets a small band of underground conspirators. The group's leader, Ricardo Quintanilla, knows that one of their number is spying for the Germans, and needs Van Der Lyn to help identify the traitor. Hedy Lamarr never looked so beautiful. Directed by Jean Negulesco Screenplay by Vladimir Pozner, Leo Rosten Based on The Conspirators 1943 novel by Frederic Prokosch (credited as Fredric Prokosch) Produced by Jack Chertok Starring Hedy Lamarr, Paul Henreid, Peter Lorre, Sydney Greenstreet

Cry Justice - 1956 - (Screen Directors Playhouse) Jim Wheeler has turned to alcohol because his law partner Gil Foster has earned more respect and good standing in the small Western town where they practice law, and Gil has become engaged to June, his former girlfriend. When Jim disappears, blood and other evidence found in his cabin point to Gil as a killer. Even though no body is never discovered, the circumstantial evidence cause him to be arrested and convicted of murder by his former friends and neighbors. After ten years in prison, Gil is freed and remains determined to find Jim and clear his name. Starring Dick Haymes, MacDonald Carey, June Vincent. Directed by George Sherman

In this tense psychological drama, an emotionally unstable young woman and her brother drift from town to town. When a sympathetic motel maid (Elaine Stritch) takes pity on the girl — and becomes romantically involved with her brother — it could inadvertently spell doom for all of them. Cast: Elaine Stritch, Steven Hill, Gene Lyons, Andrew Prine, Daniel Reed, Howard Fischer, Dorrit Kelton, Mike Alonzo, Mel Brown, Roxana Landrian, Sharon Farrell. TITLE Song sung by David Allyn.

A young man travels out into the countryside to meet his fiance, Yuko. When he arrives at the secluded house he is told by her mother that she has died in a car accident. He spends the night at the house and hears some strange sounds at night, even seeing someone that looks just like his dead love. Later he sees Yuko outside the house and follows her to a grave with her name. Cut to some days later where the young mans sister is worried since she hasnt heard from him in some time. She persuades her boyfriend to take her to the house, but is told that he already left. For the sake of proper plot development she doesnt believe Yukos mother and fakes the car breaking down so that they can investigate what really happened.

1960 - A diamond cutter is robbed of a prize stone, but refuses to cooperate with police in identifying the thieves, because he recognized one as someone close to him. He is thus suspected of involvement with the thieves. Nick goes undercover to learn the truth. Features a sultry beautiful Whitney Blake. Starring Mike Connors, Whitney Blake, John Abbott

After a road accident in Hungary, the American honeymooners Joan and Peter and the enigmatic Dr. Werdegast find refuge in the house of the famed architect Hjalmar Poelzig, who shares a dark past with the doctor. Directed by Edgar G. Ulmer. Bela Lugosi, Boris Karloff, David Manners, Julie Bishop, John Carradine

Starring: Rosanna Schiaffino, Richard Johnson, Sarah Ferrati, Gian Maria Volonté. This is an absolute masterpiece of extravagant, sensuous Continental 60s art cinema, and provides an "incendiary" Gothic femme fatale to rival the Hayworths and Gardners of film noir. Nominally a horror film (which only becomes completely apparent during the last reel), it actually fits nicely into that 60s subgenre of manipulative mind games and metaphysical character duality, not unlike Losey's "The Servant" (though it's closer in execution to his elegiac "Eva"). Although it's constantly threatening to unravel under the stress of its own pretensions (as was the fate of many international art films of the time), Damiani is firmly in control as he continues to up the ante with a bacchanalia of outrageously stylish devices, visual metaphors and tactile atmospherics. Schiaffino is one of those classic beauties who seemed to fall out of Italian poplar trees at the time, Johnson is suitably arrogant in his machismo, and the exotic flute-and-bongo score is a retro dream driving the erotic game-playing. Many will find its excesses over-the-top or campy, and it's startlingly misogynist at times, but for those tuned in to the excesses of the 60s, this is a mindbending treat right up to the astonishing but fitting conclusion. (As a footnote, it's now plain that Bertolucci's "Last Tango" was not the first to play the make-love-without-touching game.) If you enjoyed this one, try to find the obscure "Death on the Four Poster", which plays with similar themes on a much more transparent, but enjoyable, level.

Directed by Mario Bava. This unrelentingly-creepy tale of obsession and perversion plays like a more-horrific version of _Wuthering Heights_: cobwebbed crypts, dark castles with secret passages, rotting bodies, muddy footprints, pale faces scowling through windows, love-hate relationships that continue beyond the grave, sea cliffs, turbulent ocean, sunsets, and a very haunting music score. The sets are rich and the direction is moody, with lots of brilliantly-composed photography and a convincingly-cruel performance by Christopher Lee. One of Bava's greatest masterpieces. Cast: Daliah Lavi as Nevenka Christopher Lee as Kurt Menliff Tony Kendall as Christian Menliff Ida Galli (as Isil Oberon) as Katia Harriet Medin (as Harriet White) as Giorgia Gustavo De Nardo (as Dean Ardow) as Count Menliff Luciano Pigozzi (as Alan Collins) as Losat Jacques Herlin as the Priest

Having lost his heavyweight championship match, boxer Ernie Driscoll now drives a taxi for a living and earns the scorn of his nagging wife, Pauline, who blames him for her lack of social status. Involved with jewel thief Victor Rawlins, Pauline is murdered by him when she impedes his ability to fence the jewels. Blamed for his wife's murder, Ernie must track down Rawlins before he leaves the country. Featuring the lovely Peggie Castle. Directed by Phil Karlson and starring John Payne and Evelyn Keyes. It also features Brad Dexter, Frank Faylen, and Peggie Castle. The screenplay is by Robert Smith, based on a short story by George Zuckerman. The film was produced by Edward Small, with cinematography by Franz Planer.

A man falls in love with a beautiful young woman and begins to suspect that he may have also loved her in a previous life. Film debut of the great Christopher Lee. Visually stunning combination of murder mystery and dark romantic fairy tale from a pre-007 Terence Young, featuring an eye-popping parade of wild sets, costumes, and camera movements underscoring its tale of a woman pulled into a man's peculiar reincarnation fantasy. Cast: Eric Portman, Edana Romney, Barbara Mullen, Christopher Massie, Hugh Sinclair, Bruce Belfrage, Alan Wheatley, Joan Maude, John Penrose, Christopher Lee, Mavis Villiers, Thora Hird, Valentine Dyall, Noel Howlett

UNCUT The City of the Dead is a 1960 supernatural horror film directed by John Llewellyn Moxey and starring Christopher Lee, Venetia Stevenson, Betta St. John, Patricia Jessel and Valentine Dyall. A young college student arrives in a sleepy Massachusetts town to research witchcraft; during her stay at an eerie inn, she discovers a startling secret about the town and its inhabitants. The film marks the directorial debut of Moxey. It was produced in the United Kingdom but set in America, and the British actors were required to speak with North American accents throughout.

Murder By The Clock (1931) Director: Edward Sloman Writers: Charles Beahan (play), Rufus King (story) Stars: William 'Stage' Boyd, Lilyan Tashman, Irving Pichel An eerie early-talkie mystery, Murder by the Clock spends most of its time in a cemetery. The matriarch (Blanche Frederici) of a wealthy family is haunted by the notion that she'll be buried alive. To avoid this contingency, she has a horn installed in the family mausoleum, to be activated in case she arises from her casket. The lady is murdered, and shortly after her internment the horn blows at regular intervals. Each time the horn is heard, the dead woman is seen wandering the cemetery, and each time one of her relatives winds up dead. These "supernatural" events are actually being orchestrated by a covetous family member (there's a large legacy involved of course), who uses the services of several homicidal confederates. Murder by the Clock was perhaps more frightening in 1931 than it is today, but a TV revival is long overdue. Features the very sexy Lilyan Tashman as a PreCode Femme Fatale.