Look, here is everything I dislike about Austin Trunick’s The Cannon Film Guide: Volume I, 1980-1984: • Volume II is not yet available. • Volume III is not yet available. Otherwise, this book is B-movie gold. Anyone who has seen Mark Hartley’s amazing 2014 documentary, Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films, knows that … Continue reading The Cannon Film Guide: Volume I, 1980-1984
Behind the camera of Dance Macabre stands a trifecta of 20th-century cinematic cheese in director Greydon Clark and producers Menahem Golan and Harry Alan Towers, so it’s a shame this Russia-lensed terror tale is more Limburger than Parmesan. In what originally was intended as a sequel to his 1989 turn as The Phantom of the … Continue reading Dance Macabre (1992)
Israeli cousins Menahem Golan and Yoran Globus absolutely loved movies. It’s just too bad that, during their 1980s reign as owners of The Cannon Group, they had “cash registers where their hearts should be,” as disgruntled actress Laurene Landon puts it, just before she burns a VHS tape of America 3000, the forgotten flick she … Continue reading Electric Boogaloo: The Wild, Untold Story of Cannon Films (2014)
Early in last year’s Alfred Hitchcock biopic (Hitchcock, natch), a reporter asks the master of suspense, “You’ve directed 46 motion pictures. You’re the most famous director in the history of the medium. But you’re 60 years old. Shouldn’t you just quit while you’re ahead?” Greydon Clark had nothing to do with Hitchcock, but I was … Continue reading On the Cheap: My Life in Low Budget Filmmaking
After acquiring his ninja license in Japan, Cole (Franco Nero, the original Django) heads to Manila to visit his Army buddy, Frank (Alex Courtney, Looking for Mr. Goodbar), an impotent alcoholic with a sprawling plantation, a penchant for cockfights, a dentally challenged wife and a James Caan ’fro. Frank and Mary Ann (Susan George, Straw … Continue reading Enter the Ninja (1981)