I have posted a youtube video link below to Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox’s introduction to British director Tony Richardson’s 1965 film The Loved One – adapted from the 1948 novel of the same name by celebrated British writer Evelyn Waugh. My readers can also read Cox’s transcript here. The episode’s original airdate was July 15, 1990 (read here). This film version of Waugh’s aforementioned book hits and misses for the very same reasons Cox so eloquently states in his intro. I also agree with this very fascinating write-up about the film on the TCM website (read here).
Here is a youtube video link to Alex Cox’s Moviedrome intro to The Loved One (the sound comes on at the 0:15 mark)
Here is a youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer
Once again, I could not find a youtube video link of Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox introducing director Robert Aldrich’s 1972 underrated revisionist western masterpiece Ulzana’s Raid, so readers will have to rely on the transcript (read here). The episode’s original airdate was July 8, 1990 (read here). Based on what I have read from Cox’s intro, he seems to admire the film as a whole, but with reservations. He is a fan of his films, but Cox seems to come off as a little more reserved on some of his later work (i.e. The Grissom Gang). As for myself, I absolutely adore Ulzana’s Raid – it has a thought-provoking script from the always fascinating late screenwriter Alan Sharp (Night Moves) and, as to be expected, expert direction from Robert Aldrich. As others have implied, the film also works as an insightful allegory to the United States then involvement in the Vietnam War.
Here is a youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer
Since I could not find a youtube video link of Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox’s introduction to one-time director Leonard Kastle’s once rarely shown 1970 lovers-on-the-lam cult item The Honeymoon Killers, readers will have to rely on the transcript (read here). The episode’s original airdate was July 1, 1990 (read here). Along with George A. Romero’s Night of the Living Dead from two years earlier, The Honeymoon Killers has often been cited (and deservingly so) as a genuine cult classic. Shot on a low-budget with black-and-white cinematography that resembles a style similar to that of a documentary, the film’s disturbing true-life subject matter and it’s unglamorous depiction of it (loosely based or otherwise) would arguably influence equally masterful later day entries like director John McNaughton’s 1986 (though first released in 1990) serial killer masterpiece Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. Trivia: this serves as the only film that Kastle ever directed and it also reportedly served as French New Wave filmmaker Francois Truffaut’s “favorite American film” (read here).
Here is a youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer
Sorry for posting this a day late – family emergency. I have posted a youtube video link below to Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox’s introduction to director James Cameron’s 1984 seminal sci-fi action classic The Terminator. My readers can also read his transcript here. The episode’s original airdate was June 24, 1990 (read here). Once again, there is nothing more I can add that has already been said about this timeless cinematic gem – except that I personally prefer it to the bigger-budgeted 1991 sequel, which was Terminator 2: Judgment Day. As much as I greatly admire the latter, the earlier film is so tightly executed in every single way that it can’t help but feel subtly unique at the same time. When all is said and done, it makes Terminator 2: Judgment Day (even with all of it’s spectacular special effects) look conventional by comparison.
Here is a youtube video link to Alex Cox’s Moviedrome intro to The Terminator
Here is a youtube video link to one of it’s two theatrical trailers
Here is a youtube video link to the second of it’s two trailers
Once again, I could not find a youtube video link of Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox introducing Ealing’s 1945 British anthology horror classic Dead of Night, so readers will have to rely on the transcript (read here). The episode’s original airdate was June 10, 1990 (read here). I agree with everything Cox has said about this masterpiece of horror especially the ventriloquist segment.
Click here to watch the film’s original theatrical trailer
Since I could not find a youtube video link of Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox introducing director/star Jack Nicholson’s 1978 curio western comedy Goin’ South, readers will have to rely on a transcript of his introduction instead (read here). The episode’s original airdate was May 27, 1990 (read here). Goin’ South was Nicholson’s second film as a director – seven years after his previous film Drive, He Said and 12 years before The TwoJakes (a sequel to Chinatown). The third title was very good, but as with Drive, He Said, Goin’South are little more than good. Make no mistake, this is not a bad film, but as a comedy, it is only half as funny as it should be and as a 70’s western, it lacks everything that made both The Hired Hand and The Missouri Breaks so poetic (like the former) or deeply fascinating (like the latter). I agree with everything Cox says about it, especially how it pales in comparison to the latter from two years earlier in 1976 (read here).
I can’t really seem to find a theatrical trailer to it so I am afraid you dear readers will have to read it’s wikipedia or watch youtube clips of it.
Since I could not find a youtube video link of Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox introducing director Mike Hodges 1971 British gangster classic Get Carter, readers will have to rely on his transcript (read here). The episode’s original airdate was May 20, 1990 (read here). Nothing more I can say here about this great film except that I agree with everything Cox said about it.
Here is a youtube video link to the film’s original theatrical trailer
I have posted a youtube video link below to Moviedrome presenter Alex Cox’s introduction to director Terry Gilliam’s 1985 darkly satiric masterpiece Brazil. My readers can also read his transcript here. The episode’s original airdate was May 13, 1990 (read here). What else is there to say except that I agree with everything Cox says about this film. While Michael Radford’s1984 (released a year earlier) was very good, I too think that Brazil is the better film. For me, this is the film one gets If you take Franz Kafka’sThe Trial, George Orwell’s1984 and the surrealist humor of the Monty Python troupe and blend it into one. I do not know If I am the first person to come to that conclusion, but I would not be surprised If others have beaten me to it.
Here is a youtube video link to Alex Cox’s Moviedrome intro to Brazil
Here is another youtube video link to Alex Cox’s Moviedrome intro to Brazil that my good friend Steve (click here to see his youtube channel) reminded me to post 🙂 While both of us (and hopefully all of you readers) love the above video, I decided to post it on here to see what all of you readers prefer 🙂 But I am concluding that all of us here love both of them no matter what 🙂
Here is a youtube video link to one of the US trailers to Brazil (Universal handling domestic distribution) with praise by critics
Here is a youtube video link to that same one – only without the critical praise
Finally, here is a youtube video link to either the UK trailer (20th Century Fox handling either UK or international distribution)
cinematiccoffee 