The seven minutes-71- was another one of those films that missed Network television but got shown late night on stations like WABC-TV -CH 7 in New York in the 70's, never pops up on cable these days.
BLACKOUT-78- yes, inspired by the 77 New York blackout, this film had a interesting cast which included Ray milland, Jean Pierre Aumont, June Alliyson, Robert Carridine[son of John] Jim Mitchum[son of Robert] etc etc, film got a limited release oftened double billed with The bees-78- which stars John Saxon and john Carridine,Was put into syndication way back in the 80's, small video release, otherwise been obscure of late, no Cable etc- may i add actually the story takes place during the 77 New York blackout i mentioned in another thread, Any comments?
BLACKOUT was released by New World Pictures and opened in Los Angeles on 13 September 1978. The film was a French-Canadian-American coproduction. When the Canadian government designated Canadian film productions as tax shelters in 1974, there were many other countries who wanted to get in on the act as well. American-Canadian co-productions began to flourish as a direct result of these incentives. By the mid-to-late 1970s, Europe began showing interest in Candian shelters as well, and several high-profile Canadian cult films came out of a partnership with one country in particular, France. Nicolas Gessner's THE LITTLE GIRL WHO LIVED DOWN THE LANE was probably the most widely seen of these co-productions, but French director Eddy Matalon's BLACKOUT and CATHY’S CURSE (1977) have earned respected places as well.
In the film, when New York is blanketed in darkness from a power failure, a prison bus crashes and four trigger-happy convicts break out and take cover in a nearby apartment building. A lone cop (Jim Mitchum) called to the scene tries to stop them as they terrorize the residents for money and some means of transportation. The movie was shot from 15 November to 20 December 1977 and cost about $CAD1.2 million to produce. Several sources claim that BLACKOUT was partially filmed in New York City, as well as Montreal. The film was put out on DVD in 2005 by Ventura Distribution.
DVD Verdict says that “BLACKOUT is a gritty high-rise thriller that wallows in just the right amount of sleaze. Matalon directs the proceedings with his usual flair for the pedestrian, but with a well-developed story and impressive casting, BLACKOUT is much better than it has any right to be. Leonard Maltin gives the film two stars and says that BLACKOUT is a “violent story . . . balanced with black comedy for so-so results.”
Here’s the film’s trailer. None of that comedy that Maltin mentions shows up in the trailer. As a straight actioner, the film looks pretty good.
T.R. BASKIN was a 1971 Paramount release. The drama concerns a mid-west auto parts salesman (Peter Boyle) who has an affair with a younger woman (Candice Bergen). James Caan and Marcia Rodd co-star. The film was written and produced by Peter Hyams, in the days before he turned to directing (with BUSTING in 1974). In fact, T.R. BASKIN marked the motion picture debut of Hyams, a former CBS news anchorman. Herbert Ross directed, only his third feature. Ross was married to Nora Kaye, the film's assistant to the producer. Kaye was a former ballerina who was instrumental in convincing Ross to make the 1977 film THE TURNING POINT for which she served as executive producer.
T.R. BASKIN was shot from mid-February to early April 1971 entirely on location in Chicago, IL. Filming was done at the Sherman House Hotel, the First National Bank Building, O'Connell's Coffee Shop on Rush St., and at the Carson Pirie Scott department store. Onscreen credits contain the following written acknowledgment: "Paramount Pictures gratefully acknowledges the help extended to us by the citizens and officials of the City of Chicago. Our special thanks to the Yellow Cab Company of Chicago."
The film was scored by Jack Elliott. A soundtrack LP was issued on Paramount Records. Elliott's score contains elements of jazz, blues and soul in pleasing proportions. The instrumentation is a good blend for funk; Elliott lets rip with a great, raw funk jam on “McGuire's Rock,” heard in this clip:
Peter Boyle's character in T.R. BASKIN works for a fictional company called Con-Amalgamate. Con-Amalgamate would re-appear in later films penned by Peter Hyams. In CAPRICORN ONE (1978), Con-Amalgamate is the company whose "made-in-America screw-up" is allegedly responsible for the astronauts being grounded under false pretenses. In OUTLAND (1981), Con-Amalgamate is the corporation that is mining the Jupiter moon Io. Ironically, Peter Boyle also stars in OUTLAND as the corporate head of Io's branch of the corrupt Con-Amalgamate company.
At one point in T.R. BASKIN, when "Jack Mitchell" (Peter Boyle) asks what T. R. stands for, she replies, "Thelma Ritter." Thelma Ritter is the name of a famous character actress, but within the context of the film, it was unclear whether T. R. was joking about the meaning of her initials.
Prior to the premiere of T.R. BASKIN, Candice Bergen told the New York Daily News’ Wanda Hale that she liked the movie “because this is the first time I don’t hurt anybody. I’m gentle, kind and loving.” But when the film opened on 20 October 1971, the critical majority, including the Village Voice’s William Paul disliked the film largely because the title character was “obnoxious” – “She maintains self-respect by considering herself superior to all the other poor working slobs she knows, an attitude which the film smugly endorses.” In total accord, New York’s Judith Crist called the character “a sharp-tongued aphorism-spouting bore, bogged down in snobbery and self-pity.” And the Washington Post’s Gary Arnold, after describing the character of T.R. Baskin as “insufferable,” “repellant,” and “appallingly vain” (“She can’t discover anything because she knows it all.”), laid the blame squarely on the “feeble intelligence” of writer-producer Peter Hyams. Agreeing, Variety called Hyams’ screenplay “sterile, superficial, and inconsistent.” Pauline Kael just labeled the entire film “ludicrously bad.”
But a few critics found some positives in the film. Cue’s William Wolf praised the “good performers” and detected “many brittle observations of people and conditions of living.” Most positive was Saturday Review’s Arthur Knight. He said that “Candice Bergen, topping her performance in CARNAL KNOWLEDGE, touchingly depicts the vulnerability of a would-be sophisticate fresh from the sticks.” And Knight found the script to be “consistently witty and fresh.” But most critics sided with Vincent Canby of the New York Times who thought that “Somewhere deep inside T.R. BASKIN there is, I suppose, a real touching film crying to get out with something more than a wise-crack, but neither Hyams nor Herbert Ross, the director, have been able to find it.”
T.R. BASKIN was not a success at the boxoffice. The film was broadcast on CBS in 1978, but has never been issued on any video format in the U.S.
REVENGE IS MY DESTINY-72- this drama starring Chris robinson[STANLEY]was one of those films which got a small theatrical release, but when put into syndication in the 70's would pop up pretty often on your local TV station like WOR-TV- CH -9 IN NEW YORK. then vanish from sight since[no cable, you tube] was it ever on DVD?, any comments?
REVENGE IS MY DESTINY is a drama about a Vietnam veteran who returns home to his wife. His home is there, but his wife isn't. When the authorities prove to be no help, the vet cuts a violent swath across the countryside in search of his missing missus. Chris Robinson stars. He had co-starred with Bruce Dern and Melody Patterson in THE CYCLE SAVAGES (1969) and had a small role in THE HAWAIIANS (1970). The venerable Sidney Blackmer co-starred. Blackmer had been acting on stage since 1917 and in films since the talkies began in 1929. REVENGE IS MY DESTINY would be his last feature film. He died in 1973 at the age of 78. The film was also the second and last feature for Elisa Ingram, who had had a few television appearances in the 1960s. And actor Willie Pastrano, who played the thug character “Christopher” in the film, held the world title for light heavyweight boxing in the early 1960s.
The film was directed by Joseph Adler, whose biggest prior credit had been as director of a minor 1969 horror film called SCREAM, BABY, SCREAM. It had originally been reported in the trade press that producer-writer Michael J. Parsons, owner of Nine Winds Productions, had started pre-production on the film, which was based on his script; however, Parsons is not credited onscreen and, in an interview, Adler stated that Parsons was not involved in the final production. The film’s production company, Screen Arts, was owned by Toby Ross and William A. Zeitler. REVENGE IS MY DESTINY was the first feature film writing credit for Mardik Martin, who went on to co-author the screenplays for the Martin Scorsese films MEAN STREETS (1973) and RAGING BULL (1980). Stu Phillips and Richard Markowitz shared the scoring duties.
Under the working title “Death Scene,” filming took place during September and October 1969 in Miami, Miami Beach, and the Everglades areas of Florida. Although no reviews or contemporary information about the film's theatrical release has been located, in a recent interview, director Joseph Adler stated that the picture was released in 1971. It’s likely that the film played primarily in the Soiuthern drive-in circuit. There is a 1971 copyright statement for Gold Key Entertainment in the onscreen credits, but the picture was not copyrighted at the time of its release. However, Gold Key Entertainment registered a videocassette of the film on 17 December 1999, under number PA-983-825.
Although no information on any cassette release has been found, REVENGE IS MY DESTINY is available on YouTube and was released on a 2007 DVD by Televista.
Roger Corman holds the rights to the pre-1983 library (plus post-1983 titles he produced, such as Love Letters and Suburbia). New World bought Gold Key around 1986.
To Bob-On you YOU TUBE, thanks will check it out, fond memories for me watching it as a kid on Channel 9 in New York in the 70's on a saturday afternoon around my sister's wedding.
Why not do a string of obscure films indie stations like WOR-TV-CH 9 IN NEW YORK showed decades ago then became for the most part hard finds-PIRANHA-PIRANHA-72- not to be confused with Joe Dante's film of 78 or its remake, this drama starred William Smith, got limited theatrical release, put into syndication, Ch -9 and others showed it a few times in the 70's, then basically away it went, i get a kick out of the main theme song.Any comments?
THE TOUCH is rare and unique among the films of famed Swedish director Ingmar Bergman. Rare in that it is one of his least-seen films. Unique in that it was Bergman’s first film in English and starred one of the hottest actors of his time—Elliot Gould. Indeed, Gould was the first non-Scandinavian actor to play a starring role in a Bergman film. After his breakout role in 1969’s BOB & CAROL & TED & ALICE, Gould starred in four films in 1970, including Robert Altman’s M*A*S*H. After completing filming on Jules Feiffer's LITTLE MURDERS, he started his work on Bergman’s film.
Gould’s co-stars were two long-time Bergman collaborators: Bibi Andersson and Max Von Sydow. As usual, Bergman also produced and wrote the film, and his onscreen credit merely says "A film by Ingmar Bergman." Frequent Bergman cinematographer Sven Nykvist photographed the film.
THE TOUCH concerns a seemingly happy Swedish housewife and mother who begins an adulterous affair with a foreign archaeologist who is working near her home. Production on the film began on 15 September 1970 and continued through mid-December 1970. Location scenes were shot on the Swedish island of Gotland, in Stockholm, and in London. Interiors were filmed at Film-Teknik, in the Stockholm suburb of Solna. The movie was shot in two versions - one where English was spoken by those who were English-speaking and Swedish by those who were Swedes, and one where only English was spoken. The full English version was the one released in the U.S., and the two-language version has been infrequently seen.
The picture was a co-production of ABC Pictures (New York) and Cinematograph A.B. (Stockholm). The Swedish title of the film was “Beroringen.” It premiered at the Berlin Film Festival on 26 June 1971. THE TOUCH was released in the U.S. by Cinerama Releasing Corp., opening in New York on 14 July 1971. The film’s Swedish premiere was on 30 August 1971.
Reviewing the film from the Berlin Film Festival, Variety’s “Hawk” praised THE TOUCH as “both a romantic film of great poignancy and strength and an example of masterful cinema honed down to deceptively simple near-perfection.” But upon the film’s U.S. release, the majority of the critics found it to be a disappointment. Typical was the New York Daily News’ Wanda Hale . “THE TOUCH cannot be included among Bergman’s greatest,” she wrote. “The Swedish director lapses into mediocrity” with a “Gothic soap opera.” Time’s Jay Cocks found the film “disappointing” because it was “reminiscent of those sober and slightly dreary ‘women’s dramas’ that Bergman made back in the mid-‘50s, films like A LESSON IN LOVE and BRINK OF LIFE.” The New Republic’s Stanley Kauffmann charged that “one reason for [the film’s] failure is unique for Bergman: it has very small ambitions . . . Everything in this film is laid out, nothing is created; because I think, there wasn’t much to create.” Yet for all these complaints concerning theme and tone, the most frequent and vociferous complaints centered around the performance of Elliott Gould. Kauffmann said that “Gould apparently doesn’t know what he’s doing or why.” New York’s Judith Crist found him to be “simply incredible” – “He completely shatters the realities his co-stars create.” And the San Francisco Chronicle’s Anitra Earle felt that “Gould appears a stranger in his own language.”
Still, the film had its defenders. Saturday Review’s Roland Gelatt thought the picture “an ordinary story made extraordinary by Bergman’s subtle illuminations.” (“Is there any other moviemaker working today who can express so much with such economy of means?”) The New Yorker’s Penelope Gilliatt hailed the film as “the best about love he has ever made” and praised Gould’s “great technique and responsiveness.” Molly Haskell, writing in the Village Voice, admitted that “I found THE TOUCH almost unbearably moving.” Gould “or what he represents, is what raises the film from the relative banality of a housewife’s extramarital affair to the doomed and unfathomable passion the film actually chronicles.” Finally, it was Charles Champlin of the Los Angeles Times who spoke for the divided critics by saying that “The perspective to be maintained is that THE TOUCH is a disappointing film by Ingmar Bergman. But in its visual beauty, the sureness of its telling method, the reality of time and space it creates, and the subtleties of relationships and confrontations it captures, THE TOUCH is a work no more than a handful of directors in the world are capable of. And it may well be that a man’s least work is the truest measure of his greatness.”
THE TOUCH was released on cassette by Magnetic Video in 1981, but in the ensuing three decades has remained unavailable on home video. If it is like other ABC-Cinerama films, the U.S. rights probably lie with Disney, who seems to have no interest in releasing it to video, or in licensing it to someone like Criterion, who undoubtedly would love to get their hands on it.
Why not do a string of obscure films indie stations like WOR-TV-CH 9 IN NEW YORK showed decades ago then became for the most part hard finds-PIRANHA-PIRANHA-72- not to be confused with Joe Dante's film of 78 or its remake, this drama starred William Smith, got limited theatrical release, put into syndication, Ch -9 and others showed it a few times in the 70's, then basically away it went, i get a kick out of the main theme song.Any comments?
The 1972 PIRANHA was released on DVD in 2000 by Echo Bridge Home Entertainment. The film, which also goes by the title PIRANHA, PIRANHA, was shot in Venezuela, and starred William Smith, Peter Brown, and Ahna Capri. At this point in their careers, these three were known primarily for their television work. William Smith had appeared in TV shows such as Batman, Mission: Impossible, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, Hawaii Five-O, and The Master. He was also in a number of biker flicks, such as RUN, ANGEL, RUN (1969). Peter Brown had appeared in episodes of Dan August, Project Blue Book, and Wonder Woman. Ahna Capri had appeared in many American television shows such as The Man From UNCLE, Dan August, and the Man From Atlantis.
PIRANHA was directed by William Gibson, his only film. Richard La Salle did the score, which includes the song "Love All Things That Love the Sun." If the film was released to theaters, there's little evidence of it--no posters that I could find, no rating by the MPAA, etc.
Following the success of 1971’s SHAFT, the blaxploitation film craze was at full throttle. Producers began searching for any story on which they could put a ‘black” twist, and so while low-budget producers like American International and others looked to “Blacula” and “Blackenstein” for their releases, M-G-M, in addition to putting SHAFT’S BIG SCORE into production, looked to more established properties. One such property was W. R. Burnett's 1949 novel “The Asphalt Jungle.” Thus it was, that M-G-M’s 1972 release COOL BREEZE, became the studio’s fourth film adaptation of Burnett's novel. The 1950 version, called THE ASPHALT JUNGLE, was directed by John Huston and starred Sterling Hayden. That adaptation followed the novel more closely and ended with all of the thieves either dead or jailed. In 1958, director Delmer Daves reinterpreted the story as a Western entitled THE BADLANDERS starring Alan Ladd, and in 1963, director Wolf Rilla produced it as CAIRO, an Egyptian thriller starring George Sanders. The novel was also adapted into a television series that ran on ABC during 1961-1962, entitled “The Asphalt Jungle” and starring Jack Warden.
In November 1971, it was announced that COOL BREEZE would shoot on location in San Francisco and at the American Zoetrope Studio. However, the production was actually shot mainly at thirty-five locations in Los Angeles, with only the title sequence shot in San Francisco. COOL BREEZE marked the debut of director-writer Barry Pollack, an American Film Institute graduate. Star Thalmus Rasulala had appeared in one previous film, THE OUT-OF-TOWNERS, under the name Jack Crowder. While the advertising campaign played heavily on the all-black cast, all of the major crew members were white men. In fact, most crew members were young AFI students. COOL BREEZE marked the first film as cinematographer for Andrew Davis, who had acted as assistant cameraman on the 1969 documentary MEDIUM COOL. Davis went on to direct such films as 1993's THE FUGITIVE. Actor Jim Watkins (BLACK GUNN, McQ) also made his feature-film debut in COOL BREEZE.
The plot of the film concerned a diamond heist pulled off by a gang of thieves headed by smooth, sophisticated criminal Sidney Lord Jones (Rasulala) who is just out of San Quentin prison. The film was shot during December 1971, and by 22 March 1972 it was in theaters, premiering in Philadelphia. The film’s score was by legendary rhythm and blues artist Solomon Burke, with orchestrations by Gene Page (who himself would provide the score to BLACULA). A soundtrack, primarily consisting of Burke’s vocals, was released by M-G-M Records. The LP has not been released on CD.
When COOL BREEZE went into general release, the majority of critics were not supportive, despite the film’s lineage, agreeing with the New York Daily News’s Ann Guarino that the film was “a routine heist drama aimed at black audiences.” Time’s Jay Cocks was more harsh, calling it a “sleazy remake.” “The movie is all jiveass and jungle bunnies. The men pass the time chortling and slapping one another’s palms. The women mostly moan and gyrate in transports of synthetic sexual pleasure.” And in comparing the film to SHAFT, the San Francisco Chronicke’s Dennis Hunt said that “the color of the cast is the only resemblance between Gordon Parks’ fast-moving detective film and this carelessly assembled quickie.”
Striking a more positive note was New York’s Judith Crist. She found “some pleasing performances and ‘in’ lines and gags - chief among them the crooks’ donning Nixon and Agnew masks to pull off the diamond heist.” And Variety’s “Murf” praised the film’s “adroit and excellent performances” and the “smooth unfolding of the story.” He also felt that “Composer Solomon Burke provided a solid soul sound, boiling nicely, but never stamping on the action.” Nevertheless, the majority sided with the Village Voice’s Richard McGuinness who charged that COOL BREEZE was "a collaboration of convenience between a slick formula white director and black actors too proud to deal in grubby, painful characterizations.” Thus, the film emerged as one of the “commercial black films” that “exploit their race’s dilemma for personal profit.”
Regardless of critical opinion, COOL BREEZE was a boxoffice success. Due to the film’s popularity, in December 1972 M-G-M released HIT MAN, a black-oriented version of Ted Lewis’ novel “Jack’s Return Home,” which had previously been adapted into the successful 1971 M-G-M film GET CARTER. Several of the crew members and actors from COOL BREEZE worked on HIT MAN, including actors Sam Laws, Pam Grier and Rudy Challenger.
COOL BREEZE has never been issued on any home video format, nor has it appeared on Turner Classic Movies (perhaps due to its R-rating). Perhaps it will yet surface as a MOD DVD under the Warner Archive banner. [EDIT: COOL BREEZE was indeed issued by the Warner Archive, on July 24, 2012.]
YES COOL BREEZE is one of those films that has seem to never have been on free TV[network or syndication]and if cable in rare cases the past 40 years.Meanwhile HIT MAN-was on cable a few times a few years ago.
IN THE DEVIL'S GARDEN-71[ASSUALT]- Now here is a film that stations like WOR-TV CH - IN NEW YORK would show often in the 70's at all different times[BIG PREVIEW-SUNDAY NIGHTS AT 6.PM] late at night etc etc, then like, with many other films by the 80's vanished from the tube and ignore on cable since[calling TCM UNDERGROUND]I found it to be a well made little film with Suzy Kendall[Bond girl] Frank Finley, a great musical score by Eric Rogers,and some very innovator scenes. Well the film originally opened on a double feature with Devil's nightmare- a Italian Belgium film in a few markets in America and i did see it on a small video label in the 80's.any comments?
COOL BREEZE has never been issued on any home video format, nor has it appeared on Turner Classic Movies (perhaps due to its R-rating). Perhaps it will yet surface as a MOD DVD under the Warner Archive banner.
COOL BREEZE most certainly has been issued on dvd, as I own a copy. It's not a dvd-r either. It's a pressed dvd on the "BLAX" label. It appears to be a transfer from a 16mm source. Whether or not this is considered a boot is up for grabs. Amazon was selling them dirt cheap.
