RayC Reviews

The Rain Killer (1990)

A Cult Classic?

[7/10 · 30 December 2013]

I have recently discovered, to my great surprise, that "The Rain Killer" has achieved a kind of cult status in Europe, especially Italy. An Italian journalist contacted me a few months ago looking for background on the film to be included in a forthcoming book about the genre.

I would not presume to review the film, in fact I have not seen it in many years. I have only a VHS copy that I recorded off cable, but the new interest in the film might finally generate a DVD release, perhaps as part of a Roger Corman retrospective. (Califilm was one of his subsidiary companies.) Anyway, the book should be released in Europe in 2014.

Ray Cunneff

Dark of the Sun (1968)

A Diamond in the Rough

[16 August 2011]

One of the reasons "Dark of the Sun" is now considered a cult classic, why directors Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese are unabashed fans of the film, is that underlying its relentless violence is an exploration of the moral and philosophical ambiguities of men on a dangerous mission.

"Dark of the Sun" is the third in a trio of collaborations between director Jack Cardiff and actor Rod Taylor. The three films, and the characters played by Taylor could not be more different, a testament to the range and talent of both. The first was "Young Cassidy", a study of the early life and career of Irish writer Sean O'Casey (introducing Julie Christie and the first of two pairings with Maggie Smith). The second was "The Liquidator", a clever and funny James Bond spoof in which Taylor plays Boysie Oakes, a mild-mannered womanizer mistaken by British Intelligence for a cold-blooded killer.

Neither "Young Cassidy" nor "The Liquidator" has been released on DVD. Each, in its own way, is an outstanding film worthy of finding a wider audience.

Hong Kong (1960–1961)

A Lost But Memorable Series

[29 October 1999]

The only reason I can figure that "Hong Kong" seems never to have been rerun is that it was shot in black & white.

I was a junior in High School when it aired on ABC (1960-61)and I've never seen it since. But "Hong Kong" left a lasting impression and I would love to see it again.

I'd been vaguely aware of Rod Taylor from some earlier TV appearances and had liked him in "The Time Machine", but it was "Hong Kong" that made me a fan (for life). The show had a wonderful look and feel to it, a real sense of place (despite the fact most of it was shot on the FOX lot).

To me, at seventeen, the show seemed wonderfully sophisticated and exotic. Rod Taylor (half the time in a white dinner jacket) made for an elegant and intelligent yet muscular hero - a variation on James Bond two years before "Dr. No".

I especially remember the music. Lionel Newman's work on "Hong Kong" was superb, as were all facets of the production for its day. The supporting cast, including Lloyd Bochner and Jack Kruschen, was uniformly excellent.

They thought back then at ABC and 20th-TV that it might be a blockbuster, their "Wagon Train" (NBC). Perhaps on another network it might have (ABC just didn't have the station lineup to compete). And if they'd shot it in color, it might now be considered a rerun classic.

rvc

Thunderball (1965)

The Best of the Best of the Bonds

[13 October 1999]

"Goldfinger" is arguably the best of the James Bond films starring Sean Connery, who remains the definitive 007. "From Russia With Love" is truest to the flavor of the Ian Fleming novels. But all in all, the most enduringly satisfying of the Connery-Bond films has to be "Thunderball".

It remains the ultimate distillation of what would become the Bond formula, never more perfectly balanced - the gravity of the plot, the worthiness of his adversary (Largo), the beauty of the women, the lush locations and John Barry's equally lush score, the gadgets, the stunts...

The underwater sequences alone put this film in a class by itself, a filmmaking feat not likely to be attempted again.

But most of all, it is Sean Connery at the top of his form as Bond that makes "Thunderball" work so well. It's not just his martini-dry delivery ("I think he got the point."). Connery's sheer physical presence, his ability to convey a sense of real danger as well as style as Bond is the glue that holds it all together. In a tuxedo, a business suit or a bathing suit, no one has ever looked better.