Exploding Helicopter

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Watched BLOOD GAMES (1990) a strange combination of A League Of Their Own and Deliverance as an all-female baseball team fight for their lives against a gang of crossbow-wielding hicks. It's pretty fun, but lacks that certain je nais se quois that'd make it a classic.

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Watched IS PARIS BURNING? (1966). A lumbering account of the liberation of Paris during WW2, that's weighed down by a sprawling cast and a script that was sanitised by the French government.

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Watched ABANDONED (1949) pretty good noir-ish thriller about a journalist investigating an baby adoption racket. Great visuals from the great DP William Daniels.

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Watched CHILD'S PLAY (1972). This was a very strange Sidney Lumet story. Sort of a psychological drama, sort of an occult thriller, without ever resolving its identity. It's still a decent watch for James Mason's performance, but it's an odd one alright.

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Watched SHE (1935) a handsomely staged, old school, adventure movie. The sets and special effects are terrific. It's currently on Prime in the UK if you want to check it out.

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Watched THEY DIED WITH THEIR BOOTS ON (1941). Ignore the factual inaccuracies, feel the filmmaking gusto. Rambunctious 'telling' of General Custer's life story. Eighth and final pairing of Flynn and DeHavilland.

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Watched INSIDE THE WALLS OF FOLSOM PRISON (1951). A pretty standard prison flick that pits jailbirds vs a tyrannical warden. There are some surprisingly tough scenes of violence.

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Watched NO MAN’S WOMAN (1955) a noir-tinged murder mystery. The first half of this was terrific with Marie Windsor at her scheming, devious best. 

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Watched SPACE AMOEBA (1970) aka Yog: Monster From Space. Men in rubber suits battle other men in rubber suits. Also some men who aren’t wearing rubber suits. 

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Watched THE DEVIL AND MISS JONES (1941). Really nicely played and scripted comedy. It also has a surprisingly left wing message with department store employees trying to unionise and prevent management exploitation. The film's politics are even more curious when you consider that director Sam Wood had a track record of working to denounce communists in Hollywood. You have to assume this was a studio assignment and he held his nose as he made it.

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Watched KHOON KHOON (2013) a Bollywood remake of Dirty Harry. Quite a lot of the film's big set pieces are almost identical. There is also quite a bit of divergence too. Not least the need to accommodate Indian cinema's required number of song and dance numbers.

The weirdest of which takes place after the villain kidnaps the school bus. Instead of the horror and hysteria of 'row, row, row your boat', we get an uplifting song and dance performed by the villain and kids.

Also got to give a word to the music. For the most part the film uses Lalo Schifrin's original score. But it also nicks music from Goldfinger, Thunderball, Planet of the Apes, and - most bizarrely - Shaft.

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Watched ANGEL ON MY SHOULDER (1946) the devil returns a dead gangster to Earth in the body of well-respected judge. The story's very predictable, but Claude Rains as the devil is every bit as good as you'd imagine. The opening few scenes are also really striking

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New: We review volcano disaster film WHEN TIME RAN OUT (1980) with super-fan Fred Andersson from Schmollywood Babylon. We discuss its incredible cast, beautiful melodrama and exploding helicopter. 

Listen via iTunes https://apple.co/2V9XKtD 

Spotify https://spoti.fi/2BADCKg 

Acast https://bit.ly/3fSF0H0

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Watched THE COP IN BLUE JEANS (1976). This was a very entertaining Poliziotteschi with Tomas Milian as a wildly unconventional cop. Lots of action and cool motorcycle stunt work. This time it's Jack Palance as the 'fading American star lending international marketing credibility'.  Apparently, this film was a huge hit and spawned 10 (TEN) sequels that were cranked out in just 8 years. And Daniel Craig bleats about how much hard work the Bond films are.

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Poster for THE BEAUTY JUNGLE (1964).

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Watched THE HUMAN TORNADO (1976) another charmingly idiosyncratic entry in the Dolemite series. After a very unfocused half an hour it settles down in to an often hilarious tale. Plus there’s an impossibly young Ernie Hudson too. 

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Now watching WHEN TIME RAN OUT (1980) because it’s a disaster movie with an exploding helicopter.