|
2009 bestsellers:
#1 SEBASTIAN DVD (1968) $14.99  
run time: 100 mins. UK. Color.
directed by: David Greene
description: A British mathematician (Dirk Bogarde), working on code decryption, unexpectedly falls in love with another decrypter (Susannah York). An extremely stylish, sophisticated romp that was slyly coy at the time, and simply faboulous when viewed today. Jerry Goldsmith provides noticeable musical accompaniment... and keep an eye out for Canadian actor Donald Sutherland in a bit as an American. WATCH CLIP
 |
#2 THREE IN THE ATTIC DVD (1968) $14.99  
run time: 90 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Richard Wilson
description: A modern Don Juan pays the price when he "two-times" three different women. Paxton Quigley (Christopher Jones) is the campus Casanova who sleeps with Caucasian coed Tobey (Yvette Mimieux), the black beauty Eulice (Judy Pace) and the Jewish hippie girl Jane (Maggie Thrett). The three women discover the extra curricular activities of the man, and they seek revenge by locking Paxton in a attic where they feed him steak and try to kill him with sex. Soon Paxton goes on a hunger strike as the viewer is left to wonder whether or not a man's ultimate sexual fantasy can lead to his downfall -- or even death. What a way to go. Chad and Jeremy provide the music, which includes the title track in this feature plagued by lines like "Is it possible for a woman to be Jewish and psychedelic at the same time?" WATCH CLIP
 |
#3 INTERLUDE DVD (1968) $14.99  
run time: 113 mins. UK. Color.
directed by: Kevin Billington
description: Stefan Zelter (Oskar Werner) is a classical orchestra conductor who is sued for libel after statements made in a newspaper interview. He finds himself blacklisted and out of work and leaves his wife Antonia (Virginia Maskell) to be with the reporter Sally (Barbara Ferris). His wife nobly tells him he must never give up his music even though the two may never reconcile. Comedian John Cleese has a straight role as a television publicist and Donald Sutherland plays the role of a mutual friend whose marriage is on the rocks. WATCH CLIP
 |
#4 THE TOUCHABLES DVD (1968) $14.99   run time: 88 mins. UK. Color.
directed by: Robert Freeman
description: Absolutely the rarest (and wildest) of Mod Artifacts, THE TOUCHABLES stars Judy Huxtable, Esther Anderson, Marilyn Rickard and Kathy Simmonds as a quartet of Pop-Art princesses who kidnap rock-star Christian (David Anthony) and imprison him in their plastic, see-through Bubble House. Gay wrestler Ricki Starr gets jealous, and tries to (literally) muscle his way into the action. Directed by Beatles-photographer Robert Freeman (who shot the cover for Rubber Soul), and featuring music by long-lost British flower-pop group Nirvana. WATCH CLIP
 |
#5 THREE INTO TWO WON'T GO DVD (1969) $14.99  
run time: 92 mins. UK. Color.
directed by: Peter Hall
description: American actor Rod Steiger adopts a British accent to keep apace with his co-stars in Three into Two Won't Go. Steiger plays a prosperous salesman, married to Claire Bloom (Steiger's real-life wife at the time). While on a business trip, the salesman falls for a sexy 19-year-old hitchhiker (Judy Geeson). He thinks he's in control of his philanderous situation -- until the teenager insists upon moving in with him and his wife. Dame Peggy Ashcroft also stars as Claire Bloom's mother, whose neurotic interference only makes things messier. WATCH CLIP
 |
#6 JOANNA DVD (1968) $14.99  
run time: 114 mins. UK. Color. Widescreen.
directed by: Michael Sarne
description: Genevieve Waite plays Joanna, a promiscuous art student with Walter-Keane-wide eyes, a vacant face and baby monotone voice. She wanders about 1960's London, being surprised in beds where she doesn't belong, being lectured by her grandmother when she oversleeps at home, searching for commitment, and falling in love with an African American nightclub owner (played by Calvin Lockhart) Donald Sutherland plays a dying, kind-hearted aristocrat that Joanna befriends. Christian Doermer also gives a fine performance, as an art school instructor, who — with Mr. Lockhart and Mr. Sutherland — gathers Joanna into something like a serious, conventional life again. Featuring an eclectic mixture of surrealistic filming techniques and beautiful imagery from director Michael Sarne, who went on to direct 1970's Myra Breckinridge, then disappeared from view. WATCH CLIP
 |
#7 THE DION BROTHERS DVD (1974) $14.99  
run time: 94 minutes. USA. Color.
directed by: Jack Starrett
description: A.K.A. THE GRAVY TRAIN. The Dion Brothers stars Stacy Keach and Frederic Forrest as a husky but none-too-bright pair of West Virginia brothers. Feeling stifled by their blue-collar jobs, the boys become tentatively involved in crime, only to discover that they enjoy working on the wrong side of the law. The moments of extreme violence in this film erupt naturally, not arbitrarily, but still come as a shock to those viewers who've grown to like the sociopathic protagonists. Co-starring a young Margot Kidder who later went on to fame with Superman. Terence Malick co-wrote the film's seriocomic script under the "nom de plume" of David Whitney. WATCH CLIP
 |
#8 ANNA DVD (1967) $14.99 new transfer with english subtitles!!  
run time: 87 minutes. France. Color. English subtitles.
directed by: Pierre Koralnik
description: Released in 1967, this was the first color film made for French TV. Starring Anna Karina (of Jean-Luc Godard film fame), Marianne Faithfull (who sings one song) & Serge Gainsbourg (who also wrote the amazing music). Anna is a bizarre pop art/comedy/musical filled with bright vibrant colors, strange, hallucinatory scenes and some of the best songs Serge ever wrote. The story is about a man obsessively looking for a woman he saw in a photograph. A truly charming and entertaining movie that every Gainsbourg fan should see. WATCH CLIP
 |
#9 BREWSTER MCCLOUD DVD (1970) $14.99  
run time: 101 minutes. USA. Color. Widescreen.
directed by: Robert Altman
description: Move into the Houston Astrodome and take off with Brewster McCloud on an unforgettable flight of comic fantasy! Sally Kellerman, Bud Cort, Shelley Duvall and Michael Murphy star in this zany fairy tale --- a wickedy irreverent, thoroughly delightful comedy from award-winning director Robert Altman (M*A*S*H, The Player). A ruthless killer is on the loose in Houston, and some of the city's richest and most illustrious citizens are among the victims. Is it the killer's bizarre trademark or merely a coincidence that each corpse is marked with bird droppings? The police are baffled, so a super-cool San Francisco detective (Murphy) is bought in to take over the case. Soon he's hot on the trail of Brewster McCloud (Cort), a strange young man who lives under the Astrodome. Written by Doran William Cannon, Brewster McCloud contains a wildly improbably plot, rich satirical detail and manic humor. In other words, it's one of the most entertaining films you'll ever see! CONTAINS THE ORIGINAL THEATRICAL TRAILER. WATCH TRAILER!
 |
#10 THE JOKERS DVD (1967) $14.99  
run time: 94 mins. UK. Color.
directed by: Michael Winner
description: Two brothers looking to avoid becoming pawns of the establishment come up with a better way of making a living -- through theft -- in this satiric comedy. David Tremayne (Oliver Reed) is a successful London architect, and his younger brother Michael (Michael Crawford) is weighing his options after being kicked out of school. The brothers share a bemused disgust with the world around them and a desire to get through life without the burden of labor.
modcinema.com staff favorites:
THE TOUCHABLES DVD (1968) $14.99  
run time: 90 mins. UK. Color. Uncut.
directed by: Robert Freeman
description: Absolutely the rarest (and wildest) of Mod Artifacts, THE TOUCHABLES stars Judy Huxtable, Esther Anderson, Marilyn Rickard and Kathy Simmonds as a quartet of Pop-Art princesses who kidnap rock-star Christian (David Anthony) and imprison him in their plastic, see-through Bubble House. Gay wrestler Ricki Starr gets jealous, and tries to (literally) muscle his way into the action. Directed by Beatles-photographer Robert Freeman (who shot the cover for Rubber Soul), and featuring music by long-lost British flower-pop group Nirvana. WATCH CLIP
 |
UP IN THE CELLAR DVD (1970) $14.99  
run time: 94 mins. USA. Color. Widescreen.
directed by: Theodore J. Flicker
description: A light, almost beach-party atmosphere pervades this comedy, based on The Late Boy Wonder, a novel by Angus Hall. Larry Hagman plays a college president with political aspirations who flunks out a college student (Wes Stern) and then has the temerity to save the boy from committing suicide. In revenge, the boy decides to bed the three women most important to the nefarious college head, including his wife (Joan Collins). Though he is a real bumbler, somehow he succeeds in wooing the man's wife, daughter, and secretary. Written and directed by Theodore J. Flicker (The President's Analyst) WATCH CLIP
 |
THE CHRISTIAN LICORICE STORE DVD (1971) $14.99  
run time: 90 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: James Frawley
description: Franklin Cane (Beau Bridges) is a red-hot professional tennis player who climbs the ladder of success with his trainer, Jonathan (Gilbert Roland), at his side. Jonathan was once considered the greatest American tennis player and intends to guide Franklin to the high-road. Franklin does not transcend the interest he has in local Hollywood-type parties littered with has-beens, wannabes and think-they-ares. It is there that he meets Cynthia (Maud Adams), a pretty photographer who makes a living photographing people like French filmmaker Jean Renoir and taking production photos of commercials. Cane becomes slowly seduced by the fast-track life and, when Jonathan suddenly passes away in his sleep, he succumbs to a lifestyle that is completely devoid of morality.
 |
JOANNA DVD (1968) $14.99  
run time: 114 mins. UK. Color. Widescreen.
directed by: Michael Sarne
description: Genevieve Waite plays Joanna, a promiscuous art student with Walter-Keane-wide eyes, a vacant face and baby monotone voice. She wanders about 1960's London, being surprised in beds where she doesn't belong, being lectured by her grandmother when she oversleeps at home, searching for commitment, and falling in love with an African American nightclub owner (played by Calvin Lockhart) Donald Sutherland plays a dying, kind-hearted aristocrat that Joanna befriends. Christian Doermer also gives a fine performance, as an art school instructor, who — with Mr. Lockhart and Mr. Sutherland — gathers Joanna into something like a serious, conventional life again. Featuring an eclectic mixture of surrealistic filming techniques and beautiful imagery from director Michael Sarne, who went on to direct 1970's Myra Breckinridge, then disappeared from view. WATCH CLIP
 |
DEEP END DVD (1971) $14.99 new transfer!  
run time: 88 minutes. UK. Color.
directed by: Jerzy Skolimowski
description: Exceptional film from 1971 about a teen boy's sexual obsession with his older, loose, co-worker at a seedy London bathhouse. Great cinematography, realistic acting, humor and an amazing set-piece ending. Mike (John Moulder-Brown) is a teen-aged London bathhouse attendant who forms a business alliance with a female attendant (Jane Asher). The object is to obtain better tips from their clients, but soon the impressionable Moulder-Brown falls in love with the older Asher. Brushed off by the girl in favor of a handsome swimming instructor, Moulder-Brown makes several halfhearted attempts at revenge. Motivated by lust with tragic results, Deep End observes how adolescent obsession can mushroom into disaster if one doesn't have the emotional equipment to cope. The director's stint working with Roman Polanski (he wrote KNIFE IN THE WATER) shows in this highly recommended rarity!
 |
YOUR THREE MINUTES ARE UP DVD (1973) $14.99  
run time: 93 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Douglas Schwartz
description: Beau Bridges plays an uptight insurance clerk. Ron Leibman plays Bridges' laid-back pal, who talks Beau into skipping work in order to drive Leibman to the airport. This little trip across town turns into an idyllic trek up the California coast. While Leibman wheels and deals in his efforts to con the Establishment, Bridges loosens up with several nubile females, totally forgetting his proper fiancee Janet Margolin. While it has all the earmarks of a typical "youth trip" film of the 1970s, Your Three Minutes Are Up scores with its believable characterizations and its perceptive view of California's mixed-up social values. WATCH CLIP
 |
THE OUTSIDE MAN DVD (1972) $14.99  
run time: 104 mins. France. Color.
directed by: Jacques Deray
description: This French-produced thriller was shot entirely in English. Jean-Louis Tritignant stars as Lucien, a hit man who goes to Los Angeles to end the life of an important local mobster. The mobster's heirs, who hired Lucien, had already hired yet another hit man (Roy Scheider) to kill him. He speaks very little English, and the lifestyles and customs of Los Angelenos puzzle him completely. One of the films highlights is its use of many unusual decayed and shabby sites in the Los Angeles area, such as Venice Beach.
 |
THE STERILE CUCKOO DVD (1969) $14.99  
run time: 107 mins. USA. Color. Widescreen.
directed by: Alan J. Pakula
description: Liza Minnelli is Pookie Adams, a relentlessly kooky coed in The Sterile Cuckoo. The film's focus, however, is on Wendell Burton (likewise making his first screen appearance) as reserved young college student Jerry. He is actively pursued by the unpredictable Pookie, who helps him to survive his first months in school. Gradually, however, it is obvious that Jerry is outgrowing Pookie. Both, however, have benefited from the relationship (he has gained self-confidence, she is now able to come to grips with her unhappy home life) and their parting is a tender one. Not unlike his stars, Alan J. Pakula was making his directorial bow with The Sterile Cuckoo, which earned an Oscar nomination for its theme song "Come Saturday Morning." WATCH CLIP
 |
MOVE DVD (1970) $14.99  
run time: 90 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Stuart Rosenberg
description: Hiram Jaffe (Elliot Gould) is an intellectual New Yorker whose fortunes have led him to walk dogs in central park, and to author pornographic literature to make a living--a self-described "scatological existence." Dolly (Paula Prentiss) is his long-suffering wife who watches as he suffers a mental breakdown. This film is of interest to Prentiss fans as it was her first big role in 5 years of eschewing Hollywood. Genevieve Waite is the ditzy model Gould meets in the park. Directed by Stuart Rosenberg, based on the novel by Joel Lieber, and music by Marvin Hamlisch. WATCH TRAILER
 |
SKY RIDERS DVD (1976) $14.99  
run time: 91 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Douglas Hickox
description: Robert Culp plays Jonas Bracken, whose life seems perfect until his wife Ellen (Susannah York) and their children are kidnapped by terrorists. After failed attempts to capture them back by the police, Ellen's ex-husband (James Coburn) enters the fray and enlists a crew of professional hang gliders to help him plan a rescue from the terrorist's mountain top lair. WATCH CLIP
 |
SHE CRIED MURDER DVD (1973) (TV) $14.99  
run time: 74 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Herschel Daugherty
description: Beautiful model Sarah Cornell (Lynda Day George) witnesses a woman being pushed in front of a train while riding in the subway. But when the police come to interview her, she recognizes one of them as the man who did the pushing (Telly Savalas). She spends the rest of the movie trying to convince the good cop, that Telly is a bad cop; and Telly spends the rest of the movie chasing her around the city and finally to the subway yards. Only now the police, having finally been convinced, have joined in the chase. WATCH CLIP
 |
THAT CERTAIN SUMMER DVD (1972) (TV) $14.99  
run time: 73 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Lamont Johnson
description: A teenager must deal with his divorced father's homosexuality in this made-for-tv movie written by the Emmy-winning writing team of Richard Levinson and William Link (Columbo, Mannix). Hal Holbrook stars as a middle-aged divorced man, whose son played by Scott Jacoby cannot fathom the reason for his parents' split. During a summer visit, Jacoby meets his father's much-younger "best friend," played by Martin Sheen. Holbrook hedges, but finds he can no longer hold back the truth from his son: Sheen is Holbrook's male lover. Originally telecast on November 1, 1972, That Certain Summer was the first TV film to take a mature and non-remonstrative approach to the subject of homosexuality. WATCH CLIP
 |
REMEMBER MY NAME DVD (1978) $14.99  
run time: 94 mins. USA. Color.
directed by: Alan Rudolph
description: This disquieting domestic thriller from writer and director Alan Rudolph was produced by his long-time mentor Robert Altman. Anthony Perkins stars as Neil Curry, a construction worker living happily in suburbia with his wife Barbara (Berry Berenson) until their home becomes vandalized during the holiday season by a stalker. It seems that the assailant, Emily (Geraldine Chaplin), is Neil's chain-smoking, mentally disturbed ex-wife, who has just been released from jail after serving a long sentence for murder. Now she seems to be both seeking revenge for some past wrongs and attempting to win Neil back at the same time. WATCH CLIP
 |
A NEW LEAF DVD (1971) $14.99  
run time: 102 minutes. USA. Color.
directed by: Elaine May
description: Playboy Henry Graham (Walter Matthau) squanders his wealth and must seek out a new source to maintain his idle rich lifestyle. The easy alternative to work is to find a rich woman, marry her, and murder her. Klutzy, nerdy Henrietta Lowell (Elaine May) is the ideal candidate. But in dealing with his klutzy, nerdy, trusting new wife, a botanist, and her ill-managed estate, Henry unwittingly begins to assume some sense of responsibility. WATCH CLIP
 |
THE DION BROTHERS $14.99  
run time: 94 minutes. USA. Color.
directed by: Jack Starrett
description: A.K.A. THE GRAVY TRAIN DVD (1974) The Dion Brothers stars Stacy Keach and Frederic Forrest as a husky but none-too-bright pair of West Virginia brothers. Feeling stifled by their blue-collar jobs, the boys become tentatively involved in crime, only to discover that they enjoy working on the wrong side of the law. The moments of extreme violence in this film erupt naturally, not arbitrarily, but still come as a shock to those viewers who've grown to like the sociopathic protagonists. Co-starring a young Margot Kidder who later went on to fame with Superman. Terence Malick co-wrote the film's seriocomic script under the "nom de plume" of David Whitney. WATCH CLIP
 |
THE VERY STRANGE STORY OF JOE MEEK DVD (1991) $14.99  
run time: 60 mins. UK. Color & B&W.
directed by: Alan Lewens
description: Originally broadcast in 1991 as part of the Arena series of programmes and reshown on BBC4 on ... 5 September 2007 as part of the Hidden Lives season. A profile of the legendary maverick producer and song writer Joe Meek, composer of the massive hit Telstar who recorded most of his hits in a home studio using innovative recording methods in Holloway Road. Meek was obsessed with the occult and suffered from depression and paranoia, and in 1963 had been charged with 'importuning for immoral purposes'. In 1967 after becoming paranoid he'd be framed for a murder of someone he knew, he killed himself and his landlady.
 |
EYE OF THE CAT DVD (1969) $14.99 new theatrical version!  
run time: 97 mins. USA. Color. Theatrical Version.
directed by: David Lowell Rich
description: This offbeat potboiler from Psycho scripter Joseph Stefano involves a plot hatched by mod couple Wylie (Michael Sarrazin) and Kassia (Gayle Hunnicutt) to murder Wylie's wealthy, cat-loving aunt Danny (Eleanor Parker). There's only one hitch in their scheme, but it's a doozy: Wylie suffers from a severe case of ailurophobia -- an irrational fear of all cats. In order for their plot to succeed, the pair must first eliminate Aunt Danny's legions of feline companions...which turns out to be much more difficult than expected, thanks to a sly, deadly counter-plot. Notes on alternate versions: This is the original "more intense" theatrical version featuring the plots original supernatural elements and an army of killer housecats.
 |
HARRY IN YOUR POCKET DVD (1973) $14.99  
run time: 103 mins. USA. Color. Widescreen.
directed by: Bruce Geller
description: In this engaging crime drama with an undercurrent of subtle humor, James Coburn stars as Harry, a "cannon" (a top-flight pickpocket), who works in association with Casey (Walter Pidgeon), an older career criminal with a fondness for cocaine. Ray (Michael Sarrazin) and Sandy (Trish Van Devere) are two aspiring thieves who meet when he tries to steal her watch; eventually, they both come under Harry's tutelage, as he teaches them both the finer points of lifting people's wallets. Harry in Your Pocket was the sole theatrical film for television director and producer Bruce Geller, who died in a plane crash five years after this film was released. WATCH CLIP
|