Archive for the ‘Crime’ Category
Welcome back to your favorite desktop drive-in. As promised, we are continuing our month long Fred Williamson film fest. This time we’ve got 3 action packed movies with a little something for everyone and a whole lot of that Williamson coolness that the ladies love so much.
Death Journey
Fearing that their star witness will be killed, the feds hire private eye and ex-cop Jessie Crowder to transport the man across country. A lot of people try to tangle with Fred in this one and, of course, a lot of people die.
Mean Johnny Barrows
Decorated Marine Johnny Barrows is harassed by his superior officer and promptly punches the asshole in the face. This, of course, causes him to be dishonorably discharged. Once back in the states Johnny has trouble finding and keeping a job and eventually ends up working as a hitman for the local crime boss.
Joshua
Joshua returns home after the end of the Civil War to discover that his mother has been murdered by a gang of white thugs. Enraged, he rides out on a bloody trail of revenge.
Click HERE to download all three movies.
Welcome back loyal patrons. Tonight we have a program of film noir features for you, each featuring a a tempting skirt with evil on her mind and damnation on her lips. We haven’t really done a lot of noir flicks here, but I was in the mood for some and I thought you might like these.
QUICKSAND
Mickey Rooney is a schlub mechanic who is desperate to woo a gold digging woman who comes into the garage he works in. Short on money, he steals $20 from the register. He figures he can replace it before anyone finds out, but things go wrong and his “girlfriend” keeps demanding more and more expensive things. His one criminal act quickly leads him down a path of increasingly serious infractions and brings him into contact with some very unsavory characters, including the always great Peter Lorre.
DETOUR
A man eager to reunite with his estranged girlfriend is hitchhiking to California. When the seedy gambler he is riding with suddenly dies our protagonist is sure that the police will blame him for the death. Instead of reporting the incident, he assumes the dead man’s identity and heads down the road. Unfortunately for him, he picks up an astute young woman who quickly figures out what he is up to and threatens to expose him if he doesn’t do everything she wants. He is quickly thrust into situations that are much worse the his original problem. This one is great a little thriller.
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I have been watching drive-in/b-movie type films for years, but I must still be a little naive, because this movie, much like The Babysitter, surprised me with the type of content it got away with in 1964. The modern viewer starts an old black & white movie that looks like it is going to be a low rent film noir and they have certain expectations about what kinds of plot elements they will see. They might expect to a private eye or an unfaithful husband going up against his gold digging wife. What they probably won’t expect is a bald hooker beating the crap out of the pimp who shaved her head and stole her money. This is, however, what they get at the start of The Naked Kiss and that isn’t even the biggest surprise to come.
There is a lot I want to say about this one, but to talk about the part that I didn’t see coming would spoil a huge plot point in the movie, so I can’t. The movie follows a prostitute who is forced to flee the big city following the pimp-beating discussed above. We learn that she has spent the past few years working small towns and staying on the move. After arriving the latest in her succession of little burgs, she has finds a client in the local law man who, right after paying her, tells her to get out of town. instead she decides to settle down and leave her street walking days behind. To that end, she rents a room at a local boarding house, gets a job working with children at the hospital, and begins a relationship with the wealthy town big wig, who is also friends with the cop she slept with.
A bit of the movie is taken up with her settling in, talking a local girl out of taking a job with the local madam, coming clean to her new beau and trying to convince his cop buddy that she isn’t just after his friend’s money. Very Lifetime type stuff, right? Well, sort of of, but just as she is about to marry her seeming perfect fiance, something happens that shakes things up completely and turns the movie in a whole new direction
This is a good little b-movie with a main character that you can root for and a couple neat surprises. That is what is so great about plumbing the depths of the public domain, every now and then, you find a neat little movie like this.
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WOW!, how as I have missed this movie for so long? I’ve actually had it for a number of years, but had not seen it until just a few days ago. Any fans of Quentin Tarantino movies should like this one. It looks very much like something that would have inspired some of his work.
A group of criminals who don’t know each other are sent airline tickets to California with the promise of a very lucrative job. Once they arrive they are blindfolded and taken to an undisclosed location. They are told to put on fake beards so they won’t be able to identify each other and given gloves to wear so that they will not leave prints during the course of their training and preparations. They are each assigned a number and refer to each other that way for the rest of the movie. They learn that their goal is to strike a small town, cut of it’s phone lines and power, capture local law enforcement and then hit two banks, two grocery stores and a lumber yard and finally escape.
Meanwhile in the town in question, the hard-ass sheriff busts the son of a town council member and is forced to resign. Just as his newly promoted deputy is settling into his new job and the old sheriff and his family are preparing to leave town, the criminals strike.
Unfortunately, my copy of this one isn’t too great, but it is still a really fun picture and has that legitimate 70s drive-in feel that so many movies today are trying to recreate. From the music and the opening credits to the big reveal at the end, this one is cool. I hope you enjoy it.
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Right click HERE and select “Save As” to download the mp4
It is a new year here at the Dollar Movie Drive In and that means that the small quota of actually descent movies that the B-movie Broadcasters Union allows me to present each year has been reset for 2011. in celebration I give to you a great little crime thriller with an awesome cast, excellent writing and a gripping story.
Steve McQueen stars as the wheel man for a group of criminals who hope to score $100,000 from one, well planned, bank job. They have thought of everything, but when things start to go wrong they must rely on their wits and go to places they had not thought they could go. The story is Based on true events and several of the police officers involved in the actual case play themselves in the film. Good stuff.
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Clock HERE to download the MP4.