Sugar Hill (1974)

When ruthless businessmen knock off a night club owner, his girl (Marki Bey) turns to voodoo for revenge.

Charles Robinson plays Fabulous, one of the top honkey’s top henchmen. He is better known (to me anyhow) as Mac from Night Court. He passed in 2021, 27 days before Markie Post. Only Dan Fielding and Roz are left.

Bey appeared in a handful of low budget films before doing a handful of TV appearances. She called it quits in her early thirties. She is pretty enough, but she lacks that Pam Grier charisma. Also, her character lacks agency. She is present for many of the kills but serves merely as bait. She doesn't even summon the zombies. She turns to Mama Maitresse for that.

Sugar Hill is a by-the-numbers blaxploitation revenge film with the added benefit of zombie mayhem. This film could have been just a series of revenge killings of the ruthless thugs, and it is. Unlike Kuroneko, the only questions are who will the zombies kill next, and how. But like the previous film, the undead are the good guys. AMRU 2.5.

Black Christmas (1974)

A young woman in a college sorority goes missing, because she was murdered. Her father and sorority sisters investigate while dealing with an obscene caller.

Lots of familiar faces appear here. Our protagonist Jess is played by Olivia Hussey of Romeo and Juliet fame. She was quite charming. Her sisters include Margot Kidder and someone who looked like a young Andrea Martin, who turned out to be a young Andrea Martin! Jess’ boyfriend is played by Keir Dullea, from 2001. I'm sorry, Dave, but dating a college girl when pushing 40 is more than a little creepy.

Credited as the first slasher film, it actually has very little on-screen violence. What it does have is some excellent cinematography that effectively builds tension. The unseen killer is revealed only by quips said on his calls and from his POV shots. Little character scenes, like Kidder's foul mouth and Mrs. Mac's antics, give the impression of a fuller, lived-in world.

Respected by people beyond gore-heads, Black Christmas has been on my radar for quite a while. It sets some of the tropes of the genre that would be codified in later films, but strays significantly. Only tangentially a Christmas movie, it is set during the Christmas break and has holiday lights in just about every scene. But it does not disappoint as a horror flick or a film in general. AMRU 4.

From Beyond the Grave (1974)

Four stories, each revolving around haunted items purchased from a curio shop run by an old man (Peter Cushing).

Story one concerns a haunted mirror that needs to be fed blood. The second is about a man with a shrewish wife who purchases stolen valor to impress a street vendor and his creepy daughter. In the third a man is haunted by an invisible ‘elemental’, and in the last one a man purchases a fancy door he uses for his office supplies closet.

The creepy daughter of the street peddler (Donald Plesence) was played by Pleasence’s actual daughter. Buxom Diana Dors was the shrewish wife. Something of a British Marilyn, she was featured in a successful run of films I have never seen. She would appear in soft core sex comedies at the tail end of her career before cancer would take her.

I didn’t get the ending of ‘The Elemental’. I think it was implying something more than was on screen. It was the weakest of the four, although I did find the Madame Orloff character quite amusing. I'm not sure what my favorite was. The haunted item only plays directly into two of the four stories.

A good thing about anthology movies (I bristle at the term ‘portmanteau’) is that I can start them late at night knowing I'll have good stopping points for the night. I took advantage of this. From Beyond the Grave has some creepy scenes but none of the stories would have survived a longer treatment. But it is good for what it is. AMRU 3.

The Godfather: Part II

Part II continues where The Godfather left off. The Corleone crime family has moved to Las Vegas and Michael (Al Pacino) has to deal with problems, professional and personal. He is the target of a hit and must find out who was behind it. While this is going on, we learn the origin story of father Vito (Robert De Niro) in flashbacks. He comes to America as a boy and tries to be a good man by standing up to thugs and bullies.

It had been a couple years since I saw the original and it wouldn’t do to watch the sequel without rewatching it. The original completely holds up to a second viewing and the story makes more sense to me. What seemed like a series of events proved to be carefully connected. I would guess rewatching the sequel would have the same effect.

Like the original, Part II looks wonderful. The tone, the colors, the cinematography, the score were absolutely on point. I found the comparison between Vito as a young man to what Michael has become very interesting. When compared to the first, it is a worthy successor and a must watch. However, it does not quite have the same gravitas, and at almost a half hour longer, it dragged a bit.

I feel Vito’s backstory could have been separated out as its own 90 minute film. That would keep the principle story to around two hours. The problem with that is how well the two stories compliment each other. I thought the film’s structure was dictated by the book but apparently most of the screenplay is original.

Don’t think I’m saying that Part II not a great film in its own right. It is. But the first was more impactful, and the scenes and lines people remember are from it. This is a continuation of the same story, isn’t quite as compelling, and longer. It’s tough to be compared to IMDb’s number 2 film. AMRU 4.

Chinatown (1974)

Private Investigator Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) is hired by a woman to find out if her husband is having an affair. Husband is Mulwray, a big-wig at the drought stricken Los Angeles water department and is seeing a young blonde. The scandal goes public, lawsuits are filed, and shenanigans come to light about the water department and things become complex.

If you don’t like films where you don’t know what’s going on, Chinatown is not for you. Everyone has secrets and nothing is as it seems. Diane Ladd had a small role. You know, Laura Dern’s mom. There are a few pieces of trivia I’d like to include here but it would reveal details best revealed by watching. I won’t do it to this caliber of film, leaving me with less to say.

Chinatown is neo-noir, a modern interpretation of the 40’s and 50’s film style. It is set in the late 1930’s and follows many of the same conventions but with a more modern sensibility. Code-banned topics are dealt with using code-banned language. Nicholson’s Jake is present in every scene.

Many lesser films use the obfuscation game to make their films seem complex or deep. But Chinatown is a masterpiece. All the pieces fit together in the end, the performances are exceptional, and the cinematography is spectacular. It demands a second viewing and I look forward to that. Too bad the director is a child molester. AMRU 4.5.

“But, Mrs. Mulwray, I goddamn near lost my nose. And I like it. I like breathing through it. And I still think you're hiding something.”

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

World Famous Detective Hercule Poirot (Albert Finney) takes The Orient Express back to London when a man is murdered in the night. He is urged to solve the mystery while the train is stuck in snow so that the Czech authorities don’t become involved. Hercule soon learns that many of the passengers in the train car had a connection to the deceased and maybe reason to do him harm.

Murder on the Orient Express has an amazing ensemble cast. Sean Connery was the biggest name at the time so they signed him up first. Everyone else followed along. Ingrid Bergman is almost unrecognizable as a nutty nanny. Anthony Perkins and Martin Balsam are together again for the third time, having done Psycho and Catch-22 together. No toilets were involved with this pairing. The older, unsexy Lauren Bacall makes her first appearance here. First appearance of Michael Redgrave’s daughter. Oddly, I am more familiar with her sister. Apparently I used to watch House Calls. One of these days I'll watch Blow Up.

I saw Murder on the Orient Express as a kid and remembered key elements. Like who done it. Still, this is a very well made, very entertaining film that was faithful enough to the source material to get the approval of Agatha’s herself. And it holds up to a second viewing, at least when thirty years separates the two. AMRU 4.

"Bianchi, Doctor, has it occurred to you that there are too many clues in this room?"

Foxy Brown (1974)

Foxy Brown (Pam Grier) is a whole lotta woman. Her boyfriend is a cop who infiltrated the ghetto mob and they are out for revenge. To protect himself, he undergoes plastic surgery. Unfortunately, her ne'er-do-well brother, on the run from the same mob, recognizes him and trades his life for some debt forgiveness. Exit boyfriend. This don't go over well with o'll Foxy. She's a whole lotta woman. Foxy goes undercover in the mob's prostitution ring and, well, things play out mostly as you can expect.

What a terrible film! I occasionally hit the exploitation scene and I don't know why. The stories are formulaic, the acting is terrible, even the fight sequences are badly filmed. The only saving grace is the nudity, and Foxy Brown has fairly little. But the movie does redeem itself somewhat. The climax is clever and satisfying. I also liked the element of the boss man being a woman, with a boy-toy who clearly sees his relationship with her as part of the job. Does that save the film as a whole? I'm not so sure.

The titular character has become a pop culture icon. Is she not the archetype for Beyonce's Foxxy Cleopatra character in Goldmember? She is not the passive heroine so common in this kind of film. Foxy goes right after the bad guys and does not flinch. She takes her share of punishment and dishes out a whole lot more. In truth I can see why people become fascinated by these movies, but don't mistake them for fine filmmaking. It stands squarely in the guilty pleasure zone. That said, for me it's more guilt than pleasure. AMRU 2.5.

"That's my sister, baby, and she's a whole lotta woman."