Movie archive

Skip and Harry are framed for a bank robery and end up in a western prison. The two eastern boys are having difficulty adjusting to the new life until the warden finds that Skip has a natural tallent for riding broncos with the inter-prison rodeo coming up.

Farmer Vincent kidnaps unsuspecting travellers and is burying them in his garden. Unfortunately for his victims, they are not dead. He feeds his victims to prepare them for his roadside stand. His motto is: It takes all kinds of critters…to make Farmer Vincents fritters. The movie is gory, but is also a parody of slasher movies like Last House on the Left.

Hawk the Slayer, after seeing both his father and bride die at the hands of his malevolent brother, Voltan, sets out for revenge and the chance to live up to his title. Tooling himself up with the “mind-sword” and recruiting a motley band of warriors: a giant, a dwarf, a one-armed man with a machine-crossbow and an elf with the fastest bow in the land; Hawk leads the battle against Voltan to free the land from the forces of evil and avenge his loved ones.

The origins, exploits and the ultimate fate of the Jesse James gang is told in a sympathetic portrayal of the bank robbers made up of brothers who begin their legendary bank raids because of of revenge.

This time, the Man of Steel has his hands full with a trio of super-powered villains who escape from their Phantom Zone prison (remember the weird flying diamond-shaped mirror that scooped them up from the planet Krypton?) and land on Earth, where all three have powers to rival Superman’s own. How does it all come out? With a fabulous duel above the streets of Metropolis, and a startling plot twist that neatly ties in Superman’s explosive past. Arch-criminal Lex Luthor plays both ends gleefully against the middle in hopes of a modest reward: Australia.

When John Eastland’s best friend, Michael Jefferson, is mugged and left permanently crippled, he decides to do something about it. Jefferson had saved Eastland’s life in Vietnam and now it’s time for Eastland to get revenge for his friend. Using his old Army gear he sets out on a crusade to clean up the streets of New York using the name “The Exterminator.”

Neil Diamond stars as Yussel in this tale of a young Jewish cantor who strives to make a career in music. Against the wishes of his rigid father and his loving wife, Yussel travels to California to play his music. Swept up by the excitement, he meets a woman who shares his dream. He grows apart from his family, and becomes confused about what he should ultimately do with his life.

The story of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, Princess Leia and the others didn’t end with the destruction of the Death Star - it continues in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. Imperial forces have since driven the Rebels to hide on the ice world Hoth. But even on such an icy, backwater world, they cannot escape the wicked Darth Vader’s eye for long, and he devastates the Rebel base in an assault with the horrible AT-AT walkers. Luke flees to Dagobah to begin Jedi Knight training with Yoda, while Han Solo, Chewbacca, Princess Leia and C-3PO run the blockade of Imperial Star Destroyers in the Millenium Falcon. The Imperials pursue them across the galaxy and eventually catch up with them at Bespin. Now Darth Vader plans to use them as bait to lure Luke Skywalker to him, and turns Han Solo over to Boba Fett as a prize to be delivered to crime lord Jabba the Hutt. Luke learns a terrible family secret after losing a swordfight with Vader. Will he - and the others - escape the Empire’s clutches?

First broadcast in 1974, the ITV bedsitland sitcom Rising Damp was an instant and enduring success. It starred Leonard Rossiter as the miserly and lovelorn landlord Rigsby who is constantly needling young lodger Alan (Richard Beckinsale), a science student whose long hair and earrings are symptomatic to Rigsby of the parlous effeminacy of the modern age. He’s also in love with Frances De La Tour’s dowdy spinster Miss Jones, though his tentative advances are forever rebuffed. She in turn carries a torch for Philip (Don Warrington), the elegant son of an African chief who also resides at Rigsby Towers.

Some aspects of Rising Damp have not aged well, principally Rigsby’s stream of racist jibes at Philip. Although these were doubtless well-meant and supposed to illustrate Rigsby’s foolish bigotry, you suspect that that was a convenient cover for audiences in the 1970s to enjoy racist humour. However, Rossiter’s Rigsby—stuttering, stammering, bent perpetually over backwards—remains a great comic creation, embodying all the festering prejudices, small-mindedness and self-delusion of the lower middle class Little Englander.

Scott’s life is plagued by two kinds of flashbacks. First are the childhood memories of the rigorous training he and a friend endured under a martial arts master. The second is of a mission Scott went on that ended with him watching his friend get murdered. Scott later becomes drawn closer to a vicious crime ring known as The Octagon. As he gets closer to the truth, Scott learns that these may be the men that murdered his friend so long ago.