Tag: thrillers

Once a Thief (1965)

Once a Thief

Ever since Eddie Pedak (Alain Delon) got out of prison six years ago, he’s been straight as an arrow. He’s married to Kristine (Ann Margret) and has a cute-as-a-button little girl. He’s got a good job. He’s happy.

Except for Detective Mike Vido (Van Heflin). He got shot trying to catch a thief several years back, and he’s certain it was Eddie who did it. But the culprit was wearing a mas and Mike only saw his eyes, so the courts let Eddie go. Ever since, Mike has had it out for Eddie and is constantly trying to prove that he’s committed various crimes.

When a store robbery goes bad and a woman is killed, Mike thinks he’s got Eddie dead to rights. A witness description matches Eddie, and he was seen in the exact type of coat Eddie wears, and he drove away in the same model car. Mike takes him in, but his witness says it wasn’t Eddie who did it.

Meanwhile, Eddie gets a visit from his brother Walter (Jack Palance), a man who has definitely not given up the gangster life. He says he’s got a job for Eddie, something that pays big for just a day’s work. Eddie says, “No.” He doesn’t do that work anymore.

But then Eddie gets fired from his job. Mike told his boss about his past. This has happened before. Eddie has trouble finding a new job. Kristine has to take a job as a waitress. She tells Eddie she’s slinging hamburgers, but really she’s a cocktail waitress at some nightclub. She has to wear a skimpy thing.

This drives Eddie crazy. He is supposed to be the breadwinner. He’s not supposed to wash the dishes and make sure the kid is in bed on time. I always find these things fascinating. I guess I’m what you’d call a modern man. My wife and I take turns cooking. I wash dishes. I fold laundry. For a few years, I was a house husband while my wife worked. I was a stay-at-home dad for the first three years of our daughter’s life. I liked it. I don’t really understand these forced issues of masculinity.

But I do understand that it is a thing. It was a much bigger thing in the 1960s, and people like Eddie felt emasculated when they couldn’t work. But it doesn’t exactly make me feel for Eddie. It doesn’t put me on his side. It is fun to watch Delon in this role. I’m so used to him as the icy cool guy from his French films; to see him so hot with emotion here is interesting. He also has a tender side, too. He dotes on the girl, and he is tender with his wife. His character is also Italian, which is just weird.

You can probably tell where this story is going. The film does a nice job with it. Heflin is good as the cop. He’s obsessed with Eddie, but he’s also got a detective’s instincts and knows when he’s made a mistake. Palance is menacing. John Davis Chandler is the dark, kinky sidekick that always seems to be in this type of film. He’s terrifying.

Ann Margret is a little too weepy and screachy for my tastes. But the rest of the film more than makes up for it.

The Island (1980)

The Island 1980 UHD

The Island is so close to being a good movie. Or at least an interesting one. Michael Caine stars as a reporter investigating some disappearances in the Bermuda Triangle, only to be captured by a gang of pirates. It is as silly as that sounds, but not quite as silly as it should have been. Or fun. There are several things they could have done to push it into “good” territory, but they never quite get there. It is worth a watch if you are bored, but there are plenty of other Michael Caine films that are more worth your time. You can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

Slap the Monster on Page One (1972)

Slap the Monster on Page One 1

I’ve become a big fan of 1970s Italian crime thrillers. Italy was going through what they now call the Years of Lead back then, which was a period of high crime and political turmoil. Their films often reflect that in the best possible way. This film pushes the politics more than the crime or the thrills, which makes it just a little bit dull. But there is still some good stuff, as you can tell from my review.

Solo (1970)

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One day I may stop singing the praises of Radiance Films, but today is not that day. I love, love, love the way they keep bringing to my attention films that I’d otherwise never hear of in nice sets, loaded with extras.

Solo is a terrific little French thriller about a couple of young revolutionaries in over their heads and how a jewel thief winds up lending them a hand.  You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

Birds of Prey (1968)

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Lino Ventura has become one of those actors I keep finding myself watching, almost by accident. He just keeps showing up in the films that I’m watching.  I don’t know why.  But he’s so good I never mind.

In Birds of Prey, he plays a killer hired to assassinate the president of some backwater South American country. Before he can do that, he is forced to wait in a tiny little village for several days, accompanied by a true revolutionary. A kid who will probably replace the president. The kid is idealistic while the killer is old and cynical. Their interactions make up most of the movie, and they are wonderfully played.  The whole movie is great.  You can read my full review at Cinema Sentries.

Rider on the Rain (1970)

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Charles Bronson had such an interesting career. For a while, he was a terrific little character actor in films like The Great Escape and The Magnificent Seven, and then he became a star and for a time he continued making interesting (if not great) films, and then he got stuck making dumb action films that wasted his talents as an actor.

Rider on the Rain is a very interesting film. It starts out like a rape revenge film, then turns into a thriller, but it turns into something far more interesting. You can read my full review over at Cinema Sentries.

The Friday Night Horror Movie: Drop (2025)

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Drop is the sort of those high-concept, utterly ridiculous thrillers they used to make a lot of in the 1990s. It is all kinds of dumb but still a lot of fun to watch.

Violet Gates (Meghann Fahy) is just beginning to get over the death of her abusive husband.  Oh, she’s not sad he’s dead, for he was an awful piece of…but she survived years of abuse and nearly let him kill her baby boy, and that’s hard to get over.  Even if you are a therapist.

She’s been talking to a handsome photographer named Henry (Brandon Sklenar) through one of those online dating apps, and tonight she’s finally agreed to meet him face-to-face for a dinner date at one of those fancy restaurants that sits atop a skyscraper, giving panoramic views of Chicago.

She leaves her sister June (Violett Beane) in charge of the boy (and her wardrobe) and nervously goes on the date. Before they can even order hors d’oeuvres, she starts receiving these strange airdropped digital messages. At first they are just sort of annoying, and the couple play a little game as to who it could be, but soon enough they become threatening. 

Look at the video footage from her at-home security cameras, it says. They show a masked man in her home.  Do what I say, or your family will be killed, it says. Tell no one what is happening. Do not call the cops.  Do not let your dinner date leave.

The tormentor seems to know everything she is doing.  He’s somehow got access to the restaurant’s internal camera system.  He’s also placed cameras inside the bathroom and next to her table. He’s cloned her phone.

I won’t spoil exactly what he asks her to do except that it has to do with destroying some evidence and causing harm to someone.  It makes very little sense as it is a dumb way to get what they want, but you just have to roll with it.

Director Christopher Landon keeps the tension high, and writers Jillian Jacobs and Chris Roach find clever ways for Violet to solve her problem. Because those digital drops have to be sent from someone close they have a lot of fun hinting it might be this person or that one. I guessed correctly pretty quickly so it isn’t really that hard to figure out. It ends in a climactic battle that’s all sort of ridiculous, but I had a good time with it.

Landon directed both Happy Death Day films and Freaky, and I wish he’d leaned a little more heavily into the ridiculousness of this situation and made it a little funnier. But it’s still an entertaining little film. Like I said, they used to make this sort of film a lot in the 1990s, and I kind of miss them. Sometimes you want something ridiculous and not so serious.

Small housekeeping note.  We are in May, and that means we’re geared up for mysteries. Crime stories often blend mystery, thriller, and horror together, but it is always difficult to find one that leans that mix a little more toward horror for Friday nights.  I thought this one would do the trick, but it really is much more of a thriller than a horror film, but it is late and this is what you get.