The talented British' born actor Shane Briant made his screen debut in the Hammer horror film Demons of the Mind. Since then he's gone on to appear in over 60 films and television productions including Straight On Till Morning (1972), The Picture of Dorian Gray (1973), The Mackintosh Man (1973), Captain Kronos: Vampire Hunter (1974), Frankenstein and the Monster from Hell (1974), The Naked Civil Servant (1975) and Lady Chatterley's Lover (1981). Currently Briant is focusing his attention on writing fiction and he has recently completed a psychological thriller called Worst Nightmares that will be released May 12th. I've admired his film work for many years so I was thrilled to get the opportunity to ask Shane Briant a few questions about his early movies and current writing projects. READ MORE
The talented director and cinematographer Jack Cardiff has passed away at the age of 94. As the tributes start to roll out from various news sites and film blogs its become clear to me that most people regard Jack Cardiff as a great cinematographer and have little regard or knowledge of his directing contributions, which is a shame. Cardiff was a brilliant photographer and his groundbreaking contributions to cinematography are well worth celebrating. But his impressive work as a director on films like the wonderful D.H. Lawrence adaptation Sons and Lovers (1960), the entertaining spy thriller The Liquidator (1965), the excellent erotic drama The Girl on a Motorcycle (1968) and the effective horror film The Mutations (1974) is also worthy of applause. READ MORE
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but overall 2008 was somewhat of a lackluster year for new Region 1 DVD releases of '60s and '70s era films when compared to the previous two years (See: 2006 and 2007). Some of my favorite DVD companies such as BCI Eclipse and most recently New Yorker Films have folded. Boutique DVD companies are releasing fewer products and what is being released is often of questionable quality. With the failing economy and the rise in popularity of Blu-ray discs, it seems like the number of new worthwhile DVD releases might continue to drop dramatically in 2009. READ MORE
Toru Murakawa's Resurrection of the Golden Wolf (aka Yomigaeru kinrô; 1979) is a wildly uneven Japanese crime film that left me wishing it had been helmed by another director. The film's script was adapted from a popular novel by Haruhiko Ooyabu and directors like Seijun Suzuki have had great success turning Ooyabu's hard-boiled fiction into films, but Toru Murakawa doesn't have Suzuki's eye for detail or his pop art sensibility. Resurrection of the Golden Wolf runs much too long and the dramatic filler weighs down the action, but even with its flaws the movie still keeps your attention thanks to the star performance of Yusaku Matsuda. READ MORE
This year analog broadcasting is coming to an end. On June 12th 2009 television stations in the United States will stop broadcasting in analog and switch permanently to digital. Digital broadcasting promises to provide viewers with a sharper picture and more diverse programming options, but this unavoidable change is forcing millions of people to buy new television sets or opt for getting a converter box that will often cost them $40 or more. I feel for these people because I didn't have complete cable TV Access or a digital television myself until 2007. READ MORE

Popsy Pop (1971) is a heist crime/caper film made by the French director Jean Herman. Herman is responsible for one of my favorite heist films of all time (Adieu l’ami a.k.a. Honor Among Thieves) so I knew I’d probably enjoy Popsy Pop and I wasn’t wrong.
This fascinating film was scripted by Henri Charrière who also stars in the film. Popsy Pop is loosely based on his second book called Banco the Further Adventures of Papillon. If that title sounds familiar, it’s because Henri Charriere’s first book was the critically acclaimed Papillon
, which was later made into an award winning film. Many people are aware of Henri Charrière thanks to the film version of Papillon
that told the story of his long captivity in the penal colony of French Guiana as well as his later imprisonment and eventual escape from the notorious prison, Devil’s island.

Interestingly, Papillon (1973) was made after Popsy Pop (1971) which seems to have been almost completely ignored by most film critics at the time. This isn’t surprising since Popsy Pop will probably only appeal to a small audience of movie lovers like myself who enjoy unusual caper films shot in exotic locations with great soundtracks. If you’re looking for a solid well acted film with a coherent script, you should probably look elsewhere since Popsy Pop has very little to hold it together besides Claudia Cardinale’s fabulous wardrobe and wacky wigs.

Tough guy Stanley Baker (The Guns of Navarone, Eva, Zulu, A Lizard in a Woman’s Skin , etc.) plays Inspector Silva who is keeping his eye on the local diamond fortune. He greets Popsy when she arrives in the steamy jungle and soon the heat between them both starts to rise. Inspector Silva falls for pretty Popsy fast and hard, which is somewhat understandable since his life in the jungle seems to have very little distractions and Popsy is most certainly an interesting distraction. Soon he is offering himself up as her personal escort and they quickly develop a loosely formed realtionship.

Like most good heist films, things don’t exactly go as planned and Popsy Pop ends up stealing the diamonds for herself. Soon Inspector Silva and Marco are forced to team up and together they begin a cross country chase through the jungles and cities of Latin America after Popsy and the elusive diamonds.

Jean Herman’s directing is occasionally impressive in the film, especially after the chase for Popsy and the diamonds begin, but it also seems muddled by the clumsy script and often lackluster performances from the three main stars. A lot of the action in the film is unintentionally funny and poorly executed, but I think the unusual plot turns as well as the exotic locations keep the film interesting.

With all it’s faults I still found a lot to enjoy about Popsy Pop. It’s a shame that the movie hasn’t gotten a better DVD release yet because it would really benefit from a better quality print with good sound. Hopefully a DVD company will take the time to restore the film someday before it’s forgotten about forever.
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Dennis Cozzalio says; June 1, 2006 @ 8:29 pm
K: Ever since discovering this blog I’ve felt you were a woman after my own heart, and now, with the revelation of Popsy Pop and that terrific writeup on CinemaRetro and Caroline Munro (and that trailer), I’m sure of it!
I saw Star Crash in a drive-in as the second feature with Laserblast back in 1978– I always felt like that was the movie Joe Dante was explictly parodying with the drive-in feature seen in Explorers. And if Christopher Plummer thought he was slumming when he made The Sound of Music, well, let’s just say I’d love to have a peek at his diary entries during this production!
Thanks so much for all your great posts here. I’m so glad I discovered your site (or did you discover mine? Oh, who cares!)– it’s rapidly become one of my favorites. And I did see Alucarda this past weekend– I can’t say I was enamored of it as you are, but I still enjoyed it immensely. I watched it immediately after seeing William Lustig’s Maniac, and I was so grateful for film craft and style of any kind that it seemed like a gift! (I’ll be mentioning it in my upcoming underappreciated horror round up, for sure. If there’s any other titles available on DVD you’d like to suggest, please e-mail me!)
And I finally got around to Mario Bava’s A Bay of Blood last night, which I thought was terrific. That’s definitely on the list.
Okay, gotta go back to work right now. Thanks again, K, for putting a big smile on my face today. (Oh, and it seems I’ll be posting some Hammer stuff in the next day or so too, as the American Cinematheque here in L.A. is doing a Hammer series in June, along with a bunch of other great stuff, that I want to highlight. Whoo-hoo!)
cinebeats says; June 2, 2006 @ 7:29 pm
Ha, ha! Glad you’re enjoying my blog posts Dennis.
Starcrash is an interesting flick. I’m not sure it would be worth watching if Caroline Munro wasn’t in it. I first saw it on TV in the early 80s and loved it just because I loved anything to do with “space” while I was growing up and I thought Caroline was very groovy in it. If Christopher Plummer thought the sound of Music was slumming he must have blocked Starcrash from his mind. He’s obviously in deep denial or thinks we’ll all just forget about the movie. Obviously some of us have not forgotten about it.
I’m happy to hear you got a chance to watch Alucarda even if you didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. It’s an interesting movie and I’d like to see the rest of the director’s films become available on DVD.
I’m happy to hear you’ll be going to the British Horror festival in LA! I really wish I lived more south and could catch some of the movies being played since many of my favorites will be shown.
I’ll send you an email about the horror films since I’m not sure where to begin with recs. Horror films are my first love and I’ve probably seen thousands at this point.
Thanks again Dennis! I’ve enjoyed getting to meet various other film fans through this blog like yourself. I wish I had started this thing a few years ago.
Gary McMahon says; August 9, 2008 @ 8:20 am
This is a cool site that shows real love for a period in movies that was creative, camp and kinky. I love it too. Fab.