MRT-7

Campy, lowbrow horror flick which, while it ain't "The Exorcist", nonetheless offers some genuine fright. Two couples vacationing in a Winnebago happen to witness a satanic ritual, and when the cult members realize they've been spotted, the hapless foursome must flee for their lives! Scene involving the rattlesnake is particularly terrifying. Definitely not the cream of its genre, but still worth viewing.

This concert film -- a documentary of the 1969 Big Sur Folk Festival -- pales in comparison to "Woodstock" production-wise, but nonetheless features powerful footage of a number of the '60s best, incl. Joan Baez ("Song for David", "Sweet Sir Galahad"), Joni Mitchell ("Woodstock") and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young" ("4 + 20", "Judy Blue Eyes"). Never released on video and sometimes hard to find (it's frequently shown on latenight TV) but well worth the effort.

Though it's riddled with references to Watergate, Vietnam, inflation, and Nixon, "All in the Family" is still as fresh and thought-provoking today as it was in the early '70s. Based on the British comdy "Til Death Do Us Part", AITF is a rare example where an American adaptation of a British property, where the American version is actually better than the show that inspired it.

The show exists on several levels. As a political forum, it bought many issues into our living rooms, smartly diffusing them with comdey, and in the process, making us think, as well as revolutionizing the entire concept of "sitcom".

But the show also exists on a human level. Were Archie, Edith, Mike and Gloria not fully realized, tangible characters, the political content of AITF would have been hardly memorable. The characters are real, and the emotional content is honest. When Archie ridicule's Mike's long hair, his taste his music, his choice in candidates, or his entire political ideology, he's really saying, "How dare you step in an 'steal' my little girl?"

As far as the topical nature of AITF goes, many of the issues the Bunkers argued about (what seems like) so long ago, we're still dealing with today: abortion, religion, homosexuality, affirmative action, racism, and the day-to-day struggle to keep a roof over one's head and on top of one's bills, that a large segment of our population can certainly identify with. Gloria's miniskirts may have gone out of fashion, but very little else about AITF has.

It's nice to see Eileen Fulton's talents are still being utilized as the oft-married Lisa. Though well into her late 60s, she's still as glamourous and alluring as she was thirty years ago. She actually looks younger than the actor playing her son!

Jessica (Zohra Lampert), her husband (Barton Heyman) and a friend (Kevin O'Connor) retreat to a large Victorian farmhouse in rural Connecticut, where the two men hope Jessica will find some respite after her release from a mental hospital. Once there, they encounter an odd hippie girl crashing in the house, stating that she thought it had been abandoned. They invite her to stay, but strange things begin to happen incuding a seance, vampires, a murdered antiques dealer and a town full of old men who look like geriatric extras from NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, and Jessica is convinced their hippie houseguest has something to do with all of it, but has nothing to base her suspicions on.

One of the most overlooked films of its genre, LET'S SCARE JESSICA TO DEATH is also one of the best. Though the plot is not terribly original, the film has many things working for it, including brilliant characterization, an excellent cast, great pacing, and John Hancock's deft direction.

But perhaps the best thing about this film is the wonderful Zohra Lampert as Jessica. Primarily a stage actress, Lampert has only acted in a handful of films over the past thirty years, where she's usually relegated to supporting roles. (JESSICA is one of her only lead roles in a film.) But it is her textured and understated portrayal of this character that give it dimension and makes us actually care when she appears to be in jeopardy. (Contrast this to the hysterical coeds who usually populate these films--They're generally little more than cardboard cut-outs, and so it is with very little emotion we watch them get slashed.)

This film is similar in tone to ROSEMARY'S BABY, and should certainly appeal to fans of that film.

This is an absolutely flawless film version of Edward Albee's brilliant play. George (Richard Burton) is a disillusioned, middle-aged history professor at a small New England college, Martha (Elizabeth Taylor) is his vile, alcoholic wife. One night after a faculty gathering, they invite a younger couple (George Segal and Sandy Dennis) over for drinks, and before the evening's end, every raw nerve is ripped savagely open, the blood flowing as freely as the gin & tonics. Without a doubt, one of the best films ever made (possibly THE best) and a prime example of what happens when film makers adapting a play for the screen actually treat it with respect. Rather than trying to concoct a screenplay, the original play was used, and as a result, nearly all of Albee's exquisite dialogue was retained. Project was further served by Mike Nichols' direction (his debut) and George Wexler's striking cinematography.

"Don't Look Back" provides a fascinating, albeit unflattering glimpse of Dylan's '65 English tour. Onstage, he's great, sailing through memorable performances of "Times They Are A-Changin'", "All I Really Want to Do" and "Mister Tambourine Man," but elsewhere, he comes off as an arrogant twit who had begun to take the adulation a little too seriously. He is seen being impossibly rude to a BBC reporter while his manager, Albert Grossman is busy extorting promoters for more money. Dylan's relationship with Joan Baez had seriously deteriorated by that point, and the scenes they share are strained, though she offers a stunning version of "Love is Just a Four-Letter Word" in a late-night hotel room, before disappearing entirely from the tour (and film). Donovan appears briefly. Filmed in striking B&W.