[Drum]

Drum directed by Steve Carver, based on the Kyle Onstott novel, the cinematography was by Lucien Ballard and the music was by Charlie Smalls. The film was released by United Artists and is a sequel to the film Mandingo (which I've never seen either), released in 1975. The film stars Warren Oates, Isela Vega, Pam Grier, Ken Norton, Yaphet Kotto.  

Drum (Norton) has been born to a white prostitute (Vega), who raises him with her black lesbian lover. Drum grows up as whorehouse servant but is forced to bare-knuckle-box another slave Blaise (Kotto) for the entertainment of a white effeminate/gay slaveholder, a Frenchman named Bernard DeMarigny (Colicos). DeMarigny wants to sleep with Drum, but his advances are rejected and during the ensuing scuffle Drum's "mammy" is shot.

Drum and his friend Blaise are eventually sold to plantation owner Hammond Maxwell (Oates) and are both taken to his plantation to work. Regine (Grier) is purchased by Maxwell as well and is taken to the plantation for his own personal desires as a bedwench. He also purchases a white whore Augusta Chauvel (Lewis) to be his housekeeper/fiance.

Maxwells plantation is a stud farm he doesn't grow cotton he breeds slaves. The film is a hoot. Maxwell's got an out of control daughter Sophie (Smith) with raging hormones who likes to run around the "farm" making the male slaves let her unbutton their breeches and play with their snakes. Sophie also tries to force Blaise to sleep with her, and after being rejected, tells her father that Blaise has raped her. Blaise is put in chains and Maxwell decides that he must be nutted for the alleged rape. Blaise is chained up in the barn and while helpless Sophie comes in lifts her hoop skirts and flashes Blaise, but Maxwell see's her do it.

Meanwhile, a dinner party has been arranged to celebrate the engagement of Maxwell and Chauvel. Casual dinner conversations includes the best way to castrate a slave.

Drum frees his friend Blaise from his chains and it all ends up turning into a slave revolt led by Blaise, with the slaves burning down the out buildings. During the storming of the main house fighting Drum grabs hold of DeMarigny's johnson & balls and rips them off by the roots, that method wasn't mentioned in the dinner conversation.  

Maxwell and Chauvel are all saved by Drum. In appreciation for saving his family and also knowing that if Drum stays the prevailing sentiment of the white slaveholders would demand that he kill him, Maxwell sets Drum free and tells him to run into the night.

A much better written and choreographed ending than somewhat similar Django Unchained, it's a better film. 9/10 The whole cast is excellent, entertaining and well made, check it out currently on Youtube while you can.

Might as well start something for Southerns

+) Buck And The Preacher (1971) similar theme

El Cimarron (2007)

+) Free State of Jones (2016)

+) Queimada aka Burn! (1969)

Cobra Verde (1987) May fit in here too

+) Django Unchained (2013)

+) Drum (1976)

 Legend of Nigger Charley (The)   (1972)

Mandingo (1975)

+) Skin Game (1971) This one got all the right elements also

Watching it again now on TCM on demand, great visuals.

[The Shooting]

I've always preferred Monte Hellman's "The Shooting" which is an underrated cinematic masterpiece, but this is nonetheless a great flick too albeit not on the same exalted echelon.

I'll have to give The Shooting a second go round I saw a terrible copy.

Finally was able to catch up with this film today, enjoyed it. I bought the cast, a mix of new and up and coming new talent and some old hands. I like Richard Boone, but there's not a whole lot of his Western films that I can point to and admire. The Tall T, The Alamo, Rio Conchos, Hombre, and now this one. I'll go a 7/10, some great Western landscapes also.

[The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe]

R.I.P Jean Rochefort (1930-2017) I remember him from The Tall Blond Man with One Black Shoe and Who Is Killing the Great Chefs of Europe? and others.

[Paula Parkins (Moorhead)]

Like Jail Bait (1954) This film fits the JD exploitation, "C-Z" Noirs popular with the Beach/Surfer/Horror/SiFi movie demographic of the late 50s early 60s.

Directed by William Morgan, written by Ed Wood, and cinematography by William C. Thompson. Music by Manuel Francisco

The film stars Jean Moorhead as Paula Parkins, Barbara Weeks as Jane Parkins, Arthur Millan as Carl Parkins, Theresa Hancock as Georgia, Glen Corbett as Barney Stetson, Joanne Cangi as Geraldine, Gloria Farr as Phyllis, Lee Constant as Sheila, I. Stanford Jolley as Judge Clara, Timothy Farrell as Lt. Holmes.
F. Chan McClure as Det. Artman, Bruno Metsa as Manny, and Harry Keaton as the Doctor.

Paula Parkins (Moorhead) rich brat. A female Eddie Haskell. Devious daughter of newspaper editor father and a high profile blueblood mother. As soon as mater leaves for some charity event Paula is on the phone organizing her posse, her bullet bra wearing girl gang, Georgia (Hancock), Geraldine (Cangi), and Phyllis (Farr).


Paula Parkins (Moorhead)

For kicks the gang knocks over filling stations. The gang's M.O. is driving up to a full service gas station in an very conspicuous black four door 1954 Caddy series 62 sedan, pulling a gat on the attendant and emptying the cash drawer.





For more thrills they also terrorize a lovers' lane couple smooching in a 1955 Ford Fairlane Sunliner convertible. They take all their jewelry and money. They strip the woman of her cashmere sweater. Tie her up with her own ripped up in strips skirt and toss her partially clothed in a slip in the back seat of her convertible.









For the almost back seat romeo they have other ideas. They pull him off into the woods and begin to remove his clothing. We cut to a shot of a leering Paula taking off her sweater. The film cuts away, after all it's 1956. We find out through a newspaper headline that they "assaulted" the unfortunate guy. The fact that later Paula has "a bun in the oven" leaves no doubt that the gals played hide the sausage, probably some facesitting and, thanks to the MPPC, anything your wildest imagination can come up with, with him.




Paula getting ready to ride the baloney pony

Paula finds out from her father, after she feigns innocent curiosity, that the cops are going to stakeout all gas stations that stay open after 10PM with a cop disguised as a gas jockey or mechanic. So Paula tells her crew that filling stations are out.

The gals have an enabler Sheila (Constant) a female fence, who tells the girls that there is a group of people interested in having the girls knock over a school. A what? WTF? This is never explained, probably a commie plot, but it doesn't really matter because if you are still watching at this point you're sticking it through for the outrageous ridiculousness of it all.  A watchman spots the gals breaking in.  While the gals are horrendously trashing a classroom, lol, i.e. ripping the blotter on a desk, erasing tomorrows lesson from the blackboard, throwing a globe through a window, the cops show up driving their 1956 Ford Mainlines, and the girls start immediately shooting. A cop and two of the girls Phyllis and Geraldine are killed, but Paula and Georgia get away driving the Caddy through a hail of bullets.

Detective: These aren't kids. These are morons!


Lt. Holmes (Farrell) far left




 


The film ends with a long moralizing monologue by the judge to Paula's parents, who sentences their grandchild, Paula's illegitimate daughter (yes Paula dies in childbirth) to life in a state institution rather than let them adopt her.

Again, this film is another example of Classic Noir unraveling. Crime stories were syphoning off to TV.  Major Studio B production stopped, and as the Motion Picture Production Code weakened, independent poverty row and low budget film creators were taking more artistic liberties. So those Film Noir that went too far over the line depicting violence started getting classified as Horror, Thriller (even though they were just say, showing the effects of a gunshot wound, or dealing with weird serial killers, maniacs, and psychotics, etc.). Those that went too far depicting sexual, drug, torture, juvenile delinquency, etc., storylines and situations were being lumped into or classed as various Exploitation flicks, (even though they are relatively tame comparably to today's films). The the noir-ish films that dealt with everything else, except Crime, concerning the human condition were labeled Dramas and Suspense. Those that tried new techniques, lenses, etc., were labeled Experimental. Some films are so so bad in all aspects that they acquire the "so bad it's good" Cult status.

The Violent Years is an interesting example of a film that's achieved cult status as an Exploitation Juvie Noir, 6/10. Screencaps are from a Youtube stream.

Thanks again, D & D for uploading.

I've been trying to track this movie down for a while. I didn't know about the two different versions. It doesn't look as if they're out on DVD. Does anyone know if there is a restored version around?

I looked but never found one.

IMDb list is now totally irrelevant, too much fanboy manipulation voting their favorites with 10s and all others with 1s en masse it was first mentioned by posters when Batman shot inexplicably up and was repeated with other blockbusters.

Rififi is considered a Noir

[The Shooting]

Just watched the Criterion version on TCM the host called it an Acid Western sub genre. I give it a 7/10. Lump it in with The Shooting (1966), El Topo (1971), McCabe & Mrs Miller (1971), The Hired Hand (1971), Kid Blue (1973) Rancho Deluxe (1975), all the way to China 9, Liberty 37 (1978) and you could call Jim Jarmusch's 1996's film Dead Man a modern outlier.




Mad Dog Morgan (1976) never seen it but it may fit too.

Anybody name any others.

Renegade (Blueberry) (2004) is another I just thought of

[Ride in the Whirlwind]

Ride in the Whirlwind, first viewing, can't believe I'd never caught this before, I did see Hellman's The Shooting which I didn't think much of it so I probably shied away from seeking this out. It's way better with some decent cinematography. 7/10

If I recall correctly, my package was 50 euros. No grave.

You may get the T shirt also.

[Boomerang!]

Boomerang! (1947): After the murder of a well-loved priest, Arthur Kennedy is arrested, identified by several witnesses and after a tiring interrogation session by Lee J. Cobb and Karl Malden he confesses. But state's attorney Dana Andrews finds holes everywhere and doesn't want to prosecute, despite pressure from all sides to get a conviction. Good docu-noir/courtroom drama that I enjoyed more on this rewatch than the first time I watched it, it's more subtle and infused with dark humor than I remembered. 7+/10

Watched it on the UK blu-ray this time, which also has an hour-long documentary on Elia Kazan that I hope to indulge in soon.

I rate it around 7 also.

I didn’t get the grave; maybe people who got the grave don’t get the poster.

I think you get everything successively, the lowest contribution gets the first thing, the next tier gets that and something else, and so on and so forth, at least that is how I understood it.