castle – Page 2 – Derek Winnert

The Assassination Bureau *** (1969, Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Curd Jürgens, Philippe Noiret, Warren Mitchell, Clive Revill, Beryl Reid, Kenneth Griffith, Jess Conrad) – Classic Movie Review 8167

Director Basil Dearden’s 1968 British movie The Assassination Bureau stars Diana Rigg as English newswoman Sonya Winter, who sets out to expose a Russian criminal Ivan Dragomiloff (Oliver Reed)’s globetrotting band of terminators by romancing him to infiltrate the gang. Sonya (Rigg) then pays Ivan (Reed) a fortune to get his gang to kill him,… Continue reading The Assassination Bureau *** (1969, Oliver Reed, Diana Rigg, Telly Savalas, Curd Jürgens, Philippe Noiret, Warren Mitchell, Clive Revill, Beryl Reid, Kenneth Griffith, Jess Conrad) – Classic Movie Review 8167

Director Antonio Margheriti’s 1963 La Vergine de Norimberga [Horror Castle] [The Castle of Terror] is another clunky but atmospheric horror outing from Christopher Lee’s days in Italy, in which Lee stars as Erich, a badly scarred caretaker of The Nuremberg Castle of Terror. There a young couple (Rossana Podestà, Georges Rivière) on their honeymoon makes… Continue reading La Vergine de Norimberga [Horror Castle] [The Castle of Terror] ** (1963, Rossana Podestà, Georges Rivière, Christopher Lee) – Classic Movie Review 8010

Gianna Maria Canale stars in director Luigi Capuano’s tolerably entertaining 1962 dubbed Italian feminist swashbuckling adventure movie Tiger of the Seven Seas [La Tigre dei Sette Mare] as Consuelo, a pirate captain’s daughter who inherits the command of the pirate ship Santa Maria (‘why shouldn’t a woman become captain?’) After her lover William Scott (Anthony… Continue reading Tiger of the Seven Seas [La Tigre dei Sette Mare] ** (1962, Gianna Maria Canale, Anthony Steel, Maria Grazia Spina, Andrea Aureli, Carlo Ninchi, John Kitzmiller) – Classic Movie Review 7964

Director Mario Bava’s visually stylish, sadomasochistic themed 1963 Gothic horror La Frusta e il Corpo [The Whip and the Body] [Night Is the Phantom] is set in an isolated castle on the Eastern European coast and stars Christopher Lee as Kurt Menliff, who is ostracised by his father for his relationship with a servant girl and her suicide. Kurt returns to reclaim his… Continue reading La Frusta e il Corpo [The Whip and the Body] [Night Is the Phantom] **** (1963, Daliah Lavi, Christopher Lee, Tony Kendall) – 2018 Classic Movie Review 7824

Writer-director Hayao Miyazaki’s dazzlingly brilliant Japanese anime love story animation Howl’s Moving Castle [Hauru no ugoku shiro] is based on the novel by Diana Wynne Jones ((credited as Daiana Win Jônzu). It is a Studio Ghibli masterpiece. In the delightful and charming story, a spiteful witch curses the 18-year-old heroine named Sofi (voice of Chieko Baishô) with… Continue reading Howl’s Moving Castle [Hauru no ugoku shiro] ***** (2004, voices of Chieko Baishô, Takuya Kimura, Tatsuya Gashûin) – Classic Movie Review 7423

Robert Donat, Eugene Palette, Jean Parker and Elsa Lanchester all shine brightly in writer-director René Clair’s now creaky seeming but still deliciously enjoyable 1935 fanciful fantasy comedy The Ghost Goes West, with more charm and high spirits than actual laughs. Palette stars as a rich American businessman who purchases a Scottish castle stately home from an… Continue reading The Ghost Goes West **** (1935, Robert Donat, Eugene Palette, Jean Parker, Elsa Lanchester) – Classic Movie Review 7190

Sir Simon de Canterville: ‘Excuse me, I really must gibber at the oriole window.’ Director Jules Dassin’s 1943 fantasy comedy is freely based on the delightful Oscar Wilde story and is full of lighthearted whimsy and gentle humour. Charles Laughton has great fun and is very funny as Sir Simon de Canterville, an easily scared… Continue reading The Canterville Ghost **** (1944, Charles Laughton, Robert Young, Margaret O’Brien) – Classic Movie Review 6845