Carnival of Souls (1962)

Talk about spooky! This low-budget black-and-white movie from 1962 is just that. It's not really a horror film, but more of a good old-fashioned 'scary' movie. Candace Hilligoss plays Mary Henry, a church organist that is riding with two women in a car and they accept a challenge to race across an old wooden bridge. They crash over the bridge into the water below, and three hours later (think about it) Mary Henry comes up from the water. She continues on to a new town to start her new organist job, but keeps feeling as if she is being stalked by a Ghoul Man (played by Herk Harvey, the writer and director of this great cult movie). Mary seems to have no friends, no family and just seems cut off from the rest of the world. My kind of gal! She moves into a boarding house, run by an old lady with bad nerves. Too bad Xanax wasn't around then. Her lecherous neighbor (Sidney Berger) has the hots for her, but Mary is too caught up in being stalked by the Ghoul Man to give him a tumble. Mary's condition worsens, and a few times she senses that other people can't see or hear her. She is drawn to an abandoned pavilion, and can't seem to understand why. I so want to reveal the ending, but I won't. I will say you probably won't see it coming, although there are clues to it throughout the movie. This was filmed in Kansas for a reported budget of about $30,000 and made millions on the drive-in circuit over the years. It's become one of my favorite cult movies, watch it and it just might become one of yours.

All That Heaven Allows (1955)

I can't believe that in all my years of being a movie fanatic, I've not watched this movie until now. This 1955 Technicolor masterpiece by Douglas Sirk is just the type of movie I love. Jane Wyman plays Cary Scott, a wealthy widow who is more lonely than she wants to admit. She has plenty of money, her country club social life, two grown children and a somewhat steady beau named Harvey. She becomes friends with her younger gardener, Ron Kirby (Rock Hudson). She finds herself falling in love with him, even though she knows the opposition she will face from her children and her snobby friends. She agrees to marry him, but when she tells her children they at first assume she's going to marry Harvey. They are very upset with her, and things go downhill from there. Cary tries to introduce Ron to her society friends, with a bad result. She accuses him of refusing to see her side, and they part ways. Cary begins to realize that she has made a mistake, especially after her children both leave home. Her daughter gets married, and her son goes to study in Paris for a year. She visits her doctor complaining of headaches, and he tells her she is punishing herself and advises her to marry Ron. She goes to see him, but leaves before talking to him. Ron falls off a cliff (okay, not a large one) but after finding out he is hurt, she rushes to his side, never to leave again.
Jane Wyman and Rock Hudson show in this movie that they were much more than actors, they were Movie Stars. I can only imagine what it would be like to see this great film on the big screen. I loved this movie. The Technicolor photography is crisp and the colors bright. The acting is great, Jane Wyman showing what a terrific actress she was, and Rock Hudson is really good as a man who is happy with himself, and doesn't care about money or social standing. I couldn't find anything I didn't like about this movie, it was that good. Even the fake snow looked real, ha ha. Agnes Moorehead plays Cary's best friend Sara, and although she is skeptical of Cary's relationship with Ron, she sees that her friend is truly in love. This movie is a thousand times better than most of the shit that is shown today in theaters. This is the kind of movie I will definitely watch again and again. Ah, Technicolor, you make me so happy!

Single Room Furnished (1968)

Single Room Furnished is Jayne Mansfield's last film, and to me it's her best acting. True, this a very low-budget movie, but it's not as bad as most critics say. Jayne plays three roles that are actually the same woman. The first is Johnnie, a young girl who meets Frankie at a high-school dance and soon marries him. They live in a run-down apartment building in the Bronx, the single room furnished of the title. One day Johnnie awakens to find Frankie gone, and she never sees him again. Johnnie colors her blond hair dark and assumes the identity of Mae, who becomes pregnant by a man she meets at her waitressing job. He abandons her, and her life becomes worse. In the last segment, she is Eileen, a prostitute. She returns to her single room furnished to find Billy there. He declares his love for her and wants to marry her. He is a sailor and has run away from his ship, stealing several things as he leaves. He buys Eileen a ring, and Eileen is caught up in her fantasy of her old love. She soon begins laughing at Billy, calling him 'monkey', the childhood nickname he hated. Eileen appears to be on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and continues laughing at Billy until he shoots himself. All of these stories are told by Pop, the caretaker at the apartment building. He tells Maria, a young girl who wants to be just like Eileen, the true story of Johnnie, Mae and Eileen, and Maria realizes Eileen is someone to be pitied, not admired. While there are a lot of scenes that drag and some seem to be added to fill out the length of the movie (Jayne died in a car crash during filming, perhaps that's why) this is still a very watchable movie that shows that Jayne Mansfield did have a good bit of acting ability. It's a shame that she never got to show more of it.

Title to Murder (2002)

I so wanted to like this movie. It stars former Brady Bunch star Maureen McCormick as Leah Farrell, a bored middle-aged title examiner in Massachusetts who stumbles onto to a murder involving some land, organized crime and an elderly lady. I always thought Maureen McCormick was a better actress than she was given credit for, but I don't think this movie helped her career any. This is truly one of the worst movies I have ever seen. But it's not her acting that is bad - quite the contrary, she's the best thing in a horrible film. It's (as usual) the script. Even Stephen Furst's (of National Lampoon's Animal House) direction is not to blame, he too makes the most out of an atrocious script. Co-starring Christopher Atkins as a deputy DA who helps Leah with her investigation into the murder, this could have been a good Lifetime-type movie. I will say that the lighting in most of the scenes reminded me or a porno movie, or a home movie at best. It's that bad. The total budget for this clunker couldn't have been much. There are several strange characters that do absolutely nothing for the plot (Leah's grandmother's bingo buddies are especially irritating) and while things pick up a bit at the ending, by then it's way too little, too late. Please someone in Hollywood, give Maureen McCormick a script worthy of her so she won't have to act in any more pieces of shit like this. She deserves better, and so do we.