Film Detour

In 1971, the masterful director Monte Hellman headed out onto Route 66 with a script by Rudy Wurlitzer, a 55 Chevy, a Driver, a Mechanic, a Girl, an "Orbit Orange" Pontiac GTO and created a masterpiece. Join us for this completely unique film that only Monte Hellman could deliver. No race car driving or mechanic experience needed.

Don Seigel was a classic director. He learned his craft and honed his skills in the Hollywood studio system. He could handle any genre, subject, or budget that was handed to him. A master of pacing and timing, his undeniable stamp is on every picture he ever made. His partnership with Clint Eastwood in the 1970's stands as a high watermark for both of their careers. So pour yourself your favorite drink, grab some popcorn & pull up a comfortable chair and join us as we examine the remarkable career of Don Seigel, with a special emphasis on one of his finest: Dirty Harry.

'Tis the season to be SCARY. And what better way to send Shivers down your spine than with this Cronenbergian creation. (Nobody delves deeper into your psyche than Ol' Dave.) So, get yourself settled in, turn out all the lights and join us for our 4th Annual HALLOWEEN SHOW! "SHIVERS." Starring the unnervingly sexy Barbara Steele. "Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the tub!"

Movies are deeply connected to our moods. There's the cerebral Bergman mood, the artful Truffaut mood, the classic Hitchcock mood and a work of genius by Kurosawa mood. Then there're these babies. Come along with us while we dig deep for the really Good out of The Bad & The Ugly in an episode we call "Trouble Man and Other Guilty Pleasures". Cheap beer and junky snacks that are bad for ya recommended!

In 1975 William Friedkin went into the jungle with a film crew, an international cast, two trucks and an arsonist from Queens and came out with a masterpiece. A cinematic banquet for the eyes, the ears and the mind. So gas up your truck, grab some popcorn, a couple of cervezas, and a machete and join us for Sorcerer. Starring Roy Scheider, Bruno Cremer, Francisco Rabal and Amidiou. Music by Tangerine Dream.

Robert Wise was a Hollywood shapeshifter. His ability to move seamlessly from one genre to another, and another, and another is unparalleled. In this installment we discuss Mr. Wise's incredible career, with a focus on his 1949 Film Noir masterpiece The Set-Up. Featuring: Feast for the eyes visuals, crackling dialog and wonderful performances, all wrapped up in a beautiful, "real time", 73 minute package. Starring Robert Ryan & Audrey Totter. Pour yourself a Scotch, pop yourself some popcorn and join us! (Boxing gloves optional)

What do you get when you mix a small time thief with a high priced dominatrix? Well, not exactly Casablanca, but a classic movie love story nonetheless. With a little S&M thrown in for good measure. Hey, a girl's gotta make a living somehow, doesn't she? Join us for Barbet Schroeder's provocative film MAITRESSE. Starring Gerard Depardieu & Bulle Ogier.

And the EYES have it!!! X:THE MAN WITH THE X-RAY EYES is this year’s offering for our annual Halloween Show!! A mini classic directed by Roger Corman and Starring Ray Milland. So, grab your X-Ray Spex & some witches brew and join us! You ain’t seen nuthin’ like this one!!

Before you see Marty's longest movie check out his shortest. A 42 minute classic New York Story, written and directed by a couple of real New Yorkers (Scorsese & Richard Price). Join us for (Episode 20) "Life Lessons" starring Nick Nolte & Rosanna Arquette. It sounds as good as it looks!!

And if you just can't get enough of Vampires for this Halloween, here's our picks of some other Vampire flix. Dig in!

Las Vegas, 1971. There have been four mysterious, unsolved murders of young women. A maniac on the loose? Horror writer extraordinaire Richard Matheson spins a tale sure to make you believe in the impossible and send a chill down your spine while he's at it. Join us for The Night Stalker. Starring Darren McGavin, Simon Oakland, Carol Lynley, Claude Akins & Ralph Meeker. You'll wanna have your crucifix, mallet & wooden stake close at hand for this one.

Terror comes in many faces. Join us for Jack Clayton's ghostly masterpiece "The Innocents". Written By Truman Capote & Starring Deborah Kerr, Peter Wyngarde, Pamela Franklin and the unbelievable creepy Martin Stephens. Leave the light on, it's OK. 

Terrence Malick was born to direct movies. In 1973, with the aid of a young Martin Sheen and a young Sissy Spacek he created his first masterpiece, Badlands. A film that is collectively poetic, horrifying, majestic, funny and breathtaking. Join us for this amazing film.   

"There are 8 million stories in the Naked City". And in Matt Scudder's world there are 8 Million Ways To Die. Join us for Hal Ashby's L.A. crime classic, starring Jeff Bridges, Andy Garcia, Rosanna Arquette, Randy Brooks & Alexandra Paul.

You all know Anthony Perkins in Psycho and Tippi Hedren in The Birds, but what do you know about Uncle Charlie? Join us for Episode 15, Shadow of A Doubt. A Hitchcock classic! Starring: Joseph Cotton,Teresa Wright, Henry Travers, Patricia Collinge and Hume Cronin. Listen in and we'll fill ya in on "the man in the shadows". 

Filmmaker David Cronenberg takes the fantastic & impossible and makes it into living, breathing "flesh" in VIDEODROME. Starring James Woods and Debra Harry. With mind blowing effects by Rick Baker and music by Howard Shore. Long live the new flesh!!

Eddie Coyle is a small time operator who's going to be moving into the "Big House"  if he can't make some kinda deal fast. But, as the old saying goes "you know who your friends are on moving day". Join us for The Friends of Eddie Coyle. Starring Robert Mitchum, Peter Boyle, Richard Jordan, Alex Rocco, Joe Santos and Steven Keats. Directed by Peter Yates. Remember to watch your back!

The coolest of the cool, Steve McQueen stars in the high octane, crime drama The Getaway. Directed by the notorious Sam Peckinpah and co-starring the impossibly beautiful (and gun toting!) Ali MacGraw. Featuring: Ben Johnson, Al Lettieri, Bo Hopkins, Sally Struthers, Slim Pickens, Richard Bright and Dub Taylor. Screenplay by By Walter Hill, Photographed by Lucien Ballard and Music by Quincy Jones!!! Too good to be true? It ain't. Tune in & we'll fill ya in.

Albert Brooks takes love to sweepingly new neurotic heights!! And takes us, as well, behind the scenes of that beautiful sausage factory called Hollywood. In his triple threat (writer, director & actor) piece of cinematic comedy brilliance, Modern Romance. Also starring Kathryn Harrold, James L. Brooks, Bruno Kirby and George Kennedy "as himself". Join us for some laughs. After all, these days who doesn't need some laughs.

Martin Scorsese carved out his early career with films like Mean Streets and Taxi Driver. Gut punch & harrowing films. But, sandwiched between those two landmark films is a lost Scorsese classic. A story of a woman desperately trying to carve out a life for herself and her teenage son. "Directed with wit, sensitivity and intelligence... A gem!" said one critic. Proving the point that Mr. Scorsese ain't no "one trick pony". Join us for Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, starring Academy Award Winner Ellen Burstyn, Kris Kristofferson, Diane Ladd, Harvey Keitel & Jodie Foster.

Blaxploitation was a staple of the 1970's, and like all genres there are good ones (see Film Detour Episode 2) and bad ones. John Huston once said "We can make 'em BAD too, if that's what they want". Gordon Parks Jr. answered that clarion call with "Three The Hard Way", starring Jim Brown, Fred "The Hammer" Williamson & Fred Kelly. Join us, it'll make ya smile.

Warren Oates is one the great screen actors of all time. He's easily as good as Brando, De Niro or Daniel Day Lewis. In this episode of Film Detour he leads a disparate party through the Utah Desert. Captured spectacularly by cinematographer Gregory Sandor, masterfully directed by Monte Hellman, co-starring the nastiest Jack Nicholson this side of the Pecos, an equally surly Millie Perkins (and we thought she was so nice) and the very quirky Will Hutchins. So join us for Part II of director Monte Hellman's revisionist Western double feature, The Shooting. Make sure you pack a canteen full of water and your six gun. You're gonna need 'em.

Take Dustin Hoffman in his 1970's prime, mix him with some nitro glycerin (stir gently) and you've got Max Dembo, in the classic crime drama Straight Time. Brilliantly directed by Ulu Grosbard, this movie set the gold standard for all heist movies to follow. In it Hoffman delivers his most explosive performance ever as an ex-con trying to go straight. It also stars the great Harry Dean Stanton at his naturalistic best. And if that's not enough it includes, a very young Gary Busey, a very young Theresa Russell and a very young Cathy Bates. What else do you need? Grab your stop watch, shotgun, heavy gloves, hammer & goggles and get ready to grab some cash & jewelry! It's there for the taking.

Ride In The Whirlwind Monte Hellman is the great unsung hero of filmmaking in the 1970's. A highly skilled writer, director, editor and photographer, a true Renaissance man. He created beautifully unconventional films in his unique and uncompromising style. In this two part series we will focus on two "revisionist" Westerns he made with Jack Nicholson (RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND & THE SHOOTING), that also star the legendary Warren Oates & Harry Dean Stanton and the beautiful & talented Millie Perkins. So pack your grub & saddle up with us for part one: RIDE IN THE WHIRLWIND. You'll be glad you rode along.

Here's an idea. Take James Bond (Sean Connery fresh out of his 007 tux), strip him down to almost naked, give him really long hair tied up in a braid, a sorta Village People handlebar mustache, red bandoliers crisscrossing his bare, hairy chest, a red jockstrap kinda thing to cover his privates, thigh high leather (Jane Fonda as Barbarella type) boots and have him running around like that for an entire movie. Preposterous you say? It might be if it wasn't written & directed by master filmmaker John Boorman and co-starring the beautiful and very intense Charlotte Rampling . Take a leap of faith. Join us for the amazingly trippy, upside down world of ZARDOZ.

How many hard boiled detectives do you know who'd go out at three o'clock in the morning to buy their kitty its favorite brand of cat food? Only one. Philip Marlowe, played oh so languidly by Elliot Gould, in The Long Goodbye. Expect the unexpected when veteran director Robert Altman brings Raymond Chandler's classic 1940's detective into the modern day (well, 1973 anyway). With brilliant performances by Sterling Hayden, Mark Rydell, & and (**spoiler alert**) a young Arnold Schwarzenegger sporting a really cheesy mustache! Screenplay by legendary writer Leigh Bracket and photographed by Academy Award winner Vilmos Zsigmond. Hey, what the heck else do you want? Join us! (Cocktails optional).

When you were young what frightened you? Clowns? Your old crone first grade teacher? The thing under the bed? Being abducted by a coven of witches and sacrificed to Satan on a stone alter? Yes, obviously it was the latter.  So travel along with us to Whitewood. We'll be staying at the Raven's Inn (AKA Horror Hotel).Christoper Lee will be waiting to check you in! It's The HALLOWEEN Show!! Grab some popcorn, a bag-o-candy & your crucifix and tune in for some thrills, chills and maybe even a few laughs. Remember: "Tricks or Treats come only once a year!"

In this corner, the "black private dick, that's a sex machine to all the chicks", SHAFT!!! In the opposite corner, the "hard to understand, what a hell-of-a man", SUPERFLY!! John Knapich and Bob Muller discuss Blaxploitation in this 1970's SHOWDOWN!   Two films, Two directors. Father pitted against Son, in an ALL OUT battle!! WHO will emerge VICTORIOUS?!!

The French Connection II: Yes, that's right two. Popeye Doyle travels to Paris to find "Frog One" and he'll stop at nothing this time to nail him for good. Gene Hackman is brilliant once again, as Doyle, in this tight, tense, action packed crime drama directed by John Frankenheimer. Look out Paris, Popeye's in town! "Est - ce que tu t'es gratté les pieds à Poughkeepsie?" Please subscribe to our show!