On its own, GALE FORCE is a reasonably competent if somewhat technically negligent (the budget was just over $1 million) action movie that's fun to watch for its familiar cast of pros.  The best reason to watch may be to play a game:  can you identify which films were pilfered for stock footage?  In addition to LAST ACTION HERO, you might spot clips from PREDATOR, BAT 21, ANACONDA and even THE LOVE BOAT!  It's actually pretty ingenious how Wynorski and writer Steve Latshaw have pieced together the outside footage, although it doesn't always make sense (you'll be surprised to know that Treat Williams can drive his car on two wheels without the aid of a ramp--all he has to do is lean to his left!).  You'll love the ludicrous "TV control room" set, and probably be surprised to learn that a top-rated network reality series is crewed only by an executive producer, a female production assistant and a meteorologist!

Williams, who struck the right note of whimsical charm and action hero chops in the fun monster romp DEEP RISING, does a nice job under tight circumstances here, and a puffy Dudikoff is steady enough as the bad guy.  The rest of the cast doesn't really have a lot to do, but I enjoyed seeing Marcia Strassman (WELCOME BACK, KOTTER), Curtis "Booger" Armstrong (REVENGE OF THE NERDS), Cliff DeYoung (F/X), Susan Walters ("Mulva" from SEINFELD) and the great Tim Thomerson (TRANCERS) talking smack (and stealing scenes--watch him in the buffet scene) as a grizzled 'Nam vet.  Wynorski (Jay Andrews) and Latshaw (as Patricia McKiou) took pseudonymous credits not because they're unhappy with the film, but because they make so damned many of them.  Producer Fred Olen Ray is billed as "Hugh Janis", and directed a Thomerson fight scene using Mac Ahlberg (RE-ANIMATOR) as his cinematographer in just two hours.   A fun rental.  Partially filmed in the L.A. County Arboretum.

GALLERY OF HORRORS (1967)--Directed by David L. Hewitt.  Stars John Carradine, Lon Chaney Jr.  Russ Jones, the first editor of Warren Publishing’s landmark CREEPY black-and-white comic magazine, wrote stories for this cheesy anthology feature.  It was made extremely cheaply with sets and performances that resemble a student film--a junior-high-school student film.  You can see the Warren and EC influence in the Gothic settings and twist endings, but the movie is so dull and incompetent that no one will be either shocked or surprised.  Carradine introduces all five segments with long-winded introductions that were written merely to stretch the running time to feature length.  Many of the actors appear in more than one story, but the big names--Carradine and Chaney--star in just one each.  Chaney is miscast as a scientist who tampers with Dr. Frankenstein’s old experiments and brings a convicted murderer back to life.  Carradine stars in the opener, “The Witch’s Clock,” about newlyweds who move into a castle and discover a cursed grandfather clock.  Production values are next to nil, and Hewitt directs by putting the camera on a tripod and letting it roll for four or five minutes.  Stock shots are taken from Roger Corman’s Edgar Allan Poe thrillers for AIP.  Also with Roger Gentry, Karen Joy, Vic McGee, Rochelle Hudson and Ron Doyle.  Also seen as DR. TERROR’S GALLERY OF HORRORS with Carradine as “Dr. Terror,” I guess.

GALYON (1978)--Directed by Ivan Tors. Stars Stan Brock, Lloyd Nolan, Ina Balin, Ron Hayes. One of the most tedious experiences of my life. Former WILD KINGDOM costar Brock stars as Galyon, an animal-loving mercenary hired by an oil magnate (Nolan, whose scenes appear to have been shot in one day on a single set) to rescue his daughter and son-in-law, who have been kidnapped by Venezuelan revolutionaries. Most of the running time consists of travelogue scenes of Brock rowing, walking and riding across South America intercut with WILD KINGDOM-type footage of animals in their natural habitat. However interesting this may be to wildlife lovers, it is not exciting, and certainly doesn't belong in an action-adventure film. Brock, who also wrote what consists of the screenplay, throws in some social commentary ripping the oil companies, but this movie is far too inept to be taken seriously. The action scenes look like they were staged by eleven-year-olds playacting old BATMAN fight scenes in the backyard, and Brock shows less charisma than the anaconda he wrestles with during the film. Directed by the creator of SEA HUNT, FLIPPER and DAKTARI.

THE GAMBLER (1974)--Directed by Karel Reisz. Stars James Caan, Lauren Hutton, Paul Sorvino, Burt Young, Jacqueline Brookes. Excellent character study of an ordinary English professor (Caan) who is also an addictive gambler with a $44,000 debt to the mob. His rich mother (Brookes) gives Caan the money, yet he can't resist using it to place another bet. One strong scene has Caan sitting in a bathtub listening to a basketball game on which he has bet a "sure thing". Powerful performance by Caan. From the director of WHOLL STOP THE RAIN.

GAMBLERS (1958)—Directed by Don Medford.  Stars Charles Bickford.  No roulette wheels or race horses to be seen here.  This CBS anthology series would have focused on individuals who gamble their lives.  In the pilot, “Action”, noted character actor Bickford stars as Christopher Bell, a man “not born, but quarried,” a well-known mountain climber who risks his neck to scale a treacherous peak, despite his recent recovery from a stroke.  It’s an inspirational tale of guts and endurance, but not a particularly thrilling one.  Watching someone climb a big rock for a half-hour is not gripping, even though Medford and producer Gil Ralston hope a third-act rescue will get some hearts pumping.  It really doesn’t, though narrator Ted Pehrson tries his best to get us to care.  At least they shot some footage on location in the Colorado Rockies.  Also with Philip Abbott, Kathleen Maguire and Lilia Skala.

THE GAME (1997)--Directed by David Fincher. Stars Michael Douglas, Sean Penn, Deborah Kara Unger, James Rebhorn. A complex plot and a sympathetic performance by Douglas propel this Kafkaesque chase story. Douglas plays San Francisco billionaire Nicholas Van Orton, a cold, emotionless man estranged from family and friends after his fathers suicide years earlier. His brother Penn shows up on Douglas's birthday with a present--a game. The rules are unknown; the object is unknown. Soon Douglas finds himself framed for murder, broke and on the run, as he attempts to discover whether or not the Game is real, and if there's anybody--even his brother--who can be trusted. Fincher's haunting movie is slightly betrayed by the cop-out ending. Creepy score by Howard Shore.

GAME OF DEATH (1979)--Directed by Robert Clouse. Stars Bruce Lee (kind of), Hugh O'Brien, Colleen Camp, Dean Jagger. Ridiculous martial-arts film was released six years after Lee's death, and was put together by blending pieces of existing footage of the real Lee and scenes using a double. The double looks nothing like Lee, and some scenes were done with the double wearing a cardboard mask of Lee! The best scene is a fight between the real Bruce Lee and basketball star Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. The Lee-Chuck Norris battle from RETURN OF THE DRAGON is recycled here too. From the director of ENTER THE DRAGON.

GAME SHOW MODELS--See THE HOLLYWOOD GAME.

GANG WAR (1958)—Directed by Gene Fowler Jr.  Stars Charles Bronson, John Doucette, Gloria Henry, Kent Taylor.  This Regal production released by 20th Century Fox is interesting in retrospect because of the way it anticipates Bronson’s best-remembered role in DEATH WISH, still sixteen years down the pike.  As ordinary schoolteacher Alan, Bronson witnesses a gangland slaying in a parking lot (located close to Los Angeles’ famous Capitol Records building) and reports it to the police.  Though initially reluctant, he identifies the killers, who are arrested and held with no bail on murder charges.  The cops assure Alan his identity will remain unknown to the public until he testifies at their trial, but a mole within the department leaks his name and photo to the press, as well as to mobster Maxie (Doucette), for whom the killers work.  When Maxie uses violence in order to ensure the witness’ silence, Alan decides the best defense is an effective offense, and uses his unborn child’s college fund to purchase a gun.  While the story is simple enough, Fowler and writer Louis Vittes’ approach isn’t, playing several scenes in long, unbroken takes and giving the performers more to do than just follow the plot from point to point.  Taylor is touching as an unhappy, broken-down mob lawyer, and Doucette hams it up as a rough-around-the-edges gangster looking for respectability from his civilian neighbors.  Bronson starred in Fowler’s SHOWDOWN AT BOOT HILL the same year.  Also with Barney Phillips, Jennifer Holden, Ralph Manza, Larry Gelbmann and Jack Reynolds.  Shot in widescreen Regalscope.  Music by Paul Dunlap.

GARDENS OF STONE (1987)--Directed by Francis Ford Coppola. Stars James Caan, James Earl Jones, Anjelica Huston, D.B. Sweeney, Dean Stockwell. Solid drama about the Army soldiers stationed at Arlington National Cemetery during the Vietnam War. Their duties mostly include posing in parades and other ancillary war duties. Caan is a disgruntled war veteran who would prefer a post at an infantry unit, but instead becomes an informal mentor to new recruit Sweeney. Picture seems a little rushed or unfinished; Coppola's son Roman died in a boating accident during principal photography, and it was reported that the director's heart just wasn't into filmmaking at that time.

GARGOYLES (1972)--Directed by B.W.L. Norton. Stars Cornel Wilde, Jennifer Salt, Grayson Hall, Bernie Casey, Scott Glenn. One of the most effective made-for-television horror films, GARGOYLES contains a few strikingly chilling scenes which haunted me as a kid and remain effective nearly three decades later. Anthropologist Mercer Boley (Wilde) and his sexy, halter-top-wearing daughter Diana (Salt) meet an old coot running a roadside tourist trap in the New Mexican desert. The old-timer shows them an aged, creepy-looking horned skeleton he found buried in the sand. At first Boley scoffs, proclaiming the bones to be fake, but when they are attacked and the old man is killed, Boley begins to change his tune. Later, in their rundown motel room owned by drunken Mrs. Parks (Hall), the Boleys are attacked again by man-sized lizards with beaks--gargoyles, also known in old Indian legends as minions of Satan--who retrieve all evidence of their existence and kidnap Diana on the side. The Head Gargoyle (Casey) explains that it takes hundreds of years for all of his species eggs to hatch, and when they do, they will exterminate mankind. The time for destruction is imminent; he plans to keep Diana alive, however, so she can teach him about human beings. Teaming up with a gang of dirt bikers (led by Glenn) and some inept small-town cops, Boley heads into some nearby caves to rescue his daughter.

After an intriguing setup and opening attacks, GARGOYLES does flag a bit in the middle, and the climax is too rushed. Norton is good at establishing a spooky atmosphere and exploiting the barren locations--the gargoyles' nighttime assault on the Boley's station wagon can still deliver goosebumps--while the actors wisely play it straight. Wilde is at his swashbuckling best, and Casey--unrecognizable beneath Stan Winston's remarkable makeup--projects an aura of command and evil. Although the gargoyles are obviously men in rubber green suits--some wrinkling is evident around the joints--Winston and Ellis Burman won Emmys for their work; they added quite a bit of detail to the faces and went to the trouble to individualize each gargoyle to make them stand apart. Also with William Stevens, John Gruber, Woody Chambliss and Jim Connell. Frank Keller's editing is quite sharp, and Earl Rath's cinematography captures the New Mexico region well; his use of slow-motion photography during many of the gargoyles attacks adds to the creatures strangeness.

VCI Home Video's DVD release of GARGOYLES is probably the best this '70s TV-movie will ever get. The dialogue, sound effects and score by Robert Prince have never sounded this good, and the picture was so sharp that, for the first time, I was able to spot the knee of a poorly-hidden sound man crouching in the back of the Boleys' station wagon during Cornel Wilde's close-ups! VCI also throws in fine bios of Wilde, Salt, Casey and Winston, and trailers for other VCI releases such as BLOOD AND BLACK LACE, THE BIRD WITH THE CRYSTAL PLUMAGE, GORGO and THE NIGHT VISITOR, which I haven't seen but looks quite cool.

GAS PUMP GIRLS (1979)—Directed by Joel Bender. Stars Kirsten Baker, Linda Lawrence, Sandy Johnson, Rikki Marin, Leslie King, Dave Shelley, Huntz Hall, Joe E. Ross, Mike Mazurki. Amazingly, this Cannon sex comedy has virtually the same plot as USED CARS, which came out a year later. Uncle Joe (Hall), who runs a dumpy corner gas station, is having a tough time competing with the bigger, shinier new service station across the street run by venal Mr. Friendly (Shelley). When a mild heart attack waylays Joe, his pretty niece June (Baker) organizes her sexy friends to pour themselves into tiny shirts and even tinier shorts and take over the business. While the girls, their boyfriends, and a biker gang called the Vultures use sex and disco music to entice a crowd, Friendly enlists a pair of ‘30s gangsters (vets Mazurki and Ross) and various dirty tricks to shut the competition down. The girls are cute enough, but Bender’s sluggish direction kills any momentum the mild gags may build, and the hijinks are neither wacky nor original. You may remember Baker from FRIDAY THE 13TH, PART 2, but Lawrence as the brunette Betty is the biggest knockout. Also with Steve Bond, Ken Lerner, Demetre Phillips, Dennis Bowen, and Cousin Brucie. Does anyone own the soundtrack album on Blockbuster Records? The songs by David and Isaac Blech are pretty good soft rock, and one is performed by Baker (or a voice double) as a musical number!

GATOR (1976)--Directed by Burt Reynolds.  Stars Burt Reynolds, Jack Weston, Jerry Reed, Lauren Hutton, John Steadman, Lori Futch.  Reynolds made his directing debut with a sequel to 1973’s WHITE LIGHTNING, the film that cemented his status as the premier Hollywood leading man of the 1970s.  He softens his Gator McKlusky character by giving him a crotchety old pap (Steadman) and a wiseass daughter (Futch).  An inconsistent tone and a flabby story by William Norton make the sequel decidedly inferior.  As a director, Reynolds clearly loves his actors and has an eye for interesting visuals, despite an infatuation with the zoom lens.  GATOR is a good first try, however, and his later films THE END and SHARKY’S MACHINE are much steadier.

Federal agent Irving Greenfield (Weston) recruits Gator to go undercover to expose his old school chum Bama McCall (Reed), a Southern crime boss who forces teenage girls into prostitution and burns down businesses that won’t pay him for protection.  Hal Needham (HOOPER) helped Reynolds stage the action scenes, which include an overlong but fun opening speedboat chase and a brutal fistfight between Burt and Reed.  Reed is a terrifically nasty villain, and even though his naturally cornpone charm was always welcome in his screen appearances that followed, it’s too bad he never again essayed a heavy as chilling as Bama McCall.

The casting of talk show Mike Douglas as an ambitious governor is an interesting gambit that pays off.  Unfortunately, Gator’s romance with a TV reporter (Hutton) is pure hokum.  Also with Burton Gilliam, William Engesser, Alice Ghostley, and Dub Taylor.  Charles Bernstein returns from WHITE LIGHTNING to compose the score; Reed wrote and performed the cool theme song, “Gator.”

THE GAUNTLET (1977)--Directed by Clint Eastwood. Stars Clint Eastwood, Sondra Locke, Pat Hingle, William Prince, Bill McKinney. Action tale with Eastwood as an alcoholic detective escorting a prostitute (Locke) from Las Vegas to Phoenix, while dodging assassination attempts arranged by a corrupt police commissioner (Prince). An interesting parody of Eastwood's DIRTY HARRY films. Clint's Ben Shockley is stubborn and not too bright at times in addition to being a drunk, and the action becomes more and more implausible as the film moves along. The climax finds Eastwood and Locke cruising the streets of Phoenix in an armor-covered bus while hundreds of cops fire thousands of bullets into it. Music by Jerry Fielding. Script by Michael Butler and Dennis Shryack (PALE RIDER).

THE GAY FALCON (1941)--Directed by Irving Reis.  Stars George Sanders, Wendy Barrie, Allen Jenkins, Anne Hunter, Turhan Bey, Gladys Cooper.  Sanders' patented wit and insouciant charm were tailor-made for RKO's series of mysteries based upon Michael Arlen's playboy criminologist, Gay Lawrence, also known as The Falcon.  Actually, Sanders had already portrayed a very similar character, Leslie Charteris' The Saint, in five RKO programmers, and truth be told, the two series, which often used the same directors, crew and supporting cast, are basically interchangeable.  The difference between the best Falcon movie and the worst is negligible, and you can always count on these 70-minute fillers for an entertainingly good time.

In the first entry, based on an Arlen story, the Falcon is being pressured by his long-suffering fiancé Elinor (Hunter) to give up skirt-chasing and crime-solving and settle down to a normal life in a 9-to-5 job.  That plan lasts exactly one day, until Gay is waylaid by the lovely Helen Reed (Barrie), who convinces him to solve a series of jewel robberies being committed at various upper-crust social functions being thrown by professional party giver Maxine Wood (Cooper).  While his loyal sidekick Goldie (Jenkins) finds himself on the hook for two separate murders, the Falcon plays cat-and-mouse with the cops, dodges a few bullets, makes time with the adoring Helen while Elinor flirts with the mysterious Manuel Retana (Bey), and finally solves the mystery with the aid of a few convenient clues.

A good cast, lively pace and a fine mixture of humor and thrills kicked the Falcon series off in high style.  Look for Hans Conreid as a fussy police artist.  Also with Arthur Shields, Edward Brophy and Willie Fung.  Sanders starred in two more, before handing the reigns over to his real-life brother Tom Conway in THE FALCON'S BROTHER, which introduced Conway as the "new" Falcon, Tom Lawrence.  Barrie and Jenkins both returned in the immediate followup, A DATE WITH THE FALCON, as did director Reis.  Music by Paul Sawtell.

THE GENERAL'S DAUGHTER (1999)--Directed by Simon West. Stars John Travolta, Madeleine Stowe, James Woods, James Cromwell, Timothy Hutton, Leslie Stefanson, Clarence Williams III. Travolta zips along on charisma alone as Army criminal investigator Paul Brenner, who's summoned to a steamy Georgia army base to investigate the brutal rape and strangulation of a beautiful blond captain named Elizabeth Campbell (Stefanson), daughter of the base's commanding officer and future Vice Presidential hopeful General Fighting Joe Campbell (Cromwell). The base's military police chief Bill Kent (Hutton) assigns Brenner a partner: attractive rape investigator Sarah Sunhill, an old flame of Brenner's ("We'll always have Brussels", remarks the sardonic Brenner), which give the two an opportunity to sling good-natured flirtatious barbs at each other while pursuing leads.

The screenplay (by Christopher Bertolini and polished by Hollywood vet William Goldman [BUTCH CASSIDY AND THE SUNDANCE KID], who presumably contributed the best lines) is stocked with red herrings played by an all-star cast: Woods as Campbell's jittery mentor in the Psychological Operations department, "where soldiers learn to fuck with your mind", in the words of Captain Campbell herself; Hutton, who pops up from time to time asking some nosy questions; Williams as Cromwell's fiercely loyal adjutant; another member of General Campbell's staff, Lt. Elby (Boyd Kestner); the local town's civilian police chief Yardley (Daniel Von Bargen), whose son was having an affair with the deceased; and even General Campbell himself, whose relationship with his daughter was rocky, and whose political ambitions could have been endangered by Ann's promiscuous lifestyle.

Unfortunately for those who haven't read the original novel (penned by Nelson DeMille), the plot seems a bit confusing-- Hutton's character isn't developed enough to carry the weight of his eventual role in the story, not enough emphasis is placed on the mystery's essential clues, and an early subplot dealing with Brenner's undercover investigation into an illegal arms deal should have been completely jettisoned, but was probably kept only so Paramount would have an action scene to display in the trailer. West lends a slick, sweaty sheen to the entire proceedings, but doesn't really do much more than let his talented cast sink its teeth into some juicy characters. One interrogation scene between Travolta and Woods stands out as one of the best in a long time, and the final twist, while anti-climactic and improperly telegraphed, is handled well by the actors. Carter Burwell's score stands out as one of his best, mixing some clever folk and even what sounds like Cajun sounds into the mix. Also with Peter Weireter, Mark Boone Jr., John Beasley, Rick Dial and director John Frankenheimer. From the director of CON AIR.

GENTLEMEN WITH GUNS (1946)—Directed by Sam Newfield.  Stars Buster Crabbe, Fuzzy St. John, Steve Darrell, Patricia Knox.  The agile Crabbe starred in a coupla dozen B-westerns for poverty row PRC as Billy Carson, a typical matinee cowboy who dressed more like Bronco Billy than Billy the Kid.  Crabbe’s usual sidekick was the bewhiskered St. John, who also played comic sidekick Fuzzy Q. Jones opposite Bob Steele as Billy the Kid and Lash LaRue as, uh, Lash LaRue.  The 1940s were a busy period for St. John.  Newfield and his producer brother Sigmund Neufeld (Sam changed his name) made tons of low-budget PRC programmers, most of them more memorable than this one, which is as tame as its title.  Rancher McCallister (Darrell) wants Fuzzy’s water rights, so he frames him for murder and works a deal with Fuzzy’s prospective mail-order bride (Knox) to tie the knot, so when she inherits after his hanging, she can turn over the rights.  Billy, knowing somehow that Knox is full of crap, intervenes to save both his buddy’s life and his bachelorhood.  Filmed on familiar Corriganville locations in probably four or five days, GENTLEMEN WITH GUNS is no more than amusing second-feature fare and feels padded at 53 minutes.  Also with George Chesebro, Budd Buster and Karl Hackett.

GET CARTER (1971)--Directed by Mike Hodges. Stars Michael Caine, Ian Hendry, Britt Ekland. Caine is nearly cooler than Bond as mob assassin Jack Carter, who returns to his industrial hometown of Newcastle to investigate the death of his brother Frank. Jack and his brother weren't especially close, but blood is thicker than water, and when Carter discovers that Frank may have been a victim of murder, he cuts a violent swath across Newcastle to find the men responsible, including assorted goons, mobsters and drug dealers. Carter's profession has cut him off from his filial responsibilities, which leads to guilt and fury when he discovers his niece's participation in a cheap stag flick.

Although Hodges's direction is assured and Roy Budd's catchy jazz theme goes a long way towards setting GET CARTER's gritty mood, it's difficult to imagine the film working the way it does without Michael Caine. What makes Carter so damned dangerous is that it's obvious that he doesn't care about himself anymore or anyone else; only revenge matters to him. Standout moments include his truly erotic phone sex with underwear-clad mistress Ekland, his initial racetrack encounter with old enemy Hendry, his brandishing of a shotgun at a pair of intruders while completely naked, and Carter's climactic encounter with the man he's been searching for, as we come to believe that Carter has been driven mad by his obsession. It's a riveting performance given more substance by the stark English locations and Hodges's almost documentary approach. Also with John Osborne, Tony Beckley, George Sewell, Geraldine Moffat and Bryan Mosley. Sylvester Stallone starred in a 2000 American-set remake that featured Caine in a supporting role.

GET CHRISTIE LOVE! (1974)--Directed by William A. Graham. Stars Teresa Graves, Harry Guardino, Louise Sorel, Paul Stevens. LAUGH-IN alumnus Graves became television's first black female action hero in this pilot originally aired by ABC. Christie Love (Graves), a sexy and sassy undercover detective with the Los Angeles Police Department, is assigned to investigate the mistress of drug dealer Enzo Cortino (Stevens). She trails the moll, Helena Varga (Sorel), all the way to Miami to learn the location and contents of Cortino's reported ledger--a list of names of his drug connections and shipment dates. On the side, Christie captures a psychopath who's serial-killing hookers and flirts with her much-older white boss Lt. Reardon (Guardino), whose behavior would be construed as sexual harassment today.

The pilot was a success, but the series that followed wasn't, lasting only one season. It achieved some notoriety when it was named one of the worst TV shows ever in a book, but GET CHRISTIE LOVE! really isn't any better or worse than dozens of other cop shows that popped up in a decade filled with them. While GET CHRISTIE LOVE!'s teleplay by George Kirgo (SPINOUT) and direction by William A. Graham (RETURN TO THE BLUE LAGOON) are perfunctory at best, the movie does have Graves to its credit. Funny, flashy and undeniably gorgeous, Graves may have been influenced by the success of AIP's Pam Grier pictures, but she does a nice job making Christie Love one of TV's most important characters.

Also with Ron Rifkin, Andy Romano, Rick Hurst, Titos Vandis and Lynne Holmes. Music by Jack Elliott and Allyn Ferguson. Guardino was replaced as Christie's boss first by Charles Cioffi, later by Jack Kelly (MAVERICK). Graves reportedly damaged her acting career by turning down roles with nude scenes or in films of dubious merit. She found religion and retired from performing. According to producer Fred Freiberger, she was also the original choice for the shape-shifting alien role of Maya (eventually played by Catherine Schell) in SPACE: 1999, but Graves had already gone into retreat by then.

GET MEAN (1976)—Directed by Ferdinando Baldi.  Stars Tony Anthony, Lloyd Battista, Diana Lorys.  You have to give Tony Anthony his props.  As the producer, star and occasional writer of several Italian westerns, Anthony, more than most working in the genre, wasn’t shy about thinking outside the box.  Returning to the iconic Stranger character he played in the 1960s, Anthony, who wrote the original story (co-star Battista and Wolf Lowenthal receive screenplay credit), places GET MEAN firmly in the realm of fantasy.  The bizarre plot finds the Stranger accepting a $50,000 offer to return Princess Elizabeth Maria (Lorys) to Spain, where a battle for her kingdom ensues between Moors and Vikings!  The Stranger loses the Princess to the Viking king, but negotiates his way into the warlord’s good graces with the promise of a treasure hidden in a nearby temple.  Battista, who played the main heavy opposite Anthony in BLINDMAN, is the Viking lord’s hunchbacked sidekick with a RICHARD III obsession.  GET MEAN is a strangely weird movie, even more so than THE SILENT STRANGER, which took the title character to Japan.  It’s somewhat effective, but it’s pretty clear the spaghetti western genre was on its last legs.  At least it’s about time one of these Spain-lensed pictures actually set itself in Spain.  Anthony’s next picture, COMIN’ AT YA!, was filmed in 3D and was surprisingly successful in the U.S., kicking off a shortlived 3D craze.

GET SHORTY (1995)--Directed by Barry Sonnenfeld. Stars John Travolta, Gene Hackman, Rene Russo, Danny DeVito. This comic thriller in the PULP FICTION mode features breezy characters, but a loose script. Former Sweathog Travolta stars as Chili Palmer, a collector for a Miami loan shark who, while in Los Angeles to settle a debt with a meek dry cleaner, decides to break into the film business. He joins up with B-movie maker Hackman, who has found what he believes to be the perfect script for his big break into mainstream pictures, especially since box-office superstar Martin Weir (DeVito) is interested in playing the lead role. Russo is gorgeous as Weir's ex-wife and Hackman's current sometime girlfriend. Many of the various plotlines go nowhere (one involving Cuban drug dealers is introduced and simply forgotten), and some of the violence feels out of place among the comedy, but the cast seems to be having a great time, and it shows in their performances. Based on an Elmore Leonard best seller. Also with Delroy Lindo, Dennis Farina, David Paymer, James Gandolfini and uncredited cameos by Bette Midler, Harvey Keitel and Penny Marshall. From the director of the ADDAMS FAMILY movies.

GET SMART (2008)—Directed by Peter Segal.  Stars Steve Carell, Anne Hathaway, Alan Arkin, Terence Stamp, Dwayne Johnson.  Carell (THE 40 YEAR OLD VIRGIN) is perfect casting and really the only contemporary actor who could fill the late Don Adams’ shoes as CONTROL agent Maxwell Smart.  As a fan of the GET SMART series, which ran from 1965-1970, I appreciate the effort by Segal (ANGER MANAGEMENT) and sitcom writers Tom Astle and Matt Ember to pay homage to the show, whether it’s Carell’s reenactment of its opening credit sequence or the use of Adams’ real name as an airline.  Where the film falls flat is its willingness to take the easy way out and go for lowbrow laughs, instead of the wit and political satire of the TV show.  Still, any film that reunites the stars of FREEBIE AND THE BEAN is worth a look.

Smart, an expert analyst, is given an emergency promotion to field agent when CONTROL headquarters is bombed by KAOS operative Siegfried (Stamp).  Since KAOS now knows the identities of CONTROL’s agents, the Chief (Arkin) sends Smart into the field as Agent 86.  He and beautiful Agent 99 (Hathaway), posing as man and wife, travel to Moscow to discover KAOS’ source of nuclear weapons.

Hathaway looks nice—she even somewhat resembles Barbara Feldon —but Johnson as studly Agent 23 has more chemistry with Carell than she does.  The humor lacks the absurd bite that made the sitcom so special, but GET SMART isn’t bad at mixing the laughs with espionage.  Segal is actually better at staging convincing action scenes than a lot of directors who get paid a lot to do just that.  Arkin plays a larger role in the story than Ed Platt usually did, which is a good thing, because he and Carell are funny enough to milk laughs from material than needs extra oomph.

With Bill Murray as Agent 13, David Koechner as Larrabee, Ken Davitian (BORAT) as Starker, Patrick Warburton as Hymie, and James Caan, who guest-starred in a GET SMART! two-parter, as the President.  Also with Terry Crews, Masi Oka, Nate Torrence, Geoff Pierson, Kevin Nealon, Larry Miller, Blake Clark, Dalip Singh in the Ted Cassidy role, TV series producer Leonard B. Stern, and Bernie “Ve do not shush here!” Kopell.  Trevor Rabin’s score is blah, but incorporates Irving Szathmary’s TV theme in the right places.  Partially shot in Russia.  Pic is dedicated to Adams and Platt, a thoughtful gesture.

GET SMART AGAIN! (1989)--Directed by Gary Nelson. Stars Don Adams, Barbara Feldon, Bernie Kopell. Practically the entire cast of the 1965-70 TV series (except the late Chief, Edward Platt) returns for this pretty funny TV sequel. Writer Leonard B. Stern, producer Burt Nodella and director Nelson, all veterans of the TV show, remember what made the series a classic, and return to those gimmicks, unlike the theatrical sequel, 1980's THE NUDE BOMB, which didn't even bother to bring back Feldon's sexy 99! This time, KAOS leader Siegfried (Kopell) has control of a weather machine, and plans to use it to take over the world unless married CONTROL agents 86 and 99 can come out of retirement to stop him. Also with John DeLancie, Kenneth Mars, King Moody, Robert Karvelas and Dick Gautier as Hymie the Robot. Adams and Feldon returned to TV in Fox's short-lived 1995 GET SMART remake with Elaine Hendrix and Andy Dick as their bumbling son.

GET YOURSELF A COLLEGE GIRL (1964)--Directed by Sidney Miller. Stars Mary Ann Mobley, Nancy Sinatra, Chad Everett, Chris Noel. The future Mrs. Gary Collins plays a college student who writes hit rock-and-roll tunes on the side. She uses a pseudonym to avoid the wrath of her conservative college administrators. The Dave Clark Five, the Animals, and the Standells perform, but they don't do any of their hits. Stan Getz and Astrid Gilberto do "The Girl from Ipanema" though. Everett was just five years away from TV stardom as the macho Dr. Gannon on MEDICAL CENTER. Mobley was 1959's Miss America.

THE GETAWAY (1972)--Directed by Sam Peckinpah. Stars Steve McQueen, Ali MacGraw, Ben Johnson, Al Lettieri, Sally Struthers, Bo Hopkins. McQueen in the kind of role he did best: a rebellious anti-hero prone to action instead of words. Doc McCoy (McQueen) wins an early release from prison, thanks to wife Carol (MacGraw) and crooked cop Johnson. In return for Doc's release, he, with the aid of some accomplices (including Lettieri and Hopkins), must rob a bank for Johnson. There is a double-cross, and the McCoys finds themselves running for their lives. McQueen and Lettieri are especially good, and Peckinpah directs action as well as anyone ever did. McQueen and MacGraw fell in love on the set, and married soon afterward. Also with Slim Pickens and Jack Dodson.

THE GETAWAY (1994)--Directed by Roger Donaldson. Stars Alec Baldwin, Kim Basinger, James Woods, Michael Madsen. Another husband-and-wife screen team, Baldwin and Basinger, take the McQueen-and-MacGraw roles in this okay near-carbon-copy remake of the 1972 Sam Peckinpah actioner. This time the bad guys rob a dog track instead of a bank. Woods is terrific in the Ben Johnson role, and Donaldson delivers some exciting action, but he's no Peckinpah, and Baldwin is no McQueen. Basinger takes lots of showers.

GETTING EVEN (1986)--Directed by Dwight H. Little.  Stars Edward Albert, Audrey Landers, Joe Don Baker.  Little’s first feature was this good action movie filmed in Texas.  Lee Horsley must have been busy, so Little hired exploitation-movie stalwart Albert (GALAXY OF TERROR) to play, more or less, Matt Houston:  a millionaire industrialist with a mustache and Texas twang named Taggar.  “Tag” infiltrates Afghanistan and rescues a cache of deadly nerve gas, which he brings back to his Dallas lab to study.  The U.S. government, in the shapely form of Tag’s former squeeze Paige (Landers), is antsy to get its hands on it.  So is Taggar’s competition: evil rancher Kensington (Baker), who swipes the gas from Tag’s facility and ransoms it for $30 million.  Doses of humor and very nice stuntwork set this independent production slightly above the bar.  Little went on to work with Brandon Lee, Steven Seagal and Michael Myers, but now works predominantly in episodic television (BONES).

THE GHASTLY ONES (1967)—Directed by Andy Milligan.  Stars Anne Linden, Hal Borske, Maggie Rogers, Richard Romanus.  Does anyone ever forget his first Milligan movie?  I hope I do.  Critic Michael Weldon once wrote that if you’re a Milligan fan, there’s no hope for you.  He might be right.  THE GHASTLY ONES seems typical of Milligan:  a cheapjack period (though the costumes, sets and dialogue are hopelessly set in the 1960s) horror/gore movie with miserable cinematography, sound (especially) and acting (mostly).  Three sisters and their husbands are summoned to a private island by their late father’s will, which states they will receive their inheritances if they stay in a spooky old house (and have sex in it) for three days.  Unconvincing gore murders commence, leading to a bizarre climax involving an actor accidentally caught on fire and a histrionic yet strangely compelling monologue.  It takes a certain moxie to withstand the movies of Andy Milligan, who shot this one not far from his Staten Island home and is often mentioned in the same breath as Al Adamson, Larry Buchanan and Ed Wood.  Great company.  Borske appeared in several Milligan movies, but the only performer who made a name for himself is Romanus, who had a very good Hollywood career as a supporting actor, even appearing on THE SOPRANOS.

GHOST (1990)--Directed by Jerry Zucker. Stars Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, Whoopi Goldberg, Tony Goldwyn. Unbelievably popular movie about a murdered New Yorker (Swayze) who tries to come back to our plane to seek out his killer. He can see and hear us, but his widow (Moore) can't see him, so Swayze uses phony fortune-teller Whoopi (in her Oscar-winning role) as a go-between. Bruce Joel Rubin's script plays hard and fast with the "rules" for those ghostly beings in Swayze's state (they tend to change according to what's needed to advance the plot), and bogs down in an illogical and corny ending. Swayze and Moore are such a boring Yuppie couple that it's hard to care about what happens to them, and Goldwyn's character (his performance is absolutely terrible) seems to come out of a B-level thriller. This film somehow attracted a lot of ticket buyers--the same people who made the Righteous Brothers' execrable ballad "Unchained Melody" a hit on the music charts again. Maurice Jarr composed the romantic score. Also with Vincent Schiavelli and Rick Aviles. Zucker was one of the writer/directors of AIRPLANE!

THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN (1966)--Directed by Alan Rafkin.  Stars Don Knotts, Joan Staley, Liam Redmond, Dick Sargent.  Don Knotts was a unique comic talent.  There’s virtually nobody on the planet who hasn’t experienced Knotts’ antics and even fewer who haven’t loved them.  Middle-aged adults who tuned in to THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW every Monday night on CBS, kids of the ‘70s who grew up with his Disney comedies and THREE‘S COMPANY, even today’s toddlers who recognize his voice from Walt Disney’s CHICKEN LITTLE--we all have been touched by the West Virginian World War II vet who took advantage of his slight build, homely features and dead-on comic timing to become one of television’s most beloved figures.

Knotts is synonymous, of course, with Barney Fife, the well-meaning though bumbling deputy of Mayberry that he portrayed on THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW for five seasons in the early 1960’s.  A rattling tube of energy that could barely be contained within his oversized deputy browns, Knotts was the yin to Sheriff Andy Griffith‘s yang, a screen team so natural that it’s nigh impossible to imagine one without the other.  Indeed, THE ANDY GRIFFITH SHOW continued for three more seasons following Knotts’ departure, not that anyone remembers them.

After five seasons, Knotts left the television series that would earn him a total of five Emmy Awards and launched a movie career with Universal, where he would average a film per year for the rest of the decade.  His best, I believe, was also his first.  In THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN, as delightful a title as I’ve ever heard, Knotts is at his wound-up finest, a cornucopia of fidgets and shakes that pushes his skills at physical comedy to their brink.  Even when he isn’t saying anything, Knotts is a delight to watch.

As you may have deduced from its nutty title, THE GHOST AND MR. CHICKEN is one of the most quotable comedies of its era.  Almost everybody of a certain age, when you say, "Attaboy, Luther!", knows what you're talking about.  But let’s not forget other gems like, "Bang! Right on the head!", "Mister Boob. That's me. B-Double-O-B. Boob!" and "When you work with words, your words are your work."  Knotts played it safe right out of the box, bringing along ANDY GRIFFITH veterans Jim Fritzell and Everett Greenbaum to craft the very funny screenplay and Alan Rafkin, a popular GRIFFITH director, to helm.

Set in rural Rachel, Kansas, Knotts plays Luther Heggs, a meek, excitable typesetter at the local newspaper with dreams of becoming a reporter.  Neither his editor (Dick Sargent, later the Fake Darrin on BEWITCHED) nor his reporter rival (Skip Homeier) takes him seriously, and Homeier isn‘t even particularly friendly, cutting Luther down like a grade school bully.  Luther’s big chance comes when he accepts a dare to spend the night in the creepy Simmons mansion, an abandoned old house rumored to be haunted since Old Man Simmons murdered his wife there 20 years previously and then committed suicide.  Simmons’ nephew (Phil Ober) has returned to Rachel to demolish the place, but those plans are put on hold after Luther’s scoop the next day in which he describes encounters with hidden staircases, a pipe organ that plays by itself and a portrait of the late Mrs. Simmons with bloody shears protruding from it.  The article makes Luther the town hero.  Not only is he invited to sign autographs and to speak at the Chamber of Commerce picnic (another comic high point), but he also begins courting sweet Alma Parker (Joan Staley), who apparently is Rachel's only female under the age of 60.

Since you and I don’t believe in ghosts, it’s easy to guess that human hands might be behind Luther’s apparitions.  The journey to the mystery’s solution is a pleasing one, particularly because of the delightful supporting cast Rafkin assembled.  TV Land fanatics will undoubtedly smile at Reta Shaw, Charles Lane, Ellen (“Grandma Walton“) Corby, Robert Cornthwaite, Cliff Norton and Burt Mustin, just to name a few.  However, the movie's secret weapon is the amazing jazz score by Vic Mizzy, whose jaunty main theme is later rearranged as a spooky organ tune Luther hears in the mansion.  It's hard to get the tune out of your head once you've heard it, and it‘s one of the finest comedic scores of the 1960‘s.

Actually, for some of us, the 26-year-old Joan Staley may be a secret weapon. Blessed with the sweets look of a Girl Scout and the curves of a showgirl, the stacked Staley was a PLAYBOY Playmate at age 18, but exhibited a down-home sexiness that made you almost believe that you had a chance with her.  Or that Don Knotts could have one.

GHOST CHASERS (1951)—Directed by William Beaudine.  Stars Leo Gorcey, Huntz Hall, Bernard Gorcey, William Benedict, Lloyd Corrigan.  Slip (Leo Gorcey), Sach (Hall), Whitey (Benedict) and the other Bowery Boys try to expose a phony medium when she and her gang rip off Slip’s mother’s friend of $100.  Yeah, it’s more or less the usual Bowery Boys antics, but this movie is one of the series’ better outings.  The gags come at a rapid clip, and Benedict and Bernard Gorcey (as sweet-shop owner Louie) are given quite a bit to do, rather than Slip and Sach hogging all the slapstick.  I know GHOST CHASERS was probably shot in about a week, and its story is hardly unique (heck, almost every Bowery Boys movie I’ve seen has the same basic plot), but Beaudine and writer Charles Marion give it some fresh brushstrokes, such as a 400-year-old ghost (Corrigan) that only speaks to Sach (and the audience, breaking the fourth wall), leading to comic misunderstandings.  The villains aren’t fleshed out very well, but they do engineer an interesting water-filled deathtrap for the boys.  David Gorcey, Buddy Gorman, Lela Bliss, Philip Van Zandt and Robert Coogan share the fun in this Monogram production.

THE GHOST IN THE INVISIBLE BIKINI (1966)--Directed by Don Weis. Stars Boris Karloff, Tommy Kirk, Susan Hart, Basil Rathbone, Jesse White. AIP was nearing the end of their BEACH PARTY series by the time they got to this plodding entry. There's no beach to be seen anywhere; all of the action takes place in a haunted castle (with a swimming pool). Karloff (who probably shot all of his scenes in one day on a single set) plays a corpse who can only get into heaven by performing a good deed on Earth. While watching the action in a crystal ball, Karloff tries to prevent Kirk from being cheated of his inheritance by sleazy lawyer Rathbone, who doesn't always seem comfortable in a role he probably believed to be below his usual standard (he'd be right). Hart (in the titular role) pops in from time to time to commit mischievous acts against Rathbone and comic sidekick White. Features the usual songs, slapstick, veteran cast, bikinis and goofy fun. A pre-"Boots" Nancy Sinatra sings "Geronimo" and the Bobby Fuller Four do a couple of (non-hit) tunes; Fuller was killed under mysterious circumstances the same year. Also with Deborah Walley, Aron Kincaid, Patsy Kelly, Francis X. Bushman, Piccola Pupa, Andy Romano and, of course, Harvey Lembeck as Eric Von Zipper. Music by Les Baxter. Samuel Z. Arkoff and James H. Nicholson (who was married to Hart) were the executive producers.

GHOST OF DRAGSTRIP HOLLOW (1959)--Directed by William Hole.  Stars Jody Fair, Russ Bender, Martin Braddock, Jack Ging.  Post-modernism comes to AIP in this amiable, rambling musical.  It appears to be a loose sequel to HOT ROD GANG with brunette Fair reprising her role as hot rod girl Lois.  The car club that she and her dragster-loving friends belong to is on thin ice when they lose their clubhouse and have nowhere else to meet.  Tom Hendry (Bender), a middle-aged reporter doing a story on the kids, follows them everywhere, even a slumber party chaperoned by Lois’ parents.  Lois, her boyfriend Stan (Braddock) and their pals dance at Frenchy’s soda shop to a good rock band called The Renegades, which includes drummer Sandy Nelson (“Teen Beat”) and future Beach Boy Bruce Johnston.  They also threaten to rumble (but never do) with allegedly rowdy kids led by Tony (Ging in his first credited film).  Forty minutes into the 64-minute film, the plot kicks in, as the kids decide to run their club out of a haunted mansion and are spooked by typical haunted-house gags like floating candles and eyes peering through a hanging painting.  The ending is a blatant plug for other AIP movies like THE SHE CREATURE and THE DAY THE WORLD ENDED, and Hole takes a good clean insert shot of an American International Records 45.  Producer Lou Rusoff’s script is sloppy and illogical, but what the heck, it goes down smoothly enough.  Also with Dorothy Neumann, Kirby Smith, Elaine DuPont, Sanita Pelkey, Tommy Ivo and Paul Blaisdell.

THE GHOST OF FRANKENSTEIN (1942)--Directed by Erle C. Kenton. Stars Lon Chaney, Jr., Bela Lugosi, Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Ralph Bellamy. After three excellent installments of Universal's FRANKENSTEIN series, Boris Karloff decided not to wear Jack Pierce's greasepaint again. Chaney replaced him in this not-as-ambitious but fun and fast-paced sequel. Bela (who steals the film as Ygor) and Lon escape from their sulphur pit demise from the end of SON OF FRANKENSTEIN, and track down the son of the notorious mad scientist (Hardwicke). Hardwicke plans to transfer his late friend's brain into the monster, but Bela talks Frankenstein's assistant (Lionel Atwill) into secretly switching brains and using his instead! Bellamy is the bland hero; Evelyn Ankers his gorgeous fianc. Dwight Frye also appears. Hardwicke has a conversation with his father's transparent image in an awkward scene that I suppose is there to justify the title.

THE GHOST SHIP (1943)--Directed by Mark Robson. Stars Richard Dix, Russell Wade, Edith Barrett. Simple but effective thriller featuring Wade as Tom Merriam, the new officer on board the U.S.S. Altair. After a couple of crewmen turn up dead, Wade becomes convinced they were murdered by the ship's captain, Will Stone (Dix), and that he's the next intended victim. His attempt to press charges against Captain Stone fails, and tension mounts as Wade tries to enlist the ship's crew, who don't believe him, as protection against Stone's final revenge. One of the most obscure horror films produced by Val Lewton, THE GHOST SHIP doesn't rely on the supernatural to explain its evil; Captain Stone is simply a psychopathic killer. And there's no question that he is, since Robson, Lewton and writer Donald Henderson Clarke make no effort at shading the killer's identity as a mystery. Dix, who was a hugely popular star at RKO going back to the silent era, is quite effective as the killer, obsessed with maintaining his authority. Familiar faces in the supporting cast include Robert Bice, Skelton Knaggs (as a creepy-looking mute), Steve Forrest (his film debut), Lawrence Tierney (as one of Stone's victims), Herb Vigran and calypso singer Sir Lancelot. Robson directed other chillers for Lewton, including BEDLAM and ISLE OF THE DEAD. He also directed EARTHQUAKE!

GHOST SHIP (2002)--Directed by Steve Beck.  Stars Julianna Margulies, Gabriel Byrne, Ron Eldard, Isaiah Washington, Desmond Harrington, Emily Browning.  Disregard its derivative one-sheet, which blatantly plagiarizes Avco Embassy's for their 1980 Canadian thriller DEATH SHIP, and its campy tag line, "Sea Evil".  GHOST SHIP, which was directed by THIR13EN GHOSTS' Steve Beck and produced by TALES FROM THE CRYPT's Robert Zemeckis and Joel Silver through their Dark Circle Productions banner, is a serious ghost story with an interesting setting and a game cast.  It doesn't break new ground in the horror genre, but just by taking its chills seriously and shrugging off Hollywood's recent tendency to insert cynical teenagers and out-of-place one-liners into its atmosphere of dread, GHOST SHIP starts off with immediate goodwill.

It doesn't squander its comity in its opening scene, which follows the old-fashioned Warner Brothers shield logo and is as blackly comic as it is shocking.  It also explains how the Antonia Graza, an Italian cruise ship bound for the United States in 1962, failed to reach its destination.  Forty years later, a crack salvage crew of risk-taking mavericks, led by its Irish captain Murphy (Gabriel Byrne), is recruited by a soft-spoken pilot named Ferriman (Desmond Harrington), who claims to have spotted the dead ship in the Bering Strait while taking weather photos from the air.  Agreeing to a 10% share of anything found onboard, provided he's allowed to tag along to protect his investment, Ferriman hops aboard Murphy's tugboat, the Arctic Warrior, which also carries five crew members, including a token tough female, Epps (ER's Julianna Margulies), and first mate Greer (Isaiah Washington), who is not only black, but also due to be married in a month.  No prizes for guessing what happens to him.

Reaching the Antonia Graza in the dead of night, the crew boards her, only to slowly discover things are a little hinky there.  A rotted swimming pool fills with blood.  A pre-1962 digital watch is found in the debris.  And Epps sees--or thinks she sees--a little girl, silent but definitely alive.  Yep, it seems the 600 or so who perished aboard the Antonia Graza forty years earlier are still there, and would rather their new friends not leave to tell the tale.

In setting the terror about a stranded oceanliner, GHOST SHIP right away adequately answers the first question always asked by audiences of a "haunted house" movie:  why don't the protagonists just pack up and split at the first glimpse of evil?  (Eddie Murphy's classic standup routine about POLTERGEIST comes to mind.)  Like Dark Circle's first spook show, a remake of HOUSE ON HAUNTED HILL in which Geoffrey Rush channeled the spirit of Vincent Price so well that I expected Roger Corman to sign him to a three-picture deal, GHOST SHIP establishes its premise cleanly and surrounds its actors with marvelous sets in which to perform.  Whereas the HOUSE was opulent, the SHIP is dark, wet, rusty, dripping with decrepitness and dread.  Just try to ignore the clumsy CGI effects establishing the exterior of the Antonia Graza, which are about as convincing as the cascading waterfall on a Hamm's beer sign circa 1975.

Another letdown is the screenplay by Mark Hanlon and John Pogue, who has written so many turkeys (ROLLERBALL and U.S. MARSHALS, to name two) that membership in the U.S. Poultry & Egg Association must surely be forthcoming.  Not only are the characters sketched in such flimsy terms, but they also seem to have been created by watching a creaky Monogram programmer from the '40s.  The Irish guy drinks, the black guy is horny, the Latino is an expert with engines, and the white guys act like frat brothers on spring break.  Taking their inspiration from a more recent hit, Hanlon and Pogue have clearly used Sigourney Weaver as the model for Epps, especially in her brow-furrowing mothering of the mysterious little girl, which parallels Ripley's relationship with little Newt in ALIENS.

Before it falls apart in the final reel (capped off with an unnecessary final twist that has unfortunately become de rigueur for the genre), the plot is reasonably smart and slightly more ambitious than expected.  The actors are fine, considering the paper-thin roles they're handed, with Margulies standing out, projecting a comfortable mix of world-weariness and strength.  Beck doesn't hold back on the gore level either, topping his shock-inducing opening massacre with a music video-like flashback sequence that succinctly illustrates the ghost ship's tragic backstory without relying on draggy expositional dialogue.  While the sum of its parts is decidedly less than other recent ghost stories like THE SIXTH SENSE and THE OTHERS, GHOST SHIP contains enough good stuff to recommend it.  Music by John Frizzell.  Also with Karl Urban, Alex Dimitriades and Francesca Rettondini.

GHOST WORLD (2001)--Directed by Terry Zwigoff.  Stars Thora Birch, Steve Buscemi, Scarlett Johannson.  This black comedy from the director of CRUMB is based on an acclaimed comic book by writer/artist Daniel Clowes.  Two acerbic, misanthropic high-school graduates, Enid (Birch) and Rebecca (Johannson), prepare for entry into the "real world".  Neither is interested in college, only of finding an apartment together, getting jobs and making fun of everybody else, who they consider to be conformists or phonies of the lowest form.  As the summer progresses, the girls find their friendship slowly unraveling, as Rebecca begins to approach society in a more mature fashion, while Enid befriends a fortyish nerd named Seymour (Buscemi), a lonely, self-loathing record collector with a similar outlook on life.

Plotless with a tendency to strike satirically at some very easy targets, GHOST WORLD features three very fine performances and an often funny script by Clowes and Zwigoff.  I haven't read Clowes' comic, so I can't compare it to the film, but Zwigoff skillfully establishes a bleak tone and manages, with the actors' help, of course, to create some marvelously complex characters.  He does seem more interested in the budding friendship between Seymour and Enid, although I thought the relationship between Rebecca and Enid was even more interesting. In fact, Rebecca is mostly ignored in the second half, but there was a lot to be explored there-I even wonder how sincere her misanthropy was; perhaps she faked it in order to be popular with Enid?

Although GHOST WORLD has been criticized for taking aim at easy targets, some of those potshots are the movie's funniest--the video store clerk who mistakes Fellini's 8 1/2 for 9 1/2 WEEKS with Mickey Rourke, the obnoxious coffee shop customers, pretentious artists, mullet-headed stoners who hang out at convenience stores (that guy was a riot), the cloying hero worship of any poor soul unlucky enough to find himself crippled or dead, as if their physical condition is a fair representative of who they are.  Perhaps GHOST WORLD is at its liveliest during the opening titles, during which Enid rocks out to an amazing musical number on a videotape she's watching, which is a real Indian film from 1965 called GUMNAAM.  Also with Bob Balaban, Brad Renfro, Illeana Douglas, Stacey Travis, Dave Sheridan, Brian George, Bruce Glover and an unbilled Teri Garr.  Buscemi is unbilled in the opening credits.