FILLMORE DISCOS 43 - '70s RARITIES 2

Death Laid An Egg, 1968 (*****)
a wonderfully deranged giallo hybrid that achieves the usually impossible task of bridging a powerful experimental aesthetic with intense entertainment - the result is a timeless classic of modern cinema; the similarly left-field soundtrack perfectly complements the sleaze and bizarre goings-on at the hi-tech chicken facility

Perversion Story, 1969 (***)
Fulci tries his hand at Hitchcock's Vertigo this time around and delivers an uneven, albeit enjoyable mystery that culminates in what seems to be a simple condemnation of the US legal system

Short Night Of The Glass Dolls, 1971 (****)
before arriving at its horrific finale, the movie's slow-pace is capably offset by the creepy premise of a comatose, but conscious, American journalist stuck in the mortuary; Communist Prague's interiors and exteriors provide the suitably atmospheric backdrop

Quelle Che Contano, 1974 (**)
unremarkable low-budget gangster movie that is most notable for a shockingly savage belt-beating inflicted upon Margie, the American gangster's masochistic prostitute mistress (played by Barbara Bouchet)

Macchie Solari, 1975 (***)
insane, extraordinarily chaotic banquet of simulated autopsy scenes amidst the usual heaps of italosleaze featuring the delightful Mimsy Farmer as the pathology student investigating a wave of suicides blamed on sunspots; afterwards, you will want to visit Rome's infamous Criminal Museum

The Witch Who Came From The Sea, 1976 (*****)
a highly recommended forgotten classic from the golden age of US independent cinema: Millie Perkins delivers an amazing disturbed performance as Mollie, a young mother psychologically damaged by the abusive childhood relationship she suffered at the hands of her father

Hitch-Hike, 1977 (***)
the ebullient energy of the script and the main protagonists' performances (played by David Hess, Franco Nero, and Corinne Clery) defiantly compensate for the seeming total lack of a budget

Patrick Still Lives, 1980 (***)
batshit crazy eurosleaze, maximum nudity, and an incomprehensible narrative all feature in a fun film whose final act boasts some truly jolting, gruesome violence