Showing posts with label ray milland. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ray milland. Show all posts

16 March 2015

DVD Review - Panic in Year Zero (1962)

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Genre:
Drama
Distributor:
Simply Home Entertainment
DVD Release Date:
16th March 2015 (UK)
Rating: PG
Director:
Ray Milland
Cast:Ray Milland, Jean Hagen, Frankie Avalon, Mary Mitchel, Joan Freeman
Buy: Panic in Year Zero [DVD]

Ray Milland was one of the big screen’s greatest actors, which is evident in such classics as Lost Weekend (which he won the Oscar for), Dial M for Murder, and The Big Clock amongst many others. Due to rumoured alcoholism (but never confirmed) and a desire to direct, he moved away from acting in major films and started directing, but he also starred in some AIP B-Movies, and actually directed one of the ones he starred in - Panic in Year Zero.

Panic in Year Zero is a classic bit of cold war, apocalyptic filmmaking. Ray Milland plays the father of the Baldwin family, Harry. The Baldwins try to go on a family camping trip, but L.A gets attacked with nuclear bombs (if only that would happen). Harry must become a full out survivalist to survive the nuclear fallout and the chaos and crime that follows in it’s wake.

It’s not quite the harrowing apocalyptic tale of something like Peter Watkins' fantastic The War Game. It moves at a swift 87 minute pace, which is due to the fact it was a part of a double bill with Roger Corman’s Tales of Terror. It’s also certainly one of Milland’s finest later roles; he plays a total paranoid asshole perfectly. It might not be the genius of X: The Man with X-Ray Eyes but it’s pretty damn good. The teen heartthrob singer Frankie Avalon plays his son.

The depiction of the total moral collapse of society after a nuclear war is a more likely outcome than the more proto-hippie takes around the same time. It’s also sets the template for so many post-apocalyptic journey films from Mad Max to The Road to stuff like Time of the Wolf. It may have had a tiny budget but it’s big ideas and the atmosphere it portrayed, despite showing very little, still works it’s charms over 50 years later.

★★★1/2
Ian Schultz

15 March 2013

'Please Yerselves' With Frankie Howerd's The House In Nightmare Park On DVD

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Comedy legend Frankie Howerd stars as the victim of sinister shenanigans in this wacky parody of seventies British horror films. From the director of Demons of the Mind and starring Hugh Burden and Oscar winner Ray Milland, THE HOUSE IN NIGHTMARE PARK is finally available in a brand-new transfer from original film elements in its as-exhibited cinema aspect ratio. Own this essential piece of cult UK cinema on 8 April 2013.

Foster Twelvetrees is a struggling tragedian who scrapes a living by giving hammy performances from the classics. He can hardly believe his luck when he’s invited to give a dramatic reading at the country home of a well-off family. But joy soon turns to outraged horror when he discovers dead bodies, foul intentions, lots of snakes and a madwoman in the attic. Can he uncover the hidden family secret before he comes to a terrible end..?

Special Features:

  • Full Frame 4:3, as-filmed version of main feature
  • Music-only audio track
  • original theatrical trailer
  • TV spot (mute)
  • Image gallery.


Buy The House in Nightmare Park - DVD