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kentishmaid21
Reviews
Tommy the Toreador (1959)
Watchable
Light-hearted, Tommy Steele comedy vehicle which although enjoyable is extremely un-PC! The comedy comes from the farcical elements of the story (Tommy being mistaken for a toreador)and this works, on the whole. Famous for the 'Little White Bull' number. Rainy Saturday afternoon sort of a film - 5/10
Suspiria (1977)
Interesting Film
On the whole, I thought that this was a good film. The storyline, while fantastic, held together and had its own internal logic. Suzy Bannion is a new pupil at a dance school in Germany with rather peculiar staff. A series of bizarre murders take place and Suzy sets out to find out what's going on, with the aid of a friend of one of the dead girls. She is horrified by what she discovers.......
The acting was good (although the dubbing was not always the greatest) and it was shot very well - predominantly dark and brooding to emphasise the evil that was at work. I also particularly liked the use of red, blue and green filters. Presumably there is some great symbolic meaning to this, but other than the red heralding the occasional gore that was to follow, I'm afraid that I have singularly failed to see what this might be.
Suzy's vulnerability, and the fact that the majority of the action happens within the dance school should have helped to maintain the tension, as the rather bizarre murders begin to take place. The gestapo like teachers were suitably horrid. However, the music which was presumably meant to heighten the fear and lead us up to the grizly climax just began to grate after a while. This meant that, despite the fact that I scare quite easily (I didn't like the scarab beetles in the Mummy, for example) I wasn't actually terribly frightened.
At only just over one and a half hours in length, though, it is well worth a watch as it certainly does not outstay its welcome. Good, eerie entertainment. If you enjoyed this, then I would recommend 'Don't Look Now' - an equally eerie (and slightly superior) horror thriller from the same era.