
In the best traditions of Japanese mystery stories which place fiendishly elaborate plots at their centre, Murder at the Doll House more than succeeds as a classic detective story. We’re presented with a set of strange occurrences which our master sleuth will explain to us in a long lecture at the end and even if one or two twists are a little obvious, the satisfaction involved in having figured them out ahead of time outweighs any kind of disappointment. Toshio may say he wants to be like Philip Marlowe but in actuality his detective is a little more in the European mould – almost like a more active Poirot or a slightly less obtuse Sherlock Holmes. Still, donning a trench coat with a turned up collar yet eschewing the classic hat which would have obscured his giant ‘70s perm, Matsuda once again turns in a very “cool” performance as super smart private eye.
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Tag Archives: 1970s
Akenfield (1974) Peter Hall, Stanley Baxter, Ronald Blythe, Ethel Branton, Drama

As the young man, Tom, prepares to leave the Suffolk village of his birth, voices and experiences from his family’s past crowd in on his mind, weaving a poetic tapestry of the love of home and the longing to get away from it.
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The Killing Kind (1973) Curtis Harrington, Ann Sothern, John Savage, Ruth Roman, Crime, Drama, Horror

Young Terry Lambert returns home from serving a prison term for a gang-rape he was forced to participate in. He seeks revenge on his lawyer and the girl who framed him. But his real problem is his overbearing mother, whose boarding house he resides in and who keeps bringing him glasses of chocolate milk. One of her boarders, Lori, becomes attracted to him. However, while he was serving his prison sentence, Terry developed an interest in rough, violent sex, and gory death. Now, one by one, some of the town’s women pop up dead.
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Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1973) David Winters, Kirk Douglas, Susan George, Susan Hampshire, Horror, Musical, Sci-Fi

Musical version of the story in which Dr. Henry Jekyll experiments with scientific means of revealing the hidden, dark side of man and releases a murderer from within himself.
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Scipione detto anche l’africano / Scipio the African (1971) Luigi Magni, Marcello Mastroianni, Silvana Mangano, Vittorio Gassman, Comedy, History

During the Second Punic War, the commander Scipio Africanus (Marcello Mastroianni) is in a crisis because the Roman army can not defeat the many Carthaginian legions of Hannibal Barca. Teaming with his brother Scipio Asiaticus (Ruggero Mastroianni), Africanus manages to destroy the troops of Hannibal at Zama and to win the war. When he returns triumphant to Rome, he realizes that he has been manipulated like a puppet by the consul Marcus Porcius Cato, called “the Censor” (Vittorio Gassman). Scipio, disgusted by the poor Roman politics, withdraws from his rank of general, while Cato plans to destroy with a third war the cursed city of Carthage.
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The Image (1975) Radley Metzger, Mary Mendum, Carl Parker, Marilyn Roberts, Drama, Erotic

Jean, returning to Paris after three years of residence abroad and went to the fancy parties, there met his old acquaintance Claire. But she was not alone, but accompanied by a young and attractive blonde Anna. Going after a boring party at a restaurant, Clair said Jean that Anna is her property…
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Appassionata / Passionate (1974) Gianluigi Calderone, Gabriele Ferzetti, Ornella Muti, Eleonora Giorgi, Drama, Erotic

Two teenage friends conspire to find out how much their youthful sensuality can disrupt one of their households, headed by a dentist and his mentally-ill wife.
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Fear Is the Key (1972) Michael Tuchner, Barry Newman, Suzy Kendall, John Vernon, Action, Crime, Drama

Following the death of his family in an aeroplane crash, a man plots an elaborate revenge scheme on those responsible. By setting himself up as a criminal, he plans to get close to a certain tycoon who has been approached by the culprits to help them retrieve the cargo of the lost plane.
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Bartleby (1970) Anthony Friedman, Paul Scofield, John McEnery, Thorley Walters, Drama

Updated to 1970s London, this faithful adaptation of Herman Melville’s classic follows a young accounting clerk rebelling against his employer by responding to demands to do work by saying, “I prefer not to.” This is carried on ad absurdum until the office is in chaos because the other employees must do Bartleby’s work. His boss is unable to fire or help him and eventually has him placed in a mental hospital. Paul Scofield (A Man for All Seasons), John McEnery (The Duellists) and Thorley Walters (TV’s “Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy”) star in this impeccably mounted study of employment, insanity, and the rigors of everyday life from one of literature’s most acclaimed geniuses.
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The Light at the Edge of the World (1971) Kevin Billington, Kirk Douglas, Yul Brynner, Samantha Eggar, Adventure, Drama, Fantasy

Pirates take over a lighthouse on a rocky island. They then execute a devious plan to cause ships to run aground, pillaging their wrecks. A lone member of the lighthouse crew survives, and he deperately fights their plot. A shipwrecked maiden that avoids the pirates slaughter soon complicates the situation.
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