Repoman-3

S.F. Brownrigg is surely one of the most overlooked directors in the slasher genre with Basement being his masterwork. The plot concerns a young nurse (Playboy covergirl Rosie Holotik) who takes a job at a secluded mental hospital. Upon her arrival, it transpires that her employer has been killed by one of the patients and the place is now being run by strict disciplinarian, Dr Masters. Make no mistake, this is a horribly under-staffed operation. The lunatics truly are taking over the asylum and you really have to feel for the young nurse. Tough first gig. The basement figures only very briefly and towards the end of film. It is, in fact, the safest place in the house because the rest of the place is pure madness. I can only assume that Don't Look in the Basement was perhaps an afterthought as a title, possibly forced on the film by the backers to make it sound more scary as the title card appears to have been dropped in arbitrarily and does not match the other titles. Scenes worth watching for are the Judge attacking the doctor with an axe and a broken rubber knife in the final bloodbath. Forget One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. This is the stuff.

Highly entertaining but devoid of substance. Nothing wrong with that, I thoroughly enjoyed it while watching but had little to say about it afterwards. I'll say this about Tarantino - he's a better action director than I would have thought and he manages to keep a paper thin story going very well. I'm not sure if I'm suffieciently intrigued to watch part II though.

Many of the comments here draw comparisons with Leone's other westerns, namely the misnomered Dollars trilogy (the only common thread was Eastwood as lead). Once Upon A Time is actually a continuation of Leone's exploration of the American frontier. It's also his most hopeful film leaving the audience with the message that the time for gunslinging is over and where nation building must begin - Cardinale delivering water to the railway workers. The beauty of the film is in the conflicted way it tells us this; like Peckinpah's Wild Bunch, Frank and Harmonica know their time is up and there's a huge mutual respect between them in their final duel. I don't think I've ever seen a duel like it: absolutely supercharged with emotion. I do agree that the film could have used a cut here or there but I'm not sure where as there isn't a scene I can think of that doesn't push the story forward. I'd love to have seen Eastwood doing Harmonica but Bronson fills in well. As for Fonda, one of the best pieces of counter-casting I've seen. Pure cinema.