Deborah Raffin in For the Love of It (1980).

Jerry Abramovitz - Deborah Raffin (Good Housekeeping 1977)

4K Ultra HD Review: God Told Me To

If God Told Me To were made today, its mass killing sprees would likely be approached in a less exploitative manner, and the guerrilla filmmaking style certainly couldn't be accomplished at the same scale (more on that later). But — with the proliferation of gun violence, conspiracy theories, and religious zealotry — the concept is every bit as potent now, if not even more so, than it was upon its original release in 1976.

The first two-thirds of the film might lead a viewer to believe it's one of writer-director Larry Cohen's more straightforward efforts — a police procedural thriller with psychological underpinnings — but the wildly unpredictable third act reveal immediately repositions it as perhaps Cohen's most bizarre outing. That's saying a lot, considering his delightfully delirious work on the likes of The Stuff, It’s Alive, and Q: The Winged Serpent.

God Told Me To opens with a sniper picking people off in the middle of New York City from high atop a water tower with astonishing accuracy. NYPD detective Peter Nicholas (Tony Lo Bianco, The French Connection) takes it upon himself to climb up and speak with the shooter. The nonchalant explanation for his heinous actions — "God told me to" — followed by the leap to his death leaves Peter chilled.

This incident is followed by several more killing sprees that end in the same confession, including one reminiscent of a key scene in The Dark Knight: a police officer (Andy Kaufman, in his film debut) marching in a parade opens fire on the crowd. The fast-paced first act gives little indication of the aberration that follows, as Peter’s investigation leads him to learn that it’s a force other than God causing these people to commit such atrocities. I won’t give it away here, as it truly has to be seen to be believed, but it involves a gratuitous close-up of a fake vagina.

Cohen is an audacious filmmaker in every sense of the word. He’s fearless in his approach to offbeat material; in this case, an unclassifiable amalgam of crime thriller, science fiction, subversive exploitation, and religious horror that would make an interesting double feature with John Carpenter's Prince of Darkness. He’s equally intrepid with his filmmaking. He "stole" many of the New York City shots — including a volatile confrontation at the city’s actual St. Patrick's Day Parade — without permits; a miraculous feat that could never be accomplished in a post-9/11 world.

Lo Bianco is a treat as the lead, committed to the peculiar material as if it were Shakespeare. Oscar winner Sandy Dennis (Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?) plays his wife, while Deborah Raffin (Death Wish 3) receives a guest starring credit as Peter’s mistress. Sylvia Sidney (Beetlejuice) and Richard Lynch (Halloween (2007)) each take on pivotal roles later in the film. Mike Kellin (Sleepaway Camp), George Patterson (I Drink Your Blood), and character actor Robert Nichols (The Thing from Another World) pop up in small parts as well.

God Told Me To has been newly restored in 4K from an original, uncensored negative with Dolby Vision HDR as well as Dolby Atmos and DTS-HD Master Audio options by Blue Underground. The transfer retains the marvelous grain synonymous with ‘70s genre pictures (doubly so for the gritty New York setting) coupled with high-definition clarity with improved contrast and saturation. The new transfer is included on both 4K UHD and Blu-ray. Only one new special feature was produced, but all of the extra's from Blue Underground's 2015 Blu-ray are accounted for.

King Cohen director Steve Mitchell and film historian Troy Howarth sit down for a new audio commentary. Mitchell's time spent documenting Cohen’s career proves to be indispensable, supplemented by Howarth's astute observations about the film. Also included is Cohen’s original commentary from the 2003 DVD release, moderated by his old friend William Lustig (Maniac Cop, Maniac), which makes for a great listen as well.

Other special features include: an interview with Lo Bianco, who flexes his remarkable memory as he recounts stories from nearly 40 years ago like they were yesterday; an interview with special effects artist Steve Neill (Ghostbusters), who built the aforementioned genitalia for his first gig; a 2014 Q&A with Cohen at a Los Angeles screening with no shortage of fun anecdotes; a 2002 Q&A with Cohen at a New York screening, wherein he reflects on how different it is to watch the film after 9/11; two theatrical trailers (one of which is under its alternate title, Demon); seven TV spots; and a gallery of posters and stills.

God Told Me To will be released on 4K Ultra HD/Blu-ray on July 19 via Blue Underground.

James Clavell’s Noble House  -  NBC  -  February 21, 1988  -  February 24, 1988

Drama / Miniseries (4 episodes)

Running Time:  376 minutes total

Stars:

Pierce Brosnan as Ian Dunross

Deborah Raffin as Casey Tcholok

Ben Masters as Linc Bartlett

John Rhys-Davies as Quillan Gornt

Julia Nickson as Orlanda Ramos

Khigh Dhiegh as "Four Finger" Wu

Gordon Jackson as Supt. Robert Armstrong

Burt Kwouk as Phillip Chen

Nancy Kwan as Claudia Chen

John van Dreelen as Jacques DeVille

Ping Wu as Paul Choy

Lim Kay Tong as Brian Kwok

Lisa Lu as Ah-Tam

Damien Thomas as Lando Mata

Dudley Sutton as Commissioner Roger Crosse

Ric Young as Tsu-Yan

Tia Carrere as Venus Poon

Steven Vincent Leigh as John Chen

Irene Tsu as Dianne Chen

John Houseman as Sir Geoffrey Allison

Denholm Elliott as Alastair Struan

Death Wish 3 (1985)

Even as an entry in this series, Death Wish 3 is thinly written garbage. Between you and me though, that garbage is nice and toasty when you burn it and once covered with snow, it makes a mean tobogganing hill. Absurdly violent, tasteless and so over-the-top it’ll put you in a catatonic state, I hated the film initially but now I'd consider it "so bad it’s good".

Paul Kersey (Charles Bronson) returns to New York City after 10 years and finds his friend Charley (Francis Drake) dying from wounds a gang inflicted him. Accused of Charley's murder by a corrupt and impotent police force, Paul is let free on the condition he resumes his vigilante ways and cleans up the crime-ridden neighborhood.

This film cuts right to the chase. With all of Kersey’s family are now dead and buried so we're introduced to his “best friend”. Charley has a handful of lines before he is viciously butchered by the film’s villains: an endless gang of psychopaths who have nothing better to do than rape, steal, vandalize and murder. As before, there is no attempt to make any of these villains into human beings, they are simply meat bags for Kersey to fill with lead once the even bigger cartoon that is Inspector Richard Shriker (Ed Lauter) lets him go. After Kersey receives a beating from a trio of officers, Shriker steps in. “This is my jail, Kersey. And I’m the law. That means I get to violate your constitutional rights.” I don’t know whether to laugh or fall into a pit of despair. For some reason, Kersey decides to go along with the man’s instructions and moves into the gang-turf war zone so he can kill as many of them as he can.

This film is just an excuse to have a climactic massacre. The gang responsible for Charley’s death performs ax murders in broad daylight and they commit so many crimes you wonder how they’re able to afford the drugs they’re seen consuming. If you rob people every single day and you murder the ones who don’t cough up money, who will be left to exploit? Anyway, Kersey does his usual thing but this time, all subtlety is thrown out the window. He’s got the police’s blessing so he turns into an urban Rambo. I’m not exaggerating. I wouldn’t have expected to see any buildings explode in a Death Wish sequel, much less 3!

You can tell no one cared. Bronson is zombie-like in his performance even when he’s shacking up with the then-32-year-old Deborah Raffin, who plays a public defender unusually interested in Kersey. Bronson was 64 at the time. Gross! The characters are flat and their dialogue is frequently unintentionally hilarious. The plot is repetitive (within itself and the series) and lazy. At least it’s got the courtesy of going all-out in its climax, a gleefully ridiculous departure from any semblance of reality that jolts you awake. And they made two more of these? @#$@#$% my life.

Death Wish 3 is a long smelly turd but that last squeeze before it’s over is kind of soothing in a way. With a crowd of people who can ignore just how stupid and borderline offensive it gets, I think you'll have a good time. (Full-screen version on DVD, December 13, 2018)

"Assault In Paradise" (1977) - Richard Compton

(Also known as "The Ransom" or "Maniac! ...a Killer")

Films I've watched in 2022 (191/210)

Full film:

Mind Over Murder (1979)

My rating: 6/10

About as good as one can expect a movie called "Mind Over Murder" to be, really - the weird cheesy visions bits are fun, the "kidnapping, abuse and implicit rape" part less so, but that makes the big final fight, in which our protagonist goes full "final girl" on the bastard, all the more satisfying.

Also, you gotta love the 70s, when you could go to the authorities and say "I have psychic powers" and they'd immediately refer you to their expert on the Science Of Psychic Phenomena.

And another mini series I managed to watch. It was a fascinating era and well made.

Part 1: We meet five young men at Harvard in fall of 1940. Russ, George, Ron, Terry and Jean are these five and well, Chris is the sixth in this group unintentionally. The one constant though is a green 1939 Packard convertible which wanders from man to man. Russ, George and Ron are all in love with Chris, yet for her it's only Russell what makes it complicated for the whole group. They are best friends, yet also competitors. Terry is the first one to settle down with a wife, yet the other four are torn. When Kay comes into their lives, as she read one of Russell's books, he is fascinated and more, wanting to settle down with her but as Japan bombs Pearl Harbor, the situation has changed for all of them. Jean returns to Europe/Africa to help his country, Russ joins the Navy and the others are also far away. Only George remains at Harvard and he has to help Chris who's pregnant from Russ and doesn't know what to do. George also finds a girl in the end and so ends this part. 

Part 2: Some changes have happened. We get confirmed that Jean is dead, and George also moves into the army, infantry. He and Chris try to get rid of the kid but at the last moment, Chris decides otherwise. As said, George then gets drafted and when he moves in, Chris comes to tell him that she married Ron without telling him the truth about the baby. During the war, George lost his battaillon but took care of a young soldier who he then lost in Scotland. There he met Kay again, a famous singer, telling her about the others which put her into shock. Russ serves on a ship but he's seasick, yet gets into trouble with his Chief. Unfortunately, the ship gets under attack from a (German) submarine and no one knows about his destiny. Terry is in the Air Force and also lost many men when his superior wants him to use his foreign language skills in Germany. Reluctantly he does but he's also in love with a married woman. Ron also gets drafted. At home, the ladies deal with the men's abstinence. Sheila finds herself a lover, though both know she's married and waiting for her husband's return. Chris meanwhile has given birth to a certain blond baby and all four women speak on a record for the boys what George listens to in Italy. Russ is seen again, drinking with his Chief in a bar when they think about the ending war with two atombic bombs over Japan. Yet all four don't look forward of coming back to the USA.

Part 3: The guys are back in the USA and don't recognize the country anymore. The first two meeting together are Russ and George and they stop by Chris and her son. Russ is stunned and more and flees after some time. In a bar where George finds him, Russ wants to know if Bobby is his son but George refuses to answer. Since the two of them are still bachelors, they settle down with Terry who has taken a break from his wife and Russ writes a book which becomes a bestseller. At his presentation, the friends meet again and Terry and Ann are coming back on speaking terms, Russ sees Kay and decides to go with her to Hollywood and George finally settles down with Nancy. After some years, Terry, Ron and George meet again at their beach with the kids but on that faithful day, Terry, George's son gets ill and dies. It's heartbreaking for anyone around, yet Russ seems to appear at the inappropriate times and always he comes to George. However, Sheila falls in love with Russell at a young age and after some time, they even make love, yet as Russ wants to go to Hollywood with Kay, Sheila tries to kill herself but George finds her on time - and they remain close. After another time, Russ gives the 1939 Packard convertible to George and tells him that he and Kay split up for good. Some of his works are good on Broadway and in Hollywood. At their 25th reunion, in 1969, all come together again, even Russ. George and Nancy got a daughter who seems to be in love with Robby. Chris and Ron are together as well as Terry and Ann. Only Russ and Liz are alone. Russ wants a dance with Chris and she offers him this and after that, they talk because Russ wants to convince her to go with him but it's too late. Ron is still jealous but Chris tells them her point of view finally and all three men, Russ, George and Ron, realize their mistake and all can accept their friendship again. Russ gives a letter to George which he'd written after his night with Chris, but he knows that he'd lost and says good bye. The other three and their wives enjoy their reunion and that's the end! Some changes about the men: Terry and Ron have gray hair, George a mustache and Russ a beard at the end. And the stylists have done well.

When Susann learned the truth about her tumor (...) her first instinct was to bolt from the hospital. (...) And when she was strong enough, she went out to a rise in Central Park near the Navarro that she called her Wishing Hill and made a pact with God. If He would give her only 10 more years, she promised God, “she would prove she could make it as a writer.”

“January always went to her ‘wishing hill’ in Central Park when she was upset or wanted to think things out. (...) Howard Koch, who produced the film, once asked me,” Jacqueline said, “if January’s wishing hill was real. ‘Of course,’ I told him. “That’s where I used to go when I got upset or couldn’t write.’”

Jacqueline Susann at her Wishing Hill c. the 1960s Deborah Raffin as January Wayne in Once is not enough (1975) Michele Lee as Jacqueline Susann in Scandalous me (1998) Bette Midler as Jacqueline Susann in Isn’t she great (2000)

Deborah Raffin attends the premiere of Death Wish 3 (1985). Photographed by Ron Galella.

Excusing the ugly photo of my laptop screen, but here in Larry Cohen's excellent GOD TOLD ME TO, love interest Deborah Raffin demo's an enduring stereotype of glasses-havers: That you're such a fucking nerd that you can't even put on your own every-day glasses on without using both palms.

Birthdays 3.13

Beer Birthdays

John Taylor (1790)

Conrad George Oland (1851)

Charles Liebmann (1877)

William Lindsay Everard (1891)

Tim Webb

Joe Tucker (1968)

Five Favorite Birthdays

Akira Fubuki; Japanese model (1978)

Percival Lowell; astronomer (1855)

William H. Macy; actor (1950)

Joseph Priestly; English chemist (1733)

Uncle Sam; patriotic symbol (1852)

Famous Birthdays

Walter Annenberg; publisher, philanthropist (1908)

Adam Clayton; Irish bassist, "U2" (1960)

Common; rapper (1972)

Dana Delany; actor (1956)

Lorenzo Delmonico; steakhouse restauranteur (1813)

Donald Duck; cartoon character (1941)

Robin Duke; actor, comedian (1954)

Paul Fix; actor (1901)

Annabeth Gish; actor (1971)

William Glackens; artist (1870)

Charles Earl Grey; British PM, "tea lover" (1764)

Roy Haynes; jazz drummer (1925)

Glenne Headly; actor (1955)

Emile Hirsch; actor (1985)

L. Ron Hubbard; sci-fi writer, cult founder (1911)

Allan Jaffee; cartoonist (1921)

Dick Katz; pianist, composer (1934)

Sammy Kaye; bandleader (1910)

Charles Krauthammer; political writer (1950)

Maximilien Luce; French artist (1858)

Deborah Raffin; actor (1953)

Helen St. Aubin; AGPBL Baseball Player, "The Ted Williams of Women's Baseball" (1929)

Neil Sedaka; pop singer, songwriter (1939)

Mike Stoller; record producer, songwriter (1933)

Hugh Walpole; English writer (1884)

Hugo Wolf; composer (1860)

Donny York; pop singer (1949)

Check out this listing I just added to my Poshmark closet: Tony Lo Bianco Deborah Raffin God Told Me To 1976 8x10 Black & White Promo Photo.

Lace II  -  ABC  -   May 5–6, 1985

Drama / Miniseries (2 episodes)

Running Time:  Appx 240 minutes

Stars:

Deborah Raffin as Judy Hale 

Brooke Adams as Pagan Trelawney

Arielle Dombasle as Maxine Pascal

Phoebe Cates as "Lili", born Elizabeth Lace

Anthony Higgins as Prince Abdullah of Sydon

Christopher Cazenove as Raleigh

James Read as Daryl Webster

Patrick Ryecart as Werner Graff

Michael Fitzpatrick as Nicholas “Nick” Cliffe Jr. 

Walter Gotell as General Zedd

Paul Shelley as Christopher Swann

Ed Wiley as Tom Schwartz

Francois Guetary as Pierre 

Peter Jeffrey as Nicholas Cliffe Sr. 

James Faulkner as Charles Chazelle

Simon de La Brosse as Alexandre Chazelle