Author Archive: Retro

Here’s a National Geographic style documentary that’s alternately exploitive and informative. The film presents a wide variety of ways that humans interact with nature. It depicts the actual footage of a careless man (Pit Dernitz) leaving the safety of his car to film lions close up and ends up being their dinner. Other highlights include natives humping the ground in hopes of bringing life to the land, various big game hunting and last but not least naked hippies.

Johnny Barrows, a G.I, is dishonorably discharged from the army after striking his commanding officer. When he returns home, he is mugged and thrown in jail. Down on his luck and with no money, he gets a job at a gas station run by a racist jerk. After a while, he beats him up and is thrown in jail again. Shortly after, a mobster hires him as a mafia hit man because of his military training and he now gets caught in the middle of a rival gang war between two families.

During an African safari, an explorer and a fugitive uncover a secret radio base in the jungle as well as a Nazi plot to stir up the natives. Dir. Jean Yarbrough

Crime drama where a reporter tries to get the story on a notorious gangster.

A look at the life of black entertainers before WWII. Dir. Joseph Kane.

Gertie goes to Trinidad to hide out from her jilted boyfriend. An all-black Caribbean island resort welcomes flashy dancer Gertie La Rue, forced to perform in this remote spot becauseshe two-timed Al, her Harlem lover and backer, once too often.As Gertie amuses herself by dazzling the local men with her sexappeal, sanctimonious Mr. Christian (shades of ‘Rain’) schemesto either reform her or have her thrown off the island. On opening night, her sensuous performance exceeds Christian’s worst fears…but more serious trouble awaits. Based on the W. Somerset Maugham novel, “Rain”.

Tragic story of a widow who marries a fast-talking, morally bankrupt gangster.

Comedy-drama set in Jamaica as a voodoo high priestess clashes with her innocent half-sister over their late father’s plantation.