Pit Stop (1969)

aka The Winner

Given almost complete free rein by Roger Corman to make a "stock car" movie, Jack Hill delivered a film that's littered with rough edges, but like most of the director's early works it has enough keen-eyed style to sate his fans.
Rick (Richard Davalos) is a street racer, a kind of poor-man's James Dean who's stubbornly independent and filled with a self-destructive drive. When given the chance by an uncaring sponsor (Brian Donlevy) to prove himself on a deadly Figure 8 racetrack, Rick indulges his hungry ego.
A rival in the form of Hill regular Sid Haig playing an arrogant prick keeps things interesting, but the most memorable part for me was Ellen Burstyn.

3 big wheels out of 5

Quatermass 2 (1957)

The first film (1955) must've done something right because the sequel had more than twice the budget to play with. In it, Quatermass' rocket project has been grounded and he finds himself out of the loop, so to speak, but even opposition and secrecy won't stop the stern, bossy professor (again played by Brian Donlevy) being a pain in the ass of the higher-ups. It's just as well, too, because what begins with mysterious skin burns leads the intrepid professor to uncover a terrifying threat to the entire Earth!
The locations are more elaborate and varied this time, with the scenes in the industrial plant being especially good, like something from a tense cold war thriller, but overall I enjoyed Xperiment slightly more.

3 overshots out of 5

The Quatermass Xperiment (1955)

Hammer's first of three Quatermass films hits the ground running and for the most part keeps the momentum going nicely.
Without any warning, an object from space lands in a field in England. Quatermass is quickly on the scene, getting his hands dirty (i.e. dirtier) as he tries to unravel the mystery of what's found inside.
He's not a typical 'hero' type, in fact, at times he's a downright unlikeable git, but it could be argued that if the great danger is to be averted then it needs someone with an ability to maintain a professional detachment.
Hammer didn't dabble in straight-up sci-fi often, but they proved with Xperiment [sic] that they could do it just as well as they could do horror.

3½ non-picnics out of 5

The Curse of the Fly (1965)

Let me cut straight to the chase: There’s only one thing I expect from sequels, and that’s continuity. If you have “The Fly” in your title, is it so hard to remain consistent within the rest of the series? Yeah, the Evil Dead movies fucked with continuity all the time, but here it’s just unforgivable. And without Vincent Price thrown in the mix it becomes unwatchable. The plot has something to do with the third generation of scientists; apparently they’ve implemented the re-integrator machines around the world and—what a surprise—they still haven’t worked out all the kinks yet. It’s essentially the same movie as before, it’s just all done in a very incompetent and vapid way. Meh to the third power.

½ what the hell am I watching? out of 5