Reviews (12)

a real good film
Nick Nolte&Mac Davis give great performances in this film.this film pre-dates all of the maddness that has happened in the NFL since it's release.drugs,sex,coaches,etc..this film is one of the best sports movies.the real life Dallas Cowboys finally caught up with the film in the mid-90's.

For movie lovers and football fans
NORTH DALLAS FORTY delivers first-rate entertainment. Football fans will note stinging parodies of a few famous NFL players/coaches. Among quality performances from Nick Nolte, Mac Davis, Charles Durning and the late John Matuszak, actor Bo Svenson stands out. Svenson adds depth to what could have been a cartoonish role of an immature, stupid muscle-head, and it is unfortunate that I have not seen him in anything else this good. The film's poster makes NORTH DALLAS FORTY look as though it is a pro football version of ANIMAL HOUSE. Sure, NORTH DALLAS FORTY is funny at times, but the film also takes on the abuses in big league sports and management's selective enforcement of the rules. Sports journalists, let alone other sports films, ought to address those issues as boldly.

LIKE A HELMET TO HELMET HIT
NORTH DALLAS FORTY is not just a sports film, it's an indictment of corporate America that was the forerunner of the "Greed is good" films of the 1980's. One of the nicest acting surprises of 1979 was Mac Davis as Seth Maxwell, the consumate huckster who fails in his quest to save his friend, Phil Elliott from his own pre determined gridiron destiny. As Elliott, Nick Nolte, gives 1 of his 3 best performances and he and Davis play perfectly off each other. This film is a winner. All that was missing was NFL Films "Voice of God" John Facenda, with the play by play.

You, and B.A., and all the rest of you coaches are.....
An NFL wide receiver (Nolte) who purportedly has "the best hands in football" has been benched and is being used as a substitute. It's not for lack of ability or effort but because of his "attitude". He's been a starter for years and it's hard to take ("I'll die on the bench"). He needs to "give 'em what they want" and "you had better learn to play the game, and I don't just mean the game of football". Advice from his buddy Seth Maxwell (Mac Davis), who's the team's quarterback and a "star", is good advice, but Elliot (Nolte)doesn't seem to have it in him to follow it. Catching a winning TD pass from Maxwell in the closing seconds isn't enough. The play was a "fluke", as summed up by their head coach B.A. (G.D. Spradlin) while analyzing the game film the following week. The week after the game is what the show is about. The meetings, practices, workouts and various extra curricular activities, all leading up to the next game in Chicago. Charles Durning plays an assistant coach who is a constant bother to the players while he drinks bottles of Maalox. Bo Svenson (Joe Bob) and John Matuszak (O.W.) play excellent supporting roles along with many other actors. If you grew up thinking professional athletes were the salt of the earth this show may very well make you reconsider.

North Dallas 40 rocks!
Nick Nolte does a supurb job as a veteran wide receiver playing for a top team in the NFL during the late 60's or early 70's. The fact that he is an individual in a team sport makes this story even more exciting. Although he has come to the time in his career when medical science and tons of pain killers are a necessary daily diet in order to lace up the old cleets one more time for the team, he does not shirk his responsibilities or take the easy road when it comes to performing his job. Mack Davis turns in a creditable acting job as Seth the veteran QB of the team that has his way even when he is wrong. Now if you think that this movie is all about football you will miss the true meaning and emotion of the entire event. In the midst of a savage and hostile working environment a person can still be true to self amidst the greedy management side of a very tough sport. I hope that this whets your appetite to get this movie. There are memorable moments in and out of the locker room. The tell all book written by Peter Gent was more than an eye opener back a few decades ago and this rendition of the book does it justice in every way. Once you start watching this movie you will not want to turn it off! If you are a fan of football reality, you will want this movie. Oh, by the way, the author Peter Gent played professional football for the Dallas Cowboys back in the 60's I believe. That is what makes this movie so creditable and Peter does not hold back anything. Enjoy!! By the way I think that this movie is rated "R" for brief nudity, language, and violence. ... Read more

Amazon.com

Though Bob (Benjamin) Clark made his mark on Hollywood with films as diverse as Porky's and A Christmas Story, he began his career with this imaginative zombie tale. Alan Ormsby (who also wrote Paul Schrader's remake of Cat People and directed the cult horror film Deranged) penned the script and stars as Alan, a flamboyant theater director who brings his company--whom he condescendingly refers to as his "children"--to a rotting graveyard on a fogbound island. There he begins a ceremony to raise the dead, but it's all an elaborate practical joke, just another mind game by the would-be demagogue... or so he thinks. As Alan continues his midnight games of manipulation and degradation, it turns out the joke's on him as the graveyard rises to life. The acting, though amateurish, is energetic and delivered with gusto, and the awkward, theatrical dialogue becomes oddly appropriate (if somewhat stiff) in the affected presence of preening Alan. The often-slow extended introduction pays off in a carnage-riddled zombie blowout, like Night of the Living Dead compressed into a half-hour highlight reel. Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things is the work of ambitious beginners, but they deliver the goods when it counts with solid low-budget effects and a well-directed finale that turns the tense humor into unrelenting horror.

The DVD mastering is unaccountably sloppy: images jerk and intermittently slow down, the action hiccups, and in the second half red and blue flares rim the right side of the picture. --Sean Axmaker ... Read more

Description

Two people find themselves in the midst of the worst tragedy imaginable..the family is diagnosed with AIDS. No couple ever tried harder to have children than Roxy and Vinnie Ventola. For four years they endured test, injections and even a miscarriage. Then, Miranda, a beautiful baby girl, is born. Their daughter becomes the center of their lives. They balance their successful TV writing careers with the joy of spoiling her, but suddenly, Miranda becomes ill. While in the hospital, both of Miranda’s lungs collapse. Roxy and Vinnie soon learn the truth - Miranda has AIDS. They, too have AIDS from the transfusion Roxy received after her miscarriage.The Ventolas begin their battle against this killer disease. The determination that brought Miranda to them now gives them the courage to fight, and there is more love between them than anyone will ever know. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Bob Clarke is the forefather of American slasher films..
Deathdream, alternatively known as The Night Andy Came Home and Dead Of Night, is that rarest of things-essentially a slasher film with a social conscience.
Andy is a young soldier fighting in Vietnam, his family eagerly awaits his return home. Much to their dismay, they receive the news that Andy has been killed in battle. Awakened by a knock at their door later that night, the family is shocked but relieved that their son has returned. But Andy is a very different person-withdrawn and prone to outbursts of extreme violence. It seems that Andy is now a shell of his former self-the living dead requiring the blood of the living to rejuvenate himself. Andy is no ordinary vampire, he injects the blood of his victims into himself with a hypodermic needle-much like a heroin addict. The film climaxes in a strangely poetic graveyard scene with the soldier committing himself to his earthly resting place with his distraught mother at his side.
The acting in this is above average-John Marley(The Car), is excellent as Andy's concerned father and Richard Backus is suitably creepy as the doomed Andy.
Bob Clarke, should be considered a pioneering horror film director. The influence this film, along with Black Christmas, has had on later films like Carpenter's Halloween is incalculable. Clarke has fashioned in Deathdream, an exceptional supernatural/slasher yarn that is clearly anti-Vietnam. The previously mentioned climax is especially moving, as is Andy's limited dialogue throughout the film.
Blue Underground has provided an extras filled DVD that should be considered a must for fans of this unique film. If you remember seeing this film on late night cable, as I first did many years ago, you should give it a second glance-it has aged very well. Fans of suspenseful slasher fare, who prefer atmosphere and narrative over gratuitous gore and sex will be pleased with this too.

How about a DVD release in the UK?
I am originally from Georgia, U.S.A. and have been living in the UK for more than five years now. I first saw "Deathdream" at a drive-in in Georgia under the title "It Came From The Grave!" back in the 1980's. I then saw it there on VHS video under the title "Deathdream". It was out here in the UK a few years ago on VHS video and played on t.v. here under the title "Dead of Night", which could be confused with the 1945 British classic of the same title. I sincerely hope that Blue Underground will make this DVD release of "Deathdream" available here in the UK very soon. Along with Bob Clark's other classic, "Black Christmas", it is one of my favorite horror films of all-time. It's great to see "Deathdream" finally getting the recognition that it has long deserved.

ANDY'S HOME! 1970'S FRIGHT NIGHT CLASSIC RETURNS TO HAUNT!
Aside from another rediscovered cult classic - LEMORA, A CHILD'S TALE OF THE SUPERNATURAL - DEATHDREAM has always been my favorite horror film from the 1970's that haunted me on numerous late-night TV showings. I've watched this cult classic countless times and have come in contact with numerous bad quality prints on VHS, complete with extremely cheesy box artwork!!! For years I've hoped for a DVD remastering of this special film, and now, thanks to Blue Underground, we have the definitive edition. DEATHDREAM is now in anamorphic widescreen, from a remastered negative and accompanied by juicy extras to please hardcore fans like me! Although there are times when a bit of grain is still noticeable in a few sequences, this is THE version to own.

For the 'virgin viewer,' you're in for a treat. DEATHDREAM is a grim, low-key, and extremely eerie film that benefits from great performances by John Marley, Lynn Carlin, and especially Richard Backus as Andy; a chilling AND moving script by Alan Ormsby; an unsettling music score by Carl Zittrer; grisly makeup effects by Orsmby and a young Tom Savini; and screw-tightening direction by Bob Clark. The overall effect is tragic and haunting.

The film was one of the first to address the cataclysmic after-effects of the Vietnam war when veterans returned to their families. Andy plays one such veteran, a young man whose parents receive the awful news that their son has been killed in action. The night they receive this information there's a knock at their front door. It is Andy, although they are shocked at his pale, sunken face and expressionless demeanor. At first they are elated by his appearance, but as Andy is encouraged by his loved ones to resume where he left off before going off to war, his family begins to realize that something isn't quite right about Andy - something's missing, both physically and emotionally. Eventually they discover that Andy is indeed dead and has come back to them as a bloodthirsty corpse!

The film manages to move and provoke the viewer as well as frighten him/her. There are several truly disturbing sequences, and if you are squeamish about needles (like me) I will warn you that they are Andy's prefered method of obtaining blood! Horror films like these don't appear that often, especially in these irony-addicted times where film-makers seem incapable of taking their subject matter seriously. Despite a low-budget, DEATHDREAM takes itself very seriously and manages to hold up well alongside scare flicks today! Rediscover this long-lost classic ASAP. I recommended viewing this with Bob Clark and Alan Orsmby's other gems - CHILDREN SHOULDN'T PLAY WITH DEAD THINGS, DERANGED and BLACK CHRISTMAS. All are similarly atmospheric and way creepy, although DEATHDREAM, in my opinion, is their masterpiece!

This one will chill you!
This is a very low budget 1972 horror flick concerning the return of a Vietnam vet to small town America after his parents had been notified he was dead. He acts very strange, won't eat or sleep, but has a strange craving... Bob Clark, who would become a huge cult icon with Black Christmas, Christmas Story, Porky's and Murder by Decree, cut his teeth on this low budgeter. His talent shines through. He was lucky enough to get a young Tom Savini to do the bloody effects. Richard Backus plays the young soldier. He is quite restrained and very creepy!
This is one of the first anti-Vietnam War films.
You've probably only seen it on late night TV. Now, Blue Underground releases the film in all it's glory: included are two commentaries (writer and director), an interview with Backus and a short about Savini. This is a must for early 70's horror freaks, and all others are invited to be creeped out!!

Good but not great horror film
Bob Clark's 1974 film Deathdream is a very good try at an American horror movie with a great idea that somehow does not quite gel. Fusing the Vietnam War with the classic tale "The Monkey's Paw", Clark here creates what could have been a minor masterpiece but unfortunately falls short.

The main character, Andy, is a young soldier in the Vietnam War. One day his parents receive the tragic news that he has been killed. They are grief-stricken, of course, but cling to the hope that somehow he may still be alive. The mother, in fact, keeps saying to herself, "You promised me, Andy"--to return, that is.

And one night, he does. Naturally his parents are overjoyed. What they don't know is that Andy has come back as, unfortunately, a walking dead man--a zombie. At first things seem to be relatively normal, but soon enough Andy's condition starts deteriorating and he needs a lot of blood to keep things healthy, so to speak.

The film starts to fall apart as the Andy's condition itself deteriorates and it becomes basically a gorefest--which for gorehounds is fine, but for those of us who want more can be frustrating. While the first half of the film is excellent, the second half sags and that's really too bad.

I would really have loved to give this four stars, but it's just not quite there. ... Read more