John Herbert Movies
Arrested as a teen in his native Canada, playwright John Herbert's reformatory experience would later become the basis for the play that would bring him fame nearly 20 years after his youthful indiscretions, providing the framework that would serve as the basis to his most popular work, Fortune and Men's Eyes.Following a reading of Herbert's play at the Canadian Shakespeare Festival, a Toronto Star drama critic sent the work to David Rothenberg, a New York publicist who soon served as producer to the play. Opening in February of 1967, Fortune in Men's Eyes ran for a year in the Big Apple before finding success in Herbert's hometown of Toronto. Produced in over 60 countries, Fortune would later become the basis for the Fortune Society, an ex-offender program that prompted wider social consciousness and change within the prison system. Serving on the Advisory Council to the organization, as well as an artistic director to the Maverick Theater, a Toronto-based outfit which he also founded, Herbert also served as a lifetime member of New York's Actor's Studio.
John Herbert died in his sleep on June 22, 2001. He was 75. ~ Jason Buchanan, All Movie Guide
- 1984
This vampire story by Brazilian director Ivan Cardoso is interspersed with humor and nuanced with a 1950s look. A group of young women are performing in a nightclub act called "The Seven Vampires" at a respectable and (apparently) prosperous hotel. While they are play-acting in the beginning, their roles take on another aura after a "killer vegetable" changes a scientist into a vampire. His affinity for the chorus girls threatens to make their vampire personas all the more realistic. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Alvamar Tadei, Andrea Beltrao, (more)
- 1971
- R
John Herbert's stage play Fortune and Men's Eyes first enjoyed a sensational run on Broadway with Sal Minneo in the lead and was originally a fairly tame drama which used prison homosexual activity as a framework around which to base a plea for prison reform. In this screen adaptation, Mineo's role as Smitty, the unfortunate naif sent to prison on a drug charge who becomes a brutal prison leader, is played by Wendell Burton. Basically, this is an earnest prison drama with some small amusement provided by its treatment of prison homosexuality. Michael Greer offers a noteworthy performance as the extremely flamboyant and effeminate "Queenie." While this film has strong language and some nudity, sexual situations are handled discreetly enough for the film to have merited an "R" rating at the time of its release. ~ Clarke Fountain, All Movie Guide
- 1967
This drama of two brothers falsely accused of robbery and murder is based on an actual incident. The miscarriage of justice begins when an honest man with lots of money disappears from a small village. A police lieutenant decides the crime should be solved and throws bogus charges at the innocent brothers, and they admit to being accessories to the crime after being repeatedly tortured. In spite of no evidence of a body or the missing money, the brothers are jailed, and they begin a horrifying journey through the mazes of the justice system. A heroic lawyer never wavers in his attempt to free the two men. ~ Dan Pavlides, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Anselmo Duarte, John Herbert, (more)
- 1961
In this Brazilian detective movie, a gringo gumshoe stalks a murderer. His investigations reveal a ring of counterfeiters. To catch them all, he engineers an ingenious double-cross. Justice prevails. ~ Sandra Brennan, All Movie Guide
- 1957
You knew what you were in for when you saw the title, so don't grouse. Don Taylor stars as a doctor/adventurer who ventures into the South America jungle with explorer Eduardo Cianelli. Taylor and Cianelli stumble upon a race of green-skinned Amazon women, all of whom look suspiciously like unemployed startlets. The Amazons are hold white woman Gianna Segale captive as a good-luck fetish (shades of Trader Horn). Some nice Brazilian location photography by Mario Page lifts this nonsense above the usual perils-in-the-jungle syndrome. Love Slaves of the Amazons was produced, directed and written by Curt Siodmak, who in happier days penned the scripts for Frankenstein Meets the Wolf Man (1942), Son of Dracula (1943) and Beast With Five Fingers (1946). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Don Taylor, Gianna Segale, (more)
