Richard Duggan Movies
- 1987
- R
Better known as It's Alive III, Island of the Alive details the further exploits of the murderous mutant infants introduced in director Larry Cohen's It's Alive! (1974). Said infants are shipped off to a desert island, where they are completely cut off from civilization. The government intends to eliminate the penned-up infants, but Michael Moriarty, the father of one of the babies, organizes a protest against this wholesale slaughter. It is clear to anyone who can read that director Cohen is drawing parallels between the quarantined children and society's treatment of AIDS victims. The strength of Cohen's direction and storytelling prowess is slightly weakened by some inadequate special effects in the closing scenes, wherein the babies reproduce and wreak havoc on the Mainland. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Moriarty, Karen Black, (more)
- 1987
A divorced dad and son attempt to build on their newly resurrected relationship by heading back to pop's hometown in up-state Maine. When he gets there, he finds that all the townspeople have turned into 300-year-old vampires. Some say that director Larry Cohen intended the vampire community to be a parody of old-blooded Republicans who so often rule in small-town America. ~ All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Moriarty, Andrew Duggan, (more)
In a crazy spoof of heroic monster movies that spawned two sequels, The Toxic Avenger is about the transformation of a mild-mannered, scrawny janitor into a thundering, muscular hero out for justice, morality, and in one case, a bit of sex. Melvin (Mark Torgl) has a job as a custodian at a work-out club where his humiliating treatment by the musclebound reaches an ugly climax in which Melvin is forced to jump out of a window. He lands in a toxic waste truck, and by some miracle of modern pollution he is transformed into a pumped-up monster, heretofore known as the Toxic Avenger (Mitchell Cohen). From that moment on, TA saves damsels and others in distress by some pretty gory mauling and maiming but finds his moment of fulfillment too. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Andree Maranda, Mitchell Cohen, (more)
Genre pioneer Larry Cohen, who broke new horror ground with the killer-baby hit It's Alive!, takes a stab at the giant-monster scenario with this enjoyable low-budget exercise. The title refers to the winged Aztec god Quetzalcoatl, represented here as a dragon-like flying lizard (thanks to some quaint but amusing stop-motion animation from David Allen), who decides to take up residence in the art-deco spire of the Chrysler Building, taking frequent jaunts in the midday sun to nip the heads off various hapless New Yorkers. The resulting bloody mess confounds detectives Shepard (David Carradine) and Powell (Richard Roundtree), who are already scratching their heads over a series of bizarre ritual murders linked to a secret Aztec cult. Into the picture comes the film's protagonist -- neurotic, sweaty, paranoid crook Jimmy Quinn (Michael Moriarty, in a tour-de-force performance), a two-bit wheel-man with aspirations of becoming a jazz pianist. After a botched diamond heist leads Quinn to Q's lair, his attempts to go straight take a side-turn as he decides to extort from the city an enormous sum in exchange for directions to the monster's nest. A few sneaky deals later, the location falls into Shepard's hands, and he leads a paramilitary assault on the Chrysler Building, where the creature's humongous egg is about to hatch. Rude, edgy, fast-paced, and peppered with witty dialogue (most of which can't be repeated here), Cohen's script retains the spirit of classic monster movies like The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms, injecting it with tough, gangster-movie moxie. Moriarty's unbelievable performance -- one of three collaborations with Cohen -- finds him chewing acres of scenery as a contemptible, loud-mouthed goon who's too funny to hate; Moriarty also composed and performed two schizophrenic piano numbers for the film. ~ Cavett Binion, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Michael Moriarty, David Carradine, (more)
- 1982
The non-existent plot of this mediocre teen beach movie, if it existed, might be described as first going to a party at the beach and then staying at the party for awhile. A group of down-home Italians from Brooklyn, with Anthony (John Cosola) in the lead, settle into a vacation beach house with another group of teens from Philadelphia. Anthony finds his interest focusing on blond Philadelphian Cindy (Kathy McNeil), and the rest of the film follows with the usual pairing off, disagreements, and discussions -- nothing extraordinary. ~ Eleanor Mannikka, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Ileana Seidel, John Cosola, (more)
