Robert Emmett Murphy, Jr.

  Panic in Year Zero! (1962)   “An orgy of looting and lust. The day when civilization came to an end!” n the film’s tagline This is a story about a vacation that proves full of surprises. It is both Cruel and Cynical, full of reactionary hypocrisies but also a forceful verisimilitude that leaves a more lasting impression than many other movies on related subjects that are far more sophisticated. It's approach to real crisis tries to be without escapism, but then demonstrates that savagery is escapism that some of us want. I write this with the threat of Nuclea r War all-but-forgotten because the 40-year-long Cold War between USA and Russia/USSR has been over almost as long as it lasted. It ended shockingly abruptly in 1988 when USA President Ronald Reagan, who had previously been a Hardliner opposing USSR, and Soviet Premier Mikhail  Gorbachev, who had previously been a Hardliner supporting the USSR’s Invasion of Afghanistan, publicly demonstrated radical changes ...

  No Way to Treat a Lady (1968)   In the first scene a Catholic Priest with a rich Brogue, Fr. McDowell ( Rod Steiger ), strolls through Manhattan with a spring in his step and being friendly to all. His destination is the apartment of widowed Mrs. Mulloy ( Martine Bartlett ), as he’s just been assigned to the Parish and is introducing himself to all the parishioners. His dismayed to hear of Mulloy lapsed in her Faith, but remains buoyant as he tries to bring her back into the fold. He more-than-a-bit flirtatious as they share a port; he starts to tickle her; he positions himself behind the seated woman …   And Strangles her to Death.   You see, the was no Fr. McDowell and Mrs. Mulloy was the first victim of a Serial Killer who would dominate, in this fiction, NYC headlines much the same way the Real-World “Son of Sam” would just decade-later.     This is a surprising film it makes a more-believable-than-average stab at exploring the Impen...