Paid to Kill (1954) a Hammer film noir with some actual noir content! Also suspense, betrayal, and a huge company with a meaningless name!
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- About the Cabal
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- 01: Brainathon ’99
- 02: Bangs'n'Whimpers
- 03: Post-Apocalypso
- 04: Review All Monsters
- 05: Pretty Mad Scientists
- 06: Tainted Love
- 07: Days of Future Past
- 08: Secret Santa
- 09: Catch a Throwing Star
- 10: Four-Color Features
- 11: Big Bugs
- 12: Fish With Bicycles
- 13: Go Go Go-Go Boys!
- 14: paLe IMITATIONS
- 15: We're Gonna Need a Bigger Roundtable
- 16: Whoa… Deja Vu.
- 17: Month of the Living Dead
- 18: B-Masters Beach Party
- 19: Kinji Fukasaku – The Man No Genre Could Tame.
- 20: Home Video Holocaust – The Video Nasties
- 21: Father Dearest: Who's Your Daddy?
- 22: So Sorry…
- 23: Back to the Well
- 24: Another Month of the Living Dead
- 25: The Ottoman Empire Strikes Back
- 26: Rubber Soul
- 27: Shhhhhh
- 28: Month of the Alternative Living Dead
- 29: On Time & Under Budget
- 30: These Kids Today…
- 31: Mea maxima culpa
- 32: Stingathon ’09
- 33: 10,000 B.S.
- 34: Foot Notes
- 35: Don’t Touch That Dial!
- 36: He Conquered the World
- 37: Secret Santa’s Revenge
- 38: At the Movies of Madness
- 39: They Might Be Giants
- 40: The Other Elizabeth Taylor
- 41: The Dark Guys of London
- 42: Falling Stars
- 43: To Be or Not To Be! (Pilot Error)
- 44: Teeth and Tentacles
- 45: Brunoween
- 46: Howl of the B-Masters
- 47: It’s Alive!
- 48: Bad, Black and Beautiful
- 49: Don’t Quit Your Day Job
- 50: B-Mentia 15
- 51: Quelle Horreur!
- 52: Carradine, Thou Wayward Son!
- 53: Tall, Dark and Gruesome
- 54: Pets Gone Wild
- 55: The Bad Place
- 56: From The Bible To Barbarella
- 57: A Fistful Of Pennies
- 58: Hello, Dolly
- 59: No, Not That One!
- 60: Dr Terror’s House Of Honours
- 61: WTF!?
- 62: In The Key Of B
- 63: The Forgotten Dawn Of Horror
- 64: The Most Dangerous Roundtable
- 65: Room For One More
- 66: Were-WHAT?
- 67: The China Anniversary Syndrome
- 68: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 2
- 69: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 3
- 70: The China Anniversary Syndrome: Part 4
- The Links We Love
#1 by PCachu on April 29, 2008 - 8:57 am
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It’s weird that before this review, the only sense in which I’d seen the term “high concept” used was the sarcastic one – to wit, “a central conceit so dumb that your greatest viewing challenge will be simple suspension of disbelief”. Nice to know it also has a positive definition.
Gotta agree about how it applies to this little B-feature, too. This is a plot long overdue for a badly-bungled remake.
#2 by Nathan Shumate on April 29, 2008 - 9:17 am
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Bah. Those sarcastic comments come from elitists who only respect French cinema about two men discussing their bicycle for ninety minutes.
High concept really means that the idea is the star; the twenty-five-words-or-less pitch is cool enough that someone wants to see (or make!) the movie even without any box-office stars.
#3 by Blake Matthews on April 29, 2008 - 10:50 am
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You guys should do a Roundtable built around High-Concept movies.
#4 by Blake Matthews on April 29, 2008 - 2:14 pm
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“Teeth” would count as High Concept, wouldn’t it?
#5 by Nathan Shumate on April 29, 2008 - 3:20 pm
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That’s a little vague. As far as I know ALL the B-Masters have teeth!
#6 by lyzard on April 29, 2008 - 5:35 pm
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Twenty-five words or less, of which four must be: “….and then – get this! – “
#7 by Blake Matthews on April 29, 2008 - 7:08 pm
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Hmm…How about: “A young girl has teeth at the opening of her [flower], and then – get this! It bites off the guys’ members.” That’s a high concept, right?
#8 by Nathan Shumate on April 29, 2008 - 7:24 pm
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Nope. That’s a setup, but not a STORY concept; it doesn’t give any clue where the story’s got to go. (Except direct-to-video, with Julie Strain in a supporting role.)
#9 by Matthew Fudge on April 30, 2008 - 6:57 am
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it’s a bit similar to the strangers on a train concept, no?
#10 by Blake Matthews on April 30, 2008 - 7:46 am
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Leonard Maltin used the term a number of times in his books, the most memorable was for “Space Jam”, which he called “a high concept movie that actually works.” I think he called “My Stepmother is an Alien” high concept as well.