Foster on Film

Antonius Block (Max von Sydow), a disillusioned knight, and Jöns (Gunnar Björnstrand ), his squire, return to Sweden from the crusades, to find a land of fear, ignorance, and fanatical religion, as the black death decimates the population. When Death (Bengt Ekerot) comes for the knight, he challenges the black robed figure to a game of

After several strange kidnappings and attacks, the undersea empire of Mu makes its demands known: Destroy the super-sub Atragon, and then become colonies of Mu. The first of these is tricky as Japan doesn’t know anything about the Atragon. It was a project under the command of Captain Jinguji who supposedly died at the end

Upper-class slacker Tony (James Fox) decides he needs a manservant, so hires the efficient Barret (Dirk Bogarde), who seems almost as anachronistic as Tony, but additionally there is something sinister about him. Tony’s sharp and disdainful fiancée Susan (Wendy Craig) is immediately antagonistic toward Barret, though to little effect. He brings his wanton sister Vera

Window washer J. Pierpont Finch (Robert Morse) finds the self help book, “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” at a magazine stand and decides to use its advice to become a corporate executive in less than a week. Through the help of the guide, plus his own brashness and trickery, he moves quickly

After a man dies at night from the cry of a woman, Don Fernando (Paco Martínez) tells his nephew Dr. Ricardo de Acuna (Ramón Pereda) of the great danger his child is in. All the first born sons of the family die when they are four years old. He claims this is due to a

In a semi-Germanic, semi-British, semi-French Barony somewhere in Europe, the Baroness gives birth to twins, a dark happening as the family prophecy states that the family will end when a younger twin kills the elder in The Black Room (it needs to be pointed out to the rather dim lieutenant that twins don’t pop out

Nuclear Scientist Peter Standish (Tyrone Power) expresses his displeasure with the modern world to his co-worker (Michael Rennie), who tries to pry Standish away from his home and weird thoughts of time travel. Soon after, a lightning strike sends Standish back in time to 1784 and into the body of his ancestor. There he meets

The city in general, and the Alden theater specifically, is being terrorized by a killer known as The Fiend. He’s a limping, cloaked hunchback, but no one has seen his face. Reporter Jean Monroe (June Collyer) publishes that she knows what he looks like, hoping to draw him out, but she hadn’t thought through the

Taylor (Charlton Heston), Landon (Robert Gunner), and Dodge (Jeff Burton) survive the crash of their spaceship on an alien world in the far future. They quickly discover that apes are the intelligent and dominate life form, and the primitive, mute humans are thought of as pests. Taylor is taken captive, where chimpanzee scientist Zira (Kim

Julio César Napoleón (Enrique Herrera) is a high-strung writer of radio thriller plays. His doctor sends him away for a rest, using the name Justiniano Conquián to disguise his fame. However he mistakes an old dark mansion for the sanitarium and he is mistaken for the heir to a fortune, whose name is coincidentally Justiniano

While I cannot say that each of the Swashbucklers I chose changed the genre, I can claim that each is a signpost in the genre’s development (or in some cases, its stability).  But Cyrano de Bergerac is an exception, it is not on that road; it is a detour.  It is different than its predecessors

Mike, having found out that he is going to become an alien, or is already an alien, or is carrying an alien in his head (it’s not clear, and is never made clear) goes off on his own, chased, often in his dreams, by The Tall Man. Reggie tries to either rescue Mike or kill