Flareup

In my high school years, I was a big Raquel Welch fan and here is a title that I missed when it was first released which alluded me until now. Warner Archive has released Director James Neilson's 'FLAREUP'-1969, a missed opportunity bogged down by a lame script by television series scribe, Marc Rodgers. If the beginning did not contain topless scenes of girls go-go dancing, it resembles the assembly line Movie of the Week television excursions that flooded the home screens at that time and TV director Neilson treats the material in that fashion. Witnessing her girl friend gunned down by spurned ex-husband Luke Askew in a scene stealing performance, she becomes his next target which causes her to go on the run. The film should have escalated into a 'RUN LOLA RUN' type actioner but it slowly plummets into a soapy affair as Raquel finds herself falling for night club owner James Stacy. It takes over 95 minutes for Askew to catch up with Raquel for the supposed nail biting climax but by then, nobody cares. Raquel is excellent in the lead showing what an underrated actress she truly was. Her career would take a slight slump following this film with Director Joseph McGrath's 'THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN'-1969 and Director Michael Sarne's silly mess 'MYRA BRECKINRIDGE'-1970. Actor James Stacy known for his television work including his series 'LANCER'-1968-1970 can't seem to carry the leading man spot causing Raquel to shine on her own. Character actor Luke Askew was a pro at playing psycho roles and this one is no exception. He would go on to make the cult Spaghetti Western , Director Guilio Petroni's 'NIGHT OF THE SERPENT' aka 'LA NOTTE DEI SERPENTI' and available from Wild East Productions as 'NEST OF VIPERS' the same year. There is a nice cameo by actress Jean Byron (billed as Jeane) as a go-go club owner. With straight on photography by Andrew J. McIntyre and music by AIP stalwart Les Baxter, it emerges as a routine thriller at best recommended for hard core Raquel fans only (you know who you are). Warner Archive releases it in a nice 1.85 DVD-R transfer with an original trailer pushing Raquel as the world's most wanted woman as its only extra.

Raquel Welch heats up the screen in a big way in this 1969 action-thriller. After starring with Frank Sinatra in "Lady In Cement"(1968), which was Sinatra's sequel to "Tony Rome"(1967), and before starring in 1970's trio of "Fathom", "The Magic Christian", & "Myra Breckinridge", Raquel squeezed in this melodrama in which she plays the role of a Go-Go dancer who gets stalked by a homicidal maniac who blames her for the breakup of his marriage. After the character played by Luke Askew guns down his estranged wife, he then goes gunning for Raquel. The action shifts from Las Vegas to Los Angeles, where Raquel is helped by James Stacy, who plays her new friend who quickly becomes her possible love-interest. The film moves along quite well except for the scenes with Stacy who is intent on both protecting Welch, as well as courting her. Naturally, with a killer on her trail, as well as having some "daddy-issues" hindering her relationship with Stacy, the plot does tend to get bogged down. Actually, in terms of credibility, there are some plot holes that could fill The Grand Canyon. The film does provide some nice eye-candy between Welch and some of the other Go-Go dancers and the location filming of several night spots in both Las Vegas and L.A. is easy on the eyes. When Welch shifts to L.A., she works at a strip-club named "Losers". One of the signs on the club signs reads "Topless-Bottomless and LSD Shows". So the film dates itself but film lovers of 60's will actually enjoy the film even more because of this. For all of those viewers, add another star to make it 4. Actually, for sheer entertainment without too much thought, Raquel, the look of the film, and the pace of the action scenes will satisfy. As expected, Raquel is very nice to view in her Go-Go outfit. The running time of the film is 100 minutes, it is in Widescreen, and the digital transfer is close to pristine. RECOMMENDED! SMRZ!!

The faux Maurice Binder-like opening title sequence should cue you in on what to expect with "Flareup". If that doesn't do it Les Baxter's theme music by way of Mike Curb should do the trick. This is a Lifetime movie if it were conceived by Austin Powers. Star Raquel Welch seems pretty clueless in her one-note readings. It's as though she's working on a Sports Illustrated swimsuit spread instead of a dramatic venture. Strange as well is some of Welch's nameless co-stars appear topless while she has one dance sequence in a low-cut leotard. Luke Askew does get the film's camp potential doing his best Dennis Hopper playing a deranged killer. It's without irony that Askew appeared in "Easy Rider" with Hopper the same year this film was released. Welch's love interest played by James Stacy is kind of reminiscent of Alec Baldwin. "Flareup" isn't a great film but if you are looking for some unintended hoots this is the flick for you.

New as stated, good packing, easy transaction. Also, Raquel Welch is a horrible actress. With the right one this could have been so much better. Stacy carried the whole movie.

As a long time fan of Raquel Welch ever since I watched One Million Years B.C. in the theater as a kid, this movie is only bested by Fathom in my opinion. Unfortunately there was just a single Raquel dancing scene and the one by Mary Wilcox was even more smooth and sensual. The plot was better than average and Luke Askew played the psychotic killer so perfectly that his hair style was used for actor Jim Carrey's character in Dumb and Dumber decades later.

weird that luke askew did this movie

What a gem! From the title sequence to watching Raquel Welch shake it all as a GoGo dancer. Add Luke Askew as a psychotic to the mix and you get a great little B-film from the 60s. Highly recommended!

This is a review for the Warner Archive DVD. Regarding this review, this item was viewed upscaled through a panasonic blu ray player to 1080p onto my 55" Samsung LED.Firstly, ignore Amazon's description, this is a Region Free disc and will play anywhere. Print is excellent for a non-restored movie. Colours are rich, image is nice and sharp. Aspect ratio is 1.85:1 (16.9 enhanced). Runtime is actually 98 minutes according to my BR player's counter. Audio is English only. There are no subtitle options. Disc contains no extras. I can't moan too much about the lack of extras, Warner Archive make a lot of obscure titles available, so I can live with the no-frills.First gripe: The film itself has a strange 'made-for-tv' feel about it. The script is very bland in places and could have done with someone on hand to re-write some of the awful dialogue.Second gripe: The killer, whom we know from literally the first scene, is played by Luke Askew, and frankly he is the worst actor I have witnessed for a long time. Wooden is not the word, a concrete slab could display more emotion. Even angry with his ex at the start, just before gunning her down in full view of everyone in the cafe, he is blank. Also, he is in more scenes than I would have liked, and his hair cut is appalling!Third, and WORST gripe: Raquel Welch is the only dancer in a Topless Dancing Club, to NOT dance topless. The girl before her act dances topless. The trio of girls dancing after her act, yep, are topless. Miss Welch, during her few minutes dancing remains, well, practically full clothed in topless club speak. The costume (cover of DVD), is very nice, shows her perfect figure off beautifully. It would have been more believable if the club hadn't been a topless one.Final gripe: They wrote two major scenes where Raquel has to, well, do some proper acting. One scene, where she is supposed to be distraught and shouts at her friends for talking too much (the aforementioned woman gunned down by the concrete slab was one of her best friends, and a fellow dancer), she isn't convincing. Another scene calls for her to be in fear of her life, again, not a strong point. A bit of odd screaming, and a screwing up of the face. Oh, and must not forget, the scene where she is running from the killer through a zoo late at night, she just keeps falling over all the time, not just the once to increase tension, but about six times, just to make her look clumsy. Still she is in heels, and there might have been some wet leaves around?OK, now you are wondering why the four stars. Well, the scene were she finally shows down with the killer is pretty good, fairly graphic and, based on the rest of the film was a shocking and good surprise.The above gripes only account for about 10 minutes of the runtime. The rest of the time, Raquel is in her comfort zone, dressed in fabulous costumes when working. Very high cut shorts when out and about. She gets to fool around and fall in love with a guy, she's all smiles and charm. Light and not too taxing, the way we like to see Raquel - playing to her strengths. Why her agent didn't just keep her in comedies and light stuff, I haven't a clue. Most great actors from that era just stuck to what their strengths were, and made great careers from it and where never criticised for it. Let's face it, the closest John Wayne every got to acting was in The Searchers, the rest of the time he was just John Wayne.As you will have guessed, I am a huge Raquel fan and this purchase was to fill one of the gaps in my collection. Raquel in her prime is worth 4 stars to me.If you are not Raquel fan, but are just interested in rare and obscure movies, then, if i am honest, it's a 2.5 or maybe a 3.Purchased on Amazon UK Jan 2020, cost £8.49 (incl pp) at time of purchase.

Well received and in perfect condition.

enjoyed this movie even though Raquel cant act. James Stacy is excellent in this film.

typical 60's film

Arrived on time , still a good movie.