Weird Anthology

 

 (themoviedb)

WILD TALES-2014-This is a bizarre black comedy anthology Argentine-Spanish co-production with a ensemble vast. A pre-credits story (“Pasternak”) deals with a plane load of passengers all connected by knowing the same man named Pasternak. In the second, “The Rats”, a waitress meets a customer, a loan shark, who drove her father to suicide. She doesn't know what to do but the cook has an idea. In the third “The Strongest”, a man with a flat tire is terrorized by a driver he insulted earlier. Their fight results in a sardonic ending.

 In “Little Bomb”, a demolition expert runs into problems when his car is towed. His wife wants a divorce, he's arrested then fired from his job. When he uses his expertise to get revenge, well things change. The next and most serious one, “The Proposal”, involves a prominent man who wants to pay his gardener to take the blame for his son's hit and run murder. Everything snowballs but this has too much of an abrupt ending. It ends with “Till Death Do Us Part”. At her wedding a bride finds out that her husband had an affair with one of the guests. It turns into a wedding no one will ever forget.

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In Like Flynn

 

 (imdb)

CRY WOLF-1947-After the death of Jim Demarest, his widow Sandra (Barbara Stanwyck) shows up to claim his estate. His brother Mark (Errol Flynn) doesn't seem to know anything about the marriage or so he says. He keeps a tight rein on his niece Julie (Geraldine Brooks) who hears strange noises and screaming that seem to come from Mark's mysterious and forbidden lab.

Interesting film noir with a twist ending directed by Peter Godfrey who made THE TWO MRS. CARROLLS with Humprey Bogart the same year. Also with Richard Basehart & Jerome Cowan. It's based on a novel by mystery writer Marjorie Carleton.

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Anna May Wong

 (imdb)

 

DAUGHTER OF THE DRAGON-1931-We learn that the evil Fu Manchu went crazy after the accidental deaths of his wife and son during the Boxer Rebellion. He wrongfully blamed Gen. Petrie (Holmes Herbert). Scotland Yard defeated him and he is dead. Now his daughter Ling Moy (Anna May Wong) is an “Oriental dancer”, not knowing who her father is. But it turns out Fu (Warner Oland) is not dead and in fact he kills Petrie with poison tobacco in front of his wife (Nella Walker) and son Ron (Bramwell Fletcher), Sir Basil (Lawrence Grant) and Ah Kee (Sessue Hayakawa). 

Kee shoots Fu but he gets away with help of the butler. He dies but when Ling learns that Fu is her father, she vows to kill Ron, the last Petrie. “I will be your son!”, she declares. Fu makes it seem like Sir Basil and the police kill him while he's in the act of killing Ling so Ling can get close to Ron, whose girlfriend Joan (Francis Dade) doesn't like the fact that Ron is sweet on Ling but Kee also professes his love for Ling. When Ling has a chance to kill Ron, she hesitates having now fallen in love with him but later shows her true self, holding Joan captive and threatening to pour acid on her. 

Sometimes clumsy but well-done mystery drama with a great finale. It's based on the novel “The Daughter of Fu Manchu” by Sax Rohmer. One of 13 films directed by actor Lloyd Corrigan between 1930 & 1937. His penultimate film was NIGHT KEY (1937) with Boris Karloff.

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Not Really Horror

 

 (imdb)

THE EYES OF THE MUMMY-1918-A man, Albert Wendland (Harry Liedtke) becomes obsessed with visiting the tomb of Queen Ma, whose other visitors have had “terrible misfortune” after going there. Wendland can't get anyone to go with him so he goes alone. He meets local Radu (Emil Jannings), who leads him into the tomb and attacks him. Wendland knocks Radu out and investigates, finding a room where he meets a woman also named Ma (Pola Negri) who says she is Radu's prisoner. Wendland whisks her away to Europe and tries to teach her how to act like a European but Radu also goes (with the help of a professor who saved him in the desert) to find her. Wendland gives a party and the male guests are mesmerized by Ma's exotic dance. A variety show agent wants Ma in his show. 2 months later, Ma is a dancing sensation and the professor goes to see her. He brings Radu, now his servant. When Radu sees Ma, the trouble begins. 

 (imdb)

There is no mummy in this silent film production which is good on its own but not really a horror movie. This silent German production was directed by Ernst Lubitsch who later went to Hollywood and directed many famous comedies like NINOTCHKA (1939) and TO BE OR NOT TO BE (1942). 

Star Pola Negri (from Poland) made 3 more movies with Lubitsch, after which she came to Hollywood where she was quite popular and successful in silent films for Paramount for a while. Co-star Jannings would go on to work for FW Murnau, eventually coming to the US and winning the first best actor Academy Award in 1929. His film work for Nazi propaganda films during WW 2 finished his career as an actor after Germany's defeat. Actor Harry Liedtke was killed by The Red Army in 1945.

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A Val Lewton Production

 

 (imdb)

THE LEOPARD MAN-1943-In New Mexico, PR man Manning (Dennis O'Keefe) gets a small leopard for his client Kiki (Jean Brooks) to go to a nightclub with to attract attention. A castanet performer Col-Col (Margo) scares the animal and it runs away. Police search but can't find it. It kills a young girl named Theresa (Margaret Landry). After a woman is killed in a cemetery, Manning and the leopard's owner Charlie How-Come (future director Abner Biberman) believe a man, not the leopard, did the killing. A museum curator Galbraith (James Bell) suspects Charlie. Every time a fortune teller (Isabel Jewell) reads Col-Col's cards, an ace of spades comes up. Sure enough, Col-Col is victim #3. Manning and Kiki decide to catch the killer. 

Small but to the point thriller directed by Jacques Tourneur, one of three classic horror type films he made for producer Val Lewton in 1943. The other two were THE CAT PEOPLE and I WALKED WITH A ZOMBIE! Jean Brooks was also in another Lewton production the same year, THE SEVENTH VICTIM.

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Lee & Cushing

 

 (imdb)

THE CREEPING FLESH-1973-Overzealous scientist Emmanuel Hildern (Peter Cushing) finds an unusual skeleton in Asia and brings it back to London. The doctor has been keeping a secret from his daughter Penelope (Lorna Heilbron) who believes her mother dead. However, Hildern receives a letter from his brother James (Christopher Lee), head of an insane asylum where his wife has been kept for many years and has just died. James is envious and resentful of his brother and tells him so. Later while examining the skeleton, a bony finger seems to grow flesh. Meanwhile James seems to be doing experiments of his own when one of his patients escapes. When Penelope finds out mom's secret, dad goes a little crazy and injects her with the blood from the skeleton finger. She starts to pick up mom's bad habits and winds up killing a sailor. While escaping from an angry mob she hooks up with the escaped lunatic who she later pushes to his death. She's captured and carted off to uncle's asylum. After snooping, James discovers what has happened to Penelope. Then he has the skeleton stolen. A rainstorm wrecks this endeavor and the reanimated skeleton comes looking for its finger. 

 (imdb)

A weird twist ending highlights this story. Michael Ripper has a small role. Often mislabeled a Hammer film, this independent English production shows promise but kind of never really gets going. Cinematographer Freddie Francis replaced Don Sharp as director right before filming started. Francis had directed several Hammer and non-Hammer films including THE EVIL OF FRANKENSTEIN (1964), DR. TERROR'S HOUSE OF HORRORS (1965), TORTURE GARDEN (1967) and DRACULA HAS RISEN FROM THE GRAVE (1968).

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Southern Wolf

 

 (imdb)

WOLFMAN-1979-A son, Colin Glasgow (co-producer Earl Owensby), is summoned to his father's death bed by his cousins (the father is actually stabbed to death). It seems Colin has inherited a curse and he turns into a werewolf when the moon is full. The curse was put on his family by an evil reverend. After a nightly rampage Colin is thrown in jail. The reverend plans on killing Colin's girlfriend but somehow Colin escapes, turns into a wolf and kills the the evil clergyman, unfortunately dying in the process. 

This low budget period piece, very reminiscent of an Andy Mulligan movie, has bad acting & sfx. Star Owensby in the '70's, seemed to have a reputation as a "redneck Roger Corman" based in North Carolina but most of his output didn't get passed the Mason-Dixon line. Director/writer Worth Keeter later worked on the American versions of TV's "Power Rangers" shows.

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