Lord Of The Jungle

 

 (imdb)

TARZAN AND THE AMAZONS-1945-Palmiria is a hidden city of women led by an old queen (Maria Ouspenskaya). Tarzan (Johnny Weismuller) and Boy (Johnny Sheffield) go up river to meet Jane (Brenda Joyce in her first of 5 Tarzan movies), who's been in England. Along the way the lord of the jungle saves an Amazon and takes her back to the hidden city. Meanwhile, Jane brings along family friend Sir Guy Henderson (Harry Stephenson) and some other goomers. Post operator Ballister (Barton MacLane) gets an eye full of a gold bracelet that the girl dropped and Cheetah picked up. Sir Guy and his archaeologists are interested too. Tarzan won't take them to the secret land but angry Boy does. 

Once there, the groups' lives are spared but they must remain in Pal-miria for the rest of their lives serving the sun god. The woman who Tarzan saved helps them escape but Ballister gets greedy and wants all the gold. He kills the woman and Sir Guy. Amazons pick off the escaping crooks but Ballister and his flunky Anders (Don Douglas) escape with some sacred relics. Boy is condemned to death (it really was all his fault). When Tarzan confronts the greedy duo, they fall into quicksand and die. Tarzan returns the relics and saves Boy. Cheetah is really annoying in this. 

German born Kurt Neumann (SECRET OF THE BLUE ROOM (1933)) would also direct the next two installments in the series and in 1958 made THE FLY (his last film).

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Regression Is Believing?

 

 (imdb)

REGRESSION-2015-In this cacophony of devil worship, incest, psycho-logical bather, cannibalism, religious fervor and characters with shitty attitudes, a police detective (an over wrought Ethan Hawke) and a psychoanalyst (David Thewlis) hunt for a satanic cult. A traumatized young woman (Emma Watson), a victim of the cult, may have an answer. 

Somewhere in this sick little horror thriller is a good story with a point but it's lost in the pretentious script, Hawk's weird acting and dull, gues-sable ending. Spanish director Alejandro Amenabar (THE OTHERS (2001)) seemed to be in over his head.

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Bela On Tor, I Mean Tour

For some reason, in 1940, long before he hosted 

a long running TV variety show, newspaper columnist Ed Sullivan put together something 

called the "Stardust Calvacade", a type of vaudeville tour featuring several actors including none other than the great Bela Lugosi!

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Motel

 

 (themoviedb.org)

NIGHT SHIFT-2023-A young woman named Gwen (Phoebe Tonkin) takes a job on the overnight shift at an isolated motel. After getting the run-down of the place from Teddy (Lamorde Morris), the owner, she settles in. Almost immediately after he leaves, weird things start to happen. There's one mysterious female guest, strange noises and an ominous phone call from an empty room. A car drives by several times. She strikes up a friendship with Alice (Madison Hu), the female guest. Later, an S & M couple show up and Gwen falls into the unused pool. She sees ghosts. Alice tells Gwen the motel is one of the most haunted places around. She in turn tells Alice about a guy who murdered her sisters and tried to kill her. He was in jail but broke out recently. 

Toward the end, the story changes gear a little and gets typically gory and mean spirited and the ending isn't that great but not a bad effort (even though you'll be able to guess what's really going on). Written and directed by two brothers from the UK, Benjamin and Paul China.

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Dragon

 

 (blackbeltmag.com)

BLOODFIST-1989-After his brother is killed in Manila, Jake Raye (Don “The Dragon” Wilson), an American martial arts instructor goes there and gets involved in a fighting tournament trying to find his brother's killer. A local named Kwong (Joe Mari Avellana) helps him train. Jake eventually has to face his brother’s killer, Chin Woo (Chris Agular). But things aren't exactly as Jake sees them. One of The fighters is played Billy Blanks (the creator of “Tae-Bo” in his 4th movie). It also features Vic Diaz as a cop. 

This martial arts film was directed by Terence H. Winkless (THE NEST (1987)) and features some good fights but not as flashy as some “aficionados” might like. It was professional kickboxer Don Wilson's first big role and put him on the map, spawning 6 sequels.

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Snake Bit

 

 

SNAKE EATER-1989-Some undercover cop called Soldier (Lorenzo Lamas) is after revenge on some redneck hillbillies led by the crazed Junior (Robert Scott) who murdered his parents and kidnapped his sister. King (singer Ronnie Hawkins), a guy who rents out boats, converts Soldier's motorcycle into watercycle and he goes into the forest to find the gang. King's daughter kind of gets in the way. A scene at the end with the whiny nerd (Ron Palillo from TV's “Welcome Back Kotter”) seems tacked on. Former pro football player Larry Csonka is a cop. 

It spawned three sequels though Gary Daniels played the lead in part 4. Besides, the first two sequels director George Erschbamer later directed episodes of The New Addams Family TV Show in 1998.

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Tell Tale

 

 (imdb)

THE AVENGING CONSCIOUS or THOU SHALT NOT KILL-1914-A man (Henry B. Walthall) is raised by his uncle. When he's an adult (and Edgar Allan Poe fan), he works for the old man (Spottiswoode Aitken). All goes well until he meets a young woman Anabel (Blanche Sweet). He spends more time with her than uncle would like. When the uncle insults her, nephew quits. At a party, they meet “the stranger” (Ralph Lewis). When the nephew realizes that as long as his uncle is around, he and the girl can never be happy, he plots to kill uncle. 

Unfortunately, for him “the Italian” (George Siegman) sees him murdering unk and blackmails him. Nephew walls up the corpse in the fireplace. His guilt gets the best of him and he sees his uncle's ghost and has a breakdown. He goes to a sanitarium and seems to be cured but he suspects the stranger to be a detective (he's right) and hires the Italian to keep an eye out. Later, while being questioned by the detective, he has a fiery vision of demons in hell. He goes insane at the sight of his uncle's ghost and reenacts the murder in front of the detective. He flees but is pursued by a posse and hangs himself. The girl commits suicide but…. 

This DW Griffith directed adaptation based on Edgar Allan Poe's “The Tell Tale Heart” is sometimes called the first great American horror movie. The ending might be a letdown to some. It also features the ill-fated Wallace Reid as a doctor.

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