Survival of The Sequel

SURVIVAL OF THE DEAD-2009-This is an off shoot of George Romero's last "dead" film (DIARY OF THE DEAD) as some stupid renegade National Guardsmen who appeared briefly in DAIRY are the focal point of this weird story. On Plum Island off of Delaware, two stereotypical Irish clans feud over how to deal with their un-dead brethren. The one leader Seamus Muldoon has the other leader Patrick O'Flynn banished from the island. After some inventive zombie deaths and arguing the soldiers (with a young smart ass just called "Boy") meet up with O'Flynn and return to the island.

After more in fighting they try to make a zombie eat a horse. There's a lot of talk in between zombie encounters but I really didn't know what to make of it all. This is by far the most disappointing Romero movie ever! 

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Harrington/Hopper

NIGHT TIDE-1961-A lonely sailor named Johnny (Dennis Hopper) roams a seaside carnival. He goes to a Jazz club (where Jim Horn plays the flute in a combo) and meets Mora (Laura Lawson) who plays a mermaid in a local act run by Capt. Murdock (Gavin Muir). Mora also seems disturb by an old woman who follows her around. Johnny learns from the merry go round proprietor's daughter (Luana Anders) that Mora's last two boyfriends were found dead. After the two meet several times, Murdock warns Johnny that in fact Mora is part of a race of mermaids and some day they will come to reclaim her. 

Later he visits an old fortune teller (the always ancient looking Marjorie Eaton from MONSTROSITY/THE ATOMIC BRAIN) and has a dream where he's kissing Mora and is suddenly wrestling with an octopus. This haunting,dream-like fantasy is done very well but some might be disappointed by the conclusion. 

This was cult director Curtis Harrington's first full length feature (he also wrote the screenplay). His next (not counting VOYAGE TO THE PREHISTORIC PLANET) QUEEN OF BLOOD also featured Hopper.

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The Great Morgan

THE GREAT MORGAN-1946-Character actor Frank Morgan (who played the wizard in THE WIZARD OF OZ IN 1939) plays himself in this unusual MGM musical comedy. Morgan is tired of being an actor and getting no respect so he decides to produce his own movie. This seems to really be a compilation of MGM shorts and musical segments. A Pete Smith short "Badminton" and one of John Nesbitt's "A Passing Parade" shorts are shown in their entirety. Other performances are cut scenes from other musical productions and include a tap dancing Eleanor Powell, The King Sisters, Tommy Dorsey and Virginia O'Brien (she's also in THE BIG STORE with The Marx Bros.). It's all kept together by having Morgan and the studio head (played by Leon Ames) watch it. The funny gag ending involving the famous MGM lion is pretty good. It was the only movie directed by Nat Perrin who began his film career writing gags for early Marx Bros. movies and did the screenplays for the Abbott & Costello movies KEEP 'EM FLYIN' and PARDON MY SARONG. 

Originally made only to be shown in Europe for some reason, it was once considered a lost film.

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Hammer In India

THE STRANGLERS OF BOMBAY-1959-This black and white Hammer production takes place in India in the 1830's when the country was still under British control. Capt. Harry Lewis (Guy Rolfe who starred DR. SARDONICUS the next year) investigates the disappearance of caravans belonging to the East India Company. The culprits are The Thuggees,a murderous cult that worship the god Kali and strangle their victims with "the sacred cloth". 

It's fairly gruesome for the time with eyes burned out,severed hands, torture and Lewis staked to the ground while a cobra attacks. Alan Cuthberson is the pompous Captain who's actually in charge and Roger Delgado (the first Master on the original DR.WHO) has an un-credited role. Director Terence Fisher made THE MUMMY,THE MAN WHO COULD CHEAT DEATH and THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES the same year. Screenwriter David Zelag Goodman later wrote STRAW DOGS,LOGAN'S RUN and other high profile productions. 

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Shark Bait

OPEN WATER-2003-A couple (Blanchard Ryan and Daniel Travis) leave their hectic life to take a vacation in the Bahamas. While scuba diving they are left behind in the water after a the crew screws up the head count. The rest of the movie has the two trying to survive while sharks draw closer. 

This unusual movie is not really a horror film as it was sometimes advertised. It's also not made like a typical Hollywood commercial release either. The director/screenwriter Chris Kentis (and his wife) financed the movie and filmed it over a period of 2 years. There are no CGI effects. Those are real sharks (much of the budget went to a professional "shark wrangler"). You might find it a little tedious at first but it builds to an excellent climax. And be sure to watch the credits! It's based on a true incident. Kent had made one film before this called GRIND in 1997.

Note: I just found out there is an OPEN WATER 2!(Everyone probably knows that already!)

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The Exiles

THE EXILES-1961-This documentary style drama depicts 12 hours in the lives of some American Indians living in a rundown area of Los Angeles. One character Yvonne sadly reflects on her life, pregnancy and marriage to Homer her unemployed husband who spends most of his time drinking with his friends,fighting and hitting on women while neglecting her. Most of the main characters expound on their lives past and present and their feelings and needs. It's well done and honest but bleak. At the end as the sun raises one character says "Let's do it again tonight!". Director Kent MacKenzie only made a few documentaries after this. He died in 1960.

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Why This Title?

KILLER ELITE-2011-This is not a remake of the Sam Peckinpah movie (although it came out around the same time as the STRAW DOGS remake). It's based on a novel called "The Feather Man". 

Jason Statham is Danny, an ex-member of Great Britain's Elite Air Service who gets back into things when his mentor Hunter (Robert DeNiro) is kidnapped and held hostage by a military renegade (Clive Owen). To save Hunter's life he must kill three assassins. It's an overly complicated drawn out action outing that Statham is typically associated with and basically proves three time Oscar winner DeNiro will do mostly anything late in his career. Also with Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbajie (from TV's LOST),Dominic Purcell (also in the STRAW DOGS remake) and Yvonne Strahovski. This was Gary McKendry's first full length directorial effort.

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Terror Anyone?

THE NIGHT HOLDS TERROR-1955-Nice guy Gene Coutier (Jack Kelly who was in CULT OF THE COBRA the same year) picks up a hitchhiker (Vince Edwards) who turns out to be part of a trio of thugs (along with David Cross and leader John Cassavetes). They take him and his family hostage while waiting over night to sell his car. The future BEN CASEY takes a shine to Mrs. Coutier (Hildy Harris) in the long night that follows similar in plot to THE DESPERATE HOURS (made the same year). When the trio learns Courtier's father (Jonathan Hale) is rich they decide to hold him for ransom. Usual comic actor Jack Kruschen has a small role as a detective.

Strangely, Courtier narrates parts of it ala DETOUR then suddenly another narrator chimes in to explain police procedure. Also with Barney Phillips. Cross later played Pax the clicker in CREATION OF THE HUMANOIDS. Writer/director Andrew Stone later made THE RING OF FIRE and THE LAST VOYAGE. Based on a true story they say.

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K-Horror

FEBRUARY 29-2006-This Korean horror tale begins with a young woman Ji-yeon relating a story to a reporter in an insane asylum where she is confined. It starts when she receives a bloody toll card from an unseen driver of a black car during a blackout. There is a murder and it seems there is someone going around impersonating her. It all has to do with a curse and a ghost that comes back every four years to kill. Two cops try to help her after her friend is murdered but wind up dead. It has a strange ending but really isn't better than any other Asian horror film in recent years. Directed by Jong-hun Jung.

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'40's Mystery

I WAKE UP SCREAMING-1941-Smiling promoter Frankie Christopher (Victor Mature) takes waitress Vicky Lynn (Carole Landis) and makes her a high society gal. She winds up murdered and a weird cop (Laird Cregar) seems to want to pin the murder on Christopher who winds up falling in love with Vicky's sister Jill (top billed Betty Grable). Alan Mowbray is an actor/friend and Allyn Joslyn is a columnist. Elisha Cook Jr. is a suspicious desk clerk and Morris Ankrum is the grouchy chief of police. It's a dark little crime drama (with much of the story told in flashbacks) but no one wakes up screaming. Also with William Gargan, Chick Chandler and Charles Lane. Mature and Landis had been in ONE MILLION BC a year earlier. Director H. Bruce Humberstone uses some film noir techniques to enhance the whole thing.

Thanks once again to Tony for this!

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Modern Melville

MOBY DICK-2010-In this modern update of the Herman Melville classic Barry Bostwick is the scarred maimed whale obsessed Captain Ahab, the renegade commander of a super nuclear submarine that happens to be called The Peqoud. Coincidently his first mate is named Starbuck. The revenge driven Captain is hunting the "white whale" of legend now a gigantic (CGI) monster who eats other whales .

He "commandeers" a biologist (Renee O'Connor who was on the TV series ARK at the time) and her assistant (Derrick Scott) to help in his quest. Unfortunately the Navy thinks Ahab is responsible for all the destruction Moby is causing and sends another Captain (Matt Lagan) to stop him.

In a way this is an admirable attempt to modernize the story and Bostwick is good in the lead but it's just another made for video "giant creature" movie that usually debuts on the SyFy channel (which this did). The crazed badly executed climax takes place on a small island where Ahab (with a weird mechanical harpoon) confronts his nemesis (the whale actually comes on land for one attack!) and nearly everyone dies.

Director Trey Stokes did visual effects for movies like ROBO COP 2, STARSHIP TROOPERS and THE POLAR EXPRESS. This was made by The Asylum, a movie company that known for making other quickie " modern updates". Thanks to Tony.

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Lost Crap

THE LOST TRIBE-2010-After some "mysterious" pre-credit scenes involving a archeological expedition, 5 idiots on a boat pick up a guy floating in the water. He winds up crashing their boat, stranding them on a jungle island. While they argue and act oblivious to the weird actions around them they are knocked off one by one by some strange creatures. A flashback shows that the island is inhabited by mankind's "missing link" and the Catholic Church will stop at nothing to kill anyone who finds out! Lance Henriksen has a 3 scenes as a killer but this just degenerates into some kind of PREDATOR/CONGO climax.

Apparently this is a remake of a film from 2008 called THE FORGOTTEN ONES. Director Roel Reine' (from The Netherlands) also made BLACK OPS and THE MARINE 2.

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Android Antics

ANDROID APOCALYPSE-2006-In the future, a domed city called Phoenix is surrounded by wasteland. Human like androids with no feelings do most of the human dirty work. An idiot named Jute (Scott Bairstow from the TV shows PARTY OF FIVE and WOLF LAKE) who hates androids and loses his job to one gets sent to a prison camp called Terminus for "killing" one. When the vehicle transporting the prisoners is attacked Jute winds up in the desert handcuffed to an android named DeeCee (Joey Lawrence from TV's BLOSSOM). Of course they team up to fight the evil androids chasing them. Meanwhile some mad android scientist experiments on humans in this boring Sci-Fi nonsense with no apocalypse that I could see!

Pro-wrestler Chris Jericho has a small role. From Paul Ziller, director of SNAKEHEAD TERROR and BEYOND LOCH NESS.

Thanks again to Tony and thanks to anyone who reads this!

Stunt Rock

STUNT ROCK-1980-Real life Australian stuntman Grant Page stars as himself. After doing many high profile, death defying stunts in his native country he comes to America to work on a TV series. Along the way he meets up with an '80's metal hair band called "Sorcery" complete with screeching lead singer and masked keyboardist. They do a weird "good wizard vs. bad wizard" act when they perform and seem more inspired by Spinal Tap than Led Zeppelin. Page also hooks up with actress Monique van de Ven (playing herself) and a reporter (Margret Gerald). Though the reporter and TV series are fictional this is partially a overview of Page's career and includes scenes with some of his work (like MAD DOG MORGAN) while also highlighting the easy to hate band.

Director Brian Trenchard-Smith worked on THE MARTY FELDMAN SHOW before making movies like ESCAPE 2000, BMX BANDITS and DEAD END DRIVE.

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They Got The First Four Letters Right

THE MESSENGERS-2007-A man (Dylan McDermott) and his family move into a isolated haunted farmhouse. Mom (Penelope Ann Miller) and troubled daughter (Kristen Stewart from TWILIGHT) don't seem to get along too well but that's the least of their problems. Crows hang around threateningly and their small son sees weird apparitions. Later on the daughter is terrorized by the house and some dead people in the basement. No one believes her though. Dad is more concerned about his sunflower harvest. John Corbett is a friendly but suspicious handyman. William B. Davis hangs around for a while wanting to buy the place as the family begins to disintegrate. This cliché ridden nonsense, full of false scares and boredom was made by Oxide and Danny Pang, the Pang brothers who made EYE 2 and BANGKOK DANGEROUS.

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Aliens & Vikings

OUTLANDER-2008-An alien named Kainan (Jim Caviezel; Jesus in Mel Gibson's THE PASSION OF THE CHRIST) crash lands on Earth during the time of The Vikings, who are lead by the old Hrothgar (John Hurt, acting a little John Carradine-ish at times). He thinks Kainan is a spy. Unfortunately for the violent unkempt barbarians Kainan has brought along a little extra company in the form of something called a Moorwen, sort of an ALIEN inspired monster that likes to eat people and animals. The Moorwen was a stowaway on Kainan's space ship when it crashed landed. Even though The Vikings believe in Norse gods, frost giants, Valhalla and such they have a problem with Kainan's story even after they are attacked and several warriors are killed. Later a search party kills a giant bear and they all think the trouble is over and Kainen becomes "one of them".

Zack Huston plays Wulfric, the rival to Kainan for the affections of Freya (Sophia Myles who was in the first two UNDERWORLD movies). Ron Perlman is Gunnar the leader of an enemy tribe who winds up teaming up with them to stop the still living Moorwen. Together they devise a trap to kill the creature but it doesn't exactly work.

Although this derivative nonsense was inspired by PATHFINDER and THE LORD OF THE RINGS it also owes props to Roger Corman's ATTACK OF THE GIANT LEECHES! Director Howard McCain wrote the sequel UNDERWORLD: RISE OF THE LYCANS.

Thanks again to Tony and to anyone reading this!

Deliever Us From Bad Zombie Movies

ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE-2011-More nonsense of the living dead! First the infected VM2 virus appears in France. Then few days later 83% of Europe is effected. A plane crashes into Big Ben and then Japan is wiped out. Then somehow the virus appears in Iowa! Soon the virus spreads across the whole of the USA! Our government does its best to wipe it out but SIX MONTHS LATER (when our tale takes place) towns and cities are full of zombies. Ving Rhames (who was also in DAWN OF THE DEAD 2 aka DAY OF THE DEAD which this thing resembles) leads a group of survivors headed for Catalina. They also meet another group that uses bows and arrows. Between smashing and decapitating (and running) the group talks a lot about themselves. Later an undead tiger shows up. Director Nick Lyons also made GRENDEL and SPECIES: THE AWAKENING. An Asylum production.

Thanks again to Tony for getting me this!

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"That's All Ya Got? Ain't Ya Got No Geek or Nothin'?"

SHE FREAK-1967- After a rather lengthy intro showing scenes from a country carnival (with some dizzying shots from a Ferris wheel) a barker explains "There are only two kinds of freaks . Those created by God and those made by man" when touting their unseen big freak attraction.

The story then goes flashback to Jade (Claire Brennen) an unhappy waitress in a greasy spoon run by Greasy (Claude Earl Jones). When a carnival agent (Ben Moore from HG Lewis' 2000 MANIACS) passes through, Jade decides to join up with the troupe where she becomes....a waitress!

She's befriended by a stripper named Moon (Lynn Courtney) and seems to get along ok until she sees the freaks (all we see is a woman who kisses a python and a sword shallower) and gets upset. Later on she's romanced by the "freak show" owner Mr. St John (Bill McKinney in his film debut) but also has an affair with a roustabout named Blackie (Lee Raymond who later directed THE ADULT VERSION OF DR. JECKYLL AND MR. HYDE). Meanwhile Shorty, (future cousin Itt Felix Silla) hangs around ominously. She and St. John get married but her animosity towards the freaks continues. She also continues her affair with Blacky and when St. John catches them Blacky kills him. Jade takes over the show and her first order of business is to fire Shorty. Finally the unseen "freaks" take their revenge (a fire eater, strange looking old lady, a skinny guy and a wild man) and turn her into "one of them". Greasy has the last laugh in the finale which ends with a Bible quote!

SHE FREAK is obviously an un-credited remake of the Tod Browning classic FREAKS and you know right away once the star freak isn't show at the beginning. The best part is really the actual footage of the carnivals being erected and packed up plus many of the rides and attractions in action. There's some bad acting and dialogue but much of it is long non-dialogue scenes with musical background. The weirdest part is that no "real" freaks are seen till the very end which may have disappointed movie goers.

A lot of exploitation hands were in on SHE FREAK. It was written and produced by exploitation vet David Friedman and Byron Mabe directed and edited it. Don Sonney was a co-producer and Ed Wood associate Harry Thomas did the make-up. Billy Allen did the cool guitar/percussion soundtrack. Director of photography Bill Troiano worked other weird stuff like THE MUMMY AND THE CURSE OF THE JACKALS. William Bagdad (from TV Mikels movies) has a funny role as a tough guy who gets stabbed with a screwdriver.

A real carnival magician, The Great Vanteen has a small role too (according to his website he also played "the wild man" who attacks Jade in the climax). This is just about the only movie star Claire Brennan made (she did some TV later on). According to IMDB she and co-star Felix Silla had a child together. She died of cancer in 1977 at the age of 43. Roadshow legend Donn Davidson created an alternate version called ASYLUM OF THE INSANE which featured one or two added scenes.

Thanks to my pal Tony for getting me this and thanks for reading!

From Japan

HOUSE-1977-This whacky story from Japan begins with two school girls, Gorgeous and Fantasy who are best of friends. Gorgeous plans to spend her summer vacation with her father until she meets dad's new wife. She gets mad and decides to go and stay at her aunt's house in the country. She brings along Fantasy and 5 equally unusual named friends: Mac (who likes to eat), Professor (a nerd), Sweet (who likes cleaning), Kung-Fu (who likes martial arts) and Melody (who plays the piano).

The happy group meets the lonely wheel chair bound aunt but it's obvious this is no ordinary old lady. She actually likes to eat unmarried girls! This is a very bizarre but entertaining horror-comedy (with touches of fantasy) with wild special effects, a possessed cat, a killer piano, Shaw Bros. like fights, animation, a laughing skeleton and severed limbs. And unlike most "teens in a haunted house" outings I really felt bad seeing the cute little girls being terrorized! The music is great too!

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Round and Round

THE IRON ROSE-(La Rose De Fer)-1973 -A couple (Francoise Pascal and  Hugues Quester) meet at a wedding. After running around some railroad cars they decide to take a stroll through a cemetery. They have a picnic there and talk about death and graves and morbid subjects. It's a scary looking place that has some unusual visitors like a guy in a long cape and a circus clown! The two find an unoccupied underground mausoleum and have sex there. When they're done night has fallen. Soon they discover they can not find their way out of the graveyard (kind of like THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT). The rest of the film has them going round and round, their panic and fear growing until they literally begin to fight each other (although they do find time to make out among old bones and skulls). Later the girl (possessed or insane?) locks her lover in the underground grave, does a ballet dance around the still dark graveyard then joins him in the tomb. Hmmmmm???

Cult director Jean Rollin (ZOMBIE LAKE) was known more his nude sex vampire movies (all three of which are missing in THE IRON ROSE) but this is more of a well photographed art film with horror trappings. It's not terrible. Just something you might not be expecting if you settled in to watch a film by a director known for things like CAGED VIRGINS, LIPS OF BLOOD and CURSE OF THE LIVING DEAD.

I thought the clown would show up again!

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Killer Santa

YOU BETTER WATCH OUT-1980-A Santa obsessed psycho named Harry (Brandon Maggart) spies on his neighbors and keeps records on the local children (who's naughty, who's nice). He's mesmerized while watching a Santa Claus parade on TV and makes his own costume. He hums Christmas tunes and makes a lot of toys which he delivers to a children's hospital on Christmas Eve but when he is ridiculed by some church going assholes he kills 3 of them with some toys. He later goes to a party and dances with the women and kids there. Then he kills a jerk who bothered him at work by slashing his throat with a Christmas tree star. An emotionless TV reporter says: "Avoid anyone dressed as Santa". Harry blames his brother (Jeffery DeMunn, as of this writing a regular on THE WALKING DEAD) for most of his problems after he saw his dad (dressed as Santa) having sex with his mom (I think).

Crazy parts include a police line-up featuring Santas and a vigilante mob chasing old St. Nick. Except for Maggart (the father of singer Fiona Apple) most of the acting is bad as is the script and direction (Lewis Jackson's only movie) but I don't believe this is a set-up. It's suppose to be s serious psychological slasher movie and it's an unintentional laugh riot! Look for Father Christmas in an alley with a stiletto.

Scenes from MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS show up on a TV. Also with Dianne Hull (Rose in ALOHA BOBBY & ROSE) as Harry's kindhearted sister in law. Pre-dates the more well known and infamous SILENT NIGHT, DEADLY NIGHT by four years. The fantasy ending kind of threw me too.

Filmed in Edgewater, NJ which may explain why the late Danny Federici (keyboard player from Springsteen's E Street Band) has a cameo playing the accordion. This is also known as CHRISTMAS EVIL.

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Bela's Ape

THE APE MAN-1943-Crazy Monogram nonsense has Bela Lugosi (in another demeaning post-Dracula role) as Dr. James Brewster, who through unexplained experiments has become half man/half ape. He even sleeps in a cage with a real (man in a gorilla suit) ape! A fellow scientist (Henry Hall, also in THE APE with Karloff) brings Brewster's sister Agatha (Minerva Urecal), a famous "ghost hunter" home to help him out. Unfortunately Brewster needs human spinal fluid to cure himself. His friend won't help so he and the ape go out on nightly jaunts and kill to secure the vital liquid. This is easily done as Brewster can speak ape!

Wallace Ford (from FREAKS and THE MUMMY'S HAND) is a wisecracking reporter who suspects monkey business. Louise Currie (later in VOODOO MAN with Bela and still among the living at the time of this writing) is his photographer who doesn't have much to do until the climax. Jack Mulhall hangs around as a local yokel who's identity is revealed in the dumb comic ending. Emil Van Horn is the gorilla.

THE APE MAN is funny little horror film that doesn't go on too long (64 mins.) and doesn't drag thanks to William "One Shot" Beaudine's brisk direction. The story is by Karl Brown who supplied the story for THE APE! It would have been a lot better without Mulhall's character popping up all the time. Lugosi portrayed the monster in FRANKENSTEIN MEETS THE WOLFMAN the same year. In 1943 he starred in a kind of sequel RETURN OF THE APE MAN.

THE APE MAN was one of seven movies Beaudine directed in 1943. He also made GHOSTS ON THE LOOSE where Bela met The Eastside Kids!

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Men In Prison

PENITENTIARY-1979-A hitchhiker named Martel "Too Sweet" Gordone (Leon Isaac Kennedy) gets into a fight with two bikers over a prostitute . One of the bikers is killed and Gordone is sent to prison. There he falls in with a lot of violent (but in some respects cartoonish) black inmates. He has a weird fight with his super scary cell mate (Badja Djola) and later on gets involved in some prison boxing tournament run by a white lieutenant (Chuck Mitchell; later in PORKY'S) where the winners in each weight class get a night with a woman. He's trained by an old inmate "Seldom Seen" Jackson (Floyd "Wildcat" Chatman) who says "I'm a man. I ain't no hippy dippy fool". A transvestite comedian Wilbur "Hi-Fi" White plays Sweet Pea.

It's badly photographed, edited and acted but it is a violent, enjoyable ROCKY inspired "blaxploitation" movie. Director/producer/writer Jamaa Fanaka (nee Walter Gordon) made this 3 years after his last movie EMMA MAE and would make 2 sequels both starring the more than one emotion challenged Kennedy who retired in the late '80's to become a minister.

Special note: Two days after writing this review I read director Jamaa Fanaka (nee Walter Gordan) died on April 1 2012!

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Exit Bomba!

THE LORD OF THE JUNGLE-1955-Johnny Sheffield plays Bomba the jungle boy for the last time. He'd played the character in 11 prior movies.

In the convoluted storyline a rogue elephant leads his pachyderm pals on a killing spree wrecking villages and squashing natives. A hunter sent by the government (usual B western star Wayne Morris) wants to kill the whole herd and Bomba must come up with a solution despite interference from Commissioner Barnes (series regular Leonard Mudie) and his niece (Nancy Gale). Bomba fights rear projection elephants and swings on vines while getting help from his animal friends. Paul Picerni (HOUSE OF WAX) and William Phipps (FIVE) are other white hunters.

B-movie vet Ford Beebe directed most entries in the series.

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Happy Evil Year

NEW YEAR'S EVIL-1980-I loved the '80's but after watching this typical
slasher bullshit nonsense I realize why young people today might hate
the decade!

In this story a very famous "rock star" Diane Sullivan (Roz Kelly) is hosting a late night countdown for the song of the year. Her son (Grant Cramer) pops pills and acts weird while people are killed and a stupid band called Made In Japan plays. The killer calls in and plays a tape of him killing a victim while using disguised voice.  Of course lots of characters act like idiots to try and make you wonder who the killer is when it is revealed in the very first killing.

The acting is very bad and the script very cliched but it was mostly typical of the time. There are some
unintentionally funny scenes and the phony punk rock trash disco fans are likened to patients in a mental intuition.

Also with Kip Niven, Chris Wallace (also in DON'T ANSWER THE PHONE), John Alderman and Teri Copley. Director Emmett Alston also made DEMONWARP and several movies with "ninja" in the title. A Menahem Golan-Yoram Globus production.

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Lock Up Your Daughters!

DELINQUENT DAUGHTERS-1944-This movie purports to be a warning to audiences about teenagers running wild due to their parents' uncaring ways. It's similar in style to REEFER MADNESS and I ACCUSE MY PARENTS in it's serious but corny and unintentionally funny tone (It probably also influenced Ed Wood's THE VIOLENT YEARS).

After the suicide of a high school girl a police detective (Joe Devlin) investigates. The innocent June (20 yr. old June Carlson) gets involved in robbery, drinking and wild dancing through her friend Sally (22 yr. old Teala Loring; also in THE RETURN OF THE APE MAN and a couple of BOWERY BOYS movies) at a club called "The Merry Go Round" run by Mimi (Fifi D'Orsay) and sleazebag partner Nick.

One charcter proclaims: "Nobody ever gives a darn about us kids. We have feelings just like adults". Although the script, acting and direction in this sleazy and sappy story are sub-par (Hey! It was produced by PRC!) the worse parts are the night scenes that are too dark to see what's going on! I haven't seen the DVD version shown above but the print I saw was choppy and worn.

Director Albert Herman made a bunch of low budget movies I'd like to see (THE PHANTOM OF 42ND STREET, SHAKE HANDS WITH MURDER) and later did some TV work.

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Watching The Detective!

NICK CARTER-MASTER DETECTIVE-1939-In his first starring role Walter Pidgeon plays Nick Carter, a NYC detective. He's hired by the owner of a defense plant (Addison Richards ) where a new kind of plane is being tested to prevent anymore sabotage by foreign agents. Henry Hull plays the scientist who invented it. After he's killed Carter suspects a nurse (Rita Johnson) but it's really the seemingly nice guy doctor (Stanley Ridges. who was in BLACK FRIDAY with Karloff &Lugosi the next year).

Martin Kosleck and Milburn Stone are spies who pretend to be injured and smuggle out microfilm. Henry Victor (the strong man in FREAKS) is the head of the spy ring. Donald Meek plays a comical private eye/bee keeper who shows up at various times to try and help. The climax takes place at sea with Carter in an aerial duel with the spies' boat. Sterling Holloway and Frank Faylen have small roles.

There's nothing special about this little mystery but it moves along quickly. In fact it almost seems like a an overlong TV show. Oh wait, I forgot TV hadn't been invented in 1939!

The first Nick Carter story appeared as a "dime store" novel in 1886! The persona of Carter was revised several times (like becoming more of a Pulp hero in the early '30's to compete with THE SHADOW and DOC SAVAGE). Several silent films made in France first featured the detective.

After an MGM trilogy Columbia made a serial featuring Nick's son Chick! The character was later again revived in for two movies featuring Eddie Constantine in the lead role. Robert Conrad played him in a made for TV movie in 1972. A radio series ran from 1943 to 1955.

NCMD was only the second full length feature for French born director Jacques Tourneur who in 1942 would direct the classic CAT PEOPLE.

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Slaptick Dictator

THE DEVIL WITH HITLER-1942-This 44 minute slaptick comedy from Hal Roach studios has Gesatan, the devil (Alan Mowbray) trying to save his job as boss of Hell because the other devils want to replace him with Adolf Hitler! He goes to Earth to try and make Hitler (Bobby Watson) do a good deed. Joe Devlin is Mussolini and George E. Stone is Suki Yaki. There's a lot of slapstick, one liners and jokes about executions. The freaky part is when Hitler talks about how horrible concentration camps are!

It's very much in the vein of the 3 Stooges shorts YOU NAZTY SPY! and I'LL NEVER HEIL AGAIN (both made first). Douglas Fowley plays an insurance salesman and Herman Bing is a Nazi astrologer who's executed. Philip Van Zandt, John Miljan and Rudolph Anders have un-credited roles. In the end Hitler is chased by devils with pitchforks and Gesatan promises: "This is only the beginning, folks!".

Director Gordon Douglas had made SAPS AT SEA with Laurel & Hardy the year before and later made THEM!. Watson portrayed Hitler at least 9 times during the 1940's.

T
hanks for reading!