Cry Baby Jack

THE CRY BABY KILLER-1958-A confused juvenile delinquent named Jimmy (skinny Jack Nicolson in his film debut) gets beaten up by a sleazy dude named Manny (Bret Halsey, one year before RETURN OF THE FLY) and his two punk underlings. Manny's new girl Carole (Carolyn Mitchell) is Jimmy's old one and he wants to get her away from Manny. They go out into the parking lot and somehow Jimmy gets his hand on Manny's gun and shoots Manny and one of the punks. Thinking he's killed them, Jimmy takes a kitchen worker (Smoki Whitfield) and a lady (Barbara Knudson, who died in March of 2014) with a baby hostage. Police lieutenant Porter (familiar TV actor Harry Lauter) investigates. A TV reporter (Ed Nelson) does a live report as a large crowd gathers. There's a lot of expounding on kids, family and growing up while the police (and his mom) try to talk Jimmy (now called "the boy with the gun") out but everything seems to go wrong. Frank Richard is Gambelli, the uptight owner of the bar (character actor Herb Vigran plays his lawyer) and Lynn Cartwright is a proselytizing waitress.

NIcolson is pretty funny as Jimmy, desperate, then crazed then sorry. It's really not that much of a role as most of the rest of the cast has the best lines. It's interesting that there is a sympathetic black character who tries to talk Jimmy into surrendering but by the end of the story he's not even thanked. The lieutenant just gives him a blank stare.

Actor Leo V. Gordon (who was married to actress Cartwright) wrote the screenplay (he performed this chore for Corman several more times) and appears in some crowd scenes (with Bruno Ve Sota). Producer Roger Corman (who's seen briefly as a TV technician) claimed this was the only movie he ever released that didn't make money!

I think this is the only feature film directed by Justus Addiss who usually worked in TV. His last work was for Irwin Allen in the '60's.

The great theme song is sung by Dick Kallman.

To read more about featured actress Carolyn Mitchell go here: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0593198/bio?ref_=nm_ov_bio_sm

The version I saw was just called THE CRY BABY.

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Wizards

WIZARDS-1977-I realize 1977 was a long time ago but I found this Ralph Bakshi production a little disappointing. It's very crude and cartoonish and I thought some of the voices and characters don't quite mesh with the overall story of two wizard brothers: Avatar, a good guy who uses magic and Blackwolf, who uses the last remains of technology to conquer the post-apocalyptic Earth which resembles Tolkien's Middle Earth. There are elves, fairies, wizard, mutants and strange robots. Avatar is joined by a fairy princess Elinore, the elf warrior Weehawk and a rebel robot named Peace. To get his armies in a frenzy Blackwolf shows his troops WW2 footage including speeches by Hitler. There are some violent scenes but it almost seems to be aimed at children.

Despite some obstacles WIZARDS was a success for Bakshi and it led to him doing the first half of his often criticized THE LORD OF THE RINGS the next year. (the second half was never made).

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It's Crazy Alright

THE CRAZIES-2010-Residents of a small Iowa town are acting weird (parts were filmed in Georgia though). Timothy Olyphant (TV's JUSTIFIED) is the town's sheriff who discovers there's something wrong with the drinking water. He's almost cut to pieces by a saw wielding coroner (who had already sewn some victim's mouth shut) and another guy burns down his house with his wife and kid in it. Eventually the government gets involved and rounds up everyone including his wife (Radha Mitchell). There's lots of chaos and killing but not much to distinguish it from any of the other "modern day horror flicks" (like the DAWN OF THE DEAD remake which parts of this resemble). And while the original blurred the lines between who's crazy and who's not, this version makes it clear our evil government is once again to blame. It could also be the only horror where victims are terrorized while going through a car wash!

Director Brett Eisner (SAHARA) has taken the premise of George Romero's paranoid claustrophobic low budget classic and turned into a typical drawn out over emoting disaster movie. The acting is better and of course the budget is bigger but there's just nothing new here. Just a lot of cheap thrills and excessive violence. And as usual it makes me wonder about the mental health of the director, although Romero himself was one of the executive producers! One of the writers Scott Kosar also scripted remakes of THE TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRE and THE AMITYVILLE HORROR. The other screenwriter Ray Wright wrote CASE 39 (two writers to script a remake??).

Apparently I'm in the minority on this movie as it was both a box office and critical success.

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Curses!

DARK FIELDS-2009-A town called Perseverance has been under a curse fro several generations. It started when the farming community dug up an old hat. Now every generation has to sacrifice several of their children based on a lottery they devised. An Indian shaman and a tall bald guy with fangs also figures into it. It tells three stories at the same time but jumps around and tries to be arty (and causes much viewer confusion). The late David Carradine is seen in the 18th century segments and Dee Wallace is in the 1950's plot. Richard Lynch (who died in 2012) is featured in the modern day story as a mean crazy father who wants his cursed daughter (Sasha Higgins) to drown her own brother. Later it's just the brother and sister running around in the dark looking for a cure and useless scenes of gore and torture (some of it against children). It's kind of like Shirley Jackson's "The Lottery" except it's not good.

Too bad the director (who probably needs mental help) Douglas Schulze (THE HELLMASTER) decided to the three way story line and waste the triple threat of Carradine, Stone and Lynch which is the only acting highlights. The rest of the cast is terrible.

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Case 39

CASE 39-2009-This supernatural thriller isn't anything exceptional but it wouldn't be that bad except for the presence of lead actress Renee Zellweger who's squeaky voice and obnoxious facial expressions ruin the whole thing.

 She plays Emily Jenkins a social worker trying to help abused kids. She gets involved with Lilith (Jodelle Ferland) a young girl who seems to have strange abusive parents. When they try to burn her in an oven Emily and detective Mike Barron (Ian McShane) save her. The parents are put away and Emily fights to get custody of Lilith. She succeeds and all seems well until it's discovered that Lilith is no ordinary little girl. In fact she's a demon who makes a young boy kill both his parents and then kills Emily's boyfriend (Bradley Cooper) by sending a swarm of hornets to sting him. Later Emily finds herself in much the same situation as Lilith's former parents: fighting for her life and sanity from her little adopted monster. There's not much new here though.

Case 39 was made in Vancouver by German director Christian Alvart. I'm told the DVD features an alternate darker ending. Thugh made in 2008 it didn't get a US release till 2010 and did badly in theaters.

Friday the 13th, Full Moon, My Birthday...

It's time for comedy!!


THE NOOSE HANGS HIGH-1948-This was Abbott & Costello's first foray into independent film making (for Eagle-Lion). "The boys" play Ted (Bud) and Tommy (Lou) who work for the Speedy Window Washing Service. A bookie named Nick Craig, (Joseph Calleia) mistakes them for a delivery service and sends them to pick up $50,000 from a guy named Stewart (Ben Weldon). When Stewart sends two of his men to get the money back Tommy puts the money in an envelope and mails it to the Craig. Of course he gets the envelopes mixed up and the money winds up with a rich woman's secretary (Cathy Downs) who promptly spends most of it. They have ten hours to raise the money so that Craig can pay off the mysterious J C McBride (Leon Errol), a gambler who "never loses". Mike Mazurki plays one of Craig's henchman. One highlight of the story is a pool game between Costello and Errol (which features the routine "Mudder and Fodder"). Although Bud and Lou do many of their famous routines, Costello and Errol have a few funny bits together too.

THE NOOSE HANGS HIGH was probably an unusual name for this comedy. It was one of 8 Abbott and Costello movies Charles Barton directed. He made their classic ABBOTT AND COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN the same year. (Earlier Barton was assistant director on the Marx brothers' DUCK SOUP).  Cathy Downs later was in many low budget horror-Sci-Fi movies of the fifties like THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN and MISSILE TO THE MOON. NOOSE also features bits by Fritz Feld, Herb Vigran, Isabel Randolph and A & C's old pals Murray Leonard and Joe Kirk.

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Bava and Steele

BLACK SUNDAY-1960-This was Italian horror master Mario Bava's directorial debut. In 1630, Asa Vajda (Barbara Steele) along with her lover Javuto (Arturo Dominici) is about to be burned as a witch, condemned by her own brother. Before this happens she lays a curse on the brother and all his descendants. Then a spiked metal mask is nailed on to her face! Two hundred years later, two doctors are travelling to a medical conference. Dr. Kurvanjan (Andrea Checchi)) and his younger assistant Andre (John Richardson, later in ONE MILLION YEARS B.C.) stop to investigate the tomb where the burned witch was buried after their wagon breaks a wheel. Kurvanjan kills an attacking bat but some of his blood drips into the tomb. Later they meet Katia (also Steele) who lives with her father Prince Vajda (Ivo Garrani) and her brother Constantine in a near by castle. Of course they are related to the ancestors of the witch and even have a haunting painting of her hanging over a fireplace. Revived by the doctor's blood Asa contacts Javuto to kill the old prince who saves himself by brandishing a cross but seems to lose his mind. A servant is dispatch to fetch Dr. Kurvanjan but instead the creepy Javuto picks him up and takes him to Asa's tomb where he becomes her slave and promptly goes to the castle and kills the prince. Andre investigates when Kurvanjan and Javuto plan to kidnap Katia and use her blood to revive Vajda! Andre teams with a local priest to try and stop Vajda's evil plan. And when the poor prince returns to life and tries to drink his daughter's blood Javuto throws him in the fireplace! Vajda pulls a switcheroo that almost causes Andre to kill Katia but torch bearing villagers led by priest prevail and once again burn the witch.

Before this Bava's only work as a director was un-credited but he was a cinematographer on many productions before and after BLACK SUNDAY (which he also photographed). Bava packs the film with lots of eerie scenes and macabre sets.

This film made England born Barbara Steele a horror icon. The next year she went  to American and co-starred in Roger Corman's THE PIT AND THE PENDULUM with Vincent Price and was on an episode of TV's ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS. She returned to Italy to make THE HORRIBLE DR. HITCHCOCK and other horror films (and Fellini's 81/2...). It's based on a story by Russian author Gogol.

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Insane Hospital

AUTOPSY-2008-Some friends are driving in Louisiana when they have a car accident and hit a man. An ambulance shows up before they call for it. When they get to hospital it's obvious something deranged is going on just from the attitude of the head nurse. Still several of the group wander round looking for trouble. There's lots of bloody operations which seem to be related to curing the head doctor's wife. Robert Patrick leads the insane staff in this dysfunctional outrageous story that's just another excuse to show torture, gore and blood-letting simply because the director Adam Gierasch is an incompetent boob who's sick fantasies are the only ideas he has to put on film.  He also co-scripted the the remake of THE TOOLBOX MURDERS.

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Poor Paul!

AXE GIANT-THE WRATH OF PAUL BUNYAN-2013-This crazy horror tale has five young adult slacker assholes in a first offenders type boot camp run by a Sgt. Slaughter wannabe police sargeant named Hoke (Thomas Downey, also in HILLSIDE CANNIBALS) and a psychiarist (Kristina Kopf). Unfortunately the gang arrives just in time to be terrorized by an axe toting giant. Joe Estevez shows up as a crazy old guy who explains how in 1894 that some loggers (lead by Dan Haggerty) killed and ate Babe, the blue ox pet of Paul Bunyan. He killed all the loggers and then the townspeople threw him in a mine but he escaped and grew very big. Now he's angry because one of the group disturbed Babe's grave. A sheriff (Tim Lovelace) who's daughter is in the group shows up toward the end to help out but a group of redneck militia men save the day.

There's several be-headings and one woman is cut in half but the gory CGI SFX are pretty bad and the story, acting and direction are laughable most of the time. Could this have actually been a takeoff? Only director Gary Jones (MOSQUITO and CROCODILE 2) knows for sure.

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