Jan's Head

THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE-1962-On the operating table an old doctor (Bruce Brighton) pronounces his patient dead, but Bill (Herb “soon to be Jason” Evers), another doctor who happens to be his son takes over and revives the patient. 

While dad is proud of his arrogant son's accomplishment he still feels trepidation toward his actions (“The operating table is no place for experiments”). While debating this and Bill's ambition to do major limb transplants in the future (using his “secret compound”) their nurse Jan (Virginia Leith) enters. She also happens to be Bill's fiancee. Before they can have a romantic weekend Bill gets a mysterious urgent call from his “country place” where he does his experimenting. 

With Jan in tow Bill drives like a maniac to the place but wrecks his car. He is somehow thrown from the car and unharmed but Jan isn't so lucky. She's decapitated in the fiery crash. Fortunately Bill retrieves the head, wraps it in his jacket and runs to the country place. With the help of his German assistant Kurt (Leslie Daniel) who has a deformed arm, Jan's head is placed in a pan with a lot of tubes and wires and is brought back to life! Meanwhile something hideous is locked in another room in the lab. Bill goes out looking for Jan's new body. He goes to a gin joint and tries to pick up a dancer. He sizes her up and she seems to fit the bill but he's deterred by another weird talking dancer. The two rivals wind up fighting on the floor. Meanwhile Jan's head develops some kind of psychic link with the thing in the closet (“Together we will reek our revenge”). Kurt debates with the head while Bill still looks for the perfect body which he believes he finds in Doris (Adele Lamont), a hot but scarred model who poses for “a bunch of neurotics”. Bill really shows his deceitful side when he convinces Doris to go to the country place so her face can be healed. Jan plots with the thing and eventually Kurt's good arm is torn off. Somehow Kurt now with only a bloody stump crawls up the lab stairs to the living quarters but when he gets there he crawls back down to the lab and dies! Bill drugs Doris and plans to put Jan's head on her body but Jan makes the thing break out of the closet and attack Bill. Their fight is kind of doofy, involving a door and the ugly monster biting a chunk out of Bill's arm and then examining the bloody piece he bit off. The monster is a huge guy with a deformed face (obviously a mask). He carries Doris away (God only knows what happened when she woke up!) and Jan and Bill burn to death. 

 This exploitation sickie was directed and co-written by Joseph Green who owned his own small film distribution company. It's too bad he waited 24 years to make his next and last film (THE PERILS OF P.K.). He seemed to know how to pack a lot of sleaze, gore and fun into one movie! 

Jason Evers' egotistic oily doctor though supposedly only concerned with science by his semi-sinister grin when ogling a woman's body seems like he can't wait to bring her home and cut her up. While Virginia Leith's severed head role of Jan is pretty intense it's been said she was so disgusted by the role she gave up acting altogether (she's made her screen debut in Kubrick's first film FEAR AND DESIRE) though she made sporadic TV appearances later on (and is still with us at the time of this writing). Co-producer Rex Carlston later produced a couple of Al Adamson movies but committed suicide in 1968. For some reason Sammy Petrillo (who with Duke Mitchell met a Brooklyn gorilla some years before) appears as a photographer in one scene. 

BRAIN was filmed (around Tarrytown, NY) in 1959 but due to financial troubles wasn't released until 1962. 

Thanks for reading!

Drac vs. Mods

DRACULA AD-1972-A group of Mods perform a black mass in an abandoned church. Johnny Alucard (Christopher Neame)), their leader mixes his blood with the dried blood of Count Dracula and brings him back to (un-dead) life. His first victim is played by Caroline Munro. Van Helsing's grandson (Peter Cushing) has a daughter Jessica (Stephanie Beacham) Drac wants. He kidnaps her but granddad tracks them down and he and Drac have a showdown where Van Helsing uses a silver dagger, holy water and a shovel to beat the king of vampires and reduce his body to ooze. 

This, the seventh Dracula Hammer film and the sixth to star Lee in the title role was directed by Alan Gibson who would also direct the last of the series THE SATANIC RITES OF DRACULA the next year. Screenwriter Don Houghton also penned SATANIC RITES, SHATTER and THE LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES and many episodes of Doctor Who. For years DRACULA AD has been much maligned by critics and fans. There's really nothing to it but in retrospect it's an enjoyable time capsule.

In America DRACULA AD played on a double bill with CRESCENDO (also directed by Gibson).

http://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2017/01/hammer.html 

Thanks for reading!  

BTK

BTK-2008-A guy named Dennis (Kane Hodder) who calls himself a “compliance officer” is thought to be a nice guy though it's obvious he's nuts. He's actually a serial killer who wants to make a name for himself. It uses the case of a real life killer who used the same initials (it stands for Bind. Torture. Kill) but that's just an excuse to show an excess of violence, torture and gore. “Ain't Nobody's Business” by Mississippi John Hurt is heard over the end credits. 

Director/screenwriter Michael Feifer had made CHICAGO MASSACRE: RICHARD SPECK and exploited other real life murderers and their crimes with ED GEIN: THE BUTCHER OF PLAINFIELD, BUNDY: AN AMERICAN ICON and THE BOSTON STRANGLER:THE UNTOLD STORY.

Thanks for reading!

Casper!

Does anyone remember the original Harvey Films production of the cartoon Casper the Friendly Ghost? I didn't watch it much as a kid (when it was shown on TV in the '60's) but BOO MOON (made in 1953) is pretty unforgettable! Casper is really tired of people being scared of him so he goes to the moon after looking through a telescope and seeing the friendly face of "the man in the moon". He flies through space but is disappointed when he can't find the man. Casper falls falls asleep and is captured by some moon people. They kind of resemble the lilliputians in Gulliver's Travels! Their king named Luna calls poor Casper a monster and has him locked in a cage until some frightening looking "tree men" attack. Somehow the moon people use flaming arrows to destroy their enemies until the trees shoot water at them putting out their fire. When the wood rascals start kidnapping everyone (including the king) Casper joins the fray and destroys the monsters. Casper wins the admiration of the moon people and gets a special medal.

The end makes it seem like he'd stay on the moon where he's now a hero but it wasn't to be. He'd be back on the Earth by the next cartoon.

Thanks for reading!

Forgotten Cosmo

COSMO JONES THE CRIME SMASHER-1943-In this low budget Monogram crime drama with comic overtones, amateur criminologist Cosmo Jones (Frank Graham, mainly a voice actor and announcer), a nerdy umbrella toting guy teams up with an African-American janitor (Mantan Moreland) to help vindicate a cop named Flanagan (Richard Cromwell) accused of killing a bystander. Flanagan's captain is played by Edgar Kennedy and his girlfriend is Gale Storm. Jones can impersonate many voices and there's a gang war and the kidnapping of a rich woman but the story isn't very good and Moreland is wasted (though he helps catch the thugs). 

Director James Tinling made CHARLIE CHAN IN SHANGHAI and MR. MOTO'S GAMBLE plus a whole bunch of forgotten low budget features and later went into TV. Despite having a very successful career star Frank Graham committed suicide in 1950.

Thanks for reading!

Junkie Jive

THE CONNECTION-1961-Some junkie Jazz musicians (including saxophonist Jackie MacLean) wait around an apartment for their dealer Cowboy (Carl Lee, later he had a role in SUPERFLY) to come with their junk. Meanwhile the whole thing is being filmed cinema verite' by a director Jim (William Redfield) and his unseen cameraman JJ (the voice of Roscoe Lee Jones). The group discuss various topics for the camera and a Salvation Army “sister” shows up to “save” them. They also jam and later Jim shoots up and becomes an addict. 

THE CONNECTION was the first feature film by Shirley Clarke, a former choreographer who prior to this made only short films. Controversial at the time it was made, now it just seems like a relic but considering it's presented as “found footage” (a genre all the rage today) it is ahead of it's time. Based on a play by Jack Gelber who adapted it for the film. The same year director Clarke won an Academy Award for a short about Robert Frost.

Thanks for reading!

Rock It, Cat

ROCK, ROCK, ROCK-1956-Teenager Dory (13 year old Tuesday Weld in her movie debut) gets into some trouble trying to make money so she can buy a new dress for her prom. A bitch named Gloria (Jacqueline Kerr) tricks Dory into lending her some money then blackmails Dory's boyfriend Tommy (Teddy Randazzo who of course also sings) into taking her to the prom instead of Dory. Later Dory turns the tables on Gloria and gets her dress, her date and Alan Freed (also featured in ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK the same year) hosts the prom which features music by Connie Francis (who also dubbed Dory's singing), Chuck Berry, Frankie Lymon, Dion and The Belmonts, LaVerne Baker, The Moonglows and Johnny Burnette. 

This harmless black and white nonsense with great music was the production collaboration of Englishman Milton Subotsky (who wrote the screenplay) and American Max Rosenberg before they formed Amicus Productions in England making some great horror anthologies giving the then dominant Hammer studio a run for it's money. 

Director Will Price, a former husband of Maureen O'Hara, didn't do anything after ROCK as his career was hampered by alcohol abuse. He died in 1962 at the age of 48....

Thanks for reading!

Hello Moto

THE MYSTERIOUS MR. MOTO-1938-In the fifth entry of the series, the famed Japanese detective (played by non-Asian Peter Lorre) investigates “the league of assassins” for Scotland Yard by disguising himself as a timid turbaned servant to one of its members (Leon Ames). He gets involved with Anton (Henry Wilcoxon), an industrialist who's life seems to be threatened because of his secret steel formula and Anton's girlfriend Anne (Mary Maquire). Forrester Harvey and Lotus Long (later in the unheralded PHANTOM OF CHINATOWN) have roles and the film's director Norman Foster (who directed most of the MOTO series) has a bit role. There's a great fight in a bar and the climax is terrific!  

Thanks for reading!

Everyone Loves a Mystery

I LOVE A MYSTERY-1945-This murder mystery is based on a very popular radio show created by Carlton E. Morse. Jack Patton (Jim Bannon) and Doc Long (Barton Yarborough) investigate the murder of Jefferson Monk (George Macready) who rightly predicted his own decapitation death. His invalid wife (Nina Foch) says that earlier he'd been attacked by a scary faced peg-legged guy. In a flashback (which also features a flashback) it's learned Monk had an encounter with Mr. G (Lester Matthews), a (phony) Asian leader of the “oldest secret society”. Apparently Monk looked like the society's mummified “sacred one” and they offered him 10 thousand dollars for his head! It seems his wife was trying to drive him mad to inherit his money but she succeeded too well! 

This was the first of three low budget movies based on the radio show. Former dialogue director Henry Levin directed all of them and had worked with female lead Nina Foch earlier on the disappointing CRY OF THE WEREWOLF. 

Like I said before in my review of their second feature THE DEVIL'S MASK, Jack and Doc make a good team and the the story had some weird twists. Of course as usual I reviewed the second movie first!

Thanks for reading!

The Story of a Fool

JOHNNY COOL-1963-This interesting dark gangster story begins in Sicily in 1945 with a little kid named Giordano blowing up a Nazi to save his mom who's killed anyway. He joins up with some rebels and grows up to be Dom Giordano (Henry Silva) who has to go on the run from the army during a wedding. He's saved by a deported American mobster Johnny Calini (Mark Lawrence) who trains him “to be American” then sends him to NYC where he becomes the new Johnny Calini and beats up a guy in a bar and spurns the come-ons of Elizabeth Montgomery who's raped by two corrupt cops after having dinner with Johnny. He kills both of them then runs afoul of crime boss Vince (Telly Savalas). Like a one man army Johnny goes for revenge killing various mobsters (he blows up one guy in his pool). His one man vendetta almost succeeds but Liz turns him over to the mob and they kill him. “So ends the story of a fool”. 

Several well known actors appear in pivotal one scene roles: Sammy Davis Jr. (who also sings the theme) is a dice shooter called Educated, Jim Backus (sounding like Mr. Magoo) is a corrupt land developer who's killed, Joey Bishop is an annoying car salesman, John McGiver is a Las Vegas crime boss and Mort Sahl is his bodyguard. Wanda Hendrix, Elisha Cook, Douglas Dumbrille, Joseph Calliea, Robert Armstrong and Brad Dexter also appear. Director William Asher worked on other theatrical films (including some “Beach” movies for AIP) and lots of TV shows (including over a hundred episodes of “Bewitched”, starring his future wife Montgomery, who he married shorty after this production).  

Thanks for reading!

Haas is Back

STRANGE FASCINATION-1952-A German pianist Paul Warren (Hugo Haas) is brought to America by wealthy Diana Fowler (Mona Barrie; in THE DEVIL'S MASK). One of his concerts is an unbelievable 3 dollars a ticket! He gets involved with Margo (Cleo Moore), a female dancer and although their relationship is platonic she moves in with him. After he professes his love for her they go on tour together and get married. A flood wrecks the tour and he's reduced to playing in polka halls and then hits the bottle when he sees Margo flirting with her former dance partner Carlo (Rick Vallin). Later Warren is blackballed and plays gin joints while Margo comes on to drunks. He smashes his hand in a printing press for insurance money and winds up losing his arm. Margo kind of destroys him and his career but she gets away with it, declaring her love for her Carlo and leaving Paul. He plays one armed for a bunch of bums while his patron Fowler and her daughter (Karen Sharpe) watch (?). 

Typical moralistic Haas drama with older man getting regrettably involved with younger woman and paying the price with Hugo once again not only co-starring but directing, writing and co-producing. 

“Blonde Bombshell” Moore was in her first of seven movies for Haas! Although once considered for the role that went to Marilyn Monroe in ALL ABOUT EVE her career never really took off and she retired from acting in 1961. Sadly, in 1973 she passed away from a heart attacked at age 48. 

Thanks for reading!

Houdini

THE GRIM GAME-1919-In an elaborate plan to save a newspaper reporter Hanson (magician/escape artist Harry Houdini) and the paper's owner, also Hanson's uncle devise a plan wherein Hanson will be arrested for the (faked) murder of the uncle. Things don't go as planned and the uncle is really murdered and Hanson is arrested and jailed. He spends the rest of the movie eluding his captors and trying to save his kidnapped girlfriend (Ann Forest). Since it's Houdini he escapes from various traps including a straitjacket while hanging off the side of a building. Somehow he and his girlfriend even manage to walk away from a plane crash they are in while looking for the real murderer! 

Once considered a lost film, THE GRIM GAME was restored with the help of TCM in 2016 after a copy had been found a few years earlier. It features an actual mid-air collision that wasn't suppose to happen (no one was hurt). 

This is one of 5 movies the great Houdini appeared in from 1919-1923. He died in 1926 at age 52. Director Irvin Willat also directed FALSE FACES (1919) which features Lon Chaney.  

 

Thanks for reading!

It Had To Be Told?

DRACULA UNTOLD-2014-After an encounter with a vampire in a cave, Vlad The Impaler Jr.(Luke Evans) reigns over his peaceful kingdom until the Turkish sultan demands 100 boys for his army (Vlad's dad had handed him over to the Turks in a compromise when he was young). In a new compromise the sultan makes Vlad his new chief but forces him to hand over his son Vlad 3. Instead dad kills the party that comes to get his son. To save his kingdom Vlad drinks the blood of the cave vampire (Charles Dance) and receives great power (and great night vision) and defeats the Turkish horde all by himself (some bats help too). However he is told if he can go for three days without drinking blood he will return to normal, otherwise more blood drinking will cause him to remain a vampire forever. Despite his best efforts, when his wife dies and his son is taken prisoner he drinks his wife's blood and becomes a full fledged vampire. He turns some friends into vampires too and they destroy The Turks. Later they all stand in the sun and die. In the modern day Vlad is still alive for some reason and seems to meet his long lost lover but the cave vampire is there as well. 

Yeah, like there was going to be a sequel to this routine bloody ridiculous CGI laden horror....

The director Irish born Gary Shore had previously done corporation shorts.

Thanks for reading!

Unfortunately It Does...

EXISTS-2015-5 losers go to a remote cabin and film it. They act like morons and do a lot of stupid things. They have an encounter with Bigfoot at night and decide to leave the next morning but their car gets wrecked. So instead of running away in the day time they go back to the cabin to spend another night! One guy tries to get help on his dirt bike but Bigfoot gets him. Since this is found footage there's lots of shouts of “Go! Go! Go!” and shots of feet. It seems they killed it's baby. A relative to one of the campers, Uncle Bob somehow shows up but is killed. The remaining survivor does a “mea culpa” for Daddyfoot and gets to live. 

Filmed in Texas by Eduardo Sanchez, director of THE SEVENTH MOON and co-directed of THE BLAIR WITCH PROJECT.

Thanks for reading!

Candace Hilligoss

Happy 82nd birthday Candace Hilligoss!!!

Lady Bug

LADYBUG LADY BUG-1963-A panic arises at a small elementary school when it appears they get a warning of a nuclear attack. The principal (William Daniels) sends all the kids home and along the way their fear and paranoia grows. It seems to end tragically with one girl hiding in an abandoned refrigerator and a boy losing his mind when he hears a plane flying over head. Though it might seem tame today I'd bet it scared a few moviegoers back in the turbulence of the early '60's. 

The husband-wife team of Frank Perry (director) and Eleanor Perry (screenwriter) made other offbeat, unusual films including THE SWIMMER and DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE. Frank later directed MOMMIE DEAREST.

Thanks for reading!

My Little Talent

MY LITTLE EYE-2002-6 losers win a chance to make 1 million dollars each if they can all stay together in a secluded cabin for 6 months. The whole thing is being video taped for a reality show. Yeah, right. It becomes obvious they are being manipulated but by whom? Does it matter? Bradley Cooper plays a guy who shows up mid-way through the story to have sex with one of the women. Boring ugly nonsense shot in Canada by a British company by some guy named Marc Evans.

Thanks for reading!

Boxing

THE RING-1952-This overlooked tale is about Tommy Cantanios (Lalo Rios) a young Mexican American kid who becomes a fighter to help his family and gain respect from the White community. As “Tommy Kansas” he becomes successful but his father (Martin Garralaga) and girlfriend Lucy (Rita Moreno) give him a hard time. At a party a guy dances with a glass on his head (??). After suffering several losses his trainer (Robert Osterloh) wants him to retire but his manger Pete (Gerald Mohr), doesn't have the heart to tell him. Tommy makes a comeback but to help a cigar chomping promoter (Jack Elam) Peter puts Tommy in a main event against a much better fighter (played by real life boxer Art Aragon) who promises not to hurt the kid. But Tommy double crosses him and then gets ko'd. Seeing his little brother sparring Tommy throws his gloves away and quits boxing, helps his father and gets back with Lucy. Peter Brocco and Robert Shayne have small roles. Novelist Irving Shulman (who'd done the adaptation of REBEL WITHOUT A CAUSE) adapted the screenplay from his own novel.

German born director Kurt Neuman had made many Tarzan entries before this and ROCKETSHIP X-M. He later directed THE FLY. Mohr who did lots of voice-overs for many films was in THE SNIPER and INVASION USA the same year. Star Rios was later in TOUCH OF EVIL and BIG LEAGUER but died at age 46 in 1973 of liver disease.  

Thanks for reading!

Well, It's Shorter Than Renaldo and Clara...

MASKED AND ANONYMOUS-2003-In a war torn fictitious country ruled by a dying dictator, a crooked music promoter Uncle Sweetheart (John Goodman) plans a big musical benefit to aid the impoverished country but actually wants to keep all the proceeds for himself and pay off his debts. Unfortunately the only performer he can get is a once famous but now forgotten rock star Jack Fate (Bob Dylan) who's in prison. He's let out and goes by bus to perform. It turns out Jack was born and raised there and was childhood friends with the low life who plans to take over when the dictator dies (Mickey Rourke). Another musician Bobby Cupid (Luke Wilson) who joins Jack and his band "Simple Twist of Fate" (Dylan's real band) says he has a guitar that belonged to Blind Lemon Jefferson.

Meanwhile Sweetheart's wife?/girlfriend?/sister? Nina (Jessica Lange) insults him, complains, smokes a lot and cries. A government agent (Bruce Dern) sends a reporter (Jeff Bridges) to spy on the activities. He's accompanied by his religiously bent wife (Penelope Cruz). Other characters include an animal handler (Val Kilmer), a performer friend of Fate's father (Ed Harris in black face), a government whore (Angela Bassett), Christian Slater as a roadie, Fred Ward as a drunk and Cheech Marin in one scene with Dylan whose character mainly listens to others spouting their philosophy and has very little actual dialogue (he narrates much of it though). I didn't expect the violent ending. 

The film was written by Dylan and Larry Charles, both using pseudonyms. Charles was a former writer/producer for SEINFELD who later worked on a lot of TV shows (CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM, THE TICK, DILBERT, ENTOURAGE) and directed nonsense like BORAT and BRUNO.  

mORE oLD nEWS

The Legend Begins

DRACULA-1931-Every horror fan knows this was the first sound horror film and despite its flaws it ushered in the “golden age” of monsters and vampires. Universal followed it with their adaptation of Mary Shelly's Frankenstein and at night a special Spanish language version was filmed using many of the same sets. Some claim it's better than the famous Tod Browning version but Carlos Villarias in the lead is no Lugosi. Here are some quotes:

“I dislike mirrors”.

“For one who has not even lived a single lifetime you are a wise man, Van Helsing”.

“The Strength of the vampire is that people will not believe in him”.

“Isn't this a strange conversation for men who aren't crazy?”.

“I am Dracula”.

“I bid you welcome”.

“Listen to them. Children of the night. What music they make”.

“The Spider spinning his web for the unwary fly. The blood is the life, Mr. Renfield”.

“I never drink... wine”.

“Your will is strong Van Helsing”.

Rats,rats rats! Thousands, millions of them. All red blood. All these will I give you”.

Thanks for reading!

Old News

A Hot Bed of Low Budget Actors!

A BULLET FOR PRETTY BOY-1970-Low budget maven Larry Buchanan's supposed true story of the infamous outlaw (also immortalized in a Woody Guthrie song). 

At his wedding Charles Floyd (one time Elvis wannabe Fabian) beats up party crasher Jack, also the former beau of Charles' wife Ruby (Astrid Warner; HELLES BELLES). When Jack tries to shoot Charles he kills Mr. Floyd by accident. Later when Jack attacks Charles with an ax, Charles kills him. A newspaper headline tells us that Charles received a 6 year sentence on a work farm. 4 years later, Charles (not looking the worst for wear) decides to escape with lifer Huddy (Buchanan regular Bill Thurman) who gets shot and stays behind (and is killed off-screen) while Charles gets away. He's taken in by Beryl (Anne MacAdams, another Buchanan regular; later in DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT), a madame and her two sons Wallace (Jeff Alexander) and William (Gene Ross; also in DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT) and two hookers Helen (Carmilla Carr; also in DON'T LOOK IN THE BASEMENT) and Betty (Joslyn Lane, a former model, also in HELL'S BELLES in her last role) who has weird sex scene in a bathtub with Charles. Bo and Harvey, two eastern gangsters join Charles to rob a bank. 

After a few more robberies he's caught but when the train he's on goes through his hometown he kills the escorting sheriff and escapes. Later he's joined by his friend Preacher (Adam Roarke; guess what? Also in HELL'S BELLES) but Beryl's brothers try to kill him. He machine guns them instead. More robberies follow(with Betty and Helen helping out) and a new guy named Ned (Michael Haynes) joins them.. Somehow they escape a police ambush but Ned is killed and Helen is arrested. 

This low budget crime drama is pretty slow going despite some shootouts, idolizing Floyd yet depicting him as a ruthless killer. Filmed in Texas by conspiracy king Buchanan and scripted (from a story by Buchanan and actor Tony Huston) by Henry Rosenbaum who wrote the film version of THE DUNWICH HORROR for AIP the same year. He later wrote the Gene Wilder vehicle team-up HANkY PANKY. Buchanan also made STRAWBERRIES NEED RAIN the same year. 

Thanks for reading!  

Mr. Wong

THE MYSTERIOUS MR. WONG-1938-Famous Asian American detective James Lee Wong (the very un-Asian Boris Karloff) investigates the murder of  industrialist Simon Dayton (John Hamilton) even though the cause of death seems to be natural causes. The big mouthed  Capt. Street (Grant Withers) works with Wong but usually disagrees with him. Later another partner Wilk (Hooper Atchley) is killed alone in a locked room. The only clue seems to be shards of shattered glass. Their chief suspect is Karl Romer (John St. Polis), a guy who says he was cheated out of a stake in the trios' company. The third partner Meisle (William Gould) seems like a good lead but then he's killed the same way. And then there's the mysterious Countess (Evelyn Brent) and her friend The Baron. A nosy reporter Bobby Logan (Marjorie Reynolds) manages to get in Wong's way several times. There's not much action in this first in a series of 5 quickly made Monogram mysteries (the first 4 directed by William Nigh who apparently didn't mess around) but Karloff is fun to watch and the manner in which the victims are killed is a doozy!

The Wong character was created by Hugh Wiley and was popular in its time (there were even some comic books). In the stories (a dozen or so from 1934-1941 in Collier's) Wong was a agent for the US treasury but in the films he's a regular private eye. Withers and Reynolds would reprise there roles in the sequels.

Big note: Some of my Mr. Wong info came from http://www.thrillingdetective.com/index.html

Thanks for reading!

Scream And Scream Again (but not for a sequel)

SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN-1970-A guy jogging during the credits collapses after the director's name is shown. In a hospital bed he seems very confused. He's even more shocked to discover one of his legs is missing. Then a spy named Konradz (Marshall Jones) kills his boss with what resembles the Vulcan nerve pinch. Another scene change and Bellaver (Alfred Marks), a snotty uptight police superintendent visits Dr. Browning (Vincent Price) about the murder of his female assistant. Back at the hospital (?), the jogger finds his other leg is now missing. At a disco, Keith (Michael Gothard) meets a young woman (Judy Huxtable,credited as guest star) who he winds up beating, then killing. Meanwhile in some military dictatorship Konradz kills his superior (Peter Cushing) after being reprimanded for torturing a girl.

Back to the jogger who is now missing both his arms. Then we are introduced to Fremont (Christopher Lee), head of some British intelligence department who seems to know what's going on. The police catch Keith sucking blood from a woman's wrist and he knocks them all around and escapes. The police follow and trap him on a mountain which he falls off of but isn't killed. They handcuff him to a car fender but he cuts off his own hand to escape. He goes to Dr. Browning's practice and jumps into a vat of acid. Upon examining the left behind severed hand the coroner Dr. Sorel (Christopher Matthews) comes to the conclusion that it's artificial. At night a nurse steals the hand. While this is going on Fremont seems to be trying to negotiate a plan to get back a captured spy plane pilot. Bellaver is killed by a phony police psychologist. When Sorel's girlfriend (Judy Bloom) is kidnapped, he investigates Browning's complex and finds his lab packed with lots of frozen severed limbs. Browning is making artificial humans (called “composites”). Sorel seems to accept it all until he sees his girlfriend on the operating table. Browning (who it's revealed is also a composite) and Konradz have a showdown. Somehow Browning escapes Konradz's death grip and throws him in the vat of acid. Fremont shows up and makes Browning take an acid bath too then speaks ominously “It's only the beginning”. Apparently Fremont knew everything that was going on and perhaps was setting up a sequel? Maybe not. 

SCREAM AND SCREAM AGAIN is so disjointed with lack of any coherent plot or even a central character it almost seems like two (or three) separate story lines spun together. Also this was touted as the first screen teaming of Price, Lee and Cushing when in fact except for a few minutes in the finale where Lee and Price finally meet none of them have any scenes together! This meeting was similar to they confrontation in THE OBLONG BOX which was made the year before by SASA's director, the German born Gordon Hessler, a kind of journeyman filmmaker going through a "making Hammer like horror films for AIP" phase, although SCREAM  was produced by Hammer's chief rival at the time Amicus. Hessler would make THE CRY OF THE BANSHEE (also with Price) and a remake of THE MURDERS IN THE RUE MORGUE. Later he would do a lot of American TV. The Amen Corner (with Andy Fairweather-Low) do a song. 

Thanks for reading!

Intermission

The Marx Brothers and Irving Thalberg!

The Terror....The Terror....

THE TERROR-1963-Andre Duvalle (Jack Nicholson),a French soldier lost on a beach meets the wistful Helene (Sandra Knight) who gives him water then runs with him along the shore. She walks into the ocean and Andre nearly drowns trying to rescue her (he's also attacked by a black bird). An old woman named Katrina (Dorothy Neuman) takes him in after he's saved her mute servant Gustav (Jonathan Haze). She also has a black bird name Helene. Later Andre follows the bird into the forest and finds the human Helene. They kiss and she power walks away. He follows her and is met by Gustav, who apparently can talk because he tells Andre that Helene is possessed and the only way the soldier can help her is by visiting the castle of Baron Von Leppe. Despite the old woman's warnings he sets out to find the castle and is almost killed by a rock slide. Upon first seeing the castle, she spies Helene at a window. Entering he meets the Baron (Boris Karloff; round of applause) who despite being most hospitable denies that Helene is there. The Baron shows Andre a picture of the Baroness (a dead ringer for Helene) and says she has been dead for 20 years. Andre is invited to stay the night and while in his bed he hears strange noises and a drawing he had made is ripped to shreds. The next day while visiting the Baroness' tomb he is confronted by Stephan (Dick Miller), the Baron's servant. When next they meet The Baron, under a threat from Andre, he relates the story how years before he met and married a village girl who became the Baroness and how he killed her and her lover, Eric. He believes that the girl is the ghost of the Baroness (actually named Ilsa). “Perhaps we are both mad?”.

Stephen discovers the old woman's secret: she summoned Helene/Ilsa from the sea. There's some talk about the mysterious lover, Eric and Stephan wants to kill Andre but the Baron won't allow it. Andre decides to leave but Gustav signals him to stay and has his eyes torn out by the black bird. He falls to his death but manages to speak his last words to Andre: “Go back...”. Back at the castle he meets Helene and they kiss again. At night, Andre follows the Baron into the family crypt. It seems Ilsa wants Van Leppe to flood the castle so they can be together. When Andre meets Katrina in the cemetery she reveals that she is using Helene to drive Van Leppe to suicide because the Baron killed her son, Eric, Llsa's lover. But it turns out Stephen actually killed the Baron and Eric took Van Leppe's place in mind and body! After Katrina is burned up by lightening, Andre and Stephen try to stop Baron Eric from flooding the castle. They tussle in the flood waters. Stephen tries to save the phony Baron but they both drown. Andre saves Helene and takes her away from the castle (“You're free now”). They kiss and she rots away.

For this AIP quickie Roger Corman shot all the principal scenes featuring Karloff in four days then turned it over to second unit directors consisting of Francis Ford Coppola, Monte Hellman, Jack Hill and Nicholson. The sets were re-used from Corman's previous Poe film THE RAVEN (with Karloff & Nicholson). The story (scripted by Jack Hill and actor Leo Gordon) is confusing at times and there are several lapses in logic and continuity but at least from a personal standpoint it's an enjoyable little mess. It's funny the way the plot changes several times but Karloff and Nicholson keep it afloat. No pun intended as there is a flood scene.

  THE TERROR fell into the public domain years ago and used to be on TV constantly. It's had three dozen video releases. I've read that years later Corman filmed a new intro with Dick Miller to make the movie seem like a flashback and thus own a copyright version! Not sure if this is true though.

Nicholson and co-star Sandra Knight (still alive at the time of this writing) were married at the time. She appeared earlier in FRANKENSTEIN'S DAUGHTER.

Thanks for reading!  

Space Rocks

THE MONOLITH MONSTERS-1957-Space rocks fall on a small town and become giant sized when exposed to water. Geologist Dave Miller (Grant Williams; he starred in THE INCREDIBLE SHRINKING MAN the same year) tries to figure out why townsfolk are turning into carbon. Naturally Miller's girlfriend Cathy (Lola Albright; mainly a TV actress who died in 2017) takes kids on a rock hunt with disastrous results. Miller and the sheriff (William Flaherty) team up to find a solution and a frustrated newspaper publisher Cochrane (busy radio and character actor Les Tremayne) tries to assist them. They bring in Prof. Flanders (Trevor Bardette). A little girl in shock (Linda Scheley) helps them find a cure for the carbon crisis but the monoliths still threaten the town.

 John Sherwood directed this unusual low budget '50's sci-fi film (a year after making THE CREATURE WALKS AMONG US) which features no “bug eyed monsters” and a lot of talk about silica. Paul Frees narrates, William Schallert (as a weatherman) and Troy Donahue have un-billed roles.. Co-screenwriter Robert M. Freaco penned TARANTULA in 1955. Jack Arnold has a story credit.

Thanks for reading!

X From Japan (not porno)

THE X FROM OUTER SPACE-In Japan, a four person crew: Capt. Sano (Shinya Wazaki), Dr. Shioda (Kensuki Sonoi), Signal officier Miyamoto (Shinichi Yanagawa) and biologist Lisa (Peggy Neal), takeoff for Mars after several other expeditions have disappeared. The ground crew led by Dr. Kato (Eiji Okada) blame UFOs. After the group does encounter a alien craft, the doc falls ill and they have to stop at a moon base where they meet Michiko (Itoko Harada) and Shioda's replacement Dr. Stein (Mike Daneen). They almost crash but return to Earth safely with some spoors that turn into a giant monster (Guilala).The rubbery creature is one of the worst “Kaiju” ever! Sano, Miyamoto, Lisa and Michiko go to the moon in an effort to create a substance that will destroy the out of control, outer space being. This dumb sci-fi space opera , directed and written by Kazui Hihonmatsu, is full of talk, running around and has sugary happy ending.

In his only giant monster movie star Eiji Okada was better known for as the star of Alain Resnais' HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR and Hiroshi Teshigahara's WOMAN IN THE DUNES. He's also in THE UGLY AMERICAN (with Marlon Brando) and the excellent but often overlooked THE FACE OF ANOTHER.

In 2008 a comedy “sequel” THE MONSTER X STRIKES BACK was produced.

Thanks for reading and Happy 4th of July!

The Rest Is History

FRANKENSTEIN-1931-Of course all serious horror fans know about Universal's follow up to DRACULA and how they wanted Lugosi to play the lead. Here's some quotes:

“He's resting. Just waiting for new life to come”.

“We must find another brain”

“One man crazy. 3 very sane spectators”.

“In the name of God, now I know what it's like to be God”.  

Watch it tonight!!!

\

1950's Horror

TARANTULA-1955-This begins with a mutated guy in his pajamas dying in the desert. Later the corpse is examined by Dr. Matt Hastings (John Agar) and the aloof professor Deemer (Leo G. Carroll) who says the cause of death was “agromeglia” but Hastings isn't buying it. Turns out the professor is experimenting with an isotope that can enlarge animals. When Deemer is attacked by another mutant his lab burns down and an experimental tarantula escapes. The mutant dies but not before injecting the professor with the isotope. Deemer's new intern “Stevie” Clayton (Mara Corday) winds up taking care of him when he starts to mutate. The giant arachnid dogs their trail but eventually starts eating cattle and people. Hastings, the sheriff (Nestor Paiva) and a newspaper publisher (Ross Elliot) can't fight it. When the spider knocks out phone lines and terrorizes Deemer and Stevie, Hastings uses dynamite but that fails to do any good. It's up to the Air Force (lead by Clint Eastwood) to get rid of it. Hank Patterson is a hotel clerk and Raymind Bailey is another scientist. 

Jack Arnold directed this fast paced low budget horror sci-fi story with great (for the time) special effects the same year as REVENGE OF THE CREATURE (also with Agar). 

REVENGE's screenwriter Martin Berkeley co-wrote TARANTULA but was soon after blacklisted. Lead actress Mara Corday (still alive at the time of this review) was in another Jack Arnold outing THE MAN FROM BITTER CREEK the same year. Leo G. Carroll's popular sit-com TOPPER ended the year he played the the deformed Prof. Deemer.  

Thanks for reading!

Sinful

YELLOW CARGO-1936-Narcotics agent Alan O'Connor (Conrad Nagel) is hired to investigate the smuggling of illegal Chinese immigrants on the East Coast. A female reporter Bobbie Reynolds (Elenor Hunt), described as a “goofy dame” and her clumsy photographer Speedy (Vince Barnett) are investigating a movie studio (Globe Productions) which is just a front for the illegal alien trade run by Brace (director Crane Wilbur) and Pirelli (Jack LaRue). O'Connor pretends to be Chinese for a while and Bobbie is kidnapped. Low budget quickie with lines like “Drop them sticks and stick 'em up or I'll let ya have it”. 

The movie is also known by the less offensive title: SINFUL CARGO.

Thanks for reading!