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!