John Agar

HAND OF DEATH-1962-A guy investigates a bunch of dead sheep and passes out. Scientist Alex Marsh (John Agar) & his assistant Carlos (John Alonza) revive him and say they were conducting a secret experiment for the government and he mustn't tell anyone. Back in civilization, Alex visits wheelchair bound Dr. Ramsey (Roy Gordon), his kind of girlfriend Clara (Paula Raymond) and another scientist Tom Holland (Stephen Dunne). He tells them he’s invented a nerve gas that can also hypnotize its victims. Clara doesn't like it. She thinks it's too dangerous. One night while working he knocks over a beaker containing some experimental gas. He passes out and has a dream about floating test tubes and lab mice. He wakes up with a dark sunburn and when he touches Carlos he dies. Alex packs a bag, sets the place on fire and leaves. Joe Besser plays a happy gas station attendant who's cheerful outlook doesn't pay off. I’ll watch anything with John Agar in it but I’ll never forgive him for killing lovable Joe Besser! 

Alex hides out at Ramsey's place while they try to find a cure. Tom comes up with something but by then poor Alex turns into a lumpy faced monster (he resembles the original version of The Thing from the Fantastic Four comic books) who accidentally kills Ramsey. Despite his obvious pathetic grunts that are pleas for help when Clara sees him she flees in terror (ok, I would have done the same…). Undaunted he puts on a floppy hat and trench coat and goes for a ride. That doesn't work out so he wanders around aimlessly scaring women until he kills a cabbie and steals his cab. With the police on his trail Alex ditches the cab and wanders on the beach. After he collapses a little kid (Butch Patrick) almost touches him, Alex goes to Tom’s beach house for help but surprise! Clara is staying there instead. Tom and the police arrive and when Alex becomes aggressive a cop shoots him. Tom can have Clara all to himself. 

This seldom seen low budget horror movie was the first feature length film directed by Gene Nelson, also an actor who went on to direct Elvis Presley in KISSIN' COUSINS but worked mainly in TV. 

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Unsold!

THE SOLARNAUTS-1967-Unsold British TV pilot about  two astronauts Power (David Garfield) and Tempo (Derek Fowlds) who prowl around Mars for their grouchy boss. A green faced alien named Logik (Alex Scott) causes problems by threatening to destroy the capital of Mars if he doesn't get the planet’s mineral rights. A woman named Kanda (Martine Beswick) shows up to help them. They thwart his plan in the end but he gets away. They have guns that freeze people. 

The very toy like sfx seem like this could have been filmed by Gerry Anderson for a puppet cast but they decided to substitute humans at the last minute. Directed by John Llewellyn Moxey who later made many films and TV episodes both in England and the US including the classic vampire TV movie THE NIGHT STALKER.

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Monster Muck Up

MONSTROID-1980-An American industrialist (Philip Carey) worries that his cement producing water polluting plant in Columbia SA is losing money because the locals say a giant creature is on a killing spree. A local named Vic is stirring up trouble with his anti-American, anti-big business protests which besides including the monster also concern a witch. An American lady reporter (Andrea Hartford) investigates and interviews people while villagers torment a bull during some kind of festival and a young girl gleefully takes pictures. Meanwhile Pete (Anthony Eisley), the plant manager has a bad break up with his white girlfriend Laura (Coral Kassel) who he throws off for local boo Juanita who has been branded as “la bruja”, a witch. A priest (John Carradine), sermonizes and leads a festival procession and troubleshooter Bill Travis (James Mitchum) arrives to sought things out. After Laura has one last bang with Pete, she becomes monster bait. Later they have sonar equipment set up. Horny Pete is suppose to be monitoring it but he’s too busy bedding Juanita and misses the monster attacking a fishing boat. Meanwhile Travis drills the reporter. Pete’s kids get a blurry photo of the creature’s eye and this convinces everyone the monster is real. At night while the priest leads some loco locals to burn the witch, crazy Vic causes an explosion that cripples the plant and kills him. Pete, Travis and Juanita set a trap for the monster and Travis gets waterlogged saving the day but blows up the monster. However the kids’ dog makes a startling surprise in the end.  

The monster makes Reptilicus look good. Credits say based on a true story but there’s no such village in Colombia and most of the story was shot in Mexico.

This low budget production (begun in 1971!) went through many script, cast and title changes (Carradine doesn't interact with any of the other “stars” and scenes with Philip Carey are just him talking on a phone) before being released in it's present form. Director Ken Hartford also made the past up job THE LUCIFIER COMPLEX. It's also been said (by Anthony Eisley in an interview with Tom Weaver) film “doctor” Herbert Strock directed most of the movie with credited director Hartford having very little to do with it.

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Mama Mia!

MAMA DRACULA-1980-Peter von Blood (Jimmy Shuman), a nerdy self possessed professor is invited to attend “The World Blood Congress” by Countess Dracula (Oscar winner Louise Fletcher) herself. Vladamir, her grunting pale driver takes him to the castle where he’s nearly bitten by twin gay vampires. He’s saved by The Countess, who tells Blood she stays young by bathing in the blood of virgins but in the decadent modern world virgins are not easy to find. Someone named Nancy Hawaii (Maria Schneider from LAST TANGO IN PARIS) shows up to become the new mama. The director Boris Szulzinger (TARZOON: SHAME OF THE JUNGLE) thought this Belgium-France co-produced nonsense was funny I guess….

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You Go Sisters!

SISTERS OF DEATH-1976-During a sisterhood initiation involving Russian roulette, a would be member is killed. 7 years later... someone is planning a reunion. Judy (Claudia Jennings), Sylvia (Cheri Howell), Francie (Cheryl Alberoni), Diane (Sherry Boucher), Penny (Roxanne Albee), the remaining girls reunite and are driven to a remote house by two guys Mark (Paul Carr) & Joe (Joe Tata) where someone is watching them. Only Penny had any hesitation to go. Everything seems to be provided for their entertainment. Even Mark and Joe come back although they aren't really welcome. The next day the watcher reveals himself. He is the father of the girl who died at their initiation 7 years earlier. Though the girls explain that they all loved his daughter and her death was ruled a tragic accident, he insists one of them secretly hated her and purposely set her up to be murdered and now he’s going to find out who! There's an electrified fence around the grounds and since the guys are trapped there too, they decided to help out.

Penny is the first to go, strangled to death. Dad spends much of his time in a secret room making bullets near a shrine for his dead child. He also plays the flute to an accompanying record and has a flashback. Apparently he and daughter were a musical duo. After Sylvia is menaced by a tarantula,  Diane is killed with a pair of scissors. Joe runs into the electric fence after being chased by a dog. Francie is locked in the cellar with a rattlesnake. In the end Sylvia is in league with Dad, who has a Gatling gun he plans to use in his own game of Russian roulette leading to a surprise twist ending involving Judy and Paul. The director of this low budget cat and mouse drama Joe Mazzuca, directed several episodes of TV's THE BIG VALLEY and did various production jobs on many animated cartoon series. 

Joking with Drac

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DRACULA (THE DIRTY OLD MAN)-1969-After some pretty funny narration, a not bad Dracula (Vince Kelley) rises from his coffin. He was an exaggerated Jewish accent and makes dumb jokes. His coffin is in a cave and he spies on a woman. Later he hypnotizes a guy named Mike who becomes Irving Jeckleman with a terrible furry wolf head. He procures women for Dracula to fondle, insult and bite one captive's boob. Irving chases a few, kills their men and takes his own girlfriend back to the cave where he and the count have a falling out. Dracula steps out into the sun and dies. Mike and his girlfriend have sex in the cave while a bat watches them. Despite the presence of many topless women and a few fully naked ones this is an awful boring mess. The worst part though is stupid dubbed in voices which get old very quick. Director William Edward later produced and wrote the infamous THE MUMMY AND THE CURSE OF THE JACKALS.

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Welles Meets Mr. Big

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NECROMANCY-1972-Laurie (Pamela Franklin) and Frank (Michael Ontkean) Brandon decide to move to the country to forget about their stillborn child. On their drive to the town called Lilith they are almost in a collision but manage to avoid the other car which plummets off a cliff and explodes. While Frank goes for the police Laurie checks out the fiery crash. She finds a doll and takes it with her. When their car runs out of gas (?), Frank leaves Laurie alone to get some. She hears a voice and wanders around until she comes to some kind of funeral for a young boy. But she looks closer she sees herself in the coffin. Then the scene vanishes and she's alone in front of a tombstone. 

Finally they meet Frank’s new boss Mr. Cato (Orson Welles with glasses & fake nose) a toy manufacturer who likes “the black arts”. Laurie takes an immediate dislike to Cato and the town. His assistant Priscilla (Lee Purcell) tells Laurie that Cato’s son is dead and Cato won't accept it. She also says Cato not only owns the town, he owns the people too. At party, the people talk about astrology and use tarot cards while Cato smiles and drinks wine. Laurie has some weird visions. Later Cato reveals to Laurie that he believes she has a power to bring back the dead and wants her to bring back his son! After refusing to join the local coven and seeing a young boy no one else can see, she gets locked in the basement and is terrorized by rats. But it all seems to be an illusion and hubby is a witch too. In the end Laurie kills herself and is brought back to life. Somehow Cato’s son comes back to life and Laurie is put in his coffin and buried alive. But it all seems to be a dream with the happy couple getting ready to go to Lilith and disaster. 

This modern day supernatural nonsense was the product of Mr. BIG himself Bert I. Gordon who also co-wrote the script.

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The Lone Star State of Horror

PSYCHO FROM TEXAS-1975-A nutty redneck named Wheeler (John King lll) has flashbacks of his mom having sex. Meanwhile a local rich retired businessman  named Phillips (Herschal Mays), who fishes with an African American kid, plans the wedding of his daughter Connie (Candy Dee). Turns out Wheeler was hired to kidnap and rob Phillips. He and a local fool kidnap Phillips and after tying him up at a remote cabin, Wheeler goes to score some weed. Now he may be psycho but he's not very smart leaving the shit for brains local to watch over their captive. Sure enough while Wheeler is out making a pest of himself Phillips escapes. The local gives chase. They keep referring to Phillips as an “old man" but he takes off and their chase scene seems to go on forever!  Meanwhile Wheeler visits Connie and a neighbor informs her that her daddy is missing. (The kid he goes fishing with found his abandoned car) It seems Connie's fiance Steve (Reed Johnson) is behind the plot. The long long chase finally ends with Phillips stabbing the local ass in the neck. He eventually makes it to police headquarters.  After Wheeler kills Connie's friend, he gets some KFC and visits a bar. Steve is arrested but when he sees Phillips is alive he grabs a cop’s gun and bolts. Yes! Another chase scene! The chase is inter-cut with Wheeler's antics at the very darkly lit bar where he kills the only other customer and makes the bartender (Linnea Quigley) dance naked and pours beer on her (she looks like she's laughing on one point). A cop shoots Steve in the head, father and daughter are reunited and the sheriff (who’s daughter Wheeler killed) shoots Wheeler whose last words are “Don't hurt me, mama!”.  

This fairly boring slasher film began life as the never released WHEELER. It went through several changes and titles before it became PSYCHO FROM TEXAS. The bar scenes with  Linnea Quigley (this could be her first film role depending on when the scenes were shot) were added to this version providing the only actual highlight of the whole film. Seems like they put it toward the end to give at least some kind of payoff. Two directors are credited: Jack Collins (who plays the sheriff) and Jim Feazell.

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Short and Terrible

LUCID-2013-Monica (Brittany Saylor), is a trouble woman who has dreams of killing her boyfriend Kevin (Michael Coon) after accidentally killing her first boyfriend. She's actually being manipulated by a famous dream doctor's crazy wife (writer/director PJ Woodside). She can enter patients' dreams and is plotting to murder her husband. More terrible junk from executive producer Steve Hudgins (who plays a masked killer).

IT LIVES IN THE ATTIC-2016-The less said about this bad amateurish nonsense the better. It's about three people who's lives seem to be manipulated in a house where the owner killed herself (?). Steve Hudgins stars in it and directed it. Need I say more?

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Spain

SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE-1973-In a small village in Spain in 1940, the residents there watch James Whale's 1931 version of Frankenstein. A little girl named Ana (Ana Torrent) becomes intrigued with the monster after her sister tells her the monster didn't die at the end of the movie and now lives in an abandoned house near them. Later Ann helps a wounded soldier who dies out there. After his she runs away. The whole village searches for her. Eventually at the riverside she meets the monster. This was the feature film debut for the director Victor Erice and is held in high regard in his home country of Spain where it was filmed.

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Mexican Wrestling Mummies

THE MUMMIES OF GUANAJUATO-1972-After a too long travelogue intro, Panguino, a little person guide shows a group a bunch of mummies. One called Satan is dressed like a Mexican luchador. Panguino tells the story of how the original El Santo beat Satan in a wrestling match and the heel swore vengeance. After the group leaves Panguino thinks he sees Satan's hand move and he faints. He ten has a dream the mummies are attacking him. After the caretaker wakes him up, he tells his friends Lina and Alicia about the incident. They don't believe him so the trio go back to the tomb and convince the caretaker to let them in. When they get to the mummy display they find Satan missing! They hightail it to a wrestling arena where famous luchadors Blue Demon and Mil Mascaras wrestling. Fortunately Lina is Mil's girlfriend and they all discuss what happened. Mil and Panguino go to investigate and Blue Demon is knocked out by Satan who remembers his fight with Santo (Satan isn't a mummy apparently and wears a red mask). Satan kills a night watchman (the director) and an old man. Two lovebirds witness the last event but the police don't believe them. After Satan kills Panguino, Lina and Alicia, along with Demon's adopted son Julito stay at Mil's house. Blue Demon is once again knocked out by Satan who steals BD's wrestling gear and gives it to his mummy pal who kills two people with the real wrestler getting the blame. Two mummies break into Mil's house and kill Alicia and kidnap Lina.

While Mil and Demon are out looking for mummies, Julito is kidnapped (he was hiding in the trunk of their car). El Santo and his manager happen to stop in Guanajuato and are attacked by mummies. They fend them off but the mummies terrorize and kill the town's populace. Santo tries to fight the mummy horde single handedly but has little success so he and his manager drive away! He meets up with Mil and Demon and they take on the mummies not too successfully until Mil gets some flame guns from Santo's car and kills them.

There's lots of plot holes and long stretches of talk. This color triple hero adventure (which most fans think is the best) could have been better.

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THE M

THE

El Santo Save Us!

EL SANTO VS. EL ESTRANGLADOR (THE STRANGLER)-1965-The famous luchador El Santo (himself) is called in when a scarred strangler kills show girls at a club. Sub-plots include a young singing couple investigating the murders, a show girl who wants her lover to kill a rival and Santo adopting a son. After the iconic Mexican grappler foils one of the strangler's crimes, he sends a hit man to do in the wrestler but that fails. Later the show girl's lover wrestles Santo but he's accidentally shot and killed by the strangler (he was trying to kill Santo). Eventually it's revealed the strangler is masquerading as a woman. He's shot by the police while trying to escape. 

Beware! There are a lot of musical numbers and our hero only shows up 20 minutes into the film! Thank you director Rene' Cardona!

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Horror?

CRUCIBLE OF HORROR-1971-Michael Gough is Walter Eastwood, the sadistic father of a dysfunctional family who whips his teenage daughter Jane (Sharon Gurney), who he obviously has perverted feelings for), when she steals some money from their country club. His son Rupert (Simon Gough and real life son of Michael) seems to be a carbon copy of him and his wife Edith (Yvonne Mitchell) suffers mental anguish caused by him. One night Edith says to Jane “Let's kill him!”. When he goes away alone for a weekend of hunting Edith and Jane decide to put their plan into operation. They threaten him at gunpoint and drug his booze. When he’s unconscious Edith force feeds him more drugs. Jane is rather disgusted by this but the she remembers all the bad things her father did to her (shown in snippets). They plan it to look like a suicide but 2 scenes seem to say that Gough is still alive. Back home mom and daughter wait for a call. Edith has a weird psychedelic dream. Later when they don't hear anything from the country house they go back there and find their victim’s body has been moved to a large crate! They get rid of the crate and go home. Dad shows up to terrorize them. The next day he’s alive, his usual slimy self with Edith and Jane looking worse than ever. 

Seems the screenwriter Olaf Pooley wanted to be the Harold Pinter of horror...

I don.t pretend to understand what the hell the ending was suppose to represent. It may have been a prank instigated by Walter. Early in the story he has a mask that resembles his face and a shot of him hanging near the end is clearly a dummy. Was this intentional? Director Viktors Ritelis did mainly TV episodes before and after this.

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Mike Raven

CRUCIBLE OF TERROR-1971-John (James Bolam), an in debt art dealer, his girlfriend Millie (Mary Maude) and mutual friend Jane (Beth Morris) accompany her husband Mike (Ronald Lacey) to visit his eccentric sculptor father Victor (Michael Raven) who before the credits appears to put a woman in plaster and molten metal to make a sculpture. Also at the remote former mine are manservant Bill (John Arnatt),who has a roomful of medieval weapons and Victor's feeble-minded wife Dorothy (Betty Alberge) who carries around a stuffed dog. Besides being a mad killer Victor is a pompous conceited pervert who insults his defenseless wife. Though Vic has a model (Judy Matheson) for a mistress, he seems to take a shine to Millie (who has Deja’ Vu about the place).  At night Millie has a dream a masked figure throws blood on her. While Mike drunkenly rants Jane agrees to pose for Victor but she spurns his advances and is later stabbed to death. The next day while Millie and the model frolic on the beach it’s revealed that Mike stole some of his father's paintings and they have an argument about Dorothy. Mike is then bludgeoned to death after a very stupid scene where the model throws rocks at him. John goes back to London to get cash to buy Victor’s paintings. Out for a walk, Millie sees Victor watching her and runs into a cave where she finds Dorothy hanging out with some dolls. After someone throws acid in the model's face, Millie agrees to model for Vic. She spurns his advances and runs into another cave where she finds Mike's decomposing body and Dorothy who’s committed suicide. When she encounters Vic again she faints. He plans to make her his next statue. 

Though it's talky in stretches and Raven comes across as a poor man’s Christopher Lee, the story does have a bizarre if improbable twist ending involving a Japanese woman and a cult that worship the dead. Me Me.Lay (JUNGLE HOLCAUST) has a small role.

 CRUCIBLE OF TERROR is the only movie directed by Ted Hooker and some stories say lead actor Michael Raven, a former DJ put up half the budget. The same year as this Raven was also in Hammer's LUST FOR A VAMPIRE and Amicus' I, MONSTER. He later wrote and starred in DISCIPLE OF DEATH.

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