Beaudine

 

GALLANT LADY-1942-Dr. Rosemary Walsh (Rose Hobart) in jail convicted of a mercy killing, is reluctantly involved in a jail break (she was handcuffed to one of the escapees). She decides to give herself up but is side tracked when she sets an old guy's broken leg. She meets Dr. Steve Carey (Sidney Blackmer) who knows she's an escaped con. He takes her under his wing but trouble brews when rumors about their relationship spread through town. After his sister Linda (Lynn Star) gets the lowdown, Steve admits he's in love and proposes marriage. Their plans don't work out so well as Steve punches the hick deputy. After Rosemary runs away, Steve is arrested. 

Rosemary takes refuge with Nick (Richard Clarke) & Nellie (Claire Rochelle) and henchman Baldy (Vince Barnett) the ones who broke her out in the first place. Bad move. They involve her in a bank robbery where a guard is killed and Nick is hit. Rosemary and Nellie rob a doctor at gunpoint for supplies so Rose can operate on Nick. Meanwhile Steve is taken a beating in his trial. Rosemary decides to go back and help but her bus crashes. When tending to the injured she's arrested. Steve is found not guilty and Rosemary is given a pardon. 

This run of the mill morality drama was directed by the super prolific William Beaudine and produced by the ultra cheap PRC. It also features one of the most horrible racist stereotypes of the only two black characters in the cast....

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Timothy Farrell is Umberto Scalli in....

 

RACKET GIRLS-1951-Wrestling promoter Umberto Scalli (Timothy Farrell; soon to be in GLEN OR GLENDA?) and his little pal Joe (Dan Ferrara) take female grappler Peaches Paige (as herself) under their wing. He also owes gangster Mr. Big (Phil Gerald) 35 grand. Scalli's a sleazy small time hood who is also a bookie who dopes horses. Legendary ring announcer Jimmy Lennon (Sr.) introduces the match between the Panther Woman and the Lion Woman.

 Later Scalli tries to convince (real life) women's champ Mona Mortensen to throw her match with (real life rival) Mexican champ Rita Martinez. It doesn't work. Their match goes on a long time and Scalli is subpoenaed to testify about the rackets. He and Joe try to lam it but Mr. Big's henchmen shoot and kill both of them. 

This little cheapie exploitation film was written and directed by Robert Dertano who also made GIRL GANG and GUN GIRLS (both with Farrell) and JOURNEY TO FREEDOM (with Tor Johnson).

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A Bull In A Maze

 

THE MINOTAUR, THE WILD BEAST OF CRETE-1960-The people of Crete sacrifice young women to the title monster who lives in a labyrinth. On her deathbed the Queen reveals to her husband the King and their daughter, Fedra (Rosanna Schiaffino), that she had another daughter Arianna, Fedra's twin who she hid in another city. Jealous Fedra orders her sister's death. Soldiers find her in a village but before they can act, Theseus (two time US Olympic gold medal decathlon winner Bob Mattias) and his pal Demetro (Rick Battaglia) show up and save her. After much hi-jinx, Arianna (also played by Schiaffino) winds up impersonating her sister and she and Theseus go to the labyrinth where The Minotaur (a man with the head of a bull) and Theseus have a fight. He burns out the creature's eyes and then hits it on the head with a rock. I felt sorry for the monster. 

Paul Muller (later in NIGHTMARE CASTLE) and Alberto Lupo (in ATOM AGE VAMPIRE the same year) are in it too. This Italian production was directed by Silvio Amadio.

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Mars in Cinemagic

 

THE ANGRY RED PLANET-1959-A manned Mars space probe that was thought to have crashed landed turns up 60 days later floating in space. When it's retrieved only one of the four person crew is conscious, the one female member Iris (Nora Hayden) who begins to relate the story of how she, Prof. Gettell (Les Tremayne), chief officer Sam Jacobs (Jack Kruschen) and Col. Tom O'Bannion (Gerald Mohr) travel to Mars and land on its red surface. When Iris sees an alien at a window she can't remember the rest of her story so the doctor gives her a drug and she continues. The group goes out to explore. It really is red. They have a ray gun that freezes things which comes in handy when Iris is attacked by a giant carnivorous plant! 

On their second outing they encounter a scary creature sometimes referred to as the rat bat spider which almost crushes the professor. Over a ridge they discover huge lake and something is watching them. Sensing danger they decide to return to the ship and go back to Earth but are held there by a force field. With nothing else to do, the decide to cross the lake when they spy a city in the distance. They head for it but turn around when a giant fish blob emerges and chases them. It kills Sam. The blob covers the ship. They use electricity to get rid of it, then get a Martian message but Iris faints. After they take off Gettell dies of a heart attack and Tom's condition worsens (he has a fungus). Poor Iris is on her own. Back in the present Iris concocts a cure to save Tom. They find a warning message on one of tapes. The voice (Ted Cassidy) warns Earth to stay away or be destroyed....

It has been said that THE ANGRY RED PLANET was made in 9 days on a budget of $200,000 by director Ib Melchior who co-wrote the screenplay with co-producer Sid Pink. Co-producer Norman Maurer reluctantly used the quick Cinemagic process to depict the Mars surface and the monsters. It was a very tacky looking but weird effect and he employed it again on THE THREE STOOGES IN ORBIT (co-starring his father in law Moe Howard). 

Melchior and Pink later worked together on REPTILICUS.

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Blood Bath AKA

 

BLOOD BATH-1966-After it seems like a vampire killed a woman, some beatniks (including Sid Haig & Jonathan Haze) check out Max (Karl Schanzer) the artist's new painting. Then waitress Daisy (Marissa Mathes) has a discussion with ballet dancing Dorean (Linda/Lori Saunders) about a secret meeting she has with a man. 

While looking at some paintings Daisy meets artist Antonio Sordi (William Campbell), who's artist ancestor was burned at the sake after being betrayed by his mistress Melizza. While having a flashback/hallucination, he turns into the vampire and kills Daisy with a meat cleaver. Sordi is also the person Dorean was meeting on the beach. Later at a party, he attacks a woman who falls into a pool. Daisy's sister Donna (Sandra Knight) goes looking for her (Max recognizes her from Sordi's latest painting) but Sordi denies knowing her. She learns about Sordi's ancestor who came back as a vengeful vampire after being burned, eventually being staked. 

Donna sees a connection between the missing women and Sordi. She decides to shadow him but he kills her on a merry go round (while others do nothing). His vampire self terrorizes Dorean but she escapes. Max has a fight with the vampire who seems to fall to his death but his body disappears. Poor Dorean seeks shelter at Sordi's bell tower residence where she discovers a dead corpse (Patrick Magee). Sordi isn't dead and thinks Doreann is Melizza come back to him. Fortunately some of his victims come back to life and throw him in bubbling wax. 

This movie has a crazy history. It started out life as a US-Yugoslavian production called “Operation Titan” for which Roger Corman provided American actors William Campbell and Sid Haig as he planned to distribute it in the US. Corman was unhappy with the resulting film and finally asked Jack Hill to write a new script and shoot new scenes while incorporating some of the original. Hill turned it into a horror film called “Portrait in Terror”. Corman was still unhappy with this new version and hired Stephanie Rothman to shoot more scenes. Unfortunately star William Campbell refused to do anymore re-shoots and an unidentified actor portrays the vampire monster which is why the Sordi character transforms into a totally different monster! Sid Haig's character also grows a beard for his later scenes! New scenes were also shot for a TV version called “Track of The Vampire”. 

There's always a story with Roger Corman!

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Hammer House

 

HAMMER HOUSE OF HORROR: S1 E7: THE SILENT SCREAM-1980-In this episode  Chuck, an ex-con (Brian Cox) gets a job helping a seemingly innocent pet shop owner Mr. Martin Blueck (Peter Cushing), tend to his animals, believing him to be a concentration camp survivor. However behind his stock of birds and dogs and cats the man is harboring a menagerie of wild animals like panthers, lions and leopards. It's all part of his behavior experiments. He hires Martin to feed the beasts. When Chuck decides to break into his safe the trouble starts. Martin is not what he seems and tragedy strikes. It was directed by Alan Gibson who made the feature films DRACULA AD 1972 and CRESCENDO for Hammer.

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More Hammer

 

MANIAC-1963-In the French region of The Camargue a pervert named Janello (Arnold Diamond) rapes a local girl Annette (Lillane Brousse). Her father finds him before the police do and he proceeds to torture and kill the guy with a blowtorch. 4 years later an American painter Jeff Farrell (Kerwin Matthews, THE SEVENTH VOYAGE OF SINBAD) decides to spend some time in a small village after breaking up with his girlfriend. He rents a room from Mme Eve Beynat (Nadia Grey) who also runs a saloon with her step-daugther Annette, who Jeff is first attracted to. Later he has an affair with Eve. She tells him her husband Henri (Don Houston) is in a mental hospital and if Jeff wants her to be free they will have to help him escape from the hospital. Jeff agrees. They pick him up and drop him off at a pier. Later Jeff discovers a dead body in the trunk of their car. They deduce it is a male nurse who helped Georges get away. At night they dump the body. An inspector investigates. There's a few twists in this kind of forgotten little Hammer thriller written by Jimmy Sangster and directed by Michael Carreras, the boss' son. Nice finale.

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Not Another One!

 

ANOTHER SON OF SAM-1977-Opens with the names of infamous serial killers. A serial killer named Harvey escapes from a mental hospital. He goes on a killing spree in a small town and a police lieutenant who's psychiatrist girlfriend was assaulted by Harvey goes after him even though his captain has brought in a SWAT team when they trap the killer in a building. Harvey is usually shown in POV shots and very tight close-ups. The police and the SWAT team don't seem to know what they are doing as Harvey outwits them several times. They really botch things up. Even killing a hostage and thinking they got the killer, who then kills the captain's son in law cop when he goes to investigate. Later they get Harvey's mom, who abused him as a child, to talk him out and despite her assurances he won't be harmed he's shot and killed to a bloody mess. The lieutenant's girlfriend dies though. 

A guy named Johnny Charro sings a terrible song terribly. Filmed in Atlanta, Ga., it features a lot of slo-mo and freeze frames and the editing, acting, direction, everything sucks. 

Originally called “Hostages” and filmed in 1975, the director/writer Dave Adams (his only movie) changed the title to cash in on you know who.

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Moon in Scorpio...How Did it Get There?

 

MOON IN SCORPIO-1987-This begins with a woman in a straitjacket saying “Moon in Scorpio. What does it mean?”. After the credits a patient escapes from a mental hospital killing two people. Then the police investigate a boat drifting at sea. They find a woman who stabs a cop. Later she's interviewed by the head of the hospital (Robert Quarry) and she talks about ghouls, assassins and a death ship. Flashback to Vietnam: Mark (Lewis Van Bergen), Burt (William Smith) and Allen (John Phillip Law) kill some villagers. Later Allen marries Linda (Britt Ekland). Burt invites Allen and Linda and her friends on his boat. Allen agrees though it's clear he's traumatized and doesn't like water. Besides Burt and his alcoholic wife Claire (Julian Kesner; FIRECRACKER) their mutual friends Mark and his weird girlfriend Isabelle (April Wayne) go along. This flashback is interrupted by an idiotic police officer talking about the escaped patient (the actor is terrible). Back in the past: Before the group leaves an unseen killer does in a fisherman. Despite all being buddies no one seems to get a long. Also it's apparent the killer is on board using a crossbow. One by one everybody is killed. The killer turns out to be Isabelle the escaped patient. She goes insane. You might too.......

Director Gary Graver was a cinematographer on over two hundred projects including work with Orson Welles and Al Adamson and a lot of porn (some which he directed under a pseudonym). This crazy murder mystery is a miserable paste up job. 

Nominal male lead Van Bergen was in the star of the short lived TV show "Sable". 

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Australia

 

DEAD SLEEP-1990-In Australia, Maggie (Linda Blair) goes to work at a clinic called “Elysian Fields” where an idiot named Dr. Heckett (Tony Bonner) is using “deep sleep therapy” on his patients and is obviously mad. She spends most of the movie trying to prove he killed 51 patients. He tries to kill her but she escapes and proves him guilty. He drives his car off a cliff. 

This down under downer was directed by Alec Mills who was a camera operator on many big budgeted films including some with Roger Moore as James Bond.

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Larry Ness Horror

 

LOCH NESS HORROR-1981-In a too dark opening scene a guy takes some pictures of the famous sea monster. "4 decades later", 2 losers go looking for "Nessie". One gets killed, the other discovers some dead Nazis and a bomber plane. Two scientists (one is Sandy Kenyon with a Scottish accent) and American Spencer Dean (Barry “son of” Buchanan) use sonar to try and find the monster with the help of local lunatic Jack Stuart (Doc Livingston) and his daughter Kathleen (Miki McKenzie with a high nails on a blackboard voice). She has Nessie's egg. Shoddy low budget nonsense with impossibly dark scenes and a terrible puppet monster. 

Since this movie was directed by Larry Buchanan Lake Tahoe subs for Scotland! And it's just plain boring too!

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Harryhausen!

 

IT CAME FROM BENEATH THE SEA-1955-Commander Pete Mathews (Kenneth Tobey) and professor Leslie Joyce (Faith Domergue; in THIS ISLAND EARTH the same year) are friendemies investigating a strange occurrence at sea. Brilliant scientist John Carter (Donald Curtis) joins them. They figure out it's a giant octopus which attacks and sinks a ship. While checking out the incident the trio come face to face with the monster and it kills a local deputy (Harry Lauter). Later it attacks the Golden Gate Bridge. Pete and John head a submarine to blow up the creature after it terrorizes San Francisco. It traps their sub and Pete has to go out and plant explosives. 

Despite a low budget this features some great Ray Harryhausen sfx. Too bad director Robert Gordon (THE JOE LOUIS STORY; a former actor) went into TV soon after this.

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