Wednesday, June 30, 2021

Mr Big Is Back!

  (photo: IMDB) 


TORMENTED-1960-On a coastal island in an abandoned lighthouse, Jazz pianist Tom Stewart (Richard Carlson) let's his former lover Vi (Juli Reding) fall to her death when she threatens to blackmail him with some incriminating love letters which would spoil his upcoming marriage to rich girlfriend Meg Hubbard (Lugene Sanders). 


Almost immediately he starts to feel guilty. He sees VI's corpse floating in the ocean but when he swims out to retrieve it, he finds it's just a pile of seaweed. Then he sees strange footprints in the sand. Meanwhile Meg's very young sister Sandy (Susan Gordon, the director's daughter) performs a magic trick. He has a weird dream where he's menaced by Vi's ghost. Then he sees a disembodied hand wearing Meg's wedding ring. Then Meg's wedding dress is wrapped in seaweed. His blind housekeeper Mrs. Ellis (Lillian Adams) suspects a ghost. A boat operator (Joe Turkel) who brought Vi to the island tries to blackmail Tom. 


Later he has a conversation with VI's disembodied head. At Vi's urging Tom kills the blackmailer. Unfortunately Sandy witnesses the whole thing! The wedding doesn't turn out as they planned either. All the flowers die. Later when Tom goes to the lighthouse and tells Vi she's won but Sandy follows him and tells him she knows he's a killer. Tom plans on pushing Sandy off the lighthouse but VI's ghost causes him to fall off and die. Tom and Vi are united in un-dead matrimony. Gene Roth and Merrit Stone have small roles. 


Not a bad little low budget ghost story from Mr. BIG himself Bert I. Gordon (Still alive at the time of this writing!).


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Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Another from 1953 and Based On a Bradbury Story!

 



IT CAME FROM OUTER SPACE-1953-In Arizona, writer Johnny Putnam (Richard Carlson) and his girlfriend Ellen (Barbara Rush) think they see a meteor crash but it's not a meteor, it's an alien spaceship. Helicopter pilot Pete (Dave Willock) takes them to the crash site the next day. Johnny discovers the ship and is almost killed by an avalanche. No one believes him however. He and Ellen have a brief encounter with a one eyed creature. Two telephone line workers Frank (Joe Sawyer) & George (Russell Johnson) get a weird noise on the wires and later encounter the creature. When they next meet Frank he seems hypnotized but it's actually an alien impersonating him. 


Later John catches alien clones of Frank and George stealing. After Ellen is kidnapped Frank and the skeptical sheriff (Charles Drake) go to the desert where Frank meets an alluring alien version of his girl. Then he encounters an alien who tells him they are only repairing their ship and everyone will be ok if the humans don't interfere. The stupid sheriff who's sweet on Ellen wants to fight them. When he decides to attack John goes to the mine to warn them. He's attacked by the Ellen clone. Snooping around he finds the alien base and meets a clone of himself. He convinces the aliens to let their captives go and they return to space. 


This eerie Sci-Fi classic (originally shown in 3-D) was only the second full length feature directed by Jack Arnold and was adapted from a Ray Bradbury story by Harry Essex who in 1954 would team up again with Arnold to make THE CREATURE FROM THE BLACK LAGOON!


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Harryhausen Beast

 




THE BEAST FROM 20,000 FATHOMS-1953-In the Arctic, Prof. Tom Nesbitt (Paul Hubschmid aka Paul Christian) & Colonel John Evans (Kenneth Tobey) await the arrival of a plane as part of "Operation Experiment", an atomic explosion. While checking for radiation Nesbitt and his pal Prof. Ritchie (Ross Elliot) run into a giant dinosaur which causes an avalanche. Nesbitt is rescued. 


Of course Evans and his doctor (Frank Ferguson) and a psychiatrist (King Donovan) don't believe him. After the monster sinks a ship and Nesbitt reads about it he hightails it to NYC to convince Prof. Elson (Cecil Kellaway) to organize an expedition. His assistant Lee (Paula Raymond) tries to be helpful but to no avail. Eventually Nesbitt convinces Elson the monster exists and asks Evans to help. He in turn asks his Coast Guard friend (Donald Woods) for assistance and finds out the monster wrecked a lighthouse in Maine. When Edson goes down in a diving bell he encounters the monster confirming its existence. Unfortunately he's killed and the monster attacks Manhattan. 


People flee in terror, buildings are wrecked, cars are crushed and in the movie's most famous scene a cop is lifted by his head and eaten. It's also discovered that the beast is carrying deadly germs. Nesbitt says shooting it with a radioactive isotope is the only way to kill it. He and an army sharpshooter (Lee Van Cleef) wind up on a roller coaster in a Coney Island like setting to destroy the beast. 


BEAST was one of the biggest money making films for 1953. Eugene Lourie does a fine job directing and there's lots of familiar characters throughout but of course what really makes this film is the excellent stop motion animated giant monster created by the one and only Ray Harryhausen. His painstaking effects are incredible! Based in part on a short story by Ray Bradbury.


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Monday, June 21, 2021

Corman Hill

 


THE BIG DOLL HOUSE-1971-In a women's prison in "some banana republic" newbie Marni Collier (Judy Brown) shares a cell with Alcott (Roberta Collins; later in CAGED HEAT), Grear (Pam Grier), Bodine (Pat Woodell), Ferina (Gina Stuart) and Harrad (Brooke Mills). The place is run by Ms. Dietrich (Christiane Schmidtmer) but the real boss is the mysterious Col. Mendoza. 


After cockroach races, food suppliers Harry (Sid Haig) and Fred (Jerry Franks) come by and Harry feels up Grear. Bodine has a boyfriend revolutionary in the mountains and is tortured by head guard Lucian (Kathryn Loder) for info. When Alcott is caught having sex with Fred she's tortured too. Bodine and Alcott plan an escape and want Collier to help them. Then Alcott and Grear have a fight in the mud. The women plot their escape but Lucian tortures Collier to find out their plans while Dietrich dines with the prison doctor (Jack Davis). Then Harrad stabs Grear in the neck. Though Harry and Fred came for sex with Grear they wind up hiding the remaining women in their truck with Dietrich and the doc as hostages. Ferina is killed chasing her cat. There's an attempted rape, shoot out and explosion before the ironic ending.


This sleazy crazy entertaining movie was an early production from Roger Corman's New World Pictures and was shot in The Philippines by Jack Hill soon after the race car film PIT STOP and few years after filming Boris Karloff's US scenes for his quartet of Mexican made horror films. It's also the feature film debut of Pam Grier (who sings the title song). Before this she had a bit role in BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS and was a receptionist at New World. Corman co-produced it with John Ashley. Hill made THE BIG BIRD CAGE the next year also with Grier and Haig.


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Mind?

 


JENNIFER ON MY MIND-1971-Loser (Michael Brandon, not very good) meets decadent bimbo Jennifer (Tippy Walker). She od's and dies and he needs help disposing of the body. Flashbacks show how they met and started a relationship. Pretty boring stuff with comic Chuck McCann as a good Samaritan,unknown Robert DeNiro as a cab driver and Barry Bostwick as a minstrel in small roles. It was made by the aforementioned Noel Black.

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Covered

 


COVER ME BABE- 1970-Pretentious arty filmmaker (Robert Forster) likes to buck the system after losing out on a film grant. He refuses to cooperate with a Hollywood producer (Jeff Corey) and would rather film a person dying or a couple making out. In the end he loses everything but is such a smug self centered loser he doesn't seem to realize it. Sondra Locke, Sam Waterston and Regis Toomey co-star. It was directed by Noel Black who made JENNIFER ON MY MIND the next year and went into TV (THE WORLD BEYOND).

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Saturday, June 19, 2021

Shut The Door!

 


BEYOND THE DOOR 3-1989-In Belgrade Serbia overage stupid college students meet Prof. Andromolek (Bo Svenson). From the get go he's obviously evil because when a telegram arrives saying the mother of one of girl
s has been killed in a car accident he throws the message away without telling her. The others make fun of her because she's a virgin. 

Much of this contrived nonsense takes place on a moving train. It really sucks and has nothing to do with the original BEYOND THE DOOR (or BEYOND THE DOOR 2 for that matter). The director Jeff Kwitny later wrote episodes of the cartoon series “Animaniacs”.

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Send It Back

 



THE SENDER-1982-Dr. Gail Farmer (Kathryn Harrold),works in a psychiatric ward where she encounters a new patient the suicidal John Doe (Zeljko Ivanek). After trying to communicate with him she begins to have hallucinations, imagines he's in her house and sees cockroaches crawling in a refrigerator. She meets his mother (Shirley Knight) but no one else sees her. Apparently everyone can see Doe's dreams because of the interference of his dead mom. 

Meandering junk that might have been something in the '80's but now is dated. Director Roger Christian went on to direct a worse movie though BATTLEFIELD EARTH with John Travolta.

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TV Classic

 



THE ASTRO-ZOMBIES-1968-In a pre-credits scene a woman is bludgeoned to death by a skull mask wearing killer in a garage getting blood on her classy white Mustang convertible. Toy robots are shown during the credits. Then an auto accident victim is removed from some wreckage by a weird looking guy. Dr. Petrovich (Victor Izay), FBI director type Holman (Wendell Corey in his last role) and agent Chuck Edwards (Joseph Hoover) discuss the experiments of disbarred scientist Dr. DeMarco. Another agent Eric Porter (Tom Pace) hangs around. Meanwhile spies Satana (Tura Santana) and Juan (Rafael Campos) buy an audio tape from a guy with a German accent. Then they have him rundown. 

After this we meet DeMarco (John Carradine) who's doing experiments on a dead body with the help of his assistant Franchot (William Bagdad), the weird guy who removed the body from the car wreck. This scene goes on forever and is only made watchable by the presence of Carradine who makes his talk about preserving great minds sound plausible. Meanwhile Satana lounges and smokes while listening to a tape of DeMarco expounding. Then one of Dr. Petrovich's nurses is stabbed to death by someone wearing a skull mask. It/he stabs her multiple times even when it's obvious she's dead. 

So it seems DeMarco is creating "astro-zombies", reanimated dead with special electrodes in their brains. Tura wants the secret for her government. Our government wants to stop him. When one Astro's power pack is destroyed he puts a flashlight to his head for power. 

There's a little gore and a severed head during the climax which is about the best part of the whole movie. It was directed and co-written by Ted V. Mikels who would make a sequel almost 35 years later that featured Santana and Carradine (well, not really..you'll see!). Future member of the MASH TV show Wayne Rogers was co-writer and co-producer.

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Thursday, June 17, 2021

Forgotten '70's Shit

 

JC-1972-Hippie-biker-pothead JC Masters (Bill McGaha) can't hold a job and hallucinates a lot. Almost 17 minutes past before the credits are shown! 

JC wants his gang to spread love and is almost like a weird religious cult preacher. He and his girlfriend Kim (Pat Delany) and his gang go back to his hometown to visit his sister (Joanna Moore). The sheriff (Slim Pickens) and his deputy (Burr DeBenning) are very upset because JC has a black guy David Little (Hannibal Penney) with him. After the redneck duo arrest and beat up Little it's rednecks vs. hippies in a motorcycle shotgun shootout. After the deputy kills Little peace loving JC kills the deputy. In the end the Christ like JC is killed. 

Visible boom mics are in many scenes in this dumb dated misfired parable written and directed by lead actor McGaha who made one more movie after this.

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Monday, June 14, 2021

7 For One

 


RAGE WAR-(akaTHE DUNGEONMASTER)-1984-In this low budget anthology from Empire Pictures, a running guy Paul (Jeffery Byron) is obsessed with his talking computer Cal. His fiance Gwen (Leslie Wing) doesn't like it. After a weird dream, Paul is transported to some kind of cave where Gwen is chained to a rock with fire all around. A strange wizard/sorcerer Mestema (Richard Moll) likes Paul's "magic" (his computer is on his watch) and says he will make a worthy opponent. 

Later Paul and Gwen find a cave full of frozen people from the past including Einstein and Bloody Mary. They are attacked by Jack the Ripper, a mummy, a wolf man & some other creatures but an ice crystal destroys the bad guys. After Gwen disappears Paul meets the troll Ratspit (John Carl Buechler) then some cartoon dragons fight. When Mestema plays some of his music Paul counters with his own (the movie's theme). Paul is then transported to a heavy metal concert where a comical Ozzy clone sings. Gwen is a victim of their S & M show but Cal destroys them.

 In another land some dwarfs steal his computer watch. Then a giant stone statue comes to life and shoots a laser from its head. Paul destroys it and winds up in an alley with a dead woman, victim of a serial killer. Gwen is his next victim and Paul has to save her. Two dumb cops arrest him but he escapes. They elude the killer and are then menaced by a flaming devil head. Next in another cave a monster throws exploding rocks at Paul. Before it dies it turns into an angel like woman. In a graveyard of airplanes the pair are threatened by some hooded soldiers and a little guy who talks like Cousin Itt. At the end Paul and Mestema fight it out and somehow Paul wins. They are freed. 

Like most Empire junk it's imaginative but makes no sense, the acting (especially by Byron as Paul) is bad, the sfx so so and the script is dumb. It's in seven parts with each directed by a different person (including Buechler, David Allen, Charles Band, Peter Manoogian, Ted Nicolaou).

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Haunted

 


HAUNTER-2013-A young girl Lisa (Abigail Breslin) experiences the same events with her family over and over. It's the eve of a birthday that never comes, her father endlessly fixes their car, mom prepares the same meals every night and her little brother plays the same video game and talks to an imaginary friend. It turns out she and her family are dead, the victims of a serial killer Edgar Mullins (Stephen McHattie) who once lived in their house. He possessed Lisa's father and killed the family. Now a new family has moved into the house and Lisa tries to prevent Edgar from killing again. 

This starts off promising but goes on too long. Director Vincenzo Natali made another movie I liked better CUBE (1997).

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Sunday, June 13, 2021

Corman Killer Robots

 

CHOPPING MALL-1986-At Secure-Tronics Ltd., Suzie (Barbara Crampton) and Alison (Kelli Maroney) and their brain dead friends drink beer and have sex in a furniture store in a shopping mall where some security robots have gone haywire after an electrical storm. The group run around exploding propane tanks, shooting guns and being picked off one by one until only Alison is left (well sort of). 

Dick Miller is a janitor named Walter Paisley who's electrocuted. Paul Bartel & Mary Woronov have a pre-credit appearance and Mel Welles, Gerrit Graham, Ace Mask, Arthur Roberts and Angus Scrimm have small roles. There's nudity, an exploding head and one jerk saying "Let's send those fuckers a Rambo-gram”. The 'bots say things like "Thank you. Have a nice day" after killing. 

This Concorde release was co-written and directed by Jim Wynorski who a couple of years later re-made Roger Corman's NOT OF THIS EARTH with Maroney and several other Chopping Mall actors.

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Stray

 


STRAY-2019-Murphy (Christine Woods), a female police officer coming back to her job after the death of her child, investigates the mysterious burning death of a woman who later appears to be 1000 years old. Murphy meets the woman's daughter Nori (Karen Fukuhara) who seems to have some special power. A guy (Japanese guitarist-singer Miyavi) who might be Nori's brother hangs around. This weird supernatural tale has very good acting and direction but might be a little too dark.

 This is the only feature film (so far) by director Joe Sill who before and after made video shorts, commercials and music videos.

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Filmed In Ohio

 


CANDY CORN-2019-A poor geek named Jacob (Nate Chaney) who works at Dr. Death's carnival is killed by 4 asshole punks. His little person boss Dr. Death (Pancho Moler) brings him back to life with some occult mask. He kills his attackers in various ways (he pulls one guy's spine out) and sheriff Sam Bramford (Courtney Gains) investigates. The killer pulls the tongue out of a girl who wasn't even one of the killers in an empty movie theater showing THE PHANTOM CREEPS. The instigator of the whole bullying thing is Mike, the sheriff's son who gets pretty fucked up by Jacob. 

PJ Soles appears as Sam's dispatcher and Tony Todd (an executive producer) has a small role. Bad script and acting doom this gory revenge tale directed by Josh Hasty.

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Thursday, June 10, 2021

Made In England

 


THE WOMAN THAT WOULDN'T DIE-1965-In England American Raymond Garth (Gary Merrill) is married to rich old bag Ellen Taylor (Jane Merrow) (it seems simply so she can have sex with him). He seems resigned to his fate until Ellen's young niece Alice (Georgina Cookson) comes to town. They begin an affair. Although Raymond makes plans with their chauffeur to do away with Ellen he gets a little over zealous and drowns her prematurely. He buries her in the garden shed. The chauffeur hires an actress to impersonate Ellen so it looks like she leaves town. Then he kills her and makes it look like a car crash. Now Ray and Alice are free to be together except after several strange occurrences, it seems like Ellen isn't dead. 

The result is guessable but the twist ending is good. 

WOMAN was known in England (where this was filmed) as CATACOMBS. It's kind of like a longer version of an “Alfred Hitchcock Presents” episode and was the directorial debut of German born Gordon Hessler who made THE OBLONG BOX in 1969.

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Wednesday, June 9, 2021

Tor Johnson is Lobo In

 



THE UNEARTHLY-1957-Dr. Charles Conway (John Carradine) is mad egotistical scientist using his rest home as a front for his diabolical experiments in eternal youth using his unsuspecting patients as guinea pigs. He's assisted by clipped fast talking ice princess Dr. Sharon Gilchrist (Marilyn Buferd) and brain dead experiment gone wrong servant Lobo (the one and only Tor Johnson). Another doctor Loren Wright (Roy Gordon) is also in on the loony plan and provides "patients”, the latest being the up tight, depressed Grace Thomas (Allison Hayes). Also staying there are the uber-hyper Danny (Arthur Batanides) who may or may not be a drug addict and the cute blond Natalie Andries (Sally Todd) who's symptoms are never revealed. There's also the comatose Jedrow (Harry Fleer), another failed experiment who's sister is putting pressure on Wright to know her brother's whereabouts. 

Lobo catches escaped murderer Mark Houston (Myron Healey) in the garden and Charles offers him sanctuary. While Charles and Sharon plot their next operation, Mark gets acquainted with everyone, especially Grace. Charles reveals his dark plans to Mark and wants to make him immortal. At night while Charles plays an organ recital for his victims, Natalie is drugged and Lobo takes her to the lab ("Pretty girl. Pretty girl."). Later while sending everyone to their rooms, Tor mutters the memorable "Time for go to bed". The doc performs surgery on Natalie. Later he discovers he's once again failed. Natalie has become something of a prune faced zombie. Doc is quite disappointed. Sharon tries to cheer him up and says he needs rest. "I do not need anything that I do not wish to need" he snaps and also decides to have Lobo bury Jedrow alive. Mark spoils his plans. After showing Grace what happened to Natalie, they decide along with Danny to blow the joint. Unfortunately they are found out and Charles decides the time is right to operate on Grace. Fortunately Mark is actually an undercover policeman assigned to check out Conway's wacky residence. Jedrow kills Charles and although Danny is killed, Mark saves Grace. But there's a surprise in the basement. 

THE UNEARTHLY was the brainchild of producer/director Brooke L. Peters (aka Russian born Boris Petroff) who later made ANATOMY OF A PSYCHO in 1961. The story seems similar to the synopsis of a lost Lon Chaney silent film THE MONSTER. 

Star Carradine is great as the insane doctor doing it all for science. He was in a segment of the colossal flop THE STORY OF MANKIND the same year and made a lot of TV appearances. Lead actress Hayes was also in THE UNDEAD and ZOMBIES OF MORA TAU the same year. Big Tor began work on PLAN 9 FROM OUTER SPACE around this time. 

Marilyn Buferd, a Miss California winner and former model, earlier had been in Roberto Rossellini's THE MACHINE THAT KILLS BAD PEOPLE. She only made one movie after this, QUEEN OF OUTER SPACE the next year.

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Jack Town


 JACK TOWN-1962-In Michigan lay about dullard thug Frankie (Richard Meade) lives with his parents, won't get a job and pulls petty crimes with his dimwit juvenile delinquent friend Vince (Russ Paquette). His mom thinks he's "a good boy" but doesn't like him listening to that "awful rock and roll". After he has sex with a fourteen year old waitress he's convicted of statutory rape and sent to prison even though Vince made a threatening phone call to the girl's mother and got the charge dropped. He's sent to the state's largest prison nicknamed "Jack Town". Suddenly the film turns into a into a documentary about the 1952 Jack Town prison uprising. When it gets back to Frankie he's being harassed by some inmates because he's a rapist. Meanwhile his buddy Vince is shot and killed by the police after he robs a grocery store. 

The warden takes pity on Frankie and gives him a job as a gardener at his house. There he meets Margaret (Patty McCormick), the warden's daughter who takes a liking to him. The warden (Douglas Rutherford) doesn't appreciate it and gives him another job as a driver. When Frankie and a guard accompany a wounded prisoner to get medical help, the prisoner tries to escape. They two have an awkward tussle and the prisoner is shot. Frankie steals a car and hightails it. Surprise! Frankie is now a kidnapper too. There's a four year old in the back seat! He reports it to the cops and goes to Margaret's place. She tries to get him to give himself up but he's an insincere creep who only cares about himself. Eventually she talks him into going back and after serving his time becomes a model citizen (well, that's what the narrator says as anyway….). 

This is typical misunderstood youth type crime drama and rather outdated by 1962 (despite the rape angle). It was written and directed by William Martin.

Dope

 


STAKEOUT ON DOPE STREET-1958-Grocery clerk Ves (Jonathan Haze), bodybuilder Nick (Steven Marlo) & artist Jim (Yale Wexler) find two pounds of heroin after a police bust. They decide to sell it and live on easy street. They enlist a junkie named Danny (Allen Kramer) to help them. After their first deal Jim has problems with his girlfriend Kathy (Abby Dalton) who doesn't like their plan. Danny relates a long flashback where he goes through cold turkey. When they run afoul of gang boss Mr. Fennell (Herschel Bernardi) and his thugs they regret their involvement. 

This forgotten little crime drama with a message was the first feature film directed by Irwin Kershner after making a few documentary shorts and some TV. After stuff like THE RETURN OF THE MAN CALLED HORSE and EYES OF LAURA MARS, he really made it to the big time directing THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK, NEVER SAY NEVER and ROBO-COP 2.


Tuesday, June 8, 2021

Hitman

 


MURDER BY CONTRACT-1958-Claude (Vince Edwards) becomes a hit man for Mr. Moon (Michael Granger) who works for the mysterious Mr. Brink. In LA he's met by high strung Marc (Phillip Pine) and laid back George (Herschel Bernardi). Claude is kind of a nut who berates a waiter and seems more interested in sightseeing than the hit. He gets upset though when he finds out his latest job Billie Williams is a woman. After a failed attempt to electrocute her and more planning he's successful but a drunken call girl (Kathie Browne) informs him that he didn't kill Billie but instead a police woman. 

The climax is a little far fetched but it's an ok low budget film noir. Director Irving Lerner later worked with Edwards on his hit TV show “Ben Casey”.

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Wild

 



THE WILD RIDE-1960-Wise ass speedster Johnny Varron (Jack Nicholson; the same year as LITTLE SHOP OF HORRORS) runs a cop off the road. He and his "gang" like to play chicken. He's upset when his pal Dave (Robert Bean) goes "shallow" while “playing” and blames Dave's girlfriend Nancy (Georgiana Carter). Dave dumps her because Johnny says so but Dave has second thoughts and decides to step out on the gang. Johnny kind of kidnaps Nancy and tries to molest her but Dave catches them, freaks out and crashes his car and dies. Johnny takes the blame and surrenders to the police. His gang abandons him. "The stud's gone bad. Let's split". 

Roger Corman was the executive producer. The director Harvey Berman was a UCLA drama teacher. Much of the cast were amateurs. As for the dialogue, as Johnny's older lover says "Speak so I can understand you". There's also a re-cut version that makes the main story a flashback.

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Monday, June 7, 2021

Polanski and Pleasence

 




CUL DE SAC-1966-Weirdo allegory art drama about a sleazy annoying gangster Richard (Lionel Stander) and his equally annoying much worse wounded partner (Jack MacGowran) who get lost in North Cumberland after a botched bank robbery. He wanders till he finds a castle occupied by an eccentric wimpy bald man George (Donald Pleasence) and his much younger slutty dominant wife Teresa (Francoise Dorleac). After his partner dies, Richard kind of takes over the place and at one point pretends to be their servant when a bunch of their friends come over. Eventually he's killed by the husband who seems to lose his mind, scaring his wife away and winding up alone and abandoned. 

Incomprehensible nuttiness by Roman Polanski made in between REPULSION and THE FEARLESS VAMPIRE KILLERS.

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Tuesday, June 1, 2021

The Last Poe

 


THE TOMB OF LIGEIA-1965-Local strange guy Verdon Fell (Vincent Price) mourns the passing of his young wife Ligeia (Elizabeth Sheppard). He develops an affliction toward sunlight and wears sunglasses a lot. After a fox hunt near Ligeia's tomb he meets Rowena (also Sheppard) who he eventually marries. The cloud of Ligeia's death hangs over their strange marriage. When Fell regresses Rowena to a child by hypnotism she begins to talk in Ligeia's voice. Then she has a weird dream where she's attacked by a cat and embraced by a dark figure. Fell acts weirder and weirder. Apparently though dead Ligeia (whose body was not buried but resides under the castle) still has a kind of necrophiliac spell on Fell. After Rowena seems to die from a cat attack, Fell burns Ligeia's body but she returns.... or does she?

This was the last of the Corman/Price Poe adaptations (written by Robert Towne). It was filmed in England and features more outdoors scenes than other projects. It's not bad but for me it's the weakest.

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