Real Hippies...??

 

(imdb)

CHANGING-1971-Unusual cinema-verite' about a hippie like couple and the struggle to preserve their marriage, raise their children and help another couple. When they get together with some friends they all smoke pot. It's rather pointless and too long (although only 28 minutes). If it's all on the level, it could be the first reality series. I'd like to know what happened to the family though. 

Part of a series called “The Social Seminar” produced UCLA for The National Institute of Mental Health. The producer Gary Schlosser also produced another short film COWBOY (1966) which was nominated for an Academy Award.

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Andre

 

 (imdb)

SAMUEL BECKETT:WAITING FOR ANDRE-2017-This short film is about the real life friendship between playwright Samuel Beckett (David Threlfal) and the young French teenager who would later become pro wrestler Andre The Giant (Liam MacDonald). It's mostly an embellishment of a popular local story that grew over the years. It's true the playwright and the future wrestler did live in the same French village and Beckett did drive Andre to school occasionally but he drove most of kids one time or another (the school didn't have a school bus) and he never developed the personal friendship with Andre that's depicted here. It was part of an English TV series called “Urban Myths” directed by Ben Palmer and written by Neil Forsyth.

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Passing Parade

 

 (flickchart)

JOHN NESBITT'S PASSING PARADE-1944-"Return From Nowhere". In this story, traumatized seaman Alan Blank (Don DeFore) loses a sum of money he hoped to buy a farm with. He cracks up and is put in a hospital. His friend Jack (Donald Curtis) relates the story to a doctor (Morris Ankrum). Using fried eggs and bacon, a jazz record and a kind of dream therapy,  the doc figures out what's ailing Alan and helps cure him. At the beginning and end Peter Cushing is shown in a scene from another movie!

 “The Passing Parade” was a popular radio show written and narrated by John Nesbitt (the grandson of Edwin Booth). Beginning in 1938 MGM produced a series with Nesbitt as writer/narrator. 46 shorts were produced, the last in 1949.

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Buy Bonds!

 

 (imdb)

THE ALL STAR BOND RALLY-1945-20th Century Fox produced this patriotic US bond raising short (18 mins) hosted by Bob Hope. It features performances by Betty Grable, Fibber McGee and Molly, Harry James and Frank Sinatra, Harpo Marx and Bing Crosby. There's also cameos by Carmen Miranda, Vivian Blaine, Linda Darnell,.June Haver and pre-Amazing Colossal Man Glen Langan. It was one of only 3 movies directed by Michael Audley who later served as dialogue coach on many other movies.

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Buster!

 

 (imdb)

THE GREAT BUSTER: A CELEBRATION-2018- Well done documentary about the lengendary Buster Keaton, produced, directed & narrated by Peter Bogdanovich. The first half which discusses Keaton's life is good but has actually been done to death in other docs recently. It's nice to hear from people that knew him like Dick Van Dyke and James Karen but do we really need the opinions of Quentin Tarantino and some guy from JACKASS? The second half where his films are analyzed is great despite Bogdanovich's rather monotone voice.

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Two Out of the Way At Once

 

 (imdb)

REMNANTS-2013-Nothing new here. A couple (writer/director Brian Coppola & co-writer Stephanie Gershowitz) with a dog and a video camera believe their house is haunted. The next hour is them talking and walking around in the dark. The doggie was cute though......

FRANKENSTEIN-2011-Mary Shelly, James Whale and Boris Karloff must be spinning in their graves. This is a trashy modern low budget version of the horror classic with lots of characters yelling "No!" at the top of their lungs. Bad acting, direction, tons of talk. Really terrible. I hope director Jordan Salkil never heard of the novel “Dracula”....

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Exterminate...

 

EXTERMINATORS FROM THE YEAR 3000-1983-In this Road Warrior rip off, after the ozone layer is destroyed, post apocalyptic survivors search for water while a bald headed nut called Crazy Bull (Fred Harris) and his assistant Shadow (Beryl Cunningham) lead a gang of outlaws also searching for H20. A young bionic boy Tommy (Luca Venantini) looking for his dad attaches himself to Mad Max wannabe Alien (Robert Jannuchi).They meet ex-astronaut Papillon (Luciano Pigozzi) who fixes Tommy's arm. Later they are joined by Alien's ex-girlfriend Trash (Alicia Moro) in a hunt for water. 

Badly made in Italy nonsense directed by Giuliano Camimino (THE CASE OF THE BLOODY IRIS).

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"One Of You Has Got To Die"

 

 (wikipedia)

FOUR BOYS AND A GUN-1957-4 "boys" rob the box office of a boxing arena. In the melee a cop (un-billed Joseph Campanella) is shot and killed. 

They are all arrested and flashbacks reveal what led up to their predicament. Asshole Eddie (Tarry Greene) is dumped by his girlfriend who likes her boss better. Ollie (Frank Sutton) who's having an affair with Eddie's sister gets in trouble with the boss he runs numbers for. Stanley (William Hinnant) is a nice wimp from a decent family but is corrupted by Eddie and Ollie. Amateur boxer Johnny (James Franciscus) has a pregnant wife but is told by his manager (J. Pat O'Reilly) that he doesn't have what it takes to be a pro. They throw a party to raise the money but a gangster spoils it. The abrupt ending seems to say they will all go to electric chair. 

Director William Berke was working mostly in TV at the time but in the '30's and '40's directed tons of low budget films (Jungle Jim, Dick Tracy, westerns). Screenwriters Phillip Yordan (Bogart's last film THE HARDER THEY FALL) and Leo Townsend (who later wrote several AIP “Beach” movies) adapted the story from a novel by Willard Wiener.

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From Nasa

 

( Amazon)

WHO'S OUT THERE?-1975-This is a NASA produced short (29 mins), hosted by Orson Welles who talks about his “War Of The Worlds” radio show, quotes HG Welles and says we act better out in space than we ever did on Earth. Film of a group of scientists (including Nobel prize winner George Wake and pothead Carl Sagan) discussing alien life is also shown. Gary Graver was one of the cinematographers. 

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Satan's Zombies

 (deviant art)

 DOCTOR SATAN-1966-A mad doctor/occultist Arozamena (Jaoquin Cordero) has some resurrected dead men do his bidding. At a cemetery he makes a deal with a winged devil. Meanwhile an Interpol agent Mateos (Jose Galvez) and his female assistant investigate a case of counterfeit money that has been spreading over town. Unbeknownst to them the crazy Arozamena is using that phony money to create an army of zombies to rule the world!! Or something like that.....

Half of this film is a crime drama and the other is an atmospheric supernatural horror story. Both halves were directed by Miguel Morayta (INVASION OF THE VAMPIRES).

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Mantan Leads The Troops

 

DRUMS IN THE DESERT-Monogram-1940-Lt. Paul Dumont (Ralph Byrd; already doing the Dick Tracy series) meets Mme. LaRoche (Lorna Gray) on a ship headed for Algiers. They seem to fall in love but when they dock she disappears. He has to train the Senegalese army troop to be paratroopers whose Sgt. Williams is played by Mantan Moreland! 

Unfortunately for Paul, LaRoche is engaged to his best friend (George Lynn). A local named Abdullah (George Castello) gets very upset when his wimpy brother is executed for murder. 

There isn't much to this Monogram production except Moreland's role which has some serious overtones and the fact his troops are very eager to become paratroopers and not some racist stereotypical cowards. It was co-written and directed by the underrated George Waggner, a year or so before making THE WOLFMAN and MAN MADE MONSTER.

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Tabloid

 

TABLOID!-1985-During an aerobics class (very popular in the '80's) 2 aliens kidnap the instructor. At a sleazy tabloid newspaper run by a crabby old bitch, a new writer works hard creating new stories for the paper. 

In the first story, 3 rednecks try to take revenge on a hick who sold them some bad weed. The hick, his pregnant wife and her mother kill all three rednecks and at the end the wife gives birth to a baby with a beard. This one seemed very influenced by John Waters. In the second three recently dead people come back to life and have a BBQ while having a kind of philosophical discussion about life and death. This whole story is filmed too darkly. The third involves a guy who can predict tornadoes with help from his daughter, a vacuum and a small town TV station. Parts are funny but this one goes on too long. There were three directors, one for low budget loony segment.

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They're Not That Wild

WILD ONES ON WHEELS-1962-Duke Walker (Sidney Mason) is let out of prison after serving his time for a bank robbery where the money was never recovered. Criminal gangster King Tut (Edmund Tontini) and his gang, Pompey (Mike Cannon), Jick (Jonathan Karle) and Preacher Man (Ray Dennis Steckler) want the money so they stake out the diner where his girlfriend Hazel (Francine York) works. Eventually they trap Duke and Hazel when they go on a camping trip and meet up with Bill (Robert Blair), Hazel's lover while Duke was away. They beat Duke up but he refuses to tell. After Pompey and Jick have a "chicken run" and Jick is killed, Duke is stabbed to death. The rest of the story is the gang, convinced Hazel knows where the money is, trying to make her lead them to it with Bill trying to protect her. They eventually find the money but have a falling out and Bill turns out to actually be an insurance investigator working with the police! 

Director Rudolph Cusumano made his only other movie, SECRET FILE : HOLLYWOOD the same year. Ray Dennis Steckler directed and acted in WILD GUITAR, also in 1962.

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Ko & Ho

 

 imdb)

THE UNTOUCHABLE GLORY-1988-Another Asian paste up job, this time from Phillip Ko. Once again some kind of Philippines made action drama has new inserted scenes with Pierre Kirby as a ninja Chuck Norris /Rambo machine who's supposed to be part of an elite force called "The Untouchables". Weird General Karpov (Patrick Frzebar; also in THUNDER OF GIGANTIC SERPENT) wants them destroyed. As usual the story (co-written by Geoffrey Ho) is made incomprehensible but there are some funny incompetent fight scenes in the added footage.

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Don't Do The Time

 

DRACULA IN A WOMEN'S PRISON-2016-Dumb amateurish horror movie with an American women (Victoria Da Mare) going to a fictional third world country to retrieve the remains of her sister who mysteriously died in prison. It turns out the warden is really Count Dracula (Robert Rhine, trying to pass Zandor Varkoff as filmdom's worst Count Dracula) who's using the place for his personal blood bank. It features low grade computer generated sfx and bad acting. It's a sequel to Werewolf In a Women's Prison from 2006. Frankenstein In a Women's Prison is the sequel. All three were directed by Jeff Leroy.

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Excelsior!

 

 (wikipedia)

STAN LEE'S MUTANTS,MONSTERS AND MARVELS-2002-Filmmaker Kevin Smith sits down with Marvel Comics publisher/editor/creator-writer Stan Lee who talks about Spider-Man, the creation of the Marvel universe, working with artists like Kirby & Ditko, his life, marriage, superhero movies, etc. Nice interview but Smith is a little annoying with his grunts of yeah and right. Director Scott Zakarin also made THE MAN WITH THE SCREAMING BRAIN.

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There's A Riot Going On!

 

 (wikipedia)

RIOT IN JUVENILE PRISON-1959-After juvenile delinquent Eddie Bassett (Scott Marlowe) leads an unsuccessful breakout from a juvenile prison where two boys are killed, the governor orders Dr. Furman (Jerome Thor) to use drastic experiments to help straighten out the youths despite the protests of the fascist warden Col. Walton (John Hoyt). His first order of business is to make the place co-ed and brings in a busload of juvvie females. They are overseen by Bess (Ann Doran) & Grace (Marcia Henderson). Almost immediately two women Babe (Dorothy Provine) and Kitty (Virginia Aldridge) have a cat fight over Eddie. Another J.D. Killion (Dick Tyler) starts trouble when he attacks Kitty. The governor dismisses Furman and the warden gets control. After Eddie is beaten up by a sadistic guard (Richard Reeves) he leads a riot. 

RIOT is a typical kind of “teens behind bars” '50's drama that was petering out by 1959. It was directed by the great Edward L. Cahn who made INVISIBLE INVADERS and THE FOUR SKULLS OF JONATHAN DRAKE the same year. Screenwriter Orville Hampton also penned JONATHAN DRAKE and THE ALLIGATOR PEOPLE in '59.

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"A Cat in a Strange Attic"

 

 (imdb)

I PASSED FOR WHITE-1960-Bernice Lee (Sonya Wilde) is light skinned African American who's frustrated and depressed over always being mistaken for white. She thinks it would be better if she just pretended to be white but her grandmother is against it. Nonetheless after being turned down for a job because she wrote "negro" on her application she decides to go to California and start a new life...as Leila Brownell, a white woman. She gets a better job and sends money home to her family. She doesn't include romance but that just happens when she falls in love with Rick Leyton (James Franciscus), an upper crust well to do white man. Of course she doesn't tell him about her "background" and their relationship is built on her lie after lie as she tries to stop from revealing her secret. Only her white girlfriend Sally (Pat Michon) knows the truth. It seems ok until hubby sees her talking to her black musician friend. Hubby punches the guy out as he's aghast. Later she becomes pregnant and worries what their child will look like. When she miscarries and asks if the baby was black, hubby thinks she was fooling around. Now suspected of being a floozie she leaves him and returns to her family without him never finding out her secret. 

This misguided low budget drama was the last picture made by director Fred Wilcox who's previous film (in 1956) had been FORBIDDEN PLANET.

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Grizzly 2 Electric Bugaloo

 

 (wikipedia)

GRIZZLY 2: REVENGE-2020-In Yellowstone park, a giant killer grizzly bear is on the rampage after it's cubs are killed. Samantha Owens (Deborah Raffin) is in charge of bear management and wants Nick (Steve Inwood), a park ranger, to capture the bear alive. Bouchard (John Rhys-Davies), a French Canadian mountain man sets traps. Meanwhile Eileene Draygon (Louise Fletcher) throws a rock concert with acts that look like they are auditioning for Gary Numan. 

Despite getting top billing, Charlie Sheen, Laura Dern and George Clooney are only in one scene. Deborah Foreman, Ian McNiece, Timothy Spall and Jack Starrett are also in it. 

This production which features a silly bear puppet, began filming in Hungry in 1983 (Sheen, Dern & Clooney were relatively unknown then which explains their small roles) when the producer quit the production because of lack of funds. Somehow the co-producer Suzanne Nagy found a backer and principle photography was completed. However the entire film languished incomplete while Nagy and her crew worked on it (a working print was posted to Facebook and remained there for years). Finally, in the beginning of January 2020, the film was completed and released. I don't think it was worth the wait....

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Meow

 

 (imdb)

THE CREEPER-1948-A doctor's daughter sleepwalks with her dad's gun. At a medical facility, Dr. Jim Bordon (Onslow Stevens) argues with Dr. Cavigny (Ralph Morgan) about his experiments with cats. Nurse Gwen Runstrom (June Vincent) reports that their special serum has been destroyed. The other nurse Dora (Janis Wilson), Cavigny's gun toting sleepwalker daughter, seems more than a little bothered having had a fever when they were in the West Indies. Bordon has some experimental cats sent to him. Meanwhile Dr. Van (Eduardo Ciannelli) listens secretly to the whole debate. Van works with Dr. John Reade (John Baragrey) across the hall researching allergies. It seems Reade and Gwen are engaged. Dora freaks out when she meets Reed's cat named "Creeper" (is that a cat name?). 

Later Dora relates to Reade how she caught a fever and later had an episode at a Chinese restaurant.(run by Phillip Ahn). She has several dreams she's being menaced by a giant cat paw. When her dad is murdered she's arrested. She's let go for lack of evidence but the cat handler Andre (David Hoffman) is killed by what appears to be a man size cat but only a shadow is seen. A police inspector (Richard Lane) snoops around. 

There's not much except a few more murders and a kind of dumb ending. Director Jean Yarbrough doesn't have much to work with here but keeps this low budget 20^th Century Fox release quick and short.

Dread Having To Watch This

 

THE TOWN THAT DREADED SUNDOWN-2014-Stupid sort of sequel to Charles B. Pierce's 1976 quasi-documentary. A killer terrorizes Texarkana in the same place the original murders were. Some yokels think the original killer is back. A girl who survived the initial attack and Lone Wolf Morales (Anthony Anderson), an arrogant Texas ranger lead the official investigation. Gary Cole plays a police officer killed while getting a blowjob. The original director's son Charles Pierce Jr. is portrayed as a real weirdo. The killer starts killing everyone including the girl's grandmother (Veronica Cartwright). 

This is just another sick excuse to show excess killing. It's the last movie for both Ed Lauter & Edward Herman. Director Alfonzo Gomez-Rejon directed episodes of the TV show “Glee” before this.

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Fingers

 

 (imdb)

GREEN FINGERS-2000-This short horror tale begins with Mrs. Bowen (Ingrid Pitt; THE VAMPIRE LOVERS, COUNTESS DRACULA) killing a cat. She buries it and it seems to come back to life. It scares her and she cuts off her finger."I can grow anything with my green fingers" she says. She's put to bed by her gardener friend (Robin Parkinson) and a nurse (Janina Faye; HORROR OF DRACULA) but at night she buries the finger. Next day she's surprised to see a hand growing. At night her new grown self rises from it's grave and kills her with an axe. The next day she kills her nurse. The End. 

Filmed in England by Pat Cotgrove who also did the adaptation from a short story by RC Cook. (It was also done as an episode of TV's “Night Gallery” in 1972).

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