Foghorn

 

 (imdb)

THE ROCKET MAN-1954-Timmy (George “Foghorn” Winslow), an imaginative little orphan is given a special space gun by a weird looking alien. When he shoots it, it makes moving things stop. It also makes people tell the truth. He's taken in by Amelia Brown (Spring Byington), the local judge and her daughter June (Anne Francis two years before FORBIDDEN PLANET). Amelia wants to put the local corrupt politico Big Bill Watkins (Emory Parnell) in jail. Mayor Ed Johnson (Charles Colburn) is sweet on Amelia but he's in Big Bill's pocket. Enter Tom Baxter (John Agar; in Hugo Haas' BAIT the same year), a parolee sent by a warden to get reformed under the Judge's wing. A couple Bob (future “Bowery Boy” Stanley Clements) and Ludine (Beverly Garland) come to get married, and it turns out Bob is the parolee not Tom. In fact, Tom is actually a lawyer hired by Watkins to close the orphanage. Timmy uses the gun to save the orphanage and help June and Tom fall in love. 

This is a whimsical little love story comedy with a great cast but a so-so script dripping with sentimentality. It was co-written by future comedian Lenny Bruce. 

Director Oscar Rudolph worked mainly in TV but he also made the features TWIST AROUND THE CLOCK (1961) and DON'T KNOCK THE TWIST (1962). He was the father of future director Alan Rudolph. Child actor George Winslow was also known for his earlier in the musical comedy GENTLEMEN PREFER BLONDES (1953) (also with Charles Coburn) and made his last movie in 1958.

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Harryhausen

  (imdb)

EARTH VS THE FLYING SAUCERS-1956-Dr. Russell Marvin (Hugh Marlowe) and his wife Carol (Joan Taylor) have a UFO encounter. Later while overseeing Project Sky Hook, Marvin's father-in-law General Hanley (Morris Ankrum) advises him to cancel a scheduled rocket take off. Aliens land and metal robots cause some destruction. It seems their original message was misunderstood so they attacked. Later Martin and Carol, Major Huglin (Donald Curtis) and a police officer (Larry Blake) are taken aboard a saucer. There they see Hanley has been abducted and become the aliens' unwilling spokesman. They want to make Earth their new home as their world is dying. Martin and Prof. Kanter (John Zaremba) invent a sonic gun to kill the aliens. While it's being built, the aliens create some explosions on the moon and saucers attack DC. One is shot down and crashes into The Potomac. The Washington Monument and The Capital are among the buildings destroyed. Mostly caused by the shot down UFOs. 

The SFX (by the master Ray Harryhausen, who goes uncredited!) are the real highlight of this black and white science fiction film directed by the unheralded super-fast Fred Sears who made 8 other movies in 1956 including ROCK AROUND THE CLOCK and THE WEREWOLF. Thomas B. Henry is an admiral and Paul Frees is the voice of an alien. One of the screenwriters was Curt Siodmak.

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Friend of the Devil?

 

 (imdb)

THE DEVIL'S PARTNER-1960-An old man is killed when sacrificing a goat in a supernatural ritual. Then Nick Richards (Ed Nelson) comes to a small town looking for his uncle Pete. He's informed by the sheriff (Spencer Carlisle) that his uncle is dead and it could be murder. Local girl Nell (Jean Allison) befriends him. Her boyfriend David (Richard Crane) owns a gas station and her father (Edgar Buchanan) is the town doctor. Later Frank, another local drinks goat's milk and dies. Nick seems nice but he obviously has a sinister ulterior motive. At night Nick, using a pentagram his uncle made, makes David's dog turn on him. He survives by killing the dog and hires Nick to run the station while he recovers. Later Nick kills the plastic surgeon who's coming to check out David's scars by making his car crash. For some reason Nick pays the town drunk Papers (Byron Foulger) to help him in another ritual where Nick transforms into his uncle Pete! Papers runs away and is trampled by a mysterious black horse. Later Nick turns into a snake and tries to kill David but is shot. He turns into the black horse but is shot and killed by the Sheriff. The horse turns into Nick who turns into Uncle Pete. 

There seems to be a few holes in this story or the version I saw was edited. This is only one of two feature length films made by busy TV director Charles Rondeau and both in 1960 (the other was the dreary THE GIRL IN LOVER'S LANE). The screenplay was co-written by ex-Bowery Boys actor Stanley Clements.

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Eden?

 

(tmdb)

ATOMIC EDEN-2015-An annoying mercenary Stoker (Fred Williamson) assembles a group from his past to go to Chernobyl to find "the ultimate weapon" left behind by The Nazis. Meanwhile a mysterious army of people in radiation suits are outside attacking. Almost everyone gets killed. It's very violent and the dialogue is pretty bad. To top it all off Lorenzo Lamas shows up near the end as a villainous scenery chewer. 

Many questions are left unanswered and the end sets up a sequel though one was never made. German action star (and the film's co-producer) Mike Moller has several fights and there's a female samurai (Hazuki Kato). Director Nico Sentner plays a sniper.

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Book Club

 

 

 (imdb)

MADAME YANELOVA'S FINE LITERATURE CLUB-2017-I didn't know what to expect from this Israeli production with Hebrew dialogue. It's interesting but nothing special. Librarian Sophie belongs to a secret book club. Once a week she must attend a reading party accompanied by a man she picks up. All the other members must do the same. After the reading the men are bound and examined. The woman who brings the best man is given an award. Then the men are killed and made into hot dogs and sold nearby. If Sophie gets one more win, she will have hundred awards and be elevated to an upper echelon of the club. It's getting more difficult to achieve this as she gets older. She also has competition from the younger stuck up snob Lola. When her friend Hannah, a cleaning woman at the club, runs away, Sophie is put under surveillance by Reiza, one of the older decrepit women in charge. At the library one day Sophie meets Joseph who is interested in the works of Agnon on who Sophie is an expert. Eventually they seem to fall in love but all isn't as it seems. 

This seems like it would turn into a real horror movie but never does. It's more like some Kafkaesque mystery romance. It's alright but I was disappointed with the direction it took and the resolution. This was the debut film of Venezuelan born director Guilhad Emilio Schenker.

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Who Doesn"t?

 

 (imdb)

I LOVE TROUBLE-1948-PI Stuart Bailey (Franchot Tone) investigates the past of the wife named Jane (Lyn Merrick) of a "public figure" (Tom Powers). It leads to a night club run by Keller (Stephan Geray) & Reno (John Ireland). After he's threatened and slugged, Bailey meets a woman (Janet Blair) who says she's Jane's sister. This leads Jim to Caprlllo (Eduardo Ciannelli) and young wife Ligia (Janis Carter) and their shady chauffeur Martin (Donald Curtis). Later he's beaten up by Reno and his henchman (Raymond Burr). Bailey escapes their clutches and suspects Jane of murdering an ex-con cook (Sid Tomack). Glenda Farrell is his secretary and Adele Jergens is a helpful showgirl. 

OK typical film noir with Tone giving a good performance as the cool PI. Screenwriter Roy Huggins later created the TV show “77 Sunset Strip”. This is one of the last movies made by director S. Sylvan Simon (ABBOTT & COSTELLO IN HOLLYWOOD (1945)) who died suddenly of a heart attack in 1951.

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Short Crime Drama

 

 (imdb)

SQUAD CAR-1960-Lt. Beck (Paul Bryar) investigates the murder of an airplane mechanic involved in a counterfeiting ring. A crop duster operator Jay Rinehart (Don Marlowe) is Beck's prime suspect. He's doing some smuggling for Mr. Stahl (Jack Harris) who makes threats against Jeannie (Lynn Moore), Rinehart's girlfriend. Also involved is Cameo Kincaide (Vici Raaf), a nightclub singer, who was dating the dead guy. A narrator (Art Gilmore) helps move the plot along. Even though Stahl tries to kill Cameo they wind up teaming together and sharing the phony loot but after Cameo shoots Jeannie, Rinehart helps Beck nail the guilty party.

This is like a pilot for a TV crime drama with a cliched script and the Beck character reminding me of Broderick Crawford's role in the TV series “Highway Patrol”. It's the only feature film credit for director Ed Leftwich. 

Star Marlowe managed Bela Lugosi for a short while (around the time of ABBOTT & COSTELLO MEET FRANKENSTEIN). He claimed to have negotiated the role for the actor but details are sketchy. He often said (even in his autobiography) that he portrayed Porky in the “Our Gang” comedies but this has been proven false. Years after Lugosi's death he hawked some memorabilia related to Lugosi in various movie magazines.

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Ninja Life

 

 (imdb)

A LIFE OF NINJA-1983-During the credits, the narrator talks about ninjas and 2 women mud wrestle. A policeman in Hong Kong investigates some murders committed by a group of ninjas. He gets help from a martial artist (Yasuaki Kurata) and there are some crazy fights but a lot of gibberish involving a corrupt businessman and his wife and sister-in-law. 

Director Tso Nam Lee also made THE TATOO CONNECTION (1978)

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Boris On Devli's Island

 

 

 (imdb)

DEVIL'S ISLAND-1939-Dr. Charles Gaudet (Boris Karloff) is charged with treason after giving aid to a convicted traitor Le Brun who was shot escaping. The court judges (including Frank Reicher & Leonard Mudie) sentenced him to 10 years in the infamous penal colony. He's given hard labor by the pompous ignorant warden Col. Lucien (James Stephenson) who brands him a troublemaker. When one convict (John Harmon) with tuberculosis asks for the night off, the island doctor tells him he's just lazy despite pleas from Gaudet to put him in the hospital. Later after his appeal is turned down, Lucien needs Gaudet to operate on his young daughter. Madame Lucien (Netta Harrigan) is very grateful but Lucien couldn't care less. He has Gaudet's mates killed and puts the doc in "The pit". A black prisoner (Earl Smith) and Mme Lucien plot to help Gaudet escape. He and 5 other prisoners do escape but before almost dying at sea they are picked up by another prison ship (John Hamilton is the captain) going to Devil's Island. Through some stolen papers, Gaudet learns Lucien is corrupt. Lucien plans to have Gaudet guillotined at dawn. Fortunately, Mme. L gets word to the governor and Gaudet is saved and pardoned. 

Good little Warner Brothers drama with nice production values directed by William Clemens who oddly enough was also directing the “Nancy Drew” series of films at the same time for the studio. Some familiar character actors appear including George Lloyd, Henry Cording and Pedro de Cordoba.

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Silent Doll

 

 (imdb)

THE DOLL-1919-In this silent fairy tale from Germany, the Baron (Max Kronert) wants his nephew Lancelot to marry and carry on his bloodline. Lancelot (Hermann Thimig), a real mama's boy starts crying at the thought of matrimony. There's a frenzied chase after Lancelot by all the eligible women in town. He seeks shelter in a monastery run by some glutinous monks who have no money. When they read that the Baron is offering Lancelot 300,000 francs for him to come home and marry, the greedy monks come up with a plan to have Lance marry a mechanical doll. A nutty inventor (Victor Janson) has made a whole batch of them including one that looks like his daughter Ossi (Ossi Oswalda). 

Of course, that's the one Lance wants. Unfortunately, the inventor's abused assistant breaks it and the real Ossi has to stand in. When the inventor finds out the deception his hair turns gray. Lancelot marries her and goes back to the monks. She causes quite a distraction dancing with them. When it's discovered that Ossi is human, she and Lancelot fall in love. 

Director/co-scripter Ernst Lubitsch later came to America and made movies like THE MERRY WIDOW (1935), NINOTCHKA (1939) and HEAVEN CAN WAIT (1943).

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Doggone Dogs!

 

 (tmdb)

THE PACK-1977-Abandoned wild dogs band together to terrorize residents and tourists on Seal Island. They kill a horse then a blind man. A marine biologist (Joe Don Baker; WALKING TALL) gets concerned when his girlfriend (Hope Alexander Willis) is attacked. One unfortunate woman seeks shelter in the place where the dogs hang out. Locals Cobb (RG Armstrong) and Hardiman (Richard B. Shull) help out. The survivors barricade themselves in as the dogs get more aggressive. 

This low budget “canines gone wild” horror/survival story features a great long climax. Robert Clouse (ENTER THE DRAGON) directed and co-scripted it with David Fisher, who wrote the novel the movie is based on.

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Stan & Ollie in Toyland

 

 (wikipedia)

MARCH OF THE WOODEN SOLDIERS-1934-In Toyland, whose occupants include Mother Goose (Virginia Karns), the three little pigs (one is Angelo Rossitto), Jack Horner and the cat and the fiddle,the repugnant Barnaby (Henry Brandon) wants to make Bo-Peep (Charlotte Henry) his wife. She rebuffs him but Barnaby demands The Widow Peep (Florence Roberts) come up with the rent she doesn't have. Two of her tenants Stannie Dum (Stan Laurel) & Ollie Dee (Oliver Hardy) are toy makers at the local factory. Bo-Peep really likes Tom-Tom (Felix Knight). Santa Claus visits to check out the toy soldiers he ordered but of course Stan got the order wrong and they're fired but not before an errant toy soldier wrecks the place. At one point Stan actually marries Barnaby to stop him from pursuing Bo-Beep! When Barnaby can't get Bo he frames Tom Tom for the murder of one of the pigs. When that doesn't work, he enlists The Boogeymen to conquer Toyland. Scenes of the wooden soldiers coming to life and defeating The Boogeymen is still quite bizarre and unsettling at times. 

As a kid this was a perennial favorite around Thanksgiving. Produced by Hal Roach and based on an operetta by Victor Herbert, two directors are credited: Gus Meins who was also directing “Our Gang” shorts at this time and Charles “Charley” Rogers, a pal of Stan Laurel's, who directed several of their short comedies and later worked with them on THE BOHEIMIAN GIRL.

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Burroughs

 

 (imdb)

THE LAND THAT TIME FORGOT-1974-A sailor finds a bottle with a message in it. Thus is related in 1916 a German U-boat torpedoes an English ship. 2 survivors Bowen Tyler (Doug McClure) and Lisa Clayton (Susan Penhaligon) are rescued by some of the crew who survived. The survivors take over the U-boat. Later the Germans retake the sub and going off course they wind up in the south pole, landing in the thought to be legend land of Capuria. They encounter a pterodactyl, sea monsters and a bunch of cavemen. Eventually the German crew revolt but are all killed when a volcano erupts. Only the two survive and Tyler writes his message in a bottle. 

This Amicus co-production was director Kevin Connor's second film and it's not bad with the exception of some cheap looking SFX. It's based on a novel by Edgar Rice Burroughs with the screenplay by fantasy artist James Cawthorn and fantasy writer Michael Moorcock. Connor made a sequel AT THE EARTH'S CORE two years later.

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French Horror

 

 (letterboxd.com)

CARNIVAL OF SINNERS-1943-At a Parisian inn full of disgruntled guests, a mysterious man (Pierre Fresnay; THE GRAND ILLUSION) with an artificial hand relates the story of how he bought a cursed hand from the devil to become a famous painter. He spends the rest of the story trying to get rid of it. Previous owners include a musketeer, a thief, a juggler, a magician, a surgeon, a boxer and the chef who sold it to the painter. 

Clever but seldom seen French horror directed by Maurice Tourneur, father of future director Jacques.

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Caroline Munro

 

 (imdb)

STARCRASH-1978-Space thief Stella Star (Caroline Munro) and her smug companion Acton (Marjoe Gortner) are arrested and sentenced to hard labor by a gold disembodied head (reminiscent of the alien in INVADERS FROM MARS). They escape and are picked up by a space cop (green skinned Robert Tessier) and Robot Ellie (Judd Hamilton with Hamilton Camp doing his voice) with a southern accent. The Emperor of the First Circle of the Universe (Christopher Plummer) wants the duo and Ellie to save everything from Count Daka (Joe Spinnell with dubbed voice). Later, on a planet of cavemen, the trio meet Prince Simon (David Hasselhoff). 

With some bad stop motion animation and bad acting, this was directed by Luigi Cozzi a year after his infamous “version” of GODZILLA and before he got into the horror genre. Munro and Hamilton were married at the time. In an interview Christopher Plummer said the only reason he made it was to get a free trip to Italy!

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Turkish Dracula

 

 (tmdb)

DRACULA IN ISTANBUL-1954- (original title: DRAKULA ISTANBUL'DA)-Unusual Turkish adaptation of the Stoker tale. It's the first version to show the count with fangs and to make a direct connection between Drac and Vlad the Impaler. No crosses are used and there's no Renfield character. Dracula (Atif Kaptan) comes from Romania to terrorize Istanbul. He sets his sights on Guzin (Annie Ball), a show girl and fiancée of Azmi (Bulent Oran), who's already had an encounter with the Count. It's actually based on book from 1928 which was sort of an adaptation of “Dracula”.

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Pirkle

 

 (imdb)

IF FOOTMEN TIRE, WHAT WILL HORSES DO? -1971-Laughable commentary by a guy who looks like Floyd the barber on how communism is going to invade America and make everyone work 7 days a week. They'll kill children too and leave their bloody bodies lying in the street as a warning. Those they don't kill they will brainwash into hating Jesus. They ride horses and wear armbands. Their leader makes kids pray to Fidel Castro and they get the candy Jesus wouldn't give them. When they hear the word of God being preached one little guy has a bamboo stick shoved in his ear. One kid is decapitated. Church goers are shot en mass after attending a service. Lots of red paint. 

When a woman named Judy accepts Jesus after her mom dies, some weird looking women (one plays a zither) sing while Rev. Estus W. Pirkle implores the viewer to accept Jesus. 

This cheap badly acted Christian propaganda film was written and directed by Ron Ormond and based on Pirkle's book. They teamed up for other outings too.

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Horror Movie

 

 (imdb)

THE UNHOLY-2021-in this supernatural religious tale a mute young woman (Cricket Brown) begins to talk and is in contact with the Virgin Mary. She heals a cripple boy and a priest, Father Hagen (William Sadler). A disgraced reporter Gerry Fenn (Jeffery Dean Morgan; "The Walking Dead" TV series) investigates and discovers it's not Holy Mary but a witch who was burned at the stake in 1845. She's back posing as Mary. A stupid priest (Cary Elwes) has his own agenda. 

Not bad especially in this day and age for what passes as supernatural horror. Director Evan Spiliotopoulos (in his directing debut) had previously worked for Disney and later wrote THE POPE'S EXORCIST.

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Not A Horror Movie!

 

 

 (imdb)

INVISIBLE MENACE-1938-A dumb GI named Eddie (Eddie Craven) sneaks his new bride Sally (Marie Wilson) into his army base for their honeymoon. When a scientist is viciously murdered everyone is a suspect. Especially Dr. Jevries (Boris Karloff). Col. Hackett (Henry Kolker), Lt. Matthews (Regis Toomey) and Dr. Brooks (Charles Trowbridge) investigate. Later Col. Rogers (Cy Kendall) is called in. They seem to want to railroad Jevries for the murder. 

Routine murder mystery only remembered for Karloff and the title. Director John Farrow (father of Mia) had directed Karloff a year earlier in WEST OF SHANGHAI.

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PRC Murder

 

 (imdb)

THE LADY CONFESSES-1945-Larry Craig's wife Norma (Barbara Slater) returns after disappearing 7 years before. Larry (Hugh Beaumont) had planned to marry his girlfriend Vicki (top billed Mary Beth Hughes; I ACCUSE MY PARENTS) but Norma says that will never happen while she's alive. A few hours later she's murdered. Police Captain Brown (Emmett Vogan) investigates with his prime suspects being Harry, Vicki and club owner Lucky (Edmund McDonald) who may have been having an affair with Mrs. C. Later after a nightclub singer is killed, we learn who the murderer is. 

This small budget kind of clever PRC murder mystery was one of 11 movies directed by Sam Newfield in 1945. He also made WHITE PONGO the same year.

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Castle!

 

 (imdb)

MACABRE-1958-Most people in town don't like Dr. Rodney Barrett (George Prince) because they believe he's indirectly responsible for the death of a blind woman Nancy. Sleazy police chief Tyloe (Jim Backus) tells him to leave town. Only his nurse Polly (Jacqueline Scott), his girlfriend Sylvia (Susan Morrow) and his housekeeper Miss Kushins (Ellen Corby) seem to like him. Then someone kidnaps his daughter and says she's been buried alive. Mr. Wetherby (Phillip Tonge), Nancy's ailing father joins them in the hunt. Flashbacks reveal that Nancy (Christine White) was kind of a slut who got pregnant from an affair with the sheriff or her chauffeur (unbilled Robert Colbert). But Dr. Barrett is hiding a secret too. 

Not half bad, if strange, murder mystery directed by the one and only William Castle.

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Seeing Double

 

 (TMDB) 

THE DARK MIRROR-1946-Police Lt. Stevenson (Thomas Mitchell) investigates a murder. Olivia de Havilland plays twin sisters Terry and Ruth. One of them may be a murderer. Stevenson asks twin expert psychiatrist Dr. Elliot (Lew Ayres) to help distinguish which one is a murderer. Though questions and ink blots the shrink determines one of them is insane. Richard Long (in his third role after Orson Welles' THE STRANGER) has a small role. This is nice but overlooked little psychological film noir directed by Robert Siodmak (he made THE KILLERS the same year) It has an excellent dual performance by de Havilland and good use of trick photography.

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