(letterboxd.com)MARKHEIM-1974-Short film produced by Scottish TV and based on a story by Robert Louis Stevenson. A down on his luck man (Derek Jacobi) visits an antique dealer (Paul Curran), who he eventually kills and wants to rob but things don't go according to his plan when he meets a mysterious character (Julian Glover). Interesting adaptation directed by Tina Wakerell.
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(themoviedatabase.org)EMANUELLE AND THE LAST CANNIBALS-1977-At a mental institution, a patient bites a nurse. Emanuelle (Laura Gemser), doing some investigative reporting, visits the now straitjacketed woman. She discovers the mad woman has a tattoo from a tribe in the Amazon jungle. Her editor wants her to go there and get the story on the last cannibal tribe. She contacts anthropologist Mark Lester (Gemser's real life husband at the time Gabriele Tinti). After they have sex, he agrees to lead an expedition.
After arriving, they meet Isabelle (Monica Zanchi), a reporter. She joins them along with a nun. When Emanuelle is attacked by a snake, hunter Donald McKenzie (Donald O'Brien; DOCTOR BUTCHER MD) shows up and shoots it. Then he, his wife (Susan Scott) and their guide join up. They wander around being unknowingly watched by the locals. After the nun is cannibalized, McKenzie and his wife go off to get diamonds from a helicopter crash (their real reason for being there). The natives attack, wound McKenzie and kidnap his wife.
Later they get Isabelle. Emanuelle and Lester watch from afar as the wife is cannibalized and McKenzie is squeezed in half.
To save Isabelle, Emanuelle poses as a goddess.
This starts out as a typical soft-core porn, that turns into a pretty disgusting display of the Italian cannibal genre at its worst. This was the fourth “Black Emanuelle” movie director Joe D'Amato (born Aristide Massaccesi) made, followed by several more in the series. He later made ANTROPOPHAGUS (1980) and its sequel ABSURD (1981) and many others.
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(imdb)THE LOVES OF HERCULES-1960-When Hercules (Mickey Hargitay) finds out his wife has been killed, he crashes the castle of Queen Deianira (Jayne Mansfield), the daughter of the king who ordered Mrs. Hercules's murder. After a bizarre ritual where Herc has to throw axes at the bound queen, they become friends. Later, Herc is accused of a killing and has to fight the three headed dragon, Hydra (bad effect). He's rescued by some Amazons whose queen turns men into trees.
This movie, obviously inspired by HERCULES (1958), is the worst with the leads pretty pathetic and Mansfield in two roles, bad dubbing and terrible sfx. Filmed in Italy, (where it was a big hit) by director Carlo Ludovico Bragaglia who died in 1998 at the age of 103. It's said Mansfield would only accept the role if her bodybuilder husband Hargitay was cast as Hercules.
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(imdb)THE SCREAMING SKULL-1958-Eric Whitlock (John Hudson) takes his new wife Jenni (Peggy Webber; in SPACE CHILDREN the same year) to the house that was designed by his first wife Marion, now dead. Rev. Snow (familiar TV actor Russ Conway) and his wife (Tony Johnson) are there to welcome them. So is Mickey (director Alex Nichol), the weird gardener who doesn't believe Marion is dead (she's buried on the estate). When she's alone, Jenni (who's rich and once spend some time in a mental hospital) gets spooked by noises and some skulls that show up. Eric blames Mickey but Jenni thinks she's cracking up. Eric seems devoted, maybe too much so. But when a skull shows up after they burn a portrait of Marion, John’s real intentions are revealed.
Very low budget ghost story. The best part is the finale where Marion turns the tables on John. A short disclaimer at the beginning says that the producers will pay the funeral expenses for anyone who dies of fright during the viewing.
This was actor Alex Nichol's first film as a director. His later work was mostly for TV except for his last, 1971's POINT OF TERROR. Male lead John Hudson did a lot of TV work and was the twin brother of William Hudson (Harry in ATTACK OF THE 50 FOOT WOMAN). Lead actress Peggy Webber, still alive at the time of this writing, had earlier played Lady MacDuff in Orson Welles' MACBETH. The soundtrack was composed by future Oscar winner Ernest Gold.
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(imdb)LAMB-2021-Somewhere in Iceland, a childless, married couple Ingvar & Maria raise sheep. One day an unusual hybrid lamb is born and they decide to raise it as their own. They name it Ada after their dead daughter. Soon the baby is walking on 2 legs, wearing a sweater and eating at the table. Everything seems to be OK but the ewe who birthed Ada hangs around bleating. Maria eventually kills mama and buries her body. Unbeknownst to her Ingvar's brother saw the whole thing before crashing in their barn. The brother Petur shows himself the next day. Needless to say, Petur is weirded out by the situation, especially when he sees Maria taking a bath with “their baby” but Ingvar says not to interfere. Petur wants to kill Ada but later comes to like her.
After the three have a drunken party, Ingvar kind of passes out and Petur makes sexual advances toward Maria. She refuses but when he tries to blackmail her by saying he will tell Ada that Maria killed her mom, she locks him in a storage room and next day drives him to a bus. While Ingvar is out fixing the tractor with Ada he's shot and killed in a surprise ending. Maria finds her dying husband and falls into despair.
This is a very strange and interesting movie from director/co-writer Vladimar Johannsson. The ending was unexpected. It was a huge hit it's in native Iceland.
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(imdb)THE NIGHT STRANGLER-1973-Once again the brash eclectic reporter Kolchak (Darren McGavin) takes tape recorder in hand to investigate the murders of a belly dancer, this time in Seattle, Washington. He meets his former boss Vincenzo (Simon Oakland) in bar and is hired on but is first read the riot act by the publisher Crossbinder (John Carradine). Police Capt. Shubert (Scott Brady) and coroner Webb (Ivor Francis) hold a press conference after a second killing. Another coroner tells Kolchak there was rotted flesh on the victims' necks. Some blood is also missing. They seem to have been killed by a dead man. When Kolchak learns about the abandoned underground city of Seattle, he goes to Titus Berry (Wally Cox), in charge of the city's archives. It seems the same type of murders have happened every 21 years since 1889.
He befriends another belly dancer (Jo Ann Pflug) and they take a tour of the underground city. But they take a detour and meet a derelict (Al Lewis). He also consults Prof. Crabwell (Margaret Hamilton), an anthropologist who clues him in on a secret "elixir of life" to stay young. After another dancer (Nina Wayne) is strangled, Kolchak tries to convince Shubert what's happening but the captain puts a few holes in Kolchak's theory. Later when a 6th woman is murdered (there was always 6 victims), Kolchak identifies the killer as a 144-year-old Civil War doctor (Richard Anderson). Kolchak destroys the decrepit doctor but loses his job, so does Vincenzo. This ends on a lighter note than its predecessor.
Producer Dan Curtis also was the director of this great follow up, written once again by Richard Matheson. The short-lived TV series “Kolchak:The Night Stalker” ran in 1974. Curtis produced and directed another “Kolchak” like TV film the same year for another network called THE NORLISS TAPES.
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Greetings way back in June of 2023, I posted a review of the movie tragedy called Fireball Jungle. Here's the link in case you're curious: https://moviemeltdown.blogspot.com/2023/06/its-fireball.html
I mentioned the title song was done by Tiny Kennedy. I dug up some info on the guy and have only gotten around to posting it now!
Tiny Kennedy was born in Chattanooga, Tennessee, on Dec. 20, 1925. He played the piano and recorded with the great bandleader Jay McShann (with whom Charlie Parker had started with years before) in 1949. After a stint with Tiny Bradshaw (no relation), he did some sessions with Elmore James. In 1951, he was sent to Sam Phillips' recording studio (later to be known as "Chess Records"). There, he recorded several songs, including his most well-known, "Strange Kind of Feelin'". After 1955, Kennedy seemed to vanish from the music scene but showed up in 1968 to croon the theme song to the previously reviewed (and atrocious) FIREBALL JUNGLE. Some sources say he was in MR. NO LEGS in 1978. He may still be alive at age 98!
Sources: All Music.com, IMDB.com
Hear Mr. Kennedy:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J1KGR3qnJsQ
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Enter secret agent Phil Say (Walter Stocker) and wife Kathy (Audrey Caire) who go looking for Prof. Coleman (John Holland) and his daughter Suzanne (Dani Lynn) in the fictional country of Mandoras. They meet a guy named Padua (Carlos Rivas; later in TRUE GRIT (1968) who tells in flashback how his brother (also Rivas) worked for "Mr. H" and did experiments trying to prolong his life. Now Hitler is somewhere in the country. Well, not all of him. Just his head! It's all a plan by neo-Nazis to take over the world.
A second chance to rot in hell!
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(imdb)PRELUDE TO HAPPINESS-1975-Nurse Susan (Rose Petra) and her fiancée are changing a flat when she is struck by a speeding car. She survives but her leg is mangle and has to be amputated. Just like that her hubby calls off the wedding and leaves her. She becomes depressed but with encouragement from Doctor Hartman (Gary Lee Davis), she breaks out of it and practices on crutches. Eventually, she comes out of her funk and works as a nurse in the hospital. She freezes when she sees an accident victim with bloodied legs but snaps out of it after a doctor slaps her! Later, Hartman helps her find a new apartment but his fiancée' gets jealous and gives him an ultimatum. Her or Susan. He and Susan admit they are in love but Susan turns down his proposal. Later he attends a swanky engagement party and tragedy follows but everything works out in the end.
This filmed in Texas obscurity is the kind of movie I hate to review. Its message is sincere but it's done in by bad production values and bad acting. Lead actress Rose Petra was really missing her leg. This is the only film directed by Gidney Talley Jr., a theater owner from San Antonio.
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(wallpapercave.com)TRAIN TO BUSAN-2016-A workaholic father (Gong Yoo) having relationship problems with his young daughter (Soo-an Kim) are trapped on a moving train when an outbreak causes people to turn into violent bloodthirsty zombies! It's an insane roller Coaster ride as passengers fight for survival. There's suspense, gore, action and a heart wrenching conclusion in this South Korean production directed by Yeon Sang Ho.
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(imdb)SHAOLIN VS. MANCHU-1984-The Manchus want to get rid of all the Shaolin monks. The Shaolin abbot puts a monk named Rocky (Man-Hoi Ling) in charge. When a prostitute is attacked by soldiers, Rocky saves her but later she says Rocky raped her. He's punished then literally thrown out of the monastery. It turns out Rocky's chief rival, Jouan is a spy for the Manchus who set Rocky up, then kills the abbot. After the Manchus fail to kill his accuser, Rocky takes her to live with his aunt and she spills the beans. The evil spy becomes the new abbot and has monks fighting each other. Mostly everyone gets killed (including a little kid) but Rocky gets revenge. The ending is a little weird probably due to bad editing and dubbing.
Director Chiu-Jun Lee was also an actor. The DVD I saw also had the trailer which took me right back to the days when movies like this were the mainstay of the Harris theater on 42nd street in NYC.
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(imdb)The remaining regiment includes Lionel Belmore, John Loder and John Miljan as the doomed Mallory who was disfigured in the war. After he's killed, everyone comes under suspicion. Then a woman Efra (Dorothy Sebastian) shows up. Almost immediately Hindu lawyer Abdul (uncredited Boris Karloff) shows up and reads a will from Efra's father, a traitor. The will seems to give a motive for killing and also for breaking up the regiment. They slowly unravel.
Somehow over night the entire regiment save Montague is killed. James decides to have a kind of seance lead by the sinister looking mystic Sojin (Sojin Kamiyama; who turns out to be a good guy).
It's a crazy, confused and kind of convoluted ending with Karloff giving a weird performance with a strange accent. This was one of the handful of films actor Lionel Barrymore directed in his long career. He and Karloff had acted together earlier in THE BELLS (1926). It also suffers slighty from too much stilted talk. A problem that plagued many early sound films.
Top billed Ernest Terrence later played Prof. Moriarty in SHERLOCK HOLMES (1932) (with Clive Brook in the titular role) but died the next year from complications from surgery. Karloff had made his “talkie” debut earlier in the year (in BEHIND THAT CURTAIN). Japanese actor Sojin Kamiyama was one of only 3 Asian actors to portray Charlie Chan (in THE CHINESE PARROT (1927)). The story for THE UNHOLY NIGHT was provided by playwright Ben Hecht.
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(imdb)JOHNNY VIK aka THE HUNTED-1977-Johnny Vik (Warren Hammack) is an unbalanced Native American shell-shocked Vietnam vet who acts very weird, won't take his meds, has mood swings and can't find a job. He kind of freaks out while washing windows at a mental hospital. He gets 30 days for peeing in public but later jumps bail and lives in the forest. The sheriff (John Favre) and a posse think Johnny is in an old shack. He fires a tear gas bomb but the shack was only being occupied by a mother and her children. After Johnny wanders around a lot he meets a strange woman Kola (Mary Jane McNaughton) who occasionally narrates. In the end nothing really happens and Johnny is hunted down and killed by the sheriff and his gang (for urinating in public?!).
Badly made regional drama by writer/director Charles Nauman.
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(imdb)MALIGNANT-2013- Allex (Gary Cairns), a man grieving over the death of his wife and sinking deeper into alcoholism gets an involuntary treatment from a mad doctor (Brad Dourif) who likes to use implants and lobotomies. If you're a fan of the underrated Dourif you might want to see this drawn-out mess.
The director Brian Avenet-Bradley is also a TV editor.
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(imdb)ANTIDOTE-2018-In Mexico, two treasure hunters (former MMA fighter Randy Couture and bodyguard/stuntman Chuck Zito) search for "the white witch". Meanwhile, an American nurse works in a clinic where children are dying of a strange malady.
Low budget stuff by a guy (Ken Barbet) who wants to be Quentin Tarantino.
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(themoviedb.org)PUMPKINHEAD 4-BLOOD FEUD-2007-Stupid hillbillies, The Hatfields & The McCoys are feuding because of an incident with a car years before. When it turns out Jodie (Amy Manson), a Hatfield girl is having an affair with McCoy boy Ricky (Bradley Taylor), two Hatfield brothers (the Hatfields seem the scummier of the two) decide to break up the romance and wind up killing another McCoy daughter, Sarah (Maria Roman). Ricky visits the witch Haggis (Lynee Verell, reprising her role from Part 3) to have her summon the demon Pumpkinhead to get revenge despite the pleadings of the cursed Ed Harley (returning Lance Henriksen).
Gory sfx, bad acting. Written and directed by Mike Hurst (HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2).
(themoviedb.org)PUMPKINHEAD-ASHES TO ASHES-2006-A crazy mortician (HELLRAISER'S Doug Bradley) steals corpses and dissects them and sells the organs. The remains get dumped in the local swamp. When the town finally finds the dead bodies, a vengeful mother goes to the old witch Haggis (Lynne Verell) to summon Pumpkinhead, who goes on a killing spree. The mortician tries to kill the people responsible.
Lots of victims spit up blood. Of course, Lance Henriksen pops up once in a while. They should have stopped at #2. Filmed in Romania back-to-back with #4. Directed by Jake West.
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(imdb)THE WAY OF THE DRAGON-1972-In Rome, Tang Lung (Bruce Lee) meets Chen Ching Hua (Nora Miao; also in FIST OF FURY). She's having trouble with her restaurant business. The boss and his thugs want the land and threaten potential customers. He also meets Ah Quen (Ti Chen) and Uncle Wang (Wang Chung Hsin). Lung helps defend his friends against the bad guys and when he proves too much the boss' toady Ho (Wei Ping-ao) sends for Colt (Chuck Norris), a US martial artist. Their intense battle in the finale is great!
Also known as RETURN OF THE DRAGON, it was written and directed by Lee (in his directing debut) who co-produced with Raymond Chow.
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(themoviedb.org)FIST OF FURY-1972-Chen Zhen (Bruce Lee) seeks revenge for the death of his teacher. Within the first 20 minutes he beats a whole Japanese Bushido school. Unfortunately, the Japanese ransack Chen's school and beat everyone up. Chen is asked to leave Shanghai but instead becomes an elusive avenger, picking off the men responsible for his teacher's death. Suzuki (Riki Hashimoto), the evil Japanese master, wants Chen stopped. He hires a Russian strongman (Robert Baker; Lee's student and friend) but that doesn't work. Chen kills them all but not before most of his school is wiped out.
Also with Lee's two THE BIG BOSS co-stars Maria Yi and James Tien and Nora Miao. In the US it was known as THE CHINESE CONNECTION and was once again written and directed by Lo Wei (who also appears as a police man). He and Lee didn't see eye to eye on everything and argued constantly. According to Jackie Chan who did some stunts for the film, he saw Lee and Wei nearly come to blows till Wei backed down. Raymond Chow again was the producer.
FIST OF FURY was the highest grossing Hong Kong film ever, until it was topped by Lee's next film, THE WAY OF THE DRAGON.
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(imdb)BAD TASTE-1989-Cannibalistic aliens invade a small town in Australia in this bloody gore filled serio-comedy with extreme slapstick. Heads explode, limbs are torn off, entrails pulled out. Four guys from a special agency discover the aliens (who disguise themselves as humans) want humans for their intergalactic fast-food chain. Future Academy Award winner Peter Jackson co-wrote and directed as well as playing the role of Derek.
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(imdb)THE BIG BOSS-1971-Cheng Chao-An (Bruce Lee) and his uncle (Chia Chen-Tu) visit his cousins in Thailand. He had promised his mother he wouldn't fight so he lets cousin Hsu (James Tien) do most of the fighting when they come across bullies and gangsters. They all work at an ice factory. When two cousins discover that the icehouse is really pushing dope, the manager has them killed and dismembered. When Hsu accuses the factory boss (Ying Chien Han) of killing his friends, he's killed by the boss' son (Tony Liu) in a bloody fight. After Cheng is made the foreman, Mei (Maria Yi) and his other cousins think he's sold out. Nearly everyone dies before Cheng and The Boss have their bloody showdown.
This was Bruce Lee's first starring role and became one of the biggest hits in Hong Kong film history. Ironically, James Tien was originally cast in the Lee role but when the director left the project and writer Wei Lo became director, the actors' roles were reversed. In the US, it was confusingly called “Fists of Fury” (the title of Lee's next Hong Kong based movie).
Lo went on to make many more movies including early Jackie Chan productions. A Golden Harvest release, Raymond Chow was the executive producer.
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(imdb)SS DOOMTROOPER-2006-During WW2, a Nazi mad scientist (Ben Cross) creates a huge monster soldier from a man using radiation. England hires Col. Malloy (Corbin Nemec) to go behind enemy lines to destroy the compound. He assembles a bunch of Dirty Dozen wannabes to help him.
The sfx, acting and dialogue suck. All thrown together by director David Flores (SAND OF OBIVION the same year).
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(imdb)CURE-1997-Eerie, if overlong, J-horror about a series of gruesome murders all committed by seemingly random people who then mutilate the bodies with an X. While the murderers fully admit they did the killings, they have no reason why. Investigations by police detective Takabe (Anna Nakagawa) and psychiatrist Sakuma (Tsuyoshi Ujiki) lead to weird guy named Mamiya (Masako Hagiwara).
Intense psychological horror with a semi-ambiguous ending written and directed by Kiyoshi Kurosawa (BRIGHT FUTURE (2002)).
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Warning: Some might find these images unsettling!
Great Sasuke Career Music Video
https://youtu.be/yDwA_DvsX8Y?si=l_t-Soxl4h8mCrLY
FMW Tribute:
https://youtu.be/c7L_8UnTbVE?si=EsCbRY8dfRZ8ioOo
Mitsuhiro Matsunaga Career Music Video (1989-2019):
https://youtu.be/ZethJLcUMoU?feature=shared
Mr. Gannosuke Career Music Video:
https://youtu.be/PqUa73syx8I?si=_o0YgD6-nQUfjfV3
Hayabusa Career Music Video (1991-2016)
https://youtu.be/go3k-7nDCtE?si=Ts5R3UbJSI1k5V7X
The Best of Abdullah Kobayashi:
https://youtu.be/LIR_DWjuqMU?feature=shared
Mr. Pogo Career Music Video (1981-2017):
https://youtu.be/rVqgGfh054w?feature=shared
Astushi Onita Career Music Video (1981-2017):
https://youtu.be/EoZfrNXG_Wo?feature=shared
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