Low Budget Sc-Fi

 

 (imdb)

SPAWN OF THE SLITHIS-1978-After some neighborhood dogs are killed, a mutated sea monster created by a nuclear leak at a petroleum company prowls around. Wayne Connors (Alan Blanchard), a high school teacher, investigates. Some of the victims are intentionally comical but I'm not so sure about the rest. The acting and direction are pretty bad. A police lieutenant (Hy Pike) acts like an insane Shakespearean actor. The monster (Win Condict) looks like an overgrown mutated Ninja Turtle. Connors, his wife (Judy Motulsky), Dr. John (Dennis Falt) and boat Capt. Chris (Mello Alexandria) (who's seen JAWS too many times) go after it. 

There are some gory deaths but too much talky scientific mumbo jumbo. Writer/director Stephen Traxler later produced DRACULA'S WIDOW (1988).

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Stan Blockhead & Oliver Blockhead

 

 (imdb)

BLOCKHEADS-1938-Laurel & Hardy are Dough boys in the trenches during WW 1. Ollie goes off to fight and Stan is left to guard the trench. Unfortunately, no one tells him when the war ended so he stands guard for 20 years! Ollie, happily married but under the thumb of his wife (Minna Gombell), sees a newspaper article about Stan and he goes to the hospital to bring him home. Along the way, they get into various jams. First, Ollie thinks Stan has one leg. Then Stan dumps a truckload of sand on his friend. Stan eventually wrecks the car and garage. Ollie has a fight with an uppity tenant (L & H regular James Finlayson) and runs afoul of a bratty kid (Tommy Bond; Butch from “Our Gang” shorts) and his bully father (William Boardway). When they finally get to the apartment, Mrs. Hardy gets mad and leaves. Ollie tries to cook dinner but thanks to Stan destroys the kitchen. Next door neighbor Mrs. Gilbert (Patricia Ellis) tries to help but she winds up in Ollie's pj's pretending to be a chair. Then Mrs. Hardy returns. Billy Gilbert appears as big game hunter jealous husband. 

Director James Blystone, who kept the team from ad-libbing too much, died suddenly of a heart attack four days after completing BLOCKHEADS. He was 43. He had previously directed the team in SWISS MISS (also 1938).

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Triple Play!

 

 (themoviedb.org)

MARTIN MULL: TALENT TAKES A HOLIDAY-1994-This disaster of an HBO special can't even be saved by Penn & Teller appearing near the end. Apparently, Martin Mull thought of himself as a big enough comedy personality that he could carry any nonsense used on this parody of the now defunct genre called the TV variety show. There's not much info available on this debacle and in fact it doesn't even show up on either of Mull's IMDB film or TV show listings!

 (themoviedb.org)

COPPER BILL-2020-This confused muddled movie about 2 losers looking for some hidden money builds up to a stupid ending that makes no sense. If you're a pro wrestling fan you might want to check it out because Dustin Rhodes is one of the stars. But I wouldn't recommend it. Director Brett Bentman directed a lot of Sci-Fi and westerns I never heard of.

 (imdb)

THE GENE AUTRY SHOW-1950-1955-This show starred the singing cowboy who crooned at least one tune in nearly every show. The series format (especially in the first season) changed from show to show. Sometimes, Autry was a ranch foreman, ranch owner, a sheriff, or a US Marshall. For nearly the whole run, Pat Buttram was his sidekick (except for a short time when Buttram was ill). Keeping with the un-continuity of the show, there are at least 2 episodes where Autry and Buttram meet for the first time! But really, it would have been better for everyone if they hadn't met at all! 

By the middle of the second season, Buttram's character had become a real buffoon, dabbling in barbering or astrology. His favorite was to open a door while Autry had on a gun on the bad guys and knock the gun out of Autry's hand. And lots of the same actors played different characters on different episodes. It was almost like a stock company. Alan Hale, Denver Pyle, Gail Davis, Keene Duncan, Myron Healy, Harry Lauter, Sheila Ryan to name a few. Although it ran 5 seasons, only 91 episodes were produced. The last season was in color.

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The Howling Man

 

 (imdb)

TWILIGHT ZONE-1960-”The Howling Man”-David Ellington (HM Wynant) relates the story of how he got lost in a storm and sought refuge at a hermitage “Brothers of Truth”, run by Brother Jerome (John Carradine in white beard). While pleading his case for shelter he hears a strange howling but another brother (Friedrich Ledebur; MOBY DICK (1956)) says it's just the wind. Jerome refuses to shelter him but Ellington collapses. Later while wandering around the place, he meets a man (Robin Hughes from THE THING THAT COULDN'T DIE (1958)) being held prisoner who claims he is being held there because Jerome was jealous of his girlfriend. When Ellington confronts Jerome about this the brother reveals that the prisoner is not a man but the devil himself!  Although Jerome relates a convincing story, Ellington still frees the man who it turns out really is the devil. Now in the present time Ellington (the worst for wear and sounding a little insane) has imprisoned Satan in a hotel room and has been relating his story to a maid. He leaves to contact Jerome and the maid begins to open the door...

Memorable episode with good performances and nice SFX. It was written by Charles Beaumont (from his short story) who penned 21 other episodes and directed by Douglas Heyes. Of course, the host was Rod Serling.

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