Superstition, Perhaps. Baloney, Perhaps Not

(alarmy)

 

THE BLACK CAT-1934-Peter Allison (David Manners) and his wife Joan (Jacqueline Wells aka Julie Bishop) are on their way to Vichgrad, must share their honeymoon rail card with Dr. Vitus Werdeghast (Bela Lugosi) who's on a mission of vengeance after having spent 15 years in a POW camp. When the talkative driver (Herman Bing) smashes up their cab, the newlyweds are forced to seek shelter in the art deco home of the sinister Hjalmar Poelzig (Boris Karloff), the very man Werdeghast (who has a fear of cats) has come to see. Joan is injured in the crash. Poelzig is a traitor who has built his domain on a killing field. Besides that, he stole Werdeghast's' wife and daughter. Unfortunately, both are now dead. Poelzig even has her preserved dead body. But Karin, the daughter is now actually Poelzig's lover/wife/prisoner. Still, he seems to lust for Joan. When the couple wants to leave, they are prevented by Werdeghast's servant (Harry Cording). Later, Joan meets Karin and Poelzig punishes her. Poelzig is a devil worshiper who plans to have a black mass with Joan as the special guest sacrifice. Werdeghast rescues Joan and tells him his daughter is still alive. With the help of his servant Werdeghast overcomes Poelzig and skins him alive. But when he tries to help Joan, dummy Peter mortally shoots him. Husband and wife escape as Werdeghast blows up the castle. 

This sometimes-disturbing pre-code, Universal horror film shows director Edgar Ulmer at his finest. He seems to be pushing the envelope with some of the situations that are only implied. This is also one of Karloff's best villainous roles with Lugosi giving a good performance, but his demise is kind of a letdown (couldn't he or Karloff had lived at the end of at least one of their movies?!). 

John Carradine has a small role as a satanic organist. Some of the other uncredited cult members include King Baggott, Symona Boniface (from 3 Stooges shorts), Michael Mark and Andy Devine.

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More Chan (Jackie, Not Charlie)

 

 (themoviedatabase,org)

SNAKE AND CRANE ARTS OF SHAOLIN-1978-8 Kung Fu masters create a new martial art called the 8 Steps of Snake and Crane. Yin-Fung (Jackie Chan) has the book the 8 masters wrote. He's looking for a man with a tattoo on his shoulder and he has lots of fights. The daughter of the leader of The Flying Tiger clan (Nora Miao) also wants it. 

There's a lot of characters who go in and out of the story and some great fights. Eventually Yin-Fung reveals all and gets his revenge. Directed by Chi-Hwa Chen who later made POLICE STORY (1985) with Chan.

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Everyone Breaks The Law

 

 (imdb)

THE STEEL TRAP-1952-Jim Osborne (Joseph Cotton), a bank VP plans to steal a million dollars from his firm and high tail it to Brazil with his wife, Laurie (Teresa Wright) and their young daughter. They have a million complications on their way but somehow they get to Brazil. When Laurie finds out his real plan she leaves him. Later, despite all his efforts, he decides to return the money. Also with Walter Sande, Jonathan Hale and William Hudson. 

Nice little border line film noir thriller, written and directed by Andrew Stone who had previously made STORMY WEATHER IN 1943 and went on to make THE LAST VOYAGE (1960) and RING OF FIRE (1961). Stars Cotten and Brewer had appeared together in Hitchcock's A SHADOW OF A DOUBT in 1943.

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Blow The Horn, Stan!

 

 (imdb)

SAPS AT SEA-1940-Mr. Hardy (Ollie) is diagnosed with hornaphobia and is allergic to horns. This is bad because he and Mr. Laurel (Stan) work at a horn factory. His doctor (James Finlayson) suggests he go on a sea trip but Hardy won't do it so Laurel suggests they stay on a docked boat. So after wrecking their room, they go rent a boat. For some reason they take a goat with them. After some antics, wanted gangster Nick Grainger (Dick Cramer) boards the ship. Then the goat chews away the rope mooring the boat and the three are set out to sea. When Nick almost kills Hardy, Stan plays his trombone and Hardy beats the thug up. They are entitled to a reward but still wind up in jail thanks to Laurel's storytelling! 

Gordon Douglas directed this outing with the team in another crazy, hilarious situation. Several people worked on the story and screenplay, including Harry Langdon and Felix Adler. Stan Laurel added some uncredited input.

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Baron Bava

 

 (imdb)

BARON BLOOD-1972-Peter comes from America to Austria to discover his roots and learn about this ancestor Baron Von Kleist (dubbed Baron Blood by the locals). At dinner with Uncle Karl and his family, Peter meets Eva (Elke Sommer) and they discuss a witch named Elizabeth Holly who put a curse on the Baron. For some reason, Peter wants to recite an incantation that could bring the Baron back to life. Eva takes him to the room where the Baron died and he invokes it. The Baron comes back as a deformed killer. When the castle is put up for auction a guy in a wheelchair named Becker (Joseph Cotton) buys it. Later they suspect he is the Baron who's restoring the castle complete with impaled victims and a torture chamber with recorded screams. The Baron reveals himself and in his torture chamber. He tortures Peter first. However, an ancient medallion causes the Baron's recent victims to rise and torture him to death. 

Stylish direction from the great Mario Bava, who made this between A BAY OF BLOOD and LISA AND THE DEVIL. It was a big hit in the US.

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Happy Father's Day!

 

 (imdb)

FALL OF THE HOUSE OF USHER-1928-A man named Alan (Charles Lamy) is summoned to the home of his friend Roderick Usher (Jean Debucourt), who lives in seclusion with his wife Madeline (Marguerite Gance). Rod-erick is obsessed with a portrait of his wife. When he thinks she has died he accidentally buries her alive. She breaks free of her tomb and comes back to haunt hubby. 

This adaptation of the classic Edgar Allan Poe story is very experimental in nature with many eerie and nightmarish scenes. Luis Bunuel is credited with the adaptation, a year before he and Salvador Dali made UN CHIEN ANDALOU, although it's unclear how much he contributed to the final film as he and director-producer Jean Epstein had an argument during the production and Bunuel left, leaving the director to make several changes in the story. Lead actress Gance was married to director Abel Gance (who appears as a bar patron) at the time and had appeared in his NAPOLEON the year before. This French production runs about 13 minutes. Another version was produced in the US in 1929.

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Un-Sold TV Series

 

 (etsy.com)

SPECTRE-1979-Arrogant supernatural investigator William Sebastian (Robert Culp) asks his ex-partner alcoholic Dr. Hamilton (Gig Young) on a case involving the Cyon family. After killing a succubus, Sebastian and Hamilton go to England on a plane piloted by Mitra Cyon (John Hurt). Inspector Cabell (Gordon Jackson) is there to greet them when they visit the burned-out house of Sebastian's friend. The demon Azmodious was accidentally sent free by Mitra’s stuck-up brother (James Villiers). It seems Mitra's sister Anitra (Ann Bell) is to be sacrificed. Also with Majel Barrett as Sebastian's housekeeper and Jenny Runacre. 

Gene Roddenberry was executive producer and co-writer of this pilot for a TV series that was rejected and shown instead in Europe as a feature film with (it's said) some nude scenes added. This was one of several TV pilots that Roddenberry was involved with in the 1970's that were never picked up. Filmed in England by director Clive Donner (WHAT'S NEW, PUSSYCAT?) whose next theatrical release would be the “Get Smart” movie THE NUDE BOMB in 1980.

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Quotes

"And we don't know just where our bones will rest

To dust I guess

Forgotten and absorbed into the earth below"

1969-Smashing Pumpkins

"Most true it is, I dare to say, 

E'er since the Days of Eve,

The weakest Woman sometimes may

The wisest Man deceive…"

 Alexander Pope and William Pulteney's The Discovery; or, The Squire Turn'd Ferret. 1726

Jesus replied, “Foxes have dens and birds have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

"Everything useful is ugly"...Théophile Gautier

"Don’t let yesterday use up too much of today"-Cherokee saying

"Since love and fear can hardly exist together, if we must choose between them, it is far safer to be feared than loved."-Machiavelli 

"Give a guy a big nose and some weird hair and he's capable of anything"..Frank Zappa

“Sometimes it seems to me that half the world lives on fear and the other half lives in it”..Dan Troop on “Lawman”.

“Hell is empty and all the devils are here”-The Tempest

“I never take notice of vulgar brawling”-Doc Holiday-TV's Wyatt Earp

Low Budget Anthology

 

 (looper.com)

HOUSE OF THE DEAD: ALIEN ZONE-1978-Talmudge (John Ericson), a married man having an affair with a married woman is dropped off by a cab on the wrong street on his way back to his hotel in the pouring rain. He's taken in by an odd guy (Ivor Francis) who turns out to be a mortician. He then relates the story of Miss Sibiler (Judith Novgrod), an uptight teacher who doesn't seem to like kids, who when she gets home seems to have an intruder in her house. Little children in Halloween masks seem to be the culprits…but are they really children? In the second, a serial killer kills 2 women while filming it. He's arrested by the police and we learn he was executed. Goes nowhere. Then America's greatest detective Malcohm Tolliver (Charles Aidman) meets Scotland Yards’ greatest detective Inspector McDowal (Bernard Fox) after Tolliver receives a mysterious threatening letter. When he investigates, McDowal tags along. They wind up killing each other. In the next one, a corporate office worker ignores a homeless man. He gets trapped in a building where a trash compactor and a wall of nails almost kill him. When he gets out, he's now like the homeless man. 

Finally, it appears the mortician is Death. Talmudge runs away and is shot by his lover's husband. The mortician is in the ambulance that takes his corpse away. Filmed in Oklahoma. The director Sharron Miller worked on lots of TV show episodes.

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Lake Zombies

 

 (imdb)

GHOST LAKE-2004-This young woman Rebecca (Tatum Adair) feels guilt over the death of her parents who were killed by a gas leak while she was having sex in a car. She goes to her parents' house in upstate NY. She meets a neighbor. Stan, who helps her put the lights on. He's semi-suspicious. She has hallucinations of her parents blaming her. While out jogging she says hello to a fisherman but he ignores her. Then she meets a talkative little girl and a rude dickhead fisherman who is pulled into the water by a glowing figure. After having some strange dreams and hearing weird noises, the little girl shows up in her house while she's outside stargazing and swimming with Stan. She sees the body of the dead fisherman but when authorities check they find nothing. The ignorant sheriff (Gregory Lee Kenyon; a terrible actor) who says Stan killed his own father, tells the story of a town that was once where the lake is and an old man and his submerged house. Later in a cemetery she’s terrorized by the dead fisherman. She conveniently meets Stan who says the sheriff is involved with drug pushing. There are a few zombies. 

This a pretty messed up waste of time with bad sfx and too much talk. And it's long (an hour and 52 minutes gone forever!). Writer/director Jay Woelfel also made TRANCERS 6 (2002).

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Urgh!

 

 (imdb)

URGH! A MUSIC WAR-1982-Over thirty bands from the early '80's punk and new wave scene are crammed into this. The Police start things off as they were the biggest band at the time. Then Wall of Voodoo, Toyah Wilcox, poet/rapper John Cooper Clarke, OMD, Chelsea, echo andOingo Boingo, Echo & The BunnyMen, Jools Holland, XTC, Klaus Nomi, Athletico, Spizz 80, The Go-Gos, Dead Kennedys, Steel Pulse, Joan Jett, Magazine, Surf Punks, Members, Au Pairs, Cramps, Invisible Sex (in their only performance), Pere Ubu, Devo, Alley Cats, John Otway, Gang of 4, 999, Fleshtones, Skafish, UB40. The version I saw had two performers cut: Gary Numan and Splodgeness Abounds. 

Some of the venues are in London, France, LA and NYC. It's an excellent time capsule with some really great performances, directed by Derek Burbidge who directed many music videos before this and even more later on.

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Whip Rewrite

 

(imdb)

THE WHIP HAND-1951-Matt Corbin (Elliot Reid) is fishing when he hits his head. He seeks help from Dr. Keller (Edgar Barrier) who doesn't think there is anything wrong. The hotel owner (Raymond Burr) and his wife (Lurene Tuttle) seem sus-picious. Eventually, Corbin discovers neo-Nazis/communists doing experiments with the help of a mad scientist (Otto Waldis). Nice, exciting ending.

THE WHIP HAND was planned by director William Cameron Menzies to have been quite different than the finished product. In the original, Adolf Hitler himself, who survived WW2, was to have been the leader of the new Reich. But executive producer Howard Hughes decided communism was more of a threat and ordered extensive re-shoots. Also with Peter Brocco, Carla Balenda, George Chandler and George Barrows.

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Joe Don Justice

(imdb)

FINAL JUSTICE-1985-2 Italian mobster brothers kill a sheriff and his deputy Geronimo (Joe Don Baker) chases them to the Mexican border. He kills one of them and captures Palermo (Venantino Venantini; CANNIBAL FEROX (1981)) who vows revenge. For some reason, Geronimo is assigned by Chief Wilson (Bill McKinney), to take Palermo back to Sicily to stand trial but through sabotage and violence Palermo escapes when the plane makes an emergency landing in Malta. Geronimo is ordered back to the US but instead he goes out on his own, shooting and disregarding orders. He's assisted by local Gina (Patrizia Pelligrino). Palermo's boss (Rosanno Brazzi) gives Palermo 24 hrs. to get rid of the American. 

Stupid low budget crime drama filmed entirely in Malta by producer/writer/director Greydon Clark (who plays the doomed sheriff). A US-Italy co-production. Baker (who died in May of 2025) starred in director Clark's JOYSTICKS in 1983. Rossano Brazzi (who directed and starred in THE CHRISTMAS THAT ALMOST WASN'T in 1966) was in Abel Ferrara's FEAR CITY the year before this.

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Giant Robots

(wallpaperaccess.com)

PACIFIC RIM-2013-Earth is invaded by giant prehistoric like monsters from another dimension. Dubbed "Kaiju", mankind counters by building "Jaegers", Transformer like giant robots controlled by two pilots whose minds link when they operate it. Charlie Hunnam (SONS OF ANARCHY) plays Raleigh Becket whose brother dies in battle with a monster. He winds up working in Alaska but is called back 5 years later when the government shuts down the program. The remaining Jaegers are deployed to Hong Kong where the project former leader Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba; THOR's Heimdall) has a plan to destroy the invaders. Along the way Becket meets Mako (Rinko Kikuchi; BABEL) another pilot tortured by child-hood memories of a Kaiju attack.

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Despite a couple of long stretches of character development and some comic humor that doesn't really work, PACIFIC RIM has some of the best SFX I've ever seen and the battle scenes take it to another level.  Director/co-writer Guillermo del Toro went on to make THE SHAPE OF WATER. Ron Perelman (who starred in the two HELLBOY by del Toro) is in it too. 

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