Mr. BIG's Giant Bugs

 

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THE BEGINNING OF THE END-1957-When the town of Ludlow, Illinois is mysteriously destroyed and the army blocks all roads, famous reporter Audrey Ames (Peggie Castle; later in the TV series “Lawman”) inves-tigates. Col. Strugeon (Thomas B. Henry) and Captain Barton (James Seay) give her the lowdown on Ludlow and later let her visit the destruction. Nearby, she meets agriculturalist/entomologist Ed Wainwright (Peter Graves; in BAYOU the same year), his mute assistant Frank (Than Wyenn) and their large experimental vegetables. When the 3 of them investigate a warehouse wreck, they discover giant locusts are causing the destruction and poor Frank is killed. They tell Strugeon but he doesn't believe them until he takes out a platoon and they are attacked. Ed figures the locusts got big eating his radiated vegetables. General Hanson (Morris Ankrum) sends General Short (Frank Wilcox) back to Illinois with Ed and Audrey where the locusts are on the march. Unfortunately, the government orders Hanson to drop an A-bomb on Chicago if Ed can't come up with a solution! After they capture a live giant locust, Ed discovers a high frequency signal that drive the horde into the water. 

The sfx are really laughable even by director Bert I. Gordon standards. Scenes of the locusts crawling up buildings are them just crawling over pictures! Also with Richard Benedict and Hank Patterson. Mr. BIG made two other classic low budget features in 1957: THE CYCLOPS and THE AMAZING COLOSSAL MAN.

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More Activity

 

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PARANORMAL ACTIVITY: THE GHOST DIMENSION-2015-It's hard to believe this is the 6th installment of this series which takes place after Part 4 but also involves part 3. A man and wife and their young daughter move into a house and are ready to celebrate Christmas with the guy’s brother. They discover a box of old VHS tapes and watch them. They make their own tapes because there seems to be some kind of spirit in their house. Their daughter talks about an entity named Tobi. They enlist the help of a priest. A coven of witches called “The Midwives” seem to be using children to bring Tobi to life. Why do they bother? 

This was director Gregory Plotkin's first movie after being editor on most of the other entries into this series.

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Revenge of Interesting Videos I Found

Only footage from the lost Lon Chaney film The Miracle Man:

https://youtu.be/Z_Mk4pjydBk?si=tnKBPzLCEYGMUOPm

TV ad for Japanese amusement park:

https://youtu.be/svHb1txvkP4?si=d-B9USjRpBEOZNl0

LOL!:

https://youtu.be/PmcMBnuIE6I?si=Vu4WtThDmxZuUFHd

The Phantom of The Opera mystery:

https://youtu.be/XfVj7RtsYxw?si=czCn_1J_oUbk6EqQ

Unaired The Munsters TV pilot:

https://youtu.be/pXI6ywpKbd8?si=VlBhh_w1Xnh3l6cF

UFO Patents:

https://youtu.be/Ty068FYmJWM?si=L4ZayGqRHKTcR9jz

City Hunting

 

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WALK THE DARK STREET-1956-Frank Garrick (Chuck Connors), vengeful former big game hunter with a bad heart hooks discharged Army Lt. Dan Lawton (Don Ross) into a contest where they hunt each other in the city using special guns he designed. The bullets are not made to kill but Garrick has real ammo as he blames Lawton for the death of his brother, Tommy. While hunting each other, Lawton meets Tommy’s former fiance Helen (Regina Gleason), who tells Lawton not to trust Frank, who reveals his lunatic side and slaps Helen around. Later, the tables are turned. 

Very low budget film noir though well done by Wyott Ordung, the writer of the notorious ROBOT MONSTER (1953), who also appears briefly as a hotel clerk.

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Bank Robbing

 

 (themoviedb.org)

THE ST. LOUIS BANK ROBBERY-1959-Naive college dropout George Fowler (Steve McQueen) is hired by some gay bank robbers to drive their getaway car. Though they seem to carefully plan everything, it ends badly. McQueen is good but the rest of the cast isn't up to it in this low budget film noir crime drama with 2 directors credited. One is Charles Guggenheim who later won three Academy Awards for short subject documentaries. The other, John Stix, directed a few films for TV. The script by Richard Heffron (who later directed FUTURE WORLD (1976)) is based on the real-life robbery in 1953.

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Early Chan

 

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DRAGON FIST-1979-Ton Huo-wan (Jackie Chan) seeks retribution for the death of his master by the villainous Master Li. He travels with his master's widow and daughter. He gets caught in a war between a clan ran by a one-legged master and a band of “gangsters”. He joins the gangsters to get medicine for the widow.

Fairly entertaining early Chan outing is constricted by a low budget and usually pushed aside. Directed by Wei Lo (THE BIG BOSS; NEW FISTS OF FURY).

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The Demon Way In Hell

 

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LONE WOLF AND CUB: SWORD OF VENGEANCE-1972-Ogami Itto (Tomisuburo Wakayama), the Shogunate's executioner is framed as being a traitor by Retsudo and the Ura-Yagyu clan. They kill his wife and he vows revenge. Two years later Orgami is a Ronin (masterless Samu-rai) traveling the countryside with his young son, Daigoro (Akihiro Tomikawa), his sword for hire. Daigoro rides in a deadly wooden baby cart. 

This is a gory, blood spurting samurai craziness based on the manga of the same name. It also features dismemberment and nudity. The first in a series of 6, the first three and the fifth were directed by Kenji Misumi.

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And Then There's Maud...

 

 (themoviedb.org)

ST. MAUD-2019-Religiously devout hospice worker, Maud (Morfydd Clark), wonders what God has in store for her. She takes care of woman, Amanda (Jennifer Ehle) a former dancer, now crippled. Maud thinks it's up to her to save the woman but she winds up slapping her and getting fired. She wanders around talking to God, having sex and vomiting. 

Psychological bs, with good acting, from writer/director Rose Glass. Pay attention to the final scene.

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Mild Mandrake

 

 (themoviedb.org)

MANDRAKE-1979-In 1948, a plane crashes in the Himalayas. All the passengers are killed except for a small boy. He's taken in by some monks but he remembers nothing, not even his name. Fast forward to Las Vegas, where he's now Mandrake the Magician (Anthony Herrera; later a regular on the soap opera “As The World Turns”) performing a magic show that includes making women levitate and turning them into lions. He's assisted by Stacy (Simone Griffeth) and Lothar (Ji-Tu Cumbuka). The government wants his help investigating a huge conglomerate run by Arcadian (Robert Reed) and a missing file. His friend Jennifer (Gretchen Corbett) claims that her father, who was killed in car crash, is still alive. Mandrake wears “the amulet of wizards” and can read minds. It’s actually all a huge extortion plot by ex-agent Romero (Peter Haskell) and his use of Stacy’s father's mind process machine. Also with James Hong and real-life magician Harry Blackstone Jr. 

The character of Mandrake was created by comic strip writer/artist Lee Falk in 1934 (Falk later on also created "The Phantom"). There was a 12 part serial produced in 1939. In the 1960's, Frederico Fellini had planned on making a version but it went un-produced. Director Harry Falk (no relation to the Mandrake creator) did tons of TV work.

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Funny, Ha Ha...

 

 (themoviedb.org)

RUMOURS-2024-Horror comedy political satire with the leaders (including Cate Blanchett and Charles Dance) of the 7 democratic nations meeting at the G7 conference and getting lost in a forest. They later encounter a woman who rants about “the night queen” and a giant brain and occasionally zombies. It all seems to be the work of some AI child predator tracker. Bloated nonsense, lost in some hidden rhetoric only the 3 directors (including Guy Maddin) may understand.

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Fourth And Final..??

 

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SPECIES: THE AWAKENING-2007-A college professor Tom (Ben Cross) admits to his fake niece Miranda (Helena Mattsson) she was created in a lab from DNA strains from outer space. After she transforms into a monster with a deadly tongue and slaughters a hospital staff, Tom takes her to Mexico. While searching for his former partner Forbes, he's chased by a monster Nun. Finally, he meets Forbes (Dominic Keating), an idiot English guy who makes clones of dead people using the alien DNA. 

Like the first 3, it features nudity, an alien sex scene, gory SFX and is clearly the worst in the series. Director Nick Lyon has made a lot of mindless junk like ZOMBIE APOCALYPSE (2011) and RISE OF THE ZOMBIES (2012).

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Three Species You're Out

 

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SPECIES 3-2004-Two soldiers are driving an ambulance with the thought to be dead Eve but Eve (Natasha Henstridge) comes back to life and gives birth just before she is strangled to death by one of her offspring, a young boy with a tentacle for a tongue. One guy is killed but the driver who is actually Dr. Abbott (Robert Knepper), a college professor, escapes with the newborn. Soon the baby is a little girl named Sara. Abbott who is obviously mad (and whispers a lot) wants to become famous in “the pantheon of science”. He enlists one of his students Dean (Robin Dunn) to help him. Sara (Sunny Mabrey) grows to adult very fast and walks around naked. She kills the head of Dean's department (Christopher Neame). When Dean wants to call the cops, Abbott convinces him it's all for science. Dopey Dean agrees to help him. Sara's not interested in mating with humans. She's looking for someone like her. Something called The Tokamak. A fusion reactor comes in handy in the climax. 

Unfortunately, the end sets up another sequel. Director Brad Turner was pretty prolific on TV until sometime convinced him directing this useless sequel would be a good idea.

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Wolf's Blood

 

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WOLFBLOOD-1925-In the Canadian wilderness. Dick Bannister (George Chesbro, also the co-director), is field boss of the Ford logging Co. Jules Deveroux (Roy Watson), is the “unscrupulous” owner of Consolidated Lumber and Bannister's enemy. Also involved is Jacques Lebec (Milburn Morante), half breed bootlegger. The owner of the company is Edith Ford (Marguerite Clayton) who's fiancé is Dr. Horton (Ray Hanford). Ban-
nister requests a surgeon and insists the owner come too. Edith, Horton and Edith's uncle (Jack Cosgrave) go there. Later Bannister is hurt and needs a blood transfusion. The only blood available is from a wolf. The doctor does the transfusion. Later thanks to the treacherous Lebec (who wouldn't give his own blood), everyone knows Bannister has wolf's blood in him and treat him like a leper. 

This is not really a horror film but more a romantic love triangle with hints of the supernatural. Star Chesbro later made low budget westerns in the sound era, then was regulated to uncredited roles in films and on TV. He made around 400 appearances in total (his name was spelled differently at various points in his career).

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The Falcon Flies In

 

 

THE GAY FALCON-1941-Gay Lawrence aka The Falcon (George Sanders) has quit his crime adventures and womanizing and settle down with his partner Goldy (Allen Jenkins) to become stockbrokers on Wall St. No sooner does he tell his fiancée Elinor (Ann Hunter) that he's ready to make a new start when he's visited by Helen Reed (Wendy Barrie), secretary to socialite Maxine Woods (Gladys Cooper), who it seems is robbed of some jewelry every time she throws a party. Of course, Lawrence can't resist another case. 

When another socialite Mrs. Gardner is murdered, Lawrence gets involved with Goldy as a material witness and Mrs. Gardner’s missing diamond is in his own pocket. Police chief Waldeck (Arthur Shields) thinks Lawrence is a murderer and Lawrence who has several run-ins with detective Bates (Edward Brophy) thinks the prime suspect is the mysterious Retana (Turhan Bey). With Hans Conreid is a police sketch artist, Willie Fung and Bobby Barber. 

This was the first of 16 film adaptations of the private detective known as The Falcon. George Sanders, who had also starred as “The Saint”, did several films then “grew bored” with role turning it over to his real-life brother Tom Conway. Irving Reis directed this entertaining, slightly lighthearted crime mystery. He directed 2 more in the series and later made a film adaptation of the Arthur Miller play ALL MY SONS (1948).

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Rocky Jones

 

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MANHUNT IN SPACE-1954-Rocky Jones (Richard Crane) & Winky (Scotty Beckett) race to save Vina (Sally Mansefield) from space pirates led by Earth renegades, Rinkman (Henry Brandon) and Dr. Venco (Gabriel Curtiz). She's saved and they go to Cassa-7 to visit her brother, Paul (Tom Brown). The pirates are working for Cheolanta (Patsy Parsons), the ice queen of planet Ophesius. Her assistant is Atlasan (Harry Lauter). Rocky uses Cold Light, the invention of Prof. Newton (Maurice Cass) to find the bad guys. James Griffith is a traitor working on Cassas-7. Hagar Nu (Ted Hecht) a Martian, fits into the story too. Also with Judd Holdren who was the third actor to play Commando Cody in serial and on TV around the same time. This is three episodes of the popular TV space adventure “Rocky Jones, Space Ranger”. It's pretty low budget and also features Robert Leyden as little known it all Bobby.

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Buster Times 2

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SHERLOCK JUNIOR-1924-A movie projectionist (Buster Keaton, who also produced and directed) tries to solve the theft of some pearls after he's framed for stealing a watch belonging to the father (Buster's father Joe) of a woman (Kathyrn McGuire) he's sweet on. 

Very clever and funny with a couple of great stunts. The story is credited to Jean Havez & Joe Mitchell and Clyde Bruckman who all worked on many Keaton films.

 (imdb)

BATTLING BUTLER-1926-Socialite Alfred Butler (Buster Keaton; also in the director's chair) goes on a hunting trip and falls in love but his valet (Snitz Edwards) tells the woman (Sally O'Neill) and everyone else that his boss is boxer Battling Butler and then the trouble starts. Especially when the real boxer (Francis McDonald) shows up. 

This is pretty funny but it doesn't have the wild stunts like some of Buster's other comedies. The training scene is great though. Released the same year as Keaton's THE GENERAL, it's regarded as one of the comedian's best. 

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No, It's A Real Movie!

 

 (themoviedatabase.org)

IMAGINARY-2024-More derivative, unoriginal horror, this time with an interracial couple (DeWanda Wise, Tom Payne) moving into her childhood home with his two kids. The older teenager Taylor (Taegan Burns) is a bitch who doesn't like her black stepmother, Jessica. The cute younger sister Alice (Pyper Braun) seems to come under the influence of a teddy bear she finds in the basement. There's a lot of false scares and psycho-logical claptrap. Later a crazy neighbor (Betty Buckley) helps them visit a dark strange place where Alice has been taken. There they are menaced by the girls’ real mom and an evil giant Muppet bear. 

Dreadful junk but what can you expect from director Jeff Wadlow, who made KICK ASS-2 and a horror movie version of TV's “Fantasy Island”?

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Warning! Bad Sequel Ahead!

 

 (imdb)

SPECIES 2-1998-A lab, lead by Dr. Baker (Marg Helgenberger) recreates the original Sil from a frozen embryo so they can study it and determine how to fight it if one ever comes to Earth again (sounds like a bad idea). Baker and the new Sil now named Eve (Natasha Henstridge), seem to be friends. Meanwhile, 3 astronauts return from space. Capt. Patrick Ross (Justin Lazard), lead astronaut, whose father is a senator (John Crom-well), is infected by a similar alien and impregnates two women who almost immediately die while giving birth. A clumsy scientist Orinsky (Baxter Harris) breaks a beaker which contains alien blood. 

A one-eyed Colonel (George DeZundza) calls in a now reluctant Press Lennox (Michael Madsen) to find the new alien. A doctor named Crom-well (uncredited Peter Boyle) who discovered there may be life on Mars might be able to help but he's in a padded cell. Ross prowls around impregnating and killing women. Eve has a kind of psychic connection with Ross which helps Lennox, now joined by astronaut Gamble (Mykelti Williamson), to track him down. 

Most of this loser sequel seems to be an excuse to show a lot of gratuitous gore, violence, rape and topless women. It also includes several creatures bursting ALIEN like from women’s stomachs. Pretty bad. It bombed but of course another sequel was made. Filmed in Baltimore. 

Director Peter Medak in better times made THE RULING CLASS (1972), LET HIM HAVE IT (1990) and THE KRAYS (1991).

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