Dickens/Serling

 

 (imdb)

CAROL FOR ANOTHER CHRISTMAS-1964-An updated version of Charles Dicken's A Christmas Carol written by Rod Serling for The United Nations. 

A man, Daniel Grudge (Sterling Hayden) left bitter by the death of his son in the war is visited by 3 ghosts, Past (Steve Lawrence), present (Pat Hingle) and yet to come (Robert Shaw). In the H-bomb devastated future, Imperial Me (Peter Sellers) tries to make survivors think only of themselves while Grudge's butler (Percy Rodrigues) tries to unite humanity and is ridiculed. 

This all-star TV special also features Ben Gazzara, Eva Marie Saint and James Shigeta. Directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz a year after the colossal flop CHEOPATHRA.

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In The Future

 

 (imdb)

IDAHO TRANSFER-1973-At facility in Idaho, a secret project plans to send young people 56 years into the future to start a new civilization. Two sisters (who's father heads the project) go into the future and talk endlessly. One is injured in a fall and dies (?). Later some "young people" go to live in the future without the project knowing and are stranded there. 

Occasionally interesting it's undone by bad acting and characters talking and walking too much. Director Peter Fonda financed the film himself (said to be around $500,000) and with the exception of Keith Carradine in a small role all the other characters are non-professionals.

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Terror

 

THE TERROR FROM THE YEAR 5000-1958-In an "isolated area in Central Florida", Prof. Erling (Frederic Brown) and assistant Victor (John Stratton) are doing experiments with time. They receive a strange statue from the future and send it to old friend Dr. Robert Hedges (Ward Costello) who's surprised when carbon dating reveals the statue is from 5200 AD, 3000 years in the future! It's also radioactive prompting Hedges to pay a call on his old friend after another doctor suggests Erling might have tried to murder him! Later Hedges meets Claire Erling (Joyce Holden), the prof.'s daughter who sent the statue to Hedges but didn't know it was radioactive. Claire and caretaker Angelo (Fred Herrick) take Hedges by boat to their isolated island. While Erling realizes the potential dangers of what they are doing Victor, who is Claire's fiancee and takes an immediate dislike to Hedges, wants to forge ahead regardless of the risks. He's been doing some experimenting behind his boss's back. At night Hedges sees Vic throw some suit cases into the lagoon. Swimming with Claire the next day he finds them but leaves them. Then Erling and Victor show Hedges a demonstration of their machine which has made contact with the future! Doubting Hedges puts his school medallion in the machine and a coin comes back with a message in Latin: "save us". Later Vic expresses his dislike for Hedges, Claire gets undressed and Angelo is caught spying on her. Meanwhile Victor is attacked by something he brings back from the future. Hedges suspects trouble and brings it to the professor's attention but he scoffs having caught Hedges and Claire in a romantic embrace. The next day Hedges goes after the suitcases and Vic tries to kill him. Hedges wallops him in a watery fight and reveals Vic's scratches to be radiation burns. It's decided Vic needs medical help so they take him to the mainland hospital but he sneaks out and gets drunk. While the trio go to see "I Was A Teenage Frankenstein" Vic steals a boat and goes back to operate the machine. He pushes it to its highest level and after a small explosion a sparkly creature emerges. Later Hedges retrieves a mutant cat from the lagoon. Then poor old Angelo is killed by the sparkly monster (obviously a woman). A doctor comes to examine Vic and suggests sending a nurse. The nurse arrives by herself at night and while walking to the house meets the disfigured monster (Solome Jens) from the future who kills the nurse and steals her face. She arrives to take care of Vic but instead hypnotizes him to her will. It turns out in the future every 5th child born is a mutant due to radiation. They need healthy specimens to fix their problem. She wants Vic to go with her. Claire spoils their plans, reveals that the woman is actually a mutant herself and Hedges shoots her. She and Vic are killed and Erling gives a hopeful speech for the future. 

This is a fairly cheap but fun AIP science fiction horror film made by producer/writer/director Robert J. Gurney who only directed 2 films after this and one was never even released! Among his other accomplishments are writing the screenplay for INVASION OF THE SAUCER MAN and producing REFORM SCHOOL GIRL. TERROR is supposedly based on a Henry Slesar short story “Bottle Baby”. Leading man Ward Costello became a frequent character actor on TV and in movies. The year before TERROR he played Joan of Arc's father in the TV adaptation of the Broadway play “The Lark” starring Julie Harris and Boris Karloff. Lead actress Joyce Holden had been in THE WEREWOLF (1956) and PRIVATE EYES (1953) (with The Bowery Boys). She retired from acting soon after making TERROR and when I originally finished this review she was still living. Unfortunately, she passed away in January 2022 at the age of 91. Co-star Frederic Brown popped up in a lot of things. On TV (PERRY MASON,GREEN ACRES,HAZEL), and in 2 Coleman Francis “movies” (THE SKYDIVERS, RED ZONE CUBA). “Future Woman” Salome Jens was making her feature film debut. Besides TV, she  costarred with Rock Hudson in John Frankenheimer's SECONDS (1966).

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Ape Time!

 

 (imdb)

TIME OF THE APES-1987-Scientist Catherine (Reiko Tukunaga) and 2 children Johnny (Masaaki Kaji) and Caroline (Hiroko Saito) are transported to a future where apes rule the world. "I don't want to be killed by a monkey!", screams one kid.They are chased by some militaristic apes but with the help of a little monkey kid Pepe (Kasue Takita) they escape into the mysterious Green Mountain. Later they meet Godo (Tetsuya Usiho), a surviving human. It turns out the ape leader is really a nice guy and they were only treated badly by a militaristic uprising. 

This was actually a 26 episode Japanese TV (1974-75) series edited into one film by Sandy Frank. Despite the sub-par make-up, bad dubbing and low budget the ending is rather poignant (not unusual actually for a movie from Japan). Oddly, it was the last work by the two credited directors Kiyosumi Fukasawa and Atsushi Okunaka.

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Alita

  (IMDB)

ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL-2019-In the year 2506 after a great war with Mars, a United Republics of Mars scientist (Christopher Waltz) rescues a cyborg girl from a junk pile and calls her Alita (after his dead daughter). She (Rosa Salazar) doesn't remember who she is but has memories of fighting a battle on the moon. Meanwhile the scientist's ex-wife (Jennifer Connelly) runs Motorball, cyborg battle game owned by Vector (Mahershala Ali). A young guy Hugo (Keean Johnson) tries to help Alita regain her memory but he also works for Vector stealing parts from other cyborgs. 

It turns out Alita is an URM “berserker”, the most advanced cyborg ever. There are a lot of fights. She even fights after being chopped up in pieces. The real villain is an immortal called Nova (un-billed Edward Norton) . This movie is not bad but it kind of slows down after Alita fights a bounty hunter Zapan (Ed Skrein) when Hugo is branded a criminal. It retains a lot of anime and manga elements but I don't think it deserves a sequel. It was director Robert Rodriguez's biggest hit although there is some controversy over whether it made money or not.

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