Clay

CLAY PIGEON-1971-Low budget Al Adamson like crime drama about a former 'Nam vet Joe Ryan (Tom Stern) turned drug taking slacker hippie used by a devious police detective Redford (Telly Savalas) to catch a grouchy drug dealer (Robert Vaughn who's nutty performance and crazy wardrobe make this mess worth watching!). He's assisted by henchman Simon (Ivan Dixon) who shoots Marlene Clark (who appears topless) in the head. Redford's equally grouchy police captain is played by John Marley. Burgess Meredith is an old hippie like junk dealer and Peter Lawford appears in one scene. 

Producer/writer/director Stern who's not much of an actor seems to be saying: cops are bad and drugs are good. He was in other movies and TV shows but this was his only directorial effort.

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All For A Dollar!

INCIDENT ON A DARK STREET-1973-Here's a DVD I got at a Dollar Tree Store in NJ for, what else but a dollar! 

It's a typical routine story (maybe a pilot) about lawyers battling organized crime and corruption. The best part about it is the cast. Once popular TV actor (and star of Robert Wise's THE ANDROMEDA STRAIN) James (don't call me Jimmy) Olsen is Joe Dubbs, the hard ass district attorney. David Canary is his assistant. Robert Pine is the newest member of the staff. They investigate mobster Dominic Leopold (Gilbert Roland) who has some dirty dealings with a greedy contractor Deaver Wallace (William Shatner). Rotund Richard Castellano (THE GODFATHER) is a mob connected government witness who the mean producers make run around and climb a fence. There's another story involving a dying woman and her husband who's being prosecuted for selling drugs. It's boring and ends rather abruptly without the main story coming to a conclusion. 

Others in the cast include David Doyle, Murray Hamilton, John Kerr, Gordon Pinsett (he was in BLACULA the year before) and Marlene Clark (some year as GANJA AND HESS) as Dubbs' secretary. Don “Red” Barry and Eddie Quillan also have small roles. Shatner was in two more memorable TV movies the same year as this: GO ASK ALICE and THE HORROR AT 37,000 FEET. 

Director Buzz Kulik began his career in TV in the very early '50's staying there almost his entire life doing TV series and movies (his most famous was BRIAN'S SONG) and only occasionally directing a big screen film (VILLA RIDES AGAIN, SHAMUS and Steve McQueens's last film THE HUNTER).

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Hammer Rival

THE BEAST MUST DIE-1974-In this Amicus production (at the the time Amicus was the chief rival to Hammer) an eccentric millionaire Tom Newcliffe (top billed Calvin Lockhart) gathers eight people to his estate (which is wired with cameras and overseen by Anton Diffring). He claims that one of them is a werewolf and plans to hunt it when one of the guests transforms during an anticipated full moon. His lover Caroline is played by Marlene Clark (who co-starred in GANJA AND HESS the year before). Peter Cushing is featured as one of the eight, a werewolf expert with a German accent. Charles Gray, Michael Gambon and Ciaran Madden are also featured. 

There's a lot of debating over who is the werewolf while Newcliffe waits for the chance to hunt down his prey. The werewolf this time however is an animal not the usual man in make-up wolf. Near the end a clock appears on the screen to give viewers the chance to decide who is the wolf. It's based on a novel by James Blish. 

Director Paul Arnett did mostly BBC TV before and after this.   

Cushing was in no less than 7 films in 1974 including MADHOUSE (with Vincent Price) and LEGEND OF THE SEVEN GOLDEN VAMPIRES. 

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Ganja & Hess

GANJA AND HESS-1973-Over the years I've heard a lot about this low budget independent African-American vampire movie known for years as the only other starring role for Duane Jones, the doomed hero of Romero's NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD. It's a very odd, untypical horror film displaying actor/writer/director Bill Gunn's personal (and un-commercial) vision. 


It's not without it's faults(mostly due to budget constraints)but the fact that it was made at a time when so called "blaxploitation" films were big in theaters it's quite an exception!


Jones plays Hess, an affluent anthropologist who has an addiction to blood (he's also immortal). After his suicidal assistant (director Gunn) kills himself, Hess drinks his blood and puts his body in a basement freezer. He causes a distraction at a doctor's office and steals vials of blood and syringes then visits his young son at a boarding school. Soon after he meets Ganja (Marlene Clarke), the assistant's wife (she's looking for her husband). She comes to stay with Hess for a while and winds up falling for him. She discovers the frozen body in the basement but marries Hess anyway and he makes her like him. Although Hess is a blood drinking killer he fears God and quotes the Bible many times. At first Ganja seems to hate her new existence but that changes in the finale. 


I've read that the producers planned on making a typical black cast vampire tale (perhaps along the lines of BLACULA?)but director Gunn gave them something they weren't expecting! 


According to some sources GANJA AND HESS was recalled by the producers (despite winning a critic's prize at Cannes) and heavily edited from it's original 110 minutes to 78 and re-titled BLOOD COUPLE while the unedited version was held by The Museum of Modern Art for years. 


I'm sure it influenced Romero's MARTIN, another un-Hollywood vampire film. 


All in all if you are expecting a vampire film in say the Count Yorga vein you will be highly disappointed. 


Bill Gunn had directed Marlene Clarke in the earlier and never released STOP. He died in 1989 at age 51. Clark had been in movies like NIGHT OF THE COBRA WOMAN, PUTNEY SWOPE and BEWARE!THE BLOB and later played Lamont's fiance on TV's Sanford & Son. 


After G & H Duane Jones taught acting at a college on Long Island and only took sporadic small roles in movies in the '80's. He died of heart disease in 1988 at the age of 52.