One Oldie, One Moldy...

WISHCRAFT-2002-This is a typical slasher film with a small dose of the supernatural thrown in. A nerd (Micheal Weston) uses a magical bull's penis that grants three wishes to get a cheerleader (Alexandria Holden) to go out with him. Meanwhile a slasher in a raincoat kills people. Broadway actor/director Austin Pendleton plays his high school teacher (he must have needed vacation money). Meatloaf (using his real name Micheal Aday) is the investigating cop. Little Zelda Rubenstein is a coroner. In a unique (?) twist the hero defends himself with a lawn jockey. Gee! Jackie Chan never thought of that! The cast also includes Joseph Ruskin, Sam McMurray, Luis Avalos and Hamilton Camp. I think parts of this were suppose to be intentionally funny!




An oldie: O'SHAUGHNESSY'S BOY-(1935)-This standard '30's tearjerker reunited the two stars of THE CHAMP (from 1931) Wallace Beery and Jackie Cooper.

Beery portrays a lion tamer who loses an arm (to a tiger) after his wife and son leave him. The infant son is played by future "Our Gang" member (and "Little Rascals" leader) Spanky McFarland. After several years Beery returns to society a broken man. He does manage to get temporary custody of his son (now played by Cooper) despite the intrusions of a trouble making aunt (Sarah Haden) and eventually father and son learn to love each other when Beery's well meaning, big lug personna (which dominates the movie despite Cooper's pouting and crying) overcomes his fears.

From what I've read when Beery is sharing some tender moments with Cooper he's REALLY acting! Clarence Muse is also featured as Beery's kindly (but racially stereotyped) assistant.

Director Richard Boleslawski (from Warsaw) also helmed RASPUTIN AND THE EMPRESS, the only movie to feature all three Barrymores....

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When Will Lee Return?

When is a movie about Bruce Lee not really a movie about Bruce Lee? When it's BRUCE LEE-THE MAN THE MYTH (1976).


Bruce Li (one of the many post-Lee clones) portrays The Mighty Lee who doesn't want to come to America. His mother makes him! He frolics in Seattle with his college student buddies and beats up some Karate bullies when their Japanese teacher refuses to admit Karate came from Kung-Fu. He goes to San Francisco to visit a friend ("Your Kung-Fu is really amazing") and develops his own style, Jeet Kune Do. He has a wild fight in an airport on the way to a tournament. A weird studio executive tells him no one wants to invest money in a young Chinese actor and he's shown in his "Kato" chaffeuer's uniform while filming "The Green Hornet". He goes back to Hong Kong to make movies and insults some Thai boxers and an English (?) running team. He smirks a lot and comes off as an egotistical asshole.

Although real scenes of the real Lee's funeral are shown, 2 alternate endings based on rumors are presented (one says he would return in 1986; I missed him!).

Director See-Yuen Ng made other movies including NEW GAME OF DEATH. Bruce Li made many more movies with Bruce Lee's name in the title but not since 1986....

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After "It"

CALL HER SAVAGE-(1932)-This is a must see early talkie pre-code drama featuring former silent star Clara Bow (The "It" Girl of the '20's) in her second to last movie. Although like a lot of early talkies this suffers from the stilted acting of the supporting cast, Bow carries the whole thing with her stand-out performance!



Bow plays Nasa "Dynamite" Springer, the spoiled daughter of a rich Texan who's real father is the "half Breed" Indian Moonglow (Gilbert Roland who in in real life was actually Mexician). After rejecting a rich suitor hand picked by her father (Willard Robertson) she marries her sleazy boyfriend (Monroe Owsley) who dumps her for the equally trashy Sunny (Thelma Todd, who had been in 2 Marx Bros. around the same time). Nasa lives wild life on her husband's money but he tries to rape her when she visits him at a sanatorium. After losing her millions and having a baby she turns to prositution to support herself. After her baby is killed in a fire she inherits her grandfather's fortune. When she goes to NYC, she hires a guy to show her around. He takes her to a gay bar in Greenwich Village where she starts a small riot!

Clara Bow lead a wild life in her heyday of the '20's. All sorts of rumors circulated about her sex life (from taking on a whole college football team to beastiality!). Typical of pre-code cinema she wears some very "skimpy" clothing too. Watch her scene where she wrestles with a dog! It's too bad she only made one more movie then retired to raise two sons with her husband, cowboy star Rex Bell (later a senator). Unfortunately, she suffered from mental illness later in life and died in 1965.

Strangely two co-stars of CHS died tragically. Monroe Owsley died of a heart attack four years later at the age of 36. Thelma Todd died of carbon monoxide poisoning that was ruled an accident but was more likely murder. She was 30 years old. Her last movie was Laurel & Hardy's THE BOHEMIAN GIRL.

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Savage Seven

THE SAVAGE SEVEN-AIP-(1968)-How good could a 60's biker flick produced by Dick Clark be? Well...not bad actually! Adam Roarke is Kisum, the leader of a violent beer drinking, pot smoking motorcycle gang that invades a town of impoverished American Indians (led by Robert Walker Jr. and Max Julien!).

At first they cause a lot of trouble but later on decide to help out against the town boss and his underlings. Things go their way pretty much until a local girl is raped and killed. After the suspected gang member is crucified by some locals The Bikers attack for an allegorical (sometimes unintentionally funny) "cowboys vs. indians" style battle until the real kiler is exposed!

THE SAVAGE SEVEN's director Richard Rush had made another biker movie HELL'S ANGELS ON WHEELS (1967) which starred Roarke (and Jack Nicholson) and several other SAVAGE SEVEN actors: Richard Anders, John Garwood and John "Bud" Carlos. He also made the bizarre PSYCH-OUT (with Julien, Roarke and Nicholson).

After this Rush's output slowed down considerablely. He made only 5 movies between 1970-2000. His most well known film THE STUNTMAN was plagued with trouble.

THE SAVAGE SEVEN also marked the screen debut of Penny Marshall. The soundtrack features songs by Iron Butterfly and Cream.

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Zontar Strikes!

ZONTAR, THE THING FROM VENUS-1966-As most bad movie lovers know between 1965 and 1969 director Larry Buchanan made seven movies for AIP that the company released directly to TV. 5 of them were remakes of their ’50s horror/Sci-Fi movies. ZONTAR is an un-credited remake of Roger Corman’s IT CONQUERED THE WORLD. It’s pretty bad but kind of fun.

John Agar (in the Peter Graves role) is the scientist in charge of a recently launched satellite. Antony Houston has the Lee Van Cleef  part, another scientist who is in contact with a visitor from Venus hold up in a cave. Weird flying insects roam around turning victims into zombies. The acting is mostly atrocious but Agar is pretty good at delivering a lot of serious lines! I don’t know if this is on DVD (don’t buy it if it is!) but the print I saw was washed out and very choppy.

Agar was also in Buchanan’s CURSE OF THE SWAMP CREATURE the same year. Bill Thurman, a Buchanan regular, has a role as well as many other actors and crew.

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Bruce Clone

BRUCE LEE WE MISS YOU-1976-A martial artist who worships the original Bruce and acts a little like him too (wannabe Lee clone Bruce Li who made many Hong Kong movies with the name Bruce in the titles) is devastated when “the great one” dies. He decides Lee was murdered and investigates. There are a lot of fights (the last fight goes on very long) and not much else. At one point he fights a gang of Asian thugs made up to look Black.


Star Li (from Taiwan) later directed a couple of movies. He retired from acting in the mid ‘80’s.

Point Blank

POINT BLANK-1967-Lee Marvin stars as Walker, a bank robber whose partner (John Vernon) double crosses him during a heist leaves him for dead and even steals his wife (Sharon Acker) in this violent action drama from British director John Boorman. Walker survives of course and seeks revenge plus his cut of the heist. Lloyd Bocher and Carroll O’Connor are mob bosses. Angie Dickenson is Walker’s sister in law who takes up with him after his wife commits suicide. It seems no matter how many people he kills or how much destruction he wreaks Walker just can’t get his money.

Keenan Wynn is a police officer that helps out. Sid Haig is seen briefly as a bodyguard. Also with Michael Strong James Sikking and Kathleen Freeman. Marvin starred in THE DIRTY DOZEN the same year and was in Boorman’s HELL IN THE PACIFIC the next year. Boorman made this two years after CATCH US IF YOU CAN. It’s based on a Donald Westlake novel.

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