Hammer Vampires

KISS OF THE VAMPIRE-1963-This Hammer production begins with a guy interrupting a funeral and using a shovel to smash open a coffin. A scream emulates from within and blood appears. Then newlyweds Gerald (Edward DeSouza) and Marianne (Jennifer Daniel) have car trouble and Jerry goes off for some petrol. All the while they are being spied on by a mysterious figure in a nearby castle. All alone and spooked by the rising wind Maria ventures out of the car and meets the guy with the shovel who warns her to go back to her car. After getting a tow the couple get a room at an inn and are invited to dine with Dr. Ravna (Noel Willman), the guy who was watching them earlier. The eerily suave doctor has two kids, Sabena (Jacquie Wallis) and Karl (Barry Warren). At dinner Marianne seems mesmerized by Karl's piano playing. At a masked ball Marianne learns the truth. Ravna is head of a vampire cult. They imprison Marianne then tell Gerald there is no such person as his wife. Everyone agrees so Gerald goes to Prof. Zimmer (Clifford Evans) for help and we learn that his own daughter had been vampire-ized by Ravna (he killed her in the pre-credit funeral sequence). 

Although the story is fairly standard and boring, the finale where Zim and Jerry rescue Marianne is exciting and violent with the professor using a spell that sends vampire bats to kill the vampires! Director Don Sharp went on to direct Christopher Lee in THE DEVIL-SHIP PIRATES, RASPUTIN and several Fu Manchu entries.

Gang Busted

GUNS DON'T ARGUE-1957-After a very fake looking building explodes in a quiet small town

special agents Fenton (Bill Baldwin) and Bill Baxter (Sidney Mason) investigate. Fenton explains that the building was blown up by gangsters. He then introduces us to two men who believe “guns don't argue” : Pretty Boy Floyd (Doug Wilson) (and his girlfriend Paula (Jeanne Carmen) ) and Adan Richetti (Knobby Schaeffer) and his girlfriend Hope (Regina Gleason). They are hired to rescue a criminal named Frank Nash who is being transferred by federal agents. The duo is so stupid they not only kill 2 cops but kill Nash too! They also kill a federal agent who happens to be Ross Baxter (Coulter Ervin), Bill's brother. 

⁰Bill goes undercover as a thug and befriends Paula. Meanwhile a female governor enlists the FBI to help stop the murderous bank robbing rampage of Bonnie (Tamar Cooper) & Clyde (Baynes Barron). Captain Stewart (Jim Davis), a Texas ranger goes after them (and picks up the narration too). When Bonnie and Clyde break their comrade Hamilton out of prison they kill everyone including the other prisoners! A farmer named Sully (Hank Patterson) helps Stewart ambush the deadly duo. 

Then the story switches back to Bill avenging Ross' death in a gun battle with Floyd. Then we meet Ma Barker (Jean Harvey) and her sons Herm and Fred along with alcoholic Mr. Barker (Ralph Moody). When Herm is killed Alvin Karpis (Paul Dubov) joins them and then a third son Doc (Lash LaRue) for a bank job that's put on hold to kidnap a millionaire's son. Later they team up with Dillinger (Myron Healy), Baby Face Nelson (Richard Crane) and Homer Van Meter (Robert Kendall) to pull the big bank job. When the heat is on Karpis visits a plastic surgeon (Lyle Talbott). Ma and Fred are killed by G-men and a mummy like Karpis finds out his surgery didn't work. 

An incarcerated Dillinger breaks out of jail using a gun carved from a piece of wood. He teams up with Van Meter and Tony Malento (Texas Joe Foster) and they raid a prison's arsenal and go on a murder/robbery spree. Van Meter dies on a pile of garbage. Later Dillinger gets help from old flame Mildred (Ann Morriss), the “woman in red” who helps the FBI trap and kill public enemy number one. Karpis gets captured after an underwater duel. 

This might sound like an interesting crime drama full of great '50's character actors but it's just 3 episodes of the once popular TV crime drama “Gang Busters” strung together in a very disjointed facts challenged mess.

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Thirsty Work

THIRST-2009-A priest in Korea volunteers for an experiment on a cure for an incurable virus. He seems to die but actually out of 500 patients he's the only who survives and he becomes a kind of Savior and people seek him out to heal their sick.. Unfortunately there is a bad side effect. He's turned into a vampire and has to drink blood or die of the disease. Later he visits a family and has sex with the adopted daughter (who's treated more like a slave). In a GANJA & HESS move he infects her and they go out "drinking" together. 

THIRST features a lot of violence, blood and blood drinking but also has lots of talk, drawn out scenes and arty direction. With finger and toe sucking and mah-joggh playing. Some might laud it's over 2 running time but I found it hard going.

Ciao for Now...

CIAO MANHATTAN-1972-This strange film stars Warhol "superstar" Edie Sedgwick (who died before it was completed) as Susan, a rich heiress/drug addled burn out recounting her life as a model in NYC. Real scenes of Sedgwick gallivanting with "The Factory" crowd are used as flashbacks. Susan (who spends much of the present day scenes topless) lives in a tent in an empty pool in a mansion owned by her mom (Isabel Jewell), while a doofus named Geoffrey (Paul Briggs) who is suppose to take care of her spends most of his time stealing anything from the house. Much of it is told through the eyes of Butch (Wesley Hayes), a kind of naive guy from Texas who first encounters Susan when she is hitchhiking topless. There are a few subplots with strange characters spouting nutty dialogue but basically it's Sedgwick playing herself. In an ultimate shot at bad taste, the news headline that announces Susan's death are Sedgwick's real obituary! 

Co-star Jewell played “dumb blondes” in many movies of the '30's and '40's and was in GONE WITH THE WIND. She even has a star on The Hollywood Walk of Fame. CIAO was her last film. One of CM's directors (there were 2) David Weisman later produced the film version of KISS OF THE SPIDER WOMAN.

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I'm Ravin'

THE RAVEN-1935-Judge Thatcher's daughter is near death after a car crash. He (Samuel S. Hinds) implores the famous but retired Dr. Vollin (Bela Lugosi) to perform life saving surgery on the “root nerves at the base of the brain”. The Edgar Allen Poe loving doctor (“It's more than a hobby”) finally agrees and the operation is a success. A month later the organ playing doc is obsessed with his patient Jean Thatcher (Irene Ware) who doesn't respond to his come-ons as she is engaged to a doctor named Jerry (Lester Matthews). The judge has his suspicions and tells Vollin to steer clear of his daughter. Vollin couldn't care less and tells the judge he wants his daughter and will get her. Later a wanted criminal named Bateman (Boris Karloff) who “shot his way out of San Quentin” and later killed a guy with a blowtorch wants Vollin to give him a new face. Vollin does but gives him a deformed face and blackmails him into doing his bidding if he wants a real face. Vollin invites The Judge and Jean and Jerry and some others to his place. Bateman is his disfigured but sympathetic butler. Jean wins Bateman's heart when she apologizes to him after initially being frightened by him. The Judge still insists Vollin is mad despite everyone else's flip attitude. 

The nutty doctor has a recreation of Poe's “The Pit and The Pendulum” in his basement and makes Bateman strap the judge on the pendulum. A crazy climax ensues with Bateman saving the day but dying and Vollin crushed to death. Bela says “Death is my talisman", “I'm the sanest man who ever lived” and “I like to torture” and is very insane in the leading role. It's usually said that this is kind of “Bela's movie” where he has the biggest stand out role and it's true in a way. But Karloff snags the more sympathetic role and intimately becomes 'the hero”. It was a big year for Boris (billed as “Karloff”) as he also made THE BRIDE OF FRANKENSTEIN and THE BLACK ROOM. Bela wasn't exactly sitting on his hands either making MARK OF THE VAMPIRE for Tod Browning, starring in THE RETURN OF CHANDU and THE MYSTERY OF THE MARY CELESTE. Director Louis Freidlander (later known as Lew Landers) would direct both horror stars separately years later: Lugosi in THE RETURN OF THE VAMPIRE and Karloff in THE BOOGIE MAN WILL GET YOU.

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I've Been Invisible too!

THE INVISIBLE MAN'S REVENGE-1944-Psycho murderer Robert Griffin (Jon Hall) escapes from an insane asylum in South Africa and goes to England. He visits his old friends Jasper (Lester Matthews) and Irene (Gale Sondergaard) who abandoned him in the jungle on their diamond expedition. He's come to collect his share of the booty but Irene (who's pretty evil) has other plans. She drugs Griffin and throws him in the woods. He falls into a river but is rescued by a comic drunk (Leon Errol). They hire a lawyer (Ian Wolfe) to help them but he chickens out. While walking in the rain, Griffin comes to the door of Dr, Durea (John Carradine) who's experimenting with invisible animals. He convinces Griff to become the world's first invisible man. Even the doctor is surprised when it works (“I've out stripped the immortals of science”). Griffin goes for revenge against Jasper and Irene. Foster (Alan Curtis), a reporter who just happens to be wooing the couple's daughter Julie (Evelyn Ankers) investigates. After terrifying the the family Griffin decides he wants to be visible again but the cure is a complete blood transfusion. He goes to Durea for help but when the doc tries to double cross him, he uses the doc's blood. Now visible Griff takes over Jasper's whole household and sets his sights on Julie. In the finale Griff turns invisible unexpectedly and tries to use Foster's blood for a transfusion but Durea's faithful dog spells his end. Despite a bad double for Durea in his final scene, REVENGE is set up nicely by veteran director Ford Beebe and it's a change to have the invisible guy actually being a villain not just an innocent man driven crazy by the formula. It's also full of many un-billed character actors including Billy Bevan, Shelton Knaggs, Mildred Dunnock and a few others. This is usually considered the last of the original Universal “Invisible Man” series but seven years later the studio would dust the character off to meet Abbott & Costello! At the onset of filming Edgar Barrier played the role of Jasper but dropped out after 4 days.

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Jan's Head

THE BRAIN THAT WOULDN'T DIE-1962-On the operating table an old doctor (Bruce Brighton) pronounces his patient dead, but Bill (Herb “soon to be Jason” Evers), another doctor who happens to be his son takes over and revives the patient. 

While dad is proud of his arrogant son's accomplishment he still feels trepidation toward his actions (“The operating table is no place for experiments”). While debating this and Bill's ambition to do major limb transplants in the future (using his “secret compound”) their nurse Jan (Virginia Leith) enters. She also happens to be Bill's fiancee. Before they can have a romantic weekend Bill gets a mysterious urgent call from his “country place” where he does his experimenting. 

With Jan in tow Bill drives like a maniac to the place but wrecks his car. He is somehow thrown from the car and unharmed but Jan isn't so lucky. She's decapitated in the fiery crash. Fortunately Bill retrieves the head, wraps it in his jacket and runs to the country place. With the help of his German assistant Kurt (Leslie Daniel) who has a deformed arm, Jan's head is placed in a pan with a lot of tubes and wires and is brought back to life! Meanwhile something hideous is locked in another room in the lab. Bill goes out looking for Jan's new body. He goes to a gin joint and tries to pick up a dancer. He sizes her up and she seems to fit the bill but he's deterred by another weird talking dancer. The two rivals wind up fighting on the floor. Meanwhile Jan's head develops some kind of psychic link with the thing in the closet (“Together we will reek our revenge”). Kurt debates with the head while Bill still looks for the perfect body which he believes he finds in Doris (Adele Lamont), a hot but scarred model who poses for “a bunch of neurotics”. Bill really shows his deceitful side when he convinces Doris to go to the country place so her face can be healed. Jan plots with the thing and eventually Kurt's good arm is torn off. Somehow Kurt now with only a bloody stump crawls up the lab stairs to the living quarters but when he gets there he crawls back down to the lab and dies! Bill drugs Doris and plans to put Jan's head on her body but Jan makes the thing break out of the closet and attack Bill. Their fight is kind of doofy, involving a door and the ugly monster biting a chunk out of Bill's arm and then examining the bloody piece he bit off. The monster is a huge guy with a deformed face (obviously a mask). He carries Doris away (God only knows what happened when she woke up!) and Jan and Bill burn to death. 

 This exploitation sickie was directed and co-written by Joseph Green who owned his own small film distribution company. It's too bad he waited 24 years to make his next and last film (THE PERILS OF P.K.). He seemed to know how to pack a lot of sleaze, gore and fun into one movie! 

Jason Evers' egotistic oily doctor though supposedly only concerned with science by his semi-sinister grin when ogling a woman's body seems like he can't wait to bring her home and cut her up. While Virginia Leith's severed head role of Jan is pretty intense it's been said she was so disgusted by the role she gave up acting altogether (she's made her screen debut in Kubrick's first film FEAR AND DESIRE) though she made sporadic TV appearances later on (and is still with us at the time of this writing). Co-producer Rex Carlston later produced a couple of Al Adamson movies but committed suicide in 1968. For some reason Sammy Petrillo (who with Duke Mitchell met a Brooklyn gorilla some years before) appears as a photographer in one scene. 

BRAIN was filmed (around Tarrytown, NY) in 1959 but due to financial troubles wasn't released until 1962. 

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